Day 5
We did some shopping at Independence Mall, then headed to the Screen Gem Studios for the noon studio tour. We got there 45 minutes early, and good thing we did, as there were many people there already….and the people just kept coming. Seeing as it was Spring Break, we saw licence plates from South Carolina, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, New York, Ontario, Quebec, and everywhere in between.
When we were finished, we had an Easter dinner, which Cristina’s mom cooked for us. When we finished eating, we went downtown to meet our friends for a Haunted Pub crawl. We didn’t finish the tour, leaving at 9:30 to keep our 9:45 table reservation at Rum Runners. We had a blast, even with me getting ribbed about being Canadian by EVERYONE in the bar. Turns out I was the only Canuck in the place, and the news spread like wildfire. So, as retribution, I continually requested Canadian songs, which of course the performers didn’t know, so couldn’t play, and felt bad because they couldn’t fulfill my requests. It was all in good fun, though. After a fantastic night of singing, laughing, and dancing, we went home to sleep it off.
There were 7 of us that decided to do the crawl. At 7:15 we joined our tour guide and about 10 other people downtown and started our guided walk. We went to a number of bars, where we would stop for drinks and hear “haunted” stories about the bars, and surrounding buildings. There were also a number of stops that we didn’t stay for drinks. The bars were like any other bars you would find, so there was nothing special in that regard. The tour itself wasn’t all that great. It was nice to have something to occupy our time with before we got on with the rest of our night, though. Our tour guide was high, so his stories were weird and inconsistent, and none of them were really about hauntings. His actions and the way he spoke was funny, though, so we had a good time laughing.
We didn’t finish the tour, as we had other plans at 9:45, so we left at 9:30 to keep our reservation. I’m not sure how long the tour lasted after we left, but for the $15 (a bit too expensive, I thought) that we paid for the tour, we had an OK time. The drinks we had along the way were good-and of course those cost extra.
Screen Gems Studios, which is the largest TV and movie production facility East of California, has nine soundstages in all- we got to tour stages 7 and 8. The main production at Screen Gems Studios was One Tree Hill, so between the two stages, we got to see Nathan’s and Haley’s house, Mouth and Skills’ apartment, and the high school. Of course, because it was Easter weekend, there were no actors to be seen anywhere. When we were finished touring the stages, we went behind the scenes and got to see the editing room. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable, as he gave us information on the current season of One Tree Hill and other projects that had been filmed there, such as Domestic Disturbance, Black Knight, 28 Days, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Weekend At Bernies, I Know What You Did Last Summer, and Matlock, among other things. We also got loads of information about filming, lighting, sound, and edition. It was quite interesting.
Although I’d never seen a single episode of One Tree Hill at the time I took the tour, the tour definitely peaked my interest. I’d seen Dawson’s Creek, which had also filmed there, but seeing the actual sites of OTH, along with my sister’s love of the show, made me want to see the show. The only complaint I had about the tour was our photo restrictions. The production company (The CW) wouldn’t allow anyone to take pictures on or around the sets, as they didn’t want any spoilers, so the tour guides were adamant we didn’t take any photos, and if cameras were seen, they’d be confiscated. Needless to say, I didn’t see any cameras.
Since my visit to Wilmington, I have seen every episode of One Tree Hill. It’s fun to recognize things on the TV that I saw in ‘real life’.
