An Enriching and Inspiring Day

Alleyn’s DT and Film Studies staff were treated to an extraordinary day at the Warner Bros Studios thanks to alumnus Nico Ferrari (Spurgeon's 2005) on Friday 19 May.

Nico, who works in the Transportation Department, sourcing, designing and creating vehicles for major TV and films, brought to life the world of film production and the staggering role vehicles play in film through his work on major films including Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, F9: The Fast Saga and, most recently, The Batman, which involved four stunt cars built from second-generation Dodge Chargers.

The visit was part of a Staff Scholarship Day – an opportunity for Senior School staff to focus on their professional development with a chance for off-site team building and learning to enrich and inspire staff in their areas of work, while Senior School pupils were not in school.

Head of Design & Technology at Alleyn’s Phil Saville told us more about the day:

“The day at Warner Bros Studio was in all ways amazing and is still difficult to process for us all.

Nico was simply the best host, walking us through a section of the studios, passing sound stages being set up for the filming of forthcoming major releases, to get to the Warner Bros meeting suite.

There, he gave us an outstanding presentation on what his team do and how they do it. A Q&A discussion brought to life the world of film production and the staggering role vehicles of all sorts play and the complexity involved in meeting the needs of the creative design directors.

We then had a drive around the immense Warner Bros studios complex, which is the size of a medium-sized town. We passed countless workshops producing scenery, props and costumes for ongoing and future blockbusters.

Then came a drive out to an unmarked warehouse in an unmarked industrial estate to see the Warner Bros Archive.

Tight security and a no photo rule saw us in to see the stunning Barbie cars from the yet to be released Barbie film. And then we became the luckiest people on the planet for an hour with the chance to visit the main archive area, where a unique display had been set up for a 100 years of Warner Bros press event. This consisted of the costumes, vehicles and props from the Harry Potter films, Batman films and other DC based films such as Man of Steel, Wonder woman and Aquaman.

It was jaw dropping! We got to climb in the cars and get on the motorbikes – I still don’t quite believe this happened.

We can’t thank Nico enough for being the best host and giving us such a stunning day, and thanks also to the staff at the archive for being so selfless and generous.”