So, to start off, I read a lot of reviews that said the contestants were clearly fake/planted adults amongst kids in the audience. This is not true. I only counted about 4 teenagers in my section (slytherin) and everyone else were adults including myself. When Helen announced the three contestants, one of them was sitting next to me and she went ballistic. If she was acting, she deserves an Oscar. Secondly, the guy who got chosen from slytherin (Ryan) thought Helen said "Brian" which was his brothers name who was sitting next to him. His reaction was delayed and they had to re-shoot him and then decided to re-shoot the reactions. "Please pretend that we didn't just call your names and act just as surprised." So, if you got the impression that these contestants were fake, that is why.
After the 3 contestants were chosen, there was a long break before the filming of the contest had begun. I am certain that this is when they were told how to conduct themselves throughout the show when answering questions and talking about their story. They weren't reading scripts. Helen was the only one reading scripts. The way they were told how to interact was just cringey. Nothing more.
Another thing I have to point out because it seems unfair to her, Helen did great. The way they edited the show was so weird and choppy. It gives her no personality on screen, when it was clearly present during filming. She never interrupted anyone. The editor did that. I promise you. I was there. She listened well, went back and forth several times. She was respectful AND she was self admittedly not a huge Harry Potter fan. She just saw the movies and thinks it's a wonderful world and salutes it as a fan of art in general. Make sense? Don't throw her under the bus because she was clearly edited around and was actually the best part of the experience for me.
I couldn't agree more with the other reviewers here when they speak about the very unnecessary explaining during answering. Just answer the question dude! I don't care to know why you came to the conclusion that the piano was in the room when dumbledore fixed the room. YOU HAVE EYES. That should have been your reason, if any. Just say "piano" you know what I mean? There was a crap ton of that going on, which was definitely told to the contestants for purposes of "dragging on" for time. So annoying.
The questions were easy, and some were stupidly hard. Like which object was in dumbledores office and which Diadem was the real one. They are literally split second bits of footage from the films that the biggest fan of Hp could easily overlook or forget.
The outcomes weren't staged as far as I can see. It wouldn't make sense from my perspective. It was just poorly executed. Very little actually made it to final edit which makes me feel bad that a lot of you think Helen was just cutting people off left and right. She was super funny and she had a cool attitude. So if you get anything out of this review, I hope you can feel better knowing that Helen wasn't as bad as portrayed.
And as for the videos of the cameos, yes, they were 100% pre recorded and no interactions happened between contestants and them. They recorded both possibilities, for example. Draco saying "the answer is D, congratulations " AND "the answer is D, better luck next time" does that make sense? Just wanted to clear that up. The contestants actually did guess, and the video reflected whether they got it right or wrong.
Just wanted to share. I saw myself many times on screen, and that was the best part of the experience for me lol.
