So last October I ordered 6 tickets to go to the Harry Potter Studios which was last Thursday. I like the Harry Potter films but I wouldn’t say I was one of those obsessed fans. But when I stepped out the car in the car park and saw all the posters and sign at the entrance I was really excited and couldn’t wait to get in there even though we turned up an hour early.
As we walked in there was a cafe area, Starbucks, lines where people line up, the gift shop and an information area. Posters of the cast were all around the walls and the gift shop was big and you could see all the window displays and I couldn’t wait to go in there.If your planning on going then I advise not to look at the photographs below.
The Gift Shop
Firstly we went to the gift shop after getting Starbucks for lunch, firstly I love gift shops but I think the Harry Potter gift shop was a bit overpriced and a bit of a let-down with some of the products. As you walk around you can buy £25 wands that were quite nice but what would I do with a wand? Then there were the cast outfits that were over £200 each and people were actually buying them. Then there were cloaks at £80 each and some expensive jewellery. Scarfs were £25 each keyrings were £5-£7 each and note books were £14-£20 each. I was expecting the gift store to have a massive sweet range from all the sweets in the film but no they just had chocolate wands that were £4 each, peppermint chocolate frogs £5 and some other sweets. Overall I feel the gift shop can be improved as most products were boy based so they could of had more girly items there and maybe some low end prices too. I purchased a notebook, some chocolate frogs and two keyrings, look out for my harry potter giveaway that’s coming soon.
The Studios
You first stand in a room and watch screens about how the film came about and what people were involved this lasts about 3 minutes and after you go to a cinema room where you watch the three main stars talk about the film and how they loved being on the set and you watch some mini clips of the film being made.
After is a great moment the screen rises and the walls move and you end up standing at the Hogwarts doors at this point I can’t wait to take some photos. All around the studios photographs can be taken anywhere accept the green screen section.
The studio is made up of a screening room then a cinema room then you enter one studio which had all props in, room sets and green screen areas and then you go to an outdoor section where there’s a triple decker bus, the houses, a part of the Hogwarts Bridge, the blue car and the chess pieces. Then there was another studio with more sets in. There was so much to see and so many sets and props to take photographs of. It took about 2 and half hours to walk around but I could have spent all day there. There were also rooms of the props and how the face masks were made and how the creatures were made. It was all really interesting and so much detail was done on all the sets and props. The one room I entered and actually said WOW was the Hogwarts castle as it was quite big and all lit up. At the end of the studios you end up back in the gift shop. Overall it was a great day out and I left there thinking I wanted to be a set designer and I felt I had my passion back for creativity and I think there’s nothing better than being creative. The day was well worth the money and trip to Hertfordshire.
Here are some photos taken on the day I did take 400 so you can see how much props and sets were there but here are the best ones:
Have you been yet or planning to go?
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