@FringeOnSet: Remote Adventures in Set Hunting, 2010-2012

By Ellen (@FringeFridayNet - fringefriday.net)

Today, I run the general Fringe info Twitter account @FringeFridayNet - but it originally started out as @FringeOnSet, a Twitter account devoted to hunting down and tweeting information about the filming of Fringe on the streets of Vancouver, BC!  For two years, the FringeOnSet account was on the case - tweeting and retreating pictures and information on where you might see the cast and crew of Fringe filming the next exciting episode...

The funny thing is that I live thousands of miles away from Vancouver - on the East Coast of the USA. So I was pretty pumped to discover, one fine evening in July 2010, that the filming of the eagerly anticipated Fringe Season 3 premiere was happening - and people on the scene were tweeting about it - live, in real time!

Here's the first picture from the first day of filming 3x01 "Olivia" - the scene where Peter comes out of the government hearing to reunite with Walter and Bolivia.  It was filmed on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, and here right before the eyes of Twitter, were John and Josh posing for the cameras of a lucky fan. So exciting… and so far away for so many of us! Thus the FringeOnSet Twitter account was born.

Although fans have always managed to find out filming locations of their favorite shows, until the age of Twitter, this knowledge wasn't available in real-time. Now it's possible for anyone to share filming location tips and head down to a location before the crews have even set up for the day. This can be a fun thing, or a not so fun thing (for the cast and crew, who are there to work). So, over time, I and my other set-hunters gradually started to develop a sense of restraint about what to share. (For example, tweeting random Fringe star sightings when they were clearly not on the job... that's something I personally wouldn't do.)

Some time around the end of the third season, the paparazzi and set tipster stuff seemed to get a little out of hand. Someone who was hanging around the set - we never found out who, but it wasn't a fan - claimed to have retrieved a discarded call sheet from the trash, and posted images of it on Twitter. What was on the call sheet document was EXTREMELY spoilery, and even though set reports are almost by definition spoiler-friendly, I refused to tweet it out, and I'm proud that so many other Fringe fans also refused to pass it on either. We were really pretty outraged and disappointed that someone around the set would have done such a thing.
(However, since the show is now over and all danger of spoilers have passed, here's a photo of the notorious call sheet in question and its shocking revelation that "Walternate kills Olivia.")

However, that incident gave me and some of the other "set stalkers" some pause. We certainly didn't want to do anything that would make things difficult for the Fringe crew or ruin the experience for fans. So, after that incident, I think most of us took care to think a little more carefully about passing out information on Twitter. At least one of the professional photographers also decided to keep a more respectful distance. Fortunately, our spies on the streets of Vancouver were also mostly very respectful of the crew.

One fun memory of the FringeOnSet experience was when a devoted Josh Jackson fan from Australia traveled to Vancouver in hopes of seeing the filming. By sheer bad luck, she had scheduled her trip just at the time that Josh would not be on set - the beginning of Season 4 filming, when Peter of course was not in any of the episodes!  It seemed she would have to go all the way back home to Australia without ever having met Josh on set.  However, one evening, Josh unexpectedly showed up at one of the exterior sets - and those of us watching helplessly on Twitter, thousands of miles away around the world (and in real-time, mind you) were in a tizzy! "OMG, someone in Vancouver has got to find her and tell her JOSH IS THERE!!!" We were trying to find out what hotel she was staying at, so we could call her and get her quickly out to the set!  It all had a happy ending though, as she was indeed at the location already and finally got to see him. Whew…

As Fringe drew nearer to an end of filming in the fall of 2012, I think paranoia about serious spoilers somehow getting out, was at an all-time peak! Those of us who enjoyed discussing spoilers and set photos, felt we had a duty to protect the spoiler-free from anything that might come up.  

One day toward the very end of Season 5 filming, a local Vancouver guy named Sean (@scoobykoo) - who often snagged great candid pictures of meeting the cast of Fringe - posted to his Twitter account a seemingly innocent photo of himself with Joshua Jackson at an outdoor shoot, all smiles. Sean commented that he believed he was watching the filming of the final scenes of the show, although he wasn't sure. However, a few of us "trained observers" looked more closely at the photo and realized it contained a GIGANTIC spoiler for the end of the series... something that the photographer probably couldn't have known, but a fan would notice. Joshua was wearing the same gray T-shirt under his coat, that he had been wearing in the season premiere! The spoiler implications of this, were enormous... as Josh's costume implied that the last scenes of the season were from the same time frame as the first. (This, of course, indeed turned out to be the case, with the "reset" back to 2015.)

"OMG!" a fan DM'd me when she saw Sean's photo. "Should we ask him to take it down???" Well, we clucked about this nervously amongst ourselves for the entire afternoon, but in the end, wound up just hoping that nobody else saw Sean's photo and looked more closely at it. As far as we know, nobody but us diehard set watchers noticed!

All good things have to come to an end, and so did FringeOnSet. Filming concluded on the night of December 13 2012, and into the morning of the 14th. It was very satisfying yet of course, very poignant to man the Twitter account one last time and tweet "live" reports as the main cast members of Fringe wrapped the series one by one. First was Jasika Nicole... then John Noble and Michael Ceveris together... then Anna Torv... and finally, long after the sun had come up in Vancouver, Joshua Jackson.

No more vicarious set adventures from thousands of miles away... but, a probably lifelong appreciation for the people and places of the city of Vancouver, British Columbia! I probably know more about the streets and neighborhoods of Vancouver than anyone who hasn't actually visited there... yet!  -Ellen

Prophetic Scenes (Part XI - the last one)

By Danna Aissa (@DannaAissa)

During my last Fringe rewatch I took note of some scenes that give us clues to what will happen further on and I've been sharing them with you for the last 2 months an a half. But everything comes to an end and this is the last one of my Tuesday-posts. Hope you have enjoyed them!

Well, technically you're right, Astrid... he doesn't exist YET...

Indeed!!

 That's why all this amazing story started :)

THE END

A Few Memories of Tom Yatsko, Director of Photography on Fringe

By Stephen Tulley (@Stephen_Tulley)

You’ve seen them before, all those names listed at the end of movies in the credits and on TV shows and you might have asked yourself, “What does that person do?” Because I work in the business I’m often asked that question.

One of the names Fringe fans saw over the first three seasons was Tom Yatsko, who served as Director of Photography for twenty-four episodes and directed three of my favorite episodes of the series: “White Tulip,” “6B,” and “The Last Sam Weiss.” Now I never got the chance to work on Fringe since I don’t work in New York or Vancouver, but I did have the chance to work with Tom on the first two seasons of Brothers & Sisters on ABC Television from 2006-2007 where I was a stand-in.

Now to be blunt: If there ever was a slighty-crazy creative genius like Dr. Walter Bishop on a TV set, his name would be Tom Yatsko! So for this blog I’d like to relate a few “Tomisms” from set in lieu of Walterisms.


You can actually see a very quick interview with Tom on “The Massive Undertaking” feature of The Ghost Network (1.03) where he explains that the crew had not previously seen the tunnel in New York where they filmed the bus trapped in amber – they just showed up and had one night to film three scenes! And in a more hilarious inside-joke homage to Tom by the writers, Peter’s childhood cocker-spaniel was named “Yatsko” in 3.09 “Marionette”.

Now I should explain first that in the American system of filming the Director of Photography (called the DP) is in charge of all technical aspects of cinematography and all of the camera directions and set lighting. Consequently he/she works very closely with the Director, whereas in the British system (where they are called the DOP) they have a little less direct oversight of filming. As a result, almost all DP’s have been camera operators earlier in their careers. Up until recently some Chief Lighting Technicians (called the “Gaffer”) had been allowed to serve as a DP, but I’ve learned that rule was changed in the guild.

For those who are interested, setting-up a scene entails the following steps (please skip below if too technical). The 1st Assistant Director will call out for a “Rehearsal with Heads of Departments.” As the Director walks through the scene with the actors he/she will also talk with the DP about setting up the shot. The conversation often goes something like this - Dir: “I’m thinking about this angle.” DP: “Umm… How about this angle? And then coverage from this angle?” and so on. It really is quite a collaborative effort and viewers might be surprised to learn just how “on the fly” decisions are made about how to shoot a scene. After the two directors have agreed on the set-up they will then have a “marking rehearsal” with the actors. At this point the DP begins to talk with the camera operators (there are usually two, “A” and “B” on most shoots) about how to set up the shot, which lenses to use, the film speed, etc. As the actors walk through the scene the 2nd Assistant Camera Operator (the “clapper-loader”) follows the actors and marks the spots where they stop with colored masking tape. Upon completion the 1st AD will “excuse First Team” (i.e., the actors) and “invite in Second Team” meaning, the stand-ins. The actors and the Director then leave the set and the DP begins to work with the Key Grip and the Gaffer on what lights to bring in, how to organize the shot such as setting up tracks for a rolling shot, etc.

It’s at this point that DP’s earn their reputation as the “Mad Hatters” of the set, often pacing back and forth, waving at a wall, saying “a bit of this, a little bit of that” and so on.

On the reshot pilot of Brothers & Sisters I remember one such lighting set-up where Tom was eating a lollipop and having a conversation with the Gaffer John Smith that went like this:

TY: (Waving at a suspended light.) “That… what do you call that?”

JS: (Sarcastically.) “Uh, we call that a light… sir.”

TY: “Good. A little bit more of that then.”

And on another episode where I was standing-in for a day player Tom had me standing at an elevator at a nice Spanish-revival hotel. The cameras were a good ten yards away down some steps. He began yelling “Open your palm! Open your palm!” As I began to think, “He can’t possibly want to light the palm of my hand as I push the call button for the elevator?” he yelled out, “Now, light the palm of his hand!” And they did.

It’s during this lighting set-up that sets become complete chaos as the stand-ins move from mark to mark for both cameras to frame the action and the 1st Assistant Camera Operator (the “focus-puller”) for each camera measures the distance from the lens to the corner of the stand-in’s eye socket, since focus is done manually on most industry cameras. C-stands and riser stands get moved around, lights are moved and adjusted with filters and the 1st AD will often repeatedly ask the DP “How long?” meaning, how long until the set-up is complete and the Director and the actors can come back in. My job as a stand-in was to match the actions of my actor for the camera operators and try to listen to three or four important voices out of the cacophony of perhaps forty crew members talking to each other and their respective departments on radios. Most of the crew on Brothers & Sisters had worked together on Alias for years, so they felt completely at ease to chat about anything-but-the-shot, which made it an even louder set. [Anna Torv once talked about how loud the Fringe set was compared to others.]

On more than a few occasions Tom just didn’t like how the shot had been set-up and called out the ominous phrase, “Executive decision!” He would then completely change the positions of the actors and cameras, causing everyone to reposition for the shot. When the Director and the actors came back in there would have to be a small private meeting between him and the Director while the stand-ins would have to tell their actors that everything had changed. Luckily for me Tom Skerritt was nice about it, but I felt bad for my friend Candy who had to tell two-time Oscar winner Sally Field that, “Everything you did in rehearsal has changed now.” (Actors don’t like to “rethink” everything they’ve been doing in their trailer for that shot.)

On another wacky day on the pilot of Brothers & Sisters Tom was having long discussion with Director Ken Olin about a scene in a backyard pool where Tom Skerritt’s character (“William Walker”) has a heart attack and falls in the water to eventually die. There was a lot of discussion about stunt work, underwater shots, getting the right equipment, etc. I mumbled to myself, “I hope I don’t have to work in the water” right at the point when the 2nd2nd Assistant Director walked up to me and said, “Uh, tomorrow night is the death scene in the pool Steve… You might want to bring a pair of bathing trunks.”

Thankfully they used the stuntman for that lighting set-up!

So that’s a bit what it’s like working with Tom Yatsko on set, and probably gives you a better idea about why the writers wrote him into “Marionette.” Fringe fans might also be pleased to learn that he continued to work under J.H. Wyman as DP on Almost Human, and currently has served as DP on Gotham on Fox TV.

Prophetic Scenes (Part X)

By Danna Aissa (@DannaAissa)

During my last Fringe rewatch I took note of some scenes that give us clues to what will happen further on. Some of them are so big that you can't believe they're revealing that information at that point, and some of them are simply little anecdotes. I thought it would be fun to put them together here.

Milo was the first observer.

The ambered people are not dead!

Is he talking about Etta?

More scenes next Tuesday!

One Night in October (the crazy story on how Key met Josh)

By Keyshla(@Marieme27) & Danna Aissa(@DannaAissa)

DANNA:

The internet world is so huge. Everybody is talking, there are tons of information everywhere and sometimes you don’t know what you can trust and what you can’t. So here is a little, funny, crazy story about that:

It was Sunday October 5th, a day before ‘The Affair’ premiered, and I came across this information telling that Josh and Diane had been seen around 54th street and 7th avenue in New York. Well, I live far away in Europe, but I knew that Key had been trying to find Josh during the filming of ‘The Affair’. So on Monday morning (my morning, her night ;P ) I thought it would be nice to send Key a Direct Message on Twitter and see if she could go and take a look. I thought she’d pass on such a crazy messages.

KEY:

October 6th, 2014, IS A DAY TO REMEMBER!......I'll always remember it. Danna DMed me at 5am and I wanted to choke her, I put my phone on vibrate, but still, she woke me up. I saw her DMs, with info on how to find Josh (what a stalker). At first, I didn't know what to tell her, I tried to find Josh before, but *sigh*... I thought I'd tell her 'I can't do this'', I was busy, I had an interview that day and turns out, it was close to the place Danna told me to go. So after my interview, I decided to trust agent Danna Aissa and started looking for Josh!

DANNA:

It was my Monday night, I got to see The Affair (episode 1) online and, when I was about to go to sleep, Key sent me a DM. She was there! at the place I told her and she didn’t know what to do...

So from here the first part of the mission consisted on trying to find the hotel where they were staying around the area I had heard about, and see if she could meet them when they left for the premiere. So I (from my couch, somewhere in Europe) was on Google Maps finding hotels in that area of NYC and sending Key there through Direct Messages on Twitter... And suddenly...

I really thought she found them!!! but no... 

As they obviously weren’t at the hotel, our second part of the mission started here: finding the place where the premiere was. I first thought about the original address I found (there was a theatre there) and sent Key there.

At that moment my intuition said she was going to meet him although I had no idea how. I started looking for the address where the premiere was. Obviously that information was very well hidden, but I found this website with an address. I didn’t know whether it was true or not, and besides that place was a little bit far... but I sent Key there anyway. We were chatting through Twitter while she was walking by the streets of NYC until she got there:

KEY:

It happened all so fast, but it was awesome. The premiere of 'The Affair' was over and Josh was like the last one (important one, he was the most important for me, of course), to get out of the place with Diane and others. The photographers were waiting just for them, seriously because when Dominic went out, it was so....normal, quiet, not like 'DOMINIC, DOMINIC, another photo please'....they just took like 2 or 3, maybe!

Anyway, I SAW JOSH, and I asked him if I could take a picture with him and he was like 'of course' so nice, so natural, but he was in a hurry. Either way, I stopped him and the only thing I could tell him, after the pic, was 'You were great as Peter Bishop'... (seriously, he did a great job as Peter). And he told me 'Thank you' and that was special for me, I don't know how to explain it, it was like it meant a lot to him or he wasn't expecting that at all, someone to tell him that there, because I'm sure a lot of people have told him that. Maybe it was just my imagination, whatever, it was a beautiful 'thank you' and I told him 'thank you' too, with a really big, kinda freaky smile on my face ... I was in shock, ok!

Then, Diane called him *rolls eyes* so he went to the car which was full. Josh sat in the front seat and Diane sat on his lap and all the photographers and guards were like 'aww'... that was cute, yeah!

The important thing is that I met him. Earlier that day he answered one of my questions on Facebook and one of Danna's questions too. I touched him, I breathed his same air lol, I have a photo with him, and he knows that I exist. He really is so down to earth, plus a gorgeous, smart and adorable man....... Everything was worth it. Mission Accomplished, but I NEED TO MEET HIM, AGAIN.

Prophetic Scenes (Part IX)

By Danna Aissa (@DannaAissa)

During my last Fringe rewatch I took note of some scenes that give us clues to what will happen further on. Some of them are so big that you can't believe they're revealing that information at that point, and some of them are simply little anecdotes. I thought it would be fun to put them together here.

We know, Walter...

Did you notice how similar these conversations are? In both cases it was their last conversation. And in both cases they couldn't keep their promises...

More scenes next Tuesday!

Fringe Promotional Music

By Andrew Moore (@ashok0)

I always found FOX's selection of Fringe promotional music to be interesting during the show's run.  Sometimes, the songs seemed to tell their own story and often seemed to "gel" quite nicely with the spirit of the show.  Below is a listing of licensed music used to promote Fringe from 2008 through 2013.

SEASON 1
Fringe - 111 Bound Promo / The Power of One - X-Ray Dog

Fringe - 115  Inner Child Promo  / Creepshow - Kerli

Fringe - Fox Fall Promo / Do the Panic - Phantom Planet

Fringe - FRINGE S1 Eksperimetut Promo PROBG / A Forest - Ror-Shak

Fringe - Kerli - Walking on Air music video / Walking on Air - Kerli

Fringe - NAS and Keri Hilson Promo / Hero feat. Keri Hilson - Nas
(I could never find this one)

Fringe - Promo for FOX in November / Tide is High - Kardinal Offishall Ft. Rihanna

Fringe - Season 1 - A Forest Music Video / A Forest - Ror-Shak

Fringe - She's Beautiful Promo /  I'm Good, I'm Gone - Lykke Li

Fringe - So Fox Promo with Jillian Barberie - Fox 11 Los Angeles / Gravity - Nico Vega

Fringe - So FOX Promo / We Hold On - Kaz James

Fringe - WIN Ident / Black Eyes - Amy Meredith

SEASON 2
Fringe - Season 2 - Trailer - Over There / Unrelenting Fury - Megatrax (@1:07-1:32)

Fringe - Season 2 - NIN Promo #1 / Zero Sum - NIN

Fringe - Season 2 - NIN Promo #2 / Zero Sum - NIN

Fringe - Season 2 - Observer on Sky1 / Red Right Hand - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Fringe - Season 2 - Paranoia (Fefe Dobson) / Paranoia - Fefe Dobson

Fringe - Season 2 - Promo Fox San Valentino / What You Do To Me - Blakroc

Fringe - Season 2 - Sky 1 Promo - Get Your Freak On / Get Ur Freak On - Missy Elliot

Fringe - Season 2 - Sky1 Great Drama Advert / Street Map - Athlete

Fringe - Season 2 - Sky1 HD Great Drama June 2009 / Street Map - Athlete

Fringe - Season 2 - Sky1 HD UK Great Drama Advert 2009 / Street Map - Athlete

Fringe - Season 2 - This Is War - 30 Seconds to Mars / This Is War - 30 Seconds to Mars

Fringe & Bones Commercial - 215 (Extended) / WTF? - OK Go

SEASON 3
Echoes Music Video by Klaxons / Echoes - Klaxons

Fringe - 305 - Amber 31422 - Waiting For The End #1 / Waiting For The End - Linkin Park

Fringe - 305 - Amber 31422 - Waiting For The End #2 / Waiting For The End - Linkin Park

Fringe - 316 - Preview / The Power of One - X-Ray Dog

Fringe - 317 - Preview / The Power of One - X-Ray Dog

Fringe - Everything it's Possible - Superbowl / The Step And The Walk - The Duke Spirit

Fringe - Fox Premiere Week Promo / Showstopper - TobyMac

Fringe - Fringe Fridays - Superbowl / The Step And The Walk - The Duke Spirit

Fringe - Game On! Promo / Check It Out - will.i.am, Nicki Minaj 

FRINGE- Korean Season 3 Trailer (English) / Waiting For The End - Linkin Park

Sky1 HD UK Great Drama Advert July 2010 / Illuminated - Hurts

SEASON 4
Fringe - 411 - Making Angels / The Power of One - X-Ray Dog

Fringe - AXN Promo 2012 - Spain / Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - P!nk

Fringe - FOX Eraser by The Knux Promo / Eraser - The Knux

Fringe - Season 4 - Trailer Promo / Am I Here? - The Secret Meeting

Fringe FOX Fall 2011 Promo Returning Shows / Young Blood - The Naked and Famous

Fringe Season 4 on Sky 1 HD - Trailer  /  Two Fingers - Better Get That 

SEASON 5
FRINGE - Promo Electronic Song 2013 - Science Channel / Fracture - Chronic Crew

FRINGE - Reborn on Science Channel / Chim Chim Cher-ee - Turin Brakes

FRINGE - Dark Matters Promo / Time Machine - Adult Cinema
(I could never find this one)

Fringe Finale Simulcast Trailer Sky1 HD / Wide-Eyed Adventure - Scorched Score Music

Fringe Series Finale Trailer / Psychomania - Extreme Music (:58-1:01) / Distorted Rupture - Q-Factory (1:02-1:11)