Today is a big day for Fringe of exterior filming in multiple locations in a downtown Vancouver area. It started on Granville Street with dozens… Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE’s Anna Torv and an Observer Ministry of Science Van Downtown for 5×10
As streets began flooding in the real Manhattan yesterday morning and the east coast braced for Hurricane Sandy’s full impact, Fringe filmed scenes in a NYC taxicab in cloudy, wet Vancouver dressed as Manhattan under Observer Occupation in 2036. It sure put our rain in perspective.
I didn’t find the set until close to lunchtime and not long after Fringe wrapped and returned to studio for the rest of the day, so I don’t know if there were scenes other than John Noble’s Walter in the cab along with an unexpected guest star from seasons earlier. I won’t spoil the identity of that guest star until the producers choose to, because one of the joys of the final season is the way Fringe brings back or echoes former cases and characters. After the guest star wrapped, a Flex star car picked up her and Jasika Nicole’s Astrid, who must have been in that very crowded cab as well. I can’t imagine the risk they took talking in a cab with all those background Observers and Loyalist soldiers walking past. And on one of the background cabs driving by — a Reward Wire rooftop ad. Remember the creepy-good Captain Windmark-voiced Fringe teaser, Wanted: Peter Bishop, ahead of the season premiere?
Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE Films in NYC Taxi in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 5×09
Whatever happens, it’s clear that the Observer Occupation of 2036 is under siege on Fringe. Captain Windmark can still make a clumsy human bow down in episode eight, filmed near B.C. Place a few weeks ago, but tonight’s episode — The Bullet that Saved the World — marks a (#) TurningPoint in the resistance.
Fringe crew set up for filming on the Vancouver Art Gallery’s north plaza last night in a torrential downpour and then filmed scenes in slightly less of a deluge. The last hours of filming for the final season’s eighth episode turned out to be one wet slog. Background women were allowed to keep their umbrellas for the scenes to protect their hair and 1940s garb but background Observers had nothing but their fedora hats to keep them dry during a take. [Update: POlivia filmed highly emotional scenes on the roof under a scrim of Anna Torv’s Olivia convincing Joshua Jackson’s Peter Bishop to take the Observer tech out of his head.]
Earlier in the day, Joshua Jackson’s Peter and Michael Kopsa’s Captain Windmark were spotted heading to set inside CBC Vancouver [where they filmed a stunt fight in empty office space on the east side] but rain-drenched fans only observed Kopsas’s Windmark at the night shoot when I was there.
Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE’s POlivia on the Vancouver Art Gallery Roof in a Rainstorm for 5×08 – Updated
Fringe took over a block of West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver last Monday dressed as New York City to film a scene of Joshua Jackson’s Peter Bishop dodging about two dozen cars while crossing the street for episode seven of the final season. Observers, Loyalist troops and citizens dressed in 1940s garb walking in the background told us this scene is set in 2036. It was a deceptively simple one of Peter crossing the street, coming to a dead stop in the middle of it until a New York cabbie yells at him to “get out of the way” and then continuing on to the curb on the other side. But all those moving vehicles required a stunt coordinator on set.
Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE’s Joshua Jackson Dodges Manhattan Traffic Downtown for 5×07
Fringe crew transformed Pacific Central Station in Vancouver into a New Jersey Monorail station circa 2036 on Thursday with bilingual signage in the English and Observer languages, Observers, Loyalist troops, Native citizens dressed in 1940s fashion, armoured jeeps and check points. I missed the day shoot outside and inside the main entrance to the station but caught the evening one on the north side with cast Joshua Jackson (who did his own stunt running across the hood of the Bishop mobile), John Noble and Georgina Haig in gas masks as the Bishops, who make their getaway in the faster-than-it-looks half-a-century-old family station wagon. One of the oddities of this shoot was seeing Observers and Loyalist troops with no eyes or mouths (which made it very difficult for these background performers to go to the craft table or anywhere else).
Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE Family Films at Pacific Central Station As Monorail Station Circa 2036 for 5×04
All you POlivia fans, be warned. It doesn’t get more adorable than this: Peter, Olivia and their daughter, little Etta, enjoying a family picnic on a sunny afternoon in the park.
Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE Family Picnic in Stanley Park for S5 Premiere
Blair Brown’s Nina Sharp and Lance Reddick’s Phillip Broyles filmed a scene for the Fringe season finale today at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It turned… Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE Season Four Finale Scenes at Vancouver Art Gallery – Updated
Published February 17, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome
A Skype discussion early this year led to an amazing social media campaign by Fringe fans to make sure people knew their ratings-challenged show was returning in mid-January with a Winter Premiere after a long two-month hiatus. For five consecutive Friday nights, their unique episode hashtags have trended on Twitter worldwide, in the U.S. and in Vancouver. You may have seen #crosstheline, #enemyofmyenemy, #observeitlive, #takethelead and #breakingout trending and wondered what they were. Feel free to join in tonight by tweeting this week’s hashtag #BeaBetterMan after 5 p.m. our time.
The Fringe Campaign organized by @Fringenuity is smart. Audience isn’t just about Nielsen ratings anymore. Fringe has proved itself a social media success with a big presence on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. I’ve participated in all five Twitter campaigns to date by live-tweeting during the west coast broadcast but not in the GetGlue campaign, where fans check in to Fringe and the show’s sponsors — Nissan Leaf and Sprint — live during commercials. Fringe is topping the trending charts at GetGlue too on Friday nights, with over ten thousand checking in. The ongoing campaign helps decision-makers see how much reach the unmeasured Fringe fandom has coming up on discussions between broadcaster FOX and production company Warner Bros TV about whether or not to renew the cult show for a fifth and final season.
Season Four began dramatically with one of the show’s trio of main characters — Peter Bishop — erased from existence and the absence of Joshua Jackson, the actor who plays him, from his hometown. See my YVRShoots series post Where is Peter Bishop? He returned to existence with a big splash at Reiden Lake in the Fall but as a stranger to his beloved Olivia Dunham played by Anna Torv and to his “father” Walter Bishop played by John Noble. See my YVRShoots series post Here is Peter Bishop. Peter remembers them but they don’t remember him in this altered timeline. Are they not his Olivia and his Walter?
We still don’t know about this Olivia and Walter but it was wonderful to catch a glimpse of the Fringe trio acting more like themselves this week at a CBC Vancouver shoot for an upcoming Spring episode, along with junior Fringe agent Astrid Farnsworth played by Jasika Nicole.
Fringe’s fourth season is divided into three acts — the Fall, Winter and Spring episodes. When World Series baseball on FOX unexpectedly pre-empted the eighth episode showrunners planned as their big Fall Finale it hurt the dramatic arc of the show and disappointed viewers.
So the Fall Finale became the Winter Premiere. In Back to Where You’ve Never Been, Peter Bishop decides to Read More »BIG READ: FRINGE is Trending in Vancouver and Worldwide
