So… I hadn’t posted this earlier because… Well no reason, I just didn’t. But I’d been on the Fringe set Wednesday evening, and I’m just going to recall of the events of the night for anyone who would care to listen, so here it goes:
*I’m also sorry that I go into great detail… You’ve been warned*
For anyone who doesn’t know, my life is hectic. More hectic than any 17 year old’s life should be, so I knew convincing my parents to let me go that night might be a feat, but to my surprise they were okay with it (this is the part where I jumped up and down). Having checked the weather the day before, I knew that night was supposed to be the coldest winter night in Vancouver, -12 without wind chill (that’s in Celsius for all you American folk). So wearing tights under my jeans, three shirts and a pea coat (I had to…), scarf, two pairs of mittens, thick socks and my winter boots, I was set. Now I know this means nothing to you, reading about my wardrobe, but it’s only so that you can fully understand just how FREEZING it was… I’ll get to that later.
It took me about 30 minutes to get downtown, but once I got there it was a short walk to the set which was in the heart of Gastown for anyone not familiar with the area. It’s so pretty, it’ll be hard to describe, but I’ll try… Picture tall trees on both sides of the street, laced with white lights even though Christmas is over. There’s still some snow, but most of it has melted, so the concrete was wet and the reflections of the lights were seen on the street. The old brick buildings and the old fashioned street lights just make Gastown one of my favourite places to be, especially at night, despite the cold.
They were almost set up and crew had arrived 1 hour or so prior, background actors were on set therefore the actors couldn’t be far. Funny enough, I ran into my friend Nadine (most know her on Twitter as @naddycat) and we walked around the block to see the extent of the set. We ended up standing with some other fans of the show in front of the Gassy Jack statue. We could see the whole set up from there. Also, nothing to do with Fringe, but this lady came up to the group of us (women) and offered us condoms (That’s Vancouver for you… The east side at least). Weren’t really sure why she wouldn’t offer them to all of the MEN walking around, but whatever. After that hilarious encounter, we’d spotted the great director/writer/producer Joel Wyman himself. We got pretty excited but had to contain our excitement so not to scare him away. Apparently Nadine had spoken to him on Twitter once, and he recognized her (which is exciting all in itself), but he talked with the group of us Fringe fans for a good 15 - 20 minutes it must have been. He didn’t mention anything too spoilery, in fact I don’t think any of it was anything we haven’t heard before. He also talked about renewal of the show and how it was all “a big negotiation”. Warner Bros. will want to keep it, Fox will say it’s a bit too expensive, Warner Bros. will say they want to give a new show they had to a different network, Fox wants said new show so they negotiate Fringe… etc. Joel was a charming guy and let us take photos with him.
Oh, and did I forget to mention that during our extensive conversation with Joel, the AD (Assistant Director) Jason, who is the sweetest guy, came over to us and asked if we’d like to be extras? Yeah, that definitely happened y’all. Called my mom up, she gave the okay and it was official: We were going to be extras on Fringe. The wardrobe lady came over to us to make sure we weren’t wearing any logos or had too much colour and whatnot, and Jason took us over to the set. He placed a few there, and a few over there. Lucky for me, I was the last one to be placed (which at the time I thought was because they were going to put me waaay in the back so I couldn’t really be seen), but I ended up getting to cross the street right in the line of the camera, which is always wonderful. I’m sure most of you who enjoy spoilers already know which actors/characters were present that day, but I’m not going to be “that person”, so I’m just going to say I had a very good view of the “action” from where I was set (I might edit this a bit after the episode airs to post about that, or a new post altogether, we’ll see).
One thing is for sure: The crew on Fringe is not one of, they are THE NICEST people ever. Ever. I’m not trying to brag or whatever when I say that I do background work with an agency, and I’ve been on sets before, other than Fringe, and some of the crew are not very pleasant people to be around. And also, let’s just say that periodically throughout the night (which was 6 hours btw) Joel Wyman would come up and ask us (Nadine and I) if we were having a good time, or even if he couldn’t stop to chat he’d smile and wave… *dies inside* It was the best feeling to be BFFs with the director for a day. Some of the crew would ask, “Do you like, know him from something? You guys seem to know each other…” And I would just smile and say, “No, just talked to him earlier.” Aaaaaaahhhhh it was so great!
Now, Fringies… I know you all respect every single person who works on the show (*ahem* Blue Moon Awards *ahem*), but add how hard they’re working along with -15 weather and they’re frickin’ soldiers. I was hardly doing anything (which kind of makes sense a bit) and I swear, my toes had fallen off. It was SO. COLD. It got to the point where I couldn’t even move them, so just think about the crew… And of course the actors (who will not be named even if you already know).
Anyways, at the end of the night when they wrapped, Nadine and I talked to Joel a bit more and thanked him… *This is where it gets REALLY good* When we were about to leave he gave BOTH of us hugs (yes, that’s right xD) and when he said he was coming back to direct another episode, which is to be the finale, he said he’d “LOVE to see us back here then… WE COULD CHAT MORE” aaaaand that’s when I died.
So yeah, if you have any questions, general comments, cries, ASDFGHJKL-ing, do NOT hesitate to click that ask button. I don’t get very many, so it would be no trouble at all.
Thank you for reading (if you actually made it this far *guilty of writing novels*) and have a nice day.
Ashley
*Fringe Set Visits*
