Searching for John Noble to interview him on the set of Walter's lab.

The Fringe School of Film

Through Vancouver’s In the City Entertainment, and Bryan Dague at FOX, I get to field produce behind the scenes vignettes, special features for DVD and internet bonus content for shows around town. One of those shows is J.J. Abrahams’ Fringe for the FOX network.

The J.J. Abrahams vehicle stars Anna Torv, Joshua Jackson, John Noble and Lance Reddick as characters dealing with alternate selves from an alternate universe.

At first, I thought it was a show about how we dehumanize and objectify each other in order to fight battles that can’t be won. And how violence against another is truly violence against yourself.  Cast and producers on the show though talk a lot about how the show is a vehicle to examines choices, and the resulting cause and effect of those choices.

Producing for EPK…

Either way, I love working on that show because everyone’s so welcoming. You don’t always get that when you walk onto a set as an EPK producer (EPK stands for Electronic Press Kit, and is the general term for all internal and external media crews brought to set).

As an actor, I usually don’t have time to observe what goes into creating the props and detail of a set I step on to. And I feel like I’m getting paid to go to film school every time I go to the Fringe set as I get to observe individual elements of a complex process to see how the eerie world of Fringe comes to life. I often interview set decorators, production designers,  and crew from wardrobe, special effects, props, make up and prosthetic departments.

Fringe moments…

Once, I came out for a night shoot and walked onto a set looking for a quiet place to pull cast aside for interviews. I stepped into a room, turned on a light and SCREAMED as I came face to face with a badly decomposed corpse inches away on a shelf. Underneath it was a dead dog, and beyond was the body of young man hanging on meat hooks, his legs atrophied from disease.  Welcome to Fringe.

Here’s what FOX did with the footage I got for episode 3.02 “The Box”, my first producing gig on the show:

Acting on Fringe…

Then, while I was on set producing a vignette for episode 3.09 “The Marionette”, I got a call from my agent that I booked a role on the following episode 3.10 “The Firefly”, which first aired Friday, January 21, 2011. Man, I was stoked!  I play Victoria DiMiri, a woman who has no idea she’s being used as a pawn by the Observer in a dangerous and intricate test designed for Walter.

Anyhow– FRINGE! Woo hoo! Have a great day guys!