My Setlock Life (Part II)

[pennswoods]

This is the second installment of several posts detailing the ups and downs of tracking filming and spoilers for Sherlock Series #3 with partner in crime dudeufugly.

Tumblr Post to Part I
Tumblr Post to Part II

Our second (and third) days on the trail of spoilers began in much the same way with both of us taking care of business online. While I put out a few fires at work and wrote a make-up grammar exam, Geny checked her twitter alerts and followed up on a few possible leads. At this point, we were both conveniently battling colds, hence the tissues.

Tweets from cast and crew indicated that filming was taking place in the studio in Cardiff, so we took advantage of the good weather to pay homage to some of the locations of past and future filming. This, of course, included lunch at Speedy's where we held the first official meeting of the John Watson Moustache Appreciation society, in which we re-interpreted a special moment from the Sherlock Series 3 Teaser Trailer. I think it was a terrific success.

We ran a few errands, all the while checking in regularly whenever we could grab free wifi. We made our way to certain parts of London to test a few hypotheses about possible hints dropped or tweeted by members of the crew regarding images from London we thought we might see in the finished episodes.

While out wandering, I kissed a TARDIS (near Earl's Court tube). The following day (Thursday) was much the same as the first only with less rain and a few possible leads. Both leads proved to be dead-ends or mistaken information and really hit home how challenging the whole search for spoilers can be when you're not entirely sure what to look for and are wandering around city as large as London. As it turned out, one lead led us to a lovely park in Islington where absolutely no filming of any kind was going on, and the other led us to some place further east where filming for a movie (not Sherlock) had just wrapped for the day.

As part of our spoiler sleuthing, we naturally made our way over to Barts and scrutinized the size and location of all possible features of the buildings and pavement and to pay our own homage to the fall. While there, we ran into a few other fans who had also made their way over from other parts of England and had a good chat togther. As it turns out, one of them was ladycumberbitchbiscuit, someone I had been following on tumblr.

This is probably one of my favorite (non-setlock) photos from the trip because it captures the reaction of random fans meeting and fangirling in public. Of course, we took obligatory photos of the phone box and enjoyed some of the notes and comments left by prior fans. This one about Anderson still makes me laugh. Despite the powerful fragrance on the inside (someone seems to have mistaken this for a toilet), it is still such an awesome tribute to fannish sentiment.

The evening found us back in the hostel, a little tired and a little disheartened because we were still without a lead on filming, and spoilers had seemed to dry up. Even the tweets from the cast and crew were turning up no new leads beyond which chicken restaurant someone had gone to for dinner (Nando's, a chain, - the chicken was delicious but spoilerfree.) Like everyone else who had been following #setlock on Twitter and Tumblr, we knew about the filming to take place on North Gower Street the following Wednesday but were certain more filming would be taking place beforehand. We just didn't know where.

And then as it was getting late, Geny received a curious tip about possible filming in Cardiff over the weekend. Because of the dead ends before and because heading out to Cardiff meant we'd have to buy train tickets and travel to a city we weren't that familiar with, we were cautious but hopeful. Geny cross-checked this new information with a few other possible leads she had encountered. Things were looking good and we went to bed with a plan to spend a good chunk of the next doing research and planning just in case.

And that's exactly what we did. Part of the day we spent visiting with friends and even met up with a fellow Sherlock fan in the Sherlock Holmes pub, who I'll be interviewing for an upcoming episode of the Three Patch Podcast (stay tuned for more on that when it's confirmed). The rest of the day was spent pouring over details for planning the trip on a reasonable budget and checking and verifying different pieces of information to make certain we weren't headed off on a wild goose chase. It took most of the day, but a tweet here and there confirmed filming in Cardiff outside the studios. Our lead looked good, and we took the plunge booking tickets. If it sounds like we spent a lot of time sitting around at our computers looking things up online, that's exactly what it was like. There's a tremendous amount of planning and researching that goes into searching for spoilers!

We went to bed that almost too excited to sleep. Cardiff was calling and there was a good chance we'd see some filming at last!

Stay tuned for what happened in Cardiff in Part III

Comments

[birdsofshore]

Oh, I didn;t comment on the last one, but I am following this with excitement. I love the fangirl meeting photos! That would make my day, absolutely. I remember when I visited the Harry Potter studio tour, one of the absolute nicest things was being surrounded by other fans, and the moments of connection we made with them.

I am on the edge of my seat for the next installment! :D

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

Thanks for commenting here. I really wanted to document this before I forgot everything because it was such a different fan experience than I imagined it would be while sitting at home on my computer. Barts and Speedy's were both awesome places to see and meet other fans, especially over the summer holidays and with filming going on.

Hope the next installment doesn't disappoint!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

So! Exciting!

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

You have the best gifs! It's going to get more fun in the next update!

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

[shadowfireflame.livejournal.com]

Ah, this is such an exciting account. I love that picture of the unexpected fandom meeting up; everybody looks so shocked and happy! Very cute.

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

I took several photos of them interacting and this was my favorite one too. I loved the bus in the background. There really was a lot of squee in that moment!

[foxestacado.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, so exciting! I know this already happened, but this adventure is just so seat gripping! Sherlock would have been proud (in fact, he hasn't yet used twitter for investigative purposes, yet? This would make a good case fic)! Cautiously awaiting your next update!

[pennswoods.livejournal.com]

I wonder if I can put some of the things under a spoiler cut so you can just sort of read around things. I think the process was so fascinating and want to share that with other people. There's a shit ton of work and waiting and luck involved!

[droxy.livejournal.com]

Yay for pics. Cardiff=Dr. WHo.