N. Gower St. filming for TSo3 (& TEH)

[Carol the Dabbler]

Shortly after that, Martin Freeman wandered off again.  Benedict Cumberbatch talked with Mark Gatiss for a while ...
 

 
... and with the mystery woman:
 

 
On that shot above, Alex had  just changed the camera batteries (again!), and hadn't yet zoomed in, so this gives a better idea of how far away we were.  Note the people in "John's bedroom" window (who apparently live there, and would wave back in a very friendly way when we fans waved at them).  Note also that most of the extras are now at the left, and the camera set-up has been taken apart --
 
-- so it can be set up over by us for the Episode 1 pickup scene.  Here are smiles from Steve Lawes and Arwel Jones during that set-up:
 

 
By then, Benedict Cumberbatch had left for the day, and Martin Freeman had returned. Just in case any of you have excellent eyesight and are extremely spoiler-shy, I'll put this in a box:
 

And in case you can't quite see the spoiler, it's on Freeman's upper lip!

 
The two kids are extras for the upcoming scene, and we believe that the man talking with them and Freeman is Jeremy Lovering, Episode 1 director:
 

 
More on that scene next time I'm at the library.

[Carol the Dabbler]

My apologies for the long delay (real life intruded).  But I'm at the library today, so back to the preparation for the Episode 1 pickup scene --

 

First there was a high-level conference (Gatiss, Lovering, Lawes, and Freeman) -- and it looks like Arwel Jones is photographing the moment (same minor spoiler as above):

 

 

 

 

Basically, the scene is that John comes walking in from the left, and as he gets to his door, a group of children pass by.  It appeared that in the earlier takes, he ignores them, but in the later takes, he turns and looks as they walk on past him.  As you can see below (if you don't mind a repeat of another minor spoiler), there was a whole lot between us and the action this time, some big honkin' equipment in addition to the crew:

 

 

The children are pushing their "guy" in the baby stroller, shouting, "A penny for the guy!"  So apparently it's supposed to be Guy Fawkes Day (November 5).

 

 

 

Note (if you looked) that they're already laying camera rails in front of Speedy's for what turned out to be either a different angle on the same scene or else a very similar scene without the children.  (We never were sure which.) 

 

Between takes, Martin Freeman chatted with various people (same old minor spoiler):

 

 

 

 

While the camera was being set up in front of Speedy's, the flower pots were disappearing from the balcony (I'm still noticing new things in these photos!).  I think this one is (barely) spoiler-free:

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

In this take, John (just to the right of the signpost) is walking toward his door again.  Meanwhile, the "Baker Street" sign that had been hanging to our right is in Arwel Jones's hand, and the ladder is headed for the other sign.  I can't see the minor spoiler, even though I know exactly where to look, so I won't bother with a box.

 

 

One more take -- less foreground clutter this time, and I still don't see the kids (or the little spoiler):

 

 

And that, sadly, is when our camera's memory card filled up.  The filming was nearly done anyway, but we did miss getting a shot of Martin Freeman waving goodbye to us fans as he headed back to the mysterious facilities on Stephenson Way (alias Dorset Street).

 

[Caya]

Wow, thanks once more for those photos, Carol and Alex. You have such an incredible eye for detail and managed to explain so many of these little, but important things so well, it's really been a pleasure (and an instructive experience to boot) to see your pics and read your posts!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Yup, hats off to you both Carol and Alex! What a wonderful experience for you. Thank you so much for sharing these with us.

[Carol the Dabbler]

You're all most welcome!  We had a real blast (albeit freezing our -- umm -- noses off) being there, and I've had lots of additional fun posting the photos and comments.

 

Hey, I just noticed something in the second photo of this post:

 

 

 

Added:  If you look closely at the photo above (it helps to left-click on it, to enlarge it -- then click ESC when you're done looking), just at the rear edge of the middle cab window, you'll see the waving hand that I mentioned above.  Anyone care to deduce whose it is?  And as you can easily see, the fans are waving back (which is what prompted me to look more closely at the cab window).

 

I have more photos to post -- former/future location sites in Bristol -- but those will be in another thread.  And I may add to the "Our Vacation" thread as well.  But that's all the pictures for today.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

Can just barely able to make it out so it's hard to tell who's hand it is, for  me anyway.

[Julia Mae]

You're welcome!  I'm having fun putting these up.  And I'm back at the library again today, so here goes with a few more:

 

The crew not only put up "Baker Street" signs, they also put new signs over the existing ones at the corners of nearby side streets, so that a small section of the real Baker Street was mapped onto that bit of North Gower.  (And note that that section of Baker is south of Marylebone Road, not north of it, where the Sherlock Holmes Museum has somehow acquired the 221 address.)

 

 

I thought before you change locations, I'd put a copy of the map here.  I scrolled up a bit from the originals I posted:

 

 

 

 

Edited June 30, 2013 by Julia Mae

[Julia Mae]

BTW, the convention in street designation with which I am familiar in the U.S., is that streets that have north portions are not designated "north" but left as is, you assume they are north as they have no designator.   So you have 195 Broad Street.  However, if there is a south portion of that same road, it does get a designator: 195 South Broad Street.

 

The worst version of street designation I have  come across is in northern Virginia where you can find a street called "North Smith Avenue" in one place.  THEN -  a completely  separate street that has no dirrect relationship at all with the first called "South Smith Avenue."  What one needs to understand it: these are east-west running streets.  That is, one is in the northern part of town and one is in the southern part of town. 

 

oi

[Carol the Dabbler]

I have seen exactly the sort of ridiculous thing you describe, but in a small Massachusetts town -- there's a Main Street (which runs north-south and is the old highway through town), then maybe half a mile east of that, there's the rerouted north-south highway, which is called (of course!) East Main Street.

Perhaps the explanation I gave earlier applies mostly to the midwestern states?

Thanks for the embedded maps of the real Baker Street!  Could you scroll it just a bit north?  Moftiss's idea of "221" is between Crawford and York, on the west side of Baker.

 

As for The Hand, Alex and I put our heads together this evening, and have tentatively concluded that, since Sherlock was ahead of John on the way to the cab, he presumably entered the cab first, and therefore presumably had the seat closest to us -- so that would presumably be Benedict Cumberbatch's hand. We didn't reliably see the entire procedure, however, so that is total conjecture. Not that it matters all that much -- he and Martin Freeman are quite the team, and we were happily waving to both of them!

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

I think you're right about it being Cumberbatch nearest to the waving fans. In the enlarged picture it does look like Freeman siting on the side closest to Speedy's.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Your eyes (and/or monitor) must be better than mine!  But I'd guess that they were both waving anyhow, somewhere in there.

 

We were showing "The Great Game" to my cousin a few days ago.  In the scene where John sees the news of an explosion on Baker Street and rushes home, I noticed the "York Street" sign showing up very plainly (especially if you click on the picture to enlarge it!) as he comes around the corner:

 

 

Many thanks to aithine's screen caps for that shot!  (By the way, does anyone know if there's a way to view the individual caps on that site as a slideshow?)

 

By way of orientation, during the S3E2/1 shoot, we fans covered a stretch from in front of the triple arched doors at the far right (where Alex and I were standing), leftward to where the man in black is walking, and on across the street.  But of course the cameras were facing the other way then!

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

And, also thanks to Aithine's screen caps, here are a couple of Rumbelow's real-estate signs (one half-hidden by the post) from near the end of the unaired pilot (see? -- Sherlock's got a blanket!):

 

 

We've been discussing the attention to detail shown  in the preparation for filming Sherlock, but for all I know, many programs are equally conscientious and we simply don't notice it, any more than we ever noticed these details in Sherlock.  I really have no idea how typical this is.

 

[Shapupa]

By the way, if there's a North Gower Street somewhere in the United States, you can safely assume that it's basically the northern half of Gower Street, and that the southern half is called South Gower Street.

 

Americans may assume that the same applies to North Gower Street in London, but no, the southern part is just called Gower Street.  Apparently just-Gower was there first, and when they put in a northern extension, they called it North Gower.  As to why they didn't simply call it Gower and keep going with the house numbers -- my best guess is that North Gower is on the other side of a political boundary.  Can anyone tell us for sure?

 

No, no political boundary, they're both in the Borough of Camden. Streets in the UK aren't called the same way for all their length like they are in the US. If you scroll south on your map you'll see that Gower Street suddenly turns into Bloomsbury Street, then Shaftesbury Ave. No reason behind this (that I know of). For most Europeans it is confusing to have streets as long as they are in the US, especially with house numbers in their thousands.

 

I really enjoyed reading this thread. You did a great job at capturing all the details they change to turn North Gower St into Baker St. I went to uni on Gower St but never went down to see them film, so it was nice to have all the changes they make put into one place

[Carol the Dabbler]

No, no political boundary, they're both in the Borough of Camden. Streets in the UK aren't called the same way for all their length like they are in the US. If you scroll south on your map you'll see that Gower Street suddenly turns into Bloomsbury Street, then Shaftesbury Ave. No reason behind this (that I know of). For most Europeans it is confusing to have streets as long as they are in the US, especially with house numbers in their thousands.

Thanks for the insider info, Shapupa! Yes, I've noticed that street-name changes are more the rule than the exception in London.

 

I've been trying to think why that sort of thing might happen, and whatever the reason(s) might be, they've had a lot of time to happen in London, what with the city being a couple thousand years old. I'm guessing that some streets change names because the sections were originally unconnected, like this:

 

=============== . . . . . . . . ========================

. .Smith Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Jones Street

 

... so when the part in between eventually got built, the older sections already had different names. Or there could have been political reasons, such as naming a newly-built section of a street after someone in order to gain their favor.

 

About the only reason that a street in this part of the US might have two different names is that one section was re-named to honor a famous person who had just died. In some parts of the US, however, streets can change names almost as often as in London, though the changes typically occur when the street leaves one suburb and enters another. I've seen this in Boston.

 

Also, I've lived in the Los Angeles area as well as Boston, and I can't offhand think of any examples of North/South street names in either of those places, even though they're very common in this part of the country.

 

 

I really enjoyed reading this thread. You did a great job at capturing all the details they change to turn North Gower St into Baker St. I went to uni on Gower St but never went down to see them film, so it was nice to have all the changes they make put into one place

Thanks! My husband's uncle attended some institution of higher education on Gower Street, too -- maybe your alma mater!

[Julia Mae]

Thanks for the embedded maps of the real Baker Street!  Could you scroll it just a bit north?  Moftiss's idea of "221" is between Crawford and York, on the west side of Baker.

 

I replaced them in the post I'd already made.  Saving bandwidth! 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Thanks, Julia Mae!  My original map link was a bit off, and you've corrected it nicely.

 

OK, so according to Moftiss, the "real" 221B is roughly where "Bathstore" shows up on the Baker Street map that Julia Mae posted here.  And they've mapped that area onto the stretch of North Gower Street shown here, using these equivalences:

 

Baker St area . . . N. Gower area . . Notes

York St . . . . . . . . Euston St . . . . . the real York doesn't extend east of Baker

Crawford St. . . . . Tolmers Sq

Dorset St. . . . . . . Stephenson Way

 

 

Note to Undead Medic:  I'm pretty sure that links used to show up in blue and underlined.  Now they show up that way during edit, but in the finished post, they're merely blue, and therefore a bit hard to notice on some monitors.  I assume this is a result of the recent software upgrade.  Any chance that the new software will allow (without too much fuss) restoring the underline?  Added:  I realize that underlining links is a browser option, but (even though I have mine set up to underline) some web pages underline them and some don't.  And I seem to recall that this forum used to be one of the former -- but now it's one of the latter.  (I've tried this on two different computers and three different forum skins.)

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Alex found a brief article about Benedict Cumberbatch which includes this quote:

 

“Obviously, when you’re shooting on location in a busy metropolitan area, you get people stopping to have a look, being curious about what you’re doing,” he said.

 

“It’s sort of our office. But people fly from around the world to spend hours watching us, and hours even before you arrive, to wait to watch you. It becomes a bit little like street theatre. It’s another level of performance anxiety. It’s very hard to focus on your day job, which is to concentrate on your director and the camera set-up and your fellow artists.”

 

Must say, I'm just as glad that nobody considers software engineering a spectator sport!

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Just ran across a photo of the crowd of fans that day (May 21st), or as many as would fit in one shot (2/3, maybe?), which I found posted here (thanks, Claire!).  If you look toward the right edge of the photo, at the right edge of the dark archway, you'll see in the top row of heads a blue hat and a red hat side-by-side -- that's me and Alex, respectively!

 

 

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

That is so very cool, Carol and Alex! Good for you.

[Carol the Dabbler]

Also, remember the bench that was in the truck the day before the North Gower shoot?  In addition to figuring in the goofy shot I included in that post, I just found a snippet of the actual scene it was used in (otherwise known as what Cumberbatch and Freeman were doing in St. James's Park during the morning, while all of us in the photo above were freezing our noses off on North Gower).

 

Here's a link to a fan-filmed video of that snippet.  The dialog is virtually inaudible, but apparently one of them fluffs a line, and they both break up.  Probably as close as you'll ever come to seeing a Sherlock blooper reel!  (And I do not consider the video to be any kind of a spoiler.)

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

he dialog is virtually inaudible, but apparently one of them fluffs a line, and they both break up.  Probably as close as you'll ever come to seeing a Sherlock blooper reel!

 

  They both seem to have a great sense of humor it's nice seeing them laugh. I keep hoping for a blooper reel though, pipe dream that it may be.

[Carol the Dabbler]

As I understand it, actors are generally uncomfortable knowing that their mistakes are being collected for public viewing -- it makes them tense up, so they can't do their best work.  Much as I enjoy watching blooper reels, I can certainly understand that objection.  (I sure as heck wouldn't want anyone publishing the bugs in my computer code!)

 

However, having seen bloopers from a couple of productions that Martin Freeman has been in (The Office and The Robinsons), I will admit that I would dearly love to see some Sherlock bloopers.  Once Freeman realizes that he's losing it, he doesn't try to fight the inevitable the way a lot of actors do, he just sort of melts laughing, which I find utterly delightful.

 

By the way, here's another case where you can probably blame Star Trek.  To the best of my knowledge, blooper reels were popularized by producer Gene Roddenberry (much to the actors' collective chagrin).  The original reel had been collected only for private viewing at a cast party, but Mr. Roddenberry (not being an actor himself) did not understand why he shouldn't share it with the fans during his public-speaking engagements, where of course it became hugely popular.

 

[Bakerstreet Irregular]

 

As I understand it, actors are generally uncomfortable knowing that their mistakes are being collected for public viewing -- it makes them tense up, so they can't do their best work.

 

  I can truly understand that feeling more self conscience knowing cameras are around. So I can understand if they never make a blooper reel but at least we do have these little snippets to watch every once awhile.

[Pamela]

Carol:  Wow, this has been great!  Thank you so much for sharing this with us!