Phoenix
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Anybody watching this show? Just started S3 recently...I am trying to catch up on S1 and S2.... anyway, I saw the s2 final episode just yesterday, and that Clone Dance Party was totally amazing. The girl that is playing all the clones, Tatiana Maslany, wow, what an actress she is. I binge watched as many S1 shows as I could just days before the S3 premiere, not realizing that they wouldn't be available once the new season started... I made it halfway through S1, enough to figure out what the show was about anyway.
This is not the same view of the dance as shown in the actual episode, and it's not even the same music...but it's pretty cool, as it expands to include all the crew...
http://www.blastr.com/2015-4-16/dyad-dance-parties-oral-history-orphan-blacks-season-2-finale
From Dyad to dance parties: An oral history of Orphan Black's Season 2 finale
Tara Bennett
Thursday, April 16, 2015 - 1:23pm
With the third season of BBC America's Orphan Black right on our doorstep (April 18, 9/8C), Blastr decided to take a look back at the stellar second season finale episode, "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried," from the perspective of its creative team. Knowing full well that co-creators John Fawcett and Graeme Manson embed a plethora of foreshadowing and easter eggs (both visually and verbally) into all of their Orphan Black scripts, we figured the best way to prepare for season three would be to dissect the important scenes featured in the second season finale, get insider intel on some things we might have missed that are important to the ongoing narrative, and just find out what the team's favorite moments were.
As a brief episode refresher (SPOILER ALERT for those who may not be fully caught up), the second season finale finds clone Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) ready to sacrifice herself so she can get back her daughter, Kira (Skyler Wexler), from the clutches of her sister clone and Dyad director, Rachel (Maslany). From inside Dyad, clone Cosima's (Maslany) health is continuing to fail, but she works her own tricks to protect Sarah, Kira and her lover, Dr. DelphineCormier (Evelyne Brochu). By episode's end, it's revealed to Sarah that there's a whole other level of secret cloning that's been going on when she is shockingly introduced to Rudy (Ari Miller), an alpha male clone, who is brother to Prolethean Mark Miller, and who is part of the previously unknown Project Castor.
.
.
.
.
.
(moving on to the dance party part)
In a first for the series, clone sisters Sarah, Helena, Alison and Cosima end up together in Felix's (Jordan Gavaris) apartment with Kira. In a moment of peace, they spontaneously break out into a dance party that reflects their individuality and the family bond they share.
Manson: Emotionally, I think you really needed to see that sisterhood, and technical limitations prevent us from doing that too often. Putting them together in the same room -- not on the phone, not on Skype and not in separate scenes -- was a goal that we had. There was a card that said "four clone dance party" up on the board from almost day one. I really liked the idea and thought it would probably be in the finale. Dancing says it all. If you're dancing with your sisters, that says it all. [Laughs]
But my secret reason [for the scene] was that I wanted to see the Cosima dance on screen. [Laughs] It wasn't hard to sell Tat. Of course, she would love the physicality of how do all these people, where she lives in their bodies, how do they dance? It would obviously be really fun for the audience. It would be a super technical challenge for John to figure out, which he loved. And there was Felix and Kira in there, too.
Fawcett: We had never put the four girls together in the same room. As a production, we had never tried to tackle that, technically, before, so that was the biggest thing. What do we need time-wise? What do we need rehearsal-wise? What do we need gear-wise? There was a lot of planning involved doing a four-clone scene.
Manson: We shot it during the end of the finale episode. We counted on support from our networks to be able to do it. We had to get an extra day, and I had to go and pitch, and they both gave us their support, which was pretty great.
Fawcett: For me, it was, technically, how do we pull this off? I worked very closely with our visual-effects guys. It took us two days to shoot those sequences. On the first day, we did Cosima and Alison and established all of the blocking. It was a long first day doing two scenes with Sarah and Helena coming in and the dance party aspects with both characters, with all the coverage using our Techo-dollies and motion control camera. On the second day, we picked up where we left off and did Helena first and ended with Sarah. We also had Skylar (Kira) in there with the first clone scene with Helena. And whenever you schedule her, she is a minor, so she can't be on set more than eight hours, and I only have six production hours because she has to be tutored. It was a big head-scratcher.
Jordan Gavaris (Felix Dawkins): It was truly special. To do it without it seeming contrived or dishonest in some way, it felt completely honest. It made sense to us even while we were shooting it. If you really break it down, it's this arbitrary two-minute dance party in the middle of a television episode, but it made sense. I feel like the audience at home never questioned the honesty or authenticity of it. It made perfect sense. But it was a nightmare to shoot! [Laughs]
Manson: With Felix, I rarely give direction, but I told Jordan how to dance. In that season-one episode, I told Jordan he had to watch Quadrophenia and dance like Sting, so that's where he got his dance. [Laughs]
Doyle Kennedy: What has surprised me most, I suppose, is watching the other characters develop and how much I really care about them. When I watched the clone dance scene, I cried. I was on my own watching it, and I cried, I was so deeply moved [edit: I bolded this because I wanted to add that the scene touched me in just the same exact way, and I was very surprised as well!! - Phoenix]. Watching Felix interact with them and all of the sisters and their mad little dance movements that were all so different. It's so powerful and deeply loving how they found each other and are trying to connect without words. There are no words. It's just about moving and being in the same space together, it's a really incredible thing to pull off. I thought it was a truly beautiful thing.
Brochu: For me, season two was the first time I got to meet the other clones. I just knew Cosima. But in [meeting] Rachel, just saying good morning was a whole different thing. Not being in this scene and watching is the epitome of seeing how fearless, and talented and amazing and spontaneous and fast [Tat is]. Every character has its own soul and it has nothing to do with mannerisms. It's how the same cells can vibrate differently. They all have lives and backstories that are present in every breath and move. Then you realize it's all creative work this woman brings to the screen every day for six months. The epitome of that is that scene, and it's mental.
This is not the same view of the dance as shown in the actual episode, and it's not even the same music...but it's pretty cool, as it expands to include all the crew...
http://www.blastr.com/2015-4-16/dyad-dance-parties-oral-history-orphan-blacks-season-2-finale
From Dyad to dance parties: An oral history of Orphan Black's Season 2 finale
Tara Bennett
Thursday, April 16, 2015 - 1:23pm
With the third season of BBC America's Orphan Black right on our doorstep (April 18, 9/8C), Blastr decided to take a look back at the stellar second season finale episode, "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried," from the perspective of its creative team. Knowing full well that co-creators John Fawcett and Graeme Manson embed a plethora of foreshadowing and easter eggs (both visually and verbally) into all of their Orphan Black scripts, we figured the best way to prepare for season three would be to dissect the important scenes featured in the second season finale, get insider intel on some things we might have missed that are important to the ongoing narrative, and just find out what the team's favorite moments were.
As a brief episode refresher (SPOILER ALERT for those who may not be fully caught up), the second season finale finds clone Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany) ready to sacrifice herself so she can get back her daughter, Kira (Skyler Wexler), from the clutches of her sister clone and Dyad director, Rachel (Maslany). From inside Dyad, clone Cosima's (Maslany) health is continuing to fail, but she works her own tricks to protect Sarah, Kira and her lover, Dr. DelphineCormier (Evelyne Brochu). By episode's end, it's revealed to Sarah that there's a whole other level of secret cloning that's been going on when she is shockingly introduced to Rudy (Ari Miller), an alpha male clone, who is brother to Prolethean Mark Miller, and who is part of the previously unknown Project Castor.
.
.
.
.
.
(moving on to the dance party part)
In a first for the series, clone sisters Sarah, Helena, Alison and Cosima end up together in Felix's (Jordan Gavaris) apartment with Kira. In a moment of peace, they spontaneously break out into a dance party that reflects their individuality and the family bond they share.
Manson: Emotionally, I think you really needed to see that sisterhood, and technical limitations prevent us from doing that too often. Putting them together in the same room -- not on the phone, not on Skype and not in separate scenes -- was a goal that we had. There was a card that said "four clone dance party" up on the board from almost day one. I really liked the idea and thought it would probably be in the finale. Dancing says it all. If you're dancing with your sisters, that says it all. [Laughs]
But my secret reason [for the scene] was that I wanted to see the Cosima dance on screen. [Laughs] It wasn't hard to sell Tat. Of course, she would love the physicality of how do all these people, where she lives in their bodies, how do they dance? It would obviously be really fun for the audience. It would be a super technical challenge for John to figure out, which he loved. And there was Felix and Kira in there, too.
Fawcett: We had never put the four girls together in the same room. As a production, we had never tried to tackle that, technically, before, so that was the biggest thing. What do we need time-wise? What do we need rehearsal-wise? What do we need gear-wise? There was a lot of planning involved doing a four-clone scene.
Manson: We shot it during the end of the finale episode. We counted on support from our networks to be able to do it. We had to get an extra day, and I had to go and pitch, and they both gave us their support, which was pretty great.
Fawcett: For me, it was, technically, how do we pull this off? I worked very closely with our visual-effects guys. It took us two days to shoot those sequences. On the first day, we did Cosima and Alison and established all of the blocking. It was a long first day doing two scenes with Sarah and Helena coming in and the dance party aspects with both characters, with all the coverage using our Techo-dollies and motion control camera. On the second day, we picked up where we left off and did Helena first and ended with Sarah. We also had Skylar (Kira) in there with the first clone scene with Helena. And whenever you schedule her, she is a minor, so she can't be on set more than eight hours, and I only have six production hours because she has to be tutored. It was a big head-scratcher.
Jordan Gavaris (Felix Dawkins): It was truly special. To do it without it seeming contrived or dishonest in some way, it felt completely honest. It made sense to us even while we were shooting it. If you really break it down, it's this arbitrary two-minute dance party in the middle of a television episode, but it made sense. I feel like the audience at home never questioned the honesty or authenticity of it. It made perfect sense. But it was a nightmare to shoot! [Laughs]
Manson: With Felix, I rarely give direction, but I told Jordan how to dance. In that season-one episode, I told Jordan he had to watch Quadrophenia and dance like Sting, so that's where he got his dance. [Laughs]
Doyle Kennedy: What has surprised me most, I suppose, is watching the other characters develop and how much I really care about them. When I watched the clone dance scene, I cried. I was on my own watching it, and I cried, I was so deeply moved [edit: I bolded this because I wanted to add that the scene touched me in just the same exact way, and I was very surprised as well!! - Phoenix]. Watching Felix interact with them and all of the sisters and their mad little dance movements that were all so different. It's so powerful and deeply loving how they found each other and are trying to connect without words. There are no words. It's just about moving and being in the same space together, it's a really incredible thing to pull off. I thought it was a truly beautiful thing.
Brochu: For me, season two was the first time I got to meet the other clones. I just knew Cosima. But in [meeting] Rachel, just saying good morning was a whole different thing. Not being in this scene and watching is the epitome of seeing how fearless, and talented and amazing and spontaneous and fast [Tat is]. Every character has its own soul and it has nothing to do with mannerisms. It's how the same cells can vibrate differently. They all have lives and backstories that are present in every breath and move. Then you realize it's all creative work this woman brings to the screen every day for six months. The epitome of that is that scene, and it's mental.
