10 CLEVER OUTLANDER S3 'SEIZING THE MOMENT' MOMENTS! *SPOILERS*

Whether you agree with how the Outlander novels have been adapted to the show, you have to give Starz and director Ron Moore credit for adapting to The Moment. Translating a scene from page to screen is difficult at best, but being creative and spontaneous has helped Moore and company make their vision/version an 'on-budget' reality that entertains. No small feat.

Here are 10 'Seizing The Moment' moments that are clever and worthy of tipping of our hats: as always, click pic to enlarge

1) Sam's Obsession With Pokémon Go.

Original footage

CGI removed SmartPhone for final cut

It is well known on set that actor Sam Heughan has an almost debilitating need to play Pokémon Go. So, when it came time to shoot the fight scene with Tobias Menzies (Black Jack Randall), Moore secretly directed Tobias grabbed Sam's SmartPhone and slide it in his belt, taunting Sam with never intending to give it back. The results of this masterstroke of genius will be seen on the screen by all, very soon

2) The Outlander Crew Parties are Legend. And on Film...sorta.

If you look closely at this shot of Claire walking through the battlefield, you will see she has actually been added in with CGI technology. The infamous cast and crew PTYP parties(Party Till You Puke) made a cost efficient battlefield scene for Moore as he simply waited until nightfall after a long days shooting, and filmed the crew passed out all over the field behind the trailers where they live while working. As they habitually dress up in Outlander costumes while drinking (everyone wants to wear a kilt), Moore didn't have to worry about the 'bodies' looking out of their era.

Anyone found asleep in their chairs were gently placed in a supine or prone position on the ground and all bottles were carefully replaced with a soft, fake sword. (*early use of real swords proved rather dangerous and resulted in too many cut lips)

3) Outlander Book Fans Never Clean Their Houses.

In scene like the one above with Bree and Roger wading through a messy pile of junk and old Must Keeps, Starz saves on location fees and set design by running contests for fans with the messiest homes, wherein the winner gets to have their room made into a set for the day/week for filming. Book fans (and many show fans who re-watch episodes every day on a loop for hours on end) are famous for not having time to both do housecleaning AND being an Outlander fan, so they can now try and be a part of Outlander history.

If you want to enter the 'HOUSEKEEPING SUCKS SASSENACH!' contests, call toll free, Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. here: 1-800-JAMIE-AWAITS


4) Ron Moore Based Much of Season 3 on 'Scottish Ninjas'.

It's his favorite cartoon. Nuff said.


5) Tobias Hates Fruit. (except one: see why here: peaches #8)

Pre CGI manipulation

Post CGI manipulation

When an unsuspecting extra brought Tobias a fruit bowl at break, Moore caught Tobias' furious reaction and used CGI technology to remove the fruit for the gloriously explosive  scene.

No extras and only one apple was hurt during this scene.


6) Professional Make-up Artists are Very Expensive, So They are Not Hired.

Wherever battle/crowd filming is taking place, ads are placed in local papers asking for artists and fans with painting/make-up skills to apply for the chance to 'Paint Sam' (or Paint Graham, or Paint Tobias, etc...as is needed). Typically, there are between 80 to 3380 applicants, depending on the size of the village/town/city on or near the shooting location. Only three are hired per location and they only have to pay Starz $20.00 per hour each for the privilege (note: painting Sam costs the lucky artist $20.00 per hour but is less as one goes down the cast list, $2.50 being the lowest for painting anonymous clansmen. *FACT: nobody is allowed to paint Tobias as Black Jack, after one woman tried to stab him in the eye with a eyebrow pencil. He does his own make up now.

7) Hate Can Be Profitable. And Pretty.

To ease the escalating cost of production, there is a new line of 'OUTLANDER FUCK THEM JEWELRY out for passionate fans:

There is an extra large batch of Fuck Leghair necklaces being made to accommodate the expected influx of orders from the awesome Outlander Series group I am admin of on FaceBook (come join us...click here). We do hate us some Leghair...

8) Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words, and Perhaps Millions of Dollars.

I am NOT saying this was leaked from a safe at Starz headquarters.

I am NOT saying Raymond Einstein is real.

I am NOT saying Diana actually wrote a non-fiction.

I am NOT saying that this could be Top Secret info that could get me in trouble.

I ain't sayin' shit.

9) Learning Gaelic by Osmosis

It is a proven fact that babies can learn a language by simply being around it for large periods of time, so, as a bonus to any paid worker on the Outlander sets, their babies (newborn to 9 months) are allowed to sit in their prams (as seen here in a season 3 still in Glasgow, Scotland) and soak in the language...literally.

To date, no less than 7 OB (Outlander Babies) are fluent in Gaelic after 2 seasons worth of on-set live Gaelic osmosis. However, 1 wee lad cannot speak any English at all now, so he is being planted on the set of Game of Thrones.

10) Time Travel stories can Have Awfully Flexible TimeLines and Potential for OffShoot Stories. #sponsormoney

Caitriona Balfe is a good actress with a face and temperament made for adventure. Why not take advantage of it? These pictures are the newly released 'prequels' to Outlander called 'BEFORE JAMIE: Claire's Adventures Before She Finally Hit Scotland'. They are 15 minute segments that will be seen just after The Skyboat Song and just before the episode of the hour. These are a few of them...

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*PLEASE NOTE: if you are a human living on earth, you should know that this entire blog piece is untrue. Just having fun...ha ha. If you are an invading alien with one or more laser-type weapons, then this piece is still untrue, except the Time Traveling part. That part is true and you will not find me, so stop looking. I am not hiding. I am long goooooooooone...

A CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE ORANGE KIND

Something happened recently that requires purging and sharing, so purge and share I shall do...

Most mornings, after dropping our daughter off at school, I drive to Point Holmes, our local car park/ocean walk/boat launch area which is a quick 2 minutes from the school. I just sit and relax for 10-15 minutes, watching the seagulls fly around, and boats putter about the lovely expanse of emerald waters of The Georgia Strait. It's a great way to fill the lungs with salty fresh air and expel the groggy demons of the night...and start the day right.

Point Holmes beach is quite long, stretching on for miles, and the parking or sitting areas spread along the shoreline give ample room for private moments, with a wide open berth conducive to not getting in anyone's face or invading their bubble, so to speak.

We ocean-ooglers and salt-air suckers like our space.

This particular day, it was a tad windy outside and I decided to find a good angle to park facing the ocean, stay in my little car and just roll down the window. The beach was completely dead and there wasn't a soul around, land or sea (which was very unusual), so I chose a perfect position and cut the motor. The rising sun was gorgeous but bright, so I lay my head back, closed my eyes and took a deep breath, trying to convince myself that the sharp tang of rotting fish and seaweed that sometimes rolled off the tide was actually quite ...um...'invigorating'. Like a nasal mud bath.

It was after a few solitary moments of peace that I heard the crunch of wheels on gravel. A vehicle was pulling in close to me on the passenger side, and parking. Ah well, I thought ...no harm done...there are always a few people out jogging, seeking calm or Tim Hortoning around this place. Out of curiosity, I cracked open an eye and lazily peeked over to see who else was sharing my prime view.

Imagine my initial surprise when I noticed that the car that had parked next to me had REALLY parked next to me. It was only two hand spans away. It was a wonder it hadn't scraped my door. I closed my eye and thought about that for a second. Then I opened both eyes and took a better look.

Now imagine my next surprise when I realized that the car next to me was orange, the same color as my wee Tigger (we always name our cars...makes them family) and not a common color on the roads around our little town. It looked to be close to the same make and model as well (ours is a KiaRio5), small, compact, new-ish and 4 door. It wasn't exactly the same, but very close. Hmmm...

I turned to look back at the water again, my mind humming with a 'this is so weird' sensation; but not quite an alert. I scanned the parking area and beach again and nope...nobody around. Just two small co-joined twin orange cars. How funny this would look to a passerby, I thought with a half-smile.

 Then my smile faded as my Spidey-senses started to tingle.

I was alone, on a lonely beach with a stranger parking up my ass in a copy-cat car. They had popped my bubble! Were they just sociable and needed to be 'near' someone? Did they think they had to park in some particular order? Had someone been following my habits and plan this to freak me out...or worse? The latter seemed crazy even to me. Who would buy a orange car just to play a joke or kidnap me? Neither option was profitable. My imagination was on over-drive and I needed to take it down a notch.

After half a minute, I decided to get a good look at the driver and see if the natives were hostile. A friendly wave or a kind smile would surely put me at ease and I could lay back and continue my daydream about wild jungle sex with Sean Bean (dressed as Boromir from Lord of The Rings, of course) which is how I usually like to start my day. I bent over and took a quick gander to the right, hoping I wouldn't embarrass him/her or myself by looking snoopy or psychotic.

The driver was alone, sitting ramrod straight in her seat and staring unblinkingly straight ahead at the ocean. She looked middle-aged and had short gray hair and wore a black top. I sat back quickly and swallowed hard.

I have short gray hair and was wearing my favorite black top. And I hate to admit it, but I too am considered middle aged. And I was aging quicker by the second!

Holy shit! That was beyond weird! My Spidey-senses were on full alert now and bells were ringing in my ears! I tried not to panic and thought to myself that coincidences happened all the time (and more often that not to me, especially, come to think of it) so best not to get so carried away. Maybe I should pop out and knock on her window and share the amazing coincidence of it all. It would make a good story for us both to share with friends!

But my heart started to thump and scream like a crowd at a bullfight and my 6th sense gave me a sharp bird-kick to the forehead: HELLO? Aren't you supposed to trust me? Same car; same hair; same clothes; same ocean.  POPPED BUBBLE!!!

I decided to check her out one more time and see if she made eye contact. It was just a woman in a car for God's sake. I was being ridiculously paranoid. I had been so careful making the initial peek look nonchalant and casual, I didn't remember many details, so I made a bargain with myself: if she looked friendly, I would be mature and stay put to enjoy the rest of my respite. If there was anything else 'Denise' about her, then bye-bye.

Nervously, I re-adjusted my gold rimmed glasses and turned to take a bold Kodak look at the woman next to me and lo and behold...the straw that broke the camel's back hit me straight in the face: she was wearing glasses. Were they gold-rimmed? My eyes froze in their sockets so I don't recall.

I don't know about you, but I don't need to be hit with a baseball bat  to take a hint. Heart firmly stuck in my throat, I smoothly turned to my ignition, switched it on, backed up gently and got the Hell out of there as fast as humanly possible without laying rubber or giving Tigger a heart attack. I checked my rear view mirror all the way home and sat in my driveway completely unhinged for about 10 minutes before I could get out and go in the house. What in all that is Holy was that all about? A coincidence bordering on insanity...like getting struck by lightning twice or buying winning million dollar lottery tickets 3 times in a row? (*or nobody discovering that Tori Spelling and Dennis Rodman are actually twins separated at birth?). Was there a Mother Ship hovering somewhere watching to see if their bait was going to catch any curious and STUPID humans? Makes one wonder...

Over-reaction? Perhaps. Immature? Maybe. Twilight Zone/Freaky Friday-like. Absolutely. What would YOU have done?

Personally, I'm just happy I didn't bespoil myself and ruin a good pair of pants. However, that might have convinced the aliens that I wasn't much of a catch after all and they'd have tossed me back....