Defying Legend

General Information

2010-11-16T22:14:00.003Z

Hello Legend Fans,

It's Ellie here - no, don't keel over in shock just yet. I'm still having trouble with the video uploads, and I'm aware that some (well, all) of them are shockingly overdue. I do apologise and will try to fix my technical problems as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, however, Betty and I are hard at work (well, we're having an informal discussion, but hey, this is an amateur project) sorting out our plans for next summer. And we do have plans!

Anyway, that's all I really wanted to say - thank you to everyone who's still reading this blog after such long periods of inactivity - life has been getting in the way a little but we shall eventually triumph and start spamming your screens with cool stuff once again!

- Ellie

Return to Camelot

2010-09-08T20:41:00.006+01:00

Hello Legend fans!

Bethan here again. You're probably getting sick of me by now haha. Elle isn't dead I swear, she's just handing our video uploads at the moment.

In April this year I was lucky enough to go back to Pierrefonds for a couple of days. I was excited to be back and even more excited to find out that this time the cast were definitely there filming!
Unfortunately, Elle couldn’t make it but I took a lot of photos of the cast (and the stunning castle) and I did film a video diary. However, I haven’t gotten around to uploading it yet *cough*.

15th April

We got to Pierrefonds around 2pm and went straight up to the castle (via the hill which nearly killed us). We went to get our tickets to get in and after a botched attempt at French, the woman at the gift shop worked out that we were English and there for Merlin. Fair to say, my friend Lizzie understood a lot more of what was said to us than I did XD
So we went in with much excitement and squeeing and first thing we saw were a load of knights...and Bradley and Rupurt! Yay!
We met up and chatted with a load of fans including the lovely Julie who runs Merlinlocations and her friend.

We wondered round the castle for a bit and got some stealthy pics of the cast (and got told off for climbing over a wall *cough*). Lizzie was a lot better at that then I was.
Filming was taking place in the crypt and in the area with the gryffin statue (yeah, I know the technical terms XD). Not sure what was going on but there was a lot of "Huzzah/hurrah!" going on.
We all got kicked out at 5.30 when the castle shut so we met my Dad and went to our hotel.

16th April

We went back to the castle for it opening at 10am and had a wonder around the areas which weren't open before. I then found the postcard that was left for me after much rummaging around! Didn't get a pic, but I did film me finding it which I'll piece together later on.

We Went and had lunch and went back for just before 2 where we met Julie and the gang again. Watched the knights with their horses for a bit and waited outside to be let back in (the castle closes for an hour at lunch).
When were let back into the castle itself Bradley, Colin, Katie, knights and horses were in the courtyard. We were allowed to stand there while they filmed a scene as long as we were quiet and didn't move. The filming was really fascinating to watch- especially watching the cast slip in and out of character.

We saw the same scene repeated a few times and then they had a break and we managed to move into the sun and watch them film a close up of Merlin and Arthur's conversation. Then the boys left and had a costume change and returned to film what I can only assume was part of episode 2, although it was just Merlin and Arthur wondering up and down the walkway. Still, facinating to watch, and we got a good spot sat in a door way in the sun with a good view of the filming.

We got kicked out at closing time again but we found Sir Leon and the gang on horseback on the hill infront of the entrance filming a scene. We got a wave from them and then as we were leaving, Rupert gave a small boy infront of me a wave. Said small child ignored him but I didn't and waved enthusiastically back.

Unfortunately, I didn't meet any of the cast to talk to aside from "hello" to Tony, but to be honest I can't bring myself to mind too much. I know they were all working and that it wasn't like Expo, they weren't there to see us. It was a privilege to watch them work and I couldn't have asked for more :D

Once again, massive thanks to the lovely cast and crew for letting us fangirls hang around, take pictures and generally stare at them while they work. It must be a bit unnerving at times but they're all so nice about it ♥ Also apologies to the Pierrefonds staff for climbing on your walls and for having such terrible french ^^; They all really do have such patience with all the fans, much love to everyone there.

As usual, more pictures can be found at my Flickr account. Here are pictures of the castle and here are photos from the filming.

Merlinlocations

2010-09-06T00:00:00.002+01:00

Heya Legend fans

Bethan here and I'm just going to take a moment to promote a pretty awesome website that we're fortunate enough to contribute to.

What is Merlinlocations?
Merlinlocations.com is a website dedicated to the locations used in BBC’s Merlin. From the Chateau de Pierrefonds right down to Abergavenny train station, the aim of the community is to share information about and images of the locations used in the show. We hope to help you visit them either virtually or actually :D

Reccently we’ve also started providing information on locations that are linked to Arthurian Legend and you’ll also find information on the places Bradley and Colin visited in The Real Merlin and Arthur. We love the boys in all their incarnations.

So what does the Flickr group do?
The Merlinlocations flickr group enables anyone who has been to the locations to upload and share the pictures from their adventures.

At the moment the group currently includes over 600 photos of locations including Pierrefonds, the Forest of Dean, Puzzlewood, Dunraven bay and Arthurian locations such as Glastonbury, Camlann and Stonehenge.

That’s a lot of images. How do you keep track?
When people submit their photos to the group we ask that they simply tag them with the location name. You can also choose to add additional tags such as "Behind the scenes" for filming shots and individual tags for each cast member if it’s a photo from the set.

We’ve also started to use flickr’s unique geotagging system which allows the user to mark exactly where the photo was taken on a map. This is especially useful because it allows users to look and see if there is a location close to where they live, and when you click on the pink marker it brings up all images taken in that location.

That sounds great! How can I get involved?
If you’ve already got a flickr account all you need to do is upload the snaps of your location and join the group. Once you’ve done that, simply click "Add something" and your photo will be added to the group pool. The great thing about flickr is that it will still have your username attached to the photo so you don’t have to worry about someone claiming it as their own or not knowing who to credit it to if they wish to use it in graphics. You can always ask your mods, Julie and Bethan, for help if you need it!

You’re also very welcome to join us over at the LiveJournal Community where you can post a report of your adventures and read what other cans get up to. Around the time of filming in Pierrefonds you may well find someone to travel with if you want to visit to the Chateau. We’re also here to help if you need advice on where to stay, how best to reach a location and offer suggestions on what’s best to see.

Defying Legend: The photos

2010-08-21T20:15:00.008+01:00

Hey Legend fans! Bethan here bringing you a long overdue update.

You may have heard Ellie refer to me in a few of our videos as "photo girl". It's fair to say I spend a lot of our adventures snapping pictures and I realised the other day that I've never actually shared them with you.

Needless to say if I uploaded them here it would take a lot of time and it would probably break all our computers :P I have a flickr account which I upload the majority of the pictures to and hopefully with a bit of jiggery pokery, I'll be able to share the links to the sets here.

Ah, here we go! Click the images below to be taken to the relevant flickr collection.

MCM Expo: 23rd May 09

Winchester Great Hall: 23rd June 09 & 19th July 10

Glastonbury Abbey: 30th July 09

Jousting at Arundel Castle: 2nd August 09 and 28th July 10

Chateau de Pierrefonds: 31st August 09

Dunraven Bay: 30th October 09

Keep an eye out for a couple of new reports coming up soon, and in two weeks we'll be returning to BFI Southbank for the preview of Merlin Series 3. Can you believe a year has gone so fast?

Enjoy!

Bethan

A Quick Update

2010-04-14T12:18:00.004+01:00

Hello Legend fans,

Elle here - first off, I know we've been quiet for a while. That's because I've been having some editing problems and I have a lot of videos to sort out! Fortunately these problems are now fixed (touch wood) so those should be up soon.

Also, we'd love to hear from you - to this end, we have just acquired a formspring account. If you've got a burning question you'd like to ask us, fire away!

More soon, legend fans!

-Elle

Dunraven Bay

2010-01-12T16:03:00.005Z

Hello Legend fans!

First off, Happy New Year! We hope you all have a happy and healthy 2010. This year we have to plan our trips around our term dates at University, but keep your eyes peeled! There's a big adventure in the works for around Easter.

Now, on to a report.
In October last year I went down to Swansea to visit Ellie at University. On the way back we (mum and I) took a detour to Dunraven Bay. It's located on the coast of Wales near the village of Southerndown, south of Bridgend. It is part of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast.
It's better known as "Bad Wolf Bay" from the new series of Doctor Who and it was also used in the Merlin episode "The Labyrinth of Gedref".

It was a solo mission and I only just remembered to do a report. Had to run back up the beach to the car park to get it out of my suitcase haha.

Anyway, enjoy!

Bethan

Ps. If you'd like some more information on Dunraven Bay, check out the website http://merlinlocations.com/

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T23:47:00.002Z

Hello Legend fans!

Just popping by to wish you a Merry Christmas/ Happy Holidays/ Happy Yule/ Whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year :)

Things have gone a bit quiet on the video front due to software issues on Elle's side plus the two of us being bogged down with uni work. We do have a video from Dunraven Bay (Better known as "Bad Wolf Bay" in Doctor Who) to upload as well as a better quality version of our BFI vid (yeah we have no idea what youtube did to the quality there) and a mini VD from the October MCM Expo.

Anyway, we hope you all have a brilliant 25th and that you get everything you could possibly want (and don't try and suffocate your relatives using brussel sprouts ;D).

Have a good one!

Love
Bethan and Elle
xx

Merlin Preview, London

2009-10-09T23:15:00.003+01:00

Hey, Legend fans!
When we heard they had tickets going for ordinary people like ourselves to go and see the first episode of Merlin series 2 almost TWO WEEKS before anyone else, we were there faster than a greased… extremely fast thing. Anyway, we couldn’t film inside the BFI, but everyone thoroughly enjoyed the freebies being handed out in the foyer, the quiz in the auditorium (Betty won a signed book!) and above all the episode itself. The episode just isn’t the same without the audience response and Bradley’s reaction to said response. Anyone who was there will tell you that at the end of a certain scene, there is MEANT TO BE an ‘awww’ followed by ‘Oh, he deserved it!’. It’s destiny.
The Q & A session was really good too – writing this more than a month later, I can’t possibly tell you what was said with any degree of accuracy, but there are plenty of accounts on the internet.
Anyway, this is our video of the day we spent in London – there are a couple of faces even more famous than ours (hard to believe, I know) towards the end so keep ‘em peeled, Legend fans!
- Elle
PS: Thanks also to our guest star, Louise!

edit: Sorry Legend fans, something happened to the quality of the video when we uploaded it to youtube :S We'll post a better link to it as soon as we have one
~ Bethan

Edit II: The video report is still giving us problems, so for now have a written report yoinked from our LiveJournal and written on the day.

Barely a week after Pierrefonds, we headed to London for the Merlin Series 2 Preview at the BFI Southbank. We were very excited about not only seeing the new episode, but seeing it with fellow fans (not to mention the fact that the cast were going to be viewing it with us).

6th September 2009

Soo me and Ellie went from Brighton and went to Clapham Junciton and then to London Waterloo. Small hilarity when the train told us we were approaching the staion we'd just been at, and then it said it was going to Guildford. We hopped off, realised it was going to Waterloo after all and hopped back on another carriage.

Got to BFI and got tickets then went to grab a giant brick sized brownie from the market. Headed to the Hole in the Wall pub to the Merlin meet, only to chicken out, run back to BFI and grab a burger and sit on the grass by the Eye.

Went in around two and marvelled at all the free goodies. Got a poster and a postcard, then the woman was like
"You can have one free book each", cue me grabbing the one with Merlin on and Ellie grabbing the one with Arthur on. We then loitered some more and then met some lovely girls off of LJ who we chatted to for a while and then went to our seats.

ANYWAY THEN THE CAST CAME IN AND OH MY GOD I HAD HEART FAILURE AND PUNCHED ELLIE A FEW TIMES, SORRY D: The whole cinema went quiet and then a couple of people from BFI came in and started giving away books which had been signed by all the cast. It was for kids really so I ignored it...until they asked the name of the druid boy that Morgana helped escape from Camelot, so I stuck my hand up thinking "Oh, what the hell. They won't pick me anyway." Cue woman coming up to me with the mic and me going *AAAH WHAT DO I SAY?* "Mordred" and apparently sounding like Asa LOL. Got the book though, yay!

After we tried hanging outside the room the cast had vanished to but got shunted outside and got talking to another awesome fan (Louise I believe? Hi if you're reading this!), we did a bit of video diarying so Ellie will have the video up once we've sorted through our Pierrefonds footage.

Anthony Head eventually made an appearance, giving Colin and Angel a chance to high tail it out of there before they were pounced on. I don't blame them really. I don't think Colin or Bradley would have left intact if they had come out.
Anyway, I got Anthony's autograph for my mums friend, went on a quick hunt for Colin which proved fruitless, sadly. Again, can't blame them though.
Anyway, came back out and hid near Katie for a bit, eventually got a chance for an autograph and a quick chat.

Guy from BFI who had hosted: These fans are really nice and polite.
Katie: And well dressed *looks at me and Ellie, we squee silently* Hello, I like your badges
Me: Thanks *beams*
Ellie: We were at Expo...dunno if you remember us
Me: I was a TARDIS, she was in a green medival dress
Ellie: I had a big black cloak
Katie: *thinks for a second* Oh yeah I remember you! Nice to see you again
Me: ♥ ♥

Katie never ceases to be amazing.

Then we went back to ASH so Ellie could get an autograph and the awesome shantirosa took a photo of us with him. Thank you so much hun! ♥

Ellie, Anthony Stewart Head and Me

Pierrefonds Trip

2009-09-11T14:29:00.008+01:00

Hello, Legend fans!
Well, I hope you're not the jealous type, because we went on the trip of a Merlin fan's dreams... We visited the Chateau de Pierrefonds, where the series is filmed, on the 31st of August. The following videos detail our journey and what we found at the end of it! (I don't want to spoil the ending, but we found an amazing castle.)
Enjoy!

-Elle.

Since Betty forgot to link her report back here, I suppose I'll have to do it... *grumbles*
-Elle

And here's a quick round-up of what we found out from the lovely man in the International Props t-shirt, whose name we didn't catch...
He told us that there was going to be quite a bit of night-shooting at the castle for the last two episodes, with filming running from 2pm to 2am all that week. By the end of the week (so, Friday the 4th or Sunday 6th?) they had to have episode 12 in the can and from then on they'd be filming episode 13, the big finale of series 2. He also mentioned that he thought this year the scripts were much better and since they had a bigger budget they were spending more on special effects and the like. He also told us that the show would be running from about the 20th (the airdate has since been set as Saturday the 19th) right up to almost Christmas. And he may have mentioned dragons...

Jousting at Arundel Castle

2009-08-13T14:33:00.008+01:00

Hello, Legend fans!
It's Elle again, bringing you the latest video from Defying Legend. Well, actually, I'm just writing the blog post for it, since it seems that when Betty uploaded her video to YouTube, she forgot to update this site. We went to Arundel Castle on the 2nd of August 2009 to watch a joust - we had a great time, so much so that Betty (who was put in charge of the filming for the day) took almost 3/4 of an hour's worth of footage. Here's the first of her three videos on the subject.

Enjoy!

-Elle

Edit:

Hey guys, Bethan here bringing you the 2nd of our Arundel videos. The third one should be uploaded today or tomorrow sometime and posted here around next week. Sorry for the delay, we've been pretty busy.

-Bethan

Edit II:

Part three of the video as promised!

-Bethan

Glastonbury Abbey - 30th July 2009

2009-08-01T10:36:00.006+01:00

Hi Legend Fans,
Looks like I finally get a go on our shiny new blog! So, on the 30th of July we went to Glastonbury and had a good look around all the witchy shops, coming home thoroughly high on incense - but the bit we filmed was Glastonbury Abbey, rumoured to be the last resting place of King Arthur and Guinevere. Here are the videos (or there will be two when Betty gets a move on)! I have to apologise for mine, it's a bit choppy especially towards the beginning, but I was trying to keep in the best ten minutes worth of 18 minutes of film...
B's going to probably edit this entry to death when she sees it (just because it's different! *sniff*) but until then, enjoy the video(s)!
- Elle

Adventures in Sussex

2009-07-31T18:37:00.004+01:00

A couple of filler videos we did from our days out in Worthing/Brighton when we weren't legend hunting. Includes many rides on a Carousel, the beach in the rain and Brighton Pavillion. Enjoy!

- Bethan

Winchester Great Hall- 23rd June 09

2009-07-31T17:53:00.006+01:00

Exactly a month after the MCM Expo, Defying Legend set out on a quest... for the Round Table. On the way, they encountered hordes of barbarians (well, a school trip), the New Religion, and a pretty garden.
For more info on the table and the hall go here http://www.hants.gov.uk/greathall/

Anyway, here's our video diaries. Enjoy!

- Bethan
(description shamelessly nicked from Elle's report :p )

MCM Expo- 23rd May 09

2009-07-31T17:09:00.007+01:00

These were our first proper video diaries. We went to the MCM Expo in London's Excel Center to meet the cast of Merlin and see the pannel. It was our first time filming and our first time ever at a convention and it didn't disappoint. Here our seperate reports from the day. We have volume issues, so you may need to turn up your speakers at some points.

Enjoy!

- Bethan