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Susan Gittins

Longtime mainstream media (MSM) journalist and author Susan Gittins began writing about and photographing Vancouver’s many film and TV location shoots in the summer of 2010 after the Winter Olympics put the city and its beauty on the world stage. Movies and TV series often showcase the Vancouver area in similar fashion. Vancouver is Awesome commissioned her YVRShoots series in the fall of 2010 and it ran regularly for three years. She launched her own daily YVRShoots blog in the spring of 2012.

SHOOT: ROGUE’s Marton Csokas Films at Bentall 5 Tower in Downtown Vancouver

DirecTV’s Rogue has been tough to find filming on location in Vancouver, so it was a pleasant surprise to spot them out in the open on Saturday afternoon at the Bentall 5 tower downtown dressed as Trade Investments. Production has been “hush hush”, one of their productions guys told me last week out at Deer Lake. No kidding. All we really know is that the American satellite network’s first original series stars Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2, Crash) as Grace, a morally-compromised undercover cop in Oakland, who’s cavorting with Marton Csokas’s crime boss, who may have been involved in her son’s death. Now that’s a complicated relationship.

Could Marton Csokas’s crime boss be the tall dressed-in-black mafioso type in the scene below? If so, Csokas (Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland) is virtually unrecognizable with jet black hair, except for his height. Joining him in the walk and talk out of Bentall 5 is BC’s own Frank Cassini. (Blackstone)  I also spotted BC’s own Ian Tracey (DaVinci’s Inquest, Intelligence, Sanctuary) on set but didn’t see him in a scene.

 

Ian Tracey is Detective Lucas “Mitch” Mitchel.

Of course, as often happens, I found Rogue again today filming inside La Terrazza, a Yaletown restaurant at Pacific and Cambie. And this time, Thandie Newton seemed to be on set, but I can’t be sure. Read More »SHOOT: ROGUE’s Marton Csokas Films at Bentall 5 Tower in Downtown Vancouver

CULT’s Stacey Farber Films in Downtown Vancouver’s Victory Square With Fake Palm Tree – Updated

Cult crew had to rent a fake palm tree and sweep up fall leaves in Victory Square today to film a scene set in Santa Monica. Vancouver’s endless summer came to an abrupt halt late last week so it will be tougher and chillier for Cult to fake southern California in the two-plus months left of filming for The CW series expected to air next year.

Cult is about an investigative journalist named Jeff (Matt Davis of The Vampire Diaries) searching for his brother whose disappearance may be linked to the fans of a horror TV series called Cult recreating what they’ve seen on the show. Jeff enlists the help of a production assistant (Jessica Lucas) from the show-within-a-show. “When the line between the imagined and reality is broken” is the meta tagline.

Tech person E.J. (Stacey Farber)

Read More »CULT’s Stacey Farber Films in Downtown Vancouver’s Victory Square With Fake Palm Tree – Updated

WEEK: September 17-23 2012

  • Sunday, September 23rd – Arrow films at Riverview Hosptial in Coquitlam with recurring guest actor John Barrowman on set.
  • Saturday, September 22nd – Rogue’s Marton Csokas films scenes at Bentall 5 tower in downtown Vancouver dressed as Trade Investments.
  • Friday, September 21st – Once Upon a Time filmsd scenes on Moncton Street in the village of Steveston south of Vancouver in a night shoot.
  • Friday, September 21st – Joshua Jackson uses his LUNCH break from Fringe to go introduce his new Canadian film Inescapable at a Vancouver screening.
  • Friday, September 21st – Arrow‘s Stephen Amell does his own running stunt at Queen Consolidated, aka downtown Vancouver tower at West Georgia & Homer, chasing a shooter on a motorcycle.
  • Thursday, September 20th – Fringe‘s Joshua Jackson sits in the red chair for a pre-taped interview about his Canadian film Inescapable on CBC’s George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight.
  • Thursday, September 20th – FOX releases new Fringe poster for fifth and final season featuring Joshua Jackson, Anna Torv and John Noble as resistance fighters against Observer overlords in 2036.
  • Thursday, September 20th – The CW releases new Supernatural season eight teaser of Sam and Dean reunion in unique Winchester way.
  • Thursday, September 20th – Mob series Red Widow films in the Burnaby Youth Detention Centre, possibly in the cells.
  • Thursday, September 20th – Psych films interior scenes at 303 West Pender and 330 West Pender in downtown Vancouver.
  • Thursday, September 20th – Fringe films for second day in seedy Gastown hotel, directed by Jon Cassar.
  • Wednesday, September 19th – Fringe filmsd first day in seedy Gastown hotel, directed by Jon Cassar.
  • Wednesday, September 19th – Rogue films in a house overlooking Deer Lake in Burnaby, on a street so clogged with white work trucks they couldn’t fit in one more.
  • Tuesday, September 18th –  Youngest member of Red Widow mob family does his own stunt at Victory Square downtown.
  • Tuesday, September 18th – Jorge Garcia, who’s been cast as The Giant on Once Upon a Time, spotted walking Read More »WEEK: September 17-23 2012

ARROW’s Stephen Amell Chases Shooter on Motorcycle in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 1×07 – Updated

Arrow’s Stephen Amell is a fast runner. So fast I only got one decent shot of him running up the stairs after a shooter on a motorcycle at Queen Consolidated, aka a tower at the corner of West Georgia and Homer in downtown Vancouver.

Shooter speeding away [UPDATE: a stunt double for Jessica De Gouw as Helena Bertinelli, aka The Huntress]

Read More »ARROW’s Stephen Amell Chases Shooter on Motorcycle in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 1×07 – Updated

SHOOT: Youngest in RED WIDOW’s Mob Family Does Own Stunt at Vancouver’s Victory Square – Updated

Inspired by a popular Dutch TV show, midseason ABC series Red Widow is about a San Francisco mobster’s widow, Marta Walraven, forced to replace her husband as head of a crime syndicate after his murder. She does this to protect her three children, two of whom were on set today at Victory Square in downtown Vancouver. The youngest — Jakob Salvati as Boris Walraven — did an impressive stunt for such a young actor in take after take. A crew member drew a mark in the centre of Hamilton Street where he would walk to with his TV sister — Erin Moriarty as Natalie Walraven — and then stop as a motorcycle turns the corner in front of them. Moriarity keeps walking as Salvati stays put, looking up at the motorcycle as a red car turns the corner next. Moriarity returns and pulls Salvati to the sidewalk as a blue van turns behind them. On the first take, Moriarity pulled a little too hard and ended up dragging Salvati to the sidewalk. He wasn’t hurt and seemed to enjoy himself as they did the scene over and over again with different camera setups.

Read More »SHOOT: Youngest in RED WIDOW’s Mob Family Does Own Stunt at Vancouver’s Victory Square – Updated

SHOOT: METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER Stages Big Riot Scene Near Burrard Station in Downtown Vancouver

Metallica Through the Never (Working Title: CHAOS 3D) is big. A huge production for a concert movie. Crew made more smoke near Burrard Station in downtown Vancouver than thousands of tokers at a 4:20 rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery. And the size of their smoke machines (see below) made TV series Supernatural’s seem puny. All the smoke, lights, artfully constructed debris and overturned vehicles formed a backdrop for a riot scene that will be part of Metallica’s concert movie. The heavy metal band already performed the concert part in Rogers Arena for three nights in a row. Now they’re doing the movie part all over downtown in overnight shoots in Arch Alley near Victory Square, a couple of Burrard intersections and now on Dunsmuir near the Burrard station. Last night’s riot had 400 extras as rioters and riot police, things on fire and riders on horses. The horses — who we’ve seen on screen galloping in Golden Ears Park for Once Upon a Time — seemed a little spooked by the smoke, the noise and all the spectators. I’d hope to see a stunt of a horse dragging a rider through the scene but imagine that was filmed much later on when no one was about. The Metallica movie is expected to wrap sometime Sunday.

Read More »SHOOT: METALLICA THROUGH THE NEVER Stages Big Riot Scene Near Burrard Station in Downtown Vancouver

BIG READ: ARCTIC AIR is our Local Star in CBC’s Fall & Winter Lineup

Published September 13, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

How much does the CBC love Arctic Air? Heaps. At the CBC Upfronts in May, host George Stroumboulopoulos introduced the cast of Arctic Air first in the Prime Time segment, ahead of the Dragon’s Den Dragons. And for good reason. The Vancouver-and-Yellowknife-shot adventure series, starring Adam Beach and Pascale Hutton, averaged just under a million viewers in its first season, making it the most-watched debut season for a CBC drama series in fifteen years.

Arctic Air, which returns for a second season in early 2013, is just one of CBC’s Canadian dramas to look forward to this fall and winter. Long-running 1890s Toronto detective series Murdoch Mysteries, starring Yannick Bisson, relocates to the CBC next Monday, September 17th, airing a repeat of its fifth season before unveiling a new sixth season on the public broadcaster (Bisson joked at the upfront that leaving City-TV for CBC was like the girlfriend who got dumped but married a surgeon). And the rollicking father-and-son private detective series Republic of Doyle, set in picturesque St. John’s, Newfoundland, returns for a fourth season in the new year. It not only stars Newfoundland native Allan Hawco, it is produced and often written by this impressive multi-tasker. Also coming this winter on CBC is a new, present-day Toronto detective series Cracked, starring David Sutcliffe (Rory Gilmore’s Dad) as the police detective and Stefanie von Pfetten as the psychiatrist, who work together in a Psych Crimes Unit.

Read More »BIG READ: ARCTIC AIR is our Local Star in CBC’s Fall & Winter Lineup