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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.

STUNTS: ARROW’s Top 20 Action Moments Countdown

Arrow does have the best fight scenes on TV right now – Ken Tucker, former EW TV critic.

No argument from me. Arrow has my favourite fight scenes and stunts on TV.

Arrow Fight Designer James “Bam Bam” Bamford recently presented a Top 20 Action Moments Countdown in three videos. Absent are any sequences from tonight’s season finale so there is no spoiler alert.

The Top 5 includes my personal favourite- the huge Parkour Sequence with Stephen Amell and stunt double Simon Burnett filmed in Gastown.

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQQ7ke2FuJw&feature=player_embedded” /]

Related: Stephen Amell Jumps to Street, Slides over Cab and Runs Right at Me

Read More »STUNTS: ARROW’s Top 20 Action Moments Countdown

UPFRONT: INTELLIGENCE With Josh Holloway as “The Six Billion Dollar Man” to Air in 2014 on CBS

Update: Production moves to Los Angeles to film the series. Pilot shot in Vancouver.

CBS dubbed its new filmed-in-Vancouver pilot Intelligence “The Six Billion Dollar Man” today, a play on the 1970s hit The Six Million Dollar Man about an American government agent Steve Austin (Lee Majors) with bionic parts. It’s an apt comparison.

Intelligence is about an American government agent Gabriel (Josh Holloway from Lost) with a super-computer microchip in his brain, one that makes him the smartest smart phone ever. Unfortunately this human with an ability to hack into anything is also reckless and unpredictable so the head of the government cyber-security agency Lillian Strand (Marg Helgenberger of CSI) assigns secret service agent Riley Neal (Meghan Ory from Once Upon a Time) to protect him from himself and others. 

Josh Holloway & Meghan Ory Credit: Chris Helcermanas-Benge © 2013 CBS Broadcasting, Inc.

Intelligence filmed its pilot in Vancouver for three weeks this spring. 

Read More »UPFRONT: INTELLIGENCE With Josh Holloway as “The Six Billion Dollar Man” to Air in 2014 on CBS

UPFRONT: ONCE UPON A TIME IN WONDERLAND To Air Thursday Nights on ABC This Fall

Title Card @2013 American Broadcasting Corp.

Are you ready for a trip down the rabbit hole?

In a surprise move, ABC has scheduled the filmed-in-Vancouver Once Upon a Time in Wonderland on Thursday nights at 8 p.m. not as a bridge between batches of the mother show Once Upon a Time on Sunday nights.

So what’s the spinoff about? Apart from the giant mushrooms pictured above. Well, a “kickass Alice” for one thing.

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v8hwx2xHnM&feature=player_embedded” /]

The trailer is quite a feat considering it’s based on just five scenes filmed in Vancouver.

LEO AWARDS: Film BECOMING REDWOOD & TV series CONTINUUM & ARCTIC AIR Top 2013 Nominations

Last night’s Leo Awards nominations, celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television, favour Jesse James Miller’s 70s-era coming-of-age film Becoming Redwood, Vancouver-cop-from-the-future TV series Continuum and northern adventure TV series Arctic Air. The many tweets of congratulations to all the nominees today are a great way to recognize B.C.’s creative talent ahead of tomorrow’s provincial election. So please go vote and as the hashtag says, #SaveBCFilm. 

Becoming Redwood‘s 14 nominations include well-deserved director and writing nods for Vancouver-born-and-raised Jesse James Miller and performance nods for Ryan Grantham as the young golf-obsessed long-haired title character Redwood; Jennifer Copping (Miller’s wife) as Redwood’s mother; Chad Willett (producer) as Redwood’s draft-dodging, pot-dealing father;  Derek Hamilton as Redwood’s red-neck stepfather Arnold and Scott Hylands as Arnold’s basement-dwelling elderly father Earl. Miller shot the Vancouver International Film Festival’s most popular Canadian feature in rural Langley for 24 days in the late spring of 2011.

Related: Jesse James Miller’s Becoming Redwood Opens at International Village

In the television category, Continuum dominates with 16 nominations, including nods for creator and UBC grad Simon Barry for his season one finale script End Times and for performances by Richard Harmon, Brian Markinson, Jennifer Spence and Liber8 “terrorist” Lexa Doig. Lead cop Rachel Nichols is not nominated but she is American and not considered a BC actor, even though she lives here for half-a-year each season and owns Vancouver Canucks season tickets (what more do you need?)

Over at Arctic Air, bona fide BC actors Kevin McNulty and Pascale Hutton are nominated for their lead performances on the filmed-in-Vancouver-and-Yellowknife aerial adventure series, two of 14 nominations for the CBC show. Read More »LEO AWARDS: Film BECOMING REDWOOD & TV series CONTINUUM & ARCTIC AIR Top 2013 Nominations

UPFRONT: Joel Wyman’s ALMOST HUMAN with Karl Urban & Michael Ealy

One Broken Man. One of a Kind Machine. Their Future. Is Definitely. Unwritten.

Almost Human showrunner Joel Wyman shared the official trailer for the new filmed-in-Vancouver series shown at the FOX Upfront in New York today. The look and style of this pilot is even better than expected. Especially the dry humour and banter between this buddy cop duo of part-robot human and part-human robot.

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykwxg534yAw” /]

Almost Human is scheduled to air on Mondays at 8 p.m. on FOX this fall after the World Series.

Michael Irby, Mackenzie Crook, Lili Taylor, Karl Urban, Michael Ely, Minka Kelly. @FOX Broadcasting Co.

Read More »UPFRONT: Joel Wyman’s ALMOST HUMAN with Karl Urban & Michael Ealy

WEEK: May 6-12, 2013

SHOOT: Andie MacDowell Films Teaser for CEDAR COVE in North Vancouver’s Deep Cove

Andie MacDowell (Four Weddings and a Funeral & former super model) has a lock on the fifty-something category in People magazine’s most-beautiful-by-age-group. Just look at her early this week on the government dock in North Vancouver’s Deep Cove, shooting a teaser for the upcoming Hallmark Channel series. Cedar Cove is based on Debbie Macomber’s best-selling books about the life of Judge Olivia Lockhart in and out of the courtroom. MacDowell, who plays Lockart, stared out at Indian Arm from the dock and then turned to greet Dylan Neal, who plays her friend and love interest, Cedar Cove Chronicle editor Jack Griffith. In between takes, she gave the crew a few supermodel poses.

Related: Andie MacDowell & Dylan Neal film Cedar Cove on a Beach in Deep Cove

Other scenes of MacDowell for the teaser were shot on Gallant Street, the south end of the beach, the north side of the park and at the Deep Cove Yacht Club. I wanted to stay to see all of them on such a perfect day but headed off to see another production  in Steveston.

Read More »SHOOT: Andie MacDowell Films Teaser for CEDAR COVE in North Vancouver’s Deep Cove