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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: Can Storybrooke (and Steveston) be Saved in ONCE UPON A TIME Season Finale?

“We need to blow Storybrooke off the map” – Tamara

Once Upon a Time filmed in Steveston for four full days for its season two finale — And Straight on ‘Til Morning. Easter Monday, April 1st, was Day Four with most of the main cast on set at the historic Gulf of Georgia Cannery on the Steveston docks. With Storybrooke facing destruction, it looks like Regina/The Evil Queen (Lana Parrilla) is forced to team up with the Charmings (Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas & Jennifer Morrison) to stop the curse’s failsafe trigger from being activated. Do Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) and Lacey/Belle (Emilie de Ravin) join Team Charming as well? And is that a portal they’re circling on the docks? If so, where is Henry (Jared Gilmore)?

Evil Regals, Ugly Ducklings, Dearies and other fans waited on a walking/running/cycling path on the north side of the cannery buildings for their last chance to see the cast in season two. Few thought then that Steveston might lose Storybrooke altogether. A new For Lease sign on Mr. Gold Pawnbroker & Antiquities Dealer suggests it might, but Mr. Gold’s building is too small for the kind of sword fight scenes Once Upon a Time filmed in there so it would make sense to reconstruct that set in studio like Granny’s Diner. And as long as the Moncton Street merchant contracts remain unbroken there’s hope Storybrooke will survive in some form and Once Upon a Time will return to Steveston.

Related Day 3 – Bae & the Lost Boys on a Beach in Steveston’s Garry Point Park

Related: Day 2 – Charming Family & Grandpa Rumple in Steveston’s Kuno Garden

Related: Day 1 – Captain Hook on his Pirate Ship Set off the Steveston Docks

Read More »SHOOT: Can Storybrooke (and Steveston) be Saved in ONCE UPON A TIME Season Finale?

GREEN LIT: FOX Orders Joel Wyman’s ALMOST HUMAN (formerly Human) to Series

Who is the human? And who is the android?

Karl Urban & Michael Ealy. ©2013 FOX BROADCASTING CO.

Human John Kennex (Karl Urban of Star Trek) and android Dorian (Michael Ealy) are police partners investigating crimes in Los Angeles 35 years from now. But in this partnership, the android displays more emotions than the human because John is shut down after getting seriously hurt on a mission. From J.J. Abrams and former Fringe showrunner Joel Wyman, this new series pays homage to Fringe in so many ways. The production used many of the former Vancouver Fringe crew as well as its production signs BELLY. Some of the set dressing looked familiar too, with futuristic kiosks like Quick Volt electric car stations and Quick Stands offering everything from Experience Enhancers to Intellect Expanders and Synthetic Pets on set. Almost Human filmed for three weeks in the Vancouver area in familiar Fringe locations from the downtown business district to Gastown’s Winters Hotel to under the Cambie Bridge to the Terminal City Ironworks complex dressed like a Blue Light district.

Related: TV pilot Almost Human Films Armoured Car Heist in Vancouver’s Business District

Related: Karl Urban & Minka Kelly film TV Pilot Almost Human in Vancouver’s Business District

 

Read More »GREEN LIT: FOX Orders Joel Wyman’s ALMOST HUMAN (formerly Human) to Series

SHOOT: PSYCH S8 Films in Steveston’s Britannia Heritage Shipyard Park – Updated

Psych started filming [ten] episodes for season eight of the USA Network show in Vancouver late last week. On Sunday, crew prepped the old Britannia Shipyard building in Steveston for filming yesterday, turning it into the Barclay Bay Fish Company. In the morning, they shot scenes to the east at Gilbert Beach Park on Dyke Road and then some exterior scenes of Psych’s crime-fighting quartet arriving at the Barclay Bay Fish Company crime scene: Shawn “psychic” Spencer (James Roday) and Burton “Gus” Guster (Dule Hill) in the Blueberry and Santa Barbara police detectives Carlton “Lassie” Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) and Juliet O’Hara (Maggie Lawson) in the police squad car.

By the time I got there mid-afternoon, the crew was on LUNCH, either sprawled on the grass, playing with a small remoted-controlled car or setting up to shoot the crime scene inside. When I returned several hours later, I found the cast set chairs tucked away behind one of the restored former shipyard/cannery residences, which date back to 1885. Moments later, Lassie (Timothy Omundson) and Jules (Maggie Lawson) walked past me in costume, returning to set. And around  the corner, sitting in the sun on the boardwalk with his back to the wall of the former Chinese bunkhouse was Shawn’s Dad, Henry Spencer (Corbin Bernsen), reading and probably preparing for the final scene of Henry fishing on the docks.

Lassie (Timothy Omundson) & Jules (Maggie Lawson)

Read More »SHOOT: PSYCH S8 Films in Steveston’s Britannia Heritage Shipyard Park – Updated