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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: Double the Speedys at ARROW Night Shoot in New Westminster for 1×20

Are Arrow’s two Speedys in love? Crew messed up Lorne Mews in New Westminster yesterday to give it that ghetto The-Glades-of-Starling-City look, with graffiti, domestic violence posters, abandoned bikes, a barrel with a fire inside and other crap strewn from top to bottom. Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell)’s kid sister Thea (Willa Holland), nicknamed Speedy, walked down the steps to join Roy Harper (Colton Haynes from Teen Wolf), the thief who stole her purse and could evolve into Arrow’s trusted sidekick Speedy, as he is in the DC comics. In take after take, Speedy 1 rested her head on Speedy 2’s shoulders as he kissed her forehead. I look forward to seeing the scene as it is meant to be with Arrow’s night cameras.

Read More »SHOOT: Double the Speedys at ARROW Night Shoot in New Westminster for 1×20

SHOOT: THE KILLING’s Mireille Enos & Liam James Film in Snug Cove on Bowen Island

AMC resurrected The Killing for a third season of the Seattle-set murder mystery, which started filming twelve new episodes in Vancouver late last month. Last season our dynamic detective duo Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) and Stephen Holder (Joel Kinnaman) had a tough time of it as they closed in on the  Rosie Larsen killer: starting with Holder finding out he’d been set up to frame a Seattle mayoral candidate with a doctored toll booth photo and then getting beat up by thugs at the Wapi Eagle casino and left for dead, while Linden ditched her fiance, was suspended, lost custody of her son, got bashed on the head at the casino and committed to a psych ward for a day.Then they both went on the lam from the Seattle police force. No wonder Linden looked done-in walking away from the Larsen home in a final scene.

Events in the third season take place a year later when Detective Holder’s “search for a runaway girl leads him to discover a gruesome string of murders that connects to a previous murder investigation by [Sarah] Linden”, who is no longer a detective. Here she is filming a scene with her son Jack (Liam James). TVLine memorably named her the worst parent on TV in 2012. I have no context for this scene, but is that a smile on Linden’s face? The Killing filmed two scenes in Snug Cove on Bowen Island last week dressed as Vashon-Maury Island, which is within commuting distance of Seattle by ferry.

Read More »SHOOT: THE KILLING’s Mireille Enos & Liam James Film in Snug Cove on Bowen Island

WEEK: March 4-10, 2013

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7m657-K0hyk&feature=youtu.be” /]

SHOOT: ARROW’s Paul Blackthorne & Colton Haynes Film on The Pier in North Vancouver for 1×20 – Updated

Arrow filmed late night scenes on the Burrard Dry Dock Pier in North Vancouver’s historic Versatile Shipyards park last night. Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne), the Starling City cop obsessed with bringing the vigilante Hood to justice, speeds to [the Starling City Port] to apprehend Roy Harper (Colton Haynes)  [and his stolen police radio]. After the shoot wrapped sometime after midnight, one hardy fan got a photo with Paul Blackthorne taken by Colton Haynes. Good timing? You bet.

Production had been inside the Pinnacle Hotel for much of the evening [filming David Ramsey (John Diggle)], who then headed out to join fellow cast Stephen Amell (Oliver Queen/the Hood), Katie Cassidy (Laurel Lance), Susanna Thompson (Moira Queen) and executive producers Greg Berlanti, Marc Guggenheim and Andrew Kreisberg in Los Angeles for Arrow’s PaleyFest panel. The livestream begins at 7:30 p.m. tonight. Click here for link.

Read More »SHOOT: ARROW’s Paul Blackthorne & Colton Haynes Film on The Pier in North Vancouver for 1×20 – Updated

SHOOT: Chyler Leigh Films WINDOW WONDERLAND at Holt Renfrew Downtown – Updated

Chyler Leigh shocked Grey’s Anatomy fans when her character Lexie Grey was killed in the season eight finale of the hospital drama. Here she is alive and well, but looking quite different from Lexie with her Anne Hathaway-style cut. Leigh filmed scenes for upcoming Window Wonderland outside upscale Holt Renfrew dressed as McGuire’s in New York on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Production caused stop-and-stare foot traffic on Dunsmuir in downtown Vancouver for all three days. The TV movie started filming on Friday and goes to March 25th. Leigh’s next project is a starring role in the NBC plane crash comedy pilot Holding Patterns.

Read More »SHOOT: Chyler Leigh Films WINDOW WONDERLAND at Holt Renfrew Downtown – Updated

SHOOT: Return of Charlie in SUPERNATURAL 8×20 at Hastings Community Centre

Computer hacker and beloved Queen of Moondoor Charlie Bradbury (Felicia Day) returns to Supernatural for the third time (second time this season) in the upcoming Pac-Man Fever. She brings a case to Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) to investigate. Not much is known about episode twenty yet, but crew did film scenes on Wednesday night of Dean (Jensen Ackles) and Charlie (Felicia Day) inside the Impala surrounded by food trucks at east Vancouver’s Hastings Community Centre.

Fans at the night shoot congratulated the crew on Supernatural’s viral Harlem Shake video, now approaching 2 million views on YouTube in just a couple of days. [over 10 million by season’s wrap]

Related: Supernatural does the Harlem Shake

Jensen Ackles, aka the star of Supernatural Shake, in the Impala.

Read More »SHOOT: Return of Charlie in SUPERNATURAL 8×20 at Hastings Community Centre

SHOOT: Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James & Jared Gilmore on Pirate Ship Set in Steveston for 2×16

Update: This deleted scene appears on the season 2 DVD-Blu-ray.

So Rumplestiltskin’s son Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James) spent some time in Neverland, where he made the acquaintance of Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and learned how to sail a pirate ship. And that explains why Bae isn’t a couple of hundred years old, as some smart Once Upon a Time fans calculated he would be, if born during the Ogre Wars. Some have even speculated that Bae is Peter Pan too. Not necessarily but it will be interesting to see his Neverland backstory.

Father-and-son Bae and Henry sail the pirate ship set from Manhattan (Gastown) to Storybrooke (Steveston) while Emma walks  past them from the stern in the scene below. Is a dying Rumplestilstkin (Robert Carlyle) somewhere on board? And what about his assailant Hook? Likely tied up and left behind in Manhattan (Gastown).

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Read More »SHOOT: Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James & Jared Gilmore on Pirate Ship Set in Steveston for 2×16