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.
Arrow closed the 200 block of Abbott Street in Gastown this morning to film a motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic. Note the prop… Read More »SHOOT: ARROW Films Motorcycle & Other Stunts with Stephen Amell in Gastown for 1×18
That’s one messed up family. Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle)’s long-lost son Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James) turns out to be Henry (Jared Gilmore)’s father Neal, much to Emma (Jennifer Morrison)’s dismay. After a lot of yelling, most of the secrets are out, and it’s time for this estranged family to get to know one another in Gastown dressed as Manhattan.
[Update February 25th: Once Upon a Time tweeted a section of the script for the scenes I photographed.]
The actors who play the Rumple family are not estranged. They have the best time portraying these characters. Jennifer Morrison and Michael Raymond-James have been cracking each other up since Tallahassee, laughing and joking in between serious takes. And you can see Raymond-James gets on well with both his TV father Robert Carlyle and son Jared Gilmore in these photographs taken in Gastown on January 9th.
Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Rumple Family in Gastown for 2×15 – Updated
A cop named Kevin (Christian Campbell) who practices witchcraft calls the Winchester brothers (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) for help when the murders in his… Read More »PROMOS: SUPERNATURAL 8×15 Man’s Best Friend With Benefits Promo Image
UPDATED June 30, 2013 From famine to feast. B.C.’s film and TV production industry is bouncing back from a dismal start to the new year.… Read More »Famine to Feast: GODZILLA, DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES & American TV Pilots – Updated
Published February 15, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome
One Valentine’s night. Three shoots. Vancouver production crews worked late into the night on Valentine’s Day to film scenes for TV series Supernatural, Arrow and Vancouver’s own Continuum in the downtown area. I looped around from Supernatural on Station Street beside Pacific Central Station to Arrow on Franklin Street near the Terminal City Ironworks complex to Continuum at the Plaza of Nations and back again to capture our crews at work.
Supernatural crew worked inside and outside the Ivanhoe Hotel at the rear on Station Street, not packing up until 2 a.m. One exterior scene had Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) arriving at the motorhome below and possibly loading a prop dead body into the trunk of a car. Arrow set up on Franklin Street either in or near the Terminal City Ironworks complex in east Vancouver to film motorcycle scenes in the morning, Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) in a rooftop meeting and much later, someone shooting arrows into a black town car. Wonder who? Arrow ran late so probably packed up past its scheduled 2 a.m. departure.. Continuum’s crew started early too at the Plaza of Nations on the dock to film scenes aboard Kellogg (Vancouver actor Stephen Lobo)’s yacht (Adriana), then moved inside their Vancouver police station set with background performers and back outside for night scenes aboard Kellogg’s yacht and a steadicam scene of mad time traveller Jason (Vancouver actor Ian Tracey).
Our crews work up to sixteen hours a day five days a week to bring scripts to life in all kinds of weather. Mostly cold and wet. Those lucky enough to still have jobs don’t have enough time to see their loved ones on Valentine’s Day far less watch the shows they work on. So no, these aren’t “Hollywood jobs”, but they are good well-paid ones. And they’re leaving for Toronto because of Ontario’s superior tax credits. As a result, Vancouver lost its bragging rights as North America’s third biggest film and TV production centre to Toronto (after Los Angeles and New York). And lately, it’s gone from bad to worse. British Columbia’s third biggest industry, generating over $1 billion, faced unprecedented unemployment last month. Read More »BIG READ: Vancouver Film Crews at Work – #SaveBCFilm
Next Wednesday night on Arrow a jewel thief called “Dodger” (James Callis) strikes at one of Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell)’s friends. So Felicity Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) — the newest member of Team Hood — gets glammed up to go undercover with Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey). And Oliver steals a motorcycle.
Also introduced next week are pickpocket Roy Harper (Colton Hayes from Teen Wolf) befriended by Thea (Willa Holland) and police detective McKenna Hall (Janina Gavinkar) as Oliver’s new girlfriend.
Run Emma Run! In Once Upon a Time 2×14 Manhattan, Emma (Jennifer Morrison) chases a man in a grey hoodie — who she thinks could be Rumple’s son Bae — through SoHo in New York City (Gastown in Vancouver). He jumps from an old wrought iron fire escape staircase down onto the street below (Powell Street), runs along the sidewalk and through a cobbled square (Maple Tree Square) dodging yellow NYC taxi-cabs, past SoParlo Boots (prop sign) into a corridor (Gaelor’s Mews) of stores and restaurants until she tackles him in an alley (east end of Trounce Alley in Blood Alley Square).
Once Upon a Time filmed this foot chase in mid-December in four legs with Jennifer Morrison doing all her own running stunts and some of the tackling. The day started in reverse with the Emma stunt double tackling the Grey-Hoodie-Man stunt double in the east end of Trounce Alley, followed by a dialogue scene of Morrison getting up from the ground, seeing the actor (not stunt double) who she’d tackled and talking to him. Each time the two actors finished a take they dissolved into fits of laughter. The Trounce Alley part of the foot chase sequence was closed to the public but I could see the two actors’ heads through the glass windows of a restaurant from the south end of the Coffee Bar. I stayed at my Coffee Bar window seat to watch the next leg of Morrison running from prop SoParlo Boots on Carrall Street right past me through Gaelor’s Mews. Don’t listen to anyone who says Morrison is a diva. None of the Once Upon a Time cast are from what I’ve seen. Morrison did all of Emma’s running in take after take. Smiling and laughing from the exhilaration.
Next came the big public scene of Jennifer Morrison chasing the Grey-Hoodie-Man stunt double though Maple Tree Square dodging yellow NYC taxi cabs and other prop vehicles in front of spectators, fans and photographers. She did it once in rehearsal with the Emma stunt double leading the way. Read More »SHOOT: Run Emma Run! ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison Running in Gastown for 2×14
