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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.

FRINGE’s Joshua Jackson & John Noble Have Fun in the West End Rain for 5×11, Part One of Series Finale

John Noble and Joshua Jackson had a lot of fun filming a father-and-son scene for the third to last episode of Fringe — The Boy Must Live — six weeks ago in the pouring rain of Vancouver’s West End.

[Update: Here’s a FOX video of the father-and-son scene Although we saw it filmed with many camera setups, we didn’t hear what they were saying. Be warned there are more spoilers, but these are ones FOX chose to share]

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BSulcmt5K0s#!” /]

John Noble’s Dr.Walter Bishop runs out of an alley onto Bute Street where Jackson’s Peter Bishop catches up with him. They have a long talk and then embrace in a big hug.

Read More »FRINGE’s Joshua Jackson & John Noble Have Fun in the West End Rain for 5×11, Part One of Series Finale

WEEKS: December 17-30, 2012

  • Friday, December 28th – SPACE channel marathon of Vancouver’s own dinosaur procedural Primeval: New World
  • Tuesday, December 25th – Arrow star Stephen Amell marries long-time girlfriend Cassandra Jean at sunset ceremony in the Caribbean.
  • Saturday, December 22nd – Psycho prequel series Bates Motel begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 7th, 2013.
  • Saturday, December 22nd – Vancouver sitcom Package Deal begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 7th, 2013.
  • Friday, December 21st – Fringe airs tenth episode of its final season featuring Olivia, Peter, Walter, Nina Sharp and the child Observer Michael filming in downtown Vancouver, the tragic but brave death of a favourite character and the answer to the question, Who is Donald?
  • Friday, December 21st – Sitcom Package Deal tapes in front of a live studio audience in Burnaby
  • Friday, December 21st – Bates Motel films at the Psychiatric Assessment building in the Burnaby Youth Detention Centre.
  • Friday, December 21st – Supernatural begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 8th, 2013.
  • Friday, December 21st – Falling Skies wraps filming of its third season.
  • Thursday, December 20th – Vancouver detective series Motive begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 6th, 2013.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – USA Network renews Psych for eighth season of filming. Here are the crime-fighting quartet — Shawn, Gus, Lassie & Jules.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Once Upon a Time casts Rose McGowan as younger Cora.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Once Upon a Time begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 3rd, 2013.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Emily Owens MD studio liquidation 10AM-6PM at North Shore Studios
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Second day of Supernatural filming inside Langara College library.
  • Tuesday, December 18th – Supernatural films inside Langara College library
  • Tuesday, December 18th – TV Guide reports Battlestar Galactica’s Baltar, aka James Callis, cast on Arrow.
  • Monday, December 17th – Vancouver dinosaur procedural Primeval: New World mid-season finale directed by Amanda Tapping Read More »WEEKS: December 17-30, 2012

PSYCH-Os Get Eighth Season of Filming in Vancouver – Updated

Psych-os have some news to celebrate. Their show is renewed for an eighth season [of ten episodes], taking some of the sting out of the looooonnng wait for the seventh season to start on USA Network. Psych premieres on Feburary 27th next year, almost four months after the show wrapped 121 days  of filming in Vancouver and ten months after the season six finale ended with its big cliffhanger.

Here are some non-spoilery photos of the Psych crime-fighting quartet — James Roday’s “psychic” Shawn Spencer, Dule Hill’s BFF Burton “Gus” Guster,  Timothy Omundson’s Santa Barbara police detective Carlton “Lassie” Lassiter and Maggie Lawson’s detective Juliet O’Hara  — filming in the alley next to the Orpheum Theatre in early October for the big musical episode.

Read More »PSYCH-Os Get Eighth Season of Filming in Vancouver – Updated

SHOOT: Freddie Highmore, Max Thieriot & Nicola Peltz Film BATES MOTEL 1×07 in Horseshoe Bay – Updated

Update April 29, 2013 – Had no idea I’d photographed Norman’s crush & one-time hookup Bradley Martin (Nicola Peltz, who’s co-starring in the next Transformers movie) in Horseshoe Bay. Now I wish I’d got there earlier to see Norma (Vera Farmiga) & Emma (Oliva Cooke) spying on Bradley in a yoga class.

In what cast calls an “incredible reimagining” of the Alfred Hitchcock classic Psycho, a teenage Norman Bates and his mother Norma Lousie Bates start fresh with the Bates Motel in the picturesque town of White Pine Bay, Oregon, filmed in the Vancouver area. Until yesterday, I’d never seen Freddie Highmore as future serial killer Norman on location for this upcoming A&E series from Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse (see the first promotional trailer) and Friday Night Lights producer Kerry Ehrin . Highmore didn’t look that different from his iconic role as young Peter in Finding Neverland but Bates Motel will be a vastly different world than Peter Pan’s.

On the surface White Pine Bay is as beautiful as its Vancouver locations but underneath there’s something dark and creepy going on. Think Friday Night Lights crossed with Twin Peaks. Normally Horseshoe Bay — on the edge of Howe Sound  in West Vancouver — would count as one of those beautiful locations but yesterday it was dark and creepy on the surface too.

Bates Motel crew had turned Bay Market into Bay Market & Hardware for a scene of Norman (Freddie Highmore) and Norman’s step brother Dylan (Max Thieriot) buying supplies at a Fall Hardware Sale, carrying them out to the back of Dylan’s 4 x 4 and chatting with [Norman’s crush Bradley (Nicola Peltz)] who’d just been dropped off by her friends in a BMW.

Read More »SHOOT: Freddie Highmore, Max Thieriot & Nicola Peltz Film BATES MOTEL 1×07 in Horseshoe Bay – Updated

Noah Wyle and Will Patton Film FALLING SKIES S3 Dream Sequence in Gastown

Falling Skies wraps filming of its third season this coming week in Vancouver. And as far as I know, few if any have seen them on location until today at the Coffee Bar in Gastown. But it sure didn’t look anything like the post-apocalyptic Falling Skies we’ve come to know. Where were the Skitters? Where were the Mechs? Where were the Overlords? Where were the even creepier aliens introduced in the season two finale? And where was 2nd Mass, the small band of insurgents named after the 2nd Massachusetts of the American Revolution, who’ve been fighting the occupying alien force for three seasons?

Noah Wyle’s Tom Mason had no beard or scruffy clothing. And Will Patton’s Captain Dan Weaver looked more like a homeless lunatic than the military leader of 2nd Mass. And what’s with all the well-dressed people carrying bags of Christmas shopping, coming and going in a cafe decorated with wreaths? It turns out today was a reshoot of a dream sequence. So it provides few clues about what drama will unfold in the third season set to air next summer on TNT in the U.S.

Read More »Noah Wyle and Will Patton Film FALLING SKIES S3 Dream Sequence in Gastown

WEEK: December 10-16, 2012

And Now For Something Completely Different on FRINGE for 5×09 – Dr. Carla Warren & Monty Python – Updated

I withheld photos of Jenni Blong as Dr. Carla Warren filming with John Noble’s Dr. Walter Bishop inside a prop New York taxicab opposite the Guiness Tower downtown in late October. Partly because her reappearance was a spoiler but also because I couldn’t figure out how she could possibly be alive in 2036. I should have known that Fringe’s final season wouldn’t be complete without Walter on an acid trip.

“I represent everything that you’re trying to keep buried,” she told him last night in an ongoing hallucination. After all, Dr. Warren is the one in the original timeline who tried and failed to convince Walter not to cross over to the alternate universe to save the other young Peter Bishop who was dying like his own son had. And her death in a lab explosion led to Walter being incarerated for manslaughter in the St. Claire’s mental institution where we met him in the series premiere. On a lighter note, Gene the cow also featured in Walter`s hallucinations during the show’s animated homage to Monty Python. Walter`s wild acid trips are one of the many things I will miss about Fringe.

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=uS2z8Aeck-M” /]

Read More »And Now For Something Completely Different on FRINGE for 5×09 – Dr. Carla Warren & Monty Python – Updated