Godzilla

SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Japanese Nuclear Power Plant & its Quarantine Zone (in New Westminster)

by Susan Gittins
June 26, 2013August 3, 2013
Godzilla

Does the 3D Godzilla movie reboot reflect the real world event of Japan’s 2011 earthquake/tsunami and the resulting nuclear crisis at some of the country’s older nuclear power plants? Is that the “contemporary issue” screenwriter Frank Darabont spoke of? It would seem so. “6.3 Earthquake Rocks Eastern Japan” said the news crawl on set screens at the Vancouver Convention Centre dressed as the Honolulu airport at the start of filming here in mid-March.

Janjira appears to be the fictional nuclear power plant in this modern-day re-imagining of the radioactive Japanese sea monster as a “terrifying force of nature”.

Godzilla used an abandoned Coquitlam paper recycling plant on the Fraser River to film a couple of weeks of scenes of the Janjira nuclear power station at risk of meltdown with radioactive leaks. Is this what wakes Godzilla (plural) from their slumber?

Since Coquitlam, the Janjira plant has been played by an industrial building on Annacis Island and its offices by Nokia in Burnaby’s Glenlyon Business Park. Godzilla also used Steveston’s Japanese Cultural Centre to double as the Janjira International School Read More »SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Japanese Nuclear Power Plant & its Quarantine Zone (in New Westminster)

SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Destroyed Building, U.S. Aircraft Carrier & Navy Ship Sets at Kent Hangar Field

by Susan Gittins
June 25, 2013August 3, 2013
Godzilla

Update: Godzilla is prepping a real aircraft carrier, the USS Ronald Reagan, for filming at Coronada, California naval base as these sets are torn down.

Godzilla crew constructed several sets for greenscreen filming on the vast Kent Hanger gravel field next to the Fraser River Path on the Vancouver/Burnaby border.

After shooting on its Golden Gate Bridge set, crew moved it back to make way for new destroyed building and U.S. aircraft carrier sets.

Beware of Jet Blast, Propellers and Rotors.

SHOOT: Elizabeth Olsen Drenched by Rain Tower at GODZILLA in Downtown Vancouver – Day 2

by Susan Gittins
June 24, 2013May 19, 2014
Godzilla

Gozilla returned to Oceanic Plaza dressed as San Francisco in Vancouver’s Business District on Sunday to film more scenes of Elizabeth Olsen doused by rain… Read More »SHOOT: Elizabeth Olsen Drenched by Rain Tower at GODZILLA in Downtown Vancouver – Day 2

SHOOT: Elizabeth Olsen Drenched by Rain Tower at GODZILLA in Downtown Vancouver

by Susan Gittins
June 22, 2013June 7, 2014
Godzilla

Godzilla's Gareth Edwards directs Elizabeth Olsen in downtown Vancouver. Copyright Godzilla. — Godzilla’s Gareth Edwards directs Elizabeth Olsen in downtown Vancouver. Copyright Godzilla.

Elizabeth Olsen got drenched by rain tower in take after take today on the set of Godzilla in Vancouver’s Business District dressed as San Francisco. She reportedly plays the wife of Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass)’s lead character Lieutenant Ford. And since she’s wearing hospital scrubs seems to be some kind of doctor or EMR. Crew filmed scenes of vehicles in gridlock near Oceanic Plaza dressed as a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station. Olsen got out of an ambulance in the rain and joined others looking up at something north of the street — [a fight between Godzilla and the two MUTO (massive unidentified terrestrial organisms)].

SET: GODZILLA Turns Oceanic Plaza Downtown into San Francisco BART Station

by Susan Gittins
June 22, 2013August 3, 2013
Godzilla

Godzilla crew has turned Oceanic Plaza in downtown Vancouver into a San Francisco BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) station, adding a San Francisco kiosk with ads for the Golden Gate Zoo, San Francisco mental health, San Francisco Pique Ballet Company and Go Whales Tours at Fisherman’s Wharf (the whale watching company and boats used by soldier extras on the Steveston docks to shoot at the Japanese sea monster), decorating West Hastings Street with Presidio New Folk Festival banners (the same ones used on Sixth Street in New Westminster), changing the Guiness Tower signage to Portman Center, another sign to the Kerney-Grand Hotel and parking yellow-and-green San Francisco cabs, black-and-white San Francisco police cars and military vehicles along the street for filming later on today.

SET: GODZILLA Turns Watchmen’s Main Street Set in Burnaby into San Francisco’s Chinatown

by Susan Gittins
June 20, 2013April 6, 2014
Godzilla

Update: Godzilla filmed four or five massive SPFX explosions on this set overnight Saturday (June 22-23). See photo of one blast.

Godzilla blast

Godzilla lit up the south Burnaby night sky at Marine Way and Byrne Road on Tuesday to shoot scenes on the Main Street set (built for the 2009 movie Watchmen) dressed as San Francisco’s Chinatown — a ravaged Chinatown in the wake of a Japanese sea monster. Not much can be seen from outside the private back lot except for glimpses of Chinatown’s iconic hanging red-and-gold lanterns, 1920s-era Dragon street lamps and a destroyed pagoda-topped building, so you’ll have to imagine it dark and filled with smoke for scenes of the movie’s hero Lieutenant Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and soldiers running through it.

SHOOT: GODZILLA Turns New Westminster Into Streets of San Francisco – Chinatown

by Susan Gittins
June 19, 2013August 3, 2013
Godzilla

The U.S. military battled Godzilla in downtown New Westminster dressed as the streets of San Francisco a couple of weekends ago in three overnight shoots (June 7-9). On Friday night, the action started near the Arundel Mansion Hotel, a San Francisco-style apartment complex, on a strewn-with-debris-and-wrecked-cars Begbie Street. Crew wearing gas masks filled the half-block with smoke and pushed spectators back for safety reasons. A jump master (Jared Keeso) and about eight soldiers led Lieutenant Ford (star Aaron Taylor-Johnson) into a wall of smoke in Chinatown up at the corner, renamed the Jin Shufan Dim Sum Buffet (“Voted #1 in San Francisco”), in take after take.

SHOOT: GODZILLA’s Golden Gate Bridge Set with Inflatable GreenScreens

by Susan Gittins
May 28, 2013May 19, 2014
Godzilla

For locals, Godzilla‘s Golden Gate Bridge set is Rise of the Planet of the Apes redux on the vast Kent Hangar gravel field at the Vancouver/Burnaby border. Rust-red street lights and railings. Giant greenscreens. Motorists and buses trapped on the bridge. Soldiers. Cop cars. Only this time the showdown is between the military/police and Godzilla not empowered apes. Plus the giant greenscreens are inflatable, something we haven’t seen before.

Lieutenant Ford (Aaron Taylor-Johnson)’s son and schoolkid extras are on one of the Oakland, Alameda and Freemont school district buses evacuating San Francisco, as tanks with soldiers rolled by yesterday.

SHOOT: GODZILLA Evacuates Kid Extras From Steveston’s Japanese Cultural Centre as School

by Susan Gittins
May 25, 2013August 3, 2013
Godzilla

Update: Janjira is the name of the Japanese nuclear power plant in the Godzilla reboot

Godzilla crew remade Steveston’s Japanese Cultural Centre/Martial Arts Centre into the Jankira International School for filming on Wednesday, adding fake pink cherry blossoms to the east side of the trees outside and parking a prop Japanese school bus and giant blue screen on the west side where the camera would focus. Dozens of child extras dressed in school uniforms practiced running out of the centre into the bus or towards Moncton Street. And had fun doing it. It’s not clear where the monster is in this scene because it’s unlikely they would run towards it. [Update: this evacuation might have more to do with an earthquake and potential nuclear disaster at the Janjira reactors nearby]