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Once Upon a Time

SHOOT: Eion Bailey & Michael Raymond-James Film ONCE UPON A TIME 2×18 Manhattan Flashbacks in Gastown

In early February, a savvy friend predicted that August would return to Once Upon a Time at that day’s shoot in Gastown dressed as Soho. So it wasn’t a complete surprise to find August’s motorcycle amid a dozen prop yellow NYC taxicabs parked on Columbia Street. Or when his August stunt double appeared on the Powell Street set. Or when Eion Bailey showed up along with Michael Raymond-James as Neal/Baelfire. The two men had a long animated chat while their Manhattan flashback scene was set up near the building used as Neal/Baelfire’s apartment.

Production asked us not to share the secret of August’s return and we agreed. It might have worked if others hadn’t seen the public scene in the afternoon of the two men talking and  Sonequa Martin Green (The Walking Dead) as Neal’s future fiancee Tamara, bumping into Neal in take after take.

Selfless, Brave and True is the story of August — of a wooden Pinocchio made boy who grew up to be a man ashamed of his actions. 

Read More »SHOOT: Eion Bailey & Michael Raymond-James Film ONCE UPON A TIME 2×18 Manhattan Flashbacks in Gastown

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×17 Welcome to Storybrooke Promo Images

Welcome to Storybrooke circa 1983. But not if you’re an outsider.

What happens after a New Jersey father (John Pyper Ferguson) and son (Benjamin Stockam) find themselves in Storybrooke in the early days of Regina’s curse?

Related: Welcome to Storybrooke circa 1983. High-speed car chase in Steveston

Lana Parrilla, John Pyper-Ferguson, Jamie Dornan. © 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. 

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×17 Welcome to Storybrooke Promo Images

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) & Neal (Michael Raymond-James) on Third Beach in Stanley Park

Updated May 5, 2013 – Emma and Neal/Baelfire were checking whether devious Tamara (Sonequa Martin Green) was out running as she claimed instead of holding Regina captive, as Emma suspected. I didn’t notice that I’d photographed her in a lycra hoodie below.

This is Michael Raymond-James’s “big scene on a rainy beach” with Jennifer Morrison yesterday on Third Beach in Stanley Park. Sorry Swanfire fans. This doesn’t look particular romantic  It seems Emma Swan  and her baby daddy Baelfire have some issues to work out.

Once Upon a Time spent Friday shooting scenes on the forest trails above Third Beach with horses on set but took time out to film the beach scene around “magic hour”. At least what passes for the last hour of sunlight on a rainy day. The scene took less than half-an-hour to shoot with production assistants stopping joggers and walkers at both ends of the seawall during filming.

Update: Didn’t realize that I’d photographed Tamara (Sonequa Martin Green)  jogging in her hoodie below.

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) & Neal (Michael Raymond-James) on Third Beach in Stanley Park

SHOOT: Welcome To Storybrooke aka Steveston for ONCE UPON A TIME 2×17

Oh you’re an outsider. Not that welcome then. In the first six weeks of Regina’s curse in 1983, New Jersey intruders Kurt Flyn (John Pyper-Ferguson) and his son end up in what is supposed to be undetectable Storybrooke, Maine.

That explains the high speed car chase on two blocks of Moncton Street in Steveston in late January. Once Upon a Time paid the business on both sides of those blocks to close for the day out of safety concerns. And hired 35 PAs (production assistants) to keep people back for flashbacks of Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) and Regina (Lana Parrilla) in a high-speed chase of the intruders. Crew alternated scenes of stunt doubles driving fast in the Storybrooke Sheriff’s car and cast driving slowly in it down Moncton Street. At mid-morning, Once Upon a Time opened up the grassy park at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery (dressed as the Storybrooke Cannery) where people could watch the high-speed chase below from a safe distance.

Read More »SHOOT: Welcome To Storybrooke aka Steveston for ONCE UPON A TIME 2×17

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

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Good vs Evil Showdown for 2×16

A Once Upon a Time good vs evil showdown played out right in front of me in Steveston in mid-January. From a window seat inside Storybrooke Coffee (Steveston Coffee) behind Regina (Lana Parrilla) & Cora (Barbara Hershey) — holding the Dark One’s dagger — I watched as mother-and-daughter blew the door off Mr. Gold’s. Crew simply asked us not to stare at the camera when it was set up in Mr. Gold’s doorway.

© 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

And we kept watching as crew carried stunt mats into Mr. Gold’s for the big sword fight throwdown inside with cast and stunt doubles.

GOOD (Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James, Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin)

© 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Good vs Evil Showdown for 2×16

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Father-and-Son Bonding in Steveston for 2×19

Whatever else is going on in Storybrooke in the nineteenth episode of season two, newly-acquainted father-and-son Baelfire and Henry, and the actors who play them, continue to bond.

Michael Raymond-James and Jared Gilmore had an incredible amount of fun rehearsing and filming their play sword fight in Fisherman’s Park  in Steveston yesterday morning and early afternoon in front of passersby, local fans and two fans visiting from France.

Michael Raymond-James jumped on a picnic table at one point in their rambling play sword fight down the grassy hill of the park. And during one take, Raymond-James jokingly held his wooden sword to the throat of the boom operator once he’d moved out of frame.

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Father-and-Son Bonding in Steveston for 2×19

SET: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Historical Storybrooke Map in Steveston – Updated

Once Upon a Time put up a new prop Historical Storybrooke map in Steveston today. I photographed it but haven’t had a chance to look at it closely, except to notice the absence of Storybrooke Town Hall (usually played by Fort Langley Community Hall).

WELCOME TO HISTORICAL STORYBROOKE

ACCOMODATION

1. Granny’s Bed & Breakfast

Read More »SET: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Historical Storybrooke Map in Steveston – Updated

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME – A Series as Epic as the Movies

A Series as Epic as The Movies Every Single Week

Once Upon a Time makes TV looks like the movies every week. Revolutionary Z.E.U.S. visual effects technology allows the modern fairy tale series to be as epic as a movie on a TV budget. If you looked through a camera lense or a monitor in studio in Vancouver you would see scenes rendered in real time while the cast performs on mostly empty green screen stages. And beautiful British Columbia has a hand in creating stunning backdrops too with on-location filming in our forests, deserts and oceans for Fairy Tale Land and in the village of Steveston for present-day Storybrooke.

But Once Upon a Time would be just pretty pictures if  the creators and cast didn’t bring emotion to the stories they tell. Here are some promo photos of the actors who make us care about fairy tale characters week after week.

Charming (Josh Dallas) and his daughter Emma (Jennifer Morrison) on location in Steveston south of Vancouver.

ABC/AUTUMN DE WILDE

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME – A Series as Epic as the Movies