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Once Upon a Time

SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10

It was such a cold, wet October day in Steveston south of Vancouver when Once Upon a Time filmed the happy family reunion of Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow, Josh Dallas’s Charming, Jennifer Morrison’s Emma and Jared Gilmore’s Henry walking arms round one another past the Storybrooke Library for tonight’s mid-season finale. But there was so much joy. I laughed when I saw Goodwin coming out of the cast van wearing an old-fashioned rain bonnet to protect her Mary Margaret pixie cut. Only Goodwin could look cute in one of these. And when Goodwin walked back from one of the takes with her arms outstretched like a monster.

But it’s been a long wait for this reunion scene to appear on screen. So it’s a bonus to have our season two villains, Barbara Hershey’s Cora and Colin O’Donoughe’s Hook, heading into Storybrooke on his pirate ship in the final scene. I photographed this dastardly pair disembarking from the ship at Steveston’s Britannia Shipyards a few weeks before Once Upon a Time filmed the reunion scene. Storybrooke is going to be one busy place in the new year.

Read More »SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Process Trailer Scene in Steveston for 2×12 – Updated

Sometimes when Once Upon a Time films in Steveston, there isn’t much to see. Or what we see can’t be talked about. Wednesday afternoon and evening are examples of those kinds of shoots. Crew wrapped Mr. Gold’s in what looked like a giant white marshmallow for the afternoon shoot so that even doorway scenes weren’t visible.. Luckily for those waiting outside,  Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) stopped by after he wrapped to pose for photos with a couple of Fringe fans who’d gone out for the day to see another show filming. The Australian Fringie told me Mr. Gold said she sounded just like his Belle (Aussie Emilie de Ravin who wasn’t on set).

For the night shoot, crew lit up Moncton Street for a driving scene with Regina’s Mercedes on a process trailer going round and round in a loop filming a conversation inside.  We were asked not to photograph while they were rolling but it was OK to take a few shots of the process trailer parked outide Sara’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream after cast left.

Then Once Upon a Time filmed a scene of [David Anders dressed in hospital scrubs] running south down Second Street at a good clip. Probably because it was bloody freezing. By then, even the Fringe fans had packed it in and decided to opt out of Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Process Trailer Scene in Steveston for 2×12 – Updated

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Captain Hook With a Spyglass in Steveston for 2×11 – Updated

Watch your back Rumplestiltskin. Colin O’Donoghue’s charming and dangerously seductive Captain Hook is looking for a portal to take him to Storybrooke so that he can exact his revenge on the Dark One, who cut off his hand and crushed the heart of his beloved. And Hook will align himself with anyone who can get him there. Emma leaving Hook shackled in the Giant’s treasure house last Sunday night will prove but a temporary setback for Fairytale Land’s most eligible bachelor.

So the question is when — not if —  Hook will show up in Storybrooke. Still, it was an unexpected treat to see O’Donoghue filming scenes on a rooftop in Steveston yesterday and to have crew allow a handful of spectators who’d braved the rain to photograph him when the cameras weren’t rolling. Such an unusual location for Once Upon a Time. Is this rooftop in Storybrooke or Fairytale Land? If Storybrooke, Hook might consider a change of wardrobe because he’s not going to blend in dressed in black leather.

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Captain Hook With a Spyglass in Steveston for 2×11 – Updated

PHOTO RECAP: Vancouver as Vancouver in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×06

A few thoughts on Tallahassee, my favourite Once Upon a Time episode of season two so far. I predicted a long con of Jennifer Morrison’s young Emma Swan by Michael Raymond-James’s fellow thief Neal Cassady but did not anticipate he would do it out of love for her after Eion Bailey’s August showed him Emma’s destiny to break the curse in Storybrooke.

I’d seen the thieving pair on set in the Downtown Eastside near the Main Street overpass filming the scene of them being pulled over by the Portland police after Emma learns she “stole a stolen car.”

Once Upon a Time filmed later scenes of the new “Bonnie & Clyde” examining their stolen loot from a corner store  in a motel room at the City Centre Motor Hotel on Main Street and then planning to make a real home together in Tallahassee.

Read More »PHOTO RECAP: Vancouver as Vancouver in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×06

PROMOS: Who is Dr. Whale? ONCE UPON A TIME 2×05 The Doctor Spoiler Promo

So many of us were keeping the secret of Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity on Once Upon a Time, not wanting to ruin the surprise. Too late. The promo for next Sunday’s The Doctor gave it away. Or as David Anders tweeted: “Hello Fans all over the globe & Bulgaria! Tune in next week 2 #OnceuponaTime 4 ‘The Doctor’ The promo ruined it but watch it anyway. Oy vey.”

In late July, an insider let slip Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity to a friend of mine when she was on set in Steveston during the filming of the season two premiere and six weeks later in early September, I was one of the privileged few (along with half-a-dozen visiting Evil Regal fans from all over the U.S.) allowed to watch the filming of Lana Parrilla as a young woman in a tent deep in the woods of Robert Burnaby Park with David Anders as his Fairytale Land character apparently trying to re-animate a male corpse (played by a dummy when I was there).

A week earlier, fans in Steveston as Storybrooke had witnessed the ghostly appearance of Regina’s lost love Daniel in a rainstorm. A Daniel stunt double bore the brunt of the deluge but some are convinced they saw Noah Bean on set that night too.

If you still haven’t figured out Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity and really don’t want to know, please stop reading now.

Read More »PROMOS: Who is Dr. Whale? ONCE UPON A TIME 2×05 The Doctor Spoiler Promo