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BIG READ: Hitchcockian BATES MOTEL Debuts on A&E Tonight

Published March 18, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome.

The Bates Motel set out in Aldergrove on 272nd Street is the spitting image of the 12-room Seafarer motel and Gothic house set from Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic Psycho, except for the missing top of the Bates house which was CGIed in post-production for tonight’s premiere on A&E.  This contemporary prequel  focuses on a younger version of Psycho movie killer Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) in a coastal Oregon town called White Pine Bay and explores his relationship with his unhinged mother (Vera Farmiga) as he approaches his evil destiny. Is this the relationship that turns Norman into a killer who stuffed his mother?

Read More »BIG READ: Hitchcockian BATES MOTEL Debuts on A&E Tonight

SHOOT: John Stamos Films NBC Pilot VICTOR in Downtown Vancouver

Victor (formerly I Am Victor)  crew brought their own jungle today to film some brief exterior scenes of lead John Stamos walking in and out of the front door of Pender Medi Spa in downtown Vancouver. Most of the action takes place inside the spa with a night shoot at another location. Stamos seems perfectly cast to play a high-powered divorce attorney in an NBC pilot from the producers of White Collar. The Full House and ER vet can be spotted around town over the next two weeks and hopefully will be back in the summer if the pilot is picked up to series.

Read More »SHOOT: John Stamos Films NBC Pilot VICTOR in Downtown Vancouver

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

WEEK: March 11-17, 2013

  • Sunday, March 17th – Red Widow 1×04 The Escape with Radha Mitchell, Goran Visnjic and Wil Traval.
  • Sunday, March 17th – Welcome to Storybrooke circa 1983 on Once Upon a Time 2×17. Except if you’re an outsider. Then not so welcome. And you might end up the target of a high-speed chase by Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) & Regina (Lana Parrilla).
  • Sunday, March 17th – News of Rainn Wilson (The Office) cast as lead in Hart Hanson’s CBS pilot Backstrom.
  • Friday, March 15th – Once Upon a Time films Jennifer Morrison & Michael Raymond-James on Third Beach in Stanley Park for 2×21
  • Friday, March 15th – Arrow films flashback scenes with Stephen Amell & Katie Cassidy & Oliver’s parents at Harbour Cruises in Coal Harbour for 1×21.
  • Friday, March 15th – The Killing films in Langley.
  • Friday, March 15th – CBS pilot Intelligence starts filming at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby. Josh Holloway not on set.
  • Friday, March 15th – Cult 1×04 with Matt Davis on The CW.
  • Thursday, March 14th – Vancouver played Toronto for Motive 1×06 Detour with scenes filmed at the Victorian Hotel as a Toronto apartment building and Belkin House as a Toronto police station.
  • Thursday, March 14th – Continuum‘s Eric Knudsen & Ian Tracey film at Catch-122 restaurant on West Hastings downtown.
  • Thursday, March 14th – CW pilot The 100 w/ Thomas McDonell as one of 100 juvenile delinquents sent back to Earth after nuclear war starts filming on its Langley set.
  • Thursday, March 14th – Supernatural films in Riverview in Coquitlam.
  • Thursday, March 14th – News that Arrow‘s Stephen Amell, Colin Donnell, Willa Holland, Paul Blackthorne & showrunners, & Falling Skies‘s Drew Roy, Sarah Carter, Seychelle Gabriel & showrunner Remi Aubuchon will be at WonderCon in Anaheim in late March. Schedule.
  • Thursday, March 14th – News that Amanda Tapping of Sanctuary, Stargate SG1 will direct second season’s 12th episode of Continuum.
  • Wednesday. March 13th – Psych‘s Big Foot episode directed by star James Roday airs on the USA Network.
  • Wednesday, March 13th – FOX pilot Human starts filming inside empty bank building on West Pender downtown. Karl Urban on set. Productions signs BELLY pay tribute to Fringe.
  • Wednesday, March 13th – Continuum films in Woodward’s Building downtown.
  • Wednesday, March 13th – Once Upon a Time films scenes at the Steveston Cannery and on Moncton St. with Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James, Robert Carlyle, Emilie de Ravin and David Anders (on his knees as he tweeted).
  • Wednesday, March 13th – Constellation Award nominations for Continuum, Fringe, Once Upon a Time, Primeval: New World, Supernatural, Jared Padalecki, Jensen Ackles, Read More »WEEK: March 11-17, 2013

SHOOT: Vancouver as Toronto for MOTIVE 1×06

CTV promoted Vancouver crime drama Motive from Sunday nights to Thursday nights this week, with downtown Vancouver playing Toronto in the sixth episode of the whydunit  The killer in Detour is a Toronto police officer named Barry Ketchum (Aidan Devine) who commits the murder on the west coast and is tracked back to Ontario by Vancouver homicide detective Angie Flyn (Kristin Lehman).  Crew filmed a scene on Homer Street last December of Ketchum arriving home from the airport in a prop Toronto taxi with the Victorian Hotel as his Toronto apartment building. And filmed other scenes of Detective Flyn confronting Ketchum inside Belkin House as his Toronto police station. Add a few green screens of the CN Tower and Motive did a credible job of faking Toronto in Vancouver.

Read More »SHOOT: Vancouver as Toronto for MOTIVE 1×06

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: Stephen Amell & Katie Cassidy Do ARROW Flashbacks in Coal Harbour for 1×21 – Updated

Why are Oliver Queen & Laurel Lance kissing? It’s flashback time in the [third-to-last} episode of Arrow’s hit first season. I hope this isn’t Laurel (Katie Cassidy) saying goodbye to her Ollie (Stephen Amell) before he heads off on the Queen’s Gambit with his Dad and Laurel’s sister. Was younger Oliver really such a cad?

Update: Yes he was. Oliver makes a call to Laurel’s sister Sarah when he spots Laurel – “Hey Sarah. You here? You might want to circle around the block a few times. Your sister just showed up.”

Read More »SHOOT: Stephen Amell & Katie Cassidy Do ARROW Flashbacks in Coal Harbour for 1×21 – Updated

SHOOT: Erik Knudsen & Ian Tracey Film CONTINUUM S2 at Catch-122 Restaurant Downtown

Crazy-man-from-the-future Jason (Ian Tracey) introduced on Continuum at the end of the first season clearly plays a bigger role in the second one. But in the same clothes? And with the same mannerisms? Today he met with young tech genius Alec Sadler (Erik Knudsen) not Vancouver-cop-from-the-corporate-future Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) at the Catch-122 restaurant on West Hastings Street. Maybe not so crazy?

Read More »SHOOT: Erik Knudsen & Ian Tracey Film CONTINUUM S2 at Catch-122 Restaurant Downtown

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