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SHOOT: BATES MOTEL Films in Steveston with Lost’s Nestor Carbonell & Pan Am’s Mike Vogel for 1×04 – Updated

Updated April 8, 2013 – In 1×04 Trust Me, the Sheriff & Deputy Sheriff are called to the docks where a fisherman has found murdered Keith Summers’s hand in his net.

A&E’s contemporary Psycho prequel series Bates Motel  focuses on a younger version of Psycho movie killer Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) in present-day Oregon and explores his relationship with his unhinged mother Norma Bates (Vera Farmiga) as he approaches his evil destiny. Described as a cross between Twin Peaks and Smallville, it’s Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse’s new show.

So it’s not surprising that Lost fan favourite Nestor Carbonell (who still gets asked if he wears eyeliner) is on board as the Sinister Sheriff. When I spotted White Pine Bay County Sheriff cars on the Steveston docks I hoped that Carbonell would be on set. Other sheriff staff walked up from the fishing boat where Bates Motel was filming but no Sinister one until the end. Carbonell’s Sheriff [Alex Romero] and Mike Vogel’s deputy Sheriff [Zack Shelby] left after the final scene on the docks. As Carbonell walked by me I asked him why he was Sinister and got a laugh and a smile but no details.

Read More »SHOOT: BATES MOTEL Films in Steveston with Lost’s Nestor Carbonell & Pan Am’s Mike Vogel for 1×04 – Updated

WEEK: November 12-18, 2012

  • Sunday, November 18th – Once Upon a Time pre-empted by American Music Awards. New episode 2×08, Into the Deep, airs next Sunday.
  • Sunday, November 18th – The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2 boasts a US$349 million global opening weekend via Deadline.com.
  • Saturday, November 17th – Bates Motel films at the HI Vancouver Jericho Beach Hostel.
  • Friday, November 16th – Red Widow wraps filming of its first order of eight episodes set to premiere early next year on ABC.
  • Friday, November 16h – On Fringe‘s ep. 5×07 Joshua Jackson’s Peter tracks Observer lieutenants on Hastings West and Blair Brown returns as silver-haired Nina Sharp in her wheelchair filmed on the Olympic Village seawall.
  • Friday, November 16th – Fringe films pickup scenes with the panelled blue mini-van in Chinatown.
  • Friday, November 16th – Battlestar Galactica prequel Blood and Chrome with Ben Cotton – third & fourth webisodes online.
  • Friday, November 16th – Mr. Cranky Pants lives. CBC releases season two teaser for Yellowknife and Vancouver-filmed Arctic Air which moves to Wednesday nights in its second season next year.
  • Thursday, November 15 – Midnight screenings of blockbuster The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2. which was filmed in Vancouver, Squamish and Whistler.
  • Thusrday, November 15th – Arrow films police chase & shootout featuring Seth Gabel as season one’s big bad Vertigo on the second level of the Front Street parkade in New Westminster.
  • Thursday, November 15th – Sitcom Package Deal films its fourth episode in front of a live studio audience in Burnaby.
  • Thursday, November 15th – Bates Motel films on its permanent motel and Bates house set in Aldergrove, a replica of the Alfred Hitchcock set from his classic horror film Psycho.
  • Thursday, November 15th –  Vancouver detective series Motive films out in Aldergrove.
  • Thusrday, November 15th – Red Widow films near Victory Square.
  • Wednesday, November 14th – Misha Collins’s Castiel returns on Supernatural 8×07 & meets with Amanada Tapping (Stargate/Sanctuary)’s angel Naomi. Watch your back Cas.
  • Wednesday, November 14th – The Royal Flush Gang robs Starling Trust Bank on Arrow‘s ep. 1×06 filmed in the Read More »WEEK: November 12-18, 2012

BATES MOTEL Set in Aldergrove is Spitting Image of Alfred Hitchcock’s Set in Psycho – Updated

Update: Bates Motel set. September 2016. Production built the roof for the second season.

bamo-final13

The Bates Motel set out in Aldergrove on 272nd Street near the U.S. border is the spitting image of the motel set in Alfred Hitchcock’s horror classic Psycho, except for the missing top of the Bates house which will be CGIed in post-production. When I arrived mid-afternoon to see A&E’s upcoming series filming, only Mike Vogel’s deputy Sheriff seemed to be inside one of the motel rooms. When he crossed the road from set on his way to craft services I apologized for misidentifying him in yesterday’s blogpost about the Steveston shoot on the fishing boat.

If I’d stayed in Aldergrove I could have seen the Bates house on the hill lit up for a night shoot by a light on a hoist near 272nd Street and a balloon light in the garden  It would have looked scary as hell but I had to start heading back to Vancouver. This set is such a long way out that this will have to be my one and only visit unfortunately.

A&E’s contemporary Psycho prequel Bates Motel  focuses on a younger version of Psycho movie killer Norman Bates (Freddie Highmore) in present-day Oregon and explores his relationship with his unhinged mother (Vera Farmiga) as he approaches his evil destiny.  Lost co-showrunner Carlton Cuse penned most of the 10 episodes which are  described as a cross between Twin Peaks and Smallville.

[Update: At the start of filming the motel sign was Seafairer Motel as in the original Psycho but changed to Bates Motel once this reimagined Bates mother and son bought it]

Read More »BATES MOTEL Set in Aldergrove is Spitting Image of Alfred Hitchcock’s Set in Psycho – Updated

SHOOT: Who’s Holding a Gun on RED WIDOW Mob Boss Goran Visnjic at Guiness Tower?

Who’s holding a gun on Goran Visnjic (ER)’s Russian mob boss Nicholae Schiller at the Guiness Tower in downtown Vancouver for the final episode of Red Widow’s first set of eight? Telling would ruin the surprise. Inspired by a popular Dutch TV series, Red Widow is an upcoming ABC series about San Francisco widow Marta Walraven forced to replace her mobster husband as head of a crime syndicate after his murder in order to protect her family: sons Gabriel and Boris and daughter Natalie. The series wraps its initial order of eight episodes at the end of the week with the option of more after it premieres next year.

Read More »SHOOT: Who’s Holding a Gun on RED WIDOW Mob Boss Goran Visnjic at Guiness Tower?

SHOOT: FRINGE Team Avoids Checkpoint in Gastown in 5×11

Fringe closed the 200 block of Columbia Street in Gastown today to create a checkpoint for our Fringe team — Peter, Olivia, Walter and the child Observer — to avoid in episode eleven of the final season. The day’s filming started early in the alley east of Columbia St. (decorated with resistance posters) where not much could be seen. I left for a time because of the rain and when I returned I learned I’d missed the one scene of cast exiting the alley on foot. Instead I got to see the comedy stylings of Fringe on the first take of Joshua Jackson’s Peter driving the panelled blue mini-van down the street and not being able to turn into the alley as he was supposed to because of  a throng of background performers clogging the sidewalk. Everyone cracked up as Jackson tooted the horn (not very stealthy if you want to avoid a checkpoint) and then backed up the mini-van to the starting point. Many smoother takes later Fringe wrapped filming mid-afternoon.

Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE Team Avoids Checkpoint in Gastown in 5×11

EMILY OWENS M.D. Filming at University of British Columbia’s Life Sciences Centre – Updated

Tonight on hospital dramedy Emily Owens M.D., Emily (Mamie Gummer) vies with her high-school nemesis Cassandra (Naomi King’) to be Dr. Bandari’s research assistant and to stop Cassandra from getting more time with Emily’s crush Will (Justin Hartley) in episode four. But will it work? Cassandra will do anything in her pursuit of Will and seems to be succeeding, as we see from a scene for upcoming episode eleven filmed last week at the University of British Columbia’s Life Sciences Centre dressed as Denver Memorial Hospital.

Emily Owens M.D. crew filmed a tracking shot last Thursday of Emily and her friend Tyra (Kelly McCreary), the lesbian daughter of the chief of surgery, standing in line at the prop Get Your Fix coffee cart as background performers carried floral arrangements from the prop Kiss and a Rose flower company van into the Life Sciences Centre, where other crew was setting up a gala set in the atrium. Emily and Tyra are joined in line by Cassandara and Will, also carrying garment bags. So of the main cast, I got a chance to see everyone on location but surgical resident Dr. Mica Barnes (Michael Rady) and rock star surgeon Dr. Gina Bandari (Necar Zadegan). If I’d stayed for the night shoot inside the atrium of the Life Sciences Centre, I might have seen the cast all dressed up to film the hospital gala scenes but hopefully will get the chance to see it on screen.

Read More »EMILY OWENS M.D. Filming at University of British Columbia’s Life Sciences Centre – Updated

EMILY OWENS M.D.’s Justin Hartley: A Worthy Crush – Updated

With Emily Owens M.D. sadly heading for cancellation, I took advantage of a big shoot at the University of British Columbia’s Life Sciences Centre last week to take some photos of Emily’s med school crush — Justin Hartley’s surgical intern Will Collins. No stranger to Vancouver, Smallville’s Oliver Queen/Green Arrow is definitely worthy of Emily’s romantic obsession.

Mamie Gummer’s Emily awkwardly confessed her love for Will in the season premiere and got shot down kindly, only to discover at episode’s end that her high school nemesis, Aja Naomi King’s Cassandra Kopelson, is pursuing a receptive Will.  Backtracking from embarrassment, Emily tries to pretend she is Okay with Will’s rejection until he clarifies that he does care for her but doesn’t want to wreck their friendship.

Last week, Emily fruitlessly looked for flaws in Will as he stripped off his shirt in front of her. Later he brought her a banana and a condom as a visual aid for her high school talk on safe sex and then helped her work off her anger at a STD boy recklessly infecting high school girls by teaching her how to bat balls off the roof of the Life Sciences Centre. So it doesn’t look like Emily will get over Will any time soon, even as Cassandra proves willing to do anything to get him, as we can see below in this scene from the [eleventh] episode.

But with Emily Owens M.D possibly wrapping filming in two more episodes, I anticipate a happy ending for Emily and her crush [Update: I’m not so sure about that now that the show is definitely wrapping at thirteen. Emily was “Done with Will” by the end of this episode after he showed himself to be blind to Cassandra’s rudeness at the gala. Her patience has run out. Maybe a different happy ending is in store for her.]

Read More »EMILY OWENS M.D.’s Justin Hartley: A Worthy Crush – Updated