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YVRSHOOT: Magic Makes a Big Mess of Steveston’s Moncton Street in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×02

Magic has made a big mess of Main Street in Storybrooke (played by Moncton Street in Steveston south of Vancouver) for modern-day fairy tale series Once Upon a Time in episode two of the second season. Main Street is a disaster zone, with uprooted ashphalt, overturned and smashed-up cars, a downed telephone pole, blown-out windows, and the hull of a boat near the main intersection. Fortunately, the many local fans of the show could see some main cast alive and well amid the debris on the artfully-destroyed street.

Meghan Ory, Lee Arenberg and the Evil Queen herself, Lana Parrilla, did some early morning scenes, leaving the afternoon for Josh Dallas to chase a Mad Hat (see if you can spot the black top hat in the photos below) east along the street and then into the alley next to Storybrooke Country Bread. Dallas ran and ran and ran all afternoon in stages, and then met with fans at the finish. As I’ve said before, he’s a Prince Charming in real life, too.

When I returned in the evening, it looked like Josh Dallas was in for another bout of running, but to chase the Mad Hatter himself, Sebastian Stan, not a Mad Hat. Stan soaked his shirt with perspiration running west down the street in the evening heat. Why was he running from Charming? It seems the Mad Hatter knows something about the whereabouts of Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White and Jennifer Morrison’s Emma Swan, who are nowhere to be seen in Storybrooke. What’s happened to them? We’ll have to wait until season two begins airing to find out.

I don’t know how Once Upon a Time filmed so many scenes and managed the hundreds of fans who flocked to set all day and evening long. Read More »YVRSHOOT: Magic Makes a Big Mess of Steveston’s Moncton Street in ONCE UPON A TIME 2×02

Supernatural Films Season 8 Premiere at the University of British Columbia

Seeing both of the Winchester brothers filming the Supernatural season eight premiere at the University of British Columbia would have been quite the spoiler if producers hadn’t already revealed that it takes place a year after the events of the season seven finale and that Dean Winchester’s time in Purgatory will be told mainly through flashbacks. In today’s scene, Jensen Ackles’s Dean Winchester and Jared Padalecki’s Sam Winchester stroll down the Main Mall outside the CHEM building dressed in suits amid background performers.

I arrived just as they wrapped at the CHEM building so I decided to head to the White Spot outlet on the west side of the Main Mall to pick up a Triple-O burger. Halfway there, I realized that Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki were headed to the same place, tossing a football back and forth on the way. Supernatural had booked the patio for the next scene.

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Jensen Ackles Directs Co-Star Jared Padalecki in Supernatural for Ep. 8×03

It’s deja vu all over again. Supernatural’s first location shoot of season eight is in the same area as the last location shoot of season seven — Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park opposite Nokia headquarters, which played nefarious Sucracorp in the finale. Even when I heard Supernatural was scouting the location a week or so ago, I didn’t think they would show up here today. But there on a bridge over the Fraser River Path at lunchtime were the Winchester Brothers themselves, aka Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki, accompanied by their bodyguard Clif.

Jensen Ackles is directing the first filmed episode of the season, as he has for the past two. One of the scenes —  for what will be episode three entitled Heartache —  consisted of Jared Padalecki’s Sam Winchester calling out to “Amelia” and then running off the bridge. Played by Liane Balaban, Amelia is expected to become Sam’s first girlfriend [in a long while]. Padalecki filmed the scene on the bridge with a canine co-star, who seemed to be as confused as the rest of us about which tall man in the plaid shirt was Padalecki and which was his standin (that’s Padalecki’s standin in the first photo below)

And here’s Jared Padalecki and his director Jensen Ackles arriving on set to discuss the scene.

Read More »Jensen Ackles Directs Co-Star Jared Padalecki in Supernatural for Ep. 8×03

PSYCH Films on July 4th And Returns to Comic-Con Next Week for 4th Year in a Row

I didn’t expect to see Psych —  American TV’s hottest fake psychic detective agency — filming on the most American holiday of the year:  July 4th, Independence Day.  I walked up to the set inside a Tudor-style apartment building on the southern edge of the South Granville neighbourhood in a rare bit of Vancouver sunshine. James Roday (fake psychic Shawn Spencer who solves crimes for the Santa Barbara police department with his superior observational skills); Dulé Hill (Shawn’s BFF and reluctant sidekick Burton “Gus” Guster) and Maggie Lawson (Santa Barbara police detective Juliet O’Hara and Shawn’s girlfriend) sat in their cast chairs outside, on a break from filming. Timothy Omundson (Santa Barbara police detective Carlton “Lassie” Lassiter and Shawn skeptic) joined them after hitting the craft table. It’s the first time I’ve seen Lassie on location this season.

Next week, more than four thousand lucky PSYCH-Os (either dressed as a pineapple or carrying one) will have the chance to both see and hear from all four leads at the standing-room-only, people-turned-away Psych panel at San Diego Comic-Con.

Read More »PSYCH Films on July 4th And Returns to Comic-Con Next Week for 4th Year in a Row

PSYCH Plays Ball in Nat Bailey Stadium for 6×05 Tonight on Global TV – Updated

Vancouver Canadians fans who stayed after the game in Nat Bailey Stadium a year ago to play extras in a Psych series baseball episode can see themselves in the crowd tonight on Global TV.

Psych’s fifth epsiode — Dead Man’s Curve Ball — of the sixth season is about the mysterious death of the fictional minor league Santa Barbara Seabirds’ hitting coach, with Danny Glover (of Lethal Weapon fame), Michael Trucco (Fairly Legal/Battlestar Galactica) and Baseball Hall of Famer and 1996 World Series Champ Wade Boggs as guest stars. James Roday’s “psychic” detective Shawn Spencer infiltrates the team as a hitting coach and Dule Hill’s Burton “Gus” Buster as Sammy the Seagull, a big white bird mascot with giant yellow webbed feet (looking very much like Mascot Hall of Famer, the San Diego Chicken).

Trained tap dancer Dule Hill performs some tap dance moves in a routine that doesn’t please the fake fans but ends with him face down on a platform near the field doing the worm as his giant yellow feet flop up and down.

Michel Trucco plays the Santa Barbara Seabirds catcher and a childhood idol of Shawn Spencer’s.

Read More »PSYCH Plays Ball in Nat Bailey Stadium for 6×05 Tonight on Global TV – Updated