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Ian Tracey

WEEK: May 27 – June 2, 2013

  • Sunday, June 2nd – Two-hour season 3 premiere of The Killing on AMC. A year after the Rosie Larsen case, Stephen Holder has cleaned up and buffed up to become Smolder (Joel Kinnaman after RoboCop role) and Sarah Linden (Mireille Enos) has left the Seattle police force and learned how to smile, living and working on Vashon Island (played by Bowen Island). Then Holder catches a case of a teen hooker with her head almost cut off, very like one of Linden’s old cases. But the convicted killer in Linden’s case is on death row (Peter Sarsgaard). Is someone new preying on Seattle street kids? 
  • Sunday, June 2nd – Vancouver cop-from-the-future series Continuum 2×06 Second Truths on Showcase: Kiera (Rachel Nichols) must use her knowledge of the future to stop a serial killer while keeping a curious Carlos  (Victor Webster) in the dark but when Kiera’s life is threatened she realizes she could die without anyone knowing she ever existed so she shares her secrets with Carlos. Finally!
  • Sunday, June 2nd – Continuum films over the weekend at the BCIT Aerospace campus in Richmond. Crew played parking lot hockey outside on a break today but filmed inside in the atrium. Wrap party on Monday.
  • Friday, May 31st –  Continuum films its season finale inside CBC Vancouver for the third day in a row (May 29-31)
  • Friday, May 31st – More reshoots for Seventh Son – June 3 – 13th – on BC production list.
  • Thursday, May 30th – YVRShoots Series: Brent Butt & Nancy Robertson Host Leo Awards on June 8th.
  • Thursday, May 30th – Vancouver whydunnit Motive 1×003 Pushover airs on ABC.
  • Thursday, May 30th – Godzilla has night shoot at Kent Hangar field with lights on lifts and giant inflatable green screens.
  • Thursday, May 30th – Leo Awards  announces special presentation to honour The Beachcombers: 357 episodes shot in Gibson’s Landing over 19 seasons & aired in 50 countries. Jackson Davies will represent the cast.
  • Wednesday, May 29th – Psych season 7 finale. Anthony Michael Hall guest stars as police consultant brought in to interview Shawn (James Roday), Gus (Dulé Hill), Lassiter (Timothy Omundson) and Juliet (Maggie Lawson) about their shoddy police work. Explains why we’ve seen Lassie in uniform in season 8. He’s been demoted.
  • Wednesday, May 29th – Psych turns half a block of Gastown into London to film Dule Hill’s Gus as a Hogwarts escapee from the Harry Potter movies and James Roday’s Shawn as a cowboy?
  • Wednesday, May 29th – Final round of voting begins for CineCoup Final Five with six Vancouver teams  — Alien Abduction, Bad, Scam, Grade Nine, The Fall & The Mill and the Mountain —vying for $1-million in produciton financing. YVRShoots Series
  • Wednesday, May 29th – Rogue season finale 1×10 Killing Grace/ While Grace Read More »WEEK: May 27 – June 2, 2013

BIG READ: Vote for 6 Vancouver Film Teams Vying for CINECOUP’s $1-Million – Updated

Published May 31st on Vancouver is Awesome

Update June 10, 2013 – Regina’s Wolf Cop won the $1-million in production financing and guaranteed release.

How did this crazy-good film-accelerator competition start? Back at VIFF’s Film & TV Forum, CineCoup founder and Vancouver digital media entrepreneur J. Joly made a two-hour presentation and then took it on the road to other major cities across Canada. The official launch party took place at the Whistler Film Festival in early December. Word spread and 90 teams from every region submitted two-minute trailers and then began weekly filmmaker missions in March designed to help them package a pitch and build an early fan base with social media tools. Soon after, a trailer with clips from the entrants started a year-long run in 1200 Cineplex theatres nationwide. Over several rounds of fan votes, the 90 whittled down to ten in mid-May, with six of the finalists from here —Alien Abduction, Bad, Grade Nine, Scam, The Fall and The Mill and the Mountain. Let me repeat: six out of ten from Vancouver!

Read More »BIG READ: Vote for 6 Vancouver Film Teams Vying for CINECOUP’s $1-Million – Updated

LEO AWARDS: Brent Butt & Nancy Robertson Host Leo Awards on June 8th

Published May 29, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome

Hometown comedy couple Brent Butt and Nancy Robertson are set to co-host the 15th anniversary of the Leo Awards, celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television, at the Westin Bayshore Hotel on Saturday, June 8th. Expect more than the usual hijinks with professional comedians as hosts and and a crowd of outstanding homegrown nominees led by Vancouver born-and-bred Jessie James Miller’s feature film Becoming Redwood with 14 nominations, Vancouver-cop-from-the-future series Continuum with 16 nominations and filmed-in-Vancouver-and-Yellowknife aerial adventure series Arctic Air with 14 nominations.. For tickets, click here.

The 1970s era coming-of-age film Becoming Redwood‘s 14 nominations include well-deserved director and writing nods for Jesse James Miller and performance nods for Ryan Grantham as the young golf-obsessed long-haired title character Redwood; Jennifer Copping (Miller’s wife) as Redwood’s mother; Chad Willett (producer) as Redwood’s draft-dodging, pot-dealing father; Derek Hamilton as Redwood’s red-neck stepfather Arnold and Scott Hylands as Arnold’s basement-dwelling elderly father Earl. Miller shot the Vancouver International Film Festival’s most popular Canadian feature in rural Langley for 24 days in the late spring of 2011. By contrast, Random Acts of Romance, the only other motion picture nominee I’ve seen on screen, filmed in several downtown and East Van locations like the Waldorf Hotel, as befits a movie whose tagline is “Sex, Abduction, Stalking and You Thought Romance Was Dead” about interconnected Vancouverites. Director Katrin Bowen is nominated for the twisted romcom, as is Sonja Bennett for her performance as a wacky stalker.

Becoming Redwood production still – courtesy of Jesse James Miller

In the television category, Continuum dominates with 16 nominations for its first hit season, including nods for creator and UBC grad Simon Barry for his season finale script End Times about time traveller Kiera Cameron’s failure to stop “terrorist” group Liber8 from blowing up a downtown tower, a definitive moment in her corporations-rule-the-world future. Continuum digitally-imploded an Arthur Erickson-designed tower on West Georgia on screen and then filmed the aftermath on a blast-and-rubble set at CBC Vancouver.

Read More »LEO AWARDS: Brent Butt & Nancy Robertson Host Leo Awards on June 8th

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: 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

BIG READ: Vancouver Film Crews at Work – #SaveBCFilm

Published February 15, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome

One Valentine’s night. Three shoots. Vancouver production crews worked late into the night on Valentine’s Day to film scenes for TV series Supernatural, Arrow and Vancouver’s own Continuum in the downtown area. I looped around from Supernatural on Station Street beside Pacific Central Station to Arrow on Franklin Street near the Terminal City Ironworks complex to Continuum at the Plaza of Nations and back again to capture our crews at work.

Supernatural crew worked inside and outside the Ivanhoe Hotel at the rear on Station Street, not packing up until 2 a.m. One exterior scene had Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) arriving at the motorhome below and possibly loading a prop dead body into the trunk of a car. Arrow set up on Franklin Street either in or near the Terminal City Ironworks complex in east Vancouver to film motorcycle scenes in the morning, Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) in a rooftop meeting and much later, someone shooting arrows into a black town car. Wonder who? Arrow ran late so probably packed up past its scheduled 2 a.m. departure.. Continuum’s crew started early too at the Plaza of Nations on the dock to film scenes aboard Kellogg (Vancouver actor Stephen Lobo)’s yacht (Adriana), then moved inside their Vancouver police station set with background performers and back outside for night scenes aboard Kellogg’s yacht and a steadicam scene of mad time traveller Jason (Vancouver actor Ian Tracey).

6:22 p.m. – Supernatural crew ready to roll at motorhome.

Our crews work up to sixteen hours a day five days a week to bring scripts to life in all kinds of weather. Mostly cold and wet. Those lucky enough to still have jobs don’t have enough time to see their loved ones on Valentine’s Day far less watch the shows they work on. So no, these aren’t “Hollywood jobs”,  but they are good well-paid ones. And they’re leaving for Toronto because of Ontario’s superior tax credits.  As a result, Vancouver lost its bragging rights as North America’s third biggest film and TV production centre to Toronto (after Los Angeles and New York). And lately, it’s gone from bad to worse. British Columbia’s third biggest industry, generating over $1 billion, faced unprecedented unemployment last month. Read More »BIG READ: Vancouver Film Crews at Work – #SaveBCFilm

SHOOT: ROGUE Wraps Season One with Thandie Newton & Marton Csokas

Marton Csokas, Thandie Newton & Matthew Beard @2013

DirecTV’s  first original series Rogue stars Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2, Crash) as Grace, a morally-compromised undercover cop in Oakland, who’s cavorting with Marton Csokas’s crime boss, who may have been involved in her son’s death. Now that’s a complicated relationship. Rogue wrapped filming of its first season of ten episodes on Friday in Vancouver.

I found them on location twice this past week, filming their season finale. First on Monday in the pouring rain on a closed block of Heatley Avenue in the Downtown Eastside, dressed as Oakland. Thandie Newton walked back and forth between two of the sets in small houses, wearing a blue baseball cap, hoodie, coat, striped track pants and running shoes. If I didn’t know her role as an undercover cop, I would not have recognized her. And then on Tuesday in the pouring rain at the Burrard Ironworks building near the Main Street overpass dressed as MacArthur’s Bar, Marton Csoka came out on breaks carrying his own umbrella to read his script (Csoka also drives his own vehicle from circus to set). It’s unfortunate that miserable, neverending rain was a theme this week.

Here are more photos of Thandie Newton on Heatley Avenue as Oakland, California.

Read More »SHOOT: ROGUE Wraps Season One with Thandie Newton & Marton Csokas

SHOOT: ROGUE’s Marton Csokas Films at Bentall 5 Tower in Downtown Vancouver

DirecTV’s Rogue has been tough to find filming on location in Vancouver, so it was a pleasant surprise to spot them out in the open on Saturday afternoon at the Bentall 5 tower downtown dressed as Trade Investments. Production has been “hush hush”, one of their productions guys told me last week out at Deer Lake. No kidding. All we really know is that the American satellite network’s first original series stars Thandie Newton (Mission Impossible 2, Crash) as Grace, a morally-compromised undercover cop in Oakland, who’s cavorting with Marton Csokas’s crime boss, who may have been involved in her son’s death. Now that’s a complicated relationship.

Could Marton Csokas’s crime boss be the tall dressed-in-black mafioso type in the scene below? If so, Csokas (Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland) is virtually unrecognizable with jet black hair, except for his height. Joining him in the walk and talk out of Bentall 5 is BC’s own Frank Cassini. (Blackstone)  I also spotted BC’s own Ian Tracey (DaVinci’s Inquest, Intelligence, Sanctuary) on set but didn’t see him in a scene.

 

Ian Tracey is Detective Lucas “Mitch” Mitchel.

Of course, as often happens, I found Rogue again today filming inside La Terrazza, a Yaletown restaurant at Pacific and Cambie. And this time, Thandie Newton seemed to be on set, but I can’t be sure. Read More »SHOOT: ROGUE’s Marton Csokas Films at Bentall 5 Tower in Downtown Vancouver

Ian Tracey and Nicholas Lea Guest-Star on CONTINUUM Season One Finale

In early May, Continuum filled the 600 block Thurlow in downtown Vancouver with 125 extras, flashing prop Vancouver police cars, an emergency vehicle and a firetruck to film scenes of a bomb scare evacuation for last night’s season finale, featuring stars Rachel Nichols and Victor Webster and guest stars Ian Tracey (Da Vinci’s Inquest, Intelligence, Sanctuary), as the wonderfully wacky man from the future, and Nicholas Lea (The X-Files, V), as a suspicious CSIS officer. Unfortunately this bomb scare turned out to be a diversion and the building that Liber8 had targeted was the iconic Arthur Erickson-designed concrete tower at 1075 West Georgia next door.

Read More »Ian Tracey and Nicholas Lea Guest-Star on CONTINUUM Season One Finale