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Jennifer Morrison

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Robert Carlyle & Jared Gilmore in Steveston’s Kuno Garden for Season Finale 2×22

Once Upon a Time is filming in Steveston for [four] full  days for its season two finale — And Straight on ‘Til Morning. Wednesday, March 27th, was Day Two and began with cast — including Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Josh Dallas — on set for an early morning runthrough around 8:30 a.m. in the Kuno Garden at the 75-acre waterfront Garry Point Park, west of the historic village of Steveston. Real-life couple Goodwin and Dallas took a quiet stroll together in the sun after and then headed back to circus while crew set up for the morning scene of Emma and her parents, Charming/David and Snow/Mary Margaret, driving up to the garden in Charming/David’s truck and walking into the Japanese-style memorial garden where the emotional moments took place.

Related: Day 1 – Captain Hook on his Pirate Ship Set off the Steveston Docks

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Robert Carlyle & Jared Gilmore in Steveston’s Kuno Garden for Season Finale 2×22

SHOOT: Wooden August Becomes Young Pinocchio at ONCE UPON A TIME 2×18 Shoot in Fort Langley

August (Eion Bailey) found redemption on Once Upon a Time last night, becoming a “real boy” again after years of wrongdoing by being as Brave, Truthful & UnSelfish as Pinocchio is supposed to be.  We have not seen wooden August in the second season, partly to accommodate Bailey, who was cast as the male lead in Jerry Bruckheimer’s drama pilot Trooper but the Covert Affairs/ER actor became available again in the new year when TNT chose to pick up to series the to-be-filmed-in-Vancouver Maxwell & King instead of Trooper. I hope last night doesn’t mark Bailey’s exit from the modern fairy tale series.

Related: Eion Bailey & Michael Raymond-James film Manhattan flashback scenes in Gastown

Once Upon a Time filmed the scenes of the Blue Fairy (Keegan Connor Tracy) waving her wand over the dead wooden August (Eion Bailey) on February 12th at the Fort Langley Community Centre dressed as Storybrooke Town Hall, previously messed-up in 2×03 to show the destructive path of the wraith. August tries to warn Emma (Jennifer Morrison) about Neal/Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James)’s fiancee Tamara  (Sonequa Martin Green) before dying. Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin) rush to August’s aid, with Snow  distraught to see him die because she needs to believe in redemption. But Henry (Jared Gilmore) is the one who realizes August can be saved because of his sacrifice. And so it happens. The Blue Fairy waves her wand and wooden grownup August regresses back to the real boy Pinocchio (Jakob Davies) he once was to the delight of his father Geppetto (Tony Amendola). Pinocchio will do better this time.

Read More »SHOOT: Wooden August Becomes Young Pinocchio at ONCE UPON A TIME 2×18 Shoot in Fort Langley

WEEK: March 18-24, 2013

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: Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James & Jared Gilmore on Pirate Ship Set in Steveston for 2×16

Update: This deleted scene appears on the season 2 DVD-Blu-ray.

So Rumplestiltskin’s son Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James) spent some time in Neverland, where he made the acquaintance of Captain Hook (Colin O’Donoghue) and learned how to sail a pirate ship. And that explains why Bae isn’t a couple of hundred years old, as some smart Once Upon a Time fans calculated he would be, if born during the Ogre Wars. Some have even speculated that Bae is Peter Pan too. Not necessarily but it will be interesting to see his Neverland backstory.

Father-and-son Bae and Henry sail the pirate ship set from Manhattan (Gastown) to Storybrooke (Steveston) while Emma walks  past them from the stern in the scene below. Is a dying Rumplestilstkin (Robert Carlyle) somewhere on board? And what about his assailant Hook? Likely tied up and left behind in Manhattan (Gastown).

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Read More »SHOOT: Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James & Jared Gilmore on Pirate Ship Set in Steveston for 2×16

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Good vs Evil Showdown for 2×16

A Once Upon a Time good vs evil showdown played out right in front of me in Steveston in mid-January. From a window seat inside Storybrooke Coffee (Steveston Coffee) behind Regina (Lana Parrilla) & Cora (Barbara Hershey) — holding the Dark One’s dagger — I watched as mother-and-daughter blew the door off Mr. Gold’s. Crew simply asked us not to stare at the camera when it was set up in Mr. Gold’s doorway.

© 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

And we kept watching as crew carried stunt mats into Mr. Gold’s for the big sword fight throwdown inside with cast and stunt doubles.

GOOD (Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James, Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin)

© 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Good vs Evil Showdown for 2×16

WEEK: February 25 – March 3, 2013

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME – A Series as Epic as the Movies

A Series as Epic as The Movies Every Single Week

Once Upon a Time makes TV looks like the movies every week. Revolutionary Z.E.U.S. visual effects technology allows the modern fairy tale series to be as epic as a movie on a TV budget. If you looked through a camera lense or a monitor in studio in Vancouver you would see scenes rendered in real time while the cast performs on mostly empty green screen stages. And beautiful British Columbia has a hand in creating stunning backdrops too with on-location filming in our forests, deserts and oceans for Fairy Tale Land and in the village of Steveston for present-day Storybrooke.

But Once Upon a Time would be just pretty pictures if  the creators and cast didn’t bring emotion to the stories they tell. Here are some promo photos of the actors who make us care about fairy tale characters week after week.

Charming (Josh Dallas) and his daughter Emma (Jennifer Morrison) on location in Steveston south of Vancouver.

ABC/AUTUMN DE WILDE

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME – A Series as Epic as the Movies

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Rumple Family in Gastown for 2×15 – Updated

That’s one messed up family. Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle)’s long-lost son Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James) turns out to be Henry (Jared Gilmore)’s father Neal, much to Emma (Jennifer Morrison)’s dismay. After a lot of yelling, most of the secrets are out, and it’s time for this estranged family to get to know one another in Gastown dressed as Manhattan.

[Update February 25th: Once Upon a Time tweeted a section of the script for the scenes I photographed.]

© 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

The actors who play the Rumple family are not estranged. They have the best time portraying these characters. Jennifer Morrison and Michael Raymond-James have been cracking each other up since Tallahassee, laughing and joking in between serious takes. And  you can see Raymond-James gets on well with both his TV father Robert Carlyle and son Jared Gilmore in these photographs taken in Gastown on January 9th.

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Rumple Family in Gastown for 2×15 – Updated