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Michael Kopsa

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

LEO AWARDS: Film BECOMING REDWOOD & TV series CONTINUUM & ARCTIC AIR Top 2013 Nominations

Last night’s Leo Awards nominations, celebrating the best of B.C.-made film and television, favour Jesse James Miller’s 70s-era coming-of-age film Becoming Redwood, Vancouver-cop-from-the-future TV series Continuum and northern adventure TV series Arctic Air. The many tweets of congratulations to all the nominees today are a great way to recognize B.C.’s creative talent ahead of tomorrow’s provincial election. So please go vote and as the hashtag says, #SaveBCFilm. 

Becoming Redwood‘s 14 nominations include well-deserved director and writing nods for Vancouver-born-and-raised 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.

Related: Jesse James Miller’s Becoming Redwood Opens at International Village

In the television category, Continuum dominates with 16 nominations, including nods for creator and UBC grad Simon Barry for his season one finale script End Times and for performances by Richard Harmon, Brian Markinson, Jennifer Spence and Liber8 “terrorist” Lexa Doig. Lead cop Rachel Nichols is not nominated but she is American and not considered a BC actor, even though she lives here for half-a-year each season and owns Vancouver Canucks season tickets (what more do you need?)

Over at Arctic Air, bona fide BC actors Kevin McNulty and Pascale Hutton are nominated for their lead performances on the filmed-in-Vancouver-and-Yellowknife aerial adventure series, two of 14 nominations for the CBC show. Read More »LEO AWARDS: Film BECOMING REDWOOD & TV series CONTINUUM & ARCTIC AIR Top 2013 Nominations

PROMO: FRINGE 5×11 The Boy Must Live Promo Images at West Coast Express Station

Instant sci-fi classic Fringe’s third-to-last episode called “The Boy Must Live” airs next Friday, January 11th, with more of Peter, Olivia and Walter’s desperate attempts in 2036 to figure out pre-ambered Walter’s plan to save their world from the Observer overlords. A plan that seems to involve both the child Observer Michael and the series’ pivotal Observer September, who was revealed to be the mysterious Donald in 5×10 but with greyish hair on his not-bald head? Walter uses his Harvard lab’s infamous deprivation tank (I’m betting buck naked unlike Olivia in the first season) to try to connect with September/Donald, while Captain Windmark, the final season’s Big Bad, pursues his own agenda. Or as the FOX network logline says:

Walter enters the deprivation tank in hope of uncovering information about Donald; Capt. Windmark embarks on a revealing mission.

Is pre-ambered Walter’s plan to reset time, as Olivia says in a promo? That’s the most popular fan theory but if successful to what time? In one of the promo scenes, Loyalist soldiers are all over a monorail station platform. Fringe filmed this in early November at the Waterfront Station for the West Coast Express in downtown Vancouver. FOX promo photos below show Joshua Jackson’s Peter and John Noble’s Walter Bishop tracking Loyalist soldiers on the platform while Anna Torv’s Olivia Dunham does the same inside one of the train cars.

©2012 FOX BROADCASTING CO. CR: LIANE HENTSCHER/FOX

©2012 FOX BROADCASTING CO. CR: LIANE HENTSCHER/FOX

Fans who got close to the West Coast Express platform, when cast and crew moved east along it, witnessed an interesting scene involving Read More »PROMO: FRINGE 5×11 The Boy Must Live Promo Images at West Coast Express Station

WEEK: December 3-9, 2012

SHOOT: FRINGE’s Peter Bishop Uses Observer Tech to Manipulate Captain Windmark in 5×08 – Updated

Whatever happens, it’s clear that the Observer Occupation of 2036 is under siege on Fringe. Captain Windmark can still make a clumsy human bow down in episode eight, filmed near B.C. Place a few weeks ago, but tonight’s episode — The Bullet that Saved the World — marks a (#) TurningPoint in the resistance.

Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE’s Peter Bishop Uses Observer Tech to Manipulate Captain Windmark in 5×08 – Updated

WEEK: October 15-21, 2012

SHOOT: FRINGE’s POlivia on the Vancouver Art Gallery Roof in a Rainstorm for 5×08 – Updated

Fringe crew set up for filming on the Vancouver Art Gallery’s north plaza last night in a torrential downpour and then filmed scenes in slightly less of a deluge. The last hours of filming for the final season’s eighth episode turned out to be one wet slog. Background women were allowed to keep their umbrellas for the scenes to protect their hair and 1940s garb but background Observers had nothing but their fedora hats to keep them dry during a take. [Update: POlivia filmed highly emotional scenes on the roof under a scrim of Anna Torv’s Olivia convincing Joshua Jackson’s Peter Bishop to take the Observer tech out of his head.]

Earlier in the day, Joshua Jackson’s Peter and Michael Kopsa’s Captain Windmark were spotted heading to set inside CBC Vancouver [where they filmed a stunt fight in empty office space on the east side] but rain-drenched fans only observed Kopsas’s Windmark at the night shoot when I was there.

Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE’s POlivia on the Vancouver Art Gallery Roof in a Rainstorm for 5×08 – Updated