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Moncton Street

SHOOT: Jorge Garcia’s The Giant in Steveston for ONCE UPON A TIME 2×13 Tiny

FE FI FO . . RUN! Three weeks from tonight, The Giant (Jorge Garcia) is back with a huge grudge and he’s unleashing his vengeance on the town of Storybrooke — after being kidnapped and brought there by Cora. He looks as angry as ever but maybe not so giant size.

I watched Jorge Garcia in costume do a scene of Anton the Giant furiously stomping along the street as cars swerved out of his way, filmed on a rainy December morning on Moncton Street in Steveston. Later, Once Upon a Time crew shot scenes of townsfolk running away from The Giant in terror as Charming (Josh Dallas) and Snow (Ginnifer Goodwin with a bow and quiver of arrows on her back) stand their ground.

Read More »SHOOT: Jorge Garcia’s The Giant in Steveston for ONCE UPON A TIME 2×13 Tiny

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Hook & Smee on Dave’s Fish & Chips Roof in Steveston for 2×11 – Updated

Now that we’ve seen Colin O’Donoghue’s nefarious and dangerously seductive Hook heading into Storybrooke on his pirate ship in the last scene of Once Upon a Time’s mid-season finale, it’s no longer a big spoiler where I photographed him in early November or who he was with.

Once Upon a Time crew put a fake chimney on top of Dave’s Fish & Chips in Steveston south of Vancouver to film scenes of Hook and Christopher Gauthier’s Smee spying from the roof. It’s probably not a coincidence that Dave’s Fish & Chips is next door to Mr. Gold’s on Moncton Street. After all, Hook has come to Storybrooke to exact his revenge on Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold. Or that his henchman Smee, who already abducted Rumplestiltskin’s beloved Belle once at the behest of her florist father, plays a role in Hook’s plans.

Watch your backs RumBelle. As Colin O’Donoghue told TVLine earlier this month: “Belle is such a huge part of Rumple’s life…She might figure into the equation.”

[Spoiler Update: After what I saw Once Upon a Time filming this morning, I’m no longer sure that Belle is Hook’s target. The cloak Hook is holding belongs to Bae.]

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Hook & Smee on Dave’s Fish & Chips Roof in Steveston for 2×11 – Updated

SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10

It was such a cold, wet October day in Steveston south of Vancouver when Once Upon a Time filmed the happy family reunion of Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow, Josh Dallas’s Charming, Jennifer Morrison’s Emma and Jared Gilmore’s Henry walking arms round one another past the Storybrooke Library for tonight’s mid-season finale. But there was so much joy. I laughed when I saw Goodwin coming out of the cast van wearing an old-fashioned rain bonnet to protect her Mary Margaret pixie cut. Only Goodwin could look cute in one of these. And when Goodwin walked back from one of the takes with her arms outstretched like a monster.

But it’s been a long wait for this reunion scene to appear on screen. So it’s a bonus to have our season two villains, Barbara Hershey’s Cora and Colin O’Donoughe’s Hook, heading into Storybrooke on his pirate ship in the final scene. I photographed this dastardly pair disembarking from the ship at Steveston’s Britannia Shipyards a few weeks before Once Upon a Time filmed the reunion scene. Storybrooke is going to be one busy place in the new year.

Read More »SHOOT: Charming Family Reunion in ONCE UPON A TIME Mid-Season Finale, 2×10

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Process Trailer Scene in Steveston for 2×12 – Updated

Sometimes when Once Upon a Time films in Steveston, there isn’t much to see. Or what we see can’t be talked about. Wednesday afternoon and evening are examples of those kinds of shoots. Crew wrapped Mr. Gold’s in what looked like a giant white marshmallow for the afternoon shoot so that even doorway scenes weren’t visible.. Luckily for those waiting outside,  Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin (Robert Carlyle) stopped by after he wrapped to pose for photos with a couple of Fringe fans who’d gone out for the day to see another show filming. The Australian Fringie told me Mr. Gold said she sounded just like his Belle (Aussie Emilie de Ravin who wasn’t on set).

For the night shoot, crew lit up Moncton Street for a driving scene with Regina’s Mercedes on a process trailer going round and round in a loop filming a conversation inside.  We were asked not to photograph while they were rolling but it was OK to take a few shots of the process trailer parked outide Sara’s Old-Fashioned Ice Cream after cast left.

Then Once Upon a Time filmed a scene of [David Anders dressed in hospital scrubs] running south down Second Street at a good clip. Probably because it was bloody freezing. By then, even the Fringe fans had packed it in and decided to opt out of Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Process Trailer Scene in Steveston for 2×12 – Updated

BIG READ: Steveston & Fort Langley Messed Up By Magic for ONCE UPON A TIME

Published July 30th on Vancouver is Awesome

How big a hit is Once Upon a Time? The rookie fairy tale series was American TV’s second biggest drama hit (in the prized 18-49 demo) last season, below veteran Grey’s Anatomy but above veteran NCIS. And that’s put the fictional town of Storybrooke, Maine, on the map. Filmed in metro Vancouver, pieces of Storybrooke can pop up anywhere from Steveston to North Vancouver to New Westminster to Fort Langley, but Main Street is usually Moncton Street in the village of Steveston and sometimes Glover Road in the village of Fort Langley, 50 kilometres away.

In last season’s jam-packed finale, a couple of things happened: the curse was broken so all the fairy tale characters trapped in Storybrooke for 28 years now know who they really are and soon after, magic swept through the town courtesy of Rumplestiltskin. And what a mess that magic has made in season two, as we see from on-location shoots in Steveston last week and Fort Langley the week before for episode two. Crew turned two blocks of Moncton Street in Steveton into a disaster zone, with a big green-screen hole in the Storybrooke Hardware & Paint sign, uprooted ashphalt, overturned and smashed-up cars, a downed telephone pole, blown-out windows, and the hull of a boat near the main intersection. Over on Glover Road in Fort Langley, the windows in the Storybrooke Town Hall (Community Centre) were boarded up, posters of The Missing covered the town boards, a fire truck and fire fighters were on hand and the populace was in relief mode handing out blankets, bottles of water and toilet paper.

Fortunately, fans in both locations got to see main cast alive and well amid the destruction and to meet them too, with a couple of big exceptions: Ginnifer Goodwin’s Snow White and Jennifer Morrison’s Emma Swan are nowhere to be found in Storybrooke. What’s happened to them?Read More »BIG READ: Steveston & Fort Langley Messed Up By Magic for ONCE UPON A TIME

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