SHOOT: FRINGE’s Epic Downtown Shoot with Five Exterior Locations in One Day for 5×10 – Updated

What a day. Fringe filmed sequences with Anna Torv’s Olivia Dunham, Joshua Jackson’s Peter Bishop , John Noble’s Walter Bishop, Blair Brown’s Nina Sharp and a mysterious boy yesterday in five different downtown Vancouver locations for the tenth episode of the final season. Crew dressed each location as the future Observer-occupied world of 2036 using a prop Ministry of Science van, a prop check point and traffic jam, a prop food cart, Resistance posters and dozens of background performers dressed as Observers, Loyalist soliders and citizens in 1940s clothing.

The day began in an alley on the east side of Granville St. next to Trees Coffee with a scene of Olivia walking round the side of the Ministry of Science van to meet silver-haired Nina Sharp in her wheel chair. Downtown workers waited patiently at the Canada Line exit during takes but nothing could stop the parade of Granville Street buses passing through the shot. Joshua Jackson and John Noble showed up early for the next sequence, set up in a rear loading bay in the alley on west side of Granville St. decorated with resistance posters. While waiting,  the TV father-and-son posed for photos with fans and  Jackson even joined the lineup at Trees Coffee where I was picking up a latte.

The next sequences took place in the 400 block of Hornby St. where Fringe crew had set up an Observer check point and traffic jam fo film scenes of Peter, Olivia and Walter in a old beater car turning the corner from West Pender onto Hornby and finding themselves stuck. One by one they exit  and walk into the east alley. Joshua Jackson stalled the car a few times. And during a break from filming he met up and chatted with goalkeeper Karina LeBlanc from the London Olympics bronze-medal-winning Canadian women’s soccer team to the delight of crew.

After LUNCH, Fringe moved to the other side of West Hastings to film in the plaza between the Terminal City and Vancouver Clubs. Can you spot the Observer from seasons two to four? This time Peter is the one meeting with Nina Sharp while Olivia waits by a food with a mysterious boy [Update: we later learn is Rowan Longworth’s child Observer,who bonded with Olivia in the first season after he was found in a basement that had been sealed for 70 years but played by a different young actor] and Walter buys a waffle stick (let’s hope it tastes better than an egg stick). How does Walter always manage to satisfy his food cravings, even in 2036? On a bulletin board opposite  the Waffle Sticks cart are more reminders of Etta on the ubiquitous Resist posters.

[Update: Among the missing on the board below are two crew members – sound mixer Eric Batut  and department head makeup Calla Dreyer]artment Head Makeup.]

And then it was on to the night shoot at a parking garage entrance in the east alley off the 400 block of Hornby where the Observer checkpoint and traffic jam had been. I saw Joshua Jackson on set before calling it a day, several hours before episode director Jeffrey Hunt did. Here he is early on chatting with Fringies opposite Trees Coffee on Granville Street.