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Susan Gittins

Longtime mainstream media (MSM) journalist and author Susan Gittins began writing about and photographing Vancouver’s many film and TV location shoots in the summer of 2010 after the Winter Olympics put the city and its beauty on the world stage. Movies and TV series often showcase the Vancouver area in similar fashion. Vancouver is Awesome commissioned her YVRShoots series in the fall of 2010 and it ran regularly for three years. She launched her own daily YVRShoots blog in the spring of 2012.

SHOOT: Happy Halloween PSYCH-Os. James Roday & Dule Hill Film in the North Vancouver Rain

Here’s the Blueberry and James Roday’s Shawn Spencer and Dule Hill’s Burton “Gus” Guster filming inside it in North Vancouver rain this Halloween day. Psych wraps filming of its seventh season tomorrow. So I was lucky to see the Blueberry scenes and then Shawn and Gus grabbing a whole mess of hot dogs from Santa Barbara’s Footlong and Fancy Free truck as another character drove by flashing a cardboard sign at them which read “Suck It”. No idea why but it looks like it will be fun.

Read More »SHOOT: Happy Halloween PSYCH-Os. James Roday & Dule Hill Film in the North Vancouver Rain

SHOOT: FRINGE Films in NYC Taxi in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 5×09

As streets began flooding in the real Manhattan yesterday morning and the east coast braced for Hurricane Sandy’s full impact, Fringe filmed scenes in a NYC taxicab in cloudy, wet Vancouver dressed as Manhattan under Observer Occupation in 2036. It sure put our rain in perspective.

I didn’t find the set until close to lunchtime and not long after Fringe wrapped and returned to studio for the rest of the day, so I don’t know if there were scenes other than John Noble’s Walter in the cab along with an unexpected guest star from seasons earlier. I won’t spoil the identity of that guest star until the producers choose to, because one of the joys of the final season is the way Fringe brings back or echoes former cases and characters. After the guest star wrapped, a Flex star car picked up her and Jasika Nicole’s Astrid, who must have been in that very crowded cab as well. I can’t imagine the risk they took talking in a cab with all those background Observers and Loyalist soldiers walking past. And on one of the background cabs driving by — a Reward Wire rooftop ad. Remember the creepy-good Captain Windmark-voiced Fringe teaser, Wanted: Peter Bishop, ahead of the season premiere?

Read More »SHOOT: FRINGE Films in NYC Taxi in Downtown Vancouver for Ep. 5×09

SHOOT: Brent Butt’s Big Movie NO CLUE Films Downtown

If you follow Brent Butt (Corner Gas/Hiccups) on Twitter then his feature film No Clue won’t be news to you. It took about three years to get into production and started filming in Vancouver two weeks ago. It’s big. And local. And it will be funny. No Clue is a “comedic mystery thriller” starring Butt as an in-over-his-head guy trying to figure out whodunit from a cast of suspects including Amy Smart, David Koechner, David Cubitt, Dustin Milligan, Dan Payne, and Kirsten Prout.

Brent Butt wrote the script, his production company Sparrow Media is producing it and Vancouver’s own Carl Bessai (Sisters & Brothers/Fathers & Sons) is directing it. I found No Clue at dusk yesterday wrapping a scene inside Finch’s Tea and Coffee House at West Pender and Homer and then moving across the intersection to the opposite corner to film the next scene.

A steadicam crew filmed Amy Smart (Shamelss/Scrubs) walking from the curb lane of West Pender, up onto the sidewalk and into the stone building on the corner. Then they took the cameras inside and filmed another scene of her coming into the building where Brent Butt was. I’m not sure if he was in the scene with Smart or on set in his role as writer/producer.

Read More »SHOOT: Brent Butt’s Big Movie NO CLUE Films Downtown

WEEK: October 22-28, 2012

  • Sunday, October 28th – Once Upon a Time‘s Halloween episode 2×06 reveals Dr. Whale’s Fairytale Land identity as Dr. Frankenstein.
  • Sunday, October 28th – City sitcom Package Deal with Hartland Williams, Julia Voth, Jay Malone and Randal Edwards tapes in front of a live studio audience in Burnaby.
  • Saturday, October 27th – Primeval: New World panel at London Comic-con with Niall Matter, Sara Canning, Danny Rahim and Andrew-Lee Potts.
  • Friday, October 26th – Fringe‘s shocker death of “Baby Bishop” in the pivotal fourth episode of the final season.
  • Friday, October 26th – Once Upon a Time back filming in Steveston for third day in same week. That’s a lot of on-location filming in one spot.
  • Friday, October 26th – The CW releases Supernatural promo photos of Misha Collins as angel Castiel and Stargate/Sanctuary’s Amanda Tapping as angel Naomi for upcoming episode 8×07 via TVLine.com.
  • Thursday, October 25th – Red Widow films a kiss that goes wrong in a Downtown Eastside alley with Wil Traval and Erin Cahill.
  • Thursday, October 25th – Arrow films a simulated fire inside the Terminal City Ironworks compound in east Vancouver with Stephen Amell on set.
  • Thursday, October 25th – The CW releases an Arrow November Sweeps month poster featuring Stephen Amell via TVLine.com
  • Thursday, October 25th – Cult films at Pacific Central Station with Matt Davis on set.Read More »WEEK: October 22-28, 2012

IN MEMORIUM: FRINGE’s Etta

Kidnapped as a child during Observageddon, Etta reunited with her amber-preserved parents, Peter and Olivia, and grandfather Walter in 2036. We had but a mere handful of episodes to get to know grownup Etta ( Georgina Haig) before she was killed by Captain Windmark last night in a shocker ending, filmed inside east Vancouver”s Terminal City Ironworks compound in early September. Kudos to the Fringies who were there and kept the secret of her demise for almost two months.

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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

SHOOT: RED WIDOW’s Night Shoot in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Midseason ABC series Red Widow set up for a night shoot yesterday in the alley east of Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.  A crew van dropped off cast Wil Traval and Erin Cahill, who walked arms around one another to set, already in character for a romantic kiss that goes wrong. I don’t know why her character ended up crumpled on the ground but this is a Russian mob drama. And Wil Traval’s Irwin Lazarev is a Russian mobster. So there are going to be casualties.

More photos

Read More »SHOOT: RED WIDOW’s Night Shoot in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

BIG READ: PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Dinosaurs Terrorize Vancouver Neighbourhoods

Published October 25, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome

Dinosaurs are running amok in Vancouver. And they’re hungry. New TV series Primeval: New World debuts this Monday, October 29th, on the SPACE channel.

A North American spinoff of the popular British series Primeval, co-showrunner Martin Wood describes the Vancouver version as a cop drama, but with dinosaurs as the crooks of the week. Very very large crooks. These anomalies suddenly appear and create havoc in our neighbourhoods like Stanley Park, Coal Harbour, downtown Vancouver, the Olympic Village, UBC’s Thunderbird Arena  and even a local Canadian Tire store.  And our dinosaurs are just as kickass as the British ones thanks to visual effects whiz Mark Savela. See the trailer.

Primeval: New World filmed its first 13-episode season here from early March to late July and I was lucky to spot Chuck Campbell, the guy-in-the-grey-skin-suit-carrying-a-sphere who becomes the computer-generated dinosaurs, in action. He chased an actor–jogger at the Olympic Village, who suddenly stopped, looked behind him, yelled “Holy Shit” and lept over a bench to try to get away. Now that’s acting. PNW star Niall Matter told InnerSPACE that in the first week of filming he couldn’t stop laughing whenever he looked at Chuck but quickly got over it.

Next Monday’s premiere introduces us to Niall Matter’s Vancouver software genius Evan Cross, Sara Canning’s animal attack behaviour expert Dylan Weir, Danny Rahim’s adventurer Mac Rendell Read More »BIG READ: PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Dinosaurs Terrorize Vancouver Neighbourhoods