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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.

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×11 The Outsider – Updated

Whatever else happens next Sunday on Once Upon a Time, it’s a Rumple vs Hook showdown on Hook’s pirate ship in the Storybrooke harbour with Belle watching as Rumple adminsters a beat-down with his cane. But later, when Rumple finds a way to cross the town line without losing his memory of Bae — “Now you can find your son, ” says Belle  — a bloodied Hook, holding a gun, is having none of it — “I wouldn’t count on it,” he tells Rumple. This is what I’ve been waiting for since The Crocodile episode showed us their backstory.

RELATED – Hook & Smee spying from a Steveston roof

Read More »PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×11 The Outsider – Updated

PROMOS: ARROW 1×10 Burned Promo Images – Updated

So how did Stephen Amell end up on so many Best-of-2012 lists? Yes, Arrow is a huge hit for The CW but it wasn’t the Vancouver-filmed show that got so many mentions. It was Amell’s abs, especially as displayed in the famous salmon ladder scene of the pilot. Entertainment Weekly paid tribute to Amell’s six-pack when they named him a Breakout Star of 2012. Amell confessed to the magazine that he wasn’t “ripped” before landing his star-making role but used Brad Pitt’s physical transformation for Troy as his inspiration to become the hooded vigilante.

Perhaps Amell’s abs will be on screen again on Wednesday, January 16th, in Arrow’s tenth episode called Burned. [Update: May be no abs in this episode since Amell’s Oliver Queen is thinking of hanging up his hood for good after being beaten by the Dark Archer. That is, until Laurel asks for his help investigating  the suspicious death of a firefighter.]

Here’s the logline:

Oliver goes up against an injured firefighter who, psychologically traumatized, has decided to take revenge on Starling City by commiting acts of arson while calling himself Firefly.

And the promo images featuring Stephen Amell’s Oliver Queen, Katie Cassidy’s Laurel Lance and guest star Andrew Dunbar’s Firefly.

© 2012 The CW Television Network

Read More »PROMOS: ARROW 1×10 Burned Promo Images – Updated

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

BEST of 2012 Lists

  • Friday, December 21st – Entertainment Weekly names Arrow‘s Stephen Amell a Breakout Star of 2012
  • Friday, Decmeber 21st – TV.com’s Top 100 Best of Everything ranks Fringe‘s animated homage to Monty Python as 75th
  • Wednesday, December 19th – TV.com’s Top 100 Best of Everything ranks the harness factory on Falling Skies as 98th.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – TV.com’s Top 100 Best of Everything ranks a guy exploding on The Secret Circle as 99th.

Read More »BEST of 2012 Lists

FRINGE’s Joshua Jackson & John Noble Have Fun in the West End Rain for 5×11, Part One of Series Finale

John Noble and Joshua Jackson had a lot of fun filming a father-and-son scene for the third to last episode of Fringe — The Boy Must Live — six weeks ago in the pouring rain of Vancouver’s West End.

[Update: Here’s a FOX video of the father-and-son scene Although we saw it filmed with many camera setups, we didn’t hear what they were saying. Be warned there are more spoilers, but these are ones FOX chose to share]

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BSulcmt5K0s#!” /]

John Noble’s Dr.Walter Bishop runs out of an alley onto Bute Street where Jackson’s Peter Bishop catches up with him. They have a long talk and then embrace in a big hug.

Read More »FRINGE’s Joshua Jackson & John Noble Have Fun in the West End Rain for 5×11, Part One of Series Finale

WEEKS: December 17-30, 2012

  • Friday, December 28th – SPACE channel marathon of Vancouver’s own dinosaur procedural Primeval: New World
  • Tuesday, December 25th – Arrow star Stephen Amell marries long-time girlfriend Cassandra Jean at sunset ceremony in the Caribbean.
  • Saturday, December 22nd – Psycho prequel series Bates Motel begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 7th, 2013.
  • Saturday, December 22nd – Vancouver sitcom Package Deal begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 7th, 2013.
  • Friday, December 21st – Fringe airs tenth episode of its final season featuring Olivia, Peter, Walter, Nina Sharp and the child Observer Michael filming in downtown Vancouver, the tragic but brave death of a favourite character and the answer to the question, Who is Donald?
  • Friday, December 21st – Sitcom Package Deal tapes in front of a live studio audience in Burnaby
  • Friday, December 21st – Bates Motel films at the Psychiatric Assessment building in the Burnaby Youth Detention Centre.
  • Friday, December 21st – Supernatural begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 8th, 2013.
  • Friday, December 21st – Falling Skies wraps filming of its third season.
  • Thursday, December 20th – Vancouver detective series Motive begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 6th, 2013.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – USA Network renews Psych for eighth season of filming. Here are the crime-fighting quartet — Shawn, Gus, Lassie & Jules.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Once Upon a Time casts Rose McGowan as younger Cora.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Once Upon a Time begins its holiday hiatus. Returns January 3rd, 2013.
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Emily Owens MD studio liquidation 10AM-6PM at North Shore Studios
  • Wednesday, December 19th – Second day of Supernatural filming inside Langara College library.
  • Tuesday, December 18th – Supernatural films inside Langara College library
  • Tuesday, December 18th – TV Guide reports Battlestar Galactica’s Baltar, aka James Callis, cast on Arrow.
  • Monday, December 17th – Vancouver dinosaur procedural Primeval: New World mid-season finale directed by Amanda Tapping Read More »WEEKS: December 17-30, 2012