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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.

Russian Mob Drama RED WIDOW’s Two-Hour Debut on ABC Tonight

Are we ready for a female version of Tony Soprano (The Sopranos) or Walter White (Breaking Bad) on American broadcast TV? Red Widow is about San Francisco widow Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell) forced to replace her husband in the Russian mob after his murder in order to repay his debt and protect her family — son Gabriel (Sterling Beaumon),daughter Natalie (Erin Moriarty) and son Boris (Jakob Salvati).

Her husband was killed by the mafia. In order to erase a [$1.5  million] debt and protect her family, she is willing to work with his killers. How far would you go? For one mother, the only way out is deeper in. No time to mourn.

That debt is owed to crime lord Nicholae Schiller (Goran Visnjic). “I don’t play games Mrs. Walraven. Ever.”  – Schiller

ABC/BOB D’AMICO

By the end of the first set of eight episodes, Marta Walraven won’t be as bad as Tony Soprano or Walter White but she will have gone from packing lunches to packing guns — with room to go darker.

Read More »Russian Mob Drama RED WIDOW’s Two-Hour Debut on ABC Tonight

WEEK: February 25 – March 3, 2013

Goran Visnjic as RED WIDOW’s Russian Mob Boss in Downtown Vancouver

Red Widow added Goran Visnjic to the cast after the pilot was filmed, much to the delight of his Vancouver fans who know him as noble Dr. Luka Kovac on ER.

But this time Goran Visnjic is not the good guy. He’s the Big Bad.  His Russian mafia is blamed for the shooting of Marta Walraven (Radha Mitchell)’s husband in the season premiere. She should be mourning but must work with her husband’s killers to repay the [$1.5 million ] debt owed to mob boss Nicholae Schiller (Goran Visnjic) and to protect her family.

I looked for Goran Visnjic early on at the Russian mob restaurant Cafe Rossiya played by Lana Lou’s restaurant in the Downtown Eastside but never caught him in an exterior scene until Red Widow’s season finale filmed at the Exchange Tower downtown. 

[Update: In the two-hour premiere, Goran Visnijic demonstrated his black belt in kung-fu in a sparring scene. Impressive.]

 

Read More »Goran Visnjic as RED WIDOW’s Russian Mob Boss in Downtown Vancouver

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Father-and-Son Bonding in Steveston for 2×19

Whatever else is going on in Storybrooke in the nineteenth episode of season two, newly-acquainted father-and-son Baelfire and Henry, and the actors who play them, continue to bond.

Michael Raymond-James and Jared Gilmore had an incredible amount of fun rehearsing and filming their play sword fight in Fisherman’s Park  in Steveston yesterday morning and early afternoon in front of passersby, local fans and two fans visiting from France.

Michael Raymond-James jumped on a picnic table at one point in their rambling play sword fight down the grassy hill of the park. And during one take, Raymond-James jokingly held his wooden sword to the throat of the boom operator once he’d moved out of frame.

Read More »SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Father-and-Son Bonding in Steveston for 2×19

SET: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Historical Storybrooke Map in Steveston – Updated

Once Upon a Time put up a new prop Historical Storybrooke map in Steveston today. I photographed it but haven’t had a chance to look at it closely, except to notice the absence of Storybrooke Town Hall (usually played by Fort Langley Community Hall).

WELCOME TO HISTORICAL STORYBROOKE

ACCOMODATION

1. Granny’s Bed & Breakfast

Read More »SET: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Historical Storybrooke Map in Steveston – Updated

CTV’s Vancouver Crime Drama Hit MOTIVE Wraps Filming of Its First Season


Motive Cast — Brendan Penny, Lauren Holly, Louis Ferreira, Kristin Lehman and Roger Cross — CTV promo image

The murder is just the beginning. There’s always a motive and Vancouver homicide detective Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) will find it. Filming wrapped last Friday on Motive’s thirteen-episode first season.

Motive debuted in a prime but delayed post-Super Bowl slot on CTV to 1.23 million Canadians, the culmination of an unprecedented publicity campaign by CTV for a Canadian show. Normally, only CTV’s American simulcast shows get this scale of rollout. And in a sweet twist, American network ABC has picked up the Vancouver crime drama for broadcast this summer.

Ratings held steady after Motive’s move to its regular 9 p.m. on Sundays slot, dipping for the second episode but rising back over one million for the third episode, to give Canada’s #1 new drama a series-to-date average of 1.06 million viewers.

Instead of a regular whodunit that focuses on who did the crime, Motive is a whydunit that focuses on why the crime was committed in the first place. The Killer and The Victim are revealed to the audience at the top of the show and we follow detectives Angie Flynn (Kristin Lehman) and Oscar Vega (Louis Ferreria) as they uncover the reasons behind the murder.

Read More »CTV’s Vancouver Crime Drama Hit MOTIVE Wraps Filming of Its First Season