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.
Kokanee’s The Movie Out Here hits theatres next Friday. It’s a B.C. version of Hot Tub Time Machine meets Old School populated with your favourite characters from the beer commercials like the Sasquatch, Kokanee Ranger and Glacier Girls plus a new buddy ranger duo Glacier and Fresh. Robin Nielsen, Viv Leacock and James Wallis co-star as old friends who band together to fight a land developer in the ski town of Fernie as itself. I met the Kokanee Ranger and his successors Glacier and Fresh and interviewed Nielsen and Leacock on set at Alouette Lake (before the two-week Fernie shoot), while crew filmed Wallis watching Glacier Girls change bikini tops on the beach for a Kokanee commercial within the movie.
Stephen Amell could work as a stunt performer if he didn’t have a job already as the star of Arrow. His Oliver Queen/Hood stunt double Simon Burnett did the jump and running sequence first in Gastown — jump from the roof of the grey van in the alley over a semi-trailer piled with plywood crates onto the street, slide over the trunk of a yellow Starling City cab and run into the other side of the alley. Camera crew let me stand behind them to watch three or four takes with Simon Burnett and then the last one with Amell himself. Amell did the exact same sequence as well as Burnett but instead of coming to a halt just past the camera, Amell blasted by me down the alley. I could have snapped one more photo but risked him running right through me. Automatic set ban? For sure. This is not to take away anything from Simon Burnett. He’s the one who jumped from the Hotel Gastown roof to the top of a parkade. And he’s the one who smashes through candy glass windows feet first as the Hood. But Amell is simply amazing.
Perennial Saturn Awards (sci-fi, fantasy & horror) winner Fringe gets a final hurrah this year with a nomination as Best Network Television Series and individual nominations for Joshua Jackson as Best Actor, Anna Torv as Best Actress, John Noble as Best Supporting Actor and Blair Brown and Lance Reddick as Best Guest Stars. Fringe won Best Network Television Series in 2010 and 2011 so it could go out with a three-peat. Anna Torv already has a three-peat with Best Actress on TV awards in 2009, 2010, and 2011. John Noble got the win as Best Supporting Actor on TV in 2010. And Leonard Nimoy picked up Best Guest Actor on TV in 2009.
Other filmed-in-Vancouver productions scoring nominations include Once Upon a Time, Supernatural, The Killing, Falling Skies, Arrow and Vancouver’s own Continuum.
That’s one messed up family. Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle)’s long-lost son Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James) turns out to be Henry (Jared Gilmore)’s father Neal, much to Emma (Jennifer Morrison)’s dismay. After a lot of yelling, most of the secrets are out, and it’s time for this estranged family to get to know one another in Gastown dressed as Manhattan.
[Update February 25th: Once Upon a Time tweeted a section of the script for the scenes I photographed.]
The actors who play the Rumple family are not estranged. They have the best time portraying these characters. Jennifer Morrison and Michael Raymond-James have been cracking each other up since Tallahassee, laughing and joking in between serious takes. And you can see Raymond-James gets on well with both his TV father Robert Carlyle and son Jared Gilmore in these photographs taken in Gastown on January 9th.
Sunday, February 17th- Vancouver crime drama Motive 1×3 airs on CTV, filmed in Queen Elizabeth Theatre as cruise ship terminal.
Friday, February 15th – Godzilla reboot with Bryan Cranston, Eliabeth Olsen and Aaron Johnson and a script by The Walking Dead’s Frank Darabont gets filming dates on BC Production list. March 1st to June 1st
Friday, February 15th – American TV pilots Backstrom (CBS), Big Thunder (ABC), Blink (The CW), Joel Wyman’s InHuman (FOX) and Rita (Bravo), appear on BC Production List. For details click here.
Thursday, February 14th – Motive films in North Vancouver near Marine Way & Capilano.
Thursday, February 14th – Continuum creator Simon Barry nominated for Writers Guild of Canada Screenwriter Award. Also on cover of Screenwriter magazine.
One Valentine’s night. Three shoots. Vancouver production crews worked late into the night on Valentine’s Day to film scenes for TV series Supernatural, Arrow and Vancouver’s own Continuum in the downtown area. I looped around from Supernatural on Station Street beside Pacific Central Station to Arrow on Franklin Street near the Terminal City Ironworks complex to Continuum at the Plaza of Nations and back again to capture our crews at work.
Supernatural crew worked inside and outside the Ivanhoe Hotel at the rear on Station Street, not packing up until 2 a.m. One exterior scene had Sam and Dean Winchester (Jared Padalecki and Jensen Ackles) arriving at the motorhome below and possibly loading a prop dead body into the trunk of a car. Arrow set up on Franklin Street either in or near the Terminal City Ironworks complex in east Vancouver to film motorcycle scenes in the morning, Moira Queen (Susanna Thompson) in a rooftop meeting and much later, someone shooting arrows into a black town car. Wonder who? Arrow ran late so probably packed up past its scheduled 2 a.m. departure.. Continuum’s crew started early too at the Plaza of Nations on the dock to film scenes aboard Kellogg (Vancouver actor Stephen Lobo)’s yacht (Adriana), then moved inside their Vancouver police station set with background performers and back outside for night scenes aboard Kellogg’s yacht and a steadicam scene of mad time traveller Jason (Vancouver actor Ian Tracey).
6:22 p.m. – Supernatural crew ready to roll at motorhome.
Our crews work up to sixteen hours a day five days a week to bring scripts to life in all kinds of weather. Mostly cold and wet. Those lucky enough to still have jobs don’t have enough time to see their loved ones on Valentine’s Day far less watch the shows they work on. So no, these aren’t “Hollywood jobs”, but they are good well-paid ones. And they’re leaving for Toronto because of Ontario’s superior tax credits. As a result, Vancouver lost its bragging rights as North America’s third biggest film and TV production centre to Toronto (after Los Angeles and New York). And lately, it’s gone from bad to worse. British Columbia’s third biggest industry, generating over $1 billion, faced unprecedented unemployment last month. Read More »BIG READ: Vancouver Film Crews at Work – #SaveBCFilm
