Skip to content

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.

PREMIERE: Debut of Toronto Crime Drama CRACKED Tonight on CBC

Published January 8th, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome

New crime drama Cracked premieres tonight at 9 p.m. on CBC, starring David Sutcliffe (Rory Gilmore’s Dad) as a troubled Toronto police officer and Vancouver actress Stefanie von Pfetten as a Toronto psychiatrist, who work together in a new Psych Crimes Investigative Unit. Unfortunately, I turned down an opportunity to interview them when they were in Vancouver last May for a media preview of CBC’s 2012-13 season but did photograph the new crime-fighting duo on stage with host Geroge Stroumboulopoulos.

Vancouver’s own PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Debuts on WATCH in the U.K.

Are Vancouver VFX dinosaurs better than the British ones? British audiences will get a chance to compare on Primeval: New World tonight when UKTV’s WATCH channel debuts the series, a spinoff of Britain’s own Primeval. In fact, ARC’s Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) even paid a visit from London to the Vancouver set last March to warn new team leader Evan Cross (Niall Matter) about something that has gone wrong and to have a laugh with the new cast.

Here’s a WATCH promo showing Evan Cross (Niall Matter) and a predator control officer (Tom Butler) looking for anomalies (time portals) in Stanley Park.

[sz-youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MBDXFUQA658″ /]

After you’ve seen the premiere, check out the making of the kickass stunt from the cold open, filmed at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce tower in downtown Vancouver. I wish I’d known about this shoot ahead of time.

Read More »Vancouver’s own PRIMEVAL: NEW WORLD Debuts on WATCH in the U.K.

BATES MOTEL Opens for Business on March 18th on A&E

Contemporary Psycho prequel series Bates Motel is back filming on its spooky Psycho replica motel and house set in Aldergrove today, a motel that officially opens for business on March 18th.
A&E announced the premiere date last Friday ahead of a Bates Motel-themed luncheon and panel at the Winter Television Critics Association (TCA) press tour in Pasadena. The 10-episode serialized season, which wraps filming in Vancouver late this month, is a present-day reimagining of the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock horror classic Psycho not a homage, showrunner Carleton Cuse told critics. This psychological thriller focuses on Freddie Highmore’s teenage version of future serial killer Norman Bates. living in present-day White Pine Bay, Oregon, and explores the dark backstory of  his relationship with his unhinged mother, Vera Farmiga’s Norma Bates, as he approaches his evil destiny.  Or “How I Stuffed My Mother”, as Daniel Fienberg from HitFix.com reportedly joked in the session.

PREMIERE: MURDOCH MYSTERIES Detective Enters 20th Century Tonight on CBC

Published January 7, 2013 on Vancouver is Awesome

Historical Toronto detective series Murdoch Mysteries begins its sixth season at 9 p.m. tonight on CBC with Yannick Bisson’s Detective William Murdoch investigating  the death of a man killed by the crash of a flying machine at the turn-of-the-20th-century. I had the chance to interview Bisson, who directed the premiere, at CBC Vancouver’s Open House and Food Bank Day late last year.
When the CBC re-ran season five of Murdoch Mysteries in the fall to better ratings than its first run on Citytv in the summer, it proved that the public broadcaster really is a “better fit”, as Bisson put it, for this period drama about a Toronto police detective using ahead-of-his-time forensic methods to solve crimes. Read More »PREMIERE: MURDOCH MYSTERIES Detective Enters 20th Century Tonight on CBC

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