ABC Studios

SHOOT: Robert Carlyle & Lana Parrilla Film ONCE UPON A TIME 2×19 in Steveston – Updated

by Susan Gittins
April 10, 2013August 3, 2013
Once Upon a Time

Update: “You’re Henry’s grandfather.” – Regina to Rumple

Rumplestiltskin/Mr. Gold (Robert Carlyle) and the Evil Queen/Regina (Lana Parrilla) seem to be on friendlier terms in 2×19 Lacey despite Cora and Regina’s efforts to kill him in The Miller’s Daughter. Of course the actors are real friends with no hard feelings about who tried to kill whom. Once Upon a Time filmed a scene in late February of the two evilish characters walking and talking in the background of Rumple’s son Baelfire/Neal (Michael Raymond-James)’s play swordfight with his son Henry (Jared Gilmore) in Fisherman’s Park.

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Neverland at Steveston’s Garry Point Park for Season Finale 2×22 – Updated

by Susan Gittins
March 31, 2013August 3, 2013
Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is filming in Steveston for [four] full days for its season two finale — And Straight on ‘Til Morning. Thursday, March 28th, was Day Three and began inside the Gulf of Georgia cannery with cast and stunt doubles on set for a big fight in present-day Storybrooke. Then in late afternoon, production moved to a beach in the 75-acre waterfront Garry Point Park, west of the historic fishing village. There they filmed a way-too-spoilery to-share scene on the beach with some Fairy Tale World characters and grownup Baelfire (Michael Raymond-James, who tweeted that Thursday was his final day of shooting season two). And then Once Upon a Time filmed a flashback of a night in Neverland, featuring the Lost Boys and young Baelfire (Dylan Schmid) in a row boat coming to shore. Filming was delayed until high tide receded and SPFX crew flooded the beach with smoke. So much smoke that it might have been Once Upon a Time’s smoke drifting northward that my ferry to Vancouver Island had to pass through on an otherwise sunny Good Friday.

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Robert Carlyle & Jared Gilmore in Steveston’s Kuno Garden for Season Finale 2×22

by Susan Gittins
March 31, 2013August 6, 2024
Once Upon a Time

Once Upon a Time is filming in Steveston for [four] full days for its season two finale — And Straight on ‘Til Morning. Wednesday, March 27th, was Day Two and began with cast — including Jennifer Morrison, Ginnifer Goodwin, and Josh Dallas — on set for an early morning runthrough around 8:30 a.m. in the Kuno Garden at the 75-acre waterfront Garry Point Park, west of the historic village of Steveston. Real-life couple Goodwin and Dallas took a quiet stroll together in the sun after and then headed back to circus while crew set up for the morning scene of Emma and her parents, Charming/David and Snow/Mary Margaret, driving up to the garden in Charming/David’s truck and walking into the Japanese-style memorial garden where the emotional moments took place.

SHOOT: Eion Bailey & Michael Raymond-James Film ONCE UPON A TIME 2×18 Manhattan Flashbacks in Gastown

by Susan Gittins
March 20, 2013August 3, 2013
Once Upon a Time

In early February, a savvy friend predicted that August would return to Once Upon a Time at that day’s shoot in Gastown dressed as Soho. So it wasn’t a complete surprise to find August’s motorcycle amid a dozen prop yellow NYC taxicabs parked on Columbia Street. Or when his August stunt double appeared on the Powell Street set. Or when Eion Bailey showed up along with Michael Raymond-James as Neal/Baelfire. The two men had a long animated chat while their Manhattan flashback scene was set up near the building used as Neal/Baelfire’s apartment.

Production asked us not to share the secret of August’s return and we agreed. It might have worked if others hadn’t seen the public scene in the afternoon of the two men talking and Sonequa Martin Green (The Walking Dead) as Neal’s future fiancee Tamara, bumping into Neal in take after take.

Selfless, Brave and True is the story of August — of a wooden Pinocchio made boy who grew up to be a man ashamed of his actions.

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME 2×17 Welcome to Storybrooke Promo Images

by Susan Gittins
March 17, 2013August 3, 2013
Once Upon a Time

Welcome to Storybrooke circa 1983. But not if you’re an outsider.

What happens after a New Jersey father (John Pyper Ferguson) and son (Benjamin Stockam) find themselves in Storybrooke in the early days of Regina’s curse?

Lana Parrilla, John Pyper-Ferguson, Jamie Dornan. © 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

SHOOT: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Emma Swan (Jennifer Morrison) & Neal (Michael Raymond-James) on Third Beach in Stanley Park

by Susan Gittins
March 16, 2013May 21, 2016
Once Upon a Time

Updated May 5, 2013 – Emma and Neal/Baelfire were checking whether devious Tamara (Sonequa Martin Green) was out running as she claimed instead of holding Regina captive, as Emma suspected. I didn’t notice that I’d photographed her in a lycra hoodie below.

This is Michael Raymond-James’s “big scene on a rainy beach” with Jennifer Morrison yesterday on Third Beach in Stanley Park. Sorry Swanfire fans. This doesn’t look particular romantic It seems Emma Swan and her baby daddy Baelfire have some issues to work out.

Once Upon a Time spent Friday shooting scenes on the forest trails above Third Beach with horses on set but took time out to film the beach scene around “magic hour”. At least what passes for the last hour of sunlight on a rainy day. The scene took less than half-an-hour to shoot with production assistants stopping joggers and walkers at both ends of the seawall during filming.

Update: Didn’t realize that I’d photographed Tamara (Sonequa Martin Green) jogging in her hoodie below.

SHOOT: Welcome To Storybrooke aka Steveston for ONCE UPON A TIME 2×17

by Susan Gittins
March 14, 2013September 18, 2013
Once Upon a Time

Oh you’re an outsider. Not that welcome then. In the first six weeks of Regina’s curse in 1983, New Jersey intruders Kurt Flyn (John Pyper-Ferguson) and his son end up in what is supposed to be undetectable Storybrooke, Maine.

That explains the high speed car chase on two blocks of Moncton Street in Steveston in late January. Once Upon a Time paid the business on both sides of those blocks to close for the day out of safety concerns. And hired 35 PAs (production assistants) to keep people back for flashbacks of Sheriff Graham (Jamie Dornan) and Regina (Lana Parrilla) in a high-speed chase of the intruders. Crew alternated scenes of stunt doubles driving fast in the Storybrooke Sheriff’s car and cast driving slowly in it down Moncton Street. At mid-morning, Once Upon a Time opened up the grassy park at the Gulf of Georgia Cannery (dressed as the Storybrooke Cannery) where people could watch the high-speed chase below from a safe distance.

PROMOS: ONCE UPON A TIME’s Good vs Evil Showdown for 2×16

by Susan Gittins
March 4, 2013March 7, 2013
Once Upon a Time

A Once Upon a Time good vs evil showdown played out right in front of me in Steveston in mid-January. From a window seat inside Storybrooke Coffee (Steveston Coffee) behind Regina (Lana Parrilla) & Cora (Barbara Hershey) — holding the Dark One’s dagger — I watched as mother-and-daughter blew the door off Mr. Gold’s. Crew simply asked us not to stare at the camera when it was set up in Mr. Gold’s doorway.

LANA PARRILLA, BARBARA HERSHEY — © 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

And we kept watching as crew carried stunt mats into Mr. Gold’s for the big sword fight throwdown inside with cast and stunt doubles.

GOOD (Jennifer Morrison, Michael Raymond-James, Josh Dallas and Ginnifer Goodwin)

© 2013 American Broadcasting Companies, Inc.

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

by Susan Gittins
March 3, 2013June 16, 2014
ABC Series

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

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.