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).
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
Sunday, February 10th – Battlestar Galactica prequel pilot Blood and Chrome starring Ben Cotton finally airs on Syfy. #ThereWillBeCylons.
Saturday, February 9th – New survey says 3 out of 4 British Columbians strongly support government tax incentives to help the BC film & TV production industry. Global TV report#SaveBCFilm
Friday, February 8th – CW pilot The Hundred–100 juvenile delinquents sent back to Earth after nuclear war–appears on BC Production List. To film from March 14th to April 4th.
Friday, February 8th – Once Upon a Time films in Lynn Canyon Park in North Vancouver.
Thursday, February 7th – Once Upon a Time turns Gastown into Manhattan again to film scenes for 2×18 Selfless, Brave and True.
Thursday, February 7th – Mayor Gregor Robertson talks #SaveBCFilm on Breakfast Television.
Thursday, February 7th – Once Upon a Time films in Lynn Canyon Park in North Vancouver.
Wednesday, February 6th – Psycho prequel Bates Motel with Freddie Highmore & Vera Farmiga wraps filming of its first season in Vancouver.
Wednesday, February 6th – Arctic Air 2×5 has big fight scenes filmed in Langley Airport hangar with former amateur boxer Aleks Paunovic in the ring. Read More »WEEK: February 4-10, 2013
Rachel Nichols will hijack Continuum’s official Twitter account @ContinuumSeries at 3 p.m. PT today to answer any questions you may have about her cop-from-the-corporate future show now airing its first season on Syfy in the U.S. Continuum is about CPS officer Kiera Cameron who travels back in time from Vancouver in the year 2077 to Vancouver present-day, caught up in an escape by a group of terrorists — Liber8 — who plan to change the future from the past by targeting the corporations which will come to rule the world.
Continuum began to film its second season here a couple of weeks ago on its police station set at the Plaza of Nations downtown. Often on location, the show was then spotted in Vanier Park filming near the Burrard Bridge and later shooting a stunt-fight in the CBC Vancouver parking garage with Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nicols) in her black hi-tech cat suit. [Update: The following week, the New York Times paid a set visit to Squamish where Continuum was filming scenes involving a helicopter and a wind tunnel.]
On Monday, Kiera Cameron’s Vancouver police partner Carlos Fonnegra (Victor Webster) joined her at a crime scene in Robson Square at the iconic Vancouver Public Library (aka Fringe Division Headquarters for Fringe fans). Someone is shot at a press conference and the detective duo try to determine where the shot came from. I’m embarrassed to admit that three of us watching could end up as unfocused Lookyloos at the crime scene filmed by a steadi-cam crew circling Nichols and Webster as they looked up at nearby rooftops. We wondered if we were in the camera shot but assumed we would have been asked to move. I like to think that I’m smarter about stuff like this on set, but apparently not.
Sunday, February 3rd – The Murder is Just the Beginning. An unprecedented ad campaign for Vancouver crime drama Motive, starring Kristin Lehman and Louis Ferreira, ahead of its debut on CTV after the Superbowl. My post for Vancouver is Awesome.
Friday, February 1st- Supernatural films for a second afternoon and evening in Queensborough on Duncan Street at a riverfront industrial property.
Friday, February 1st – Vancouver’s cop-from-the corporate-future series Continuum films in Squamish.
Thursday, January 31st – Supernatural films in Queensborough on Duncan Street at a riverfront industrial property. Impala spotted on set.
Thursday, January 31st – Bates Motel films on its motel/house set in Aldergrove for fourth day.
Wednesday, January 30th – CBC airs Arctic Air 2×04, with lots of hookups, including one — Bobby & Krista — I didn’t expect to see so early in the season.
Wednesday, January 30th – The CW airs Arrow 1×12 Vertigo featuring Seth Gabel as “The Count” with key scenes filmed on the Front Street Parkade in New Westminster.
Wednesday, January 30th – ABC picks up Vancouver crime drama Motive to air this summer.
Friday, January 25th – Vancouver sitcom Package Deal wraps taping of its first season in front of live studio audience in Burnaby, starring Randal Edwards, Julia Voth, Harland Williams and Jay Malone.
Updated April 21, 2013. Green skin suit for invisible fighting by Kiera.
After Continuum star Rachel Nichols wrapped her scenes at the CBC Vancouver parking garage on Friday night, crew brought out stunt mats and a stunt performer dressed in a green skin suit. It looks like she’s the stunt double for Kiera Cameron’s cop-from-the-corporate-future or could that be a Kiera double on the mat? We’ll have to wait to see the final VFXed scenes.
Continuum‘s cop-from-the-corporate-future Kiera Cameron (Rachel Nichols) is back in her black high-tech cat suit for a second season and was spotted kicking the crap out of some bad guys in CBC Vancouver’s parking garage last night. Other cast members commiserated on Twitter ahead of the “rain tower” night shoot, where Nichols got good and wet in front of a handful of fans, photographers and passersby on a closed block of Cambie Street downtown.
Crew set up rain towers on either side of the entrance for a “rain effect”. That seems odd to people who know how much it rains in Vancouver but it has to be a deluge to show up on camera.