Tag Archives: Granville Street
YVRSHOOTS Series – FRINGE Wraps in Vancouver
Published December 14th, 2012 on Vancouver is Aweome
WEEK: November 5-11, 2012
- Sunday, November 11th – Once Upon a Time‘s Red Riding Hood/Ruby-centric episode 2×07 Child of the Moon.
- Sunday, November 11th – Glen Schaefer (The Province)’s feature on Brent Butt’s big movie No Clue – No Bogart in this Joint
- Friday, November 9th – Fringe reveals the child Observer whom Walter hid in a pocket universe in the sixth episode of the final season, Through the Looking Glass and What Walter Found.
- Friday, November 9th – Red Widow films on the North Vancouver waterfront.
- Friday, November 9th – Bates Motel films in Fort Langley.
- Friday, November 9th – Battlestar Galactica prequel Blood and Chrome with Ben Cotton debuts first and second webisodes
- Thursday, November 8th – Vancouver sitcom Package Deal tapes its pilot in front of live studio audience in Burnaby.
- Thursday, November 8th – Brent Butt’s No Clue films in Coal Harbour on a yacht with a follow boat and a technocrane photographed by Rusty Deluce.
- Thrusday, November 8th – Emily Owens M.D.’s Mamie Gummer & Justin Hartley film at UBC’s Life Sciences Centre,
- Thursday, November 8th – Fringe films episode eleven on the platform for the West Coast Express at the Waterfront station with Loyalist soldiers, Peter, Olivia, Walter and the child Observer.
- Thursday, November 8th – News of AMC and Netflix nearing deal for surprise third season of The Killing via Deadline.com.
- Thursday, November 8th – News of Twilight fans already lining up for Monday’s Los Angeles premiere of The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn 2
Kate Chooses Between Two Hunks on #FairlyLegal Finale, But What About Lauren?
In tonight’s Fairly Legal season finale on the USA Network, Kate Reed (Sarah Shahi) has the tough job of choosing between two romantic interests – her ex-husband Justin (Michael Trucco) and her new law partner Ben (Ryan Johnson). How many more shirtless hunk scenes does she need? Not that I’m complaining.
But what about Kate’s widowed stepmother Lauren? After nearly two seasons of grieving, Lauren (Virginia Williams) lets her hair down in a whirlwind romance with sexy, wealthy Brit Robin Archer (Lloyd Owen). Here’s a scene from the season finale, filmed in Vancouver, of the pair leaving the Reed & Reed Law Offices (SFU Segal Graduate School of Business on Granville Street) and getting into his chauffered car.
But is Robin Archer all that he seems? Apparently not. And will Lauren follow him to the dark side or lose the first big romance she’s had since the death of her husband? We’ll have to watch to find out.
Fairly Legal’s season finale airs Friday, June 15, at 9 p.m. on USA Network in the U.S. and Thursday, June 28, at 10 p.m. on Showcase in Canada.
PERCY JACKSON: SEA OF MONSTERS: What are they doing to Grover in a Downtown Vancouver Alley?
Is the cast of Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters always running? It seems that way but that’s based only on a handful of scenes I’ve seen filmed for the sequel. After Logan Lerman’s Percy and Douglas Smith’s Tyson spent the morning running up the 500 block of Granville Street yesterday, Alexandra Daddario’s Annabeth joined the half-brothers in the 400 block to run into a smoke-filled alley to rescue Brandon T. Jackson’s Grover from a trio of bad guys. This time, Lerman’s Percy Jackson carried a sword.
That’s the top of Grey Damon (The Secret Circle)’s head, the only one of the three young thugs I recognized in the alley, filled with smoke from smoke machines and a green screen. Earlier I saw them rehearsing grabbing Brandon T. Jackson from behind. And later I saw one of these young thugs on the ground. Stabbed by a sword?
Grover’s seeming abduction could be a big spoiler, judging from the prop Washington D.C. taxis and a hundred or so background performers walking back and forth on Granville Street in front of the alley during each take, making it almost impossible for passersby and fans to see the scene.
Crew also attempted to shield the cast with umbrellas between takes but it didn’t work too well with tall Douglas Smith and almost-as-tall Alexandra Daddario. And eventually Logan Lerman couldn’t be bothered, allowing a small group of lucky fans on his side of the street to take closeup photos of him, Smith and Daddario relaxing and chatting on a bench near their marks to start the run into the alley
I would like to see Grover’s satyr legs and horns before Percy Jackson 2 wraps here, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Percy and his friends head into the Sea of Monsters to find the mythical Golden Fleece to save Camp Half-Blood from attack by monsters in the second in the Percy Jackson and the Olympians franchise, a series of adventures based on Greek mythology. Filming is scheduled to wrap in Vancouver in mid-June and then production moves south to Lousiana.
Alpha Vampire’s Mansion in #Supernatural’s There Will Be Blood – Updated
Back in late March, I did a double take walking up Granville Street in the rain towards the Shannon Mews estate in Vancouver. All of sudden, Supernatural’s Jensen Ackles and Jared Padalecki rounded the corner below on scooters, turning into the lane where the extras van is waiting, on their way to their trailers parked behind the church. It was a hilarious sight, especially 6′ 4″ Padalecki astride the tiny bike. While I did have a camera in my pocket, I couldn’t get it out in time so you’ll have to imagine how funny the two Js looked riding these mini-bikes.
‘They must have used the bikes as a fun way to get to and from the shoot on the grounds of the Shannon Mews estate where they filmed scenes of Sam and Dean sitting in the orange not-the-Impala looking at the main mansion and then walking up to the front door.
And then inside the mansion which plays the home of the Alpha Vampire (Rick Worthy) from last season. From a sneak peek, it seems that in order to kill Leviathan head Dick Roman (James Patrick Stuart), the Winchester brothers must wash a bone in the three bloods of the fallen: the blood from a fallen angel, which could be Castiel (Misha Collins)’s; the blood from the ruler of fallen humanity, which could be Crowley (Mark Sheppard)’s; and the blood from the father of fallen beasts, which could be the Alpha Vampire’s from last season’s Live Free or Twihard, the first episode of Supernatural I ever saw being filmed.
#FreeLaurensHair on #FairlyLegal
Lawyer Lauren Reed, played by Virginia Williams, is letting her hair down in season two of the legal dramedy. The Fairly Legal ice queen and widowed stepmother to mediator Kate Reed, played by force-of-nature Sarah Shahi, has been transformed this season. Lauren and Kate are now roommates after Kate’s boat blew up in the last scene of the second season premiere and Kate is having her usual effect — Lauren’s already letting her hair down and re-entering the dating scene.
Fairly Legal even has its own hashtag #FreeLaurensHair. In a look ahead to the season two finale, here’s a photo I took of Virgina Williams’s Lauren on Tuesday with her hair down at work too, outside Reed & Reed law offices.
Tuesday was a very busy and extremely wet and miserable day of filming for Fairly Legal, which shot season two finale scenes in four different downtown Vancouver locations, including SFU’s Segal Graduate School of Business on Granville Street as Reed & Reed.
Late last night, Virginia Williams let her own hair down when the main cast went out carousing, following the wrap of second season filming here. Michael Trucco tweeted a great photo of Ryan Johnson,Williams, Sarah Shahi and himself posing with a six-foot-high pink Easter Bunny in Doulins Irish Pub. Sound like a good time was had by all.
But don’t worry, there is much left to see of Fairly Legal in Vancouver, at least on screen. Tonight Kevin Weisman (Alias’s Marshall Flinkman) guest stars on the second season’s episode four, Shine the Light, on USA Network. And the second season of Fairly Legal in Canada just started broadcasting last night on Showcase with the premiere episode, Sastisfaction,
Fairly Legal airs in the U.S. on USA Network at 9 p.m. on Fridays and in Canada on Showcase at 10 p.m. on Thursdays.
YVRShoots Series – Making of THIS MEANS WAR in Vancouver
Published February 27, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome
Thanks to real bro chemistry between Chris Pine (Star Trek reboot’s Captain Kirk) and Tom Hardy (Bane in upcoming The Dark Night Rises), the bromance in This Means War works much better than the actual romance, which flounders on the premise that Reese Witherspoon’s character is so supremely attractive that these two men would risk their friendship to war over her. Witherspoon is beautiful and an acclaimed actress but she’s miscast in this role. On the other hand, I had no problem with the idea of blending of action, romance and comedy — if done well — in a story of spy versus spy, who use their CIA resources against each other after they discover they’ve fallen for the same woman. But the execution of this movie felt choppy and clumsy in both writing and editing, as if three different movies had been spliced into one.
That might have been the case, judging from the number of Vancouver scenes cut in editing, including the ones I photographed below in Yaletown and North Vancouver’s Lonsdale Quay Market, as well as some at Gastown’s Incendio restaurant. Director McG (in my Yaletown photo with Tom Hardy & Reese Witherspoon) even shot three alternate endings to the romance, including a fun “homoerotic” one of Pine and Hardy in each other’s arms and Witherspoon with nobody — which I might have preferred.
This Means War opens with a spectacular action sequence on the roof of the Bentall 4 tower in Vancouver as Hong Kong. 
CIA agents and best buds FDR Foster (Chris Pine) and Tuck Hensen (Tom Hardy) are on a mission to stop arms dealer Heinrich, played by Til Schweiger of Inglorious Basterds fame, from acquring a WMD at a fancy hotel rooftop party.
YVRShoots Series – FRINGE is Trending in Vancouver and Worldwide
Published February 17, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome
A Skype discussion early this year led to an amazing social media campaign by Fringe fans to make sure people knew their ratings-challenged show was returning in mid-January with a Winter Premiere after a long two-month hiatus. For five consecutive Friday nights, their unique episode hashtags have trended on Twitter worldwide, in the U.S. and in Vancouver. You may have seen #crosstheline, #enemyofmyenemy, #observeitlive, #takethelead and #breakingout trending and wondered what they were. Feel free to join in tonight by tweeting this week’s hashtag #BeaBetterMan after 5 p.m. our time.
The Fringe Campaign organized by @Fringenuity is smart. Audience isn’t just about Nielsen ratings anymore. Fringe has proved itself a social media success with a big presence on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. I’ve participated in all five Twitter campaigns to date by live-tweeting during the west coast broadcast but not in the GetGlue campaign, where fans check in to Fringe and the show’s sponsors — Nissan Leaf and Sprint — live during commercials. Fringe is topping the trending charts at GetGlue too on Friday nights, with over ten thousand checking in. The ongoing campaign helps decision-makers see how much reach the unmeasured Fringe fandom has coming up on discussions between broadcaster FOX and production company Warner Bros TV about whether or not to renew the cult show for a fifth and final season.
Season Four began dramatically with one of the show’s trio of main characters — Peter Bishop — erased from existence and the absence of Joshua Jackson, the actor who plays him, from his hometown. See my YVRShoots series post Where is Peter Bishop? He returned to existence with a big splash at Reiden Lake in the Fall but as a stranger to his beloved Olivia Dunham played by Anna Torv and to his “father” Walter Bishop played by John Noble. See my YVRShoots series post Here is Peter Bishop. Peter remembers them but they don’t remember him in this altered timeline. Are they not his Olivia and his Walter?
We still don’t know about this Olivia and Walter but it was wonderful to catch a glimpse of the Fringe trio acting more like themselves this week at a CBC Vancouver shoot for an upcoming Spring episode, along with junior Fringe agent Astrid Farnsworth played by Jasika Nicole.
Fringe’s fourth season is divided into three acts — the Fall, Winter and Spring episodes. When World Series baseball on FOX unexpectedly pre-empted the eighth episode showrunners planned as their big Fall Finale it hurt the dramatic arc of the show and disappointed viewers.
So the Fall Finale became the Winter Premiere. In Back to Where You’ve Never Been, Peter Bishop decides to
YVRShoots Series – CBC Dramas ARCTIC AIR & REPUBLIC OF DOYLE Soar
Published January 31, 2012 on Vancouver is Awesome
Wow. The CBC is kicking simulcast-American-show butt this winter with its made-for-Canadians-by-Canadians dramas, comedies, unscripted and current affairs programs, led by set-in-Yellowknife aerial adventure series Arctic Air and set-in-St. John’s father-and-son private detective series Republic of Doyle. Both dramas premiered in the Million-Canadian-Viewers-Plus Club earlier this month and remain there after three episodes apiece, although Arctic Air dipped below a million viewers for its second outing before climbing back up.
While nothing is going to touch this country’s love for CTV’s simulcast of American comedy hit The Big Bang Theory, CBC shows like Dragons’ Den, the Rick Mercer Report, new comedy series Mr. D. and a rejuvenated Marketplace have all hit the Million-Plus Club and are winning or placing well in their time blocks. As is Global’s new hit mini-series Bomb Girls, filmed in Toronto. So what happened to CTV, proud home of Corner Gas, during this resurgence of homegrown shows? Well our most financially-successful Canadian TV network has no Canadian dramas or comedies on its prime time 2011-12 schedule so far although it remains a giant in covering Canadian news and sports.
Why are CBC’s dramas so popular this winter? Just as The Beachcombers represented B.C.’s West Coast to the world for almost twenty years, Arctic Air and Republic of Doyle showcase a specific region of Canada with adventure and humour, plus something new — sexiness. Feel free to argue, but Bruno Gerussi with his giant medallion on his overly hairy chest on The Beachcombers did not exude sexiness like today’s CBC leading men — Adam Beach of Arctic Air and Allan Hawco of Republic of Doyle.
Adam Beach has said he likes that the Arctic Air creators made his character Bobby Martin a “player”, especially because — in a sweet twist — Bobby’s first hookup on returning to Yellowknife is Frontier Hotel receptionist Candi played by Leah Gibson, who became his real-life girlfriend. Gibson is on Beach’s right in the photo below (the pair even kissed for the cameras). And Allan Hawco has been juggling dozens of women for two seasons and counting as swaggering Jake Doyle on Republic of Doyle in Newfoundland. Last week’s episode ended with his character in a hot kiss with his remarried ex-wife.
I was fortunate to be invited by the CBC to the red carpet premiere of Arctic Air at the Vogue Theatre on January 10th and an Actors Studio-style session at the Vancouver Film School with Republic of Doyle star and Newfoundland native Allan Hawco a week later.
It all began late last November when I got the chance to meet the stars of CBC’s 2012 Winter Season out in Aldergrove
YVRShoots Series – FAIRLY LEGAL’s Sarah Shahi Back for Second Season
Published November 24, 2011 on Vancouver is Awesome
The Vancouver crew of Fairly Legal owe its star Sarah Shahi a big thankyou this American Thanksgiving. If not for her, it’s unlikely the USA Network show would have returned to film a second season here.
Sarah Shahi is a force of nature. Network execs seriously underestimated her immense appeal in the lead role as Kate Reed, a San Francisco lawyer-turned-mediator with a messy personal life. See Shahi filming below in late August 2010 outside the SFU Segal Graduate School of Business on Granville Street turned Reed & Reed Law Offices, started by Kate’s dead father. Then having lunch with her estranged husband, played by Michael Trucco, outside Trees Organic Coffee, while prop San Franciso cabs circled the block.
And at the beginning of this month walking down the south steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery — obviously back in character as feisty Kate.
Some creative changes had to be made before execs would renew the legal dramedy, which while a solid performer in its first season was no breakout hit like other USA Network series. I heard and overheard on set in September 2010 how unhappy network executives were with the general tone of the series, which had the working title Facing Kate, so it wasn’t a surprise when they cut the first season order to ten episodes from twelve, although they claimed scheduling issues.
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