Tonya and I woke to the alarm clock and packed our bags. Today we would transfer to the Fairmont Hotel in the center of downtown Vancouver. The bus for the location tour would be leaving at 9, and if we were lucky we could get checked in to our room before that. After settling the bill and suffering through one last pathetic excuse for a breakfast, we hit the road.
Traffic going over the Lion's Gate bridge was not as bad as we'd anticipated, and Mrs. GPS took us straight to the hotel with no problems. And WOW, what an upgrade. This was the convention hotel, and clearly very ritzy. And we were able to get a room! We found the parking garage and got to the room and unpacked and by the time we went outside, we were just in time for the tour bus. A rare stroke of good fortune!
The tour was led by Russ Hamilton, Supernatural's location manager and his assistant, Al. It was obvious he loved his job (and all it's perks) and did a fantastic job entertaining us between stops. He told us some great behind-the-scenes stories as well, and it really opened my eyes to all the work that goes on to make a tv show. Very high pressure, high paced 'shell game'. Gotta be able to think fast and plan on things going wrong--and be prepared to fix them. Long hours.
First stop was the house from the episode 'The Magnificent Seven':
Next (sort of) was the field behind the house, where the standoff between Lucifer and Micheal in 'Swan Song' was filmed:
Then we stopped at the place where Jensen directed his first episode (not yet aired), but couldn't get much else information...
Across the street, next to a quaint little park, sits the house from Croatoan (and part of it will be shown in Jensen's episode):
A little further down the road we stopped at another location for the Jensen-directed future-episode, a shut down pier that Russ had been waiting to use for a very long time. It will be used for a Bobby scene.
It was now lunch time but the catering company was AWOL, so Russ's assistant took us down the road to an intersection where they'd wrecked a semi. By the time everyone got back to the bus, lunch had arrived back at the pier.
We had soup and sandwiches (not bad, but too much food for 50 people!) and even cookies and brownies for dessert. Everyone seemed to enjoy it.
Our next stop (and my favorite by far) was the 'Metro', a swinger's club where 'Hammer of the Gods' was shot. What a cool, sexy room...
Across the street sits a hotel that was used for a future-episode...
Next we headed to Fraser Park, where different spots have been used in about 20 episodes. Russ led us past the bridge from Hook Man and to the spot where Dean surfaced from his grave and told us how they had to haul in their own dirt so as not to 'destroy' the land, and also had to work around the eagle nests in the adjacent field.
The last stop was the Burr House, where the Thanksgiving scene was shot in 'Dark Side of the Moon'.
I kept wondering what it would be like to have a scout knock on your door and ask if you'd let a production crew film a TV show in your house. Each of the places we went were functioning and had residents. We saw (and talked to) the occupant of the Croatoan house. He had a German shepherd chained in the back yard that was clearly disturbed by the group of girls taking pictures of the house. I would be too...
The tour was interesting, but don't know if I'd do it again. But it was one way to see more of Vancouver...
Back at the hotel, Tonya and I met up with Theresa and Marie and ate dinner at Earl's, a Vancouver (Canadian?) favorite. I ordered fish and chips (advertised as world-famous) but it just didn't measure up to a meal wrapped in paper, by the sea, while fighting the wind and the seagulls...
The four of us wound up in Marie and Theresa's room afterward and we chatted pretty late, mostly about hot guys. Tomorrow the guests start to arrive...
1 comment:
Aw, that would have been fun. It'd be cool to visit the locations and to remember them from the show. I particularly like that they had to work around eagles in the next field for one location. I'm glad they're good at making television and also sensitive about wildlife.
I haven't thought much about people being asked to loan their house to a television studio, but imagine living in that house and having hoards of fans loitering around, taking photos. If we ever get asked to do that, we'd have to make sure we moved if the show ever became a hit. ;-)
Did you see any actors? I'd love to go onto a working set. It'd be neat to see movies actually being made.
Fish and chips in paper.... *happy sigh*
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