morleymooseisontheloose: Random Victoria

Back in Vancouver after nearly 5 months working on T.V. show called Gracepoint, filmed in Sidney and Victoria. (click on Gracepoint to see the official Fox trailer.) This is a North American remake of a hit show in the U.K. called Broadchurch. This shot is at the the set that was the Gracepoint police station. (This is only part of the amazing crew that worked on this 10 episode drama due out the end of August or early September)

Arriving in January, there was still some cold weather in store for the show. This is at a place called the Beachcomber R.V. park near Sidney. It was of one of many locations used in the Victoria area.

A lot of the pictures on this blog are random, (hence the name), I took a lot of shots, but only recently had the time to download them. This is one of the pics that the location escapes me. (I think it is Discovery Island, off of Oak Bay)

Downtown Oak Bay, a beautiful little community bordering with Victoria. This main street will play as downtown Gracepoint, California in the t.v. show. This was a winter's day in January.

back to the beachcomber r.v. park

Sidney, a funky little retirement community just south of the Swartz bay ferry terminal.

We would spend a lot of time at the Saanich fair grounds, a small community between Sidney and Victoria. We staged a lot of our film vehicles there.

A shot of downtown Victoria from Esquimalt.

This winter shot was just outside the Oak Bay marina, another one of our staging areas. I took a lot of pictures of this view, because it was always changing.

Another spot we filmed near the Swartz Bay ferry terminal

One of the marinas in Sidney

How it got to Sidney from Okanagan Lake, I have no idea.

back at my favourite view looking out from Oak Bay towards the Olympic mountains and Washington state.

Including Mt. Baker.

A beautiful but chilly early spring day at the Beachcomber R.V. Park

Looking across from Island View Beach Park, towards Beachcomber R.V. park, where you can sort of see one of the beach sets for the show.

Island View Beach Park, close to Sidney, looking out towards James Island.

A very specialized piece of equipment. An all terrain camera vehicle with an extendable arm for high and wide camera shots.

Looking in my rearview mirror.

A shot of our "circus", all the vehicles needed for on location shooting, it's quite a production. This is at Clover Point in Victoria.

Another of of the filming locations for Grace Point, the beach close to Clover Point

Out by Sidney, a jogging path that was used in one of the scenes.

More ocean shots by Oak Bay

This was really cool, they changed the Oak Bay banners to Gracepoint banners on the main street.

This film sound van also doubled as a "picture car", Oak County crime scene unit.

Spring finally arrived in Victoria

This is a guess, but I think it is the marina in Sidney

A drive by the navy base in Esquimalt.

More evidence of spring.

This was special to me. My dad was based here in part of the 50's and 60's.

A heron checks it all out

My son came over for a week-end and we went to Fort Rodd hill and Fisgard Lighthouse national histroic site.

Let's hope they are not real, not much of a fence to get through.

The beach at Fort Rodd

Junior getting some spring rays.

The Fisgard Lighthouse

More engery than I've got.

my son, the poser.

it was a gorgeous day

Inside the lighthouse

behind the lighthouse

poser

randomly back to spring

no captions because I do not know my flowers!,

I went to visit my sister and her husband in an area called Ten Mile Point, part of Victoria, and the most easterly point of Vancouver Island.

Right back at you! (my brother-in-law Les.)

Beautiful. Looking out on Cadboro Bay.

back to Random, this cemetary out by North Saanich, across from Patricia Bay, was used as one of the locations for the t.v. show.

back at the Beach Comber r.v. park

I could of sworn we were still in Canada.

all these r.v. were placed here especially for the t.v. show. (but it actually is an r.v. park in the summer time, just not these ones)

every detail is covered to make this look like northern California

This was a rehearsal for the funeral for the murdered boy in the show. (looks too real for me)

I was parked close by. What is that small sign?

dogs can't read, but can they understand pictures?

along the water close by

this will be used as the pov, (point of view) for the cliff from where the boy supposedly fell from in the show.

had a bit of a chance to wander around downtown Victoria, a lot of old heritage buildings.

but my random slot of pictures takes back to the shores by Oak Bay.

This is the door inside the a.d. (assistant director) trailer that travels to the different locations. The names are of the characters, and they are but on the trailers so the actors know which dressing room is theirs.

Sometimes the film crews take over the neighbourhood. The van driver was the last to park on the street, completly blocking it for local traffic. (not a good idea)

another one of the filming locations was in a funky neighbourhood of Victoria called Fernwood.

Back to Oak Bay

One of our cast drivers, I thought it was funny to put a gum ball on her hood, she didn't think so.

A lot of the actors and the directors stayed at the Oak Bay Beach Hotel, it was fabulous. This was the view from the director's room, pretty hard to take.

marina in Sidney

This rustic cabin was also one of the filming locations.

fernwood

back in Sidney

the entrance to chinatown in Victoria

juniour found a new friend

The jokes that come with double bubble gum are as bad now as they were when I was a kid

now who's a poser. Out by ten mile point

nice walking trail by ten mile point

Island view beach park near Sidney

another shot from Oak Bay

always changing

back to work at the Gracepoint police station.

new candy store in Sidney

In Sidney, is it?

Sidney

we had some visitors at our circus parking at camel point in Victoria. Must be getting close to summer, the cruise ships are starting to arrive.

then there was two, (actually three one day), you can see the side of one of our trucks, Vancouver Mobile Dressing Rooms.

One Saturday night, some of the crew rented a boat to go for a Victoria harbour cruise.

The famous Empress hotel

a great way to see the city from the water

the seaplane base is right downtown

and a gorgeous sunset

fellow driver Ken looking all cool on the open water

hard to tell, but we got close to our base camp by the cruise ship terminal

random, some pics are before, and some after sunset

randomly back to Island view beach park

mount robson in the background

Went to the Victoria highland games on a Sunday in May. There was a demonstration on birds of prey.

We ran into this young man sporting a t-shirt supporting the Scotland referendum to succeed from the U.K.

always end up back in Oak Bay

Now the weather at the Island view beach park is better.

Our lunch tent tonight had a different enlongated look to it. Who is that lonely soul way down at the end?

our A.D. Shawn, having some quiet time

the appeal of the open sea

my last breakfast on set, the catering on this show was awesome, breakfast and lunch every day, thanks to Barb, Tracy, Amanda, and Michelle

one of the picture vehicles, the Solano plumbing van, (the parents of the murdered child)

one more shot of James island

you wont be able to tell, but they needed another shot of the r.v. park, but they couldn't use the actual r.v. park, so they move some of the r.v's to Island view beach park. (you wont notice in the show, I'm sure)

the cabin on the cliff (except it is at water level, but it will look like it is on a cliff in the show thanks to the special effects department, (sfx). They needed it to look like night, so they blacked out all around the windows.

This was the start of the last night of shooting for season 1 of Gracepoint. The crew is out on the Esquimalt lagoon, close to Fort Rodd and the Fisgard lighthouse

there was a small lake on the other side

this little island was full of herons

this was the last shot of the 10 episode series that will air on Fox . This was just before daylight, around 4 am.

I took this shot at Oak Bay after taking the director home, now it's 5 a.m.

random, more shots from the harbour cruise

a walk about downtown Victoria

back to harbour cruise, hoo boy

walkabout downtown Victoria, I'm getting dizzy

yah, looks like it

sailing ship at the harbour

more Oak Bay views

this was our base camp at Island View beach park, the star trailer on the left, the bathrooms , a.d. trailer, hair, make-up and wardrobe on the right

another film day at the cemetary near Sidney

Olympic mountains

above ten mile point in Victoria

mount baker

I like this shot, it was a beautiful spring day, and I was cruising down the road

always changing at Oak Bay

once again, hard to tell, this was on the last night of shooting. The light on the barge will be the moonlight on the day of the show.

where else?

time to end the show, which included handing in my set two-way radio

and this brand new ford flex that I had the privelage of driving

9 kilometres when I first got it.

When I first got to Victoria, I stayed at an old english inn in Esquimalt.

yah, that's me to a T

one of the many units I drove on this show. This was the front half of the hair and make-up truck

night view of theparliment buildings in Victoria

this random Gracepoint sign was actually on Saltspring Island, one of the day trips I made

Victoria had the mildest weather in Canada, but even they have their cold spells. This was the fountain outside the Oak Bay Beach hotel on a freezing February day.

Never got tired of that view

This was a light reflector used on the cliff above the r.v. park, with a little bit of a rainbow for effect.

random small boat in Sidney

a long night of shooting at the Island View beach park

back to Fernwood

Oak Bay

I tried to put the pics together, but in the end, I put over 14,000 km on that ford flex. (and that was within a 50 km radius)

the cliffs above the beachcomber r.v. park

the ferry terminal at Tswassen on day one of my stint on Gracepoint. (heading to Victoria)

full house on the ferry

day one arriving at the Sannich fairground, the base camp to assemble our filming base camp

every day to the oak bay (beach hotel)

a rainy night of filming at an abandoned school in Saanichton. (good thing they were filming indoors)

some nights we were filming in neighbourhoods, where the lights lit up everything around the set. (not sure how the neighbours like all this, most were supportive) (and we did have a curfew, usually 11 p.m.)