the Magicians, episode 107/108

After a minor fender bender last Friday night, I had to swap out my cast vehicle for this one, which I shall name "black beauty".

Last week-end I went to the downtown Eastside to visit my brother for lunch. I ended up being at the back of the Ovaltine Café, where we were filming "the Magicians" a couple of weeks ago. I like the old phone number on the building.

Beside the Ovaltine, hard to believe people actually live in this run down old apartment building.

Or actually stay at the old Empress Hotel, built in 1913

or the Balmoral, which was recently in the news due to the fact the elevator stopped working and the landlords would not get it fixed. This created a great deal of hardship for the elderly and the disabled people living there. Here is the story.

On Sunday, my sister (in town visiting), my brother and I made the drive out to White Rock to pay our respects to our grandparents, who were some of the first settlers to the area.

and heres a tired looking me standing on the street named after my grandparents.

back down on the boardwalk, my brother hams it up.

The famous pier in White Rock

It was certainly a grey day.

All that travel makes a man thirsty, so we headed back into Vancouver to the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Company,

and had an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner that included this ham, cranberry and squash flatbread

nice to have my two nieces join us as well.

The week started with trips back out to the Vancouver Airport arrivals area to pick up a couple of the guest actors for episode 108 of the show.

and we were back out at Riverview Hospital, this time we were at the North Lawn building, another location that is used a lot by production companies in Vancouver.

being at Riverview means a change of scenery on the way from the production office to set. (this is heading down Royal Oak facing towards North Burnaby and the north shore mountains.)

A nice morning shot of downtown as I was heading to one of the hotels to pick up an actor.

the contrast from the city to the grounds of Riverview

at the top of the grounds you can see south and catch a glimpse of Mount Baker in Washington State

In the basement of the Crease Clinic at Riverview, the camera gear sits idle while the crew is on lunch break.

How does episode 108 end?, only the mummy knows!

wandering around the Riverview grounds I found some fungus among us. (ouch)

round and round, back downtown, this time picking up one of the directors from a Gastown apartment.

Sun's shining on the downtown buildings as I make my way for another actor pick-up

back at Riverview, one of the magnificent trees on the grounds

On set today was one of the film industry's animal wranglers. They are actually in the same Teamster Union as us drivers. Today she was showing the director some of the animals that will be used in the next episode. This included this trained ferret, two baby pigs, a trained squirrel, and a racoon.

Another long day of filming that brought us outside of the Crease Clinic for some night shooting. It was close to 2 a.m. by the time we wrapped for the week-end. Another Fraturday.