-
Aleki77
.User deleted
Once Upon a Time: Hit series settling into old North Vancouver library siteA visit to Once Upon a Time's North Vancouver set
By Rosalind Duane, North Shore News February 3, 2012
- Once Upon a Time airs Sunday nights at 8 p.m. on ABC and CTV. For more information on the series visit shows.ctv.ca/OnceUponATime.aspx.
THE wind seemed to pick up as the Evil Queen exited her car and walked with purpose toward the sheriff's office.
Just before she reached the front door, she stopped, turned and looked directly at me.
Suddenly remembering Christian Bale's much-publicized tirade against a crew member who passed his eye line during a movie shoot, I hurriedly looked down at my notebook and over at the North Shore News photographer beside me. Unfortunately, he was trying to do the same thing: anything to avoid her gaze.
Luckily, this was not Christian Bale, it was actor Lana Parrilla, who plays Regina Mills and the Evil Queen on ABC's new hit show Once Upon a Time (CTV in Canada).
Parrilla finished multiple takes of the same scene without a hint of annoyance at the reporter watching from the sidelines. When she was done, she walked off set smiling. Off-camera, there appeared to be no hint of the malicious character Parrilla plays so convincingly on the show.
It wasn't the only pleasant surprise on a recent visit to the North Vancouver set of Once Upon a Time, which is currently shooting at the old Lynn Valley library adjacent to Lynn Valley Centre.
The set was infused with an unusually friendly atmosphere, with crew members (most of whom are from the Lower Mainland) approaching unsolicited to introduce themselves and chat about the North Shore, cameras, ferry prices and more.
Perhaps the good mood was due to the paycheques being handed out that afternoon, or perhaps it had something to do with the scenic surroundings.
The old Lynn Valley library is nestled in a picturesque nook of the neighbourhood, and on this day, the sun made a rare visit, spotlighting nearby Mount Fromme and its partner peak to the east.
Once Upon a Time has been shooting here and around the North Shore since the summer, making ample use of the nearby woodlands.
As one crew member said, "If there's a green tree in the woods, we've been there."
While the exterior of the old library stands in as the outside of the sheriff's station on the show, the interior of the building has been transformed into multiple sets.
Taking up various rooms on the first floor are the sheriff's office (complete with cells), a patient's room at an insane asylum, and a few other odds and ends. Upstairs, large wood flats separate a newspaper office, a bed-and-breakfast room, a psychiatrist's office, a classroom, and the hospital room that fans of the show will recognize as John Doe's room.
"We've shot pretty much every nook and cranny in this building, including bits and pieces in the parking lot," says executive producer Steve Pearlman during a tour of the old library space.
Pearlman recently spent two years shooting the TV series V in and around Vancouver, and had scouted the old Lynn Valley library as a possible overflow set for that show. The site was appealing because the building was empty and it was close to other shooting locations being used around the Lower Mainland.
"When we shot the pilot for Once Upon a Time last spring, we needed a sheriff's station and we came back here kind of for the same reasons. We didn't have sound stages on the pilot. We needed to build a sheriff's office, and this room kind of worked," explains Pearlman. "Then when the show got picked up for series, we just moved in and we took out a lease on the building."
He says it has been handy having a base in North Vancouver.
"If we have half a day where we can work in Lynn Canyon, we can come back here and it's a very easy move for us to make in one day; or we can keep all of our trucks here, based out of here, instead of driving our trucks all over the North Shore."
In addition to the multiple sets at the library, the production also occupies four sound stages at The Bridge Studios in Burnaby. One is a dedicated green screen stage used for all the fairy tale sequences in the show. The other stages are used for main sets, including the town's diner. Most of the exterior scenes are shot on location in Langley, Richmond, Surrey, Vancouver and on the North Shore.
Once Upon a Time follows a group of fairy tale characters who are cursed by an evil queen, forced out of their fantasy realm, and trapped in the fictional town of Storybrook, Maine, where none of them remembers their fairy tale lives except the Evil Queen. Her young son, Henry, has figured out the queen's secret, and has brought in an outsider (who happens to be his biological mom and Snow White's daughter) to save them all.
The series features the characters in their "real-life" environment in Storybrook, where the queen is now mayor, and tells their fairy tale stories in flashbacks. The tricky premise has presented some shooting challenges.
Each episode has offered at least one new problem to solve, including creating a cliff slide for one episode; combining computer-generated fire with real fire for another episode; and scheduling around shorter work hours in a recent Hansel and Gretel episode featuring three child actors.
"Every episode has had something to figure out," says Pearlman, adding he thinks the show is doing a good job of creating the unique fantasy and reality environments. "It's something that we work very hard at."
And the hard work seems to be paying off. Ratings show Once Upon a Time continues to be a popular entry in its Sunday night time slot, and Pearlman notes it has attracted a broad audience.
"The thing that has surprised me the most about the viewership of the show is the anecdotal information, as well as ratings information, that shows that families are watching it together," he says, adding parents watching TV with kids is "a thing that I thought was kind of just a lost phenomenon."
Just as audiences have fallen under Storybrook's spell, so too did its co-executive producer.
"I first read the script on Super Bowl Sunday a year ago, and it kind of blew me away. I needed to be a part of this show," says Pearlman. "It hit me on a magical level, on an emotional level, on a fun level; just the fact that it was so different than anything else on TV."
Attention to detail is key to the show's success, says Pearlman, and every element, from casting to computer-generated effects, being "not good, but great," contributes to its believability.
"I think that when a TV show, any TV show, is successful it's not attributed to just one area, it's every level," he says.
Pearlman interrupts the interview to step into the sheriff's office set next door with the show's director. Soon after, actors Jennifer Morrison (Emma Swan), Robert Carlyle (Mr. Gold/Rumplestiltskin), and Jared Gilmore (Henry Mills), file into the office to block a scene.
When the trio finishes and exits the room, Morrison smiling as she weaves through the crew, Pearlman returns and reports the blocking went well.
And so it seems while their characters may be cursed in Storybrook, life at the old Lynn Valley library is somewhat charmed.
http://www.nsnews.com/entertainment/Once+U...l#ixzz1lVLLa5L4
.
Once Upon A Time - Location - SPOILER! |
