Yes, its true. For the first time since 2007 I will be going to TIFF to get autographs & see many of the biggest names in the industry.
Last TIFF I attended was attended by the likes of Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, George Clooney, Sean Penn, Lauren Bacall, Keira Knightley, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck, Jodie Foster, Gael Garcia Bernal, Michael Moore, Samuel L Jackson, Viggo Mortensen and many others. It was also highlighted by new fresh faces like Jim Sturgess, Ellen Page, Hayley Atwell and many others.
This year, the list is just as impressive. Icons like Clint Eastwood and Robert Redford are set amongst the 100s of names the fest put out for its guest list. The likes of Matt Damon, Bruce Springsteen, Woody Allen, Robert DeNiro, Natalie Portman, Clive Owen, Edward Norton, Ellen Page, Michael C Hall, Bill Gates, Megan Fox, Mickey Rourke, Steve Nash and hundreds of others are expected to go. Who will be this years fresh new faces to catch? Thats a different question that only time will tell.
Look for my updates on here, and of course, autographs will hopefully be plenty.
if you have any requests...Now is the time to make them. I leave in less than a week.
Past few weeks I had a couple run ins with Supernatural cast. First off was Jensen Ackles. who was his usual great self. Taking the time to sign & chit chat a bit with us before heading off with his driver. Second, Misha Collins who jogged in from L.A. (ok, he probably flew...without using his wings even) the same night also stopped to sign, chit chat & posed for a photo or two. Collins, as many of his minions already know, has been training recently for a jog that he will do September 5th to raise money for a charity he promotes TheRandomAct.org where the primary goal is to support orphanages in haiti, flood victims in Pakistan, to do random acts of kindness globally... and of course, to bribe public officials (only Misha would be so open & honest about it haha...granted he is insisting it will only be 0.01%). There is a place to donate on the website listed above. You can donate a flat rate, or you can donate a sum per kilometre he runs. he has a video on there telling you more. Lastly, several days later I finally caught up with Jim Beaver on his way out. There had been some misunderstanding on my behalf earlier in the week & I had chatted with Jim via emails about this & when he was leaving we both apologized for misunderstandings (although Jim really had nothing to apologize for). He signed several photos for me, took a photo with me..and most importantly, I finally got my book signed by him. A book he wrote, "Life's That Way" which is an interesting read. Its a compilation of all his emails he sent friends & family during a year long challenge of learning his wife was diagnosed wth & eventually would succumb to, lung cancer, all while trying to raise a little daughter. I do recommend it. But be warned, you will certainly at some point, cry reading it...if not multiple times. The same night as Misha & Jensen, I also saw Jared. Some of you know some of the details of that night & I am sure, you all want my more in depth opinion/comment on it. All I will say on it is, while he certainly didnt come across pleasant in the least, and if it were my first time seeing him, I might think that was the norm for him.... looking back after the fact we all realize that whatever was the basis of the phone call he was dealing with at midnight clearly had him so engrossed that he had no interest in interacting with anyone else, including his driver. I have had far more good experiences than bad, so I am completely willing to let this one off bad day go by...even if some of you, many who have never met him, arent.
Let me first off say, I am not a fan of Lady Gaga - the entertainer/gimmick. Whether its because I am just too old to be into her genre of music, or the fact that I dont find tattoos sexy, or the fact I think shes trying too hard to be the next Madonna...reality is, I am never going to buy a ticket to see one of her shows...and the odds are pretty good I wont be downloading any of her songs onto my MP3 anytime soon either.
That aside. Lady Gaga did more or less everything a performer at the top of her game could do to coerce me to be a fan tonight as she left the venue after her first nights show in Vancouver at G.M....errr, Rogers Arena.
The lady who is better known to her friends & family as Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta spent 7-10 minutes sitting in the back of her SUV signing autographs & letting fans snap pictures of her.
It is rare to find someone that is at the level this entertainer currently finds herself at to take that much time out after a show with a crowd of 30+ people waiting.
She has obtained 9 Billboard Music Awards, 2 Grammy Awards, 3 MTV music awards, 2 Peoples Choice Awards, 3 Teen Choice Awards, and more than 50 other awards at smaller awards shows... oh, she also has 18 more nominations on the go for the 2010 MTV Music awards. She is at least a single platinum selling artist in 20 countries on her first album, and in 10 countries on her 2nd album... and her debut album is barely 2 years old this week. She really has no need right now to do any form of public relations image work...yet there she was, after a show that I was told was "amazing" stopping to sign for her fans, and me.
To top it off...she didnt care who she was signing for. At one point a guard tried to prevent me from getting my second autograph when he spoke to her & said "he already got 1, dont sign for him" which Lady Gaga replied "I dont care, just keep them coming". Thats how it should be. Just do it, and move on...dont worry about who its for, or what they might do with it at the end of the day. Each autograph signed is free promotion. Instead of me sitting here bad mouthing her about not signing and ignoring the fans, I am here telling everyone that she appreciates her fans & thusly, truly appreciates the money & time they invest into her. This is something that more often than not, cant be said about high end entertainers... and trust me, it eventually sours fans, and eventually they stop caring. This 24 year old girl from New York City understands it, and seems to actually like it.
Tonight she apparently was great on stage. She was even more great off the stage. I might never end up being a fan of her work. But I doubt I will ever find myself hating her...which frankly, I was going in thinking might be the case. Because its rare to find someone this on top of their game that still takes time to give back to people, regardless who they are.
Its a lesson other "in the now" stars should learn from in the future.
I took a few shots of the cast of "Wolf Canyon" a TV show shown in Canada on APTN.
For me, the draw was former Corner Gas star Lorne Cardinal being there...however as the day went on, the attention of the group moved over to local super-hottie Ali Liebert, who plays "Jan" on the TV show, that is about a TV show within a TV show. The cast also features former Hercules star Kevin Sorbo..but I didnt recall seeing him there.
Liebert seemed to be front & center for most photographers, despite few of them knowing who she was, or what she was in.
As she was leaving the red carpet I quickly asked her what show she was with, and she told me & I was able to identify who she was then.
To any fans of the show, I apologize if any of your favorite cast werent photographed in the "group" photo. They must not have been in the group photo & I only photographed those that I was certain were in the show, that being Lorne & Ali.
Anyways, better late than never....a few pics of the cast of Wolf Canyon at the 2010 Leo Awards.
Last year the major motion picture, Twilight Saga Eclipse, was filming in Vancouver...and for a while, it was sharing the same studio that Supernatural films at.
Jensen had a few words to say about the security for this film. I tried to get him to say exactly what he was thinking... but he played the politically correct card & answered it as downplayed as he could...but he still gave us a breif glimpse into how over the top the security for this film actually was.
Apologies for the blurriness at one point..my camera has a mind of its own...its unfortunately the mind of a vegetable.
Occasionally I get lucky & have my video camera rolling when stars talk.
More often than not I dont..but sometimes I do.
Supernatural star Jensen Ackles (Dean Winchester) was on a flight last season with then A-Team "actor" & professional fighting champion Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
Needless to say, he didnt like his chances in a fight with the new B.A. Baracus.
Apologies on this taking so long to post...I tried a couple times before..and my computer, which is a piece of junk, was apparently not strong enough to perform the simple task of posting this on youtube....but here it is now.
Hellcats is coming to a TV soon near you.
...assuming you have The CW network on your television. The same network that carries other Vancouver based hits like Supernatural and Smallville will again be looking to strike gold up here with a new show about cheerleaders.
With the backing of Superman Tom Welling's pocketbook & name attached to the project, Hellcats will surely come out of the gates strong as fans of Welling's will surely give it a shot.
Will the show be able to carry itself on quality once fans get a peek? That remains to be seen. But it is a safe bet that it should be able to squeeze out at least 2 seasons on the premise & names alone.
i have had a chance to see a few of the cast around town...some of it really good, some of it, Ashley Tisdale.
So far any interactions I have had, witnessed or heard of wth Tisdale has been to say the least, poor. No one is saying nice things about her yet, and as shown in the pic. The one time she was spotted by a fan, SHE RAN to her hotel. Running from 1 of us. A professional autograph hound. Well its immature. But running from a fan with a DVD who is a kid, is unacceptable. This is the attitude of one of the shows "stars" as she thinks of herself as...even if no one else does.
With music & television veteran Alyson Michalka (known to some as 1/2 of pop duo, Aly & AJ, and to others an actress on Disney teen comedy Phil Of The Future) attached to the project as 1 of the cheerleaders, there is at least 1 cute girl on the set who is nice to the fans. She has done as much as can be expected to quell over any sourness fans might have after meeting the bitter & snarly Tisdale.
Of course the real star of the show with the fans is Matt Barr. Best know for roles on One Tree Hill & Harper's Island, Barr has quickly established himself as one of the nicest celebs in town. Always willing to stop for autographs, a photo with or just to chat, Barr has been the shows best asset in trying to win the fans that its snobby diva Tisdale has tried so hard to alienate.
Below is a few pics from some of the encounters with the 3 cast members of the show.
Hellcats debuts September 8th on The CW.
I am sure if you read my blog, odds are fairly good you read my tweets as well on twitter. if you dont...well, this blog probably is really irrelevant to you. Those who do, well, here is "whats up"? I made my tweets private about 2 days ago. It was a decision I actually thought over for a bit, and in the same breath, hastily did. For as much thought as I put into it, I also clearly didnt think other things thru. But, I made the decision and although eventually I will likely go back on it, for now, I am not ready to yet. First let me talk about why I am unhappy with the decision to do what I did. Firstly, I probably alienated a couple users outright. It was a casualty I anticipated might happen, but I weighed the odds & thought it would be minimal...so far, it seems that was right. But still, its never good to alienate potential customers over petty issues with people they really dont know or care about. Second, it is bad for expanding thru twitter. Something I didnt think of at the time, and I am noticing more since is how many re-tweets & RTs seem to come from non-followers for posts made by a public vs private user. Yesterday I had my most site traffic since I added google analytics to track my sites traffic...yet I am sure I could have probably done 10% more with proper twitter traffic. On a usual day, twitter makes up more than 20% of my traffic referrals. Yesterday, 4%. You do the math. Third, my ego. I admit it, I am a bit of a narcissistic egomaniac. I would much rather have had 1021 followers than 979 (current total after the ultimatum & my self-purging of users) tuning in to my mostly insane, and I am sure, generally irrelevant to their interest, ramblings. Fourth, Cutting off some good people just to show there was no favouritism. Of the 30+ people I deleted from my followers list who were also following the person in question.... 5-8 of them were people I have interacted with on occasion, on twitter, on other websites, or even in person. Everytime I came to one of them, I was like "sheesh, this sucks..but, I cant play favourites"., so I cut them. Some understood, a couple snapped & made snarky comments back at me. Others simply seemed confused. All reactions I anticipated. Where possible, I tried to quell over the feelings, and for the mostpart I think I have with those that brought issues up about it. Now, onto WHY this is happening...and any positives I have found from it. Over the past few weeks/months 1 user in specific (although there are in fact 2...but the other 1 is simply just less annoying) has decided to attack me over & over & over again on twitter. Him & his buddy have inside jokes..and just like how we all have inside thoughts/jokes that we dont speak publicly, same goes here. You can have jokes in private with friends. But when you post them publicly, it really shows a lack of any intellect & frankly, makes you look like a downright idiot... not that it has really taken much to make this illiterate pothead look like a fool too often. Afterall, we are talking about someone that besides being stoned 24/7, illiterate & frankly, slow. Has publicly threatened to do harm to a celeb & trashes people for no other reason than generally the goading on from his more dominant immature friend, and on more than 1 occasion has trashed people that have been his allies. In the real world, one would assume making jokes that only 1-2 other people would get, on a public major social netowrking site that your clients & friends read would seem at the least, idiotic. yet he did them, repeatedly. At first, I snapped back publicly. Then he continued, even suggesting he was gaining followers because if it. So I ignored him, but he continued. Next step came, I blocked him. I had immobilized the majority if his immature & downright retarded impact, but yet he still carried on with the elementary school mentality. So, it came to the next step. Disassociate myself with him as much as I can. Period. Now in person, I cant just wave my hand & make him disappear. So sadly, like many people in many forms of business, I must simply just tolerate him when I am out doing my thing...because he will be there & isnt going to leave simply because logic would dictate he should. Nope, its not that simple...but I can certainly do something about it in other areas, like on twitter. To do this, I took step 1. Made my account private. No longer could he directly see things said. Now he would have to get them thru a 3rd party...which was step 2. This idea would only work if I made sure there was no overlapping contacts. So, I made the radical decision to block anyone who opted to follow him. No exceptions. I gave everyone a 1 day warning...granted I found out some didnt even notice that post, since lets be honest...with some of the heavy spammers some of you follow, it can get lost in a sea of news story posts pretty quick. I made multiple posts stating, you can choose, him or me. In the slightly over 24 hours that post was around, the results spoke for themselves. I lost 0.3% of my followers because of the ultimatum...and by tracking who left ( Interesting little tool- http://who.unfollowed.me/lite )I can add to it, NOT ONE of the 3 who left was following him..they were just random unfollowers...which for the record, this is an average day for me. I lose 2-5 people a day on average as is. On the other hand... He lost 13 followers, also known as 9.1%. That IS a huge drop. For someone with only around 150 users, to lose 13 in day is a notable impact. Statistically, one would assume that he probably lost 1, maybe 2 of them by the same randomness that I lost my 3. That still leaves 11 or 12 that left him because of the ultimatum I stated. To me, this is a knock out win. After I let people choose at their own leisure, time came to go thru his followers list & purge those unable to decide for themselves. As I went thru the list, I often would come across 1 and would be like "this is going to be disappointing/awkward", but it had to be done. If these people wanted to follow me, they could...log as they unfollow him. I deleted over 30 people..and still have deleted a few more since then of people who opted to add him after my purging thinking it was safe to re-follow him again. The decision to do this was in my mind, a success. It had casualties, sure. It was essentially a war afterall, and theres no such thing as a war without casualties. I am sure I will cave in & make my tweets public sooner rather than later. The business impact short term compared to peace of mind was fine, but long term, it will eventually become less valuable than the alternative as a public account is better for business than a private one on twitter. Although, a case can be made that the busiest day on my website, was a day where I had private tweets.
Two firsts happened today.
I got autographs from Misha Collins. I have met him twice, before I was a fan of the show & didnt know who he was yet. So I never had anything for him to sign those times. Now I did, and he happily did them all & I got a picture with him. Of all the cast they have had come in & go out on this show, he is probably my 2nd favorite cast member behind Jensen. So this was pretty exciting for me. The interaction was breif, as he was just on his way to set as we got him, but he took time to sign for 2 of us, on multiple items, did a photo with & even chatted breifly with us. I asked him what he thought of this character when he first saw the idea for him, he said it looked fun.
I got shots of scenes of Supernatural. I have met the cast on multiple occasions each...but never have I got pics of them on set, and definitely never in a scene. The fact that 3 of the 4 most notable cast members on the show were there for it was extra nice. So often I go to sets where only 1 or 2 of the main cast are there, so having most of the main cast in 1 spot was nice. Although it was impossible to really shoot them all in 1 frame, without looking like ants...still great to get them all at 1 scene.
Below are the pics from todays shoot.... the next few paragraphs will have possible (not entirely confirmed in some cases) spoilers...so DO NOT read on if you want a spoiler free life.....
Spoilers ahead.
Are you ready??
Ok. So all I know is the Winchester boys are together for this scene and were looking down out of a 3rd story window that was broken after a scene that was shot where someone jumped out the window.
Below was Castiel laying ontop of a green screen type object. he gets up from the screen and stares up towards where the boys would be looking down from.
Reports I heard from those on the set prior to me showing up is 2 stunt persons did a jump out the window earlier onto a car (the car shown caved in in my pics). I dont know for certain if Castiels character was 1 of the 2 who jumped, but judging by the scene he was shooting when I got there, this may be the case.
The other individual, (show in the suit in the pics) was also apparently in the jumping scene according to those on the scene before I got there. I do not know if he was a stunt double, or the actor in the scene.
All in all, all thats really know is...someone jumped out a window, the Winchesters looked down at whoever it was as the hit a car...Castiel may or may not have been 1 of them, as he was filming a scene getting up from the spot where the fall happened.
My poll for Best current & former Vancouver shot TV shows was 2 of the more popular ones I have had. I have decided...it will be monthly... and maybe at the end of the year, I will have an annual winner based on the monthly totals. There is also the chance bad performers will eventually be axed from the former show list, as it gets longer. For now though, the unveiling of the first ever monthly champions. First up... the top 3 for shows no longer filming. Apparently, Vancouver does Sci-Fi like nothing else. The top FIVE int his category all have spent time on Sci-fi channels. BRONZE MEDAL (tie) - Dark Angel and Dead Like Me 12.4% SILVER MEDAL - Stargate SG1 15.9% GOLD MEDAL - THE X-FILES 19.3% The entire list of shows beside the top 3, in order Battlestar Galactica 10.3 MacGyver 5.2 Stargate Atlantis 4.7 21 Jump Street 3 Sliders 3 Outer Limits 3 Twilight Zone 2.6 Danger Bay 2.1 Robson Arms 2.1 Booker 1.3 The L Word 1.3 Highlander 1.3 For the next month, additions have been made to the list. DaVinci's Inquest & Intelligence have been added to the list. In the future I might delete shows if they continually perform poorly since this list could get pretty long after awhile. Also, a section for "other" has been added now. So you can suggest other shows. Now onto the poll that got the most votes, despite hacing a maximum of 3 votes per person....the current TV show poll. Lets get to the top 3, shall we? BRONZE- SANCTUARY 8.8% (by one vote) SILVER- FRINGE 18.4% GOLD- SUPERNATURAL 38.8% The entire list of shows besides the top 3 include. Smallville 8.5 Eureka 7.5 Psych 7.1 Stargate SGU 5.4 V 2.4 Hiccups 1.7 Human Target 3 votes (% not shown) Life Unexpected 1 vote Currently, no new shows were added to this list. But with the new TV season coming, some additions might be coming. for sure Hellcats will be added once it airs. Thats it for "July" (which actually ended in early August because of the shortened time the poll was open. August poll is already open, so go vote for the August winners. http://canadagraphs.weebly.com/polls.html
A total of 527 total votes between the two polls were made.
With 114 votes, Supernatural had the most of any show in both polls. That gave them 21.7% of the total votes...good enough percentage to be 1st in either poll on percentage alone.
With 1 vote, Life Unexpected was the only show not to register multiple votes in either poll. The least any other show got was 3.
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