THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS MINOR & MAJOR SPOILERS FOR "ARROW" EPISODE 205. If you do not want to know anything prior to the episode airing, do not read the article or view the photos below.

A couple months ago I photographed "The Black Canary" on set. At the time, I had no clue who it was. As it turned out, it was the stunt double for the recently cast new Sarah Lance (who btw looks NOTHING like Jacqueline Macinnes Wood.. the original Sarah Lance), Caity Lotz.

Finally, on a late end of August night, I saw Caity Lotz in person filming... and what a scene I stumbled onto. On this particular night, I managed to find Ms. Lotz filming scenes with Paul Blackthorne (Quentin Lance, Sarahs father). The scene? Sarah lets her father know shes alive!

It took  place on a quiet street in the Downtown Eastside mere feet from where I saw Supernatural filming scenes a few weeks  earlier. This time, as Starling City. A scene for episode 205 titled "League Of Assassins" the scene has Quentin walking to his car, seeming pleased with himself over something, till he realizes someones coming up behind him. He slyly slides his gun out & quickly turns around, gun drawn & points it at the person. As the mysterious person comes from the dark street into view, the shocked Quentin Lance sees a face that he cant & immediately, doesn't believe. Its his daughter, Sarah. She motions to him & closes in on him, eventually getting close enough to put her hand on his gun & push his hand down. After Quentin accepts who it is, a large emotion filled hug takes place between the two, and you can hear Quentin mutter "your mother was right".

A little later, another set of scenes was done. This time, Caity was off for the rest of the night. It was now Felicty Smoak doing scenes with Quentin Lance, as Emily Bett Rickards showed up to film scenes. Emily & Paul did scenes where Felicity stands on a street corner waiting for Quentin to return home from a shift. As he approaches, she rushes up to him & eagerly tries to get his attention about a matter that she says has his life in jeopardy.  I couldn't hear all the details, but she brings up Malcolm Merlyn in the conversation. It ends with Quentin closing the door on Ms. Smoak & her speaking at him thru the door "so I guess you aren't leaving town?". What can the mysterious trouble for Quentin be?

I saw some details for their next day of work, and I can say... its either confusing me to no end, or really interesting how they are playing it. All I will say is, it includes Oliver & Sarah at the Queen Mansion being attacked by... someone (not gonna say who) & the scene takes place prior to the scene where Sarah talks to her dad photographed below.

Apologies to anyone who feels ripped off that these FREE photos are sometimes grainy/blurry. I do this with a $500 camera, not a $5000 camera remember.

Arrow returns on The CW for season 2, October 9, 2013.

THIS POST CONTAINS MILD SPOILERS FOR A SEASON 2 EPISODE. If you do not wish to read or view any spoilers prior to the airing of the season, please do not continue.
.
.
.
last warning
.
.

In a rare event, I found the Arrow set & no Stephen Amell on set. Seriously, this is actually possible.

On this particular day, I found Colton Haynes (aka - Roy Harper ) doing scenes with someone I was very familiar with from her great job doing a previous role on another Vancouver show "The Killing", Bex Taylor-Klaus.

Till that day, it was a mystery who Bex was going to play. I had known for several days she was here, but didn't know what role, or frankly, till the day before, even what show the 19 year old rising star was here for. But after she was photographed by several people on set that day, The CW decided to confirm Bex was on the show, to play the character of SIN...which I'm happy with, as I said, I have already seen what she brings to the table acting wise. But some whiny fanboys on tumblr got their panties in a knot over this because apparently Sin is supposed be Asian. Well, I don't recall there being something that stated they had to cast the role for the show the way comic books portrayed them. Honestly, if their life is so ruined because of who got cast in a T.V. show for a character that most casual fans are unfamiliar with or barely know, then they really need to re-assess their lives.

Funny random moment of this day was when I went up to get Bex to sign some photos & she instantly recognized me from when she saw me around for "The Killing". When I asked her she instantly said "your Canadagraphs?" & I told her yes & that it was nice to finally meet (since the 1st two times I saw her I didn't even know her name yet). Colton took photos with a few fans & Bex even offered to be the photographer for these encounters.

The scenes I saw show were of Roy seemingly chasing after, or running along with Sin thru the streets of Starling City. Later on I saw Roy doing more scenes where it looked like he was delivering something somewhere...but couldn't see enough of it to know for sure.

On the lunch break, the other unit for the show came over to the food trucks for their meals & I saw David Ramsey, Caity Lotz & Emily Bett Rickards there briefly before they jetted away back to their other location.

There will be more Arrow photos from other sets throughout the season. For now, enjoy these & if you want to see other sets from this season & last year, check out the rest of my blog posts here

I give you Roy Harper & Sin.......

This past weekend the cast for the CW action drama hit "Arrow" headed down to San Diego for their 2nd Comic-Con.

 I managed to catch the entire cast that went either going down, or returning this year.

On the way down to the Con I ran into the man that is Slade Wilson, Manu Bennett (1st time ever meeting him) & The Hood, Stephen Amell. Both were in great moods. While Manu was signing for us, the 2 people ahead of him in line asked him "are you famous or something"..... as if people are gonna get autographs from a random person. He politely answered them & posted for a photo with 1 of the graphers & their dog. He even picked up the dog & held him in the photo. Cool guy. Stephen was his typical cool laidback self. He was eager to give credit to his shoes maker when someone asked them about them. They actually looked really cool, and I'm not one to usually get impressed by shoes, or art. He tweeted about them shortly after with a photo of his Arrow themed footwear here https://twitter.com/amellywood/status/358189903256883202

I missed hacker extraordinaire Felicity Smoak ( aka - Emily Bett Rickards) by a couple minutes & got in just in time to seeJohn Diggle (aka- David Ramsey). However, never really interacted with him as I was busy looking for EBR at the time.

Added bonus, I also got Celina Jade the day her castmates were headed to Sa

 On the return, with a larger crowd awaiting them, they were all great again. This time I did run into Emily, and after a weekend of signing everywhere she probably went down there, still signed a few for the people who asked her. Got Colton Haynes later in the evening while 1 of the members of the show "Supernatural" peered over the crowds shoulder to see who we were getting. I also got Katie Cassidy, however, due to her coming in on a very busy flight that had lots of people, not just Arrow cast, never got a chance to take pics of her & her obscenely overpaid NHL boyfriend, Jason Garrison.  Stephen returned with his cousing, Robbie Amell, who is filming his new CW show "Tomorrow People" here.

The Arrow panel had a sizzle reel which of course confirmed Black Canary will be coming this season. Caity Lotz has started filming her scenes as the super hero, but of course, they filmed scenes for the sizzle reel prior to her coming in with her stunt double, who I have been told by some fans, also did stunt work for Anna Torv on "Fringe".

Lots of new baddies are expected for this season.

Michael Jai White & Kevin Alejandro have been chosen for recurring roles.

Arrow will air on Wednesday nights on The CW this fall starting October 9th.

The Hood & his posse are BACK!

Filming got under way last week for season 2 of the hit Rookie action drama "Arrow". I caught up to them in an area used by many shows over the years near the Hastings Street overpass in East Vancouver.

The area, which is often popular with film crews because of its ghetto, living under a bridge feel was this time home to part of "The Glades".

After "failing the city" I find Oliver, his sidekick John Diggle & his lovestruck techie Felicity Smoak rolling thru the glades in 1 of Olivers cars.

There was not much to the scene & I am sure the purpose was more to show the devastation the man made earthquake that Malcolm Merlyn concocted did, than anything they were doing in the car.

After that scene, they went to lunch. I managed to get Stephen & David to sign some autographs on their way to lunch, but missed Emily sadly. Stephen seemed excited for this upcoming season, while David seemed more cautiously optimistic. Most shows seem to suffer "sophomore slumps" and David might be thinking cautiously for that reason. But lets face it, even if Arrow does have a slump, it will still be one of the CW networks top shows.

There was a LOT of work done by the art crew of the show to prep this area for the scene. Individual posters, even more specifically, individual messages were written out & posted all over the place. I always am amazed at the detail shows will put into things like this since we all know come the final cut, little to none of it will even make it to the camera & even less will get seen clearly enough to make out the details of it. I've posted a bunch of the photos of these pieces of work that someone put their time into making, up in this post, simply because someone should recognize them for their work.

 There was a lot of messages on these pieces of work. Most common ones were "Remember the 503" which will surely be a common message early in the season, as 503 will refer to the amount of casualties from the earthquake. Another was "Blood for Mayor". Who is "Blood"? Will he be good, or bad for the residents of Starling City?

In the category of not wasting any props. Arrow crew dragged out of retirement the Bishopmobile from "Fringe" to be an abandoned car in The Glades. This is the 2nd time I have seen a Fringe related item on an Arrow set, last season, a sign on top of a Starling City Cab to "Rewardwire" a thing from Fringe season 5 that they never bothered removing.

Later, after lunch, there was another scene being done in an alley that was too far away for me to get a good view of. Stephen Amell was back for these scenes, along with his stunt double Simon Burnett. I also saw Colton Haynes, who was serenaded a couple hours before his birthday by the entire crew & the cast on hand with a round of "Happy Birthday" before they brought in an ice cream cake.

The "wow" moment of the evening was seeing Detective...errr....OFFICER Quentin Lance on Set. Paul Blackthorne was there for scenes, not dressed as his typical self from season 1, but in an Officer uniform. Suggesting after the fallout of The Glades horror, he still is a Police Officer, but has been demoted.

I couldnt see much from the spot I was in, but they had a scene at 1 point where Simon Burnett did a jump up 50-60 feet in the air on a cable.

Here they are...my 1st photos of the season from the set of ARROW from last week.

EDIT - July 18, 10:10 PM
I have just read that "Caity Lotz" has been cast as "Black Canary" YES, you read the character name right.

Reason I am adding it to this blog is the 1st photo in this section of photos below that I, at the time was taking of Paul Blackthorne. When I got home that night I noticed a blonde woman with make up around her eyes that I first thought "that looks like a Black Canary type look".
I saw the girl on set, but never saw her close up enough to notice she had the eye make up on.
I cropped the photo with her in the background, in hopes SOMEONE would see it & maybe ask "is that supposed to be Black Canary" as it was my 1st guess....of course, since everyone assumed Katie Cassidy would be that character I guess no one considered that someone else could be her.

So, is this the 1st photo on set of THE BLACK CANARY?

THIS BLOG POST HAS PHOTOS & WRITING ABOUT SCENES FOR EPISODE 22 OF SEASON 1 OF THE CW SHOW "ARROW". If you do not wish to know anything about the episod eprior to seeing it, do not continue reading or viewing the photos.
.
.
.
.
.last warning
.
.

This past weekend I found The CW hit vigilante action show "Arrow" filming some scenes in downtown Vancouver (aka - Starling City ) at an office tower that is apparently standing in for Queen Consolidated Headquarters.

On set was a plethora of cast, as the star of the show Stephen Amell, decked out in his Oliver Queen attire was joined by Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, John Barrowman as Malcolm Merlyn, Willa Holland as Thea Queen & Colton Haynes as Roy Harper. As well, Colin Donnell as Tommy Merlyn was around in a different scene that I didnt see.

The spectators were unable to hear what was going on, but from the few takes we saw, we were able to piece together some of what the scene consists of. It seems to have Thea & Roy in the lobby of Queen Consolidated where Oliver walks up to them & starts to talk to them. Felcity is standing in the background near the elevator banks for whatever reason. Malcolm leaves the building while this conversation goes on. Not a lot I could make of this when I watched that scene.

A bit later another scene was done where Felicity would leave the building & Oliver would follow suit. Whether to chase after her, or just purely coincidental I cant be sure, but it lead to a few moment sof Ollicity hanging together in between takes off camera before they would head back in for the next take.

Later in the evening a stunt was being done in the elevator. I dont know much of it, but saw a few takes thru the screens the cameras were broadcasting to of a scene with Felicity & Oliver in an elevator that seemed funny, as a 3rd person would try to join them in there only to have their binder pushed out by Oliver into the lobby just before the doors are about to close causing the poor unsuspecting person to leave the elevator giving Ollicity some alone time on the elevator.  I'm going to assume the elevator stunt I heard about that was going to go on was in conjunction with that scene, but I cant confirm it, but I was told by someone at the set that it was going to consist of a jump down an elevator shaft.

Funniest part of the evening was when Emily got ambushed by my friend & a few others during a snack break to sign & take photos. She decided she had to take the photos with at an angle, because she didnt want to spoil the uniform she was wearing.... now only if she had told the cast the same thing, as 1 of them tweeted photos of her in the outfit prior. The question is... why is she in a Big Belly Burger uniform?

 This was filming for the 2nd to last episode of the 1st season for Arrow.

You can catch Arrow on The CW Wednesday nights at 8 PM, or in Canada on CTV at 7 PM.

You can use photos anywhere you want long as credit to this blog post is given & watermarks are not removed. Any avoidance of these 2 simple rules, I will have them removed.

With less than a month left in the inagural season of the hit CW action show "Arrow" filming schedule, its fair to say they are ramping up for a massive, probably cliffhanger including finish.

This past week I caught Arrow out at Burrard Ironworks (been used for many shows, most notably the Larsen home on "The Killing") doing a scene.

It was cold, it was rainy & it was dark. Top it off, they were down in a hidden nook behind the building so there was little to nothing to see from the street. So I got creative & took a 2 block walk to allow me to see them from the other side of 2 fences that guard the train stracks immediately between us & that were between them and myself. If only I was about 6'3 I would have probably had some better pics, but that 3 inch disadvantage was the difference between my "not overly great" shots & getting "good" shots. In the cold, rainy night, I had to hold my camera up above my head and look at my tilted screen to see what I was even photographing...but, I got something at least.

Most interesting thing from this shoot was, it appears Oliver gives Felicity a pretty hefty stack of cash to do something with... and judging by her attire for the scene, it isnt to buy some new duds as she was dressed to impress in the scene (the 1 photo I got of her facing me that wasnt completely blurry was so fark I had to play around with it a bit to make it lighter...thus why it looks different than the others)

So what is Oliver getting Felicity to do with the money?? Guessing we'll have to wait & see. My estimate is this should be around the 3rd to last episode of the season they are filming.

This was a 1st for me, as it was the 1st time I photographed Felicity Smoak on set... barely.

To make up for the less than sharp set of pics, heres a few bonus pics as well of Stephen Amell returning from the Peoples Choice Awards and Katie Cassidy going to Paleyfest recently.