I managed to catch up to the cast & crew of ARROW filming 2 days in a row, and in a rare event, I didnt get much from either shoot. 

Back in the end of July I found them in 2 different spots on consecutive days.

Day 1 was in a make-shift studio in East Vancouver, so there was not much to see outside of some of the cast & their stunt doubles walking around. While I know Stephen Amell & his stunt man Simon Burnett, Kelly Hu & her stunt woman & former CFL star Tommy Europe (he has done stunts on lots of shows...maybe Michael Jai White's stunt man?)  were all on set, I have ZERO knowledge what the scenes were.

Day 2 was a night shoot in an area of East Vancouver that screams Glades stand in with its abandoned looking facade.
On set that night were again, Stepehen & Simon, Kelly & her stunt woman, and Michael Jai White (aka - Ben Turner aka - Bronze Tiger) & a stunt person for Michael (couldnt tell if it was Tommy).

 We never got to see the scene done in 1 full take, so all I know is what pieces we did see.
Arrow rolls thru the ghetto looking warehouse area on his bike, throws some type of flash grenade.
Then a fight scene with Arrow VS China White & Bronze Tiger.
What happens next is uncertain, because the next scene we were moved away as the camera would be shooting down the street, but we know it ends with China White hitching a ride on the back of a FEMA truck.

 Several fans waited around to see the shoot. Stephen Amell came over & met the fans at 1 point, signing autographs & taking photos with them. Kelly Hu on the other hand? Ignored everyone, even when asked specifically by someone less than 15 feet from her. Heres hoping The Hood ends her run on the show soon.

I have some video of 1 of the scenes they shot, I just dont have the time right now to post it. Someday soon perhaps.

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.
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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.

A couple weeks ago, The CW rookie action vigilante crime fighting hit "Arrow" did some filming in the Gastown area of Downtown Vancouver.

When I first got there they were setting up the alley for a scene where Oliver Queen ( Stephen Amell ) would jump from a rooftop of a multi-story building down onto the hood of a passing truck. Of course, they had his stunt double Simon Burnett do the potentially risky stuff, like scaling down the building with a couple pully wires holding him. Amell still did a jump on a moving vehicle to give the impression of him landing on the truck however, and more later.

From there, it was time to disembark Oliver's free ride thru the alley as the truck is stopped by a flatbed truck full of crates. First Simon would do the stunts, then Amell would follow suit. It started with jumping off the 15-20 ft tall truck onto the back of the flatbed trailer, then from there jump over the crates on the flatbed onto the ground, then of course run thru traffic, hop thru an open cab window, out the other side and down the alley. Simple right?

For most entertainers, those motions would be all the stunt man. But Stephen Amell isnt an ordinary actor. He completed all the same stunts Mr. Burnett did, except for the jump thru the cab. The only other leading man I have seen do that much of his own stunt work personally was Tom Cruise when he was here for Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol a couple years ago.

Here are a bunch of photos from the scene. Some of Stephen. Some of Simon. Some.... I even cant be sure of. More photos to come from another scene later on.... plus some video of this scene when I have time to do that.

Any "Fringe" fans that also watch Arrow should watch out for the cab in this episode & see if they blur out the top of it. Clearly they used an old NYC Taxi from the "Fringe" set as a "Rewardwire" sign was still attached to the top.

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

THIS BLOG POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 11 OF SEASON 1 OF "ARROW". Do not continue reading, or viewing the photos if you dont want to see/read any possible spoilers.
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Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning, the production of The CW new action hit series ARROW took over the area around Terminal Ironworks in East Vancouver.

When I rolled up, they had already filmed some stuff, seemingly including a Starling City Police car, as I saw it being parked off set & they were re-positioning for their next scene.

I was lucky enough to find a spot close to the action.
The first scene they shot when I was there was part 1 of 2 part scene that should all flow into 1 non-stop action scene.

It starts with John Diggle (David Ramsey) standing in the middle of a road, gas mask on, a grenade launcher in his hand, dressed in his trademark suit. A delivery van speeds by him, narrowly missing him. As the truck speeds away off camera, a group of henchmen down the road from John armed with assault rifles & guns yell at him that he shouldnt have done that, and now they were going to have to kill his "girlfriend" as they referred to her in the scene. Carly Diggle (Christie Laing) the widow of John's brother was being heldby the henchmen. John tells them they have made a mistake, they ask why, and he reminds them he hasa grenade launcher, as he fires at them, the front henchmen are knocked to the ground, as John yells at Carly to get out of there, he runs in, takes 1 of the henchmens gun, and proceeds on foot down the street.

A 2nd scene is them prepared. The henchmen still on the ground, 1 of them unconscious, the other 1 gets up, groggily grabs a gun and looks to set his sights on Diggle down the street, when from out of no where its shot out of his hand (I assume with an arrow, although we dont see it)

Arrow (played at this time by stunt man Simon Burnett) then comes rushing in to fight the henchman (played by "The Killing" & "Battlestar Galactica" alumni Colin Lawrence). He runs up, and they both make their first move. Then the action stops, so that a stunt man can come in for Lawrence. The two stunt men proceed to do a fight scene that ends with Arrow taking down the henchman, before he grabs his bow and runs off in the direction Diggle left in.

Stephen Amell comes in to do his Arrow scenes, to do close ups of him choking out the henchman.

These were scenes for episode 11 of season 1. Where these scenes will fit in the overall story arc of this episode, or the full season is yet to be known. Will newly added Seth Gabel's ("Fringe" alumni) character Count Vertigo have something to do with this, or will he not yet be introduced, we will have to wait to see.

I was pleased to finally get autographs from David Ramsey on this night as well. I'm liking his character more & more each episode, and best part, he was exceptionally classy. Even thanked me for watching the show. My night ended at 2:15 AM when I finally got Stephen Amell to sign, as always, the newfound fame of being on a hit show hasnt soured him like others have. He remained classy, even despite being asked at 2 AM on a chilly November night.

Below are photos from the nights shoot. Apologies if you think some of them are grainy/fuzzy, I was shooting from more than 1/2 a block away at times, in the dark, with no flash on a camera that costs less than $500.