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?

Another scene shot by Arrow a couple weeks ago hadOliver Queen (Stephen Amell) ride in on his motorcycle (driving done by Simon Burnett) then take off his helmet & run inside a building, crashing thru some glass on his way (atleast thats what it sounded like).

There was another stunt later that I missed where they had Simon jump from 1 roof to a landing on the building across the alley. I really am disappointed I missed that one. Cant wait to see it on camera. It is apparently the same jump Jackie Chan did for Rumble In The Bronx, which was also filmed in the exact same spot.

Also - got a good close up of 1 of their licence plates this time... No state name on them. Just a motto "Land Of Mist"?? Strange. They talk about real cities & events like Australia, London & Super Bowls, yet they make up an imaginary state motto.  I really dont care, its just interesting to me.

Here is the other set of photos from ARROW filming in Gastown. Check back for video of them filming in the near future.

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.
.
.
.
Last Warning
.
.

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.