THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 523 OF "ONCE UPON A TIME". Do not continue reading or viewing the photos or article if you do not want to see/know anything about the episode prior to viewing it and have not yet seen the episode.
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Once Upon A Time shot a scene for their season 5 finale in downtown Steveston at the end of March. The small village is of course the most commonly used location spot for the show as "downtown Storybrooke".

On this day, a few scenes were shot. The morning/early afternoon scene had Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills and Jared Gilmore as Henry Mills on set with a newcomer, Being Human star Sam Witwer. Its believed Witwers character is 1 of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. (the other being Hank Harris).

The scene seemed to show Witwers character talking to Regina and Henry after Regina seemingly tries to stop him with magic perhaps. Also, it seemed to me on some takes Henry may have tried to use magic.... but I cant be so sure thats what I THOUGHT or what I actually saw from the angle I was at.

Once Upon A Time season finale airs on Sunday May 15, 2016 on ABC in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada.

You can find the rest of my season finale blogs, along with all my blogs on previous episodes HERE.

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 523 OF "ONCE UPON A TIME". Do not continue reading or viewing the photos or article if you do not want to see/know anything about the episode prior to viewing it and have not yet seen the episode.
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last warning
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Once Upon A Time filmed a scene for the season 5 finale at the Vancouver Art Gallery that included a large chunk of the main cast & a couple guest stars.

Jennifer Morrison, Lana Parrilla, Robert Carlyle, Jared Gilmore and Olivia Steele-Falconer were already on set as you may have read in my prior post here.
Joining them for this last scene of the day Josh Dallas as Prince Charming, Ginnifer Goodwin as Snow White, Colin O'Donoghue as Captain Hook, Rebecca Mader as Zelena and Hank Harris as Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde (unconfirmed yet... but my sources state thats his character).

The scene, seemingly was a continuation of the earlier scene they shot that had the earlier cast standing staring into a fountain with a group of other people in new York City when suddenly out of nowhere, the 2nd group appears. The last we had seen of this group (minus Dr. Jekyl) they were being sucked through a magical door in the middle of downtown Storybrooke. How did they end up popping up in a fountain in New York city?

​More blogs for the finale coming, still have 2 to do from their last Steveston day of the season coming up this weekend.

Once Upon A Time will air this 2 hour season finale on Sunday May 15, 2016 on ABC in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada.

You can find the rest of my blogs about this episode, as well as previous episode blogs HERE

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 523 OF "ONCE UPON A TIME". Do not continue reading or viewing the photos or article if you do not want to see/know anything about the episode prior to viewing it and have not yet seen the episode.
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last warning
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Once Upon A Time filmed scenes for the season 5 finale, episode 523 at the Vancouver Art Gallery in late March. This is the 2nd blog post about this shoot, you can find my previous one HERE 

In this scene there was several cast on hand, along with dozens of extras. The scene primarily focused on Jared Gilmore as Henry Mills, Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills, Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan and Olivia Steele-Falconer as Violet. Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold was also there but I didnt see much of what his role in the scene was. He definitely wasnt front & centre of the main scene at the fountain as the other 4 were.

The scene had Henry handing out pennies to a crowd of people around the fountain. They then all tossed their pennies into the fountain and "something" rises out of it. What that something is? No clue, it will surely be green screened in. I also never got an idea if it was good or evil because the facial expressions of everyone was all over the place. Eventually whatever this thing is seems to then crash down to earth and "something" is revealed to be there..... which you will see in the next blog post.

This scene seemed to take up the majority of their filming day. During breaks the cast would do what they could to keep themselves entertained. Robert Carlyle came over & met fans on 1 break. Thank goodness for me. I had 4 things sent to me before the start of the season to get done by Robert, and it took me till this last day of location shooing for him this season to finish them off.

Once Upon A Time airs its 2 hour season finale this Sunday on ABC in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada.

You can see more blog posts from this episode & previous ones in our Once Upon A Time Blog section HERE

THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 523 OF "ONCE UPON A TIME". Do not continue reading or viewing the photos or article if you do not want to see/know anything about the episode prior to viewing it and have not yet seen the episode.
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last warning
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Once Upon A Time filmed scenes for the season 5 finale at the Vancouver Art Gallery in late March, Its a location that pretty much every production in Vancouver has used at 1 time or another. It is easily 1 of the 5 most used locations in Vancouver, and maybe top 20 in North America with 2 large stair cases one on each side of the city block sized building, and an old courtroom inside (it used to be a courthouse) it is 1 of the most versatile locations around. It is quite common during TV season to come across more than 1 production using the location in a week. I even made note of it to a friend only a couple weeks prior to this shoot that "basically every show ever shot in Vancouver for any length of time has shot here but OUAT as far as I can recall"... and then voila, 2 weeks later they were there.

An early scene was done with Jennifer Morrison as Emma Swan, Jared Gilmore as Henry Mills and guest star Olivia Steele-Falconer as Violet. The scene sees Henry and violet sitting outside a fountain in New York City. Emma comes up to the pair and speaks to the pair, Violet then gets up, allowing Emma to sit down and talk to Henry for a couple minutes. The scene clearly looks like a set up to the next scenes that were shot there that day that you will be able to find in future blog posts HERE and HERE (links will be added once they have been created)

While this scene was winding down and finishing off their last takes, cast for the next scene showed up in the form of Robert Carlyle as Mr. Gold and Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills.

Once Upon A Time has a TWO HOUR season finale on Sunday May 16, 2015 on ABC in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada.

You can find all our Once Upon A Time previous blog posts including ones for episode 522 (the first half of the finale) HERE

The first scene they shot on the day had Robert Carlyle going to Mr. Golds shop. It didnt last long, and didnt really reveal much of anything. Shortly after, they filmed a scene with Sean Maguire as Robin Hood and Lana Parrilla as Regina Mills walking together thru the streets of this slightly different looking Storybrooke. they are stopped, or stop to talk to a man that I was told by a production person had the character name "Black Tooth". I cant say what the scene really revealed except for a couple of the shops there were definitely different than the ones in Storybrooke. After they finished filming that scene, Sean and Lana went over to the middle of the street where the fallen clock tower laid, and posed for a photo in front of it so they could post it on their social media accounts later.

A bit later in the day, A scene was shot with a large portion of the main cast walking together thru the streets looking at the carnage, and looking like they were preparing for a possible attack as the group carried bows & arrows and guns with them. Ginnifer Goodwin, Josh Dallas, Jennifer Morrison, and Jared Gilmore joined Carlyle, Parrilla and Maguire for this scene.

Once Upon A Time airs Sundays on ABC in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada.

You can find the stars of Once Upon A Time on their Social Media accounts
Once Upon A Time Twitter facebook
Lana Parrilla Twitter facebook
Sean Maguire Twitter 
Ginnifer Goodwin facebook
Josh Dallas Twitter 
Jennifer Morrison Twitter facebook
Robert Carlyle Twitter 
Jared Gilmore Twitter 

*correction - Post originally stated this was for episode 503, I have since then realized this is 502 and corrected it where I could.*
THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 502 OF ONCE UPON A TIME. If you have not seen the episode and do not want any knowledge of the scenes prior to viewing the episode, do not view the photos or read the blog post below.
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In a rare double treat for visiting fans of Once Upon A Time, the show filmed for a 2nd time in less than a week in Steveston back in July. Usually, theres 2 or 3 weeks in between shoots, but with only 5 days between their 1st & second shoots there, the fans in town got an extra chance to see some of their faves shoot. This time for episode 502. Directed by Romeo Tirone.

The first scene of the day had the public debut of Liam Garrigan as King Arthur. The scene had King Arthur and two others ride into Storybrooke. They are soon confronted by Lee Arenberg as Grumpy and other actor as Happy with pick axes in hand. The dwarves soon find though they are no match for the King and his men and find themselves on the ground at Arthurs feet.

Below I posted a photo of just how far away I was to shoot some of these pics, to give you some idea how far away I sometimes have to be to shoot scenes as the crew of OUAT have been given an unusually large (and I suspect at times, not legal) amount of leeway by the City of Richmond & the RCMP over having fans out of sight of the scenes for the most bullshit reasons most times ("we can see your reflection" being their new fave - No, you cant...and even if you can theoretically.... NO ONE even on a movie theatre sized screen will notice it since they are already a block away from where you are shooting... and if shows that actually win EMMYS can shoot with 400+ people right across the street. Once Upon A Time should be able to do it with 150-200 people). This might be the saddest statement about the show. The crew treats their fans THIS BAD ON PURPOSE, and all in the name of making the scenes "better", and the show still never gets nominated (aside from costumes & VFX...which people watching them film is never going to impact), let alone wins, major awards. Comical and pathetic all at once, to say the least. Anyways, rant aside.... this might give you an idea why sometimes these photos seem small, or blurry. In this particular instance, this was about 3 city blocks away.

After the morning scene, a couple other scenes were shot. One I completely missed because they did it so fast. it included Josh Dallas, as pictured below showing up at the set. But I have almost no info on the scene since it happened while I was out of sight of the street.

A little while later though, another scene around the corner, out of sight of the majority of fans was 1 with Jennifer Morrison dressed as Dark Emma and Colin O'Donoghue as Captain Hook. In the scene Emma walks towards Hook with a sinister grin on her face & they meet beside Emmas bug and she pulls him in close to her. The body language of Hook in the scene gives the impression he isn't impressed with whatever Emma is doing/saying. I did not hear any of the dialogue, so my interpretations COULD be off... so don't take what I saw/interpreted as fact.

In the evening, 1 final scene was shot. Out on the pier at the end of the Steveston docks with Jared Gilmore, Jennifer Morrison and Lana Parrilla.

The scene was quite heavily blocked, but little moments could be caught if you moved around enough to see around their heavily blocked scene. It appears Emma, Regina and Henry are on the pier having a chat. At the end of the chat Regina and Henry leave together looking quite unhappy/sad and Emma is left standing alone.

Similar to the early scene, this was shot far away from the fans. At least with this one, they didn't have to make up excuses for why they didn't let people closer. They simply closed the pier to public access.

During the break Lana acknowledged the fans with a wave & held up some type of fan made scrap book that she was given from someone there I'm guessing.

Once Upon A Time returns to ABC in the U.S. and to CTV in Canada for season 5 on September 27, 2015

You can follow the show & cast on their social networking sites
Once Upon A Time Twitter Facebook
Lana Parrilla Twitter Facebook
Jennifer Morrison Twitter Facebook
Colin O'Donoghue Twitter Facebook
Josh Dallas Twitter
Jared Gilmore Twitter
Lee Arenberg Twitter
Liam Garrigan Twitter

Once Upon A Time season 5 started filming last month. The small village of Steveston in South Richmond was again transformed into Storybrooke for a day of filming for episode 1.

The first scene I came across in downtown Steveston for the 1st day of shooting for Once Upon A Time season 5 in the town involved an odd sight.

Granny's diner had been transformed into a beer garden. whether this is a temporary situation, or permanent was not yet known. More off, was Gabe Khouth as Sneezy wearing an Emma Swan style red jacket & driving the Sheriffs car. He shows up to what appears to be a ribbon cutting ceremony with several other dwarves in attendance including Faustino DiBauda, Mig Macario and maybe others.. I couldn't see the whole scene from where I was, but there was at least 3 or 4 of the dwarves there. Most notably missing was Lee Arenberg.

After that scene, the production moved 1/2 block down to an intersection. In the intersection they set up a scene with several cast members including Rebecca Mader, Sean Maguire, Lana Parrilla, Josh Dallas, Ginnifer Goodwin, Colin O'Donoghue, Emilie de Ravin and Jared Gilmore.

In the scene, we see Lana as Regina Mills marching towards Rebecca and Sean as Zelena and Robin Hood. Regina is flanked by several of the locals, Hook, Mary & Dacid, Belle and Henry all follow her to the middle of the street.

It seems that Zelena has robin captive somehow and demands a wand from Regina for the release of Robin. Regina does whats asked of her, and gives Zelana a wand. Robin is then let go & instantly taken in by Regina to their side of the battle.

Zelena proudly waves the wand around, attempting perhaps to create magic or a spell? But its appears to be a fake. Zelena realizes it wont work, but before she can react, Regina moves in & puts a cuff around her arm and seemingly stops Zelena dead in her tracks.

Once the cast did a couple rehearsals of it, they went back to their trailers & got into wardrobe for the actual filming.

A little while later, the group returned to film the scene in their full wardrobes for the day. By that point, the crowds swelled well over 150 and at times, over 200 people, as the combination of the 1st shoot of the season and nice weather drew a larger than usual crowd. No surprise with the size of the crowd, none of the main cast came over to meet any fans at all this day. while the main cast is becoming less & less receptive of coming over in the past year or so, its rare that NONE of them do. Guess the absurdly large crowd was just too much for any of them to consider.

While they were shooting this scene, my battery on my camera died so I left while they were still shooting. so I don't know if more happened in this scene afterwards, but the amount of times they shot this, I doubt it.

you can follow the stars of Once Upon A Time on Social Media sites
Once Upon A Time Twitter Facebook
Lana Parrilla Twitter Facebook
Sean Maguire Twitter
Rebecca Mader Twitter Facebook
Colin O'Donoghue Twitter Facebook
Josh Dallas Twitter
Ginnifer Goodwin Twitter Facebook
Emilie de Ravin Twitter
Gabe Khouth Twitter
Jared Gilmore Twitter
Faustino Di Bauda Twitter
Mig Macario Twitter

Once Upon A Time returns for season 5 on ABC in the U.S. and on CTV in Canada starting Oct  2015