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Kick Ass 2 films scenes in Hamilton, ON with Chloe Grace Moretz, Aaron Taylor Johnson, Claudia Lee & Morris Chestnut

9/18/2012

On Saturday, after my grueling, fairly unsuccessful TIFF was wrapped, I traveled most of the way across Hamilton in the hopes of catching filming for the 2nd time during my trip here. This time, a film series I was familiar with & excited about, KICK ASS 2 was doing scenes at Sir Winston Churchill High School. The Canadian school was playing the part of Millard Fillmore High School in New York somewhere.

On set that day were several notable & smaller role cast members. When I first got there I saw several areas blocked off to traffic, so I set up near the Pat Quinn Arena (I really didnt know he had an arena in Hamilton) and took a few shots. I soon realized, I was a little TOO far away. I shot a couple frames, and couldnt at the time even tell what I was shooting but knew to follow the cameras, and sure enough, caught a couple partial frames of Chloe Moretz & Aaron Taylor Johnson doing a scene as Mindy Macready & Dave Lizewski, the non-superhero everyday high schoolers that are of course Hit Girl & Kick Ass. This was Chloe's 1st day on set, so I knew these were sure to be probably the 1st pics of her.

As I ventured closer to the set I saw several "please no photos" signs around. After discussing with the cop on how legal it was, which he of course told me what I already knew, it was really, just a request, not an order.... I decided to do my shooting from a distance as to not make an international incident about it.

So for a couple hours I would stay low key, and was sneaking a quick pic here or there of the set when there was a chance, but wasnt shooting with a blatant intent to disrupt or be noticed.

The scene was mostly of Mindy & Dave walking, then Mindy essentially snubbing Dave & getting into an SUV that Marcus, Mindy's guardian was driving.

As lunch time closed in, I learned the "Marcus" character from the 1st movie had been re-cast & the man I saw playing him (which I instantly knew wasnt the original one) was Morris Chestnut who I know from his time in Vancouver filming "V". Funny part was, I asked a crew member if she knew the 1st film & she said she did. so I asked "is that guy supposed to be the character Marcus?" She said yes. I replied "they recast him?" & she said no, its the same actor. Guess she didnt pay THAT close of attention to the original.

I saw a character dressed in a grey hoodie that I never got a clear look at, and who was seemingly not in the later scenes. I dont know who it was, or what his importance, if any was. May have just been a background character, but he seemed to hang around the tent the talent was at during breaks sometimes..... so, unsure who it might be. I never actually had a chance to shoot any frames of him, so its a mystery to me who it is, if anyone notable at all. I also cant even recall what he did in the scenes. It was sort of odd. I wondered if it was Christopher Mintz-Plasse for awhile, but convinced myself it probably wasnt.

Eventually lunch was called and I attempted to get an autograph, but my timing was just a couple seconds too late and Moretz & Johnson had gone inside the school and away from the set.

In no time I found their trailers on the other side of the school & amused myself with games & internet on my blackberry as I waited for lunch to end. Soon, I saw Chestnut go back to set & I knew that Moretz & Johnson would soon follow. I moved as close as I was really allowed to, and called out to Chloe as she went by, but she either didnt hear me, or chose not to, as I didnt even get a partial head turn in my direction. Moments later Aaron came by & I spoke up a bit louder, he saw me & thought for a moment about going right in, but came over, signed 2 items for me & hurried to set. I am sure Aaron didnt know, or frankly cares, but he is the 1st celeb I have ever gotten IN Hamilton. I've gotten AHL autographs here before, but never any TV or Movie autographs. A couple weeks earlier, Lily Collins COULD have been the 1st, but she opted to deny me. So the honour now instead goes to Aaron Taylor Johnson.

After lunch they had more scenes with Dave & Mindy having discussions in front of the school. It seemed to be the theme of the day, this wasnt the only scene where there seemed to be long discussions going on between the pair.

During an extended break after lunch I went & hung not far from the tent the talent waited in during breaks. Aaron saw me there & told Chloe & her handler I wanted an autograph. Instantly she got up, walked over with her handler and willingly signed a couple items for me. I was pleased to have that out of the way, then I could focus on trying to take a few more pics of the shoot.

After a couple more set changes for different angles, I moved along from where I was standing most of the day. I found by fluke a little driveway that was not seen by crew & was being used by a couple background extras to sit on between takes. It was out of sight of the crew during takes, so I sat back, out of the way, then once the extras would move on to do their walk thru, I moved to the end of the small driveway area & would shoot off a few frames of Chloe just standing alone on the sidewalk.

Shortly after a couple takes of that, i felt I had enough & headed home with what I felt was a decent take from the set.

My interpretation of things I saw & heard at set were... they shot scenes of Mindy getting picked up by Marcus, then dropped off by Marcus & her then waiting for Marcus to drive off before hailing a cab. Mindy would have a couple discussions with Dave, 1 ending with her essentially leaving him looking upset/sorry as she got into Marcus's truck. The other, which I heard better implied that Dave was asking Mind to "train" him & her eventually caving in & agreeing to do it.

Another scene they shot simply had Mindy on the sidewalk, with kids walking by her & a well dressed blonde girl in all blue who I found out thru reading reports about this shoot is Claudia Lee, her character "Brooke" is essentially Mindys school nemesis. Since this was Chloes 1st day on set, I would have to believe, this was 1 of the 1st scenes these 2 would have done together. There wasnt much to it that I recall, just Brooke walking past Mindy as she waited for a cab.

I know, you have likely seen some of these shots already on Just Jared or Perez Hilton, but here is an extended set of the photos from this shoot, including Chloe, Aaron, Morris & Claudia.

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The Mortal Instruments (TMI) City Of Bones films scenes in Hamilton, Ontario August 31st. Pics of cast/set location and scene breakdown.

9/1/2012

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First off, fans of the books.... bear in mind, I know NOTHING of the series. Simply relaying what was seen. Sooo, if something I state seems wrong, or a character has a more commonly used name by the fans, dont bother correcting me. I am relaying the info I found out.

Having dealt with the Twilight phenomenon back in Vancouver I have had some experience with fandoms of book series made into films. That being said, I expected me to be the only 1 checking out the set the day I went down to King Street in Hamilton as I simply didnt realize how large this film was.

The Mortal Instruments : City Of Bones, the film adaptation of the 1st book of the TMI series by author Cassandra Clare was shooting scenes in Hamilton, so I opted to check it out. It was their last day there, which unbeknownst to me, they had actually been there for a few days.

My goal, unlike the fans was pretty specific. Get autographs from Lily Collins & Lena Headey, and take a few pics of the scene(s) if possible. When I got there, I saw several fans lurking around, most with books in hand & thats when i realized.... its sort of popular. Shortly after, I had the 1st of probably a dozen requests/demands to not photograph the area or the actors from 1 of the several crew who foolishly kept trying to suggest this to me.

One crew member that I approached looking for info was nice enough to let me see the sheet of who was expected to be on that day, so I took a quick pic of it & memorized the rest of it. My 1st disappointment of the day, no Lena Headey. So I was now there JUST for Lily Collins. I had not planned to go for this film, so I never printed for the likes of Jamie Campbell-Bower, Kevin Durand, Kevin Zegers, Jemima West or Robert Sheehan... all whom I would see throughout the day.

Eventually, just as the call sheet has told me, the cast started rolling in around 2:30-2:45 PM. A plethora of cast & stunt doubles rolled in, each primary character that was there, having a stunt double aslo on set.

Lots of vampires were seen roaming the area as they would go to & from make up/holding throughout the day. The "vampire leader" Elyas M'Barek was nice enough to wave to the fans as he went to set. Most of the main cast however, got dropped off by their shuttle vans & went straight in. Lily Collins, the 1 & only person I was waiting for, literally bolted inside, taking only about 4 steps from her vehicle to the door. Not even time for me to utter "Lily", let alone "Lily, can you sign?".

Eventually they went for their lunch break around 7:30. While the likes of Kevin Zegers, Robert Sheehan & Jemima West came over to the crowd of nearly 20 fans by this point to sign, Jamie Campbell-Bower (who I met back during Twilight and was quite friendly as you can see if you read my "random bloggings" post about him) & Lily Collins both jumped into awaiting transportation vehicles & got the hell outta there.

Having had 0 success at the set, I opted to go wait at the trailers for post-lunch pick ups. There, I was told "its best to wait at the set, they wont do it here". I told the guy I did that & the 1 person I needed didnt. Hesaid "well, she wont do it here". I then suggested she should do it when she arrives, or the camera I had out, that they were so adamant on me not using, would be used even more. The crew didnt like the sound of that. I actually thought this might encourage them to tell Lily to just sign & get it over with. However, when she showed up, I timed walking thru the set perfectly & was 3 feet from her, when she outright said "not right now" to me. I was unimpressed and of course went into shooting everything there was to shoot mode, which annoyed crew members repeatedly. Coulda all been avoided with the grabbing of a sharpie by Lily.

Eventually, around 11:30 PM Robert Sheehan came out & chatted with his stunt double and a few other extras for a bvit outside before the rest of the cast around 11:45 PM came out, the cast all went back to the trailers as they wrapped on the evening. I hurried over to the trailers (traffic patterns made it so I could beat them on foot). Lily came out, and I called to her, and she AGAIN said "no". The crew members seemed so proud of their effort to stop me from getting an autograph as they stood between me and her. I reminded the crew that about my camera. I then said to them that I will be seeing them Tuesday with my camera I guess. Crew member foolishly went "ha, we wont be here Tuesday", so I replied "I know, you will be in Toronto. Dundas st, right?" which shut him up pretty quick as I walked away.

My autographing day was a complete bust.... but, I will have a 2nd crack Tue. Perhaps the CREW will encourage Lily to get it over with right away, so I wont hang around... Either that, or I will have fun shooting the 3 exterior scernes they have to shoot that day I guess.

As for you fans wondering what they shot.
The scenes were shot in the abandoned Royal connaugh Hotel in Hamilton. It was playing the part of the "Hotel Dumort" which I found out is sort of a big deal as people were photographing the signage, which I really wouldnt have noticed if it were not for the fans.

They started doing scenes in the "Hotel Dumort Ballroom" with a scene of
1-"vampire leader entering a ballroom"
followed by
2- "Isabelle dragged across banquet table"
3- "The gang is cornered, werewolves crash thru windows" (they had 2 nice dogs on set to be "werewolves")
4- "Striped wolf attacks vampire leader, 2nd wolf behind Clary, she hits it w/ blade"
Scene moves to Ballroom corridor
5- "Jace & Alec carry |Simon down corridor, Clary & Isabelle in tow"
Scene moves to "Hotel Dumort front"
6- "Clary sees "sign of death", they enter"
7- "The gang are being watched by Luke, te guardian werewolf"
scene moves to "Hotel Dumort 3rd flr elevator shaft"
8- The gang rescue Alec
scene moves back to ballroom
9- ballroom fight
10- "Clarys view of bolt gun slides into hole"
back to elevator
11- Vampires approach elevator
Hotel lobby
12- "feet walking up stairs"

Films dont always get filmed in order, so if the scenes dont make sense chronologically, dont worry. Its how the process goes. Its also possible, depending how the director felt that day, or in the cutting room, scenes may have been cut from the original scene selections for the day.

Anyways, below are some pics from the August 31, 2012 filming in Hamilton, Ontario.

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