This week, a movie franchise starts its epic final run. Of course, I am talking about the Twilight Saga series. The 5th & final movie in the franchise, Breaking Dawn Part 2 will complete the 5 movie run that started with the filming of "Twilight" in February 2008.

Although I knew nothing of this franchise when it first rolled into Vancouver to start filming the 2nd part of the franchise "New Moon" in March of 2009, I knew there was big hype on it, and I learned a lot about it, the actors involved, the storyline and more than anything.... obsessive fandoms.

In the early days of New Moon, there wasnt throbbing swarms of teenage girls & moms staking out the stars every moves as they would endure later on, but simply me... and shortly after, a couple other autograph hounds & a pap.

In those early days, it was actually possible to see Robert Pattinson go out for a walk. My 1st actual encounter took a few days.It was the young Taylor Lautner, as I caught up with him 1 night, along with several fangirls who knew him even with a hoodie over his head. Soon, sightings of the movies main & secondary stars seemed to be a daily thing. I ran into them at grocery stores such as was the case with my 1st Ashley Greene encounter, I ran into them at restaurants, as I did several times. Of course, there was also the planned run ins, at restaurants as the cast would occasionally get together, or for events such as the party for Kristen Stewart celebrating her 19th birthday at the Chill Winston bar in Gastown.

There was events almost weekly the cast were at. Mostly concerts. Whether it was cast mate Jackson Rathbone playing a concert with his band 100 Monkeys that many of his castmates were attending at the Granville Island's Backstage Lounge, or friend of Robert Pattinson, Sam Bradley doing a show at the now extinct Richards On Richards club, they were around, and not at all hard to find. There was the night friend of Nikki Reed, Sage Dill did a show at the Metropole bar with Robert & Kristen in attendance along with Nikki. That was the 1 and only night where the stars really felt under a microscope while they were here. Robert was getting pressured by fans left & right for photos & a few words in the limited 15 minutes he spent in the very small bar. It should have been a sign to some of us of what was coming in the future for him.

While the first couple weeks of New Moon cast hunting was low on results, by the end of their run here in May of 2009 for New Moon, most of the cast knew the regular autograph hounds as well as they probably knew some of their castmates. We watched as they went from uncertain of our intentions early on, to accepting of us, and on occasion, taking the time to socialize with us about things. It really felt like the cast had an understanding of their celebrity & were ok with it. We even managed to the get the grumpy & snarly Kristen Stewart to crack & by the end of her time here, was telling us "I dont care what you do with them" in reference to getting multiple autographs while willingly signing everything we had outside the Loose Moose bar on Nelson street, a place many of the cast went often in their time during New Moon. They had won me over, and I vowed to see New Moon when it came out...and I did. It would be the ONLY Twilight film I would ever see in a theatre. I saw Twilight on video, shortly after Kristen Stewart, the 1 hold out from the cast for signing, did finally. I went out, rented the film, then of course, went to go see New Moon when it came out as I said I would.

A few months went by when the vamps & wolves were rolling back into Vancouver to take on part 3 in the saga "Eclipse" I was eager for it. I had done quite well from a financial point during New Moon. I thought "worse case scenario, it will still be ok" with Eclipse. Little did we know how wrong we all would be.

The Twilight hype was still growing, and with New Moon having just finished a theatrical release, and the DVD coming out shortly, hype for the Twilight franchise was at epidemic levels. Fans were even moreso clamouring for any news, positive or negative on the budding romance of the movies stars Rob & Kristen. Far too much attention on the franchise & ideal weather made for a bad bad combo when they returned.

In between New Moon & Eclipse, Robert Pattinson had run off to New York City to film, and Kristen Stewart had gone to Los Angeles to film. Both of them were sought out day & night by fans and paps in both cities. While it wasnt uncommon for the 2 starts to sneak out in Vancouver & have a night to themselves (solo or together or with other cast) once in awhile, it was practically impossible for them when they were in the 2 largest celeb spotting spots in North America. They came back to Vancouver quite sour on their celebrity status. When they got to Vancouver, they simply were DONE with being RPatts & KStew. Because of their unwillingness to just go out once in awhile, the few times they were seen anywhere, mobs of paps and fans would flood whatever area they were spotted at. This only made things worse for them. They actually made their poblem worse. They should have had people around them, explaining to them how to minimize the pressure that was clearly building around them. But they didnt, and they handled it how they felt would be best, and the result couldnt have been further from what they probably wanted.

Filming in the summer, there was a far different feel to this shoot than New Moon. Instead of 3 or 4 autograph hounds, a couple paps & a few fans at their hotels & such, 20+ paps were here at its peak, 50+ fans outside the hotels, along with those of us who were around during New Moon. You had a lady willingly driving people to the sets and hotels for money. You had a different rumour or outright lie created daily by some "source" about how things were in Vancouver for the cast. Truth is, the 1st month or so they were here,some of those claims of crowds so large, cast couldnt go out were not all that exaggerated as was proven the 1 day Peter Facinelli left the hotel to go to the 7-11 across the street & it took him about 20 minutes to do it. The cast were practically ghosts for the early goings of Eclipse. Few would dare leave the Wall Centre hotel to go anywhere without being driven away from the hotel via the underground garage. Going for a walk was no longer practical for them. However, despite all that, most every cast member was seen once or twice, and the most hardcore fans who would spend several hours out there a day every day, eventually saw every cast member... minus Rob & Kristen who were legitimately in hiding by the end of the 1st month.

After 4-5 weeks all the out of town paps & gossip reporters packed up and left town with their tails mostly between their legs. All the fans on summer vacations had left, and what was remaining was a fairly controlled crowd. On weekends, there MIGHT be 20 people total at the hotel, during the week, sometimes there was no more than 3 or 4. But gossip sites & mags kept reporting how bad the cast had it up here. They were allegedly unable to even leave their hotels because of the throngs of people.... despite the fact, those throngs had left.

In an "only Summit would do this" piece of brainiac planning, after the massive tidal wave of fans left, the people at Summit did something they SHOULD HAVE done from day 1, and moved the cast, minus Rob, Kristen & Taylor, OUT of the Wall Centre and to a private residence building not far away. Now away from the hotel, the cast were more free to go out & see things. While the rare few fans still hanging around the Wall Centre were hoping for a Rob or Kristen sighting, the rest of the cast were free to mostly do as the pleased. You could see Peter Facinelli & Kellan Lutz go out together, or newcomer Xavier Samuel going to a movie, or the Wolfpack members going for a walk together, they were around...and for the mostpart, unnoticed, except for a small group of those who knew where they had moved to.

The cast became a bit easier to find in the last couple months here, except for the mostly hidden Robsten. They were still sticking to staying in most of the time, despite the fact on many nights, there was few if any people at their hotel, and even fewer paying attention to some of their favorite sneak out spots.

While some new friendly faces like Bryce Dallas Howard, Jack Huston, Xavier Samuel & members of the Wolfpack, who I cant recall seeing even once during New Moon graced us, the bitterness of the big 3, Nikki Reed, Elizabeth Reaser & even a lesser extent at times Kellan Lutz soured many who had followed this previously friendly group. Just as the cast of New Moon had sold me on their product, the cast during Eclipse decided I wouldnt spend 1 cent on them...and I still havent seen the film.

By the time the cast came to Vancouver in early 2011 to do Breaking Dawn pts 1 & 2, they had already been filming for awhile in New Orleans & Brazil. I had hoped with the franchise being "out of sight" in that there was no film actively making the franchise a household name like when New Moon was still in everybodies minds while Eclipse came thru to film, the hype for the films would be lessened. Weather was again, poor. This SHOULD have been a situation where things could have been good. Sadly, the cast didnt get the memo about how popular they were at the time.

While there was some extremely pleasant newcomers to the franchise like Guri Weinberg, Casey Labow, MyAnna Buring, Joe Anderson, Judith Shekoni & Tracey Heggins, many of the main cast were still being quite unwilling to interact with people. Even Ashley "I only get roles because of my looks" Greene was often giving the cold shoulder to people, despite being absolutely unknown outside the Twilight fanbase. At least 1 newcomer to the franchise Mia Maestro was also, quite unpleasant. It was a far less happy cast than even the 1 that left after Eclipse.

Luckily, there was plenty of projects in town occupying our time, so we rarely spent a lot of time focusing on the cast. Mix that with them filming a lot outside of Vancouver, and they really didnt have to endure being spotted much in Vancouver, because they really were not here all that much.

I actually cant recall even seeing Robsten, or either of them individually for even 1 sighting except driving in or out of their hotel for work. Eventually, they were wrapping and the cast, which had already mostly left, trickled out of town with little fanfare & I was actually thankfull they were gone. I wouldnt have to deal with it anymore....... except until they returned for re-shoots.

A few months later, the crazy train rolled back thru Vancouver for 1 last encore. They brought Robsten, Taylor, Ashley, Kellan and a couple others back for a few days. Funny enough, I saw more of Rob & Kristen on their arrival than I did the entire shooting of BD 1 & 2. A few days later, they were all gone again. This time, for good. It was officially the END, and I could not be happier.

This franchise helped launch a lot of the success my website, youtube page & twitter accounts have now.
At one point I was ranked in the top 500,000 websites on Alexa thanks to Twilight Saga New Moon.
I had a video that was in the top 20 for a month in the entertainment category on Youtube because of New Moon.
I probably have 300-500 of my 2500+ followers on twitter still, that I would never have got at all because of Twilight.

I met some wonderful fans of the franchise while it was filming here, and on twitter. Not all of them are crazy. Some of them were quite logical, hard working people, who simply love Twilight with the same fanaticism as I show for some sports teams. I might not get it, but I understand that devotion to an entertainment product.

I learned a lot about marketing that I didnt get from a course, age demographics, shelf life of a hot product, and how some fans might read things into something you say even if there was no suggestion in your statement implying such a thing. Of course I learned as well, rabid fandoms have some messed up fans as well.

This franchise put a lot of Vancouver celebrity bloggers on the map. They might still be specks on the map, but they are on it now. More have followed since. Some have left, some have survived, some have repackaged their gimmick 3 or 4 times since then. Some were fanatical fangirls going in, some were unknowing of what a Edward Cullen was, but we all learned a lot about the franchise, and a lot about celebrity blogging/reporting and its probably helped some of us. Who knows if the celebrity scene in Vancouver would be what it is now without Twilight. I doubt it would. It didnt just open the door, it kicked the door off its hinges for making some Vancouverites more involved in autographing, papping and blogging about the going ons of the Vancouver movie & TV scene. We will probably not have another epic franchise like this stroll thru Vancouver in a long time, if ever.

Thanks to the fans of this franchise who checked into my random bloggings section often to see what my most recent encounters with the cast entailed of. Especially thanks to those of you who promoted my pages on your blogs, websites or elsewhere. Of course thanks to those who bought the countless signed items I had from the cast.

In closing. IT. IS. OVER..... and I couldnt be too much happier about it.

Day 4 started for me a bit late. I wanted to be in Toronto 1/2 hr earlier than I was, but luckily it didnt really cost me.

I 1st went to Roy Thompson Hall for the premiere of "Free Angela Davis & All Political Prisoners". Despite getting there later than I had hoped, I managed a pretty decent spot in row "1A" (thats what I call it when you are partially in the front row, but not completely there). The big draw at this showing was Men In Black star Will Smith & his family. The Smith family was invited as guests to the premiere & graced the carpet with their presence. First to show up was "Lethal Weapon" star Danny glover. After some fumbling by me to get out a photo on no notice, I got him to sign for me on a very unique photo, a still from his episode on the TV show "Psych". A bit later, I was in prime spot, and sure enough Will got out right in front of where I was. He even came right to me. However, instead of taking the sharpie & photo I had outstretched, he simply grabbed the hand my sharpie was in & shook it, then moved on. He proceeded to sign about 10 ft further away, then came back & signed about 3 ft to the other side of me. Completely missing me on both sides. I was pissed. A short while later he signed again, further down the line, and I again was shut out. It simply was just not meant to be I guess.  All the regulars took off right after Will went into the tent with Jada, Willow & Jaden. I decideed "what do I have to lose at this point" & tried on the end of the tent area, a space about 5 ft wide that you can (generally without success) yell out at the celeb as they leave the press area to go into the theatre. Its about a 50 ft walk from the tent to the area the fans can wait at, and MOST celebs dont bother. But, we saw Will come, made the plea for him to come over, and he actually did. Signed about 5 or so autographs for the 10-15 fans waiting there & I managed to get 1. Righting the wrong of earlier, Will Smith managed to help be go 3 for 3 on my top 3 of TIFF 12.

My next target was the impossible. I foolishly went for crotchety miserable "House" star Hugh Laurie. As expected, the grumpy notorious non-signer stiffed everyone, despite literally being 2 ft from items & taking about a minute to stand there, look at them & then casually walk over to the carpet.

Next up was the premiere of "Writers" at Ryerson. This was a duo redemption premiere for me. I had printed for Liana Liberato 2 years earlier, but failed to go for her, then last year she was a no show. 3rd time the charm? Her castmate Lily Collins, recently had snubbed me at the set of her recent film project "The Mortal Instruments : City Of Bones". First to show up was the TMI star Lily, with her boyfriend, former Twilight Saga star Jamie Campbell-Bower, JCB hid behind the photo-op drop while Lily posed for photographers. There was 3 people there who noticed him hiding back there. A girl who was VERY aware who he was, kept asking him to look up & he eventually did, a boy of maybe 11 or 12 who only had an autograph book & a pen & me. When the woman standing on the planter finally got JCB's attention, the boy with the book asked him for his autograph. Jamie came over to him, was about to sign, then said to the boy "do you even know who I am?" and the boy with confusion & shock didnt answer immediately & Jamie denied the boys request about 1 second later & moved on. I managed an autograph from Lily FINALLY. A short time later Liana Liberato arrived and I managed 2 autographs from her, but felt I should have got more...but the publicists (as they have done all too often in recent years) rushed them into the theatre instead of acknowledging all the fans as they should. In typical diva style, the last person to show up for the premiere was the incredibly rude & cocky Logan Lerman. I have had the displeasure of dealing with this little twerp in recent months when he was filming the follow up to his only leading role, the box office flop "Percy Jackson & The Lightning Thief". For someone who seems on the fast track to being an unemployed adult actor soon, he sure acts like he has 7 Academy Awards already. He hurried past the group of fans that waited to meet him giving them barely a half assed attempt at a wave as he speed walked down the carpet, past the press and into the theatre. He also ignored the fans leaving...no shock. That being said, so did all the cast.

A bit later another Ryerson premiere for "Byzantium" saw another up & coming young actress. Oscar nominated Saoirse Ronan arroved & signed quite a few out on the street for people before she was hurried in to do press. A short time later Gemma Arterton arrived. I managed 1 autograph from each of them, but there should have been more as again, as often was the case, the publicists disrespected the fans, the actual paying public who can make or break films, in favour of media who all ask the same 8 questions over & over again. Gemma promised the fans she would come over and sign, but OF COURSE, was led away from the fans into the theatre by the overzealous career damaging publicists that TIFF used this year. Her dispresect of the fans angered many, just like earlier in the fest when Greta Gerwig did a similar thing. After the premiere, Saoirse signed a handful again, barefoot, while Gemma hurried along signing only a few. I rushed to the car door after she skipped my area & pleaded with her, reminding her of her promise on the red carpet, which was met with a very large, unenthused sigh & a quick scribble before she hopped in her car.
More than once this festival I made tweets similar to this https://twitter.com/canadagraphs/status/245009927108706304 as my frustration with people who have nothing to lose tell those who do what to do.

Day 4 - 8 autographs (31 total)

A  Danny Glover
B+ Saoirse Ronan
B+ Will Smith
B- Liana Liberato
C+ Lily Collins
C- Gemma Arterton
D  Jamie Campbell-Bower
F- Hugh Laurie
F- Logan Lerman

Day 5 started at the Elgin Theatre for the premiere of "Arthur Newman". Emily Blunt was 1st to show up & signed ONE total autograph & it was for a person who snuck inside the secured area. So basically, she would have signed NOTHING if someone hadnt got right up to her. Shortly after, celebrating his 52nd birthday that afternoon was Oscar Award winner Colin Firth. As a bagpiper played "happy birthday" out in front, Colin happily came down the line & signed for everyone. In 5 seconds, I got more autographs (2) from Mr. Firth than Ms. Blunt signed for everyone total. All class Colin.

My next venture was my 1st crack at the press conference circuit this fest. I went for "The Iceman" press conference. Chris Evans, Michael Shannon, Winona "the thief" Ryder & Ray Liotta arrived for it. None of them signed on the way in, but promises were made by Evans & Shannon for departures.  Chris Evans came out 1st and the "Captain America" star was terrific, going down the whole line. Shortly after Michael Shannon came out & signed so many that most people left there with nothing left for the "Man Of Steel" star. Winona Ryder of course snubbed everyone, she really is 1 of the most classless bitches in Hollywood. I mean hey, your career is in shambles, your constantly mocked for being a shoplifter, you have basically 0 pull with directors, producers or casting directors now... so why not alienate the public too while you are at it. Seems smart. I dont recall when Liotta came out, but I did manage to get a couple pics of him going in, waving to the fans.

Shortly after that I tried the premiere of "To The Wonder" in front of the incredibly tough Princess Of Wales theatre (the hardest event to get autographs at IMO). Hometown star Rachel McAdams did what she does best now, snubbed everyone. How can someone in their hometown be so disrespectful of fans? I dont get it. Her co-star Olga Kurylenko stopped however & the "Quantum Of Solace" hottie signed several autographs before going in. I then waited for the premiere to end, and on the way out, I managed 2 more autographs from Olga. Rachel did sign SOME when leaving, but not many & was being pretty picky on when & what she signed. More disrespectful was the fact she opted to ignore the people people who waited the longest & went across the street and signed for the people who just showed up.

My next try was back at Ryerson for another Toronto actress, Sarah Gadon. With only THREE people waiting for the actress to leave the premiere of "AntiViral" she signed, but seemed sincerely unimpressed to be doing it, and refused to do more than 1 each despite the practically non-existent crowd. A year ago when I saw her at TIFF she was overjoyed to be asked, now, she acted like its a chore....what has she done again in the past year that won her an Oscar?

I ended my night at the Midnight Madness premiere of "The Lords Of Salem". I managed multiple autographs from both Rob & Sheri Moon Zombie. For how small the crowd was there,, they were quite loud & boisterous.

Day 5 - 13 autographs (44 total)


A+ Michael Shannon
A  Colin Firth
A  Sheri Moon Zombie
B+ Rob Zombie
B+ Olga Kurylenko
B+ Chris Evans
C  Sarah Gadon
D-  Ray Liotta
D- Rachel McAdams
F  Emily Blunt
F- Winona Ryder

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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