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

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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