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.

My TIFF 2012 disaster started off the day before the Toronto International Film Festival for once.

Usually, I get started on day 1. But this year, I started on "day 0" the day before the festival.

Day 0 started with the tiring & long trip from Hamilton to Toronto airport. I was there by myself for a little while & of course, no luck was had. The 1st name wouldnt show up till the airport was full of all the regulars from past festivals.

Kick Ass star Aaron Taylor Johnson was 1st up. He was actually here arriving to prepare for his role in "Kick Ass 2" that started filming in Toronto during the festival, but he was also here to promote "Anna Karenina" at the fest. I managed to get a couple autographs from the surprisingly older than I expected Johnson. He was relatively good at taking care of most of the requests.

A while later the next star to arrive was Karl Urban from the new Star Trek film. He was here to promote "Dredd 3D".  He seemed to "tolerate" the attention cast on him by fans & autograph hounds, but certainly wasnt great by any stretch. I did manage 2 autographs out of him after a lot of effort. For a virtual unknown, he really carried a pretty big ego on his shoulder.

Last autograph I would get that night was from Mad Men babe Christina Hendricks as she arrived to promote "Ginger & Rosa". She made sure everyone got 1 (and a few got 2 or 3). Unfortunately, I managed the mere 1, despite being 1st one to get her. Just bad positioning by me after getting my 1st one.

As the evening went on, a problem was starting to arise that we had never encountered out there before. A plethora of ditsy fangirls were showing up, and like MOST fangirls of anything, they were pretty much a nuisance. Say what people will about autograph hounds, we at least get what we want, get out & its over. Fangirls are wanting photos with (which takes like 10Xs longer than most celebs autographs), sometimes an autograph, yet dont bring a sharpie, and of course, want to tell the celeb what a huge fan they are of whatever thing they sorta remember them from...best part is, in 90% of the cases, they didnt even CARE about the celeb till moments after they saw them. Its not the environment for these type of interactions, and isnt advisable for people wanting that type of interaction... yet the article in the National Post telling them it was a good place to meet them really made a "slightly tolerable" situation for most celebs to "pretty much intolerable" quick.

With my need to get back to Hamilton everynight, I decided that was a good time to leave as there was no confirmed arrivals till much later when I wouldnt be able to stay anyways. As "luck" would have it, I was still in the airport (unfortunately wrong part of the airport) when Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston arrived for  "Argo". That haunted me all weekend as I missed him multiple times.

DAY 0 - total autographs 5

B  Aaron Taylor Johnson
B- Christina Hendricks
C  Karl Urban

The 1st official day of TIFF started off with the horribly rude Kirsten Dunst & her new boyfriend, the previously nice Garret Hedlund, who has taken on the sour attitude of his gf. Neither of them signed any autographs & Hedlund only stopped momentarily to do a couple photos with for the gaggle of fangirls that were out there again.

The 1st "official" autograph I got during TIFF was someone who didnt even have a film there. The Office star John Krasinski, as he showed up to support his wife Emily Blunt at her premiere of "Looper" He was terrific with everyone, and even responded when I said I was disappointed to see The Office ending with "so am I".

The next arrival was the super duo of overrated divaness. Selena Gomez (who used to be really nice) & Vanessa Hudgens (who used to be...well, tolerable) arrived together to promote their film. NEITHER of them stopped to sign autographs, or do any photos with. The absurd posse of bored TIFF greeters & wannabe security guards made a moderately excitable situation an all out near bedlam situation, as people were shooed aside, tripping over each other because the "security" (aka - highly untrained random guys in suits & 1 actual security guy) bullied their way thru a crowd of photographers, autograph hounds & fangirls (including at least a couple who didnt even know who they were....despite being in their wheelhouse of knowledge) to get the career C listers into their awaiting vehicle. I wonder what either of these mediocre "actresses" will act like in 5 years when they are competing against each other for TV movie roles & probably losing out. I actually had Selena on my "top 25 want to get" list, because she was so nice before, she HAD made a fan out of me back then. Now, she has assured that I never buy a ticket for a single movie she is in. Austin Butler was also with the pair, and was the only 1 to interact with anyone at all as he got to the car he looked up & had a few words after seeing a familiar face from Vancouver, 1 of of my buddies chatted with him for a couple moments, much to the chagrin of the pair in the car waiting.

My evening got a bit better when my buddies & I hurried over & ditched the group of fangirls that were still around & nabbed "127 Hours" star James Franco, as he arrived after his diva co-stars on a different flight. He was still as cool as when we last saw him back in Vancouver during his filming here for "Rise Of The Apes". We were disappointed to hear we had just missed Elle Fanning by 10 or so minutes, but thats TIFF, you are always going to miss someone.

The most embarrassing story I heard from TIFF was when "Pretty Little Liars" star Ashley Benson came in & the same fangirls who couldnt even ID Selena Gomez or Vanessa Hudgens, mobbed Ashley for photos with, and in several of the cases, they bugged her for not 1, or 2, or 3, but 5+ different photos with. One girl even bragging that she had TEN (yes 10) photos with her there.... and some of you think WE are the problem. I missed this stupidity by mere seconds, I am thankful I did. I would have probably said something that was perceived as rude to them.

That was how my 1st official day of TIFF ended.

Day 1 - total autographs 5 (total 10)


A  James Franco
A  John Krasinski
E- Garret Hedlund
F  Selena Gomez
F  Vanessa Hudgens
F- Kirsten Dunst