THIS BLOG POST IS FOR  "SUPERMAN AND LOIS" SEASON 1 EPISODE 4, AND MAY CONTAIN POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON.

If you have not seen the episode, and do not want to see or read possible spoilers about it prior to seeing it, do not continue reading the article or viewing the photos below.
 
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Yesterday the new CW & HBO Max series Superman & Lois was on location in downtown Vancouver, in an alley in Gastown. It is a very popular alley for filming, as is the park across the street from there. This episode is being directed by regular Arrowverse director, and former Arrow stunt co-ordinator, James Bamford.

In the scene, Tyler Hoechlin dressed in his Superman outfit, lands on a spot, and walks down the alley, before stopping, and eventually leaning down towards the ground... whether its to look at, or pick up something, or if there is supposed to be someone there in the scene, I dont know. During my time there, there did not seem to be another actor in the scene.

During one break between takes, as he walked back to his starting point, he seemingly saw me a block a way, and waved at me for several seconds. After he got to his mark, I looked around trying to see if there was someone there I didnt see, but didnt see anyone that he could have been waving at. It definitely gave me a chance to get 1 of the best sets I have gotten from any show in a long time.

A bit later, I went to the other end of the alley to see if I could get some photos of him without his mask on in the scene, as my angle only gave me the back side of the scene. I got some, but as you can see, quality was not too good. I tried several takes, and never really got a good set. So I gave up, and went back to the other side.

After they filmed that scene, they moved across the street.

After the alley scene, they moved across the street from the alley, to an area known as Victory Square. The spot they were shooting in for this scene I had never seen anyone shoot at before. They were shooting right against the Cenotaph that is the feature spot of the park. It is the centre of annual Remembrance Day ceremonies in Vancouver. I've never seen a film crew actually film on it. Seen crews around the perimetre of it, but never physically ON it.

After they did a rehearsal of the scene, they then moved on to filming a driving scene with 3 security/armed vehicles going down the street. The way they had the vehicles drive, it was impossible to get all 3 of them in 1 shot, so I just focused on the big armed truck, but there was two cars that looked similar to Vancouver undercover cop cars flanking both sides of it, the front one kept driving off, while the truck stopped right at the top of the alley, while the other one stopped a fair bit behind it. Then, they drove off. Not sure who they are looking for, but it was clear they were searching for someone.

The night scene had a yet unknown "bad guy" who was dressed like he was 1 of the many homeless that populate the park when film crews arent using it. He roamed back & forth in front of the side of the monument they were at, while Superman was down on the ground, feeling the impact of whatever was in the gun the man was waving around.  The bad guy shot him a couple times, sending Superman tumbling backwards as he tried to get up off the ground. Eventually Superman found himself up leaning against the cenotaph, before letting out a desperate thunder clap.... and that was the end of the scene while I was there. They did film for a few more hours, but I had to go.

An odd thing during the scene was there was a couple people standing mere feet from where all this dangerous, villainous action was going on. They even seemed to be taking photos on their phone. Its funny, because the dozens of times I have been told I am in shot for a scene, I've replied back "if this was going on in the real world, there would absolutely be someone here taking photos of it.... so it adds reality to it", which has so far never worked.... and then, sure enough, they just have two extras there standing mere feet from the bedlam taking phone pics.

Superman & Lois season 1 will air Tuesday nights on The CW in the U.S. starting February 23, 2021.

You can now get exclusive first looks on our Patreon ahead of these blog posts.

If you want to see my past behind the scene shots for Superman & Lois go HERE

THIS BLOG POST IS FOR A "SUPERMAN AND LOIS" SEASON 1 (unknown episode #), AND MAY CONTAIN POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON.

If you have not seen the episode, and do not want to see or read possible spoilers about it prior to seeing it, do not continue reading the article or viewing the photos below.
 
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last warning
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PLEASE NOTE - Photo limits are in place for website use/social media posts.
PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF FAMILIAR WITH THE NEW GUIDELINES POSTED
HERE.
I will not be responsible for your ignorance. If I file a takedown notice on you, it really is on you for not educating yourself. If you are confused on how many you can post, ASK FIRST, and I will let you know.

Earlier today the new CW & HBO Max series Superman & Lois was on location in downtown Vancouver, in an alley in Chinatown that I had shot a scene from for a different show several years ago. There was also a scene in a near by skate park that I got to JUST after it wrapped (that is where the smashed in green car photo is from).

On set this day was Tyler Hoechlin in the brand new Superman suit that The CW posted a photo of earlier in the day. While I did officially have the 1st look at it last month, the quality of those photos as you recall were far inferior to todays, as I was shooing them from 3 football fields away, in the dark, through smoke. Todays shoot was only about 1/3 of a football field away, in daytime, through smoke.

The scene literally consisted of just a massive explosion of dirt and debris coming from a little storefront in an area made to look like a non-U.S. area (they literally built this store front in a side lot on an alley just for this scene), scattering dozens of feet into the air, then a couple moments later, Superman comes out of the building that just blew up, and does his up up & away fly away move. For the first while they had his stunt double do the rehearsals as they worked on where the camera should be, and how fast to do the scene etc (quite normal for the film industry.), I snapped a few pics of him as you could see the bottom of the suit poking out from under his jacket. Eventually Tyler showed up, and they shot 4 takes of this explosion with him there, and a herd of crew members standing around holding umbrellas on a dry day.

After that shoot, Tyler left, and they shot some scenes of a pile of cars driving, with a film crew inside a taxi cab at the front of the line of traffic, all had foreign license plates.

Throughout the day, some of the crew members who apparently dont have internet access, and didnt know about The CW posting the suit, tried preventing everyone from seeing what was going on. While they did make it harder. As always, they did not in fact succeed. As you can see by the photos below. Someone needs to tell their crew this doesnt work, never has. All it does is annoy everyone (crew included, as most of them certainly dont want to stand around holding an umbrella for no reason), and actually incentivizes people to want to come to more of their sets. All my years of sets, this tactic has been used easily 200+ times, and TWO times I would say it sort of worked, and it wasnt because of their plan, it was because of my laziness on those days.

Right now, there is also video (short clip) on my Patreon of the scene as well. Here are a few photos (some screen caps from that video, along with a couple photos from a pap that was there that gave his "unused/not submittable" photos to me to use).

I have also added a couple photos of the back of the cape, since last time I had people ask me (even though I was 3 football fields away) if I saw any logo on the back of the cape..... so now you can see for yourself.

Superman & Lois season 1 will air Tuesday nights on The CW in the U.S. starting February 23, 2021.

You can now get exclusive first looks on our Patreon ahead of these blog posts.

If you want to see my past behind the scene shots for Superman & Lois go HERE

 THIS BLOG POST IS FOR A "SUPERMAN AND LOIS" SEASON 1 EPISODE 1, AND MAY CONTAIN POSSIBLE SPOILERS FOR THE SEASON.

If you have not seen the episode, and do not want to see or read possible spoilers about it prior to seeing it, do not continue reading the article or viewing the photos below.
 
.
.
.
last warning
.
.

PLEASE NOTE - Photo limits are in place for website use/social media posts.
PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF FAMILIAR WITH THE NEW GUIDELINES POSTED
HERE.
I will not be responsible for your ignorance. If I file a takedown notice on you, it really is on you for not educating yourself. If you are confused on how many you can post, ASK FIRST, and I will let you know.

Last night I was lucky enough to stumble across the first known location shoot for the new Arrowverse spin off series Superman And Lois that will air in early 2021. Credit to twitter user @Rokivan1 for posting the info & giving me the heads up there was filming there.

Funny enough, just hours earlier in that day, I had told many in a chat, as well as 1 person on twitter that there will be few chances to see this show on location because of the massive compound they are building more than an hour outside of Vancouver, to be their Smallville town set. So when I saw this post, I didnt hesitate to go check it out.

As it turned out, they were at my least favorite regular location that is within 1/2 hour walking distance from my place. A place known to most in Vancouver as Molson Brewery, which is no longer a brewery.... now its just a large empty building. This place is very popular with film crews, and very unpopular with people who like to see whats going on. Its massive, probably equal to 2 or 3 city blocks, has lots of nooks that are out of view of anything, and even if you CAN see anything from the bridge that runs by it (as I did last night) you are still more than 2 football field away from the closest point, on this particular night I was closer to 3 football fields away to get the right angle, as the closest spot was imeded by trees, and part of the main building on the grounds.

There was not a lot to see. When I first got there, they had a massive flood light pointed up towards where the old Molson logo used to be on the highest structure on the grounds. But I couldnt see any sign of any filming up there.

During the night, I noticed a ladder set up beside a fan blowing smoke. USUALLY this would be a sign of maybe a stunt that might take place near there, most commonly for someone (like Superman) "landing" from a higher place, as they jump off the ladder. I got quite fixated on paying attention to that area, and didnt really investigate much more..... not that I was seeing any signs of more to investigate. Nothing came of that location. I dont know why the ladder ever ended up just being right where it was, but it was never put to use in the time I was there.

Later on, I noticed enough crew members, and equipment in an area that I felt something must be setting up there. Sure enough, I saw ANOTHER ladder, set up in such a way that it was likely to be used for a stunt jump. There was much more activity going on around the new ladders area, so I focused on there. Again, fixating mostly on the ladder, but paying attention to the surround area a bit... and eventually I saw my 1st look at Tyler Hoechlin out, just standing near the set getting alterations done to his hair, or make up, or wardrobe (not sure which they were working on there). But the bonus was, after a few minutes, he took off his jacket, and showed that he was in the new Superman outfit (minus the cape at this time), and gave me my first look at him in the new get up. After like 3 minutes like that, he put his jacket back on and left for about 45 minutes.

During his departure, they set up the scene more, having a stand in for Superman lay on the ground (for the longest time I assumed it was for a different character, because I was STILL convinced they were going to use the damn ladder for the scene). JUST before they were ready to shoot the actual scene, they turned on these two massive yellow lights, that made the entire area look like the inside of a glass of lemonade. EVERYTHING had a yellow glow to it. In some of my photos below, I tried to take out some of the yellowness to make the photos look a bit more normal. But I also left a few with it in so you could see exactly what I was seeing. Eventually the stand in left, and Tyler arrived at set with the cape attached this time.

In the scene, Superman starts off laying on the ground. He slowly gets up. Looks off in the direction past the camera, and does his patented jumping fly away move. .... and that was it. Thats all they filmed there. Never used the ladder. No reason explaining why he was suddenly on the ground. They then packed up from that spot, and moved elsewhere on the grounds that I could not see, and I wasnt going to wait it out & see if they happened to come back out for a different spot that I could see. The chances seemed slim. So I called it a night.

As I was leaving, I noticed ONE cast trailer out, partially obscured by the very bridge I was on, so I had to go and find an angle to peer over it to see what it said. It said "Sarah Cushing" on the door. According to google, this is a new character on the show that will befriend one of Supermans sons?. I did not see any female character in the scenes I saw, and frankly, I dont even know if the trailer was in use. Often trailers hold 2 different compartments on it, and for all I know, the compartment I couldnt see the name of was for Tyler, and THAT was the 1 in use. I dont know either way. Just 1 extra small tidbit I thought I'd add in.

So yeah, first S&L set down for me. HOPEFULLY I am wrong about this being a rare occurrence, as I have just taken 1 of my old blog sections & repurposed it to be for this show (this used to be a blog section for the 2010 Olympics... my site has run out of "new" blog options. So I had to take all the content from there, move it into a different part of my site, and re-purpose this into my Superman & Lois blog section.)

One final thing I will clear up. I have seen some report that these were taken from this distance because of Covid. No. The filming was inside a closed off compound with no public access. Shows have filmed there for many years, not just now. Theres only about 3 vantage points of the entire compound, and none of them are from inside there. For this particular set, I had to stand on a bridge that runs past it. No other street access spots would have given enough of a view to see it (unless you were like 15 feet tall).

UPDATE: December 10, 2020 - I have included the video from that night at the bottom. It also includes some of the photos from this set. The actual video portion is about 90 seconds. The rest is re-visiting these photos below.

Superman & Lois season 1 will air Tuesday nights on The CW in the U.S. starting February 23, 2021.

You can now get exclusive first looks on our Patreon ahead of these blog posts.

If you want to see my other behind the scene shots for Superman & Lois go HERE