I got some incredible offers to go up to Vancouver BC the weekend of July 18th – 20th.
Friday 18th.
My first destination on the way up to Burnaby was Centennial beach. This is where Adama and the gang land on Earth to find a big smoldering slag heap in the Mid-Season Cliff Hanger. Got there at low tide so it doesn’t have the same visual effect.
I got me a hand full of Radioactive Soil!
Next on the way up to Burnaby is New Caprica – aka Richmond Sand dunes. This location is all but gone now. The entire sand dune is getting converted to a warehouse. It not worth going there as it will be a huge industrial complex in a few months. Here is the back side where a lot of the pyrotechnics scenes were set off. Stargate also filmed here a lot.
Next, I got to have a really great sit down interview with Colin Meacham (On-Set Set Dresser for BSG) for Future-Past.com. I meet up with Colin at his home and even went out and Walked his dog with him at a local park. I’ll be posting his interview in a few weeks after I get it typed out.
My hotel was right across the street from “Bridge Studios.” It was a weekend so little to no activity there.
I had another interview that night with two of the On-location Security Guards for BSG. They had some fantastic stories of the crazy stuff that happens at night. Including what happened with the Centennial Beach set as it was getting hit by high winds.
Saturday 19th.
The next morning my scheduled follow-up interview with Ken Hawryliw (BSG Prop Master) got postponed by NBC/Uni. The studio decided they wanted to hold off an any interviews for about a month. So, I’m rescheduled for later. Poop!
On a really good note that gave me more time to hang out with The 13th Colony. Yey! We went to Capilano Park where some scenes were shot when the Galactica crew were looking for the Tomb of Athena on Kobol.
Here is Val (president extraordinaire of The 13th Colony) and Douglas (intrepid location hunter) checking over maps and screen shots for further locations. After awhile all the trees start to look the same. Doh!
I found a really cool tree fungus that looked like Starbuck’s Mandala painting.
After several hours of hiking and having a great time we decided to go to dinner at Burgoo Bistro. Yumm, Butter Chicken Curry, it was sooo good. We had some great discussions and fun conversation.
Sunday 20th.
Even more cool stuff. First thing was to head out to Library Square to get photos for the filming locations pages on Future-Past.com.
It is a very impressive building up close. Lots of homeless live in and around the library, weird to see.
Everyone will recognize this next one… Chan Center for the Performing Arts.
And, right next to it of course is the Rose garden.
On the way back to downtown I stopped off at a little place to check if Roslin’s doctor was in.
The Waterfall Building is a whole lot smaller in person. A little camera magic and this place looks vast.
I meet up with my good friend Troy (Background actor in BSG) for a walk around Granville Island and some delicious Gelato.
In the evening I meet up with Edwin (Background actor in BSG) and he invited me to a location shoot he was doing for a LB movie called “Message Deleted”. (LB stands for Low Budget for those in the know.) Read about Edwin’s time on the set.
I snapped a few shots of the principal actors. There is Deborah Kara Unger and Matthew Lillard. Matthew played “Shaggy” in the “Scooby-Doo” movies. Deborah is a local actress who has been in a ton of movies.
So that was my adventure. There is a whole lot more but if I told you what I saw I’d have to shoot the lot of ya.
