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locker_monsterI consider myself to be a Stargate fan, but I'm not a hardcore Stargate fanatic. So it was a little weird spending five days with all these people who really do love the show. They know this show forwards and backwards and inside-out. Still, it was fun.
The first two days were non-con days, and while the third did involve an official locations tour, it was a day before the official con days, so I'm including it here. The actual con days I'll cover in another post once I'm done organizing all my photos. Once again, Gateworld, a better source for stuff than me.
Monday was our first day in Vancouver. My mom and I got there late afternoon, so we had plenty of time to wander around. Naturally, since this was a geek week, we found our way up to Simon Fraser University, otherwise known as Caprica and Tollan. And it wouldn't be Vancouver without some rain. It really started to come down as we rode the bus to SFU, but that didn't stop us!
The Academic Quadrangle, used as the Riverwalk Market on BSG and part of the Tollan homeworld on SG-1. As you can see, it was a bleak and rainy day. It's a lot smaller than it looks, which was true for every location I visited, whether it be real or a set. A TV set has the ability to make things look bigger even if your screen isn't that big. I can't, for the life of me, find any BSG screencaps to compare, so this is the best I can do.
But I did find Stargate screencaps. Looks like SG-1 didn't add anything to the location, besides hauling up a Stargate. The direction in which Sam is looking in the screencap was where I was standing to take the picture.
Turn the other direction and you can see the covered area that's part of the student centre.
Which exploded spectacularly in the SG-1 ep, "Between Two Fires".
Since it was raining pretty heavily, though you can't really tell in the picture, my mom and I wandered around the student centre for a bit before hopping the bus back. It would have been nice to walk around more, but the weather sucked the fun out of that.
Tuesday we rode the Sky Train into Vancouver's downtown and took a trolley ride around the city. It was a nice and easy way to get around the city and see some of the sights. I did recognize a few Smallville locations, but the one that excited me the most was the Marine Building.
For those in the know, the Marine Building stands in as the Daily Planet. Just imagine a big gold globe on top. Naturally, the building looks bigger on TV, probably due to some CGI trickery. I didn't see much of anything else so that's pretty much it for Tuesday. It was sunny though, which was a nice change.
Wednesday was the Stargate locations tour, hosted by one of the former location managers. Before the con there was a poll asking fans which locations they wanted to visited. I voted for locations within the city, but everyone else voted for far out, in the middle of nowhere locations, which meant a lot of driving around in a bus staring at trees.
And it snowed! Vancouver and snow. Two words that should not go together.
You can see some of it falling in this picture. It made the ground all muddy, which once again put a damper on things. Anyway, this was the sign on the bus.
So we visited a bunch of places. The first stop was the airport they used in "Tangent". We couldn't drive onto the runway, so it's not worth posting a picture. The next stop was Bordertown, a fake Western looking type set built for an old show called Bordertown. It looks kind of run down, but it reminds me of Heritage Park here in Calgary; it's a fake Western town that's part history lesson part amusement park.
Bordertown was used for "A Hundred Days" and "Beast of Burden", though more notably in the latter episode.
At least in Vancouver the snow doesn't accumulate on the ground.
This part was used as the village in "A Hundred Days". Jack was chopping wood in front of the windmill near the end of the episode. You could also see the bridge Jack walked along, but to reach it you had to walk on a muddy road, so that was out of the question.
This is the barn from "Beast of Burden". Jack and Daniel get locked up inside. It looks pretty much as is on the outside. The productions that film at Bordertown are allowed to spiff up the place, add a new coat of paint and whatnot, but looking around, it felt like no one had been here in a while. Or maybe that was the snow.
I avoided mounds of horse manure to get a shot inside the barn.
The SG-1 people obviously added bars to make the cages, but the basic structure is the same.
After a quick tour group photo in front of the hotel set, we left Bordertown for a few other locations. It was interesting to learn that a lot of the locations from the earlier seasons of SG-1 are gone. Housing has gone up so the forests and quarries are no more. So there wasn't much to see sometimes.
But no sci fi show could be complete without shooting in a rock quarry. This was all that was left of the rock quarry they used in "Orpheus".
So I guess the franchise is being forced to go out further and further from the city, but it can't be helped. Though, Brad Wright and Robert Cooper did mention about filming in New Mexico for Stargate Universe, but that was on Sunday, and thus, will be in my next post.
Basically, Vancouver is the place to go if you want to shoot your sci fi TV show/movie for cheap. You've got trees, rocks, and interesting buildings aplenty.
The first two days were non-con days, and while the third did involve an official locations tour, it was a day before the official con days, so I'm including it here. The actual con days I'll cover in another post once I'm done organizing all my photos. Once again, Gateworld, a better source for stuff than me.
Monday was our first day in Vancouver. My mom and I got there late afternoon, so we had plenty of time to wander around. Naturally, since this was a geek week, we found our way up to Simon Fraser University, otherwise known as Caprica and Tollan. And it wouldn't be Vancouver without some rain. It really started to come down as we rode the bus to SFU, but that didn't stop us!
The Academic Quadrangle, used as the Riverwalk Market on BSG and part of the Tollan homeworld on SG-1. As you can see, it was a bleak and rainy day. It's a lot smaller than it looks, which was true for every location I visited, whether it be real or a set. A TV set has the ability to make things look bigger even if your screen isn't that big. I can't, for the life of me, find any BSG screencaps to compare, so this is the best I can do.
But I did find Stargate screencaps. Looks like SG-1 didn't add anything to the location, besides hauling up a Stargate. The direction in which Sam is looking in the screencap was where I was standing to take the picture.
Turn the other direction and you can see the covered area that's part of the student centre.
Which exploded spectacularly in the SG-1 ep, "Between Two Fires".
Since it was raining pretty heavily, though you can't really tell in the picture, my mom and I wandered around the student centre for a bit before hopping the bus back. It would have been nice to walk around more, but the weather sucked the fun out of that.
Tuesday we rode the Sky Train into Vancouver's downtown and took a trolley ride around the city. It was a nice and easy way to get around the city and see some of the sights. I did recognize a few Smallville locations, but the one that excited me the most was the Marine Building.
For those in the know, the Marine Building stands in as the Daily Planet. Just imagine a big gold globe on top. Naturally, the building looks bigger on TV, probably due to some CGI trickery. I didn't see much of anything else so that's pretty much it for Tuesday. It was sunny though, which was a nice change.
Wednesday was the Stargate locations tour, hosted by one of the former location managers. Before the con there was a poll asking fans which locations they wanted to visited. I voted for locations within the city, but everyone else voted for far out, in the middle of nowhere locations, which meant a lot of driving around in a bus staring at trees.
And it snowed! Vancouver and snow. Two words that should not go together.
You can see some of it falling in this picture. It made the ground all muddy, which once again put a damper on things. Anyway, this was the sign on the bus.
So we visited a bunch of places. The first stop was the airport they used in "Tangent". We couldn't drive onto the runway, so it's not worth posting a picture. The next stop was Bordertown, a fake Western looking type set built for an old show called Bordertown. It looks kind of run down, but it reminds me of Heritage Park here in Calgary; it's a fake Western town that's part history lesson part amusement park.
Bordertown was used for "A Hundred Days" and "Beast of Burden", though more notably in the latter episode.
At least in Vancouver the snow doesn't accumulate on the ground.
This part was used as the village in "A Hundred Days". Jack was chopping wood in front of the windmill near the end of the episode. You could also see the bridge Jack walked along, but to reach it you had to walk on a muddy road, so that was out of the question.
This is the barn from "Beast of Burden". Jack and Daniel get locked up inside. It looks pretty much as is on the outside. The productions that film at Bordertown are allowed to spiff up the place, add a new coat of paint and whatnot, but looking around, it felt like no one had been here in a while. Or maybe that was the snow.
I avoided mounds of horse manure to get a shot inside the barn.
The SG-1 people obviously added bars to make the cages, but the basic structure is the same.
After a quick tour group photo in front of the hotel set, we left Bordertown for a few other locations. It was interesting to learn that a lot of the locations from the earlier seasons of SG-1 are gone. Housing has gone up so the forests and quarries are no more. So there wasn't much to see sometimes.
But no sci fi show could be complete without shooting in a rock quarry. This was all that was left of the rock quarry they used in "Orpheus".
So I guess the franchise is being forced to go out further and further from the city, but it can't be helped. Though, Brad Wright and Robert Cooper did mention about filming in New Mexico for Stargate Universe, but that was on Sunday, and thus, will be in my next post.
Basically, Vancouver is the place to go if you want to shoot your sci fi TV show/movie for cheap. You've got trees, rocks, and interesting buildings aplenty.
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