Our Blog
Collaborative ideas, tips and local industry news.
What’s Filming this Fall?
Vancouver and the surrounding area has seen a flurry of filming this season.
Here’s a list of 5 TV shows starring female leads that you just might catch a glimpse of while out and about up here in Hollywood North! As a local, female owned and operated company, we celebrate and encourage diversity in the film industry!
Yellowjackets- Showtime
Showtime’s Yellowjackets returned to Vancouver this September to film their second season and are expected to be on location until February next year. Starring popular long-time actress Christina Ricci, alongside Juliette Lewis, Melanie Lynskey and Tawny Cypress, it has badass lady vibes and has been referred to as “the best portrayal of trauma on television.”
“Equal parts survival epic, psychological horror story and coming-of-age drama, ‘Yellowjackets’ is the saga of a team of wildly talented high school girls soccer players who become the (un)lucky survivors of a plane crash deep in the remote (Canadian) wilderness. The series chronicles their descent from a complicated but thriving team to savage clans, while also tracking the lives they’ve attempted to piece back together nearly 25 years later, proving that the past is never really past and what began out in the wilderness is far from over.” –Showtime
Release dates are expected in the first quarter of 2023 so get watching the first season now!
Alaska Daily – ABC
Alaska Daily is NOT filmed in Alaska haha! Production set up shop in the Metro Vancouver area (Burnaby to be exact) to film for its first season starting August 8th, 2022 and is set to conclude January 22, 2023. The new series stars Hilary Swank as Eileen Fitzgerald, a journalist who moves to a remote town in Alaska searching for a new start. She works with colleague Roz Friendly to complete and release reports on a crisis known as the Missing and murdered Indigenous persons Crisis, an important issue for a drama series to tackle. Streaming on Hulu now!
Kung Fu – The CW
Kung Fu is an American martial arts action-adventure television series that premiered on The CW on April 7, 2021. Set in the present, it is an adaptation of the 1970s series of the same title. It is filming on location in Vancouver for its third season. The series stars Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen, a young woman who becomes a vigilante for her San Francisco hometown by using martial arts to fight crime and protect others. It is one of a few American network dramas to feature a predominantly Asian American cast. Production will continue until December 2022.
Virgin River – Netflix
Virgin River follows Melinda “Mel” Monroe, played by Alexandra Breckenridge, as she begins a new job as a midwife and nurse practitioner in the remote Northern California town of Virgin River. It’s based on the Virgin River novels by Robyn Carr and Season 4 has been filming in British Columbia since the summer. Binge-worthy romance series for sure.
Nancy Drew – The CW
The fourth season of Nancy Drew is filming in the Metro Vancouver Area from now until December 2022. The series is narrated and led by the amateur sleuth Nancy Drew, played by Kennedy McMann and is based on the original Nancy Drew books.
We hope you liked this list ! Leave a comment below if you’ve tuned in to any of them and let us know what you think!
All the best,
The Location Base Team
Spotlight: Housing Collection
We love connecting with clients and learning about the special aspects of their homes and properties. Some have worked with the film industry before, and others are brand new to the excitement and buzz. What they all have in common is a willingness to share their most intimate space with others, welcoming them into their world in the name of creation. What a gift!
Behind every door there are humans who have tended to the land and decor with deep care and intention. Their hopes are that you enjoy it as much as they do, treat their space with respect and have the most successful shoot possible.
Here’s five unique homes we are thrilled to spotlight so you can make the connection and have that experience.
West Coast Zen
A contemporary, custom-built property that oozes relaxation and peace.
Point Grey, Vancouver, BC
The Ambleside Estate
This well maintained home and property includes an indoor theater, pool, and two libraries.
West Vancouver, BC
Modern Farm House
This spot is open concept with a warm country feel. Recently the kitchen was used for a food product shoot, with very satisfactory results. A unique characteristic is that there’s a batting cage in the basement!
Surrey, BC
Renovated Family Home
This 2600 sq ft five bed, three bath West Coast style family home on a large, bright flat lot. We think indie film, lifestyle shoot, magazine, you name it.
North Vancouver
House on Five Acres
This home features vaulted ceilings, hardwood floors throughout this large new property. There is plenty of space for all your equipment.
Langley, BC
Taking great location photos
Photo tips:
- Include multiple shots of your location from different angles. Taking photos standing in one corner of a room usually gives the best view.
- A photo file of around 20-30 pictures is a great starting point (depending on how many spaces you have available).
- Please include interior and exterior shots. If some areas are no access, please don’t photograph them.
- Landscape format photos are generally preferred, using widest setting possible.
- Here are some general standards:
– File size between 100KB – 1 MB
– JPEG format, Uncompressed - If you are sending from a camera phone, please email over at the highest resolution which is usually ‘actual size’
- Please do not include photos shot in bad weather (rain, snow etc.)
- Submit photos in room order e.g. front entrance/lobby then moving through each floor
- Spaces don’t need to be unrealistically tidy but minimize clutter before photographing – e.g. removing piles of laundry of paperwork
- Concentrate on shooting the actual location itself and not people, pets, vehicles etc.
If you have any questions, drop us a line at [email protected] and one of our team will get in touch
Getting started as a Film Location
How much you will get paid will vary, depending on the geographical location, appearance, selling features, and of course the Production’s budget (which varies immensely).
If you’ve taken the plunge and decided to list your location, you’ll want to make it as appealing as possible. We often get asked how to get your location to stand out and get that first booking. Here’s a few top tips to get you started:
- Be responsive. If you get a shoot inquiry, try to get back to us/the Production as quickly as possible.
- Your home or space doesn’t have to be super modern or new to be appealing. Productions look for all types of locations, depending on their script.
- When taking photos use a real camera (or high-quality camera phone) to show your space in the best light.
- Parking! If you don’t have parking on site, is there at least some parking close by?
- Space to move around is also key. Tight spaces don’t work for crew plus equipment.
- Often, we get very little notice for a shoot, so flexibility is a must! Productions don’t operate in the real-world sense, especially when it comes to timing!
- Scouts and recces can often amount to nothing. Don’t get disheartened, it’s just that your space is not quite right this time, BUT they may remember you for a shoot in the future.
- Liability insurance is something you should consider before opening your home up for commercial purposes.
- Expect some wear and tear. If you have 15 people in a small area of course there’s going to be a few knocks and scratches.
- The more flexible you are with their requests, the more shoots you will get, e.g painting the location or moving furniture around. Remember, they will always be expected to return the space to the way they found it.
- Good accessibility and availability are key! No brainer.
- Make sure your location is clean and safe. If Creatives realize they need to spend a lot of money to prepare the location, they may go elsewhere.
- Get the Productions to take “how-they-found-it” photos of every room they are shooting in so that they can reset everything as they found it.
- Try not to be distracting to the crew during the shoot as they are under pressure to work fast. They will be treating your home as a set which some folks could find unsettling.
- Enjoy the process!
Once you’ve registered your property, really all you need to do it sit back and wait for the phone to ring! But seriously though, it may not ring for a while, and it may not ring often. Don’t lose faith. Keeping your photos up to date and information current are things you can do to increase your chances of being selected. Our suggestion is always to be optimistic, present your location in the best way (great photos always!) and then don’t overthink it. Don’t start working out all the logistics, just wait until an inquiry comes in and then we will help walk you through the process.
Filmed in Hope, BC
Everyone knows Vancouver lands all the big Movies and TV shows, but let’s focus on some other places around the province that have had their fair share of filming. First up.. Hope.
Hope is a town 150 km’s east of Vancouver, in the Fraser Valley Regional District (nearly a 2 hour drive). It’s a popular stop for those travelling across the province.
It’s probably most famous for its 1981 shoot for Rambo’s First Blood starring Sylvester Stallone (First Blood also filmed in Greater Vancouver and beyond). Sets were built in the downtown area and they also made good use of the surrounding forests and park land. There’s even a Rambo Sly Stallone wood carving downtown and a plywood full size cut out #embraceHopeBC.
Going in another direction, The Hallmark channel LOVES the quaint look of the town. Often Hope is transformed into snowy American storefronts (even when shooting in the summer!). Many local spaces and personal homes are also rented for filming purposes either as actual film locations or as holding areas for cast and crew.
Hope also gets featured in Reality Shows such as Highway Thru Hell (2012- present) which showcases a recovery team helping highway users in the brutal winter conditions.
Just in time for Halloween 2021, the thriller Antlers was released;
A small-town Oregon teacher and her brother, the local sheriff, discover that a young student is harbouring a dangerous secret with frightening consequences.
Directed by Scott Cooper and produced by Guillermo del Torro, the horror was filmed in Hope and the Lower Mainland in 2018.
Here’s some popular shows that were filmed entirely in or in part in and around Hope:
Winters Dream (2018) Yellow Dog (1994)
Shoot to Kill (1998) Antlers (2021)
The Pledge (2001) A Dogs Way Home (2019)
The Hollow (2015) Sweet Virginia (2017)
Fire with Fire (1986) White Fang II (1994)
The Pledge (2001) The Stick up (2003)
Hope Springs (2003) Suspicious River (2004)
Afghan Knights (2007) Wind Chill (2007)
A Christmas Tree Grows in Colorado (2020)
More info. can be found at:
https://hopebc.ca/rambo-first-blood-filming-location-tour-self-guided/
We’d love to make our list even more comprehensive. Comment if you know of any we have missed – you can include smaller indie projects too