Blood Ties Set Visit

During a visit to Vancouver, I was very lucky to be able to visit the set of Blood Ties during the filming of the second-to-last episode of season one, "We'll Meet Again". A normal TV episode filming day can start as early as 4 am when actors who need extensive make up are picked up, and end after midnight. A series featuring a vampire who is awake only at night will probably contain more than the usual number of late night shoots - unless you shoot day-for-night. One hour of shooting translates to one minute on-screen. An episode is rarely shot in sequence - it's all filmed according to which sets are needed. And if one director needs to film in Vicki's office in two of his episodes, for reasons of practicality and economy, they will be shot on the same day. Which presents a challenge to the script supervisor who has to keep track of a huge number of details - taking plenty of notes is a MUST. And pictures. By the way - on set, there's a $50 fine for anyone caught having their cell phone ring during a take! And here's what you've all been waiting for: My pictures of the cast! Unfortunately, my picture of Christina Cox turned out not so good, and Keith Dallas wasn't scheduled to work while I was there, so these will have to do. THE PICTURES ON THIS PAGE WERE TAKEN BY ME AND MAY NOT BE USED ON OTHER WEBSITES.
The Set First thing was a tour of the empty set where I was able to poke into all kinds of nooks and crannies without bothering anyone - and take pictures of small details that might not be noticed much on screen and using flash all I wanted.
Saw the offices of the writers - they all bore the look of impermanence. Filming 22 episodes was scheduled to last from August 28, 2006 to April 5, 2007, and not all of the writers were there for the full period. But if your office had a window, there was a lovely view of the mountains, so no need for paintings on the wall. I realised that Henry Fitzroy is a VERY prolific and popular graphic novel artist - the cover with the pale bound woman to the right has 'volume 48' written on it! Say, theoretically, he creates 5 novels a year - that's almost 10 years of work! And looking 23 years old means that - if he were a human - he would have published his first novel at the age of 13. The details of maintaining a human identity in this digital and computerized age must surely be very complicated for a vampire. His other series, 'Dark Destinies, Book One: Night Eyes', published by Huff Press ;-), features a bespectacled sword wielding young woman ... Saw the prop storage room and got a little tour by David Perun, the Blood Ties props master. Not all props are expensive to make - some you just find in the nearby wood. For example large pieces of bark. Of course you have to improve them with backing so they don't break after one take. I got to hold Henry's sword too - both the heavy and the light one, got to play with David's balls - both the white and the blue one ...
On Location Second was a visit to the 'on location' filming in a private home. If a location is only being used once, it's cheaper to rent an actual home and move everybody there rather than build a set. Of course that also means very cramped working conditions since, unlike on set, there actually ARE 4 walls that enclose a room. And not everyone can afford a huge airy apartment like Henry. It also means unglamorous jobs like standing in the rain with a STOP-sign, halting traffic while filming takes place. It also means visits from a curious and wet neighborhood dog, who fortunately was not interested in barking that night. Hopefully he would guard his own home better than his neighbor's .... Working such long hard hours means that cast and crew must be well fed to keep their energy up at all times, hence the craft services table (and why it's called that I have no idea since lots of crafts are involved in filming TV). Warning: Better not move the craft services table to the next location while there are still working cast and crew at the current location! They will jump people smelling of chocolate, begging for crumbs - and a muesli bar may earn you amazing favors ... The table has all kinds of snacks and noodles and fruit and drinks - plus vitamins and antacids ;-)
Filming in the Studio Third and last, back at the studio, filming. The immortal first lines I ever heard Kyle Schmid speak, as he stuck out his head through Henry's door into the corridor where we were lurking: "Do I smell onion rings?" That was very special to me since I am known among friends for my love of onion rings. No trip to the US or Canada is complete until I've had onion rings. Preferably Key Lime Pie too.
I know that last picture is very, VERY dark, and I wish it wasn't - but it captures such a nice moment so I decided to include it anyway. The studio is in an old factory building, so some of the airducts and stuff in Dr. Mohadevan's lab came with the building. It's near the railway tracks, so every time the train blows its whistle, filming stops so as not to record the whistling. Same for the small airplanes flying overhead and the motorcycles passing by outside. Yes, the actors can re-record their lines in a studio (looping), but it's expensive and besides, not always quite as good as the real take. It was funny going past the police station set and seeing someone use one of the desks to work at a real job. I got to be in video village, an almost dark room where the monitors are set up, and where you will find the director and the d.o.p. (director of photography) each in front of his set of monitors. The director - in this case David Winning - would sit next to the script supervisor. The script supervisor has this big binder where she writes her codes and keeps track of all the takes and how long they are, and which take is to be used and all kind of arcane details that can later be used by the editors. Video village is also where some of the actors hang out between takes and where you can talk a bit when lines are not being studied. I asked Kyle how he managed at 22 to carry off playing a 450 year old vampire of royal descent. He said his inspiration was his grandfather, and that it helped that his family came from England as it meant he had had a very proper upbringing ;-) Henry's ring is supposedly an heirloom given to him by his father. My friend asked why Henry is able to wear a cross and not get burned by it - Kyle explained that Henry was raised catholic and he believes that God won't punish him for just trying to survive as a vampire and doing nothing more than what predatory animals do too, hunting to survive. Her second question was, why he never kills but only takes a little bit of blood. Kyle answered that it would be too dangerous for Henry to leave a lot of dead bodies in his wake. A vampire would not survive very long if he did that. To live almost 500 years you have to be smart. When asked whether this was the only reason, he said no, it was also because Henry's humanity came back more and more. In the beginning he had very little memory of who he was before and acted mostly on animal instinct. But in time his humanity came back and he would so much love to have a steady relationship and raise a family. During breaks in the filming the cast joked around and Kyle played with a rubber baseball bat, balancing it on his head. He also did a little floor sweeping and removed colored tape markers from the floor. Indeed a well brought-up young man. I'm not saying who said it about whom, but I distinctly heard the words "Bunny Nose!" ... I also met Peter Mohan and asked him about changing Henry from a romance writer to a graphic novel artist, and I have to agree - it's more interesting seeing someone draw than seeing someone tapping on a keyboard - TV is after all a visual medium.
All Blood Ties and Kyle Schmid fans owe thanks to Peter Mohan - he's the one who cast him as Henry. I wonder how many actors were in the running for that role? Thanks And finally, my thanks to Dylan, Kyle, the other Kyle, David, Danny, Gina, Christina, Chris, Denis, Denise, Anna, Andrew, Lisa, Michael, Keith, the two guys with umbrellas and lots of nice people whose names I didn't get or forgot and all of you who I didn't get to meet - plus Tanya and Peter who caused all this.