The rescue of Scylla scenes from 3.08 Petra’s Favourite Pen were filmed at Windermere Secondary School, 3155 E 27th Ave, Vancouver, BC V5R 1P3. The interior shots were filmed during the day and the outside shots were filmed later that day, after it got dark.
A word of caution, if you are visiting a school and want to take photos, do it when the students are not around. Some schools get very concerned about the possibility of students being photographed. So, go in the school holidays or, as I did, go at the weekend.
Windermere school is very easy to get to and nothing stops you going on to the school grounds to take photos.
Raelle entered through these doors.
Filming at night, with the lights on in the corridor gives it a different feel. The lights on makes it feel like there are people in side and gives more of a sense of menace. And it disguises the tatty paintwork.
I hadn’t expected to find the hedge where Abigail, Adil and Raelle hid while discussing how to get into the building, so I hadn’t taken any screengrabs with me. But it was so obvious this was the right hedge.
The bicycle racks had been removed for filming and there were cars parked there.
The swings were just there for filming and were not part of the front of the school. The long canopy made it easy to line up specific points where filming took place.
This is filmed from the reverse direction, with my back towards the main doors. No swings in this area. Filming at night and having lighting behind the wall gives a different feel to the area, making it more menacing and less run down.
This is what the back wall really looks like.
Looking back towards the main doors, gives a sense of how the different parts of the area were used. The camera filming was always close to the ground, because if the camera had pointed upwards, even a little bit, it would have been hard to avoid seeing some evidence of the school’s name over the main doors.
While I was in the area, I visited Vancouver Film Studios: 3500 Cornett Road Vancouver, BC V5M2H5 where much of season 2 and 3 were filmed.
It was the time of the strikes, so nothing was happening, and not much to see. I discovered later in the week that if you are travelling on the Millenium train line between Rupert and Gilmore stations, that the train track goes past the studios, so you can get a good view from the train, even if you can’t go there in person.
Not far from the studios was the site where much of Citydrop was filmed, at Youth Custody Services Centre 3655 Willingdon Avenue, Burnaby, BC V5G 3X1. However, when I went there, there was building work going on, so nothing to see.
The Paris convention was great fun. It was organised by Nevastalgia and it was their first event with Motherland Fort Salem guests. We had Taylor, Lyne, Jess, Arlen and Ess. Yes, Jess finally managed to get to a convention in person and she was so excited. We finally had Talder on stage. Witchbomb might have reunited Raylla, but Switches Gathering had reunited Talder. 2023 is proving to be a good year for the fans as we finally get to meet the cast.
Nevastalgia were extremely well organised. There were electronic noticeboards telling us what event was happening where. There was a screen in the main hall where there were announcements throughout the day. You could drop in and get updated, you didn’t have to rely on messages showing up on social media.
I loved the way they organised their extras. There were beautifully done cards for each guest and each one was for a different extra. It was like a set of baseball cards.
They also did a special poster, available on A4 for €4, as well as photos for the guests to sign and badges made for the occasion. All very modestly priced.
But this was Jess’s con. She was bouncing around like an adorable puppy. Clearly she had been looking forward to the con as much as the fans had. And she gave us some very special Talder moments.
The opening ceremony was the first chance most of us had to actually see her, although she had been around in the corridors with convention security people. Of course she was sitting next to Lyne, sort of.
The actors’ strike means that the actors can’t talk about their shows and Nevastalgia got round this by having games. Mainly games where they were asked questions about other cast members and had to put answers on a white board and discuss it. For me, this was the weakest part of the con. The actors sometimes did not write big enough for their answers to be seen. On some occasions they did not read out their answers either. As they had the pen in one hand and the board in another, they often were not holding their microphones while they spoke, so sometimes I had no idea what they were talking about. The French translators put everything in French, but as my French is pretty poor, that didn’t help much. But I am sure the actors’ strike will be resolved by next year and this won’t be a problem then.
Later in the day we got a Talder panel, leading to this classic moment.
Only Talder could do that live on stage.
As I said, in writing about Witchbomb, the cast got given a lot of presents, but I had never known the fans bring so many presents to give to other fans. The same was true here, but even more gifts. After Jess and Lyne, we got the big surprise of the day – donuts. And very welcome they were too.
We got a Spree badge too.
Thanks to these wonderful people for organising it.
It was hard to follow that, but we had the games session. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but frankly it was hilarious. Classic party game style, getting people to line up and then one is given a word to mime and the mime goes along the line to the end and, hopefully, the last person can guess the word.
After that we had a panel with Ess, Taylor and Jess.
Yes, there was some cheating going on. It was nice to hear Arlen give some of her answers in French, as she is fluent. Then the translators gave us the English version.
While things were going on in the main hall, elsewhere in the convention area were photoshoots, autograph sessions, selfie sessions, meet and greets, 1 to 1 meets and Switches having fun. The packed schedule of panels and extras meant that some people had clashes, but the convention organisers were brilliant at sorting things out. Starfury were great, but Nevastalgia exceeded even that high standard. They told people to prioritise the guest meets. If people missed selfies, they did them in the autograph session. If they missed photoshoots, they caught up when that actor was doing their next photo session. Someone in the organisation is very good at logistics.
As with all conventions, convention time bears little resemblance to real time. So the closing ceremony started about 9.15pm instead of 7.30. Nobody complained, we were getting far more for our day. The best part was when Audrey, told us she would see us next year. That was the first hint that there would be a Switches Gathering 2. And on Monday Nevastalgia announced that it would be a 2 day event and it would be in Brussels. No date announced yet.
I had a great time and I will be buying my ticket as soon as they come on sale. The fans had a great time, so did the cast and so did the organisers. When Switches get together, we seem to endear ourselves to convention organisers. Starfury said that Witchbomb was their best convention ever. Now Nevastalgia are not only having another convention, but giving us the weekend. This time, they were running a one day convention for another show on the Sunday. Next time it is just Motherland Fort Salem.
Of course, there were a couple of gatecrashers:
Blue balloons get everywhere, so does Morrigan. I bet he was looking for Scylla.
The success of the conventions this year is down to the cast and the fans. The cast want to meet us too. The atmosphere at these conventions has been lovely, people talk to each other, share experiences, make new friends, give gifts and show respect. Several of us did end up in the bar afterwards to carry on the conversations. Even allowing for the many languages that different people speak, we managed to communicate and enjoy the occasion.
So, I will be back for Brussels and London. Having been to Vancouver last month, I think it is a case of ‘become a Switch and see the world’.
Address: City Hall Port Coquitlam. 2580 Shaughnessy St, Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 3G3, Canada
This was the site of two memorable scenes from season 2. It was best known as the site of the Morrigan’s Whisper dance in 2.09, but it was also the site of the Tally and Raelle ‘That’s a lot not to talk about’ conversation in 2.06.
Morrigan’s Whisper, as witnessed by Scylla and Quinn.
This was established as Chippewa Cession, where the Collar family lived.
In real life this is in Port Coquitlam at City Hall, seen in the background of all three photos. When I was researching this location, I assumed from the map, that they filmed south of the City Hall. The north side was listed as Veterans’ Park, which didn’t seem right. So I was very disappointed when I got there and discovered it was a building site.
However, I had come a long way, so just to make sure, I found my way to the other side.
This was perfect. I was surprised how big the cenotaph was, but as this is a park dedicated to veterans, something that honours the war dead should have pride of place there. I was also surprised how small the ‘dance’ area actually was.
You can see how the paved area has changed in this shot.
The director, camera crew and set designers did a spectacular job with this.
However, there had clearly been building work done in the Veterans’ Park since filming took place.
Note the archway in this picture with Quinn and the way the arch frames the shot in the second picture above.
The archway used to be there, but has been removed.
This is what the area looks like now.
The bench is no longer there and the bins have changed.
This is the new style of bin. Hate to think what Morrigan would make of this.
In this screengrab above, the name Port Coquitlam can be clearly, if briefly, seen. The trees have grown a bit since the filming took place.
When it was filmed, the name of the café was carefully removed. I wonder of Port Coquitlam should have been removed, or was this an oversight? The names of the businesses in the street opposite were digitally removed too.
As I have said before, if you want to know anything, ask dog walkers, they always know everything about a place. However when I showed them the photo below, it prompted serious discussion.
I had just done the Samhain torch lit walk and emerged from the trees into the clearing where M and the cadets had the lit bonfires. Although, considering how dark it was when they shot the bonfire scenes it is impossible to verify exactly what was where. But it was the clearing at the end of the path.
The next thing I wanted to know was where the Raylla tree was. OK, I didn’t phrase it to the dog walkers exactly like that… They seemed to agree that I needed to go to the other side of the clearing and the tree was on the far side of the trees there. I could just see it and, even from the reverse angle, it looked right.
However, the flowers caused serious head scratching. No flowers around there. This split opinion, like no other photo I showed people. Flowers like that were to be found at the top level, not here. My mind immediately went to set dressing. I had seen how some sets looked quite different from what appeared on screen. They had a flower in the scene, so the set designers put flowers there, no problem from my point of view. I just thanked them and went over to the trees.
It was everything we see on screen.
Same place, slightly different angle. They really did like filming around this tree.
Filming behind the Raylla tree.
Walking towards it.
Raelle sitting under this tree thinking about Scylla.
Even Adigail got their chance to be filmed there.
Of course, when I was putting this together, the best match up for this Adigail shot had me taking a selfie. But definitely the same tree and the same angle, just my tripod was on the ground and their camera was higher up.
This is the big building at the bottom of the hill. Of the 3 buildings, it is the one in the best condition. They did some of the season 1 filming in there, so I assume it is not riddled with lead and asbestos. I was talking to one of the locals who said that for a long time this was used to house tuberculosis patients, keeping them separate from the mental patients in the central lawn buildings.
The most accessible part of the building is the back of it. When you walk down the hill, you come to the back section. So that is where I got to first. I had an encounter with the security people, but I showed him a picture of the part I was looking for and he directed me round to the front. He had clearly decided that I wasn’t dangerous, just foreign. Goodness knows what he made of the fact that I was going around with a blue balloon tied to my back pack. I had numerous conversations with people while I visited and some asked me about the blue balloon. ‘It’s my birthday’ seemed a perfectly satisfactory answer. And it was the truth. A birthday like no other.
So, let’s start at the front.
The car park in front is fairly narrow and I was standing with my back to the hedge to take this pic. The other side of the hedge was the Lougheed Hwy, very busy and very noisy. Visuals filmed here would have been great, but any dialogue would have needed to be redone as there is way too much traffic noise to record any useable sound. And the occasional train whistle from the train line the far side of the highway.
When you walk down the hill, the first part you come to is this.
The site of Raelle and ‘Helen’ discussing necros and one very special necro.
I carried on walking to the left.
The railing at the end in this picture is the middle railing in the previous car park picture.
This area has been used for several scenes. They shot this area from both directions and sometimes used the full length, but at other times, just used parts of it.
This is shot from the reverse angle.
Then continuing round the building, past the necro conversation site and over more grass, I came to:
Recognise it? As I took the shot, I knew what was behind me.
Memorable for the witchplague attack in 2.10.
Hearst walks out from in the middle of that and threatens the unit plus M and Adil during 2.10.
And so, I finally made it to the front of the building.
The unit were there when the male soldiers arrived. And they almost made enough noise to drown the cars.
And, of course, the blue balloon had to be there too.
The view from Circe Barracks across the narrow car park to the hedge with the Lougheed Hwy behind it.
I had adventures with trees, which will be the next blog. But after that I walked to Port Coquitlam (Poco). Finding the correct exit for that is not easy, so I am putting the instructions here.
Face Circe barracks. Turn right. Walk the length of the car park. Walk past the next building, which will be on your left. You will see an exit on your right. Ignore the no exit sign and the barrier. That is to stop cars driving onto the Lougheed Hwy in the wrong direction. You will exit onto the path at the side of the Hwy and there will be a pedestrian crossing a few yards to your left. Push the button and stay behind the concrete barrier. The traffic will stop and you can cross. You want the road straight in front of you. Just make sure the level crossing gates are not down, for a train.
The middle level of Riverview Hospital site has the East Lawn Building (Alder’s Office) and the Centre Lawn Building, better known to Switches as the Operations Building.
This is what was once the main entrance to the building, but now only the steps are accessible.
The view from the top of the steps.
Or as it was shown onscreen after the Camarilla attack in 2.10. Shot from below the top height of the railing.
And, of course, the blue balloon had to get in there somehow!
The hospital that Raelle emerged from, to be met by a waiting Scylla, is actually just a porch to the side of the main entrance.
The final battle with Penelope takes place in front of the main staircase. Penelope has come from the left side, near the stairs in the bank.
In this next pic, you can see the main entrance steps and the steps down the bank to the left of the photo.
This was also used in 3.10 when everyone emerges from around the side of the building, leading up to the tribute to Anacostia speeches.
I even found the ‘Hey Camarilla’ alleyway from 2.10.
There were two very similar alleyways, so I took photos of both and had to get other screengrabs to distinguish between them when I got back.
This is a public park, with free entry. Very popular site for dog walking. For those who can hire a car, there is plenty of parking, all free. For those, like me, who rely on public transport, you can get the 169 bus from either Coquitlam Central Station (on the Millenium Line) or from Braid station (on the Expo Line). Bus stations are at the train stations, so changing between buses and trains is super easy.
Another thing I really like about the Vancouver public transport system is that all the bus stops are numbered, so you always know when you reach the right stop and how many stops you still have to go. From Coquitlam Station, get off at stop number 58080. From Braid station, get off at stop number 58081. Buses are approximately every 30 minutes. I came from Coquitlam Station, so we turned off the Lougheed Hwy and went up the hill for a few streets.
Yes, the first surprise was that the whole site is built on a hillside. So, you need good walking shoes and good mobility to get everywhere. Or you need a mobility buggy or a car to access the different areas. Some parts need walking. The second surprise was how noisy it was, especially at the lower, Circe Barracks, level. There was the major highway just yards away and a train line running alongside that.
When you get off at the bus stop, if you look up the hill, you can see the East Lawn Building, better known to Switches as General Alder’s Office.
When you look down the Hill you see the back of the Crease Building, also known as Circe Barracks.
I suggest starting uphill.
You can’t go into the buildings. There is apparently a lot of lead and asbestos in there and the BC Housing is still deciding what to do with the buildings. But you can go on the steps. I do have to say that the buildings could do with a bit of TLC.
There are steps down to the ground on both sides. At the base of each set of steps is a symbol in the paving.
Alder’s steps. In need of a good clean.
The view from the top of Alder’s steps.
Yes, there are dog walkers. I found dog walkers were great, they know everything about a place. I had taken some printed screengrabs with me and I could show them a photo print out and ask where it is and they always knew. Although the flowers in one picture did throw them when we were identifying trees.
Going down the steps and turning right led very quickly to two other familiar places. This is at the side of Alder’s Office Building.
Going round the back of the buildings shows some interesting use of space.
The camera crews clearly used a lot of high angles as well as shooting from the floor to disguise where exactly they were filming.
Address: 750 Pacific Blvd, Vancouver, BC V6B 5E7, Canada
This is just a few streets south of the Vancouver Public Library. This has been used as a filming location for other shows, one of my favourite episodes of Stargate SG1, 2010, used this location. In Motherland Fort Salem it was used for the Verification Centre in 2.04, Not Our Daughters.
There are three main elements to the shooting and finding where things happened was helped by a number of behind the scenes photos that emerged after the episode aired. The Verification area, as it looks on screen:
And how the same set looked during set up
And this is how it really looks. A number of things were covered up, like the number 750. Covering things up with a sign or flags is much cheaper than CGI.
In the episode, the first potential recruit arrives by car and gets out to walk through demonstrators on both sides, held back by metal railings. She got out of the car about where I was standing to take this picture.
The second area is the part by the curved yellow steps. This is where the buses bringing the demonstrators parked.
The US Armed Forces sign was another cover up. What was underneath was:
Not the most glamorous of signs!
In front of the steps is a flat plaza. This is where the crowd scenes were filmed. They were mainly filmed from a crane, angled down or very close in so the background was not visible. That way a small crowd could look massive. Which exact bit of the flat plaza was used for which bit of the crowd scenes, it is impossible to say. But the flat area is not that big, possibly the size of a couple of tennis courts.
I know in some scenes the unit and M go from there to the underground car park where Abigail meets Hearst, but I don’t think that is anywhere around here.
Address: 601 Smithe St, Vancouver, BC V6B 3L4, Canada
This is just a few streets north of Vancouver Public Library. Looking at the map, I approached the Orpheum Theatre along Granville Street and found:
Definitely not what I was looking for, so I continued on, round the corner into Smithe St and found the main entrance (below). I’ll come back to that story in a minute.
Then round the corner into Seymour St I found the very interesting side entrance and the stage door.
So, having found the main entrance, which was open, I went it. There was quite a lot of activity going on, to do with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra concert that night, with Yo Yo Ma. Having established that I was nothing to do with the orchestra, I got talking to one of the staff about the history of the building, theatres in Vancouver, the nature of performance space etc. Quite fascinating. I wish my own city had such well thought out and integrated theatrical spaces.
Then I asked if I could take some photos and was told I could. So I took some pics, clearly showing an interest in red carpets and brass railings. Wonder why?
The person I had been talking to then invited me to ‘follow me and I’ll show you somewhere more photogenic’. I followed up the steps, round the corner and …OMG…I was in the foyer where so many scenes from 2.05 were shot. I was standing almost exactly where Tiffany would stand in this shot.
And I had permission to take photos!
To my left was what I consider to be Scylla’s staircase.
The exarch’s staircase was to my right.
In front of me were the balconies where the Camarilla stood, where Jack Orsatti watched Scylla and Anacostia.
Where Tiffany was standing looks like this in real life. The railings were removed for filming and the back of the area was covered in curtains.
On some screen shots you can just make out the places where the railings have been removed from the carpet.
So, I was pretty pleased with this. There is an upper level that I didn’t get to visit.
Checking Screengrabs, online photos and rewatching 2.05 I have worked out that these staircases are from the north entrance. Scylla and Anacostia come in from the inner door of the Granville Street entrance. They go up the stairs and collect their masks. Then we see Shane cross the mezzanine and go down the stairs, where we see Scylla and Anacostia later.
This leads to Scylla’s staircase.
This part is visible from the Seymour Street entrance.
Address: 350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, B.C. V6B 6B1
There was only one place where my visit to filming locations could start – where Motherland itself started, at Vancouver Public Library, the site of the blue balloon attack at The Mall. They also filmed there in 2.02 where Scylla walked through the memorial vigil there and Anacostia made her passionate speech.
Let’s start with a few screengrabs.
Eliot at ‘The Mall’ during filming of the pilot episode.
The following are from episode 1.01 Say the Words.
The following are from 2.02 Abomination.
This is what it looks like in real life.
As you approach the building, you can see that it has unique architecture. The curved building is very striking. This is the building seen from the W Georgia Stret end.
Inside, one side (right in this picture) is the public library. This is shown as Tracey’s in 1.01. To the left are a small parade of shops and offices. The light fittings are very distinctive. The red, white and black awnings from 1.01 are orange in real life. Above, you can see the high rise balconies that people jumped from.
During Scylla’s walk through the mall in 2.02, she seems to walk through in both directions.
In 1.01 we saw everyone in the mall climbing up these stairs and then jumping off from the balconies. In reality, the door is closed and a chain is across the stairs, along with a notice saying that to use the stairs you must be accompanied by a security guard. Yes, I did find a security guard and asked. He said no. Wanting to take photographs clearly wasn’t a good enough reason. But these, and ones higher up, are some of the steps that we see in the pilot episode.
The Mall photos need to have a blue balloon in there. No blue balloon, no story.
One thing I did notice is that if anyone actually did jump out of the upper windows, as we saw them do in 1.01, then they would just land on the balconies below and nobody would have died. Very good camerawork, showing just the parts they want us to see, but not enough to see how it all fits together.
I actually found visiting this location to be very moving. I don’t know whether that says more about me or about the place itself. The two occasions it is used on screen are very emoptionally powerful and it does hold that power, for me at least.
I started my visits here and I ended the trip by returning here. It seemed right.
ReturntoFortSalem 