Wednesday, January 09, 2008

Beach Blanket Battlestar - or - Battlestar Photographica

Got some set photos the other day to share with my fellow Battlestar fans out there…


My sister-in-law was taking my little nephew out for a stroll on Centennial Beach in Tsawwassen (a community in the municipality of Delta, south of Vancouver) a while back – just before the writer’s strike hit, when they came upon the cast and crew of BSG shooting an episode – one of the last episodes before things shut down.


I was proud to hear my nearly-2-year-old nephew wasted no time in charging through the set to get a close-up look at the Raptor squatting on the beach. The crew didn’t mind him touching it either. But, being a toddler, he then went on to more important things in his world – picking up rocks and carrying them here and there. One or two of the crew named him the official rock grip.


In addition to the Raptor and the ruins (the ruins had to be rebuilt after a big windstorm destroyed them – can you ruin ruins? – earlier in the fall), several of the cast were on-set, including Jamie Bamber (Apollo), James Callis (Baltar) and Tricia Helfer (#6). I’m told Bamber and Callis were nice guys.




I wonder what Season 4 has in store for us – aside from drinking coffee on the beach. Didn’t the Colonial fleet manage to save any marshmallows from the Cylon menace? What kind of advanced civilization would have a beach party without marshmallows to nicely blacken? And no bikinis? Come on, Tricia, where’s the love?

In the meantime, I can’t wait to get my hands on the Season 3 DVD collection. Granted, there are many detractors out there who thought it lost its pace and spent too much time on drama and not enough on action, but I thought the drama was warranted and well executed – even when refugees are on the run, not everything is about fighting exterior battles. The human drama within the fleet was a necessary and important part of the story and the scripts and actors were certainly up for the challenge.

Also on the Battlestar front, stay tuned for my review of “Razor” this weekend. Yeah, I know it’s been a while since it had its first airing on TV – I saw it then too, but I wanted to wait to review until I’d had a chance to see the extended version on DVD. Did that over the holidays, so I’m ready to weigh-in – for what little it’s worth.

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Cool! Have you got any higher quality pictures?

Robin Shantz said...

Sorry, Joe. I'm completely at the mercy of my sister-in-law's camera settings here... while she did take a couple of other photos (ruins, long shots of the cast, and, strangely, lots of public information signs) none of them are of higher quality. At best, the ruins shots are about the same quality. The other cast-on-the-beach shots are pretty grainy. I wish that Raptor shot had been taken at a higher resolution. Sigh.

Romantique said...

Awesome...this leaves me burning with curiosity about the scenes they filmed. Does this mean they've found Earth? Can't wait until we get new BSG in April...

Unknown said...

Not a problem, bloginhood. We have pictures that you are able to share in the first place! Thank you! :D

Steve Fronczek said...

Great find! I'd love to get permission to incorporate your info onto my website and get more info about the public info signs. I run a website about the props, sets and filming locations of Battlestar. If you would be interested, shoot me an email: steve [at] future-past [dot] com www.future-past.com

Cheers! :D

Robin Shantz said...

Thanks, chrome toaster!
By all means, feel free to copy the pix to your site.
As for the public info signs, I can post a few more photos from the original batch (again, I make no claims about the quality - I've only got what my sister-in-law shot).
I'll post a couple of extra photos in the next day or two.

Unknown said...

Thanks bloginhood, for passing on the link for the 13th Colony readers. Glad to pass some traffic your way. What a lucky coincidence for a BSG fan that your sister-in-law happened by.

Cheers,
Val, aka "spacepug"
Organizer, The 13th Colony
Vancouver's BSG Fan Club
http://13thcolony.wordpress.com

SM said...

Wonderful pictures of the beach scene....and the Raptor was, well, awesome! Thanks for sharing these with the 13th Colony. I'm a BSG fan from the East Coast who corresponds with the lady who writes/edits that blog.

(by the way, I noticed in your profile that you are a fan of the movie "The Razor's Edge". Which version? the old one or the newer one with Bill Murray?)

Robin Shantz said...

Thanks for the link, spacepug!

Love your site's banner with the shot of the two centurian toys in front of the Vancouver Public Library.

-bloginhood

PS: sorry it took so long to publish your comment, I was offline for a few weeks after surgery.

Robin Shantz said...

Thanks, Eowyn!

I'm ashamed to admit I've only seen the Bill Murray version of "The Razor's Edge". I knew the old Tyrone Power version was out there, but I haven't come across it yet. One of these days I'll track down a copy and give it a comparison viewing. But the 1984 version is one hell of a fine film (with the exception of the over-the-top soundtrack). The fact that Murray doesn't try to abandon himself when he plays Larry Darrell makes his performance more honest and makes the character believable. An excellent display of Murray stretching his wings and showing audiences he's more than just a comic genius - he's a great actor. Some strong performances from the rest of the cast too.

Which version do you prefer?

-bloginhood

PS: as I mentioned to spacepug, I'm sorry it's taken a while to post your comment - I was sidelined by some surgery a while ago.

SM said...

Hope you are on the path to recovery from your surgery, bloginhood!

BTW, saw the Bill Murray version a couple of times --- really enjoyed the film...I did not see the earlier version of this movie -- just knew that it existed.

On a completely different topic (BSG, what else?), who do you think the final cylon is? I have been bouncing ideas around in my head and lately I've been thinking it might be Zak Adama. Your thoughts?

Robin Shantz said...

Thanks, Eowyn.

Good question about the 5th cylon. I've been having some discussions with one of my wife's coworkers (Mr. lucky "33" script) about this topic recently. I'm currently entertaining theories about 3 possible suspects, but I'm not firmly tied to them. Who are they? (insert overly-dramatic cliffhanger music) Tune in to the blog over the next couple of days -I've got a lot of posts I want to put up (gotta make up for lost time!) and the BSG season break (I'm tempted to call a spade a spade and say this is a season finale) will be one of them. That'll be a good time to exchange theories on Earth, predictions about the series end, and yes, who the final cylon is. I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts about Zak. I hadn't considered him, but, there may be something to this possibility. Certainly, he casts a long shadow over three of the central characters. Hmmm. Let's explore this some more in a day or two when the afore-mentioned BSG posting comes up.

-bloginhood

ColonialMarine said...

One of the F/X artists who worked on this scene has a blog w/pictures here: http://darthmojo.wordpress.com/2008/07/02/bsg-vfx-revelations/

Robin Shantz said...

Thanks for passing along the link, ColonialMarine. Interesting site! It's always great to read/hear the perspective of someone who worked on the show.

-bloginhood

SM said...

Hi bloginhood....just wondering about that posting you promised a few days ago (regarding the final cylon).....anxiously awaiting your thoughts....I've abandoned the Zak Adama idea and now have decided the final cylon is the unborn child of Saul Tigh and Number 6!

Robin Shantz said...

It's on it's way, Eowyn! I re-watched the mid-season ender/season finale/whatever the other night just to get my thoughts in order and make sure I wasn't too far out in left field.