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This series had its genesis when I began 麻豆传媒映画area location shoots in the summer of 2010 to get over a post-Olympics funk. Film and TV productions like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Fringe, Supernatural听补苍诲听The Killing showcase our city in similar fashion and sometimes put a celebrity actor or two in the frame. |
Little is known about 麻豆传媒映画writer and director Neill Blomkamp's latest sci-fi project Elysium,聽which has been filming here for the past three months, except that it makes good use of our city's visual effects expertise and stars a bald, buff Matt Damon as聽some kind of聽future being.
It's not surprising about the visual effects聽if you know that Neill Blomkamp dabbled in聽3D animation and design as a teen in South Africa and then studied it at the 麻豆传媒映画Film School when his family moved here. After graduation, he worked as a 3D artist for two local visual effects companies, while branching into directing live-action shorts.聽He聽returned聽to his birthplace of Johannesburg to film聽his聽Oscar-nominated聽first feature District 9 about extra-terrestials ("Prawns")聽kept in an Apartheid-like government camp. Despite his international success,聽Blomkamp聽is still聽based here and聽 a proud booster of the local film industry. For example, the聽post-production work on Elysium will be done in 麻豆传媒映画next year聽instead of being farmed out overseas like it usually is.
So what is Elysium about? That remains a mystery but "We're Building the Future and We Need You" signs for a spaceship construction company Armadyne popped up at this year's Comic-Con in San Diego, part of a viral campaign similar to the one done for District 9 at an earlier Comic-Con.聽聽Armadyne dot net聽is looking for mega-construction engineers, zero g welders, quantum networkers and experts in zero g coupling and multi-generational planning聽to build a massive space station that can house聽an entire colony of people -- "Taking Mankind into the Future." Last month I watched Elysium聽film scenes of a much smaller spaceship, with Matt Damon聽inside, crash-landing on a mansion facade and lush garden set聽at a vast gravel field at Kent and Boundary in Vancouver, often used by film crews聽for green and blue-screen filming.
The blue rectangles are the spaceship, the fake palm trees have no fronds, and the small piles of sand seem to represent the Baja dunes in Mexico. Some might complain I'm undoing movie magic with photographs like these, but the contrast between this raw blue screen scene and what we will see in theatres makes me more awestruck at what a VFX-whiz like Blomkamp can聽accomplish.
I don't know exactly when construction of this mansion and garden聽set began at Kent and Boundary聽but locals walking the Fraser River path began tweeting about it in late June.聽I guessed it would be for Elysium and confirmed it with some of the crew when I visited a few days later.
Matt Damon and family flew into town聽on the July 4th American聽long weekend, almost a month ahead of filming, so that Damon could bulk up for his Elysium role. That week I started seeing tweets about sightings of聽Damon and his trainer working out at the Hollyburn Club or聽climbing聽the聽Grouse Grind (his Grind time is a聽not-too-shabby 43 minutes聽 according to a local grapher). A few days later, someone tweeted about seeing Damon inside The Bridge Studios for a pre-production meeting.
That Saturday, July 9th, Elysium hosted a casting session at the Creekside Community Centre for a large number of Mexican and Hispanic people of all ages to work as paid extras in the movie. They wanted extras who could look like East L.A. gang members, preferably with tattoos, piercings, long hair or shaved heads, as well as other extras who聽could look like 聽blue collar workers. I later photographed several of them at the Elysium shoot in Surrey's Bear Creek Park. Some of the beefy, bald, tattooed gang members聽got ferried to and from set in little golf carts driven by burly teamsters -- an unexpectedly charming sight.
But at the time of that casting call, the July 25th filming start was several weeks away.聽Matt Damon spent some of that time on family outings with聽his wife Luciana Bozan Barrossa听补苍诲听their children to the Granville Island Kids' Market,聽 Capilano Suspension Bridge and other 麻豆传媒映画tourist attractions. The family didn't get papped until they聽rented bikes to ride around Stanley Park. Later on during filming, Emily Blunt and her husband John Krasinski from The Office visited the Damons and joined them for a Grouse Grind climb.
On July 25th, Elysium began filming at 麻豆传媒映画Technical school and then moved to Riverview Hospital for a few days. That Friday night, Matt Damon took a red-eye flight to Washington, D.C.,聽 where he spoke out for teachers at a Save Our Schools March that Saturday and was聽photographed with his newly-bald head. Local graphers got autographs and photos with him at the 麻豆传媒映画airport on the way out Friday night聽and when he returned around 2 a.m. early Sunday morning. I never got a chance to meet Damon but from everything I've heard here, he has to be one of the down-to-earth, most approachable celebrities around.
Filming resumed at Riverview Hospital that week and then re-located to a real-life mansion at 51st and Macdonald behind Jurassic Park-sized hedges. In the second week of August, Elysium finally gave some an opportunity to photograph some filming when they set up in Bear Creek Park in Surrey. A Flynet agency photographer snapped Damon in character as聽some kind of human聽cyborg, running in pain while being聽filmed with a handheld camera.
Photographers and locals could see dozens of film trailers in in the public parking lot but not the inaccessible set behind a ridge of trees on聽the other side of the creek in Bear Creek Gardens, where the east LA gang extras were. When I visited, I could聽hear a聽director through the trees on a microphone saying, "Stand by for a little rehearsal here. " And later: "Here we go everybody. Helicopters in the sky please.聽Ok everybody. Places please. Alright guys....shhhhh. Roll sound.聽3, 2, 1 Action." 聽The two helicopters parked on the grass at the south end of the football field during breaks,聽the yellow helicopter with a camera mounted below to film the blue helicopter as well as the scene.聽聽Bright yellow billboards around the聽park聽warned of low-flying helicopters
Meanwhile the first unit had moved to the mansion and garden set at Kent Hangar field on聽August 10th聽to film scenes of Matt Damon's spaceship crash-landing on the mansion and garden set surrounded by huge blue screens.聽I couldn't see much from聽the Fraser Path聽but unexpectedly spied the bald聽Damon being driven from set after he wrapped for the day.聽Film notices sent to local businesses and neighbours stated filming would continue until August 19th, but it proved to be a hit and miss trying to catch it.聽 I returned a couple more times,聽but not when they filmed car chase scenes in the afternoon and sometimes Elysium was filming elsewhere, like the real mansion on Macdonald.
By August 19th, the聽聽temporarily-planted tropical garden, which had been expiring in the summer heat, was gone.
Elysium moved into The Bridge Studios for the聽remaining month of filming on a vast interior of the space station set, with occasional undetected location shoots like the 2nd unit one in a West 麻豆传媒映画house off Marine Drive聽last week. Elysium extras parked at the Gilmore Skytrain station and vans ferried them to studio. I read tweets from local stunt performers about endless late night shoots. The only thing missing in the first week of September -- star Matt Damon who'd embarked on a promotional junket with his wife Luciana for his new film Contagion. The glam couple walked the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival and the聽New York premiere聽at the Home of Jazz at Lincoln Centre.
At the end of August, Global TV's Erin Cebula聽made an on-air plea for a set visit but it seems to have gone unheeded.聽This sci-fi original is聽expected to wrap here this week and then move onto Mexico for additional filming -- perhaps in some real sand dunes.
Update: Illness and other issues delayed Elysium's wrap here聽until mid-October. Matt Damon filmed his last scenes in 麻豆传媒映画on Saturday, October 15th, dressed in blue prison garb with the same bald head.
Elysium is expected to be in theatres in March, 2013.
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