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#YVRShoots - The Seventh Son Films on its Mega Medieval Castle Set

This series had its genesis when I began photographing Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­area location shoots in the summer of 2010 to get over a long post-Olympics funk.

Ìý This series had its genesis when I began Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­area location shoots in the summer of 2010 to get over a long post-Olympics funk. Film and TV productions like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, Fringe, Supernatural and Once Upon a Time showcase our city in similar fashion and sometimes put a celebrity actor or two in the frame. find more on my daily blog .

After months of construction, darkÌýfantasy movie The Seventh Son started filming this weekÌýon itsÌýgigantic castle set on the gravel field at Boundary and Kent in Vancouver, known as the Kent Hangar field.Ìý A set soÌýbig that @tessacpliu tweeted on a drive-by: "Holy! HUGE productionÌý#SeventhSon bus drove by to see the whole sizzle! Wow! Blue screen too! #yvrshoots."

In addition to the vast wooden set, I counted eight generators, several giant blue screens attached to a wall of forty-two stacked shippingÌý containers on theÌýnorth sideÌý(crew had turned one of the bottom containers into a makeshift props department) and several more giant blue screens attached to a smaller wall of stacked shipping containers on the south side. Crew park, tents,Ìýcraft services for background performers both human and equine, trailers, trucksÌýand a large steel pool took up most of the remaining space.

Unfortunately, I could only a see a sliver of the filming on Monday afternoon through a gap in the blue screens, revealing an interior market with background performers dressed in medieval garbÌýand real horses tethered to wood railings. Main cast must have beenÌýon set, judging by the waiting "star cars", but the actors were being driven to andÌýfrom their trailers in the southeast corner of Kent Hangar fieldÌýto theÌýnorth entrance to the castle set unseen.

The Seventh Son, which began filming in Â鶹´«Ã½Ó³»­on March 19th, is about an apprentice TomÌý(Ben Barnes) -- the seventh son of a seventh son -- to the County Spook (Jeff Bridges) who has imprisoned an evil witch Mother MalkinÌý(Julianne Moore). A young girl tricks Tom into helping the witch escape.ÌýThe movie is based on the first book inÌý The Wardstone Chronicles, giving it franchise potential and perhaps explaining why The Seventh Son production signs TUSK have been spotted everywhere from the Britannia Mines near Squamish to the Watchmen set to this mega medieval castle set at Kent Hangar field.

'While it's difficult to capture the scale of this production in photographs,Ìýbelow is the view from Boundary RoadÌýduring filming andÌýfrom the Fraser River path of the back of the set before filming began.

Maybe it's best to convey the scale of this productionsÌýwith some photographs of the waves of background performers in medieval garb streaming from a lunch break back onto set.

I omitted a photo of a background performer who looked a little like Ben Barnes going in the opposite direction because Ben Barnes fans assure me it is not him because they "know every inch of his face".ÌýI believe them.

Below is a photograph of the equine performers on their own lunch break near the Fraser River Path.

And of the steel pool on the west side near the hangar where underwater scenes areÌýfilmed with underwater cameras, divers and green screens for CGI.

The Seventh Son is expected in theatres in 2013.