On The Road

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, having a movie with notable actors being filmed in Ottawa is a rare thing. To have two filmed so close together is incredible.

On The Road is an adaptation of the 1951 Jack Kerouac novel about a young man who sets out to travel the roads and railways of America. The movie is filmed in Argentina, New Orleans, Montreal, and for three days, Gatineau, QC.

The cast includes Kristen Stewart, Viggo Mortensen, Kirsten Dunst, Terrence Howard, Amy Adams, and Elisabeth Moss. Unfortunately none of them were here. What we did get, however, was a bit of a blessing. Tom Sturridge, Sam Riley, and Garrett Hedlund were here to film.

All three are very young actors that have breakthrough potential.

On the first day of filming, I headed to old Hull early in the morning as the filming was to start around 1pm. I took the bus down and immediately saw signs for the filming.

What surprised me even more was that the signs indicated where the hotel was. Normally that information isn't easily found.

I decided to take a walk around to see if I could find a base camp or a set that would be used. I came across the Taverne Montcalm where filming was to occur the following day.

Staff had begun changing the outside sign on the building.

After I walked back, I met up with Steve who had found the base camp. After traveling back and forth, we saw Garrett Hedlund. We ran up as he was about to get into a car. He signed two photos for each of us and said that he would sign the rest later. I asked him if I could grab a photo with him, but he wasn't able to as he was in costume. He told me that once he changed back into street clothes that it wouldn't be a problem. We followed him to set.

It was incredible to see old Hull turned into 1940s Denver, Colorado.

There were old cars everywhere. Street shops had been changed so that they had english writing on the outside.

Set #2 had an entire street filled with old cars. The entire street was blocked off. Curious fans were everywhere. They all had hopes of seeing Kristen Stewart who was rumored to be coming to town. To everyone's disappointment, she had left Montreal with Robert Pattinson to fly to Los Angeles and would not be coming.

I had to leave for the day as there was a birthday dinner to attend. Steve, however, got another four photos signed that evening.

I returned the next day after work and spent the majority of time between the base camp, hotel, and set without any luck. The set outside turned the Taverne Montcalm into the Red Shade Tavern.

As cast and crew began to arrive, night began to fall. They were filming a night scene. I wish I knew about that prior to heading down there.

Due to the nature of filming that day, we weren't allowed to stand in a place that allowed is to see what was happening. The only time we were allowed to walk by was in between takes, and we weren't allowed to stop or slow down. I walked back and forth quite a bit to see who was on set. I finally spotted Garrett Hedlund.

Jeff and Steve showed up around 11pm, just as the crew was breaking. All the people watching the filming had now left. When the actors returned to set, Garrett signed three more photos for me. He still wasn't able to take a photo with me. Great. More waiting.

Finally, in the wee hours of the night, filming for the day finally finished. Tom Sturridge was the first to head back to the cars.

Tom Sturridge is a british actor that was originally cast as the lead in the sci-fi trilogy Jumper. However, two months into production New Regency and 20th Century Fox, fearing the gamble of spending over $100 million on a movie starring an unknown actor, replaced him with the "more prominent" Hayden Christensen.

In 2009, he appeared as Carl, one of the lead roles in the Richard Curtis comedy, The Boat That Rocked, alongside Bill Nighy, Rhys Ifans and Philip Seymour Hoffman. The film was later retitled Pirate Radio for American and Canadian release. (wikipedia)

Next to follow was Sam Riley, an English actor who is best known for playing the lead role of Ian Curtis in the movie Control, a biopic about the lead singer of the 1970s post-punk band Joy Division. His performance in the role won him the British Independent Film Award for "Most Promising Newcomer". (wikipedia)

I asked him how filming was going as he is playing one of the lead roles. He told me that its always fun when you don't have to work.

Finally Garrett walked by again. Garrett made his acting debit in 2004 as Patroclus, Brad Pitt's younger cousin in the movie Troy. He also starred as Don Billingsley, the son of the drunk, abusive father played by Tim McGraw in the film Friday Night Lights.

He starred as Jack Mercer alongside Mark Wahlberg in the film Four Brothers. The film, which received, was a box office success. He next appeared in the film Eragon in the supporting role as Murtagh. The film was a box office success but received mostly negative reviews.

It was announced in 2009 that he would play the leading role in the highly anticipated film Tron Legacy, a sequel to the 1982 film Tron. (wikipedia)

I asked him if I could grab that picture now. He smiled and told me sure thing.

He signed my last photo and we called it a night.

I am actually really excited that these films have been coming to Ottawa. There has been a lot more interest in the city for future projects. I can't wait for more big names to come.

House at the End of the Street

House at the End of the Street is a horror movie that is just wrapping up filming in Ottawa. The plot, according to imdb.com, is as follows: "a young girl moves to a new town with her mother. Upon arriving, she discovers her abode is right across the street from one in which a double murder occurred. Even eerier, she winds up befriending the bloodbath's only survivor".

There aren't a lot of movies that are filmed in Ottawa. We have been fortunate enough to have a couple of movies filmed in town this year with known hollywood celebrities. One was back in early spring with Cuba Gooding Jr. and Christian Slater (see my blog entry entitled "Sacrifice"). Another made-for-tv movie called Metal Tornado, starring Lou Diamond Phillips, just wrapped up. House at the End of the Street features Elisabeth Shue and relatively unknowns Jennifer Lawrence and Max Theriot. It also has a small part for Gil Bellows of Shawshank Redemption and Ally Mcbeal fame.

The movie was filming at Algonquin College, so I decided to make the five minute drive to see what I could find. When I arrived, I saw signs pointing to the set and to the basecamp.

I met up with Steve and we headed to the park by the school where the movie set for part of the shoot was located. The scene involved Jennifer Lawrence and another actress walking down a path and seeing Max Theriot. A small discussion occurs and Max and Jennifer leave together.

It appeared that the scene had just started filming, so we decided to go and grab some food. When we returned, I looked for a parking spot, and then I walked back to where the set was. When I arrived, I saw Jennifer Larence getting into a car and Steve walking up to the passenger side window. She rolled down the window and started signing for him, so I quickly ran over. She signed my photos and then pulled away.

Why was meeting her such a big deal? Jennifer Lawrence could be huge. She will be featured on the cover of W Magazine in the month of September as one of the up and coming young actresses to watch for. She has become a lead actress and is even signed on for the new X-Men: First Class movie. See what I mean.

I decided I would wait around a bit to see if Max Theriot would return from his trailer. After a short while of waiting, Jennifer Lawrence returned to the set in her car. She then jogged back to her trailer. On her way back to the set she was jogging again, and I quickly asked if I could grab a photo with her. She told me that she was really sorry but was due on set. So we waited a bit longer. After she was done she came over and took pictures with us.

After another short while, I decided it was time to leave. Elisabeth Shue and Gil Bellows weren't on set, so I would come back another time and hopefully get Max Theriot then.

We returned the next day and waited. And then waited some more. Not much was happening until we finally saw some of the crew arrive at basecamp. They eventually started setting up a set outside, near the cafeteria.

The good news was that eventually we saw Gil Bellows and Elisabeth Shue arrive by their trailers. They went into them and changed, and then they were driven around the school to the set. A few people had gathered in the overpass to see what was happening. They were filming a scene where Gil and Elisabeth were sitting on a bench outside of what seemed to be a hospital.

All the extras were dressed in doctor/nurse gear and were sitting on the picnic tables as if they were on a lunch break.

We figured that the only way we could grab them would be after they were done filming in a passageway between the set and the street where their drivers were parked. But, to my surprise, the two entered the school in between takes to get their makeup touched up.

Elisabeth Shue entered the school and turned the corner into some room. I wasn't able to get close enough to the room as there were crew members everywhere. Eventually I saw Gil Bellows standing near the bottom of the stairs. Just as I was about to approach, Elisabeth Shue came into the hallway also. I quickly pulled out here photos and placed them on top of Gil's. I moved a bit closer and asked her if she could sign. "No problem", she said.

She looked at my first photo from the Karate Kid and started talking to Gil about it. "Look at this. This is where it all started. Look how fat I was." It was pretty funny. She then signed photos for me from Back to the Future 2, Adventures in Babysitting, and Hollowman.

She saw that I had a photo of Gil also so she handed him the pen. He only gave me initials on my Shawshank photo. I was a bit disappointed because that one would have been my preference for a nice graph. He gave me a full signature on the Ally Mcbeal photo though.

I then asked if I could get a photo with them both and they were happy to do it.

Elisabeth Shue was so nice that I might even go see Piranha 3D just because she is in it. Maybe not. Max Theriot was never seen.

Grammy Award Winner Michael Bublé

"Michael Bublé is a Canadian singer and actor. He has won several awards including two Grammy Awards and multiple Juno Awards. His first album reached the top ten in the UK and Canada. He found worldwide commercial success with his 2005 album It's Time, and his 2007 album Call Me Irresponsible was an even bigger success, reaching number one on the Canadian Albums Chart, the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, and the Australian ARIA Albums Chart and the European charts. Bublé has sold more than 25 million albums worldwide." (wikipedia)

Recently Michael was in Ottawa as part of his Crazy Love tour. Diane had tickets to the show that evening, so I figured I would try and get her CD signed for her.

When I arrived downtown, there was a bus waiting right in front of the building. They didn't do a very good job of trying to hide someone being there. Around the corner were two more buses. After a short while, the other two buses pulled up to the front of the hotel also. Michael's handler was in the lobby, and band members began coming down to the buses.

Michael followed shortly after and we headed outside to cut him off. There was a security guard outside that asked Michael to autograph a CD first. Then Steve followed. Michael signed two photos for him. He then signed Diane's CD for me. As he was signing my CD, an entire soccer team ran outside of the hotel to him and asked him to sign their shoes, gave him hugs etc.

After he was done with the soccer team, I was able to grab a photo with him.

He didn't seem very cheerful. I didn't really hear him say anything and he didn't smile once the whole time. But, I only had to wait an hour or so, and we did end up getting autographs and photos. I wish it worked out that well with everyone I tried to meet.

K-Naan in Deep River

I can honestly say I have never been under as much pressure as I was to create this entry for a blog that probably nobody reads. With that being said, here goes.

Summerfest is an event that happens in Deep River every two years during the August long weekend. This year K-Naan was playing. Craig, Marie-Claire, Jordan and Doug were already up there visiting Craig's family, and they told me that I should come up for the party.

I arrived on Saturday morning to find everyone sitting outside on the patio. After some down time playing cards, drinking and BBQing, we all headed to Summerfest to see Doug Stewart's band, Sexual Leprechaun, play.

Before Doug's band went on stage, there were fireworks as part of the celebration. They were actually pretty decent.

A few other bands went on stage, but the setup of bands was terrible. The organizers expected that once a band was finished, another band would immediately start. I guess they forgot about setting up the equipment. So, as a result, Doug's band didn't get to play until roughly a half an hour later than they should have. It didn't help that the band right before them elected to play the full album version of Freebird as their finale.

Finally the anticipation was over. Sexual Leprechaun took the stage. They were fantastic, despite having to play a shortened set because previous bands went over their allocated time. Their finale, Paradise City, had the crowd rocking.

I mean really, how often do you get to see Rick Campanelli hammer away on his guitar?

On Sunday afternoon, we all headed to see what day activites were happening at Summerfest. When we got there, I noticed that there was a tour bus already parked there. Something else caught my eye as well. They had added extra fencing to the area so that there was no access to where the performers would exit. Balls.

We all headed back to Craig's parents to booze a bit and then returned later that evening. Also playing that evening were Amanda Rheaume, and Montreal band The Planet Smashers.

After scoping out the venue for a good while, I decided that there were only two ways I could meet K'Naan. Either he would be standing around before he was scheduled to go on stage and I could call him over, or I would have to wait until after his performance and get him going to the bus. I brought Doug over to ask him his opinion. He said that he felt he was already very invested in this blog entry and wanted to do whatever it took for a meeting to happen.

There was no sign of K'Naan until he was scheduled to go on stage. He came out of his tour bus, smiled and gave a quick wave to fans and walked towards the stage with coffee in hand. One option down, one to go.

The show turned out to be great. Despite a small stage, K'Naan had the crowd rocking.

I was even impressed at the way he involved the crowd in some of his songs. He would get the crowd to sing certain things and even told a story of how he ended up in Canada. For his encore, K'Naan played his most notable song Waving Flag. You might recognize it as the theme of this summer's World Cup.

After the show, I hurried to the side of the bus to wait. A couple of band members came by first and started to chat with people. By now there were probably sixty people or so waiting to meet K'Naan. I was the only one with photos though. As he came near the bus, he started walking down the fence and shaking hands with everyone. When he got close to me I asked him if he would sign an autograph and that I could hand the photo over the fence to him. "Um....", he said looking at all the people by the fence, "I don't really want to start signing right now". Great. He continued down the line touching hands with people that were waiting. I figured I could grab him as he returned to the bus, so I waited for a couple of minutes only to see him get on the bus and go sit down.

I had almost given up. I was just about to leave when I decided to give it a couple of more minutes. The bus wasn't started, his band was still outside talking, and fans were beginning to disperse.

K'Naan eventually came back off the bus with his own black sharpie and started to sign for the few fans that were left. People were handing him their shoes and any other objects they could find. I was the only one with photos for him. I handed him two photos over the top of the fence and he signed the top one and handed them back to me.

I looped him to see if I could get a photo, but when I asked, he said "um...don't really want to start doing photos right now". Well hell, I didn't want to wait around for even more people to leave.

I then saw Craig and asked him if he could go over and get one of my other photos signed.

We then met back up with Jordan, Doug and Marie-Claire. Jordan asked if I got all my photos signed. I told him no, so he took one over and got it signed as well.

I think its key to note that on my photo, K'Naan wrote "One love". On Craig and Jordan's photo he wrote "Love from". Seems about right.