CHANNEL CANADA

Channel Canada visits Hollywood North - on the set of Psych

Articles / General TV News
Posted by Tripster on Jul 08, 2008 - 04:00 PM

Recently we were invited to visit the set of the hit US cable series “Psych [1]” (Season 3 premieres July 18 on USA Network in the US) which is filming in Vancouver. We met with the stars of the show and some of the behind the scenes crew and asked them about working and living in Vancouver.

“Psych” is filmed at North Shore Studios (formerly Lionsgate Studios) in North Vancouver and at various location shoots throughout the British Columbia lower mainland area.

The day we arrived they were shooting on location at the PNE Agrodome doing an exciting roller derby scene for an upcoming episode. While we didn't get to attend this shooting as planned we did get to meet some of the talented roller girls and the writer of the episode, Tim Meltreger [2], at a dinner hosted by USA Network at a local eatery.

Yes folks, roller derby is still alive and err .. rolling at a rink near you apparently! This episode of the series ("Talk derby to me") features Sydney Bennett [3] who is also an active member of the Derby Dolls [4] in LA. Roller skaters came out from the local Vancouver roller derby league to take part in the episode.

The series “Psych” is set in Santa Barbara, California which presents a bit of a challenge when filming the show in Vancouver. While the BC lower mainland area does offer a huge variety of different scenery that in many cases will somewhat resemble the Santa Barbara area it is by no means a direct comparison. Fans of the show will no doubt recognize that the many palm trees shown throughout the scenery are indeed largely fake set props.

Still, they do manage to pull it off in a pretty decent way. Filming for the show takes place from April through October each year so they do most filming during British Columbia's sunniest months.

Series co-star Dulé Hill [5] had this to say when we inquired about the BC rain hampering shooting on-location “It isn’t that we slow down, we just figure out a way to get by. Mike McMurray’s [6] a great cinematographer. So, he puts the lights up and you put like a kind of tarp over. And as long as - as wide as the camera - the shot is, that’s how far the tarp goes. We just do what we have to do.”

Dulé Hill (Burton 'Gus' Guster)

For most of the US based acting talent on the show the 6 month shooting schedule means staying in the Vancouver area for the entire length of time. We received a largely positive response from the actors when we inquired how they were enjoying living and working in Vancouver.

For Dulé it was an enjoyable experience and a change of pace “It’s cool. I mean the first season was great. I mean, Nicole, we loved it. We was like, “This is great to get away,” because, you know, where I was eight years or seven years in LA, like ten months of the year. So, it was good just to do something different.

The second season—the second year, we kind of missed summer somehow. I don’t know what happened. Summer just decided not to show up in Vancouver last year. I think in the summertime, Vancouver is one of the best places to be. When it gets gray skies, I’m ready to get out of here.

I miss my home though. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t miss my home because I spent so much time away in the last couple years. I traveled a lot this year - this off-season seeing family, then campaigning. And then the year before, I was doing a play in New York. So, I haven’t really spent a lot of time at my home in LA. So, I wouldn’t mind just having some time there, but I’m also very thankful to have a job. So, you know, if I have to be here another five years, so be it.”

Timothy Omundson (Carlton Lassiter)

Timothy Omundson [7] grew up in the Seattle area so he was quite used to the Pacific Northwest climate “... there's so many positives to this job that that's certainly one of them is getting to be up here. My youngest daughter who's three, she's had two of her three birthdays on the beach in Kitsilano where we tend to rent a house every season. And we've spent a third of her life here, which is nice for me to get them out of L.A., and to see - 'See that, that's called a pine tree, and that's called water and those are mountains.' ... but the playground is, like, right outside our house. There's the swings, there's the ocean, there's the mountains and pine trees, and there's just nothing better in the world. Like, that view for me, is it. I have friends who grew up in Palm Springs. They love dirty brown mountains. Me, it's just that. So I'm like I get to be on a show and bring my family here and work here in this place that I love, it's pretty darn good.”

Maggie Lawson (Juliet O'Hara)

Maggie Lawson [8] enjoys it a lot “I love working in Vancouver. This city is so wonderful, and we have by far the greatest crew I've ever worked with. And yeah, the city's been really good to us, all of us. It's really nice. We feel safe and we're all happy. And we get the best of both worlds here. You get the urban, downtown life but then you get - you're just surrounded by the most beautiful nature and mountains and lakes and oceans. And it's really special”.

For Kirsten Nelson [9] things were a little bit different the first couple of seasons. While her child is still in school back in California she commutes back and forth to the set. During the summer months her husband and son come up to Vancouver.

“I think last season was, like, the rainiest year on record and it was crazy. We were all depressed. Everybody wore black and gray and you just kind of came to work with your shoulders humped. Actually my son, the very first day that they moved up last summer, he was kind of sick already and they got off the plane and they were all tired. And then the next day they went out, I'm like, “okay bye, bye, mama's got to go to work,” and my husband took him to the playground. And it was, like, okay, it's stopped raining, come on, come on, let's go to the playground.

Kirsten Nelson (Karen Vick)

So they went to the playground and they literally got the tennis rackets out and it started pouring and there he was. He was, like, five years old, he's, like, "Man, I hate Vancouver." It was, like, this poor little sod crying in the rain, that's how we started our summer. Like, all right! We're ready to go! Two and a half more months! So it's very rainy.”

When it comes to working here Kirsten said “... there's a little bit more hands off attitude towards Hollywood North in the sense of - at least that we feel. I mean, obviously from, you know, production, I'm sure that they have phones in their ears at all times. Like, we're watching this live. You know, it's probably streaming in somebody's office down in LA. But we have—I feel a little bit more freedom. Especially when I would do the sitcoms or even the one hours down in LA. Suits were always walking onto the set, "We're just dropping by." You know, and it changes the vibe on set completely, as soon as the producers or the executives just decide to drop by.

Nobody drops by here in Vancouver. You know, there's usually a memo and there'll be time to prepare and the transports going to get them and they arrive at the airport, they're stuck in customs. So it's a lot of hard work to get to Vancouver. But it's a good town, the people here are amazing. The crew we have is fantastic. They're very, very, very, professional and could easily run with the big boys down in LA. Because this is their life, I mean, up here too.

So I like it up here. I miss my family when I'm up here. But it's a good place to be sequestered for a couple of months.”

The BC production industry brings in a lot of money to the area, much of the background staff such as camera operators, set builders, costume creators, sound crew, etc. are local to the area. Productions such as Psych bring employment opportunities to BC based entertainment workers as it draws on local talent for guest roles, bit parts and extras.

Simon Tuke (costume designer)

Series costume designer Simon Tuke [10] explained how they have a pretty decent budget and they do manage to source many of their costumes from local stores, when asked about some of his local resources for clothing he had this to say “Oddly enough, there's a store called Le Chateau, which is really odd because it's a very inexpensive women's store and it saved our ass so many times. Just last week Shawn had to be in this gag where they wanted him to come out dressed in, like, Capri pants or something and we ended up buying a pair of womens pants for him and putting him in those, which they loved.

And very inexpensive yes, it's perfect for costumes, I mean, I don't think they last too long. But in terms of the look, it's kind of—it works out great and for the budget is very helpful. We got a Holt Renfrew we love, we've got The Bay and all - I mean, everywhere. We just pretty much hit them all every week, all the time.”

On the set we saw the general hustle and bustle of a filming production. There are dozens of people employed for each show produced in Vancouver and a lot of trickle down income to area businesses from the needs and expenses these series require to produce the quality productions you see on TV.

We'd like to thank USA Network [11], the people at New Media Strategies and the cast and crew of Psych [12] for putting together our set visit. Stay tuned to ChannelCanada.com and FallTVPreview.com for more from our Psych visit!