By BetteAndTinaForever

(Warning: contains a few season 5 spoilers)

Disclaimer: this report is based solely on my personal findings, opinions and wishes. It is biased and was written for entertainment purposes only.

Last week was my second annual trip to Vancouver. Some might call it a spoilers hunt, others might call it vacation, a few people could even call it a waste of time…I call it ‘Looking for random happenstances in the not-so random places’.

Last year it was my first trip with a purpose and it was very interesting, relaxing and eventful. Those of you, who read my last-year report, might remember that I wrote about that trip on a day-by-day basis. This time is going to be not about when I saw or did something but what I saw and did.

Vancouver

As many of you already know, Vancouver is a beautiful city to visit even if The L Word wasn’t filmed there. Ocean, mountains, beaches, museums, shops, walks, fireworks – the city has everything to offer. Sometimes you might see something or someone you wanted when you least expected, other times you might see nothing at all and still have a good time.

On this trip I went for walks to Kitsilano beach, English Bay, Granville Island and Stanley Park.

Kitsilano or Kits, as the locals call it, as a beautiful view of the downtown Vancouver and has a mansion somewhere, one of the regular location spots for The L Word. This year they already shot at least two scenes in that area, both involved Shane (Kate Moennig). Please refer to Spoilers, Rumors and Speculations section to find out more about it.

English Bay is another beautiful beach area with a breathtaking view of the ocean and the city, and also the place where majority of the citizens and tourists gather for the annual Celebration of Lights Fireworks Festival. Each year three teams from different countries compete for the best fireworks and music coordination and on the forth night the winning team is giving an encore performance. This year it was Spain, China and Canada. I was able to see Spain performance and it was beautiful.

English bay is also famous for their sculptures of balanced stones, including a huge native art landmark called The Inukshuk. This time I approached it from a different side and saw a few smaller balanced stone sculptures right on the rocks. It was beautiful.

Stanley Park offers beautiful beaches, views, walks and it is just a wonderful area for family and tourist to spend on the weekend. After a few days of rain, the weather was sunny and many people came outside, families with kids, dogs, people running, jogging and simply relaxing.

Granville Island presents another opportunity for relaxation, shopping, dining and walking. It also offers a beautiful view of the downtown and the island can be reached by the mans of public transportation or by taking a small boat ride.

People

After my arrival on Saturday and a dinner with friends, we went to the club “Lick”, which described in the Vancouver travel book as Vancouver’s only “all-girl-operated underground queer night club.”

We got there at 10 pm right when the club opened its doors and hung out there, listening to music and dancing until midnight Drag Kings Show. It was a lot of fun but I was ready to call it a day when I saw Angela Robinson came in with another writer from The L Word, Mia Kirschner, Daniela Sea and a few other people, most of whom I saw before but couldn’t tell who they were exactly.

Mia began dancing with some pretty woman and was trying to stay away from the fans, though nobody bothered them much. The Drag King show was still on and soon after Kate Moennig and Rose Rollins walked in as well. The music was loud and it was hard to talk but I introduced myself to Angela and Daniela, said hello to Rose, who remembered me from my Washington DC trip. I didn’t want to ruin their night by asking them any questions about the show, so I just danced and watched the ladies dancing and talking.

Mia and Rose left first, after they talked to some fans outside and took a few pictures; Kate and others stayed, danced and had good time. When I was ready to leave, I saw Erin Daniels at the bar, talking to someone and I had to come and ask if she was in Vancouver for season 5. I waited for the break in their conversation, which was a take of breath on Erin’s part and very politely asked my question. Erin said she was here for the weekend and she hasn’t heard anything yet. I told her about the Write-it contest on L.Word.Fanlib and that the winning episode was going to be filmed in season 5 with the principal actors playing the characters. The episode that won the first place (meaning that it would be filmed and the author would go to Vancouver to see it being filmed) had Dana in it, so I asked Erin if it means she’ll be in it as well, but she replied that she didn’t hear anything yet. I’m thinking it was just her way of trying not to reveal anything.

On Monday I went to the studio around lunch time. I remember reading a little tidbit that Ilene wrote about their lunches. It was just like she described. I walked by the trailers and there was the line to the lunch trailer, though I only saw one familiar person, Daniela Sea. Of course, even when The L Word is filmed at the studio it doesn’t mean that all the cast members are present. The episode could be filmed in a few different locations at the same time, because they have enough equipment and crew to do it.

On another day I was walking by the studio again because I was planning to eat my lunch at the coffee shop on the corner right across the street. They have great salads and sandwiches there and it was closer to five pm when I finally got there, so I guess it was early dinner for me then. Anyway, just as I was getting comfortable at the outside table I saw Ilene Chaiken leaving the office in the nice convertible car. She was followed by Rose Lam, one of the producers. Looked like that on that day their working day was ending at five.

Though I wasn’t particularly looking for anyone from The L Word on the streets but I did go to some places where the cast members were seen before. I saw Jon Wolfe Nelson, who is playing Tom Mater, Jodi’s assistant, on Saturday night at the “Rodney’s oyster house” in Yaletown. He was ready to dine with some friends and I asked permission to take his picture and then asked if he was still filming. He wouldn’t tell me any Bette/Jodi or Bette/Tina spoilers because, as he put it, “We are sworn to secrecy.” Well, at least we know that Jodi is still there since she needs her assistant Tom to communicate sometimes.

While I was eating there I saw Mia Kirschner walking by the window with her black dog. It took me a minute to figure out that it was her because I was busy devouring a very delicious summer salad with scrimp, so when I ran out of the restaurant, Mia was already far ahead and turned at the corner of the street. I knew I was losing my investigative reporter abilities if I had doubts I saw The L Word cast member but I also was too full to chase after her, so I returned to my salad. However, I do remember Mia saying at the L2 Convention in London last year that she doesn’t particularly like people chasing her on the streets so maybe it was for the best.

Production Assistants Work

Friday, July 27, was a particularly interesting day for me. The night before I checked some of the TLW websites I visit frequently and I found out about filming that was going to happen on Friday afternoon in downtown at Cordova Street. I went there in the morning but the actual filming of part of the episode 505 was going to start after three in the afternoon. This is when the trucks would be arriving with the equipment and the location was being prepared for the shooting.

Because I didn’t have anywhere else to go, I stayed in the area and met a very nice Production Assistant who let me hang out with her whole afternoon. I was helping her with some work and also learned a few things. The spoilers and rumors are in the next section of this report, so here I will only mention some things that are relevant to the show but are spoiler-less.

Apart from fishing for spoilers, we were also talking about the filming process, the PA responsibilities and the general life and work on the set of The L Word. Usually the cast members given 12 hours break between filming. It means that if they work on Monday from 8 am to whenever they finish, they have 12 hours before they have to go back on set or film on location. Usually the parts of one episode that involve one cast member are filmed in the row, even if they are not consecutive parts of the episode. The PA gave me an example of Shane. If she has parts in certain episode, Kate would come on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday to film them all with a 12-hour break and then she would have free time (maybe not completely free because there are also rehearsals and readings for the next episode) and they all have their weekends free as well. Unless they worked through Friday night until Saturday morning and then they call it Fraturday, I’m not sure of the spelling though.

The crew members and the PA’s only have 9 hours between work and their normal full-work day is 15 hours. Eight hours for them considered to be a half-day. I only spent about 5 hours with her and I was almost exhausted from constant walking and checking on things. As she said, the PA’s don’t need special education; they just need to be dedicated and willing to do what is asked.

The PA’s who don’t work for the show full time usually stay on-call and come to work only when they are available. Sometimes they could get a call from a few different shows and have to choose one. It’s all done through a location manager.

Most of the PA’s work in the same areas, like controlling traffic on location, doing props for the filming on location. Sometimes they rotate their assignments; however, to be involved with the filming on set, they have to be in the Union. Some of the PA’s never work on set at all but only work in their respective departments.

Angela Robinson was directing episode 505. I walked up to her while she was on a short break outside the filming location (Shaw Tower on 1077 W. Cordova Street) and asked her how the filming was going. She said that things were going great and she will be directing at least 3-4 episodes this season. She hasn’t heard anything about season 5 being the last one but I think she just didn’t want to comment on the rumors, because at this point nobody really knows. I chatted with her a little about her movie D.E.B.S. that I watched the previous night (pure coincidence, I assure you) and I mentioned the character of the Russian assassin, because she was so stereotypical and therefore, really funny. I actually laughed the whole movie, I thought it was brilliant. Anyway, Angela was really nice and let me to take her picture.

Spoilers, Rumors and Speculations

While I was spending my Friday with the PA, I learned a few spoilers and rumors. Some are full scenes and some are only bits and pieces of the scenes, so I will try to put them chronologically at least to keep it simple.

The main rumor among the crew, of course, is the one about season 5 being the last season. There are arguments for and against that statement, or course. The main reason to think that season 5 isn’t the last one is the idea of all the promotions that the Showtime invested their money, like OurChart, ‘L’ements of style clothing and jewelry lines, The Second Life and some others. Also, even though none of the Showtime shows went beyond five seasons, it doesn’t mean that The L Word will follow in the same tradition. It is still one of a kind show and if season 5 will get higher ratings (hint to Ilene Chaiken: bring back Bette and Tina and the ratings will go through the ceiling) then anything is possible.

At the same time, an argument can be made that the show is going down with unbelievable and often silly storylines, overwhelming number of cast and no time or budget to develop the most interesting stories that involve the original cast. I personally, would like to see this show to go on, even if I’m not happy with the storyline for my favorite characters. I have many reasons to see The L Word beyond season 5, one of them is a selfish thought: what am I going to do if The L Word is over next year? No places to go, no reports to write, no cast members to meet…boring.

Now, on to the spoilers…

In the beginning of the season Helena is indeed in jail and is wearing orange suit of course. I can only imagine that Rachel Shelley looks good in it but she will be there for a few episodes, waiting for her mother to help. Her friends visit her there but the rest of her storyline is unknown so far. The jail scene was filmed in abandoned hospital somewhere downtown.

I asked the PA, of course, if she knew what was going on with JoBette/TiBette triangle, since it was the storyline I’m interested the most. She didn’t really know where it was going because she wasn’t working on set as much as on the outside but she told me a few things that she witnessed.

In episode 501 or 502 there will be a scene between Bette, Jodi and some Jodi’s friends. They will play some kind of a mud ball and a scene will end up with Bette being thrown into the water. I’m not sure where this scene will take place but, according to the PA, when they were shooting it the weather was pretty chilly and the water was cold. Jennifer Beals was thrown into the water nevertheless and I’m hoping it only took one take. After it was filmed she went straight to her trailer to dry and change her clothes.

Again, according to the PA who is not particularly fond of TiBette as a couple but likes Bette, Bette is trying too hard to keep this relationship working but Jodi doesn’t really care. Her attitude is, ‘Whatever.’

Also, in episode 501 or 502 they filmed a big wedding for a rich couple that Jenny met in the beginning of the season (apparently, after she drifted to Mexico on her little yellow raft at the end of season 4). At any rate, the people in the mansion some how associated with Jenny. It was filmed at the mansion in Kitsilano area that TLW uses quite often. Shane was invited to do the bride’s hair and ended up sleeping with the bridesmaid, the bride and the bride’s mother. At the end of the scene all three of them are chasing Shane who is running away and is losing her show in the process. I hope when we’ll see it, the scene is not as silly as it sounds.

But after I heard that I said, “Wow, Shane isn’t loosing any time since she broke up with Paige,” because I remembered another spoiler where Shane will also have a three-some with a couple who will later try to take over the Planet because Shane breaks their rules of sleeping with other people only if they are together. For those spoilers you can refer to the spoiler thread.

Apparently, while I was spending my morning with the PA on Friday, learning about the filming process, the crew was shooting in Kitsilano. I was told by another PA who replaced the one I was talking to before, that they were filming an apartment scene in the residential area in Kits. That particular PA didn’t know who was filming there because it was her first day on The L Word and she doesn’t even watch the show. All she knew that there were four cast members present and after I named some names of the actresses and the characters, she said that Jenny/Mia and Shane/Kate sounded familiar. Later I learned from another source, who was actually watching the filming of the scene in the outside that Kate was there for sure. They filmed her walking into the building and after a few takes, the crew moved to film inside for a few hours. Since it was in the episode 505, I can only assume that it could be a scene involving Shane, Jenny and either the couple that Shane slept with, who now wants to take over the Planet, or maybe the actresses who will play Jessie and Shaun (characters in Jenny’s movie). But this is just my speculation at this point.

The first PA also told me that the day before (July 26), they were filming part of the episode 505 at the studio and all the cast members were present, including some new people, like Jenny’s new girlfriend who will be playing Jessie in Jenny’s movie. Okay, it sounds weird. From what I’ve read and heard, the actress who will be playing that role is quarter Asian. She’s petite, beautiful, and she looks a little like Jenny. If Jenny is having an affair with her, it’s like she’s sleeping with herself.

Anyway, they were filming a party in Shane’s house. By the way, as far as the PA knows, there were a lot of parties filmed in this season so far. For example, they used one of the regular houses on SE Marine Drive to film some kind of a private party between Alice and Tasha.

At this particular scene in Shane’s house, Tina, Shane and Alice were drinking tequila shots and eating brownies. Those were some special brownies, if you ask me, because after they finished, the trio began dancing on top of the table. Tina was wearing very pretty blue dress. I know that Bette and Jodi were present at the party so we can only guess what Bette’s reaction was, because judging by latest podcasts from the set of The L Word, Tina looks gorgeous.

We were talking and working until about 3 pm when the trucks began to arrive with equipment, electricians, set decorators and other crew members. The Circus (this is what they call the trailers for the cast members) were parked on Hastings Street. I went there to check out who will be filming in the afternoon since my new friend, the PA, didn’t have a call sheet. I learned then that the scene being filmed was in the news studio and it only involved day players. Those are the extras with lines who only come in for a day. On one trailer I saw name ‘Dawn’. If I’m not mistaken, it is the name of one of the girls that slept with Shane and then threatened to overtake the Planet.

After I learned that no major cast members were involved, I knew it was time for me to leave. I stopped by the studio one more time because I was sort of in the neighborhood and it was almost empty, with the exception of a few trailers. One of them had name ‘Tina’ on it, so I just had to take picture.

I also went to Commercial Drive on Sunday the week before and was there during Commercial Drive Community Days. There was dancing on the streets, food everywhere, shopping and free concerts. One of them included Kia Kadiri, local Canadian musician, whose song “Put Your Hands Up” appeared on the season 1 of The L Word, famous drunken Dana dance. She was brilliant. Kia has one CD out and I really enjoyed all the song she performed. She was there with another young local musician, who also was a DJ at the Lick club the following Thursday.

While I was walking along the street, I saw a friend that I met last year in San Francisco during l-word writers’ convention. Out of 2 million people in Vancouver walking under pouring rain I saw someone I knew…how bazaar is that?

She was there with her girlfriend, who works as permanent extra on TLW. She told me that she was filming just the week before I arrived (I think it was episode 504), and there was a new character who’s name was something like Sheeba, who is also trying to take over the Planet. This new character either after Tina or wanted Tina, Bette saw them and was upset and then Bette and Tina were making out. Imagine my delight at that news but I had to ask if she was telling me the truth because I couldn’t be disappointed. My friend laughed and said, “Something happens between B&T.”

Well, here you have it. Another year and another trip. I hope it was entertaining and I also hope that The L Word will continue beyond season 5, because I’m not ready for my travels to be over yet.