The Murdoch Experience (Sullivan Studios Backlot)

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 66 Hymus Road
Date: July 2014
Website: sullivanmovies.com

  In 2014 we attended a two day event called The Murdoch Experience.  The event was designed for fans of the Murdoch Mysteries television show and the first day featured a tour of Sullivan Studios in Scarborough.  The show is about to air its tenth season so we thought now would be a good time to  share some of the filming locations that appear in almost every episode.  This blog post focuses on the backlot.

  Above is Station house No.4, which is where Detective Murdoch (Yannick Bisson) , Dr. Julia Ogden (Helene Joy), Inspector Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) , Constable George Crabtree (Jonny Harris) and the rest of the police officers work.  They have passed through these doors many times and often Murdoch is running out to hop onto his bicycle parked nearby.

  The other areas of the backlot have been used many times throughout the years and have been shot from many different angles.

  This is the same street as in the previous photo, but shot from the opposite direction.

  This shot is taken looking into the archway in between the stores.

  The store signage is also changed as needed for different episodes.  This store could belong to a jeweller for one episode and then a bespoke tailor the next.

  Some of the stores could be entered into while other doors just lead behind the scenes.  The barber shop above was all dressed and ready for filming to begin.

  One episode which makes great use of the backlot is episode 3 of season 6 called "Murdoch on the Corner".

  In this episode the building above plays the Bank of Toronto.

 Murdoch sets up a camera in a building on the opposite end of the square in order to catch a killer.

  The camera is placed in the window to the right of Murphy's Tavern.  During our tour the Murphy's Tavern signage was set up.

  Murdoch Mysteries is set in the late 1890s and into the early 1900s.  It is meant to represent Toronto, Canada during that period.  The sets have also been used for other television shows from the same time period such as Road to Avonlea.

  In the alleyway above you can see the rigging that would hold lighting or other equipment.  This would help create just the right look for when someone meets their demise. 

  Once they do, it won't be long until Murdoch rides around the corner on his bicycle or Crabtree shouts "You there!" as he joins the pursuit.  We will continue our Murdoch Experience in future blogs, but for now we will leave you with some more pictures of the Sullivan Studios backlot. 

 

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Map of Our World
Sullivan Studios Backlot

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Post # 192

The Mask at Warner Bros. Studios

Location: Burbank, California, USA
Address: 3400 West Riverside Drive
Date: Feb 2014
Website:  vipstudiotour.warnerbros.com

  We have a copy of The Mask on DVD that we got for free inside a box of cereal.  The movie was also a box office success and starred Jim Carrey as Stanley Ipkiss.  When Stanley finds a special mask he puts it on and is transformed into... well, into Jim Carrey doing his stand-up routine.

  When we visited Warner Bros. Studios, we were lucky to see some of the filming locations from this movie.  The first location is found on Hennessy Street of the backlot.  Stanley lives in the apartment pictured above.  It is the building with Hardware written on it and fire-escapes on the front.  When Stanley first puts on the mask he becomes a green faced cartoon-like character.  He ends up bouncing down a hallway and out the window of this building.  He is flattened when he hits the ground below.  A car honks at him for being in the street.  Stanley pulls out a tiny little horn which lets out one giant-sized windshield shattering " Bahooogahh!"

  Later in the film Stanley is once again wearing the mask.  This time he finds himself face to face with a street filled with police.  The building above played the neon lit Warwick Hotel.

  When faced with this predicament, The Mask breaks into song and the police are surprised to find themselves losing control and dancing along.  The song he sings is Cuban Pete.  This song was previously made famous by Desi Arnaz of I Love Lucy fame.  All of the action takes place just beyond the dumpster you see in the middle of the road above.

  At one point The Mask leaps into the air and slides down a light pole beside this theatre (right hand side of the photo above).  The dance sequence continues and finishes with a conga line before The Mask sneaks off once again.  Our golf cart also snuck off once again as we continued our tour of the studio.

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See more locations from the Warner Bros. Studio Backlot.

Map of Our World
New York Street , Stanley Ipkiss Apartment

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Post # 191

Kingsman & Huntsman

Location: London, England
Address: 11 Saville Row
Date: August 2015
Website: www.huntsmansavilerow.com

  Saville Row has been the place for bespoke tailoring in London since the early 1800s.  Bespoke tailoring is a custom made suit that is cut to perfectly fit the individual.  Usually you buy a suit and they will take it in or let it out to make it fit better.  Bespoke is the high end of tailoring.  We visited one of the shops on a drizzly evening as we headed out for dinner.  We visited a shop called Huntsman, not for a good fitting suit, but for a different reason altogether.

  The Hunstman shop at 11 Seville Row made an appearance in the movie Kingsman: The Secret Service.  In the movie the tailor shop is called Kingsman and houses a secret spy headquarters filled with gadgets and hidden rooms.  Harry Hart (Colin Firth) is a spy who wants to train a young lad called Eggsy (Taron Egerton) and brings him to the tailor shop.  Hunstman provided not just the location, but the suits for the fictional Kingsman.  Samuel L. Jackson and Michael Cane also get to dress in style as part of the cast.  Real life clients include the Royal family, Clark Gable, David Bowie and Ronald Reagan.

  The shop was closed when we visited or we may have attempted to venture inside.  We didn't see any obvious spy activity, except for the car (above) that turned on with no driver inside.  What will they think of next? 

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Map of Our World
Huntsman & Sons

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Post # 178

The Safety Dance

Location: West Kington, England
Address: Drifton Hill
Date: September 2015
Website: www.menwithouthats.com

  "We can go where we want to. A place where they will never find."  It may seem like an unlikely place for Canadian band Men Without Hats to film their Safety Dance video, but thanks to some internet research and a very informative blog, we paid a visit to this special place.

  West Kington is a small village that is located north of Bath and east of Bristol.  We were traveling along the M4 highway and had a plan mapped out before we left.  We made a few wrong turns but eventually reached our first sheep filled destination.

  Ebbdown Farm is in the background of the opening scenes of the video.  We don't recall seeing any sheep in the video, but when we visited they were everywhere.  If we walked close to a fence we would hear some baa-ing as they ran away on the other side.  The farm is located just a short drive from West Kington.

  We drove our car up to a cattle guard at the gate of the farm.  Cattle guards also work at preventing sheep from crossing them as they have similar feet. Anyway, enough about the sheep let's get back to the video locations. 

  The video starts off with lead singer Ivan running through a field with a little court jester.  They go past this wall and then run down to the road that leads to the farm.

  It is here that they are joined by a dancing girl and come to a crossroads.  You can't see the other road as it is hidden behind the hill and tree, but they choose the one on the left.  The action then moves to West Kington.

   The jester and girl dance along beside Ivan as he walks past some houses.  The home above still had the same red post box in front of it.

  Next we come across the gate where they do The Safety Dance.  The utility pole in the background helped us know that this was the place.  To do The Safety Dance you use both of your arms.  Your left arm goes right over your head and your right arm goes left across your waist in a jerky motion.  Now look at your hands.  If you are doing it right it will appear like you just formed an S.

  A crowd of people dressed in costumes head across the little bridge and march down the street.  They were all dressed real neat from their hats to their feet.  They would be heading towards the photographer in the photo above.

  They all seem to be going to a May Day festival which takes place in the courtyard of this building.  There are people dressed as barnyard animals (but not sheep), there is a Punch & Judy puppet show and lots of dancing.  We can dance!

  A group of people are dancing around a May pole as Ivan continues to sing.  The party continues for the rest of the video.  The Safety Dance came out in 1983 and was one of the more memorable videos and songs from the 80's.  Thirty years ago we were wondering what those strange people in the video were doing.  Today we know first hand exactly where they did it, but we still have no idea what The Safety Dance really is.  Oh well! They can dance if they want to.

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Map of Our World
Ebbdown Farm , West Kington

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Post # 177

The Blue Door (Notting Hill)

Location: London, England
Address: 280 Westbourne Park Rd.
Date: September 2015
Website: www.visitlondon.com

  There is a famous film location which can be found on Westbourne Park Road in London, England.  It is located in the Notting Hill area and is from a film of the same name.  In Notting Hill, William (Hugh Grant) is a bookstore owner who lives in a flat with a blue painted door.  He lives there with his roommate Spike (Rhys Ifrans).  In the movie the door and pillars in the photo above are all painted blue.  At least when we arrived to check out this location the door was still blue.
  In the film, William meets movie star Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) in his bookstore and they start a relationship.  Things don't work out until suddenly one day Anna is there at the blue door.  She is looking for a place to hide out since some nude photos of her have surfaced in the press.  Will agrees to let her stay and they spend the night together.  The next morning the press has figured out where Anna is hiding and when Will goes to open the front door he is met with the flash of many cameras.  Anna comes to the door and is horrified to realize they know she is there.  Despite receiving a warning from William, Spike also ventures out in his underwear.  He loves all the attention and strikes a few poses before returning inside very pleased with himself.
  We played the part of the paparazzi and snapped a few photos ourselves in order to remember these movie moments.

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Map of Our World
The Blue Door

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Post # 176

The Ritz London

Location: London, England
Address: 150 Piccadily Street
Date: August 2015
Website: www.theritzlondon.com

  The Ritz Hotel in London, England is a high end hotel which opened in 1906.  The term, "Puttin' on the Ritz" was inspired by the hotel and refers to surrounding yourself with luxury.  While it wasn't quite in our budget to stay or dine at The Ritz, we did walk past it on our way to dine elsewhere.
 

  We enjoyed a nice dinner at Rextail which was only a short walk away. 

  The Ritz Hotel is located on Piccadilly Street which is home to an interesting variety of architecture.  The building above is one of the Ritz's across the street neighbours.

  The hotel has hosted members of high society along with actors and actresses who would come to indulge and socialize.  In the movie Notting Hill, Julia Roberts plays a popular Hollywood actress named Anna.  She meets William (Hugh Grant) in the bookstore that he owns.  She invites him to come and visit her at her Ritz Hotel suite.  To William's surprise he is there along with a group of reporters ready to interview Anna about her latest sci-fi film.  After pretending to be a reporter from Horse & Hound magazine, William and Anna finally go out and spend a nice evening together.  

  They go out for dinner again and then return to The Ritz.  As they walk along the corridor above, Anna invites Will up to her room.  Unfortunately, her American boyfriend is there and Will leaves the hotel confused and sad.

If you're blue and you don't know where to go to.  Why don't you go where fashion sits.?

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Map of Our World
The Ritz Hotel
Rextail

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Post # 175