On Location Set of 8.05 Blood Brother with Guy Norman Bee

A Most Awesome VanCon-adjacent Adventure

 

We knew from VanCon that there was filming happening at a beach (Jensen: “There’s a beach in Burnaby?”), so, through a process of elimination, local knowledge, and sheer dumb luck, we happened upon the very beach: Barnet Marine Park. 

We knew this because when we arrived around noon, there was already a boom truck and some crew on-site, although at that stage there were none of the dead give-away, orange arrow signs that every Supernatural fan visiting Vancouver is on the look out for. As we waited to see what would happen, we spent the time taking photos of the lovely beach, and each other. Later, one of the others went for a recce to see if anything else was happening. When she came back, she’d found them setting up just around the bend on the other side of the park – just as well she went looking!

 

We hadn’t missed anything much apart from the arrival of a couple of trucks – including another boom truck. We wandered around taking photos of the spectacular scenery, a couple of us leaving for a while to get food. (There was no place close to get food and we knew we could be there for a very long time.)

 

When we returned, a hand drawn “set” sign with an arrow was taped to a post at the entrance to the carpark. Once we’d eaten, we chose a spot about mid way between the two boom trucks and made ourselves comfortable. About this time two other fans joined us. 

Meanwhile, more crew arrived, and a whole bunch of trucks – we exchanged many excited glances and face-splitting grins as we realized we’d really struck gold in staking out this location. I didn’t know where to look first. 



Then Guy Bee arrived with Kevin Parks and S. E. Hinton, and the excitement ramped up from a rolling boil to full scale meltdown. 

As everything began happening around us, we sat very still and quiet in the hope that we would continue to be overlooked. Guy, Kevin, and others had a very interesting discussion very near to us, about the problem of the tide being fully high, since they’d been assured while scouting it would be low.

 

At this point, Guy went to walk past us again, and did a double take, realizing that we were not just random people sitting on the beach. He was stunned that we’d found them, and kind of amused too. He told us about the problem with the tide, and we were able to tell him that we’d watched it coming in and could give them info about how long it therefore might take to go back out. He showed us his bright green shoes and told us he and Lou Bollo had an “ugly shoe competition” going. We asked him if we were ok where we were, and he said we were good for now. He went off then, but said he’d be back. 

 

Kevin Parks wandered over too, and talked to us for a while. 

 

The next major excitement occurred when the Guanaco food truck arrived. By this late in my trip to Vancouver, I had thought I’d missed out on seeing it, so I was delighted, as were the rest of our group.

 

Major setting up was still going on around us, while some of the crew were playing football, some people (maybe stunt guys?) were practising fighting with sticks (it looked like some type of martial art, but hey, what do I know?). Several crew members came and talked to us, too.

 

Saw Clif, but, although he was obviously checking us out, he didn’t have us removed (we thought he must’ve realised we weren’t a threat.) And then it dawned on me if Clif was there, then so was Jensen! (Yes, I know, I’m a bit slow sometimes). We knew from talking with Guy on Tuesday that Jared was probably still in Austin, so weren’t really expecting to see him anyway.

 

The crew were calling Ty “Captain Starbucks”

Around this time, a small boat arrived, and we were reminded of the spoiler from Comic Con, about vampirates.

Next thing, the arrival of Ty Olsson, the new recurring guest actor in the role of Benny. 


The look of amazement on his face when he realised he’d seen us on Tuesday was hilarious. “You found us!” 



He obviously hasn’t been in the Supernatural family long enough to understand how unsurprising that was. The crew were calling him “Captain Starbucks” because he was standing in the boat with a cup of coffee.

Later, Guy came back over and sat down with us to take photos of the beautiful sunset. He showed us the pics he took, and chatted for a while. 

A short time after he left us, a crew member came over and said we’d have to move, only because the spot where we were sitting was the exact spot they needed for Jensen.

 
We were happy to move, especially since we could have just as easily been asked to leave at that point. 

We only had to move I guess about 10 meters (if that) away from the action, but were literally still in the middle of the set. We were again stunned that they let us stay so close.

We watched the first scene being shot – and got to see Dean on a boat. The scene showed Benny driving the boat to the beach. In the first take, Dean moved from the middle of the boat to the bow, jumping off to tie the boat up. In the second and third takes, he was sitting on the bow, in the whole shot, and again jumped off to tie the boat up.

 

 

Guy came by again and we asked him if we were still ok to be there. He said “If anyone gives you s**t come get me. You’re here as my guests.” Wow! I’m not often speechless, but there were no words to describe that moment. He also explained that in the scene they’d shot, Benny and Dean were arriving “at an island from civilisation”.

 

One of the crew came to ask if our vehicle was in the parking lot, because the park was about to close and they didn’t want anyone to get locked in. Kristen asked where we could move the car to, and he said “Oh just take it up to the crew car park – tell them you’re with stills photography, and take the crew shuttle back down here.” We were once again gob-smacked by how accepting everyone was of our presence, and how they looked after us.

We took care of the car and were back in time for dinner, supplied by the owner of the Guanaco Food Truck (Jose Manzano – who is also a camera assistant on Supernatural), who came by to escort us to the truck. We left one person behind as it was dark by then, and her camera was the only one still capable of getting decent shots.

 

Came back and ate while watching Jensen and Ty do their next scene. We couldn’t hear much of the dialogue, they were down on the beach and it was dark by then. The few pictures I took were very bad, as I had no clue how to set the camera.

When the scene was over, we watched Jensen help the crew to push the boat off the beach where it had become stranded as the tide went out. Then, suddenly, it was over. There was laughter, and a hug between Jensen and Ty, then they headed off into the darkness. The crew began to pack away the vast quantities of equipment, and we stood by watching. The whole process of setting up, filming the scenes, and packing away was a fascinating process. It was truly like watching a well oiled machine, everyone knowing what they were supposed to be doing, and doing it quickly and efficiently. We hung around for a while, hoping to get the opportunity to thank Guy, but he had already left. We did get to tell Kevin though.

 

Eventually we caught the crew shuttle to pick up our car, and the adventure was over.

 

We had ample time to alert the many other Supernatural fans still in town after VanCon but we didn’t. We think that’s why we were allowed to stay. Also, the scenes we saw were probably not a hugely significant part of the episode, over in a matter of seconds, but the memory of being there will last forever. Whenever I watch 8.05 I’ll be able to say, “I watched them filming that scene as Guy Bee’s guest!”, and have a complete fangirl meltdown all over again. Special thanks for this entire encounter to my wonderful friends (you know who you are) for their sleuthing, driving, and navigation skills, without which none of it would have happened. They made my trip to Vancouver so much more special than I ever hoped, and I cannot thank them enough.