So here comes a super long blog post about my day on the set of City of Bones!
So let’s start from the beginning;
My dad parked the car about 5 minutes away from the set. We were walking towards it and I saw Robert Sheehan walking towards the set as well. I approached him and got to say hi, but he was in a bit of a rush to make it to the scene (to watch I assume?). He was still really nice though and man was he good looking!
Once I arrived on set I was just in time for a scene they were shooting. I was watching from a house across the street of Clary’s. The scene they were shooting was Clary in Shadowhunter clothing walking down the road with Jace, Alec, and Isabelle walking behind her. This nerdy looking guy stops Clary and says “Wow Clary, you look… different.” Clary is clearly in a rush and she says “Sorry, I can’t talk now.” She and the Shadowhunters continue walking towards the house, turn right and walk up the stairs to the house and enter. In the meanwhile there’s a scene with the nerdy guy, where someone bumps into him. It’s supposed to be the Shadowhunters bumping into him because they’re clearly invisible. The guy continues walking, looking back wonder “wtf who bumped into me and what’s up with Clary?”
Anyway, after a while they got to shooting the next scene. This consisted of the three Shadowhunters along with Clary walking into the house. The door is ajar and Clary and the Shadowhunters walk up the stairs and Clary looks at the open door like “Wth is this doing open…” They all rush in – once they’re all in Jace takes a look out the door, closes it and that’s the end of the scene!
Let me just say – Jamie Campbell Bower has a great sense of humor. He was making everybody laugh on set with his ridiculous faces.
In between shooting the 4 of them were all standing, literally a metre away from me. Just before the scene above was being shot, Kevin looked over at me and smiled! Ahh – almost fainted. Jamie also noticed me and shook his head.
Once they were wrapping up the scenes with the Shadowhunters, I got a tour of the house being used (which is Clary’s). I was standing in the door looking out and they were just about to shoot a scene with Jace and Clary’s stunt doubles. Jace’s double was super nice and we had a short conversation.
After a while we were standing in the alleyway watching them shoot a scene with Clary, clearly looking a little frustrated, leaving her house, crossing the street, with Simon trying to talk to her while walking behind her.
During the shooting I made friends with the medic and this guy who just sprays water on the ground to make it look damp. They were pretty cool!
Anyway, as I left the alley, crossing the street I noticed Lily on her phone, texting. I went up to her and told her I was a fan. She said “aw nice to meet you!” She asked me my name, I told her and she signed my book. Then she looked down at my boots and said, “Hey, we’re so in tune!” because we were both wearing Doc’s. Hahah it was great! She’s super nice, and not to mention g o r g e o us.
I stayed for a while longer and watched them shoot a scene of Clary running from down the road to her house. The first time they shot it, she missed the house entirely and just kept running! The director was like “Okay Lily, that was great! But you kinda missed the house.” Everyone was laughing and she was like “Ahhh where is it?? They all look the same!” It was pretty funny.
After shooting the scene a couple more times they started wrapping everything up.
You’ve all probably seen by now some pictures of the Shadowhunter’s clothes and such. They look great! While chillin around I saw some of the jackets hanging on a rack and I touched it (shhhh)!
Anyway, overall it was a great day! The cast seems to get along well although Kevin is a lot more quiet than the others. They’re doing some more shooting in the same location in September.
Shadowstalking: Day 1
Okay, first things first: just to prevent confusion, when the actors are in character, I’m going to refer to them by the character name, not the actor.
I got to the set around 12:30, after walking past all their trailers (which were awesome). The first person I saw was Lily Collins, in the middle of the street, wearing skinny jeans and a black leather jacket with her hair loose, looking perfect for Clary. Next to her I saw Jamie- Jamie was all in Shadowhunter gear, and his hair (this is the question I keep getting) doesn’t seem shorter, but is styled differently, similar to the model on the cover of City Of Bones. I think it looks awesome. Then I saw Jemima, who had dark hair in a ponytail and shadowhunter gear, as well as her whip, and mega heels. (Later on I’ll fangirl about Jemima a bit more because she was PERFECT.) Finally I saw Kevin, with his dark hair and shadowhunter gear and rocking all his runes.
Then I got told to get out of the way of the cameras, so went around the block to the other side. Which ended up being awesome, because all the actors were facing me, and the cameras were facing them, so I could stand in the middle of the road and watch.
The scene they were filming basically consisted of the four marching down the street, stopping for a bit of dialogue, then continuing to walk. This was when I realized how PERFECT Jemima was. It was a small thing- when they stopped, it looked like Clary was saying something, and Isabelle sort of stands there, her body language very much saying “Hurry it up, I don’t have time for this BS.” She’s got her weight on one leg, but not so much that she’s slouching, and she looks aggressive and ready to go but still bored of whatever Clary’s on about. It was AWESOME. They did that little scene at least a dozen time, and every time she had that stance down. They all were perfect each take.
Then it was lunch break, so I left for a quick bite, then headed back. I was there before the break was over, so I saw the actors getting back. They all seemed much more relaxed- Jamie was doing some silly dance and Lily was cracking up, Kevin was sitting in the makeup chair, it was all great.
They filmed that sequence a few more times (I was on the other side of the street, then, and just ducked out of sight whenever they called ‘ROLLING’) What I noticed over there was all the detail: all the cars on the street had NY license plates, and there were fall leaves and puddles on the ground. They had a hose they used to keep remaking the puddles- at one point, the actors got splashed, and there was a mini waterfight going on!
In the meantime, I chatted with a policeman. He and almost all the crew members were really friendly- they had no problem with me being there as long as I did what I was told. A few other people ran up and took photos, but they got in trouble.
Around 3, I heard one of the stage members saying “Robert Sheehan is arriving on set!” A minute later, I looked next to me and saw some guy across the street. I blinked, and realized it was Robert, with his hair shorter and wearing glasses! He looked so much like Simon I didn’t even realize it was him, and he was ten feet away from me! He walked on set just as they were starting the coffee break, and chatted with everyone. They all seemed to be having fun- Lily was laughing all the time. Jamie and Kevin were sitting in the makeup chairs (not getting makeup done, just lounging) and Lily was standing behind them, and they were all chatting and cracking each other up. All the actors have great chemistry.
Then they started filming the next scene, where Clary marches into her house, and something hilarious happened- they were rolling, then everything came to a stop and one of the props guys ran out shouting “We need a key to the house!” It was pretty funny. Anyway, they got that key, and shot that sequence again a number of times. I could get closer then, since the cameras were all either inside the house or aimed at the house.
I left around 4- nobody kicked me out or anything (as I said, everyone was friendly and happy for me to be there- during the coffee break, about half the crew came down to where I was and said hi and asked me how I was doing and such), but I did have to be somewhere. I’m hoping to go back down tomorrow. All in all, I had an amazing time!
First off this experience has been amazing!!! It was so unreal that the novels (which I love dearly) are being made into movies! The atmosphere on set was unbelievable! I got goosebumps just hearing “ACTION, ROLLING”.
Even though I could not get any closer… But I managed to take photos of their trailers & the set.
It was tough to find the set but once I finally saw the gigantic camera, I knew it I was in heaven! LOL! The photo I took of the huge camera had a black BMW motorcycle in front of it and I suppose the motorcycle is the vampire cycle… Hopefully! it was a sexy bike! I gotta say.
I was able to watch the acting a bit but was told to move… This was when I got a glimpse of Mr Bower
! He was wearing black which is obviously shadowhunter gear & his hair was shorter compared to the picture Cassie posted from their dinner. He looked amazing in the gear! Ready to kick some ass! I was skeptical about him as Jace but once I saw him in person [20 meters away ;(] and in gear, it was… IMPRESSIVE!
I guess the house they were filming at was Clary’s house.
OH yeah! Also, I managed to talk to a props guy and told me some interesting things! Like how he managed to get a see a scene of Lily/Clary drawing runes for apparently a cafe scene. The man did not know a lot about the novels but he said he was explaining how we’ll get to see (once it comes out in theatres) the runes come alive or something like that. Well from the runes and her drawings we know that her drawings become pretty life-like!
The props man also told me that most of the filming will be inside. Based on the photo the executive producer posted I’m guessing that’s where! The man told me that the ceilings were beautiful because of the angelic paintings… which OBVIOUSLY means somewhere inside the Institute!
I hope this sums up my exciting from today’s AMAZING first day of filming! Sorry for my extensive amounts exclamation marks, just fangirling!
I’ll try to hunt them down again tomorrow @ st james cemetery!
