Close Encounters of the "X" Kind

But before that happened, way back in season three, they filmed the halfway-house scenes in an old folk's home two blocks from my house called Normana.  As it happened, on the same day that we found out it would be filming, my mum went into the hospital for surgery and we got broken into, so I arrived after David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson came out to sign autographs for people who were watching (I was so disappointed).  It was still cool to see David Duchovny drive his car up into the driveway, park, get out, go up the front steps of the building and open the door fifteen times because they couldn't get it right.  And I did see Gillian Anderson stroll out onto the balcony thing out front that you see with the railing - so it wasn't a total loss.

Later I saw some scenes filmed with that girl who gets kidnapped by aliens with her boyfriend in Jose Chung's From Outer Space.  It was shot <deep breath> in my friend's friend's boyfriend's house (wow, what a connection).  They took all the posters off his walls, painted it, and turned it into the girl's room.  My friend, Jenn, got Gillian Anderson's autograph and met Piper, but when her and her friends tried to meet David Duchovny (read: loitered around outside his trailer) he called security.  I live about half an hour away from her neighbourhood where this was filmed, so I arrived after all the interesting stuff had moved inside where we couldn't go.

The scene in Talitha Cumi in which the guy goes postal in the restaurant was filmed at an A&W right across the way from where I was playing softball.  I saw a very brief shot being filmed in which two SWAT members run from behind bushes to a parked car.  One of them takes aim (and later, shoots out a window and shoots the suspect) and the other looks through his binoculars.  It's very short in the final episode, but I saw it happen.

As I said before, my mum works at the Justice Institute of BC and was able to get me into the building while they were filming Redux.  They filmed the scenes with him going into the area that leads to the Pentagon, and out of it, when CSM allows him to pass through without being caught.  I was amazed: it was actually made out of styrofoam, painted to make it look so much like concrete that you couldn't tell the difference until you were inches away from it.  The sign next to me reads "Dear Patrons, We are in the process of constructing a set for an upcoming episode of the X-Files. We hope this does not cause you any inconvenience.  Thank you."  

Then they filmed on the third floor and had this sort of hot-air balloon thing that they hung in the atrium to make it look like there was daylight even when it was a bit overcast.  It was the scene where Michael Kritschgau sees Mulder in the Department of Defense building and tells him about all the missions that happened , explaining how he does not have access to the areas that Mulder's card allows him, while they walk through the hallways.  While they filmed the scenes upstairs, I Bambi-eyed my way up there to watch them and, during a break, a crew member let me sit it David Duchovny's director's chair.  (Please excuse the picture, I look so bad and my hair is slicked back into a ponytail - I'm not bald).  After I left the chair, Blue, David Duchovny's dog, curled up in it and fell asleep.  She was really friendly.  I also met Jaap Broeker (a.k.a. The Stupendous Yappi) who is David Duchovny's stand in/stunt double.  He was doing that funny eyebrow thing that he did in Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose and was wearing an X-Files crew t-shirt that read something like "I survived the Arctic in 4x24", in referance to the Arctic scenes in Gethsemene.  I had to leave early to go to the Wallflowers/Counting Crows concert, but I all I missed was them filming in this room upstairs that I wouldn't have been able to see anyway.  Definately my best on-set X-Files encounter ever. Even though I couldn't possibly have put the pieces together then about what was happening in the grade scheme of things, it was cool to have been able to see part of the premiere before it aired.

I attended "The Cure Is Out There" in Vancouver this April, a fundraiser for cancer organized by William B. Davis (Cancer Man) which was fabulous and Dean Haglund (Langly) was the master of ceremonies and was hilarious.  Don S. Williams (chubby Syndicate guy) and Willy Ross (the assassin, Quiet Willy) signed autographs in the foyer before the show started.  Mitch Pileggi (Skinner) did improv, Sheila Larkin and Rebecca Toolan (the Moms) talked about funny things that happened while filming (Rebecca Toolan named slapping David Duchovny as one of her favourite moments), Bruce Harwood and Tom Braidwood (Byers and Frohike) came out and did a scene with Dean Haglund and talked for awhile.  Nicholas Lea got a huge response from the female members of the audience, and was a good sport about answering questions about Krycek (who he isn't convinced is evil).  There was Megan Leitch (the adult Samantha), and Vanessa Morley (the little Samantha) sat behind me in the audience, which was very surreal, and Chris Owens (Agent Spender) came out for a chat.  Of course, there was William B. Davis who came out and gave us reasons why Cancer Man was the hero of the show, not Mulder, and how from now on he wanted Cancer Man to be shot in a warm pink light with harp music in the background, and for Mulder and Scully to be floor-lit.  In a grand finale, Gillian Anderson came out and answered questions  (she could not decide on a favourite flavour of ice cream -- she named, like, ten) and then Chris Carter (who seemed pleased that someone asked him about the wedding ring that Mulder wears in Unusual Suspects and Travellers) answered questions, too (very mysteriously though - he certainly didn't give anything away).  It was their way of saying good-bye to Vancouver and it was wonderful.  I was so sad afterwards when I knew their move was final.  They were such a great part of Vancouver.  Gillian Anderson stayed afterwards and signed autographs, which I thought was extremely nice, considering how many people were there who wanted autographs.  This is the card that she signed for me.  She looked right into my face and smiled when I thanked her.  It was such a thrill to be so close!

In a final gesture to bid farewell to Vancouver, the X-Files invited anyone who wanted to to come down and be a part of that chess scene in the beginning of The End (that sounds kind of redundant, doesn't it!) to be shot at GM Place.  GM Place is home of the Vancouver Canucks and Grizzlies and major concert events.  Tom Braidwood (Frohike, and a director for this episode) and R.W. Goodwin (a producer), directed twelve thousand people who showed up for the chance to be immortalized in the last episode to be filmed in Vancouver.  There were people there from as far away as Mexico, the States, Australia, Germany, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Japan.  The line up to get in stretched all the way around GM Place twice and it took two and a half hours to get everyone inside and seated.  We were instructed to watch to the little boy, Gibson Praise (Jeff Gulka) and the Russian carry out their moves until Gibson pushes back, saying "Checkmate".  Then they filmed the Russian dropping, shot, to the ground, taking the chessboard and pieces with him, and then replaced the clean jacket with the bloody one and shot it again.  Then there was the panicking audience shots that they filmed over and over.  Then there were the shooter-on-the-catwalk scenes to be shot which made me nervous because there were all those crew people walking around so high up - I didn't want anyone to fall...

In between shootings there were draws for prizes based on the number stamped on your ticket (I was person number 7400 to enter GM Place - see the very bottom of my ticket above).  They gave away walkmans, TVs, stereos, DVD players...I didn't win anything but there were hundreds of prizes.  The MC was so annoying, everyone hated him - I was longing for Dean Haglund to show up and run the show because he was so good at The Cure Is Out There, but no such luck.  Anyhow, in between giving away prizes and shooting, there were also appearances by Bill Davis (shown above in a picture I took and enlarged, so the quality's not great), Nicholas Lea (another crowd favourite) and apparently David Duchovny paid a visit at the very beginning, but I didn't even get in until 7:30pm so I must have missed him (he was filming during The Cure Is Out There and couldn't make it).  Then Gillian Anderson came out and the crowd gave her a standing ovation and a woman in the front got up and told her how much Vancouver was going to miss her and how we respected their move and there was no hard feelings and how we all wished them the best of luck.  Gillian burst into tears.  I thought I was going to cry, too.  She thanked us and told the audience that she considered Vancouver her home and was going to continue to visit here as much as possible as her daughter was born here and she felt a deep connection to the city.  Then she answered questions from the audience.  You can see her to the left there with a microphone, answering questions on the main screen, while the chess match gets set up below.  She borrowed a the mountie hat a S.O.C. in uniform was wearing and wandered around for far longer than she was expected to.  Gillian is so nice!  Afterwards, Chris Carter came out and answered questions and gave away prizes.  

Chris Owens came out, too, a little bit later (the shoot went until after midnight and I stayed the whole time).  I noticed, from way up in the stands, that after answering audience questions and being interviewed by the annoying MC, Chris Owens had stopped in this one section to sign autographs and stuff so I headed over.  By the time I got to where he was, most of the people had gone back to their seats and I got to chat with him a little bit about the cancer benefit the night before and about his character.  He signed a card of mine (all I had was a Cancer Man card, so I figured the connection was that it was his father on the show) and I got a picture taken with him.  The writing in white on the bottom of the card was added later, when I scanned it.  {FYI: Chris Owens appeared as the Great Mutato in Post-Modern Prometheus and a younger version of CSM in Demons and Musings of a CSM as well as his more recent roles as the notorious (and possibly dead) Agent Jeffrey Spender.}  He was so nice!  I had a hard time believing was a jerk he was in "The End", the actual episode, because of how nice he'd been at GM Place.  He said that he's signed to do episodes in the sixth season and will continue to be a mysterious character, as far as he knows. Only Chris Carter knows the truth...

Hopefully my X-encounters will continue, even with the X-Files filming down in LA.  William B. Davis continues to live and run his successful acting school (which I have attended) in Vancouver.  Dean Haglund is very active in the theatre scene in Vancouver, especially improv, and, as she said, Gillian Anderson has kept her house in West Van and will continue to return for recreational purposes.  And who knows?  Maybe they'll need a cold, wet forest scene and will have to come back here to film an episode.  Millennium (Chris Carter's other baby) continues to film here, and it would be easy for them to get a temporary crew together.  You never know...

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