Blade: Trinity and Friday the 13th — what do they have in common? They’re both films with scenes filmed on transit. Known as Hollywood North, Vancouver is North America’s third largest film production centre after Los Angeles and New York City. Naturally, you can expect Metro Vancouver transit cameos.

Come behind the scenes with us as What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast with Jawn Jang reveals the voices and stories that drive Metro Vancouver’s transit system forward. Subscribe and listen everywhere you get your podcasts, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Pocket Casts!

Bonus content!

Check out these scenes filmed on or near transit and let us know in the comments if you can spot where it was!

• 21 Jump Street (1989)
• Always Be My Maybe (2019)
• Blade Trinity (2004)
• Defying Gravity (2009)
• Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan (1989)
• Needle in a Timestack (2021)
• Paycheck (2003)
• Seat Ibiza (2006 car commercial)
• Skyscraper (2018)
• Smallville (2004)
• The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989)
• The Unforgivable (2021)

Transcript

HOST JAWN JANG: Hey, welcome to What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast. I’m your host, Jawn Jang. Here’s what we’re checking out on this episode.

[AUDIO EXCERPT FROM “THERE’S NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS” BY IRVING BERLIN PLAYS]: There’s no business, like show business, like no business I know.

JAWN: How does TransLink help Hollywood North? Let’s tap into What’s the T.

VOICEOVER 1: The next station is…

[INTRODUCTION MUSIC PLAYS]

VOICEOVER 2: Welcome to What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast.

JAWN: Vancouver has a lot of different nicknames. You can call us anything from Rain City, Van City, Rain Couver, or you can even just be really lazy with it and call us Van. Van is acceptable, but there is still some debate about whether or not it’s Vancouver versus Vancouver. Personally, I don’t really care, but I think we can all agree, you can never call us the ‘Couve.

[AUDIO MALE EXCLAMATION PLAYS]: Ohhhhh my God

JAWN: That is just disgusting. Now, another nickname you’ve probably heard before, and one that is rather well earned, is Hollywood North, because Vancouver is a very popular location for film studios to shoot in.

The industry is a major employer for people living here, and I’m not even talking about actors, for which there are plenty. There’s tons of people who work on the other side of the camera. From photography to set design, costume and wardrobe, hair and makeup, special and digital effects, location scouting, the list goes on and on. And by now, you’ve probably seen at least a couple TV shows or films that have featured Vancouver in some way, whether you realize it or not.

But one thing you probably did not know is that TransLink can often be an important partner for film productions across the region. And that’s because just like you, famous actors take the bus to get to work every single day. That’s the episode. Thanks for checking out What’s the T.

[AUDIO EXCERPT FROM CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM CREDITS PLAYS]

JAWN: OK, but seriously, when TV shows or films are shooting in and around Vancouver, TransLink is often leaned on for support because there’s actually a lot of different ways that we can help. We can give them permission to film on our property, things like SkyTrain stations or bus loops, or we can work out a deal if they want to use one of our transit vehicles, and why not? They’re all so beautiful.

Now, because we happen to own less obvious property around Metro Vancouver, we can also do some really creative things, like renting out parking lots to providing permission to film in an office space that we own. We can help productions in more subtle ways, helping out with logistics that makes filming possible. If TransLink had our own IMDb page, you would be shocked by the number of credits that would be provided for us, and they range from smaller, more local productions to massive actual Hollywood films.

So, to help pull back the curtain and explain the work that we do, we are now joined by Fernando Arsuffi Vasquez from TransLink’s Commercial Programs and Partnerships team. He helps manage our relationship with the BC film industry. So, Fernando can help explain how does TransLink actually help build the Hollywood North reputation here in Vancouver?

FERNANDO ARSUFFI VASQUEZ: That’s a very good question, Jawn, because like we know about it, but we don’t see it until we work with the productions, until you see the size of the Hollywood North, like what it means for the community, what that means for the municipalities, what it means for BC in general, because it creates a lot of jobs. It’s a huge industry and TransLink is very proud to support this industry because we got like a very good, we’ve got a very good connection with them right now with the, with the Creative BC, with the Province and with the productions itself, the location managers, they know TransLink, they come to us whenever they need a property. It is a surplus property. It is like SkyTrain station or bus. Anything that we can provide to them.

JAWN: It’s not just the fact that we can rent out essentially like a SkyTrain station, make a little bit of money off that. And it’s not just that we can rent out a bus, make a little bit of money off that. But it’s also some out-of-the-box things too. Like if they need parking spaces, we happen to own Park and Rides throughout Metro Vancouver. So that might be useful for a production, right? If they need office space, we have an office in New Westminster that we can also use as part of like a deal if they need to film something, right? If I’m not mistaken, there was a film production that was filming in this building, not that long ago.

FERNANDO: There was like actually a film production last, last summer here in this building. And that’s important, Jawn. Like think about TransLink, think about all the properties that we own.

JAWN: Yeah.

FERNANDO: And assets which cannot be sitting there and just like leaving those properties like empty. We try to make money out of them. We try to bring in revenue. We try to serve the community out of that. So the office is a great example. We had a production, commercial TV, not TV, a commercial company coming to us and say, “Hey, Fernando, we need to use, we want to use like this building.” And they come here and they do like scouting and they love the building. So we shut down the 8th floor for them and one of the elevators and they were here for the whole day filming and that brought revenue to us, which like comes back to the operation. And that’s so exciting about the industry, it’s very, very dynamic, but we try to accommodate as much as possible to make sure that our properties is at their best use and their best use in the community and bringing revenue for the organization.

JAWN: Yeah. And I think that’s again, such a creative way for us to utilize the property that we have, utilize the space that we have. And for people that work in the building every single day, they probably wouldn’t have noticed any difference, right? Except for the one elevator.

FERNANDO: No, Yeah. I mean, like they gEt angry to me sometimes say, “Oh, what’s there only like 3 others elevators”, especially in the rush time. So don’t get me wrong.

JAWN: Fair enough.

FERNANDO: There’s a little bit of people like come and say, hey, where is the elevator? What is taking me so long? But it’s for a good cause. And they all understand. I think we all like get the sense in Metro Van that whenever you have like a film production, you get like a little bit of traffic. I feel like sidewalks close. Same here in the building, same as we have like some productions here. We got an elevator closed, maybe 2, maybe like a whole floor, but it works out really well.

JAWN: I’m willing to bet that many workplaces around, not just Metro Vancouver but around the world, there is always that like frustration. It’s like, why is the elevator taking so long? It’s not just you. We deal with that as well. I’m curious then, when it comes to all of the film projects that we’ve helped out in the past number of years, I don’t know. How long, like how long has TransLink been doing this? Like ever since we began?

FERNANDO: As my knowledge for at least, at least seven years, we’re doing these right now. I don’t know like before that cause my knowledge goes to seven years.

JAWN: Fair enough.

FERNANDO: I have joined the company three years and half ago, but I know that we have records from like 7 years.

JAWN: Yeah.

FERNANDO: But that’s a good information. I’m going to try. But I mean, it is a growing business. It is like growing every single year.

JAWN: Yeah. OK. Because I was going to say, you know, after all this time and all these years, there’s probably a specific SkyTrain station or maybe a specific vehicle type that production companies want to use again and again and again. So, like, could you let us know? What’s the most popular request for people to want to film when it comes to using our property?

FERNANDO: It’s such a great variety of productions we have here, Jawn, because I don’t have like, it’s not a single answer. Again, we have a lot of agreements for parking, for SkyTrain, for buses. I would say, for the office. I would say the most request that we get that we like receive questions about are definitely SkyTrain stations.

JAWN: OK.

FERNANDO: SkyTrain stations and SkyTrain. The use of the cars itself are the most popular. But towards the years, like, parking spaces have become such a, such a unique asset for all the municipalities that it’s also like a great, great way to make, make the productions like happen at a certain area. So, it’s not only us, like we, when we rent our location, we rent a surplus property, its also the locations around it that get the benefits for us. So, I would say SkyTrain stations are most popular.

JAWN: OK.

FERNANDO: From the number of scouting we do of those locations, I’ll name them for you. Stadium—Chinatown, King George and VCC—Clark are the most popular ones.

JAWN: Really?

FERNANDO: Yes.

JAWN: OK, Stadium—Chinatown doesn’t surprise me just because of like, its unique location layout. It’s very downtown Vancouver, right? Like, you got a great shot of the stadium across BC Place, Rogers Arena, I get that. The other two are kind of surprising though, like VCC—Clark is kind of hidden, right?

FERNANDO: It is, but I’ll tell you why, because sometimes the productions, most of the times if they’re using a SkyTrain, they need a little bit of rail to move the train towards like the line. So, if they come to me and they say, “OK, where can I film this SkyTrain station at?” this is like, well, now before the expansion for sure. And King George as well. So, they have that buffer. They have the extension of the rail that is not impacting like any of the system. But they can like move the train forward and back as many times as they can.

JAWN: Yeah. So, what you’re describing is like a terminus station.

FERNANDO: Exactly.

JAWN: At the end of the line, in any given direction, there’s always a little bit of redundancy so that we can turn the train around.

FERNANDO: Exactly. Exactly.

JAWN: So that makes a lot of sense. And to your point about the extension, of course, Broadway Subway, it’s going to be opening soon, extending out, which means that VCC—Clark  will no longer be the terminus station.

FERNANDO: That’s true.

JAWN: So maybe you’re going to get new requests for all those new locations.

FERNANDO: Yeah, fingers crossed for sure. Like, that’s what we want. We want more requests, accommodating more requests.

JAWN: For sure. I’m curious then, because when you got film productions working at a SkyTrain station, keep in mind too, we have customers.

FERNANDO: Exactly.

JAWN: We have people that need to use those stations to get to school, get to work, get to an appointment, or maybe they’re just trying to get home. How do we balance the needs of a studio needing to use a SkyTrain station to film an important movie versus the needs of all of our customers who, of course, depend on us to make sure they can get to where they need to go?

FERNANDO: It’s a simple answer. Customers come first. So, the customers, our priority is to move people across the region. So, there’s no filming request that we will stop us and produce any delays for our customers. for sure not. So, what we try to do is to accommodate, we try to jiggle the productions requests with our assets and the times we can. So, between, I would say we call like “revenue hours” within the peak times, there’s no productions on the SkyTrain station, except if they want to use probably Stadium—Chinatown, or VCC—Clark or King George, that we can try to accommodate depending on the hours they need.

JAWN: OK.

FERNANDO: Everything else, Jawn, is made through this film is recorded in non-revenue hours. And every single, every single request is very detailed, is very different from each other. So, we had like a production at Granville Station, and they needed to use the big escalators at Granville Station, close to the Seymour St. entrance. And they needed that for 9:00 PM and the stations, we all know, close at 1:30 AM. So, we try to take a look at the request and say, OK, what can we do in this request? It’s a big film, it’s a Hollywood production, big actors, the main actor, may or may not be in in the Top Gun 2, so Maverick. So, I cannot disclose many details on that. So, it’s like big actors over there. And then we take a look at the station. We talk to BCRTC, the train company, and then we figure out, OK, can we close apart a portion of the station without interrupting, of course, the flow of the train because they didn’t need the train itself.

So, we try to accommodate, but not in revenue hours, when we want the least impact for our customers. And this case specifically was a very good scenario because there’s like multiple entrances at Granville Station, right? So, we were able to close one of the station entrances that takes to the Hudsons Bay. Productions were able to bring down the equipment and make the prep until 1:30.

Once the train stopped running and they actually start rolling. But that prep, that prep time that they need, we were able to accommodate. So, it depends on the IT depends on the request. We try to accommodate, but sometimes like, oh, if you come to me and say, “Hey, Fernando, I need Burrard Station at, let’s say, 8:00 AM”, I’m going to say,” Jawn, we cannot do that for you”

JAWN: Fair enough.

FERNANDO: Very much, like we cannot stop a whole station for production. But if you’re willing to work after hours, if you’re willing to work a little bit later, then I’ll accommodate. But the good thing is we’re dealing with an industry that knows about it. So, they know how they work. They work with the municipalities, they work with other agencies. So, they come to us and they already have an idea, say, “Oh, Fernando, no, no, this is going to be late. It’s going to be like during nighttime after your peak hours.” So they’re very aware of that.

JAWN: I see. OK. Yeah. And I think that makes a lot of sense. Burrard Station, by the way, is my, close to home for me. So, if you ever shut down Burrard Station because you need to film during morning rush hour, I’ll be the first person that’ll angriliy give you a call!

FERNANDO: No, it’s never gonna happen. It’s not gonna happen.

JAWN: OK, thank you. Alright, But I’m curious, like you mentioned the long escalators at Granville Station. So sometimes it’s not even about like SkyTrain, sometimes it’s not even about buses or trains. It’s really about the property.

FERNANDO: It is.

JAWN: That escalator at Granville Station, you know, a fun fact, like it’s got quite a reputation amongst Western Canada, isn’t it the longest?

FERNANDO: It’s the longest. It’s the longest escalator in the Western Canada. And that’s the point, Jawn. That’s what we try to do with the commercial programs. We try to make sure that we have good relationships because this particular, this particular scene, it’s not supposed to be in a train, it’s not supposed to be in the station. They just needed an escalator. But instead of going for an escalator somewhere else or like a private company, they came to us because they know we can facilitate, they know we can turn around quickly. I would say sometimes, like, sometimes like very quickly, the agreements and everything that is like behind the scenes, because for us to get to an agreement, for us to say, “OK, you can use the station.” There’s a lot of people working behind the scenes.

JAWN: Sure. I’m really glad that we’re able to work with all the different studios to make our spaces available without, again, interrupting our customers.

FERNANDO: Exactly.

JAWN: That’s the biggest thing. Wondering then, Fernando, because based on what you’re telling me, it sounds like, it sounds like a lot of these productions are big Hollywood productions. But is that true? Like if you were to film a school film project or if you had a small budget working on like an indie film, can you still get involved and work with TransLink or do you need to have deep pockets in order for you to use our space?

FERNANDO: No, you can definitely come to us. Like, we try to accommodate, again, every single request. Sometimes it’s not possible. Sometimes the commercial programs are looking at their revenue. But if you are a student and you want to film with us, there is a designated team for the community outreach that can help you out with that request. And we’re going to support you, depending, of course, what you want.

JAWN: Was the project about Burrard Station at 8:00 AM? No.

FERNANDO: No, for sure not. But they’s really a designated team and community outreach that will help you if you need like a bus or if you need like a station or if you need something at the TransLink properties and you don’t have no budget for it or if you’re a student in a university, you need to deliver that. So send us an e-mail. And I made a note here, Jawn, that is very important. Like how does it start? Send us an e-mail to commercialprograms@TransLink.ca. Put in the subject line “filming request.” We’re going to take a look and we reply to you like in less than 24 hours or 48 hours at most. So we can start the conversation because that’s key in the industry as well. Like if we can accommodate, we must reply in, within like a certain period of time, like because production is very fast. So, they’re fast-paced. So, if they need a location, it must be like known that they have the location available for them. Otherwise, they’re just going to flip to another place. So that’s the speed that we want to work. But don’t worry if you have big pockets, no pockets at all. Come to us and we can see what we can do.

JAWN: In conversation with Fernando Vasquez talking about TransLink and our unique relationship with the BC film industry and how we work together to help build Hollywood North. We’ll be back with more
on What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast.

JAWN: Welcome back to What’s the T: the TransLink Podcast as we talk more about the unique role that TransLink plays in the BC film industry. One thing that I’ve always been curious about, and you’ve probably thought the same, is why Vancouver never plays Vancouver. And you know what I’m talking about? You might see a movie with BC Place in the background. Very clearly, it’s Vancouver, but you know that the film is trying to pass this off as Anywhere Town, USA. Or sometimes viewers are led to believe that iconic Stanley Park is some kind of fantasy location in Seattle, WA. Vancouver clearly doesn’t get the love that we actually deserve.

FERNANDO: No, we don’t know. We don’t, no. The answer is no for sure. Now, just an example. We just had like a huge production here in BC. Everybody knows. The Last of Us season 2 was being filmed in BC and we actually had like a very good business with them, but with the SkyTrains. And then they come to us and they request like a few SkyTrain cars for the production. And they, the first thing they told us, like, OK, we’re not gonna recognize the cars. They’re gonna paint. They’re gonna, like, do everything looking like a city in the US, and then we don’t have a say on that because they need the car, they need the production, they need the station. It will be good to say, hey, this is like, TransLink, this is like our station, but unfortunately, we cannot enforce that.

JAWN: Yeah, that’s fair. And of course, The Last of Us, it’s probably one of the biggest shows out right now.

FERNANDO: Oh, yes.

JAWN: It is kind of cool. Like, I obviously work at TransLink, so I’m very biased. But when we recognize TransLink property on a show of that magnitude, of that size, again, even if it’s only for like 5 or 10 seconds in the shot.

FERNANDO: Even sometimes, 2 seconds.

JAWN: Yeah!

FERNANDO: If you get the teaser, if you like, pay attention in the train scene and you pause it and you can say, OK, that there, I recognized that rail was like TransLink, but it’s like it’s fast.

JAWN: There’s that meme of Leonardo Di Caprio from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood where his character goes, “Hey!”

FERNANDO: Exactly, exactly. That’s what we have to do whenever we see that.

JAWN: See, that’ll be kind of neat. So, if you are a fan of The Last of Us, and I’m sure many people are, the next time when you’re getting a chance to watch Season 2, keep your eyes open because you might recognize certain TransLink properties as you’re watching through the episodes. And again, as Fernando mentioned, it’s also in the trailer. How often are we the ones pitching our property to a studio versus them coming to us and asking?

FERNANDO: It’s a two-way role, I would say. There are a lot of meetings. There was a lot of events that Creative BC and the Province of British Columbia they offer for the film industry and TransLink attends all of them. I attended every single meeting last year and the year before and this year as well. So, we are known. So, we again, it’s all relationships. It’s all about that we’re open for business, Jawn, like TransLink is open for business and we’re getting the recognition back. So, we were cited a few times by the municipalities. We worked very closely with the city of Maple Ridge for big, big movie that they were filming in Maple Ridge, but they needed a scene at the Golden Ears Way and TransLink owns not only, not only buses and trains and SkyTrains but a few bridges as all the operation of your bridges. So, they came to us and in one of the meetings, a few location managers, because they’re the first point of contact, came to me and say, “Hey, Fernando, you know, the job that you were having at that production?” I said “Yes.” She said, “I turned that down because I didn’t think we were going to be able to do that scene.” So, and then the president of the Creative BC they come to me and they thank me personally for like the job that TransLink is doing. And again, it’s not only me, it’s not only my team. It was the engineering team, was the bridge operation teams. The point is a lot of people working behind the scenes so we could actually facilitate so they could have the Golden Ears Way to film, to film the scene. And it was not easy. It required like a dry run in the first day they had a helicopter flying over to see how the traffic would behave. So again, the least impact for customers, no matter if you’re taking a train, no matter if you’re taking a bus, no matter if you’re like crossing a bridge, that’s our role, like facilitating, bringing revenue, making sure the few ministry is supported and of course, not making sure we’re not on your way back and forth, like wherever you need to go.

JAWN: Fair enough. So much to to learn,

FERNANDO: So much, yes.

JAWN: About how TransLink is, again, more than just the, the, the way you get home, but maybe the way you perceive your feelings on the Lower Mainland, if it’s through TV, through films, through music videos, there’s so many different ways that TransLink kind of gets its tentacles in people’s lives. And I think that’s really, really special. Is there anything else that maybe folks need to know when it comes to how we work with film and studios in and around the Lower Mainland?

FERNANDO: Yes, I think it’s actually like a very good point, Jawn. Its’ not only about that, it’s also about like when you say about building community. What is building community? With TransLink, of course, like transportation. But in the filming industry, when we had the biggest strike for the actors strike, it impacted a lot of workers directly workers in BC and we suddenly had like more commercials coming, more companies that wanted to do commercials in our, in our properties and for more. That is like, sometimes like it’s complicated because we have like people in the stations, like shutting down our stations is complicated. We notice that when we turn down, when we cannot accommodate, people suffer, all of that too. So, there was like a specific project that come to us like a commercial and they came to us and we were able to accommodate at VCC—Clark Station and people were coming to me and saying thank you for letting us film in here. Of course, there was a fee, there was the revenue, everything involved. But like that group of people, like 30, 35 people working that day, they were working that day at that station because we said yes, because we pursued the business, because we cared about them as well, because they were in crisis. And we were able to provide them a location with the support for them to have like the production there and then jobs and businesses and people. And then of course, that’s building community. You know what, it’s building community when we shut down, like when, if let’s say we cannot work in a station or we cannot work with some productions, there was times that we were not selected. We were willing to, but we were not selected as the location. The production took the location to Tokyo so that that’s how much it impacts sometimes, like that’s sometimes that we need to have the bigger vision.

JAWN: That’s right.

FERNANDO: And say, OK, OK, what can we make? How can we make this? How can we facilitate this?

JAWN: Right.

FERNANDO: How can we be more efficient on this request? And that’s a big portion of that.

JAWN: From escaping the apocalypse by taking the SkyTrain and a show like The Last of Us, to helping Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson save the world outside of Stadium—Chinatown Station, or using any of our wide list of properties to help deliver movie magic, it’s pretty clear that TransLink has a very special role to play in the BC film industry and how we do our part to help build the Hollywood North reputation that Vancouver has earned. From a business perspective, it’s another way for our organization to think outside the box and generate some revenue by being flexible with our space and understanding new and creative ways to make a little bit of money without interrupting your daily commute. And although nobody has actually ever thanked TransLink while accepting an Academy Award, for us it’s simply seeing our transit vehicles or our property making those fun little cameo appearances that we enjoy the most. So, my thanks to Fernando Arsuffi Vasquez and our entire Commercial Programs and Partnerships team. They do really great work behind the scenes. None of this would be possible without them. My thanks go to producer Allen and producer Sydney. Honestly, both of them deserve an Academy Award for dealing with me every single day. And of course, my thanks to you for listening and subscribing.

I’ve been your host, Jawn Jang, and until next time, have a safe trip.