Why Coastal if you don't like the Beach?

[Ripple in Space]

Why are they filming Universe also in Vancouver if tptb have been saying for years that it keeps getting costlier and more difficult to shoot there?

They RARELY use an actual beach as a location, I think it has been YEARS actually. So why an expensive coastal city like Vancouver? They like to shoot in the forest and/or desert, so don't they have plenty of cheaper options?

[jenks]

It's not as simple as just packing up and moving to a random town, LA and Vancouver have everything they need, and while Vancouver might be getting more expensive, it's still not as expensive as LA.

[ShadowMaat]

There's more to making a show than just the scenery. Vancouver has everything they need AND good generic locations for filming. Randomville, USA wouldn't be equipped to handle an extensive production like that so any money saved by changing locations would be spent on importing/transporting what they need that Randomville doesn't have.

Cost is relative. The price of filming in Vancouver may be on the rise, but I imagine it's still cheaper (and easier) than picking up everything and moving.

I've come to love that Generic Forest, BTW. It's getting so I can tell when something was filmed in Vancouver just by looking at the trees.

However, more coastal scenes WOULD be nice. I'm a beach born girl, myself. I'd like to see a bit of home on the far distant planet of BC.

[Dark lord me]

Here in Vancouver we have every kind of environment nearby. We have sand dunes (desert) mountains and snow, forests, beach's everything you would need for a TV show. Also Vancouver is the `Hollywood Canada`

[Infinatus]

Here in Vancouver we have every kind of environment nearby. We have sand dunes (desert) mountains and snow, forests, beach's everything you would need for a TV show. Also Vancouver is the `Hollywood Canada`

I wonder why almost every planet in Stargate is still the same generic forest, then.

[Bobby]

I wonder why almost every planet in Stargate is still the same generic forest, then.

cheaper and easier

[Daedalus-304]

They RARELY use an actual beach as a location, I think it has been YEARS actually. So why an expensive coastal city like Vancouver? They like to shoot in the forest and/or desert, so don't they have plenty of cheaper options?

I don't know if Vancouver has the exact same kind of beaches as Washington, but I think Northwest beaches would be a pain to film at. The weather would be really hard to plan for, it could be warm and sunny one day, and very cold and rainy the next.

Actually the beach at the end of the last episode of Battlestar Galactica, foggy, cold, and very wet; looks like the beach every time I go (and I only go in July and August).

[quade_1]

in the summertime the beaches in vancouver are very nice, hot and sunny. There is just no white sand beaches like near the equator, that is from the decay of coral reefs that wash ashore. since we have no coral, he have no sandy beaches. although the cost of shooting in vancouver is on the rise, it is still cheaper, considering they would have to move the entire cast & crew....or hire a new crew after they moved and suffer the same fate as the x-files.

the generic forest was actually mentioned in an interview, i think with brad wright. it was explained that for a planet to be hospitable, it must have trees. they produce the oxygen you breath and without them there would be no life.

[ciannwn]

i think with brad wright. it was explained that for a planet to be hospitable, it must have trees. they produce the oxygen you breath and without them there would be no life.

Oxygen is produced through photosynthesis. Algae and some bacteria do it so there is no reason for a planet to have trees which look like the ones on Earth for a planet to have oxygen.

[ShadowMaat]

Much as I love the Generic Forest the "planets need trees to create oxygen/be habitable" answer only goes so far. Even ignoring the fact that there are other ways to get an oxygen-rich sustainable atmosphere there's the fact that there are thousands of different types of trees on this world alone and yet the SG teams seem to keep running into only one or two types.

[quade_1]

This is from Joe Mallozzi's blog when he interviewed writter Carl Binder:

Fred writes: “When writing “Tracker” (fantastic episode, by the way), how did you differentiate between all the various forest locations in the script?”

Thanks, Fred. To be honest, we don’t have a huge selection of available forests up here in which to shoot (and getting smaller), so there isn’t a whole lot of differentiation other than specific places within the forests (i.e. the stump McKay hides behind, or the clearing where the Stargate is located). For the cliff scene, we had to travel further out. And that cliff needed some help from VFX to make it higher.

There isn't much forest to film in, unless you drive 2-3 hours outside Vancouver. But that would get expensive considering the amount of outdoor filming they do. I agree there is other explanations, algae being one, or even if the stargate is placed elsewhere on the planet like near the equator. But let's face it, the action scenes won't last long when two guys shoot at each other while standing in the open with nothing to hide behind in a desert.

[ShadowMaat]

*sigh* It's getting so a person can't even have FUN with a topic any more without being lectured on the obvious limits of reality.

And the desert seemed to work pretty well for the original Stargate movie. Several war movies as well, I'm sure.

[quade_1]

*sigh* It's getting so a person can't even have FUN with a topic any more without being lectured on the obvious limits of reality.

And the desert seemed to work pretty well for the original Stargate movie. Several war movies as well, I'm sure.

I understand you were joking, i was just supplying the explanation. And besides those trees are as much a part of Stargate as the gate itself

[rarocks24]

Much as I love the Generic Forest the "planets need trees to create oxygen/be habitable" answer only goes so far. Even ignoring the fact that there are other ways to get an oxygen-rich sustainable atmosphere there's the fact that there are thousands of different types of trees on this world alone and yet the SG teams seem to keep running into only one or two types.

I'd like an episode with palm trees.

Lots and lots of palm trees.

Everywhere.

And a coconut falls and hits Mckay on the head.

[prion]

Why are they filming Universe also in Vancouver if tptb have been saying for years that it keeps getting costlier and more difficult to shoot there?

They RARELY use an actual beach as a location, I think it has been YEARS actually. So why an expensive coastal city like Vancouver? They like to shoot in the forest and/or desert, so don't they have plenty of cheaper options?

Vancouver is a huge city, and there's probably not a beach they can film on that doesn' t have a house stuck on it.

When SG1/SGA began filming, the Canuck dollar was worth a lot more. of course, today, the US dollar is going down the toilet so it may be worth more again

[Stormtrooper]

And besides those trees are as much a part of Stargate as the gate itself

Nonsense.

[ciannwn]

there's the fact that there are thousands of different types of trees on this world alone and yet the SG teams seem to keep running into only one or two types.

They can get away with it on SG1 and SGA by saying that these worlds were terraformed. They can just about get away with all the planets we see with vegetation just happening to have the Stargates placed in the climate zone for Canadian type forest. Maybe the Ancients liked that kind of climate. Unless the Ancients were supposed to have seeded these other universes, though, it's going to be difficult to believe that so many worlds just happened to evolve Canadian type forests.