M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 2 0
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THE FUTURE OF ST. PAUL’S // NEXT-WAVE DOUGHNUTS // REAL ESTATE REBOUND
THE FILM ISSUE Inside the glitz, glamour and grit of Hollywood North
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SPONSORED REPORT
BUILDING THE
FUTURE BM Group of Companies is poised for growth with roots in family values By Robin Brunet
W
ith recent acquisitions in India and the U.S. and more to come in 2020 and beyond, BM Group of Companies continues to evolve and expand its portfolio of construction, project management, material supply and land development firms. But even though BM Group’s growth is impressive, considering its founder, Balraj Mann, started his career as an engineering consultant for hire in the 1980s, the family-run organization isn’t as much concerned with growth per se as it is with synchronicity. Balraj explains, “The more we acquire established companies in the construction realm, the more their services and acumen support our group as a whole. Today, with 12 active businesses and three more scheduled for this year, we bring to the table a comprehensive network and financial strength that benefits a wide range of clients.” Balraj’s son, Milan, puts it another way. “Our template is to buy smartly. By acquiring well-established businesses such as Polycrete Restorations Ltd., Urban Sawing & Scanning and many other companies, we have become a one-stop shop; and each of these companies in turn has new chances to grow as part of our alliance. Plus, in terms of management, we leave them
alone and let them do what they do best, and we can focus on growth.” It’s easy to imagine the degree of synergy at play in BM Group, given its scope of companies in three different categories. Polycrete, Contech Services Inc. and TEK Roofing Ltd. are some of the key firms shoring up structural restoration and waterproofing (a division that, among other projects, was responsible for the roof restoration of Vancouver’s Christ Church Cathedral and the restoration of Stanley Park’s seawall). In construction support, BM Group’s companies include Dallas Watt Demo Ltd., Urban Sawing & Scanning and YardAt-A-Time Concrete Ltd. Its real estate development wing consists of BMG Real Estate, Manorlane Homes Inc. and Penmat Contracting and Project Management Ltd. Each of these businesses has over the decades earned distinction in their areas of expertise. For example, Urban Sawing & Scanning provides concrete cutting and structural scanning. Yard At A Time supplies conventional ready mix concrete and pumping services and has a division that specializes in small orders and custom designed mixes for specialty projects. And, since 1990, TEK has installed over a million square feet of roofing
BM Group founder Balraj Mann far right and his son Milan.
with industry-leading products such as Siplast, as well as custom metal installations with copper and Rheinzinc. Keeping true to the spirit of smart buying and synchronicity, BM Group last September acquired a subsidiary of Insituform, IPRPL, in India. “For many years this firm was our supplier for seismic strengthening materials, and it also has a patented technology that rehabilitates and repairs sewer, water and other underground pipes
without them needing to be dug up,” Balraj says. “This is an incredibly important and proven technology that we intend to use right here in Canada, where aging infrastructure is a serious and growing problem.” In a similar vein, BM Group recently acquired Contech Services Inc., a Seattle-based specialty repair contractor involved with polymers, advanced cement products and application techniques for the repair, strengthening and protection of structures.
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Created by Vancouver magazine in partnership with BM GROUP OF COMPANIES
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“The more we acquire established companies in the construction realm, the more their services and acumen support our group as a whole.”
As for this year’s impending acquisitions, Balraj says only that, “They will enhance our materials supply and specialty contracting abilities.” Balraj reveals the underlying values of BM Group when he sheds further light on his acquisition strategy. “In so many cases, including IPRPL and Contech, we are given the opportunity to buy the business. Sometimes it’s because the founders are looking to retire and want to pass on the operations to someone they
trust. They turn to us because of the long-lasting relationships we developed with them—and relationship building more than anything is at the heart of all of our business dealings.” Relationship building also includes being heavily involved in causes such as Langley Memorial Foundation and supporting the BC Children’s Hospital, the Ride to Conquer Cancer and Make a Wish Foundation. Even though BM Group will eventually change inasmuch as Milan, 24 years old, will
gradually take over control when Balraj decides the time is right, giving clients the best service and building a future with them will remain the key objectives. And as such, BM Group’s future is exciting. “Contech has licenses for seven U.S. states, including Hawaii and Alaska, so we’re definitely going to focus more on prospects including real estate development south of the border,” says Milan. “As for India, it’s a huge and promising market, and we’ve gotten offers to grow our presence there.
Although we’re not ready to make that big a leap yet, it’s definitely on our radar.” Milan concludes, “I’m humbled that my dad trusts me to take over the business, but I’m also glad he is still very much guiding BM Group to new successes. So, for the time being we’ll continue on our growth path and capitalize on the synergy our different companies gives us.” Learn more about BM Group of Companies at bmgroupinternational.com
Photo: Paarull Communications Ltd.
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Go where no other sedan dares in the all-new 2020 Subaru Legacy. Symmetrical Full-Time All-Wheel Drive comes standard for dynamic handling in all weather and road conditions. Together with a class-leading interior, advanced tech and available 2.4L Turbocharged SUBARU BOXER® engine, find what you’d expect in an SUV in one surprisingly capable sedan. THE SUV OF SEDANS.
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*MSRP of $26,395 on the 2020 Legacy 2.5L 4-cyl DI Convenience Pkg CVT (LA2 CP). MSRP excludes Freight & PDI of $1,650. Taxes, license, registration and insurance are extra. Model shown is the 2020 Legacy 2.4L 4-cyl DI Turbo Premier GT CVT (LA2 PG) with an MSRP of $39,095. Dealers may sell for less or may have to order or trade. Prices may vary in Quebec. EyeSight® is a driver-assist system which may not operate optimally under all driving conditions. The driver is always responsible for safe and attentive driving. System effectiveness depends on many factors such as vehicle maintenance, and weather and road conditions. Vehicle shown solely for purposes of illustration, and may not be equipped exactly as shown. See Owner’s Manual for complete details on system operation and limitations. Some features described or shown may not be standard features or equipment. Ratings are awarded by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Please visit www.iihs.org for testing methods. SUBARU STARLINK® Connected Services are offered on an initial three-year free subscription on select Legacy trim levels. Customers are required to enrol in the SUBARU STARLINK® Connected Services program. To operate as intended, SUBARU STARLINK® Connected Services require a sufficiently strong cellular network signal and connection. See your local Subaru dealer for complete details. Legacy, Subaru and SUBARU STARLINK® are registered trademarks.
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COVER ILLUSTRATION: MAI LY DEGNAN; FILM: ALYSSA HIROSE; CIT Y INFORMER: BYRON EGGENSCHWILER; T YLER QUARLES AND MIKE CERK A: K YOKO FIERRO; WHITE NOISE: MELODY CHARLIE; OCA PASTIFICIO: LEIL A K WOK; STAR POWER: K AT Y LEMAY
Raised by SUVs.
14 8:22 AM
COVER ILLUSTRATION: MAI LY DEGNAN; FILM: ALYSSA HIROSE; CIT Y INFORMER: BYRON EGGENSCHWILER; T YLER QUARLES AND MIKE CERK A: K YOKO FIERRO; WHITE NOISE: MELODY CHARLIE; OCA PASTIFICIO: LEIL A K WOK; STAR POWER: K AT Y LEMAY
*
VA N M AG .C O M
M A R C H/A P R I L 2 0 2 0 // VO LU M E 5 3 // N U M B E R 2
FE ATURE
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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood North Film is the third-largest industry in the province; we’re turning our spotlight on the behind-the-scenes dramas of the city’s movie machine.
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After St. Paul’s What will the West End be without the iconic hospital? Writer Matt O’Grady looks towards the neighbourhood’s evolution.
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City
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Culture
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15 At Issue Brace yourselves: the real estate market might just be bouncing back.
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18 City Informer Why are some downtown sidewalks paved in glass?
55 On the Rise 60 Reviews Two childhood friends Twirling our forks at the team up to craft a new Oca Pastificio. collection of cozy coats. 64 The Dish 56 Hot Take It’s official: the humble Classic fashion jelly doughnut is essentials get an having a moment. on-trend twist. 66 Star Power 58 The Ticket Your horoscopes (and Must-see theatre, film recos) for a starmusic and comedy to studded spring. check out this month.
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20 Gig Economy Meet the woman who feeds Cirque’s highestflying acrobats.
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Publisher Samantha Legge Editorial Director Anicka Quin Creative Director Catherine Mullaly Executive Editor Stacey McLachlan Food Editor Neal McLennan Associate Art Director Jenny Reed Associate Editor Nathan Caddell Assistant Editor Alyssa Hirose Contributing Editors Frances Bula, Amanda Ross Editorial Intern Elia Essen Editorial Email mail@vanmag.com
Director of Sales Brianne Harper Senior Account Executives Johnny Alviar, Matty Lambert, Anna Lee, Sandy Short, Sheri Stubel Digital Ad/Marketing Coordinator Alexandra Day Senior Production Manager Kristina Borys Production Coordination/Design Nadine Gieseler Sales Email sales@canadawide.com National Media Sales Jennifer Smith Tel 604-377-7922 Email jsmith@canadawide.com U.S. Sales Representation, Hayes Media Sales Lesley Hayes, 602-432-4868 Email lesley@hayesmediasales.com European Sales Representation S&R Media Sylvie Durlach, Tel +33 1 44 18 06 62 Email srmedia@club-internet.fr C
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Suite 230, 4321 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6S7 Tel 604-299-7311 Fax 604-299-9188
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Chairman and CEO Peter Legge, OBC, LLD (HON) President Samantha Legge, MBA VP of HR/Admin Joy Ginete-Cockle VP of Finance Sonia Roxburgh, CPA, CGA VP of Innovation and Growth Jennifer Smith, CIMBS Executive Creative Director Rick Thibert Director of Editorial Michael McCullough Director of Circulation Tracy McRitchie Head of Brand Partnerships Johnny Alviar, MCE, SCE Marketing Lead Chris Hinton Accounting Terri Mason, Eileen Gajowski Circulation Katie Gajowski, Kelly Kalirai Office Manager/Sales Coordinator Lori North Executive Assistant to the CEO Charie Ginete-Ilon
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VANCOUVER MAGAZINE is published six times a year by Canada Wide Media Limited, Suite 230, 4321 Still Creek Drive, Burnaby, B.C. V5C 6S7. Phone 604-2997311; fax 604-299-9188. Copyright 2020. All rights reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced without the publisher’s written permission. Not responsible for unsolicited editorial material. Privacy Policy: On occasion, we make our subscriber list available to carefully screened organizations whose product or service might interest you. If you prefer that we not share your name and address (postal and/ or email), you can easily remove your name from our mailing lists by reaching us at any of the listed contact points. You can review our complete Privacy Policy at Vanmag.com. Indexed in the Canadian Magazine Index by Micromedia Ltd. and also in the Canadian Periodical Index. International standard serial no. ISSN 0380-9552. Canadian publications mail product sales agreement #40068973. Printed in Canada by Transcontinental Printing G.P. (LGM Graphics), 737 Moray St., Winnipeg, Man. R3J 3S9. All reproduction requests must be made to: COPIBEC (paper reproductions) 800-717-2022, or CEDROM-SNi (electronic reproductions) 800-563-5665. Distributed by Coast to Coast Ltd.
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START YOUR DAY WITH BC INGREDIENTS
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ED NOTE
I may not be a television star, but my apartment is. I live in one of those West End buildings that’s a century old—read: built in an era when suites still had some decent square footage—and the roomy heritage spaces draw the occasional production crew, who crowd in for a few days to transform one of my neighbours’ homes into some character’s fictional homestead. I’ve spotted my building in one of Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s early flicks; Aaron Paul searched for his missing girlfriend here when the Come and Find Me crew took over our first floor; and, loudest of them all, iZombie surrounded our entire building with enough generators to vibrate my very sturdy old walls, four flights up. Each production slides a small “sorry to be a pain” gift under our doors— from a $20 JJ Bean gift certificate (one unknown indie film) to a $100 Save-On grocery card for that zombie nightmare. Not exactly a gold mine as a side hustle. But the rewards are much higher for the 40,000 or so who are employed by the film biz in this city. In my building alone, I know of four different people who work in the film industry—a makeup artist, an actor, a key grip, a set decorator—roles that are integral to this once-again booming sector. (The degree of that boom is apparent on our very streets: any commuter will tell you just how much Amazon, Netflix and other production companies love to divert traffic for their perfectly moody shots.) So, we’re doing a deep dive into what makes Hollywood North tick. From a play-by-play of how the Hallmark machine is churning out another dozen holiday romances to the activists working to green up movie sets to miniprofiles of the Vancouverites who are making a go of it in the industry, our Film Issue sets out to explore just how it all works. You may spot a neighbour or two of your own in the following pages—or you might relate to the racket of a generator outside of your own condo building (though, with that aforementioned green push, more and more of those generators are going electric, to many residents’ relief). And, if nothing else, I hope this issue gives you a little feeling of insider familiarity the next time you see those trademark Britco trailers lined up outside a faux emergency roomslash-condo foyer on your commute home.
Coming Up Next Issue The Restaurant Awards It’s the most celebrated issue of the year! Get your reservations lined up: we’re going to be celebrating the best restaurants in the city, including those most-coveted awards: Restaurant of the Year and Chef of the Year.
It Ain’t Easy In the past 20 years, the average price of an entree has barely moved—but all the costs associated with it have skyrockted, from leasing rates to staff wages. How does a restaurant survive in 2020? Food editor Neal McLennan talks to those that make a go of it—and those who tried, but couldn’t.
On the Web Line Up Your Week Culture pro Alyssa Hirose is the event-whisperer: from the best comedy nights in the city to an obscure “sleep fest,” expect to discover the undiscovered in Vancouver with her tips.
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Anicka Quin editorial director
anick a . quin @vanmag . com
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PORTRAIT: EVA AN KHERA J; ST YLING BY LUISA RINO, MAKEUP BY MEL ANIE NEUFELD; CLOTHING COURTESY HOLT RENFREW, HOLTRENFREW.COM
Ready, Set, Action!
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PORTRAIT: EVA AN KHERA J; ST YLING BY LUISA RINO, MAKEUP BY MEL ANIE NEUFELD; CLOTHING COURTESY HOLT RENFREW, HOLTRENFREW.COM
JENNY REED
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VA N M AG .C O M/C I T Y
R E C OV E R Y M O D E / C I R Q U E I S L I F E / C I T Y O F G L A S S
City G
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It’s Back
The Vancouver real estate market is stabilizing—but there are still definite winners and losers.
JENNY REED
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Jennifer Van Evra
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Like many long-time Vancouver renters, Dillon Duckworth assumed she could never afford to buy a home. The 39-year-old auto mechanic had always wanted to buy a place with her partner, Gabriela, but for years the pair watched as prices skyrocketed faster than they could save. “I was working, and I was saving quite a bit of money,” she says, “but the goal would get further and further away.” Then things began to shift. New taxes on empty homes cooled the market, while more rigorous mortgage stress tests prevented consumers from getting too deep into debt. Prices softened, open houses were no longer packed like nightclubs and properties sold in weeks and months rather than days, or even hours. But last fall something else started happening: buyers like Duckworth saw opportunity in the dip and stepped in—and while some areas of the market are still deep in the doldrums, in other areas, shoes are once again piling up outside the door during open houses. “In two weeks, our realtor sold something like 14 units. She said, ‘It’s been so slow and then, bam, all of a sudden it just picked up,’” says Duckworth, who found herself in a couple of multiple-offer situations before landing a
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City AT I S S U E It’s been so slow and then, bam, all of a sudden it just picked up, I think people like us are coming out of the woodwork.”— di l l on duc k wort h one-bedroom and den in Kitsilano. “I think people like us are coming out of the woodwork.” Recent numbers seem to confirm what buyers like Duckworth have been experiencing. The overall picture of the Vancouver real estate market in 2019 was bleak—at least for owners looking to sell or those anxiously eyeing their equity. According to the Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV), sales were up slightly over the previous year, but still 20 percent below the region’s 10-year average; the benchmark price fell an additional 3.1 percent; and the number of listings continued to drop, down 7.6 percent below the 10-year average. But by the end of the year, the numbers were telling a decidedly different story. In December, sales were a full 9.5 percent above the 10-year average; detached home sales were 72.1 percent higher than the previous December, and condo and townhouse sales were up nearly 100 percent year over year. (Those numbers are especially high because sales in December 2018 were especially low.) In the same month, the sales-to-active-listings ratio rose to 23.4 percent, which can be a sign of a sellers’ market. “What we’re seeing is a return to a much more typical market—and we haven’t seen a very typical market in some time,” says REBGV president Ashley Smith. “The listings ratio would suggest a sellers’ market, but it feels like a fairly comfortable market whether you’re a buyer or a seller.” Where the market is warming up the most, she says, is at the entry level, where lower-priced condos, townhouses and detached homes under $2 million are beginning to
move again. “It’s definitely younger people who are a key part of the market right now,” says Smith, pointing to Port Coquitlam as one of the areas that returned to overall price increases last fall, along with East Vancouver, Richmond and parts of Burnaby. Townhouses weathered the recent market storm with relatively minor dips, and saw noteworthy price increases in Ladner (5.1 percent over three months last fall), East Vancouver (4.4 percent), and Vancouver’s west side (3.3 percent), as well as Tsawwassen, New West and Maple Ridge (2.8, 2.5 and 2.1 percent, respectively). Squamish also made a significant leap, with townhouses in the mountain village jumping 7 percent in the past six months. In several areas, condos saw only a minor slide during the downturn, and now are moving back into the black. Leading the way are Port Coquitlam (3 percent price gain over three months), Ladner (2.9 percent), East Vancouver (2 percent), Coquitlam (1.9 percent) and Tsawwassen (1.8 percent). In white-hot Mount Pleasant, a condo at Main and 10th had 16 offers and went for $142,000 over the asking price. While the detached market was hardest hit by the recent downturn, homeowners in North Vancouver have seen a 3.4-percent boost over the past three months; PoCo saw the biggest three-month hike at 4.7 percent. In East Vancouver, prices went up 2.3 percent, and detached homes in Burnaby North and South rose 3.3 and 2.5 percent, respectively. Those feeling the biggest pinch, however, are high-end homeowners in West Vancouver, on the west side and in downtown luxury condos,
where some of the value drops have been in the millions—triggered in part by the trifecta: the empty homes tax, speculation tax and foreign buyers tax. “I think those ‘get rid of the outside money’ reforms were probably fairly effective—but their effect has been concentrated at the top,” says UBC Sauder School of Business associate professor Thomas Davidoff, who adds that the high-end market is showing little sign of recovery, and buyers are less willing to pay a premium for homes with more luxury perks. “First-time buyers and immigrants in more starter-type homes; that’s where demand remains strong.” And while west-side downsizers are likely kicking themselves for not selling before 2016, adds Davidoff, owners looking to upgrade are saving a bundle, because the spread between condos and more spacious duplexes and detached homes has shrunk considerably. “The best situation is somebody who owns a condo and wants to trade up to a house,” he says. “They’re the happiest.” Veteran Vancouver realtor Rod MacKay has also noticed the uptick in both interest and sales, but he says one possible wrench in the fledgling recovery is the assessment values released at the end of 2019, which saw condos and townhomes remain relatively stable in value, but many detached homes drop 15 percent or more. Because they represent a snapshot of property values as of July 1 last year, the assessments don’t take into account that fall recovery; as a result, both buyers and sellers are confused about what properties are worth, and that could inadvertently slow the market.
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In one instance he had a home that was assessed at nearly $3 million in 2019, and the sellers planned to put it on the market for $3.5 million. But the 2020 assessment valued the property at just $2.5 million—down more than 15 percent. “It’ll be interesting to see what comes on now, because I think sellers are going to be reluctant,” says MacKay, who adds that downsizers in particular will likely hold off, because their retirement nest eggs, at least on paper, have shrunk so significantly. At the same time, buyers who became accustomed to paying less than assessed value last year may have to adjust their expectations. “We haven’t really been in a situation quite like this where the market’s already corrected. I mean, if it was still going down it would be one thing. But it’s not— although it could now.” Duckworth, for one, is happy to be finished with the home search, and is looking forward to a summer of beach barbecues, bike rides and long walks with her partner and their dog, Cooper. She spent much of her adult life working to make home ownership happen, she says, and she has many friends who, like her, have been extremely stressed by the roller-coaster Vancouver market. “The market might dip, the market might go up, I might have a special assessment at the place. Who knows? But I am just so excited to be putting those feelings behind me, moving in and being like, ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe we own this place,’” says Duckworth. “It’s going to feel amazing.”
Your life, organized! Solutions for your home, office, and garage. arbutus.com • 604-734-1949
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CIT Y INFORMER
Why Are There Glass Blocks in Some Sidewalks Downtown? by
Stacey McLachlan Byron Eggenschwiler
illustration by
If there’s one thing you can count on in East Vancouver—besides the fact that the people of Commercial Drive do not understand the concept of crossing at a crosswalk— it is that the sidewalks will be made of opaque and solid materials. But over in topsy-turvy downtown, it’s a different story. You may have been strolling along the street, dazed and weak from being lost inside Topshop for three hours, and looked down—only to realize the surface beneath your feet (are those Heelys? Nice!) is not pavement, but glass. That’s right, glass: a material famous for its fragility and smashfullness. It’s a reminder from a time in history where the downtown core was occupied not just by finance bros and bachelorette parties
That’s right, glass: a material famous for its fragility and smashfullness. from Langley but also by shopkeeps, who, in a Vancouver tradition as old as time, were just trying to stick it to their landlords. At some point in the late 1800s, property owners in the area who were being taxed for the adjacent public sidewalks decided that was basically permission to claim the land below it. Because lava lamps had not
been invented yet (oh, how history would have been altered forever!), these savvy basement builders, forced to find an alternative source of ambient light for their new subterranean spaces, installed glass prisms in the sidewalks above. It was an interior design trick inspired by cargo ships of the 19th century, which used deck prisms
for illumination instead of fire (a notable fire hazard). Glass prisms were available in square (Prism Classic™) or round (Diet Prism™), but colour was less of a personal style choice: the manganese in the glass (which, obviously, is used as a clarifying and stabilizing agent; we all know that, duh, no one needed to consult patternglass.com),
18 VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 2 0
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reacted to the sun’s UV rays and turned the blocks purple over time. In the areaways beneath, you might’ve found a rowdy saloon (like at Hotel Europe), a cozy public bath house (like the Sam Kee building) or an enchanting coal storage facility. As time went on and glass awareness increased, the City came to realize that these prism sidewalks were not necessarily a stable enough surface for an emergency vehicle to drive upon. Ironically, it could crash through into the drinking, bathing or merry coal-shovelling crowds below and cause a situation where an ambulance was needed more than ever. So they began to repurpose the areaways for infrastructural purposes, or to ask property owners to fill in the areaways with gravel, concrete or sand. Sort of like an urban beach but less fun because we can’t go there and it ruined all the good times we were having with coal. Nineteen prism sidewalks still exist today—some beautifully underlit to provide a dynamic visual companion to the city’s urine-forward urban musk—but those tiny windows don’t look down onto anything with the exception of Bodega in Chinatown and Calabash Bistro in Gastown. These two buildings still have accessible areaways where revellers can admire maintenance pipes, naturally lit from above through purple glass, as God intended. Yes, these historic sidewalks may be a little different from the rest of the city, but if you don’t like it, you can kiss my glass. Got a question for City Informer? stacey.mclachlan@vanmag.com
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City G I G E C O N O M Y
Bread and Circuses
Claire Harbron, head chef for Cirque du Soleil’s Luzia, does a high-wire act of her own in her travelling kitchen. by
the clowns, contortionists, and acrobats at Cirque du Soleil thrill audiences nightly with their deathdefying stunts—but the big-top team is even bigger than it seems. Fuelling every trick and tumble is a travelling kitchen that serves the whole cast and crew, and sometimes dinner is a circus all its own. When Cirque’s Luzia came to Vancouver last winter, it was chef Claire Harbron who kept everyone fed. Cirque du Soleil travels with a small kitchen staff, and hires local caterers to help in each city it visits. Harbron’s circus career started in London when she subbed in for a friend’s catering business in 2013. “I didn’t even know it was Cirque at the time,” she says. Even then, Harbron was no stranger to the more glamorous side of the culinary world: her resumé included cooking at the Ritz, plus catering for the Olympics, the Royals and for Vogue. After her first night working for Cirque’s Quidam at the Royal Albert Hall, she was asked to come back the next week, and then for the next run…
Alyssa Hirose
TURN UP THE HEAT Harbron in her portable Cirque kitchen trailer.
I packed up my place in London and literally ran away with the circus.
in the south of France. “I packed up my place in London and literally ran away with the circus,” she says. For Harbron, joining the Cirque team was an easy decision—she may have been leaving one community at home in London, but she found another. “It feels like you’re feeding a big family,” she says. Luzia actually has several couples with small families who travel with them (you can have it all), so Harbron cooks up Sunday brunches for artists, crew and kids alike. The diet of an acrobat is different from the diet of a lighting technician, so her menus are largely focused on health and diversity. “We do lots of clean proteins with sauces and things on the side, so people can decide what they want,” she says. It’s a hidden role, but an integral one. Harbron puts it best: “Food can really make or break a day for a person.” When that person is about to hurl themself off of a Russian swing and somersault through the air, making their day is that much more important.
20 VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 2 0
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STORIES FROM THE SE T
THE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR WHO’S THERE UNTIL THE BITTER END
Whether you’re an acting ingénue, a big-time director or just an everyday Josephine whose morning route to J.J. Bean has been blocked by a catering truck, we’ve all been touched by the film industry in one way or another here in Vancouver. Thanks to tax credits and a robust network of Canadian production experts, B.C. is the third-largest film hub in North America, with an average of 400 productions annually. And while we may not boast the star power of L.A. or Toronto, we’ve settled quite comfortably into our reputation as the hardest working city in show biz. So in this issue we’re celebrating our city’s starring role as an Industry Town. Location scouts dish the dirt, upand-comers get their dues and the mysterious Hallmark Movie Machine gets blown wide open. We’re digging past celebrity gossip and going behind the screens into the glorious grit and 15-hour workdays that go into every car commercial and Marvel spin-off that shuts down our viaducts and pays our rents. Lights, camera, action.
THE FILM ISSUE
Once Upon a Time in
Holly wood North
The third assistant director typically works at the Circus (where all the cast trailers, hair, makeup and wardrobe departments are), and oversees what’s happening there. I receive cast at their call time, make sure they get into the hair and makeup trailer on time, get dressed and travel to set on time. If the cast have a hair or makeup or costume change I oversee those, and I know how long each department needs to complete their change. When the cast are done for the day I sign them out and send them home, or to a fitting, or to ADR, or a stunt rehearsal, or to a haircut. It’s a lot of scheduling and logistics, to say the least. I’m in a half an hour before the first cast member, so typically an hour and a half to two hours before crew call. If you’re working on a period piece where hair, makeup and wardrobe are much more involved, it might be earlier than that. I work an average of 15 hours a day. There’s a lot of caffeine involved. At the end of the day, I create the daily production report, which reflects what we accomplished as a production and everyone’s times. I wait for the crew to wrap out to get their paperwork so I can input that information, and then I head home and hit the hay. —AIMEE SCOTT, third assistant director
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Green Screens CAN ECO-CONSCIOUS PRODUCERS HARNESS THE INDUSTRY’S HEFT FOR GOOD? Stacey McLachlan
YOU CAN DESCRIBE RIVERDALE a lot of ways. Melodramatic. Sensationalistic. An upsettingly sexual portrait of Miss Grundy. But you can also call it a gas guzzler. It’s nothing personal toward Archie and the gang: film sets in general have a huge carbon footprint. An estimated 500 tonnes of CO2 are emitted on average over the course of a single production, and considering that hundreds of projects film in B.C. every year, it seems our $3.2 billion provincial industry is putting much more than just titillating teen dramas into the atmosphere. Emissions tend to add up on set, between the paper output required (daily scripts, call sheets and contracts) and the waste that comes along with providing three square meals on the go for hundreds of people. Then there’s the fuel consumption: generators, transportation, airfare. “We’re not an industry that has a profile of being out there polluting the atmosphere or cutting down a lot of trees, but if you look closer, we do use a lot of material and we are very temporary,” says veteran production manager Warren Carr, currently working on thriller series Brand New
Ready, Set, Green Little production changes add up to big climate impact for shows like The Magicians and Brand New Cherry Flavor (inset).
Cherry Flavor. “Imagine if someone built 200 houses in one part of town and two years later tore it all down.” But sprinkled across the city are voices calling for change from the ground up. There’s Creative BC’s Reel Green initiative, a resource guide. There’s green production consulting firm Green Spark Group, which runs the two-day Sustainable Production Forum each fall, with workshops on topics like carbon literacy. And there are the individuals trying to make a difference on set. About a year ago, production manager Robyn Wiener walked backstage on a Hallmark mystery set to see a sea of half-empty plastic water bottles, and decided she’d had enough. She put out a memo setting a new standard: “I said, ‘We’re a small show, but we have to try.’” Cast and crew were asked to bring their own bottles and mugs to cut down on single-use items. A no-idling policy was put in place, and hyper-specific recycling bins were brought onto set. At production meetings, 25 to
30 people sit around with scripts: since Wiener started asking her team to go digital with software called Scriptation, only a handful still use paper. “It was as simple as saying, ‘Please don’t print a 105-page script,’”she says. The kicker is this: being sustainable is a good business decision, not just for the warm fuzzies it brings your staff, but because doing the right thing saves money. “There’s a huge misconception that green costs more,” says Clara George, a producer on fantasy series The Magicians and a vocal sustainability activist. “It costs less.” One season, George rented equipment to upgrade the electric system instead of running generators: it paid for itself in a few months. Buying a dishwasher and a stack of melamine plates cost her $6,000, but reducing single-use
THE MAGICIANS: SYF Y; BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOUR: NETFLIX; CL ARA GEOR
by
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STATS: *INFO IS FOR TIER ONE IN A FEATURE FILM. SOURCE: DIRECTORS GUILD OF CANADA , 2018-2020, AND UBCP/ACTRA , 2018-2021
THE MAGICIANS: SYF Y; BRAND NEW CHERRY FLAVOUR: NETFLIX; CL ARA GEOR
catering garbage saved $8,000. Changing 10 bulbs in the studio to LED cut the power usage by thousands of kilowatts and saved the company $20,000. Reducing waste from set design has been a two-fold approach: building set-pieces with reuse in mind (like creating a standard dimensions for windows so elements can be swapped in), and using the Keep It Green Material Reuse program, where sets are saved for use by other productions, charities or film students. In 2019, 138 tonnes of materials were donated to Material Reuse: walls, doors, windows and even pianos. Funnily enough, what makes these transient productions so prone to waste is also what will help them make the change they need. “Every time we start up a new show, we bring in what we did before,” says George. “I’m only one person, but as a producer I can influence 500 people on a set each time, and see that influence spread from set to set.” With giant corporations that have multinational partners and 15-year business plans, it’s hard to move the needle. The film industry can move it instantly—provided they get the right combination of policy and staff buy-in. “We’re used to working on a deadline. If we wanted to make it snow today, we do it,” says George. “So it’s kind of our responsibility to look at what a clean Vancouver could be.”
That influence trickles into filmadjacent industries and suppliers. Roy’s Copier—a frequent supplier of scripts to the industry—now only offers 100 percent recycled-paper printing thanks to influence by Reel Green. This small change saves 85,000 trees a year. (“A small forest!” says George.) Reel Green also went to rental car companies to ask for hybrid cars to use on sets, and the one company that listened, Driving Force, had such a demand that it’s now rocking 100 hybrid cars in its fleet. One of the biggest wins for the green crusaders in film lately was securing clean electric infrastructure for film sets: goodbye, generators. “It’s crazy we were hauling around generators when we just aren’t allowed to use clean power,” says George. If each show can replace three fuel generators, over the course of 7,000 filming days that could save more than six million litres of fuel a year. City Hall passed a motion to reduce diesel generators in July; the average film set at the VAG started plugging into the power grid instead, and rapidly went from 45 generators to three. The industry isn’t perfect yet, but it’s reassuring to hear that change is happening —not that you would ever know it when you turn on the TV. “If you push your crew to compost,” says George, “that doesn’t change one line of dialogue, one shot.”
Rate Expectations From automotive sprayer to props buyer, there’s a position for everyone in the film business. But not all jobs are created equal, at least in terms of pay. Thinking of getting into the biz? Check out these hourly union rates first. By Elia Essen
FIRST AID
$30.42
SIGN PAINTER
$40.06
HAIR OR MAKEUP DEPARTMENT HEAD $37.12
SPECIAL EFFECTS COORDINATOR $41.03
DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY $99.06–
ASSISTANT COSTUME DESIGNER/ COORDINATOR $36.21
WILD ANIMAL TRAINER
DIRECTOR
STUNT PERFORMER
ACTOR
$43.17
$76,237– $143,484 (per film)
$110.07
$92.01
$61.92
SEAMSTER/ SEAMSTRESS
$30.42
VOCAL COACH
$137.48
STORIE S FROM THE SE T
THE SCOUT WITH HONOUR Some people, if they haven’t had any experience with the industry, get very excited when you approach them about using their home. Along with the glitz and glamour, it’s also a pretty good paycheque. These people are usually really easy to work with and enjoy the excitement of the whole process. On the other hand, some people yell at you as soon as they hear the words “location scout.” If convincing is required, I generally lead with compliments: people are proud of their homes! Flattery really does get you everywhere. Although half the time it’s for locations described as “downtown drug den,” which makes compliments awkward. At one home that was particularly rundown, I knocked on the door and gave the homeowner my classic line—“I think your home would be a great fit!”—and they immediately called me out, saying, “It’s because my house looks like a shithole, isn’t it?” —TESSA MACINTYRE, former locations scout
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Inside the Hallmark 1 Machine
THE LIFE CYCLE OF ONE MADE-FOR-TV CHRISTMAS ROM-COM
by
Alyssa Hirose and Stacey McLachlan
illustrations by
Alyssa Hirose
Even if you haven’t seen Christmas Wishes and Mistletoe Kisses, you’re probably more than familiar with the plot. A beautiful but jaded interior designer who doesn’t believe in Christmas decorates a mansion for a handsome businessman and the sparks—and holiday magic—start to fly. They are both very white. It may be predictable, but this Christmas romcom formula has made “Hallmark Movies” a cottage industry here in B.C. The Hallmark Channel filmed 173 made-for-TV movies in the province over the past three years alone—among them Sense, Sensibility and Snowmen—though the brand name has become a catch-all term for any (admittedly beloved) feel-good schlock filmed here. The Lifetime Network produced another 16 in 2019; Burnaby-based Lighthouse Pictures is in on the game too. Even Netflix is digging in: hands up if you watched The Knight Before Christmas with your mom over the holidays. We spoke with three key players in the industry—a development producer, an actor and a key grip, all of whom asked to remain anonymous—to understand just why so many of these cheeseball movies get made. The short answer? They make a ton of money. The typical pitch-to-delivery cycle for these lowbudget, high-volume Hallmark-style movies is less than three months. They operate on microbudgets— less than $1 million Canadian—which allows the productions to fly under the union radar and keep crew costs low, and tax credits take the edge off even that. “Worst-case scenario, they’re breaking even,” says a Vancouver producer we’ll call Britney. “Best-case scenario, you make enough money to make something else with a creative risk.”
(AUGUST 15)
The production company invites you, the producer, to pitch them on-brand ideas. “The formula is unspoken. If you want to do something more diverse, you’re not taking that one to Hallmark,” says Britney. Producers send over a few possible plots, each with a pitch deck featuring major plot points and a dream cast (wouldn’t A Birthday for Christmas be perfect with Josh Duhamel as the widower next door?). If you want a greenlight, don’t get too crazy. “The reason they all look and sound the same is because the network is involved, and they know their main audience is Midwest Christians,” she says. “Netflix did Let It Snow this year. It’s interracial, LGBTQ, beautifully shot... and a prime example of a Hallmark-style movie that would never make it onto Hallmark.”
go to France and say, we’re producing this for Hallmark, do you want to kick in and get the French rights?” says Britney. “There are channels all over the world that just need content. You can send them pretty much anything.” Better yet, get a loan to finance it yourself (on a budget of less than a million, you’ll get approximately $200,000 to $300,000 in tax credits, so most banks will lend to established producers), and then sell to broadcasters after it’s done. “Too many people involved off the top can be a disaster; they’re always giving notes,” says Britney. “If you bring it to them already made, they’ll just watch the first 20 minutes to make sure the quality’s good.”
3
PREP TIME (SEPTEMBER 15)
2
FIND YOUR FUNDERS (AUGUST 30)
Once your idea is greenlit, the production company will hand over about 20 percent of your budget for North American rights. Where you’ll make your money from there is selling international rights. “You’ll
You’ve got three or four weeks to get ready to shoot and streamline your costs. Writers bang out a script, and then producers go through it with a fine-tooth comb to cut any potentially expensive locations or unnecessary characters. “We’ll go through and cut children and animals wherever possible: they’re too expensive,” says Britney.
EUGENE LIPINSKI: ANDREW GERRARD
HOW THOSE LITTLE GUILTYPLEASURE, MADE-FOR-TV MOVIES GET MADE—AND BECOME MAJOR PLAYERS IN B.C.’S FILM ECONOMY IN THE PROCESS
T HE BIG BRAINSTORM
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Non-essentials like music licensing, stand-ins or catering trucks typically don’t make it into the final budget. The goal is to keep costs under a million: a microbudget that allows you to hire non-union crew.
4
C OLLECT YOUR CREW (SEPTEMBER 20)
Because it’s a shoestring script, you’ll be able to keep the crew size to 15 or 20 people. It can be tough to find even that since you’re not paying competitive rates (your camera guy might make $800 a day for a union shoot, while you’ve only budgeted $600) and the work doesn’t count toward their union hours. But for people trying to make a quick buck, it’s a good option. A dolly grip (we’ll call him Jeff) says it’s common for the same crew to move from one shoot straight into another, with only key positions like the director, producer and locations manager changing.
EUGENE LIPINSKI: ANDREW GERRARD
5
FIND YOUR STARS (SEPTEMBER 25)
If you want the full tax credit, you can only hire Canadian actors… which is why you see the same people in all the films. A Vancouver-based actor we’ll call Derrick says it’s common for some actors to shoot six Hallmark-style movies a year. Top talent gets paid an average of $900 a day, but sometimes
big names (hello, Lacey Chabert) will sign on because it’s easy work: two weeks, no reshoots, minimal pressure. Another bonus? There are some diehard Hallmark-heads out there. “A huge pro is the massive audience,” says Derrick. “People will recognize you and reach out to you over social media and ask questions about your character.” Starring in this kind of movie can also be a moneymaking opportunity for savvy stars—if Vanessa Hudgens signs as both star and executive producer, she might be making 20 percent of those international sales. Actors will typically receive scripts for an audition, get cast, and be fitted for wardrobe all within two weeks.
6
RODUCTION P TIME (SEPTEMBER 30 TO OCTOBER 15)
Shooting is typically scheduled for a 15-day run, with little wiggle room for overtime. Most Christmas movies film in the summer so that they’re ready in time for the holidays, though these movies usually lack the resources to truly fake a winter wonderland. “Snow is expensive. Only once per movie will you actually see it snowing,” says Britney. “Usually they just use a softfocus lens so you don’t notice it’s just white blankets on the grass.” Unlike union shows, the crew can’t count on overtime; every day is a race to finish within 12 hours. “We’re running around trying not to damage these mansions all decorated with Christmas stuff,” says Jeff, “hauling the 300-pound dolly up and down stairs, and we’re not allowed to walk on the [very expensive] fake snow.”
7
LIGHTNINGFAST EDITS (OCTOBER 30)
Editing comes together quickly: you’ve just shot exactly what you need, as quickly as possible… no “Director’s Cut” three-hour alternative edits here. While that’s in process, you’re in prep for your next shoot. Producers get paid on delivery, so there’s an incentive to deliver quickly so that financing costs don’t skyrocket even though there may still be a few months until the release date.
8
I T’S SHOWTIME! (DECEMBER 1)
Your movie airs as one of 25 “Countdown to Christmas” shows on the network. Maybe it’s a ranch-themed romance called Horsing Around Christmas? Fans feel comforted by the warm embrace of big-city beauties remembering the true meaning of the holidays (orphans, snow, kissing, rural communities, et cetera), and then probably forget about it. On to the next.
STORIES FROM THE SE T
HOLLYWOOD NORTH’S FAVOURITE “RUSSIAN” My agent Roxanne told me, it’s not even really your accent, because a lot of people do a lot better accent than you. But you totally understand what it means to be eastern European. It’s just in your soul. And I understand what she means—when I start speaking with an eastern European accent, all of a sudden, my voice goes low and it even kind of makes me shiver. Because it’s a whole different way of thinking—it’s very melancholic. Eastern Europe has had so much trial and tribulation. I was in St. Petersburg doing this movie with Keanu Reeves called Siberia, and when I walk the streets of St. Petersburg at night, I feel like I’ve been there. I look at the buildings and I know the buildings. I go to the Bolshoi, and I feel like I could have been a ballet dancer. Maybe I play Germans because the Germans took away part of my mother’s family, and so I understand the Germans. — EUGENE LIPINSKI, UK-born, Vancouverbased actor in more than 100 movies and TV shows.
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March Movie Madness WHAT’S THE BEST MOVIE FILMED IN THIS CITY? OUR SUBJECTIVE OPINION, TACKLED THE ONLY WAY IT COULD BE IN MARCH by
Nathan Caddell
CRAFTING A subjective list of the “best” of something is never easy. But it is fun. In our search for the best filmed-inVancouver movies, we took stock of a couple of things: First, does the movie visibly and meaningfully feature our fair city? And second, does it have at least some semblance of quality? The result is a bracket full of (mostly) respectable films, all of which feature, at a minimum, some sections showing off Vancouver. And are Vancouver’s high schools especially high schoollike? (Bookmark that for an investigate piece down the road.) There are enough contenders in that specific genre of movie that it garnered its own category. How did we make the tough calls in this bracket? Well, a lot of arguing and complaining until we finally convinced a certain editor that, no, Air Bud can’t be on the list.
C O M E DY BEST IN SHOW (2000) VS. HOT TUB TIME MACHINE (2010) The Christopher Guest-helmed mockumentary showcases the PNE, while Hot Tub prominently displays Mount Seymour. The latter made three times the money, but the former struts away with an easy victory here.
HAPPY GILMORE (1996) VS. HOT ROD (2007) Happy’s status as one of Adam Sandler’s few actually good comedies—along with its many Vancouver golf courses—is enough to tap it over the line against the Surrey-shot Hot Rod.
}
HIGH SCHOOL JUNO (2007) VS. TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE (2018) Pity to To All the Boys, the delightful, Netflixproduced Point Grey Secondary School-starring film based on the book of the same name, but it’s in a different league than the Oscar-winning, Eric Hamber-featuring Juno.
SCARY MOVIE (2000) VS. THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN (2016) Scary Movie was something of an innovator in the way it spoofed an entire genre. But it’s also just... not very good. Meanwhile, The Edge of Seventeen sees Hailee Steinfeld effectively elevate a somewhat mundane plot.
}
BEST IN SHOW VS. HAPPY GILMORE Listen, we know VanMag’s demographic, all right? We do not need countless letters chastising us for giving an Adam Sandler movie the nod over the SCTV gang.
}
BEST IN SHOW VS. JUNO Look away, Boomers. Thundercats are go and Juno is off to the finals.
JUNO VS. THE EDGE OF SEVENTEEN Juno rolled into this thing as one of the consensus favourites, and while Edge is a charming entry, it’s handling things way beyond its maturity level here.
F
J
T s T a d t fo
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AC T I O N
DEADPOOL VS. ROCKY IV We’d love to see the quips Ryan Reynolds could get off on Sylvester Stallone’s old boxer. And like these two movies, it wouldn’t be much of a fight. When the viaducts finally go, Deadpool will serve as a reminder of a simpler, more congested time.
DEADPOOL VS. McCABE AND MRS. MILLER There might not be a movie more synonymous with Vancouver than Deadpool. Ryan Reynolds and his foul language go hurtling into the final round.
W
}
McCABE AND MRS. MILLER VS. THE NEVERENDING STORY The adorable NeverEnding Story meets its, um, end as McCabe and Mrs. Miller rides an Oscarnominated performance from Julie Christie to the next round.
FI N A L JUNO VS. DEADPOOL Two quintessentially Vancouver movies, both starring Canadian actors, meet in the final. Though Deadpool made more money, has a sequel and shut down parts of the city for days, Juno is basically an indie movie that turned into a blockbuster—can’t we all root for that?—and it’s trying really hard, actually.
}
DEADPOOL (2016) VS. STAR TREK BEYOND (2016) Released in the same year and filmed in the same city, both pictures garnered good reviews, but only one featured the No5 Orange. (It wasn’t Star Trek, but we’d pay to see Kirk navigate that voyage.)
I, ROBOT (2004) VS. ROCKY IV (1985) Vancouver stands in for a futuristic Chicago and a Russian boxing ring, respectively, in these two films about fear of the unknown. But Rocky IV brought an unforgettable villain to the PNE (no, not the Hellevator), and its lasting longevity is enough to win the round.
DRAMA McCABE AND MRS. MILLER (1971) VS. 50/50 (2011)
}
Reports are that Robert Altman shot this western in the wildness of West Vancouver so that Hollywood couldn’t keep a close eye on him. That sounds like a story that 50/50’s Seth Rogen can relate to, and he’d probably admit that McCabe is a classic.
OKJA (2017) VS. THE NEVERENDING STORY (1984) Bong Joon-Ho is riding a wave after Parasite swept the Oscars, but The NeverEnding Story is the more enduring tale about a child’s relationship with a mystical animal.
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SET, STYLE, GO Co-star David Giuntoli (Eddie Saville) gets a hair set and touch-up from on-set stylist Jill Corp.
NOTE, TAKEN
A Million Little Moments VANCOUVER TRANSFORMS INTO BOSTON EACH WEEK FOR THE ABC HIT SERIES, A MILLION LITTLE THINGS. HERE’S A PEEK BEHIND THE CAMERA FROM A SHOOT THIS PAST FEBRUARY. by
Susan Bryant
photographs by
ABC/Jack Rowland and ABC/Bettina Strauss
A SOLID OUTFIT
A LITTLE GUIDANCE Lopez-Corrado gives notes to Giuntoli as the crew sets up for a shot in the Saville household (above).
Co-star Allison Miller, who plays breast cancer survivor Maggie Bloom, chats with co-executive producer Nina Lopez-Corrado (above). Co-star Romany Malco (Rome Howard) sits in behind.
BREAK TIME Craft services dishes out healthy salads on set (below).
THE CAST Action! Miller, co-stars Christina Moses (who plays Regina Howard) and James Roday (Gary Mendez, romantic interest of Bloom) prep for a scene with co-executive producer Nina Lopez-Corrado (above).
Costume supervisor Sonia Linder checks for props in the costume department.
THE TOUCH-UP SUPERVISING THE ACTION Writer Michelle Leibel and showrunner and executive producer DJ Nash go over the day’s sides (above).
Co-star and Vancouverite (and Magee Secondary alumni!) Grace Park (aka Katherine Saville) gets a touch up on-set; Roday, Malco and Giuntoli share the scene.
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KEEP YOUR EYE ON THESE UP-ANDCOMING FILM INDUSTRY FOLKS. by
Nathan Caddell
Stephanie Blakey
Amy Goodmurphy
DIR E C TOR
AC TOR/ WR ITE R/ D IR E C TOR/PR ODUCE R
ORIGIN STORY: As a kid Blakely would draw Sailor Moon fan animations on printer paper. “My parents would feed me NFB animated shorts and Disney movies, so it only made sense that I would end up in the field,” says the Vancouverite, who now works as a storyboard supervisor at Atomic Cartoons. YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: Her animated film, The Butterfly Affect (not starring Ashton Kutcher), which tells the story of a worm trying to make it in a world built for butterflies, debuted at the Spark Animation Festival in October of last year. MOST PROUD OF: “A film I did called The Last Resort. It’s a horror comedy, and I attended a screening where someone slapped his knee at one of the jokes. So I have a verified knee-slapper of a joke in one of my films.”
ORIGIN STORY: “I enjoyed theatre class in high school but I didn’t really have anybody to tell me that this could actually be a career until I walked into a bar over a decade ago and met my comedy partner, Ryan Steele,” says North Vancouver native Goodmurphy. YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: The Ryan and Amy Show, The Flash, Siren... but you also probably recognize her from various commercial campaigns, such as playing a tiny insurance fairy. FILM INDUSTRY IDOL: “I’ve been obsessed with Molly Shannon since I can remember. I was once featured on the same page as her on the website whohaha. com, and I almost threw up.” COMING NEXT: Catch her in the upcoming Godfrey, starring Netflix-certified comedian Iliza Shlesinger.
ORIGIN STORY: Born in Seoul, Korea, Shim emigrated with his family to Vancouver when he was eight years old. “Coming from a different culture, always being the new kid at school—that shaped me into the artist I am today.” YOU MIGHT KNOW HIM FROM: Shim’s first feature, Daughter, about a broken man trying to get over a tragedy, recently premiered at VIFF as the BC Spotlight Gala film. COMING NEXT: He’s currently writing a feature film about a Korean single mother raising a teenage boy in Vancouver while dealing with the challenges of being an immigrant in the ’90s.
Matt Schmidt PR ODUCE R ORIGIN STORY: Schmidt grew up in Kitsilano during the ’90s, watching movies at Vancouver icons like the Hollywood Theatre, where he’d sneak into double features. YOU MIGHT KNOW HIM FROM: Schmidt and his partner, Dean Buchanan,
Kathleen Hepburn WR ITE R/D IR E C TOR ORIGIN STORY: “I attribute the origin of my career to my mother’s undying love of books, and my father’s skill at telling bedtime stories.” YOU MIGHT KNOW HER FROM: 2019’s The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, co-written and directed with Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers, which had a triumphant festival run, including being awarded Honourable Mention for the top Canadian film at TIFF. LEAST FAVOURITE PART OF THE INDUSTRY: “The paternalistic attitude some male crew members still hold toward their female peers, and the underrepresentation of people of colour in decision-making positions.” COMING NEXT: A teen coming-of-age mystery series co-written with Elizabeth Cairns.
co-produced a film called What They Had, starring Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon. “I remember crying the first time I read that script,” says Schmidt. COMING NEXT: Schmidt’s company, Paradise City Films, just screened a film at Sundance called Worth, starring Michael Keaton and Amy Ryan, about a D.C. attorney battling bureaucracy to help the victims of 9/11.
STEPHANIE BL AKE Y: JALEN L AINE
Ones to Watch
Anthony Shim WR ITE R/D IR E C TOR
Web
38 VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 2 0
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TOR
3/11/20 1:32 PM
STEPHANIE BL AKE Y: JALEN L AINE
TORONTO
Website: www.vicostone.ca
Book 1.indb 39
MONTRÉAL
VANCOUVER
Email: info@vicostone.ca
CALGARY
Follow us:
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STORIES FROM THE SE T
Collingwood School
THE VANCOUVERITE WHO BASICALLY LIVES ON A FILM SET Our co-op is adjacent to a popular cobblestoned street in Gastown. Over the course of a year, we’ll get about 20 shoots. We have so many that we needed someone to try to lower the impact on co-op members, and when that can’t be done, negotiate inconvenience agreements for interruptions. There’s a hierarchy of things we’re concerned about, like keeping the accessible parking stall unobstructed. Their generators can’t be too loud or in the way. We don’t want bright lights pointed at our windows. You can never fully protect yourself, though. Locations departments are very thoughtful but on the day of filming they’re often the lowest on the ladder for decision making. The co-op received an aggregate of around $15,000 last fiscal year from the production companies for inconvenience fees, which goes into our operating budget. The glamour of filming isn’t much of a currency around here. People are concerned about the politics, because it seems like we’re being bought off. To me, it’s harm reduction: if they want to make a donation to our co-op and they’re going to film here anyway, we may as well ask. It’s better than not. —JACKIE HOFFART, film liaison for Four Sisters’ Co-Op in Gastown
THE ANIMATED ACTOR
From Bleachers to Box Office Before they were walking the red carpet, some of our favourite Hollywood stars were trudging the fluorescent-lit halls of this city’s high schools. But which educational institution produced the most lucrative star power? We tallied up the box office numbers of each school’s alumni to find out. by Elia Essen #9. ERIC HAMBER SECONDARY
$27 million
KRISTIN KREUK
EuroTrip $18M Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li $9M #8. ARGYLE SECONDARY
(North Vancouver) $80 million JASON PRIESTLEY
Tombstone $57M Eye of the Beholder $16M The Boy Who Could Fly $7M
Final Destination 3 $54M The Age of Adaline $42M #5. GLENEAGLE SECONDARY
(Coquitlam) $378 million
TAYLOR KITSCH
X-Men Origins: Wolverine $180M Lone Survivor $125M John Carter $73M #4. POINT GREY SECONDARY
$1.6 million
CARRIE-ANNE MOSS
#7. KILLARNEY SECONDARY
$129 million AVAN JOGIA
Ted 2 $81 M Zombieland: Double Tap $27M Shaft $21M #6. BROOKSWOOD SECONDARY
(Langley) $151 million
AMANDA CREW
The Haunting in Connecticut $55M
Deadpool 2 $324M Ted $218M JOSHUA JACKSON
Ocean’s Eleven $183M Scream 2 $101M The Mighty Ducks $51M #2. LORD BYNG
$2.2 billion
COBIE SMULDERS
Avengers: Endgame $858M Avengers: Infinity War $679M Avengers $623M #1. COLLINGWOOD (West Vancouver)
The Matrix Reloaded $281M The Matrix $171M The Matrix Revolutions $139M
$3.5 billion
SETH ROGEN
ALEXANDER LUDWIG
Lion King $540M Shrek the Third $320M Kung Fu Panda $215M #3. KITSILANO SECONDARY
$1.2 billion
RYAN REYNOLDS
Deadpool $363M
KIRSTEN PROUT
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse $301M Elektra $24M
It may sound obvious, but with voice acting, you don’t have your face and body to express the lines. It’s trying to make words and characters come to life with one thing. With Dragon Prince, we get the script first and then it’s animated based on our voices. One of the coolest things is seeing someone animate something I said, making faces off what I said. I see the character take on my mannerisms. I’ve been going to a lot of comic cons, and it’s been surreal. It’s a weird feeling when people ask for your autograph and want to take your picture, and then pay you for it. Sometimes they are nervous or star-struck and hug you, and it’s bizarre, and lovely. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it. It’s interesting to see people create emotional attachments to a character and view me as this person who breathed life into them. I like meeting people, I like when they dress up like my character. I’m more excited to see them than they are to see me. —RACQUEL BELMONTE, voice actor for Claudia on
COLLINGWOOD SCHOOL: KMBR .COM; CL AUDIA: THEDRAGONPRINCE.COM
STORIES FROM THE SE T
Netflix’s Dragon Prince
The Hunger Games $408M Grown Ups 2 $134M Lone Survivor $125M MACKENZIE DAVIS
That Awkward Moment $426M The Martian $228M Blade Runner 2049 $92M
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Home Is Where the Camera Is If you’ve ever dreamed of Ryan Reynolds or Cole Sprouse chilling on your front porch, you’re in luck: Hollywood North wants you(r house). But before you reupholster the couch, there are a few things you should know—and Karin Watson, Creative BC’s director of business operations, gave us the scoop. by Elia Essen
YOU HAVE TO REGISTER Location scouts usually don’t just wander the streets of Kits hoping to find the next great home star. You’ll want to list your house on Creative BC’s database. “Photo quality is really important,” said Watson. “You want high-quality pictures that represent all assets of your property, including those that are unique.” She suggests including interesting design elements, views, pools and whatever else makes your place special.
DON’T EXPECT AN ALL-ACCESS PASS COLLINGWOOD SCHOOL: KMBR .COM; CL AUDIA: THEDRAGONPRINCE.COM
If you’re imagining sharing jokes with Seth Rogen in between shoots of Neighbors 3, don’t. You probably won’t be allowed on your property during the shoot. The location manager should arrange alternate accommodations and cover your basic living expenses for the duration of the shoot.
THERE IS NO GOING RATE “There is no fixed rate, as all projects are quite unique and have their own budgets to manage,” said Watson. There are tons of factors that can impact pay, including length of the shoot, what they’re going to use the house for and whether or not it
will be a “recurring location.” Rates can be anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000 a day, but a good daily estimate is the amount of your monthly mortgage.
This is the time to scan the fine print: your location agreement will outline how everything should go down. The agreement should be tailored to your house, and it’s your right to contribute. Make sure to include details like what alterations the crew is allowed to make, how they should store items not being used and what special effects they can use. They should cover all damage costs that occur during the shoot and take out liability insurance for all activities on your property.
HAVE A LITTLE FAITH This isn’t a bunch of rowdy college students invading your home—these are industry professionals. “Their reputation is tied to how they treat the locations,” said Watson. The production team will take “before” pictures for reference so they can put everything back to normal, and if those floors get scratched in the process, they’ve got insurance to cover it.
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After St. Paul’s The iconic West End hospital is finally up for sale, after almost two decades of bitter debate about its future. Often overlooked—but a source of consternation for area businesses relying on the hospital’s 4,000 workers and 175,000 annual visitors—is what comes next. by
Matt O’Grady
BACK IN 1956, the 72-room, four-storey boutique hotel at the corner of Burrard and Helmcken was the Burrard Motor Inn—a place where weary travellers could park their Lincoln Continental or Chevy Bel Air and spend a night or two in the big city. But by the 1980s, things had changed: the area around the hotel wasn’t what it used to be, and the inn started to serve a more “by the hour” clientele. Then downtown Vancouver gentrified, and by 2011, so did the hotel; now christened The Burrard and featuring an interior courtyard with palm trees sitting in the six inches of available soil above the building’s 26-car parking lot, it is today a relatively motor-free hotel offering tourists craft cocktails, a communal ping pong table and loaner cruiser bikes. One constant through it all has been the neighbour across the road: St. Paul’s Hospital. The West End institution has been in its current location since the late 19th century, serving not only the neighbourhood itself, but also the city and province as a centre of excellence for the treatment of heart and kidney disease, nutritional disorders, HIV and AIDS. Some 4,000 people work at the hospital, which takes up almost 300,000 square feet over two city blocks. More than 175,000 patients visit St. Paul’s each year. For businesses in the area such
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Feature H E A LT H C A R E The original hospital dates back to 1894, when the Sisters of Providence, a Catholic women’s religious order from Montreal, built a four-storey wood-frame building on a forested plot on Burrard. With only 25 beds, the hospital (built for 28,000) struggled to meet the needs of the rapidly growing city. as The Burrard, St. Paul’s traffic—employees, families of patients, or patients themselves—has made up an important part of their customer base for decades. Darren Simpson, general manager of The Burrard, says “known” St. Paul’s guests—those who identify themselves as patients or family to get the reservation discount—represent only five percent of his total, but he suspects that, because not all hospitalrelated guests identify themselves, the real share is likely higher. The hotel’s Elysian coffee shop and Burgoo restaurant on street level, for certain, are constantly buzzing with St. Paul’s patrons. Early last year, the province confirmed that the hospital would be leaving the West End in 2026. While Simpson worries about a potential drop in business, his focus these days is on what comes next. “The larger part of the conversation will come once we find out who buys the property, and what it transitions to be. What I don’t want is another hotel,” he says, glancing up from the courtyard to the imposing outline of the Sheraton Wall Centre behind. THE OLDEST REMAINING part of the St. Paul’s complex is its Burrard Building—built in the Renaissance
Vincent’s Hospital) and Holy Family Hospital Society— to form Providence Health Care, providing health services under the auspices of Vancouver Coastal Health. Shortly after gaining legal status in 2000, Providence began to explore a new building for its marquee property, St. Paul’s. Additions had been made to the Burrard BuildRevival style in 1912—but the original ing over the years— hospital dates back to 1894, when including two 10-storey towers, in the Sisters of Providence, a Catholic 1983 and 1991—but the hospital women’s religious order from Moncouldn’t keep up with the times. By treal, built a four-storey wood-frame the turn of the century, it was plagued building on a forested plot on Burwith crumbling edifices, overcrowded rard. With only 25 beds, the hospital hallways and outdated electrical and (built for $28,000) struggled to meet elevator systems—and was about as the needs of the rapidly growing city, far away from “earthquake ready” as and over the next few years many it could be. more buildings were added to the site. After more than a decade of heated The Burrard Building represented a public debate about whether to rebig leap forward—able to accommobuild on site or start from scratch date 200 beds, though at a then-unelsewhere, in 2015 the Liberal governthinkable cost of $400,000. ment gave Providence its blessing to The sisters kept a hands-on prespursue a move to Station Street; four ence at St. Paul’s until 1969, when years later, the new NDP government the first lay administrator was hired; (to the surprise of many) approved by 1997, the order had decided there Providence’s business plan, clearwas more power in numbers and ing the last hurdle for a sale. While merged with other Catholic healthno price tag has been attached to the care entities in Vancouver—includsales brochure produced by realtors ing the CHARA Health Care Society CBRE, the 6.6-acre site has an as(which operated Mount Saint Joseph sessed value of nearly $800 million. Hospital, Youville Residence and St. It is, according to CBRE, “Downtown
44 VA N M A G . C O M M A R C H /A P R I L 2 0 2 0
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Vancouver’s largest development opportunity in the last 13 years.” With any redevelopment of this scope, there’s an opportunity to transform a neighbourhood— for better and for worse. Another big hotel across the road wouldn’t be great news for Darren Simpson and The Burrard, but might not be a bad thing for some of the local restaurants and retailers. Does the area need another luxury residential tower, similar to the Wall Centre or The Butterfly, currently rising on the First Baptist site at Burrard and Nelson? And what, if anything, can replace the loss of 4,000 workers? These are questions that Stephen Regan, executive director of the West End Business Improvement Association, has been thinking a lot about in recent years, ever since the St. Paul’s move became likely. “It would have been very helpful to know the future of St. Paul’s going into the planning process,” says Regan wistfully, discussing all the work he, along with city planners, put into the 2013 West End Community Plan. “It’s a big job centre, with lots of tentacles and office buildings around the area. Certainly it has contributed to the 24-hour Davie Village vibe. What it gets replaced with is a massive question.” Given the buzz of activity in Vancouver’s tech community— with monster leasing announcements from Amazon (the former Canada Post building) and Shopify (Four Bentall Centre) in just the past few months—a lot of speculation has focused on what big company might be next, and where it would set up shop. To Regan, a “robust tech/ biotech centre could be really interesting” for the St. Paul’s site,
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but he worries that many of those companies end up creating their own shopping, fitness and eating options within their complex, keeping employees from circulating within the local business community. “They have all these people flowing in, but not flowing out and supporting the neighbourhood. Then you get vacancies, and stretches of commercial streets that suffer.” Regan admits that it’s “really tricky” to be a curator of the right mix of business, residential and community amenities, but ultimately, he thinks, a balanced solution has to be found. He says that St. Paul’s represents a unique place within the community as a place that attracts visitors to the West End—who spend money on meals, flowers and other goods and services—as well as employees, who spend many hours (and dollars) in area streets. “I’m pretty sure whatever comes will be a net loss to the neighbourhood,” Regan predicts. “The question is how big that net loss will be, especially in the Davie Village.” JUST WEST OF THE CORNER of Davie and Burrard, in front of the Fountainhead Pub, stands a 4-by-4-foot heart-shaped neon installation called The Heart of Davie Village, by artist Jim Balakshin. The pub itself, in many West Enders’ eyes, has been the figurative heart of the village ever since it opened 20 years ago: a place where area workers, residents and tourists mingle, play some pool and raise a glass or two. (It’s also a popular stop for campaigning politicians, such as Justin Trudeau in last fall’s federal election, looking for a photo op.) Michel Duprat, the Fountain-
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head’s co-founder and co-owner (as well as one of one of four owners of another casual eatery down the road, Mary’s on Davie), has been keeping his eyes trained on what’s happening at the complex across the alleyway. Like Darren Simpson, he worries about the potential loss of business from St. Paul’s—workers coming in after their shift, families grabbing a bite after visiting relatives—but also wonders what redevelopment might herald for the solidly middle-class neighbourhood. Even before the bulldozers arrive at St. Paul’s, Duprat says he’s already struggling to compete for staff in a hot job market, and even hotter real estate market. “A lot of our staff used to live in the West End or downtown. Now they’re living in Surrey or Coquitlam,” he notes. “They can no longer afford to live downtown.” With employees having to come further and further to work, says Duprat, “it makes it harder and harder to find and keep people.” He’d like the redevelopment to include a mixture of uses, including affordable rental options, “for our workers, and also our customers.” In the eyes of urban planner Andy Yan—a longtime observer of Vancouver’s development policies—the city’s plans for St. Paul’s, expected within the next few years, could represent a turning point, not just for the West End but also for the city as a whole. “The West End is an incredible expression of deep urbanism, starting in the 1960s and continuing to the present day,” says Yan, director of SFU’s The City program. “A lot of the workers from St. Paul’s used to live in the neighbourhood—and that’s going to be one of the biggest
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Feature H E A LT H C A R E
challenges, moving ahead. When it comes to existing workers— whether it’s janitorial staff or nurses and doctors—where are they going to live?” Over time, as St. Paul’s workers move closer to the new hospital in East Vancouver, do their West End apartments get renovated, the rents jacked up—and a whole new type of resident moves in? And what does that mean for various Davie Street establishments—pubs like the Fountainhead, or the independent hardware stores and drycleaners who’ve built their businesses on the West End’s current demographic? With any action as ground-shaking as the St. Paul’s move, there are bound to be unintended consequences. The “alpha” accomplishment of sustainability, Yan argues, is getting people to walk to work: “It isn’t getting them to bike or even take transit, because that means there’s a certain distance.” If we lose that—if more of downtown goes to high-end condos or rentals, occupied by people living or working elsewhere—“we begin to undermine our own ideals of sustainability.” Yan thinks proactive efforts need to be made by the city to shape the community we want to see in 10 or 20 years, one that supports employment opportunities as well as housing close to those jobs. Otherwise, he says, what we’re left with is nothing more than “Coal Harbour South.” Holly Sovdi, a senior planner with the City of Vancouver, confirms that while Providence “can sell the site to whoever they choose,” the city will be having its say through the development permit process over the next several years. “We can negotiate with the new owner to achieve or
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maximize the city’s objectives, whether it’s affordable housing, job space or other amenities.” St. Paul’s represents a unique challenge from a planning perspective. “It’s an opportunity to really do something special, in terms of knitting our city together and being something the city can be proud of,” says Sovdi, who served as lead planner on the West End Community Plan. While it’s too early to speculate on the exact shape of redevelopment, Sovdi allows that the vitality of small business will be of primary concern. “We know that certain land uses contribute more to small businesses,” he says, adding that offices downtown generally contribute about twice per square foot, in terms of dollars spent on local retail sales, as compared to residential. “So when we think about that, we would want to replace St. Paul’s with as much job space as we can.” AS THE DEBATE SWIRLS around them, Providence executives have remained focused on completing the sale of St. Paul’s and stressing the benefits of that sale—specifically, in funding a new state-of-the-art hospital (for an estimated $1.9 billion)—to the general public. “We’re going to sell that land and use that money to build a public hospital,” says Shaf Hussain, vice president of public affairs at Providence Health Care. “That minimizes the cost of construction to the taxpayer—and I think that’s a unique thing in Canada.” Hussain is very familiar with the arguments against the move. “We’ve been engaging with the community and answering those questions, in various forums, for over 15 years,” he says. “Obvi-
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Feature H E A LT H C A R E ously, the West End had lots of concerns about the hospital moving, but I think we got to a point where they said, ‘Well, yes, a new hospital is needed.’” As for what happens once St. Paul’s vacates the West End, Hussain downplays Providence’s role in that process. “Ultimately, the community will decide. The city has huge rezoning processes that, whoever the proponent is, has to do a ton of consultation. Everybody will have a say in it.” Someone who has had a lot to say over the years is the West End’s MLA, Spencer Chandra Herbert. He’ss been a vocal opponent of the hospital’s move since taking office in 2008. Despite impassioned lobbying of his NDP caucus mates, though, Chandra Herbert was ultimately unable to
change any minds. “I still wish we could get redevelopment on site. Except I’m the one MLA in 87 who believes that,” he says. “City council voted unanimously to move it to the new site as well. On this one, I’ve paddled upriver a long time.” With the move a fait accompli, Chandra Herbert says he’ll fight to ensure that “all levels of government remember our neighbourhood, listen to our concerns and involve us with the planning.” He’s hopeful that whatever replaces St. Paul’s will include a significant employer to mitigate the loss of 4,000 jobs, as well as a significant investment in housing. “It’s one of those places where you could put a challenge to developers, the city and province to develop more lower rent, affordable housing. You don’t need to
In b th
provide parking there, you’re right on a bike lane, and there’s great transit.” But, he asks, “Will it replace everything? Probably not.” No matter how balanced the mix of new housing, retail, residential and offices might be for the Burrard site—no matter how sensitive it is to the current and future needs of the demographically diverse West End— few doubt that great upheaval is just around the corner. “There will be two, three or four years of redevelopment where there will be nothing,” says the BIA’s Regan, who’s looking for an action plan from civic officials to counter the chaos. “There will be dump trucks, there will be disruption and there will be noise. That is going to be shocking to Davie Village. So what’s the plan, City?”
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Hammerb
SPONSORED REPORT
Inheritance battles are on the rise in BC Evolving societal values and wealth transfer impact estate litigation in BC “Inheritance disputes are becoming increasingly common in B.C.,” says Krista Simon, partner at Hammerberg Lawyers LLP, a Vancouver law firm that specializes in dispute resolution and litigation. Laws exist to provide protection for beneficiaries and disinherited family members to ensure both fair distribution of an estate and protection from fraud and misconduct by executors and trustees. Hammerberg’s estate dispute resolution and litigation team assists those who are challenging a will, as well as clients defending an estate against those making a claim. Bringing a claim “We often see cases of sibling inequality and inheritance disputes stemming from divorce or re-marriage,” says Simon. “There are many circumstances which give rise to challenging a will, including family estrangement, elder abuse, the changing nature of marriage-like relationships, trustee mishandling of an estate and undue influence. Older adults are particularly vulnerable. “Our laws and court judgements tend to reflect our changing societal values, as they shift and evolve over time. For instance, we now see changing notions of who should inherit as between sons and daughters, and who is considered a spouse. We advocate for people who would otherwise be unfairly treated by the terms of a will.”
Defending a claim Morgyn Chandler, partner at Hammerberg Lawyers, says, “The largest inter-generational wealth transfer in Canadian history is taking place. This will have an impact on estate claims, particularly in BC where property values are high.” According to the January 2018 IPC Private Wealth survey, 58% of affluent Canadian respondents have not discussed instructions for their estate with their heirs, and 12% do not plan to talk about their inheritance plan at all with their beneficiaries. “This leaves the ground fertile for estate disputes,” adds Chandler.
sensitive financial matters. Where parties have no desire to reconcile or cannot find a compromise solution, we can still facilitate a resolution in or out of court.” “One of our firm’s greatest strengths is having both an estate planning division and an estate litigation team under one roof,” adds Chandler. “Our multidisciplinary expertise strengthens our estate services offerings considerably, making Hammerberg a forerunner in B.C.’s estate law field.”
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Hammerberg Lawyers LLP 1220 – 1200 West 73rd Ave., Vancouver, BC V6P 6G5 604 269 8500 http://hammerco.net
Created by the Vancouver magazine in partnership with Hammerberg Lawyers
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abantu.com
EXTENSIONS | WIGS | HAIRPIECES | SINCE 1993 | VANCOUVER | 604.431.8008
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VA N M AG .C O M/S T Y L E
Culture ON THE RISE
RAIN, RAIN, BRO AWAY Mike Cerka and Tyler Quarles founded Baro Drywear in 2016, but this duo has been decades in the making. The childhood neighbours bonded over a mutual love of skateboarding, which grew from tearing up the streets of their North Van ’hood to ripping down the slopes as competitive snowboarders. They loved their alpine gear, but noticed that ski jackets just weren’t cutting it in the concrete jungle. “We wanted the kind of technical apparel that we loved, but in a package appropriate for the urban city individual,” says Quarles. His degree in design and Cerka’s in business made them, once again, the perfect fit. Baro’s outerwear is waterproof, breathable and made with a recycled synthetic insulation. Their designs have earned them plenty of local recognition, and they celebrated a launch with Nordstrom late last year. Along with looking rad and staying dry, the BFFs are also committed to sustainability: their recycled insulation helps keep plastic out of landfills, and all of their products are vegan, PETA-approved and built to last. “They’re clean, minimal designs with timeless silhouettes,” says Cerka, “so we intend to be a part of your wardrobe for a long time.” by
Alyssa Hirose
photograph by
COAT OF CHARMS Tyler Quarles (left) and Mike Cerka, co-founders of Baro Drywear.
Kyoko Fierro
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Culture T H E H O T TA K E
CLASSICS REINVENTED
Trends may come and go, but classics are here to stay—all in fresh, new ways for spring. by
Amanda Ross
j After Guerlain, one of
the world’s oldest beauty brands, gave French Empress Eugenie a bottle of its Eau de Cologne Imperial in 1853, the company would go on to become the official royal perfumer. The bee, Guerlain’s emblem of biodiversity (Guerlain sponsors beekeepers on the island of Ouessant), still adorns this iconic bottle, but this spring artist Claudine Drai redesigns it as the limited edition L’Heure Blanche. Only 50 bottles in Canada, each $900, holtrenfrew.com
p The ’90s rugby shirt may
never have seen the business end of an actual rugby game, but this classic varsity staple is making a comeback that’s perfect for home or sports-bar TV watching. Herschel Supply Co.’s take features French terry with contrasting collar and colourblocking. $100, herschel.ca
k Paul Van Doren may have dropped out of junior high, but he went on to found Vans, the original, massively successful counter-culture skateboarder shoe, in 1966. This spring, the iconic shoe partners with New York fashion designer Sandy Liang for a limitededition launch that evokes ’90s nostalgia with faux fur, leopard print and bejewelled detailing. From $100, vans.ca
o Leave it to Burberry to reinvent what they already invented 141 years ago: gabardine. Riccardo Tisci’s third runway collection for the classic house is a celebration of new house codes and a juxtaposition of heritage and modernity with the floor-length Extra Long Gabardine trench coat. $3,690, burberry.com
n Given that it’s a rite
that dates back to the Romans, reimagining the wedding band isn’t for the faint of heart. But start-up Mejuri takes up the challenge with its out-of-the-box rings featuring ethically sourced diamonds in 14-karat solid gold. You won’t find traditional markups; you will find new limited-edition drops every Monday all year long. $275 to $2,750, mejuri.com
NOW OPEN
Dyson
Pacific Centre, dysoncanada.ca What: British industrial design phenom Dyson opens its first bricksand-mortar demo store in B.C. Why we’re excited: The new Dyson demo store with styling bar means you can get to the root of how their tools and accessories work all while getting your hair shampooed and styled at the same time.
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Whatever your occasion, celebrate with us. With space for special events, receptions, board meetings and business retreats, the Robert H. Lee Alumni Centre on UBC’s Point Grey campus can accommodate your every need.
For more information, contact: nicole.caron@ubc.ca | 604 822 1922 alumnicentre.ubc.ca
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Culture T H E T I C K E T
Add some kick to your calendar with these spring events. by
Alyssa Hirose
MINE DATE March 18 to 22 VENUE Historic Theatre at the Cultch PRICE From $26 thecultch.com What do Bambi and The Terminator have in common? A strong mother-son narrative, and thus a place in Theatre Replacement’s Mine. Tune in to this Minecraft-inspired play featuring mama’s boys (and boys’ mamas) aged 11 to 46. TACOFINO BEER DINNER SERIES DATE March 26, April 30, May 28 VENUE Tacofino Hastings PRICE $55 tacofino.com A match made on Hastings. On the last Thursday of each month, find your local taps and tacos here. The first three dinners feature Tofino Brewing Company, Steel and Oak Brewing Co. and the Parkside Brewery, respectively. VANCOUVER INTERNATIONAL BURLESQUE FESTIVAL DATE April 1 to 4 VENUE Vancouver Playhouse PRICE From $28 vibf.ca This fest is more than risqué performance— there are workshops, TED-style talks, and a gala featuring the spiciest show people from Vancouver and beyond.
THE WARNING DATE April 6 VENUE Biltmore Cabaret PRICE From $17.50 thewarningband.com Don’t let their adorableness fool you: this trio of Gen-Z sisters from Mexico has been tearing up the rock world since their Metallica cover went viral in 2014. Their albums include XXI Century Blood and Queen of the Murder Scene—these gals don’t mess around.
Mine
SAKURA NIGHT DATE April 23 VENUE Stanley Park Pavilion PRICE From $125 vcbf.ca Celebrate sakura season in style at the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival’s evening soirée featuring flower-focused eats from top local chefs. Think pink, outfit-wise: floral ’fits are highly encouraged.
Bill Reid in his studio, 1982 Lola Frost, Vancouver International Burlesque Festival
WHITE NOISE DATE April 18 to May 9 VENUE Firehall Arts Centre PRICE $33 firehallartscentre.ca Taran Kootenhayoo couldn’t have sat in a better spot during a workshop production of his new play, White Noise, last March. “I had this older white lady sitting above me, and a middle-aged Native woman in front of me,” he remembers. The comedy tells the story of a dinner party shared by neighbours: an Indigenous family that recently moved in, and a Caucasian family determined to show just how cool with it they are. Throughout the workshop, Kootenhayoo could hear the scoffing and muttering from behind him just as clearly as the laughter and hell yeahs from in front. “Racism is ugly, and it can be really difficult to talk about,” says the playwright. In order to keep all kinds of audiences on board with the full production of White Noise, premiering this spring, Kootenhayoo focused on the hearts of his characters. “They all come from a place of genuine love and caring,” he says. The show looks at heavy subject matter through a lighthearted lens, and doesn’t claim to have the answers to racism or reconciliation. “We’re all just messing up and trying and failing,” says Kootenhayoo, “and laughter feels like medicine.”
TO SPEAK WITH A GOLDEN VOICE DATE April 22 to October 4 VENUE Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art PRICE $13 billreidgallery.ca This multimedia exhibit is in honour of Haida artist Bill Reid’s centennial birthday. Sketchbooks, short films, sound-based artwork and carvings will celebrate his life and legacy, including his time as a “golden-voiced” CBC Radio host. Tacofino beer dinner series
LIL COMEDY DATE April 24 VENUE 8 East Pender PRICE From $10 facebook.com/lilcomedyshow This recently relocated monthly show hosted by An-Te Chu and Alistair Ogden is bringing the chuckles to Chinatown. Guests include Ola Dada, Rae Lynn Carson and Gina Harms.
Alistair Ogden and An-Te Chu
MINE: CL AIRE HAIGH; WHITE NOISE: MELODY CHARLIE; BILL REID: ROBERT KEZIERE; LOL A FROST: DARK CELL PHOTOGRAPHY; TACOFINO: L AURA MCGUIRE; LIL COMEDY: PASCAL L AMOTHE-KIPNES
Get Loud
White Noise
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MINE: CL AIRE HAIGH; WHITE NOISE: MELODY CHARLIE; BILL REID: ROBERT KEZIERE; LOL A FROST: DARK CELL PHOTOGRAPHY; TACOFINO: L AURA MCGUIRE; LIL COMEDY: PASCAL L AMOTHE-KIPNES
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WE’RE CELEBRATING VANCOUVER’S BEST MAKERS! Vancouver magazine’s 2020 Made in Vancouver Awards spotlight the city’s best homegrown goods, from artisanal hot sauces to handcrafted bags to eco-chic outerwear. Winners featured in the July/August issue!
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Culture R E V I E W S
Chef/Owner Greg Dilabio doing his fresh pasta thing
SOFT TOUCH
The fresh pasta trend reaches its zenith at Oca Pastificio. by
Neal McLennan Leila Kwok
photographs by
Artists will tell you that one of the hardest skills to master is the drawing of a straight line. There are no landscape tricks to hide behind, no clouds to cover over a shaky hand. Either you’ve developed the skill to do it or you haven’t, and the result is patent for all to see. Fresh pasta may be the cooking equivalent of the straight line. On its face, it’s a reasonably simple task. Eggs, flour, a bit of salt, maybe a splash of olive oil. But, despite this, Italian food in Western Canada is frequently a lot of squiggly lines, covered in oceans of sauces and clouds of cheese in the hope that you won’t notice the difference. And when someone gets it right, we lose our collective minds. JC Poirier’s Ask for Luigi opened six years ago in an off-the-beaten-path location with almost no parking and no reservation policy, but with a menu that leaned heavily on fresh pasta, and it has been packed for lunch and dinner almost continually despite a rotation of chefs—some inspired, some less so. Meanwhile, when Paul Grunberg walked away from L’Abattoir, he made sure that one of the centrepieces (both figuratively and literally) to his new fancy room was fresh
The technical term for his role is “pastaio,” or pasta maker. The colloquial term is “goddamn magician.” Squash Tortelli with sage
THE DEETS
Oca Pastificio
1260 Commercial Drive ocapastificio.ca Price: Mains under $25 Best Dishes: All of it. Literally, you can’t go wrong.
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Daily Dose of Brilliance Ever yday Diamonds
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Culture
The (very) compact room
REVIEWS
pasta... and Savio Volpe has been the most sought-after reservation in town since it opened. So when I caught wind that a new spot specializing in fresh pasta was opening on Commercial Drive, I was intrigued. Especially because it wasn’t some big glitzy announcement—there was no media influencer dinner; I just noticed a post on the sporadic La Quercia Instagram feed. “Open” was all it said. “@ocapastificio.” Getting a nod from chef Adam Pegg is, to continue the art analogy, like having Rembrandt say you’re good with the paintbrush. In a city with many great Italian chefs, Pegg (it turns out he’s an investor in this new spot) stands apart for his single-minded focus on regional Italian cuisine: he never calls attention to himself, he’s not built for schmoozing and his promotion skills are non-existent. When his casual spot L’Ufficio won Best West Side at last year’s VanMag Restaurant Awards, he sent his wife and daughter to the ceremony. I have no doubt he was probably cooking. With all that in mind, it is with no small amount of trepidation that I set out for Oca Pastificio a few weeks later: cuisine that I love and the seal of approval from a legend combined with a small room and a no-reservation policy has me full of anticipation as I head east on a Saturday at the shamefully early hour of 6 p.m. (they open at five). Even then there is no table for the three of us, but they take our number and send us for a drink (Fets Whisky Kitchen is conveniently located a few doors down) and before we can finish our drams a table opens up and we are headed back over. Everything on offer is on the blackboard, which changes frequently but focuses on four pastas, one risotto, three starters and a few sides. Even jam-packed,
there can’t be more than 24 people in the room, 29 if you include the two servers and three chefs—none of whom are more than a few metres from any of the diners at any given time during service. The first thing I notice is that the risotto comes with a caution: “Please allow 35 minutes.” It seems out of place in a casual spot, unless you’ve ever made risotto at home, in which case you know it’s not possible to make it properly in less time than that. Which ultimately leads to the next question: why doesn’t every proper Italian restaurant come with the same proviso? We end up ordering the vitello tonnato, maybe the perfect litmus test for an Italian restaurant. Go too fancy with big slabs of tuna and you ruin it; cheap out with inferior tuna in your sauce and you ruin it; try to improve upon it with your own inspired take and you’ll probably ruin it. But here there are none of those misses: there’s lovely, thinly sliced rare veal on the bottom and the tuna sauce is accompanied with a caper-studded salad of bitter greens. It’s just right and comes with the pre-Berlusconiera price of $16. As we dig in, we take some time to size up the compact wine list (three whites, 10 reds) and the trend of underpricing continues. A crisp beauty of a Northern Italian sauvignon blanc from San Leonardo is $54—for a bottle that retails for $30. One of the forgotten classics
of the Italian canon—Lungarotti’s Rubesco—is priced at $52 for a $26 bottle, and the big spenders can buy a bottle of Argiano’s Brunello for $127, which is well less than double retail. My initial reaction is giddy, start-the-car excitement. But my second thought is this: what good are rock-bottom prices if the place goes out of business? We can’t decide among the pastas so we order the whole slate (had we been paying attention we would have seen another chalkboard that offered a pasta tasting menu). Chef/ owner Greg Dilabio hears the order, gives a nod and gets to work, rolling, cutting, shaping. The technical term for his role is “pastaio,” or pasta maker. The colloquial term is “goddamn magician.” The lineup consists of a squash tortelli with sage butter, conchiglie alla puttanesca, sopressine with sausage and leeks and rigatoni with veal and Swiss chard. Holy hell, they’re good. The chard is cooked just enough to drape around the rigatoni but still stays crisp, the sausages are just the perfect amount of fat and lean, and throughout it all is the egg-y wonder of the pasta, which had been under a rolling pin just a few minutes earlier. But it’s the tortelli that’s a first among equals: a melange of squash (whatever is available on the Drive, Dilabio later confides) mixed with caciocavallo, a smoked sheep cheese from Basilicata, topped with
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Stratford Saves! crispy fried sage. It’s the best pasta dish I can recall having in this town—a simple but perfect mix of textures, with a balanced richness that’s just out of this world. We make short work of all the dishes and Dilabio, seeing we’ve run the menu, pulls one more dealer’s choice out of his chef’s hat: orecchiette with smoked mussels. We’re done, but there’s one final step to making it a true Italian meal… a meh dessert. It’s in the form of hazelnut torte and I’m sure, like the rest of the menu, it’s note perfect in its adherence to Italian practices, which means bone dry and maybe the only skippable item on the menu (an almond semifredo is better). I’m so impressed I make a rare exception and actually email the restaurant after the dinner to say how much I enjoyed it, and to try to get a sense of how a spot as polished as this just came out of nowhere. Owner Dilabio emailed back to shed some light. It seems that the La Quercia connection was not accidental—Dilabio had worked for Pegg on and off since 2011 (the offs usually consisting of him making extended pilgrimages to Italy to study and stage). Pegg was actually the one who found Oca’s location and, while not involved in the day-to-day, he is, as mentioned, an investor. And Dilabio has four staff, three of whom are La Quercia alumni, to help him run the spot. But when the doors open, it’s Dilabio who has to draw that straight line. And, right now, he’s set a standard to which all other pastaios in town need to aspire.
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Culture T H E D I S H
DRINK THIS
JELLY, MUCH?
ALL SEASON STOUT F R O M C O N TA I N E R B R E W I N G , $ 16/4-pack
Here are the facts: last fall Seth Rogen brought famed chef David Chang to the Granville Island institution that is Lee’s Donuts. The duo barged past such Lee’s classics as the honey-dipped and maple-iced to pretty much lose their minds over the jelly doughnuts: “This is literally the best thing I’ve have ever eaten,” said Chang, and a few weeks later it was announced that Chang was opening a restaurant here. Such is the power of the jelly doughnut (and, to a lesser extent, cannabis). The sugar-dusted, jam-filled pastry is on the rise these days, just as its hole-in-the-middle cousin’s aura is starting to wane. And while we’ll always love Lee’s, we’re really digging the updated models offered by Chinatown’s new Mello café, a yellow jewel box of a room that specializes in the treats. Here, the team has a light hand with the sugar and doubles down on patisserie-grade fillings like vanilla bean, dark chocolate pudding, lemon curd and PB&J. by
1. In the Prairies it’s called a Bismarck; in Germany it’s a Berliner.
3. Mello makes its vanilla doughnut with fresh creme patisserie every day using milk, eggs, sugar and a generous amount of Madagascar vanilla beans.
5. The key to a great jelly doughnut, according to Chang? “I love the textural contrast. You get it from the sugar. You get it from the actual doughnut. It’s soft and crunchy, and yet has the subtle acidity from the jelly.”
Neal McLennan
No, it doesn’t have vanilla, but this nitro dry stout from East Van newbie Container Brewing is a perfect companion to the random Vancouver weather we always get in what’s ostensibly spring. The cans are upside-down for a reason: you’ll want to shake the bejesus out of it until you stop hearing the rattle-like sound. Then pour hard into a glass and enjoy a creamy (but never heavy) stout that truly delights and shockingly lives up to its oxymoronic name. —Nathan Caddell
2. Fill it with cream, like this one, and it technically becomes a Boston cream doughnut.
4. A jelly doughnut is a yeast doughnut, meaning that it rises when cooked.
6. “Doughnut” is technically the correct spelling, “donut” being an American contraction that gained popularity thanks in part to the mass market purveyors Dunkin’ Donuts.
VO L C A N D E M I T I E R R A C R I S TA L I N O, $ 75 It’s odd to think of vanilla when you think of tequila, but añejo tequila sees time in oak barrels, which imparts just that type of sweetness. It’s front and centre in the new Volcan de Mi Tierra Cristalino, the new high-end brand from LVMH. Think caramel and chocolate tempered with roasted agave and black pepper notes. Actually, a pretty solid pairing with a jelly doughnut. —N.M.
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WW-VanM
The Vancouver Writers Fest Presents the 20th Annual
Vancouver’s Premier Whisky Event
Unlimited Whisky | Craft Spirits | Craft Beer | Wine Silent Auction | DJs
VIP: $140 / $160 | General Admission: $95 / $120 Friday, April 24, 2020 | Performance Works Purchase tickets online at whiskywords.ca Ticket buyers receive a tax receipt for 75% of the ticket price. All proceeds support the Vancouver Writers Fest’s youth education programming.
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Culture S TA R P O W E R
THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF SHAME Whether you’re going all out at the movies with the real buttered popcorn (we get it, you’re rich) or illegally downloading new releases (we get it, you’re a criminal), here’s what to watch this season according to your star sign. by
Alyssa Hirose Katy Lemay
illustration by
Aries March 21–April 19 TROLLS WORLD TOUR, APRIL 17 Yes, this is technically a children’s movie, but that doesn’t mean it can’t tell a complex story of camaraderie despite difference. Pink beehive hairdo aside, you’ll relate to protagonist Poppy’s optimism and her determination to unite the trolls of the world. We’re not patronizing Aries in any way. Now, don’t eat all your popcorn during the previews or you’ll get a tummy ache.
Taurus April 20 – May 20
May 21 – June 20 MULAN, MARCH 27 We know you’ve already ugly-cried watching the trailer—of course a Gemini would relate to a story of a woman living a double life. Save yourself the regret and don’t get that haircut, it’s just not you.
LEO
July 23 – August 22 NO TIME TO DIE, APRIL 8 Much like Daniel Craig, you’re too old for this stuff, but the spotlight— and in Craig’s case, millions of dollars—beckons. How tiring it must be to be so adored.
VIRGO
BLOODSHOT, MARCH 13 If you woke up to discover you’d died and then been revived by a nanotechnology that made you superhuman, what’s the first thing you would do? Correct past mistakes? Of course not, Taurus, you have none. Just as Vin Diesel’s character does in this action drama, you’d seek bloody revenge on all who wronged you.
GEMINI
Pretend you don’t care about their wholesome doomed love. Pretend.
CANCER June 21 – July 22 I STILL BELIEVE, MARCH 13 Sure, pretend not to be affected by the true story of Christian rock singer Jeremy Camp and his wife who definitely dies at the end of the movie (no spoilers, it’s a true story).
August 23 – September 22 THE SECRET GARDEN, APRIL 17 Not everything can be rationalized. Take a break from processing and watch this remake; a little bit of fantasy will do Virgos some good. Plus, you know you love Colin Firth.
LIBRA
September 23 – October 22 A QUIET PLACE: PART II, MARCH 20 This sequel will be distressing, to say the least—but it will also be a distraction from your real-world troubles. Thank goodness your
choice of what to have for dinner isn’t a potentially life-threatening decision. Or is it?
SCORPIO
October 23 – November 21 ANTLERS, APRIL 17 The trailer for this bloody movie scared us so much that we couldn’t finish it, so you’ll probably love it. Why don’t you eat some Twizzlers while you’re at it, you sick freak.
SAGITTARIUS
November 22 – December 21 THE NEW MUTANTS, APRIL 3 Good thing you’re so adaptable, Sagittarius: We bet you were psyched to see this horror thriller on its previous set release dates in 2018 and 2019. Jump scares come to those who wait.
CAPRICORN
December 22 – January 19 THE LOVEBIRDS, APRIL 3 Warm your cold, cold heart with this rom-com murder mystery that screams 2020: POC
protagonists, a unicorn onesie, jokes at the expense of millennials. Fellow moviegoers will love how you excitedly whisper whodunit in the first 20 minutes, spoiling it for everyone.
AQUARIUS
January 20 – February 18 ANTEBELLUM, APRIL 24 The plot of this mystery is a well-guarded, well, mystery, but coming from the producers of Get Out and Us, it’s likely to be the kind of socially driven thriller that Aquarians will go bonkers for.
PISCES
February 19 – March 20 BAD TRIP, APRIL 24 The words “from one of the guys who brought you Jackass” should send you running for the hills, but you won’t be able to refuse this garbage prank movie if one of your friends suggests it, Pisces. You’ll be miserable for two hours, but at least you didn’t hurt anyone’s feelings.
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E XC LU S I V E WAT E R F R O N T H O M E S O N T H E S H O R E S O F FA L S E C R E E K . T I E R E D V I S TA S O F M O U N TA I N , C I T Y A N D S E A . A C O V E T E D W E S T COAST LIFESTYLE. A TREASURED EXISTENCE. ARRIVING SPRING 2020
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Book 1.indb 68
3/11/20 1:34 PM