While driving through NW Porlland today I came across a Leverage filming with Chris Kane.

I had thought it was Grimm filming and was standing on the sidewalk since my car was blocked from passing through. A guy came out of a shop behind me with some lunch and sat down near me. I did a double take when I realized it was Chris Kane. I couldn't get my mindset out of thinking this was a Grimm shoot. Nope - Leverage.

While I was still trying to figure out in my brain why Chris was even there (I was VERY tired today), I pulled out my iPhone to snap some photos.   He spotted me towards the end and it looks like he's scowling at me.  I felt slightly bad about that. But he once snapped my bra strap at the Leverage Con Con in PDX, so heck I can snap his photo when I accidentally find myself standing next to him on a Portland street.

Seriously, I was driving back to the hospital to visit with my mother after lunch and was stopped due to a blocked off street near the hospital. Got out to see filming going on. I assumed it was Grimm. Then I did a double take when I saw this guy sit down practically right next to me. Christian Kane? What is he doing here while they are filming Grimm? Seriously, in my own defense I am VERY tired. 12 hours of sleep in 3 days due to graduation events and then my mother breaking her hip last night. But even after seeing Kane I did not connect the filming to Leverage until someone else standing next to me pointed out the Leverage t-shirts on the crew members. They filmed the street scene VERY quickly. 15-20 mins of filming Kane walking up to someone and talking for a few seconds - about 5 to 8 very quick takes. Then they were breaking down and letting traffic through. After the past 12 hours I felt like the universe was trying to give me a 15 min break of something good.

They were filming by the Food Front Co-op in NW Portland, just a few blocks from where I work.  The street was temporarily blocked for a short period of time while filming a scene in front of the co-op with Chris Kane walking up and talking to a woman, who (I believe), made to strike him at the end. I thought I saw Chris demonstrate to the woman how to punch out at him. 

Below are the photos I snapped with my iPhone.














( more photos under here ... )

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found via pecos this morning.  Leverage S3 promo.  2-hour premier on June 20th!

Earlier today I asked if anyone used Final Cut Express for video editing.  I ended up purchasing the software a short time ago.  Right after I bought it I found this....


Ha!  That's Dean Devlin with Tim Hutton.  Final Cut Studio is the professional version of Final Cut Express.

When the special effects guys had their panel someone asked them what technology they used.  Basically the answer was Macs....  The tech geeky graphics guy (who I loved!!!) said basically "Apple Rules." 

I have a whole bunch of photos from that panel as well as from the writers panel.  I may just upload those someday.

Update:  I wanted to capture a bit of the text from the source article here:

Go behind the scenes of “Leverage,” and you’ll get an equally forward look at an inside job. Taking a page from his own script, “Leverage” Executive Producer and consummate industry insider Dean Devlin has created the show’s first 13 episodes entirely within the walls of Electric Entertainment, his full-service production shop, using a completely self-contained digital post workflow anchored by Final Cut Studio.

"We do the entire show in Final Cut Studio," says Devlin, who also runs Electric Entertainment. "We shoot on the Red One camera, bring it back on hard drives, and put it in our Xsan. Then every department here pulls off those servers whether it's for digital effects, sound effects, sound mixing, picture editing, color correction, everything. And it never leaves our building. This is all able to happen because of Final Cut Studio."

I admit I knew nothing about the creators/producers/writers of Leverage prior to attending the con, but after hearing them talk on several panels and especially after seeing them fill time for 2 hours and keep in interesting...I'm starting to fangirl these guys.  I just now checked out Devlin's IMDB entry.  He was the producer on Independence Day, Stargate, The Patriot...  I'm impressed.  Plus I love how his studio is so self contained.

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Here's all the autograph stuff from the Con-Con.  The autographs were very reasonable!  At least in comparison with the SPN autos!!  Each autograph was $15 which INCLUDED an 8x10 head shot on heavy paper.  Plus they even gave you a plastic protection sleeve to keep the photos in!  PLUS--the auto tickets themselves were very cool. 
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I'm tired, so I'm not writing much about Day 3 (although it was great!).  I'll post more over the next few days.

But here's my photo op with the Five.  Tim has intense eyes.  He makes a real point to look you in the eyes and greet you.  (And as Fickleone said, now I've touched an Academy Award winner!)  Beth made a point of turning around and looking at me to say Hi!  And Christian....well, first he accidentally stepped on my foot (he apologized).  Then both he and Tim put their arms around my back (you can just barely see Tim's fingers on my shoulder)--and after the photo was snapped, Christian snapped my bra strap. 

No kidding. 

Then a funny expression passed over his face and my first impression was that he thought he was tweeking Tim's arm.  But I can't decide if perhaps he just thought he was tugging my shirt or what.  He kinda looked a little embarrassed and mumbled something that might have been an apology. I said it was no big deal (or something like that.) 

And I didn't think it was a big deal--but it did surprise/fluster me a bit!  But in a good way!  Ha!  This is just a photo of a the photo--so the quality is bad.



Here's a Christian story for you.  The day before, Chris had to leave early from the auto session.  For those who were going to be there on Sunday it was no real big deal as we were allowed to get first in line on Sunday to get his auto.  But some had to leave return home on Sunday.  One girl who had been standing next to us in the registration line for 3 hours--she was there with her mother.  When they were told Chris had to leave, the mother said something like it wasn't a bit deal for herself, but her 16 year old daughter was disappointed. The con runners took their names and contact info to see if they could send them something.

Fickleone and I learned today that the girl received a phone call at 7pm later that evening saying if she could be in front of the hotel by xx o'clock, they would be taken to see Chris rehearse that night.  They were driven to the house where Chris and his band were rehearsing and the band did a song just for them and then she got her photo taken with Chris.

Nice story!

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As I said in my last post, Mark came up to the audience mic at the end of the creator/writers panel and asked [paraphrasing here] "What about all the terrific guest actors, when are you going to bring them back?"  Everyone started cheering--it was Mark at the mic.  I turned around and got some close-up photos while Mark and the creators/writers bantered back and forth.

I was seated just a couple of rows in front of that mic.  I had already put my camera away, so I madly grabbed it out of my bag and snapped a few shots.
( larger photos under the cut... )

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I took some photos of the inside of the hotel and main convention room and a lot more of the SW Portland area.


( lots of photos under the cut... ).

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Still playing....

I may have found myself a new favorite subject.  I love the character of Parker on Leverage.  Plus Beth Riesgraf seems to be a nice person and she loves photography.  When we saw her at one of the Kane concerts in Portland she was snapping away. 

I think I may use one of these if I get her autograph at the Con-Con.


( under the cut.. )

....when fickleone emailed me that Jonathan Frakes was attending it was just enough to sway me over the edge.  Seems so strange to have this weird-ass mix of Leverage, SPN, & Star Trek all in one con.  I'm going to be SO confused!

We're going for the weekend, general admission ticket for only $65 for all 3 days.  No autos/photo-ops included and fickleone and I may share some photo-ops perhaps.  We'll see how much they are.  It just seems strange to be going to a con in my own town and for only $65.  I know I couldn't deal with general admission for an SPN con--but I don't seem to mind for this one.  

It will be very interesting to compare a non-Creation Leverage con to a Creation SPN con.

Thanks to fickleone who is on a mailing list for ORYCON.  Here's some Leverage Convention information!

The con is called the ConCon (since Leverage is about con artists!)  It's scheduled for March 19-21 in Portland at the Governor Hotel. 

There's a website.  Right now it only has a splash page, but I guess info is supposed to be added soon (Friday?)  The website is here.

----------- here's the text of the email sent out to the ORYCON list ------