Saturday, March 10, 2012

Grimm Episode 14 Portland filming locations

Grimm Episode 14: "Plumed Serpent"
Summary: "Nick finds himself in the heated world of Portland fire dancing where he meets a woman who might just be too hot to handle."

Hey, it's a Baldwin!
Our very own Daniel Baldwin, Lake Oswego resident, recently embroiled in legal troubles with his wife, brother of 30 Rock-Alec, guest-stars in this episode of Grimm.

I expected some sort of Chinatown, Year of the Dragon references in this episode, but I guess my instincts were off. Our fire-breathing dragons reside in big NW industrial warehouses.

Schoolhouse Electric
The opening scene highlights the exterior of Schoolhouse Electric, located at 3181 NW Nicolai St. Filming took place in early January. Now the home of Steelhouse Electric Factory, it originally housed Pacific Hardware and Steel Company in 1910. There is a great article from Neighborhood Notes a couple of years ago about the renovation of this historic building.

From the Schoolhouse Facebook page:
facebook.com/schoolhouseelectric
"Schoolhouse Electric Co - We think they will only show the first two floors of the building plus our basement where all the creepy things happen in the episode. It's suppose to be an abandoned warehouse so they made the second floor windows look boarded up, brought in barrel, pallets, garbage, leafs, etc for the loading dock and parking lot. They covered all of our Schoolhouse signs in the parking lot with "Truman Corp" signs so we are pretty sure no Schoolhouse branding will we exposed. Amazing how organized and quickly they made the transformation happen."

Throughout this episode and its dragon escapades, we see interior shots of this old Portland warehouse. You can catch more photos from the filming here at NBC.com.


Train Tracks (with snow - which day was this?)
In the opening scenes, some vague activity flashes by on one of those old-fashioned, hand-powered mine carts. Later in the show, Juliette is kidnapped by the Fire-Breathing Dragon Dancer, who sweeps her away on what Monroe calls a "Fairmont Section Car". Thanks Monroe, your knowledge of the arcane is just another reason everyone LOVES you.
Photo by M.O. Stevens
I initially thought this had been filmed on the Lake Oswego trolley line, but it was actually the Zoo Train, officially the Washington Park and Zoo Railway, AKA "the hippest little railway in Portland". I'm curious where they found the vintage Fairmonts.

Oregon Zoo posted a photo of their train tunnel-turned "dragon's lair" on Facebook:


"391 Clark St" Reference - nope, no such thing. There are Clark Rds and Aves nowhere near this scene.

Usual suspects: Police Station, Nick & Juliette's, Aunt Marie's trailer under the Fremont Bridge

Fire Dancers at Dante's
How appropriate. Nick & Monroe track down their Fire-Breathing Dragon Girl at a fire-dancing club venue, where she is the main attraction.  Back to Old Town.  Dante's on Burnside does indeed offer cabaret shows involving fire dancers, jugglers, and magicians, among other things.
dantelive.com 
I have to hand it to these guys for highlighting the considerable fire-dancing scene in Portland. But seriously folks, we do have a lot of "interesting" clubs and entertainers in Portland, which Grimm writers managed to seamlessly weave into the story line this week. For all you non-Portlanders watching Grimm, this is for real.


maps.google.com
House of the Fire Dancer / Fire-Breathing Dragon Girl 
Received the following tip from a reader, OldeSaultie:
Ariel (fire dancer) Eberhart's house
3947 NE Cleveland Ave
Portland, OR
http://g.co/maps/4a86x

Drama while driving around with Nick & Juliette:
We get some foreshadowing of things to come..."I can't promise this gets better", "We can't keep doing this". Nick...Aunt Marie warned you about her!

One theory floating around says Juliette is a Creature. Any other theories out there? I haven't really heard anyone talking about the reference to Romeo & Juliette, but the rather overt name choice begs the parallel. We all know it's a tragic romance! Are these two star-crossed lovers headed for big trouble?

My previous Grimm locations posts: http://www.mysouthwaterfront.com/p/grimm-index.html

You can view this and previous episodes online: www.nbc.com/grimm/

3 comments:

  1. Hello. Just wanted to say thank you for all the posts about filming locations for "Grimm". I'm a big fan of the show. One of my best friends moved from Austin to Portland a couple of years ago and I've visited there several times, so I get a kick out of it when I see things I recognize. I think it's great to see a network TV show filming full-time outside of Los Angeles. Filming on location makes this show feel very unique - definitely different from anything else on television right now.

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  2. Ariel (fire dancer) Eberhart's house
    3947 NE Cleveland Ave
    Portland, OR

    http://g.co/maps/4a86x

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  3. I know this entry is from last year, but wanted to let you know that the body double/fire performance for "Ariel" was done by the amazingly sweet and talented local stilter and fire performer, Shireen Press of Flamebuoyant Productions, Inc. ^_^

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