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The Avengers

"The Avengers" Movie - Shooting visit in Cleveland

Thursday 25 August 2011, by Webmaster

So this past Saturday, I took the two and a half hour journey up to Cleveland (I’m from Columbus) to try and get a glimpse of the The Avengers shoot that is happening up there. I felt like it was a crapshoot as to whether or not I was going to see anything. I had read that filming was supposedly ending the day I was headed up there. The D23 Expo was happening, with cast members in attendance, that same day which didn’t bode well either. So I was a little worried I’d show up with nothing to see. I wasn’t going to let that worry me too much though. I was still pumped to be going there, even sporting my Captain America shield t-shirt to show just how much of a geek I am. Thankfully, my trip up there proved both fruitful and awesome! I also learned that they will be shooting in Cleveland through this week at the very least (with Scarlett Johansson). So here is a description of what I encountered during my visit, complete with photos! (All the images can be clicked on to see them bigger and you can also check out the complete 44-photo gallery of my visit on the Monster Popcorn facebook page here.)

Within two minutes of parking the car on Euclid Ave., I saw someone walking on the opposite side of the street towards me that looked pretty familiar, even though they were too far away to be able to discern their identity. Enver Gjokaj (Victor from Joss Whedon’s Dollhouse) instantly came to mind and I thought to myself, how funny would that be if that was him? Sure enough, as the person got closer, it was Enver! I instantly regretted not having my camera out and that I wasn’t on the other side of the street as I sure as hell wasn’t going to run across the street with my camera in hand yelling “hey wait a minute!” I’m not that desperate. But this wouldn’t be the last time I saw him during my visit.

So as Enver walked towards the E. 9th St. set, I continued on my way to check out the set that was still under construction at Public Square/Terminal Tower. I had heard online reports of an Oktoberfest-looking area with beer pavilions being put up. When I got there, I saw the little pavilions containing beer taps that I had read about but soon came to the realization that that this area of town was being transformed for a Germany-set location in the film. All the street signs and facades being put up were not in english and they had three flags raised on the flagpoles, one of which was the flag of Germany. They had constructed an overhanging facade of what could have been a movie theater or department store titled “SchloBplatz” on the side of Terminal Tower. One of the windows to the right of the SchloBplatz overhang had been window-dressed to look like a toy or candy store. I could walk underneath the big purple overhang with the set construction crew milling about. I walked right up to the toy/candy store window and got to look at all the detail they put into it. They had roped off the Public Square area where the beer pavilions were at and I could see another crew member taking down the adjacent Renaissance Hotel signs and replacing them with “Hotel Strasse” signs. They had tons of lighting equipment lined up on the street ready to be put up. No filming was happening there that day but it was really cool to see the nearly finished set being built.

After getting my fill of the Germany set, I walked a few minutes towards E. 9th St. and Euclid Ave. This is where the New York City set was. As I approached it, I walked by quite a few Marvel Film Productions trucks as well as semi-trailer parked on the side of the street that said “Screening Theater.” I imagine this was where they would watch dailies and I wanted to find a way to sneak in and take a peek but alas, that wasn’t going to happen. The screening theater trailer was parked right next to the catering area which also held the Star Wagons-branded trailers for some of the actors. I don’t know who was staying there currently but Chris Evans was definitely a possibility as he didn’t attend the D23 Expo. I was actually amazed by how close I could get to the catering area. I literally could walk right up to the gate and just hang out. Every time I passed by the catering area, I would look in to see if I saw any recognizable cast or crew members.

Click on the link for more :

http://themonsterpopcorn.com/2011/08/23/i-saw-captain-america-my-trip-to-see-the-filming-of-the-avengers/