LADYSMITH — Filming for the third season of ‘Resident Alien’ has wrapped as the town was again transported to quaint Colorado.
The cast and crew arrived in the last week of March, shutting down streets and intersections around 1st Ave and Roberts St. in order to film several scenes.
Chris Sheridan, the show’s creator and showrunner, told NanaimoNewsNOW said Ladysmith was their preferred shooting location choice since season one.
“It’s got a great vibe to it, feels like a small town Colorado place, and we got really lucky. The architecture feels totally right and it works out great for us.”
There were some minor traffic disruptions in the downtown for filming, as well as dressing it up to look more like the fictional town of Patience, Colorado.
Sheridan said residents were “wonderful.”
“I know it’s an imposition to some people that we’re there because we take up a lot of space and we do our best to try not to change people’s lives too much while we are there, but it’s hard when you have a couple hundred crew members, trucks and equipment scattered around.”
Ladysmith was once again transformed into Patience, Colorado, as production crews wrapped up filming of the third season of Resident Alien. Photo from their second season. (James Dittinger/SYFY)Crews began arriving in town on Sunday, March 26, and spend the next three and half days filming parts of eight episodes in the season. Filming for this season was also done in Fort Langley.
Sheridan said it felt like a “homecoming” when they arrived in town again.
“Ladysmith will always be sort of the centre of our Patience universe because there are some hero locations in Ladysmith that we will always want to use…those very iconic, colourful in the middle of Ladysmith really have the same feel as a Colorado town.”
He said they will return to Ladysmith for filming as long as the town will have them, allowing locals to be used as extras in some of the shoots.
Banners with the name ‘Patience, Colorado’ could be seen on flag poles along main street, as well as an increase in the number of American flags, and set vehicles sporting Colorado license plates could be seen in town during filming. (Stan Holmes)Sheridan said he was able to keep a few traces of Ladysmith in the show, including the Ladysmith Trading Company building on First Ave.
“When we first shot there in season one, in post-production we were editing and they asked if we wanted to clear it in editing and take that sign off that building. I said no, because there could be a trading company called ‘The Ladysmith Trading Company’, and I thought it might be a nice homage to the town.”
Sheridan said their schedule has them finishing shooting around May 2, followed by a few months of post-production work before the new season will air sometime late this summer or in the fall.
Resident Alien airs weekly on Syfy and follows the story of an alien who crash lands on Earth and assumes the identity of a doctor in a small town.
The alien must navigate humanity while searching for his wrecked ship and completing his mission of destroying the people of Earth.
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