TMI Set Day 17: Michelle’s report from the CITY OF BONES set

Filming on the highly-anticipated adaptation of THE MORTAL INSTRUMENTS: CITY OF BONES continued on Wednesday in Toronto at the Institute. I, Michelle (@MichelleMags), your Toronto Correspondent, headed to the Institute for the first time on this location. Check out my full report:

Hello Shadowhunters! Quickly after school, I head out to the possible set location based on my hunches the previous night. I arrived the area and got lost for a bit but thank you, iPhone Maps app for being so reliant on times like these. I walk around the neighborhood until I see the castle and walk straight ahead. I kept chanting in my head “the set is here, the set is here, the set is here” I began seeing pylons. They’re just pylons, they could be anyone’s pylons, I told myself. I keep walking until I see the entrance and I look to my left and there you have it, the food truck! I jay-walked and walked further inside the lot and by the doors of the castle I see the equipment and familiar crew faces

About half an hour later I see Karen walking to the entrance of the castle and she turns and glances my way then looks again and waves hello and I immediately waved back with a grin. A few minutes later she walks by again and walks up to me: “I think it’s only fitting that you get this first,” Karen says and reaches for something in her bag. My heart races as she pulls out this handful of rubber bracelets and it took all my will power not to dance right in front of her. “To our super fans,” she said then added “limited edition black bracelets, there’s gonna be more colors though”

I respond with a “oh my god, thank you! Black is the best, it’s Shadowhunter color” she smiled and nodded in agreement. We speak to each other for a good minute or two then she had to go and I say, “see you later!” Later on at 5 pm when I see her again I say, “I’ll be here until the end, y’know, I won’t mind the other colors too!” she laughed and said, “I’m sure”

Danila (Dani) then came and we spoke while waiting for Nicole, Melanie and Rebecca to arrive. Karen then approached us again and handed a bracelet to Dani as well! As we wait for the others Dani and I admire the building’s beauty. Hartley arrives and he waves hello to us. A moment later, Jamie comes out of the doors and walks to the truck. Hartley passes by again but then walks towards us. I apologize about last Friday and not being able to have said a proper goodbye and thanked him again for the ice cream. Then he had to go back to work. We knew we’d see him again later. Eventually Rebecca came then the two sisters: Melanie and Nicole. We all hung out by the wall and sat there, gazing on the building, watching the trucks come and go.

We see Jamie again and he walks slowly to the doors as if saying, “I’m gonna make you want me more” We already like you too much. Then we start thinking of ways for them to see us. Melanie begins chanting “lookatme,lookatme,lookatme” then Rebecca joined in and they both stood up on the ledge and immediately Rebecca saw Rob come to set but entered through the side doors, wearing a white wife beater shirt (as Rebecca describes). Then Melanie and Rebecca begin dancing “lookatme, lookatme, lookatme” the chanting worked. Oh definitely it did… to the crew who kept laughing at us! I even got a video of Mel and Rebecca dancing—but I’ll save that for later!

Karen came back and gave more wristbands for the rest of them!

Hartley waved hello to the rest of us and sent one of the crew guys to give us lollipops. Thank you Hartley!

Then the sun was setting and our stomachs were growling we thought of having pizza delivered to us but we didn’t have enough money. Eventually we moved up to the pavement/ closer to the entrance doors and decide if we should all go eat. To be honest, we didn’t want to move and go anywhere, thinking that if we leave we’d miss something. Eventually our stomachs won the fight and we head down the hill and buy pizza and Tim Hortons. Then we head back to set and just spent the rest of the night: talking and laughing like crazy. We all sat on the cold pavement and Hartley comes to us and says, “is the ground cold? Are you guys alright?”

Dani, our little runner who brought her ADORABLE little brother Xaver (SAH-VER) says, “how about hot chocolate?” I say I apologize for the way she asked “she’s fifteen” I explained jokingly and we all, including Hartley, laughed.

“You know what, I’ll tell the Kraft ladies to get you guys some hot chocolate, alright?” and as we all say “aw”, “thank you”, “aw, thanks, Hartley” simultaneously, Hartley counts how many of us were there. Then he walks away and comes back with the two Kraft ladies we see all the time and they hand us a cup of hot chocolate. It was seriously delicious. Thank you so much, Hartley and TMI crew!

Then Hartley gets talking with Xaver until Hartley tells Xaver to come with him and we thought he was bringing Xaver inside but he just lead him to the table of food right in front of us and we bring back our attention to our delicious hot chocolates. Melanie and I spent the night teasing the life out of each other either with Hippie Guy or Blondie Guy. Hartley and Xaver comes back and Xaver walks to me, with his arm outstretched and handed me another lollipop and Hartley explains, “I gave him a choice: if he wanted to just get candy for himself or get lollipops for everyone and he chose everyone” and we all pull Xaver to a hug. Cute little boy!

Thanks again, Hartley.

Half an hour later, Kevin comes out and looks at the table of food. While we all just sit there and gaze at him. We waved hello and he would look up and smile then resume with picking his food. Then Dani and Xaver had to leave and we all decide to leave too.

As we cleaned up, I asked Andrew for a trash bin and he says “just over the corner there” he points to the set doors and I walk there and I think I hear the other crew guy go “what?” and Andrew defends loudly, “oh it’s not like she’s gonna run in there I know her” and Rebecca trailed behind me as we threw out more of our garbage. Then I walk out and to Andrew and said, “yeah Andrew, you’ve known us long enough to know that we don’t run” and Andrew laughs and says, “yes I know you don’t run,” then added to the other crew guy “see they’re pretty cool”

We all huddle in a circle, including Andrew and just talk about how our days went and etc… then we all knew that it was 10:30 and we had to head home so we all tell him to have a goodnight and he says goodnight too.

This day is one of the best because it was just so fun. I love the group of people I’m with! And I guess it’s because my group of friends have been on set so much that we all feel like family to each other and to Andrew and the rest of the crew. It’s seriously so easy, and feels nice, to be able to talk to the crew people without fearing they’d bite your head off.

That wraps up our TMI Set Day 17. Stay tuned for my TMI Set Day 18 report to be posted tomorrow! I apologize that this report seems rushed, which it is, I’ve just got so many deadlines going on that I just wrote this one play-by-play instead of with details like my old reports. I promise to make it up to you fellow Shadowhunters.

Much love,

Michelle Mags