Homeless in Vancouver: How to tell Kiesza didn’t shoot her video in East Van?

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      Kiesza is a mystery to me—a Canadian pop singer I was unaware of until I tripped over a reference to her two days ago.

      A few websites, one Wikipedia entry, and a music video later, I understand she’s originally from Calgary, Alberta, and that she was codebreaker for the Royal Canadian Navy before she switched to a career in music. Also, her debut single, "Hideaway", entered the U.K. singles charts at No. 1, knocking a single by someone else I’ve never heard of down a notch to No. 2.

      I enjoyed the video for "Hideaway". It’s bright, upbeat, and in constant sinuous motion—just like the song. The entire video is a continuous tracking shot. From the moment Kiesza emerges from a taxi cab, she walks, skips, and dances down the streets of a clean, bright, industrial neighbourhood, the camera always one step ahead of her. Along the way an ensemble of dancers pop in and out of the frame until, just like that, she gets into another cab.

      Location, location, location!

      I recognized the neighbourhood they filmed the video in as the area of warehouses and industrial retail located around the bottle depot at Ontario Street and 7th Avenue in East Vancouver, even though there are telltale signs that the location was really New York City.

      The cabs are marked as New York cabs, and anyway, we don’t have similar cabs in Vancouver and we certainly don’t have the Empire State Building and very little, if any, of our graffiti matches the excellence of what’s on display in the video.

      Otherwise I’d swear it was shot east of Cambie Street but west of Main; somewhere between 8th and 5th avenues. Same styles of buildings. Same fences. Same Dumpsters. Even the skyline, with the one notable exception—is generic and low enough to be the skyline I see every day when I take bottles into the Go Green bottle depot.

      I’m not even really convinced it isn’t East Van. They could have faked the cabs, edited in the Empire State Building, and even imported the decent graffiti.

      Stanley Q. Woodvine is a homeless resident of Vancouver who has worked in the past as an illustrator, graphic designer, and writer. 

      Comments

      8 Comments

      scottie

      Apr 23, 2014 at 10:26am

      dope

      joel

      Jul 6, 2014 at 4:36pm

      are you serious? there is nothing east van about this video, every detail... super confused, not sure if you are serious or not LOL

      wikipedia

      Jul 6, 2014 at 4:38pm

      In February 2014 Kiesza released the video for her new single "Hideaway" through the indie label Lokal Legend. Idolator considered it unique, for having a single take through the entire video, as Kiesza walked and danced through the streets of Brooklyn.

      Brent

      Aug 16, 2014 at 7:26am

      The video was shot in Brooklyn on the corner of 12th st and Kent.

      Martin Dunphy

      Aug 16, 2014 at 12:58pm

      The one thing that instantly jumps out at me in anything filmed in New York City are the bluestone slate sidewalks. Unmistakable, and slowly all getting replaced, unfortunately.

      Bryan Cerrati

      Dec 4, 2014 at 6:48am

      im guessing people from vancouver think that long island is east vancouver.

      You're wrong

      Dec 31, 2014 at 2:10pm

      Yeah, You're wrong. It's NYC.

      https://www.google.com/maps/@40.7227613,-73.9582194,3a,75y,18.48h,72.16t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sIYDAoUUPl-z2SSo9zXAgLw!2e0!6m1!1e1

      Martin Dunphy

      Dec 31, 2014 at 2:33pm

      You're wrong:

      That's what everyone is saying. FYI, Brooklyn is part of NYC.