I’m pretty sure it’s either Chris Evans or his stunt double, playing Steve Rogers in Captain America… the prosthetic feet are the giveaway, the black puffa jacket not so much :)

Shot from the public sidestreet at 12:37pm today (Sat 25th September) on my way to watch Man City / Chelsea down the pub :)

Update: looks like I picked the wrong day to leave the set early… someone has managed to get some great video on a Panasonic TZ10 camera from the end of Dale Street (by the Piccadilly Basin arch), of Chris Evans running towards the camera – view on YouTube here.

(please note this is not my video – it was shot by mrrandom177)

This must have been an hour or so after I left. Apparently the first unit wrapped around 4pm today and will now move on to Liverpool. The 2nd film unit will record pick-up shoots during the week in Manchester. Looks like I missed my chance to get any decent footage of Chris Evans :(

Can any vintage car buffs please help me identify the car make / model and year for my photos ? Leave me a comment on this blog post – thank you :)

Chrysler Royal:

What is the make of the car below?
Colour: Black, Number plate: EX · 3 · 31 · 42 / H32 · 442 / DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

more photos after the jump

Here you can see the workers spraying mud and dirt on the car:

I have many more photos that I haven’t yet editted and uploaded so please check back later

Stunt cars being prepared for explosions:

View in 720p on YouTube (P1040668.MOV)

Are you a vintage car buff? Can you help me identify all the make/model/years? If so, please leave a comment :)

Check back tomorrow as I will upload all my photos of the cars… the video above only shows the ones parked on Tariff Street, there were about 24 in total around the set.

Update:
Since making this blogpost I’ve added 8 more vintage car videos:

1940s Cars Video 1 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040653.MOV)

This first new video shows all the cars being kept in the nearby underground car park, and was shot on Mon 20th Sept 2010 (all my other car videos below are from Tues 21st Sept). The cars were being washed and polished and having work done to them. Not all of these were brought out on to the set for rehearsals on Tuesday (you can’t see clearly, if at all in this video, but there was a green one in the far right corner, there’s also a yellow taxi like vehicle way at the back. Actually… thinking about it the green car might be a Buick that was on set.)

1940s Cars Video 2 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040671.MOV)

1940s Cars Video 3 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040689.MOV)

1940s Cars Video 4 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040691.MOV)

1940s Cars Video 5 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040692.MOV)

1940s Cars Video 6 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040673.MOV)

1940s Cars Video 7 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040676.MOV)
Workers spraying on mud and dirt onto the 1940s cars

1940s Cars Video 8 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040677.MOV)

1940s Cars Video 9 – view in 720p on YouTube (P1040654.MOV)

Added a final tiny clip one, this was shot ages ago – last week on Friday 17th Sept at 4:41pm, and doesn’t show much except the cars all covered in tarpaulins:

1940s Cars Video 10 – view in 720p on YouTube (.MOV)

Update: Fri 24th Sept @ 13:51pm
I have managed to find out that Richard Armitage is 100% for sure in Captain America, and that his character is Heinz Kruger. He is filming two scenes on set today in Manchester.

Update: Mon 11th Oct @ 21:44pm
This has now been officially confirmed by ‘Richard Armitage – Heinz Kruger’ being added to the IMDb entry for Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

I noticed on Twitter this evening that several people on a Richard Armitage fansite (via richardarmitagenet.com) are speculating that Richard Armitage (Wikipedia entry) star of the BBC’s Spooks and Robin Hood can be spotted in my Captain America set walk-thru video around the 30 second mark (embedded again below)

I took a fair amount of video and photos around the time I shot that video yesterday, so I’ve gone back and tried to find a close-up shot. Unfortunately I don’t have a clear image of the actor in the black leather jacket, but I’ve zoomed to 100% any images where that person appears and stitched them into a makeshift image:

Does that make things any clearer? I will go and check out the other videos I shot and update this post if I find anything..

Richard Armitage links

• Richard Armitage Wikipedia
• rafrenzy.com
• www.richardarmitagenet.com

Update1:
Here’s a couple of screenshots from the walkthrough video that I editted and cropped slightly from the 1280×720 video (click for larger image):

Update2:
the feedback I’m getting in the comments are that this *is* Richard Armitage. I’m afraid I haven’t seen Spooks or Robin Hood personally so I have no idea :)

Update3:
Here is another video I shot (I wasn’t planning to upload but it might help)

Update 4:
Another video

Update 5:
This video below shows director Joe Johnston (with back to camera, grey hair and dark blue top) on the set of Captain America yesterday (Tue 21st Sept), the day before filming began. Also Richard Armitage again in the background:

He’s also kindly put a live stream over on his Ustream channel – AMAZING!

Update: Wed 22nd Sept at 14:59pm it seems to have gone down now, so we’ll replace it with a link rather than an embed: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bodtv

However – some great photos taken high up from the flats above the action can be found on the captainamericafilmingmanchester.co.uk blog

Here’s an example of the kind of shot I was getting from the Piccadilly Basin side using only a 70mm lens on a Canon 20d:

The guys in the blue ‘WALKER’ jacket are there to take local residents and workers (in the businesses and offices still open on Dale Street) in and out of the film set.

Update:
Just looking through some photos I shot on my little Lumix TZ7 (which has an optical x12 zoom) and I think some of the pictures might be worth posting:

If you would like to embed this video on your own site, please provide a credit and a link back to hobbsy.com – View the video in 720p on YouTube

This walk-through video was shot around 3:30pm (Tue 21st Sept) when the directors, stunt-coordinators and set designers (from what I could tell) were having some kind of rehearsal / meeting before tomorrow’s hotly-anticipated explosion and car chase. There were a couple of cars in front of the ‘Bankside Music Store’ and ‘Brooklyn Antiques’ (whose sugar-glass windows will be blown out in the stunt) and a few guys who were either stand-ins, stuntmen or actual cast members…

I’ve been cross-referencing Google Images to see if any of the cast were there, but perhaps not? I heard on Twitter that Chris Evans (who plays the lead role as Steve Rogers / Captain America, not the wacky ginger TV/radio presenter!) was meant to be turning up at 2:30pm, but I don’t know if that was true/actually happened. I saw one stunt guy/director showing another (the pair are labelled as ’3′ in this photo) how he would throw himself backwards from the blast . I have a feeling the director Joe Johnston may have been there too (and maybe even appears in my video or photos – is he the guy in the yellow jumper in this photo? Please leave a comment if you can! ). (edit: Joe Johnston is in the blue fleece/grey hair, facing the camera)

Here’s a couple of photos of the ‘rehearsal’ / stunt meeting shown in the video – can you identify anyone famous cast or crew. Click on the bit.ly links in green for zoomed photos – apologies for the quality.

Dear #captainamerica fans: can u identify guy in yellow jumper & behind him the dark haired guy? http://bit.ly/ceqnP1 http://bit.ly/aT73jU

#captainamerica Can u identify any1 in this photo? Stand-ins or Hollywood? :) http://bit.ly/cKBkej http://bit.ly/dBpqUE http://bit.ly/arw5Lh

(click for a large zoomed image)

in this zoomed image:
’1′ – in the leather jacket looks like he could be a cast member or stuntman edit: this is Richard Armitage
’2′ – the muscular guy could may be a stand in for Chris Evans (or even the man himself?)
’3′ – as mentioned above this pair were rehearsing getting blown off their feet
’4′ – possible Assistant Director / stunt co-ordinator ? Edit: apparently this is director Joe Johnston!

Please leave a comment if you have any info, or can spot anyone in the video or photos

I will do a separate blogpost on the 1940s cars as I took literally hundreds of photos today

I also saw a white van with ‘Bickers Action – Film and TV Action’ written on it – check out their website www.bickers.co.uk, they appear to have been involved with stunts on James Bond, Top Gear and Eastenders, and another van that said ‘Camera Revolution’ – their website is camerarevolution.com

Over the past week I’ve been visiting the set of Captain America pretty much daily – taking photos as Dale Street (in Manchester’s Northern Quarter) is transformed into a 1940s Brooklyn neighbourhood. The actual filming doesn’t start until Wednesday (22nd Sept), but the set designers have been hard at work for several weeks, meticulously preparing the period shop-fronts, painting brickwork, cleaning windows, replacing blinds, putting up vintage street lamps, even down to replacing the manhole covers. Over the past few days they’ve also been stocking the shops with vintage 1940s cameras, cigars, medicines, foodstuffs, antique furniture and artificial limbs (!)

From what I’ve heard the actual action may only take up 40 seconds of screen time (or at most 2-3 minutes). The scene will be a car chase and an explosion. I think last Wednesday(?) they were filming sugar glass windows being blown out. No word yet whether any of the actual stars (Chris Evans, Samuel L Jackson, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving etc.) will be here in Manchester this week to film. You can check out a full cast list of Captain America on IMDb.

New stuff I noticed/found out today (Mon 20th Sept):

• the road is now closed to traffic
• massive backdrop for the end of the street being put up
• wedding shop being fitted with dummys in bridal dresses
• the manhole covers have been fitted with hoses – authentic rising steam perhaps?
• impressive new clock on top of lamp post
• the vintage cars stored in the underground car park were being washed/polished
• local residents have been given Marks & Spencers vouchers for the inevitable disruption

You are welcome to use my Captain America photos on your own non-commercial blogs, providing you keep the watermark visible (HOBBSY.COM) and link back to this site. If you’d like higher res photos for newspaper/magazine publication please use the contact form to get in touch.

Here’s a few quick ones from today – these first four show the street backdrop being constructed (taken around 5:30pm Mon 20th Sept):

Few more :

New wedding shop window with dummys in bridal dress:

Here’s a few more in a gallery