Supernatural (season 2) - Production - Filming

Filming

Principal photography took place in Vancouver, British Columbia. The crew used two cameras simultaneously for each scene, which allowed for two different angles to be filmed of the same sequence. The series usually has a dark atmosphere, though production purposefully created a contrasting appearance for certain episodes. "Hollywood Babylon" details the filming of a fake horror movie, and the use of two filming styles helped make a distinction; scenes of the fake film used more saturated colors, while scenes for the actual episode were "down to reality". To depict the perfect world of "What Is and What Should Never Be", the usual shadows and "moody lighting" more made colorful and warm.

Problems during production sometimes arose. For his scenes as the yellow-eyed demon Azazel throughout the season, Fredric Lehne wore hard, colored contact lenses that greatly obscured his vision. The production crew placed sandbags on the floor to help him locate his marks. Lindsey McKeon, who portrayed a Reaper briefly possessed by Azazel in "In My Time of Dying", also experienced the same problem. Her scene—she touches Ackles' forehead—took nine takes to film because she kept missing. Filming for "What Is and What Should Never Be" was interrupted in order to accommodate the busy Adrianne Palicki. Production shifted to the following episode after five days of filming, and resumed when Palicki became available for the final three days.

Because the series uses few standing sets, set designer Jerry Wanek often had to construct entirely new sets for each episode. Outside elements had an influence on some designs, with the bar in the hotel of "Playthings" being an homage to The Shining. A Wisconsin native, Wanek was able to incorporate personal items into the motel set for the Wisconsin-based episode "Nightshifter"; because polka is part of the state's culture, he used posters from his father's old polka band, as well as photos of his nephews and Wisconsin landmarks. Due to "Tall Tales"'s atmosphere, that episode's motel was designed to be "over the top". Wanek noted, "They were in this really odd-looking motel that had crystal chandeliers and carved beds, turquoise stove and refrigerator, and this wonderful period linoleum on the floor. I thought it really matched the tempo and emotion of the show." At times, however, Wanek was able to reuse old sets. The loft set from "No Exit" was redesigned into an apartment for "Crossroad Blues", and the bar in "Born Under a Bad Sign" was a refurbished Roadhouse set.

Not all scenes could take place in the studio, and some were instead shot on location. The vault scenes in "Nightshifter" were filmed in an actual bank safe, as production would not have been able to construct one on set. Outside shots were filmed in downtown Vancouver, forcing streets to be closed off. The crypt of "Houses of the Holy" was built underneath St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church, with plastic used to imitate sculpted stone. Riverview Hospital—used as a filming location in previous episodes—was used for the premiere "In My Time of Dying". It also functioned as a jail in "Folsom Prison Blues" due to, as Wanek describes, "the texture on the walls, the lack of any humanity in the design, and the materials used to build it..." However, the prison block was built on a sound stage. The final scenes of "Simon Said" were filmed at Cleveland Dam, and "All Hell Breaks Loose, Part One" made use of a pre-existing set built for the Western television series Bordertown. The climax of "Part Two" was originally to take place in an actual cemetery, but numerous issues forced production to film the scene in the studio.