This past Friday, I was among a group of journalists who had the opportunity to visit the Vancouver sets of both Arrow and The Flash. With Arrow going strong in Season 3 and The Flash bringing in impressive ratings in its first two weeks, excitement is growing for the big crossover storyline the shows have coming up, in the eighth episode of each show this season.

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During our visits to the sets, we spoke to both Stephen Amell (“Oliver Queen” / “Arrow”) and Grant Gustin (“Barry Allen” / “The Flash”) about what to expect when the heroes of Starling City and Central City come together.Said Gustin, “I was talking about this yesterday with a friend; about how Oliver and Barry are so different and me and Stephen are just really different. We really get along outside of work and it’s been fun to show Barry and Oliver kind of butting heads. We’re seeing them learn how to work together, but it’s really funny because they’re so different and the conversations they have are hilarious.”It’s been said that a really big moment will occur for Oliver Queen / Arrow during the crossover storyline, but specifically on The Flash episode of the storyline. Asked about this, Amell nodded and revealed, “It’s my idea. I can’t tell you anything about it other than it relates to Central City. When I saw it in the Flash script, it ended up being really actually quite gratifying. First of all, when I say it was my idea, everyone has ideas all the time. It all goes into a melting pot. I just thought it would be a cool idea. I thought it would be a cool idea for The Flash. It ended up being a cool idea that we were able to utilize me for because we were doing a crossover with The Flash. So it was very professionally gratifying.”Amell added, “I just spoke with [director] Glenn Winter on Wednesday. We were shooting some stuff for episode 308, which is our Flash crossover episode, and he said that he had seen a cut and it was his favorite thing that I have been involved in so far on the show. I can’t say anything about what it has to do with other than that the crossovers… We are very much guests in Central City and very much the rogue team in Central City. Just as much as Grant and the Flash team are guests here. We talk and we delve into the differences between Central City and Starling City but this particular moment is very much an Arrow-centric moment. “As to which character interactions he was most excited for during the crossover, Amell admitted, “It was me and Grant. I mean, episode 108 [of The Flash] is called "Flash vs. Arrow." Our titles aren’t just titles. You can bet based on the title that we fight. So, that whole dynamic -- which took place over three nights of shooting -- was a very new and different experience for me just from a technical standpoint, just because The Flash has so many effects. We do our fights [on Arrow]. On Monday, we are shooting the biggest fight we’ve ever done on Arrow in an incredibly practical way. I’m shooting 100% of it. I have no double. So that’s crazy and that’s us. This was them.”Said Gustin, “When [Arrow] shoot action sequences, pretty much what you see is what you get and they’re really doing everything. We do a lot of plate shots that are empty shots of the area we’re going to be in and then they’re putting us in later in post. I do a lot of the fighting. I don’t have to do it full speed and then they ramp it up and a lot of people have to freeze and I keep moving. Then I have to clear frame and step back into frame. It’s really tedious stuff that we have to do. On theirs, they learn fight choreography and they shoot it from the perfect angles and what you see is what you get.”Recalled Amell, “I actually had to do a move [in the crossover] where I’m going to punch and I had to punch in slow motion and literally do slow motion faces and all that stuff. All the little things are… You can tell that the writers have been waiting for the opportunity to mix these worlds and mix certain characters for a long time.”“Central City and Starling City are very different places,” Amell noted. “When I go to Central City, it’s very much ‘All right, I’ll tag along, we’ll do things your way.’ And then, the very next night, in our episode it’s, ‘I’m sorry, we’re not in Central City anymore. We’re doing things my way. Things are different here.’ So it’s a really interesting checkpoint for both shows because we’re able to teach these big lessons to the characters. So hopefully Oliver comes out of his trip to Central City having learned something and [Barry] comes out of his trip to Starling City having learned something as well.”When it came to mixing the worlds and characters of the show, Gustin remarked, with a grin, “It got confusing what’s on what show because we were shooting it all at the same time and the story is very much connected between the two episodes.”In terms of the character interactions, Amell said, “I personally really enjoyed working with Carlos [Valdes, who plays Cisco]. He’s just a very, very fun character and I think that one of the most interesting parts about the whole crossover is an observation that Oliver makes about Harrison Wells.“Given we spoke to both actors separately, it was quite amusing when both of them, unprovoked to do so, brought up the same actor as a highlight of this big event. Said Amell, “The unequivocal highlight of the entire crossover for me is David Ramsay. I could not keep a straight face during any of David Ramsay’s lines during the crossover to the Flash. It destroyed me. “Said Gustin, “David Ramsey is the funniest person in the world. Think about Dig seeing The Flash and who Dig is and having to accept that this is reality and he just plays that so well and it’s so funny. It’s great.”

The Flash/Arrow crossover will air during the eighth episode of both shows later this fall.Eric Goldman is Executive Editor of IGN TV. You can follow him on Twitter at @EricIGN , IGN at ericgoldman-ign and Facebook at Facebook.com/TheEricGoldman