Update: July 26, 2013. Bravo passes on the pilot Rita. Will not be picked up to series.
Crew for Bravo’s first original drama pilot Rita turned the east parking lot of the West Vancouver Community Centre into a rich parents’ pickup point for fictional Connecticut private school Cabott Academy today. Adapted from a Danish series, Rita (Anna Gunn of Breaking Bad) is a forthright but witty teacher at Cabott Academy, one with a different view of life than the affluent, overprotective parents of her students. In a scene this afternoon, she walks out of the school’s Learning Annex where she has words with a parent and then talks with the school prinicpal Terrence (Josh Hamilton), who has a big crush on the sexy staffer, before she walks away.
It sounds like an easy scene to shoot until you consider the dozens of student and parent background performers leaving school at the same time and walking through a gridlock of luxury vehicles moving in a small confined area (extras were asked to bring their own high-end cars but wardrobe did a little upgrading to make the drivers look more like American east coast 1 per-centers). Director Miguel Arteta used a technocrane to cover the melee of students leaving and a second camera to focus on the two cast members.
Gridlock of luxury vehicles in the parking lot.
Director Miguel Arteta and star Anna Gunn discuss the scene.
Rehearsal with Anna Gunn in a warm coat and Josh Hamilton in his suit.
The scene.
Background.
Bravo’s other greenlit drama pilot The Joneses is not going forward.