Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1480624
cafeteria, like a red brick wall and the round yellow columns, but red brick was rare in Miami, so it had to be minimal. Even more rare was finding red brick in San Juan. The school set needed the largest footprint and would be built on the far end of the warehouse for various reasons, so it had to be designed first. Despite only having a handful of scenes to shoot at a real location, finding the place the production would shoot was critical to starting the layout. I needed some connective tissue. Vivian took me to the most beautiful location I'd seen on the island, a private grammar school designed by German architect Henry Klumb (although they've kept that fact a bit of a secret so dorky tourists like me don't wander the grounds). I knew it was perfect immediately. It had all the outdoor walkways and lush grounds you'd find in Miami under expansive ceilings that protect from the rain. The campus had layers that fit what I wanted to do for the set, and although a school does not need to be stunning, it doesn't hurt. The producers liked the depth of the "outdoor" cafeteria used in the pilot, so my challenge was making the series' version look realistic on stage. To me, that meant not just surrounding an open set with flat backings. Puerto Rico is no stranger to production, but Gordita Chronicles was only the third union television series to land on the island, just on the heels of Sony's first Fantasy Island season. The majority of work there for decades has been film, usually large studio pictures with lots of action and stunts. In fact, a Gerard Butler movie called The Plane was there prepping when I landed, which meant finding local crew was difficult. I mean, really…finding crew anywhere in the world at that moment was tricky. Productions were popping up hourly with competitive wages that made enticing people, even to the Caribbean, a challenge. When it became clear we'd have to bring more crew than anticipated, the logistics of coordinating that ate into precious prep time. I could almost hear the production countdown ticking. Add in a mild tropical storm and some delays in getting our offices ready and the pressure mounted. C D E F