The Oakville Beaver, W e d n e s d a y D e c e m b e r 10, 2003 - B 7 Downtown Oakville becomes backdrop for TV pilot By Craig MacBride SPECIAL TO THE BEAVER Julia Restaurant in downtown Oakville was a scene of barely con trolled chaos last Tuesday when a production team for a television pilot took over the restaurant. Filming in Oakville for six days, the show is called The Coven. and if the pilot is successful, it will be picked up by Lifetime Network, an American channel directed towards female viewers. The premise of The Coven involves a woman returning to her hometown in upstate New York only to be recruited by the town's good witches in order to fight the bad witches. Being produced by Lion's Gate Entertainment and Valhalla, The Coven stars Paula Devicq, as the good witch returning to her home- Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver The production crew (right) sets up a scene for The Coven on Reynolds Street between Lakeshore Road and Robinson Street. Stunt d rivers (above) create a collision between and SUV and a police c a r for the TV pilot. town. Best known for her role as up by Illeana Douglas, recogniza the girlfriend of the oldest brother ble from her roles in Goodfellas in Party of Five. Devicq is blonde and The Adventures of Pluto Nash, with enormous eyes. She's backed and Nia Peeples. Shooting in the morning out side of the restaurant, it was a large production, with everyone seem ingly as busy as can be, running around in their parkas to protect them from the sub-zero tempera ture. In the afternoon, inside the restaurant, the situation was simi lar. albeit warmer. People were delivering equipment, moving cameras and having makeup done. The extras hung about awaiting direction while Douglas was being primped, having her hair and boots touched up. The director was overseeing a lighting setup and assistants were nearby with their Blackbeny hand held computers in front of them. All the while, people were holler ing to one another across the room or talking through headsets. After 40 minutes of continuous activity, the actors sat down at a table, the director's assistant yelled, "quiet, please. Rehearsal's Barrie Erskine · Oakville Beaver up," and the packed restaurant went quiet. Following the run How do you tell a real cop and which is the TV cop? Easy, the through of the lines, checking cues real cop, H alton Regional Police C onstable Kevin N laher gets to and lighting, someone mentioned w ear a w inter hat to protect him self from the cold w eather w hile that with the sun falling behind the the TV cop, acto r Jam es Thom as, who plays officer F ran k G ran t buildings across the street and in the Coven, has to keep his face uncovered for the film shoot. since the background of the pri mary shot was a window onto the street, they all had to hurry up. 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