Day 1.
So I’ve learned at least what my show is about – sort of. The series is for “Investigation Discovery” channel and is about a FBI investigation. I’ll leave the title out for now so that this blog doesn’t pop up in my Executive Producer’s “google alerts.” The gist of the series is that each episode takes one crime and follows the investigation through twists and turns until the perp is caught. Ideally, each episode has several red herrings and that’s what keep the viewers interest. From what I gather, each crime is a murder, and many involve rape & abduction, and sometimes a child. Why this country is so fascinated with gruesome murder is endlessly, well, fascinating to me – but that’s for another entry.
The visual feel of the show is “active.” Seriously, that’s what bosses will tell you. One word vague descriptions. They’ll say things like, “we want the show to feel very ‘active.’ Get your interviewees to do stuff.” What they mean is that they want people to point while they talk, and walk at the scene of the crime while they narrate how he/she was tied up then strangled, or to re-draw a chalk outline, etc.
My episode is being called “Sex & Candy.” It takes place in Washington D.C. in 2003. The story told to police is that a husband and wife went out for dinner, then home to have sex. The wife required candy after sex so she left in their car to go purchase some chocolate. She was found the next day in their SUV with 4 gunshots to her head
My task for today – and for this week - is to learn all the details of the crime, the perp & victim, and the investigation. Also, I need to figure out who the development dept. has set up for me to interview. 5-7 interviews are customary, with two of them being FBI agents, at least one family member close to the victim, and a slew of other authorities. Ideally, they’ll all be in D.C. to minimize travel. The challenges with booking interviews are many: a) Some people don’t like to talk about violent crimes in their past (who knew?) b) Working with the FBI is like dealing with petulant children, only more difficult. There’s an endless array of requests for permission, forms to fill out, red tape to walk through, etc. c) If there’s an appeal to the conviction or sentence, many times lawyers (and cops) cannot speak on the case until the appeal is adjudicated. This can take years. d) People go on vacation just the week you want to shoot with them.
I have a shooting treatment due to the network by Friday, yikes! I should probably find out how long that’s supposed to be. We shoot in D.C. the week of 2/20, so everything’s got to be lined up by then.
Did I mention I’m writing this from the Albuquerque airport and that I’m not entirely finished with the previous shoot I was on? Yeah. They don’t give you much recovery time. Oh well, it is 12:30 and I got a 20oz Santa Fe Pale Ale to help the hour I have before the flight back to Chicago – where apparently a blizzard is brewing.
