SHOOT STORY | THE CONFESS ION TAPES
people have different stories about what they remember so there is a Rashomon way of retelling the story. Memory changes so how people remember what happened is slightly different – we want to tell it from everybody’s perspective.” The filmmakers use their tools of the trade: the talking heads, the reconstruction, the B-roll views picking out subject matter from the conversations, the music, the rostrum camera and post reframing. “It’s a sort of re-enactment technique, but we tried as much as possible to not use actors,” continues Meena. “We used abstract objects and locations and we would let shots play out for a long period of time and move through a scene with a lot of camera movement. “We used some drone footage as well but tried to make it look a little bit more abstract. Instead of using it classically like for instance an establishing shot of a town, we would point it straight down and follow the line and geometric shapes of a street or parking lot where something happened. I think the geometry of spaces was something we wanted to play with a lot. “The thinking here is finding beauty in the mundane or to highlight things that look normal to us in real life, but when you focus on it you start seeing it in a different way. Also when you’re hearing the story, what they’re saying might provoke a thought and something different in the visuals that you wouldn’t otherwise be thinking about. It all adds up to a very dark show.” RAISING THE CASE Series creator Kelly
I got used to walking into a space and knowing what the best angle was in terms of lighting. We had to embrace the natural light
the freshly captured place to accentuate that realism – it’s very effective. “What I film can be very abstract but it helps a lot. We would get that kind of stuff as well as the spaces or locations where things happened. For instance, for a house where a murder took place we would shoot from different angles just as people are telling their different perspectives of what they think happened.” INTERVIEW TECHNIQUE Raking up the past for participants in murder trials can’t be easy, especially if their actions at the time of the trial were perceived as wrongful. Setting up one of these interviews needs plenty of patience and sensitivity; this is where Meena and Kelly worked best as a team. “We design what our aesthetic is going to be for each interview, but we don’t want every interview to have a completely different look,” explains Meena. “We want it to look like it comes from a body of work. But at the same time sometimes when we would go in to a space we would be working the interviewee and making sure they feel comfortable and they don’t get too scared by the cameras, lights and everything that I’m setting up in their home. So it has to be really quick and with the sheer number of interviews that we did I got used to walking into a space and knowing what the best angle was in terms of lighting. We had to embrace the natural light because I only had a couple of Litepanels with me, and we
to it a little bit later,” says Meena. “I hear about what she’s going through and who she is meeting with and we bounce ideas off each other even at that stage. I really come in to play when we’re on the ground filming, so much also happens when we’re filming. You have to make sure you get the interview and make sure you get what B roll that you need; we’re always on a tight schedule.” The B roll acts as glue to keep the story moving. Meena pulls out things from the confessions that has resonated and then finds the place or the thing mentioned to add that realism. The edit then butts up to the newsreel with
TRUE CRIME’S
POPULARITY During summer 2018, Netflix viewers could choose from 13 true crime series
Loudenberg spent most of her research time pursuing and persuading people to speak on camera about a case
that might have been done and dusted decades before. She even managed to put members of the prosecution in front of the lens. “She does all that and then I come in
ABOVE After episodes 1 and 2 dealing with this triple murder are aired, the case was reopened.
52 DEF I N I T ION | SEPTEMBER 20 1 8
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