True Crime in the Dock

The Staircase © 2021 WarnerMedia Direct, LLC. All Rights Reserved. HBO Max™ is used under license.

Demand for True Crime has soared in recent years. But, as filmmakers try to make their stories stand out from the crowd, are lines being crossed? makers investigates...

The recent fallout from true crime stories has put the role of filmmakers in the dock. The Dropout, the Hulu/Disney+ dramatisation of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of the fraudulent blood-testing startup Theranos, arrived at an awkward moment for the real-life case. The trial of Holmes’ business partner Sunny Balwani was held up when two jurors were dismissed by the judge, as they had watched the series, compromising their objectivity. Author Michael Petersen – convicted of the murder of his wife in 2003 – even credited a docuseries chronicling the case as being key to his eventual acquittal in 2017 since it showed him and fellow witnesses in a different light.

In Petersen’s 2019 book, Behind the Staircase, he expressed his gratitude to the documentary crew: “Allowing them to film everything was the wisest decision I made,” he wrote, “for during the trial, witnesses lied and committed perjury to convict me; it was all on film.”

The Beverley Allitt Tapes © Woodcut Media.

DOC FILMMAKERS MIGHT PURPORT TO TELL THE TRUTH BUT THEY MUST ALSO ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR INEVITABLE ROLE IN SHAPING THE STORY. THE PROBLEM IS THAT, ONCE YOU PUT A SUBJECT ON CAMERA, ARE YOU GETTING THE REAL PERSON OR SOMEONE PERFORMING?

Caught in the Net © Arrow Media. Do we need more distance and time before a True Crime team jumps into action?

“Our rule is never to film a case while still in court,” says Kate Beal, Founder and CEO of documentary producer Woodcut Media. “It’s legally impossible unless you’re working very closely with a channel.”

For the innocent wrongly accused of crimes, it’s arguably never too soon. But for those unresolved cases with no clear-cut perpetrator, sometimes turning the cameras on only serves to muddy the waters of already impossible cases to solve.

“We wait for a judicial review so there’s a professional legal result on which to base our stories,” says Tom Brisley, Co-Founder and Creative Director, Arrow Media. “The best programmes are truthful – they don’t cross the line.”

The 2022 HBO Max dramatisation of The Staircase, starring Colin Firth, only added to the murk since it included the original French-led documentary crew as characters in the drama.

Antonio Campos’ adaptation depicts the original documentary director Jean-Xavier de Lestrade and the series’ editor Sophie Brunet, acting in ethically questionable ways. De Lestrade is shown requesting multiple takes and more emotion while Brunet is portrayed as someone whose real life affair with Petersen altered her professional approach to the edit.

Documentary filmmakers might purport to tell the truth but they must also acknowledge their inevitable role in shaping the story. The problem is that, once you put a subject on camera, are you getting the real person or someone performing? “Our job as journalists is to reflect what we see,” Beal says. “You can only take people as they give themselves to you. If they alter themselves for the camera, that’s on them. It’s up to the viewer to make up their own mind.”

The dramatised approach taken by HBO’s The Staircase – in which a point of view is inserted into the story – is an exception to the rule.

“The viewer is educated enough to understand the truth as long as you present clarity to them,” Beal insists. “You naturally end-up forming a relationship with the people you film with and your relationship will always impact in some ways but it is your job to be as impartial as you can.”

“Our north star is the victim,” says Beal. “Every team member has to empathise with the understand the victim’s family. It’s crucial they are aware of what is going on and communicated with respectfully. Then you widen the circle, to try and speak to whoever is necessary to tell the story. Sometimes the victim’s family has asked us not to proceed so we walk away.”

Arrow adopts a similarly respectful approach. “Being true to the story requires being truthful to contributors. It means giving them space, being sensitive to their trauma and building trust. Trust is the key to telling the story.

“We also offer them support before and after filming with expert councillors. You’ve got to be able to protect them.”

TRUE CRIME DOCUMENTARIES

DRAMATISATION

“YOU CAN ONLY TAKE PEOPLE AS THEY GIVE THEMSELVES TO YOU. IF THEY ALTER THEMSELVES FOR THE CAMERA, THAT’S ON THEM. IT’S UP TO THE VIEWER TO MAKE UP THEIR OWN MIND.”

American Monster © Arrow Media.

THERE ARE TALKS ABOUT CODES OF PRACTICE FOR TRUE CRIME PRODUCERS BUT IT’S NOT A FORMAL OFCOM AGREEMENT AS TO HOW WE SHOULD OPERATE. Law enforcement are also very protective of victim family, he says. “They will only get involved if the victim family want the story to be told. The networks and streamers we work with all have rigorous standards. You can choose to work with broadcasters that have very high standards when dealing with victims.”

Nevertheless, as producers trip over themselves to cater for demand, those standards have slipped.

“Commissioners now tend to look for stories that happened in the last five to ten years,” Brisley says. “There’s a real desire for contemporary storytelling which is challenging because everyone is chasing the same stories.”

Beal reports a worrying practice starting to emerge with some programming which she says borders on harassment. “We’re very clear. You cannot harass a family who has lost a child.”

Rather than the fault of a few rogue crews this stems from the “pressure of a successful genre” she believes “It’s not one overzealous director, production company, or commissioner but a combination of everything. There are talks about codes of practice for True Crime producers but it’s not a formal Ofcom agreement as to how we should operate.”

There’s another side to duty of care too, one that often gets ignored. “True Crime is a really hard genre to make in terms of production personnel having to live with that content,” says Beal. “In our hybrid working world that can mean gaps in support when they are not in the office.”

Woodcut makes counselling available and runs courses for team members to be mental first aiders. “We can move people to another show if they have bad dreams. We encourage people to be talk about things. But we’re not perfect. We’re always seeking to do things better since working with these stories does have an impact.” True Crime is a form of specialist factual containing elements of psychology, social history and sociology which add depth to each story, she observes. Perhaps for this reason the genre tends to skew female, unless the subject is gangster related.

Beal began making murder and investigation docs in 2010 and helped pioneer the True Crime genre in the UK with shows like World’s Most Evil Killers. The success of Netflix’s Making a Murderer in 2015 transformed the genre out of single story, adjudicated, episodes into multi-episodes exploring one story from every angle. Beal thinks this trend has come full circle.

“The genre has matured and now there’s a roll back to single stories over one to three parts,” she says, citing the three-part The Beverley Allitt Tapes for Sky Crime. “A successful true crime structure should have a strong beginning, middle and end but the genre is big enough and the audience hungry enough to encompass many different forms.”

Woodcut’s The Killer in My Family, for example, tells the story from the perspective of the murderer’s family, including the impact it had on them.

Brisley spearheaded Arrow’s successful foray into the genre, which includes a slate of successful returning series for Investigation Discovery including Body Cam, See No Evil and American Monster.

“Broadcasters want exclusivity (such as never seen before footage), access to principals and a fresh angle to draw viewers in,” he says. “Fingerprints and DNA were once the smoking gun in helping authorities to solve crime but new digital methods often prove to be the most effective.”

DATA TRAIL MENTAL HEALTH

COUNSELLING

“ A FITBIT MIGHT TELL THE PRECISE TIME SOMEONE’S HEART STOPPED. A SMARTPHONE TRACKING APP WOULD SHOW ITS SPEED OF MOTION AND CAN BE USED TO IDENTIFY WHICH TRANSPORT THE THIEF IS USED TO GET AWAY.”

Arrow Media innovated the use of real CCTV to make See No Evil and recently turned to data to create Caught In The Net.

“The data trail we all leave behind can be used in extraordinary ways by police. A fitbit might tell the precise time someone’s heart stopped. A smartphone tracking app would show its speed of motion and can be used to identify which transport the thief is used to get away. The trick is to present essentially 1s and 0s imaginatively on screen.”