BE SAFE - WE HAVE HOPE!

 

BEHIND THE SCENES OF "THE FBI VAULT" - PART 3

However, our audience was not interested in becoming actors (except for one - thank you Tara) so I decided to move ahead and use actors - but not the actors I usually work with; actors I have never worked with; and in the beginning of October the following casting notice was submitted to "Backstage":

"Casting "The FBI Vault," a virtual murder mystery. Seeking five actors, as diverse as possible, to be five "suspects" of the mystery. All you need is a phone or a laptop. Production will work with talent to develop about five minutes of personalized scenes, dialogue, etc. in which you are a suspect and possible killer. It's all done in your home by yourself on your time. Once all the scenes are broadcast, audience members vote on who is the killer."

I received over 160 submissions and 36 of them struck my interest and stated they wanted to be a part of the project. And it was at that point, that I decided to change the plot from a real FBI story to one of my own: the murder of a millionaire who was trying to fund research for a vaccine to stop a pandemic. And I chose to set it for the early 1950's and the polio pandemic as the time period, etc. 

I developed a basic plot and concept: each actor would have just 4 lines. And to the 36 actors, I sent the following email which indicated my intent to make two different versions with their instructions, etc.:

"Hi everyone – I’m doing this by mass email so thank you all for participating. We have actors from all over the world so this will be special…hopefully.

You have been divided into groups. Group A the victim is a male millionaire, Group B the victim is female. Same story just sex reversed. In each group, one of you is the victim, 5 of you are suspects/killers, each with a motive, and one of you is my assistant.

This all takes place in an interrogation room. Do your lines shooting horizontal camera position and put each line or beat in a separate file. If you can have the background as a blank wall, that is preferred but not required. For the props, whatever you have or just shoot it so that it appears you have something. Use your skills as there is no direction other than the victim is rich, the suspects are each nervous as the audience can choose any one of you as the killer. The assistant character is “bad cop/good cop” bit.

Email me at killing@killingkompany.com if you have any questions or need to have me set up a Zoom for you to film your stuff."

However, out of the 6 actors this was sent to, only 13 submissions were received, only one version could be made, 7 of the submissions were used, and based upon that, I was able to refine the plot and how the production/contest will operate, all without the actors having to make any changes to their submissions.

BEHIND THE SCENES OF "THE FBI VAULT" - PART 2

Now at the same time I was working on the concept of "The FBI Vault", I was performing in several unique programs at The Actors Studio where, via Zoom, ten minute plays were being written and performed by a team of writer, director and actors, from coast to coast, some of whom never worked together before - and it was that concept that intrigued me: putting together a cast from all over the country who never worked together.

Bearing in mind that one of the concepts of our shows is making members of the audience our guest suspects (hence the slogan of The Killing Kompany "...where you can be part of the show"), in early September 2020, I came up with the idea of putting together a cast for "The FBI Vault" of non-actors from our audience working with me and posted the following on our followers on social media:

"We are creating a new virtual murder mystery and are looking for 5 non-actors, our audience, to be the stars of the show. All you need is a phone or a laptop. It’s simple – we will work with you to develop about 5 minutes of personalized scenes, dialogue, etc. in which you are a suspect and possible killer. It's all done in your home by yourself on your time. Once all the scenes are broadcast, you will compete with the other non-actors for the most votes as the killer. The non-actor with the most votes wins $100 and we will then broadcast the summation in which you are revealed as the killer (and you are arrested, or a shootout, or whatever you wish).

The show is called “The FBI Vault” so if you are interested, email us at killing@killingkompany.com with a recent picture and a short bio and in the "Subject" section put in "FBI Vault Submission"."

TO SEE THE SHOW AND ENTER THE CONTEST: https://forms.gle/f2QrRtSqvp5nQsKZA

BEHIND THE SCENES OF "THE FBI VAULT" - PART 1

During the summer of 2020, while working on "The Sarge", I came up with the idea of doing an FBI murder mystery and came across, on the FBI web site, a page called "The Vault":

"The Vault is our new FOIA Library, containing 6,700 documents and other media that have been scanned from paper into digital copies so you can read them in the comfort of your home or office. Included here are many new FBI files that have been released to the public but never added to this website; dozens of records previously posted on our site but removed as requests diminished; files from our previous FOIA Library, and new, previously unreleased files."

So I discovered on this page that several cases on "The Vault" were never solved so the first concept was to dramatize these FBI cases. A brief draft was created based upon the death of Abraham "Kid Twist" Reles,  a New York mobster who was widely considered the most feared hit man for Murder, Inc., who later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc. to the electric chair, but died from falling through a window while in police custody as he was set to testify against future boss Albert Anastasia. 

TO SEE THE SHOW AND ENTER THE CONTEST: https://forms.gle/f2QrRtSqvp5nQsKZA

BE SAFE AND JOYOUS

 

10 MINUTES, 1 VICTIM, 4 SUSPECTS AND $100 PRIZE

BE SAFE AND MERRY