In ‘High Potential,’ It All Hinges on the Murder Board Construction
Every procedural needs a good murder board — and every production team knows it’s integral to the show to get it right. But “High Potential” takes it even further because its very premise rests on Kaitlin Olson’s Morgan seeing things the cops might have missed in the crime scene photos.
Every episode’s prep begins with a meeting with the production design team the writer, the director, producers, ADs, and props. “Then there’s a murder board meeting,” production designer Valerie Green told IndieWire of prepping every episode. “That can be if you need a crime report, if you need an autopsy report. Do you need specific graphics for a store that was involved? And then there’s a photo meeting with all those same people plus costumes, because they have to figure out who’s in the photos? What are they wearing? And then the graphics start getting made. And the photo shoots happen before filming. We try to avoid putting blue squares on the murder board that visual effects will put in later because it’s costly. It’s more efficient financially to do it first.”
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That photographer not only takes the “hero” images of the victim and suspects that adorn the board, they also capture the crime scene photos that reveal more than might first meet the eye. “All that stuff gets uploaded and dropped off,” Green said. “[Then] the art department frantically goes through it, prints everything, and makes sure there are alts. Then, usually, the prop master and his main guy do all of the murder board setups to stick it in front of the director and writers as soon as possible.”
The amount of work and nuance on display on the murder board every week takes a small army of craftspeople to accomplish, but Green points out that everything included would be present for a real-life investigation. “We’re not just making BS to put up,” she said. “It is legitimately following the crime; it’s all accurate to our story.”
Somehow, the murder board is just one small part of the week’s work. (Green said they get the scripts anywhere from a week to three days in advance.) Green also works to create the perfect crime scenes, both before and after a kill.
Take the hotel room in Episode 3, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrel.” The script required certain specifications (notably windows that opened), while the bathroom needed to be large enough for a murder and the crew to co-exist. “We ended up building the bathroom because there were too many constraints,” Green said. “We all went into it thinking we would find a hotel room where we could splash water and camera would have enough room to move around. But I knew we would end up building the bathroom because it’s just not practical. [Then] Jordana [Kronen], our location manager, had to find all the hotels that had windows that could actually open. And in L.A., there’s not a lot of places where you could do that.”
Ultimately, they filmed the scenes in the bedroom (and took photos of the windows) at Hotel Per La in downtown, where they had to remove safety windows before filming. “Fortunately, they hadn’t painted their windows, so the windows did actually open,” Green said. “We got kind of lucky. I was nervous about it, honestly.”
Green can typically tell from a first read what locations must be built, but time and finances are also factors. However, she added that one of the pleasures of her role is working on the permanent sets.
“This is all I’ve ever wanted to do,” Green said. “I’m not an aspiring director or writer. I always wanted to do this. So every day is a joy for me, even as brutal and fast-paced as the show can be at times. The most exciting thing for me is building the permanent sets. Really trying to think about all the possibilities, trying to make it camera-friendly, trying to think of all the details and look at all the nuances. That’s really the most exciting part of it, grounding that look for the whole season.”
New episodes of “High Potential” premiere at 10 p.m. ET Tuesdays on ABC.
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