Extra Credit
University of Houston recreates a murder scene for 48 Hours
The University of Houston team designed the set using scrim, a theatre techniquethat allows for unrestrained filming.
The episode of 48 Hours Mystery airs on Saturday at 9 p.m.
Charlene Hill and Danny Hill
Charlene Hill, a Fort Bend county resident, shot and killed her husband Danny in the bedroom of the couple's home in 2006.
The tale has all of the elements of a good true crime story: A claim of self defense after 30 years of emotional and physical abuse, a $2 million estate inheritance at stake, two children accusing the mother of financially-motivated, cold-blooded murder.
The first trial, held in Sept. 2009, ended with a hung jury. In March 2011, a re-trial found Charlene Hill guilty, but a last-minute plea deal let her off with 10 years of probation and deferred adjudication.
The theater department spent a week last summer re-creating the bedroom where Danny Hill was killed.
It's no wonder the national media picked up the case.
CBS's 48 Hours Mysteryran "Shootout at the Hills'" in Nov. 2010, a special following the first trial. This Saturday at 9 p.m. the true crime television show will run a second piece, entitled "Showdown in the Bedroom," recreating the murder on a set designed by the University of Houston's School of Theatre & Dance.
Steven Wallace, director of UH's School of Theatre & Dance, explains that 48 Hours had access to some of the actual crime scenes during the filming of the first episode. For the second episode, long after the crime, they needed to get creative.
"David Spungen, a producer of the show, contacted us out of the blue," Rachel Bush, assistant professor at the UH theater department, tells CultureMap.
The producer's daughter was looking into universities with theater programs at the time, so that was fresh on his mind. "Theater programs tend to have the space and the support for something like this," Bush says.
Using specifications from the show's producers, and referencing crime scene photographs from the trial, the UH theater department spent a week last summer re-creating the bedroom where Danny Hill was killed.
The team included Wallace, recent MFA graduate Jacob Davis, who worked on lighting and projections, and several students.
"We went for a very theatrical look," Wallace says. They copied the size and dimensions of the room, but matching the paint color and carpet wasn't so important.
"We weren't trying to re-create the scene exactly," Wallace says.
One element that affected the set design was the need to create walls that could be moved for filming. Wallace suggested that they use a technique called "scrim" instead, creating the illusion of solid walls with a semi-transparent fabric, allowing for easy filming from all angles.
"It's a theatrical device that you don't see as much in television," Wallace says. It took a little convincing initially, but the producers loved it.
The construction of the set was completed in about a week — "We're used to having to do things quickly," laughs Bush — and the rehearsals and shooting lasted for three or four days. The UH team and the 48 Hours television crew spent the intervening time swapping tricks of the trade.
