TVBEurope talks to the production team behind Channel 4s social experiment to find out how they enabled viewers to look over the shoulders of two separate juries in a real murder trial
By Jenny Priestley
Published: February 26, 2024 Updated: February 28, 2024
TVBEurope talks to the production team behind Channel 4's social experiment to find out how they enabled viewers to look over the shoulders of two separate juries in a real murder trial
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin>
Launching on Channel 4 tonight, The Jury: Murder Trial is a four-part series following the restaging of a real-life murder trial re-enacted word for word in front of two juries of ordinary people, neither of which knows about the other.
The social experiment, produced by ScreenDog, aims to give viewers a glimpse of the life-changing decisions made in jury rooms every day up and down the country.
The idea for the series began during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 when Ed Kellie, founder and exec producer at ScreenDog and Harry Smyth, head of development, were thinking about personal and unconscious biases and where they would have the most dramatic effect.
It was one of those lightbulb moments in TV, Kellie tells TVBEurope. I immediately called a lawyer to see if / how we could do it for a real case. We were developing lots of crime at the time and had lots of cases in mind.
We knew immediately that viewers looking over the shoulders of jurors in a real murder trial would undoubtedly resonate with audiences, adds Fiona Fletcher, the company's head of production and welfare. It was in discussions with Channel 4 that the idea of having two juries, unknown to each other simultaneously judging the same case came about.
Attempting to have two juries listen to and deliberate at the same time, without knowing the other is there, is no small feat. First of all, the team needed to find a courthouse with a courtroom big enough for both jury boxes as well as two entrances that could be hidden from each other. Shire Hall in Chelmsford had two staircases leading to smaller courtrooms which were converted into jury break-out and deliberation spaces, but it had just one main entrance.
The juries met in separate off-site locations every day and our ushers lead each jury as separate groups to the courthouse all coordinated by comms, explains Kellie. From there they were always accompanied during bathroom breaks. Food was brought to them, and all corridors were kept clear of crew when the juries were moving, for an authentic juror experience.
On the first session of courtroom filming on the first morning, we almost got caught out when inside their boxes - one of the jurors needed the loo and we had to stop the whole court (pretending there was a technical issue).
The production team included 85 people on set, plus 24 jurors and 14 actors and supporting artists. ScreenDog employed two factual rig teams, one for each jury. The action was shot using a combination of Sony FX9s and Panasonic UE150 cameras. The FX9s were configured for drama when covering reconstructive elements and ob-doc style when used to augment the fixed rig coverage, explains Henry Coulham, MD at Hotcam, who worked with ScreenDog on the project. We opted to record in 1080 because of the sheer amount of data being produced.
With 16 rig cameras, 24 juror mics, ambient audio records, drama footage, PSC rig coverage and master interview footage, the team knew the interface between location and edit to sync, ingest and log / transcription all needed to be incredibly efficient. The solution was to interface Hotcam's timecode infrastructure and rig with post production by bringing The Edit (the name of our post facility) to location and ingesting on sight where any sync issues could be identified and fixed immediately, adds Coulham.
Hotcam's Shure Axient Radio Mic array was deployed throughout, alongside strategically placed ambient microphones. The audio was mixed across three galleries: one for each jury and another for the courtroom. Mic'ing up the jurors each day was a serious operation and took 45 mins per jury per day.
The series was edited on Avid Media Composer with a mixture of traditional in-house edits and secure remote edits. All of the edit producers had their own Avid system so they could easily search through rushes, pull sequences for the editors and also review edited scenes, says Dave Austin, colourist and managing director at The Edit. Media Composer has very in-depth grouping and syncing capabilities aimed at handling the most complex audio setups. With a hybrid of drama, PSE and actuality shooting, all with very different priorities, we made extensive use of all the syncing tools Media Composer has.
With two full weeks' worth of dialogue from 24 contributors, the team employed AI transcription service, Trint, enabling them to search through huge amounts of dialogue quickly. The technology also provided an integrated paper-edit facility which allowed edit producers to highlight text and see the resulting video edit right away, cutting edit-prep times down considerably.
The Jury: Murder Trial is a rare hybrid of drama, real-life actuality and reconstruction, which meant the team had to think carefully about how to treat the various elements. Colourist Austin worked closely with Kellie to create a visual vocabulary that would subtly signpost the chronology and feel right for each situation. For the courtroom scenes, the drama team created a gorgeous, rich, warmly-lit look on-set and we wanted to honour and augment that, opting for high-contrast and strong shadows, explains Austin. But this had to cut seamlessly with the juries who were watching the drama throughout. The connection between the jurors and the acted drama is palpable and I think we pu
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/07/2026
Zixi, a leader in live video delivery and workflow orchestration, and Comcast Technology Solutions (CTS) today announced a strategic new integration to deliver ...
16/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Immersive Flight for New Cirrus App
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Leader in Personal Aviation taps URSA Cin...
16/07/2026
XenData Announces LTO Archive Appliances with both File and S3 Object Storage In...
16/07/2026
Together the semi-finals had a combined reach of 1.98 million unique individuals...
15/07/2026
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is a big deal for DAZN, which has distribution rights in three markets: Italy, Spain, and Japan. Each requires a different editorial app...
15/07/2026
As sports-media organizations manage rapidly growing content libraries and incre...
15/07/2026
HBS director of digital Johannes Franken talks SVG Europe through the operation built to serve FIFA World Cup 2026 rights holders remotely from Stratford, east ...
15/07/2026
IBC has unveiled the conference program for IBC2026, with this year's event ...
15/07/2026
Software-defined wideband RF platform supports 96-kHz monitoring, streamlined fr...
15/07/2026
New AI-powered module enables broadcasters and content owners to extract dialogu...
15/07/2026
Weeklong gathering at EBU headquarters will test new IPMX capabilities and expand certified product ecosystem...
15/07/2026
Force Tech has announced the appointment of Bryan Adams, CTS, as Vice President of Integration. Adams will oversee AV and broadcast integration project delivery...
15/07/2026
USA Sports has announced an exclusive English-language agreement with the Bundes...
15/07/2026
ITV Sport's FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage has been produced from one of the m...
15/07/2026
Program will provide professional camera kits, training, and technical support to participating local newsrooms...
15/07/2026
San Francisco church becomes first U.S. deployment of the 2 M/E production switcher...
15/07/2026
Former ESPN and NFL Network executive to advise startup league on media, distribution, technology, and fan engagement...
15/07/2026
The Houston-based RSN is the live-game home of the Astros and Rockets...
15/07/2026
Launched alongside new FreqSoft installer
Designed to bridge the gap between hardware and software, Freqport's FreqInOut FO1 unit provides a simple way ...
15/07/2026
Save up to 55% on software until 23 July 2026
Expressive E have just launched their Summer Offer sale, with discounts of up to 55% now applied across their ...
15/07/2026
Real-time stem-separation tool updated
zplane have recently released a new and improved version of their real-time stem-separation plug-in which they say ma...
15/07/2026
A new benchmark in bass enhancement
Described as a new benchmark in bass enhancement , Baby Audio's latest release has been designed to augment the lo...
15/07/2026
DMC Production's AR 1 and AR 2 units reverse the conventional OB workflow, keeping all production-critical processing at the venue while operators work remo...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
GigaCloud, a leading Ukrainian cloud service provider, and Cubbit, the first geo-distributed cloud storage enabler, today announced a new Business Alliance Part...
15/07/2026
SMPTE, the global society for media professionals, technologists, and engineers, has announced the launch of the SMPTE 110th Anniversary Campaign, a fundraising...
15/07/2026
Studio Technologies, a leading manufacturer of high-quality audio, video, and fiber-optic solutions, unveils the new StudioComm Model 762 Stereo Level Control, ...
15/07/2026
COW Jobs: Producer, Virtual Events - Hybrid, Full Time, Salaried
Brie Clayton July 15, 2026
0 Comments
Producer, Virtual Events (Hybrid | Full-time | ...
15/07/2026
Brazilian media organization builds nationwide CDN with Broadpeak's high-performance software for low-latency streaming and new content distribution service...
15/07/2026
DHD announces a new utility designed to increase the efficiency of its audio mixing systems during initial installation and subsequent configuration.
Anyone w...
15/07/2026
BCNEXXT Brings Next-Generation Vipe to IBC2026, Breaking the 1:1 Channel-to-Server Ratio New innovations liberate broadcasters from legacy playout infrastructur...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
15/07/2026
General-purpose robots and autonomous machines are moving from research labs to ...
15/07/2026
Wednesday 15 July 2026
Screeners and press pack now available: Gomorrah: The Or...
15/07/2026
Trinity's Treasures features Ruth Negga, Eleanor McEvoy, and David Norris, a...
15/07/2026
Join geographer Dr Susan Hegarty, Engineer Tim Joyce and Architect Orla Murphy a...
15/07/2026
Home to leading manufacturers, robotics pioneers, infrastructure builders and iconic gaming companies, of course, Japan is one of the world's centers of AI ...
14/07/2026
South end zone videoboard, cloud-based control system will be ready for 2026 football season...
TVBEurope talks to the production team behind Channel 4s social experiment to find out how they enabled viewers to look over the shoulders of two separate juries in a real murder trial
