John Falchetto (00:00)
I have this saying that I repeat a lot is authenticity versus aesthetics. So sometimes you want to get

that person's voice and you want to make sure you amplify their voice as opposed to getting the perfect shot.

Madelyn Cunningham (00:20)
Hey everybody, happy Friday. My name is Madelyn Cunningham. I am a development producer in the unscripted industry. And this is where I bring you candid conversations with the minds behind your favorite unscripted reality entertainment. Today, I have a really cool guest. He focuses mainly in true crime. He's a director of photography out of Atlanta, but he also moonlights and has a whole other job in journalism and is covering some of the crazy world events we have going on right now. Our mostly focuses on

Homicide. just nominated for a Critics' Choice Award. So we talk all about how, like what went behind his decision making when it came to ensuring that the city of Philadelphia, the city of brotherly love, somewhere with so much history was respected and honored while also talking about the gruesome and gritty crimes that happened there. This is really cool conversation with John. Hope you enjoy.

Madelyn Cunningham (01:11)
John Falchetto right out of Atlanta. How you doing today? I'm doing really good. It's really great to have you on and congratulations are in order. Philly Homicide just got nominated for a Critics Choice Award. How you feeling?

John Falchetto (01:14)
I'm good, how are you?

I'm feeling excited. Obviously, we won't know the results until later this month, but it's always great to know that you're recognized somewhere for the work. A lot of work has gone into that series. was, I think, four months in Philly in total in terms of shooting because we were shooting three days a week.

So one episode per week and there's 10 episodes. And no, it was good. It was really interesting. And I love Philadelphia. It's a city that has a lot of character.

Madelyn Cunningham (01:59)
I'm excited to dive into the show a little bit more in just a second. Are you on like a thread with your other crewmates and are you guys celebrating and excited? Because how long has it been since you were actually on set? It's probably been a little bit. Yeah, exactly. So.

John Falchetto (02:13)
It's been a year. It's been a year. We wrapped

in June last year, July. Yep.

Madelyn Cunningham (02:19)
Yeah, and a lot of the

times I find when you wrap a show like that, kind of like, you kind of just go on to the next project. And so it can be really nice when these things happen, nominations, recognition, to kind of like come back together with the team and celebrate what you were able to do, you know?

John Falchetto (02:35)
Yeah, unfortunately, the team is all over the US. So the producers are in LA, as they usually are. And a lot of the camera team is in Fiti. And I'm here sitting in Atlanta. But we're definitely very excited and texting and sharing stuff on Instagram. it's a good opportunity to kind of circle back and see how everybody's doing.

Madelyn Cunningham (02:55)
Yeah, absolutely. You have such an interesting background, really layered a lot of different experiences that sort of culminate to your work in true crime, which is what we're mostly gonna focus on today. But you're no stranger to docu-style storytelling, high-stakes storytelling. In fact, outside of your work in true crime, you're a video journalist and a contributor for international news outlets covering breaking news.

social movements, political unrest, you and I were just talking about a project before we started pressing record that you're working on. How does this work influence what you do when it comes to your work in the entertainment industry?

John Falchetto (03:29)
You know, a lot of times people think they're two different worlds, but I feel one complements the other. In the sense that in docs and in reality and true crime, especially, you're not dealing with actors, you're dealing with real people who have survived trauma, who have lived through trauma.

In many ways, it's the same thing when you're talking to survivors of an earthquake or a hurricane, people who live through war or terrorist attack or that kind of thing. So it's a balance between authenticity and aesthetics. And I think the journalism background helps a lot with that.

Madelyn Cunningham (04:07)
Absolutely, I can't imagine the soft skill set that you've had to really hone in on. You have the technical skill set, right, the style, but when it comes to the sensitivity, I'm sure that your work in those type of environments really lends itself to what you do in entertainment.

John Falchetto (04:25)
especially with true crime, right? it's very specific genre of docs. in the past, a lot of these, like 20 years ago, a lot of these true crime docs were mostly archive footage or B-roll with some voiceover on top. Now it's become a lot more cinematic, a lot more interviews, which make it a lot more personal.

At the same time, you're dealing with people who are really affected by the crime, whether it's law enforcement officers who were the first on the scene or siblings, family members who lived through it. These people have been touched by the crime that we are talking about one way or another. And I think this has to be taken into account when you're dealing with that subject matter.

Madelyn Cunningham (05:11)
100%. There's a ethical piece to this as well, And it's kind of this interesting balance of how do we ensure that we tell your story and allow you to tell your story? A lot of people I think are kind of wanting to get their story out there.

And how do we tell that in a way that doesn't feel like it exploits it? Are you ever sort of morally or ethically at odds with yourself or?

John Falchetto (05:30)
I think.

It's, it's,

I mean, it's, it's like most things in life, you can do it the right way or the wrong way. and I have a personal role that if I feel like I'm intruding, I probably am. So you're not here to be, if you feel you're being a voyeur, you probably are. so there's ways, just like most things in life, there's ways to approach things respectfully. And with.

empathy. And this I think is one of the key you just mentioned, you know, soft skills, but this is probably the most important soft skill because you can have great lighting, you can set up great shots, you know, if the empathy is missing, you're really exploiting the person's pain rather than helping them get closure.

Madelyn Cunningham (06:17)
Right, yes, exactly. With your work in journalism specifically, what are some big topics right now that you're reporting on?

John Falchetto (06:26)
Right now, obviously, it's the 100 days of the Trump administration. you know, I was just in Detroit for a speech there to celebrate the 100 days by the administration. And I interviewed both sides, you know, the supporters, the autoworkers and the people lined up in the streets outside who were obviously

Madelyn Cunningham (06:31)
Mm-hmm.

John Falchetto (06:51)
we're not happy with what's going on. So we're going through an interesting time. I'm Canadian, so obviously I'm looking at this from, with a very, how can I say, a very, what are the right words for this? I guess unbiased, if there is such a thing in journalism, we always come with a certain bias, right?

Madelyn Cunningham (06:58)
⁓ huh.

Does it feel more bird's eye for you or does it feel more like you're unbiased?

John Falchetto (07:13)
But I'm looking at it with an outsider's perspective. I don't have a dog in the fight. A lot of people say, but you're Canadian. You're obviously affected by what's happening right now. But in terms of my everyday life, I'm not directly impacted, as opposed to people who, for example, were laid off from the CDC, which is right here in Atlanta.

Madelyn Cunningham (07:13)
Sure.

Mm.

John Falchetto (07:36)
So in one way, I'm looking at it from the outside. And in another sense, deep in, I'm sorry, I'm diving very deep into it because I'm talking to people who have lost their jobs, to people who are dealing with a lot of the measures that are being implemented and also on the other side with people who think it's great and are supporting the current administration. this is a...

interesting time for sure in American politics. I've worked and lived through all sorts of different political turmoil when I lived in the Middle East and in Egypt and in Israel and all sorts of different countries in Africa and even in Europe. And it's the first time that I see that amount of turmoil, I think, on the US side of things.

Madelyn Cunningham (08:27)
It's so hard to hear. It's difficult to hear because, ugh, you wanna believe that.

John Falchetto (08:28)
That's going to be.

Madelyn Cunningham (08:33)
everyone in history at some point thought the world was ending, right? I will ask your opinion. mean, we've, in regards to entertainment, in regards to filming as someone who films internationally, does projects internationally, the tariff on films outside of the U.S., any thoughts there? I trust your read on it.

John Falchetto (08:52)
so there was one tweet and there's no more, no details, right? There's no explanation of how is it going to be implemented? How exactly, I mean, a film is not something you import like a car. So how exactly is that going to work? I have no idea. Is it politics? I tend to think that it's, there's a lot of,

Madelyn Cunningham (08:55)
Right?

John Falchetto (09:15)
know, political standing, grandstanding here in terms of we're going to put tariffs on different things.

is it going to be implemented? I'm not sure. I don't see how. And now, is there a real issue here? Yes, there is. Because a lot of production is shot abroad. Our friends are in Romania and the UK. They are super busy, compared to people in LA right now. So there's definitely an issue there. Is it the right solution? We don't know yet.

Madelyn Cunningham (09:35)
Yes, they are.

I'm all for more production in the States, of course, but it's a bigger, we gotta talk network budgets, we gotta work our way down. There's an overall arching change from that side to sort of our state incentive side. But always value your perspective

when you've been out in the field a lot of times alone, what's the wildest situation you've sort of ever found yourself in?

John Falchetto (10:06)
There's been a few. One comes to mind is probably March 1999, Bertrand Picard, who's the first person to go around the world on a hot air balloon. He was supposed to land next to the Egyptian pyramids in Cairo after he went all around the world. The Egyptians didn't allow him to land there because they were worried that he would

the pyramids somehow with his hot air balloon. So he landed somewhere in the of the Egyptian desert, middle of nowhere. So we spent, I think, night, two days and one night just driving across the desert looking for him where he was trying to find him. Remember, this was 99. ⁓ No Starlink, no internet, no pen drop, pen. ⁓ So, you know,

Madelyn Cunningham (10:42)
trying to find him.

Right. Can't drop a pen. Right.

John Falchetto (10:53)
the army sent one helicopter to go pick him up and it landed in the sand. sunk. The sand was soft sand. The helicopter sunk into the sand and wasn't able to take off again. Then they sent a bunch of cars. Same thing, the cars sunk in the sand. Eventually they walked out for I don't know how many miles and they were able to be picked up by a helicopter and taken out

to the nearest airport that was near there. And I was the only crew. I was with the APTN at the time. I was the only crew there. So it was like, they just landed and there was nobody else around us and we had the exclusive. So it was great. Yeah, he was a bit dehydrated, but he felt great. He felt great. So yeah, no, was a really interesting time.

Madelyn Cunningham (11:34)
Wow. Was he okay once you found him?

my gosh, that's crazy. I did not know about this event. I'm gonna, my Google is gonna be busy.

John Falchetto (11:47)
Yeah,

he's a psychiatrist now in Switzerland and he wanted to go around the world. So the first person who tried this was Sir Richard Branson from Virgin and he failed. And then this guy decided to do it and he managed to go. I mean, I think it's not my kind of thing. You have to be a special type of person to go into a little capsule.

Madelyn Cunningham (11:59)
Mm-hmm, yes.

John Falchetto (12:12)
where you're basically freezing, there's no heating in those things. So it's negative temperatures for I don't know how many days as you so cool across the world in a hot air balloon. yeah, it's it's true. No, not my dear fun. Not my dear fun.

Madelyn Cunningham (12:22)
Hmm. No, thank you. Not for me, but to each their own. Exactly. ⁓

Well, so what drew you then to your work in Unscripted and sort of how did you transition to this and to this ⁓ job specifically?

John Falchetto (12:36)
Sure.

I moved to the US two years ago. so last year, I met a producer, as is often the case, who offered me to work on another true crime series before fitting homicide. And I really enjoyed it. So I kept doing it.

I think, as I said before, that my skill set I've developed in journalism kind of fits well with the skills required in that type of documentary, mostly because, as I said, you know, there's a big human element in it where you want to make sure that you're telling the truth and not being exploitative towards the person on camera. ⁓

Madelyn Cunningham (13:18)
Certainly.

Was there a, I mean, you had done commercial work as well, right? So, but was there any sort of learning curve working, you know, in this industry a little bit?

John Falchetto (13:27)
Sure. I mean, the commercial work I've done was mostly branded content. for example, work for cars, for Red Bull, these type of stunts. there's a lot less of a human. Obviously, when you work on set, as human element is always a big factor because you only as good as the happiest person on set.

Madelyn Cunningham (13:50)
reach.

John Falchetto (13:51)
And but in a commercial setting is very different because, know, everybody's a professional, everybody's there, whether it's a car driver or in case Red Bull, a base jumper, everybody has a specific job and they're doing it right there. And true crime, it relates a lot to journalism. These are victims, right? These are people who have

worked with victims, law enforcement officers, paramedics, medical examiners. So there's definitely a side, there's a tragedy that happened and there's trauma there. I enjoy it in a lot of cases it helps these people find closure, especially the families. ⁓

Madelyn Cunningham (14:33)
Yes, certainly.

John Falchetto (14:36)
And it's very, again, very similar to when you do a news story about somebody who lost a loved one and their house during the last hurricane, Helene, in the fall. You're in the southeast, right? Are you based? OK, so.

Madelyn Cunningham (14:53)
Yes, I'm in East Tennessee. So it hit pretty close to home up here.

John Falchetto (14:58)
Right. Yeah. So it's the same thing. mean, you know, it's maybe not a horrific homicide, but it's when you lose a loved one and, know, during a hurricane, it's you're talking to these people. It's pretty much the same type of. As I said, you know, I have this saying that I repeat a lot is authenticity versus aesthetics. So sometimes you want to get

Madelyn Cunningham (15:15)
Mm-hmm.

John Falchetto (15:25)
that person's voice and you want to make sure you amplify their voice as opposed to getting the perfect shot. Because whatever they're going to tell you, they're going to tell you once and you can't be like, just hold on. I'm going to change the background. I'm going to change the lights. No, wait. Okay. Can you repeat that? And you know, they're not going to do 15 takes on that.

Madelyn Cunningham (15:44)
That's very vulnerable as well. It's a very vulnerable spot. You don't want to overstay your welcome while you have that kind of moment with them. Well, let's get into Philly Homicide. When you were so generous, you shared the style guide for the show with me, which allowed me to really see how your work in journalism, how your work understanding a place, understanding of the location, being able to translate that.

know, really all came together for this show, which again is now nominated for a Critics' Choice Award. in the style guide, the city itself is really its own character. And Philadelphia is a historic city. It's the city of brotherly love. You know, but in this case, it's also the location where a lot of these gritty and gruesome crimes occurred. So how do you balance, showcasing

the significance of a place, the importance of a place, the uniqueness of a place, while also telling the story of these horrific events.

John Falchetto (16:40)
What was interesting is when I sat down with the showrunners and the producers is that we didn't want the city just to be a backdrop. As you said, the city has its own personality. It is a character in the whole story. And we wanted to make sure that we stayed away from cliches. We didn't want shots of Liberty Bell and Cheesesteak. But really have...

standing that the person who was watching really felt that they were walking through the streets, the cobblestones, the townhomes, the set that train. And that at the same time, there is a memorial residue in that city because of all the things that happened there. You know, it's the birthplace of America. And at the same time, it's the site of

some the most gruesome murders. So that contrast we wanted to keep at all times between a city where people signed the Declaration of Independence and where obviously some people lost their lives. So it was an interesting thing. Technically, one of the ways we didn't overuse the drone shots because we didn't want to people to have this bird's eye view.

And there's a tendency a lot, you don't see a single dog now that doesn't start with a drone shot of a city. You know, they're great, but they have to be used, I think, with a good reason. And in this case, we were very, we obviously had the drone shot of Benjamin Franklin Bridge, but a lot of times we wanted people to feel like they were walking down the streets and they were really living inside, you know.

like POV almost inside the city, inside those streets where these crimes happen.

Madelyn Cunningham (18:26)
Yeah, I mean, they're certainly necessary and sort of part of the establishing formula, but they can feel very impersonal. And so the fact that you wanted to really get more eye level with a lot of your shots, I think that deliberate decision that translated really well, I actually watched some of the show today. What features and characteristics, you talked a lot about the architecture.

You know, what felt important to feature and include in a lot of these shots where it did feel like you're walking through the city.

John Falchetto (18:55)
Obviously, you know, Centre City, the old part. I think we had several cases that took part there, that took place in that part of town, which is usually very safe. But that was again, the contrast, right between a super safe area that's very expensive, some of the town homes there go, you know, for several millions. And on the other side, you know, somebody

One case I think which was really hard to work on was a young student who, her name was Sharon, who

who was brutally assaulted and murdered in her apartment there. she got into Duke at 16, did a triple major, graduated in three years, got a full scholarship for Wharton.

So that was a tough one. At the same time, walking through the streets where she walked, going back to her apartment, talking to the officers, and really bringing her story to life was a way to honor her memory.

Madelyn Cunningham (19:55)
Right, bittersweet, I think, either way. And there's some other, you mentioned, well, I'm a big fan of Mare of Easttown, so I clocked that in the deck as well. What is the sort of very sort of Philly iconic housing that is in that part of the country?

John Falchetto (20:15)
the town homes, think probably the brick town homes.

Madelyn Cunningham (20:16)
The town homes, okay, yes. Like you see it and you like

immediately know sort of where it's at. yes, and very, I loved Mary B's town and I loved the accents and it's, mean, you can shoot in any city and the city can fall in the backdrop because it doesn't, it doesn't feel strong as a character. Philly has, you know, along with this historical significance, it also has this no nonsense, direct, very,

rocky sort of edge to it as well. And I know that you tried to bring that into your filmmaking. The color palette for the show is really beautiful, it's not just an aesthetic choice. It's rooted in research. Talk to me about that decision.

John Falchetto (20:41)
Exactly.

So once again, we talked with the showrunner and the idea was to look at colors associated. We talked to psychologists who look colors associated with trauma and a lot of time what comes back is blue, cold. And it worked well because it's also the color of law enforcement, officers, police cars, lights.

It's also the cold cutter of a medical examiner's facility. So blue came out as definitely a cutter that we wanted to use a lot, according towards the cooler tones. And that was used in the lots that were applied after in post. But also,

It was important once again to balance it. mean, this whole series has been a balancing act between the trauma, but also respecting and honoring the voice of the victims and or rather the family members of the victims. And in this case, we kept that blue tone when we were interviewing

police officers and law enforcement or medical examiners, but we went for warmer, warm accused when we were talking to family members.

Madelyn Cunningham (22:01)
Yes, I think I imagine to try and contrast it with a bit of strength and hope, ideally. so the sit down interviews, like you mentioned, are a huge part of true crime series. They become a bigger and bigger sort of piece of the pie, essentially, when you look at what you're working with. Walk me through your approach to lighting and framing.

John Falchetto (22:07)
Exactly.

Madelyn Cunningham (22:22)
subject specifically for Philly homicide. How did you go about that?

John Falchetto (22:26)
So.

Coming back to, again, drawing on my background as a journalist, what's important is to build trust with the person because the best lighting and the best location is nothing if you don't have the trust of the person and making them feel comfortable. In order to do that, we had a small team.

so that the person being interviewed didn't feel overwhelmed. Again, these are not professional actors. They're not used to having two cameras on them and numerous lights. So we kept it small. And at the same time, we looked at...

approaches. One, as I said, for the law enforcement people, officers and medical examiners, where we went for more contrasting ratios on their faces and, you know, key fill lights. And then when we talked to family members, we went for a much softer, natural lighting, easy background with most of the time we shot in their homes. So

It was important for us to respect where we were, respect their voice, and make them feel as comfortable as possible.

At the end of the day, we're looking for the truth. We're trying to get to the truth and we're not here to exploit them.

Madelyn Cunningham (23:37)
Go ahead.

Right. And a lot of the times when you are on set in homes, You have these, a lot of external factors you can't control while you're also trying to manage the environment. Be sensitive. What's your approach to problem solving? And when you are faced with

an obstacle on set, what is always sort of top of mind for you?

John Falchetto (24:10)
So a lot of times I would get the locations ahead of time. would get the producers, the story producers would share the locations with me. And then that would be discussed with the producers, the showrunner, the director. And we will go over what would be, you know, which direction we want to go with, what would be a good background. As you know, you know, when you're shooting in somebody's home or an Airbnb, these aren't

always the best places to shoot because you don't control a lot of things, know, where the windows are. If somebody put a mirror on their wall and that kind of thing. we have to work with what we have. We try to make a plan. I always try to make a plan before I head out of more or less how it's going to be set up, where I'm going to key from. And in order to save time on the day and we don't spend two or three hours setting up. So.

As know, Mike Tyson said the best plans always fall apart as soon as you get hit in the face.

Once again, it's very similar to journalism because you don't choose where you're to film interviews with people when you go to a new site where let's say a tragedy happened or when you go interview people after a hurricane

you have to work with what you have. In that sense, you have to be very flexible and understand what is possible on that day. that probably the best thing to do is to set up as fast as possible so that you don't leave the person waiting for hours while you fiddle with

Madelyn Cunningham (25:24)
Mm.

Mm.

John Falchetto (25:45)
maybe we should put this chair in the background. Or maybe this lamp on the right side would look better. these people aren't paid actors. So they need to

Madelyn Cunningham (25:52)
Right, well, and

from their perspective, those seem innocuous compared to the burden of their story, you know? Yeah.

John Falchetto (25:56)
Yeah. Exactly. Exactly.

And this is what matters most is at the end of the day.

Madelyn Cunningham (26:02)
Mm-hmm.

John Falchetto (26:03)
In a lot of cases, we're shooting with a soft background, you know, and we can't really see what's in the back, you know, the books you can't really read, or if there's a piece of art or a poster in the back, it's probably out of focus. So what really matters is making sure the person is comfortable so they can tell their truth.

Madelyn Cunningham (26:28)
Right, yeah, absolutely.

John Falchetto (26:30)
And what we did shoot is BeCree. So I don't know if you're familiar with BeCreative. So it's B-roll. It's creative. It's used a lot more in France and Europe. as B-roll, you'd shoot like a building or you'd shoot, let's say, Liberty Bell. In BeCree, you would shoot

more stylized symbolic elements. For example, you shoot a boiling teapot to give the idea that pressure is building. Or you shoot reflections through a rainy window and you see a person looking, gazing out like a sibling of a victim.

Madelyn Cunningham (26:56)
Mm, sure.

Mm.

Okay, so the BeCree is more supportive of the interview portion, whilst the Recree, okay, that makes sense. it's, okay.

John Falchetto (27:13)
Yes. Whereas the read-through is, yes, is basically

talking more about the actual murder.

Madelyn Cunningham (27:21)
I see. it was so interesting getting an insight into your process. The style guide was so thorough. it was grounded in authenticity, not just aesthetics. Like there was an argument for every decision and getting to see your creative process laid out from interview, becree, know, even to the drone shots, even though you didn't do very many for this particular show.

Drones are something you actually work a lot with. I do want to touch on this really quickly because you like own a drone operating company, right? And this is something that you've been doing for quite a while. Tell me a little bit more about how you got into this, why, and how it helps you specifically in your work for True Crime.

John Falchetto (27:58)
I'm a rock climber, and I used to blend a lot of these two skills together in terms of filming and climbing. So a lot of times, I would get shots before drones existed. And people have, you know, I think forget that 10 years ago, drones were barely there. But when you wanted a shot of somebody on the side of the building, that means you had to

I've sailed down the side of the building with a camera. And at the time I was living in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where the tallest tower in the world is built. So there were a lot of cases where whether it's BBC, for example, did a report there, a lot of news crews would come and report from the tower because they wanted a shot from the top of the tower. they, and they wanted a lot of times having somebody hanging.

on the side or doing some kind of piece to camera sitting on standing on the side of the building. And the only way to get that shot before you had a drone was to basically hang on a rope on the side of the building. long story short, this is the background. to 2014, I think I built my first drone with a friend of mine who was an engineer.

And we want at the time fire Canon 5D because most of the drones at the time had really bad little cameras. They were flying like little GoPros. And we wanted to have a quote unquote, cinematic camera, but at least an HD full frame camera. And basically we built a drone around the Canon 5D Mark III, which was one of the first DSLRs that could shoot HD video.

Madelyn Cunningham (29:17)
Mm-hmm. A little GoPro, yeah.

John Falchetto (29:40)
And we started flying that around, used it on multiple shows like Top Gear, the BBC Top Gear that was filming at the time, used it on three different feature films that were shot in the desert outside of the UAE, shot the BTS of the Fast and Furious that was shooting at that time. And yeah, that was pretty much the beginning of Jones.

Madelyn Cunningham (29:59)
awesome.

John Falchetto (30:04)
And then in the past few years, obviously drones have evolved so much that I don't have to fly the one that I built. I just use one that was built. And they're so much easier to use now and fly. And they fly for much longer. So that's pretty much been my background with flying. In the recent past, I've also worked in setting up live shots for drones.

for news. So for example, when we had the current President Trump a year ago, last summer, 2023, a year and a half ago, so summer 2023, he was booked into Fulton County jail in Atlanta. People forgot that.

Madelyn Cunningham (30:50)
Hmm.

John Falchetto (30:51)
And the only way to get a shot, obviously the county jail was shut down. The only way to get a shot was obviously to get a drone of the county jail flying around.

Madelyn Cunningham (31:03)
It's

fact that this I forgot like the fact that so much has happened and I forget like that is so crazy to me. Okay, so you the only way to get the shot was drone.

John Falchetto (31:07)
I know, people forgot and at the time.

Yeah, yeah. Not obviously not when the president is is is well at the time he wasn't present, but he still has Secret Service protection. So not when he was in the city, but the days before the gate, the only way to get a live shot from the jail was to get it drawn up and be able to send a live shot to a news network. The jail.

Madelyn Cunningham (31:23)
Mm-hmm.

what an interesting thing to be able to bring to your projects, it's also so easy to take for granted what we know about drones now. I think, you know, as with any kind of emerging technology, it just becomes kind of part of our lexicon, but knowing that you were sort of on the cutting edge 10 years ago doing this manually, you know, and then bringing a GSLR in, it's really incredible. the...

the ability for you to bring it into your work in true crime as well, if it's necessary to do those big sweeping shots. The fact that you sort of had that at your disposal is, you know, wonderful sort of just thing to have in your toolbox.

John Falchetto (32:09)
And going back to this, we didn't use live shots from the drone, but on the first few days when we were shooting in Philly, since a lot of our producers were in LA and the network people are in LA, we were feeding a live feed from the first interviews all the way back to the producers and the network people in LA, which was also a way to cut on cost because you didn't have to travel as many people on set.

Madelyn Cunningham (32:21)
Mm-hmm.

Yes.

John Falchetto (32:39)
They just had to wake up super early in the day.

Madelyn Cunningham (32:44)
But

you got to get all the stakeholders involved one way or another. it is, me, those things are much more cohesive than like getting everyone on set or especially for sensitive material, know, keeping the crew small, but enabling everyone in real time to be able to oversee instead of like, now we're using storage to upload everything. we're, know, like it's, that's a really nice tool to be able to increase your efficiency, lower your budget for sure.

John Falchetto (33:11)
Exactly. So that was a way to.

definitely lower cost for sure, is, always, you know, producers, always a big discussion. So, you know, we're doing cut costs. Well, we're not going to fly, you know, 10 people off to, especially Philly, you know, from LA is pretty much the other side of the country. keeping the production team small. especially the first episode is when you're working with

Madelyn Cunningham (33:19)
You gotta do these days. You gotta do.

John Falchetto (33:37)
people you haven't worked with before, want to make sure that you can deliver what you promised you're going to deliver. So you want to make sure that they're happy, the network's happy. And after that, they kind of green light everything that, okay, keep going what you're doing. We like what we see. But the first few interviews, and as you said, you want to keep it small. Because the last thing you want when you have like a sister who lost her brother in some horrific murder is to have 10 people in the room sitting.

Madelyn Cunningham (33:39)
Mm-hmm.

John Falchetto (34:03)
what looking at her and her feeling like she's being interrogated, you know, so.

Madelyn Cunningham (34:06)
Right.

Yeah, absolutely. You've worked on some really high profile, like covering some really high profile modern day true crime stories, the Delphi murders, which will haunt me forever. Brian Coburger, how does,

I mean, we've talked about this a little bit, but when you're approaching emotionally heavy content like this with each individual story in a different location with a different maybe type of crime or motivation, what have you, how do you sort of shift your approach for every different show and every story?

John Falchetto (34:41)
First of all, every producer, every EP is different. So they usually have a specific way of tackling the story. They usually have a vision, right? Or some kind of approach that they want to... The network they work for also usually have a specific style. For Oxygen, for example, you don't shoot for Oxygen the same way you shoot for Netflix.

Oxygen always wants two eyes in the B camp. Netflix is, can be, you can be a bit more, you can go, you can be a bit more, you know, adventurous with your, with your angles. ⁓ So that, that's the thing to keep in mind, you know, even though you want to be creative, you still want to work within the limitations or rather the style book of the producer and the network you're working for.

Madelyn Cunningham (35:08)
You can just show this if you want. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, absolutely.

John Falchetto (35:27)
So working from there, then you try to look at the story and look at the people you'll be talking to and ensure that, again, know, authenticity beats aesthetics. So within the limitations that you have, how can you ensure that their voice is heard and you're not producing, you know, crime porn?

Madelyn Cunningham (35:49)
Yeah, exactly.

John Falchetto (35:50)
And

you're not, know, the last thing you want to do is focus on the gruesome details of the murder. is YouTubers do that enough. You don't have to go there in terms of, you know, people who make a lot of use out of going into every single detail of a medical examiner report. And I have nothing against YouTubers. think, you know, this definitely YouTube is a great platform, but

Madelyn Cunningham (35:56)
Mm-hmm.

John Falchetto (36:17)
On the other side, think a lot of people use it as kick bait to go into the gruesome details of an assault and a murder. And it's not definitely not what we're looking for.

Madelyn Cunningham (36:25)
Yeah.

Yeah. You, you approach your journalism work where you try to, you know, without being biased, but when you're working on cases like this that are, you know, where the Delphi murders, Brian Coburger, I mean, do you feel like it's important for you to go into those situations sort of guilty until proven innocent or, you know, how do you, I don't know, what's your attitude going into situations like?

John Falchetto (36:48)
I mean.

Unfortunately, you have to kind of detach yourself from the subject matter in order to, know, it's like a surgeon who's cutting open someone's body to remove a tumor or you can't, there's a reason why doctors don't operate on their, you know, children or you need to remove yourself from the subject matter. I, you have to show empathy towards the victims. Absolutely. But then

you can't allow yourself to get too emotionally involved with what's, you know, what the person did or didn't do. You're here to tell a story, to amplify the voice of the victims and do it as best as you can.

Madelyn Cunningham (37:25)
Yes, I'm sure your compartmentalization skills are sharpened by all the work you do in journalism and in true crime. You've mentioned a few of these things, but quickly, are there any sort of set rules for you as an individual on set sort of have when it comes to,

your interviews, your b-roll, anything like that where you're like, always do this.

John Falchetto (37:47)
I think attitude beats skills. Any day, twice on Sunday. it's like, whenever I interview ACs or B-Cam operators or people to work with on a show, I'll take attitude over skill any day. And we've all been on sets where...

Madelyn Cunningham (37:51)
Totally.

John Falchetto (38:05)
with people who are very technically proficient, but are very hard to work with and stay polite. someone who has the right attitude, who is still smiling after 12 hours, who doesn't mind over time, because we know that a lot of times we don't dictate. We just talked about how the location sometimes isn't the best place to work with.

how the people we interview aren't paid actors. Maybe they will break down the middle of an interview and they need some time to go collect themselves. And that's okay. We stop rolling and we give them time and we start again when they're ready. But they don't care that you're going to go in overtime. the crew needs to understand that it's going to take the time it takes and you know,

Madelyn Cunningham (38:56)
Right.

John Falchetto (38:57)
It's not exactly. Especially the

Madelyn Cunningham (38:57)
We don't need a gaffer rolling their eyes. Yeah. Yeah, for sure.

John Falchetto (39:02)
energy in the room changes and the person being into you can feel it. Right? So they feel, my God, am I delaying everyone? Am I a burden on you guys now? So that's the last thing you want the person to feel.

Madelyn Cunningham (39:06)
Yes, a hundred percent.

Yeah, absolutely. The look of true crimes evolved visually over the years. I'm seeing it really push the envelope a lot. How do you kind of see it evolving or how do you hope that it kind of evolves in the coming years?

John Falchetto (39:31)
Well, you know, we mentioned it like 20 years ago, it was mostly archive footage and recreate with some voiceover. Now, it's a lot more cinematic. We have, we're talking to the people who were on the front line of that murder, whether it's the siblings, victims' family, the law enforcement officers. And we're going into a lot of people

tell me, this is a very, there's a template. A lot of people look at it as true crime. Oh, you have the template. There's the interviews and then you have the B-roll and then you have this and then you have that. And you can say the same thing about a lot of things. mean, a lot of things are template, even features and narrative. Exactly, you your art story. Exactly. So it's what you do within that template. mean, you, nobody,

Madelyn Cunningham (40:15)
Right, right. We have our story arc, yeah.

John Falchetto (40:26)
is operating outside and complete if any guidelines have any templates, what you do within that template. And so we talked about B-Create, the use of B-Create, the use of

of more intimate interviews with people who were involved, almost POV style recreations. All these things mean that the jar of true crime is evolving. It's not what you used to watch 20 years ago. It's definitely evolving. There's a reason why it's so popular also. There's a reason why the streamers like Netflix are producing them.

It's because people like to watch it and people.

I think at the end of the day, we like to listen to other people's especially when they're dramatic and people have been through something very traumatizing. It helps us deal with our own struggles in life.

Madelyn Cunningham (41:22)
Yes, I like to believe that we watch it.

to even glean strength, like looking at the people who've been through it, right? And go, my God, it gives us a sense of grounded perspective, maybe even.

Looking back at your career so far, is there like a particular shot, a moment, you know, an episode even that you look at and you feel like really is exemplary of your visual voice and style?

John Falchetto (41:50)
probably, Philly Homicide the problem with myself, I'm always very critical of my own worst credit. So I'm always looking at

Madelyn Cunningham (41:56)
Of course.

John Falchetto (41:59)
an image and you know, I should have done that, should have done more of this, less of that. So, but if I want to be kind to myself, I would say yes, there's a few episodes on, on Fated Homicide that I'm quite happy with the way they turned out. Especially when you know the backstory of everything that was going on at the time in that room that no one else will know. exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

Madelyn Cunningham (42:19)
Right, that no one else will know, but you know the context, what was going on, what you had to do to get that shot, to get that thing. So, well, how

lovely that you and the team are being recognized for that show specifically. You have so many insights into this industry. I have one final question for you. For younger DPs hoping to get into entertainment, hoping to get into the industry, what...

What's an essential skill that you feel like they need?

John Falchetto (42:48)
think a hard truth is that nobody's going to give you a voice, no matter what kind of equipment you have. And a lot of younger DPs tend to fall into the obsession of the new camera or the new gimbal, whatever new gadget. The marketing of all these equipment companies are very good at pushing.

Soft skills, I think, beat tech skills any day. So it's not because you know the menu, the new camera inside out that people, producers will want to work with you. It's probably because you know how to keep everybody around you happy. Again, it goes back to empathy. It comes back to soft skills. It comes back to making sure that

Everybody enjoys working with you.

Madelyn Cunningham (43:35)
100%. Yeah, it all comes down to relationships, I It's a long process. These things take a long time. And you want to be with someone who is open, collaborative, and just nice to be around. The rest can be taught, ultimately, right? Those things, not so much. So, yeah.

John Falchetto (43:46)
Exactly

Yeah. Exactly. Attitude over

scales any day. especially on set, there's always long days. know, nobody, when you've been on there, it's 8 p.m., you've been here for 12 hours. Okay, everybody's tired. There's no point, know, mumbling and rumbling and saying, you know, I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm this and that. Yeah, everybody's tired. Everybody's feet hurt. Everybody's hungry. Everybody's tired. Everybody wants to go home.

So you can choose to be the person who makes everybody's life a bit easier, or you can choose to drag the energy of the room all the way down.

Madelyn Cunningham (44:25)
Yes, we don't want to be an energy vampire. Can't have that. And you know, cause you'll never, you'll never get called back. That's the truth.

John Falchetto (44:29)
And end.

Yeah, also,

but the thing is also once one person starts going down that road. Exactly. Yeah.

Madelyn Cunningham (44:36)
It's contagious. It absolutely is.

It absolutely is. 100%. Well, this was, it was so fantastic to talk to you. Again, congratulations on Philly Homicide and the few projects we talked about that you have coming up. Thank you for your, the work you do in your journalism. It's incredibly important. I want to say now more than ever. So it just incredibly amazing to talk to you and looking forward to what you've got coming up next.

John Falchetto (44:49)
Thank you.

Thanks a lot. It was a pleasure to talk to you.

Madelyn Cunningham (45:09)
Thanks.

Madelyn Cunningham (45:14)
Thank you as always for listening to The Unscripted Files. You can watch Philly Homicide now on Oxygen, which is streaming on Peacock. So hop on there. There's 10 episodes, really beautifully done. You'll see some of John's work. I hope you guys have a great weekend. Don't forget to like, subscribe, rate, review, all the good things, and we'll see you next week on The Unscripted Files.

Madelyn Cunningham (45:32)
The Unscripted Files is brought to you by Good Gravity Entertainment. Thank you to producer Bonnie Adams, Original Music by composer William Wright, Artwork by Lisa Schweikart, and Photography by Reid Schick.