In the recesses of true crime: the case of 'Lucía en la web' (RTVE Play)

Sofía Urwitz, director and director of photography of Lucia in the Spider's Web (RTVE Play), reveals all the keys to the production, putting it in context with the true crime phenomenon.

He true crime, as a genre, has been around for hundreds of years. Society has been fascinated by atrocious crimes, by complex investigations and by plots that sink into the depths of what we understand by justice. That fascination, perhaps the result of trying to extract the darkness from the seemingly perfect (in the style of Blue Velvet), has starred novels, podcasts, movies y journalistic reports of all kinds.

In recent times, the genre has been reborn. Partly driven by the revolution in platforms, and partly because of the new narrative, episodic and visual formulas that have marked the industry in recent decades, production companies from all over the world have chosen to uncover stories that deserve to be told. Pieces as decisive as the history of the secta NXIVM through The oath (HBO Spain); pyramid scams like the one revealed in LuLaRich (Amazon Prime Video); domestic crimes, like the one reported in Maze of errors (Disney+); or the already famous Making a Murderer (Netflix), which tells the story of Steven Avery during more than two decades.

Spain has not let this train escape, with products that delve into important characters and events such as The Pioneer (HBO Max), The Palmar de Troya (Movistar+), The Alcásser case (Netflix) or the one that concerns us today, Lucia in the Spider's Web (The cannon shot, The Facto), one of the first originals of RTVE Play. Urwitz opens the doors to us docuseries that, starting from a murder, unravels a red de corrupción institucional y urbanística apoyada por el narcotráfico which spans over 13 years. Everything is summarized five absorbing chapters of 45 minutes long.

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The origin of Lucia in the spider web

Sofia Urwitz, with a degree in Fine Arts and Audiovisual Communication, and with master's degrees dedicated to contemporary art and cinema, returned to Spain after dedicating herself to research in Holland for several years. That's when he decided to make a master's degree in photography direction in the CHESS to complement the technical keys of the universo visual y plástico that included his training.

After working in different areas within the advertising and the cine, begins to collaborate with Tomás Ocaña, investigative journalist who in 2017 founded the Spanish production company The Facto. Together with him, he carries out different projects such as Preying on the predator or several episodes for Underground Chronicles of Telemadrid.

The next step in their alliance would be Lucia in the spider web, the longest project signed by Urwitz. In it, for the first time, the director and director of photography would have complete freedom to, taking over Ocaña's journalistic work, give free rein to his visual references to carry a look cinematographic to an ambitious report.

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Equilibrio entre periodismo y cinematografía

Ocaña, with a view to carrying out Lucia in the spider web, wanted to get away from the report invoice. Despite having a much more modest budget than other international true crimes, the objective was clear: get a similar invoice. In this way, one of the keys to the true crime: offer a purely journalistic product with a captivating visual finish and a absorbing script.

Urwitz round Lucia in the spider web with two cinema-grade camera units in RAW y 4K, using the lenses Best Prime of Angenieux. Among the collection of optics, several zoom “very versatile” and a 25-250 which, according to the director herself, “is what helped me the most when building a very cinematic language.”

Several keys to his visual approach resided in the use of textures to contextualize and mark the progress of fiction (based on organic textures such as paints, pigments, ceramics or clay), as well as in the use of the chromatic range of the geographical context of true crime: "The story is framed in Malaga; at the color level, we can go to something earthy, heat, texture."

There was no point in disrupting the visual and environmental dialogue that offered the environment of Lucia in the spider web: that, possibly, would have been to attack (or play lightly) on the objectivity of the report itself.

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The visual bill and the tone

For Urwitz, the “intentions” that arise from the photography and filmmaking are the keys that have kept away Lucia in the Spider's Web of the report and have brought it closer to the contemporary interpretation of the true crime. Therefore, the visual invoice is configured as a differentiating element of special significance. Urwitz, from the perspective of realization, also identifies the tone as the axis of the identity of the RTVE Play series.

“There are some true crimes that have more sensationalist tendencies, others that place the viewer in a more contemplative, observant place… Each project asks you for one thing or another, and of course, each director puts one stamp or another,” explains Urwitz.

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A great influence

One of the objectives when building the visual universe of Lucia in the spider web was to build a narrative that had “your own rules”: “Within being part of a quite marked style, I did want it to have its particularities.” Even so, there is a work that served as a reference for the production: The Pharmacist, a true crime of The Cinemart to Netflix released in 2020.

The Pharmacist tells the story of a pharmacist who, following the death of his son, ends up discovering a plot much more complex than it initially appeared. This premise, as well as the use of the protagonist to advance the story, they gave several clues to Urwitz: "Obviously, I had to transfer it to our world, (...) but I stayed with the idea of ​​generating continuity from the intimacy of the protagonist himself. Furthermore, the profile of The Pharmacist fit with Ignacio [Ndr: one of the main characters of Lucia in the Spider's Web]: a type of person with a somewhat obsessive character, but always with an honorable intention.”

On the invoice of The Pharmacist also convinced Urwitz. Despite what away from their budgets, the director and director of photography highlights the “titanic effort” of “all the technicians” to reach “a decent minimum”: “We believed that giving that visual power created packaging for a story that could not be unbalanced in that sense.”

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The true crime narrative

True crimes offer a wide range of narrative approaches. If something characterizes this genre, it is the breaking the formal features of the reports.

After evaluating several approaches, Sofía Urwitz and her team decided that the interviews would lead the narrative of Lucia in the spider web. Dispensing with voice-over, las statements they would have to advance a corruption plot which extends for nearly 13 years and which, to this day, still open. Addressing this narrative was only possible with the help of a large journalistic team that was responsible for organizing all the information extracted from interviews, sentences and archival material. Tomás Ocaña did not skimp on resources, since he had more than 10 people dedicated exclusively to verifying facts.

"We couldn't broadcast anything that a character said and it wasn't real. As you can imagine, narrating a corruption plot that begins in 2008 has great complexity. You have to try to unravel the puzzle so that the story makes sense, is understood, and is also accurate and truthful. It has been very complicated," recalls Urwitz.

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Interviews as axis

Las interviews, as conductors of the narrative, were accompanied by creative decisions that helped to continue giving credibility to Lucia in the spider web, Urwitz provides more details: "Whenever possible, people have been interviewed in their own spaces. It was important not to go to sets, a hotel or a ship: we wanted, given that they are very personal stories and we wanted the viewer to feel like an investigator, the character's own space would give clues so that the audience could draw conclusions about what types of characters we were showing them."

In the case of people who do not have access to their own spaces, such as the colonel of the Internal Affairs Headquarters of the Civil Guard, an approach was chosen that complement the narrative and give context about the character: "Although it is true that there are certain resources that we were able to film in his office, for the interview we looked for a neutral, delocalized space. When you see the interview, the viewer is transported to an indefinite space, just as we see Internal Affairs. They are in the backstage, in hidden spaces, investigating and carrying out internal control.”

The interviews, regardless of the space, were filmed with a front camera which presented a open plan of the character. This master's degree was accompanied by a short shot located in a slider that moved to generate versatility within the interview itself. In the same way, lighting and air They were worked on differently for each character: "We were interested in a chiaroscuro world, in a low key, typical of the world of true crime; (...) the characters had more or less contrast depending on the intention we had about them."

Urwitz delves into the choice of frames in the interviews: "For example, when they start talking about corruption, the airs were inverted. We began to visually generate the idea that corruption has been constantly present throughout history. One way to work on it was to overwhelm the character and generate an inversion of the airs as certain things happened."

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Visual resources and metaphors

Another key element of true crime is the use of resources to contextualize characters and events, and facilitate plot compression. In the case of Lucia in the spider web, was chosen dispense with recreations to opt for an approach that did not hesitate to resort to visual metaphors.

Urwitz and his team, for example, They did not have visual resources from Lucía, who died in 2008 (starting point of the report). However, they did have audios in which they could hear him speaking with a tarot reader. To “free” the viewer from a possible prejudice, decided to omit During the first chapters, who was Lucía's interlocutor and it was decided to accompany these conversations with water, something present from the very head of the series: “First, for a literal and quite crude matter, and that is that Lucía dies in a pool, where she is drowned.” This resource is a constant throughout true crime: "It helps us talk about the silenced voice. When you put something under the water, first there is a distortion and then a silence. We wanted to highlight this subtext: how, since Lucía's death, a series of issues have been silenced that are even visually distorted."

Other elements used are the generation of a “research table” (which in the fifth episode is shown as a set with the spotlights on to show that that table did not exist in reality), the presentation of documents, the creating relationship maps, the construction (and deconstruction) of elements such as the tricorn of the Civil Guard, the use of old televisions to introduce archival material, the capture of natural spaces o to telephone pole recording to contextualize calls (in what is a tribute to The Wire).

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La neutralidad en el true crime

In any journalistic work, the subjectivity is present. Whether in the choice of approach, its arrangement or the selection of sources, there is a unique vision that permeates all work. In the case of a true crime, in which the visual takes on vital importance, resources, use of color o the assembly conditions the viewer's access to the plot, story o report that is transmitted.

Urwitz, when addressing this question, considers that Lucia in the spider web has not pretended to bebehavioral”, but “generate an investment experience for the viewer”, involving them in the story. This invitation is presented in each episode: “All episodes begin with a intro of very short detailed plans of the spaces that will appear during the chapter. Furthermore, this helped us to talk about a conceptual issue in our research: we worked from the detail to the general.”

The director and director of photography recognizes that “there will always be subjective content,” but the goal is always to address the subject matter. from objectivity trying “not to influence opinion.” “Photography and filmmaking have to accompany that,” says Urwitz.

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Delete to help understand

The amount of information to be treated and summarized to make the story understandable y transform it into an attractive audiovisual product It is one of the biggest challenges faced by the vast majority of true crime. Lucia in the spider web is not the exception. Summarize the call Operation Cobweb, which extends from 2008 to the present day, It is not a simple task.

The research team led by Tomas Ocaña y Rafa Gonzalez, accompanied by the scriptwriters Antonio Diaz Perez y Adolfo Moreno, took all the material, proposed resources to accompany the contents and structured the core of the history of Lucia in the Teleraña, always looking maintain a rhythm that facilitates understanding from the assembly. Inevitablemente, el equipo se vio obligado a exclude information, since the case contained “lots of subplot” that could lead to spectator to confusion.

To support the main narrative, since “the web is very big,” The Cannon Shot y The Facto They relied on the transmedia capabilities of RTVE Play y RTVE Lab to provide additional information in the form of interactive relationship maps or small visual pieces that complement the universe of Lucia in the spider web with monographs on the gender violence, the AUGC, justice, animal trafficking, investigative journalism o the illicit economy.

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The details: OST and header

Lucia in the spider web It is a work full of details that They are part of a whole. Each element present (or not) on the screen, choice of color, air in an interview or visual metaphor builds a world aimed at shed truth about the murder of Lucía Garrido and the corruption plot that surrounds it.

For example, music. Antón Serrats, Thomas Virgos y Pablo Serrano They set out to build a original soundtrack (already published on digital platforms) with a melody or tonality for each character. According to the characters themselves, they will relate within the plot, the trio mezclaría diseños sound to give a new dimension (and new clues) to the viewer. Special mention deserves the head: built around the water, in it appear different elements representatives that mark each of the five chapters of the format. "How can it be that a story like this, a plot of corruption with things so striking that they are not even hidden, has been sinking and we have forgotten it? (...) The intention of the headline summarizes that desire for the cases to be reopened, investigated and justice done, which in the end is what we all want," Urwitz clarifies.

Just like the web represents different causes within the investigation plot, a whole creative web relates, interprets and unites the pieces of this true crime. It couldn't be any other way.

A report by Sergio Julián Gómez

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7uawzOpZmg