[dini house investigation]

[jcrane]

The rest of the day passes in the usual haze of preparation. Crane makes sure the interns have some idea of what they'll be doing in the basement tonight. Mellark is obnoxious and dim, but he can follow directions and hold a camera. Jonathan entrusts the EVP recorder to Lichfield, thank you very much. She actually seems to understand multi-syllable words. He has Quinzel give them the relevant background information on the house, and corners Lichfield later in the day to ask what sorts of questions she has planned. He likes the answers he gets. Satisfied that the interns know what they're meant to be doing, he checks on the rest of the crew. He hardly needs to; as far from their chosen professions as most of them are, they all do their jobs well. And they've been at this a little while.

In the final swirl of activity before the lockdown begins, Crane wolfs down another sandwich in between filming the last of the introductory stuff in front of the house. And then promptly ditches his tie, undoes a couple of buttons, and rolls his sleeves up. Even if Gotham heat isn't anything next to Georgia, it's still August and warm enough to make Jonathan idly wish he were the sort of person to leave the house in more casual attire from time to time. He gathers his personal set of equipment and sends out some last minute instructions and reminders to the crew. Time to get started.

Comments

[harleyquinzel]

Pre-lockdown always verges somewhere between controlled chaos and actual disaster, at least for Dr. Quinzel. And honestly, she doesn't mind it all that much. While Crane is off wrapping the introductory segments in front of the house, she's going through the rooms and filming a bit of in-depth history of each. There's no telling how much of this stuff will actually make the episode. Once it goes to post-production, there's always a bit that ends up on the editing room floor, for whatever reason. It's the nature of television.

They wrap that about the time Crane starts with the last minute reminders, as per usual. Murphy's already set up in their designated home base by then, so all there really is to do is the standard lockdown procedure - which is Eddie cheerfully locking them inside for the night and retreating back to the tech van.

[sweet_caroline]

The flurry of activity immediately preceding lockdown mostly involves going over procedure for Caroline, since she and Mellark are going to actually be helping with the investigation. She gets called away to do intern things a couple times, but the rest of the time is spent trying to get Mellark to stay on topic. He's much more interested in chatting than actually discussing how to go about doing an EVP session or anything actually useful like that. Ugh.

In any case, they end up off to the side in the room designated home base waiting for further instructions. Well, Caroline's waiting. Mellark is... talking. Still. "You nervous at all?" he asks brightly, fiddling with a strap on the camera he's going to be carrying around.

"Um, not really," is all Caroline says in reply, but it's enough to set him off chattering even more. She really hopes someone interrupts him soon.

[murphypendleton]

It's almost as if Murphy has radar for Mellark's idle chit-chat, because he zones in on it almost as soon as he walks into their designated home base.

"Mellark, quiet." He very nearly barks before settling into something vaguely resembling a less annoyed tone. "Gather your gear, kids, we're going to do the walkthrough. We'll drop you off in the basement for the EVP on the way back."

He really hopes both keep their shit together for this, as apparently entertaining as crying interns can be. Eddie's never happy when he has to clean up that audio.

[sweet_caroline]

Caroline's very grateful for Pendleton's arrival and silencing of Mellark, even though she knows it can't last long. She's already got almost all of her stuff on her and ready to go, so it takes only a moment for her to get all set. Mellark, however, takes a frustratingly long moment to shuffle all his gear around.

"Ready," he chirps unnecessarily.

"Congratulations," Doctor Crane says dryly, sweeping into the room. "Try not to make that your crowning achievement of the evening." He gives both interns a sharp look.

Caroline says nothing, but Mellark... "No sir," he says, snapping a small salute.

Caroline grimaces and tries to quietly edge away from him. Fortunately, it really is time to do the walkthrough, so she can fall into line with the rest of the crew. Which is actually pretty exciting, if she can ignore Mellark for at least a couple minutes.