If you’ve watched Dateline or other documentary-style shows, you’ve probably noticed they include local journalists in the role of a knowledgeable source. Pam Marino here, willing to admit I’ve always wanted to play that role someday. Last fall, I got the chance to do just that for a History Channel digital episode about Big Sur’s Dark Watchers. The episode just dropped yesterday, Feb. 24.
I got involved in August when I received an email from producer Eryana Hundhausen, with the digital team for the History Channel. She told me she was researching the Dark Watchers, the mysterious shadow figures of Big Sur who people have reported seeing for centuries. I wrote a feature story about the phenomenon for the Weekly back in 2017. Sadly, the knowledgeable sources I interviewed have since died.
“Would you be willing to speak with us about them?” Hundhausen asked me. My answer was an enthusiastic “yes.”
She sent me a list of potential questions I’d be asked for the video. I reread my notes from 2017 and did new research, wanting to be as prepared as possible. I was nervous—I wanted to be accurate and not say anything inaccurate or awkward.
I met a film crew from Los Angeles at Andrew Molera State Park on Sept. 25, specifically at Cooper Cabin, a little bit of a hike from the parking lot, located in a grove of eucalyptus. There I met producer Chris Bagnall and his team: Tim Wright (audio), Carlo Alberto Orecchia (director of photography), Rob Hache (camera operator) and Gwen Mellon (production assistant).
After they fitted me with a mic and set up the cameras with the cabin to one side and the Santa Lucias as a backdrop, Bagnall peppered me with questions that I did my best to answer. Once we got through the questions, we broke for lunch—a delicious sandwich from 5th Avenue Deli and Catering in Carmel—and then we filmed a couple of hours of b-roll footage.
Here’s where all my years of watching Dateline came in. I immediately recognized (and was amused by) what they were asking me to do as classic documentary scenes: looking wistfully off to the mountains, peering inside the old cabin, hiking along a forest trail. They even had me do what’s known as the “hero shot,” where the camera captured me crossing my arms and looking confidently into the lens.
I had a good time hanging with the crew, a fun and professional bunch who were incredibly nice to me. They also joked around and poked fun with one another at times, like all good teams that work well together are apt to do.
“The Shadow Humanoids of California’s Coastline,” for the show MonsterQuest: Origins, was released on YouTube. I breathed a sigh of relief to see that they used my best answers, although I was a little disappointed they didn’t use any of the b-roll footage—out of what must have been a couple of hours of recording, only minutes were utilized. The whole video comes in at just under eight minutes.
Now that the experience is behind me, I would say all in all it was positive and I would do it again if I ever get the chance. Check out the video and let me know what you think—and if you’ve ever encountered Dark Watchers in Big Sur.