Mediterranean reality show borrows from 'Brother'

Dr. Malcolm Tunnicliff and also the trauma team performance with an accident victim in BBC America's"24 Hrs within the ER." FlanaganCinema verite meets the er in "24 Hrs within the ER," which debuts today on BBC America. The convergence was inevitable. From "Dr. Kildare" within the '60s to sudser "General Hospital" to present day "House" and "ER," medical shows happen to be a standard feature of scripted TV also it was just dependent on time before a skein like "24 Hrs" will come along and produce the existence-and-dying tales of the trauma center to reality television. But how can you film inside a real er teeming with fast-moving medical employees along with a rapid succession of trauma sufferers looking for immediate attention? "24 Hrs," which first broadcast on Funnel 4 within the U.K., solved this problem by borrowing in the playbook from the voyeuristic "Your Government" -- spying this is not on a house but around the busy accident and emergency facilities of London's King's College Hospital, where squealing ambulances deliver one battered patient to another. The show used "fixed rig" technology, implementing a range of 70 robot cameras placed discreetly around the hospital's walls and roofs. Each was cabled to some truck within the parking area in which a small military of specialists and operators released zoom, pan and tilt instructions, taking in sometimes gory detail what goes on to patients -- stabbed, shot, hurt in accidents -- as they are accepted and treated. Acquiring the audio was especially challenging because radio microphones needed to be mounted on patients and family members. The producers and hospital exercised a consent protocol everybody needed to sign before anything might be shot or broadcast. "In the beginning it appeared as an unmakeable series," stated producer-director Amy Flanagan. "The logistics, the ethics, 170 people around the production team, 100s of patients -- a nightmare." Each one of the 48-minute episodes happens on the 24-hour period. The producers shot for 28 straight days, taking 4,200 hrs of footage. Flanagan stated the remote camera system permitted the program's intense human drama and closeness. "They understood these were being shot however they did not feel the existence of a camera operator," she stated. "There have been no deck hands playing around with boom rods or wires. When a patient decided to be shot someone would put a mic in it and then leave.Inch The 70 cameras permitted coverage from multiple angles, yielding a glance "a lot more like drama than traditional factual TV," stated professional producer Magnus Temple. Funnel 4 shot the show using standard-def and tape, however the network has restored the series, Temple stated. "This time around they need it shipped on HD and we'll most likely record onto hard disc. It's well worth the extra investment." Temple and the production partner Nick Curwin formerly used fixed-rig technology on the U.K. reality skeins "The HouseholdInch and "One Born Every Minute" (the U.S. version of "Born" airs on Lifetime), however for "24 Hrs" installed the strategy on anabolic steroids. Temple wouldn't discuss your budget of "24 Hrs" but stated, "Even though infrastructure is very costly, because you are getting 14 episodes from 4 weeks of shooting, the per-hour cost resembles standard factual TV." Reservations & Signings Montana Artists signed d.p./second unit d.p. Jonathan P. Taylor ("Iron Guy 2"), production designer Ryan Berg ("The listInch), costume designer Karen Malecki ("Take Shelter") and editor Vikash Patel ("The Storyline of Luke"). Agency reserved professional producers/UPMs Tom Karnowski on John Moore's "Die Hard 5" and Richard Sharkey on Kaira Parker's "The Diary of Lawson Oxford" co-producer Cecilia Roque on Adrien Brody's "Dirt Jumpers" co-producers/UPMs Darren Demetre on Roman Coppola's "A Glimpse Within the Mind of Charlie Swan III" and Tim Coddington on Peter Webber's "The Guy Who Saved the Emperor" UPM JoAnn Perritano on Shane Black's "Iron Guy 3" producer Anthony Mark as UPM on TNT pilot "The Container Star" and basketball coordinator, Michael J. Fisher on John Whitesell's "Switch." Montana also reserved d.p.'s Mathias Herndl on David Frazee's "Borealis," Christopher Norr on Scott Derrickson's "Sinister," Bing Sokolsky on TNT's "Franklin & Party," Philip Robertson on Louis Morneau's "The Wolfman" and Ron Mcguire on Nickelodeon movie "In A Major Way Movie" first AD's Annie Berger on FX's "Justified," Jay Tobias on NBC's "The Playboy Club" and Richard Patrick on CBS' "Memorable" production designers David Blass on "Justified," Kara Lindstrom on Malik Bader's "Crush," Lara Ballinger on HBO's "VEEP" and Brandy Alexander on television Land's "Upon the market at 35" costume designers Pamela Withers Chilton on The best spinner's pilot "Males at the office,Inch Lynn Falconer on Scott Walker's "The Frozen Ground" and Simonetta Mariano on David Twohy's "The Stories of Riddick: Dead Guy Stalking" and editors Ken Eluto on NBC's "30 Rock," Todd Ramsay on Rustam Branaman's "The Culling," Debra Weinfeld on USA's "Common Law" and Pam Smart on Eddie Chung's "Condors." Contact Peter Caranicas at peter.caranicas@variety.com