PORTLAND, Maine — When the producers at Lone Wolf Media of South Portland began work on “Wild Crime,” the docuseries about people who’ve committed ugly crimes in America’s national parks and forests, they knew from the outset they’d be re-creating certain scenes to tell their story.
Although the crimes may have happened in California or Florida, producers tried whenever possible to shoot those re-enactments in Maine.
For the third season of “Wild Crime,” which documents the hunt for a serial killer, Lone Wolf shot nearly all the re-enactments in Maine.
“We were dealing with woods, so we ended up shooting at Wolfe’s Neck in Freeport,” Lone Wolf Director and Executive Producer Lisa Wolfinger said. “We filmed there extensively—April, June, July.”
Kendall Cooper, who owns and runs a casting business in Maine, played a major role in finding the people needed to play cops, searchers, hikers, and more.
“We’re looking for people who look like the real people that were involved in the story,” Cooper said. “So we’re looking at facial features, build, hair, facial hair.”
She also needs people who don’t look stiff or amateurish once the camera rolls.
“That’s the key. They have to be able to act," Wolfinger said.
The planning that goes into the production of a series like this is exhaustive. Even so, things go awry.
In April, for instance, when shooting scenes in Freeport that were supposed to take place in winter, the temperature soared.
“It was 80 degrees, and I had everyone in puffer jackets,” Wolfinger said. “It was a little painful for our actors, but they were troupers.”
Season 3 of “Wild Crime” begins streaming on Hulu on Nov. 30. Seasons 1 and 2 can be seen there now.