postPerspective Update

Lesley Chilcott Talks Production and
Post on Helter Skelter Docuseries

By Randi Altman

Most people know the story of Charles Manson, his loyal followers and the gruesome Tate-LaBianca murders they committed on his behalf. There have been countless news pieces, books and movies featuring the story of this oddly charismatic psychopath, including last year’s Quentin Tarantino film, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood, which alluded to Manson but gave audiences a much happier ending than what really happened.

Lesley Chilcott was determined to offer a different perspective in Helter Skelter: An American Myth. When asked how she made the six-part Epix docuseries different from what’s been tackled in the past, the showrunner/ executive producer/director explained she was surprised there had never been a deep dive that told the full story of the Manson family saga.

“My thinking was we could do an anthropological dig into the era. I wanted to help explain the unexplainable. I also wanted to peel away the lore. Manson is given way too much credit as a captivating criminal mastermind who had a big plan, and that couldn’t be further from the truth.”

We reached out to Chilcott — whose credits include An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud and Watson — to learn more about the series’ production and post, some of which took place during the COVID shutdown.

Why was it important for you to produce and direct these?
I think with any limited series, there are huge benefits to having the EP/showrunner and director be the same person, in terms of keeping the vision consistent. This can be especially true in the documentary form because there is no script. Additionally, when I came onto the project, we had 10 months until delivery of the first episode, which is absolutely nuts for six hours of content. There was really was no time for me to divide the whole thing out and assign other directors to specific episodes. We had to look at it like one long story, shooting and editing as we went along.