Walkie-Talkies

A studio backlot outside Rome · a night shoot in 1974 · four crews on four radio channels · Difficulty: Chief 10 · 16×16

1974, a studio backlot outside Rome. A spaghetti western is being shot through the night. Four crews of four work on it – camera, lighting, sound and stunts – each on its own radio channel. The old walkie-talkies drown each other out when two sets on one channel get too close, so crew-mates keep well apart. At two in the morning Van, the stunt coordinator, was found dead. The scene was never shot.

Rules

Members of the same crew were at least four rows and at least four columns apart from one another.
Every row and every column holds exactly one person. As soon as you place someone, cross out their whole row and column.
“Beside” = directly left, right, above or below, and in the same area. Squares with objects (the stagecoach, the barrels, the cactus, the signs, the bar counter, the piano, the card table, the cannon, the crates, the suit of armour, the cabinets, the statue, the cones, the dressing tables, the mirror, the trolley, the wardrobe, the dummies, the coat rack, the sewing machine, the cameras, the spotlights, the sandbag, the ladders, the curtain, the microphone, the gas bottles, the tyre stack, the hose, the caravans, the mixing desk, the tape machine, the loudspeaker, the desks, the projector, the screen, the espresso machine, the table, the cars) cannot be occupied; the chairs, the bar stools and the benches can. A bar stool and a bench are not chairs. A corner of an area is a square of it that faces outwards (another area or the edge of the board) on a horizontal and on a vertical side.
Directions refer to rows, not to the same column: “exactly one row north of her was a man” = the person in the row directly above is a man, in any column.
“A bench was somewhere in his column” = a bench is on one of the squares of his column, in any area; “somewhere in her area” = on a square of the area she was in. “She and Nicole were beside the same kind of thing” = beside objects of the same type; they need not be the same piece. “Right beside an area where nobody was” = on a square that touches an empty area directly – left, right, above or below, across the wall.
“There was exactly one other person in his area” = he was with exactly one person. “There was no man in her area” = not a single man was in her area; “no other man in his area” = no man besides the speaker. “Beside a chair that nobody was sitting in” = at least one chair beside her was empty.
The murderer was alone with the victim: nobody else was in that area.

Statements

Alain (the cinematographer): There was exactly one other person in his area.
Beverly (the camera operator): She was with Fae. She was not sitting in a chair.
Chuck (the focus puller): There was no other man in his area.
Danielle (the clapper loader): A camera was somewhere in her area. She was right beside an area where nobody was.
Evan (the gaffer): He was not on the Western Street.
Fae (the best boy): Made no statement.
Geoff (a spark): A bench was somewhere in his column. He was with Alain.
Hannelore (a spark): She was alone in her area. She and Nicole were beside the same kind of thing.
Iker (the sound recordist): He was in a corner of his area.
Jackie (the boom operator): Exactly one row north of her was a man. A crate was somewhere in her column.
Kirk (the sound assistant): A camera was somewhere in his column. There were exactly two other people in his area.
Linda (the playback operator): There was no man in her area. A bench was somewhere in her column.
Melody (a stunt woman): A barrel was somewhere in her area. There was no man in her area.
Nicole (a stunt woman): She was beside a chair that nobody was sitting in.
Omar (a stunt man): He was in a corner of his area.
Van (the stunt coordinator): The victim. He was found in the Props Store, beside the cannon – alone with the murderer.

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