Scene for new show on Discovery Channel shot at Plaza Barber Shop

‘ID: Investigation Discovery’ will air ‘Stalked’ series early next year Sparta — There was a lot more going on than the usual buzz cut at the Plaza Barber Shop last Wednesday. The real buzz was the sound of a camera and a director calling, “action,” and the only cutting was when the director called, “cut” to set up for the next shot. A film crew from Atlas Media Inc. was in town filming a scene from a new series for Discovery Channel’s “ID: Investigation Discovery” and it was using Sparta’s very own old-fashioned barber shop as a set. The series, titled “Stalked,” follows the true stories of stalking victims and examines the psychology of the people who pursue them. The barber shop was used as a set; it didn’t have anything to do with the story. Stalking is an all-too-familiar crime which has only grown worse with the added threat of cyber-stalking. The National Center for Victims of Crime reports that 3.4 million people in the U. S. reported being stalked last year. Each episode of “Stalked” covers one story, ripped from the headlines, and tells the tale through interviews with the victims, their family and friends, the police and investigators, and a psychologist who takes viewers inside the mind of the stalker. The real life interviews are interwoven with dramatic recreations of the crime. It is one of these recreations that was shot in Sparta last week by director Anna Kerrigan, a freelance director for Atlas Media. She couldn’t talk about the specific story her crew was filming at the Plaza Barber Shop until production is complete and air dates are firm. But Kerrigan said she was excited about the new series and that it promises riveting stories similar to the style for which Discovery ID shows are known. The channel airs a variety of programming dealing with investigation, forensic analysis, and true crimes. Kerrigan shot scenes for another Discovery ID show in Sparta last year. She said, “The amazing thing about Sparta as a location is that no one knows about it. You can find such an insane collection of random locations here that can pass for a million things in a shot. So many different things could be filmed in Sparta.” Kerrigan has just completed work on her first feature length film and is currently shopping it to various film festivals while she does freelance work for Atlas Media. Atlas Media is an award-winning independent producer of non-fiction content that provides programming for many of the cable channels. Look for “Stalked” to start hitting the air in January or February of 2011.