Veena Sud Papers

Title: Veena Sud Papers

Dates: 2006 - 2017

Collection Number: WGF-MS-025

Creator/Collector: Cabreros-Sud, Veena

Extent: 10 linear feet, 11 boxes.

Repository: Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Abstract: The Veena Sud Collection contains writers’ room notes, outlines, drafts, revision pages, research, and ephemera relating to two TV series, The Killing and Seven Seconds.

Language of Material: English

Available by appointment only.

The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the researcher.

[Identification of item]. Veena Sud Papers. Collection Number: WGF-MS-025. Writers Guild Foundation Archive

Donated by Veena Sud in two parts; 2015 and in 2021.

Veena Sud was born in Toronto, Canada and grew up in Indian Hill, Ohio, near Cincinnati, Ohio. She attended Barnard College, where she studied politics and women’s studies. After she graduated in 1989, she worked as a journalist, spending several years at Pacifica Radio and at the media watchdog group, Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. When Sud turned 28, she enrolled at New York University’s Film School and received a Master of Fine Arts degree. Sud began her film and television career as the director for MTV’s The Real World for one year. She was hired as a staff writer for the 2002 television series Push, Nevada, and then for the CBS police drama Cold Case. She was later promoted to Executive Producer for the show’s fourth and fifth seasons. Sud is most known for creating the TV series, The Killing, for which she earned an Emmy nomination for Drama Series, and a Writers Guild of America Award nomination for New Series. The Killing is a police procedural adapted from a popular Danish series called Forbrydelsen (The Crime). The show ran for 4 seasons, the first three on AMC and the final season on Netflix. In 2018 Sud created the show, Seven Seconds, which aired for one season on Netflix. Seven Seconds was adapted from the Russian action movie, The Major by Yuriy Bykov, about a man who accidentally hits and kills a child on the road. Seven Seconds is also about a hit-and-run, but Sud located the show in Jersey City and included a Black Lives Matter storyline. Sud won the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Television Movie or Limited Series and the Black Reel Award for Outstanding Screenplay, TV Movie or Limited Series with co-writer Shalisha Francis. Sud’s other credits include, The Lie (2018), The Salton Sea (2016), and the short film One Night (2000) for which she won the San Francisco International Film Festival Certificate of Merit in Film & Video – Short Narrative.

The collection materials are arranged into three series. Series I, The Killing, contains development notes, research, outlines, scripts, revision pages and props from the television series The Killing. Series I is divided into two subseries, Subseries A: Production Binders and Development Notes, and Subseries B: Ephemera. Subseries A includes extensive typed writers’ room notes for seasons 1-4, research, character and plot development notes, and script drafts and outlines for most episodes of seasons 1-3. Some of the outlines and draft scripts also have handwritten notes from the writers and producers. Subseries B: Ephemera, includes set dressing and props from seasons 1, 3 and 4. Of note is a writers’ room whiteboard with handwritten notes outlining the main plot points for season 1. Series II refers to all materials related to the TV series Seven Seconds. The series contains show development notes from the writers’ room, research, episode outlines, episode script drafts and revision pages. Series II is divided into two subseries, Subseries A: Production Binders and Development Materials, and Subseries B: Ephemera. Subseries A includes research, writers’ room notes, and outlines and script drafts for each of the ten episodes. Also included is a research binder provided by activist Debra Jenkins, a resident of Milwaukee, WI whose son was killed by a Milwaukee police officer in 2002. The contents in the binder document Ms. Jenkins’ legal struggle to attempt to hold the officer, the police force, and the city of Milwaukee accountable for the shooting and subsequent death of her son. Subseries B includes a publicity poster and a behind-the-scenes photobook. Series III relates to Sud’s work on the TV series Cold Case. The bulk of Series III consists of research about actual murders and an excel spreadsheet listing murders that occurred in Philadelphia, PA. The rest of the collection consists of handwritten notes describing plot points.