Murder at the Grand Resort | Grand Resort Bad Ragaz launches a crime thriller radio play
Murder in the Grand Resort - Crime Thriller Podcast
Murder in the Grand Resort - Crime Thriller Podcast
Murder in the Grand Resort - Crime Thriller Podcast
A murder case at the Tamina Therme, six suspicious guests and a master detective. This is the basis of the first fictional crime podcast from a Swiss luxury hotel. The Grand Resort Bad Ragaz launched this audio experience yesterday in Bad Ragaz. The five episodes of ‘Murder at the Grand Resort’ were produced in collaboration with the Winterthur-based company Podcast Schmiede and are based on the famous crime story ‘Murder on the Orient Express’ by Agatha Christie. The postcast is in the German language and is officially called “Mord im Grand Resort’, good to practice your German.😉
3 minutes read
Unusual idea
The three main ingredients: a luxurious grand hotel, a mysterious murder and a multitude of suspects. That’s what ‘Murder at the Grand Resort’ is made of. But how does a 5-star luxury resort come up with this unusual idea? “Most of us are definitely fascinated by a grand hotel and a luxury resort. A podcast is the perfect way to bring this fascination to life in an innovative way,” summarizes Milos Colovic, General Manager Grand Hotels. “We are known for being exceptional,” says Colovic, “and this new format confirms this.” The hotel director is alluding to the innovative strength and pioneering directions that the Grand Resort has been taking in recent years. The Grand Resort was supported by specialists from the Winterthur-based company Podcast Schmiede.
The making off ‘Murder at the Grand Resort’
The first meetings with the Winterthur-based company Podcast Schmiede took place in the fall of 2022. “It quickly became clear that we wanted to create a classic crime story,” says Astrid Hüni, Director of PR & Communications and, together with her team, the creative mind behind the podcast idea. “A murder as a fictional storyline was certainly bold and it soon became clear to us that if we were going to do a murder, we wanted to do it properly.” An experienced team of podcasters from Podcast Schmiede and communication experts from the resort’s own ranks wrote the story about the detective Johanna Kempin. This included the interactions between the fictional characters and real employees of the resort. A total of 16 employees – from the concierge to the top chef to the painter – took part in ‘Murder at the Grand Resort’. All recordings were made over three days at the end of October. Michèle Burkart took on the main speaking role of detective Johanna Kempin. The well-known presenter demonstrated great acting talent and merged with her role of Johanna. “I really was Johanna for three days,” explains Michèle Burkart.
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence was used to draw a line between the fictional story and the real location of the events. Grisons photographer Yanik Bürkli created portraits of all the protagonists based on detailed descriptions using the text-to-image tool ‘Midjourney’. The resulting images were further processed, corrected and refined in image editing programs. “Making intelligent use of artificial intelligence is one of the major tasks of the future,” explains General Manager Milos Colovic. “Here too, the Grand Resort is a pioneer and is not closed to new trends.”
Murder at the Grand Resort
The famous detective Johanna Kempin actually just wants to take a vacation at the Grand Resort Bad Ragaz. But then everything changes. A hotel guest is found dead in the Tamina Therme – stabbed to death with a knife. Detective Johanna Kempin begins to investigate and discovers that the murder victim was involved in various illegal activities. The deeper she digs into the past, the more dark secrets come to light…
The creation of the main image
The image of the blood-soaked bathing pool in the Tamina Therme, posed a particular challenge. “As we didn’t want to scare off the audience, we had to change the viscosity of the red liquid,” says Bürkli. In the end, the result was an image with blood that was too thick, balancing the recognizability of the spa with the fictional nature of the murder in the spa.
The podcast can be found on all common podcast platforms under ‘Murder at the Grand Resort’.
We have had a wonderful stay at the hotel in the past and love their involvement in art, either it’s Bad RagARTz or making a podcast!
Website: Grand Resort Bad Ragaz
