A small European country, Danmark as well as her neighbors has had problems distributing its national media products abroad. However between 2002 and 2009 Danmarks Radio (DR), a public service broadcaster, got five Emmy Awards (1) for its series. Below I am going to summarize the possible reasons of the recent international success of Danish television drama.
When
Rumle Hammerich came as head of drama at DR, he reorganized the
production methods of work in his department. Eva Novrup Redvall
reveals the two main practices applied in this reorganization. (3)
Firstly,
TV producers began relocating their operations into film studios. The
use of specific spaces for writing and production allowed them to
ameliorate the quality of TV films.
Secondly, the notion of
'production hotels' was introduced. It consisted in bringing all the
members of the production crew together in the same space so
that different production departments could communicate directly among
each other.
According to Eva Novrup Redvall, Ingolf Gabold, the
Head of drama at DR, first introduced in 2003 certain 'dogmas' to guide
in-house productions, among which the following three concepts are worth
mentioning.
The first one is called 'one vision'. The writer remains at the heart of the production process shaping the essence of the drama together with The DR's Producers. The author produces the original story, while retaining artistic freedom and collaborating with episode writers and directors. The European idea of 'auteur' directorship is not relevant any longer. A famous drama called Borgen, saw nine different directors during 3 seasons, while Adam Price, the creator, was the one person who determined the main direction of dramatic movement throughout 30 episodes.(4)
The concept of 'double storytelling' emphasizes that
the entertaining plot needs to contain also ethical and social
connotations. In the case of Borgen the main storyline revolves
around the first woman to become Denmark's prime minister. This
political-crime thriller not only demonstrates her professional
struggles on the political stage but it also reveals darker sides of
society. In marked contrast to American crime series, 'scandycrime'
includes melodramatic and emotional elements, avoiding the traditional
case-based structure. This new approach dictates a new visual form as
well. For instance, in the case of The Killing, the existential
malaise of its characters is illustrated by the use of dark and cold
colors, with November being the time of year of all 3 seasons of the
series. (5)
The third concept called 'crossover' is about
intensifying the interaction between the television and film industries.
The students of National Film School of Denmark participate in the
writing and production of television drama during their education. The
improvement of skills for practitioners is also a core activity factored
into the NFTF* budget (6).
The financial support for television
drama is generally made available through co-production deals among
Scandinavian countries, currently involving more and more other European
countries, too. Moreover, some recent technological developments and
the use of subtitles have now resolved the language issue that used to
hinder the international distribution.
The good choice of
scheduling (the Sunday 8 p.m. slot) and the double-episode screening
have contributed to the broadcasting success in Europe. The magic
formula of '10 episodes, 60 minutes each' is used for the production of
series for export and it works especially well with long crime and
family series comparing to other genres. (7)
The reasons listed
above increased the fame of DR on the international market as well as
its potential for toppling America's supremacy in the domain. Series like The Bridge, The Killing had a number of remakes made by U.S. and European production studios (8).
(1) Bondebjerg, Ib and Eva N. Redvall (2011), ‘The Smell of Global Success: The Scandinavian Television Drama.’ In: A Small Region in a Global World: Patterns in Scandinavian Film and Television Culture. Copenhagen: Centre for Modern European Studies, University of Copenhagen, p. 98.
(2) Novrup Redvall, Eva. (2014). Coursera video lecture N 9.2. Danish public television drama in the 2000s:
http://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/scanfilmtv/recoded_videos%2FSCANFTV_WEEK_9_EVA_REDVAL_LECTURE_1...
(3) IMDB. Bogen. All cast and crew: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1526318/fullcredits?ref_=tt_ql_1
(4) Novrup Redvall, Eva. (2014). Coursera video lecture N 9.3. Scandi-crime and Nordic Noir:
http://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/scanfilmtv/recoded_videos%2FSCANFT_WEEK_9_EVA_NOVRUP_REDVALL_LE...
(5) Bondebjerg, Ib and Eva N. Redvall (2011), ‘The Smell of Global Success: The Scandinavian Television Drama.’ In: A Small Region in a Global World: Patterns in Scandinavian Film and Television Culture. Copenhagen: Centre for Modern European Studies, University of Copenhagen, p. 99.
(6) Novrup Redvall, Eva. (2014). Coursera video lecture N 9.3. Scandi-crime and Nordic Noir:
http://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/scanfilmtv/recoded_videos%2FSCANFT_WEEK_9_EVA_NOVRUP_REDVALL_LE...
(7) Bondebjerg, Ib and Eva N. Redvall (2011), ‘The Smell of Global Success: The Scandinavian Television Drama.’ In: A Small Region in a Global World: Patterns in Scandinavian Film and Television Culture. Copenhagen: Centre for Modern European Studies, University of Copenhagen, p. 109.
(8) Novrup Redvall, Eva. (2014). Coursera video lecture N 9.3. Scandi-crime and Nordic Noir:
http://d396qusza40orc.cloudfront.net/scanfilmtv/recoded_videos%2FSCANFT_WEEK_9_EVA_NOVRUP_REDVALL_LE...
* NFTF: Nordic Film and TV Fund
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