понедельник, 14 апреля 2014 г.

The recent success of Danish television drama abroad



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

Комментариев нет: