Deutschland 83: case study blog tasks

 1) Find one positive aspect and one criticism of Deutschland 83 in the reviews.

positive; Deutschland 83’s first episode of eight was the most-watched foreign-language drama in UK history. 

negative; The odd situation is that after decades of being seen as boring and ugly, Germany has found a way of making people abroad think it is cool and sexy – yet Germans don’t like it. 

2) Why does the second Guardian article suggest the Germans didn't like the show?

The odd situation is that after decades of being seen as boring and ugly, Germany has found a way of making people abroad think it is cool and sexy – yet Germans don’t like it. 

3) Find three 'below the line' comments from either of the Guardian articles. What did the audience think of Deutschland 83? Do you agree with the comments?

-"Badly directed, badly produced, lousy continuity and an absurd story of od 6th former wannabe James Bond" i disagree i think this comment is dramatic and i believe that it was directed well as it is an intriguing series with cliff-hangers making the audience want to find out what happened which makes them keep watching 

-"A load of crap plotting" i disagree however in the guardian article it states "Yet by the time the last episode was shown in Germany last December, it had shed half its starting audience, with only 1.72m viewers." this shows that the plot may have gotten worst meaning that the audience especially in Germany stopped watching.

-"Deutschland 83 was great, and I also hoped it was a sign of things to come on German TV. "See; Germany can do it".
Only then to find out that it was an American writer...."  this comment is the first comment that pops up with 27 likes. this suggest that the audience agree with this comment. 

Promotional interview

Channel 4 News: Matt Frei interviews Jonas Nay



1) What does Jonas Nay say about growing up in a united Germany? 

what he knew about 1983 was mostly picked up from lessons at school. This is because at the time it was more history towards him, but his parents and teachers live in this era not him. As he was born in 1990, he believed that growing up, there was not a divide between east and west Germany, because it was United at that point where he was growing up.

2) The Channel 4 News interview is conducted in German with English subtitles. How does this reflect Channel 4's remit as a public service broadcaster and their target audience? (Clue: revise your work on Channel 4 and Public Service Broadcasting here!)
I believe that by use an English subtitles, they are targeting an international audience. This is because English is going to be an international language where in different countries, people learn it during education just like how in England we learnt  an extra language subject at school. Channel 4 is a British channel as a public service broadcaster. They would aim to target as many audience as they can put people to watch this is because there’s been an increase in people watching foreign language series and dramas. So Channel 4 published is  foreign interview to intrigue the audience into watching more foreign dramas.

3) Interviewer Matt Frei asks about the current political situation in Germany. Why might this interest the Channel 4 News audience?

Channel 4 is a public broadcasting service where they also do you produce news. By the interview are asking about the current political situation in Germany in me and treat the political audience into scene, an insiders view on the political situation in Germany. This also reflects the TV show of Deutschland 83 as it took real news and reports that was taken of the time of the Cold War. this contrast what happened during the time of the Cold War end the current political situation.

Textual analysis: Audience pleasures and representations

Scene 1: Garden/BBQ scenes (East & West Germany)

4.58 – 8.20 and 34.00 – 37.20

-camera work in east-Lenora is shot through the kitchen hatch creating concentrations of surveillance begins recurring 

motif of camera shots constructed through windows and blinds 

-happy / smiling facial expressions and actor movements as well in clips one in comparison to clip 2 where  there is an edge and cold tense, facial expressions being shown.

-The handheld camera work in East creates a sense that the audience  are attending a party However, in West the 360° shot circling Martin/ moritz and edels children creates an ominous feeling that Martin is in danger

-Also the mise en scène of the props like the coffee reflects how the brand is an available in East and is seen as a luxury

- The diegetic music in west of the daughter singing, is quite formal uncomfortable and forced. The music in the west of the 99 Luft balloons is an iconic 1980s, German Pop song, 

diegetic sound creates warmth however, the non-diegetic music in West barbecue scene has a low tense, electronic soundtrack to create tension and uncomforted in the atmosphere. 

-The representations shown in East is presented as a warm family she dearly loved each other and is very close. however, it’s subverts the stereotype of East, and most of the Cold War in the media

-West is presented as cold, despite the wealth of edels house, the audience do not connect with a characters and are on edge the whole of the scene.

The nostalgia of the 1980s soundtrack would give an audience pleasure as they can have a sense of nostalgia while they’re watching.

-Genre pleasure in the West gives a sense of spy, thriller as Martin goes undercover.

Scene 2: Martin/Moritz first sees the West German supermarket 

14.30 – 20.25

• Mise-en-scene - use of colour and costume. Iconic Puma logo red T-shirt as a colourful contrast to the dull East. 

• Supermarket shelves full of colour and stacked high. Almost an example of postmodern art and designed to emphasise the difference between East and West.

• Music - Sweet Dreams Are Made Of These. Diegetic sound but full of meaning to convey Martin’s first experience of the West. 

• Dialogue on bench - emphasises the positives about the East and the dangers of the West. BUT this scene overall seems to present the West and capitalism in a more positive light.

• Shot of two policemen eating ice creams is symbolic of the difference between East and West. 

• Several shots emphasise representation of East and West - close-up of chandelier, wide shot of luxurious bedroom etc.

• Gender representation: ‘What does Annett want?’ Does this represent traditional gender roles as they were at the time or should we criticise D83 for a lack of depth to female characters?

• Historical reality - Blumler & Katz U&G theory - surveillance. Danger of WW3, reference to Pershing II missiles. Key elements of D83 based on historical fact. 

• Music - 1980s references - nostalgia. Faithful reconstruction of Germany in the 1980s.

Scene 3: Training montage scene when Martin/Moritz learns how to be a spy

20.40 – 22.40

-A montage sequence of a him learning about spying intrigues, the audience and make some more exciting. Furthermore, the fast pace, editing and jump, confused, excites the audience for what is the come next. 

-The split screen, editing and graphics, and mise en scène used to show the difference between the east, and the west logos brands of and objects present a side-by-side difference, which shows that East don’t have much in West have luxury products.

-The 80s soundtrack pace to the montage.

The Voiceover advances the narrative significantly

-The sound bridge use of sound at the end of the sequence when the music stops, but the Voiceover continues, gives a sense of Martin being on his own now

-There is a binary opposition, suggesting that the west is superior to the east shown when you can see in the split screen that the fruit with missing on the east side.

-The gender, female assassin reinforces, the “female fatale” stereotype, not particularly progressive gender stereotype. 

- The genre pleasures of the spy thriller is seen in the aspect of the assassination, and the training aspects in the montage. 

-The intertextuality of the James Bonds movies is seen by the style of gadgets and camera angles.

-The German audience have a sense of nostalgia for the brands and products seen in the split screen section.

Scene 4: Briefcase scene when Martin/Moritz is stealing the NATO nuclear plans

31.13 – 33.30

The close-up of Martin picking the locks and looking at the documents build up tension for the audience

-In the close of the documents shown “ highly classified” images of missiles and maps, Ronald Regan signature positions to audience to be on Martin’s side, and it also emphasise the reality of what happened during this time of 1983. 

-The diegetic sound deliberately increases the volume of his breathing lock, picking and all his movements, especially the camera clicking as it gets louder the longer he’s in the room as he is closer and closer to getting caught.

-The non-diegetic music, reinforces, thriller and spy, genre tension been built up 

The reality and post-modernism brief scene is important in present in Deutschland, 83 as it’s based on real life events, the documents authentic, perhaps replicas of the real documents released in 2013. Displays the boundaries between fiction and reality.

-There is a reputation of the east of the west, as the west is presented as a threat to the world, as of the nuclear war.

-The action enigma codes of the audience thinks that Martin will be caught  at any moment.

-The surveillance and the documents, images and maps from the Cold War, threatens world War3 

- The audience of forced to build a personal relationship with Martin as they desire to have him escape for the whole drama series this creates an emotional investment within the character.

Production and industry contexts

Deutschland 83 was produced by German production company UFA Fiction and distributed internationally by Fremantle International. It was broadcast on RTL (Germany), SundanceTV (US) and Channel 4 (UK) as well as many other broadcasters around teh world.

1) What kind of company is UFA Fiction and what shows have they produced? 

UFA Fiction combines the production activities of UFA in the areas of series & series, TV movies, high-end drama and cinema films and has a remarkable portfolio that has had a lasting impact on the German television landscape. Many productions were not only big hits with the public, but also received numerous German and international TV and film awards, including two International Emmy Awards.

2) What kind of company is Freemantle and what do they produce?

“ a world leader in creating producing and distributing content across our main content pillars-entertainment and formats, drama, and films and documentaries. We are independent group of talents, studios, and produces content makers and culture shapers operating in 27 territories across the world.”

3) How does Deutschland 83 reflect the international nature of television production?

Deutschland 83 reflects the nature of television as the show is German and is based on German events. However, it is more popular in the international countries like the UK. In the reviews and the article is it a seen that Germans don’t really like the show too much as they feel that it’s not a strong representation of them or it’s a misconception. However, in the UK the audience seem to like it. As it gives a sense of

Walter Presents

Watch this Channel 4 trailer for their Walter Presents international drama:

 

1) How does Channel 4 introduce 'Walter'?

water presents starts off with a dead body, which would introduce this as an crime drama continues with more dead bodies being shown crime tape police and funerals which again gives a sense of a crime show.

2) What audience are Channel 4 trying to appeal to with the 'Walter Presents' series?

This is the target in a more mature audience, which are older adults or middle age, people as the drama and crime maybe to disturb on for younger audiences, soda, intrigue and target middle-aged audience.

3) How does the 'Walter Presents' series reflect the changing nature of television in the digital age?
is the water present series, reflects the changing of the television in the digital age as it shows different aspects which would intrigue the audience into watching.

Marketing and promotion

Trailer



1) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer? Think about Uses & Gratifications theory (Blumler and Katz).
in this trailer, there is a sense of action, drama, crime. In the trailer we can see that there is fighting, sneaking around personal and sexual relationships and much more. This series is based on true events that happened in Germany in 1983. Which also makes it true crime. This would attract audiences multiple types of the pleasures.

2) How does the trailer use action and enigma codes (Barthes) to encourage the audience to watch the show?
The Enigma code is the main character, Martin, sneaking around political people to find something that the audience don’t know yet

The action code is the consistent scenes where there is violence been shown. This is when there is fighting him, trying to escape situations and guns being shown.

3) The only words heard in the trailer are in English. Why do you think the UK trailer avoided subtitles or German dialogue?

this is as it fits the pace of the show and would be easier for people internationally to watch the show. This also will attract the UK audience as if they can understand what it is about through the trailer, and what’s been said they’re more likely to watch it.

Press pack

Read the Channel 4 press pack interview with writer Anna Winger. (If the link doesn't work, you can find the text from the interview here). 

1) How did she use the historical context and real-life events to create a successful drama?

Thomas Lovegrove, a British military historian who worked with us on Deutschland 83, first called our attention to Abel Archer, the NATO manoeuvres in the autumn of 1983 that was misunderstood by the East as a real attack. The Russians prepared to retaliate but came to their senses last minute. At the time that we were developing the show, it was exactly 30 years after it happened, so the first information about Able Archer had just been declassified. There was still a lot of mystery around it, which is great for historical drama. We fictionalised the whole thing and used it as the backdrop for the climax of the series. But just this autumn, much more information about Able Archer was released by the National Security Archives and, well, it turns out that we came very, very close to nuclear war in November 1983. We did a lot of research. It’s all based on facts! Basically, we used the timeline of real events and the real political climate of the time as a backdrop, and set our fictional characters free in that space.

2) Anna Winger discusses the use of music. Why might the soundtrack attract an audience?
Music was key to the story from the beginning. The top 100 songs of 1983 are still on the radio all the time! It was just an incredible year of pop culture and the songs really travelled, maybe because music videos started around that time as well, so there was a visual component for the very first time. Fashion, hair styles and colour palette, suddenly became a part of the 1980’s music experience.


Press release

Read this Channel 4 press release on the success of Deutschland 83. (If the link doesn't work you can find find the text from the article here).

1) List the key statistics concerning audience figures. Why was it considered the most successful foreign language drama?
After launching with 1.49 million viewers, the first episode has now consolidated with 2.5 million viewers, overtaking the launch of The Returned (9th June 2013) on Channel 4 which previously held the record with 2.2 million. The series forms part of Walter Presents, a brand new on-demand service showcasing the world’s best foreign-language drama.
2) How does the press release describe Deutschland 83?

it starts off with  The release of fully consolidated ratings for the launch episode of Deutschland 83 has shown that the German spy drama is now the highest rated foreign-language drama in UK TV history. " intriguing the audience into wanting to watch the show as it speaks highly and positively about of the movie . then goes into the stats and then into a description of what it is about which would intrigue an audience to watch.

International marketing

Look at these two different marketing campaigns - the UK DVD release (left) and the American Sundance TV advert (right).




1) How does the UK DVD cover communicate the sub-genre of the drama?

the DVD cover is a pale beige colour which is reflects the time of the cold war as it was a cold, dim time for some people. this reflects the genre and what happens within the show. This reflects the covers of music and shows that were sold back in the 1983, furthermore showing a reflection of the genre 

2) How do these use font, colour and graphics to appeal to an audience?
the colour may attract an audience as it tends to be eye catching which would make someone want those what it is about which would make an audience member more likely to watch what happens. The dvd cover shows a sense of reflection  of the time of the cold war.

3) Why might the distributors Freemantle International have used different marketing campaigns in different countries? 

As in  different countries there is different audience pleasures, culture and more which means that they would have to change the marketing campaigns to what is fitted best for them. the bright neon colour and missiles may attract some audiences into watching as it gives a sense of action.