TV: Deutschland 83 case study

 Introduction: Reviews and features

Read the following reviews and features on Deutschland 83:

The Guardian - Your next box set: Deutschland 83
The Guardian - Deutschland 83 Pity the Germans don't like it

1) Find one positive aspect and one criticism of Deutschland 83 in the reviews.
The Guardian describes it "as a serious thriller driven by jeopardy and wry humor"

And a criticism would be how a person named Bild said that is was "underwhelming nonetheless"

2) Why does the second Guardian article suggest the Germans didn't like the show?
The Germans did not appear to like it as it made it "backs into stereotype" and "takes a radical premise"

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?

-"Hold your cynicism and suspend your disbelief (he really is the world's worst spy) and this is a thoroughly enjoyable series. Great title sequence and loved the soundtrack too"

I think that this comments shows how in the show Martin's flaws is what makes the show interesting to the audience.

"It became increasing far-fetched as it went on, e.g. the bit with the general's daughter, but I was engaged enough to want to see how they ended it."

I think that this comment shows how the show did have some flaws, however it still managed to keep viewers watching the show.

Promotional interview

Channel 4 News: Matt Frei interviews Jonas Nay



1) What does Jonas Nay say about growing up in a united Germany? 
He was born in 1990 but when asked about if he prefers the west or east he says that he prefers the east as he talks about his freedom of mobility and speech and how he can think what he wants to think what is right to him..

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!)

It challenges them as they are including foreign content and languages into British TV while also being innovative/progressive.


3) Interviewer Matt Frei asks about the current political situation in Germany. Why might this interest the Channel 4 News audience?
It would be interesting to see both sides of Germany and how they thought and did at the time of the separation and their opinions.

Textual analysis: Audience pleasures and representations

We need to consider the audience pleasures of Deutschland 83 alongside various representations created in the first episode.

Type up your analysis from the lesson using the headings below. You may want to watch the key scenes again and develop your notes in further detail - the more specific and memorable your analysis, the better it will serve you when writing an essay on TV drama. Here's a Google doc we have worked on in past Media lessons on this topic - feel free to use these notes alongside your own. You'll need to use your Greenford Google login to access this.

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

4.58 – 8.20 and 34.00 – 37.20

The camera shots in the East in the kitchen can be seen through a window, however the general atmosphere of the East is seen to be happy and friendly despite them living in a working class size house. 

In the west the camera work is shot in such way that Martin is positioned to be further away from the people in this case this will make the audience in this scene more on edge and cold despite Edel's house and wealth that can be displayed, tension between Martin and the people in the house is created as the audience are not sure if he is going to be caught.

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

14.30 – 20.25

We can see that Martin is given clothes with branding on them such as puma, we can also when Martin is escaping we can see that he comes across a shop that sell TV's which show the West's wealth and how he bumps into a person who is holding oranges which cannot be usually obtained in the East. When in the store we can see that the shelves are plentiful of products of different colours, there are lots of different products such as fruits that would not be obtained while in the East. 

While in the store we can hear that "Sweet dreams are made of" being played in the background, however the lyrics that can be heard is: "Some of them want to use you" in which could relate to how Martin is being used to spy on the West.

The conversation on the bench shows how they think that the people in the West are more lazy as we can see that the two police men outside of the supermarket are seen eating ice creams.

The music used in the supermarket may also give a sense of nostalgia as the time of the song that was written may appeal to older viewers.

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

20.40 – 22.40

We can see that the editing is very fast paced as they have condensed a few weeks in a matter of 2 minutes sequence, we can also see the comparison of the east and west and how they have a split screen section in which they show the juxtaposition of the east and west.  

The soundtrack plays another 80's song in which it add to the pace of the montage and how that in the end of the sequence we can hear that the music cuts out on the part in which he says that "You're on your own" which emphasises his situation.

We can also see the representation of women and how they can be seen to be more   such as when the woman goes to kill the real Moritz

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

31.13 – 33.30

We can see how the camera work shows closeups of Martin picking locks and photographing documents as shown in 2013 when the papers were let out for the public. We can also see the motif of things being shot through blinds and to really get the feeling of secrecy throughout each scene.

The use of diegetic sound and how it is purposely amplified to show the intensity of the situation and the tension that Martin is feeling. This can also fall under audience pleasures and how they invested into Martin's situation so a sense of personal relationship could be formed, however we can also link this to surveillance and how the audience is learning from the papers and document being shown.

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? 
They are a German production company, they have created shows like:"Our Mother, Our Fathers", "Faking Hitler", "Naked Among wolves", etc.

2) What kind of company is Freemantle and what do they produce?
They are produce and invest in worldwide content, a very popular media they have produced is the "X factor"

3) How does Deutschland 83 reflect the international nature of television production?
Despite Deutschland being a German drama, many Germans did not like the show but many other countries did enjoy the show meaning that it had a wider audience than expected.

Walter Presents

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

 

1) How does Channel 4 introduce 'Walter'?
They introduced him as a "globally acclaimed company professional"

2) What audience are Channel 4 trying to appeal to with the 'Walter Presents' series?
They appear to try and catch the attention of younger audiences as they show a variety of series such as fantasy, coming of age, etc which is usually associated with young adult audiences.

3) How does the 'Walter Presents' series reflect the changing nature of television in the digital age?
It attracts audiences by giving a taste of what they are going to watch and to give them a condensed form of the content to see if audience will get hooked onto the show that they are going to watch.

Marketing and promotion

Trailer



1) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer? Think about Uses & Gratifications theory (Blumler and Katz).
Audiences that enjoy a historical spy and war theme as we see Martin in his uniform and how we is picking the lock and opening the briefcase. and some sort of romance as we can see Martin dancing with a woman

2) How does the trailer use action and enigma codes (Barthes) to encourage the audience to watch the show?
When Martin is opening lock, and taking photos of the briefcase, we want to know what he is looking for or what was in that briefcase.

3) The only words heard in the trailer are in English. Why do you think the UK trailer avoided subtitles or German dialogue?
I think they only used English to make the viewers understand the context of the series and how it is based on the cold war.

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?
She had based them off real life events and political climate as a backdrop

2) Anna Winger discusses the use of music. Why might the soundtrack attract an audience?
The soundtracks used were ones of pop culture at the time and how each one can be used to tell a story or move the plot forward in some sort of way. Another thing is how they may even trigger nostalgia for some of the viewers


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?
On the press release we can see that "after launching with 1.49 million viewers, the first episode had 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."

2) How does the press release describe Deutschland 83?

On the reviews we can see that they say that:

“It’s only January but let’s call it already: coolest show of the year.”

Grazia

“This is the next subtitled sensation……..unmissable TV.”

TV Times

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?
It shows a more "softer" tone of the series as their version says "under cover" as the US version shows a more "violent" tone because of the missiles and how it says  "under the gun"

2) How do these use font, colour and graphics to appeal to an audience?
The US version makes it seem like a print of a poster with vibrant colours and a paper/sketch looking images and the missiles and the UK version makes it look more peaceful with the people kissing in the background and the sun shinning.

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

They may have done this to appeal to the country more by showing themes that they may be interested in, such as the US version shows the missiles which could link to how the US is usually associated or they enjoy the theme of weapons.