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.83

In the review it wrote that even with with the least ambiguous title ever, the production team was able to create 'an irresistible export: a funky exercise in pop nostalgia underpinned by actual event'. However, there was some criticism towards the shots in Deutschland 83 where typical German shows don't do well with the comedy side of thing so the show was seen to have a wry sense of humour 

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

The Guardian suggests that the show wasn't like by Germans because of the character of Martin Rauch, a young East German border guard going undercover in the west. It was said that the shows last episode shed half its starting audience due to making the viewer empathise with a Stasi agent on a human level, it makes us engage with the socialist regime’s worldview, in which a military exercise in West Germany poses a potentially existential threat.

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?

'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....'

'Saw the title on Netflix recently but didn't bother. To me German series often suffer from poor production value and screenplays are either obsessed with complexity or dull and boring. The latter dominates. I blame the culture of ARD and ZDF which basically stifles all experiments in television and for some strange reason is more obsessed with viewer numbers than the privately owned channels.'

'Deutschland 83 was meh. I watched it on Amazon because The Americans does not come on again until March and I needed a fix of 80s Cold War spying skulduggery. Some excellent supporting actors, but the main actor was a bit blank IMHO and not quite up to carrying the weight of the show.'

I think the audience shared mixed views on this series where people were concerned towards Germanys production as is seems that their narrative often remains a mystery and not much effort is put in to make it entertaining. Most people have watched it because they were bored or wanted to see if Germany had improved their movies/series only to find that it was made by Americans.

Promotional interview

Channel 4 News: Matt Frei interviews Jonas Nay



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

Jonas says that when he was born in 1990 there was not east and west and only learned about the cold war but mostly focused on WW2 as it my have been history for him but was reality for his teachers and parents.

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!)

This reflects channels 4's remit as it is able to target people around the world allowing diversity and people to watch foreign shows made in Germany .

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

This might interest Channel 4 audience as they want to know where Germany may go while also just being curious to understand just how much their politics had changed during the split and then after.

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

Make notes under the following headings:

• Technical codes – particularly mise-en-scene
• Representation of East & West Germany / Family / Gender

-Shaky handheld camera, feel like your attending the party

-camera 360, spy and feeling of being watched, tension, danger

-song establishes 80s time period 

-east side family close 

-kidney transplant needs western medicine and coffee shows east does have supplies

west more rich and bigger

-personal identity of boarder soldiers, nostalgic

-romance between two characters

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

14.30 – 20.25

Make notes under the following headings:

• Technical codes – particularly mise-en-scene
• Audio codes – particularly music
• Representation of East & West Germany / Communism & Capitalism / Historical accuracy
• Audience pleasures

-Zoom in on clothes, iconic puma red shirt

-medium shot of supermarket, west has more supplies

-lighting is much warmer

-80s music in market with lyrics "some of them want to use you", refer to Martin

-Postmodernism, Andy Warhol pop art

-Excess items, fruits e.g

-authorities deliberate in west, ice cream

-Gender rep when Anette is mentioned, mocking stereotypes

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

20.40 – 22.40

Make notes under the following headings:

• Technical codes – particularly camerawork and editing
• Audio codes
• Audience pleasures
• Intertextuality

-Camera shot through leaves, reinforces surveillance

-gender reinforced through cameras, spy

-upbeat music , parallel and fast with sequence

-dialogue used to fill in narrative gaps

-women dressed as man to kill real Martin

-Fruit split screen, east has none

-No supplies is east shows repeated motif

-nostalgic 1983 names for items in west

-Kalma introduced, feel reassured that he's not alone 

-Intertextuality feels like James Bond movie

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

31.13 – 33.30

Make notes under the following headings:

• Technical codes – particularly camerawork and editing
• Audio codes – diegetic and non-diegetic sound
• Audience pleasures

-Spy shot through blinds, CCTV

-Intense close-up for movement, stress, documents

-Bomb image, Ronald Reign signiture (president)

-uses real life documents as reference

-slow tense music build tension

-entertaining 

-character relationship of Martin and receptionist

You will do the majority of this textual analysis work in class - this section of your case study simply requires typing up your notes in an easy and memorable way (bullet points are fine).

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 the world.

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

UFA Fiction includes  genres of fiction and serial drama as well as show, factual and documentary. It has won many German and international TV and film awards, including two International Emmy Awards. With productions such as Our Mother, Our Father, Naked among Wolves and even series like Ku'damm 56/59/63, Deutschland 83/86/89

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

Freemantle produces and distributes culture defined entertainment, drama film and documentaries. They have one of the most successful formats their series/films are watches in 180 countries all around the world. Some of their productions are My Brilliant Friend, This England, the Hand of God where they have an empathise on commitment to creative freedom and diversity.

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

It reflects the international nature of television production as it was produced in Germany but written by an American and became a hit in the UK, this shows how the show/film doesn't always have to appeal to the intended audience allowing foreign films to grow in other countries.

Walter Presents

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

 

1) How does Channel 4 introduce 'Walter'?

Channel 4 introduces Walter through a handpicked selection of the very best drama from around the world. these iconic scenes are not only important to certain viewers but very recognisable and can attract a wider audience. There is a a strong contrast between the genres of romance and violence where it goes from fast paced high action to more slower tension.

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

They could be appealing to a mid 20 audience, maybe both male ad female as there is a lot of violence and destruction present that is counterattacked by the romance which may have some explicit scenes like nudity. The viewers might have to be more mature to enjoy there dramas as most of them reflect history or real life situations.

3) How does the 'Walter Presents' series reflect the changing nature of television in the digital age?

Digital age has been able to get a range of audience to view and watch movies across the world and the Walt present reflects this rapid change in society where newer concepts have come out. Not only digital technology improved visual experience but it had revolutionized the way television content is accessed by a range of audience.

Marketing and promotion

Trailer



1) What audience pleasures are suggested by the trailer? Think about Uses & Gratifications theory (Blumler and Katz).

personal identity-  Martins identify as a young male as a boarder solider who's now a spy

personal relationship- Martins character connections with his family and his girlfriend Anette

surveillance- Historical events on cold war, both east and west fictional narrative based off of real life

diversion- Action and thrill in this spy genre, lots of drama between characters and a nit of romance

2) How does the trailer use action and enigma codes (Barthes) to encourage the audience to watch the show?

Action codes - Lots of chase scenes and explosions to make viewers feel more excited and building up tension during the drama.

Enigma codes - Making the audience question Martins mission of being a spy, why and how he will achieve this without getting caught.

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 wanted this show to reach worldwide so by doing so they used English as its one of the most spoken language. The producers might have thought German doesn't have an appeal to some people as they might not enjoy foreign TV.

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?

Historical context and real life events created a successful drama  through  Anna Wingers idea to tell the story form the point of view of the mole. This was able to blend history with the fiction genre of spy. She also talks about how people were really open to seeing Germany in a new light empathising a huge audience who had a love for football that was also seen as really important in the past. Describing a divided Germany to someone young it sounds like a kind of absurd fantasy set up or science fiction this only illustrates how the drama was a success of not making it too fiction pack and more seeming like a documentary as it had real life events.

2) Anna Winger discusses the use of music. Why might the soundtrack attract an audience?


Her choice of soundtrack might attract an audience because she was carful enough to see what people were listening too and found out it was an incredible year of pop culture and the songs really travelled This was due to the introduction of music videos and visual components. 

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?

It was considered the most successful foreign drama as it first releasesd with 1.49 million viewers, the first episode has now reached 2.5 million viewers, overtaking Channel 4 which previously held record with 2.2 million. 

2) How does the press release describe Deutschland 83?

There has been a lot of hype from the press towards this series gaining a lot of praises for its “Evocative and gripping” narrative.

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?

Its able to communicate the sub genre of romance through the the graffiti on Berlins wall to reflect any subtly upcoming romance felt by the main character. The writing on the walls 'over the wall under cover' reflects the spy genre and thrill faced by a undercover boarder solider in the west. This one slogan is very gripping and memorable to an audience that there will be promised action. The headphones Martins wearing, the Walkman, can also illustrate this idea as he seems t o be listening to the east orders whilst also paying attention to his surroundings in the west.

2) How do these use font, colour and graphics to appeal to an audience?

We can see from the title in the UK campaign that it uses a san serif bold font coloured in bright yellow. This colour is usually associated with sunshine and warmth whereas it can also symbolise caution as well as danger, this illustrates the difference between the east and west and where Martin will have to survive in Germany. In the Us marketing campaign, the font is bold as well but in black and pink replicating a graffiti style. These bright pop colours that contrast the background of blue stand out to viewers with illustrations, artwork of characters which the protagonist is standing out in a grey scale.

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

The campaign may be different in each country in order to get the target audience they desire. In the UK cover its a lot more realistic and quite plain to reinforce social realism which is seen in most British TV and is enjoyed by most British people. On the other hand, USA one is a lot more vibrant to stand out to the viewers as they prefer something that is eye catching and praising towards action.