
The World Wants More Danish TV - overwhelm
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/14/arts/television/denmark-netflix-labor-shortage.html
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Symbiote
There have been so many extra shows filmed here in Denmark that we've had to
import extra rain from Norway, and push sunrise an hour later to give enough
moody darkness.

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type0
Oh, common you would still have enough wind to blow everything away.

Btw I'm looking forward to see the next Lego movie to be created in Denmark
where it belongs, preferably with life cast as well, that could be a huge
international success (only half joking here).

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Danieru
Competitive advantage takes weird forms.

Over here in Japan the streaming platforms have fueled a massive boom in anime
production. Established studios are full up on productions and work is slowly
getting out sourced to related fields.

By my count the biggest competition is coming to game's on 3d modeling side.
Modeling used to be split market wise but as games have gotten higher poly,
and movies/rendering has moved to realtime rendering, the two markets are
competing more for the same human resources.

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BiteCode_dev
Good cause the industry is treating 3D artists very badly, and I'm hoping
competition will force them to become decent.

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rkuykendall-com
As long as there are people willing to be abused, abuse will continue, as it's
the most economical business model.

People will continue to line up to be abused in exchange for being able to
work on anime / video games / spaceships / insert toxic industry here.

The only exception I can think of is acting, where they stopped this with
extremely strict and mandatory guilds.

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pimmen
What enjoys widespread appeal is however the cream of the crop. Being raised
in Sweden I often opt out of watching a Swedish movie or tv-show simply
because everything that makes Nordic Noir good, morally complex stories with
plain language, can make the main characters insufferable and obnoxious. You
have to remember that the most exciting stories in a culture are about those
who do something daring and in Scandinavia, where we are very conflict averse,
you thus get heroes acting like assholes because we wouldn't dare do that
ourselves.

It can work quite well as evidenced by the popularity of _The Bridge_ , _The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo_ and others ... but it can also not work out at
all if you don't sympathize with the characters' cause. That's why they're
almost all crime dramas, because asshole or not, we all sympathize in their
attempt to catch the bad guy. Try watching a Scandinavian romantic drama to
see what I mean.

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ng7j5d9
Somewhat off topic, but I saw Norsemen mentioned elsewhere in the thread ...

Norsemen was filmed simultaneously in Norwegian and English (the actors did
each scene in one language and then the other). That way Norwegian audiences
can enjoy this expensive-to-make show in their native tongue, and it can also
gain widespread popularity in the much larger English-speaking world (which
pays the bills).

I recently read that Hinterland (aka Y Gwyll) did the same with Welsh and
English.

Anyhow, is there a name for this technique of producing a show in multiple
languages simultaneously? Any other examples of it? It seems like a good idea
for producing high-quality content in languages that otherwise wouldn't
necessarily attract that level of investment.

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viburnum
Not exactly what you’re describing, but the story of the two Draculas of 1931
is fun:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr%C3%A1cula_(film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr%C3%A1cula_\(film\))

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neonate
[http://archive.md/lTB8s](http://archive.md/lTB8s)

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okareaman
You're the hero I needed today

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hylaride
Check your local library. Mine (Toronto) has a feature that you can link your
card and via the library portal and get full access to the NYTimes (except for
the crossword). Works with the native NYTimes apps, too. Only annoying thing
is you have to re-login via the library portal every 3 days.

This, on top of a lot of other products (Lynda.com, Safari books online) means
you may have a lot of free resources. And check your local major city if
you're in a suburb. You can have a Toronto library account if you live, work,
or go to school within the city.

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ed312
The crossword is precisely the thing I want! Foiled again!

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blackearl
No NYT but a bunch of other high profile ones, use Shortyz

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kwentine
I can highly recommend "Rita" (Danish) and "Bonus Family" (Swedish), truly
scandinavian takes on the modern family theme.

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TazeTSchnitzel
I hope it doesn't lead to them trying to make American shows that are
ostensibly set in the Nordic countries but don't feel at all like it. It's
already happened to the UK.

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the_af
Interesting. Here's a related phenomenon: currently Spanish-speaking Netflix
is flooded with a batch of Spanish-made comedies, romances, dramas and
thrillers -- the most high-profile of which is The Money Heist ("La Casa de
Papel") -- most of which have a distinctly Hollywood/generic feel to them.
Every character and situation is a cliché from Hollywood, with no local
flavor. Save for the accents of some of the actors, there's no Spanish feel to
these shows. Even the credits soundtrack is in English.

I wonder if the _netflixization_ of shows will tend to erradicate local flavor
forever, and if so -- what's even the point of watching them? I don't want to
watch yet another heist movie or prison drama, only with Spanish actors
instead of American ones.

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hisnameismanuel
What about Paquita Salas! That show is brilliant and has Spain coming out of
every orifice. So much so that I don't even bother recommending it to English
speakers because they won't get so many of the references

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galfarragem
I would say that in general nordic TV is in demand. There's even a genre[1]
associated to the trend. Some nice serials (various genres):

\- Bordertown (Sorjonen - Finland)

\- Follow the money (Bedrag - Denmark)

\- Trapped (Ófærð - Iceland)

\- Home ground (Heimebane - Norway)

\- Vår tid är nu (Sweden)

And stretching location a bit:

\- Save me (UK)

\- Bad banks (Germany)

\- Le bureau des légendes (France)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_noir](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordic_noir)

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doe88
My picks:

    
    
      - Beforeigners (Norway)
      - Lilyhammer (Norway)
      - Welcome to Sweden (Sweden)
      - Young pope (Italy)
      - Brillant friend (Italy)
      - Deutschland 83 / 86 (Germany)

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goto11
Including Italy is stretching the definition of Nordic though!

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Epopeehief54
They're all crime procedurals. I'd like to see more Scandinavian prestige
dramas not centered around detectives returning to their hometowns or
whatever.

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sjg007
I like the UK ones because you see the cops approach the job differently. In
the US, the default response of an American cop would be to shoot first and
ask questions later. In the UK shows you get more of a cerebral drama and see
a situation unfold evolve.

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rchaud
Any recommendations for comedy shows from this region? Seems like only crime
shows get hyped over here, but speaking for myself, I'd like to understand the
culture a little better. Comedies seem like a good way to explore that.

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busterarm
Klovn.

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drsim
+1 If you enjoy 'Curb Your Enthusiasm' you'll love Klovn. The creators admit
to being inspired by / ripping it off.

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amelius
Any recommendations for Danish tv shows?

(can't open the article)

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rags2riches
_The_ Danish TV series has to be Matador. Not sure about its availability or
if it's the sort of show you had in mind. But it's entertaining and really
well written and it tells a lot about Denmark and the Danish self image. I'm
re-watching it now with my family and we are all really enjoying it.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matador_(Danish_TV_series)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matador_\(Danish_TV_series\))

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kawsper
I think the biggest issue for danish releases is that the producers and
distributors haven't bothered with english subtitles, even though most
releases would see a scandinavian edition, but not an english one for whatever
reason.

I would love to show my girlfriend one of the Olsenbanden movies, but there
are no international releases I could find. I did write to Nordisk Film to ask
about it, but I got no response back.

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lsh123
Supply and demand. Pay 2x or 3x or... and you will get people you need.

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Symbiote
That might work for some roles (you can bring anyone from within the EU with
little to no paperwork) but there will be a limited number of people who speak
Danish and are familiar with or have contacts in the country.

Cost of living is already very high here, so it is presumably already more
expensive than filming almost anywhere else in Europe. 2–3× may go beyond a
reasonable budget.

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Svip
Also quite expensive, since the Danish government provides a lacklustre
funding for filming, according to Danish film makers. Even Danish productions
often goes to places like the Czech Republic to film, because financial
advantages are much better there.

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tomcam
Do Danish filmmakers feel it's essential that the government fund their work?

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coldtea
Many european filmmakers but also many European publics, feel that it's not
just essential that the state fund such work, but also part of the role of
state.

They don't consider the government some hateful opponent entity (or rather,
they don't consider the state that. They can still hate this or that
particular party / person running the government, protest its decisions,
etc.).

The government is people they have voted into power to pass laws and guide the
state machinery. They expect from the state to promote arts and fund culture,
the same way they expect of it to make roads and maintain public
infrastructure.

The US doesn't need that because

(a) there's not an emphasis on culture in the European sense, it's more about
entertainment, most don't even believe there's a distinction between these two

(b) it dominates globally and has the most money, so they can push their
culture everywhere anyway and teach global audiences to prefer their ware from
a young age (after enough Spielberg and Michael Bay and superhero stuff kids
become desensitized to movies with no SFX and explosions -- that happened to
European cinema -- once equally or more popular as the American in Europe --
after the late 80s and the rise of the Spielberg era),

(c) it still gives all kinds of incentives, tax breaks, government (e.g. army)
support for movies anyway, just doesn't call it for what it is

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samatman
Curious that you didn't cite the most salient reason why the film industry in
the US isn't directly funded by the government: it is a wildly profitable
industry.

Various states, notably Georgia, provide tax breaks and other incentives to
lure studios into filming in their jurisdiction.

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brnt
So, you're saying that US governments in fact do fund the American movie
industry?

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mippenhappen
I'm from denmark and I don't watch danish TV/movies at all.

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openstep
k

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mippenhappen
o

