With the Art of Storytelling as main focus of Göteborg’s 2016 TV Drama Vision, yesterday panellists from Scandinavia, Germany and the UK took industry delegates on a creative ride of what makes a good TV drama and defended the one vision model.

TV Drama Vision

German/US screenwriter Anna Winger and co-creator of the German hit drama Deutschland 83 said she was inspired by Borgen for her own show and praised DR for having taken crime dramaturgy and tension and applied it to different genre material with Borgen and The Legacy. 

Tatjana Andersson (SVT script editor) who explained the core mechanics of serialised TV drama, relying on Premise, Conflict and Theme, insisted on the importance for Swedish writers to be more daring and not afraid of preconceptions. She also said that ‘stories should be more about exploration, less about explanation”. Polly Williams Head of Scripted Drama for eOne & Creative England Drama Venture, a fan of The Legacy, said she was looking for unique voices and genres with a twist”.

The necessity to protect the unique voice’ and vision of TV drama writers/creators was voiced by key Nordic TV Heads of Drama. DR’s Piv Bernth reiterated her company’s ‘one vision, double storytelling’ model and the need to ‘remain local to become universal’. She also mentioned the importance of nurturing writers. “We did Borgen with Adam Price, now we are doing Rides Upon the Storm with him [and SAM Production] set to start filming in August. It’s the same with Søren Sveistrup [The Killing]. We have one more series in the making with him. Bernth added that DR had groomed writers such as Follow the Money’s head-writer Jeppe Gjervig Gran and The Legacy’s Maya Ilsøe who used to be episodic writers on other TV shows. “They have become part of the family” she said. 

From a Norwegian perspective, her counterpart Ivar Køhn (NRK) stressed that Norwegian TV drama writing has changed over the past 12 years. “Whereas writers were working separately and then only invited for the premiere of the show, today they are at the heart of the project. We have to trust writers, make them part of the process all through editing…and pay them!" said Køhn.

Josefin Tengblad (TV4 Sweden) was pleased to present her company’s recent change in TV drama strategy. “We continue to rely on two legs: major TV drama for local and international audiences, and comedies. In the TV drama genre, we have moved away from book adaptations and are now betting on original material and learning how to work with writers/showrunners,” she said, mentioning TV4’s successful airing of Modus created by the Danes Mai Brostrøm and Peter Thorsboe.

Anna Winger said that just like the US and Scandinavia, Germany is bringing writers in the forefront of TV drama while gradually opening more slots to other dramas than procedurals. “Until now the one writer/one vision model didn’t really exist. Directors were the most important and broadcasters were initiating the ideas and only giving notes to different writers. This is changing. “

For Jörg Winger, co-creator and producer of Deutschland 83, TV drama today is ‘all about character, not language or country’. “Global audiences don’t care where the shows come from. All they care about is great character-driven stories. “

UPCOMING NORDIC TV DRAMAS
Here is a list of selected upcoming Nordic TV dramas introduced in Göteborg

Denmark
-Splitting Up Together (8x26’) produced by Happy End Film. Premiere March 2016, TV2
-Riding upon the Storm (10x60’) produced by SAM. Premiere 2017, DR/Arte

Finland
-Morbid Stories (4x60’) produced by Solar Films. Premiere February 24, YLE
-Lola Upside Down produced by Långfilm. Premiere December 2016, YLE
-Bordertown (12x60’) produced by Fisher King. Premiere October 2016 on YLE
-Unknown Soldier produced by Suomi 2017. Premiere  2017, YLE

Iceland
-Case (9x60’) produced by Sagafilm. Premiered in November 2015, Channel 2

Norway
-Nobel (8x45’) produced by Monster Scripted. Premiere fall 2016
-Meglerne 2 (10x23’) produced by Monster Scripted. Premiere spring 2016
-The Third Eye 2 (10x45’) produced by Rubicon. Premiere spring 2016.

Sweden
-Spring Tide (10x45’) produced by Filmlance International. Premiere March 6, SVT
-The Most Forbidden (3x60’) produced by Götafilm. Premiere March 25, SVT
-Rebecka Martinsson (4x90’) produced by Yellow Bird. Premiere on TV4 to be confirmed
-My Perfect Family (8x22’) produced by Jarowskij. Premiere in March, TV4.
-Swedish Dicks (10x30’) produced by Brain Academy/Viking Brothers Entertainment. Premiere fall 2016, Viaplay
-Midnight Sun (8x56’) produced by Nice Drama/Atlantique Productions. Premiere fall 2016, SVT/Canal + France

-During Göteborg’s TV Drama Vision, the winner of WIFT Sweden and SVT’s ‘As it Is’ screenwriting competition was announced. Out of 219 submissions, Dragan Mitic’s project Aftermath was chosen among four selected projects and will receive SEK 150.000.