The creators of "1899" sting "Dragon House": "The use of dark visuals must be done in a very good way" - Voila! culture

Trailer for the series "1899" (Netflix)

It didn't take long for "1899" to conquer the top of the rating of Netflix's most watched series in Israel.

Exactly one week after it came out, it dominates the top in the last few days, as well as in Germany, where its creators, Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar, come from.

It is also close to the top in countries like Denmark, France and Spain and in many other countries around the world, including the United States.

This is only logical for a series that initially focuses on members of different nations: the passengers of the sophisticated immigrant ship "Carberus" speak English, German, Spanish, French, Polish, Danish, Portuguese and Cantonese.

They all set out from the old world for America in the year named after the series, only to find that their journey is interrupted by very strange events that occur on the sea, and then on the ship itself.

Not surprisingly, the casting process was complex and demanding, so say Fritza and Oder in a Zoom interview with journalists that also included Walla!

culture.

Not only that they had to use local casts, naturally, but the corona closures prevented them from conducting personal fabric tests.

"It was very difficult, especially because the casting process fell right at the peak of the epidemic period, and usually we like to be in the room, you can feel the actor's energy," says Fritza.

"And suddenly we were introduced, like the rest of the world, to Zoom, and conducting casting tests using Zoom, which is something completely different, because the energy is so different. So it was very challenging, but in the end we were very surprised to find that it worked much, much better than we expected. It was really It was cool when the actors finally got together, after we'd only seen them in a small way up until then and we'd never seen any of them standing, and we saw them all together in Berlin when we did the script reading at the round table. It was really nice."

See him only in small.

"1899" (Photo: Netflix)

Oder:

"We thought that the language limitations would be the most challenging thing in the production, because we don't speak many languages ​​and we have many languages ​​in the series, but in the end it wasn't as complicated as we feared. We had a large team of people who helped us with translation, dialect trainers, etc., from all One of the countries of these languages. Also on the set everyone knew how to speak English so it was possible to communicate easily with each other. I think it was more complicated in the writing stage, because you can't just translate every sentence easily into any other language, sometimes there isn't a certain word in any language or which means something completely different.

"On set I had a phonetic script on my desk so I could read Cantonese while I was watching the scene.

But then I came up with a trick that helped me a lot: I imagined that they were musical instruments and I was the conductor, and I just listened to the tonality and learned through it what the 'violin' sounded like.

Because I will never know how to speak Cantonese, but I learned how it should sound, and it was a very easy and useful trick that helped us succeed in this process."

"From the aesthetic point of view, what we really explored in depth are films that rely on the idea of ​​a closed space, so 'The Eighth Passenger' and 'The Spark' were significant for us. As for books, it's a bit more problematic field because I can't tell what I read in order not to make spoilers , but there was one very particular theory that sparked the whole thing and there is a book about it. There are so many interesting things there, so many questions - and we love questions, as everyone probably knows. But we also love to ask ourselves questions. Because sometimes there A feeling that when you think about a scientific or philosophical idea, you take a step out of your normal, everyday life - you have your routine, you wake up, brush your teeth, etc. - you do it and accept everything that happens, it's just there. You rarely take the time to doubt what is actually happening. And if you have an idea like that, which gives you that moment to take a step outside and start thinking again, I see it as a gift,And I think that's what we try to do in our series."

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like to ask questions

"1899" (Photo: Netflix)

The series is put together like a puzzle and could have generated a weekly discussion and interpretation among viewers on social networks.

Have you had any discussion with Netflix about releasing the season every week, or maybe in some way that isn't all at once?

"There was no discussion between Netflix and us, but there was a discussion between us, because we have different views on this issue. Personally, I think that if you have such a complicated story, I prefer to give the power to the viewers, because everyone is different and needs a different pace to succeed in the story, so I prefer that they decide how many episodes they want to watch in Mecca, how much time they want to invest in it. My fear is that in a story that is complex in this way, you can forget all kinds of things that are on the air during a week during which you watch more things, so I think in the case of A mystery is less appropriate. I do agree that in the case of other series an episode a week is cool, simply because it creates more buzz, there is the social aspect where you can discuss and talk about what is happening, and I like it, but I think I would create a slightly different narrative if there was This is a weekly release."

"I like both approaches, but I'm old school, I like a weekly release. We were obsessed with 'Lost,' and it was amazing to have a few days to digest each episode, think about it, do research, go online for clues. I really like It is, but I understand both sides of the coin."

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Your previous series, "Dark" was a huge success, which may add to the pressure on you.

Was that a blessing or a curse while you were working on the new series?

"Also in this case we have two different views. For me it's a blessing, because you have fans who love your first album, so they will come to the concert and listen to the new songs. They might hate it, I don't know, but at least they come to the concert. Yantaj Eh, I think you felt some pressure because there were a lot of expectations of course, especially if you have a wide fan base and everyone is expecting something, maybe even more complicated than Apple, more twists. I think we were a little bit stressed for about two weeks at the beginning when we were developing this series, But then we said to ourselves, 'Okay, we need to forget about Apple fans and social media and expectations, and go back to our main roots, what we always do. If we start developing something, we open it for ourselves - what we want to see and what we would like to watch '. And it helped a lot in the creation of '1899'. Now we're a bit stressed again because it's over and the baby has become a boy and is now going to school..."

"And everyone is voting for him!"

"Someone is even beating the boy. I will find you!"

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"We said to ourselves, 'We need to forget about the Dark fans.'"

Yantja Fritza and Bern Bo Oder, creators of "1899" (Photo: GettyImages, Ben Kriemann/Getty Images)

"There were some fools too dark."

From "House of the Dragon" (Photo: HBO)

As the creators of series like "Apple" and "1899", which are indeed dark but still you can understand what happens in them on the screen, what do you think about the viewers' criticisms towards too dark episodes of "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon"?

"We undoubtedly like dark pictures, but I have to agree that there were some fools in these two series that were also too dark for me."

"I think that what is very important is that if you decide to make a dark picture, then there should be a good reason behind it. In my opinion, if there is a reason behind it, then it is acceptable. I think that mystery only works in dark and atmospheric spaces, because everything has to do with withholding information. It The whole idea of ​​mystery, you don't reveal everything, not everything is in the light, you don't have the full picture. When you look at a portrait of a person and half the face is shaded, there are things that the figure doesn't reveal, so in the case of '1899' and also 'Apple',

"But it has to be done very well, and sometimes it doesn't work, I totally agree, and sometimes it's fantastic. Even 'Batman' for example looks fantastic to me, and it's amazing that it was so dark, or David Fincher's 'The Room' - I watched it In the cinema and I remember everyone criticizing it: 'I don't see anything, I don't see anything', but the story still works and you still have a picture in your head, and we really believe that the viewer's imagination is powerful, and sometimes not seeing anything is better than seeing everything."

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