You might have an answer, and its very personal. For me, its a very happy ending, realizing its not just about you all of the time. You can try that for a day, and its really awkward to do if youre not left-handed. Your past is always pushing you into the direction you're going, while at the same time the future is pulling you. By making this choice and what you read into it, youre learning something about yourself. To mirror the world we know, we could either do that by rebuilding all of the sets. 1899: Creators of Dark Start Production for New Netflix Original-series Its not the kind of story that can be reworked and improvised on the fly with each passing group of episodes, as Friese can attest. Never mind that in her own time, everyone including her son was facing a certain apocalypse. Doubtlessly, you have questions on your mind, about the two new worlds introduced in the final season, how the Dark production team put the parallel universe into reality, what Jonas and Marthas final sacrifice meant, the logic behind the final dinner scene, and most importantly this: is there more to the story? Speaking how we think French people would speak. But the biggest challenge was actually for actors to play everything in a mirrored way. That was the thing Claudia wanted to achieve. In terms of diversity, thats actually really one big thing that when you have people crossbreeding through different timelines you really cant just throw in something because then otherwise you would kind of know whos is whose child, said Friese. FrieseThat was the whole point of the show. Im in there with a recording of violins theres also some guy using an arc welder in the next cabin.. But what happened on that ship? Theyd shoot in one direction on the first day, and then basically turn the whole set around overnight and shoot the other direction. We love symbolism and we believe you have to be true to the symbols you lay out. Odar:We mirrored the image in the camera. But the people creating the show needed more elaborate tracking methods. We always approached it as a global show, but we never, never, never expected that kind of success.. Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar discuss what they kept from set and the difficulty of letting go once filming on the series ended. I was so miserable because somehow youre really more prepared for failure then success I guess. Theres a picture with three worlds in it. "We always work with symbols and objects, and we always have usually one specific object that is tied to one character. For example the room number 1011 is binary code. Literally, it's bad. America So She Could Breastfeed Privately, Michael J. It always comes down to some kind of programming they had before them that you cannot choose because you cannot let go of the stuff that happened before you. What happens when you have all these different cultural backgrounds, that are put into a space like this? "And we wanted to do a multilingual show that you treat all these different cultures with respect, and you don't just do it in English, or whatever language, and just pretend that they're all from these different cultures. How can I get over always reacting in the same patterns to certain situations? And he's not just talking major landscapes, but also more intimate set pieces, too. I stick to a very weird process, which is that everything needs to fit into a book of [a certain] size. Sometimes its just a table or a column in the dining room, or in a landscape, maybe a hill, to create depth. It's just the camera trick. But if you know where you want to end, it is even harder to then lay out the structure for the episodes to get there. "We started in Season 2 to outsource my brain, so to say," Friese explained in a Zoom interview. 2023 IndieWire Media, LLC. And they love that show! And even though the culture is different all around the world, there are certain things that are everywhere. When you write, how do you plot things out? Movies. Its what we love about this thing. Friese:Its more a reference to the brain, to psychology and the science of perception. Thats where character development goes. Those were a key reference. Can we change anything? ", Odar mentioned that it was a children's book on quantum physics that finally made it all make sense to him sort of. As for fans of. Others will take more time because they might think its about the Bermuda Triangle or whatever. And basically just concentrate on what we want to do and what we want to tell. With all that in mind, they set out to make 1899, which follows the multicultural passengers of a migrant steamship heading west to leave the old continent, whose journey takes an unexpected turn when they discover another migrant ship adrift on the open sea. Thats where we basically put the groundwork, going for deterministic time travel rules. I mean, we're always mixing genres, but the DNA is not per se a horror show.". In terms of the working process, what was good for us was to talk to the people who worked onThe Mandalorian and find out how they did it. And Prometheus, obviously, is also a little wink to the ending of Season 1. Friese: I think its something about growing up in Europe, or growing up as a German, when you consume entertainment, which, at least in our experience, is coming largely from Hollywood. Here are all these hints who will figure out [what] at what moment? Those visual changes are built on the foundation of a braided narrative that stretches out across all three seasons of Dark. Ideas planted early in the series run return as the show moves toward its poignant ending. That's what we tried to do. Some will in Episode 1 understand its a simulation. So with every project we did, we, we always had that in mind that one day we want to reach a global audience., After the 2014 film Who Am I No System Is Safe, a techno thriller thats been compared to Fight Club and Mr. It was something to give to the actors. It was so easy for them to just react. What kind of symbols do you use? 'Dark' Final Season, Explained: Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese We put a lot of effort into getting things right. [Editors Note: The following contains spoilers for Seasons 1 and 2 of Dark.]. And then something thats quite important for series, especially compared to movies, is the whole world-building process. So its really that in going through the makeup process and trying to find out what you do with the hair and face. It was originally a photo that we found. One may be desperate to see the world the duo has created for 1899, the teams new Netflix series, but could also be slightly worried their brain might not be able to handle it. You can follow the Back to the Future kind of way where you can actually change stuff in the past that will affect the future which with my very personal more deterministic view of the world is nonsense, said Friese. Friese wouldnt drop any spoilers not even saying how Season 3 will differ from the first two cycles but gave a few clues as to the faces viewers can expect. How do I free myself from my reactions to certain impulses? Hannah reveals shes thinking about Jonas as a name for her unborn child. You really had a problem letting go, I think, Friese added., Yes. We added a glitch to it. Two weeks after the release of Season 1, I was on Twitter honestly 24 hours a day. "I don't know if that's a German thing. We wanted to make sure we got there. This is one of the first TV shows, afterThe Mandalorian, to use new LED Volume technology to create virtual sets. I think its great. Finally we could do whatever we wanted with them. When Jantje Frieseand her partner Baran bo Odar created their German-language science fiction series "Dark" for Netflix, they had no idea that it would become an international hit. Obviously, a pyramid already gives you so much mysterious context. The entire script was in English, but everything was dual dialogue. We were actually really afraid of what was going on. Its the same word in English and German. Odar says there were two reasons why they opted to use this new technology, which has been used previously on shows such as Disney+'s The Mandalorian. What were some of the bad ideas that got tossed out? Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. 1899 Review: Netflix's Patient and Mysterious Dark Successor Friese:Our scripts look like Frankenstein monsters. Honestly, the most difficult people to find were women [older than middle age]. It's really awkward for us, this huge success, we always question it. Jantje Friese: We wanted to introduce the parallel world in the second season. Michael (Sebastian Rudolph) is Michael. Every step they are doing, they're doing one after the other. So, a very simple example: In French, you can address someone in a formal or an informal way. Chris Emil Janssen/Action Press/Shutterstock, Bo and I met in film school and since Day One, we were convinced that it was possible to tell local stories coming out of Germany that could hit an audience anywhere, Friese said. Narratives or stories are always about human behavior and human connection. At first, they were like, Really? There are all of these images, and even in dialogue, hints that give it away. Stairs that go from left to right, they now go from right to left. What were some of the touchstones you used when designing the series? We really try to be very true to our core audience, which just loves puzzles but also knows every code and every cultural reference. Jantje Friese was born in 1977 in Marburg, Germany. Ling Yi has a digital glitch in her arm, so clearly its something digital [at work on the ship]. But I dont want to fill those gaps. It would have felt like selling our souls and not delivering on what we wanted to do [if we had more seasons]. Back in 2020, Jantje Friese revealed in an interview that Tyll is planned as a six-part miniseries: "Tyll by Daniel Kehlmann is designed as a six-part mini-series. Was it always your intention to introduce multiple worlds from the outset? 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Friese and Odar said that they were able to keep the raincoat, the St. Christopher necklace, and the recreation of the Rubens painting The Fall of the Damned thats the centerpiece of Adams Sic Mundus hall. "We hate green screen, always did. It evokes images of the 19th century but combines them with almost science fiction technology and pop tunes on the soundtrack. "We do love challenges," Odar says with a laugh. IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight. "To create worlds you need to create patterns, and the best way to create patterns is by using symbols," he said. When we got to the second season, we changed it again. When Netflix was looking for the first German show, there were two things happening. In every season there is what I always call a bridge episode, because to me its like the bridge in a song Friese said. You dont need to see it on screen. We put a dot, wait a little, and then we put a question mark at the end. Something Is Killing the Children Netflix TV Show in the Works - The In the end, the whole language thing was much easier than we all thought it would be in the beginning. Odar:Every episode [when] someone wakes up, you hear almost like a computer voice. Wrapping up the Dark story next season hasnt been an easy process, even though filming is already underway. One of the most challenging roles to cast was the nurse Ines who actually adopts Mikkel when he travels back to 1986. And I dont want to spoil the meaning of that yet. Also the same as we did in Season 2 where we put a little bit focus on different characters like Claudia and Egon, were going to do the same in Season 3 and call some people up that had smaller parts. You're crossing into a new century, stepping from something that feels old school to something new the future. Obviously, we were fighting for our own characters to to be heard, but then you just have to make choices.. In the middle, there may be some ideas that are more loosely thrown in. Was that deliberate? What we learned was that using the Volume studio, the mid-ground is everything. Jantje Friese: It was actually really weird because I think there are so many people, especially in the industry, who are working, working, working, working to finally get to that moment of. Jantje Friese (born 1977) is a German film producer and screenwriter known for co-creating the Netflix series Dark (2017-2020) and 1899 (2022) with her creative and romantic partner Baran bo Odar. But everyone now has seen all three seasons, and it gets really complicated. How did the actors react to working in this new virtual space? The song White Rabbit plays over the opening credits. I just felt that was such a multilayered story. Did you learn anything surprising working across so many different languages? You can never give a satisfying answer. How difficult was it to interact with the actors when youre performing in a language you dont understand? Related Doors that used to be on the left side, were on the right side, Odar said. It's really bad. The treasure hunt is just getting started. I think what was the most surprising thing was that there are actually some words that you cannot translate into certain languages, or they have a different feeling or nuance to it. Thats already in minute 10, 11. That [story] was already during development for Season 1. I was like, Wow, its such a cool concept. Poguelandia is not quite the paradise the Pogues hoped. "But then the pandemic happens. Everything is planned in that one holy book. At the same time, the refugee crisis was happening in Europe [around 2015/2016] and it was a very unstable phase. And that's the same here again, now with the pattern pyramid and the triangles. Even 24 frames per second, creating motion from still frames, thats the first illusion you create as a filmmaker. Dark only really got complicated in seasons two and three. Just opening Final Draft took like five minutes because of all those script notes. Jantje Friese: What we really liked about 1899, not 1898 or 1897, is that its on a threshold. I used the wrong hand! (Laughs.) the prospect of diving into another twisty metaverse from the minds of Dark creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar likely comes with equal measures of excitement and trepidation. No one is just evil because they want to be; everyone is reacting to their own hurts and wounds. You can search, for example, for a character, and then you see the character arc, or you can search for a timeline and then you can see everything that's happening in that timeline.". In the first season ofDark we still had stuff on the walls, but no one ever looked at it. The triquetra and things coming in three is one of them. bo OdarBut lets not forget thatDarkwas three seasons. The one where EW follows up with the cast. We also decided to shoot that scene on the very, very last shooting day. Sorry Dark fans, no time-travel wormholes here. Fox Says Battle With Parkinsons Disease Keeps Getting Tougher: Im Not Going to Be 80, TV Premiere Dates 2022: The Complete Guide, Broadcast TV Unscripted Scorecard 2022: Whats New, Renewed and Canceled, TV Pilots 2022: The Complete Broadcast Guide, The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News. By the end of Season 2, we're dealing with a number of different time periods spanning more than 100 years but we're also introduced, in the last seconds of the finale, to the possibility of an entirely new and potentially identical dimension. Netflix series 1899 was shot entirely on a virtual LED Volume production stage at Studio Babelsberg. Dark Season 2's Time-Travel Story, Explained By Its Creators Friese: I completely agree. Dark couldnt cast people who were too distinct though, in the interests of the mystery. While we still mourn the 1899 premature cancellation, star Rosalie Craig reveals showrunners Jantje. In German, its so negative. Do Ellis Dragons Unstable Inventions Exist in Real Life? "Because in their arc, the narrative is straightforward. It feels quite right and satisfactory. First time filming in new cutting edge LED-Volume at Babelsberg Studios. Thats the fun of it. If a door was on the left side, it would then be on the right side in the other world. How do people cope with situations when theyre not able to speak the same language? If you dont know where youre going, you can just write whatever. Because Im a very traditional filmmaker; I like to give the actors a lot of space and not limit them by saying, We just have this angle. Its not every word but you learn how a language sounds and, especially if you do a lot of takes, you get really used to it. Is this a hopeful note in your mind? Today, in 2022, we are still there. "When we. Because Dark travels back and forth in time, dropping in on the same Winden residents at different ages in 33-year cycles, casting children, adults, and older versions of those characters is essential to sell the outlandish storytelling. So you didnt have to really change the way that youre shooting; you can do the shot and the reverse shot in one day, which was really helpful. More scientific-oriented thinking started [influencing society] while you still had very religious beliefs [also prevalent], and those two things pulled on each other, old and new. And thus, fans of this science fiction series can be found discussing Nietzsche and other philosophers, trying to unlock the shows themes of free will and fate, alongside the physics of time travel. Its over, Odar said. Sign up here for our weekly Streamail newsletter to get streaming recommendations delivered straight to your inbox. It creates such a powerful illusion that, in the beginning, the crew and actors were actually getting seasick because the horizon was moving on the volume screen. So it is truly a beast of its own, but shares a lot of the same maybe mechanisms as Dark does. And what I just found so interesting about that, or what became even more clear to me, is that through language youre actually expressing culture. Do you feel you have said all there is to say about these characters and this world? In the next phase I actually put it in pen. That, for us, is a metaphor. Halle Bailey, Melissa McCarthy, and director Rob Marshall share the tale behind making their underwater musical with a groundbreaking Disney princess. The basic idea of Season 3 was something that we already had when we started. When Jantje Friese and her partner Baran bo Odar created their German-language science fiction series Dark for Netflix, they had no idea that it would become an international hit. Season 1 was tricky enough, but midway through the second season you may find yourself needing to construct a character yarn board on your wall to remember everything that's happened, who the various actors are depicting at various intervals along the timeline, and when any given scene is taking place. We know people will be going insane about it, but we always knew this would be our answer: we dont have an answer, because we do not know if theres a god or not. Watchers of the show can lean on some helpful online resources while they watch, such as the extensive official companion website that recaps important plot points organized by character, time period, place, and important object. bo Odar: We always think any piece of pop culture should be a reference to some other element of pop culture. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Did the worldwide success and fan response toDarkchange how you went about making1899? Fox Says Battle With Parkinsons Disease Keeps Getting Tougher: Im Not Going to Be 80, Channel Your Inner Queen Charlotte with This Star-Loved British Brands Exclusive Skincare Kit, Naomi Watts Just Wore These Under-$100 PJs from Two Star-Loved Brands And Theyre the Perfect Mothers Day Gift for Stylish Travelers, The Best Signet Rings for Adding a Red Carpet-Ready Touch to Your Jewelry Stack, The Best Gifts New Moms Really Want, From Cozy Robes to Virtual Escapes, James Gunns Guardians: How Chris Pratt and His Marvel Castmates Rescued Their Directors Career, The Whispers Behind NBCUniversals Jeff Shell Firing, Diane Keaton: Youre Gonna Pray to Get Off This Call, The Definitive Voice of Entertainment News. Related We need to know what are we actually talking about. Teases Friese, "There's definitely a core theme in the center of 1899, as well, and it's basically looking at that core theme through a narrative, but it's not time travel. One frustrating mystery that still hasnt been answered over the course of the first two seasons is what happened to Torben Wllers eye. "We always think we have. You know if something is urgent or not important. The actors had to act like they are in a mirrored world. We wanted to end on something that looks normal. "In every season there is what I always call a bridge. Then, of course, just like in Dark, we have a big philosophical theme at the center of it all about perception and reality. A mysterious journey unfolds for a group of London migrs as they sail toward New York. When we arrive at the start of Season 3, the big twist of Season 1 that main character Jonas Kahnwald is actually the son of Mikkel, the young boy who mysteriously vanished from 2019 and somehow ended up 33 years in the past seem quaint by comparison. Friese said, That was the centerpiece of it all. All Rights Reserved. And because of that tone, you understand how the whole sentence is meant. Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, the German creators of buzzy cult series Dark and 1899, have been tapped to develop a series. I think 95 percent of the shots are handheld to make it feel alive and wild. I need 360 degrees. Thats when the idea came to use a turntable so you can swap things in easily. 'Dark' Season 3 Interview: How the Co-Creators Pulled Off All the Jantje Friese Actually, the idea and the spark for it happened years ago. In Season 3, the seventh episode is where we basically fill in all those last puzzle pieces. It never happened.'" How did the script work did you write in German and then have things translated? InDark, we wanted the images to be almost like still photography, which is why we have these very blocked shots, very much like photos. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. And in that script note, there would be a meta-conversation about language. In the series, a boy goes missing in the small German town of Winden, and as the series unspools, viewers learn that secrets, time travel, and a metaphysical battle between good and evil are behind that mystery. And though he believes it's the way of the future of filmmaking, Odar stresses that it was still a ton of work. Odar:Thats the purest geometrical form you use to create all the other forms. Science and religion clashed a lot. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. When women turn 40, their career dies down unfortunately. What were the biggest challenges in establishing the parallel world? "I think I personally read probably one hundred books or so over the course of the three seasons, and not only on the science stuff behind it, but also philosophical pieces, a lot of spiritual writing," Friese said. So every riddle we put in there, we feel we have to solve it, she said. Dark creators tease the mysteries behind their new Netflix series 1899 ", "There is a lot in the DNA that is kind of close to Dark in terms of the puzzle and needing an engaged active audience," Friese says. How much room do you give for people trying to figure it out and when do you push them into the right direction? When it came time for Martha (Lisa Vicari) to take on some of the some iconography that in previous seasons was associated with Jonas (Louis Hofmann), that exchange between the two main characters made for a moment that forced them and series co-creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar to recalibrate a little. Its heart-wrenching and really put a lot of press pressure on Season 2. All Rights Reserved. Fortunately the similarities between some of the older and younger actors are so uncanny that often other clues arent necessary, and occasionally, some viewers are convinced that one actor has just been aged up using makeup and prosthetics such as in the case of Adult Ulrich (Oliver Masucci) and Elderly Ulrich (Winfried Glatzeder). But this is a big, new toy and not a lot of people have used it yet. We thought it better to shift. 'Dark': Creators Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar - IndieWire And then you try to find ways to incorporate it throughout the story.". Why dont we have that?. (Laughs.) Also for [Lisa] because it was so iconic for Jonas as his character. [Friese laughs] I played weird music the entire day and it became this very weird experience for everyone. In the present, hes now Jonas father, who coexists in the same time period with young Mikkel. 2023 Emmys Predictions: Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or a Movie, We actually mirrored all the images that take place in a mirrored world, which means you mirror the sets. Is the final season truly the final season, or will the cycle continue, as it does ad infinitum within the context of the story? We werent 100 percent convinced that we would get people [away] from the second screen and actually take the time and investment to watch whats going on. On set, Odar had phonetic scripts to reference as he directed scenes, and language assistants would be standing by to make sure nothing got lost in translation. All Rights Reserved. We thought: We really want to take a look at Europe, just take it, put it on a ship, in a confined space, with lots of ocean around, where you cant escape, and have like a little bit of an experiment, almost like a laboratory experiment. It should feel different, because you have this image of a big steamship going from Europe to America and immediately you think this must be the cube version ofTitanic. Could bruiseless avocados, sugarcane plastic and carbon-capturing concrete actually exist in real life? Netflix's Dark, the streaming service's first German-language original series, follows four families in a small town who become engaged, sometimes unwittingly, in a time-traveling battle between seemingly good and evil forces. bo Odar:Another good example is the word ambitious. I love her! said Friese. The 25 Saddest TV Character Deaths of This Century, According to Variety, about 90 percent of Darks audience comes from outside of Germany, and after the release of Season 1 in December 2017, Parrot Analytics noted that the show actually increased its viewership in its second week, mimicking the word-of-mouth viewership success of Stranger Things and Maniac., Its something you hope for, but it actually hit us really hard, said Friese. "Slowly you build your own mythology and set of rules. We said, this is a determined world, or it's based on determinism.
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jantje friese interview