Issue 128 – How Do They Do It?
Liz Gill looks at the highly successful Danish film industry and wonders: could we learn a thing or two?
Imagine, if you will, that in one year in Ireland, 27 Irish feature films (meaning Irish written, directed, shot, set and edited) with an average budget of 2.6 million euros, are released theatrically on 51 prints each, taking an average of 1.2 million euros at the box office and 26% of the national market share. Imagine that six of these films are in the year’s top twenty gross receipts, giving Ireland the second-highest national market share in Europe after France; and imagine that they also travel well, with 33% of all tickets to these films being bought in other eu countries, and garnering over 90 awards at international film festivals. Imagine that these films go on to comprise 57% of the domestic DVD market. Imagine that these figures have been consistent since at least 2001. Imagine a perfect gender balance of male and female writers and directors. And imagine that a small band of Irish filmmakers created a world-renowned cinematic movement and went on to conquer Hollywood while also juggling low-budget projects at home.
You are imagining what it is to be Danish.
How do they do it? While some observers inside and outside Denmark attribute their success to social democracy and a culture of collaboration, there are some key structures in place that contribute to their sustained success. Beyond the dogme movement, which many dismiss as a branding exercise (as if that’s a bad thing!), the best Danish filmmakers are making great cinema on low budgets and for responsive audiences. Here are some of the key differences between the Danish filmmaking landscape and our own:
Magic hours
Firstly, training: there is only one real film school in the country, aptly called the National Film School of Denmark (NFSD), a state school financed by the Ministry of Culture. Entrance is competitive, with never more than 100 students enrolled at any one time. Students choose to study film, tv, animation or scriptwriting, and spend the next 2 years (scriptwriting) or 4 years (everything else) developing these skills in collaboration with other students working in complementary areas. By the time they graduate, these students are much closer to Malcolm Gladwell’s magic 10,000 hours of expertise, and they also have close working relationships with the other filmmakers of their generation. It’s no accident that the original dogme pioneers, Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, and those filmmakers who joined the movement such as Susanne Bier, Annette K. Olesen, Lone Scherfig and Søren Kragh-Jacobsen, amongst others, were all educated there. The NFSD creates a culture of collaboration: even after graduation, writers, directors and actors are often involved in a lengthy development process that involves much discussion, argument and experimentation before a script is ever begun. What is also unique is that often the various roles are exchanged: Anders Thomas Jensen, for example, writes for other directors and directs for other writers; the actress Paprika Steen is currently directing as much as acting, and directors often collaborate to create scripts. While some might argue that there is a conformity to the Danish film industry, the results are impressive.
The full article is printed in Film Ireland 128
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