My brief experience of Netherlands Television
by
Michael E Briant
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New 2006 I have received several emails asking me what it was like working for Joop v/d Ende in the late 80's and 90's so I thought I would write a few words about the brief, but not totally uninteresting time, I spent under various contracts for his organisation. It was a moment in my career that makes me smile. Loved Amsterdam. Worked with some very talented people. Why was Joop so successful? Certainly he had a feel for what Netherland people wanted. He had a feel for making money out of show business. He was a big fish in a fairly small pond but with ambitions to have wider recognition. This was probably his biggest mistake. Once he tried to move outside, into the bigger world, he immediately started to loose (other peoples) money hand over fist. In New York he became something of a laughing stock and was regarded by more experienced producers and theatre proprietors as a bit of a 'country bumpkin' who had more money than sense, experience or knowledge of the business. He was prepared to put cash into productions which no professional producer would touch with a (dutch) barge pole. Despite his inability to speak much English, he did make himself aware of what was successful in the West End of London and made deals to 'import' several very successful British musicals - Les Mis, Cats, Evita, Barnum etc etc.. These were all shows that 'played' throughout the world, in dozens of countries, making much money for their 'original producers', who always controlled the productions to see the standards were maintained.. Joop was able to persuade the 'original producers' to allow him to put their shows in his theatres and he benefited accordingly. No 'creative' input but a good nose for what would make money. A feel for what would work for Netherlanders. With Netherlands television he was more original. As far as I could see he had no 'grand plan' or particular set of artistic standards, rather was somebody who took dozens of ideas and like sticky balls, would throw them in the air and the ones that 'stuck' he would pursue the ones that fell he would discard. The concept of development of of quality productions, was beyond him. Certainly I was not aware of any philosophy on quality or originality rather than go with what has 'instant' success rather than go for long term success. He also seemed more interested in the appearance of a script. The cover, the way it was bound rather than the contents. What was Joop like as a person? Physically he was quite large and had something of the bully about him. Not really to be trusted. My personal experience was that he would promise one thing today and forget it tomorrow. He surrounded himself with people who would agree with him. Tell him he was right. If you stood up to him he became uncomfortable, angry and would attempt to bully you into doing what he wanted. He demanded a high degree of loyalty but was never prepared to be loyal himself - I found this the least attractive part of his personality. To be fair it was difficult for him to 'understand' what was going on because nobody wanted to displease him because they were afraid of him and afraid for their jobs. The result of this policy was his main advisers were somewhat second rate. Few people with creative talent wanted or was allowed to spend too long in his production company. One of the reasons he failed so totally to become anything outside of the 'Netherlands TV or Theatre Arena' was he could not understand that most of us 'Buiterlanders' that he brought in to 'modernise' his organisation, introduce techniques of making productions in a more efficient and creative way, had very full and successful careers in out own countries and merely came to the Netherlands for a change - to do something different. When I accept the brief to Direct and create the opening season of Spijkerhook a set of scripts were sent to me that seemed interesting and worth while. When I actually set foot the production office I was handed a 'replacement' set of scripts that were amateur and I did not want to put my name to them. I said I was unhappy and ....................Joop arrived. His first words to me were;- 'If you do not behave I will put you on the first plane back to England.' My first words to him were:- 'If you continue to try to bully me and be rude I will get on the first plane back to England. You can either discuss the problem or we can part company now!" Poor old Joop was on the horns of a dilemma - he had promised delivery of the first episode in some four weeks time and without a director who could actually make the chaos work! He was going to fail and it was the very first production he had ever 'sold' to Veronica. I honestly did not care if I stayed or went. Fun to be working in a foreign country but hardly career making! I was amused to note that most of the British directors that followed me were retired and just adding a bit to their pensions! I doubt that Joop has had an original idea in his life and certainly he has not any regard for the originality and creativity of others. For somebody in the entertainment industry he was strangely unaware of the creative process with drama. He would decide he wanted a 'police' series for example... He would come to me and ask me to develop one. Unpaid, I would involve writers and other creative people only to find out that Joop had asked half a dozen other people as well for the same concept... He expected ideas to be handed out free of charge and without exclusivity.. Very odd. Likewise, when he asked me to make a comedy series - which eventually became 'Vrienden voor het Leven', he asked me to find the scripts, cast the actors, have the sets designed, revolutionise the productions techniques for 'sit coms' in the Netherlands and direct the most successful comedy drama series he had ever had. A show that won lots of awards and made him stacks of money and he never once said 'Thank you Michael'. Funny man. Sad man - big fish in a little pond. Sept 9th 2006 La Rochelle - France.
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http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0108468/ This should go to my IMDb page
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It all began in 1998 - I was bored - had just completed another series for the BBC - won an EMMY and several BAFTA nominations, run my own film production company, directed classic serials, movies, drama series, all film serials and wanted a new challenge. The phone rang to ask if I would consider going to Amsterdam! They wanted me to direct an all location drama adapted from an original script by Het Telegraph writer LEO DIERKSON. The adaptation had been written by the English TV dramatist and old friend Bob Baker. Read the scripts - excellent - decided a few months in Amsterdam doing good scripts was just what I needed. Flew into Aalsmere met the Producer - shook hands with Joop vd Ende and agreed to do it. Shot the last in the series I was doing for Yorkshire TV - turned down a couple of episodes for a classic series and got another phone call to say that Joop vd Ende and co had omitted to obtain the rights from Leo Dierkson! Leo was unhappy with the adaptation and had withdrawn from the deal! However there was another project about to start called 'Nail Corner' and would I consider doing the first 24 episodes? The scripts were original, by another friend of mine from SECRET ARMY days, John Brason. The scripts arrived next morning by courier. Again good scripts but I explained that 24 was really too much but would be happy to direct the first 10 or 12. Now read on |
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SPIJERHOEK Nail corner 1988 Packed my bags, picked up the big envelope that arrived by post, got in the car and drove to the Ferry for the Netherlands. Sat in the ferry and read the 'new' set of scripts. Sadly the once tight, well written scripts I had agreed to direct had been transformed into slow, boring, somewhat amateur pieces that should never see light of day on a tv screen. Wondering if I should be involved in something so amateur I drove to the producers office. Julie van Hermat - a charming lady who had been a production manager in films said that the 'bosses' in Aalsmere had decided the new scripts were better! What bosses I asked - in vain! During the next weeks I received 18 further total re-writes of Episode One and 3 re-writes of episode two. To my amusement the 19th re-write was written by an ex journalist called Bert van de Ver (I think that was his name) He had been paid to sit in a Greek Island, smoke a pipe and write :- she comes into the room and sits by the window. she wanders into the kitchen and makes cup of coffee. She picks up a picture and begins slowly to masturbate. The scene then carried on exactly as written - a discussion between the woman and her husband about the price of pizzas! Laugh? If it had not been so 'sad' I would never have stopped. To be fair Bert vd-whatever - had never written a script in his life and had never been involved in a drama production so I suppose it was a 'brave' effort, if somewhat flawed. What was even funnier was that each time a new re-write came in total new scripts were sent out to the actors who were due to start rehearsals. I was faced with 19 versions of ep 1 and 4 versions of Ep 2 - for some reason the rest of the original scripts were deemed to be acceptable (I suspect because nobody had read them) I began to realise that my employment as a British director (and there are many talented directors in the Netherlands,) was because the 'company' wanted to learn how to make drama in the BBC / ITV system rather than the somewhat slow and pedantic methods then current in Dutch TV Drama production. My solution to the script problem was to quietly have several of the original scripts photocopied and on the first day of rehearsal, when the slightly bemused actors arrived, clutching 19 different versions of the first episode, was to hand out the copies of the original scripts and say 'that's what we are doing'. Although every ex journalist, secretary, accountant in the fairly small and very democratic organisation at Aalsmere had re-written the script none realised what I had done! On a more interesting level the sound and camera crews and lighting people were excellent and very talented. The Netherlands television system was somewhat 'democratic' and the camera crew all worked with full scripts 'so they could decide what size shot to put up next so it would cut with the previous shot'. Camera cards were unheard off and the concept of placing a mark on the studio floor, for a shot position, was considered an insult to their abilities. To be fair after some resistance they took on board the concept of 'camera cards', just listing the shots for their cameras, and the reason for a mark on the floor. I worked mainly with a highly professional technical supply company called Video Hilversum. It became a pleasure to work with with them. Spijkerhoek was full of young people and energy and was a great success - I was able to create a system very similar to the way dramas are produced in the UK. There were several subsequent series of Spijkerhoek over the years and many UK writer friends of mine contributed to the series. I think the one thing the 'bosses' at Aalsmere learned was that writing is actually a profession - a trade and that although amateurs may feel inspired they should leave it to the writers to write. A somewhat irritating event with most vd Ende productions was that you would be asked what equipment you wanted and it would be noted and agreed. Later it would be changed by one of the 'Aalsmere' people without consultation! Amazing! Like the writing, a total amateur, would decide what a director needed for a production! Felt like walking up an escalator that was going down! In spite of all the difficult beginnings I was able to establish a 'style' and production tightness that changed popular Netherlands drama for ever. Joop never really liked Spijkerhoek I think. He wanted to make soap. He later did a deal with an Australian company and they came in and made daily for soap for him. He was of course thrilled - he had always really wanted Spijkerhoek to be a soap I think. Shame really as it was a lot better than that and sometimes had real quality.
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now on sale.
Go to Blue Water for details.
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VRIENDEN VOOR HET LEVEN The Two of Us 1990 Joop v/d Ende came to me with a VHS cassette of a German comedy series called 'Friends for Life'. He wanted to 'get into' Situation Comedy and had decided to buy the rights to this production and wanted me to direct it in the manner that British Sit Coms are made. I reviewed the tape! It was indescribable. Made mainly on location with very long and boring scenes and occasionally someone dropped their trousers! I heaved a sigh and decided it was time to leave the Netherlands! Joop came to my office and I explained as politely as I could that I was not going to do the show and in my opinion he probably shouldn't either! The showman that Joop was, he said 'well if you think it's awful come up with something that's better - tomorrow - and we will do that'! I called my agent in the UK, Rolf Kruger, explained I was probably coming home but Joop wanted some Sit Com ideas. We chatted about the shows Rolf had copies of on his client shelf and came up with - The Two of Us, After Henry, Fools and Horses and a couple more. (interestingly every show on our list had the rights purchased and was later made by Joop in Aalsmere!) Rolf and I felt The Two of Us was possibly the simplest to do. I was going to have to introduce and entirely new technique! (25 minute Sitcoms were not made - shot before a live audience- in just over an hour - in the Netherlands at that time! Sometimes they did shoot several episodes at the same time before the same audiance) Joop was in my office the next morning - I told him of the options and recommended 'The Two of Us'. He took all the tapes away with him. The next morning he called me and said he had purchased the rights and would I direct it please? The only thing was it had to be called Vrienden Voor Het Leven (Friends for Life) as he had signed a contract to produce a sit-com by that title! I had never directed 'Sit Com' in the UK but knew several people who had, so I got on the telephone to the UK and picked their brains. 25 minute Sit Coms have a few basic sets in a studio - and a live audience. They are shot after a days camera rehearsal in front of the 'live' studio audience in about an hour to an hour and a half. There were a few problems with Netherlands Television production techniques at that time. The first was that they did not use Booms. (Platforms that support arms with microphones on the end that wrack in and out.) The camera crews of Video Hilversum were now accustomed to camera cards and marks on the floor and I found a couple of 2nd hand booms for them to rent/buy from of the UK. Vision mixing was also a problem. In Comedy the timing of the 'cut' can be everything to make a joke work. Whilst there were very talented mixers in the Dutch system none of them were really sympathetic or had been trained to follow cuts scripted by directors and reactions of actors. The Management of Video Hilversum asked me to find a sound man and vision mixer to train their people. Very shrewd move and I got on the phone to friends at Yorkshire TV and arranged for a sound supervisor and a vision mixer to come over for the first couple of recordings. The Video Hilversum folks took the new techniques on board very quickly. I am proud to say that this system I introduced in of recording Sit Coms way back in 1990 is now the only one now used in the Netherlands Television productions. To be fair I did not invent it merely imported it - this was much easier than creating the system of work on Spijerhoek as there was no time for the 'executives' at Joop vd Ende to get involved. Julie van Hemert was a very able assistant to me during this time and supportive. She handled the translations of the original English scripts and helped with the casting of the smaller parts and running the finances. It mainly worked well except for the time the central joke in one episode was that a character was totally bald - she sent me a young man covered in hair! He was very shocked when I told him to go and get his head shaved! We had to recast!! To be fair Julie was busy with other things and did not always have the time to read or understand the jokes in the scripts. She organised the financial side of the productions which was a relief as directing, I think, 24 episodes on the trot was pretty demanding. The only fly in the ointment was that is was decided 'Bert v/d of the Pipe' should shoot the opening titles as the show sponsors 'Renault' wanted to be certain their vehicles were properly featured. Poor old Bert went off with tracking cars, 20 extras, steady cam and lots of editing time and produced a 6 minute opening title sequence for a 25 minute show, with all the cars in long shot! Renault were furious and threatened to withdraw sponsorship. A major part of the series budget had been spent on this 'mistake' so I borrowed a Renault from one of the crew and did the 'Eddy & Ellen arm wrestling on the bonnet of the car' shot in one of our lunch breaks and the titles problem was solved.. Vrienden went on to win all sorts of awards and prizes and the show is still occasionally repeated. Brilliant scripts. After directing a couple of series of The Two of Us, Joop asked me to do... After Henry... ----------------------------
SECRET ARMY - Beautifully presented box of 4 DVDs of the 3rd Series Released and in the shops now
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ZONDER ERNST After Henry 1992 was to be made at Aalsmere featuring the famous Netherlands actress TRUDI LABIE. Joop was determined to have her for the lead in this series what ever it took. Trudi had not done a lot of television and was afraid that television situation comedy was possibly not her field. It took Joop weeks of negotiation to get her to agree. I was somewhat diffident about doing another sit com although the 'After Henry' series is charming and much more sophisticated than Vrienden. --------------------- THE BURGERMEISTERS DILEMMA. Whilst the protracted negotiations with Trudi were going on I was able to talk to Joop about slightly more interesting projects and he agreed to buy my concept for a show for the 50th anniversary of the D Day landings. When the Netherlands were occupied by the Germans in WW2 the 'state' still had to continue to function. Schools, hospitals, roads, universities, theatres, police etc. These all had to be run by the mayor and town hall of each town or province. The dilemma for the Burgermeister was when did co-operation for the good of the Netherlands people become collaboration? The local police still have to keep law and order. The actor is instructed to play in a play selected by the German occupying force. If he refuses then he and his family starve and anyway, is that collaboration? There are wonderful stories of young men hiding out in the North of Holland and resistance operations carried out in the towns and cities during the occupation aided by Netherlands police force turning a blind eye! This is a fairly sensitive subject in the Netherlands because of the way Dutch Jews were revealed to the Nazis. Consequently it has been thoroughly researched. There are fine, scholarly, histories available and I purchased or read them all. The biggest problem would be the script writer(s) - I had met several talented writers over the years in Amsterdam and felt that possibly the way forward was a collaboration between Netherlands and British writers with a Netherlands story editor. ZONDER ERNST After Henry Trudi became available and wanted to do 'Ernst'. It was a agreed a pilot would be made - Trudi could 'see' it and Joop could 'sell' it and later we would make the series. Rehearsals commenced and with such an experienced and able actress it was apparent the show would repeat it's UK success. The recording night was difficult as dear old Joop insisted on being on the studio floor during the recording of the show. The showman that he was, he started to give Trudi notes during the recording!!! Faster, funnier, louder and other helpful comments!!! He never quite understood that microphones pick up more sound than is apparent. Just because he could no hear everything from the sidelines he thought the microphone could not 'hear' either. Trudi would try to obey and stop half way through a scene to ask Joop if it was OK!! Then the lady who had done the translation then started to correct Trudi on her dialogue (some of which we had changed in rehearsals to get back to the wittier original) Instead of taking an hour to record the 25 minute show it took nearly two! However the superb scripts and Trudi's talent made the pilot work very well and after I had edited it - Joop was able to sell it - Trudi liked it and the full series of 24 was all set. During the rehearsals a man had wandered into the rehearsal room un-announced. Later Joop explained he was the new head of drama (I forget his name - Frank something??) Assuming that light entertainment was a different department from drama I nodded and just explained that rehearsals are a fairly private affaire but if this new 'Head of Drama' wanted to come to the technical run through he was welcome. After the editing was completed, the 'Frank' character from the rehearsal rooms, stopped me in a corridor and asked me to change a couple of things in the pilot episode. Slightly surprised I thanked him for his advice and did nothing except to ask my assistant who he was? Apparently he had produced a couple of not very successful things in the past - really had no track record at all but like so many executive people at Aalsmere he felt he was an expert and liked giving advice. He later came to my office and said there was a misunderstanding. He was the new 'Head of Drama' and that included comedy. Joop was going to take more of a back seat in television as he wanted to try to make a name for himself on Broadway in the USA. I was indeed the producer/director of 'Zonder Ernst' but now Joop would not be around I was to 'obey' Head of Drama. My desk was covered in research for 'The Burgermeisters Dilemma' I asked when we could have a meeting about it? The 'Hoof van of Drama' sighed. 'It really is not suitable for television. It is not interesting - I have much better ideas. Now please make the changes to the pilot of Zonder Ernst. You have to learn what works in comedy in the Netherlands'! I sort of had the feeling I had not hit it off with this Frank guy! (wish I could remember his name) He was certainly not the brightest but he appeared to have a lot of power and mouth! An hour later Joop called me into his office. 'You vill obey orders from the head of drama' Joop said. 'Why'? After Henry is a sit com. I can be head of sit coms and your new guy can create drama to be head of.' I said Joop went berserk - started to pace the office and shout. He did not speak very good English in those days and became even more stressed with his inability to convey his wishes! I had to 'obey' orders!!! I suggested that maybe we should both have a cooling off period! I was owed about 6 weeks leave and went on holiday only returning to receive a 'good bye' present of a couple of bottles of cheap wine! Leave them laughing when you go!!! |
JANSEN, JANSEN 1996 Back in the UK I had done some Emmerdale and some Eastenders as well as an interesting series for the BBC called 'One by One' and greatly enjoyed working with Jimmy Club of Chipperfields Circus family. I was taking a well earned holiday in Bambola, my sailing boat, cruising around the Greek Islands when I got a message to ask if I was interested in directing another comedy series in the Netherlands for a new company. The contact was the lovely Esmeralda Costa, who had worked with me first on Spikerhoek as an ASM and later as a superb production manager on Vrienden voor het Leven. She had come from the theatre to television, which is by far the best route, and was very much the up and coming young face of Netherlands TV. Still in holiday garb I got a plane out of Athens to Amsterdam and had dinner with Gys the producer of the show. He had cleverly found an original comedy series from Swedish Television and purchased the rights. A slightly high brow but socialist TV channel, the Vara, had decided it was for them and had done a deal for a pilot which if successful would lead to a series of, I think, 12 episodes. The original Swedish VHS cassettes I was shown had English sub titles and were well constructed and amusing. The Story was about a postman called Jansen who was married to a beautiful if slightly snobby bank manageress who's maiden name was also Jansen. The team of Swedish writers had come up with a quality, original series -different from the English style of sit com and would probably go well with Netherlands audiences. I felt. It was ages since I had been in Amsterdam, a city I love, so I accepted with pleasure. Casting is always the hardest part for a foreign director. Partly because you are not immersed in the work of the actors of that country. In the Netherlands the 'screen test' is everything and part of a directors job is to direct likely candidates for each role in a screen test then shoot it. Makes casting very hard work and instant acting more attractive than considered rehearsed acting. Try telling that to the Producers! This casting was different - plainly the only contender for the postman role was Peter Bolhuis who had a sense of timing and comedy that was unbeatable. Liz Snoink, with whom I had worked before, turned out to have a real sense of comedy and added real style and class to the show. We found two clever young people to play the kids and were all set. Working with someone like Esmeralda is always a pleasure. The total professional with a vast knowledge of Actors and what can be done she makes it so much easier for the director, cast and crew. We made the Pilot fairly easily without too much hassle and then waited whilst the Vara assessed the product! They invited a panel of randomly selected viewers to a private viewing of the pilot episode and then asked them their opinion. Not a system I am used to but I guess it is one way of making decisions. The reactions of the panel were favourable and we got the go ahead to make the series. My only criticism of the system Gys operated was that he got a very prominent Netherlands actress/ poetry writer/artist to do the translations and instead of sticking to the original scripts as broadcast by the Swedes he required 'improvements'. I had found on Vrienden and Zonder Ernst that the best formula was to stick as closely as possible to the original scripts as written by the comedy writer. When presented with excellent scripts many people are so 'inspired' they feel they have the talent to make them even better. This is seldom the case. Of course scripts written by a foreigner may require some adaptation to fit into their new country but on the whole comedy writers, who are successful, write better than people who have never written a comedy script in their lives. Apart from the slight script problems which were nearly always solved by going back to the originals Jansen-Jansen was a very happy show. Peter was superb and Liz was the perfect foil for him. I really enjoyed working on the series. Happily the success of the first series led to another - the only problem was we were making our episodes faster than the Swedish were making theirs and we ran out of scripts half way through the 2nd series. Gys found some Netherlands writers and also asked Peter Bolhuis to write an episode. Peters script was brilliant - Of the same high standard as the original Swedish scripts and in many ways funnier. His sense of comedy as an actor was even greater as a writer. Our script shortage was solved. All Peter had to do was write a script and play the lead each week. I really cannot remember how many episodes we made 24? 30? It was all a real pleasure. Gys employed the Video Hilversum crew and we had a studio in Amsterdam so I could almost cycle to work. Esmeralda supervised the casting of guest artists and ran the production. After a while I was able to let her direct some scenes and eventually complete episodes. She has turned into a fine director and the sort of talent that broadcast television cannot find enough of. Peter was a big hit as M. Jansen and Liz, as always, was very successful, popular and glamorous. By this time I knew so many of the guest actors from previous productions and all the technical crews - The production was an absolute pleasure to direct. Gys and Esmeralda got together and had a baby. Peter came to visit me when I was sailing off the East Coast USA and from time to time I still receive royalties from all the productions I made in the Netherlands. It was all a really good experience.
Kessler has just been released on DVD in a boxed set, of all 6 episodes. available in the high street shops |
SECRET ARMY - Beautifully presented box of 4 DVDs of the 3rd Series
Released and in the shops now
http://uk.imdb.com/name/nm0108468/ This should go to my IMDb page
