Sign up for our Email Newsletters 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. Narratives or stories are always about human behavior and human connection. It's a lot to keep track of, and a feat of brilliance that Odar and Friese have made it work so seamlessly, especially since the show never shies away from introducing the actual quantum theory behind parallel universes and God particles. Related I think 95 percent of the shots are handheld to make it feel alive and wild. And every dialogue portion had a script note. Some of it was something that we developed throughout the process. Thats why we decided against showing it. But the people creating the show needed more elaborate tracking methods. "Because there are so many layers of science philosophy and metaphysics and spiritual stuff, and it was quite interesting to see that they are all actually talking about the same thing, just from different angles. In the middle, there may be some ideas that are more loosely thrown in. 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 then while we were working on it, we decided to move it to the third season. But this is a big, new toy and not a lot of people have used it yet. Those were a key reference. Letting all of that go, for me, feels very satisfying. Need help finding something to watch? And yes, Martha and Jonas, thats the big centerpiece of it all.. There are so many ideas and concepts out in the world, said Friese. It evokes images of the 19th century but combines them with almost science fiction technology and pop tunes on the soundtrack. You know it by the emotional state, how they are addressing you, their body language and everything. The German creators of the cult mystery-thriller Dark forced their viewers to trust them. 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. They would need to completely crash. Its the same with Blade Runner, and how there are still people thinking Harrison Ford is not a replicant; where Im thinking, How can you think hes not a replicant? Thats the beauty of that story, that theres a question amrk. It's really awkward for us, this huge success, we always question it. We wanted to have this beautiful mix of voices and languages." For answers to those questions and more, The Hollywood Reporter turned to Odar and Friese for a closer look at the final season of Dark. But it also means props-wise, you have to change a lot of things like books and bookshelves. The series certainly promises to be as mind-bending as Dark. I cant tell you exactly at what point; it wasnt in the first rough concept, but I think it was during the writers room on the first draft in Season 1, said Friese. For two or four weeks I was completely lost to the world.. How can I get over always reacting in the same patterns to certain situations? Also for [Lisa] because it was so iconic for Jonas as his character. A key part of any ending is knowing the right cutoff point. And even though the culture is different all around the world, there are certain things that are everywhere. You will have to see. I always loved that idea. ", Friese says she was bothered by this for the first few months actively working on the scripts for 1899, but, "At some point, we just said, 'Let's shake it off.' I always liked the idea that there are two components who are opponents, fighting each other all of the time, actually having to realize that they are not important. Friese credits casting director Simone Br for the series uncanny casting coups. "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. 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. Read on to find out what the pyramids and triangles mean, and which Easter eggs you mightve missed. And then we try to find a world of symbols that all ties into our theme," she says. "When we. Never mind that in her own time, everyone including her son was facing a certain apocalypse. Friese: Its a good thing because it helps you see who you are yourself. Was that deliberate? Jantje Friese and Baran bo Odar have earned patience. "But then the pandemic happens. The success of that show enabled Odar and Friese to tell the story they wanted to tell over three mind-boggling seasons, and also provided a bit of a blessing and a curse when it came time to work on 1899. Mind still blown by that out-of-this-world ending to1899? Is this a hopeful note in your mind? Im still not sure about the percentage, but its probably 10 percent [of the mysteries] we are not goiong to answer just for the fun of it, but they will be smaller. Dark Season 1 and 2 are currently streaming on Netflix. That was the biggest structural issue: when do we reveal what? Now we finally fill in the gaps and you see how the circle plays out. [1] Work [ edit] Jantje Friese studied production and media management at the University of Television and Film Munich. Were moving through a story, and we want to know how it will be resolved in the end. We said from the start that1899should not look likeTitanic. I love that theres so much fan fiction out there. We dont think theres only one answer to a thing. ", The poster for 1899 (below) shows a ship perched on the edge of a triangle in the middle of the ocean, leading some fans to speculate that the mysterious Bermuda Triangle myth could play a part in the story. One doesnt need to actually understand how or why something happens on Dark although thats a bonus but just learning the end result of some of these time travel hijinks is entertainment in itself. Related I personally feel that a lot of very great philosophers came out of from German history. And Odar has a bit of advice to viewers: "We do love to play with genres and expectations. Baran bo Odar: As we have so many different timelines and characters, we would figure out things like, if we use a certain color in this decade, we wont use it in another one. Just opening Final Draft took like five minutes because of all those script notes. Influencers: Profiles of a Partnership 2022, How to Pitch Stories and Articles to IndieWire, 'Dark': Season 2's Insane Ending and All the Burning Questions Season 3 Needs to Answer, Dark: Here Are 8 Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed Amidst All Those Time Travel Shenanigans, The Best 36 LGBTQ Movies and TV Shows Streaming on Netflix Right Now, The 25 Saddest TV Character Deaths of This Century, Adult Ulrich (Oliver Masucci) and Elderly Ulrich (Winfried Glatzeder). "If you don't look at the narrative chronologically, but you pick out single characters and just look at their character arcs, it becomes a lot easier," Friese said. That was the big question. You can actually do something good by not being there so someone else can be lucky and happy. And he's not just talking major landscapes, but also more intimate set pieces, too. She is a writer and producer, known for Dark (2017), Who Am I (2014) and 1899 (2022). But in the end, it turned out to be way easier than we thought, because theres a sort of universal language, without words, going on while youre communicating with someone. 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. That was the beauty of it. ", Odar mentioned that it was a children's book on quantum physics that finally made it all make sense to him sort of. Movies. [This story contains major spoilers for the final season of Netflixs Dark.]. It was such an interesting challenge. He almost reveals what happens before hes interrupted. Another part of the series that was touted when it was first announced was that 1899 would not be entirely in German, like Dark, nor would it be in any one language. Dark: Here Are 8 Easter Eggs You Might Have Missed Amidst All Those Time Travel Shenanigans Then, of course, just like in Dark, we have a big philosophical theme at the center of it all about perception and reality. Old Ines (Angela Winkler) in actual life has a mole, so you put that on younger Ines when you tried to make them match.. One was we didnt want to do it and we were kind of pressured into it. What was the original spark? The ending, knowing where youre going is one thing, but then finding the ways to get there is really a whole different challenge, said Friese. The following interview discusses Season 3 of the Netflix . I makes it very difficult.. In the development process we never thought of it as [just] a German show. No, we just forget them immediately. It could be a crying smiley face, or it could be a winking smiley face. Your Burning Firefly Lane Questions Answered. 1899 also has a unique sound because, fitting with the theme of Europe you were talking about, you decided to have all your actors speak in their native languages. 2023 The Hollywood Reporter, LLC. For Louis, being on set and shes entering the room with his jacket, the first reaction was like, Give me back my jacket! Do you feel you have said all there is to say about these characters and this world? For instance, the ship's dining room, which is a pivotal set piece on the show, was not an actual physical room that they built. Thirty-three years, the number [if you flip the first three around] is, combined, an eight. One frustrating mystery that still hasnt been answered over the course of the first two seasons is what happened to Torben Wllers eye. Why set it at the end of the 19th century? This is one of the first TV shows, afterThe Mandalorian, to use new LED Volume technology to create virtual sets. Netflix has yet to address the viewership for Season 2 since it was only released recently on June 21, but the show is already in production for its third and final season, which will air sometime in 2020. What resonates with a lot of viewers is this feeling that we also sometimes have: do we matter? IndieWire is a part of Penske Media Corporation. I put a lot of thought into it: What kind of information and when do you explain certain rules? Odar: I definitely view it as a happy ending, though you can also interpret it as a suicide mission, of course. From Barbie to The Flash, Here Are the Movies That Made the Biggest Impact at CinemaCon. Well send you our daily roundup of all our favorite stories from across the site, from travel to food to shopping to entertainment. In an interview on Zoom, the Playtech team spoke to the producers and some of the cast of the psychological thriller 1899. . For example, if a stair goes from left to right, in the other world it would go from right to left. Immediately, I had the idea that this might be a migrant on a ship. It just looked pretty. What were the biggest challenges in establishing the parallel world? But what happened on that ship? It's Me, Margaret' to 'R.M.N.' What did you learn using the new tech? But in English, it means something positive. How did the script work did you write in German and then have things translated? See how the filmmakers used 'Volume' to create a story at sea. bo OdarI think we learned a lot to be honest, because it is a new tool. These meet-cutes will bring on all the feels. 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. Do you have a huge board on the wall with red yarn linking up various elements? Baran bo Odar Definitely. Everything is planned in that one holy book. When we got to the second season, we changed it again. bo Odar:Another good example is the word ambitious. InDark, we wanted the images to be almost like still photography, which is why we have these very blocked shots, very much like photos. We added a glitch to it. What stylistically are you going for with this show? Odar and Friese both speak English and German, with a smattering of Spanish (him) and French (her), but the scripts called for everything from English to Cantonese to Danish, and more. They have something almost like emoticons at the end of every sentence, in order to understand how that sentence is meant. Related "[It's] definitely not easier, really," he says. We always knew we wanted to save Regina. Was this scene always part of the plan or was it something that developed in the writing? So where does the show go in Season 3? So its really that in going through the makeup process and trying to find out what you do with the hair and face. ", "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. Can we change anything? Odar: The question about Wollers eye is the question about, is there a god or not? There are a lot of symbols throughout, a lot of referencing systems in terms of religion, mythology.. 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. But everyone now has seen all three seasons, and it gets really complicated. And we love to play with tools, because I think as a filmmaker, especially, you are like a child. You were really, like, lovesick after filming was done. We had to get cars from England for some shots where the steering wheel had to be on the other side. ", But amid all the symbology and references to religion and philosophical theory, there is one very simple concept that unites it all: the notion of an immutable past that, quite literally, in this case, always catches up to the present, and in so doing, informs the future. That was very fun. Friese laughed and added, "'For a short moment in time, you visited a parallel world where you actually had success!'". It was a really awkward feeling that day, Odar said. 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. Jantje Friese: They think they know how this works but they don't. They are still human. And we're just waiting for the moment where someone shows up and says, 'April Fool's! There are actually two things. Having watched the first six episodes [of1899], it appears to be a bit less complicated thanDark. Wrapping up the Dark story next season hasnt been an easy process, even though filming is already underway. No, I didn't,'" he said. 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. And if you ever tried that for one day, it is really weird and awkward.. Multinational immigrants traveling from the old continent to the new encounter a nightmarish riddle aboard a second ship adrift on the open sea. 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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. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. 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. We had a lot of photography from really weird people with very strange lighting setups that created a very interesting isolation of the figures in the images. She was last seen stealing a time machine, traveling to the past to taunt her old lover, and then taking off on her own. Go Behind the Cutting-Edge Technology of 1899. Its really mind-opening and I personally still read stuff and Im really blown away. ", If all goes according to plan, fans have many more episodes to look forward to. ", Odar explained that, if you're looking to keep track of everything, follow the symbols. Friese:Its more a reference to the brain, to psychology and the science of perception. Finally we could do whatever we wanted with them. bo Odar:Yeah, they really didnt understand each other. They have to realize that, yes, we suffer and we have pain and desires, but we two are not so important that we must exist so someone else cant be happy. I had phonetic scripts, and I was constantly looking at the monitor and reading along, trying to follow the dialogue, which is hard in French, because theyre so fast, and is super hard in Cantonese, because that language feels like its from some other world. It was originally a photo that we found. Even after watching it, there is no such thing as a cursory consideration of its events; each and every character who lives in the fictional town of Winden, Germany is greatly impacted by one another, whether its because someone is secretly someone elses time-traveling father or, weirder still, their own time-traveling granddaughter. Well, then how ambitious are you with this series? It was such an interesting time, that, unfortunately, was the build-up for a lot of terrible things that happened afterwards: With the First World War and then the Second World War, as people entered a new century, there was a lot of hope, but also a lot of fear, regarding new ideas and older ideas the old world versus the new world. Im obsessed with history, seeing how everything is related to each other, seeing the reasons for things. Literally, it's bad. Get a behind-the-scenes look at the new mystery-thriller series. Sometimes its just a table or a column in the dining room, or in a landscape, maybe a hill, to create depth. Sorry Dark fans, no time-travel wormholes here. I think its a very individual thing. Everything happens constantly in loops. Originally there had been considerations to convert the material into a film. "But there are also things that are quite different in terms of atmosphere and tonality, but also pacing and more action-y stuff happening. Was it always your intention to introduce multiple worlds from the outset? One of the most challenging roles to cast was the nurse Ines who actually adopts Mikkel when he travels back to 1986. You can change anything. bo Odar:Thats a message to Final Draft: Work on that script notes function. First time filming in new cutting edge LED-Volume at Babelsberg Studios. You just trying to be flexible, to really allow the process to surprise you while youre going through it, but still kind of knowing where youre sailing to. There were some really tough choices to be made, especially in the in the editing room. So every riddle we put in there, we feel we have to solve it, she said. And also why would they like weird German-language things? And the rest is just virtual in it, even with digital extras, which we used for the first time, which they didn't on Mandalorian. How Ben Afflecks Air Makes the Case for Movie Theaters to Build Buzz, How Succession Trapped the Roy Family in a VIP Room of Grief in Episode 3, Movies Shot on Film 2023 Preview: From Oppenheimer to Killers of the Flower Moon and Maestro, How Gene Kelly and Singin in the Rain Taught John Wick to Fight, The 50 Best Movies of 2022, According to 165 Critics from Around the World, All 81 Titles Unceremoniously Removed from HBO Max (So Far), 10 Shows Canceled but Not Forgotten in 2022. Were just consumed 24 hours a day and never take the time to sit down and just think, oh, I am. The 50 greatest TV and movie detectives of all time. I think we we focused on the stuff where we just personally felt it adds to the overall mystery and we need to deliver the ending.