Today I am looking at the 36 new episodes of German Top Cop Drama TATORT in 2020, comparing the shares of men and women in the 6-departments-check (direction, screenplay, camera, sound, editing and music), and analyzing the development from 2011 to 20. In addition, I will check how these films fare under the “2 from 6” departments rule. Finally, I will discuss the TATORTs in respect to the TV ratings and a female quota, with a short detour to the demands set up by Pro Quote Bühne (Pro Quota Stage).
The 6-Departments-Check 2020
It was already apparent during the summer break that 2020 was going to be a very good year for female TATORT directors, with a total of 16 of the 36 TATORTs coming in at 44.4 %. At the other end are the female sound recordists, or not, they were not engaged for TATORTs for the third year in a row. Whereby this is not quite true, the highest proportion of women is once again achieved in the average, this time with 77.3 % female editors. For comparison: Alumni 51:49, Crew United database 35.5 : 64.5.
• Summary: Bread and Play – Two Birds with One Stone • Why does culture need a new perspective? • Why do old people need a new perspective? • The big Chance • Spoilsport • The Proposals do not go far enough • Why is no one shouting „Here!“ • What can be done? #Kultur4Geimpfte0103
Bread and Play – Two Birds with one Stone
Theatres, concert halls, museums, galleries, cinemas, leisure centers, literature houses, district centers, … they are currently closed to protect the population. This is sad for the public, and hard for the active people concerned – quite a few cultural workers have thus fallen into financial hardship through no fault of their own. Many cultural institutions had already developed comprehensive hygiene concepts for the changed situation, the events on the stages were re-choreographed, everyone kept their distance, people spoke, shouted and sang to the front rather than to their colleagues, orchestras were decimated with large distances between the desks. And also in the auditorium rules of distance were implemented – you may remember the pictures of long empty rows with isolated audience members. Since the end of December, people have been vaccinated against the coronavirus, initially in homes and nursing homes for residents and also for nursing and medical staff. In the next step, people over 80 living at home may now also be vaccinated. We can therefore assume that by the end of February, several million people will no longer be able to contract Covid-19 after their second vaccinations – and according to current knowledge. Mainly old people. That’s perfect! Old people and culture, they go together. Not only since today. Therefore #Culture4Vaccinated0103 from March 1: Open the galleries – but only for the vaccinated. Open the concert halls – but only for vaccinated people. Open the cinemas – but only for vaccinated people. Open the cultural centers – but only for vaccinated people. Open the museums – but only for vaccinated people. Open the theatres – but only for vaccinated people.
As far as I know, there have been no corona infections, no corona hotspots in theatres, concert halls or museums in the last 12 months. Check the hygiene concepts on and behind the stages, in the administration, the workshops, the postcard shop….. You just have to be careful that artistic and non-artistic personnel keep their distance, wear FFP2 masks and protect each other. The audience – the vaccinated – do not take any risk and presumably do not pose any danger to others, even according to the current state of research.* And because only vaccinated people are allowed into the performances, all seats can be filled, not just 20% with large distances.
In 2020, the value-added tax was specially lowered to increase consumption. Great, and now let’s kick off cultural consumption. Let the first vaccinated people be the first to be allowed back, the rest of us will follow when we are also vaccinated in the summer or when the infection figures are so low that cultural institutions will be reopened to everyone under certain conditions.
*The question of whether vaccinated people can infect other people does not yet seem to be clearly answerable. But basically it doesn’t matter for this proposal. The vaccinated can disinfect their hands at the entrance to the cultural institution, go with everyday masks to the ticket control and take off the mask only at the place. Only vaccinated people sit in the hall, and they cannot infect each other because they are vaccinated. In museums, sufficient distance and FFP2 masks must be provided for ticket and supervisory personnel. For visitors among themselves the distances do not apply, for the reason mentioned.
Bread for the cultural workers, games for the elderly.
Why does culture need a new perspective?
At present, ‘culture’ is being cancelled or postponed (see, for example, the program of the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle in Hamburg), or shifted as far as possible into digital spheres.
Concerts take place without an audience, orchestras, solo artists and bands are on stage with due intervals, and the audience can experience them on the radio, via livestream, on demand or in media libraries free of charge or with online tickets from a distance.
The house is closed, the situation difficult – but the Berliner Philharmoniker play their concerts, as best they can, in front of cameras and microphones. (Source DLF Kultur)
In the 2020/21 season, in addition to its concerts at the Berlin Philharmonie, the DSO will also be regularly present on the programs of Deutschlandfunk Kultur, Deutschlandfunk and rbbKultur, as well as on other ARD broadcasting stations, thanks to its radio partners and shareholders. (Source Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin).
Many concert halls and orchestras do similar things. For other musicians it is often more difficult – they do not perform on large stages but in smaller cultural institutions, clubs or churches.
Galleries and art halls are also closed in real life and exhibit at most virtually:
To counteract the spread of the Corona virus, the Hamburger Kunsthalle will be closed from November 2, 2020 to February 14, 2021. There will be no exhibition program during this period. Our analog event program is expected to start on February 2, 2021. Still open and accessible from everywhere remain our offers in the digital space – use our offers on the website, explore our online collection or follow us on social media. (Source Hamburger Kunsthalle)
Cinemas are closed. They sell tickets for future screenings, or hope for solidarity, such as through the fundraising campaign FORTSETZUNG FOLGT – Berliner Programmkinos retten:
From exclusive theatrical releases to the craziest festivals & most interesting events to great arthouse films, cinema is reinvented every day on 78 screens here in the capital. Due to the current creative pause, Berlin’s cinema landscape is threatened in its existence. We would like to maintain this diversity for you in the future & for this we need your support!
Museums closed. Cultural centers closed. District culture closed. The theatres are no better off, no public performances! Although even before the shutdown, many theatres and ensembles had made an effort to strictly follow the Corona prevention requirements in their rehearsals and performances – and so they continue to rehearse in many places. One colleague told me about a two-person play:
The whole production was corona compliant, with a hygiene consultation at the beginning of the rehearsal period, the two of us never came closer than 1.5 m to each other on stage, and when we spoke loudly it was 3 m. We kept to all of this, or rather we kept to it. We complied with all of this, or had to comply with it. And we were also not allowed to eat together privately, for example, or take each other in the arm or anything. And otherwise the hygiene concept for the whole house, that is, the other people at the theatre, was very good and very strict. (Source personal conversation)
What I want to say with these examples: the conditions are favorable, quite a lot of people are ready! In many places there are already corona-safe plays, dances and music, exhibitions – and soon there will be a possible corona-inoculated audience. Curtain up, cell phones off: Let the shows begin!
Then cultural workers can finally work in front of an audience again. And earn money in the process:
The Corona pandemic has had devastating consequences for the cultural and creative industries. Many small cultural institutions in particular are on the financial brink. For artists, their very existence is at stake. The German government is helping with billions of euros in support and other funding. (Source Federal Government 20.11.20)
Why do old people need a new perspective?
Many old people love culture, they go to concerts, to museums and galleries, to the theatre, can recite poems and passages of text they learned long ago, or hum along to songs and arias. They read a lot or have read a lot. And they watch the public television program – although they hardly appear there themselves, especially if they are women.
In Corona times, out of caution – perhaps also because it was easier – we diverted old people to the siding even more clearly than usual. A pandemic? We close the old people’s homes to visitors and no longer let the inmates out. Hospitals as well. So that nothing happens to them, people still living independently are to remain in their apartments and houses, in social and spatial isolation, contact restriction of the highest form, ten, eleven months already. The old people are given a tablet, taught video call, and it is forgotten that most of them have hardly seen more than a handful of different people up close for almost a year and that they are slowly becoming lonely. Social contacts in public, shopping, in the park or at the bus stop, singing, crafting or dancing, chair gymnastics or game night have been taken away from them, they are supposed to stay at home for their own safety, ‘ideally’ in permanent lockdown.
Now the vaccinations have started and old people, those in homes and others over 80 get if they want two shots three weeks apart to become immune to Covid-19. This is probably a great relief for them and also for their friends and relatives. To what extent their life, their quasi-permanent quarantine everyday life will change is unclear. Will we soon see more old people in stores, on the streets, in the park?
“Younger people also currently experience loneliness very strongly, but unlike many seniors, they would rather have the chance to find their way out of isolation again“. sociologist Janosch Schobin is quoted in DLF Kultur.
One such chance could be the opening of cultural institutions to vaccinated people on March 1.
The big Chance
Of course, not all vaccinated people will want to or be able to go to cultural events. And not all theatres, cinemas, art and concert halls will open at once and offer programs on seven days or evenings.
But a start can be made with #Kultur4Geimpfte0103. Difficult times require special measures, empathy, creativity, inventiveness, spontaneity and flexibility. And courage. Not courage to risk others, whether vaccinated or unvaccinated. But courage to try something and perhaps be unpopular. And courage to stand up for a large disadvantaged group without a lobby.
We can assume that many corona-compliant offerings are available, whether because one- or two-person plays have been rehearsed at theatres, chamber plays have been put on large stages, or orchestral pieces have been transposed for the smallest ensembles.
And there’s a lot more to it than quickly implementable offers for vaccinated people, for over-80-year-olds and exhausted nursing staff:
Opera, music and musical theatres can host Best Of’s with a few soloists. Operetta song evenings. Or sing-along matinées, public singing with small choirs. Dance theatres can present spaced choreographies. Small ensembles from music academies, a quartet, a trio, or a piano accompanied string instrument or clarinet could (again) go to old people’s homes. Actors could offer readings or improvisational theatre there.
We are the creative industry. We can improvise, jump into the deep end and give seriousness to something crazy. I don’t know any actors, musicians or dancers who say “but I only want to play for people under 80“.
And I can imagine that both culturally experienced and culturally distant seniors are happy to be allowed out again after 10 months of contact blockage and loneliness, to be able to do and experience something again. Maybe they go to the theatre, even if they never did so before, or to the movies, especially if there are more seniors in the audience. As my colleague Claudia Reimer from Hamburg wrote to me, “I think now is the chance to bring theatre to people who don’t generally come to the theatre...”
So that’s where the creative industries, we are all called upon. Why not simply give old people the feeling that we find them important, relevant for our society, for our lives, for our art and culture?
Spoilsports
Unfortunately, some politicians do not want to allow the first group of vaccinated people to soon enjoy the artistic game (while at the same time giving a boost to cultural workers) through #Kultur4Geimpfte0103:
“Many are waiting in solidarity so that some can be vaccinated first,” said Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn. “And the not-yet-vaccinated conversely expect the vaccinated to be patient in solidarity.” (Source tagesschau.de, 12/30/20)
The many do not necessarily wait in solidarity, but because it is simply so. And then there are people who do not want to be vaccinated at all but wait and see how the first vaccinated people are doing after a few months. And there are also vaccination opponents.
But even more important: how does Jens Spahn know what the not yet vaccinated “expect”? I am not yet vaccinated, and I have no problem at all when vaccinated people are finally allowed to go out or can do more than I can. Just because I am not allowed to go out myself, others should not be allowed to go out either? Is that supposed to be solidarity?
After all, we didn’t say beforehand, “Oh, the old people are being locked away. Let’s all do a voluntary total lockdown out of solidarity.” (might not have been so bad, see Australia’s Zero Covid, but that’s another topic).
And we also don’t say, “Oh, quite a lot of people can’t work for pay at the moment, so out of solidarity, the others stop working too.”
The Proposals do not go far enough
Yesterday, news broke that Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) is planning new Corona aid for culture: partial cost coverage for cancelled events, and an aid fund. On the one hand, the fund is intended to support smaller cultural events that have fewer seats due to hygiene regulations. And on the other hand, it is a kind of insurance for planned larger cultural events that have to be cancelled due to Corona. (Source Politics & Culture 2/21, p. 7.) That’s good, but it doesn’t bring cultural practitioners and their audiences together, doesn’t let either become active. But #Kultur4Geimpfte0103 does. So it could be introduced to help people help themselves, so to speak, alongside the financial aid packages.
Another proposal came in mid-January from Foreign Minister Heiko Maas (SPD), who suggested that Corona vaccinated people should be allowed to go to restaurants or cinemas earlier than others. This was immediately rejected by the Ministry of Health and by Justice Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD): “ as long as it is not clear whether a vaccinated person can transmit the virus, there can be no exceptions” or (it is forbidden) “to treat vaccinated persons differently from non-vaccinated persons, if only because there is no scientific evidence as to whether vaccination protects against the transmission of the virus.” were their reasons. (Source tagesschau.de 17.1.)
Of course, vaccinated people can be treated differently than non-vaccinated people. Namely: because they are vaccinated and can no longer infect themselves. This is not forbidden, on the contrary, that’s exactly what I demand on March 1 with #Kultur4Geimpfte0103.
(again: if only people who are vaccinated have close, unprotected contact with each other – in a museum, in the auditorium of a theatre, in a movie theatre – then it doesn’t matter whether they could infect other people despite vaccination or not. The theatre or cinema staff wears FFP2 masks, and so do the vaccinated people, from the entrance to their seats or the exhibition rooms. By the way, traveling to cultural venues by public transport would not be a risk for the vaccinated either, they just have to keep their distance from the other passengers. Or they can take a cab. Or with a collective bus.)
Why is no one shouting “Here!”
Unfortunately, I didn’t hear anyone supporting Mr. Maas’ proposal or taking it further. Maybe there were, who knows.
But what I have sorely missed above all are the “Here! Here! Here!” shouts from the cultural sector. Why didn’t anyone take up the bill?
We as cultural workers, of all people, should if not warmly then at least gratefully seize the opportunity and rejoice that in a month at the latest there will be enough vaccine-protected old people to help revitalize our industries. Who bring money, not as November aid or loans or the dole, but who buy tickets. Who can fill the halls. Who enjoy our performances, give us applause, see us. And we, in turn, can also hear and see and feel them. And create art again for an audience in the flesh. Anything is better than being able to do nothing, than performing only for the canned.
It is better for a theatre to perform only for seniors and ten or twenty younger nurses and doctors, and even to fill all the seats without a gap, than to remain completely closed.
It is better for a cinema to let in only old visitors and vaccinated medical staff, and possibly change the program somewhat, than for the projector to remain completely off.
It is better that old people in walkers walk through the museum rooms than that the exhibitions are only streamed. Where are the creative people, the theatre unions, the orchestra representatives, the associations, the theatre directors? I’m surprised that they’re not all shouting “We’re here, we’re ready, we’ll get it done. On March 1, things can certainly get underway. The cultural industry is looking forward to the “privileged”! We’d like to open our doors to the vaccinated, please let us play / make music / exhibit, we’ll watch out too!”
If there are these voices I didn’t hear them.
Sure, there’s the open letter from museum directors to federal and state cultural leaders, for example, calling for museums to open soon. “Our concern is the containment of the pandemic, but at the same time a reopening of the museums adapted to the respective course of Corona.” (Source Berliner Zeitung, 26.1.21)
But they don’t touch the hot iron of the first vaccinated either. And why does Berlin’s Senator for Culture Klaus Lederer (Die Linke) think of nothing better than to say that the theatres will remain closed until Easter without exception? Does he share Jens Spahn’s definition of solidarity?
I am an actress, I could immediately perform with a solo piece or literary productions (Gelesenheiten – staged literature for any occasion). How many of us are part of productions, planned concerts, have programs in the schoolade, and in recent weeks and months have only recorded video clips at home. Without an audience. It’s much nicer to play in front of people. Giving something to other people and getting something.
Many creative people like to say “I want to be on stage / in front of the camera / at my easel until the end of my life, I want to write / make music until old age“. So let’s make a strong case for people in old age to be able to enjoy our art again as soon as possible in the cinema or theatre chair, in the museum, concert hall or literature house. Enjoy safely because they have been vaccinated twice.
What to do. #Culture4Inoculated0103
#Culture4Inoculated0103 is concrete. Something we can work towards together or individually for the next five weeks. A proposal that will let many people create art and experience culture again.
Share this text, discuss the proposal, what is in favor, what is against? Spread the idea.
Talk to your directors, directors, colleagues, conductors or professors. Your ensembles, your orchestra, your pianist. Plan performances, what is possible, what is safe for you cultural workers?
Write to politicians, to cultural senators and ministers, to the Cultural Council, to Ms. Grütters and, for all I care, to Ms. Merkel. Be clear, be ready.
Don’t wait for the suggestions of others, politics has blind spots. Don’t be brushed off with the argument “It can’t be done that quickly.” Who knows?
Put the pressure on. Make offers. Be courageous.
22. December 2020
by SchspIN Comments Off on Karin Hanczewski – an Inside Story
I met Karin Hanczewski in February 20, during the filming of the web series #HEULDOCH – THERAPIE WIE NOCH NIE which was still called PRICKS at that time, and which was screened at Cologne Film Festival and on ZDF Kleines Fernsehspiel since then. Until next year, the mini-series – 5 x 15 min – will still be available in the media libraries of ZDF and arte.
The series “#Heuldoch – Therapie wie noch nie” is a satirical take on #metoo. Watch it! However, I would like to issue a trigger warning: for those affected by sexual assault or worse, it is sometimes hard, despite all the humour.
From left to right: Karin, me, Bärbel
It was one of the last productions to be shot before Corona, the team was great, the cast anyway – starring Bärbel Schwarz and Karin Hanczewski, with whom I shot most of my scenes. I still remember exactly how Karin greeted me in the courtyard of the great estate that was our filming location most of the time:
Karin: Hello!
Me: Hello, uh, I’m Belinde, I’m playing Dr. Scharf.
Karin: I see. Well, I’m Karin, my birthday is on 22 December.
Me: That’s funny, my birthday is on the 19th of…
Karin: Will you bake me a cake then?
Me: Uh, what?
Karin: A birthday cake.
Me: Uh, yeah, sure, uh, I’d love to. What do you like?
Karin: Chocolate cake, nut cake, quark cake, fruit crumble, jabłecznikbezaszarlotkaciasto (= some Polish speciality), marble cake and gooseberry frappé.
Me: Uh, yes, absolutely. How old will you be?
Karin: 39.*
Me: Really? I would have guessed 34, tops! **
* Nobody is 39. It’s a fake age that’s been used for years to delay the threshold to 40 for a while. I did the same at 39, and then again at 49. Now I say I’m 53, in reality I’m already 72. I know I don’t look it. Good genes.
** I wanted to be nice, I wanted her to like me more than anything, because I’d read the script and there were some scenes where I was literally in her hands. In fact, I would guess she was at least in her mid-40s, because I saw her several times before she went into make-up.
Karin is a very nice, friendly, thorough and sensitive colleague. It was a lot of fun shooting with her, with her and Bärbel, with whom I also had a few individual scenes in a frosty atmosphere – haha, I’m kidding! Do watch the series sometime and you’ll understand what I mean.
I remember one scene in particular, my character had just fainted and Karin and Bärbel’s characters were supposed to carry me down a flight of stairs and put me down on the floor. This shot was repeated what felt like 30 times, because the two directors also worked very precisely – Isabell Šubaand Lilli Tautfest. Both were also very nice, but rather superstitious, like many artists. For example they didn’t wash their hair during the whole shoot, but fortunately they always had caps on.
Anyway, Karin and Bärbel carried me down the stairs again and again, put me down, turned me around, pulled me across the floor, put me down again. The whole thing was to be shot in one take. The director’s instructions were that Karin should “drop my feet” at the end (she was at the end of my feet, Bärbel at the side of my head). This was no problem for me, I am well trained, I was able to catch my feet so that they virtually stopped in the air just above the ground. But Karin was worried about hurting me, afraid of the sound of my heels possibly hitting the stone floor. The scene was repeated and repeated over and over. Again and again Karin carefully placed my feet on the ground. In the end it was divided into several takes, for the last short passage my stunt double had to do it. But I don’t think anyone noticed.
During a break. My Stunt double and me. Foto: Antje Volkmann, our woman sound mixer
Why am I telling you all this? For one, because I’m regularly asked not only to publish statistics in the blog, but also include a bit more “film atmosphere” and personal stuff (the most recent, I think, were the texts Blimey, this is so German… and Write a Blog and Ride a Porsche). And secondly, because today is 22 December, and that is – right! – Karin’s what’s-her-age-now birthday.
Happy birthday, dear Karin, and all the best for the new year.
You are a great colleague and a great actress! Unfortunately I haven’t seen much of you yet, because I don’t watch TATORTs (she plays an investigator in the Dresden team of German Top Cop Drama Tatort / Crime Scene), but I know you from the TATORTCLEANER, and of course the great helicopter children’s sketch on KROYMANN. (Some time ago, when I met Ms Kroymann personally at a political event, I talked with her and asked for a role – you don’t really do that, I know. I don’t think she found that too bad and just asked whether I could do comedy at all, and I wasn’t a celebrity either. She was right, of course. Instead, I got a temporary job – for four months! – as a warehouse helper. I almost drove a forklift truck, but you need an extra driving licence for that. But otherwise it was really good. Maybe I’ll play something like that in a film one day, and then I’ll have already done the research.
Anyway, Karin was really cool and funny – with glasses! – in the sketch, she plays a daughter who supervises her mother and prepares her for old age. Yessss!
Speaking of old age, happy anniversary again – and much success and luck and grit and fun and health for the new year of your life.
(I don’t know if such a blog text is a bit too pushy, but I didn’t have your phone number).
13. December 2020
by SchspIN Comments Off on NEROPA-Webinar in Cooperation with WIFT Germany on Dec. 17.
A month ago, on November 14, I gave my first digital NEROPA workshop as part of the FilmlöwinKino series. It was an interesting experience that showed me that the Gender & Diversity ToolNEROPA Neutral Roles Parity can also be taught in an online seminar. (Although trying out the method in small groups, brainstorming and working around tables and with wooden figures works a bit better and is more fun. But it’s Corona times, and digital workshops are the order of the day. And in the long run, digital formats further reduce my ecological footprint because I can present NEROPA all over the world and let people try it out in workshops without having to travel. Continue Reading →
5. November 2020
by SchspIN Comments Off on WIFT Germany & SchspIN on Top Cop Drama. Part 4: Composers
Exclusively for WIFT Germany, I’m looking at the list of the 50 Episodes for the Summer Vote (see ARD website) for the 50th anniversary of this Sunday evening crime series with the film women’s magnifying glass. The texts were first published via the social channels of WIFT Germany on Instagram and Facebook, then in more detail here.
Good and bad film music
There is two kinds of music: the good and the bad. Louis Armstrong
Today I will not be discussing the question of good and bad music – which is to a large extent a matter of taste and time context anyway – but that of women and men composers of TATORT music. No big surprise, and it sounds a bit like a record with a leap, that the 50 episodes from the Summer Vote pool are also a heavily male-dominated affair in terms of music and composers. Only two female composers are on the list. This time only the cake provides some variety., it is a delicious Baumkuchenring (ring of a pyramid cake), of which the women with their 3.2% can only enjoy a very small piece, of course.
The composers Verena Marisa and Iva Zabkar – both WIFT Germany members! – worked with the directors Max Färberböck (DER HIMMEL IST EIN PLATZ AUF ERDEN) and Umut Dağ (REBECCA). The four Wunschtatorte directors only had musicians in their team. This phenomenon can also be found in the 339 TATORT premieres from 2011 to 2019:
Only two of the 41 female directors had a female composer in the team: Hermine Huntgeburth with Christine Aufderhaar in DIE GESCHICHTE VOM BÖSEN FRIEDERICH 2016, and Anna Zoha Berrached with Jasmin Reuter (also a WIFT Germany member) in DER FALL HOLDT 2017, making a total of 4.1%of all female composers. In the nine TATORT years, a total of 18 men directors worked with women composers, which represents a share of 5.8 %.
The often related opinion that with a female director increases the percentage of women behind the camera does not apply to film music, at least not for Germany’s most prestigious television series.
The next figure shows the percentage of women for the 339 TATORT music pieces in 2011-19; there were no female composers in 2012, and in the remaining years their percentage was usually well below 10%. The only exception is 2018 with 10.6 %.
By the way, the data for the first half of 2020 are not yet complete, so I omitted them in my analysis. On the ARD-TATORT website, where the departments screenplay, direction, camera and music are listed for each case, the music position is most often missing. And the gaps could not be completely closed by the databases Filmportal, Crew United or IMDB. Vincent Lutz from Crew United told me that many projects are only incompletely entered in their database, some with only a handful of team positions. Direction and camera are always present, script not necessarily, and music rather seldom – but of course this applies to all projects, including commercials and short films. My research confirms this, music – and also sound – I often have to do extensive research, sometimes only a call to the production company will help, nothing could be found online.
The fact that composers are mentioned less often than, for example, DoP’s, and are therefore less frequently entered into the databases by the productions, perhaps has something to do with the fact that they – like script writers or editors – are not really part of the team, they do not work on the set but at home or in their studio, in pre-production or post-production, or at least ‘somewhere else’, if only during the production phase.
Numbers and mind games
The average percentage of female composers for TATORTE 2011-19 (4.3%) is similarly low as for the 50 Wunschtatorte (3.2%) and more than half as high as the percentage of female composers in the crew united database (9.1%):
In comparison with the other three departments I examined, it is noticeable that there are more teams and also that the number of film scores per composer is higher. Thus, in the 329 TATORTs a good 170 composers were hired, but almost 110 of them only in one film.
The female and male composers’ top 3 are shown in the next figure. In first place overall we find Swiss musician and film composer Fabian Römer, with 21 TATORTs, 4 of them in a team. What might be surprising: 2nd and 3rd place among the men are taken by teams, Dürbeck & Dohmen and Christoph M. Kaiser / Julian Maas. And what may not be so surprising: The top 3 of the men total 50 TATORTs, which is almost five times as many as the top 3 female composers (11 TATORTs in total).
In the nine years there were a total of 10 female and 162 male composers. For comparison: in the same period of time 11 camerawomen and 81 cameramen were used for the TATORT. This does not mean that the DoP were used much more often, but that they usually work alone on the position. The cameraman with the most TATORTs 2011-19 was Jürgen Carle with 14 and the top camerawomen are three with 4 TATORTs each: Christine A. Maier, Cornelia Wiederhold and Jutta Pohlmann.
And finally a look at the Crew United database, where filmmakers can enter their profile, either for free or for a fee. For the statistics on film professions and how many can be found in a department, only paid entries are taken into account.
First the number of profiles. Interestingly enough, there are for the four years that I had queried the data – many thanks to Vincent Lutz for the support and data transfer! – considerably more cameramen and -women than scriptwriters or composers. The profiles of scriptwriters and DoP rise in number, those of composers don’t so much, their average is 279, the lowest value (2017) was 259, the highest (2020) 296. The scriptwriters had the lowest value (255) in 2014, but it got more every year, and in 2020 there are already 423 profiles.
Thinking back again: a total of 172 composers were used in the TATORTs investigated. This means that technically there are still 100 left. And we also know that every year there are more films than just the 35 TATORT premieres. Maybe ten times more? A hundred times? No idea. Anyway, we can assume that there are still many composers who don’t have a profile at Crew United (as well as screenwriters, of course) because they are found in different ways. And we can also assume that composers are probably working on different film projects at the same time. This was confirmed by two female composers whom I asked about this. In any case, it is feasible if there is a longer lead time for the projects, and especially if you work in a team. For financial reasons alone, there may be a need to work on film scores at the same time.
As far as the share of women in the various departments is concerned, music and camera are roughly equal and the script is easily four times higher. That’s not really a surprise as the share of women for script writing at film schools is also much higher.
You can study film music composition as a postgraduate course after a regular music degree and the female graduates may account for roughly 10-30% of all graduates. However: there are lots of other roads to becoming a film score composer, but not necessarily to getting hired. So there is a need for action in the commissioners’ offices, production companies and directors, and whoever else decides on hiring someone for the musical score of a film.
To make sure that TATORT-music does not remain so male-biased, a look at the websites of Music Women Germany (22 female composers in the database) Track15 (a collective of 11 female composers) or the platform for representatives of electronic music female:pressure may help.
Sound Tracks
Recently the Soundtrack Zurich (29.9.-1.10.) and Soundtrack Cologne (14.-17.10.) took place. In Zurich there was a cooperation between WIFT Germany and the colleagues from SWAN (Swiss Women’s Audiovisual Network). There WIFT Germany member Hanna Sophie Lüke (track15) presented WIFT member Tina Pepper(German Television Award 2020 for the music of the TV series RAMPENSAU), Dascha Dauenhauer (German Film Award 2020 for the music of the feature film BERLIN ALEXANDER) and Olivia Pedroli ( Swiss Film Award 2020 for the music in the film FÜR IMMER UND EWIG). WIFT board member Cornelia Köhler will then moderate a matchmaking session. In Cologne, WIFT member Verena Marisa informed about composing for TATORT, and WIFT board member Cornelia Köhlerpresented the German Women Film Sound Mixers.
Exclusively for WIFT Germany, I’m looking at the list of the 50 Episodes for the Summer Vote (see ARD website) for the 50th anniversary of this Sunday evening crime series with the film women’s magnifying glass. The texts were first published via the social channels of WIFT Germany on Instagram and Facebook, then in more detail here.
TATORT Cinematography – The Missing Female Gaze
Does it make a difference if a man or a woman is cinematographer of a cop drama? Is the female or male gaze created via the camera lens? And who decides who gets hired for this position?
The first two questions can be answered with yes and yes respectively. The third answer is not so easy, sometimes the director has to choose from a list of suggestions, sometimes they may bring someone along and sometimes someone is predetermined. It is easier to say who is looking through the TATORT lenses, these are mostly men. That may not be so surprising, given the fact that 75% of camera graduates at film schools are men, but something else is.
Let’s take the 50 TATORT (Crime Scene, German top cop drama) episodes up for this year‘s summer vote. Scenes, here we only find three camerawomen, that’s 6% of all DoP’s: Christine A. Maier (BOROWSKI UND DAS MEER and ANGEZÄHLT) and Birgit Gudjonsdottir (FRÜHSTÜCK FÜR IMMER). They get to share a small piece of the birthday cake, – and they all worked in films directed by women (Sabine Derflinger twice and Claudia Garde once). The fourth female director, Christine Hartmann (TODESBRÜCKE) and the 46 male directors all had men behind the camera.
Don‘t men want to work with camerawomen or are they simply somehow unable to? Or is it just a problem of films with high ratings? For comparison let’s look at other episodes of the TATORT series to get further insight: Continue Reading →
Exclusively for WIFT Germany, I’m looking at the list of the 50 Episodes for the Summer Vote (see ARD website) for the 50th anniversary of this Sunday evening crime series with the film women’s magnifying glass. The texts were first published via the social channels of WIFT Germany on Instagram and Facebook, then in more detail here.
TATORT Script Writing – Piece of cake for Everyone?
50 TATORT Episodes up for the Summer Vote
Of all writers of the 50 TATORT crime scene episodes up for the summer vote, the female script writers make up 15.2 %, that is two pieces of cake, one regular and one slightly smaller. 5 TATORTs were written by women: TODESBRÜCKE by Frauke Hunfeld(Berlin 2005), IM TOTEN WINKEL by Katrin Bühlig (Bremen 2018), DER FALL REINHARDT by Dagmar Gabler (Cologne 2014), FRÜHSTÜCK FÜR IMMER also by Katrin Bühlig (Leipzig 2014) and VERSCHLEPPT by Khyana el Bitarand Dörte Franke (Saarland 2012). In addition, four more episodes were created by woman-man writing duos. The remaining 41 films were all written by men. That means that the absolute majority of the stories, the episode characters, the dialogues were invented by men alone.
This is not a phenomenon however that only affects the Summer Vote Episodes of TATORT, the ones with the highest ratings from the last 20 years. The TATORT scripts 2011 to 2019 show a similar picture with an average of 14.9 % female writers only. This striking imbalance brought female screenwriters to the plan in the spring of 2019, when they founded the Tatort: Drehbuch initiative (Crime Scene: Scripts) and adressed the ARD stations in an open letter. There, they demanded a cross-format screenplay quota of 50/50 by 2021, and announced the initiation of a round table for a joint action plan 2019 to 2021. (see also Why Aren’t You Working with Female Scriptwriters?). The answer they got was that only artistic quality would be decided upon and creativity could not be put under a quota – but that does not really explain the enormous discrepancy between female and male writers in numbers. In November 2019, they wrote another open letter (in German), which unfortunately has not received much response so far.
For Comparison: The TATORTs 2011 – 19
The next figure shows the shares of women and men for the TATORTs 2011 to 19, and in the last column for the first half of 2020. The lowest value for female screenwriters – 5.5 %– has only just been eached in 2018 – i.e. after the efforts to get more female directors in the TATORTs were in full swing. The lowest value for male screenwriters – 71.7 % – is for 2016. Just to remind you: at film schools, an average of 48 % women and 52 % men graduate in screenwriting. But somehow the women aren‘t really allowed to have a go at the TATORTs, Germany’s top TV cop drama.
Prospects
As for 2020 and the TATORTs of the first six months, with their female directors‘ quota of 47.6 %: well, as far as screenwriting goes it remains a men’s club. Female writers were only involved in male-female-teams in five out of 21 TATORTs, not a single one of these cop dramas was written by a woman or two women. With a male rate of 81.5 %, it is difficult to reconognize any determination to do more towards change, equal opportunities and narrative diversity.
The last figure in this text depicts the female shares for directing and scriptwriting. From 2011 to 2016, the percentage of female screenwriters is higher than that of female directors. We can also see that from the moment the public‘s and broadcasters‘ focus was put on directing, with a women’s quota being called for and discussed, and public broadcaster‘s production company Degeto started setting its own targets, this ratio reversed. From 2017 to the present day, the share of women for scriptwriting is very distinctly below that for directing. For the first half of 2020, the difference is almost 30 percentage points. This is not a good development because it should not be about either – or, but about as well as.
In the 51st year of TATORTs we definitely and finally need more stories told by women. We need a change of perspective. And a quota or target only for one trade – usually directing – is not enough to get diverse stories that reflect our diverse society. I like to leave the final word to the Tatort: Drehbuch female screenwriters:
“The authority of interpretation must not be exclusively in the hands of our male colleagues. Women are not a minority, but public broadcasting makes them one.“
28. August 2020
by SchspIN Comments Off on WIFT Germany & SchspIN on Top Cop Drama. Part 2: Directors
Exclusively for WIFT Germany, I’m looking at the list of the 50 Episodes for the Summer Vote (see ARD website) for the 50th anniversary of this Sunday evening crime series with the film women’s magnifying glass. The texts were first published via the social channels of WIFT Germany on Instagram and Facebook, then in more detail here.
Focus on Directing
The Summer Vote TATORTs
The female directors of the 50 Wunsch-TATORTs with a share of 8 % only get a small piece as a share of the 12-piece birthday cake. Only four TATORTs were not directed by men: TODESBRÜCKE (Berlin 2005) – directed by Christine Hartmann, ANGEZÄHLT (Vienna 2013) – directed by Sabine Derflinger, BOROWSKI UND DAS MEER (Kiel 2014) – also directed by Sabine Derflinger and FRÜHSTÜCK FÜR IMMER (Leipzig 2014) – directed by Claudia Garde.
For Comparison: The TATORTs 2011 – 19
A look at my nine years of TATORT evaluations shows that the average share of female directors in 2011 – 15 is similarly low with 8.7% female directors. After that, however, a tentative upward trend can be seen. The average value for 2016 – 19 is 17 %. This was preceded in 2014 by the First Diversity Report by the BVR Bundesverband Regie German Directors’ Association for 2010-13 and the founding of Pro Quote Regie / Pro Quota Directing (plus the start of my analyses, the blog SchspIN was launched in 2013).
As a reaction to the model of a quota in three stages – 30 % in 3 years, 42 % in 5 years, 50 % in 10 years – which Pro Quote Regie advocated with emphasis and sound arguments, the ARD subsidiary Degeto Film GmbH committed to increasing the share of female directors in its productions to 20 % for an initial period of three years as of August 1, 2015. The 20 % mark was narrowly missed in 2018 and 2019. The first half of 2020 leaves room for hope, with a female director share of 47.6 % for 10 of 21 TATORTs.
“There you go!!!” comments WIFT Germany board member Cornelia Köhler.
Age and Experience of Female Directors
21 films are not a large data base, but a look at directors‘ age is quite interesting nonetheless as the following figure shows. This is similar to the age of actresses and actors in main casts: women are younger. So maybe not only the working years of actresses are significantly shorter than those of their male colleagues, but also those of women behind the camera. But this requires further and thorough research.
Today‘s last figure shows the number of TATORTs that each director of the first half of 2020 has aloready worked on. What do we see? No female director, no matter how old, did more than two TATORS. For the men we find four with more than two films in the TATORT series. At the top of the list we have Torsten C. Fischer and Jobst Christian Oetzmann with 12 and 9 respectively.
The Audience
To end with another quota, the audience ratings: Nina Wolfrum had the most viewers in the first half of 2020 with NIEMALS OHNE MICH. Friederike Jehn followed in 3rd place – as the female first director in 25 episodes of Stuttgart-TATORT – with DU ALLEIN. And on 6th place it‘s Petra K. Wagner with DIE GUTEN UND DIE BÖSEN, for which she won the special prize for directing at the German TV Crime Movies Festival 2020 in Wiesbaden. In 2nd, 4th and 5th place there are the TATORTs directed by Felix Herzogenrath (KEIN MITLEID, KEINE GNADE), Christian Theede (DAS FLEIßIGE LIESCHEN) and Christopher Schier (LASS DEN MOND AM HIMMEL STEHEN). (Source for the audience ratings: Prisma 6/24/20.)
The audience seems to get along fine with 50:50.
What’s happening next?
In the third episode we take a look at the authors of the 50 Wunsch-TATORTs.
It is with great pleasure that I can report that the German chapter of Women in Film and Television, WIFT Germany has made me an honorary member. Many thanks for this great honour!
I have been in contact with WIFT Germany and WIFT UK on various projects for years. I think the first time was six years ago in January 2014, when a panel discussion on “Who plays a role in German television? The image of women between television reality and reality”, organized by WIFT Germany. I was also a panelist, delivering figures and thoughts from my blog. (read more in the old article Women’s Patience is Men’s Power).
From the current WIFTG newsletter / Aug. 11.:
Belinde Ruth Stieve is our new WIFT Honorary Member
The actress and expert for gender issues in film and TV has been writing about the situation of women in the industry for many years in her blog “SchpIN – An Actress’s Thoughts”. We look forward to her contributions to the 50th anniversary of the German cult police drama “Tatort” (crime scene), where we see many female corpses but few female filmmakers.
Indeed, exclusively for WIFT Germany, I am currently investigating a list of 50 films, i.e. 90-min episodes of TATORT / CRIME SCENE, through the film women‘s looking glass. This list is a pool of films for the public to vote their favourite ones from, and the ones with the most votes are broadcast over a number of sundays during the show‘s summer break. These texts will first be published on WIFT Germany‘s social media channels (Instagram and Facebook), and after that in greater detail here on my blog SchspIN – An Actress’s Thoughts.
Partytime at the TATORT
The TATORT series is very popular with German-speaking audiences in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And also with filmmakers, because a TATORT job is very good for the CV; and on top of that, in many positions in front of and behind the camera you can earn considerably more than in other German 90-minute television film productions.
In 2020 the TATORT will be 50 years old, and for this occasion the ARD has organized a “Wunschtatortvoting” for the summer break, where they don‘t broadcast new cases – there are on average about 35 TV premieres every year. The 50 most popular episodes of the past 50 years were up for voting. No. Not true, they were from 1999 to 2019 only, so from 20 years. And it weren‘t the overall 50 most popular film – that is to say, the ones with the highest overall so-called TV ratings – but the most popular from 23 regions, so that all regional broadcasters are happy and that all fans of certain cop teams or cities can be happy as well.
For the German public broadcaster ARD, the team positions director, author, director of photography and composer seem to be the most important – that‘s what I‘m guessing at least, since for these positions they publish the filmmakers on the TATORT website. So let’s take a closer look.
50 TATORTs, great! I wonder how many women were employed and for which jobs? The empirical analysis won’t even be that difficult, because in only 12 of these 50 TATORTs there was a female participation in at least one of the four departments. We are celebrating the 50th TATORT birthday, translated into a cake – which is classically divided into 12 pieces – the film women get 3 pieces. Hmmmm!
Not surprisingly, there is no TATORT with women in all four positions. One episode from Leipzig, FRÜHSTÜCK FÜR IMMER, had a female director (Claudia Garde), a female scriptwriter (Katrin Bühlig) and a female camerawoman (Birgit Gudjonsdottir), i.e. three departments; and four TATORTs had females in two departments each. So we‘ve baked a second 12-pieces cake, and offered it to all filmmakers in the four trades for the Wunsch-TATORTs. Of this cake the 19 female directors, screenwriters, DoP‘s and composers can share one delicious piece. The 211 men get the rest. Bon appetit!
By the way, out of the twenty-three TATORT locations, only two – Bremen and Saarland – had female involvement in one of the four departments in their two episodes; namely as scriptwriters alone or as part of a mixed team.
Comparing the Wunsch-TATORTs with the films from 2011-19
I have been investigating TATORTs several times in the past, for example all premieres over the period from 2011 to 2019. The most recent article – Once again: TV‘s Crime Scene TATORT – contains links to other articles.
Out of the 329 TATORTs 2011-19, I have identified those in which women were solely responsible for the top four trades. There are three TATORT locations – Hamburg (5), Erfurt (2) and Wiesbaden (7), that come up to four zeros here. Northern Germany (12) and Stuttgart (17) each have three zeros, meaning that in the period 2011-19 there were only one female filmmakers in one of the four departments. No cause for a party here.
What’s happening next?
In the second episode we take a look at the directors of the 50 Wunsch-TATORTE.
12. June 2020
by SchspIN Comments Off on Carpe Temporem – Seize the Time!
For weeks and months we‘ve had the – now fading – corona alarm and corona standstill, or whatever this phase will be called in retrospect. The film and television industry paused for a long time and was held in some kind of waiting mode, even more actors and actresses than usual were without work. Only a few productions continued shooting after a while, e.g. Dresden TATORT (“Rettung so nah”), early evening series like NOTRUF HAFENKANTE and telenovelas like STURM DER LIEBE and ROTE ROSEN. Gradually more productions are starting now, but still with the great uncertainty of how to protect the health of those involved and whether health really is a priority and with the task of having to rewrite scenes, and change of how many scenes have to be rewritten, how the staging and directorial ideas and concepts need to be changed in order to abide the new safety guidelines.
Seize the Time! Opportunities and Chances
It was and is of course completely ok to do nothing at all in this standstill except to go for a walk and eat chocolate. Or taking care of the family or just getting along with everyday life (to observe something as simple and sensible as distance rules seems to overtax or provoke many fellow men, which can lead to considerable stress).
The emergency break was used in different ways within the film industry. Distributors and production companies were waiting for new cinema release dates for their films or moved them to streaming platforms. Others were and still are in the starting blocks, ready to continue projects or finally get the go ahead for them. Casting directors familiarize themselves with lesser-known actors and view their material with more time than usual. Scriptwriters, editors and production companies can spend more time on material and reworking scripts in the extended pre-production period (how often are books rewritten after shooting has already started!) Filmmakers revise their material, actors produce new video clips (e.g. for the actions #wirspielenzusammen and #becreativeathome) or participate in one or more of the countless, mostly newly created online training courses and workshops.
In the film and television industry, for example when putting together production teams, (too) much is (too) done with vitamin B. How about vitamin N instead? Directors, producers and editors can find out how many film people they don’t know, especially how many competent film women there are, and discover them for possible future projects. There aren‘t any female DoP‘s, sound mixers or composers for film music? Oh yes there are.
Let’s Continue, but in a Different Way
We all hope that at some point in time the everyday life of film making will begin and be filmed again, often coupled with the justified wish that things will turn out differently than before. I, for example, wish for models like the 8-hour shooting day that has long been normal in Denmark and probably Norway, and as an actress and part of the audience, I wish for more courage for other faces and other stories. Just to name two wishes. (More on request!)
Interest groups and other organisations are developing ideas and launching online petitions and calls, partly for funding, partly for how it is produced, what, and with whom.
The disadvantage and related under-representation of women in film has been extensively investigated and proven; now changes, improvements, remedies, solutions are needed. In mid-May, Pro Quote Film launched the call “When the film world starts up again, then only with Quote! Maybe because there are currently even more petitions than usual. And even more newsletters, even more digital information. And Christian Drosten, who together with the science journalists Korinna Hennig and Anja Martini was nominated for the Grimme Online Award for the NDR – Der Coronavirus-Update Podcast; you have to check and vote for all the nominees. Perhaps also because appeals, no matter how justified and argumentatively well formulated they may be, usually lack the decisive lever for implementation.
Behind the camera, gender quotas make sense, although it’s one thing to do with concrete implementation. That’s why some time ago I brought into play the proposal #2v6pN Two of Six (plus NEROPA), to which every production could voluntarily commit itself, from now on at once. This would require no great effort, no additional money, no overall view of several productions or broadcast slots. Because it is created individually for each production. Of course, a six out of fifteen or whatever is also possible. And no, I do not think it makes sense at this stage to demand 50% of all Heads of Department for women. We can discuss this in more detail another time. Just this much: For #2v6 I have taken into account that only 25% trained camerawomen and only 11% sound engineers leave film schools (there are no real training figures for film composers), so not three out of six. But don’t worry, #2v6 in German film and television would already be a small revolution. As a reminder: 71 % of the Top 100 German cinema films in 2018 and 73 % of the TATORTE 2019 did not reach this level, there was one or no Head of Department in the trades direction, script, camera, sound, editing and music. TATORTE are financed with public money and the vast majority of cinema films have received money from some source – be it film funding or the participation of public broadcasters. Surely a linkage to basic constitutional values (e.g. to Article 3) could be incorporated into the assemblance of a film team.
Here, too, there is the possibility that an individual production may work with the method or that an editorial department or film funding body may make it obligatory to work with or apply NEROPA.
More Female Variety in Front of the Camera
A 50% quota for women’s roles can of course be a good demand, but the implementation is not as easy as it would be if the team positions were behind the camera.
That’s why I invented the NEROPA Neutral Role Parity method, which in the first step (NEROPA Check) reduces the usual male overweight in scripts in favour of female roles, so that we get more female age diversity and more female characters with a profession. And in the second step (NEROPA fine-tuning) the diversity of the character ensemble is expanded.
Of course directors and scriptwriters can also work wih the method!
