Training Talent for Television: DR and the ‘TV Term’

Almost all writers and the younger producers at DR are alumni from The National Film School of Denmark (NFSD). As two examples, all writers of The Killing and all the episode writers of Borgen have an educational background in the Screenwriting Department of the School. The vast majority of talent behind recent series thus come from the same educational institution with which DR has had a steady collaboration since the late 1990s. As part of the Screen Idea System perspective on writing and production, this chapter analyses the ideas of best practice being taught to the new talent at the Film School, and traces how teaching writing for television gradually became an established part of the curriculum during the 2000s. This partly happened due to new developments in the domain, where US quality series convinced people at the School that it was worthwhile to also take television seriously in an art school environment after years of focusing exclusively on film. However, central experts in the field from DR also played a major part in this development by encouraging collaboration, sharing their knowledge and taking an interest in the students to help ensure the emergence of strong television writers.