An Observation by Brian K. Drescher

It is a strange feeling as an American to be living in the unique time continuum of the Netherlands. Holland is, as far as film and animation goes, about three to five years behind the rest of the technological and entertainment universe. This is unusual historically since Holland had always been one of the most innovative countries in the world.

In the sixteenth century little Holland was the worlds shipping and trading leader. The VOC (the united east India company) had ships going regularly to the far east, India, Africa, and Indonesia. This required effective clocks and compasses. The scientists of the day met the challenge and made some amazing discoveries. Antonie van Leeuwenhoek invented the first microscope, and constantijn Huygens developed the first clock movements as well as astronomical clocks. The harbor in Rotterdam is still the largest of the world. Modern Dutch engineers design and build some of the monstrous equipment used for placing oil platforms, and raising sunken ships from the bottom of the deepest seas. The Dutch are also famous for their control of water. Almost 40% of the land mass is reclaimed from the sea.

Everyone knows the names of Dutch artists and painters such as Rembrandt, Frans Hals, van Gogh, Mondrian, and Escher. Their work was not only beautiful and technologically advanced for the time, it was also innovative. The rapid brush strokes of Frans Hals in his later years was the inspiration for the beginnings of impressionism leading to modern art. So just what the heck happened to make the film and animation quality fall so far behind?

SLOW MOTION TAKES ON A NEW MEANING
Perhaps the history of a trading culture has effected the acceptance and use of technology for film and animation. Traders base the value of products on supply and demand. If there is no demand there is nothing to supply. So why should they try new technology if it is not really necessary? Let the other guy try it first...if he falls on his face, it must not be any good. If he starts making money with a new idea, it's time to jump into the game also. THAT is the basis of modern Dutch mentality. Wait until someone else to innovate, then copy the idea and exploit it.

When I left the states for Europe in 1986, computer graphics was in it's early phases, but absolutely established as the promising new medium. Simple modelling and animation systems could be purchased off-the-shelf. That is the American way, dream up an innovative concept, and run with it as fast as you can! In Holland on the other hand computer graphics were whole heatedly rejected as being too expensive, too complicated, and just too impractical to be useful. They didn't see through the "child sicknesses" of the early days, they just saw the limitations.

As an animator experienced in both traditional and fledgling computer graphics in the states, my knowledge was quite valuable to the small few innovators in the computer graphics field in Holland. Yes there was ONE company that was forward thinking enough to develop it's own computer graphics software. It was called ElectroGIG. They came up with a unique approach to computer graphics by using CSG (constructive solid geometry) rather than polygon based modelling. They also used exclusively raytracing rather than shaders. This combination allows for an unlimited number of light sources without affecting the render time. But that was the problem for the long run...render time. In 1988 and 1989 their raytracing renderer was the fastest available. The software was so unique for the time that Industrial Light and Magic was interested in a demo.

THE BIG BREAK THAT BROKE
In the fall of 1988 I went with the directors of the company to ILM to give a demo. Dennis Muren, Doug Kay, and all of the whiz kids were there. This was in the early days of the ILM digital department. Five or six guys crammed into a small room making magic. ILM was hot for all new software where ever it may come from. Their digital "scouts" found the GIG software in Holland. I gave a simple demo, and they were bowled over by the quality of the imagery, and the cleverness of the underlying language. We had lunch that day with Dennis Muren and Doug Kay. While we were waiting for our food Dennis Muren said that ILM absolutely wanted the software. I thought to myself...this is the big break! if ILM uses your software, you can't get better advertising! But I could feel it coming that Dutch ego that clouds the ability to move forward with abstract concepts. In the car on the way back to the hotel that day the two directors were cracking jokes about ILM and their future in the digital film realm. Finally the software was never delivered to ILM. That little piece of bad Dutch attitude closed a door to the future that could never be opened again. GIG has now faded out, and ILM is of course THE pioneering special effects and animation company in the world.

FLAT PERSPECTIVE
You have to put Holland into perspective regarding the film and animation world. Holland is a very small country. It is slightly smaller than the state of Vermont. This is why the achievements of the "golden age" of the sixteenth century were so amazing. The current population of the entire country is 15 million people. This is approximately the population of the city of Paris or London, or the greater Los Angeles area. Of the Dutch film going public only 11 percent of them go to see a Dutch language film once in five years! They don't even have faith in their own film makers...why is that?

Now to put the Dutch film biz into perspective. Holland produces only 17 to 25 films per year. The average budget of a Dutch language film is from 3 to 5 million guilders (that is about 2 to five million dollars!). You can barely pick up a camera for that money in the states. The technical quality of Dutch films is incredibly high, especially when you consider the money they have to work with. Because of learning to work on a shoestring budget, the cinematographers and directors are quite clever. The good ones become frustrated with the budgets here and take off for Hollywood. Examples are Paul Verhoeven (Robocop, Basic Instinct, Total recall), Jan de Bont (Speed 1 & 2, Twister), and Ate de Jong (Drop dead Fred). Their ambitions were too great to continue working under the Dutch system.

DEATH BY SUBSIDY
Almost all feature films in Holland are partially funded by the Dutch film fund. As with most European countries some tax money is set aside for the production of films, animation's, and documentaries. Holland has the lowest per capita investment in films in Europe at about 60 cents per citizen (France has the highest at about $3.80 per citizen). In principle the idea of a country subsidising its film culture is a good thing. In reality I believe the subsidies kill the quality of films. Because the producers have the safety net of the film fund, there is no motivation to make a commercial film that will earn its own money. What you then get is an endless array of "art" type films. Difficult or unclear subjects, film after film about world war II, or just plain lousy films that are defended for their so-called "artistic value". If you even mention the phrase "commercial film" in the film community, the arty types snap back that they don't want to create the crap that comes from America. Even though American films generate billions of dollars (money doesn't matter to arty types).

Another problem is the film fund trustees themselves. It is a club of quite old men most of whom have been doing this for at least 15 years. Their view of the film and animation world is outdated and stale. They wouldn't know what a good film was if it bit them in their wrinkled butts! Dutch producers are also notorious for lining their pockets with film fund money. They get a subsidy of 3 million guilders, then turn around the director and say they have 2 million to make the film. The other million goes for "production costs". This is usually a new Mercedes for the wife, or a villa in the south of France. But now the Dutch film industry is in big trouble. The viewership of Dutch films has dropped to such an incredible low point that something has to happen or the industry will collapse completely. So the government has stepped in to save the day. They have agreed to increase the amount of money that can be used for films, and to match funds intended for "telefilms" (feature films for T.V.). This isn't going to help matters I'm afraid. If the government tries to interfere in something as esoteric as the film biz, things can only go wrong.

The deepest problem for the Dutch film and animation market is the most simple...the quality of the scripts! The Dutch are not a story telling culture historically. Their films lack a sense of pure imagination. The subjects are typically about simple situations from everyday life that lack depth. And because of the Dutch attitude of "wait and copy". There are very few innovative ideas and stories. The format of a successful film elsewhere in the world is copied, then slightly modified for Dutch tastes. This never works of course. There are the occasional films that have a strong structure (Antonia's line won best foreign film at the Academy awards last year), but this happens perhaps once in ten years.

NEW HOPE FOR THE CHEESEHEADS
There is a trend in the past year or so that could lift the Dutch film biz out of the mud pits. There is a whole new wave of young writers, producers and directors that are turning their backs to the Dutch film "system", and going it on their own. There have been one or two films that have taken the Dutch audiences by surprise. The directors and producers deliberately avoided the film fund, found their own financing, extensively developed their screenplays, and have been blowing the higher budget films out of the theaters. They have shaken off the elitist arrogancy of the "art fag" types, and in doing this they have brought themselves back to the level of the normal Dutch film goer. There is also a trend to develop scripts for the English language and produce them in Holland for a possible "sell-through" to American and English markets. The overhead for filming in Holland is much lower than it is in America or England, so the Netherlands is becoming an attractive production location for films and animation.

So stay tuned for the future developments folks! There is new hope in cheese-head land!

Brian K. Drescher
bkdresch@xs4all.nl
http://www.xs4all.nl/~bkdresch

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