ZDF Enterprises’ Alexander Coridass

October 2006

By Anna Carugati

Alexander Coridass first
joined ZDF in 1985, working in the legal and business- affairs departments. In
1993, he moved to ZDF Enterprises, the newly formed commercial arm of the
German public broadcaster. Since then he has been in charge of selling ZDF
product around the world and also securing financing for major factual and
fictional projects. Today, as president and CEO, his main priorities are
providing the market with top-quality programs, nurturing relationships with
clients, and empowering his staff to do the best they possibly can.

TV EUROPE: How
has demand for German product changed?

CORIDASS:
German product was the first [Continental European] programming that [was able] to travel worldwide in the late ’80s. There was demand for our shows because we
were the only ones producing long-running series with high production values,
such as Derrick, A Case for
Two, The Old Fox.

But in the beginning it
was hard, because there was no tradition of exporting German entertainment, and
people couldn’t imagine acquiring German cop series. The U.S. and the U.K. had
been selling feature films and TV product for a long time. In some
French-speaking territories there was a longstanding tradition of detective
movies and series. But for us, in the beginning, talking about German cop shows
was like talking about Bulgarian wine! It was the Italians and the French who
first dared to air German cop shows in prime time. And after their enormous
success, it was much easier to open up other markets.

Today, we have much more
than cop shows; we also have drama and family series. Our most important
markets are still in Continental Europe, the ones who are used to our type of
programs. Besides our broad offer of fiction programs, a very important and
large part of our catalogue consists of documentaries, and as far as docs are
concerned, the Anglo-Saxon countries are our most important partners.

ZDF Enterprises has become
much more than a distribution entity. That’s why we have to make clear certain
distinctions between classic sales, cofinancing and co-productions.

TV EUROPE: You
have co-produced extensively with some of the most important channels around
the world.

CORIDASS:
Absolutely, with the major U.S. channels like Discovery, The History Channel,
National Geographic, but also with RAI in Italy, with French partners, with
British partners such as Channel 4, with German-speaking broadcasters in
Switzerland and also with Australia.

TV EUROPE: You
have used reenactments in many of your documentaries.

CORIDASS: We
have been at the forefront of reenactments. They are one of several legitimate
techniques available to produce the best documentaries possible. We don’t use
them in every single documentary. Ten years ago there was a kind of purist
faction [of filmmakers] who completely and absolutely opposed reenactments.
Nowadays they are far more accepted, and everybody says, when it makes sense
and they are done well, reenactments are acceptable.

One of our most important
developments of the past few years is that we have tried to prove that it is
possible to produce top-quality programs, having the highest possible
standards, in an interesting way. Telling stories is the key. Whether you are
talking fiction or documentaries, people have always wanted to hear stories.
They want to laugh, they want to cry. They want to know more. Stories were told
by cavemen, and then in the medieval world, and even in Oriental bazaars—stories
with a beginning and an end, and a climax, and with elements that people [can
relate to] and can talk to their children and neighbors about.

We want to do that on both
the fiction and the documentary sides—offer people interesting programs,
produce them very professionally with the best standards, advisers, producers,
but do it in a way that will not be boring.

TV EUROPE: What
are some of the programs that have done well in the past?

CORIDASS: At
the moment we are producing some documentaries [under the] working title Super
Docs. One is called Update 2056,
a three-part documentary which depicts the world in 50 years. It won’t look at
political scenarios or disaster forecasts but will examine what city life will
be like. It will be based on scientific work, but told in a very entertaining
way. For Update 2056 we have U.S. and European partners. Another
documentary is Armageddon: The Longest Night. This is a two-part program that looks at what
will happen to the world when a comet hits.

Our history programs, such
as Hitler and Hitler’s
Henchmen, are all very renowned
shows. And The Drama of Dresden
won an International Emmy for best documentary last year and was recently
honored at the Shanghai Television Festival.

Fiction is still our most
profitable market segment, and here we have the new ZDF cop series. They are
very modern, very stylish cop shows, such as Siska, the follow-up to Derrick; Cologne P.D. and Leipzig Homicide.
We have had success with Rosamunde Pilcher TV dramas, and we have a good
reputation for thrillers.