It all starts with an idea: every week, a team of six authors develops the stories for a new block, five episodes of 23 broadcastable minutes each. These so-called storylines contain the basic tenor of a character’s story: who will get the upper hand this time in Jo Gerner and Katrin Flemming’s game of cat and mouse?

All of this is developed in the storylines, which are the working basis for the dialog writers and their final scripts. As several authors work in parallel at different stages of development due to the large number of stories to be developed, editors check the storylines and dialog books for continuity and consistency. One of the biggest challenges here is to ensure that each character retains their own idiosyncrasies in terms of language and style and to develop them in line with the times.

Once the scripts have been approved by the responsible editors at RTL in collaboration with production, the filming preparation begins: script discussion between producers, directors and coaches. Search for motifs for the outdoor shoot. Costumes, make-up and props prepare for their tasks. In a final production meeting, the trades are coordinated.

On the rehearsal day, a week’s worth of scenes are discussed and staged with the actors, director and coach to ensure that everything is spot on for the subsequent shoot. The scenes are not filmed continuously, but are implemented in precisely coordinated shooting schedules for the studio and on location, which enable the actors and director to work optimally.

The finished episode is created from the filmed material in the editing department. Post-production and the sound mixer then work on the sound and lighting mood, underlay the episodes with music, some of which they have composed themselves, or create atmospheres that add the finishing touches to the mood of the scenes. The example of the fictional band “Dark Circle Knights”, whose songs were all written by the GZSZ composers and even reached the top of the iTunes charts at the time, shows just how successful GZSZ’s own compositions can be.

After final approval of the episodes, the so-called broadcast file is delivered and goes on air around 12 weeks after the initial storyline development and six weeks after filming. While the viewer is watching the current episode, 12 new blocks are already somewhere between idea and broadcast.