Medieoperatørene presents
A film by Charlotte Thiis-Evensen
Perhaps you could play that song you gave me?
- Now? - Yes.
St. Jørgen's Square
(NEWS JINGLE)
...riots and general strike in Athens...
...good morning everyone...
(MORNING RADIO SHOW JINGLE)
Jørgen is head of the equipment storage at the NRK for the past ten years.
I am going on a shoot today, but I forgot the memory cards for the P2-camera.
- That’s not exactly my problem, is it? - No.
- And then there's a collection afterwards. - I'll bring them back.
You can have one, but there will be a collection afterwards,
- A collection? - I'll hassle you with phonecalls.
These cards are just trouble, really.
You should shape up, not just make a muddle. Don't you agree?
- Yes, yes...
- An order has been placed? - Yes, but things take time.
- Must nag, you know. - Can't nag. It takes time.
They don’t work any faster down there.
- In Germany? - Yes, they don't.
The “I-must-have” people... then I get pissed off.
They don’t get any particular service.
- I need sound. - You'll need some mikes, then?
All people are different, some people you like, some you don't
Of course, I offer more serviceto people I like.
Some people... I instantly pick up on a bad vibration.
People are very self-absorbed here.
No one thinks about the next man.
"I need, I need..."
- Haven't you completed the smile-program, Jørgen?
No, I haven't.
- Why should I? - Service course...
- Should I run around smiling when you come then? - Yes.
– Yeah, right. - You should.
I'm not working for an airline, you know.
You don’t have to come here, you know.
You don’t have to come here.
You can stay down in the News-department
- That’s going out again tomorrow. - Have a nice day!
"Chapter 23"
"Establishing a power base through terror."
"For the next ten years, Mao’s home was on the Yellow Earth Plateau in northwestern China,"
"near the Yellow River"
"the next largest river in China after the Yangtze,"
"and the cradle of Chinese civilization."
The Mao book, "The Unknown Mao" is a 78 hours long audio book.
I listen to it at work now and then, but mostly when I go to bed at night, or after work.
The book is very fascinating. How crazy it all was.
"The advancing communist army took over all civil institutions"
"recruiting young people with education, urban men and women, to fill the positions."
I need a camera, I am going on a trip.
It's not like a shop here, you know. "Need this, need that"
- Can I get a camera then? - Where are you going?
Somalia. Or no, I am going to Kenya.
- Then you definitely won’t get one. It will get ruined. Sand and shit.
I talked to Gunnar Grønlund, and we'll bring this air spray.
I’m not that keen on it. It’s all the same to me where you are going.
But I can’t go back to my boss and say I can’t go because I can’t get a camera.
- Allright, do you need a tripod then? - A monopod and a small camera.
- Can't you do without a camera stand? - Yeah, but the camera is heavy.
You get one battery. To keep the program short.
Good lord, this is like pulling teeth now.
Now you owe me a cigarette. I had to stub mine.
- I don’t smoke anymore. - Then you can buy me some duty-free.
- Bye. Have a good trip. - Thanks!
There's something wrong with power people. Communism and power is not the same.
- But I’m not really a communist. - A little?
No. Maybe... Aren't we all?
Maybe. A hobby communist.
"Chapter 14. The Long March, III."
"When the two red armies joined forces in June, 1935,"
"Mao’s powerbase, the Central Red Army, was completely destroyed."
"The long march started out with 80,000 soldiers"
"Now it was reduced to around 10,000, on the verge of collapse."
- Have you got it? - Just.
Replace the transmitter.
There.
This drives me totally, completely crazy, really.
Damn, where did it go? There, yes.
Jørgen used to be one of NRK's best Lighting technicians.
Before he became partially sighted.
- Are things allright or what? - No.
- No? - No.
- It’s absolute hell. Everything is just a fog. - Really?
I am barely able to make it to work. To find the way.
I know from memory, but driving...
But walking is not bad. I need some exercise. And I pass the beer-shop on the way.
You drink red wine, right, I drink beer. Different tastes.
Are you having a new operation now?
I was at the hospital, then I was at the borderline.
But the conclusion is, I can't be bothered anymore. It’s over. I can't.
Clearly, it's game over if anything happens.
- You would like a camera. - If you have one tucked away.
I do.
... then there's Top 20, but does he need sound equipment?
...Isn't that just a kind of streaming thing?
(mimicking a Northern dialect). - "You should be able to hold it then".
"Otherwise you won't be able to film."
- We’re talking about a monitor for... - Can you pull focus with this?
- No... - Is it the same one that we used in the sound...?
- Yes. - Then it won't work.
Bad luck if someone cleans up around here when I’m on holiday.
I wouldn’t find anything when I came back.
- You have your own system? - It looks like a mess, but it isn't.
I know where things are. When people ask me, I find it for them right away.
I remember I was lighting Maria McKee for an interview
I wanted to really go for it, with lots of lamps and soft lighting.
She was pretty, and then I liked her in Lone Justice and other stuff.
I was a bit anxious if she wanted so much lighting, it was really hot in there.
It was an awesome, big lighting design, but...
It’s fun to meet celebrities. I’m not that blasé.
There is a hierarchy. The interviewer talks to them, the lighting people do the lighting.
Lighting people don’t talk to celebrities.
Hi, this is Jørgen.
Huh? This is...? What? Ok.
Which DV-camera, the whole set, or just the camera, or what?
A lot of people have no idea what we do down here. It's just a warehouse.
But without us, you couldn't make TV-programmes.
Some come here just to talk.
A daily routine to come down here to talk, and to have a smoke and...
...talk rubbish. People like it here.
Some places in NRK no bosses know about. Important places.
- Isn’t that quite nice? - Red wine and coke?
- It’s refreshing in the summer. - I’ve never tried. I mix white wine and seltzer.
Are you connected to the program-bank and such?
I have managed to create a bit of an atmosphere here.
Now there are chairs, people sit there... it's a gathering point.
I was actually going to call it King Jørgen's Ramp.
But my boss had made a sign with St. Jørgen's Square, so he beat me to it.
So it is now called St. Jørgen's Square.
It was presented to me on my 50th birthday.
"He greatly enjoyed a poem from the sixth century called,"
“'The withered trees,'”
"an elegy about a copse of unique trees"
"ending their days dried-up and lifeless."
"The poet Yo Xin attributed the trees' sad fate"
"to the fact that they had been pulled up from the roots and transplanted."
It was my... boyhood dream... A Harley Davidson Soft Tail custom.
It's the closest one gets to the dream of “Easy Rider”.
It is very difficult to describe that feeling of having wind in your face, and...
...air and smells, and...
...you sit outside, it’s a...
...it’s a bit..."top of the world" feeling in a way.
(Private footage from 1994)
You can accelerate on the uphill slopes
and then you notice a kind of slow pull backwards.
Then it’s kind of fun to sing “Born to be Wild” driving over the mountain.
Just throttle it and head on.
The best trip I had, I think was when I had been in Western-Norway for work.
I had my bike and rode over Valdres plateau
in fantastic weather, late summer. It was really warm.
The mountains lay in the background and there was willowherb along the road
and you could just stop and lie down along the river and sunbathe.
"...also outside NRK. It is known that NRK wishes to free up about a hundred million kroner..."
"...There has been much unrest about the plans for NRK’s future these past..."
"...and that we, confronted with the rapid changes in media, need"
"need to have greater economic flexibility..."
"...today, we received word that NRK will cut 100 positions in the course of the year..."
Perhaps you could play that song that you gave me?
- Now? - Yes.
It must be melodic.
I am melancholic and often dream.
I am not aggressive at all. I don’t have any violent genes at all.
No, I am actually pretty kind. Maybe a little strange, and a little... individualistic.
Music can only be played when you’re alone, otherwise it becomes annoying.
No one has the same taste, so it must be played when you’re alone.
But of course I am mostly on my own, so then you play it alone.
I have become kind of melancholic over the years, a bit calmer.
So I play more and more calm music.
But when in a bad mood, it's better to play an intense song and just dance.
I grew up with alternative clubs... so of course it's the solo dance.
Doing the airguitar, and yeah, all that.
What the hell should I use my head for if I can’t dream and fantasize?
Actually, you haven’t been very much alone, have you?
No, I have though, really... What the hell am I supposed to say to that, then? Alone...
The last five years I have lived alone.
From when I was 36 and until I was almost 50, I was in a long relationship.
We had a good time together, and had fun together.
Perhaps we were both just as strange, and individualistic.
We slid away from each other, my sight became worse and worse.
Our interests changed, both of ours... We rode bikes and she started sailing.
We just slid away from each other.
I can’t decide that other people should fancy me. Or fall in love with me.
That is not something I can decide. Of course, I can fall in love. Theoretically.
I am actually.
But I don’t think it's realistic really.
Hell, who wants to be together with a cripple?
I am an old man and a cripple, right?
No, I must admit that I don’t have any positive aspects right now, really.
I have basically given up because of my sight
and going home to hang around in the fog, and not see a damn shit.
It's not often I laugh much anymore, or get very excited, really.
If you are down of course you dream about having another person to lean on, or hold.
Someone who thinks about me and takes... thinks about me.
Not being completely alone here on earth.
But that’s not something I can do anything about.
But not at all costs. I can happily do it a bit... on the weekends and things.
Not everyday, right? But to live alone all the time...
No... (There's a knock on the door)
There's this superior looking guy here. He is taking some batteries.
- Who is it? - I’m Henrik.
- What job is it for? - The Children's show. Our camera just eats batteries.
- It's the DV-batteries? - Yes. Can I take three?
- Yes. - Brilliant!
Just check that I have brought the right ones. There should be one 305.
- If it is the three... let’s see... - Three, zero, five.
There are five of those, and then there is one 305 camera.
Have you thought about what you would do if you didn’t work here?
I have. Honestly, when I can’t handle it anymore, I’ll call it a day.
- Call it a day? - When I don’t function anymore, I'll call it a day.
That’s just how it is. It’s no loss for humanity that I die.
It’s a loss for NRK, but not for humanity.
So, it’s a loss for NRK?
Oh yes.
"Zhu De apologised to Zhang Guotao, who was an old friend"
"and said that the army had been a giant, but now it was just a skeleton."
"It can no longer fight."
If you want to understand how crazy Mao actually was...
...of course, it is very difficult to know, to find out, isn’t it?
"But Mao needed Jiang Ching at this turning point in his career."
"She was, as she said herself, his most loyal lieutenant"
"Because without Mao she was nothing."
It’s OK to stand out as a character, during a long life at a workplace.
Then at least people know... Then you haven’t been a grey mouse.
No, that’s for sure.
- But it sounds as if you like your job? - Yes, I do.
Yes, I think it's totally ok, because I'm free here, really.
I'm a free man... you have to be here from half eight to four...
...but then you are in a way free anyway, right?
You can choose your own tempo throughout the day.
That way it’s a pretty good workplace actually. It is.
- Can you see me now? - No.
No. You are a sort of gray, or a sort of black mass.
You might look pretty, I don’t know, but it's possible.
That’s straightforward.
An advantage for you maybe?
The equipment storage is to be moved, expanded and reorganized, for better efficiency.
I’m very uncertain if I want to move. With my eyes I probably have no business being there.
But time will tell.