Screenwriter Giora Chamizer is a household name in Israel, having penned a slew of hit Israeli shows over more than a decade. Netflix caught wind of his specialty genre, and his latest success: a teen suspense drama called Greenhouse Academy that is now in its third season on Nickelodeon Israel. Local production company, Ananey Communications, which is behind the original Israeli version of Greenhouse Academy, sold the show to Netflix along with heavy-hitting agent Adam Berkowitz, the Co-head of the Television department at Creative Artists Agency (CAA) in Los Angeles (who also has legendary shows like Seinfeld and Arrested Development under his hefty belt). The Greenhouse Academy is the very first Israeli series to ever be picked up by Netflix where all 25 English-language episodes were produced in Israel (by Ananey Communications and its subsidiary, Nutz Productions) for an international network. On the heels of the show's international release, we got the scoop from Chamizer on what he's watching now, who he would kill to work with, and how dealing with death, cheating, and individuality with a teen fanbase make his shows all the more relevant.
© Adi Orni
After years of hit Israeli shows, you're now entering the international stage with Greenhouse Academy. What have you learned adapting the show for global appeal?
The learning only started a week ago when the show aired for the first time. Up until then, we basically worked on intuition and the assumption that whatever we had working for us in Israel should work elsewhere. “Kids are kids”; that is our motto. In adapting our series, we tried not to change anything that doesn’t need to be changed, to keep the show intact and only change something like specific cultural aspects or guidance that we got from Netflix. Other than that, 90% of the show is the same in terms of story, look, feel and tone.
How did the Netflix collaboration come to be?
It started with me going to L.A. three years ago, right after Tzuk Eitan – that “little war” over here. It was the first time I had ever tried to sell my shows on my own. I tried to figure out what’s the best way to sell a show in a genre that people outside of Israel simply don’t know. Back in 2005, we started to film this specific genre - daily shows for teens and tweens that combine elements of drama with suspense. But for anyone that met with us in America, this genre seemed very off their radar.
Why is that?
It’s a huge question that I don’t have an answer to. For some weird reason, the target audience that we here in Israel thrive on, the 9-14 year olds – I call them the “Harry Potter” age group – don’t have anything in U.S. television that’s specifically aimed for them. They have either very childish sitcoms or cartoons, or the live action dramas, which are aimed at 15-17 year olds. We felt that we have specific knowledge of an age group that had been neglected by all American television over the past years.
Once we sold our show that way, as a genre or format rather than a specific story, it was pretty easy to pitch, and a couple of months later the head of our studio in Israel went to meet Netflix, and that was that.
The big thing about this deal was that they agreed to let us produce it for them in Israel, which is really unique. Up until then, all Israeli shows that were sold to American networks let the American networks do whatever they wanted with them: bring in new showrunners, writers, etc. Sometimes they kept it close to the original, sometimes they changed it completely. For us, we knew that in this specific “Harry Potter” genre, there’s no one that knows it better than us based on the experiences that we've had. I, myself, have written more than 600 episodes over the last 12 years - I know fairly well how to make these stories work for our audience. Netflix visited Israel, they visited me, they met our production company, they saw how we shoot, and got really excited. And two years later, there’s a show!
© Natalie Berkowitz
How do you think groundbreaking American shows geared towards younger generations (like Saved By the Bell, Beverly Hills 90210, and Glee) have made an impact over the years in the TV industry?
They are iconic. They are the basis for what you measure everything else against. They literally set the infrastructure for kids' shows.
What we do with Greenhouse is take the basic high school drama, with all the stereotypical story lines, and give them twists every once in a while, starting to infuse a layer of suspense that grows and grows as the season progresses. It can start as like 90210 and by episode 20 it’s more like 24 in terms of pace, suspension and tension. Kids go nuts for it.
Only after you’ve established the main characters that the kids have developed emotional connections to, you add a layer of suspense where things start to go wrong very fast. It keeps kids emotionally involved and hooked to the screen. This is the key to my shows.
And it’s amazing to see, virtually 24 hours after the launch on Netflix, Twitter and Instagram were filled with comments like “I’m obsessed” and “I can’t think of anything else other than the show." These are things that I recognize from the kids in Israel but now I hear them coming from New Zealand, Ireland, Russia, Germany and elsewhere. It’s so surreal the way that kids all around the world react pretty much the same way to an Israeli show.
Let’s talk about the “Harry Potter” age group. The Greenhouse Academy, and your other shows for that matter, deal with hard issues such as death, cheating and individuality. Most teen shows are tame by comparison. Was it challenging to integrate these complex issues, whether internationally or in Israel?
We made a decision early on that we write for kids, but with the respect that we would write for ourselves [as adults]. You know, there’s an Israeli expression, “B’Govah Einyeem” [at eye level]. That’s a key point to everything we do. We know that kids want to be treated with respect.
One example could be the way we tell the story, we never give too much information, we always count on the intelligence of the viewer to figure things out, and at no point is it too childish or condescending.
Also, I’m a strong believer in generosity in writing. What I mean by that is that I pack my show with as much plot material as possible. This age group, what they want more than anything, is a story. We try to give them a dense story line, with many things that happen that once, and without a dull moment.
The hard issues are things that come with this outlook. I have no problem talking about divorce, loss, being ostracized - you name it. In the third season of “The Chamama” [the Israeli version of the Greenhouse] we introduced coping with cancer as well as the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. And it’s still a fun show! It’s never too heavy, a story that moves along very, very fast. That’s what we’re good at.
Not to get overly political, but since you brought it up: the show is of two competing school houses that come together to save the world. For me, this reads as political. Did you include intentional political undertones into the show?
I wouldn’t call them political undertones. I have my own view of life, of the things I believe in, and by setting a show in a school for leaders we call for certain moral choices and try and teach life lessons. It’s definitely a liberal show in that sense.
I’m not scared of politics. I think everything is politics. I’m writing for kids that are five years from going to army service over here, and to college over there. I’ve worked with kids for 23 years, so I’ve raised one generation already. I know the kids I communicated with 20 years ago: today they’re adults with their own kids.
In this respect, kids' shows like mine have a unique advantage: they have staying power. Every year there’s a new age group that joins and watches my shows from the first episode till the end. I get constant comments from them. I know kids are still watching my shows that aired back in 2005. They’re still relevant, they’re hooked to the story. In that sense, it’s a huge responsibility to make things right and to make sure that the undertones – as you call them – are the “right ones”, in my view. And now I have my own kids to watch the shows! They’re my first audience to focus my attention on.
© Natalie Berkowitz
What motivates you to specifically create children's shows?
It was pure chance, honestly. The first job I was ever offered was the day I finished my army service at Galei Tzahal [the IDF radio station], and they had just opened the kids channel. That was it. It was back in 1993. After years of being dormant, Israeli TV was booming. There were tons of new jobs to fill and a lot of freedom. Mostly, there were a lot of screen hours to fill with content. Everything we thought of could end up on TV the next day. It was a crazy time; it was the best school I could ever have wished for.
By the time I started writing – I was about 34-35 – I already knew my audience well from my previous work in game and reality shows. While they were different, mostly non-scripted, I knew this audience viscerally.
Why do you think Israelis have been so successful with international TV and movies as of late?
I think there’s a very specific reason. We work with budgets that are so low that we have to be a) very creative and b) create stories that are the most important. Eventually, stories are what everyone is looking for. Since the production value here is low, and the time we can devote to shooting is limited, all we have to cling on is coming up with a great story. That’s our advantage.
What have been the major differences in working with Americans (actors, producers, etc) versus Israelis?
First of all, it’s a different culture. It’s a tricky thing to put your hands on, because certain things that are OK over here and are not OK over there, and vice-versa. You devote a lot of energy to figuring out what the other side needs and what the other side really means when they say something. The biggest obstacle is the cultural differences themselves.
At the same time, working with the American TV crew and actors has been a wonderful experience. The level of professionalism is something that we can learn from. In the three years that I’ve been working on the Greenhouse project with Netflix, I learned more than any other period of my life. It’s been a huge learning experience.
If we’re talking about the actors, one thing worth mentioning is that scenes we shoot here and all of the production structure couldn’t be more different than what they’re used to back in the US. We shoot everything at once: the actors get scripts for all the episodes for the entire season and we shoot different scenes from different episodes in the same day. In the States, they shoot week by week, episode by episode. Our way sounds technical, but it’s just a different ball game.
Why do you do it that way in Israel?
For no other reason than budget restriction. It’s the only way we can shoot fast enough within our budget; these shows are usually very low budget. That was the hardest thing for the American actors. I mean, they loved Tel Aviv - obviously - and had great fun last summer. But it was challenging. It was the closest thing to an indie movie, where everyone on the crew is 200% committed to win this battle. They loved that aspect. At the end of it all, it was a wonderful experience for them and it made them tougher.
What is your favorite show to watch right now?
VEEP. I think it’s the best written show in television by a mile.
In the same vein, who would you love to work with in Hollywood?
Judd Apatow. I love everything he does. He brought sincerity to a new level and created a fresh wave of TV and movies that are up to date. One of my biggest influences is Freaks and Geeks, which was cancelled after its first season. It’s the best teen drama ever produced. You see the seeds of everything he’s gone on to do after that. It’s a wonderful show. It takes kids so seriously. He’s a guy I would kill to work with.
Have you used any of your own personal childhood/teenage experiences as inspiration for your characters/scenarios in the show?
Of course. I’m 46 but part of my brain has to maintain the personality I had when I was 15-16. I think most of the personal stories from the show have strong connections to things that happened to me - never literal, but always there. To be able to write to this audience I have to keep my high school persona alive.
Your father seems to be quite the Israeli artistic force. How did he influence your creative process while growing up? Do you consult him for advice and direction?
The biggest influence has been that, from a very early age, seeing someone I admire working with their brain to make a living. After seeing that, even by the time I was a teenager, I knew I would never work in an office, and that I would find a creative place to work.
Independence was a huge theme growing up - to control my own destiny and work with something that I really love doing. In going down this path, it’s been important to learn to not to be afraid if I go through a period without work, that I can count on myself to come up with something new. This is really important if you choose a life as a TV writer.
Any future shows/ideas in the works? Or just bouncing around in your mind?
In a couple of weeks we’ll hear back from Netflix on whether they’ll be ordering more seasons. That’s the first thing to think about before we decide what direction to take. Over the past few days we have just been overwhelmed with the hype that the show has generated, far exceeding our wildest dreams. We’re still trying to see how life will look as our audience grows from only Israeli youth to kids all over the world.