“Gen Z” is the first generation to grow up with the internet, social media and smartphones. A recent study by Statista on Gen Z’s internet usage found that they are on the internet “almost constantly”, especially on the social networks Instagram, TikTok and YouTube and Snapchat. This also increases the risk of “cyberbullying”, i.e. exposure on the Internet. The new young adult thriller series “Shadow Side” now focuses on cyberbullying. The filming of the series, produced by Dreamtool Entertainment GmbH on behalf of ARD Degeto Film, funk and Hessischer Rundfunk, will take place in Berlin and the surrounding area until November 28th. “Shadow Side” is planned as a six-part series for the ARD media library.
“Shadow Side” (directed by Özgür Yildirim and Alison Kuhn) is based on the bestseller of the same name by social media star Jonas Ems, who wrote the script together with Hanna Hribar. The focus is on four high school graduates (Florian Geißelmann, Samirah Breuer, Tanya Nguyen and Ludger Bökelmann) whose lives are turned upside down when their most intimate secrets are revealed on a website that suddenly appears online. The novelist Jonas Ems will also take on a role.
“Take the topic and the target group seriously”
A series about the dangers of social media – can the generation in question still be reached this way? “A legitimate question,” admits Dreamtool producer Stefan Raiser in an interview with the teleschau news agency: “I don’t want our production to end up as a tile on the platform, where people ask themselves what that’s about, according to the motto: ‘ No one saw that anyway.” First of all, the production is about “taking the topic and the target group seriously”. In order to avoid “slipping into a top view,” we work “very precisely and carefully with this generation and from this milieu.” Whether the series is a success “will ultimately be decided by the quality,” says Raiser. “Young series like ‘Euphoria’, ’13 Reasons Why’ and ‘Sex Education’ were streamed millions of times – because they were fucking great in every respect. It’s that banal.” (tch)
