The Trap (Fällen)

‘Watkins “...felt it very rewarding to trust the crew to respond to the occasion: I felt I had handed over part of the normal control that many directors insist on jealously guarding as their inherent prerogative. I felt I was making allowance for other members of the crew to make dynamic decisions of their own - that they did not need minute-by-minute written notes on when to cut, or to whom to cut. In fact, of course, most of us do not need notes or directions at all, in order to make these decisions. Not if we trust each other, not if we all feel that somehow we are working together on a venture that has a common tension and importance ... somehow, in this experience many of us passed over a threshold of "control"- that we will never again see video production as a technical process of imposing control - but rather that of recording a spontaneous experience in which we can all participate.”

By the last day of the shooting most of the crew realized that they were involved in a unique television experience and began to respond enthusiastically to Watkins' demands. Paco Hårleman, who devised innovative methods to achieve indirect lighting effects, welcomed the challenge. For him, "a technician is like a piano to be played upon by the director." While most directors never make demands which test the "instrument" and reveal its range, Hårleman claims that Watkins not only accomplished this feat but, in a mere four days, established a creative, communal atmosphere which was unlike anything that he had previously experienced in his ten-year career as a lighting technician. Egon Blank, the teleplay's technical director, echoed Hårleman's claim that the sense of community and artistic cooperation achieved during the production were unique in SR's [Sveriges Radio’s] history. While members of the crew were assuming their creative responsibilities during the filming, Watkins remained on the studio floor with the "actors." Various changes with the narrative and the ending of the script were made on the third day of the shooting. Also at that time, Melander [who at the last moment stepped into the role of Bertil] proposed that Watkins become the off-screen voice of the BBC interviewer in order to control the tempo, rhythm, and tone of the situation and to stimulate responses and reactions from the cast members. According to Watkins, "the tension of the mixture of tautness and sheer unpredictability was very explosive, and I believe that it released emotions and responses in all of us which might not have occurred under the more usual conditions of control that are imposed in a studio."

“ ... Although The Trap won the 1977 Prix Futura in Bronze, its significance, both in terms of subject matter and the unique method in which it was made, has not been properly acknowledged. Some of the executives at SR disliked the teleplay because of Watkins’ use of amateurs, but Stockholm newspapers were generally favorable to all aspects of the production. Perhaps because it dealt directly with the effects of nuclear power on the quality of life in the future, the newspaper Dagens Nyheter took the highly unusual step of running an editorial urging its readers to watch the teleplay. While The Trap has been telecast three times in Sweden, Norwegian and Danish television have refused to show it. [... head of the Television Drama Department] of Norsk Rikskringkasting [at that time], claims that it “was not a very successful production”, and [the head] of Danmarks Radio's television drama department, has been even more emphatic in his dislike. In a June 1977 radio discussion about Watkins' work, [the Danish Drama Head] said that The Trap "was one of the worst productions Peter has made, if not the worst," and in a recent letter to Watkins, he reiterated his view that the work was not "of a high standard." If these executives are attempting to measure The Trap by the achievements of Edvard Munch, they are being most unfair. In some ways, The Trap is a minor Watkins work, but it is clearly of a "standard" considerably higher than nearly all of the productions telecast on Scandinavian channels. [Both Drama Department Heads] have failed to recognize the breakthrough that Watkins' teleplay has achieved. His innovations in breaking down the rigid, impersonal trademarks of Scandinavian television production seem to have been misconstrued by these executives as rank amateurism.”