Title	MEMORIALS OF AMSTERDAM
Brand	AMSTERDAMS 4 EN 5 MEI COMITÉ
Product/Service	MEMORIALS OF AMSTERDAM
Category	B01. Use of Radio & Audio as a Medium
Entrant	BIG ORANGE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Idea Creation	N=5 Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Media Placement	JCDECAUX Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Media Placement 2	KINETIC WORLDWIDE NETHERLANDS Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
PR	KOOLHOVEN & PARTNERS Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production	EGOTRIBE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Production 2	BIG ORANGE Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS
Additional Company	NATIONAAL COMITé 4 EN 5 MEI Amsterdam, THE NETHERLANDS

Name	Company	Position
Vincent de Koning	Big Orange - The Audio Agency	Partner & Creative Director
Jolien Neperus	Big Orange - The Audio Agency	Production Manager
Jesse Moes	N=5	Junior Creative
Tom Rentmeester	N=5	Junior Creative
Marlou Wirken	N=5	Junior Creative
Renoud Netjes	N=5	Creative
Olaf van der Geld	N=5	Creative Director
Noortje Hulshof	N=5	Junior Designer
Nando Vos	N=5	Designer
Tisha Hoppenbrouwers	N=5	Online Producer
Casper Reus	N=5	Traffic-art buy-producer
Sander de Heer	N/A	Voice-Over Artist

View Script

Write a short summary of what happens in the radio or audio execution or campaign.

Advertisements on Digital billboards in the centre of Amsterdam were silenced and turned into respectful interactive monuments to the fallen of WWII. Each screen pays tribute to a brave individual who fought for our freedom, and gives you access to a unique recording of their story. Every billboard has a different story, a story that took place during the war, and happend exactly at the point where the screen is standing. Each story comes to life as an immersive 3D sound experience. The narrative is third-person perspective. 3D sound design places the story around the listener in the exact GPS location, surrounding the listeners, so they really feel the events unfolding. The music ensures recognisability in the prologue and epilogue of each story and adds an extra emotional layer to the stories without over dramatising it. Staying true to the people and their stories.

Cultural / Context information for the jury

May 4th. Remembrance Day. The people of the Netherlands honour those who fell during the Second World War with a day full of solemn ceremonies. At 20:00, people stop what they’re doing to quietly contemplate the events of 80 years ago.

Script. Provide the full radio advert script in English.

Supplied .mp3 file: #1 The Woman Who Crossed No Man’s Land Central Station, 7th of May 1945. The ceasefire was declared in the Netherlands two days ago, but at Amsterdam’s Central Station, the battle rages on. A group of SS Stormtroopers is holed up in the Victoria Hotel, shooting at Dutch units on the other side of the square. The situation is deteriorating rapidly. Both sides have been ordered to lay down their arms, but there’s a problem: communications are down. There’s only one way to put an end to this lethal standoff. Someone has to pass on the command. A Dutch motorcycle courier tries to get through, but is hit and crashes into the hotel. Then another messenger is struck and killed by a German bullet. It falls to Isa Baschwitz, a 25-year old resistance fighter of German-Jewish descent, to undertake this dangerous mission. She buttons up her white nurse’s coat and steps out of the station into no man’s land. As she crosses the square, adrenaline coursing through her veins, a bullet whizzes past, barely missing her head. Another shot strikes the ground right by her feet. The Dutch Commanding Officer later reports: “The successful resolution of the negotiations was down to the determined and courageous actions of courier Isa Baschwitz. In spite of the significant threat to her own life, she did not shrink from the task of establishing lines of communication.” Isa delivers the message, and survives the confrontation. After the war, she receives an award for her bravery. In memory of Isa Baschwitz and those who died in the firefight. In times of despair, people fought for freedom on this very spot. Remember this story. Remember this place. Other executions: #5 Friends On The Kill List Leidse Square, 14th of June 1944 The war has reached its bloodiest phase. Here on Amsterdam’s Leidse Square, an armed resistance group led by Johannes Post is on its way to liberate their comrades from prison. Many of them are due to be executed. In the dead of night they slip along this street, towards the prison on the Weteringschans. If you look carefully you can see a glimpse of the green building next door to the Paradiso. On June 14th 1944 the sixteen armed men storm into the prison… …only to discover that they have been betrayed. The air is filled with the chatter of machine guns as the group comes under heavy fire. By some miracle, a few of the men manage to escape. They run out of the prison and head towards Leidse Square, shooting their way through the German barricades as they go. One of the men catches a bullet in his leg and, bleeding profusely, takes refuge under a bridge around the corner from the square. Two days later, Johannes sees his friends again, standing shoulder to shoulder in the sand dunes… In memory of Johannes Post and the sixteen friends and resistance fighters who perished. On 16 June 1944, in the sand dunes near Overveen, seven of them were executed with a shot to the back of the head. In times of despair, people fought for freedom on this very spot. Remember this story. Remember this place. #9 A Beacon of Light Rembrandt Square, 26th of January 1943 “Fill a matchbox with a mixture of 1 part sugar to 1 part sodium. Lay a strip of film or celluloid on top. You’ve just made a delayed fire bomb.” The Nazi propaganda machine is in full swing. The Nazi’s are trying to brainwash the Dutch people, and the Rembrandt Theatre is the flagship of their propaganda campaign. For Rudi Bloemgarten and his resistance group, the Ratsbane Boys, there’s only one solution. Towards the end of January 1943 one of the Ratsbane Boys crosses Rembrandt Square, hands thrust deep in his pockets. He’s heading for the building to the right of the Crown Café — where the Rembrandt Theatre is located. He is so tense that he’s practically paralysed. He looks inside the theatre, and sees German officers enjoying themselves. The film begins. On screen the actors deliver their lines, but the boy can’t hear a word over the sound of his own heartbeat. At around 10 o’clock, the last guests leave the theatre. The time has come for him to play his part. He has gone over this moment time and time again in his mind. He casts a quick glance around him, then, his hands shaking, touches a lit match to the fuse… Then turns and calmly walks out of the cinema, onto the square, and into the night. The following morning, the front page of the Telegraaf announces: “Nocturnal inferno in Amsterdam. Rembrandt Theatre burns to the ground.” The attack has succeeded. In memory of: Rudi Bloemgarten and his six comrades, the Ratsbane Boys. All but one of them were executed in the sand dunes near Overveen on 1 July 1943. Nobody knows which of them actually started the fire, but they were all involved in the attack. The burning of the Rembrandt Theatre was a beacon of light in the darkest of times. In times of despair, people fought for freedom on this very spot. Remember this story. Remember this place. #10A Dazzlingly Beautiful Protest Westeinde, 26th of April 1942 At the end of April 1942 all Jewish people in the Netherlands are ordered by the Nazis to wear a Star of David. The occupying forces’ racial segregation is now made painfully manifest on the streets of Amsterdam. How do you make a statement if you are not allowed to speak? Eccentric 22-year old Hanny Ladee-Levy is a medical student at the University of Amsterdam. Following the announcement of the Star of David law, there’s unrest on the campus. But Hanny keeps quiet. Instead, she goes home to number 26 Westeinde, where she takes out her best dress, and starts sewing. Hours later she’s still hunched over her sewing machine. The next morning she leaves the house and makes her way to University. Everyone stops and stares. Onlookers nudge one another. She’s quite a sight. She reaches the University campus and looks around, as if she’s searching for someone or something. Then, cool as ice, she abruptly walks forward. Quietly and calmly, she takes a seat next to a member of the Nazi-sympathising NSB party. The student stares at her in horror. Hanny had worked through the night to sew 36 Stars of David onto her dress. Her protest is dazzlingly beautiful. In memory of Hanny Ladee-Levy, the only member of her family to survive the war. Her parents, sister, and classmates were all liquidated in Nazi concentration camps. After the war she became a child psychologist, specialising in helping survivors of war. In times of despair, people fought for freedom on this very spot. Remember this story. Remember this place.

Explain how the work innovatively used the radio / audio medium.

Talking bilboards. A print medium used as an audio beacon. Billboards that take the message beyond their borders. Telling an audiostory that took place at that exact location. Filling the location with 3D binaural sound to immerse the listener, playing a short ‘documentary’ of a true story. These stories are too important to forget, yet are threatened with extinction.