Drenthe Brothers Bring Wee Ho De Mol? Pictured: “You carry a big secret with you.”

2.6 million people watched Lennart and Wendell Noreen’s craft last Saturday, possibly without knowing it. “We don’t really think about it,” says Wendell, the drone pilot, from behind his parents’ kitchen table in Roenwald. He mainly looks at the way his rotated photos are processed. He’s a cast member of the popular AvroTros season 17 show, where the candidates must unmask the vandal in their midst.

Wendell’s brother Lennart has also been a part of the crew for a few years now. He only really realized how popular the game show was when he was watching his own recordings in between “Molloten”. “When I first went to Vondelpark to watch the final, I saw: There are a lot of people here. And then it just came. Because 2.6 million, you see that number, but you don’t notice it so much.”

The brothers are pretty much born with a camera in their hand. Father France runs a camera shop in Maple, now owned by a third brother. It is therefore not surprising that Ruinerwolders chose an audiovisual career. From Heel Holland Bakt to Friends of Amstel Live and Campinglife to a live recording of a Coldplay concert in Buenos Aires; The brothers are building an impressive resume.

With an unexpected phone call in the year 2008, Wie is de Mol’s adventure begins. Or rather, a lot of phone calls. Because when 21-year-old Wendell picks up his phone after a night of sports, he sees there are a lot of missed calls. “Would you like to go to Mexico tonight to replace an audio engineer,” that is the question when he calls you back. “I was so confused, I didn’t know the program.”

The next morning, Wendel is assigned to Cancun. Between boats under a helicopter. “That was a little unrealistic. On site I got a mixer and they said, ‘You have to follow these two candidates. Go ahead.'”

As sound maker, Wendel becomes a constant force behind the scenes, and the same goes for the drone. When there is some discontent with the drone pilot, Wendell lets it slip at prom that he is willing to take care of the drone photos. Wendell: “Six months later, the director said, ‘Remember what I said last year? I would like to fly a drone next year. For six months I trained daily with a drone.

Circles over lawns, around lampposts, under bridges, cars follow. The director gets excited and when the game software moves to the US in 2017, Drent is in charge of the drone visuals. Then Lennart also appears on the scene. “A soundtrack became available, so I threw my brother to the lions. America was special.”

Lawns and lampposts have been replaced by rugged landscapes and beautiful cities in Georgia, China and, more recently, South Africa. “You get the best shots if you take a little risk, if you get close to rock walls or up trees,” he says. “Then it might just be a matter of plucking a tree or not seeing a branch.” According to the photographer, it’s not a matter of if, but when things go wrong. “And if it falls, it falls well. Then you do more damage than if your camera fell off a tripod.”

He is well insured on this, and the director is also sometimes content with one less scene. “The last episode in South Africa everyone started in a wooden box,” Wendell looks back on last weekend. “Then I’ll go to all those sites up front and take drone footage before the mission actually starts. My job is always to go through a whole laundry list of sites.”

While Wendel practices his work and continues his drone-flying skills, Lennart starts out on the “mini-team”. “The small team is constantly communicating with the candidates, and you also sleep in the same hotel. You are on the breakfast yard, between assignments, through reality and recognition in the hotel.” After two years he moved to the senior team. “They do all the tasks and the tests and the implementations. The big team sleeps elsewhere, so if you’re having breakfast and want to do the guided discussion, you can do it quietly, because there are no filters,” he offers insight into the creative process.

Because, of course, the crew is not allowed to accidentally reveal anything about the course of the game. “These are always great, exciting sites. You carry a big secret with you, that a lot of people in Holland want to know, too,” says Lennard, who says he can now handle it quite well.