Producer Zhang Yan： The Ideal City is a challenge to the audience ｜ Interview with the producer
Dark colors, unkempt makeup, and the result of the relationship was confirmed in the 23rd episode, but it broke up in the 31st episode … The Ideal City is out of tune with the previous domestic workplace dramas in terms of both the picture and the plot.
But it is these special features that highlight its authenticity and solve the key problems that have been plaguing the word-of-mouth of workplace dramas:Suspended weight.
Anyone who has lived in the workplace knows that in the workplace, especially in large groups, there will be no overbearing presidents who are wholeheartedly in love, only leaders who know how to weigh the pros and cons and strategize, and there are no employees who are promoted and raised just because they are simple and kind, only migrant workers who wear plaid shirts and work overtime every day.
"Ideal City" shows the truest side of the workplace to the fullest.
When talking about why this drama focuses on the group image of the workplace rather than the love line, Zhang Yan, the producer and the head of iQiyi Qiai Studio, asked:"In real life, how much does love account for the young people’s workplace life?"
Many people understand this situation, but it is an adventure that the creator needs to persist in filming the "Ideal City" in the end.
What kind of domestic workplace drama does the audience need?
As the mainstream of the screen in recent years, realistic themes also occupy a major share in the film list of major platforms. After making its own drama, iQiyi has been looking for high-quality projects in this field and hopes to make a breakthrough.
As early as the autumn fair in 2018, the original work "Su Xiao’s War" of "The Ideal City" was officially announced to be made into a TV series, and iQiyi was also contacted, but for various reasons, it was not finally launched until two years later.
"At the end of the 19th century, General Manager Xiaohui (Chief Content Officer of Aiqiyi Wang Xiaohui) and General Manager Dai Ying (Senior Vice President of Aiqiyi) actually decided the play very decisively on the premise that the director and starring role had not been decided, and only the script was clear." Zhang Yan recalled.
Next, the producer, director, screenwriter and the team together refined the plot structure, characters, stories and other aspects of the script on the original basis, especially the creation of the group drama in the workplace. "This workplace is no longer a workplace covered with a love coat, it is aA very solid workplace. "
This is the breakthrough point they are looking for, and it is also the place that makes Zhang Yan feel the most challenging and confident.
In their common understanding, the characters in "Ideal City" must be plump, and they must not be masked. "It has no absolute good guys or bad guys,Everyone is rich and vivid.. "
Even Chen Simin, who "went offline" early with less scenes, will have something to sigh and sigh.
As a Bole who promoted Su Xiao, Wang Yang, like others, will write to let Su Xiao step down when Tiancheng’s core interests are damaged.
Even Xia Ming, who is in love with Su Xiao, has repeatedly stood on her opposite side in the matter of "making Tianke independent from the group".
In the workplace of "Ideal City", everyone has his own complete behavioral logic and persuasiveness, and the characters are plump and distinct, which is very touching to Zhang Yan.
"We always say to do Chinese’s workplace drama, because China’s workplace is special. It is not like the workplace in American dramas and Japanese dramas we watch. The way of the world is inevitable, so there is still" Ideal City ".Show China’s worldly wisdomOn the other side. "
At the same time, The Ideal City also showsThe collision of two generations’ workplace concepts.
The older generation of people in the workplace, mainly the founding team of Yinghai Group, pay attention to relationships and circuitous strategies, while the new generation of people in the workplace, mainly Su Xiao, Xia Ming, Wu Hongmei and He Congrong, pay more attention to professional ability in their work and will break the routine and be flexible.
Zhang Yan believes that the intergenerational relationship in the workplace is what young people are experiencing now, and the design of the script at this level will resonate with young people.
These are two completely different workplace values or two generations’ outlook on life, which are different times.The collision between idealism and realism.
"The editor once thought of a slogan, that is,’ We all become mediocre in giving up again and again’. Su Shi is precisely this negative example. She realized her ideal in every persistence. "
The ultimate goal of "Ideal City" is how young people with ideals can realize their ambitions in the real environment.
Artistic expression needs innovation.
The fast food era has been long, and the audience will gradually adapt to the cool drama mode. Each episode solves a story, and the development of the protagonist is more like an upgrade in the game.
However, the complex plot of the characters, the restraint of the expression of the characters and the obscurity of the lines in "Ideal City" can’t meet the needs of some audiences to see the drama at a glance, and it is also not suitable for double-speed viewing and as a "magic drama".
When deciding to do this project, Zhang Yan was also worried about the feedback from the market, because there were many successful projects that made workplace dramas into love dramas in the past.
Even in the process of watching a film after she is familiar with the script, if she leaves for a short time halfway, she will miss some important details when she comes back to watch it.
However, in fact, it is precisely because of this that Zhang Yan has more reflections. "The previous workplace drama practice has achieved good influence, but should it be done?" Did we?More realistic, more realA way to realize the expression of workplace drama? "
In "The Ideal City"Not all characters have glamorous appearances..
In the early stage, Su Xiao was always ashamed, wearing cheap and unfashionable clothes and carrying a backpack with the same color as the construction site.
The same is true of her best friend Wu Hongmei, who always has only one hairstyle and wears the same black-rimmed glasses.
Sometimes they joke that the director is the most fashionable one on the set. "Since we are doing realistic themes and dramas in the construction industry, we should at least make everyone look like a person coming out of this industry.
If Su Xiao dresses up very fashionably in this environment, and she is famous all over, as many urban dramas do, it is actually a very disobedient thing. How can she wear this dress to the construction site and work in a closed environment like Tiancheng? "
Plus the dark colors in the office and the complete roles.No makeup, no peeling, no brightening face.As well as the plot that pays more attention to all beings in the workplace under this atmosphere, many innovations in this drama challenge the audience’s existing aesthetics and viewing methods.
"For example, the audience may be accustomed to the emotional line of chasing women and men, but now there are more than 30 episodes, and the emotional line does not occupy a lot of space. This may be a challenge for the audience. "
However, after many weighing, the creators still want to try it in the workplace drama.More than falling in loveAll right.
"Judging from the life scenes of real people in the workplace, the proportion of love carried by a workplace drama may just be the normal proportion now."
Zhang Yan believes that "artistic expression must not be unified. If everyone copies the original practice, there will be no innovation, and the audience will be aesthetically tired after a long time."
Do the "T" project by industrialized means.
"Ideal City" is not Zhang Yan’s first masterpiece, while "Chess Soul" and "Bones Are Not Begonia Red" are all high-quality projects of Qi Ai Studio, and earlier there was a ceiling called Youth Campus Drama.The best of us.
During her long time as a producer, she gradually explored a set of methodology for doing word-of-mouth dramas. Just as human resources look for outstanding talents according to the "T" knowledge structure, she will intentionally use this as a guide to make outstanding projects.
"T" type knowledge structurePersonnel are required to have not only extensive knowledge in the horizontal direction, but also deep expertise in the vertical direction.
In the film and television industry, Zhang Yan believes that a good project should have a solid foundation in all aspects, as well asUniqueness and innovation.
The horizontal character "T" means "If a drama is a so-called head drama, then every link must reach the level of the head before it can become a head." And a vertical, just like a diffuse change to the soul of chess, Beijing opera to the temples, and workplace group images to the ideal city, are innovative points on the basis.
“Innovation is actually an inheritance and challenge to the inherent things.It may or may not be accepted, but we need to find its differentiated advantages. "
At the same time,Development of science and technologyThe progress of film and television industrialization has also changed many inherent laws of the industry and put forward many new requirements for producers.
"We who do content may be a little more inclined to the thinking of liberal arts students, but now we are more and more aware of the benefits that the thinking of science students, that is, the part of science and technology, brings us."
When "The Best of Us" is launched, Zhang Yan and her colleagues will think about the publicity points and predict the future data trends from the perspective of content and their own experience.
Since 2010, iQiyi has launched a big data business, and gradually built a producer-orientedProfessional data service system PBIS, through IP evaluation, traffic prediction and other pre-judgment project prospects, to assist project decision-making.
"Now the accurate prediction rate of our system can even predict a value very close to its final broadcast on the first day and the second day of the content online."
The addition of intelligent production means makes the project quality control visual, which greatly improves the work efficiency of the project team. In addition to the publicity and operation in the later stage, big data can also help them to do forward management in the early stage of development and production.
"For example, such a theme, such a group of people, what is the space bottom line and high line of market share, and in what range, such as the scale of our investment and the ratio of production costs of each part of different themes. What is the interval value? It can make our artistic creation more controllable and reasonable. "
In addition to big data, the filming of "Ideal City" also used different high-tech methods, such as the use of LED screens.
"All the locations you see, such as Tianke, Yinghai Group and even Su Xiao’s balcony, are not real scenes, but LED screens. It turned out that the old way was green cloth, and then special effects were made. Now all the shooting materials are cast on the LED screen. "
The addition of these innovative means not only increases the sense of substitution of actors in the performance process, but also is part of the ingenuity that the whole creative team wants to present to the audience the sense of reality of workplace drama.
After the broadcast of "Ideal City", Zhang Yan and the team saw many professionals in the workplace and construction industry spontaneously launching the Amway drama, which was their most fulfilling time. "It can be seen that all the efforts of this drama can make him feel this sincerity and truth, and this sense of reality is what we are pursuing."
At present, the professional score of "Ideal City" in the "Phoenix Net Index-Comprehensive List of Movies" applet is 7.4, and the public score is 7.9. Welcome to scan the code and enter the applet to comment ~
The arrival of the film and television winter and the epidemic has reshuffled the whole industry. After defoaming, people who can really swim can survive better. In the year after the epidemic, Ifeng films gradually transformed with the changes of the industry. In terms of content output, IFENG films began to expand from pure film content to the whole industry, focusing on three major sectors: film, drama and comprehensive.
In order to better show the current industry style, we launched the column "Interview with Producers" to talk with outstanding producers who are really in the front line of the industry and have excellent content output, and provide some methodologies for the industry.
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