"The Wind Blows Half Summer",
A group drama focusing on the steel industry in the 90s,
After the end, it was still hotly discussed, and the ratings and word-of-mouth were both harvested,
More than 200,000 people on Douban scored a high score of 8.4.
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Zhao Liying played by Xu Banxia
Make a splash in the male-dominated steel industry
Compared with past hit dramas,
This drama has no filters and no dermabrasion,
The heroine Xu Banxia is even more direct and ambitious,
Keeping your mouth shut is a ruthless role in business.
The whole drama, falling in love is just one of the lines,
The female protagonist finally no longer relies on the male protagonist to save.
Netizen Rating:
"It's so cool to concentrate on the drama of all the staff on their careers."
In order to truly restore the details of the 90s,
The crew sorted out the detailed list of major events from the 90s to the new century,
Hong Kong and Taiwan pop music in the play, Hong Kong style styling of characters,
It also instantly pulls the audience back to that era.
We interviewed one of the directors, Mao Yun.
Talked about the behind-the-scenes story of this show.
Readme: Mao Yun
Editor: Zhang Yalan
Responsible editor: Ni Chujiao
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Xu Banxia started his business in the early days
At the end of May 2021, I first came into contact with this project. At that time, I felt that the image of each character in the script was very three-dimensional, and then I read Anai's original novel "No Death", and found that the novel described the pyrotechnics of that era and everyone's sharp progress very delicately and thoroughly, so I decided to shoot this drama.
There are also many people who ask if this is a big heroine drama, no. It's just that the protagonist is a woman, and we want to talk about not her alone, but a group of people.
The story takes place in the 90s of last century, in fact, our original intention at that time was very clear: to use the growth experience of some businessmen at that time to reflect the story of a generation.
Everyone in the play can represent the typical image of that era.
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The entrepreneurial trio in the play
For example, Xu Banxia represents a small business owner, flexible and daring to do, but because of some radicalism, it is also easy to make mistakes. For example, at that time, the entrepreneurial trio wanted to get the beach where the yard was built, because the village chief sat on the land and raised the price, and actually won the lease right by means of pollution.
However, it also damaged the tidal flats, and later Xu Banxia paid money to compensate the villagers. She got the "bloody stepping stone," but had a basic conscience. These episodes truly reflect the situation of that era, which is disorderly growth.
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Feng Yu (played by Ren Zhong) and Wu Jianjian (played by Liu Wei) represent the image of private entrepreneurs in the early 90s
Wu Jianjian and Qiu Bizheng represented early private entrepreneurs, with large room for development, but they also needed policy and capital support, which also limited them at that time.
This drama is very different from previous business war dramas. Many business war dramas I know may put pen and ink on the plot of the conflict of interests between businessmen, but the plot of this drama is used to promote the development of character relationships and use plot to promote the growth of characters.
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Zhao Lei, played by Li Guangjie, is a mature and stable general manager of a foreign company
The feelings in this drama are only auxiliaries, and it serves the growth of the protagonist. Therefore, in this play, when we deal with emotional dramas, we use a lot of white space, and everyone's feelings are not so naked, the expression is very restrained, and we also hope to show the main story of their entrepreneurship and struggle more clearly.
For example, the emotional line of Xu Banxia and Zhao Lei, previous dramas may spend relatively large pen and ink to describe the process of their acquaintance and love, later contradictions, and then establish feelings, but this drama does not. We just naturally drive the plot, and at that point, they naturally have chemistry.
Li Guangjie thinks very clearly about the handling of emotional dramas, so the expression is very accurate and not abrupt at all.
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There are many dinner table plays in the play, and the dinner table is also a negotiating table for business
When casting, we look at whether the other party fits the role.
At that time, reading the script, I was very impressed by the role of Xu Banxia. In the original novel, she is a bit of a fat image, it seems that this is how to make a world in the steel industry dominated by men. But I think the more central part of this character is the bravery in her.
Director Fu Dongyu and Zhao Liying had a brief cooperation before. Later, director Fu Dongyu said that after reading the script, the first thing that popped up in his mind was Zhao Liying. He felt that Zhao Liying and Xu Banxia had similar personalities, both of them spoke and did things very directly, and they both had energy.
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Xu Banxia took Tong Xiao out of prison and helped him sweep away the "obscurity"
Later, many viewers commented that Xu Banxia in the play was talking about money at the beginning. There is nothing to it, we just encourage everyone to speak out directly. Women can also be ambitious, which is not a bad thing, ambition and desire will have goals. We want to be respectful.
In fact, before filming, our main creators had hesitation, because this drama is very difficult to shoot. At that time, we were developing at a high speed, and the changes were obvious every year, and it was a great challenge to make a drama.
At that time, Zhao Liying told director Fu Dongyu that we would give each other 48 days to calm down and consider before making a decision. As a result, in the 36th hour, Zhao Liying called Director Fu and said that as long as you want to shoot, you can shoot, even if you don't shoot well in the end, you can't let others not shoot well.
This sentence is very "Xu Banxia", director Fu Dongyu said, it was Zhao Liying's courage that finally made him stand on this front very firmly.
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Zhao Liying at the shooting scene
Zhao Liying is acting with her heart. In fact, this drama is very challenging to her courage. Because Xu Banxia has grown from a scrap collector to a big entrepreneur for more than 10 years, she needs to figure out the changes in the characters of each node.
This drama somewhat breaks through her previous image. And we also abandoned beauty and dermabrasion at that time, and Zhao Liying also agreed that what we want is the truth, the traces of the years on the face of crystal clear tears.
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Tong Xiaoqi (played by Ou Hao) in the play is loyal and righteous
There is also Tong Xiaoqi played by Ou Hao, he is a somewhat quackish and chivalrous character, and when he contacted Ou Hao, he found that he had these things on him. And at that time, he also figured out the role well.
He did a lot of homework and told me that he can play this person's ruffian and Lu well, but the softness in his body is difficult to play, which shows that he knows the power point when acting.
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Chen Universe, played by Huang Chengcheng, is kind and sincere
Chen Universe in the play was played by Huang Chengcheng, and we interviewed more than 30 actors at that time, and we were never satisfied. In my imagination, he should be a small and weak image temperament, the first time I saw Huang Chengcheng, he was still a little baby fat, and after about a month, he lost more than 10 pounds for this character.
To shoot a group portrait scene, to ensure that each character is vivid, it must land. They need to have a basic understanding of the people who survived in that era and understand the background of that era. Later, we concluded that people in that era had something in common, that is, directness. They don't talk and do things to leave three points on their lips, and they are even a little unkind.
This series focuses on the steel industry. After deciding to do this drama, the first homework of the main creators was to make a detailed list of major events from 1991 to 2002. We need to understand what happens every year.
Regarding the policy of market adjustment, the policy of import and export, the policy changes of China's steel industry, the change of industrial structure, as well as the production capacity of steel, GDP, and the salaries of workers in different ranges of the country at that time. We all did a detailed investigation.
Because the laws and regulations at that time were constantly changing and adjusting, some provisions may not have specific written information, so we went to the tax bureau, the industrial and commercial bureau, and the banking system through various channels to ask the staff. After the whole drama was filmed, the crew and actors also stepped into the steel industry with half a foot.
When all these are sorted out, we have to think about what impact these have on the script, to consider the relationship between the policy and the plot in the play, and how it helps the growth of the characters.
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The typical scenes of the 90s in the play were determined after a large number of visits by the crew
The scenes of this drama are very many and very scattered. A story that spans 12 years, and the environment around the characters changes rapidly. The living environment and the street environment are changing.
In the novel, the story takes place in eastern Zhejiang, and the first thing that comes to mind at that time is Ningbo, because Ningbo still has some old streets and old factory buildings from the 90s of the last century. But some scenes are still different from the 90s, and we do a lot of processing.
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The crew is carrying out a real-life transformation of the selected steel plant
From steelmaking to becoming a product, there are countless scenarios. Therefore, in the preparatory stage, our art department visited steel plants in different regions of China, selected more than 1,000 scenes on the spot, and finally transformed more than 300 real scenes.
Sometimes for a scene, according to the amount of script, it may be 0.1 pages of scenes, and we have to travel the whole group for several hours to shoot.
Because if the steelmaking machine in the picture is not right, the plant is wrong, and the knowledgeable person can see it at a glance.
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Xu Banxia went to the Black Sea to buy steel
In order to be more rigorous, when filming at that time, we also found an engineer from a steel plant to follow the whole group. He will also read the script, when filming in the steel factory, the lines involve the steelmaking process, steelmaking policy, and every detail must be paid attention to.
I also often ask him, such as whether this storyline, which takes place in this year, is it appropriate? We all ask engineers for their opinions.
Later, as the plot developed, in 1998, the working environment of the workers changed again. Those scenes could not be found in the south, forcing the crew to transfer to the northeast. When I arrived in the northeast, it was still winter, and after the shooting environment became worse, the pace was all slowed down.
When many people mention period dramas, because they happened in the past, they think that they have to shoot very old and dirty. In fact, every era is different, and the 90s were very fashionable.
The popular Hong Kong typhoons of that era, the music and movies of Hong Kong and Taiwan were in the golden age, and traces of Hong Kong and Taiwan could be seen in the streets and alleys. At that time, people also dressed boldly, such as contrasting clothing, big red and green, as well as jeans and flared pants.
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Leather jacket, wide tie, sunglasses, typical 90s Hong Kong style
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Xu Banxia is mostly a Hong Kong-style retro look from the 90s
For example, Zhao Liying's style this time, she has black curly hair, big red lipstick, with big earrings, Zhao Lei's double-breasted silhouette suit, bright pattern wide tie, are very distinctive.
Before filming, we also watched a lot of film and television dramas of that era, such as "Beijinger in New York", "Addiction", "Sunrise in the East and Rain in the West", as well as documentaries, posters and so on. Through these ways, we can understand that era and understand what people's lives were like.
The clothes on the actor's body are actually antiques. Before the shoot, the styling department scooped up the clothes from antique shops and collectors around the world.
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The crew is setting up a newsstand
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At the shooting scene, the crew is pushing the truck
There are also mobile phones, TVs, and cars in the play, which change a lot every year. We collected it from all over the country, but it all needed to be renovated. Many cars were scrapped when they were found, and the crew even followed a driver group who specialized in driving old vehicles, because the car broke down at every turn during filming and needed to be repaired on the spot.
We also bought a lot of songwriting rights for popular music from Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 90s. Hopefully, as soon as the music starts, the audience will be pulled back to that era.
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Old TV used in the play
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The concept art of the art group, the whole drama is nostalgic
We also made some special designs for the effect of light and shadow.
At that time, I checked a lot of information and found that there were no current incandescent lamps, LED lights, and warm light bulbs were used at home. So when shooting, we would use the warm light coming in from the window as sunlight, and the room was often filled with cold light on the actors' faces. We wanted the style of the whole picture to be both like that era and not quite like it, with some nostalgia and freshness.
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The night market scene of the 90s in the play
In the 90s, it seemed close to us, but many things could not be remembered. We wanted to be able to recreate that era as realistically as possible, and retell the stories of the young people of the 90s.
Because the era and human development are closely related, each generation will create a unique story of that era, so standing more than 40 years after the reform and opening up, how do we understand and understand the current generation of young people? What do they need and what are they thinking? This is something we need to pay attention to and cannot avoid.