The Paper's reporter Yang Kaiting
After a few days of broadcasting of the workplace drama "Ordinary Glory" on Oriental Satellite TV, some viewers began to propose: This drama seems to have no love line! For this, some viewers rejoiced and felt that they had finally seen a drama that did not fall in love under the guise of the workplace, and some viewers expressed disappointment and were not used to such a pure-blood workplace drama.
For director Lu Xing, he is not worried about these arguments, and it is very tempting for him to be able to make a pure genre drama. "At that time, when I saw the positioning of this project, I thought it was very interesting, because the opportunity to do this kind of pure genre is indeed not a very common situation in our current creative environment. In most cases, it is based on the workplace as a background, doing an emotional drama or life drama. Lu Xing believes that there are many audiences of workplace dramas who have been looking forward to a "pure" workplace drama, not based on love as the main narrative, but focusing on the meticulous description of the workplace.
Poster of "Ordinary Glory"
In order to achieve a more realistic depiction of the details of the financial industry, In the early stage of creation, Lu Xing did a lot of industry research and interviews with the screenwriter. "I feel that writing about any industry requires a process of familiarization and understanding. First, you have to understand the people in this professional environment; second, you have to be familiar with the things in this professional environment. He believes that reality is real and is the foundation of workplace dramas such as "Ordinary Glory".
Previously, Lü Xing's most widely known directorial work is the suspense drama "Undocumented Crime", he believes that the character story of the suspense drama and the audience are at a certain distance, "In reality, the public does not know so much about its details, so we have more space to play, and we can create a dramatic reality for the dramatic effect." Lu Xing said, "But the workplace, going to work, these are very familiar areas for most people." How do you make a story that everyone feels really, this is not only a matter of drama reality, but also needs to pay attention to most of the reality. In addition, from a formal point of view, a story like "Undocumented" can be more diverse in the way it is expressed. In a real-life drama like "Ordinary Glory", its way of expression has to match its content, and there are not so many stylized ways of expression. ”
Director Lu Xing is very serious about the details of the workplace.
At present, "Ordinary Glory" has indeed achieved the intention of controlling the details of the workplace and the plot of the workplace, and in many low-scoring workplace dramas that have been criticized for false details and falling in love in the workplace, "Ordinary Glory" is regarded as "standing out from the crowd", douban 7.7 points (27,000 people scored).
Two consecutive works with very different styles, but with obvious characteristics of the same genre, have been recognized, which is largely inseparable from Lü Xing's research on genre film and television works. Unlike many creators who have worked hard in the industry to obtain perceptual cognition from practice, Lu Xingke, who is born in the Beijing Film Academy and has a ph.D. in the Beijing Film Academy, has shown him a clear way of working as an intellectual: paying attention to genre research and case analysis and induction. "In order to be able to write a thesis that matches the degree, you have to do continuous research, find a topic that is groundbreaking and innovative in your field of study, and make it." This learning experience has greatly improved my learning ability, and I later studied tv series creation, and many methods of studying genre creation were produced during this period of research and study. ”
For Lü Xing, the emotional understanding of this industry comes more from childhood. His father was a producer, which brought him into the film and television industry at a very young age. Since childhood, I have played in the crew, and the uncles and aunts I know are all directors, screenwriters, and actors. "Even though I didn't fully understand their work at the time, it was so funny to watch them shoot different things in different places and then you could see their work on TV after a while, and some of the uncles and aunts you knew around you played a role in it, and they were a lot different from life on the screen. So after middle school, I took this industry as my goal. Lu Xing said, "Seeing that everyone is together every day and trying to do some creative work, I think this job is very interesting." ”
Director Lu Xing
【Dialogue】
Take workplace romance as the core to write, not pure
The Paper: With so many characters in the play, which one will make you resonate more personally?
Lv Xing: In fact, what I resonate with is still concentrated on Wu Kezhi and Sun Yiqiu. At different stages of my life, I will have some resonance with these two characters.
For example, when I first joined the company, I also hope to be able to integrate into a collective, Sun Yiqiu's line said "I can only do the same thing with everyone", in fact, it was also my wish at that time, but also because at that time, you learned that the gap between yourself and this society, and real life, everyone has their own ideals and expectations, but often you will find that the gap between reality and ideals is very large, and then how do you go to the world to prove your value, this process I have also had, When I create this character, I have a resonance in this regard.
Bai Jingting plays Sun Yiqiu
At this stage, there may be some things that Lao Wu insists on that I can empathize with. Because in my professional environment, I also want to do what I find valuable, but sometimes, you also need to make some compromises with real life and professional environment. So in this process, how do you stick to yourself and don't forget your original intention? I think I still feel this.
Zhao Youting plays Wu Kezhi
The Paper: In this creation, the love scene was basically completely abandoned, is this a direction that the team reached an agreement at the beginning, or is there some twists and turns and disagreements in the middle?
Lu Xing: There is no love line, it is true that we agreed at the beginning of the creation, of course, we are based on the needs of this type. For a more pure workplace drama, it should be based on the daily life in the workplace and the relationship between the characters in the workplace. In this, it is also very common to have a relationship in the workplace, but in a workplace drama, whether to take the workplace romance as the core to write, we feel that it is actually a way that is not pure.
The Paper: Before the broadcast, did you have any concerns about the feedback from the audience? After all, such a practice is still relatively rare in domestic dramas.
Lu Xing: We are not too worried about this, because we think that as a workplace drama, what you attract is definitely an audience that wants to watch the workplace drama type, we are actually not too worried about this part of the target audience, we are worried about the love drama, or the audience who has a particularly high expectation of love drama in the TV series, once they open our TV series and find that there is no love line they like, will they feel particularly bored? There are some concerns about this.
To write about any industry, you must understand people and understand things
The Paper: In fact, some of the content in the financial industry is still relatively unfamiliar to the general audience. To integrate some professional content into the plot in a simple way, or to test the main creative skills, in terms of screenwriting, what is your degree of participation?
Lv Xing: I was actually quite involved, because when I first entered the project, I was working with the screenwriter to conduct research and adjust the script. I feel that writing about any industry requires a process of familiarity and understanding. First, you have to understand the people in this professional environment; second, you have to be familiar with the things in this professional environment. Then use these as materials that you can rely on in your creation to process. When the story needs to, you need to find some theoretical basis in the real workplace to support your creation, and to make these theories seem simple and simple. It is true that we also found that there were some points at that time, and no matter how you explained it to the audience, he might not necessarily understand. So there are parts of us that we try to put into our character relationships and story lines as much as possible, so that everyone can understand its causes and consequences; there are also parts where we feel that it is enough to make the audience feel "unconscious", even if you don't understand what it means, but it is enough for you to understand what this thing means to the characters. After all, we are not a financial industry feature film.
Stills from "Ordinary Glory"
The Paper: Genre and personal expression are the things that every director wants to balance, how to control this balance?
Lv Xing: I think for a TV series director, a TV series is a mass entertainment product, then this basic positioning is actually very clear, your first priority is to serve the public, to tell a story that everyone likes to hear and can touch people's hearts, which is undoubtedly the first thing. On this basis, your personal expression can be placed in your story and characters, if there are some viewers can feel, can understand, that is the success of your personal expression, but if the audience does not get it, I think it is okay, just watch a favorite story. Therefore, this part of me is not so big for personal expression, and I am more willing to serve everyone.
The Paper: In fact, there has always been a saying in the industry: TV dramas are the art of screenwriting. What do you think of this sentence as a director? Can you talk about what you think the best cooperation between the screenwriter and the director should be?
Lu Xing: Of course, this TV series is the art of screenwriting, and I don't think there is any problem with this sentence. Indeed, as a long drama, all our things are based on a good script, and with a good script, we can attract more good creators and good actors to join our creation. In a TV series, the script actually determines the possibilities of the story in the future, including whether you can attract the audience, whether you can mobilize the audience's emotions, whether you can let him watch today's drama, and look forward to watching it on time tomorrow. In these ways, the screenwriter is undoubtedly the core and soul of the creation of the TV series.
For me, I feel that the screenwriter is more like a product designer, and I, as a director, lead everyone to practice the designer's drawings into finished products. So in terms of cooperation, I will ask questions to the screenwriter, for example, I don't understand the part, I will have some problems, if the screenwriter can answer my questions, I will digest this part well, to lead everyone to make it, but if my question, the screenwriter also feels that it is a problem, maybe the screenwriter needs to adjust. I'm willing to respect and follow the writer's ideas, but I'll also give my personal opinion.
Screenshot of Ordinary Glory
Confusion is the time to think about the way out
The surging news: "Undocumented Crime" is a web drama, "Ordinary Glory" is a work linked by Taiwan and the Internet, and there will be some differences in positioning, in your industry observation in recent years, do you think that the relationship between online platforms, TV stations and creators has changed?
Lv Xing: In recent years, the quality of online dramas has gradually improved, the number has been expanding, and the content and the way of watching have given everyone more possibilities, so now the online platform has become an option for more and more audiences. And in theory, the broadcast of works on the network platform is unlimited, so it can take more care of the content needs of some niche groups in addition to the public. In the past few years, online platforms have taken more care of niche audiences. Recently, tv stations have also begun to take care of this part of the niche audience on the basis of the previous mass narrative. For example, like "Ordinary Glory", in fact, workplace dramas are not the most widely audienceed works, but you see that now TV stations are also willing to broadcast and serve this group of viewers, I think this is a good phenomenon.
Stills from Undocumented Crimes
The Paper: You studied for a PhD in Nortel for 5 years, and after 5 years of phD life, what do you think is the most important thing you have learned?
Lv Xing: In the past 5 years, I think the biggest gain is that I have mastered some learning and research methods, in order to write a thesis that is enough to match the degree, it is necessary to conduct continuous research, find a topic that is groundbreaking and innovative in your field of study, and make it. This learning experience has greatly improved my learning ability, and I later studied the creation of TV dramas and studied many methods of genre creation, which were produced during this period of research and study. For example, for a type, I will study its internal principles and find different cases to analyze and generalize.
The Paper: The film and television industry is actually an industry with many surprises, and sometimes it is not capable and powerful. Have you ever experienced a period of confusion in your career or career choices?
Lu Xing: Yes, this did happen, before I made "Unlicensed", for a long time, I couldn't find my own positioning, and then I didn't know what kind of work I could make, and I didn't know whether the industry would accept it in the future, in this process you would continue to think, to question some of the things you were pursuing, whether it was valuable to the audience for this industry? Then there is no particularly good opportunity for you, and you will feel very confused. But I think that being confused is not the same as giving up, but thinking about your own direction and the way out. When there is no direction, it is the beginning of the search for direction.
Editor-in-charge: Cheng Yu
Proofreader: Liu Wei