What's so good about a farming show?

The imaginary pastoral life is "raising chickens and sheep, getting some soy sauce and sausages", but the actual pastoral life is heavy farm work, tight time, impermanent weather and difficult conditions, and the teenagers have endured all kinds of challenges and pains in the farming process without compromise, racking their brains to solve one unexpected problem after another, which are all shown to the audience in all directions.

Author|Wei Qiao\Editor|Ding Yu

Letting artists farm must be a very new way of "showing", right? But after the broadcast of "Let's Farm", it was the audience's turn to be surprised, are these people really farming?

Pang Bo once thought that this show was a PPT, and also told it as a joke on the stage of "Talk Show Conference 5": "A group of boys without the power of chickens grew 10,000 catties of food in six months on a barren land. ”

Unexpectedly, a few months later, the paragraph became a reality. Pang Bo arrived at the scene and believed that this "very magical" show had come true, "Now there are not only PPT, but also farm and tuolaji", he sighed on Weibo, "This place is a real species, I want to say a word of treasure to the teenagers." ”

Now, "sunrise and sunset" is not describing a pastoral life, but a true portrayal of "Farm". Different from the previous life experience slow variety show, it is a real "labor documentary show".

The artists who were still glamorous the day before were filled with mud on the soles of their feet in a blink of an eye, and their faces were gray. The handsome young men formed a "farming team", working from the beginning of the day to the dusk, digging ditches, ploughing the land, sowing seeds, fertilizing every day, repeating heavy and boring labor, and often using folk wisdom to coordinate materials, like every local farmer's household.

However, the common feature of the artists in the show is that they are "not popular". After all, farming is such a hard work, and it is difficult for the guests to make up their minds to endure this hardship whenever they have an announcement.

There are no controversial topics and traffic stars, but it does not affect the attention of "Let's Farm", watching the boys sweating in the fields, agricultural skills are getting higher and higher, and the audience has a sense of investment in watching the "cultivation system" program.

As a result, "Let's Farm" evoked Chinese "farming DNA" rooted in the heart with its simple documentary style, gained a high reputation of 8.6 points on Douban, and completed a new variety show genre experiment. Working people are favored by the god of variety shows.

"Crazy Show"

It's no joke to let 10 young artists spend half a year planting more than 100 acres of land.

Host Zhang Shao was shocked when he arrived at the recording site of "Let's Farm", and said: "You guys are very courageous. The writer Mai Jia, who was born in the countryside, lamented that it was a "crazy show."

The creators and guests are serious. Before the show began, all the teenagers involved had undergone professional training in everything from carpentry and bricklayers to medical first aid, fire safety, and even obtained driver's licenses for tractors and different types of harvesters.

This effort quickly came in handy, and at the beginning of the show, after discovering that the progress of hand cutting in a day was only 0.04%, the teenagers quickly drove the harvester to the ground. Modern machinery has greatly increased production efficiency, but it is not easy to achieve the goal. In the end, although the harvesters got stuck in the quagmire 37 times, they did harvest 62.66 tons of rice, which could provide 10,000 people with a month's ration.

Farming is much more than ploughing, sowing and harvesting, everything in the process must be done by yourself. For example, the teenagers spent more than ten days unclogging drainage ditches, almost missing the best time to plant; Dozens of tons of fertilizer and seeds are pulled into the fields, and just carrying them is a laborious undertaking.

These links are cumbersome and lengthy, and there doesn't seem to be much to watch, but the teenagers are tired in the field, exhausted after completing the task, and they are all recorded one by one.

The so-called "farming" is not just a show of "wielding a sickle and posing Pose", the show "Plant" is really trying to reproduce the real farming life, and at the same time wants to grow something on the land.

Matched by the heavy labor of waking up early and getting up in the dark are the humble living conditions. The teenagers in the show are crowded in bungalows that leak on all sides, and the crumbling bunk beds have to be built by themselves, and the glass windows can only be pasted with paper when they are broken in the cold winter months.

The imaginary pastoral life is "raising chickens and sheep, getting some soy sauce and sausages", but the actual pastoral life is heavy farm work, tight time, impermanent weather and difficult conditions, and the teenagers have endured all kinds of challenges and pains in the farming process without compromise, racking their brains to solve one unexpected problem after another, which are all shown to the audience in all directions.

There are no colorful game links in the show, nor do they deliberately create character relationships between guests, nor do they have the reversal scenes common in reality shows. There is no pre-set script, and the camera that turns on 24 hours faithfully assumes the function of recording. In the view of chief director Yang Changling, "the whole show is like a chapter back novel, and it is a bits and pieces in 190 days when opened." ”

"Let's Farm" updates the main part of the juvenile chapter every Saturday, including the progress of farming and how to overcome difficulties, and the life special updated on Thursday details the interesting stories of flying guests working, eating and communicating with guests.

In addition to the feature film of the long video platform, the official short video platform of the program starts the "daily check-in live broadcast" at 9:30 every day to follow up the situation of the teenagers farming in real time.

The immediacy of the short video and live broadcast gives the audience a stronger sense of companionship, and although they are still struggling to sow and fertilize in the main film, it can be seen in the short video that the teenagers have begun to grow flowers and vegetables, carry out animal husbandry, and develop new activities in addition to work.

As the teenagers become more proficient in work and the level of agriculture is getting higher and higher, many viewers have formed viewing habits, clocking in to work every day in real life, accompanied by mobile phone short videos to watch people farming every day, unexpectedly harmonious, like an alternative "cultivation" program.

Each guest also recorded every day of farming by vlogging the field. Some of them share farming tips, some record the moments of inspiration in life, and some people remember the daily running account...

The combination of long and short videos has narrowed the distance between the audience and the program, provided content choices from different perspectives, and the seemingly lengthy and boring farming records have diversified expression space.

"Not red" guests

Crawling and toiling in the mud during the day, and huddled in leaky bungalows at night, the show "Let's Farm" at first glance makes people feel that it is difficult for the guests to make up their minds to endure this hardship whenever there is an announcement.

In fact, although the news of the program team's preparation received nearly 300 resumes as soon as it was sent, none of the 10 teenagers who eventually appeared on the show seemed "famous" enough. The most well-known may be Jiang Dunhao, who won the overall championship of "China's New Song" and participated in "Creation Camp 2021", and half of the guests on the list are almost amateurs, and the show "Let's Farm" is their first appearance in front of the public.

This is the trade-off after the program team considers it, leaving aside the problem of "hardship", the time span of this show is as long as 190 days, and it may be difficult for artists with a little popularity to fully cooperate in time. Just like Gong Jun, a flying guest who comes and goes in a hurry, he has to leave for the next job before he even finishes eating.

The guests had enough time to learn the necessary skills in depth in the early stage, and then devote themselves to farming. In order to truly immerse themselves in the show, they also gave up many possible opportunities, Yang Changling once revealed, "At the end of the year, many of them pushed off commercial performances, runways or annual meeting activities, and some people pushed off the drama contract and devoted themselves to "Farming". ”

The audience is both unfamiliar and tolerant of young fresh faces. Without too many demanding requirements to maintain a perfect image in front of the screen, the guests showed their true selves on the show as much as possible. They have a childish and enthusiastic competitive spirit when carrying supplies, and they also have a cramped and clumsy enthusiasm when entertaining flying guests. In the heavy daily work, sincere emotional outpouring has become the best way for them to pry the audience's empathy.

For these young teenagers who lack variety show experience, they have more room for growth in the show. For example, Zhao Xiaotong went from a stubborn and competitive teenager at the beginning to a calm and responsible boy who slowly became calm and responsible after training; Li Gengyun has demonstrated his proficiency in farm work and excellent leadership and coordination ability in his day-to-day work; Zhao Yibo is emotionally stable, logical, and good at analysis and communication; Jiang Dunhao is gentle and tolerant, and he is a peacemaker between teenagers.

In addition to the farm work in the fields, they also solve the daily necessities themselves, and the teenagers have shown their talents, and their carpentry and welding skills have gradually become handy.

Farm work requires collective cooperation most of the time, and in the continuous cooperation and running-in, the natural collision and emotions generated by the teenagers become more and more profound. As the show gets better, there are more and more activities between work, such as snowball fights, theater addiction to acting in stage plays, playing basketball in front of a simple basket, shooting blockbusters in the fields... These moments became rare moments of ease.

But on the other hand, these new faces that are almost "amateurs" have to a certain extent diluted the variety show effect brought about by the contrast of "stars working in the field". Farm work itself is more like the protagonist of the show than the people who work.

As soon as the teenagers entered a state of hard work, similar equipment and gray faces reduced their recognition, except for a few guests with very prominent looks and personalities, most of the guests still lacked memory points, and it was difficult to be truly seen and remembered by the audience.

From this point of view, these "not popular" artists, in addition to increasing their farming skills in the show, it is still unknown whether the demand behind the "want to be popular" can be achieved. After all, since you have entered the entertainment industry, no one just wants to work and not want to be popular.

A very new "farming variety show"

With this very new variety show experience, "Farm It" has become an "electronic squeezed dish" recognized by the audience recently.

Compared with the idyllic and leisurely nature of "Longing for Life", "Let's Farm" is more clumsy and dusty, and the guests have no time to talk about life, and most of the time they struggle in the mud in the fields, because farming is not a spice of life for them, but a livelihood that must be completed.

But the show does not present a dramatic contrast like "Metamorphosis", although the conditions are difficult and the farm work is heavy, there is no grievance, no grievance and laziness, although the teenagers' agricultural skills are relatively rusty, but everyone is doing their best to complete the work, support each other, and work together.

In the face of complex environments, large characters and tight schedules, problems and conflicts are also occurring, such as Zhao Xiaotong's stubborn opinion and breaking the harvester, and arguing with others while dredging ditches to drain. But the show is not hyped up for conflicts, but rather shows how teenagers find problems and solve them.

"Let's Farm" is as simple as the slogan that teenagers hang on their lips, "Farm well." ”

On a 142.8-acre plot of land, farming well means repeating the boring work countless times, praying for good weather and completing daily tasks before sunset. It is after such a slightly dull repetitive labor that the guests in the program and the audience outside the program jointly obtain a kind of spiritual healing.

The local feelings rooted in Chinese hearts give the matter of farming a very clear sense of security, as Zhao Yibo said on Weibo, "Let me temporarily free myself from confusion." Jiang Dunhao said, "This time there is an opportunity to really slow down." ”

From this point of view, "Let's Farm" has attracted a group of slow variety show audiences who love healing and return to basics, forming a virtuous circle within the circle. Audiences attracted by the feature film, because they are curious about the guests and stories, generate a certain audience stickiness, and begin to actively search for relevant derivative content to watch.

The moment the god of variety shows came, it was an exhausting evening, and the fireworks bloomed in the distance, and everyone stopped to watch quietly.

But the expression of the documentary to a certain extent goes against the logic of the show to create variety show effects through conflicts, so "Farm" is a rather risky genre experiment. Although it has gained a good reputation, from the perspective of public opinion, it is still not as good as the competition variety shows and love variety shows that naturally have a degree of topic in the same period.

Although the arrival of the flying guests brought a certain degree of topicality, due to the teenagers' busy farm work, they lacked understanding of each other and failed to collide with more sparks. Even though stand-up comedians have their own laughs, the effect on the show is not as good as the effect of them telling the story in the show into jokes in the performance.

The feedback received by "Let's Farm" on the talk show proves that there is still a broader space for excavation of this theme. If the show wants to reach a wider audience, it may need to highlight a more three-dimensional character image and a clearer growth path in the narrative, and find a better balance between creating "highlights" and maintaining a "documentary" style.

After all, "land is the most incapable of failing people." "In the variety show market where fast food culture is rampant, "Let's Farm", which is full of local feelings and underlying care, deserves to be seen by more people.