House girls, evil women, double heroines, the protagonists of domestic female dramas have no place for them|screenwriter story

Author|etc

Not long after the beginning of 2023, three women's dramas were broadcast online at almost the same time, and the mature female dramas of the "Wild Flower Series" are also continuing to appear, all of which are female group dramas, the three mountains of women's crisis, workplace crisis, and marriage crisis, are not afraid of "pressing" the audience to suffocate, more like "bet" on which topic can be as heated as "Thirty Only".

There are no hits, at most it can be regarded as a "hit" - occupying the Top10 or even Top5 in the daily major data lists.

Since the "first year of women's dramas" "detonated" by "Thirty Only", that is, since 2020, the popularity of women's dramas has still been maintained, and major film and television companies have gone to follow... But screenwriter Sansan decided at this time to give up the women's script she had been writing for three years, believing that she had "lost her original intention" in this track. The word "original intention" is somewhat "metaphysical", and the simpler description is "I can't write the plot I want to write", "the true story is questioned to doubt life", and "the original script of the non-head screenwriter is difficult to adopt".

Xiaoyu has roughly counted about 30 female producers and screenwriters that Xiaoyu has contacted, and from 2020 to the present, the proportion of people who have said that there are "women's theme projects" is doing more than 50%, and the proportion of people who want to do it can reach 75%-80%.

In fact, the "women's dramas" seen by Xiaoyu basically have similar routines: female group portraits = 3 female protagonists; Character setting = strong woman in the workplace + housewife + young girl; Plot dilemma = workplace crisis + marriage crisis + native family conflict.

The female theme has become a "three-board axe model drama" that can see the results before it is broadcast.

This year, Japan and South Korea have a women's revenge cool drama "Dark Glory" and a high-concept drama of female friendship "Restart Life" hit, many people see the different direction of women's themes, and among the domestic drama screenwriters with more women, can no one get out of the dilemma of mid-life crisis in the marriage and workplace?

The answer, of course, is no. The story of the otaku who "sacrificed" herself, the reappearance of domestic evil women, the blue ocean of double heroines... Those scripts rejected by the producers are hidden at the bottom of the cabinet, and the screenwriters at the end of the film and television industry chain are speechless.

Now, they tell their story to Yulezibenlun (ID: Yulezibenlun).

(Sansan, Dawang, and Zhai Yuanzhong are pseudonyms in the text)

"Want revenge on cool dramas but refuse negative energy, the evil woman in domestic dramas cannot reach the top"

@编剧翟元仲 33 years old   

Self-employed screenwriter focuses on suspense themes

Chen Shuting blushed her sister-in-law, but the evil woman still couldn't take the position of the protagonist.

I usually like to watch sweet love dramas, and I like the story of girls not fighting and loving each other in "Qing Qing Daily", so many friends and colleagues did not expect that I liked the "evil woman" character and always wanted to write "evil girl stories".

Who didn't like Jiang Yuyan played by Yang Xue in "Little Fish and Flowers" when they were young? If a character like Jiang Yuyan becomes a heroine, what kind of story will it be? This kind of vicious female second reincarnation heroine drama is obviously very common in online texts, why is it not in TV series?

"Little Fish and Flowers" Jiang Yuyan stills

This does not mean that you cannot play the role of female number one. So although I have already begun to conceive this kind of story, I have not officially discussed it with anyone, so I can be regarded as silently observing market trends, and usually listen to the focus of listening to female themes when Party A or producers talk about market conditions.

Probably at the beginning of the epidemic, I watched the episodic version of "Detective Chinatown" at home, and it was quite a surprise, there are three units in it, the protagonists of the first two units are women related to love murder and inheritance, which can be regarded as "heart fraudsters", the actors are over 35 years old, and these two characters are described as the "beauty of a dead husband" in "Dark Glory" of Song Huiqiao.

Young actresses act in ancient puppet dramas and sweet pet dramas, and after the age of 30, they have to play realistic themes, or return to the previous set of mother-in-law and daughter-in-law dramas, face a marriage crisis at home, or it is a workplace survival crisis for strong women, and finally move the scumbag with love, get the appreciation of the new Bole with righteousness, or simply find a new president husband, and work in a mom-and-pop shop without getting tired.

In fact, what I have always wanted to do is the story of "the evil woman who committed murder", and the charm of mature women has always been difficult to really reflect in domestic dramas. "The protagonist can't have moral flaws" is what I've heard the producer say the most, so everyone writes sweet pet dramas, men and women are white sweet and sweet characters, it's safe.

I told the producer friend the story of the Hong Kong drama "The Third Type of Court", the female protagonist is an evil woman, the male protagonist is Xiaobaihua, I said I want to do this kind of GB drama of female A and male O, the producer laughed, "Don't say that the female protagonist has killed people, even if you find a male protagonist, when you hear the three words of Xiaobaihua, all the first- and second-tier male actors have to run." ”

Many of women's desires are suppressed in domestic dramas, strong women in the workplace can have strong work ability but cannot have too much ambition, marriage suspense, revenge to scumbags must abide by female morality. The heroine of "Shanghai Women's Guide" uses a woman's way to fight wits with men in the workplace, and finally achieves a triple jump, which must also be said to be "relying on men to get to the top", if these five words are the abbreviation of "relying on defeating men to get to the top", I also recognize. The most virtuous workplace women's drama "Dressed Up" failed the Douban score, I heard that the screenwriter was shocked to hear it, and I was as shocked as him.

"If you are a woman, don't engage in workplace competition, and now you still want some scripts for marriage games." I listened to Party A, chatted with my girlfriend that night and rolled my eyes, learning a new word "female competition" will be used indiscriminately, but okay? The plot of women relying on ability and means to fight in the workplace is not as good as the main wife and mistress tearing each other's heads, who is labeling women?

A still from the Korean drama "Dark Glory"

Finally, in the past two years, the Korean dramas "Eve", "Anna" and "Dark Glory" have successively appeared on China's hot search, I think this time the vengeful woman has a chance, right? In itself, I am writing suspense, I want to be a sassy unmarried woman and cheating marriage Xiaobaihua to join forces to fight against the PUA master's scumbag suspense, the outline and the first five episodes of the script are also ready-made, there are two party A cards in charge of the editor's review, one said that the heroine's means "crossed the line", and the other said that "too negative energy".

In the end, there was a company that had read the script for a long time, and when I first communicated with me, I didn't discuss the script, so I said that I hoped I could change the script to a follow-up to their company's women's series, and if I agreed, the script might no longer belong to me.

Occasionally, I also fantasize about people like Liang Zhenhua and Bai Yiqing who have become screenwriters and producers and really have the right to speak, no matter what, now this script can only be pressed at home.

"The two heroines ≠ delaying the edge ball, no one dares to touch this blue ocean?"

@文学策划大王 29 years old Worked for an S-grade drama production company

When the online drama began to catch fire, I thought that I had the opportunity to write a "double heroine drama", but I didn't expect that until the "delay drama" became popular, fired, and banned, the "double heroine drama" was also "banned".

When I was a child, I liked to watch the Hong Kong drama "Miao Cuihua" performed by Kwan Yonghe, and I liked the second half of the plot where Miao Cuihua and Hui Yinghong's third aunt and Li Xiaohuan practiced martial arts together to save her husband, and I felt that women can be funny and interesting, or they can be very sassy and top. Later, as a screenwriter, I wanted to write such a female group drama even more.

But most of the costume women's dramas only need palace fighting dramas, and after palace fights are banned, everyone turns to house fights, in short, there are many women, and they must fight each other. My ability really can't write "Golden Bough Desire", but "Miao Cuihua" such a big heroine, the producers are more inclined to bitter sadomasochism, even if the heroine is added to the "funny woman" attribute, the middle and later sections must be sadomasochistic sadomasochism.

A producer who once contacted me kindly told me that the group portrait of women in costume is too much to eat subdivided themes, you can try urban dramas, so as to attract investment, there may be more opportunities. At the beginning of the film and television winter, I transferred to a film and television company to do literary planning, not only limited to customizing scripts for Party A, but also having the opportunity to read more novels, contact many authors, and find some suitable female themes for adaptation.

The fire of "Yanxi Raiders" made me see the potential of the double heroines of "Ling Hou CP", and I began to lock the theme I wanted to do on the story of the two heroines helping each other, which is better to do than the female group drama that will be too grand in the plot unfolding.

Suspense, detective, fairy xia, martial arts are my first choice, these four are just the market demand themes, the first two are because of a strong sense of type, very good and party A explains, the latter two are my personal obsession, but no matter what the theme, the core of the double heroine is the standard, male and female emotional drama can be dispensable, depending on the story.

I didn't expect to try to communicate with my boss or other producer friends several times, and the "double heroine" was rejected as soon as she opened her mouth, which may not be so directly denied, but the meaning is "little chance".

When "Mountain and River Order" was broadcast, I proposed that three "double male lead dramas" had exploded in three years, and "double female lead dramas" was still a blue ocean, and a producer directly said, "How can two women be the same as two men?" "Although the other party may mean that female audiences still love to watch male actors, this sounds a little uncomfortable to me.

There are also a more sensible producer who has asked me, after watching the hot article lists of major IP platforms, especially the IP big ones like Jinjiang, there may be many double male protagonists in the Top50 of the gold list, but how many double female protagonists are there? Indeed, a weak IP foundation is a fatal problem, and it is difficult to convince the producer with an original script.       

But with the broadcast of "Amazing Girl" and "The Wind", there are also two leading actresses who rely on CP to get out of the circle, and some producers have also been moved, and I came back and asked me if I had such a script, and I wanted to try it. I was very happy at that time, first pushed out the theme of a double female lead detective, and also proposed that female detectives like screenwriter Zhao Dongling also wrote "Cold Case", and "Bone Language" adapted from China's first female forensic doctor, the plot is completely guaranteed, and the two female police officers will also be very novel.        

Although there were bumps and bumps in the discussion, it was also considered to enter the outline stage, until we disagreed on the plot of how an undercover policewoman would catch a suspect without handcuffs, I thought that if there were no handcuffs, it would be enough to use hemp rope to tie a special rope knot, but the producer on the other side proposed to arrange for the policewoman to wear the dress of the hostess as an undercover agent, and after kicking the suspect with her short skirt raised her legs, she pulled off the stockings and tied the suspect's hands to the railing.    

I can't accept this kind of female symbol with a strong male gaze, not to mention that the practicality of this plot is not high, it is suspended, and what I can't understand is that the producer who proposed this kind of plot is also a woman.  

Later, although I didn't tear my face, I broke up because there were too many such contradictions, and I took my project book to find another home, and they seem to have redeveloped a similar theme on their own.

Not long after the broadcast of "Mountain and River Order", the "delayed drama" was banned, and I fell into a cycle of "the delayed drama was banned, and the double female lead drama could not exist", and when most producers heard the "double female lead drama" of the predicament of non-Chinese women, they seemed to decide that they were imitating the "delayed drama" selling CP sidelines, saying "we don't do that kind of drama", "how can there be no male protagonist" or shirking it with "the censorship problem is relatively big".

I used to see a big screenwriter complaining on Weibo that Party A questioned "how can the protagonist have no man", and I thought it was a strange encounter, but I didn't expect more than one producer to say this to me.

It is clear that the emotions and relationships that can be established between women are more diverse and delicate, and men often talk about things very well, such as watching a ball game today, and a computer tomorrow, but women can confide in each other, emotional topics and personal feelings will be more, and character relationships are easier to do well.

At the beginning of last year, I will help some friends to do some micro-short dramas, horizontal and vertical screens, see Douyin on "Twenty-Nine" such a double female lead drama to join forces to fight against scumbags and then start a business I am still very excited, I feel that the opportunity is coming again, after all, the industry is following the trend, it is not impossible to change my original suspense theme to this kind of thing, the result is three months, and the current producer chatted for a few rounds, and finally the producer still retorted, "It's better to be a sweet pet, the sinking market still looks at the sweet pet." ”

"Otaku = levitation, not worthy of being the protagonist"

@编剧叁叁 26 years old, self-employed screenwriter, specializing in romance themes

The female genre I abandoned is a story about otaku women.

Two years ago, a friend introduced a producer sister of an established film and television company and said that she hoped that the company would try to embrace online student content, so I found me who was relatively young and had sweet pet works.

After two rounds of talking, I probably understood the appeal of the producer's sister, which is to have both a "network sense" that young people like, and a part that reflects reality. So the common "middle-aged girl" story, and the kind of story of beating the junior in that year's popular "Thirty Only" are not very suitable.

Before meeting the producer's sister for the third time, I talked to my partner screenwriter and decided to prepare a few different plans for the other party to choose. Among them, two schemes, one is the common net sweet pet theme, and the other is the female model theme of marriage and family junior.

The last project is about what my partner and I want to do to combine "young women" and "reality", and also our own story, which is the story of "otaku girl".

My partner and I are both out-and-out otaku, and although I had thought about doing women's themes before, because I heard that most companies wanted to be middle-aged women in marriage and family, I felt that this was too early for me at the age of 26, and I lacked the observation of this type of people.

Screenshot of the Japanese drama "Hotaru no Hikari"

Now I decided to dig the story from ourselves: after graduation, I have no general workplace experience, that is, I write scripts at home, and from time to time I go out with office workers "wrong peak" to see the world, and I will see some different worlds, although my partner is 30+ years old, but has chased stars, mixed circles, and knows many friends who do live broadcasts, dating photos, cosplay and other new careers, are also otaku women, we want to make a female theme about young otaku women, reflecting the diversified career choices and survival status of young girls.

The producer's sister's first reaction after listening to it was "very good", it was "young people", and there was also a realistic part of "career choice", saying that it could move forward. My partner and I are also very happy, although we have not written this kind of story, but after all, it is based on my own experience with my friends, which should be very easy to grasp.

But it began to be difficult when the plan went down, and before entering the outline, it was directly stuck on the characters, and the three or four characters written by the experience of "sacrificing" themselves and several friends were considered "suspended" by the producer's sister, such as girls who have no love experience at the age of 30, only love the Internet, and do not like to deal with people live a rich life by selling two-dimensional peripherals.

"It's so levitating, even if I barely believe it, the audience won't believe it." It was the last direct communication between the producer's sister and us. Later, we have been communicating with the responsible editor of Party A, and the responsible editor has also given a plan such as "using these characters as supporting roles, and the protagonist is still a 30-year-old woman with marital difficulties", and the later plan has been done around this direction, but I have never seen this producer's sister come to a meeting together.

Later, because there were too many female themes on the market that told about the marital plight of women in their 30s, the project was also unable to meet on the video platform several times because of serious homogenization, and it was naturally shelved. Knowing the news of the shelf, although I was disappointed, I was also relieved, if I want to bite the bullet and do the middle-woman marriage dilemma, it is "suspended" for me.

The "house girl" script has also been done because of the character, and we have also tried to communicate with different parties to see if there is a chance to do it again, and I have never heard of similar themes on the market, so we have always felt that in terms of "novelty", this story still has a good chance.

Screenshot of the Japanese drama "Hotaru no Hikari"

Unexpectedly, there were about three or four recommendations after that, and they were rejected because of the suspension of the personality, in addition to feeling that this "house girl" is fictional, there are also feedback such as saying that these characters are too "lost" at home and not going out, "not in love" does not meet the audience's preferences, and selling two-dimensional peripherals is not enough "positive energy" and other feedback.

Until we last recommended this script, we had a good private conversation with a young boy planner under a producer's sister, and because he was the same age, he sent us a soul torture: "Have you ever thought that these middle-aged female producers, happy marriages, happy families, and full of professional confidence, empathize with people in circles with opposite living environments?" ”

That day, I remembered talking to my partner about the scene of "North and South", the play was filmed in Nanluoguxiang, Tuanjiehu Park, Yonghe Palace Hou Garden, and the house we rented was also in that area, almost every day to walk around, but why have we never seen the scenery in the play? Maybe they were all looking down at some high-end apartment or the top floor of the building, and we really just passed by the gate of the Lama Palace.