Author/Red Breeze Female Editor/Wu Lixiang
First published: Entertainment Capital (yulezibenlun)
Recently, a costume comedy "Joyful Secret Agent", which gathered most of the entertainment industry and 69 stars to join, has become a hit in the film and television circle.
On the first day of broadcasting, the Baidu index of "Joyful Secret Agent" doubled 15.4 times to 77,000 points. The number of broadcasts of the three episodes on the line exceeded 100 million, and the seven episodes broke through the 400 million mark, surpassing the hotly discussed drama "Forensic Qin Ming" that was launched in the same period to rank first in the number of broadcasts on the whole network, and successfully left the annual drama "Old Nine Doors" behind...
It is shocking that "Joyful Secret Agent" has delivered such an answer sheet. However, at the beginning of its creation, this original comedy creation road that has now been bought by Youku at a sky-high price and has become one of the "no IP blessings" of the fourth quarter replay drama in 2016 has repeatedly encountered bottlenecks.
Recently, the entertainment capital reporter interviewed the behind-the-scenes promoter of the show for the first time - director Zhu Lingfeng, as well as the film's producer and producer Zong Shan, hoping to learn more stories behind the highlight of this "costume smile comedy" that has been sharpened for three years...
Bao Bell × Zhu Lingfeng cooperated seamlessly,
How can new themes that are not optimistic be recognized?
First of all, we still have to go back three years: in 2013, Bao Bell, who has always wanted to play Wei Xiaobao, has been unable to do so due to copyright and other issues. As a result, a costume comedy based on Wei Xiaobao's father broke out of the cocoon, and the story that revolved around the growth experience of the small people in the city was originally only a thirty-episode script, and this is the prototype of "Joyful Secret Agent".
Originally in accordance with the conventional TV series creation route, within a few months should be "finished" script creation, but repeatedly blocked, at that time was not optimistic about the "comedy" theme, coupled with the word "costume" so that many TV stations and copyright parties are prohibitive, the creation team of the whole "virgin" is unable to give any of the partners "guarantee confidence".
In 2014, Bao Bell, who encountered a bottleneck in the road to creation, found a good buddy who had cooperated with him when filming "Young and Crazy" - Zhu Lingfeng, the founder of Huashan Sword Culture Media, who was good at script storytelling control and project market-oriented operation, and the two hit it off and began to exert their strength again, not only making drastic changes to the original script, but also expanding the overall story to 45 episodes.
Zhu Lingfeng, the founder of Huashan On Sword
From the current point of view, "Joyful Secret Agent" has a lot of remarkable foresight in both the story and the exploration of new types of comedy. Under the aura of laughter stars gathering and all the stars, it is the undeniable strong storytelling and casting vision of the show: Bao Bell, who is talented in comedy, personally plays the role of "true color", and the interpretation of Niu Dabao's character is three points, Jia Ling's first time as the female number one of the TV series, playing a Qinglou woman, and Wang Ou, who has entered the public eye through "The Pretender" and "Langya List", is a powerful actress with good acting skills and appearance.
Bao Wenjing, who starred in comedy for the first time, Wen Song of Benshan Media; Lin Xue and Luo Jiaying represent the classic memories of a generation; the "first time" combination that was not optimistic about TV stations and copyright owners at the beginning can not only include a wider audience, but also add a lot of novelty to the screen where fresh meat is rampant.
However, such a dazzling achievement of "Joyful Secret Agent" repeatedly encountered obstacles in the early days. Zong Shan, the producer and producer of the play, was not without emotion when talking about the promotion of "Joyful Secret Agent", and Huashan's project on the sword was always not optimistic at the beginning, or it was difficult to measure it with a traditional vision of the buyer's market and the habitual investors. Encountering setbacks has become a habit of mine, and it is also a must for insisting on doing original comedy. "Because our project is a question mark, an X, something that has never been done before, like the combination of Bao Bell and Jia Ling in today's "Joyful Secret Agent", everyone is not sure, but I have always believed that this project can sell well." When others were not optimistic about this project, Huashan Jianjian resolutely increased investment, which may still come from my feelings about the market for many years! ”
Zong Shan, founder of Huashan Sword, producer and producer of "Joyful Secret Agent"
Turning over Zong Shan's resume, this former general manager of the marketing promotion department of LeTV Pictures, who served as the producer of the movie "Warring States" and was responsible for the production and publicity of the entire project, led the publicity link of blockbusters such as "Disappearing Bullets" and "Daredevil 2". With 15 years of experience in the first-line market, zongshan has a clear and accurate judgment on the preferences of mainstream audiences, constantly capturing and following the changes in the audience's viewing tastes.
Based on the accurate judgment of the needs of the audience in the first-line market, as well as the extraordinary courage and boldness, Huashan Sword has been fearlessly running rampant in ip and the film and television circle with many giants. And what is surprising is that in today's film and television industry, which is known for its high investment risk, Huashan Sword has never lost its hand in terms of project income or word of mouth.
"It may be due to personality, the more others say no, I am optimistic about the project, the more I want to make it and do it well."
Indeed, taking the "Medical Hall Laughter" series, which became famous in the First Sword War of Huashan, as an example, in the era of closed environment sitcoms unifying the rivers and lakes, "Medical Hall Laughter" combines detectives and comedies, promotes stories in an open environment, and three episodes of a complete case, which is indeed a blank in domestic comedy. However, this play was also met with countless "unoptimity" in the early days.
Deeply rooted in comedy,
Where is the "diamond diamond" of Huashan's sword?
It is not difficult to open the resume of huashan sword, a company that has been established for just 4 years, and it is not difficult to find that the deep cultivation of the comedy market segment has become the unique positioning and direction of Huashan sword.
Zong Shan said that there are three reasons why Huashan On sword has a special love for comedy:
First of all, with the increase in the pressure of national life, the audience has a growing rigid demand for comedy, which is also the reason why box office dark horses such as "Pancake Man", "Charlotte Troubles" and "Tai Lu" are also comedies in recent years;
Secondly, after China's accession to the WTO, more Hollywood blockbusters will enter the Chinese market in the future, and comedy with Chinese characteristics will undoubtedly be the type with the most innate localization advantages;
Of course, the most important point is that comedy can be combined with different types of commercial elements to form subdivisions, such as action comedies represented by Jackie Chan's films, thriller comedies represented by Huang Baiming's "Happy Ghost Series", highway comedies represented by Xu Zheng's "Tai Yuan", etc., while detective comedies are a market blank until Huashan's "Laughing At the Medical Center" appears.
Although comedy is a constant victory in the market, it has become a consensus in the industry that comedy is difficult to do. Comedy is more dependent on actors and more demanding on creation. In order to do this "porcelain work" better, Huashan Sword has made sufficient efforts in script and production, and the team has been formed to be as sharp and efficient as a "diamond diamond".
In terms of script creation, Huashan Sword has 4 to 5 screenwriting teams, and has formed a new creative generation system - "story masters", which in addition to excellent professional senior screenwriters, also gathers "non-mainstream" creators such as online novels, humanities authors, game script designers, reality TV program planners, and satin hands. When creating the script, the storyline, character settings and situational lines are modularized, drawerized, and united, and each "story master" is not only an excellent individual who is alone, but also an inseparable and powerful whole when grouped.
In the creation of "Joyful Secret Agent", 9 screenwriters participated in the creation, and when "The Laughter of the Medical Hall" was created, there were also 8 screenwriters involved in the project, and this unique organizational structure and efficient creative method have become the advantages of Huashan Sword.
Nurturing the emerging director team to create a debut is also a major feature of Huashan's sword production. According to Zong Shan, Huashan Has signed 2 to 3 cutting-edge directors and will spend more money to encourage them to explore new themes and create refreshing debut works, just like Bao Bell and Zhu Lingfeng's "Joyful Secret Agent".
"Joyful Secret Agent" work photos
Next year the project is more diversified,
Jointly develop a new blue ocean of costume comedy with industry predecessors such as Alibaba Pictures and TVB
Huashan Theory Sword has emerged and attracted many industry giants to cooperate with it. "My Frozen Boyfriend" is a fantasy campus romantic comedy jointly created by Huashan On Sword and Ali Pictures; the highlight of 2017, "New Heaven Descending God of Wealth", is a work they jointly developed with Hong Kong's Shaw Brothers.
In addition, "Modern Heart", "Tang men Laughing" and "Medical Hall Laughter 3" and related big movies will be launched next year. There are more and more projects, and more and more actors are willing to cooperate with Huashan Sword. It is precisely because they are at the forefront of the market and are good at discovering projects with great commercial value, and these projects can help artists to complete the improvement of their own performing arts status and the enrichment of performing arts resources, which is a process of pioneering and creating and forming a win-win situation.
With some traditional film and television companies sticking to the traditional satellite TV end, Huashan On the sword is good at flexibility, and will focus on new media terminals such as video websites, actively embrace Internet users, study user portraits, and let themselves occupy a place in the increasingly fierce competition.
Although it was only four years old, Huashan Sword has produced a satisfactory report card for the industry's internal and external affairs. It is reported that Huashan Sword is still actively exploring the film-game linkage, film-comic linkage, and actively cooperate with other comedy talents in the industry, although the scale of Huashan Sword Company is not large, but with their concept of doing fine products, I hope to be able to use better works to feed the audience, and the company that is constantly innovating is worthy of attention in the industry.