"Godfather of Idol Dramas" Chen Mingzhang talked about the current situation of idol dramas, and it was very sad to feel that it had become a derogatory term丨People in the play
Text/Momo
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Tencent Entertainment and New Entertainment partners have launched the "People in the Play" column, focusing on the behind-the-scenes of hit dramas, this is the (7th) issue. Exclusive dialogue with Chen Mingzhang, director of the hit drama "You Have Today" and "Godfather of Idol Drama", tells the behind-the-scenes story.
Director Chen Mingzhang + Chen Xingxu and Zhang Ruonan's CP + the male protagonist of the domineering president + the growth of rookie women, "You Have Today" has undoubtedly pure idol drama genes, but the male and female protagonists with three views + light comedy style + one legal case after another not only broke the circle of idol drama audiences, but also made many idol drama fans have a very fresh feeling while being familiar with it.
Stills from "You Have Today Too".
From "The Prince Becomes a Frog", "The Star of the Sheep", "Fate I Love You", "Carat Lover", "Meeting Wang Lichuan", "The Second Time is also Beautiful"... It is not an exaggeration to say that there was a Chen Mingzhang in the youth of the post-8090s. has not made a youth idol drama in the past 10 years, and as soon as it was released, it was "You Have Today", which had a popularity of 9500 on the station and a Douban score of 7.2, no wonder netizens exclaimed, "The current puppet drama is the ruling area of director Chen Mingzhang." ”
Why did director Chen Mingzhang, who has always wanted to jump out of his comfort zone in recent years, suddenly return to the puppet show? How can a puppet drama make the audience like it?
The following is Director Chen Mingzhang's own statement:
The three words "idol drama" have become derogatory, which makes me sad
Strictly speaking, I didn't make "You Have Today" for the sake of the drama itself, but the relationship with Ning Meng. My fate with the Ningmeng team started with "Du Lala's Promotion", and the cooperation was very pleasant at that time, and later they established Ningmeng Film and Television. This time, because they want to expand the track, they hope that I can show the complete production process of idol dramas from text to production, packaging, art, music, etc., so that I can produce good works stably in the future.
Because idol dramas are actually quite difficult to do well, but for many people, it seems that it is OK to find two actors to sprinkle sugar, and now the three words "idol drama" have become derogatory to some extent, I am very heartbroken. So, even if it's not this script, as long as it's acceptable to me, I'll do it. Because it means a lot to me, I don't like to shoot this kind of thing anymore, I'm 50 years old this year, and I want to do something more family.
The heroes and heroines in the play are not only in love, but also seriously engaged in their careers
Generally, idol dramas are about falling in love with the background of an industry, and the author of this novel has experience as a lawyer, and the script is also very good in this regard, and there are many solid civil cases that can make the audience gain something, This is a part that is not available in general idol dramas, and it is also the part of the idol drama that I like that can inspire the audience.
What I want to do is to make the characters more three-dimensional, which is where I have to work hard and hard with the actors in the directing process, and it is also my characteristic as a director, that is, I pay more attention to the characters than the plot. We spent several days in the rehearsal room practicing before the start of filming, looking for the possibilities and positioning of each character, so that each character could be brought to life, so that everyone would find that they liked several characters in it, liked this person, and would be interested in what he or she did.
The kiss scene is specially placed at the back, and the audience's emotions will have a strong sense of pleasure
After finding the positioning of the characters, it is the grasp of the rhythm of the comedy. Life is hard, but I still hope to show you some happier works.
I think the comedy based on the characters is more durable, such as Bao Rui, who has always felt that he is the prince and the prince, and all his lines revolve around this emotion. Deng Ming and Tang Bing, who wanted to be rude to Cheng Yao, are very serious villains in the script, and I also use comedy to deal with them, so as not to make everyone feel emotionally separated when they watch it.
For example, in the part where Tang Bing insulted Cheng Yao, laughter seems immoral, but isn't this a comedy? I let them set fire to it, and then burn themselves, and the audience will laugh naturally. The villain must make him happy, this is the operation I am used to, everyone looks back, whether it is "The Prince Becomes a Frog" or "Fated I Love You" is like this.
Bao Rui is always able to repeatedly disturb the two-person world of the male and female protagonists at an inopportune time, and is laughed by netizens as the biggest villain in the whole play
The male and female protagonists Chen Xingxu and Zhang Ruonan are not comedians themselves, so it will be embarrassing to let them be funny and tickle the audience. So I don't let them do funny things, but make the situation funny, that is, I set up a more joyful situation, and they just need to act seriously. For example, when they kissed, both of them closed their eyes, Cheng Yao raised her head and raised her head up an inch, and kissed her chin. Everyone seems to like the plot where the feet of two people under the table are touching, which is also set up by us on the spot, the two people have a serious face, and the feet below are touching together, the audience will smile when they see it, but they feel very sweet, and they will believe that this kind of thing will happen.
There is also a kiss scene between the male and female protagonists, if it was according to the original script, they would have kissed a long time ago. But I just have to destroy it every time, two people can kiss indirectly by drinking milk tea, they can kiss on the tip of their nose and their toes, but they don't let them kiss mouth-to-mouth, and when they kiss together in 27 episodes, the audience will get a strong sense of emotional pleasure.
The comedy performance is actually difficult, but the male and female protagonists did a good job this time. I remember the first time I met Xingxu, he was a little worried about whether the comedy performance would be embarrassing. I said you don't have to worry, you just have to act normally in the situation I set. It's just for them to do it as it comes, but they have to do it accurately. Because comedy has a rhythm, and if the rhythm is not right, it's not funny, and they have a high degree of completion in this aspect.
Practice on the set, Chen Xingxu is always the first to raise his hand, and he is not afraid of making mistakes
The most important thing about CP sense is whether there are two people in one picture and whether there is temperature. I saw that Douyin and Weibo both said that they were very compatible, and I could understand it, because I really had a strong sense of CP, and I was always smiling in front of the camera, and it was really warm to watch. In some combinations, even if two people have been kissing and kissing, the audience can't feel the warmth, and the eyes of the two people can't feel the temperature when they look at each other. But the two of them are very warm. So the shot of the foot under the table is only a few seconds, why do you like it so much, I didn't shoot my face, and the audience can feel the temperature.
Chen Xingxu and Zhang Ruonan have a very strong sense of CP
It's the first time I've worked with them. Zhang Ruonan, what I like the most is her sense of life. Many people say that she has a first love face, and her Douyin post a random post is millions of likes, and the audience just likes her as a person, this face. Her own texture is already very, very good, which is very rare, so, for me, what I need to grasp is her scale in terms of performance and lines, because she is not studying acting, but non-professional classes are strong at some moments, so let her become a strong feature.
On the contrary, Xingxu was born as a child star and has a lot of acting experience. Instead, I have to try to make him less routine in his performance, so that he has enough performance space to make his very delicate parts and very domineering parts. So the audience will see that there is a big contrast between the front and back of some of his characters, no matter how fierce a boss is outside, he will become another person in the face of his girlfriend. Because each one is several faces. For example, I want to play the role of director on the spot, but in front of my mother, I am a child, and I will play tricks. I just have to have two faces for his role, but I can't make the audience feel separated. He's got a good handle on that. This is inseparable from his acting experience and hard work.
The domineering boss Qian Heng could only obediently admit defeat in front of Cheng Yao
I remember that when we were doing exercises before the start-up, he was very active and was the first to raise his hand. He is not afraid of making mistakes, and he is very smart, and he can draw inferences from one example. I especially like this kind of proactive actor. On the spot, he was very bold and would do whatever he wanted. Because he trusts me, I feel like his trust in me is very, very huge. I'm very grateful to him for that, because he trusts me and whatever I ask him to do, he trusts me and does it.
Sprinkle sugar like fructose in fruits, not industrial saccharin
There's nothing wrong with idol dramas being sweeter, but a lot of sugar is like industrial saccharin, and in my play, I hope that the sweetness is the fructose of the fruit, which is organic.
It's like the scene where Cheng Yao was stuffed into a cardboard box to take pictures of Biye, because she was drunk at that time, Qian Heng took her mobile phone to record it for evidence, and she came as soon as she saw the mobile phone facing her. A lot of times it's like this, girls will be better than yes as long as they see the camera, as if there is magic, and subconsciously they will be like this, so this setting is also more natural.
Including the pizza-eating scene that I loved. The heroine saw a couple of boys feeding girls pizza at the next table, so she motioned to the male protagonist to feed her with her eyes. But he would be a little embarrassed for a guy to do this kind of thing in public, so after receiving her eyes, I mustered up the courage, and when the pizza was halfway delivered, I took a shot of the heroine leaving the chair, leaning forward, and biting the pizza. No director would shoot like that, but I did. The girl's departure from the chair represents a two-way rush. It's that you move forward, you do your best, because of the personality problem, you are more restrained in this regard, it doesn't matter, you go halfway, and the other half will be done by me. It's a romantic picture and action. The male protagonist saw her bite down and found that it wasn't so difficult.,So a little further.,The two of them ate very happily.。 This small bridge, I processed it into a very important scene of the progressive progression of the representative characters, and the kind of laughter of the two people will infect the audience and make people happy. This kind of romance is organic, not the kind of industrial sprinkling sugar for the sake of sprinkling sugar, it is a romantic action at the level of the progressive characters.
The romantic scenes set up from the emotional progression of the characters can naturally make the audience infected
There are many scenes in the play, because of this kind of character-based setting and change, the audience will become very fond of this scene, not just watching a paragraph. Maybe the audience is unconscious and does not have a very clear sense of awareness, but because of this operation, the audience will feel very natural when watching it instead of saying "It's so tired of this candy". Why do you feel tired, why do you think this sugar is too sloppy, it must be the unnatural setting of the characters. I think industrial saccharin is still different from fructose from eating fruit.
Routines can be used, but they need to be packaged to make everything rational
Idol dramas do have a lot of routines, and in the face of the so-called routines, I try to use my label, which is fast-paced and relaxed, so that even if the audience feels very routine, they can accept it because they are very pleasant to watch. For example, I was already blackened at the beginning of the play, and the heroine would say, "What kind of idol drama happened to me?" There is also the setting of "listening to the female protagonist singing, and the male protagonist will fall asleep" in the play, but because idol dramas can sometimes allow a little distance from reality. I'll make a song that feels like a fairy tale and is indeed a bit hypnotic, so that the audience can enter a fairy tale perspective because of the hints of the music.
In fact, the reason why idol dramas are idol dramas is that they really have some magic things, that is, the so-called routines. It's like two people living under the same roof, it's been more than 20 years since "Full House of Romance", and it's been tried and tested repeatedly. Because two people with incompatible personalities are put together, there will be a lot of stories happening. But an old bridge section is not packaged in a way that is acceptable to the audience, and they don't watch it.
The plot that seems to be coincidental will become reasonable because of the foreshadowing, and it will not make the audience feel routine
In order for the routine to be accepted by the audience, I think the most important thing is that the logic of the story is clear and established, and it can't all be based on coincidences, even coincidences must be foreshadowed. For example, in the play, the male protagonist thought that he was going to have dinner with the female protagonist, but it turned out that he was a blind date arranged by his mother, and he happened to be discovered by the heroine's parents. I think how can it be so coincidental that the city is so big and so many restaurants? Just added a scene in front.,The heroine's parents have two discount coupons for this restaurant.,They thought it was left to them by their daughter.,In fact, it's the male owner's mother who asked her to bring it to the male owner.。 In this way, the logic of the plot is reasonable. Generally, idol dramas are blind dates for the male protagonist, and the female protagonist's parents will definitely find out, and then splash him with water, which is called a routine.
I want to try mature dramas, but my label is too clear, and no one is looking for family dramas
I think some viewers say that the male protagonist is rich and handsome, and the female protagonist is taking the growth route, is this a threshold that can't be bypassed?
In real life, can Shancai meet Daoming Temple? Will Daoming Temple love her? But most people are relatively ordinary, so they will hope to meet some of their expectations in the play. Idol dramas have this function, so most of the male protagonists are rich and handsome, and the girls are relatively ordinary, and then slowly grow up. Such a setting will be easy for female audiences to substitute, and it also has an emotional sustenance, so it has endured for a long time and has been able to work for more than 20 years.
There is also a sister-brother relationship, such as Charmaine Sheh in "The News Queen", a very sassy heroine, I would also like to shoot this kind of theme. Doesn't a girl have the right to fall in love when she gets older, and she doesn't have the right to romance? Of course there is. That's another kind of audience. Because now after women get married, have children, and enter the family, they don't necessarily have to do anything. They want to go their own way, live their own independent life, or find a boy who is 10 years younger than them, why not?! I also hope to give many mature girls the courage to pursue what they want. I made a "The Second Time is Beautiful" before, and the heroine is with a child. The second time in the play represents both love and career. If the first time is not good, then what is wrong with the second time?! I especially like that play because there is a very mature expression.
Dragon TV's 2019 ratings champion drama "The Second Time is also Beautiful" is the expression of maturity that director Chen Mingzhang likes
But this kind of mature drama doesn't look for me very much. I would love to make more family dramas, but because my label is too clear. Although filming this kind of drama is in my comfort zone, I know how far I can go, and it is very easy. In fact, in recent years, I have been deliberately working with mature actors, and I haven't made a drama with a young actor as the protagonist for almost 10 years, just because as I get older, the direction of my emotions will change. I hope to spend more time on life in the future.