The Paper's reporter Yang Kaiting
The two works of "Twenty Not Confused" and "Thirty Only" have been broadcast successively, and in the current social atmosphere of focusing on women's growth and women's issues, there is a sense of response. The producer of the two works, Lemon Meng Pictures, has received common attention from inside and outside the industry over the years because of the popular realistic theme works such as "Little Joy" and "Little Parting". In terms of the creation of realistic themes, this team seems to have formed their own set of creative logic and methods.
The Paper interviewed Chen Fei, CEO of Lemon Meng Pictures and the chief producer of "Thirty Only" and "Twenty Not Confused". Chen Fei said that the two projects of "Twenty Not Confused" and "Thirty Only" are very fateful, and they began to plan and create almost at the same time, starting around the middle of the week last summer, and now broadcasting around the middle of the week. With the popularity, these two works also constitute the representative works of the new women's theme series of Lemon Meng, "We hope to write and discuss the multiple pressures, dilemmas and growth faced by women of different ages through these two works." In fact, 'not confused' and 'just' are both attitudes, recognizing themselves, following the heart, and living out their true selves. ”
"Twenty Not Confused" and "Thirty Only" posters
In the script creation of "Twenty Not Confused" and "Thirty Only", Chen Fei said that the common point is that they all establish special personalities and let the characters encounter some special events in a special age stage. "Constructing a special personality is a starting point for creation, but the end point must fall to the public to generate real empathy." From the beginning to the end, how to deal with the elements of a pair of contradictions and conflicts such as 'extreme' and 'real'? In fact, it is very challenging for creators. ”
For the differences in the creation of the two works, Chen Fei believes that "Twenty Not Confused" is the "innovation" of scarce themes, and "Thirty Only" is the "breakthrough" of similar themes. Compared with the novelty of "Twenty Not Confused" in the youth inspirational theme, "Thirty Only" explores the various dilemmas of women's careers and families around the age of 30, which are not scarce in urban family life dramas, so it is difficult to stand out in similar works. In the end, the "breakthrough" of "Thirty Only" not only in the communion of special characters, extreme plot and real details, and real resonance, but also has a sharp expression of values that conform to the characteristics of the times.
"A 30-year-old, compared to a 20-year-old, is carrying a load. The so-called thirty-year-old chinese tradition requires you to reach the age of 30 and have a stage of delivery of results. Women also have to think about their social roles, such as whether to be a wife, a mother? By the time I'm 30, there may be potential psychological implications that I may not have as much time to try and make mistakes. ”
"But what we want to express is, what about 30 years old? We can still start over, we still have to recognize ourselves, we still have to live the way we want, this is the expression of our attitude. ”
From the extension of the work "Thirty Only", Chen Fei also talked about his own growth experience, entering the professional field of radio and television film and television in his 20s, and at the age of 30, he began to truly position film and television as his lifelong career direction. "I think it is very happy to be able to engage in this career, for individuals, the creation of one work after another is actually the process of continuous thinking and inward exploration of creators, which allows me to have a deeper self-awareness and better handle my relationship with the world; in terms of the attributes of the profession, through the works to record the lives of ordinary ordinary people, write the times, and explore their own thinking on some issues to express externally, influence others, and soothe people's hearts, which is the core value and responsibility of film and television literary and artistic creation."
Chen Fei, the chief producer of "Thirty Only" and "Twenty Not Confused"
【Dialogue】
In the process of script writing, some of the dilemmas and problems faced by women in this age group were investigated
The Paper: Did you do some observation or research on the same type of theme in the early stage of creation, and there have been many projects on such themes that have been made into group dramas in recent years.
Chen Fei: In fact, most of Ning Meng's realistic theme works are original, and we will not refer to other works in terms of theme positioning and problem solving. In the process of script creation, such as twenty and thirty, we will do user insights, to investigate some of the dilemmas and problems faced by women in this age group, and then discuss with the screenwriter, see how the characters and plots are combined with the topic, how to dig deep and express values.
According to our observation, the reason why group drama is more popular in recent years may be because the ecology and value expression of the current society are very diverse. From a creative point of view, it is also a desirable method for you to choose a profile and then make changes and growths in different characters' life states. Today's users, they have a high demand for complex information, watching a long video episode content, they want to get more information, as well as a more in-depth experience.
The Paper: Indeed, the rise of short videos has actually changed the audience's requirements for long videos.
Chen Fei: Yes, because the short video information rhythm is dense, it deconstructs the psychological rhythm of users to watch long videos again, squeezes out the time they spend on long videos, and changes the aesthetics and needs of users who consume long videos. When there was no short video before, a user may have to watch more than 10 long episodes a year, and after having a short video, a large amount of fragmented time is consumed in the short video, so that the user can spend more time watching a drama of more than 40 episodes, and must give him a reason. The reason is either a social need, such as people around me watching and discussing; or a need for empathy, from which I find an inner reflection and spiritual resonance and nourishment. Therefore, how to make long episodes more abundant, carry more information, how to innovate, how to empathize, is the problem we have been paying attention to in our creation.
Tong Yao as Gu Jia
Jiang Shuying as Wang Manni
Mao Xiaotong as Zhong Xiaoqin
The Paper: Curious about a consideration process in the construction of the main creative team, do we see that the three heroines and the actors are actually very fit?
Chen Fei: "Twenty Not Confused" and "Thirty Only" are actually the display of the accurate casting of lemon meng realistic themes. Our previous casting, whether it is "Mr. Good" or "Little Farewell" or "Little Joy", is also relatively recognized by everyone, and we also try to dig out and launch some fresh faces in the industry every year.
Our casting is mainly from two levels of consideration, in the perspective of realistic themes, first of all, the actor should meet the role, "seven points like three points", to find actors close to the role, it is very important; secondly, in the overall consideration of the actor's interaction relationship, whether the actors are within a performance system, whether their combination of interaction has a new chemical reaction. For example, in "Thirty Only", the three heroines are relatively mature actors, and everyone has seen their different screen images before, but when the three of them are combined, they will have different chemical reactions. Then for the selection of male characters, we will try to consider fresh faces as much as possible, so that the whole combination will produce a new sense of space.
"Thirty Only" is actually a "breakthrough" of similar works.
The Paper: What are the new challenges you face as a producer when you create Thirty Only?
Chen Fei: The difficulty of "Thirty Only" may be in three aspects, the first is that "Thirty Only" is a "breakthrough" of similar works, because similar themes are not uncommon. It is not the same as "Twenty Not Confused", which is the "innovation" of scarce works.
"Twenty Not Confused" Liang Shuang (played by Guan Xiaotong), Jiang Xiaoguo (played by Bu Guanjin), Luo Yan (played by Li Gengxi) and Duan Jiabao (played by Dong Siyi) are stills of group portraits
The second point is that its starting point is a special character and an extreme plot, but in the end it falls into the empathy of the public, which is more difficult from a creative point of view. Zhang Yingji, the screenwriter of "Thirty Only", also said, "At present, new women are very complex and changeable, difficult to write, and heavy on the impermanence of dog blood, writing light is not painful or itchy." "From writing all the way to production, and finally to presentation, this scale is difficult to grasp.
The third is perhaps the most difficult, how to make a work that expresses a clear female perspective and a female position. For example, in the play, when men and women have contradictions and conflicts, how to show the attitude of the male side? How to reflect the female position? Very challenging for the operator. If it is not done well, it will form a kind of overlook, pushing the male to the opposite side, which will be biased.
The Paper: These three difficulties, how do you think we should solve and overcome them?
Chen Fei: The first difficulty we overcome is through the collective creation of the team, and I think collective co-creation is a very important point. For example, the script of "Thirty Only" was personally created by screenwriter Zhang Yingji, but in the process of creation, Lemon Meng made user insights at the company level, intercepting the problems and dilemmas faced by these women through a large number of group portrait interviews and one-on-one in-depth interviews with 30-year-old women, which have a large number of real materials, and their real values in it, and then handed over to the screenwriter to integrate together, which is an interactive collective creation process. Entering the production stage, together with director Zhang Xiaobo and all the main creators and starring actors, we will explore and break through in all aspects of the deep excavation of the intention of the play, the presentation of real details, the innovation of image aesthetics, the design of art modeling, the unity of performance style, etc. In the end, the work must stand out as a comprehensive presentation of collective co-creation.
The same goes for how to get to mass empathy from special human settings. For example, Wang Manni's luxury cabinet sister, enough special people, special occupations, she faces strange rich people every day, but she herself is a relatively ordinary and ordinary Shanghai drift, this gap itself provides sufficient performance space for the particularity of drama. The dilemma she faced was that at the age of 30, I would have a stage of delivery in my career, or I would like to have a landing point in my marital feelings and find an ideal partner to start a family. The choices she makes step by step in the workplace and emotional difficulties, so that the logical and true emotions land, can make the audience empathize, and even make the audience feel sorry for her, strangle her wrists, and applaud her. This is the direction in which we focus when we create.
The third point is also through collective co-creation, because screenwriter Zhang Yingji, me and Ou Zong (Xu Xiaoou, the chief producer of "Twenty Not Confused" and "Thirty Only") we are all women, and our perspective and position are partial to women. But our director, Zhang Xiaobo, has added a valuable male perspective for us, making the play look more full and three-dimensional, and making our play expression more authentic and believable.
The hardest part of the industry is that every work has to be zeroed out
The Paper: In your opinion, what do you think is the core competitiveness of Lemon Meng? And the industry has changed very rapidly in the past two years, the film and television industry is also being impacted by various new cultural content, do you think that the core competitiveness of Lemon Meng may be weakened or replaced in the future, or a very big change?
Chen Fei: Although Lemon Meng has only been established for five years, our partners and our own elite team are experienced practitioners in the industry, and I summarize the core competitiveness of Lemon Meng, which is the organizational ability to continuously produce head content. Our content strategy is "super content connects the new masses", and our initial positioning to enter the market is to only do head content. This head content, developed to today, can be divided into the Taiwan network public head long series, and we will focus on the development of the pure network layer head short series this year.
The most difficult thing in this industry is that each work must be zeroed out after each work, there is no set of mechanized processes to copy the success of the previous product, so the most test of this industry is whether you can continue to produce innovative head content that keeps pace with the times, Lemon Meng after years of efforts to create and accumulate this ability, this ability is mainly reflected in the organizational ability, including our partnership system + elite team of ecological organization, and the continuous iteration of lemon content creation and production methodology.
We have also been trying to build a relatively high moat over the years and continue to iterate on ourselves. I dare not say that in the rapid changes in the industry, we can stand in an invincible position for a long time, and we have always maintained an entrepreneurial mentality. In fact, in 2014, when Lemon Meng was founded, it experienced great changes in the industry, and the consumption of long-form content by users gradually shifted from traditional TV to video websites. So today, at the moment when short videos are violently impacting long videos, we are also always paying attention to how long episodes are undergoing changes and the impact and disruption brought about by this change.
I think that long episodes are accelerating to C, and the development of technology will change the product form, user experience, and even production methods and broadcast channels of long series in the future. Change is eternal, what we have to do is to establish our own core competitiveness, and constantly let our ecological organization evolve, because any strategic goal must ultimately rely on people to complete, our industry of course needs talented individual creators, but more importantly, we need a collective that can achieve each other. This is also my personal focus and focus, how to build a good lemon meng this biotype organization, so that many talented, like-minded people come together to continuously produce head content. We firmly believe that what ultimately drives the company forward is the same values.
The Paper: Like you said, Lemon Meng has summed up a methodology for head content in recent years, can you talk about it briefly?
Chen Fei: The methodology is more complicated to discuss, it covers from the early research and development to the selection of topics, the positioning of the track, the method of breaking the problem, to the construction of the character, how to do the character portrait, how to build the world view of the work; and then to the stage of mid-term production and production, how to build our semi-open production system - the core post, our internal personnel to control, the external we recruit very talented each of the main creative types; and then how to do quality control, etc., each link of the entire chain has some methodology. We will pay special attention to refining and summarizing, each of our works will have two review meetings, a review is after the qingqing, a small range of review to find problems, summarize what can be precipitated methodology. Another time after the review was broadcast, we did a full review, combined with the final market response to do user insight, which is a tradition we have adhered to for many years.
The Paper: This year's film and television market has also been affected by many factors, and the impact of individual factors on the future is also relatively long-term. I also want to know if Lemon Meng has made some strategic adjustments to this next?
Chen Fei: In terms of content strategy, our biggest insistence is to only do head content, in the head content, originally we were the head of the Taiwan network public long series, after two years of brewing, we will also make efforts to develop a pure network circle head short series this year. Compared with long episodes aimed at the widest range of public users, short episodes with strong circle attributes are more extreme in the pursuit of updating sharpness in expression. The three theme tracks of the initial attempt: gender topics, suspenseful reality, and youthful romance, are more suitable for undertaking the realist creative advantages of Lemon Meng. In addition, strategic exploration also includes innovative product forms and some toC business monetization methods.
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhe
Proofreader: Zhang Liangliang