The recent workplace drama "Ordinary Glory", which was recently broadcast on Oriental Satellite TV, is coming to an end, and the Douban score is stable at 7.8 points. Compared with the previous domestic dramas that fall in love under the banner of the workplace, "Ordinary Glory" almost completely abandons the "emotional line" and shows the working status of "Xiaobai" who has just entered the workplace in the financial industry.
The Jiefang Daily Shangguan news reporter contacted the director Lu Xing. He is a "post-85", and the last widely known work was the web drama "Undocumented Crime", with a Douban score of 8.2. Jumping from criminal investigation crime to workplace dramas, he admits that he hopes to do some more challenging work in different genres. "After filming Undocumented Crimes, I was faced with a choice. Every director has to choose his or her own career path. I think differentiation is also a path that can be taken in the career development of a director. ”
In a domestic workplace drama, it is a bit risky to remove the love line. "'Ordinary Glory' abandons the love line, and in fact has a certain distance from the audience's daily theater-watching experience, including some expectations of the audience." But in Lu Xing's view, this is also part of the innovation of this play - writing about the daily life of the workplace and writing about the various sentient beings of the workplace is interesting enough. After the episode was broadcast, the audience's ratings supported the director's judgment to some extent. Taking the protagonist Sun Yiqiu as an example, from the confusion and anxiety at the beginning to being "seen" in the workplace through diligent and hard work, the professional life of the small characters in the play is not suspended and real.
Interestingly, sharp-eyed viewers will find that Lu Xing made a cameo appearance as a security guard in "Ordinary Glory"; and in "Undocumented Crime", he also played a security guard. This stems from his "Thief's Heart Doesn't Die" for his performance. "I studied acting for a while, but playing more than one role was a bit of a waste of my own work, so I could only play a role in one play." Lu Xing said, "I would rather keep playing the security guards, but not all plays have security guards, so this can't be achieved." ”
Dialogue with Lu Xing
"Undocumented Crimes" is "more ruthless" in audiovisual language
Shangguan News: From "Undocumented Crime" to "Ordinary Glory", the content and style of the two dramas are relatively different, will this affect the choice of audiovisual style?
Lv Xing: From my point of view, I hope that the content and form of the TV series are unified and complementary. The story of "Undocumented Crime" is more dramatic, there will be a strong dramatic conflict, including the tension of the character relationship, it will have very extreme or even extreme characters, so the way we choose in the audiovisual language will be a little more brutal. And "Ordinary Glory" is about the people and things that we come into contact with in daily life, although the professional environment and background are different, but the events we face are similar, so the way we use it will be a little weaker than the stylization of "Undocumented Crimes".
At the same time, we have a new question of how to make this seemingly choppy plot dramatic and attractive to the audience. So the focus of the story is on the text, including the presentation of the actors. Of course, fortunately, the actors presented quite interesting, not only the sense of reality in reality, but also let us feel that it is an interesting and suspenseful story, which can attract the audience to continue to look down. Some of the characters will also give everyone some extra joy.
Shangguan News: "Ordinary Glory", a story about the workplace, what first moved you?
Lu Xing: What really impressed me was actually the part of it that had a sense of reality and reality. Because I also have the experience of entering the industry as a newcomer, and I also have the experience of commuting to work in the office building. I hope to bring the lives of all beings in daily life and the lives of these white-collar workers who work hard in the metropolis to the screen.
In the play, the three masters and apprentices of the four groups particularly impressed me. Wu Kezhi is like a strict father, Lin Yuming is like a loving mother, Sun Yiqiu is like a "born child", the three people rely on each other in an environment, and then work together. Several of their scenes will not only arouse the anxiety and fear in my heart when I first joined the company as a newcomer, but also remind me of the leaders who have helped me, the big brothers. I also like Lao Wu, as an idealist, how does he choose in the face of life creeds and career dilemmas? Including Lin Yuming, he protected Sun Yiqiu like a calf. Their emotions in this part are still quite touching to me. They will have some idealism, and they are all very kind people at the same time, and it will be fun to make such a play.
Shangguan News: This drama more riskily abandons the love line and purely presents a workplace story. What was the reason for shooting?
Lv Xing: The question of the love line and the workplace may be because we have seen a lot of TV drama works before, which have turned the love line into the core story line, including whether the male and female protagonists can be together into the core suspense. Therefore, sometimes there will be a gap with the audience's psychological expectations, or with the "workplace dramas" advertised by some TV dramas.
Write a workplace drama, do you want a love line? What is the proportion of love lines? It's actually a tough question to consider and balance. But I think that the love line will not affect the professionalism of workplace dramas; it is not uncommon to fall in love in the workplace. But if the proportion of the love line is too large, it will indeed affect the viewing experience of workplace dramas. If you are a professional, you are unlikely to think about falling in love every day, which will conflict with daily workplace experience.
The presentation of the workplace by industry dramas should be "in-depth and simple"
Shangguan News: "Ordinary Glory" takes the financial field as the main entry point, and how does it reflect professionalism as a workplace drama? How do I keep my work from floating?
Lu Xing: In the process of doing this play, we mainly relied on a lot of research and interviews. First, we will understand the various characters in investment institutions, including big guys, middle-level people, and newcomers like Bai Jingting who have just entered investment institutions. In the process of visiting these actual characters, like Lao Wu played by Zhao Youting, as the middle level of the company, the dilemma he faces is actually quite interesting. Secondly, we will study a lot of investment cases that have actually occurred, we will select those things that have commonalities in reality, but also conform to the character relationships and plot structures required for the development of the story, and then dramatize them, and finally become our stories.
Shangguan News: There are many industry dramas that have started or are to be broadcast this year, and "Ordinary Glory" is also one of them. As a film and television work, how do you think it can truly reflect the situation of the industry?
Lv Xing: If we want to reflect the real situation of the industry, we must not only talk about the tall and successful side, but also talk about the problems of the industry and the anxiety of practitioners. This part is a very realistic part. Because you say how tall the investment institutions are, how bright and beautiful the workplace people are every day, this may already be in the audience's inherent impression. In the past, many works have talked about this part, including some workplace dramas, white-collar workers are quite relaxed and happy to work.
But "Ordinary Glory" focuses on the back of it, that is, the unknown side of the workplace, that is, the pressure, pain, and dilemma that practitioners face every day. In restoring the real workplace environment, we will find a lot of details and psychological basis for these characters in the interview process; and then find some dilemmas that can be processed by drama in real cases, and some points of contradiction and conflict. In the process of filming, in terms of scenes and props, the daily life of the investment institutions is done as well as possible.
Shangguan News: The show was filmed in a real office space, what was the reason for this? Was the shooting smooth?
Lv Xing: Shooting in the real scene is because the main scene of the story is in this layer of Jin Chen Capital. If you lock in a shed to shoot, there will be relatively large convenience conditions, such as less affected by light. But the disadvantages are also very prominent, so it is very much like making a sitcom. In order to let the actors find a better state and let everyone have an immersive experience, we rented a rough house in the Xinghui Center next to the Bund and changed it to the floor of Jinchen Capital.
Shangguan News: In your opinion, what characteristics should a qualified workplace drama have? For "Ordinary Glory", what are your personal satisfaction and regret? What works do you think are worth learning from before domestic and foreign workplace dramas?
Lv Xing: Qualified workplace dramas should have several important qualities. First of all, your understanding of the industry should be in-depth, and then your presentation to the audience should be shallow. We have to dig deeper into the industry, including a wide range of cases, internal logic, and in a way that the audience can understand to become one thing after another, to serve the characters, and then to impress and attract the audience. In addition, it is also necessary to show the emotions, different characteristics, and different dilemmas of the characters to the audience.
These two points, from my personal point of view, I think this time I did quite well. If you want to say sorry, the bigger thing is that the broadcast time is longer than the shooting time. Because when choosing cases at that time, I consciously chose some relatively forward-looking cases. But when it is broadcast, such as shared electric vehicles and boutique agriculture, there have been some investment projects.
We have learned a lot about workplace dramas at home and abroad. At that time, we did a similar theme and type of analysis, such as the American drama "Billions" and "White Tower", which are very realistic workplace stories.
Source: Author: Zhang Yi