During the national people's war "epidemic", two documentaries "Chinese Doctors" and "The Story of the Police Station 2019" are aimed at the two professional groups of doctors and police, respectively, multi-perspective and comprehensive presentation of the various faces of these two professions - sometimes warm and sometimes harsh, must fulfill responsibilities and face contradictions, occasionally disappointment is more hope, and thus interpret the important role played by the medical and police industries in national life. While the public has improved their understanding of their work, they can also more deeply appreciate the bittersweet and bittersweet of these professions. As a result, the two documentaries have been greatly recognized by TV viewers, and some doctors in "Chinese Doctors" and some police officers in "The Story of the Police Station 2019" have even been sought after on the Internet and become "Internet celebrities".
Documentaries showing a certain industry and receiving public praise for this industry do not seem to be unique cases. For example, "The Human World", "Emergency Room Story", "Life Speed emergency 120", which focused on doctors before, "Big Country Craftsman", "I Repair Cultural Relics in the Forbidden City", which showed high-end craftsmen, "Looking for Craftsmanship", and even "The Last Lollipop", which focused the camera on the industry of lollipops (porters), have all received great praise and recognition.
The paradox is that the industry TV series that should come from life but are higher than life and art show life have received few praises. The upcoming "Settle Home" depicting the real estate agency industry and the just-concluded "Perfect Relationship" that reproduces the public relations industry are not ideally evaluated. In connection with the overall poor reputation of various domestic industry dramas before, we can't help but ask: industry dramas also pay attention to a certain profession or a certain industry, but why can't they reach such praise as documentaries, resulting in professional practitioners always constantly declaring themselves "We are not like this", and ordinary audiences can not rise to any recognition and appreciation of such occupations and industries? Behind the screen brushing of these documentaries, what is implied is the audience's expectation of high-quality domestic industry dramas.
The production causes of industry dramas: market development and genre segmentation
The so-called industry drama is a TV series that reflects the industry-related stories based on practitioners around the typical state of an industry. Different from workplace dramas, workplace dramas can be narrated as long as there is a working occasion as the background, and as for what industry the protagonist is engaged in, it does not affect the advancement of the plot; and the story and content of the industry drama must reflect the performance of related industries and unfold the plot within related industries.
Industry dramas are not a new genre of drama, but have long-term and successful drama cases overseas. Since the new century, more and more domestic dramas have begun to get involved in industry dramas, and in recent years, while the production of industry dramas has gradually increased, it has also shown a conceptual trend - that is, many dramas are advertised as industry dramas and marketed. There are three main reasons for this:
First, industry dramas are tv drama types that have been proven successful by other countries and regions; second, industry dramas can broaden the existing domestic TV series genres to distinguish the market and carry out a certain degree of innovation; third, the audience also has a wide range of needs for industry dramas.
These three points may be the reason why many industry dramas have been produced and released in recent years. However, in essence, the industry drama is a type of TV series, there are certain rules for its production, the domestic industry drama is still in the stage of naïve exploration, and has not grasped the core and essence of its production, which has also caused the general reputation of domestic industry dramas to be poor. The documentary, while truly recording life, also embodies the dramatic conflict and tension, although there is a story, but far from the blunt shaping of the market and the crappy imagination of the genre, with a natural sense of closeness and realism.
International comparison of industry dramas: the degree of professionalism and the bias of narrative
Although it is said that "three hundred and sixty lines, the line is out of shape", not every industry is suitable for the production of TV dramas and becomes an industry drama. Looking at Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, which are extremely successful in the production of industry dramas, industries such as medical treatment, criminal investigation and legal affairs are the objects of long-standing industry drama performance.
Medical industry dramas, representative plays, such as "Grey Anatomy", "Dr. House" and "Ren Doctor" in Europe and the United States, such as "Romantic Doctor Master Kim", "Unnatural Death", "Doctor X: Surgeon Gate Unknown", etc.; the representative of criminal investigation industry dramas are "FBI", "Chicago Police Department", "Criminal Psychology", "Naval Crime Investigation Office", "Scene", "Prosecutor's Inner Biography", "Secret Forest", "Metropolitan Police Department Search Lesson 9 Series", etc.; and the legal drama represents "Wind Riot Lawyer", "Wind Riot Lawyer", "Storm Lawyer", "Police Department" Special Victims of Law and Order", "Impunity", "99.9: Lawyer specializing in criminal matters", "Rich Defender", "Neighbor Lawyer Zhao Dehao", etc.
Why do these three industries provide a steady stream of "creative" inspiration and themes for industry dramas, and become the objects of choice for enduring industry dramas? It may also be caused by three reasons.
First, these professions, whether doctors or prosecutors, judges, police officers, or lawyers, require expertise. Professionalism is a major feature of its profession, and it is obvious that a professional occupation can provide professional content and creative guarantee for tv drama production.
Second, these industries, which are closely related to each of us, can continue to provide various stories in this industry because of the particularity of the industry. For example, various cases in hospitals, various cases in police stations, and various lawsuits in law firms not only provide the largest "reservoir" for the content production of TV series, but also implicate social changes.
Third, these industries are the most contradictory and conflicting, that is, the most dramatic and conflicting industries. Life and death, good and bad, guilt and innocence, these most relevant contents of the industry, but also implicated human nature, so there is a lot of room for play - whether it is the expression of the industry, or the reflection of society.
Therefore, as a progressive relationship, because of the profession, there are stories, because there are stories to connect society and life, so these industries are the industries that can most arouse our thinking about life and life. In the same way, we have seen the blockbuster "Chinese Doctor", "The Story of the Police Station 2019" and the documentaries that have received good reputation before, all of which have the shadow of these industries.
Looking at the development process of domestic industry dramas, from the beginning of the century to today's relatively hot concept, our industry dramas are also based on three industries, such as "Emergency Department Doctor", "Surgical Storm", "Heart Technique" and so on in the medical industry, showing the criminal investigation industry's "Criminal Investigation Files", "Decisive Victory in court", "White Night Pursuit", etc., focusing on the legal industry's "Divorce Lawyer", "Elite Lawyer", "Gold Medal Lawyer" and so on. In recent years, in addition to the three most important industries, the national drama has also produced industry dramas such as "The Hunting Ground", which pays attention to the headhunting industry, "Dear Translator", which pays attention to the group of translators, "In the Distance", which pays attention to the logistics industry, and "My True Friend", which pays attention to the housing industry. Overall, however, these traditional and emerging industry dramas have not received universal praise.
An important reason is that industry dramas should reflect social changes. Because professions and professions connect life, doctors treat patients, police arrest prisoners, lawyers handle cases, each of which is related to people. At the same time, industry dramas are genre dramas, so the bottom line of the "professional" problem of the industry cannot be broken. Cases or cases are "professional", patients and prisoners are "people" are stories, and social changes. However, some domestic industry dramas do not express social changes through the stories of patients and so on, but put the main narrative power and storyline on the workplace "palace fight" or emotional entanglement, neither the truth of the documentary and the reverence for the industry, nor the professionalism of mature genre films, so as not to obtain a good reputation.
The production strategy of the industry drama: the glory of the profession and the recognition of the audience
Although the number is small, we also have some industry dramas that are both acclaimed and popular – achieving high ratings and receiving wide acclaim – such as "Six Groups of Serious Cases" for the police, and "The Name of the People", which shows the prosecutor. These dramas, like the widely acclaimed documentaries that depict different industries, have won the love of most people. The reason for this is that these dramas have increased people's understanding of this profession and the cognition of this industry, and at the same time, to a greater extent, people have discovered the love, efforts and struggles of practitioners for the profession, and also let people who do not understand this profession issue yearning, recognition and appreciation for this profession.
Toh Carlisle warns us that the first problem for a man in this world is to find the job he is supposed to do. A good industry drama should be able to show the shining point of this industry and make the audience yearn for this profession. We can use the simplest criterion to test whether an industry drama is successful, that is, when the industry drama truly shows all aspects of the profession, there are still countless people who are determined to engage in this industry because of the TV series. In 2003, Takuya Kimura starred in the aviation industry-backed TV series Goodluck!! ), in which he plays the pilot in the play. According to Japanese media reports, after the drama was broadcast, Japan Airlines, which fell into a slump after the "9/11" incident, received a large number of cover letters, and the aviation industry became a career that Japanese people aspire to. This is the character and pursuit that an industry drama should have.
A good industry drama must be based on life to show that the industry includes all aspects of glory and humility, but it is more important to show the practitioner's love for the profession and the pursuit of the profession. Rodin said that the biggest shortcoming of modern people is the lack of love for their profession. Some of our TV drama practitioners, because of their lack of love for their profession, cannot go deep into a certain industry to understand this industry, and at the same time cannot love their profession, they have crudely imagined and produced other industries, so there will be so many "pseudo-industries", trying to deceive themselves while also convincing TV viewers. This makes the production of most industry dramas have been under the development trend of the middle and low levels, and the audience sees the exaggeration of the plot and the impetuosity of creation under the gimmick of the industry drama. In contrast, those documentaries that have swept the screen and exploded, with real and glorious workplace figures, let us see the dignity of the profession and the charm of the profession, which is what the domestic industry drama lacks, and it is also worth reflecting.
Image source: "Chinese Doctor", "The Story of the Police Station 2019", "Grey's Intern"
Author: Lv Peng (Researcher, Institute of Journalism, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences)
Editor: Tong Weijing