Author | Zhang Yitong
The finals of "The Actors Please Take Place" were finally presented in the form of live broadcast.
Live broadcast is undoubtedly the best form for a program that will eventually produce a "result". When Niu Junfeng walked to the center of the stage and picked up his "Actor of the Year" trophy, it seemed to remind everyone once again of the competitive background of this show.
In the past few months, he successfully entered the crew, and went to the end in multiple rounds of assessments by the director, film critics and audience, becoming Chen Kaige's "ultimate choice" and finally becoming the "Actor of the Year" under the audience's choice. .
But this is not the only "result" of the show. Just before Niu Junfeng accepted the award, the four directors selected the champion of this group and announced the actor-exclusive contract signed with the four actors. Until the end, they still control the most An important right to speak, and become the real "successor" and "beneficiary".
"Is the movie the art of the director or the art of the actor?" In the inter-director interrogation session at the beginning of the whole season, this was thrown by Zhao Wei to Li Shaohong as the first question. We have the same questions about "Actors Please Take Your Place". Judging from the competition system and results, it is undoubtedly an actor selection program, but the director did dominate the plot of the reality show most of the time, and even became a more important role.
In conventionally understood actor variety shows, this kind of "fuzziness" is almost impossible to happen. In the era of TV variety shows, "This Is the Actor" created a variety show model of acting skills competition, and the burst of acting skills of the actors became the core of the show. When the subject becomes a video platform that tries to control more production materials and content production with variety shows as a cut, this kind of purpose becomes more concrete, and variety shows begin to serve the casting of several or even one drama.
As the producer of the show, Qiu Yue and the team hope to do something different. Not only are all original programming modes, but also a new perspective with the director as the core. And all of this is based on a core concept, "We are not going to give an answer, but to restore how the real participants in this industry do it."
"Return to the logic of the industry itself and solve its real pain points." Qiu Yue Said to "Three Tones." A set of methodology based on reality insight has successively guided the creation of a series of vertical industry programs such as "Son of Tomorrow", "Instant Audio", "Actors Please Get In", and has been continuously improved and consolidated in practice.
01 | What we want to show is the whole picture
is doing a variety show with performance as the theme, which has been on the schedule of Qiu Yuehe's team.
"There are not many categories with particularly explosive content," said Qiu Yue. In Tencent Video’s evaluation criteria, having such a possible category often has multiple characteristics. It needs to occur frequently in the lives of ordinary people, but at the same time it has a long-term professional accumulation, and has not been completely exposed to the public view, maintaining a certain sense of mystery.
"Performance has always been a subject that we think we can dig deeper." Qiu Yue said that the production team is not completely without worries. Performance is a highly professional thing. "Will the audience be interested? Can they understand it? The results of the
user survey gave Qiu Yuehe team a big surprise and dispelled their worries. The audience's requirements for actors are extremely high, and they also have a very professional judging system for acting skills.
"No matter how professional you speak, the audience will not feel that you can't listen or understand. He will only be afraid that you don't have enough dry stuff. This actually establishes the value output temperament of the entire program for us."
Value output is based on an equal dialogue with the audience, and the emphasis is placed on the restoration and presentation of the actual situation, rather than giving a fixed conclusion. This is also determined by the peculiarities of the performance. "There is no standard answer to performance. You will find that many times, the real top celebrities in the industry have different views on the same thing." In the first episode of
, The details of Bao Wenjing's "whether to take the watch or not" in the impromptu performance sparked a clear debate among the four directors. "But this is artistic creation, not measured by right or wrong. We have studied the barrage and found that each audience has their own understanding and judgment of a performance, this is the most valuable part of the program." Qiu Yue hopes Can try to restore the full picture of the industry. In the initial planning, they also considered connecting the program logic with IP as the orientation, but finally found that it was not feasible.
"The image of the main role of mature IP has been very fixed, and the audience has a preset image of the actor. Even if weWith multiple IPs, only a few types of actors can be shown in the end. "Qiu Yue said. In the first episode of
, 50 actors appeared one after another. Their "play age" spanned more than 20 years. The types of film and television they participated in were different, with different background experiences and realities. Their respective confusions and perplexities. "We hope that more types of people can inspire each other, but ability and pursuit are the biggest consensus standards. They must hope to pursue actors as their lifelong career. "
also hopes to show the greatest diversity in the choice of the four directors. Chen Kaige is a representative of the "fifth generation of directors". Li Shaohong has a profound academic background and shows a unique perspective on casting. Zhao Wei and Guo Jingming have Bright cross-border colors from different industries.
02 | Director is the core of power
As the two core participating groups in the performance industry, "Actors Please Get In" tries to restore the real interaction between actors and directors in the show. But in the first stage In variety shows, they must find the most suitable observation perspective.
Qiu Yue and the team returned to thinking about the industry’s own logic and power structure. They discovered that the director’s dominant position cannot be ignored, "The director is the core of power in the industry. Determine the actual resource allocation. "This kind of dominance is also reflected in the fact that for ordinary audiences, directors are considered the most qualified to judge the performance of actors.
This allows the program group to see the "director's casting" this new perspective. They have a complete view of the overall situation. The ability to control is also deep enough in the output and expression of opinions. The
"director's perspective" runs through the entire show. One of the first consensus is that the performance of the actors in the show must follow the principle of film and television shooting. Performance is an independent field. It is completely different from film and television performance. It is unfair to use the evaluation criteria of stage performance to evaluate a film and television actor in order to have a sense of the show. In addition to the main studio in Shaoxing, the crew also filmed in Beijing, Hengdian and Xiangshan film and television bases. However, variety shows do have their own content performance requirements. "The scene still requires the director and the audience to sit together, and we also discuss Goed in several directions. "Qiu Yue said. In the end, a "Taichung station" model was finalized, and two spaces were isolated in the studio.
"In fact, the director and the actors have always been in two spaces, the actors perform in the set, and the director What you see is the picture on the monitor. "Qiu Yue said. The
crew set up multiple independent carriages, each of which corresponds to a specific set of the drama. Including elements such as camera positions and lighting, the crew tried to restore the real situation of film and television shooting in the set, and then passed The screen at the top of the set is displayed to simulate to the audience what the director sees on the monitor. Since
cannot use post-editing, in live performances, the performance must be presented in a one-shot manner. This brings the stage set. It’s more difficult. The passage of "To Youth" requires five cameras to be shot at the same time. In order to look smooth enough, the program team constantly adjusts the details of the props and modifies the machine track.
is also not easy for the actors, Li Shaohong revealed in the interview, Many times the actor will be confused and ask her, “The director, there is a camera and a stage, which one should I care about?” After the schedule entered the director’s alliance, the presentation of the play returned to the live performance from the film. Qiu Yue Said that there is a logic of "difficulty escalation", after all, "the game has entered a new stage." The presentation of the two spaces
on the same stage provides more possibilities. Chen Ruoxuan and Ming Dao's "Icebreaker" performance ended, Chen Kaige After walking to the stage to guide and ask Chen Ruoxuan to perform again. In the middle of the "Happy Family", four actors rushed to the stage and completed an interaction with the audience in the real world. The
program actually shot many daily quizzes around the actors However, I chose to abandon it in the end. "When you already have such an exquisite video content. The content in the rehearsal hall seemed too ugly. "Another consideration of
is that actors are different from traditional idol shows. The personality shaping of actors is done in shaping the characters. "We might as well enlarge his logic in character shaping, by telling the background and contradictions of each scene. Conflict reflects the real difficulty of the role. "
When the filming of the film and television content became the main content of the entire program, the director's control is everywhere, the role distribution, the plot arrangement, and even a bunch of flowers and a table and chairs on the set.Place.
03 | The Birth of "Best Actor"
It is difficult to find another show, and the decision-making power of "Tutor" is as great as that of "Actors please seat". On the scene of the
finals, the annual "Best Actor" will be selected by the voting of the audience and the broadcast weighted in advance. But before that, only when the four directors complete their "ultimate choice" will the decision-making power be handed over to the audience, and they will choose the "Best of the Year" among the four "Best of the Crew".
For a competitive program, the balance of words among players, mentors, and users is an eternal topic. Qiu Yuehe's team hopes that the distribution of the right to speak at different stages in "Actors, please take their place" can also be a true projection of the reality of the industry. The
primary selection stage is more like a restoration of the "audit" process, and the director has complete control and decision-making power. However, this kind of dominance is not without boundaries. The program group has set up "assisting guests", hoping to provide more reference and balance from the perspective of actors. And the few strengths of the program group also occurred at this stage. They finally did not agree with Chen Kaige's idea of wanting both of them to be shortlisted, and insisted on letting him make a choice.
When all members enter the group successfully, the schedule enters the second stage, and the audience and critics are introduced into the scoring system. The scores of film critics determine the scores that the crew has. These scores will be assigned to different actors by the director, and together with the number of audience votes, they will form the final score of an actor.
“This is the reality of the industry. The movie must first attract a group of core users. Their scores dominate the initial word-of-mouth and attract more people to the movie theater. Only the actors in the movie can come out after the public has watched it.” Qiu Yue said , This also simulates how the market accepts a film to a certain extent.
Niu Junfeng eventually won the trophy of "Best Actor" of the year, but compared to this title, the actor-exclusive contract signed with Director Chen Kaige may be more weighty.
went back to the survey at the beginning of the program preparation. In addition to users, the program team also interviewed a large number of directors and actors, trying to find out what the real pain points of this industry are, in order to clarify the real purpose of this program.
"Actors feel that they lack an opportunity to prove themselves. It may be that they have no acting, or they may be defined by a certain role for a long time. It is difficult for them to find a chance to try various roles in two or three months. For directors, they also hope to find more new actors and actresses, but in the past, the workflow was often based on story first." Qiu Yue said.
This industry pain point determines the real role that "Actors Please Get In" in the industry. It is not a tool for IP casting, nor is it simply a way for the platform to control production materials, but to build a real platform between actors and directors. Qiu Yue said that in the new season of "Actors Please Get In" is also in contact with more directors. The value of the
platform does not lie in a real contract. Like many actors who participated in it said, he got a chance to cooperate in a lifetime, or Zhao Wei said in the show, "I hope I This work can become your masterpiece."
Chen Kaige said in an interview that he can't say what changes a show has brought about, he can only say that it is really helpful for young actors.
