"A play is like a living body. In the collective co-creation of all the main creators, it will emerge as naturally as life."
-Chen Fei (Founding Partner and CEO of Ningmeng Pictures)
Article by Luac , Nanmu Chaos University
, as a phenomenon-level popular TV series this year, " thirty only " portrays Wang Manni, Gu Jia, and Zhong Xiaoqin 3 deeply rooted female characters. Rooted in real soil, this drama frequently dominates the hot search and refreshes the records of the entire network, triggering rounds of heated discussions among the audience.
and "Thirty Only" also detonated the public opinion field at the same time, there is also a "Twenty Not Confused", the producer of the two series is Ningmeng Pictures, once created " good Mr. ", "Little "Farewell", "Little Joy" and other hot dramas.
can continue to output explosive models, it certainly is not luck. What is the key to the success of Ning Meng Pictures to create explosive models?
people set real
The audience who has watched the drama "Thirty Only", the most intuitive feeling is: this is the female drama we really want to see. The problems and dilemmas faced by the heroines of
are also encountered by women in real life. Although the events in the play have been treated theatrically, the real details and emotions give the audience a sense of substitution, not exaggerated or rigid.
30-year-old Wang Manni is a luxury cabinet sister. She welcomes and sends rich people every day. However, she herself has lived on the ground floor in Shanghai for eight years, moving from an old shared house in the city center to the suburbs. Use the time of crowding the subway in the morning to put on a delicate makeup. When I was at work, I was squeezed out of jealousy by my colleagues. After work, I had to pick up calls from my mother to urge home and blind dates. When you go to work, you will meet a well-dressed wretched man. After get off work, you have to go on a blind date with a strange man...
Ordinary girls who come to the big city alone, but do the sales of luxury goods stores in the most expensive areas, imperceptibly Feeling the impact of material desire, it opened up the emotions of many people in an instant.
Gu Jia, also 30 years old, is a homophonic "Gujia", graduated from a prestigious university, worked in a foreign company, and later started a business with her husband Xu Huanshan and worked as a full-time wife at home. She is one of the protagonists of "Thirty Only", the first time it sparked extensive discussion, which originated from the fighting incident.
Because of a trivial matter, the relationship between Gu Jia and another parent of the family committee broke up, and this parent put Xu Ziyan in a small black room in order to retaliate against Gu Jia. After Gu Jia learned about it, she placed the child, took off the expensive watch, kicked off her high heels, pushed the two mothers who had bullied the child into the room and beat each other.
After watching this scene, many viewers were named fans by Gu Jia. Throughout the Chinese TV drama market, there are many roles for full-time wives, but none of them have made the same kind of "popular" incident. This segment may be exaggerated, but the emotional feeling is real, in line with the character, and at the same time, it was previously scarce in the market. How creates this logical and emotional reality has become the premise for the reality of persona and drama.
"Compared with whether your insights are deep enough and expressions are new enough", Chen Fei interpreted the way people set up in this way. In her opinion, it is not necessarily true that Gu Jia’s beating of parents is true, but "being a mother is strong" is an instinct and cannot tolerate others touching her own children. "This may not be the truth of life, but this It is a logical emotional reality. How to deal with the contradiction between extreme and reality is a great test for creators."
30-year-old Zhong Xiaoqin, compared with the other two female protagonists, is a bit more comfortable. She still lives under the protection of her parents after she has become a family. Her work is not too prominent and her life is not turbulent, but she also has the ability to let outsiders straighten under her calm appearance Marriage shouting "Hurry up and divorce". I have not really grown up psychologically, and my husband has not yet emerged from the shadow of the original family. The two people living under the same roof are not like husbands and wives and more like roommates. The atmosphere at home often freezes, except for fish swimming, cats running, marriage Loneliness lacks vitality.
Archetypes like Wang Manni, Gu Jia, and Zhong Xiaoqin have a lot in life. They represent struggling social animals, middle-class full-time wives, and local good girls. The crux of their bodies also covers the problems that mature women are facing. Puzzles and problems. Topics on emotions, marriage, parenting, and careers are all covered, without deliberately reasoning, but all the issues are on the table and left to the audience to discuss and judge.
can achieve the reality of non-suspension, which is a test of the production team’s expertiseThe foundation of karma requires solid effort behind it, which is reflected in all aspects of a play, including play, production, and performance. The career setting in "Thirty Only" is also worth discussing. The screenwriter Zhang Yingji said that as a female topic drama, she hopes that when each line involves the workplace, she can choose the most prominent and characteristic career, and Complement and complement the growth of the characters.
Out of this consideration, some relatively special professions are involved in the play, including luxury goods sales, fireworks designer, and debt collector. Many of them come from the real professions of friends around Zhang Yingji, so that you can observe their profession details up close.
For example, in order to better present the professional characteristics of the protagonist "firework designer", Zhang Yingji not only interviewed friends who opened the fireworks factory, but also went to Macau to watch the firework show and watched the whole work process. This profession was first determined by Zhang Yingji after Gu Jia’s line was set up. She felt that this profession served Gu Jia’s anxiety very well. Their firework design was equivalent to all their wealth and life. They were all sitting on the powder keg.
During the script creation stage, Ningmeng Pictures also arranged many in-depth interviews on luxury sales. The work of Wang Manni presented in the play is basically a real case. In addition, Ningmeng also makes full use of user insight methodology to provide the drama with many materials and viewpoints on the "Ecology of Shanghai Piao Youth" and "The Plight of Thirty-year-old Women".
"Gu Jia is your ideal self, Zhong Xiaoqin is an ordinary self, Wang Manni may be your self who doesn't want to face directly" , Chen Fei interpreted the three heroines in the play in this way.
The real details and sense of substitution, and seeing who you are, are the important reasons for this hot drama to be out of the circle.
Value expression
Behind the truth, there are often expressions of collective emotions and social values.
The play "Thirty Only" originated from the personal feelings of the screenwriter. At the age of 30, it coincided with her giving birth to a child. The birth of the child made her look back at her existing life and social identity, and wanted to make a drama like this that focused on 30-year-old women. This coincides with the idea of Ningmeng Pictures.
once created the "Good Mr.", " Little Farewell" and "Little Happy", with a lot of attention to realistic themes. The rise of women's power and female-themed dramas have aroused heated discussions. From "Deadly Woman" in the United States to "Kim Jiyoung Born in 1982" in South Korea, there are constant "out of the circle" fires.
"Realistic subject matter is to collide with the most real pain points and the latest values in real life. For example, the core point of "Three ten only" is to use the age profile to refer to women's new desires and show the new women's self-awareness. The spiritual desire to realize self-worth."
In recent years, Chen Fei has also deeply felt the rise of female power in Chinese society. "To make realistic themes, you have to perceive and express the social changes in this era." Chen Fei attaches great importance to " stepping on the collective emotions of this era ", so as to gain the resonance of the audience more widely, the best is " Only half a step" to gain insights into the pressures faced by women at different stages of life, "how to express such dilemmas in multiple ways, and how to provide solutions, what we want to refine and express may be the majority of women she wants to say but What she can’t say, she wants to do, and she doesn’t have the courage to do it. This is thought-provoking and powerful.”
's years of experience tells Chen Fei that female users between the ages of 20 and 40 are the core users of the drama and the field of public opinion. The mainstream crowd, 30 years old is the big track. "For women themselves, in the range of 25 to 35 years old, women's career development and the transformation of social status are all nodes of great change, but the subject of women in this age range is too difficult to write. The difficult thing is to express the value, not only to present the true and diverse values, but also to adhere to the female values." On the difficult track of
, they chose to collectively create to complete. The screenwriter Zhang Yingji is a woman, the two chief producers Chen Fei and Xu Xiaoou are women, and the director Zhang Xiaobo is a man. Chen Fei recalled that there were a lot of intense discussions and even quarrels throughout the creative process. Multi-perspective discussions and supplements enrich the value expression of the drama itself. "The more feminine works, the more men's perspective is needed, and men should not be used as antitheses or tools to deliberately devalue men." This is Chen Fei's personal experience.
has the most controversy on Wang Manni. Wang Manni’s desires are easily perceived by the audience. She hopes to find a variety of conditions at this ageBoth are good companions. Regarding Liang Zhengxian, whether she is a lover, money, or this person under comprehensive conditions, this question cannot be divided. The proper grasp of "love" and "money" is embodied in Wang Manni's attitude towards her boyfriend's gifts, such as sending cars, renting houses, and giving cards, which ones she accepts, which ones are rejected, and how to accept them? Why refuse? Besides, how do you express the compromise and perseverance that Wang Manni and Liang had in their interactions? The rational rejection at the first encounter is different from the moth fighting the fire at the time of meeting; from accepting unmarriageism to learning that he has a girlfriend for seven years and finally being asked to coexist "one south and one north" when Wang Manni is different Attitudes, through the action choices of these characters and the logic behind them, present the characters' rich heart, so that the characters can stand, logically self-consistent, and value can be expressed.
"If you want female audiences to get speculative experience and spiritual nourishment from it, but you can't violate the reality of life, then you must design the bottom line of these characters, and the struggle in the process above this bottom line. This is also right. Difficulty test for creators", Chen Fei said.
Regardless of men and women, each person in the play has its own trajectory, giving the audience an experience reflecting reality. The fundamental reason is that the main creative team is based on the "real" and "three-dimensional", reflecting the current women's survival prospects and expressing values. Wang Manni's monthly salary is 15 thousand yuan, but she wants to rent a house for 7,000 yuan a month in the city center. Her inner expectation is to integrate into this metropolis and feel the heartbeat of the city more closely. This is a new expression of value in itself.
Strategy first
Good stories, good characters, true three-dimensionality, and expression of contemporary values are the common characteristics of Ning Meng Pictures’s realistic themes of explosive dramas. It is not accidental to continue to produce explosive models, and the key is worth exploring.
Chen Fei borrowed a formula to simply analyze the key: success = strategy × organizational capability .
Before talking about the strategy of Ningmeng Pictures, let's first understand the evolution of the next drama industry.
Before 2007, the drama industry was still in the "small sampan era" when there were many film and television companies, but the output was not high. In 2007, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television promulgated the policy of "four stars in one drama", that is, a TV drama can be broadcast on 4 satellite TVs at the same time. Before that, a drama can be broadcast on more satellite TVs at the same time. The New Deal directly stimulated competition from satellite TV and also brought about a great development in the drama industry. In the same year, video websites also appeared quietly.
In 2009, Huayi Brothers was listed on the A-share market. This was the first film and television stock. Then capital entered the industry stratification. In the following years, video websites began to reshuffle. Until 2015, several giants entered the market. In the next few years, it ushered in the second wave of the industry. This was mainly due to the rise of video websites. Until 2017, BAT showed a three-pronged and unique "3+1" competition pattern with state-owned mangoes. At the same time, the main consumption scenes of dramas have gradually migrated to video sites. In mid-2018, the industry bubble began to squeeze out, returning to a period of rational adjustment.
On the surface, the first wave of wind and the second wave of wind seem to be a two-wheel drive of policy and capital. In essence, they are channel changes brought about by technological progress, that is, the shift from linear TV to mobile Internet.
Time goes back to 2014 when Ningmeng Films was founded. At that time, the entire video industry was still shuffling. Compared with established production companies, the newborn Ningmeng Pictures wanted to find development in the highly competitive market environment. What is thinking about is the positioning problem. How does
Ning Meng position himself?
One is to locate super series, focusing on the industry head; the other is to locate young users, focusing on video sites. Why does
have such a choice?
When Ning Meng entered the industry, the entire industry had just entered the second curve. At that time, the first curve of the industry was traditional TV series. The users were mainly 25-55 years old. However, with the changes in consumption channels, some young users were caught in mobile phones and pads. Streaming of video content to become a user group of video sites. The super series proposed by
Ningmeng is not only able to satisfy the viewers of traditional media, but also to meet the content consumption needs of young "new masses". "Super content connects the new masses" is the strategic direction proposed by the newborn Ningmeng Pictures.
Ningmeng Pictures defines super series as: high-input, high-quality, high-view (traffic) internal content. is popular both in Internet channels and TV channels.
Since then, the key elements are ten timesIt's really achieved. In the third year of Ningmeng's establishment, the price of episodes on video sites has increased tenfold.
When Ningmeng was first established, the drama products were high-margin products, and the profit margins of the head and waist products were not very bad. Why do you have to choose the more difficult head products?
"Think about it now. First, the behavior of our founders is to believe in doing the best within their capabilities; the second is a business intuition, which can build higher barriers to competition; and the other is the anticipation of future market relations. Judgment, we believe that most markets have the twenty-eight rule." Chen Fei explained the strategic choice at that time.
So, where is the strategic advantage of Ningmeng?
is a strategy-first company, not resource-first company. At the beginning, it firmly decided to position young users and focused on video sites. It just matched the development stage of the industry and seized the second wave of wind, which is 10 The speed factor is good, and then positioned in the head content, super drama, and strive to create a strong irreplaceability. With
offensive and defensive, Ningmeng’s development foundation has been set. In 2014, when Ningmeng was established,
has experienced a tremendous change in "user drama content consumption shifted from TV to long video sites". Today, when the content consumption trend of short videos has a strong impact on long videos, long dramas How to adapt to the wave of change, Ningmeng has been thinking and exploring. "For example, the ToC trend of long drama series, such as the development of technology to subvert the product form, user experience, and even production methods and broadcasting channels of long drama series." Chen Fei said.
Chen Fei shares courses at Chaos University Click to watch
