In 2017, HBO launched the first Chinese-language self-produced drama "Psychic Girl" in Taiwan, which was well received. In the same year, Netflix released a series of Chinese-language self-produced dramas shortly thereafter.
This year, the much-anticipated first "Sin Dreamer" is finally online. As the leading "Sin Dreamer", the mission he shoulders is self-evident. Before going online, Netflix made a lot of money to promote in Taiwan, but the result was that two days after going online, negative reviews came.
The reputation of "Sin Dreamer" at home and abroad has hit the street, and Netflix has not yet succeeded in the Chinese market. No one thought that this TV series, which has an international luxury production team and invited popular first-line actors in Taiwan, would actually mess up.
Interestingly, Netflix's current international original director Erika North is the project producer who made the "Psychic Girl" case at HBO Asia two years ago. "Sin Dreamer" is the first Chinese drama Erika North made after coming to Netflix. It brought in the team of "Psychic Girl"-Singapore production company IFA (In Focus Asia), and the "Flash" series The executive producer Jaime Paglia et al.
Netflix international original director Erika North
seems that Netflix seems to have taken a very stable move, trying to "change the soup without changing the medicine" to replicate the success of HBO's "Psychic Girl", but then failed. What is the problem with
?
Chen Yingrong was interviewed by Taiwanese media before going online, and she unceasingly mentioned the differences and contradictions between her and Netflix in editing. Judging from the audience feedback of "Sin Dreamer", the editing did have a big problem, especially the first episode, which caused difficulties for most audiences to understand the plot.
The "editing war" between Netflix and the author's director
"All conflicts occurred in the first episode." Chen Yingrong received the Taiwan media "The News Lens" and said that Netflix has stepped on her bottom line.
Director Chen Yingrong
It is well known that Netflix, which started in Silicon Valley, has strong data analysis capabilities. In the beginning, Netflix strongly intervened and disagreed with the "chaotic" editing style currently presented by Chen Yingrong, so contradictions broke out.
According to Chen Yingrong, after watching the first cut of the first episode of "Sin Dreamer", Netflix marked 40 revisions in one go, and asked someone to cut 5 video versions for her reference. The subtext of this is "let Chen Yingrong scholars re-cut." The biggest conflict between the two sides of
is that in order to allow viewers to understand the plot faster, Netflix wanted to switch the order of the scenes in the post-production editing stage, breaking the 8-episode structure and starting again. However, Chen Yingrong could not accept the dynamic structure. She believes that the current editing is based on the direction of the script creation at the time, and there is no problem.
Generally speaking, Netflix uses 15 minutes as a complete unit. Netflix requires a standard series. The first 15-minute door of the first episode must be open enough to attract viewers; every 15 minutes, there must be hooks to make viewers expect what they will see next; And the tension at the end of each episode must be raised again, using suspense to guide the audience to watch the next time.
In a word, "Hook! Hook! Hook everything!", the basic element of Netflix's communication with the audience is Hook (hook). To be specific, Netflix's revised opinion is to adjust the "sequence" of the series. They want to mention the big show to the front, so that it will start slowly, and the audience will be easier to understand. Take "Naked Supervision" and "Li Shi Chosun" as an example. The first episode of "Full Naked Supervision" presents an AV director, Mura Saito's peak state; the same is true of "Li Shi Chosun", where the king's zombie is presented at the beginning of the first episode. come out.
are typical American dramas in the sequence of the story. After the big scene is presented, the audience will be told the cause and effect of the story, so that the audience will gradually get better. And the "sin"Dreamer" is the first to come up, presenting a chaotic prison dream. When people are confused, the ballroom scene is connected and the main characters are introduced one by one. In terms of attractiveness, it is indeed lower than that of American TV shows.
However, Chen Yingrong did not give in, and said bluntly, "Don't be an idiot for the audience." She believes that the rhythm and the plot are closely linked, not just suspense, but also moderately blank, giving the audience a little imagination. In the situation where the two parties are in a stalemate, Chen Yingrong has written a "breakup letter" and is ready to have a complete fight with Netflix. Erika North, the international original director of Netflix mentioned at the beginning, flew to Taiwan urgently to talk with Chen Yingrong for 6 hours. In the end, Netflix compromised and no longer insisted on the big move structure. Chen Yingrong also agreed to adjust the soundtrack and other subtle parts based on Netflix's opinions.
Netflix's compromise is really a helpless move. At that time, we had reached the critical point of the cut, and there was no way to go back in time for Netflix to go online.
Actually, the case of "Sin Dreamer" didn't go well at the beginning, and it went through the storm of changing directors. Originally, Netflix chose the new Malaysian director Ke Wenli to direct this first Chinese film. Ke Wenli was nominated for the 2015 Oscar for real short film with the short film "Freeman". But at the beginning of last year, Ke Wenli withdrew due to personal reasons. However, from the perspective of Ke Wenli's schedule, he seems to have to make a choice when he wants to shoot the web drama "Detective Chinatown" and the movie "Manslaughter" at the same time. It is under such circumstances that
Chen Yingrong took over the project and rewritten the script. Time has forced Netflix to compromise step by step. Recalling that Chen Weiru, the producer of the show and the producer of "Psychic Girl" (belonging to the Singapore company IFA), once said in an interview that Taiwan has long been the sole director of directors. Very much in need of production.
However, this time, they still couldn't be "author and director". How is
the correct way to integrate with international standards?
With foreign platforms such as Netflix and HBO entering Taiwan, the ecology of Chinese-language dramas is actually being changed. Taiwanese and international creators have all said that "money" is no longer the plight of Taiwanese dramas. The 8 episodes of HBO's new drama "Dream Hunting Agent" starring Xu Ruoxuan has a budget of NT$130 million. How should
Chinese-language dramas funded by international funds correctly integrate with international standards to avoid the "rollover" of expensive and luxurious drama series like "Sin Dreamer"?
Looking back on the production experience of "Psychic Girl", I believe Erika North and IFA producer Chen Weiru, if there is another choice, they will definitely stick to their original principles in "Sin Dreamer".
IFA (In Focus Asia) producer Chen Weiru
Chen Weiru once revealed in an interview with Taiwanese media "Entertainment Strike" that the production of "Psychic Girl" is roughly based on the American drama method. Taiwanese director Chen Heyu and producer Liu Yuxuan are both I agree with their ideas. The two founders of
IFA are BBC war correspondents. For a long time, this Singapore company has mainly produced documentaries and has long-term cooperation with international platforms such as BBC and HBO. So when HBO was going to be the first Chinese drama, IFA, who was proficient in Chinese and English and had rich experience in cooperating with international platforms, became the best "bridge" between HBO and Taiwanese creators, and "Psychic Girl" was finally formed. The cooperation of Taiwan Public Satellite TV, IFA and HBO.
is the most important link in American dramas. That is to say, you must know the shooting style, including color tone, distance lens, etc., before shooting. Every design lens must be passed by HBO. I believe that at the beginning, the tonality of "Sin Dreamer" was not a problem. It can be seen that the director's shooting style is closer to international standards.
But the problem lies in the editing process. Generally speaking, the problem with old Taiwanese dramas is that in editing, cross-fade is the favorite, the rhythm is slower, and the plot is less compact. The editing work of "Psychic Girl" was completely pulled to Singapore, because HBO must ensure that the final style is HBO. Therefore, we can see that the editing of "Psychic Girl" is more American, with a more neat technique and a faster pace.
director Chen Heyu and the producer tried many versions and finally achieved a balance. The editing of "Psychic Girl" is roughly based on the editing method of American dramas. The beginning shows the state of the "fairy girl" practice in the temple, and then slowly unfolds the story. However, in the family warmth drama, the slow-paced approach of the desktop is still followed, retaining the human touch of Taiwan.
Chen Weiru believes that what is lacking in the production environment of Chinese-language dramas is a producer like an American drama, who assists the director from a global perspective and produces better works, not an executive producer. Chinese-language drama directors seldom can tolerate the interference of production, but in fact, in American dramas, this is a very normal behavior. Production is actually the longest and most in-depth role in preparation. Production is not to deny the director. The responsibility of the production is to check the entire direction of the play, manage the process and the story, so they will definitely put forward some opinions. And the director should not have an attitude of "self-respect".
seems to be the first shot in the Chinese-speaking market, and Netflix has been misfired. However, the leading HBO has also encountered a new problem-the "difficult birth" of the Chinese sequel.
The second season of the sequel to "Psychic Girl", the sequel of the Taiwan drama "Dystocia", received mediocre response.
Due to the long-term lack of "sequel" production habits and concepts in Taiwan dramas, when HBO proposed to renew the second season of "Psychic Girl", it was produced in Taiwan The team was completely blinded. The production of the
sequel is very difficult. First of all, the schedule for the actors and the creative team is gone. The production of Taiwanese dramas is not like American dramas, and they have signed several seasons of contracts with the main creator at one time. Therefore, in the second season of "Game of Faust", the actor team was completely replaced, and Wu Kangren, the actor who was nominated for the Golden Bell Award for many times, quit. Although the heroine Guo Shuyao was retained in the second season of "Psychic Girl", the actor and other supporting roles were all "exchanged." The change of actors for the main characters of
must have caused difficulties in the preparation of the second season story. For example, Xie Yazhen, the heroine of "Psychic Girl", all her old friends have disappeared, and the story of the second season is bound to add many new characters. The alternation of old and new friends will definitely make it difficult for the audience to adapt. If there are characters with similar personalities in the first season, it will surely make the audience look like flowers in the mist, and have a poor sense of substituting the roles of the second season.
Compared with the screenwriting problem caused by the change of roles, the first season's story creation itself is not large enough, which is the fatal problem. For Taiwanese dramas like "Psychic Girl", the story of the first season is equivalent to a closed story, without considering the subsequent creative space, borrowing the "hook" often mentioned by Netflix. In short, the creation of the first season did not leave any "hooks" for the second season, not to mention the establishment of a unique value and worldview of the play, which derives the core of the series, which is the image of "Power "Games" is a kind of macro drama that can be more comprehensive.
Taiwan drama lacks the ability to construct a macro world view. HBO also encountered it when producing the science fiction drama "Dream Hunter". It was finally finalized after 4 or 5 sets of screenwriters were changed before and after.
Generally speaking, although Taiwanese dramas have encountered many problems in the process of integrating with international platforms such as HBO and Netflix, the pain will always pass. The production environment of Chinese-language dramas around the mainland is being changed. Their production experience, It provides a reference for mainland dramas that have not been co-produced with international platforms.
