On February 21, 2022, the selection results of the 16th Shanghai "Silver Dove Award" (2021) were announced, and 214 works stood out from more than 600 participating works. As the highest award in the field of external publicity in Shanghai, the Silver Dove Award aims to improve the influence of international communication, tell Chinese stories well, better display the image of Shanghai city, and contribute to the construction of Shanghai's urban soft power.
Among them, two works produced by the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism - the large-scale documentary series "Discovering New Shanghai" and the humanities documentary "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth" won the video category and the best video award respectively. The combination of cultural and tourism promotion provides an excellent model.
It is reported that the Lifestyle Channel will broadcast "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth" every day from June 13 at 20:20, and the Full Documentary Channel will broadcast at 21:50 every day from June 16.

Stills of "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth"

"Discover New Shanghai" stills

Recently, combined with the incubation, production and dissemination experience of cultural tourism IP, Shen Fei, the producer of these two works and also the deputy general manager of SMG Cultural Broadcasting Interactive Industry Operation Center, accepted an interview with reporters. Talking about how to better tell Chinese stories with international expressions, Shen Fei believes that although documentaries are getting better and better, the rhythm is getting faster and the pictures are getting more beautiful, the core of them will not change.
From the perspective of urban cultural tourism, Shen Fei hopes to observe and describe the temperature of the city from different dimensions, and record every touching "urban expression". She said: "As a media person who has been focusing on the documentary field for a long time, I have always believed that the angle we see the world determines the temperature the world gives us."

Producer Shen Fei

Who is saying, what is being said, how is it being said
In 2014, when Shanghai's tourism market was booming, a large number of overseas tourists entered Shanghai, and the independent travel market continued to heat up. At that time, the Shanghai Tourism Bureau was in urgent need of introducing the resources of independent travel in Shanghai to tourists from all over the world, so the IP "Discover New Shanghai" came into being.
"At that time, it was positioned as a video version of 'lonely planet', connecting the historical and humanistic feelings of Shanghai with vivid character stories, and showing a creative and dynamic city through the perspective of young people. This year, we are still an annual One season is in production, and 7 seasons and 28 episodes have been completed and broadcast so far." Shen Fei said.
"Discovering New Shanghai" is a documentary in Chinese and English. Its audience is Chinese and foreign tourists who are concerned about Shanghai's cultural tourism. Shen Fei took over the project in 2016 and was in charge of the fourth to seventh seasons of the program. "In the past 6 years, we have been discussing and adjusting the audience feedback on this show." Shen Fei emphasized that although this is a documentary produced by the government, all the topics in the documentary are based on It is obtained by the director team by going deep into the market and touching the public. She believes that "representative cases should be selected, a group of cases that still hold their ground under the big waves and can bloom and bloom, so that they have vitality, and no matter how long they look back, they still have reference value."

The book of the same name "Discovering New Shanghai" has been published

When asked about being the producer of this documentary, what is your biggest concern?
Shen Fei replied that he was naturally more concerned about the broadcast effect of this show and whether it could meet the expectations of the producer. She felt that in order to have a good communication effect, three aspects need to be determined in the early stage of program planning.
The first is "what to say". Shen Fei felt that in order to make a "video guide" with reference value that can really be used by tourists, the preliminary research work is particularly important.
The director team usually spends half a year on the preliminary research work. The content of an episode is 25 minutes, usually 5 to 6 points, and there are often more than 50 candidate points, and the research is conducted with a screening rate of 1 out of 10.
It is necessary to screen the hotness and importance of the case; according to the pre-collection situation, it is important to judge the suitability of the case, whether there are rich character stories, whether the story can be presented, how well the characters cooperate in the venue, etc.; The volume and case style of the program are generally arranged and screened.
"Take the fourth season of "Discover New Shanghai" launched in 2017 as an example, the case we finally selected focuses on four aspects of tourism-related food, accommodation, entertainment, and shopping. Just for entertainment, there is a paramount importance. The opening of the outfit, the sleep no more at the McKinnon Hotel, the reading club at the Sinan Mansion, and the most anticipated 'Princess of the Golden Age' in Shanghai's home port that year constituted the most popular entertainment coordinates in Shanghai in 2017."

"Discover New Shanghai" stills

The second is "how to". "Discovering New Shanghai" is a half-hour long film composed of short videos of about 5 minutes. A 5-minute short video can actually be shot in half a day, but the film crew usually takes 3 days to shoot a case.
"Taking Paramount as an example, we filmed the grand opening, interior mirrors, Blackpool Dance Festival performances, regular band performances, character interviews, etc. Dozens of hours of material were finally condensed into a 5-minute clip, but all the The fullness of the story, the richness of the material, and the enjoyment of the program are incomparable with the program filmed in half a day," she said.
The last is "who says".
Shen Fei still took the Paramount clip as an example, "We considered Zheng Honghe (the chairman of Paramount) and Hu Yanbin (the art director of Paramount) for the choice of interviewing guests. Considering that Zheng Honghe participated in the whole process The redesign of Lemen, Hu Yanbin's understanding of Paramount music from the perspective of musicians, the role of these two guests cannot be replaced by others, so the team contacted through various channels and finally interviewed these two. In fact, in the production of each case of "Discovering New Shanghai", I adhered to the belief that I must interview the people who have the most say. For example, we interviewed the writer Zhao Lihong at the Sinan Book Club; Up and down', we interviewed co-founder Jiang Qiong'er; for Long Museum, we interviewed domestic top designer Liu Yichun, etc."

Screenshot of "Discover New Shanghai"

Use a small perspective to complete the theme expression
Another work, "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth", is a new IP promoted by Shanghai Culture and Tourism, created by the team for the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, after "Discovering New Shanghai". Shen Fei believes that the two sets of content that seem to be completely unrelated are actually the same in essence.
In 2021, the "Magic City Breakfast" of the "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth" series will be broadcast, ranging from Chinese scallion pancakes, fried, fried dumplings, to Western-style egg Meiji, coffee, butterfly crisps... Countless delicious Shanghai-style breakfasts, all There is a hidden smoke in life.

Stills of "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth"

"Our positioning of this show is not a food show. The focus of a bowl of fireworks on earth is 'fireworks' rather than 'a bowl', but choosing food as the starting point is also our choice. I remember Chen Xiaoqing also said" Food is the best goodwill ambassador', the first Chinese original documentary series purchased by Netflix is also "Flavor", so through food, let foreign audiences feel the temperature of a city, we discussed with the Culture and Tourism Bureau a more convenient way." Shen Fei told reporters, "Secondly, we pay more and more attention to the organic combination of 'big topic' and 'small action'. The 'big topic' of a bowl of fireworks on earth highlights the temperature of Shanghai, but this narrative The strong ideology brought by the model often brings negative effects in external communication, and the alienated 'big issue' is not conducive to enhancing the emotional resonance of the international audience. The theme of the 'big theme' is replaced by a specific and vivid narrative. The story is strong and the plot is delicate. It uses a small perspective to complete the micro-expression of the theme, and guides audiences under different ideological and cultural backgrounds to communicate between emotions. "
Shen Fei concluded that "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth" shows a very universal issue of "struggle and inspiration". From the struggle and inspiration of these breakfast shops, we can see the acceptance and temperature of this city. This context Put it anywhere in the world, and everyone can understand it.

Stills of "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth"

Finally, considering that the publicity channel of documentaries is the official channel of the Municipal Bureau of Culture and Tourism, such programs are often branded as "official" and fall into the predicament of the producers talking to themselves, affecting the effect of external communication.
"In "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth", we adjusted the speaker to let the most down-to-earth parties speak, and the whole film did not have any commentary, using a civilian voice to improve the credibility of characters, events, and emotions In fact, when the propaganda and education functions of the documentary are diluted, the humanistic and social value will be highlighted." Shen Fei emphasized.

Stills of "A Bowl of Fireworks on Earth"