Producer Wang Ping has collaborated with screenwriter Fingerprint since "Chasing the Murderer in the White Night". She knew that Fingerprint had worked as a lawyer for 11 years, and this experience became his interest in making legal and judicial stories. Wang Ping supported fingerprints and made a work on judicial, legal and political topics, "Don't waste this experience."
This leads to the recently aired TV series "Out of Court".
According to Wang Ping, in judicial, legal, and political themes, the protagonists are basically judges and lawyers, and audiences tend to have some stereotypes about these two professions, "Maybe the first thing most audiences think of is the quarrel in court. Wang Ping said, "In fact, outside the courtroom, lawyers and judges have various jobs. For example, judges investigate and verify the details of the case, review and judge whether the evidence is sufficient; lawyers also visit various parties outside the courtroom, and some There are many ways to help clients defend their rights. We thought it would be interesting to present this piece of content as well.”
Two skits, stories and characters are linked to each other to form an intertext. Wang Ping said that in the creation, she and the team have always thought about presenting the story in as new ways as possible. "Before we made "The Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", no one thought that the story of a criminal investigation case could be told like this."
If there is no benchmarking, there is no reference, which also increases the difficulty and cost of creation, "I'm very clear from the beginning to the end, we want to tell a good story and present a very good group of people in our judicial ecology. But such The story, it needs to be fast-paced and high-pressure suspense, to peel off the layers like an onion around a case, and then solve the mystery under conflict and pressure. The difficulty here is that it involves a lot of details and foreshadowing, very Strict logical reasoning." Wang Ping said, "In domestic dramas, there was no such urgent rhythm of stories and cases in the volume of 6-episode short dramas before, and unexpected events occurred constantly, which made the audience feel that It’s a whole new experience of watching the show.”
In the interview, in addition to the creation experience of "Outside Court", Wang Ping also shared her observations and experiences on IP selection and adaptation, and the current situation of the industry as a former literary editor and now a producer.
IP film and television, the most important thing is the visualization of text
The Paper : I am quite surprised that Director Zhang Li will direct a six-group pure web drama. How did he persuade him to join?
Wang Ping : I never thought that I could convince Director Zhang Li to direct such a 6-episode pure web drama. Because I had some other collaborations with Director Zhang Li, and we communicated quite a lot. At that time, I took the script of "Blind Spot" and asked Director Zhang Li if he could help recommend a director. After reading the script, Zhang Li said, I think I can do it very well, and no one is more suitable than me. It was a real surprise.
During the cooperation process, I admire Director Zhang Li's accuracy in the presentation of images. In addition, I have learned a spirit of self-challenge from him. He is curious and constantly explores his own possibilities. The same thing, which is very encouraging for us young creators.
Wang Ping : The competent department still gave us a lot of creative space. Of course, our creative concept is also very clear. When creating a drama, what we hope to present and promote is hope and bright things.
The Paper : As far as I know, you have worked as a literary editor. Has this professional experience influenced your career as a producer?
Wang Ping : I have been a literary editor for ten years, and I have witnessed the rise of youth literature and the entire growth cycle; I have also witnessed the cycle of the IP wave when I moved into the film and television industry. Literary editors need a lot of reading, and the accumulation of reading forms a cognitive framework and a vision for selecting stories. I need to know: a story, what can it resonate with people? For example, I did youth literature before, presenting a child's work to countless children, and if I wanted to turn my personal creation into a product for the public to read, the story must resonate with different teenagers.
The Paper : Can you share your experience in the adaptation of literary IP film and television?
Wang Ping : Usually, some innovative things in web articles or comics will be three or five years earlier than film and television, and there is a time difference. When adapting film and television, you have to balance this time difference, the values and worldviews in the literary IP, which are ahead or behind, and which can empathize with the current social trend of thought, these must be analyzed enough.
Moreover, the story must meet the needs of dramatic conflict. In novels, there are usually many inner conflicts and self-games of the protagonist. These psychological processes can help readers know what he has experienced. But in film and television dramas, you need to supplement this information through picture presentation, other people's perspectives, and character relationships.
With the foundation, it will be easy for you to build a house, but it does not mean that your house will be built successfully. Converting IP into film and television works, the most important step is the visual presentation of text. This is a process of translation and re-creation. Sometimes this process is not done well, and IP that has been purchased for millions and tens of millions cannot be changed.
That is to say, it is necessary to identify the IP, determine whether it is popular enough and attractive enough, and at the same time have enough skills in adaptation.
Wang Ping : Of course, the rise of short videos is a huge challenge to long videos. Compared with fragmented short videos, long videos have a threshold of character relationships and logic. How can audiences be willing to give patience and time to cross this threshold and enter a During the viewing process of dozens of hours and dozens of hours, this is very important. But the advantage of long videos is that they provide the deepest emotional resonance. When I want to be moved, short videos are quite difficult to do. I can watch short videos for hours, but it does not leave me with any deep emotional experience. If the audience feels that the story of this long video touches some of his psychology and hits one of his lines of defense, the story will be accepted.
In addition, the creation of long videos is actually a To C content product, which means that the content must be conveyed to the C side while the content is good enough. Of these two points, it is possible that you only do one thing right, and the final result is not satisfactory.
The quality of the project depends on how short the short board is
The Paper : In your opinion, what kind of realistic themes can young screenwriters undertake in the current market?
Wang Ping : The creation of realistic themes requires life experience, spiritual understanding, and the most important thing is to go deep into life. I have seen a lot of outline stories recently. Some young screenwriters have made character settings. Their occupations are either Internet celebrities, or anchors, or screenwriters or talk show actors. Perhaps this is because they have not observed more social roles in their lives.
Sometimes, realist creation requires a lot of field research, character interviews, and accumulation of reading, which requires a lot of energy other than writing. For some young screenwriters, I don’t need that hard work, and I don’t need to do so much work. I can live just fine, so why bother?
However, young screenwriters have their advantages, such as "I'm Good in a Foreign Country", writing about the work and life of young people in Beidri, it may be difficult for old screenwriters to write so close to young people. In recent years, many realistic dramas have been talking about the aphasia and difficulties, difficulties and pursuits of young people in the urban environment. Young screenwriters can express them very well.
Wang Ping : I don't think a worse era has come, but a return to rationality. According to my observation, the current strategy of all platforms is to improve quality and reduce weight, and some so-called waist projects have been done less, because the input-output ratio is not high, and we still need to do head projects. For me, first of all, I have been relatively confident in content creation. I think, as long as you make sure that it is good enough in the type of work you do. In this era, it is rare that a good work is not seen by the platform.
The Paper : How to ensure the excellence of the project?
Wang Ping : In fact, a project is divided into pre-stage, shooting, production, publicity and many other links. Its final quality actually depends on how short the short board is. For example, if you have a very good actor or a very good screenwriter, but other aspects are out of order, the final presentation to the audience may not be good enough.
In many links, it is necessary to make every "board" as "long" as possible. It is unhealthy to say, "As long as top-notch actors come, it doesn't matter if the script is poor"; but it is also wrong to say that "there is a good script, and other aspects don't care." With a good script, we also need high-quality and influential actors. After all, actors are a traffic portal. I have been talking about that there are three traffic portals, IP, type, and actor. These three are not meant to be comprehensive. For example, some of my previous works may account for two traffic entrances, such as criminal investigation cases with strong plots. The type is clearly positioned, and then there is a type IP.
If you find the best and most suitable partner in each link, the basic plan is here, and everyone will not "broke down" you, then the project is actually quite difficult to fall. If one of your items is not particularly long, other parts of the long board should be long enough, and the short board should not be as short as possible.
The Paper : The platform shrinks the cost of purchasing dramas, and the phenomenon of creator projects "unable to sell" is even more obvious. What's your advice on this?
Wang Ping : We often hear stories from bigwigs in various industries about how difficult it was to seek their first investment. You haven't been successful, so why should employers trust you? Right? In the film and television industry, even under the mature film and television industry system of Britain, the United States, Japan and South Korea, it is not easy for young creators to get good investment. We have to agree that this is a normal consideration, and it is reasonable.
As a creator, you can't work behind closed doors and encircle yourself. For the platform, what is needed is the maximization of the audience, or whether it can become a mass product. If the content creation is completely in line with your own aesthetics and is contrary to the commercial interests of the platform, the difficulties at this time are obvious. In fact, to balance commercial interests and content creation, first of all, you must understand what kind of subject you are in, whether you are suspense, romance, or reasoning, and make the quality good enough in the circle to meet the standards of the audience in the circle, and then Seek to break the circle again.
Communication in creation must be complicated and difficult, but TV dramas are mass products. If you spend the investors' money, you must satisfy the investors' demands. If you spend the platform's money, you must satisfy the platform. demands, this is fair.
This leads to the recently aired TV series "Out of Court".
"Out of Court" poster
"Outside Court" has a quite novel structure for domestic dramas: a total of 20 episodes, divided into two stories "Blind Spot" and "Drowning Man", and the characters and time and space in the two stories are intertwined. The two stories are directed by Zhang Li, who directed "The Ming Dynasty", and Huang Wei, who directed "The Great River".According to Wang Ping, in judicial, legal, and political themes, the protagonists are basically judges and lawyers, and audiences tend to have some stereotypes about these two professions, "Maybe the first thing most audiences think of is the quarrel in court. Wang Ping said, "In fact, outside the courtroom, lawyers and judges have various jobs. For example, judges investigate and verify the details of the case, review and judge whether the evidence is sufficient; lawyers also visit various parties outside the courtroom, and some There are many ways to help clients defend their rights. We thought it would be interesting to present this piece of content as well.”
Stills of "Blind Spot" in "Outside Court", Xia Yu as Lu Nan
In "Outside Court", Judge Lu Nan went to other places to review the death penalty, "Judges have absolutely the right to examine papers, arraign trial, and visit on the spot, because this work is too far away from us ordinary people, so we don't know. , we naturally think that judges should not do this.” Wang Ping introduced, “In fact, many judicial workers, including legal experts from Renmin University Law School, have mentioned our “Outside Court” in their articles, saying that the judges in the play There are cases in judicial practice, and it is real."Two skits, stories and characters are linked to each other to form an intertext. Wang Ping said that in the creation, she and the team have always thought about presenting the story in as new ways as possible. "Before we made "The Chasing the Murderer in the White Night", no one thought that the story of a criminal investigation case could be told like this."
Stills of "The Fallen" in "Outside Court", Luo Jin as Qiao Shaoting
In Wang Ping's view, "Outside Court" is not a traditional suspense drama, nor a simple workplace drama. "It presents the ecology of justice, law and politics, and at the same time integrates a sense of suspense. It has no benchmarking works."If there is no benchmarking, there is no reference, which also increases the difficulty and cost of creation, "I'm very clear from the beginning to the end, we want to tell a good story and present a very good group of people in our judicial ecology. But such The story, it needs to be fast-paced and high-pressure suspense, to peel off the layers like an onion around a case, and then solve the mystery under conflict and pressure. The difficulty here is that it involves a lot of details and foreshadowing, very Strict logical reasoning." Wang Ping said, "In domestic dramas, there was no such urgent rhythm of stories and cases in the volume of 6-episode short dramas before, and unexpected events occurred constantly, which made the audience feel that It’s a whole new experience of watching the show.”
In the interview, in addition to the creation experience of "Outside Court", Wang Ping also shared her observations and experiences on IP selection and adaptation, and the current situation of the industry as a former literary editor and now a producer.
Producer Wang Ping
【dialogue】IP film and television, the most important thing is the visualization of text
The Paper : I am quite surprised that Director Zhang Li will direct a six-group pure web drama. How did he persuade him to join?
Wang Ping : I never thought that I could convince Director Zhang Li to direct such a 6-episode pure web drama. Because I had some other collaborations with Director Zhang Li, and we communicated quite a lot. At that time, I took the script of "Blind Spot" and asked Director Zhang Li if he could help recommend a director. After reading the script, Zhang Li said, I think I can do it very well, and no one is more suitable than me. It was a real surprise.
During the cooperation process, I admire Director Zhang Li's accuracy in the presentation of images. In addition, I have learned a spirit of self-challenge from him. He is curious and constantly explores his own possibilities. The same thing, which is very encouraging for us young creators.
"Blind Spot" stills
The Paper : Crime topics are usually more challenging in terms of censorship. What is your experience?Wang Ping : The competent department still gave us a lot of creative space. Of course, our creative concept is also very clear. When creating a drama, what we hope to present and promote is hope and bright things.
The Paper : As far as I know, you have worked as a literary editor. Has this professional experience influenced your career as a producer?
Wang Ping : I have been a literary editor for ten years, and I have witnessed the rise of youth literature and the entire growth cycle; I have also witnessed the cycle of the IP wave when I moved into the film and television industry. Literary editors need a lot of reading, and the accumulation of reading forms a cognitive framework and a vision for selecting stories. I need to know: a story, what can it resonate with people? For example, I did youth literature before, presenting a child's work to countless children, and if I wanted to turn my personal creation into a product for the public to read, the story must resonate with different teenagers.
The Paper : Can you share your experience in the adaptation of literary IP film and television?
Wang Ping : Usually, some innovative things in web articles or comics will be three or five years earlier than film and television, and there is a time difference. When adapting film and television, you have to balance this time difference, the values and worldviews in the literary IP, which are ahead or behind, and which can empathize with the current social trend of thought, these must be analyzed enough.
Moreover, the story must meet the needs of dramatic conflict. In novels, there are usually many inner conflicts and self-games of the protagonist. These psychological processes can help readers know what he has experienced. But in film and television dramas, you need to supplement this information through picture presentation, other people's perspectives, and character relationships.
With the foundation, it will be easy for you to build a house, but it does not mean that your house will be built successfully. Converting IP into film and television works, the most important step is the visual presentation of text. This is a process of translation and re-creation. Sometimes this process is not done well, and IP that has been purchased for millions and tens of millions cannot be changed.
That is to say, it is necessary to identify the IP, determine whether it is popular enough and attractive enough, and at the same time have enough skills in adaptation.
"The Fallen" stills
The Paper : In the era of short videos, the creation of long videos faces challenges. How do you view the current creation methods of long videos?Wang Ping : Of course, the rise of short videos is a huge challenge to long videos. Compared with fragmented short videos, long videos have a threshold of character relationships and logic. How can audiences be willing to give patience and time to cross this threshold and enter a During the viewing process of dozens of hours and dozens of hours, this is very important. But the advantage of long videos is that they provide the deepest emotional resonance. When I want to be moved, short videos are quite difficult to do. I can watch short videos for hours, but it does not leave me with any deep emotional experience. If the audience feels that the story of this long video touches some of his psychology and hits one of his lines of defense, the story will be accepted.
In addition, the creation of long videos is actually a To C content product, which means that the content must be conveyed to the C side while the content is good enough. Of these two points, it is possible that you only do one thing right, and the final result is not satisfactory.
The quality of the project depends on how short the short board is
The Paper : In your opinion, what kind of realistic themes can young screenwriters undertake in the current market?
Wang Ping : The creation of realistic themes requires life experience, spiritual understanding, and the most important thing is to go deep into life. I have seen a lot of outline stories recently. Some young screenwriters have made character settings. Their occupations are either Internet celebrities, or anchors, or screenwriters or talk show actors. Perhaps this is because they have not observed more social roles in their lives.
Sometimes, realist creation requires a lot of field research, character interviews, and accumulation of reading, which requires a lot of energy other than writing. For some young screenwriters, I don’t need that hard work, and I don’t need to do so much work. I can live just fine, so why bother?
However, young screenwriters have their advantages, such as "I'm Good in a Foreign Country", writing about the work and life of young people in Beidri, it may be difficult for old screenwriters to write so close to young people. In recent years, many realistic dramas have been talking about the aphasia and difficulties, difficulties and pursuits of young people in the urban environment. Young screenwriters can express them very well.
"Blind Spot" stills
The Paper : The so-called "film and television winter" does not seem to have passed, and the platform is constantly reducing the cost of purchasing dramas. How do you view the current situation of this industry?Wang Ping : I don't think a worse era has come, but a return to rationality. According to my observation, the current strategy of all platforms is to improve quality and reduce weight, and some so-called waist projects have been done less, because the input-output ratio is not high, and we still need to do head projects. For me, first of all, I have been relatively confident in content creation. I think, as long as you make sure that it is good enough in the type of work you do. In this era, it is rare that a good work is not seen by the platform.
The Paper : How to ensure the excellence of the project?
Wang Ping : In fact, a project is divided into pre-stage, shooting, production, publicity and many other links. Its final quality actually depends on how short the short board is. For example, if you have a very good actor or a very good screenwriter, but other aspects are out of order, the final presentation to the audience may not be good enough.
In many links, it is necessary to make every "board" as "long" as possible. It is unhealthy to say, "As long as top-notch actors come, it doesn't matter if the script is poor"; but it is also wrong to say that "there is a good script, and other aspects don't care." With a good script, we also need high-quality and influential actors. After all, actors are a traffic portal. I have been talking about that there are three traffic portals, IP, type, and actor. These three are not meant to be comprehensive. For example, some of my previous works may account for two traffic entrances, such as criminal investigation cases with strong plots. The type is clearly positioned, and then there is a type IP.
If you find the best and most suitable partner in each link, the basic plan is here, and everyone will not "broke down" you, then the project is actually quite difficult to fall. If one of your items is not particularly long, other parts of the long board should be long enough, and the short board should not be as short as possible.
The Paper : The platform shrinks the cost of purchasing dramas, and the phenomenon of creator projects "unable to sell" is even more obvious. What's your advice on this?
Wang Ping : We often hear stories from bigwigs in various industries about how difficult it was to seek their first investment. You haven't been successful, so why should employers trust you? Right? In the film and television industry, even under the mature film and television industry system of Britain, the United States, Japan and South Korea, it is not easy for young creators to get good investment. We have to agree that this is a normal consideration, and it is reasonable.
As a creator, you can't work behind closed doors and encircle yourself. For the platform, what is needed is the maximization of the audience, or whether it can become a mass product. If the content creation is completely in line with your own aesthetics and is contrary to the commercial interests of the platform, the difficulties at this time are obvious. In fact, to balance commercial interests and content creation, first of all, you must understand what kind of subject you are in, whether you are suspense, romance, or reasoning, and make the quality good enough in the circle to meet the standards of the audience in the circle, and then Seek to break the circle again.
Communication in creation must be complicated and difficult, but TV dramas are mass products. If you spend the investors' money, you must satisfy the investors' demands. If you spend the platform's money, you must satisfy the platform. demands, this is fair.
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