In 1945, Japan announced its unconditional surrender. On the eve of its withdrawal from Shanghai, several underground liaison stations of patriotic organizations were destroyed by the enemy, and multiple sources of information pointed to the Mahler Manor. At the same time, the Japanese side sent out banquet invitations to all walks of life in Shanghai. The chamber of commerce, the intelligence bureau, the Youth Gang and people from the society each showed their abilities to break through the darkness and go to a bright "new world".

This is the story background of China's first original P large-scale immersive project "New World", which is located in the Shanghai Film and Television Park in Chedun, Songjiang, jointly created by Shanghai Film Production, a subsidiary of Shanghai Film Group, and Shanghai Beaver Xiangguo Cultural Development Co., Ltd.

stage performance. The pictures in this article were all taken by The Paper reporter Li Sijie.

On February 9th, "New World" held its anniversary press conference, announcing that it will officially start its 2023 show on February 18th. As the first immersive theater project relying on the unique resource advantages of Shanghai Film and Television Park, "New World" aims to allow the audience to "travel through old Shanghai and immerse themselves in the new world", bringing a combination of "watching + acting + games". Multi-dimensional immersive experience. At the same time, this project will also serve as a vanguard to help Shanghai Film to create an IP-themed "immersive" cultural tourism consumption format, and contribute to further building the "Shanghai Culture" brand.

Conference site

Create the largest original manor immersive theater group in the country

"The "New World" project is a major attempt and breakthrough we have made in the field of immersive performing arts. Compared with other immersive projects, this project makes full use of the scarce and precious resources of Shanghai Film and Television Park. Four villas, Two large theaters and a wharf have been developed into the largest manor-style immersive drama theater group in the country." Yu Song, executive deputy general manager of Shangying Li Xiangguo, introduced.

The New World Amusement Park, located on Nanjing Road, Shili, used to be the largest comprehensive entertainment venue in Shanghai. This giant entertainment ship opened in 1915 witnessed the vicissitudes of Shanghai in the first half of the 20th century, and welcomed the people together with the Chinese people. A new world and a new era of being the master. In the turbulent tide of history, the stories that happened in this region are naturally wonderful. 15 main character lines and more than 100 branch plots are intertwined with each other, and together form a complex and delicate story line like a spider web. During the 3-hour performance, the audience can personally participate and jointly find the behind-the-scenes opponents behind the fog.

Jiang Zehua, CEO of Beaver Xiangguo and chief producer of "New World", still remembers that when he first stepped into the Chedun manor, "I was deeply attracted by the temperament of the whole manor, it is really a natural choice. "

Villa 2, Standoff

Relying on the unique hardware advantages of the film and television base, the immersion of "New World" can be described as "ceiling" level compared with works of similar themes that have been popular in recent years. Compared with other immersive dramas, "New World" can establish such a majestic narrative structure, and its unique performance venue is a crucial part. As one of the most well-known film and television bases in China, Shanghai Film and Television Park has provided shooting scenes for well-known film and television works such as "Love in the Rain", "Kung Fu" and "The Pretender". A super "equipment library" with tens of thousands of costumes and props has been formed. "It's a perfect combination when you pick it up and look at it. So we have gathered the best creative team in the industry to come here to create the largest and best original immersive drama that belongs to China." Jiang Zehua said.

The 4 villas, 2 theaters and 1 wharf in the film and television park are converted into this manor-style immersive theater group, with a total area of more than 10,000 square meters and more than 60 theater spaces. In addition to deeply restoring the scenes of old Shanghai, in this immersive theater experience project, the audience can also change into the cheongsam and long gown of the Republic of China, and feel the feasting and feuding and the hatred of the country and family in the old days.

Different from the immersive representative work "Sleepless Night" that many audiences have been familiar with before, "We have deeply explored the local culture, researched Shanghai style culture, red culture, Jiangnan culture, and hoped to bring the audience back to history. Experience history and understand history." Jiang Zehua further introduced.

Villa 2, furnished

There are many ways to play "watching + acting + games"

In addition to the art part benefiting from the powerful "hardware" of Shanghai Film and Television Park, the powerful cast has created first-class "software" for the audience. It is understood that more than 70 actors who appeared in the performance of "New World" are all professional immersive drama actors. Following these actors, every audience can quickly find the sense of faith in the characters, and thus truly become an important part of the drama, unlocking a brand new life beyond imagination. At the same time, in order to better present key scenes such as gun battles, blasting, and fighting, the producer specially invited 15 professional martial artists from the Shanghai film stunt team into the crew. During the visit, the fierce fighting happened right before our eyes, and the hard-working and professional performance of the stunt actors greatly enhanced the tension of the story.

The director and screenwriter team have carefully written a performance script with a total duration of more than 2,700 minutes, striving to have every main line of the plot and every main character portrayed with flesh and blood. After years of polishing, what is finally presented to the audience is a high-quality immersive drama with a duration of 180 minutes, a lively rhythm, strong dramatic conflicts, and passionate emotions.

In addition to watching the play, the audience participates in it personally, and interacting with NPCs is also an important part of participating in this story. For this reason, in addition to 4 main plot lines and 15 main characters, the creator also set up more than 100 branch lines, and the audience can choose according to their own preferences. It can even be said that the intensity of experience gained in this world is directly proportional to the degree of "actor" of the participants.

As an original drama that is constantly growing and iterating, director Dong Xuanhan said, "Over the past year or so, this project has continuously absorbed the opinions of the audience, and the internal team has also gone through countless discussions. The main plot has been comprehensively improved and upgraded. On the basis of the original script, we continue to add content to improve the background of each character. Some original logic loopholes have also been fixed in the mechanism.”

Villa No. 3, crematorium

Shanghai Film to create an "immersive" cultural tourism format will continue to upgrade

In February 2022, as soon as "New World" was launched, it was immediately listed on Douyin's leisure and entertainment hot list in Shanghai, becoming the first place in the secret room party category with 61.4663 million popularity. On ticketing platforms such as Maoyan and Damai, "New World" has maintained a high score of 9.4 and 9.0 so far.

""New World" has been almost full since its premiere on February 14 last year, and the attendance rate has reached 100%. It has been affected by the epidemic and has been suspended several times, leaving a lot of regrets." Yu Song, the executive deputy general manager, is full of ambitions for the new round of performances, "In 2023, we will regain our momentum. On the basis of the original, we have upgraded the content format and business model, and we will welcome the audience back with the principle of the ultimate experience. "

Villa Moller

At the press conference, Jiang Zehua, CEO of Beaver Xiangguo and chief producer of "New World", announced to the media the future blueprint of the "New World" project - in addition to creating subsequent chapters of the plot, on the basis of the existing large-scale content, "New World" will continue to upgrade and activate consumption scenes such as song and dance halls, tea rooms, and coffee shops, and guide the audience to spend the money earned from participating in the plot on the spot as in real life, creating a more realistic and detailed immersive experience. It is reported that by the second half of this year, "New World" will be upgraded and iterated to a content volume of 6 hours.

At the same time, Yu Song, the executive deputy general manager of Shangying Lixiangguo, said that more themed experience formats will be developed around the "New World" IP. Various derivative activities such as drama workshops, the Republic of China retro market, and the New World annual dinner will be launched in the venue one after another. At that time, when the audience comes to Shanghai Film and Television Park, they can have an immersive theater experience from morning to night all day long, and "New World" will also become a representative work of a truly integrated product of culture and tourism.

The creation of "New World" is only the first step for Shanghai Film Group to enter the "immersion". Lu Xuling, executive deputy general manager of Shanghai Film and Television Park and chairman of Shangying Li Xiangguo, introduced that Shanghai Film and Television Park is making in-depth efforts to immerse itself in the cultural and tourism industry on the basis of ensuring the stable development of the original filming business. Create the IP of "Immersive Shanghai Film and Television Park" and iterate to the "3.0" version of the park. While the "New World" project is becoming more and more mature, multiple immersive cultural tourism projects such as "Wukang Building" immersive interactive hotel, Meiying IP unpowered children's park, immersive movie theme camp, Cityneon Meiying Park, etc. are also under preparation .

Since the beginning of the "14th Five-Year Plan", Shanghai Film Group has actively promoted innovation and transformation, and achieved high-quality development with the "dual-core drive" of content innovation and industrial innovation. On the fertile soil of cultural consumption in Shanghai, Shanghai Film Group takes "Movie+" as the fulcrum, embraces the constantly updated multi-entertainment model, and builds Shanghai Film and Television Park into a major cultural tourism destination with film elements. In the future, Shanghai Film Studios will also help Shanghai build the "Asian Performing Arts Capital" with more high-quality immersive theater projects, and make a solid contribution to further building the "Shanghai Culture" brand.

Villa Moller