"The first thing Li Xiang said when he saw the team was: 'In life now, there are too many opinions and too few facts'... In the circle of friends and various articles, the years are quiet and good, but in fact, everyone knows how warm and warm they are. The physical and mental siege is very direct in the business area, and it is not unreal.”

Ou Daming, the chief director of the documentary "Torrent Times", has collaborated with "Phoenix Vision" to produce hundreds of documentaries on history, culture, and characters. This is the first time he tried a commercial documentary. He told The Paper that it was a "walking and watching" trip for himself and his team.

"What we want to do is to enter into a more real life environment from a business perspective and explore some more real problems." He said.

Walk into the celebrity live broadcast room in Hangzhou to understand the business logic behind the live delivery; go to Yunnan's "China's No. 1 Coffee Village" to see the counterattack of domestic coffee; find the latest founder of a new consumer brand in Changsha, and talk about external expansion The time is not acclimatized; then come to Anfu Road, the "center of the universe" in Shanghai, to see the appearance of the Internet celebrity neighborhood from bottom to top...

After the film was broadcast, the Douban score of "Torrent Times" was 8.5, which captured many viewers.

"Torrent" poster

Adhering to the attitude of a professional observer, Li Xiang, a business writer, led the audience to interview the "most familiar strangers". Who among them can ride the waves? Who can break through the encirclement? Who can ride through industry cycles? The film provides more microscopic industry observations, more literary or bloody case studies, and when each episode opens, there will be many bullet screens floating by: "Class is over, come, take notes!"

Let more people understand how the business world works

"Torrent Era" was developed by Tencent Video Eureka Studio and produced by Penguin Films. Eureka Studio has been focusing on the production and production of ideological documentary programs, and has launched well-known programs such as "Thirteen Invitations", "Before Tomorrow", "Only Three Days Visible", "Mask Hunter", "Seeing", "Where the Guest Comes From" and so on. Documentary programs. Aware of the importance of commercial themes and the absence of the current long-form video market, the team decided to make a documentary with the theme of commercial observation.

Producer Liu Dongxiao believes that most commercial documentaries are either interviews with celebrities, or start from the perspective of a complete story, and rarely make a section from a theme.

However, compared with conventional documentaries that spend several years in-depth on a single case, the difficulty factor will increase proportionately when the time is short and depth is sought.

As chief director Ou Daming said, shooting one person in 7 days is completely different from shooting three or four people in 7 days. However, he still believes that each method has its own advantages and disadvantages, whether from the perspective of "one person's depth" or "multiple perspectives", and the final result is not a standard answer.

Li Xiang and Feng Lun discuss changing times

Li Xiang, as the "seeker" in "Torrent Times", was a business reporter, editor, business writer, and publisher. He once served as the editor-in-chief of "Economic Observer" and "First Financial Weekly", and was also awarded the "Detailed Talk" series In the past few years, he has published 5 business books. In 2016, he joined Get APP as the editor-in-chief, and launched the knowledge service product "Li Xiang Business Internal Reference", which once hit the circle of friends.

"Torrent Times" is not "Getting Rich". In Li Xiang's mind, "Many people understand the business world in a very rigid and simplistic way. I hope to use a more popular media form to allow more people to understand business. How does the world work?"

Ou Daming said affirmatively: "Li Xiang's role in this is to bridge the gap between the profession and the public. We introduce an observer and try our best to touch a wider or more representative A sample, and then a communication, is also a way to solve the problem."

Li Xiang

Therefore, the criteria for topic selection are:

First, it must be a commercial behavior and phenomenon that is closely related to the lives of ordinary people; second, it must be happening at the moment, arouse heated discussions, and have a certain degree of communication; Business and times with rich dimensions; fourth, it must be what the observer Li Xiang is curious about.

In the finished film, the main creative team did a more simple thing: specially edited the process of Li Xiang and the production team discussing the content of the topic behind the scenes. They also moved all the confusion and predicament during the creative period from behind the scenes to the front of the stage.

For example, in the second episode, the team went to Yunnan with a good vision, but in the process of getting to know each other gradually, they found that the direction was wrong. The so-called "high-quality coffee road" in the local area was not completely smooth as expected.

In this way, the combination of "before the scene" and "behind the scene" makes the perspective of observation more documentary, and also brings a synchronous presence experience to the audience.

On November 11, 2022, the day of the "Double Eleven" live broadcast, Li Xiang and the shooting team ran around the live broadcast rooms of the Yaowang live broadcast base.

Yaowang Technology is a live e-commerce organization with more than 1,000 employees, more than 50 operation teams, and nearly 200 contracted anchors. It is in a period of rapid growth. The enthusiastic atmosphere of "Double Eleven" and the rising numbers cannot relieve the anxiety of CEO Xie Rudong.

The transaction volume, the number of online users, the anchor's attention, the fluctuation of each data made his heart flutter.

The data given by the program shows that in August 2021, after Jia Nailiang started his first live delivery on Douyin, his delivery results have been remarkable, with an average turnover of 90 million per game. Jia Nailiang can be regarded as a leader in live streaming in the celebrity circle.

The dialogue between Li Xiang and Jia Nailiang made the audience see a different side from his film and television variety show.

Some people think that it is a bit cheap for artists to sell goods, but Jia Nailiang is very firm on the issue of "live streaming". "If you don't want to understand it, try not to end the live broadcast... Even if I stay at home every day, I can't catch Zhang Yimou's play!" He believes, "People should be able to think within their own limited conditions Work around."

"Actors should be groomed all the time. I didn't expect him to be so frank." Although he was not very familiar with Jia Nailiang before, this also surprised Li Xiang.

Dialogue between Li Xiang and Jia Nailiang

In this episode of the live broadcast, there are not only top celebrity anchors like Jia Nailiang and Chen Yiru with their own traffic and attention, but also young female anchors with a middle waist who are rapidly gaining popularity, and there are also single-game GMVs that are only a few hundred yuan. A low-level newcomer with his own brand.

The dialogue between Li Xiang and Xie Rudong also discussed in depth whether live broadcasting can break through the scale dilemma of "not doing big", whether live broadcasting e-commerce can take root and feed back the offline retail industry and many other meticulous business concepts behind live broadcasting.

There are also viewers who feel that they can't quench their thirst after watching it, and think that the interviewees are not distinctive enough, and the talk is too superficial, and they don't dig deep into the pain points of the industry.

In this regard, producer Liu Dongxiao believes that the creative team did not make a very explicit expression, because "Torrent Era" is still "a public spiritual product" in essence. "The first episode of 'Live Broadcasting' can be full of topics, but we may not be talking about what 'Live Broadcasting' is all about. What we actually want to talk about is, in this era, people's desire to climb up."

Liu Dongxiao emphasized that many other documentaries have more contact with top or lower-level anchors, but we still focus on showing a chain, including whether there is a so-called ascending channel in the process, etc.

Different topics and stories can finally produce a structural force

Many viewers feel that Li Xiang and Xu Zhiyuan look alike, both of them have curly hair and deep and confused eyes, but compared to Mr. Xu's "stubbornness", Li Xiang appears more gentle and tolerant in front of the camera.

Regarding his first appearance, Li Xiang said that he had studied various videos before, and he felt that the identity of the interviewer itself had a sense of mission.

"Sometimes (interviewers) have to create the kind of conflicts and doubts between people. If a talk show wants to be particularly attractive, it may sometimes have to create an image of an aggressive interviewer, and a I have such a prejudice against this form (video interview).” He said with a smile, and he is also very familiar with Mr. Xu in private, Li Xiang I don't think Xu Zhiyuan is in the "awkward" state that some people understand.

He believes that because of the different vertical fields and different forms, the two programs are not comparable.

"I haven't made a video before, so I will have some pressure. I haven't done it before because I didn't think about it. For example, what is the difference between it and similar products on the market? How can there be new increments? This time I am more willing to do this because I can rest assured of the professional team in the documentary field, which is indeed very important, and in this way, the pressure on me will be less, because you can let go and talk." Li Xiang told The Paper News said.

Many viewers prefer the third episode. The story of the entrepreneurs in the smoky Changsha commercial street itself has a special Quixote color of BGM.

A section of the clip in the film is a bit unique, mixing together the interview content of Wen Bin, the founder of Wenheyou, and Li Feng, a well-known domestic investor, from different time and space. New consumption has a more intuitive and dry understanding.

Producer Liu Dongxiao, who participated in the editing of the third episode, said about the creation of this episode: "We want to introduce a partner or an external perspective to Brother Xiang. There is no fixed number in the essence of the program, and we hope it can be more flexible. A little. The combination of Li Xiang and Li Feng in the third episode was pretty good, maybe because the topic happened to be Li Feng’s favorite topic, which is his professional field. He only came for five or six hours for the whole filming, but There are quite a lot of parts that can be presented in the final film, Teacher Li Feng is very interesting, because he has a bit of a poisonous tongue, in fact, our editing is still relatively polite."

Some people say that "The Torrent" is like seeing a video version of the feature, and the in-depth topics that Li Xiang sorts out will also attract ordinary audiences.

For example, in the face of the absolute shining star in the tea industry in recent years - Chayan Yuese, talk to its founder Mai Mai. Through the dialogue, you will be surprised that the BOSS of a chain store with hundreds of stores is still "small store thinking".

Therefore, Liu Dongxiao believes that the depth lies in the choice.

How much is vertical content in a popular project, and how much is content that the public may understand more easily, the main creative team has been repeatedly making such a judgment.

The third episode focuses on new consumption. The theme is actually "how to know yourself".

"How do you know yourself, what kind of path have you chosen? When the external environment and even yourself have changed, how do you know yourself again?" Liu Dongxiao gave another example from the fourth episode of Anfu Road, " It grows from the bottom up and is a very complex business. Behind this is to talk about the resilience of people or the resilience of business. We hope that through different topics and stories, we can finally produce a structural strength to achieve that expression."

Li Xiang

What we are curious about is the content that is related to business and can be related to the lives of ordinary people

During the interview process, Li Xiang would also occasionally briefly participate in the other party's professional status, such as temporarily helping the store deliver a takeaway, or helping the bookstore as a sorter for a while.

"What kind of attitude do you take to participate in his life? This is actually quite difficult." Li Xiang said.

For example, the manager of Duozhuoyu second-hand bookstore told Li Xiang, "Put the books you think are good in a prominent position."

This has brought some small troubles to Li Xiang, who often has the upper hand in rational and logical thinking. Is it arranging books according to personal preferences or respecting a mature and operating bookstore as a premise? Put your favorites or put bestsellers? Li Xiang smiled and said, "It's okay, my 'experience' is an 'experience' that doesn't require taking responsibility.

The store manager will also read Li Xiang's books, and then say to him, "Mr. Li, I found that you like this kind of classic things very much."

Throughout the filming process of "Torrent", the main creative team overcame the positive turns after the opening, as well as various tests that all documentary filming would bring.

At that time, the epidemic had just been released for two weeks, and the team went to Wuyi Square in Changsha around 12 o'clock in the evening. What surprised Liu Dongxiao was that although there were no crowds on the street, some young people could still be seen Singing on the side of the road, some stall owners who just came out of the stall with big bags and small bags.

"I still have a very strong feeling that consumption, or people's enthusiasm and desire for life, is still unstoppable. At that time, I had a very clear feeling about the tone of this episode. That's where the end of the movie definitely needs to be, and that scene defines the episode, yes! There's something coming back, and we can see it."

Looking back on this season, Li Xiang feels that he can do better, such as sorting out existing content reports to find more unique interview objects, including carefully sorting out the structure and optimizing the content as much as possible.

The chief director Ou Daming also sighed, "Whether we have completed a vision when we set out, or to what extent we have carried what we want to express, there will definitely be losses. Every project is in the production process. There will be two results under an accident, one is benefits, and the other is to gain new surprises, because difficulties can also be converted into shooting opportunities."

For the second season, Liu Dongxiao believes that the topics that were not completed in the first season, such as county towns, may get the second season. He is also curious about what some Chinese companies are doing overseas.

Liu Dongxiao finally said, "The focus of "Torrent Times" must be related to business, and it is related to the common life of our ordinary people, and it can also bring about great changes in enterprises."