"News Queen" is the second drama produced by director Zhong Shujia after returning to TVB after more than ten years. The story unfolds in a TV station called SNKNEWS. Two major anchors, a man and a woman, fight for power, small anchors fight endlessly, and high-level checks and balances. Through each news event, the humanity in the struggle is fully revealed.
It sparked heated discussions after it aired. The series has a fast pace and a small climax in each episode. Wen Huixin, played by Charmaine Sheh, threatens her boss with a live broadcast with a smile on her face, while Liang Jingren, played by Ma Guoming, is ruthless and full of calculations.
"1/3 of the people in the workplace are doing things, 1/3 are lazy, and 1/3 are preventing others from doing things."
"Dad didn't have a choice. My husband chose it himself, and he chose such a useless person!"
"You can't accept a world where dogs bite people. A world where people bite dogs is not suitable for you. Find a man to marry."
These lines go straight to the heart of the workers. "TVB workplace drama is back."
"News Queen" stills
With the popularity and discussion of "News Queen", The Paper reporter interviewed the show's director Zhong Shujia. He has filmed many classic dramas on TVB, such as "Royal One", "Brothers in Need", "Pets" "Love", "Macau Street", etc. Twenty years ago, Zhong Shujia left TVB to go north to film. She returned to TVB last year and established her own 77 Studio Co., Ltd.
In fact, the prototype of the "News Queen" story began more than 20 years ago.
At that time, Zhong Shujia had just finished filming "Brothers in Need" and was brainstorming what to film in his next film. He watched a Hollywood movie about the journalism industry and was inspired. He felt that there seemed to be no such subject matter in Hong Kong, so he thought of a story. The starting point: When the protagonist faces a wanted criminal that he has been looking for for a long time, should he take pictures to pave the way for his career, or should he alert the police who come by?
What would you do when you face the news and your conscience and have to make a choice? "This is a very interesting question." Zhong Shujia said.
Around 2000, Zhong Shujia collaborated with a screenwriter who graduated from the journalism department and wrote the first version.
"Actually, it's probably similar to the current story. Several characters are exactly the same. However, Master Fei is not as lazy as he is now. He is half capable and half also knows how to be lazy. But because it is a movie script, it is not as complicated as it is now. The character relationships and structure." Zhong Shujia recalled.
After returning to TVB, he remembered this unproduced script, found a new screenwriter, expanded the entire story, added more characters and branches, and produced the current "News Queen". The scene where Wen Huixin meets the King of Thieves is still the core.
"Because of a scene and a problem, I started writing this story. Whether it was before or now, this has never changed."
The scene where Wen Huixin meets the King of Thieves is the core of the story.
What’s interesting is that in the past 20 years, Zhong Shujia has not lacked opportunities to develop new scripts. He has been filming in the Mainland for more than ten years, but he has never thought of or produced this script. “I think this Only in Hong Kong and TVB can the story be completed to a higher degree."
Perhaps this is why "News Queen" seems to have regained its Hong Kong flavor. "With this subject, if we return to the mainland, the entire news ecology will be completely different. Some netizens will raise some questions after reading it, because in different places, the way of doing news is different. Every company and every institution It will all be a little different, but the way the news is reported, I think it will be easier to understand what happened in Hong Kong in this script."
Zhong Shujia’s netizen question refers to someone pointing out that when an accident such as a bus rollover or a fire occurs, it is strange that the media arrive at the scene before the fire fighters and police. Zhong Shujia explained, "Every media in Hong Kong has some emergency plans. The photography team will go to the company to check in every day, and then drive to different places in the city. They will stay in some places." It’s a relatively central place, so you can go quickly no matter where you go.”
Secondly, it refers to the fast-paced, no-nonsense and cruel workplace content presented in the drama, which is quite different from the atmosphere in mainland dramas. Chung Shu-jia also admits that Hong Kong dramas have good workplace drama genes. Many Hong Kong dramas in the 1990s were the workplace enlightenment for a generation. He believes that this may be because "Hong Kong people particularly love to go to work."
It sounds like a joke, but he has had this feeling since he started working. For example, when he was interviewed, it was already after work time, but there were still many colleagues outside the office. “They are very enthusiastic about their work, and I don’t know why. , it seems that Hong Kong people like to go to work very much. From before the handover to after the handover, this tradition has been passed down. Everyone devotes their time to work, and the conversations at work are crisp and clear, without nonsense. This has also been reflected in previous Hong Kong dramas."
Zhong Shujia is very pleased with the recognition and love for "News Queen" from mainland audiences and various platforms. This is what he wants to do when he returns to TVB. He laughed and said that he was still very happy after more than ten years of filming in Beijing. He liked the dryness of Beijing, the mutton skewers in Beijing, and the professional improvement and emotional warmth that the Beijing team brought to him. "I When I first went to Beijing, I didn’t understand anything, couldn’t speak anything, and my Mandarin was very bad. Many friends gave me a lot of help. Over the past ten years, we have become like a family. I like a place. The most important thing is People just like that place." It was also because of this that the first drama he returned to TVB to film was "Hong Kong People in Beijing".
However, in the past ten years, he has constantly heard people talking about the decline of Hong Kong drama. "I came from TVB. Everything I know now was learned at TVB. This is my enlightenment. People now turn Hong Kong dramas into a kind of nostalgia. I feel a little emotional in my heart. Why on earth has it become like this? "
With this emotion, coupled with the invitation from his friend Eric Tsang, and his desire to spend more time with his father, Zhong Shujia decided to return to TVB again.
"Now that I have this opportunity, I also hope to come back and do my best to see if I can do something for Hong Kong dramas."
Zhong Shujia
【dialogue】
Times are changing, and there are more channels for watching news.
The Paper : In the process of expanding the script this time, did you get in touch with the press again?
Zhong Shujia : Of course, we have done a lot of information and interviewed many former anchors and former journalists. However, TV dramas are a kind of artistic creation and cannot be completely true. If they are completely true, they will become documentaries. If it is too far away from the truth, it will not be convincing, so we have to find a balance point.
In addition, in fact, 10 years ago, everyone's views on the media and news, whether in the mainland or Hong Kong, should be said that the whole world has changed. In the past, people would pay special attention to news reports, which meant news programs on TV. Now we can see news through many more channels than before. This is a change of the times.
My own habit of writing scripts is to create the characters first, and make each character very detailed. I think about the details of each part first, and then put the character into the story. So we put a lot of information on the character's personality. For example, Gao Haining's character Xu Shiqing is a person who looks very open. She can use her physical advantages to gain benefits, but the real Xu Shiqing No, she has her own storyline. This is a prototype reference. That girl has a bad reputation. Everyone thinks that she relies on means to do things, as if she is terrible, but in fact she is more diligent than anyone else. After socializing every night, she returns to the company at 2 o'clock in the morning. Work, then sleep for a while after dawn. These people really do exist, but many times we misunderstand them because of their appearance or superficial behaviors.
Gao Haining as Xu Shiqing
The Paper : What important changes have occurred in the news industry, especially the Hong Kong news industry, in recent years?
Zhong Shujia : I think this is not just the case in Hong Kong, but also all over the world. Nowadays, everyone has a mobile phone. It seems that everyone is a reporter, and everyone can record something. This was unimaginable 10 years ago. This will create a lot of difficulties in the rationality of the plot, because when everyone sees an accident, they will pick up their mobile phones to film it, and how to make it fit the script. But there are also benefits, such as the bus overturned, and finally they found the truth because of some surveillance footage or cell phone footage.
The Paper : When re-expanding this script, is the discussion of journalism professional issues at the same core position?
Zhong Shujia : Yes. The journalism industry is an industry that is prone to conflict, because every decision is made quickly, but there are many times when there are many opinions that are not black and white. Sometimes you have to make some trade-offs and some judgments. We often say one word It's called a fact check. By the time you prove a piece of news, it has already happened. Can you make the most professional decision in such a short period of time? These are places where conflicts can easily arise.
So at the beginning, we chose the news industry as the background. It is also because of this that the audience will feel more exciting and happy, and they will know the result soon. There are no warnings for what happens. For example, Wen Huixin accidentally photographed the King of Thieves. Because of that news, Wen Huixin gained everything, but also lost a lot because of it. She couldn't sleep every night. Some plots were later cut. There was never a scene where Sister Man fell asleep. In this play, this is an Easter egg. Because she couldn't sleep at all. In her bedroom, no matter what she did, she would sit down and never turn off the light and fall asleep.
In the play, women compete for power
The Paper : Human nature is another big focus, right? It’s also a topic you’re more interested in?
Zhong Shujia : Yes, in dramas, human conflict is always the most interesting. It is a proposition that can be infinitely developed. Plus, if we put it in an environment where girls make the decision, it will be even more interesting.
I think human nature has always been a philosophical question. Are people inherently good or inherently evil? The same is true for everyone in reality. You can't say whether a person is absolutely good or absolutely bad. A criminal may be very filial to his parents, while a great philanthropist may be bad to his family or abuse his wife. No one can tell the difference. Be clear about what the boundaries and standards are. So what I express is that everyone has two sides and three sides. This aspect may have been slightly less explored in TVB dramas in recent years. This time I want to do more.
Zhong Shujia communicates with actors on the set
The Paper : Why did TVB have fewer dramas in this industry before? Is it difficult or difficult to present?
Zhong Shujia : It is very difficult. Every machine in our live broadcast room and every TV picture in the control room must have a suitable material in it. It is already very annoying. In addition, there are some large-scale accident scenes, such as car rollovers and fires, each of which is enough to make a TV series. If we were doing news, if we filmed four or five accidents, it would already be something that would happen in four or five TV series.
The Paper : Some netizens say that several major female characters in this drama are called the modern version of "The Palace" and the modern version of "The Desire of the Golden Branch". There are also people who correspond to the roles. Have you seen it?
Zhong Shujia : Actually, I don’t quite agree with it myself, but as a comparison, it’s okay. Although they are all competing for something as a group of women, the goals are different. Times have progressed. What we women are competing for is power or achievements at work. But in the past, we only wanted to get the emperor. This is completely Two different things.
As for fighting, whether it is a fight or a struggle is a matter of perspective. The winning party must not feel that it is fighting, but only that it is a very reasonable work result. Only the losing side will think that I want to win back the game and I want to fight.
We are developing according to our earliest original story lines. These lines are already present in the previous original story.
The Paper : Do you have any thoughts on choosing actors?
Zhong Shujia : I determined it all myself. Very early on, I wrote the script based on the actor I had in mind. Now it seems that apart from Charmaine Sheh, it is difficult for me to find another person with such aura, such acting skills and such appearance. In addition, her personality has the feeling of a big sister. She knows how to take care of others, is very righteous and loyal. In some details, she really looks like Wen Huixin.
Charmaine Sheh as Wen Huixin
The Paper : What were the biggest difficulties you encountered this time?
Zhong Shujia : The shooting was not very difficult. We went quite smoothly and the shooting was very fast. I think the bigger difficulty was in the later stages, when we were particularly pressed for time because we wanted to catch up with the schedule of the Taiwanese celebration drama. There are still a lot of computer special effects to be done throughout the post-production period.
Most of the computer special effects cannot be seen by the audience. For example, every TV set we have in the control room has a green screen when we shoot. There is nothing on it. They are all pictures added in post. Dozens of pictures are all It takes a lot of time to put the appropriate images into it again, and every piece of content needs to be redesigned. I really didn’t expect it to take so long, so I was in a rush.
The Paper : You have experienced the best era of Hong Kong dramas. Why do you say Hong Kong workplace dramas are so good?
Zhong Shujia : I think it may be because in Hong Kong’s traditional society, the average education level of women is relatively high. About 10 years ago, when "Miao Hands of Kindness" or "The No. 1 Royal Court" was released, many girls had already been influenced by You have a good education, you have the ability to think independently, and you have no problem living on your own. Why do you want to get married? From that time on, they started to have this professional spirit, so it has been passed down, and it is the same with Hong Kong girls now. Among our TVB screenwriting team, many screenwriters themselves have such a personality, so it is easy to write that kind of lines. More than ten years ago, most women in Hong Kong already thought this way, and they were more comfortable writing about it. I think it's the atmosphere of this place.
In Hong Kong, no girls are willing to go on a blind date. Maybe their parents already think that marriage is not that important. Although they also hope that their children can get married, at the same time, they also feel that when their children grow up, some decisions should be made by their daughters. Do it yourself, this is the tradition in Hong Kong.
The Paper : Nowadays, many people in first-tier cities in the Mainland are not married, and they don’t think it is important. They all think that making money and working are the most important. However, our TV series seem to have a lot of love content. How to grasp the balance between reality and drama? balance?
Zhong Shujia : Although I just said that women in Hong Kong are relatively independent and have a more independent mentality. In many cases, many senior executives of large companies are female bosses, but at the social level, there is still a traditional concept of male dominance, and I believe it may be more serious in Mainland China than in Hong Kong, so no matter how hard girls try and how good they are, they seem to have to face some unfair things in the competition with equal opportunities. Even in Hong Kong, this situation still exists.
So when writing about female subjects, there is a good dramatic point. A good TV series should always give everyone some fantasy, some dreamlike feeling, so we want to be a queen, and we cannot end up with her having nothing. We should film this social state from the perspective of a creator and propose a kind of The argument is that this situation should be changed. In fact, girls are capable of changing it. Everyone has the right to make their own choices in career and emotions.
A strong sense of rhythm is an advantage that Hong Kong dramas need to maintain
The Paper : Hong Kong’s workplace dramas seem to be a kind of inheritance. We have been watching TVB’s workplace dramas since we were very young, and they were well-produced a long time ago.
Zhong Shujia : I think it’s a problem with the rhythm of the script. For example, in our same episode, who is everyone the protagonist meets? What are their opinions? Who is at odds with whom? Their different attitudes when facing an incident. Who is on your side? , who is the other party... It requires so many arrangements to be arranged in the same episode. This is the rhythm that a Hong Kong drama should have in my mind. It must be so fast, and the workplace atmosphere will be thicker.
In addition, there is no nonsense in the lines, every sentence is useful, and there is no nonsense when everyone is working. If you remember "Imperial Court No. 1", you should also be able to feel that when they are facing work, every sentence is important.
The Paper : Nowadays, these actors are all performing very well, but some viewers will say that the same group of actors are still the ones carrying the dramas in Hong Kong, and the new actors may be a bit inexperienced. Do you feel this way? Why?
Zhong Shujia : There will be some gaps. In addition to the previous starring actors, this time I also used Gao Haining, Wang Minyi, He Yiting, He Guangpei, etc. I recruited actors from several different stages, just hoping to get more new ones. face. For example, Gao Haining is very energetic and confident, Wang Minyi is very malleable, and He Guangpei has unlimited potential in his niche. I am very satisfied with He Yiting's performance. Her role is one of the most difficult to play. For the stage she is in, she completed it very well. Give them more time and they can become actors who can carry the drama.
He Yiting as Xu Xiaowei
I think that because Hong Kong is a small place, the development of the film and television industry now begins with the development of the Internet platform. The entire film and television world is different and has changed. If we use very traditional methods to cultivate or shoot, It may no longer be appropriate. When resources become less and less, opportunities become less and less, and it becomes more difficult for new people to come forward. There are still a lot of talented actors out there, they just haven't had enough opportunities to express themselves.
After all, I have been filming in the Mainland for so many years. The Mainland's film and television industry is progressing very fast, the market space is getting bigger and bigger, and there are many actors. Some are good, and some may not be good enough. But relatively speaking, Hong Kong's actors have only the most attention. will become smaller. In the past, it was easier to pay attention to Hong Kong actors, but now every day when I open the platform, I see so many dramas. How can everyone pay attention to a new Hong Kong drama actor?
Give them some time and let us make more Hong Kong dramas that audiences across the country will like. Let’s start with changes in this area and update Hong Kong dramas. If the audience pays attention to Hong Kong dramas, they will naturally have more opportunities.
The Paper : Do you feel that your script writing skills are lacking? In the past two years, Hong Kong dramas have not only had problems with their actors, but also with their scripts and stories.
Zhong Shujia : I have paid attention to it after I came back. After all, I have been away from Hong Kong for so many years. After I came back and looked at it, I really felt that it was not good because the market has become smaller and the resources have become smaller. In many cases, I have become more conservative. The more conservative it becomes, the worse it becomes.
Because they are conservative, they don’t have the urge to innovate. Even if they are brave enough to make some innovations, it may become embarrassing because the production or technology cannot keep up. Some of our predecessors when we were young, particularly good creators, have retired and some have left, which also has some influence.
I think we can’t completely abandon some of the advantages of the past. It’s better to be bold and let go of some inherent concepts. We can’t always be the same as in the past. We should make some updates and replacements. From this script, Creation, acting, and directing should all be done simultaneously, not just one part of it.
The Paper : This time you returned to TVB to film. Compared with before, what are the major changes in the actual creative and filming process?
Zhong Shujia : It’s not much different from when we shoot outside. We all operate in the same way as making movies, including this time for "News Queen". In fact, our photographer is the photographer of "Lust | Caution". The art teacher was also the art teacher for "Shadow" directed by Zhang Yimou. We used some special configurations, and the creators all wanted to do something different.
To be honest, I think the problem is that not much has changed from before, not that it has changed. I find that I will miss the team and the entire resource allocation when I was filming in the Mainland even more. I feel that I need to bring back as much more professional equipment as possible.
Have you ever been to a film crew in Mainland China? How do you feel?
The Paper : Yes. The type of work will be more sophisticated and there will be a lot of people.
Zhong Shujia : This is the key point. There are many people and the division of labor is also very fine. If you think about our many dramas and movies, the staff may have been filming for more than 300 days. If they keep practicing and working, they will definitely get results. With a big improvement, the professionalism will become higher and higher. This cannot be changed. We will indeed enjoy more resources.
In addition, staff wages in Hong Kong are too high, all scenes are expensive, and everything is expensive. We only rent a car to go out for filming, and the price is 10 times more expensive than in the mainland. Therefore, when filming in Hong Kong, there are very few staff members every day, maybe only thirty or fifty people. There is no way to compare with when filming in the Mainland.
"News Queen" stills
The Paper : What is the legacy of Hong Kong dramas that you think we should uphold?
Zhong Shujia : For example, our rhythm, this creative advantage, needs to be retained. A lot of things happen in each episode, which is very watchable. There is also strong logic, which must be retained. Nowadays, everyone watches short videos and TV at 1.5x speed. Just because it is faster, everyone becomes impatient. So since we have this gene that can push the rhythm very fast, we must keep it, because our Actors have this ability to handle this rhythm.
Secondly, when you were watching Hong Kong dramas when you were young, you felt that the actors acted very naturally, without any acting. Why? Because he didn't act. He just used a normal person's rhythm to perform what needed to be performed. He did not go through the process of slowly brewing, slowly laying out the emotions, and then slowly expressing it.
Also, when people watched Hong Kong dramas in the past, they would think that they were very Western and had a sense of leading the trend. However, this particularly Western aesthetic concept may need to be improved a bit, which has a lot to do with resources. , if you have the resources you can make everything more beautiful.
The Paper : The fast pace of "News Queen" may be in line with the current saying that everyone likes to watch dramas at 1.5x speed. What do you think of the preferences of today’s young audiences? I wonder if there are any aesthetic differences between Hong Kong and the Mainland in this regard?
Zhong Shujia : My daughter also watches short videos, but she doesn’t watch my dramas. So both places are the same, and the whole world is different from before. I don’t know if this is right, but I think that no matter what era you are an audience from, you all hope to see some dramas that are reasonable and unexpected.
The Paper : Among all the dramas you have filmed, which one is your favorite?
Zhong Shujia : These works were created at different ages, so everyone will have their favorites at different stages. The first one should be "Brothers in a Tragedy". I was still very young at that time, so I had a deep impression on this film.
I also really like a drama I filmed in the Mainland, "March 30, 10 Years". The script was not a perfect one. When our Hong Kong directors are filming in the Mainland, we have almost no way to participate in the script.
There is also "All Time Knows", which is among the mainland dramas I have filmed. I think the script is the best, and almost no word needs to be changed.
I really liked "Hong Kong People in Beijing" that aired a while ago, because I like comedies, and the plot of the characters in Beijing brought a lot of my own life experience. I have lived in Beijing since 2005. I am an old Beijinger. I like Beijing more. I like the grandeur of Beijing and the dryness of Beijing. The clothes are dried immediately after washing.
