Behind "Operation Ice Breaking", "Storm", "Detective Chinatown" and "Wind from Luoyang", one after another of the popular suspense and crime works, there is the female producer Xu Mi.
Producer Xu Mi
As the head of iQiyi Fengqi Studio, Xu Mi has been deeply involved in the creation of suspense themes for many years and has compiled a complete set of creative methodologies for this type of work. After establishing her advantage in the creation of suspense themes, she did not stop there.
"Nowadays, people have fragmented time and the social environment is getting faster and faster. Many audiences are looking for fast-paced films and TV shows with strong plots, so suspense will be a long-lasting genre, but the endless stream of suspense dramas has made audiences more and more demanding." She said frankly, "The scale of suspense dramas is no longer the direction we pursue. We have been thinking about and trying the 'suspense +' genre. In the future, we will involve suspense dramas with more superimposed elements to broaden the suspense track."
For example, the female suspense theme is the direction that Xu Mi tried. In 2021, "Who is the Murderer" starring Zhao Liying was broadcast on iQiyi's Misty Theater. The story is novel and very popular.
Poster of "Who is the Murderer"
But in Xu Mi's recollection, due to the subject matter, two of the three main character stories of "Who is the Murderer" had to be revised. "It had already been filmed at that time. After various attempts and efforts by us, the post-production director, and the editing supervisor, it was finally reduced from 24 episodes to 16 episodes for broadcast." Undoubtedly, such cuts have damaged the project, but the experience of overcoming difficulties and moving forward is undoubtedly a valuable training opportunity for the team.
In Xu Mi's opinion, the proportion of female users of suspense themes is not low. "Now more and more female screenwriters are joining the creative team, and there are more and more female suspense in the market." She looks forward to the emergence of more new types of suspense.
In addition to the suspense track, Xu Mi is bravely trying to adapt literary IP. In 2021, she came into contact with the novel "Tenderness and Determination" by Shandong writer Zhao Defa, and was attracted by the simple and heavy literary texture of the novel. In the feudal and turbulent era, a young lady from a landlord's family in the mountainous area of Qilu was kidnapped by bandits before her wedding, and then married to a peasant family by mistake, thus unfolding a story between a village, two classes, and three families. "The emotional concentration between the characters is very full, and the emotional tension between the characters and the land and the times is full. It is a work that can take into account both the viewing and literary qualities." The novel was adapted into the period TV series "Give Birth to All Things", directed by the famous director Liu Jiacheng, starring Yang Mi and Ou Hao, and is currently being filmed. Xu Mi frankly said why she made such a big leap in genre, "I think maybe I have been paying more and more attention to society, people, and times since I was 40 years old, and I have an extra layer of thinking and cognition, so I also want to get more involved in this genre field."
In Xu Mi's opinion, in the adaptation of the project "Growing All Things", it is necessary to respect the background of the times, regional customs, and living customs, and the art props should be restored as much as possible, "so that a real history and characters are presented". Based on the uniqueness of the project, Xu Mi and the team decided to shorten the time span of the story in the novel, from the original story of several generations spanning seventy years to a story focusing on two generations of about thirty years. At the same time, according to the current spirit of the times, "we adjusted the heroine who started this story, and changed the heroine who was manipulated by fate under feudal thinking into someone who fights against fate and controls her own destiny," Xu Mi said, "This change can resonate more with the current female audience."
In the conversation with Xu Mi, she shared her creative methodology and talked about the creation story of her new work "Give Birth to All Things".
Concept poster of "Life of Everything"
【dialogue】
Talking about female suspense: More and more female screenwriters are joining the creation
The Paper : I have seen a lot of suspense works in your resume. Can you talk about what kind of exploration and thinking the team has done together in terms of genre innovation in suspense dramas?
Xu Mi : Suspense drama is a large genre, but there are many sub-categories in it. "Ice Breaking Operation" and "Storm" belong to the category of police-related cases, where the forces of both sides are obvious, so they focus more on the game between good and evil, confrontation, and are not so strong in the reasoning level; "Who is the Murderer" and "Detective Chinatown" belong to the category of crime suspense, focusing more on reasoning, finding the murderer and the truth; "21 Days" which is yet to be broadcast belongs to the category of disaster suspense, focusing more on the exploration of human nature; "Self-Defense" focuses more on social suspense, focusing on social phenomena and hot spots; "Low IQ Crime" which we are currently filming focuses on black humor suspense, and we are also preparing for an emotional suspense drama.
Poster of "Rampage"
"Just Cause" poster
Nowadays, people have fragmented time and the social environment is getting faster and faster. Many audiences pursue fast-paced and plot-rich film and television works, so suspense is a genre that will last for a long time. However, the endless stream of suspense dramas will make the audience's requirements higher and higher. The scale of suspense dramas is no longer the direction we pursue. We have been thinking and trying the suspense + genre. In the future, we will involve more suspense drama themes with superimposed elements to broaden the suspense track.
The Paper : "The Storm", "Who is the Murderer" and "Ming Dynasty Under the Microscope" are all innovative in their respective genres, but innovation means that there should be many "pitfalls" and risks to avoid in project execution from beginning to end. In this regard, how do producers consider and control risks?
Xu Mi : First of all, innovation has the possibility of failure. We just try our best to minimize the risk. We are relatively lucky at the moment and have not encountered failure on the road to innovation, but we still encountered many "pitfalls".
For example, due to the subject matter of "Who is the Murderer", two of our three main character lines had to be revised, but the filming had already been completed. After various attempts and efforts by us, the post-production director, and the editing supervisor, the episodes were finally reduced from 24 to 16 for broadcast. In fact, for a project, the loss is huge, but fortunately, the results after the broadcast are still very good. It finally landed smoothly without any danger. Because of this experience, plus I have done a lot of police-related dramas, and I grew up in a traditional film and television company, so I am still quite aware of the risks of censorship.
When facing the second type of risk - the market, we must always pay attention to the news, society and public sentiment, watch the latest broadcast projects as soon as possible, understand the audience's feelings and concerns in multiple dimensions, understand their state of mind and aesthetic preferences through their feelings about the projects, and try to reduce market risks through these aspects.
Stills from Who is the Murderer
The Paper : "Who is the Murderer" is a successful female suspense work in recent years, but there are not many successful female suspense works in recent years. Do you think this theme has inherent disadvantages? If so, how to avoid it?
Xu Mi : According to our user analysis, the proportion of female audiences in suspense dramas is actually very high, but the reason why female suspense is difficult to do is, from my experience: First, the screenwriter. Because most screenwriters who write suspense dramas are men, it is difficult for them to grasp the female characters so accurately, which is a more important reason. In the early stages of the development of this type of drama, everyone judged the audience of suspense dramas and believed that male audiences accounted for a high proportion. In addition, most screenwriters are male, so naturally there will be fewer female suspense. But now, more and more female screenwriters have joined the creative team, and the market is changing. There are more and more female audiences of this type. I think there will be even more suspense types in the future.
Talking about IP adaptation: presenting real history and characters
The Paper : From "The Storm" to "The Creation of Everything", the genre has crossed a huge gap. Can you talk about the origin of this project? And why did you make such a big genre leap?
Xu Mi : When I came into contact with this project in 2021, I was attracted by the simple and heavy literary texture. In the feudal and turbulent era, a young lady from a landlord's family in the mountainous area of Qilu was kidnapped by bandits before her wedding, and she married a farmer's family by mistake, thus unfolding a story between a village, two classes, and three families. The emotional concentration between the characters is very full, and the emotional tension between the characters and the land and the times is full. It is a work that can take into account both the viewing and literary qualities. As for why I made such a big leap in genre, I think that maybe after the age of 40, I began to pay more and more attention to society, people, and the times, and I had an extra layer of thinking and cognition, so I also wanted to get more involved in this field.
The Paper : As an IP adaptation, how do you respect the original work and innovate during the film and television adaptation process? What are the main areas of our innovation? How do you resonate with the audience in today's era?
Xu Mi : No matter what IP is adapted, we must first retain the point that impressed us in the first place, which is also likely to impress the audience. In the adaptation of the project "Life of All Things", we must respect the background of the times, the local customs, and the living customs. We try to restore the art props as much as possible, so that we can present a real history and characters. We innovate in this solid background. Based on the uniqueness of our project, we decided to shorten the time span of the story. The original story of several generations spanning 70 years was adapted into a story mainly focusing on two generations in about 30 years.
Following the previous changes, we adjusted the heroine who started this story accordingly, changing the heroine who was manipulated by fate under feudal thinking into someone who fights against fate and takes control of her own destiny. This change can resonate more with the current female audience. In addition, the emotional model of the male and female protagonists in this play will also heal the current young people, turning suffering into warmth of mutual dependence, and brightening the darker background of human nature in literary works. Our image style will also be adjusted accordingly to the temperament of our entire play.
The Paper : Director Liu Jiacheng is best known for his Beijing-style cultural works, such as Love in the Courtyard. It was quite unexpected that he would direct a rural-themed film like Life of All Things. How do you feel about working with him? Is there a process of adjustment?
Xu Mi : Director Liu Jiacheng is a director with both moral integrity and artistic talent. I have seen many of his excellent works. Many of his works show the fate and emotional relationships of the times, family, and characters. Although he is a Beijinger and has filmed many Beijing-style works, Shandong, where our drama takes place, also belongs to the north and is the birthplace of Confucian culture, which is exactly the same as the director's simple, humble and elegant temperament.
From the initial stage, when several core creators held script meetings in the office every now and then, to the subsequent determination of the main creative team, actor auditions and makeup, and communication and discussion on music and special effects, many of the director's ideas coincided with mine. Together with director Liu Yang, the three of us formed a creative group, and we often had various discussions in the group. We all had a very good understanding of each other, and it was also a very pleasant creative experience for me.
The Paper : Talking about your collaboration with director Liu Jiacheng, what do you think is the best state of cooperation between a director and a producer?
Xu Mi : I think that a good cooperative relationship between producers and directors should be based on mutual recognition of each other's professional ability, trust in each other's character, and mutual respect. When facing a project, listen to opinions in an open manner and adopt good suggestions. Producers should think more from the perspective of creation while ensuring production, and directors should think more from the perspective of production while ensuring creation. If everyone can trust, accept, and think from each other's perspective, I think there is no problem that cannot be solved.
Talking about "Growing All Things": A drama that "depends on nature"
The Paper : What difficulties and challenges did you encounter during the filming of "The Creation of All Things"? How did you solve them?
Xu Mi : "The Creation of All Things" is a story that spans several decades, and there must be changes in the four seasons. The beginning of our story is winter, and it accounts for a large proportion. However, we started shooting in April, and the leaves have sprouted one after another. But we want to present snow scenes, so the special effects work started before we prepared. On the one hand, a lot of green removal was required in the later stage, and on the other hand, some of our snow scenes had to wait until winter to shoot. However, the snow scenes in the village and outside the house required a lot of artificial snow, and they had to be connected with the snow scenes that had not been shot yet, which required a lot of special effects for us.
In addition, this drama is about farmers and land, and wheat is one of our important props. We want to shoot the growth, changes and harvest of wheat throughout the year. The crew rented nearly 100 acres of land. When the wheat is ripe, we have a major scene to shoot burning a wheat field. The area is very small, but because the script has been adjusted, we can see the wheat grains starting to fall, the wheat stalks are starting to droop, and the color is changing. Shandong has entered the rainy season, and after a heavy rain, it may be impossible to shoot in the wheat field.
Ours is a drama that depends on the weather. The whole crew was extremely anxious. Finally, in the last few days, the script was revised. It happened that it didn't rain during those days, but the temperature was high again. The crew adjusted the color of the wheat and filmed for three consecutive days in the high temperature of more than 40 degrees. Our filming in Shandong this time encountered the hot summer and the rainy season. In the hot summer, in addition to our staff, even our animal actors suffered from heatstroke; in the rainy season, we were worried about our crops. We really realized how difficult it is for farmers to rely on the weather for their livelihood.
The Paper : The cast of "The Creation of Everything" has been revealed, which is very exciting. What did you and your team consider in casting? Could you please give your comments on the leading actors and how was it working with them?
Xu Mi : Ours is an ensemble play, and every role is important. This was the consensus reached with the director at the initial stage of the project. In fact, when we read the script, some of the leading actors were already in our minds, such as Ni Dahong, Qin Hailu, Lin Yongjian, and Chi Peng. Many of the remaining roles were selected by us and the director after many rounds of auditions.
I think that all the actors in our show are great and work very hard. After we finish filming, many actors will spontaneously discuss their roles together. This is basically the norm for our crew. I believe that when the show is broadcast, everyone will see the surprises brought by the actors.
