“She is too young, too obsessed with right and wrong, but in the workplace, besides right and wrong, there are also pros and cons.” “A person who dare not even recite a scapegoat is of no value to me.” “Actually, you and me, For the chairman, it’s just a knife.” “It doesn’t really matter, the important thing is to stand in the right team.”
At first glance, everyone is concealing evil intentions, but in fact they are self-interested rather than bad guys. This is a common vivid group portrait in “Ideal City”, and it is a true portrayal of countless “workers” in the workplace.
This workplace drama, which netizens called “the workplace version of “Zhen Huan””, has attracted countless audiences from office politics to workplace “thick black studies” since it was first broadcast. “Even a group of old men had a wonderful meeting.”
The reason why “Ideal City” can make the audience so entertaining is largely due to the creation of a sense of reality.Whether it’s Su Xiao, who is napping on the subway with dark circles under her eyes, or she is the only one, Wu Hongmei, who is not confident, their career path is too much like the “social animal life” of each of us.
Picture source of “Ideal City” stills: Photo courtesy of iQiyi
On the evening of August 31, the show ushered in the VIP ending. As the story progressed, “Ideal City” became more and more burning. The Douban score of 7.8 points proved the stability of its reputation.
“This is a real workplace drama in the true sense. “In an interview with reporters including the Daily Economic News, Dai Ying, senior vice president of iQiyi and chief producer of “Ideal City”, and vice president of Transmit Entertainment, deputy general manager of Houhai Culture, “Ideal City” “Chief producer Zhang Tingting responded.
As a well-received and popular workplace drama this summer, “Ideal City” is not as glamorous as the previous workplace dramas and the protagonists’ upgrades to fight monsters. It reverses the previous workplace drama routines, from stories to characters, and from content. In the industry, it opened up a new way of domestically produced workplace dramas.
“Previous workplace dramas were basically dating, various complex themes, not so purely about the workplace. I hope that after watching this drama, the workplace people can complete the relationship between people to some extent. Reconcile, and be able to think about problems from the other side’s point of view. The same is true in the workplace.” Dai Ying said.
Cut from the perspective of women and not only women
“I chose a better life, what’s wrong with me? Isn’t each of us betraying our time and energy in exchange for that money?” Su Xiao in the play retorted: “I don’t think I need to betray some I understand what can lead to an ideal life. I understand that a better life is created by my own hands. I enjoy the results and the process of having a clear conscience.”
From the very beginning of “Ideal City”, Su Xiao, a top student of Harbin Institute of Technology, became a man of the pot as soon as he appeared, and he also encountered betrayal by his boyfriend Zhou Jun. For a time, the barrage was full of “Phoenix Man”, “Slacker Man’s Reality”, “Too Real and Too Real”, “Su Xiao is too innocent and too idealistic” and “Different ways are not conspiring”… The audience’s reactions and comments were mixed.
Image source: Photo courtesy of iQiyi
As a domestic workplace drama, how to firmly grasp the keywords of the workplace drama, grasp the audience’s excitement, and the focus of the times, is the question that “Ideal City” is always thinking about in the production of “Ideal City”.
“There are actually many keywords and key points, but the most obvious one is women’s independence.” Zhang Tingting said.
In her opinion, in this workplace group portrait, the four completely different women in the play each have their own set of life philosophies and ways, as well as their own pursuits. There is nothing wrong with Cuckoo wanting to be a salted fish, and Wu Hongmei can pursue happiness even if she does not have such a high talent. “These are all real from life, and many plots are not enlarged, just point to the state of the characters, so that the audience can judge by themselves.” Zhang Tingting said frankly.
Cut from the perspective of women, but not just women. On the other side of the ups and downs of Su Xiao’s workplace, the power struggle between Yinghai Group and its subsidiaries has built a larger “workplace empire.” The characters from all sides will sing and I will appear on the stage, one after another open and secret battles, the gains and losses of interests, the balance of pros and cons, and the good and evil of human nature are revealed one by one.
Just as in the first famous scene of “Ideal City”, Su Xiao, who only regarded the cost table as the cost table, paid a painful price at the beginning of the game. Su Xiao believes that “the responsibility of the cost engineer is to ensure that the cost table is clean”, but in the next second, Tianke chief economist Xia Ming (played by Zhao Youting) said to her, “The second half of this sentence is, every one The cost table is a relational table”.
Image source of Xia Ming played by Zhao Youting: Courtesy of iQiyi
This is precisely why many people in the workplace will reach a settlement with themselves to some extent after watching “Ideal City”. Dai Ying observed that when a person knows how to think about problems from the other side’s perspective, many of the difficulties encountered in the workplace may be easily solved. “At the same time, whether it is a person or an enterprise, in order to develop and make changes, it is necessary to break a rule. How to survive the new rules and live better is what everyone will encounter in this era.”
Although the heat is slow, it is true and grounded. Unlike the glamour in previous workplace dramas, in “Ideal City”, the backpacks, jeans, and canvas shoes with their faces facing the sky, squeezing the subway and taking a nap every day, are the standard equipment for Su Xiao to go to work. This is exactly what every ordinary worker is. The most empathetic place.
“To engage in civil engineering, you must be down-to-earth. They are all people who came out of the construction site. Whether it is desperately working hard and climbing up; or an idealist like Su Xiao, they are fighting against the unspoken rules every day. , The audience can find their own shadows in different roles.” Dai Ying emphasized.
Script “Wandering” for nearly a year
Relevant leaders of the General Administration refined the title of the play
“Ideal City” was filmed in August 2020, but as early as the end of 2019, Houhai Culture noticed the prototype script of “Ideal City” in many projects.
“In 2019, we feel that the workplace drama may have an opportunity to exert strength, but it is difficult to see samples that focus on writing a solid workplace in the market. This drama can see from the outline stage that it has a certain realistic basis, and it will continue to follow up. Go on.” Zhang Tingting revealed.
For nearly a year, the script of “Ideal City” was drifting everywhere. Eventually, the copyright owner found Houhai Culture, hoping that Houhai Culture would be able to trade in the form of holding shares. This is also in line with the idea of Houhai Culture. . “When trading projects, we don’t like long participation, which means that it is difficult to fully promote the project, and it is possible to do a good job with one family as the leader.”
Image source: Maoyan Professional Edition
After getting the full copyright of “Ideal City” and making certain judgments, the script moved smoothly to the next stage. When Houhai Culture communicated with the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television to inquire about the direction of the genre drama, the State Administration gave a lot of guidance and suggestions. Zhang Tingting recalled that even the name “Ideal City” was the suggestion of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television. “The original book is called “Su Xiao’s War”, but if only a woman’s war is written, this pattern obviously does not represent the content of the play. It is about a thick soil that can be planted with trees.” After receiving the revised opinion, Zhang Tingting seemed to eat. The next reassurance, immediately began to look for suitable directors, main creatives, art and scenes.
In the process of looking for the scene, Zhang Tingting had thought of packaging the play more western style, but after seeing the scene of Shanghai and Suzhou, she stood on top of the Suzhou International Center and realized that it was wrong. “It’s not this group of people, those who are engaged in construction work, even if he is a tall building, his feet are all started on the dirt. We can’t simply deal with urban workplace dramas.”
From the director, the producer to the actor, Houhai Culture feels like it has met fellow travellers along the way. In fact, when the script had not been finalized, iQiyi decided, “It said it was going to be played, no matter who was making the game.”
The “Ideal City” project has a long history, and it has also been circulating in the market. In August 2019, after seeing the script, the iQiyi team quickly got positive feedback. Everyone agreed that this is a rare and true workplace drama.
“In many workplace dramas we have seen before, we can feel that the screenwriters should not have experienced the workplace and have no grounding. “Ideal City” has achieved the extreme in the existing workplace dramas. This is a real and pure workplace. , We even saw the shadow of plot drama in the workplace drama.” Dai Ying said.
Director Liu Jinhe starring Sun Li Picture source: Maoyan Professional Edition
Explore the domestic professional drama track
“Allow innovation on the basis of big data”
“Everything that is not difficult is downhill, are you going?” In “Ideal City”, as the chairman of the group, Zhao Xiankun asked the people around him like this.
“Ideal City” is precisely a “challenge” that requires Dai Ying and the team behind to go uphill. Realistic dramas are the most difficult to do, and Dai Ying has deep feelings, let alone realistic workplace dramas.
For a long time, domestic workplace dramas have been criticized as “suspending”. Behind the bright and glamorous workplace dramas, it is often easy to fall into creative misunderstandings, making the workplace a background board for romance. “Currently, there are not many workplace dramas that can truly be called workplace dramas. This track has not yet reached a standardized state. In the past, most workplace dramas were designed to cater to the market and fall in love under the guise of workplace dramas.”
In Dai Ying’s view, the track of domestic workplace dramas is very worth exploring. Although it is difficult, if it can be achieved to the extreme, it will be able to see obvious market space. “If you want to do a good job in the workplace, you just want to package hype is not enough, the professional level is very important.Workplace dramas have reached a certain depth and height. Men can watch them as power dramas, while women can watch “Zhen Huan Biography”.。”
Picture source of “Ideal City” stills: Photo courtesy of iQiyi
In 2020, “Settle Down” starring Sun Li and Luo Jin will bring the real estate agency industry into the public eye, with a cumulative broadcast volume exceeding 7.7 billion; “Blame You Are Excessively Beautiful” with a Douban score of 8.3 focuses on the career life of the entertainment industry and is accurate Stepped on the audience’s curiosity.
From “Blame You Are Excessively Beautiful” to the current “Ideal City”, Dai Ying said frankly: “Vertical content has a traffic ceiling, and it has a threshold. For example, some audiences are not interested in the entertainment industry by nature. How to weigh the target audience on the basis of being able to maintain innovation at the same time, to dig deeper in human nature, and to expand the circle of workplace dramas requires further consideration in workplace dramas.”
It’s not just this type. From last year’s Fog Theater to this year’s workplace drama, although the market gave the most true feedback, it was always crossing the river by feeling the stones before it was actually made.
In Dai Ying’s view, if you are a company that does not encourage innovation, you would not dare to invest in such a project. The company believes that it has a bottleneck in return on investment because there is no accumulated big data to support the company’s confidence in investment.
In fact, more and more explosions are born out of the original probability. “The company allows us to innovate on the basis of big data, because everyone has observed that content leadership is definitely not generated by existing data. The first person to eat crabs will inevitably be caught, but we must dare to do it.” Dai Ying Frankly.
Carrying risks and constantly trial and error, although the investment may not be successful every time, but all that is left is valuable experience. Behind the trial of “Ideal City”, Dai Ying and her team had clear predictions on the user portraits, the overall water level, and the audience market of the workplace drama.
“The Fog Theater has a particularly good wind direction. The short drama type has really stood up. There will be more short drama types worth exploring in the future. This may be a relatively big trend; at the same time, it can be achieved on the vertical track. The ultimate can also become a hit, this is a relatively clear trend, because now the audience is becoming more and more divided.” Dai Ying said.
Reporter|Wen Menghua Bi Yuanyuan
Edit|Duan Lian Dong Xingsheng Yi Qijiang Du Hengfeng
Proofreading|Cheng Peng
｜Daily Economic News nbdnews Original Article｜
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