Special Planning ｜ Creation Methodology of ＂She＂

From Christina’s voice on behalf of the "middle-aged actress" on the hot search last year, to Ma Yili’s call for women’s reproductive autonomy recently, feminist issues have been hot in the public opinion field in recent years.

The fiery topic of "She" was quickly reflected in the film and television industry, with women as the narrative subject, and the theme content of "She" concerned about "female expression" gradually came to the stage. This year, the summer drama market has become the world with the theme of "She": Twenty Don’t Confuse, Nothing But Thirty, He doesn’t really love you that much, Skyscrapers, White Moonlight, Dear Yourself and other dramas have emerged one after another, causing widespread concern. According to the public information of the dramas that have been started and are to be broadcast, a large number of female-themed dramas such as last romance, Bitter Girl, Just Youth, Great Girl, Family heirloom and Dress Up will follow.

With the increasingly fierce competition in the field of "She", what changes have taken place in the creation of "She"? What kind of works are more easily recognized by the audience and resonate with the audience? What are the problems in the creation of "She"? How to crack and realize innovation?　

From "Big Lady" to "Urban Woman"

Looking at the whole drama market, the female theme has always been an existence that cannot be ignored. However, in the past, the female orientation in many works was trapped in a chicken feather and obsessed with the battle between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law; Or it is getting narrower and narrower on the road of "big woman". Dai Qing, a professor at the School of Drama, Film and Television, Communication University of China, said that most of the once popular female dramas were cross-type, and there were female protagonists in various theme types such as costume idol dramas, historical legendary dramas and urban emotional dramas. "But the more female dramas, the more often they showed the pattern of’ overbearing president falling in love with me’." These dramas take "Female Legends and Inspirations" as the publicity gimmick, but what they show is how women step by step reach the peak of their lives by relying on men who prefer themselves. There are also some female dramas, which are more like the gender transformation of male dramas, and the background is not realistic.

In recent years, some female dramas have obviously changed their styles and perspectives, and gradually turned to the creation of female realistic themes, such as My First Half Life, Ode to Joy and Beijing Women’s Picture Book, etc., which have won considerable discussion. However, the creative habit of some works "relying on love to promote the plot" has not changed. "Many women still have the support of the overbearing president." In Dai Qing’s view, some dramas are covered with the cloak of "female inspiration", but inside they are the "fairy tale" love of materialized women. "But how romantic the image is, how cruel the reality is."

With the creation upsurge of realistic themes, the theme of urban women has become a new hot spot and ushered in a blowout last year. These works deeply explore the theme of women’s self-growth and transformation, and face up to all kinds of problems encountered by modern urban women in career, love and family. Recently, a survey conducted by Guduo Data Research Institute on 23 TV dramas about urban women in recent years shows that the female topics in these dramas mainly focus on the female workplace, female independence, family of origin, self-identity, domestic violence, etc. Among them, women’s workplace, women’s independence and family of origin are the three most common topics, and they are also the hot topics of general discussion.

Dai Qing believes that the prosperity of the theme of "She" is an important symbol of the prominent aesthetic superiority of women at present, which is closely related to the general improvement of women’s economic status and social status. Especially in the era of media integration, women as the main audience help the fan economy, and the number of young and middle-aged female screenwriters is increasing day by day. These factors have greatly enhanced the power of "she" and created a popular theme of "she" on the screen. Shown in the creation of family ethics drama, urban emotional drama, youth campus drama, etc., female group drama has become a major creative highlight. Ode to Joy series and Nothing But Thirty’s Twenty Don’t Confuse, released by Ning Meng Film this summer, are all representative works of female group drama. Interestingly, the roles of some male characters in these works began to change. "In many female dramas this year, men no longer play the role of escort for women, and some men even become obstacles to women’s growth."　

Zhou Kehui, the producer of iQiyi’s self-made drama development center, once participated in the creation of the female drama "Blame You for Being Too Beautiful". She believes that the root of the change in the theme of "she" lies in the increasing realistic pressure faced by women. "These pressures come not only from family, but also from society and the workplace. How to integrate emotions and careers, how to face social topics such as fertility and age, and the complex situation faced by women have attracted more and more attention, so works focusing on new women in the workplace came into being. "

Look at the reality and show the truth

From the overall performance of this year’s drama market, we can see that focusing on the realistic works of urban women, with in-depth discussion on women’s workplace, life, family and other aspects, has achieved good ratings and aroused many audiences’ resonance.

Zhang Yingji, a screenwriter in Nothing But Thirty, thinks that it is very difficult to create female themes. The social role of women in the new era has changed a lot, but the audience is still demanding the female roles in the plays. How to balance the realism and the audience’s acceptance is a major difficulty in script creation. Zhang Yingji emphasized that it is very important to observe and record life when creating female themes. "For example, the moving master and intermediary brother who appeared in Nothing But Thirty are actually met in my usual life. I silently wrote down their words and professional characteristics, and then digested them into my works. " In Zhang Yingji’s view, this kind of characters and plays with the rough texture of life is the cornerstone of the realism of realistic works.

Creating a female image with a sense of the times and real temperature is the key to the breakthrough of female themes. Xu Xiaoou, executive vice president of Ning Meng Film and the chief producer of the TV series "Twenty Don’t Confuse" in Nothing But Thirty, said that "Twenty Don’t Confuse" took a long time to gain insights from the post-1995 generation, "depicting the group images of this generation, and then refining the portraits of people, such as their personality, outlook on money, values and love, and then putting them into the main plot to build a story." The refining and expression of 30+ female portraits is also the core difficulty in Nothing But Thirty’s creative process. Xu Xiaoou believes that to create a role, it is necessary to integrate special typical people with high-concentration details, which will arouse real resonance, that is, "the reality of the world half a foot off the ground."　

Zhou Kehui believes that works that are close to the audience’s life and hit the audience’s pain points are more likely to resonate and then go out of the circle. "People-oriented, reflecting the positive spirit of the times, observing real life, conveying universal empathy, and warming people’s hearts while showing true humanity, such works can arouse the audience’s expectations, jump out of their own genre circles, trigger discussions, and achieve the effect of being out of the circle." In Zhou Kehui’s view, the audience will not pay for a work that is completely "irrelevant to me". "If the audience needs to spread spontaneously, the work is bound to show what they face together or what they expect to see."

For the creation of female themes, Yang Hongtao, a professor at the School of Drama, Film and Television of China Communication University, believes that it is necessary to grasp three levels: "At the story level, we must treat the relationship between life flow and drama dialectically, and we must grasp the dialectical relationship between the two aspects; On the role level, in order to achieve the collusion of typicality and uniqueness, we must capture a character in the female images of different occupations, ages, circumstances, regions, incomes and academic qualifications; At the level of topic selection, it is necessary to hit the target audience more accurately, expand its circle boundary and break through intergenerational barriers. "

There are hidden worries behind prosperity.

There are also hidden worries behind the prosperity of her theme creation. Yang Mingpin, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said that in recent years, women’s themes have increased dramatically, and several excellent works with both word-of-mouth and topics have appeared. This is the exploration result of contemporary realistic drama, which reflects the confusion and pursuit of women’s life value brought about by the social progress and rapid changes in contemporary China, and has certain value and is worthy of recognition; But on the other hand, we should also see the serious problems exposed by these female dramas. "That is, the aesthetic focus is lost in the narrow and small, and it is limited to expressing the small world of certain types of female individuals, ignoring the big world and era of contemporary China women, and the social environment is not typical."　

Yang Mingpin believes that although some works attract onlookers, they have not produced greater spiritual strength to inspire and lead people, their aesthetic value is difficult to break through, and their artistic aftertaste is difficult to last. "This actually illustrates a creative phenomenon: lofty realism is bound to write profound changes and high-spirited spirit in the great era. If we ignore the times, it can only be a small world of office and family life. Although it is exquisitely written and innovative, it is difficult to improve the spiritual height, cultural connotation and artistic value, and it is difficult to climb the peak of art. "

Dai Qing believes that women’s theme creation has a certain extreme tendency in character setting. For example, the female characters in some works have a strong materialistic pursuit and moral sense, which will make the characters full of anxiety and tension and easily lead to hot topics on the Internet. However, this kind of role setting has great singularity and lacks real typicality. "Typicality is not the superposition of legendary and bizarre, but the typical meaning should be oriented to the public, with both individuality and universality, so that people can see their own shadow in typical characters."

In some contemporary urban women’s works, the drama of "Green Tea Little Three" and "Tearing love rat by Hand" can always trigger a wide-ranging discussion on the Internet. Dai Qing believes that in the performance of the relationship between men and women, it is not appropriate to treat it as binary opposition and tension. In fact, whether it is a sweet pet drama or a confrontation between the hero and heroine, it is a more extreme treatment, which may seem very enjoyable and easy to cause social topics, but it is not a clever writing after all; It is the general direction of drama creation to show the harmony of the family and the gender and convey the gentle and normal ethics.

Regarding the problems existing in the creation of "She", Zhou Kehui also mentioned "suspension" and whether the play can maintain the original intention of discussing the topic of "women’s independence". "The fundamental thing in the creation of women’s themes is to do a good job in designing people. How to solve the problems faced by women, how to choose in the face of love, should be set according to the person’s design and the growth line of characters, and combined with the reality to do landing and restoration. In this way, this female image is full, her choice is logical, and her growth is moving and convincing. "

Life is the source of constant innovation.

The creation of any theme needs constant innovation. "Women+suspense" is undoubtedly a new direction of female theme creation this year. For example, the small-budget online drama "Dangerous She" at the beginning of the year, "Imperfect She" starring Zhou Xun, and the recent broadcast of "White Moonlight" and "Skyscraper" all belong to this category. Ouyang Lou, a post-90s screenwriter, is also concerned about the rise of the new type of "women+suspense". "Previously, women’s works were mostly concentrated in the areas of idols, feelings and family ethics, but now female audiences are obviously not satisfied with this, and they hope to have more rich and novel ways to tell women’s stories. In addition, more and more female audiences are beginning to prefer exciting, complex and brain-burning plot modes, and suspense works are no longer exclusive to men. "

Xie Ying, general manager of Youku Drama Center, said that female themes are hard currency. Youku will continue to explore and deepen the female market with platform users and related users as the core. This year, it will launch many love women dramas with different themes, and will continue to increase the number of female suspense categories. "We have some new ideas, and we are also making corresponding layouts: First, the emotions are more full; Second, the types are more diversified. I also hope that more and more works will resonate with the audience in terms of women’s self-awakening and character growth. " In addition to the already broadcast White Moonlight, Youku will follow up with other series such as Cloister Pavilion, Fog Tracking and Sten. In these dramas, women are no longer the functional role of foil, but the main promoter of the plot and the subject and foothold of values.

Dai Qing hopes that the creators can further expand their creative ideas, broaden their cultural horizons, explore broader women’s life problems, pay attention to ordinary women, and show the living conditions of different female groups; At the same time, we should link the independence of women’s spiritual personality, women’s liberation with the development of the whole society, and the self-reliance and self-improvement of different groups and individuals, and make an overall grasp and consideration to create a more honest, credible, rich and diverse female image. She believes that many classic dramas at home and abroad, such as Golden Marriage, Parents’ Love, Massage, Beautiful Times of Daughter-in-law and Please Answer 1988, can be used as aesthetic objects for creators to study and refer to. "Learn how these classic works deal with the ripples of daily life, create poetic and aesthetic feelings of life, and how to grasp the dramatic temperature and discretion. The fertile soil of life is an inexhaustible mine, and innovation still comes from life. "

Specially planned | Braving the wind and waves of "She" drama series

"She" series braving the wind and waves

Methodology of "She" Theme Creation

Nothing But Thirty: Depicting female images with a sense of the times and real temperature.

Skyscraper: A Realistic Expression of Women’s Dilemma

"White Moonlight": The Suspense of "She" Constructs a Female Observation Perspective

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