Author | reed notes
Chaoyang, the first transparent blue screen window
Unbearable to look back, go to the foreign market
So…
A low and tactful pingtan sounded in his ears, and the focus of his eyes followed the protagonist. Before he woke up, he got up first, pressed his messy hair in the mirror, grabbed the washbasin and ran downstairs to wash up, carefully avoiding the landlord Aunt Zhou who "offended" yesterday because of stock trading. Rushing back to the room to put on socks, he found a hole, stuffed it in, bent down and took out his old leather shoes to polish, put on a gray scarf with a fluffing ball, and opened the door. Aunt Zhou stood outside the door…
This is a less than 2-minute scene in the first episode of "Wind Chaser", where the protagonist Wei Ruolai is preparing for an interview at the central bank. Director Yao Xiaofeng spent three days shooting more than 20 shots, and quickly outlined the protagonist’s character at the beginning, setting the tone for the little person’s growth in the times.
It is such rich details and skillful control of the camera that make this financial-cut drama of the Republic of China appear in the circle with "texture" on the first day of broadcast. The true and delicate tone of the screen, the comparison of the fireworks on Qibao Street with the setting of the "Shili Yangchang" in Greater Shanghai, and the ingenious editing of the intersection of the exchange and the fierce gunfight between the streets have become the topic of hot discussion among netizens.
The integration of "movie + TV series" and the strong word-of-mouth trend have helped "Wind Chaser" become the most popular drama in iQIYI’s premiere this year and the fastest to break 8000. At present, the popularity has broken 9,000, and the volume has broken 100 million in 4 days. The audience ratings broadcast on the central eight are also rising. Data show that "Wind Chaser" went LIVE the next day and became the first audience rating in prime time, and achieved a peak of 2 yesterday.
The creators revealed in interviews that the creation of "The Wind Chaser" took six years and the process was extremely difficult. The entry of Chen Zhixi and Ruyi Film, and the addition of the creators led by Wang Yibo, became the key to the turnaround of this drama.
It is worth noting that two companies, Ruyi Film and Wanda Film and Television, have appeared among the co-producers of "The Wind Chaser".
In January this year, Chen Zhixi became the chairperson and president of Wanda Film. At that time, Entertainment Das Kapital found that the new Wanda, which was blessed by Confucianism, had the stability of upstream production from the layout of the four films in the Spring Festival. In the past two months, Confucianism has launched two major dramas "Prosecutor and Youth" and "Confession in the Night", which also indicates that Confucianism’s strong content genes and rich industry resources will empower and speed up Wanda’s TV drama business.
In the future, the new combination of Ruyi + Wanda will continue to enhance the quality of Chinese dramas, create high-quality dramas, and maintain a high yield as usual, becoming a leader in the dual channel of film and drama.
How is the textured "Wind Chaser" made?
When "Wind Chaser" was still called "The Long Wind Breaks the Waves," a video of "director Yao Xiaofeng choking up before speaking" was posted online. It was the scene of the media watching the film in advance. Behind this emotion is the difficult and tortuous creative process of the show for six years.
In 2018, Yao Xiaofeng saw the script of "Wind Chaser", and the unique perspective of "Finance + the Republic of China" aroused his creative desire. After that, the creators found actors and teams, and by the end of 2019, they had all the preparations ready to start, but they had no choice but to encounter the epidemic, and the project had to be put on hold. "The middle has always been thinking about it, and I want to have the opportunity to take it out," but it will not usher in a new "turnaround" until 2022.
To calm down his good mood, Yao Xiaofeng thanked the three women on the stage: Zhang Shuwei, the chief producer who has been accompanying the growth of the project, Dai Ying, the senior vice president of iQIYI, who gave the series the opportunity to meet the audience, and Chen Zhixi, who "gave the greatest support when he was in trouble and confused."
The "turnaround" and Chen Zhixi’s "support" mentioned by Yao Xiaofeng not only refer to the investment of Confucianism and Italy to become a joint producer, but more importantly, Chen Zhixi, who is the director system and joint producer, helps the main creative team.
In the second half of 2022, just after Wang Yibo finished filming "Passionate," producer Chen Zhixi mentioned in an interview that "because of Wang Yibo, I bravely shot this theme. And Yibo’s characterization is very successful, and it is very different from his daily life." She gave the young actor high praise and recommended it to producer Zhang Shuwei and director Yao Xiaofeng.
So the main creator met with Wang Yibo’s team and chatted from noon to dark. Yao Xiaofeng was very satisfied with Wang Yibo’s modesty, sincerity, but dedication to good. Wang Yibo was also interested in the character itself, and the two parties successfully determined the cooperation intention.
Wang Yang, who plays Shen Tunan, has been a good friend of Chen Zhixi for many years. During the preparation, Zhang Shuwei and the director always believed that they should choose an actor who was not too different in age from Wang Yibo and could produce a chemical reaction to the play, so they hoped to finalize the cooperation with Wang Yang early in the morning. Yesterday, Shen Tunan’s wife Su Cishu appeared, and Chen Zhixi also sent a Weibo to thank his actor for his friendship and help.
Yao Xiaofeng said that after the cast was formed, the preparation was twice as fast as usual, and it was soon decided to start filming. From January to May 2023, the drama was filmed in Shanghai, and then it was post-editing and waiting to be broadcast. Until a few days before going LIVE, the original title of "Long Wind Breaking the Waves" was changed to "Wind Chaser", and finally broke the iQIYI premiere record this year with 6614 on March 21, #wind chasers, texture #on the hot search.
Entertainment Capital found that not only the star Wang Yibo, but also the behind-the-scenes creators of "The Wind Chaser" mostly used film crews.
The director Yao Xiaofeng is from the photography department of Nortel. Before filming TV series, he was a photographer for famous directors such as Huang Jianxin and Li Shaohong, and he was very skilled in the scheduling of the camera. The opening scene is a long shot that follows Wei Ruolai’s back, and the seemingly idle close-ups and regular dialogues quickly show Wei Ruolai’s relationship with the people around him. Coupled with a new series of pingtan with regional characteristics, the group portraits stand up, and the smoke and reality naturally arise.
Editing director Cao Weijie’s collaboration with Jiang Wen lasted from "The Sun Also Rises" to "Evil Does Not Suppress Right", and was nominated for Best Editing at the Academy Awards for "Let the Bullets Fly". Art director Wu Jiakui’s previous masterpieces were blockbusters such as "1921" and "Qian Xuesen", which was also his first time participating in TV series production. Styling director Ma Defan is a costumer for films such as "Love in Hawthorn Trees" and "White Deer Plain".
The fusion of "film + TV series" has laid the foundation for the texture of "Wind Chaser", and also highlights the advantages of Ruyi Film in making TV series.
During the shooting period, Yao Xiaofeng pursued details extremely, strived for authenticity, and provided more protection for "texture" creation.
For example, the scene before Wei Ruolai went to the central bank for an interview that left a deep impression on the audience at the beginning, in fact, there were only a few words in the script, "Wei Ruolai hurriedly put on his clothes in the morning to rush to the exam". Yao Xiaofeng temporarily added a lot of details for Wei Ruolai, straightening his hair by hand in front of the mirror, taking the washbasin downstairs to brush his teeth, and tearing up the calendar before going out… Including later asking Aunt Zhou to put on a coat for Wei Ruolai, the director insisted on changing it to an obviously inappropriate one, plus a scarf with hairballs and broken socks. The image of Wei Ruolai "coming from the countryside to a big city to work hard" was quickly three-dimensional.
A few days before the start of filming, Yao Xiaofeng was still under pressure to demolish the original scenes of Qibao Street and Wei Ruolai’s room, making these two scenes more old and crowded, highlighting the gap between Wei Ruolai’s lower-level environment and the "Shili Yangchang" in Greater Shanghai.
In the end, a scene of less than 2 minutes was filmed for three days, and the original one-week shooting of the Qibao Street opening scene was delayed into two weeks. Although the lengthened cycle brought a lot of pressure to the production team, this director’s dedication to details was able to unite the crew and make the whole team work together to ensure the high-quality completion of "Wind Chaser".
Financial incision, "flow" bonus, "Wind Chaser" blows new wind for national drama
From focusing on family disputes, espionage, to fantasy and love that have emerged in recent years, the complex genre of the Republic of China drama track has undergone several turns, and finance has always been a rare angle. "The Wind Chaser" sets the story in Shanghai in 1930, selects the financial system reform of the Republic of China as the background, and opens a new incision in the great drama of the Republic of China era.
At the beginning, Wei Ruolai is checking the accounts for the gang boss, and in the conversation, he explains his background of low birth and no way to apply for a job, which also lays the groundwork for the later encounter with the heroine Shen and the truth and relief. Then the scene quickly shifts from Qibao Street to bourse, Wei Ruolai and Aunt Zhou first taste the stock market failure, watching the stock price on the wooden board fall sharply from the high point, leaving a "hook" for the successful job search after guessing Shen Tunan’s acquisition intentions.
The true scenes, interlocking narratives, and the unique plot extended by the financial incision have allowed this Republic of China drama, which is based on the financial events of the Republic of China and the growth history of small characters, to quickly differentiate itself among similar dramas.
"Achieving a breakthrough in the original genre" has always been the principle of Chen Zhixi’s production of films and TV series. She once said at the screening site that she thought the work was worth developing after watching the first three episodes in one go.
But at the same time, she also found that the threshold for acceptance of the original script is relatively high, "which means that not everyone can enjoy this kind of TV series." Therefore, how to combine with the present nature so that the audience can find resonance in the plot has become the improvement direction of the second creation of "Wind Chaser".
And the opportunity and impulse of "second creation", Yao Xiaofeng found from the star Wang Yibo. He once mentioned in an interview that "Wei Ruolai is a clean and young, very’tenacious’ hot-blooded young man", these characteristics are very consistent with Wang Yibo’s original temperament.
He had previously learned that Wang Yibo made his way out of Henan step by step with his talent and drive. This experience allowed Yao Xiaofeng to find the entrance to "present nature": to shape Wei Ruolai into an ordinary young man in the torrent of the times, he will also be confused and wandering at the intersection of national and personal destiny, but eventually he will firmly believe and make a choice.
At the same time, the "workplace" element is strengthened in the central bank line part, creating a complete growth line for Wei Ruolai to upgrade from "workplace Xiaobai" to professional financier, so that the audience can see similar experiences and feelings in the character.
Yao Xiaofeng also allowed the actors to bring in a more modern way of thinking, allowing them to give real reactions and guiding Wang Yibo to show different emotional levels step by step during the shooting.
Before "The Wind Chaser", Wang Yibo used Mr. Ye in "Nameless" to confirm his compatibility with the dramas and revolutionaries of the Republic of China, and the enthusiasm and tenacity in "Warm" coincided with the youth and momentum of Wei Ruolai in the early days. It is conceivable that Chen Zhixi has considered his compatibility with the character when setting up the game.
Not only "The Wind Chaser", Chen Zhixi and Ruyi have always had mature experience in combining streaming actors with high-quality content.
In 2015’s "No War in Peiping", Liu Ye at that time was also a "traffic" student, "strong alliance" with a group of old actors around him to create a classic spy war drama.
"Send You a Little Red Flower" is Jackson Yee’s second film. He plays a cancer patient who has just been diagnosed with self-abandonment and high-pressure emotions under long-term family care. The scene of confrontation with his parents has also become one of the most out-of-the-loop clips in the film.
The combination of "Bo Yibo" in the "Enthusiasm" controlled by Confucianism and Italy highlights the chemical reaction of the master-apprentice combination. At that time, many people said that Chen Shuo was tailor-made for Wang Yibo: he had an ordinary background, loved street dance, was young and passionate, and had an unyielding energy.
From these examples, it is not difficult to see how Confucianism makes good use of streaming actors: one is to combine the actor’s experience to find roles that are highly compatible with the actor, build on their strengths and avoid their weaknesses, and find the comfort zone where the content overlaps with the actor. The second is to use a "hand-holding" approach to allow young actors to gradually grow in a mature crew, and to create a character combination that allows mature actors with rich experience to have a chemical reaction with them.
"Confessions in the Dark Night", which has just been officially announced by Confucianism and Italy, also uses Pan Yueming, who is known for criminal investigation dramas, to pair with the young top-class Wang Hedi. From the plot introduction, Wang Hedi’s role as Ran Fangxu is a character similar to "White Moonlight", which involves the persistence of the master and his daughter to investigate the truth. "With the rule of hand-holding", the law of character adaptation and double combination appears again.
On the other hand, this kind of long-term in-depth co-creation with mature teams and the addition of high-quality content to young actors will subtly improve their acting skills and empower young actors for their future growth and commercial value. Take "Confessions of the Night" as an example, this can be seen as the starting point for Wang Hedi’s transformation to a new genre by virtue of ancient puppets. The integration of "film + TV series" also allows young actors to have more learning space.
In recent years, the first generation of traffic has ebbed, and high-quality dramas have appeared frequently. The stereotype that "using traffic is a bad drama" is gradually fading, and the industry’s views on the new generation of young actors are also gradually reforming: it is impossible to deny the addition of actors’ own popularity to the drama. More importantly, think about the characteristics of actors and the adaptation of the content and characters of the drama, and find a way to win-win.
Returning to "Wind Chaser", whether it is a unique financial incision or the maximization of the cast combination, this high-quality drama that focuses on the growth of young talents in the era and reflects the context of economic development in a specific era has blown a "new wind" on the drama track of the Republic of China, and also provided a new sample for the innovative breakthroughs of similar dramas.
Confucianism and Italy ride the wind, Wanda accelerator
At the beginning of this year, Chen Zhixi became the chairperson and president of Wanda Film. At the same time, Entertainment Capital also noticed that two companies, Ruyi Film and Wanda Film and Television, had appeared among the co-producers of "Wind Chaser".
If the super layout of the four films of Confucianism and Italy + Wanda during the Spring Festival is the New Year meeting gift that Chen Zhixi brought to Wanda Film, then the go LIVE of "Wind Chaser" and the consecutive launch of the two major dramas are the "accelerators" that she helped Wanda TV series become the industry leader.
Wanda Film and Television officially entered the drama industry in 2016, and the production pace and quality were not stable. In contrast, Ruyi Film’s strength in the drama field has been steadily improving.
In January this year, Chen Zhixi’s director-produced "Prosecutor and Juvenile" was launched. The drama was directed by Teng Huatao and starred Zhang Xiaofei and Chen He. From the plot synopsis, this is a realistic work involving juvenile delinquency, family education and the legal system. This year’s Spring Festival file "Article 20" has a long-term word-of-mouth and a reverse decline in the box office, which proves that this kind of theme is in line with the current audience’s preferences.
Also directed by Chen Zhixi, "Confessions of the Night" was launched in early March. The drama was directed by Wang Zhi and starred Pan Yueming, who was extremely suitable for the theme of criminal investigation. The combination of his master and apprentice with Wang Hedi made the audience look forward to it. The configuration of "middle-aged powerful actor + young top class" also escorted the quality of the drama and the popularity of go LIVE in advance.
In the current TV drama to be broadcast, "My Altay", directed by Chen Zhixi, has just been shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 2024 Cannes TV Festival. The drama is directed by Teng Congcong, starring Ma Yili, Zhou Yiran, and Yu Shi. Once again, Ruyi has shown a strong ability to organize and control the content.
In addition, in the latest TV drama filing, the ancient costume drama "Avenue Chaotian" has been filed by Confucianism, which is adapted from the novel of the same name of the cat. The "2023IP Weathervane" report shows that male-frequency IP is a new trend in future film and television dramas. "Avenue Chaotian" is also one of the few new IPs of the cat after the success of film and television such as "Celebration of More Years" and "General Night".
Previously in the field of drama, Wanda Film and Television has not been able to enter the head sequence before, and from the beginning of "Wind Chaser", whether it is the main creator or the big IP blessing, Ruyi + Wanda’s new drama configuration has been significantly upgraded, entering the S, S + level, but also for Wanda Film and Television’s TV drama business up the ante new engine.
As previously analyzed by Entertainment Capital, after Chen Zhixi entered Wanda Film, his stable production ability and Chen Zhixi’s professionalism in content control will allow Wanda Film to return to the content-led industry logic. Chen Zhixi is also one of the few producers in the industry that spans the two fields of film and TV series, and is expected to inspire new possibilities for the linkage of drama and film in the integration of Wanda Film’s entire industry chain.
In the future, the new combination of Ruyi + Wanda will enhance the quality of domestic dramas with film thinking and integration team, conform to the trend of "boutique" of dramas, contribute to the domestic drama film and television industry, and also empower the long-term development and more vigorous vitality of the brand.
