Interview ｜ Chief Producer of ＂Female Psychologist＂： Yang Zi Jing Boran confronts ＂anxiety＂, and there is also a spring for ＂cold＂ themes？
Author: Po
Reprinted source: A little drama reading (ID: yidianjd)
"Female Psychologist" was a lot of attention before it was broadcast. Bi Shumin’s original literary works, stories of scarce themes, and Yang Zi Jing Boran’s leading partner were in excellent condition. In the first week of go LIVE, there were both praise and criticism, but the discussions continued, and the data was considerable. It could rank among the Weekly Ranking Top5 and compete for the top three in the Detawen Prosperity Index, Yunhe Overlord Screen List, and Bone Hot List.
In a conversation with Guo Feng, the chief producer of the drama and CEO of the production company Yulele Film, he once mentioned that since he has spent a lot of energy to do one thing, he naturally hopes to achieve a certain impact. Holding high and playing high is the style of the main creative team. Now the first week’s data shows that the foundation heat has been maintained at a high level, which is worth the effort.
And another worth is thatThis film and television drama truly lives up to its valueFor example, with the update of the daily plot, the story discussion and feedback on the social platform appeared, especially the topic of hot search high-level #After reading the female psychologist, my mother apologized #which made Guo Feng relieved.
This discussion was triggered after the plot entered the counseling of Jiang Jing because of the heroine Horton’s psychological counseling and the long-term mental confinement of his mother’s frank reconciliation plot. A film and television drama about psychological counseling truly untangled the knot for some audiences, and it was also a moment to realize the social value of the film and television drama itself.
Urban healing drama is the project positioning of "Female Psychologist", a literary work that sells 1.50 million physical books.Even if it is adapted into a film and television work, it should maintain its depth and breadth, which is the purpose of Guo Feng’s play and the greatest challenge.
Adaptation of reclusive reality literature,
Anxiety is not difficult to cure
How difficult is the film and television adaptation of "The Psychologist"? An objective fact: the copyright of the novel in the early version of 2007 changed its owner three times in the past ten years, and the first two copyright sales were returned to the author Bi Shumin due to the difficulty of adaptation. The third time, when Yule Films officially started TV production four or five years ago, the copyright was taken by Guo Feng, and now it is finally taking shape.
The psychological counseling industry was unpopular in the early days of the project, and it was an industry that had not yet been touched by film and television dramas. However, in order to improve people’s health, the state has issued the "Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline one year after the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee, which has a special section on "promoting mental health." Guo Feng further believes that this is an emerging industry.
"Healthy China 2030" Planning Outline
The industry background of the story is obscure, but the author, Bi Shumin, is not only a national first-class writer, but also a doctor and a registered psychological counselor, which is also doomedThe story itself is not only a classic national literary work in the Internet age, but also retains its considerable professionalism in addition to its strong storytelling and sufficient dramatic tension.
But the more serious and profound the literary content, the more difficult it is to adapt and develop. First of all, it is faced with the story composed of the heroine Horton’s psychological counseling for visitors.The case selection of visitors needs to be updatedFirstly, because the novel was born 14 years ago, the content needs to be updated in a timely manner, and secondly, in the process of transforming from literature to film and television, it is necessary to filter and adjust some visual content that is more suitable for presentation to the public.
Which of the selected cases is more important in the narrative?This is another challenge.
For example, the case of Yuna, in which Hutton intervened in suicide, is a case that Guo Feng calls "we are willing to spend a lot of time talking about", because many times teenagers’ psychological problems are often accompanied by complex and tortuous reasons behind them, including family problems, parents’ gender problems, adolescence problems, etc. I hope teachers and parents can understand that the solution of teenagers’ psychological problems cannot be ignored and cannot be delayed.
In contrast, the incident of the male protagonist Qian Kaiyi’s fan Xiaowen Flower Studio being held hostage, Horton’s explanation of Xiaowen was not even a case, "Horton told Xiaowen that her problem has not been solved. If Xiaowen needs psychological counseling in the future, he will introduce a better psychological counselor, but he is not suitable for psychological counseling for Xiaowen. So this case is not a complete case in the strict sense, it can only be counted as a crisis setting, but this crisis is also related to psychological problems."
Guo Feng believes that when dealing with cases, we often fall into the rut of unit dramas. Unit dramas may lead to obvious fragmentation of the storyline, with a strong sense of fragmentation, and will also divide the telling length of the protagonist’s character’s story. Therefore, during the development process, the case telling methods are different in length, and they closely revolve around the heroine Horton herself. The two are entwined with each other to promote the continuity of the main story and hook the audience’s desire to watch it again.
"This tangled relationship is more in line with the positioning of the showHorton is helping herself by helping others. It is true that there is a positive side to her personality, but there is also a side that needs help because of family problems. Her original intention was to help others, but in the end she was unintentionally healed.
This is how the creative team handles another difficulty in the adaptation, that is, when the story involves psychological issues, it is often full of darkness and negativity. When a person needs to find a psychological counselor, he will not be healthy and happy. So what role does film and television play in emotional communication?
In Guo Feng’s opinion, the inner state of people with real psychological problems is often bizarre and unimaginable, and may even be "colorful black", which is an inner world that ordinary people cannot imagine. He hopes to make the audience aware of the importance of mental health.
"We’re not just showing psychological cases in a curious way, thisThe positive significance of this project is that we will provide some solutions for each type of case, how to make the world a better place, which is difficult. "
Nowadays, it is rare for film and television dramas to issue a conspicuous disclaimer. The disclaimer of "Female Psychologist" may not be just for disclaimer, but more like what Guo Feng said, it is guiding a path for everyone, giving some guidance and inspiration. If you have psychological problems, please be sure to seek professional help.
An atmospheric collective creation
From the case of Xiaowen, it can be seen that Horton is not a mythical psychological counselor. This is a modification made after communicating with Teacher Bi Shumin. It is not the same as in the original book, a growing female psychologist. Not everyone’s psychological problems can be solved by her, there are problems that she cannot solve, there are problems that she needs to rely on outsiders to solve, and there are problems that she is not suitable for solving and points to other ways.
At the age of maturity, there is still room for growth, and there are also their own psychological problems to solve. Guo Feng likes Yang Zi to be Hutton himself, while Scorpio Yang Zi seems to be interested in psychological topics, and he has not entered the group, so he has already started to make up psychological books. The fun of actors lies in immersive experience, seemingly calm psychological counseling work, and facing the bizarre inner world of different visitors, it is difficult to say that it is not attractive.
Perhaps more convincing is Guo Feng’s sentence,"Themes are scarce. If you can create a psychotherapist that has never existed through your efforts, you may also change the fate of many people with your screen image."
And Jing Boran, who has not had a small-screen work for a long time, although it seems that he is assisting the "female psychologist" in a play called "Female Psychologist", he is the unique heating pad little sun character in the whole play who has self-healing ability and is almost always happy. He uses warmth to infect others. This is the male lead "halo" that belongs to Qian Kaiyi.
"When you have a really good cast and team, they add to each character and end up creating something collectively."
In addition to the reassuring performances of the male and female protagonists,The appearance of other characters can almost always resonate with the audience and trigger discussions on the relevant plot, which is also inseparable from the performance of each actor.
In Guo Feng’s recollection, Mr. Ni Ping, who played Hutton’s mother, designed his own characteristic accent and performance style to increase the visibility of mother-daughter interaction; Wang Jia, a young actor who was not an old actor, wanted to play the role of Ye Jiahui, who had the identity of a physiotherapist and music box production skills. In order to get closer to the role, he obtained a rehabilitation physiotherapy medical certificate before entering the group, and at the same time learned traditional Chinese medicine acupuncture and studied music box production.
In Guo Feng’s words,The atmosphere of the whole crew is that everyone is competing benignly in PK, wanting to present their best performance posture, and it has become a daily routine to rush to overtimeThe closing banquet set at 11 pm on March 10, even if the last scene, Yang Zi felt that it would be enjoyable and leave no regrets, so when the real finishing, the entire crew was already facing the sunrise of 4 am on the 11th.
Avoid the hot ones and find another way,
How do established companies thrive?
If you were to ask Guo Feng why Yulele Pictures chose "Female Psychologist" as the company’s first drama project, he would think it was no accident.
Yule Culture, as an established company with 15 years of experience in artist management, is not a newcomer in the entertainment industry. It has entered the field of actor management from the field of singer management, which was mainly dominated by Na Ying, until the release of the literary and artistic emotional film "Like a Shadow in the Heart" two years ago. It is the first work to get involved in film production investment, and now it is the first drama "Female Psychologist".
The project IP was taken in four or five years ago. In the hot market environment of ancient IP,Guo Feng believes that "not following the trend" is one of Yu Lele’s advantages, and the other is to focus on what you likeNo matter whether it is in the movie "Like a Shadow" or the current "Female Psychologist".
A story that focuses on psychological counseling, just imagining the imaging effect, is likely to be mostly literary and boring, which is the result that the high-scoring American drama "Ask the Heart" has already demonstrated. But that is a threshold for viewing, not popular.
To balance professionalism and entertainment, the creative team adopted a stage-style approach, using many different-dimensional space aesthetics, in the process of presenting psychological counseling, visually make scene changes, allowing the audience to enter the visitor’s thinking world together.Through the character’s gaze directly facing the camera, interact with the audience’s gaze to create an immersive drama-chasing experience.
The creative team can accept both positive and negative aspects of their project, as long as the audience can see the social attributes attached to the work, can discuss the work itself, play its role in driving the audience to pay attention to mental health, and then feedback ideas and opinions, the project itself is meaningful.
"Not blindly following the trend, sticking to our own aesthetic taste is our style of doing projects. We absorb experience repeatedly during the process of perseverance, and then improve our ideas in the next project, so that we can go further."