Exclusive interview with the chief producer of the running man: exposing the "blockbuster" behind the male blockbuster

the recording of the second season of "running Brothers" (hereinafter referred to as "running Man") ends on the beautiful island of Saipan, unlike the last episode of the first season, whether the artists or the production team are full of sentimental reluctance. The second season of "running Man" ends in a laughing and family atmosphere.

before hitting the board for the last time, Yu Hangying, the chief producer of the program known as "Banniang", bowed deeply to the camera and stood on the beach in Saipan late at night. She said to the team, "the recording of the second season is over, and we don't say too much." just like this sea right now, hiding all the waves into the deep night, we hope to use the camera to tell you what we have experienced and efforts, in the language of the camera. Instead of using anything else. "

the camera was on all the time, and the cameraman was reluctant to turn it off. "he bowed many times and said it was over, but no one finished work," Yu Hangying recalled. "We didn't cry in the second season, but we couldn't help crying because we had such a good team. brothers who fought side by side for us to the last minute."

from "kneeling and begging to let go" to the attention of the whole people, from comprehensive learning to independent production, "running Brothers" has become a well-deserved phenomenal program, and the production team of Zhejiang Satellite TV has gradually surfaced and is well known by more people.

Today, the media conducted an exclusive interview with Yu Hangying, the chief producer of "running Brothers," to reveal for the participants how they turned the running man into a phenomenon-level variety show hotly debated by the whole people.

strong > Chinese runners come out with new ideas / strong >

strong > Innovation one: national logging tiredness / strong >

Deng Chao often mentioned "We are logging tiredness" in the program to describe the phenomenon that the whole family of "running men" was watching and the whole people talked about it. Logging (family), the audience through the whole age group, and finally formed the main audience of 4-54 years old, laying the foundation for the program to become a phenomenon.

before the launch of "running Brothers", the Korean version of "Running Man" was mainly watched by young people.

"We have very realistic pressure on how to expand a program style dominated by a young audience into a program that is loved by the public, so at the beginning of the broadcast, we made up our mind to change the viewing attribute of (young viewers) and expand the age group of the" running man "audience." Yu Hangying said.

regardless of age group, running men meet the need for happy release every weekend.

behind the popularity of running men is the massive survey and analysis of the audience by the program group:

The experience of watching movies after

70 is rich, and most of the themes of running men are set in drama, which is very attractive to these people who are quite familiar with blockbusters and plots.

the post-80s generation focuses on content innovation, and they like high-quality game content, so the program will look for a lot of content that can resonate with this group, such as Saint special that can arouse collective memories of the 1980s, and set up some brain-burning games.

and the younger the running men are, the more loyal they are to the program. They like to watch some simple and beautiful things, and the most popular stars of the post-90s and post-00s will be invited to the show.

strong > Innovation 2: do not make one-to-one correspondence, let the unique "this one" flash / strong >

before the start of the show, many fans of South Korea's "Running Man" questioned that "running Man" would ruin the original show, believing that China could not find artists like Liu Jae-seok, Kim Jong-goo, Song Zhixiao and Lee Kwang-soo who worked so hard, had a sense of skill and were full of tacit understanding.

Yu Hangying and her team, as well as the artists themselves, are under this kind of pressure. In the face of comparison, the Chinese version of "running Man" determines a train of thought, that is, do not make an one-to-one correspondence, this is a unique seven individuals, can not be copied.

in Yu Hangying's view, Deng Chao can not be Liu Zaishi. He has not gone through the experience of hosting the circle, and sometimes the real performance, even some rather silly performance, is actually his advantage. Wang Zulan is physically a "weak uncle", but he is funny and smart, he is a veritable "leak-picking king", and there is no corresponding role in runningman.

Yu Hangying said, "when casting, there will be a general framework, and it is more likely to constantly determine the positioning of each artist in the recording process of the program." Artists will also slowly find their own position, rather than one-to-one correspondence with the original.

for example, starting from the task of "making a boat" on Jeju Island, Chen he's laziness was combined with Li Chen's worries. According to the contrast of the artist's character, coupled with the strengthening in the post-production of the program, a pair of CP like "Morning Mother" and "he Bao Bao" gradually appeared.

Reality Show creator, you have to love everyone on your show with all your heart and even regard them as the most important part of your life during this time.

"our seven artists all have a fixed VJ and a fixed follow PD respectively. Over the past two seasons, they have established a very deep relationship with the artists. One look can convey the confidence of running to the artists." The audience thinks the most beautiful famous brand war, basically how long the artist runs, how long VJ and the director also run, according to each fd feedback instant message, can control the whole audience.

since the second season of running Man, Fan Bingbing, Huang Xiaoming and Yao Chen have gathered luxuriously with top domestic celebrities. The audience saw that the artists in the program did not play big names at all, nor did they have the burden of idols. "our seven so high, all the artists in the program will be infected, for artists, to participate in this program is a real release." Including some quagmire, pools and other links that would have been worried that the stars did not want to participate, and even the recording time as long as 20 hours, these big artists all accepted, which surprised and moved Yu Hangying.

"TV as a creative industry, it is not a simple industrial production, it must have temperature and emotion. A large Reality Show like a runner must discover something and inspire and express it through communication and through your control over the emotions of the world. " Yu Hangying said.

strong > Innovation 3: pay attention to the details / strong >

at first glance, the culture of South Korea is very similar to that of China, but there are many differences. These small "differences" into the actual operation of TV programs, but can cause unexpected "butterfly effect".

compared with South Korean viewers who are used to getting clues in the course of watching the program, Chinese viewers seem to have less patience to wait for wonderful things to emerge, and they need the help of the program to keep combing.

after the first episode of the first season was broadcast, many viewers reported that they did not understand the clues to the stolen treasures, and then the second episode later sorted out the whole logic more clearly. for example, at the beginning, the South Korean side did not understand why there was always a two-minute trailer in front of the Chinese program, saying that it was not a spoiler.

with regard to this difference, Yu Hangying explained to the Koreans, "the Chinese audience wants to see the wonderful content as soon as possible, attract them first, and then tell them why they did it and what the result of doing it will be. what is the impact of each link on the result?"

In addition, the current Chinese audience needs to see more things related to meaning and spirit. In the running man program, it can't be too strong, but it must be there. It's very difficult to grasp this degree. " In the recording of the last episode of the first season in Chongqing, each of the seven members of the running men's team went through a very tangled process to tear and be torn up.

"especially at the end of the program, the emotional concentration of the running man had reached a high point, and we had to temporarily cancel the grand fireworks ending scene carefully prepared by the riverside and rearrange an indoor venue for emotional interaction. But the running man is after all a variety show, to reflect Brotherhood, but not too sensational, how to grasp is a very test of the creator's ability. "

strong > Chinese blue team is too hard! / strong >

strong > production concept and actual combat ability to achieve leapfrogging / strong >

artists record nearly 20 hours at a time, and the production team has been running for a year. In this era of rapid consumption of resources, it poses a greater challenge to the content of the program.

the cooperation model between China and South Korea was deeply jointly created by the production teams of the two countries in the first five periods, while the later program was independently completed by Zhejiang Satellite TV. Sbs specially dispatched a team of "Running Man", including director, screenwriter, camera, lighting, sound recording, production, and so on, to mix and fight with the team of Zhejiang Satellite TV.

from Pd to security, the close study of every type of work, every link, and every detail has greatly enhanced the production concept and actual combat ability of Zhejiang Satellite TV's outdoor Reality Show team.

Zhejiang Satellite TV has accumulated valuable experience: setting up a screenwriting station for the first time, a more professional prop team, a strong PD on-site command system, and so on. "rather than working with a program model that has been very successful, we have learned a very successful program production concept and method." Yu Hangying said.

"running Man" has a large team of more than 300 people (including all kinds of jobs), and the core creative team has more than 30 people, young but experienced, and has done programs such as "Chinese Dream Show", "for the first time in my Life" and "Dad is back". Their liveliness and creativity have brought a lot of ideas and expressions to the program, such as the research and development of original games such as desert hamsters, and themes such as the Republic of China and the Ming Dynasty.

"these young people pay too much for the show!" The "running Man" program group is several post-70s, running with a group of young people born in the 1980s and 90s. Yu Hangying gives an example, the leader of a post-80s director group, who finished recording the program on May 7 and returned to Hangzhou for the wedding on May 9. It took less than a day to prepare.

A director born in the post-70s and post-80s who has a family and children basically doesn't care about home. As a mother who works overtime all the year round, Yu Hangying's relationship with her daughter is "racing against the clock." as long as she is in Hangzhou, no matter how late she works, no matter how late she works in the morning, she belongs to her daughter. She cooks breakfast and sends her to school, "because basically we only have half an hour to spend together."

"the professional state of the entire Chinese TV people is such a normal state. The competition is very fierce, and it is changing with each passing day, and there is constant pressure for innovation. For outdoor Reality Show programs, only the people we are doing will know how difficult this is." Yu Hangying said.

strong > Security first / strong >

for Yu Hangying, it is no small challenge to coordinate the teams of 300 to 400 people in different areas and different venues. In the recording of the program, we often encounter some unexpected situations.

the thing that nearly crashed Yu Hangying happened in the recording of the first episode of the second season in Chengdu. It was supposed to record three episodes of the show, but it had to be cancelled because there were too many onlookers to ensure safety. Even the most important part of the first episode, shedding famous brands, was forced to be transferred to the hotel. Finally, at the beginning of "a Great Migration in the History of Chinese Television", Huang Xiaoming flew from Chengdu to Hangzhou before the plane took off.

the program team booked air tickets for more than 300 people overnight to fly back to Hangzhou from Chengdu, and transferred from Shanghai and Nanjing to Hangzhou. After returning to Hangzhou, the treadmill that used to be completed half a month ahead of schedule was compressed into one night. The creator went to coordinate the venue without a break, and finally successfully completed the recording of the program, when she and the director team had not slept for days and nights.

recalling this story afterwards, in addition to the hard work of the creative team, Yu Hangying was also deeply moved by the understanding and magnanimity shown by the artists, as well as their professionalism in the follow-up recording. "We faced it together, including the initial doubts, the various pressures and difficulties we experienced, and the whole process we really created a miracle and created a phenomenal program."

in the running Man, there are a large number of outdoor games, climbing high and low rolling quagmire, and some games make the audience frightened. Yu Hangying also took the opportunity to introduce the safety and security of the "running man" to the media.

she said that because she is well aware of the importance of the safety of location programs, not only the artists, but also all the staff in the team, have very complete insurance.

in addition to the insurance guarantee, in the process of planning and stepping on the location of "running Man", the program team will repeatedly test every part of the game, which accounts for a large proportion in the early planning.

Yu Hangying also gave an example: the height of the flying chair in Hangzhou in the first phase ensures both effect and safety. in the course of the test, the director team found that in the process of popping out, the guests' feet might be poked on the ground. during the recording of the official program, all the guests wore diving shoes to ensure safety.

when setting up props, the program group will also invite professionals to make scientific calculations to ensure the safety of each prop.

strong > not doing simple "borrowlism" localization is the key to success / strong >

after five years of uninterrupted weekly recording, Runningman has created a large number of game forms, many of which have become unforgettable classics. Running Man has never excluded the design of South Korean games in the program, but it combines Chinese elements according to the theme as much as possible, rather than copying it completely. On this basis, we will launch the original game form that belongs to the Chinese team. "

the most successful game in the first season of the original game is "fight the gopher in the Battle of the Desert Princess", and the first issue of the second season is "Saint theme". In the final part of the famous brand shredding, we choose the game "Eagle and Chicken" that every Chinese played when he was a child, and in the third issue, "mahjong Lianliankan" adopts the rules of the video game Lianliankan, which people often play, and eliminates the color in the shortest time.

these games, which are already popular among the audience, have been reformed and put on the screen, and the familiar games and fresh ways of playing have a "resonance" in the hearts of the viewers, which, coupled with the fermentation of other elements of the program, make the show more fascinating.

the second and third episode of "Battle of R God" moves the entertainment mahjong most familiar to Chinese audiences to variety shows, while the fifth issue of "Dongchang vs. Jinyiwei" adds drama and conflict to the theme against the historical background of open and secret rivalry between the two secret service agencies of the Ming Dynasty & hellip;…

learn from the successful program models and experiences of foreign countries, and give full play to the wisdom and creativity of Chinese TV people. In Yu Hangying's view, the hard work of "running Man" in localization is an important reason why this program can stand out.

the emergence of "running Man" can be said to be the result of many years of honing by the Chinese Blue Variety Legion. Zhejiang Radio and Television Group has also opened up a variety of policy green channels from the group level, such as team building and putting into the strongest force of the satellite TV program center. it is a project built by Zhejiang Satellite TV with the efforts of the whole channel.

speaking of the third season of running Man, which viewers are looking forward to very much, Yu Hangying said frankly, "in the face of the competition of so many large-scale location Reality Show programs, it is not only the choice of venue and the guarantee of security, but also how to make the program more professional and how to innovate. It is an urgent issue for the team to consider."

she said that in the future, it is necessary to build a dedicated creative team, and will listen more to the views of the audience, create the concept of "the running man by your side", make the program more approachable and seek new breakthroughs.

Professional programs, and dedicated creative teams, for outdoor competitive Reality Show, the shortcomings that need to be made up include: the research and development of large-scale props, the improvement of follow-up shooting skills for long-time running, the "blood flow speed of the program" in the production department, the coordination of professional screenwriters and the post-professional team, and so on.

"the model will eventually run out, and originality is the way out," says Yu Hangying. "as Chinese TV people, we are convinced that introducing models to learn from classics is only a way, and in the end, we should all run towards the same goal. that is to create an excellent model of China's own, which promotes the vigorous development of TV people's production ideas and program models, and even makes great efforts in the international market."