Variety writers have made a big comeback. What role did they play in the show?

Does variety show have a script? Did they make up the plot and lines in the program?

Original title: Variety screenwriters have made a big comeback. What role did they play in the show?

Recently, Lu Han and Dilireba have repeatedly dropped into the hot search list because of their "ambiguous" behavior in "Run Bar", and even triggered a verbal battle between fans of both sides. Many netizens believe that there must be a script for the program to hype up CP. The two artists have no intention of hyping up, but they have to cooperate with the script to perform in order to watch.

Does variety show have a script? Since reality shows have become popular on the screen, viewers have constantly raised this question. In recent years, a new group of "variety writers" has also begun to appear in front of everyone. In a variety show, what role does variety screenwriters play? Did they make up the plot and lines in the program?

What exactly do variety writers do?

In China, the core of early variety shows was the director. The so-called director means that one person holds both the roles of screenwriter and director, and the position of screenwriter is not valued. In 2013, Korean variety shows represented by "I am a Singer" and "Where Are You Going, Dad" entered the China market on a large scale, and the profession of variety screenwriter was also introduced to China.

When it comes to variety screenwriters, many viewers may have the misunderstanding that variety screenwriters are like film and television screenwriters, stipulating plots and writing lines for variety shows. In fact, variety writers just design rules, situations or games. As for what the artists say and do on the show, it is actually the result of free play.

"I am a Singer", which was launched in 2013, was the first time that variety screenwriters were introduced into a domestic reality show. This program has a 90-minute session. In addition to the singer's singing and the host and audience's footage, the remaining half hour is devoted to reality TV content. As a result,"I Am a Singer" established a professional screenwriter team. It is understood that from the first season to the fourth season of "I Am a Singer", there has been a large team of 25 screenwriters.

So, what is the screenwriter's task in the show? The first is to write scripts for variety shows and set up situations, tasks and rules. For any dramatic variety show, the screenwriters of the program group are basically responsible for writing the plot. For example, the difficult tasks and rules in "Extreme Challenge" all come from the writers 'extensive sand table deductions in the early stage, on-site real-time screenwriting, and later re-structures.

In addition to writing scripts, variety writers also need to find out the climax of the program content. In reality TV shows, almost every guest has a corresponding screenwriter. These writers need to live with and make friends with the guests, so that they can set up corresponding links in the program to allow the guests to show their temperament or amplify the highlights of their personalities.

For example, before the recording of "I am a Singer", each screenwriter would read the past experience of the singer in charge and write a "Singer Biography" to give an internal presentation. During the recording process of the program, the screenwriter sometimes needs to follow the guests for more than ten hours. During a recording, the screenwriter discovered that Li Jian was wearing johns. After editing the program, the hot topic of Li Jian's "johns male god" emerged.

What is the relationship between variety writers and directors?

In previous variety shows, the screenwriter and director were basically written by the same person. Now that there are variety writers, what is the relationship between variety writers and directors?

Many industry insiders believe that the relationship between directors and screenwriters is very similar to a "husband and wife" relationship in the family. In the process of producing a program, both parties generally work together and are responsible for the program (family).

For example, in "Extreme Challenge", it is divided into a writer group and a director group (executive group). The writing team gave the general direction for recording the program, and the executive team went to various places to survey the scenery according to this general direction. Then the two groups set out together to survey the scenery. Based on the situation of the second scene survey, the writers team further refined the program plan, while the execution team considered more hardware aspects, such as scene layout, shooting equipment, prop production, etc.

Overall, the variety writer is a role that provides creativity, while the director is a role responsible for implementing the writer's imagination. In a successful reality TV program, excellent screenwriters and excellent directors are indispensable.

Domestic variety shows are frequently exposed to plagiarism because of the lack of screenwriter talents?

After the popularity of Korean variety shows has passed, the domestic variety show market seems a little lonely. Looking at the popular variety shows on the TV screen,"Comprehensive N Generation" programs account for half of the country, but new phenomenal hits have not appeared yet. Not only that, programs such as "The Life of Desire" have also fallen into the "plagiarism door" and have even been named and criticized by the South Korean media.

Domestic variety shows are difficult to produce popular models, and they are frequently copied. Why? The answer is very simple. Although China has the profession of variety screenwriter, mature and professional screenwriter talents are still very scarce.

In China, the variety screenwriter industry started late, and most variety screenwriters are born in the 1980s or 1990s. For example, Wang Lu, the chief screenwriter of "Running Man", was born in 1988 and is already a "veteran employee" who has worked on four seasons of programs. In South Korea, senior variety screenwriters are all veteran employees with "ten years of service". It takes about 10 years for a newly graduated college student to rise from an "old and young writer" responsible for investigating materials to an "auxiliary writer" responsible for the composition of the script, and then to a "main writer" responsible for the entire script.

On the other hand, domestic attention to variety screenwriters is far less important than South Korea. South Korea draws on the "writer-centered system" of the United States. Writers occupy an important position in the variety show production system, and the salary of writers is also the highest among all staff. There is a widely circulated metaphor. If Han Zong's general director is the emperor, then the writer is Zhen Huan. Writers play a crucial role in many decisions made by directors.

In China, although many variety shows have established writing teams, such as "Running Brothers","I am a Singer","The Great Challenge", etc. However, the screenwriter members are generally too young and inexperienced, and are still in the learning stage, making it difficult to become the core figures in program production. In addition, the salary and benefits provided to variety screenwriters in China are currently difficult to match those of South Korea, which can easily lead to the drain of talents.

In recent years, China has produced three to four hundred variety shows every year, and there is a huge demand for professional screenwriters. In the absence of talent for screenwriters, many variety shows do not choose to innovate themselves, but copy other variety shows, leading to the prevalence of copycat plagiarism.

Talent for variety writers is scarce. How to break the situation?

The popularity of South Korean variety shows overseas is inseparable from the excellent writing team. So, how should our country solve the dilemma of lack of talent for variety screenwriters?

Can qualified screenwriters be cultivated through academic training? The answer is not that simple. Screenwriters need not only professional knowledge, but more importantly, industry experience. Only a screenwriter who has some understanding and understanding of human nature and society can better understand the audience's psychology and design situations and characters that the audience likes to see.

So, can cross-border celebrities make up for the gap in variety talent? It does not look optimistic at the moment. In the past two years, novel writers and film and television screenwriters have also crossed the border to become variety screenwriters. For example,"Everyone is accelerating" invited Yu Zheng to be the screenwriter. "Seventy-Two Floors of Strange Building", which is currently being broadcast, invited the third uncle of Nanpai to serve as the screenwriter. However, the ratings and reputation of these two variety shows were not excellent, and the latter even encountered complaints from countless netizens. It seems that not all cross-border celebrities may become good variety screenwriters.

Training in academic courses is not enough to cultivate excellent screenwriters, and the test results of cross-border people are mediocre. Are there any other ways? Some insiders believe that TV stations can implement a job rotation system so that everyone participating in the program can be familiar with the entire process of the program. First, understand the principles of program operation, and then learn to be a qualified variety writer.

In fact, it has only been a few years since the profession of variety screenwriter was introduced to China. If you want to cultivate mature screenwriter talents in a short period of time, it is actually a bit of a rush to encourage the seedlings. However, instead of copying and copying overseas programs, domestic variety artists should focus on cultivating domestic screenwriter talents. As domestic screenwriter talents gradually mature, they may also become an indispensable type of work in the program in the future, and even the core of the program.

Editor: jessica