The popularity of "seeing words like face to face": the feelings and Market Test behind the rise of Cultural Variety

Liang Qichao's marriage testimony at the wedding of Xu Zhimo and Lu Xiaoman; a letter written by Yuan Xuefen, a master of Yue Opera, to his late father; a letter of persuasion from Southern Liang Qiu Chi to Chen Bozhi in the Northern Wei Dynasty. In the process of reading letters aloud into the hearts of the people, the second season of "seeing words is like face to face" has also achieved good results. At present, the score of the program in Douban is 9.5, the number of broadcasts in a single episode has exceeded 360 million, and the total broadcast volume has reached 433 million.

programs that seem to be minority types have aroused popular market reactions. According to Guan Zhengwen, chief director of "meet words" and founder of Power telex Culture Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "strength Culture"), this is not a simple emotional factor, but also the result of the rational choice of the market. He told reporters that he pays more attention to the basic needs of the largest population, and valuable output programs are the mainstream needs of human cultural consumption. The greater the number of products that resort to sensory entertainment, the more likely they are to resort to spiritual pleasure.

"everyone needs to think about and understand themselves and the world. If many experiences cannot be experienced in person, they expect to find inspiration in the experiences of others. This is the fundamental reason why people are inseparable from cultural and spiritual consumption." it is also the most solid mass character of "face to face". "

strong > Chuxin / strong >

Guan Zhengwen is one of the most senior variety show producers in China. In his early years, he was involved in planning "Lucky 52", "Happy Dictionary" and other programs, and served as the overall design of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala. In 2006, he founded the strength culture and became one of the most active TV program production teams in China.

Reading programs are what Guan Zhengwen has always wanted to do. Up to now, this variety is still blank, because the old road can not get through, and we have to find a new form. He always wanted to present the content of the book directly, but the book was too long to intercept a paragraph and the audience couldn't listen to it, so it got stuck. Until I saw an English book, full of personal letters, "it is simply a treasure house, about a thousand words, which can be spread separately." I thought, there are too many good faith in China, so do this first. "

once you have determined the form of the program, you have to think about what kind of letter to choose and who to read it.

because ancient letters contain a lot of value and have high communication value, a large number of letters in classical Chinese have been included in their choice. "but a classical Chinese text is a written language, not used for oral communication. Read an unfamiliar classical Chinese at a normal speed, and even the ancients could not understand it. Many people think that they should read the ancient prose, and more people put on airs and regard culture as vanity decoration. The key to the dissemination of content is to listen to the ear and heart, and it is impossible to appreciate the rich world of the ancients at all. "

in order to spread better, Guan Zhengwen personally went into battle and translated the selected letters in classical Chinese. "translators that meet the needs of program content dissemination have certain academic risks in the first quarter. Because in order to transform into audio-visual form, people must feel it at the same time, listen to it completely, and create space for artists to perform on stage. Therefore, the exegesis translation which assists in understanding is not appropriate. " Guan Zhengwen explained that before, few people did such a translation of classical Chinese, and scholars had no choice but to do it on their own for fear of causing trouble to others.

letter text is the most direct content delivered to the audience. Guan Zhengwen recalled that he translated with a sense of role. "those wonderful ancients are very funny when they write letters. I seem to be able to see that person, I can see the scene when he is writing a letter, just like the people around us now. Then his language came alive and it became true that he was talking. This kind of divine friendship is very happy. "

strong > who will read the letter? / strong >

the participation of several stars is one of the highlights of "seeing words like face to face". At present, actors including Zhou Xun, Zhao Lixin, Yao Chen and Lin Gengxin have all appeared in the second season, while the first season has brought together he Bing, Zhang Guoguo, Gui Yalei and other actors.

how to choose the reader for different letters? Guan Zhengwen revealed that after the letter primary, the team will give letters to the artists who are willing to come according to their feelings, but more importantly, they will interact with the artists. Artists have their own fulcrum of feeling, those who find a way of deductive treatment will stay, and those who do not feel very strong will be replaced. There are many types and styles of letters, so it is difficult to say that they are the best match. The wonderful interpretation mainly depends on the width of the artist's role adaptability. After a few rounds of interaction, everyone will be right.

strong > bonus? / strong >

"Chinese character dictation meeting", "seeing words like face to face", "Reader", "Chinese Poetry Conference"... A series of cultural variety shows are so hot that there has been a sound in the market that the spring of cultural shows is coming.

Guan Zhengwen holds a different attitude towards this statement.

"I have always disagreed with the so-called cultural program tuyere. Objectively, no matter how large the audience is, people still regard you as a minority product, which cannot be changed in a day. The success of all programmes is the success of individual cases, not the success of types. "

before "meet words like face to face", strength Culture has already produced a series of cultural video programs. Including "Chinese character dictation conference", "idiom conference" and so on. In his view, viewers like good programs rather than genre programs, which is a creative industry.

Policy dividend is a factor that can not be ignored.

in June last year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a notice on further strengthening the management of the creation and broadcasting of online audio-visual programs, which is known as the strictest restriction order, which not only brings restrictions to the industry, but also opens a way for cultural programs and becomes a choice for more practitioners.

in the face of increasingly fierce market competition, how to maintain the advantage of "face to face"?

in Guan Zhengwen's view, the policy dividend of the subject matter and the dividend of the audience are two different things. Many people use a speculative mentality to do culture, which has nothing to do with cultural dissemination, but also an impetuous performance. When the number of cultural programs increases, it depends on whether the influence increases, and whether the audience is really willing to watch it.

"it is clear that we still have a lot of difficulties and confusion. With the same audience data, advertising prices still cannot go up, which should be viewed realistically and need to be persisted for a long time." Claiming that the tuyere is a boring thing. "

Policy dividends and public demand are not absolutely safe.

after the second season of the program was broadcast, it was suddenly knocked off the shelves, which caught the strength culture and the audience off guard. In this regard, Guan Zhengwen frankly said that "seeing words such as face to face" has indeed experienced several roller coasters, with national circulars praising and reneging on the shelves twice. "content is innovating, and management is also innovating. As long as the goals are the same, dissenting opinions are only temporary, and this is also part of persistence, and there is no need to worry too much about temporary gains and losses. "

"Cultural programs should not become another uproar. Several programs happen to be broadcast before and after, not worthy of complacency, release industry trends, cultural programs should also be vigilant impetuous. " He said.

that's true. In the annual index report released by Tencent Video a few days ago, compared with other types of variety shows, the data of cultural programs are not outstanding. In this regard, Tencent Video Variety Operations Center Director Li Yang said that the cultural variety audience is concentrated in high knowledge, first-tier city white-collar workers, for the overall user group, the data may not be so prominent.

in essence, the content of cultural variety is the basis of audience choice. This is not a copy of history, but also need to think about the wisdom of our predecessors who can span time and space, benefit the present and serve the world. What viewers choose is not the culture itself, but the content of the program that can enjoy spiritual pleasure.

strong > realized / strong >

after producing several programs, strength Culture was listed on the new third board last year and became the first stock of cultural variety. Although there are many head variety blessing, but its current financial situation is not optimistic. According to the 2017 semi-annual report, the company's revenue for the period was 16.4178 million yuan, down 7.06% from the same period last year, while net profit was 1.213 million yuan, down 76.47% from the same period last year.

Guan Zhengwen said that the variety and influence of strength cultural programs have developed steadily, and the ups and downs of financial data have little to do with the growth of varieties, mainly due to some arrears accumulated before, and the figures will be much better in the second half of the year. It is more important to focus on the quality of the program and the increase in variety.

however, from the point of view of attracting investment in the second quarter of "face to face", it is obviously better than the first quarter, attracting many sponsors, including Renren loan, Jiang Xiaobai, Ford and so on. In this regard, Guan Zhengwen said, "as long as we do a good job in content and have an audience, sooner or later it will come." If you stare at cash every day, this kind of person should not be a culture. "

from "dictation meeting of Chinese characters" to "meet words like face to face", the broadcast channel of the program has changed from TV station to network. At present, "meet the word is like face to face" is broadcast in Heilongjiang TV Station, broadcast exclusively by Tencent Video network, and the first network background mode is adopted in the broadcast.

with regard to the changes in channels, he believes that the data show that 70% of the audience is focused on the Internet and is constantly expanding, which is the main battlefield and the inevitable choice. But the network station does not have the essential difference, the high-value content is not the television station specialty, the network variety also advances in the diversification.

"value cooperation with online media because 70% of the audience comes from the Internet. We should not be ecstatic about this number when trying to explain the development and achievements of the Internet, and worry about this phenomenon when we are worried about the value of the content. Managers should strengthen their trust in online content and the production of high-quality content by market players, so that content producers can focus on producing as good programs as possible. "

it is reported that the upcoming new programs of strength Culture include "Book of Life" (the above-mentioned reading program, recommend global classic books), "Honey, you know", "Old Ballads" and "the appointment of the Magic Mirror". Covering reading, tradition, music and new forms of interviews, the product matrix is being formed.

Edit: mary