Chapter 16: The Birth of a TV Script (2)
What Levi said made Bob stunned for a long time. He didn't know what the golden formula meant. It's normal for him not to understand. The sentence Levi said was not originally a word for TV script creation but script creation in another field. What he mentioned was the creation of manga by the Japanese. The golden formula way was originally a concept that the Japanese used to discuss manga creation.
Japan's manga industry is highly developed. In the 1980s, they had already begun to replace individual heroes with team combinations. In the long-term comic creation, Shonen Jump summed up the so-called golden formula of three elements: Friendship, Effort, and Victory. If there is effort, there will be victory; if more people work together, there will be better victory. All the books that study "Weekly Shonen Jump" will mention the profound influence of friendship, hard work, and victory on this longevity comics weekly.
[T/N: In the "Jump Gakuen Student Handbook" in the appendix of "Weekly Shonen Jump" in 2014, the school motto reads "Efforts, Friendship, Victory." Though in November 2020, the Shonen Jump officials tweeted, "The editorial department of "Weekly Shonen Jump" has never publicly acknowledged these three principles." As the protagonist transmigrated in 2014, he wouldn't know this, though it still wouldn't matter. These three principles have been unofficially followed for more than three decades.]
Generally speaking, a team would have four characteristics in a Japanese manga: A charismatic main character, a handsome supporting role, a hot-blooded person, and someone for the laughs; this is what the Japanese call a good combination. The four-person group may be a man who dreams of becoming a pirate king, a ninja with a mouth, a high school student who plays basketball, or someone with superpowers. Such four people can be passionate, hard-working, and gain mutual favorability. Among these people, some are cool, some are cute, some are amusing, and there are beautiful characters to attract popularity. At a critical moment, the handsome guy is in trouble, and the hot-blooded protagonist comes to rescue him, full of love, oh no, friendship. Because it is easy to use, this mode spreads across multiple universes. However, such a fixed combination mode will generally not change-so this is the so-called golden principle, passion, friendship, plus several elements such as handsome, cool, and funny, which is enough for comics.
For comics, there is such a remarkable combination. Still, in the 1990s, there was yet to be a concept of such a combination in American dramas.
Creating TV dramas is more complex than creating comics. Comics are all controlled by the author's pen, while TV dramas require multiple actors. Multiple actors are always more challenging to control than one or two people. Before the 1990s, the pay stations in the United States had not developed as much as they would in the future, and the market pressure faced by public stations was small, and there was not much motivation for TV drama production. Team-type protagonists appear in all the more exaggerated sitcoms, but there are still relatively few crime dramas.
But Levi is very clear about the advantages of doing so: there is a market for the description of the team. Describing a single character cannot please all audiences. Developing a protagonist into a multi-person team combination allows the problems initially concentrated on one person to be dispersed among multiple people. In this way, it can be closer to reality.
If the distribution work is done well, each character can have its charm so that each has attractive points; this is the so-called golden formula.
And how to directly write a team that can attract everyone? This is very simple: highlight a certain characteristic of each person, and then downplay the other aspect, and let a few people form a team to create a good team.
In this aspect of creation, at least in the 1990s, there were still no established rules. Not to mention those big TV series that highlight individuals, even Friends, at the beginning of production, also wanted to make Ross and Rachel the absolute protagonists, and everyone else was supporting roles. The concept of team characters, they don't have it yet.
Now, Levy is going to change their minds and ask them to create a routine: a routine that can be used for all American TV teams.
What Levy has to do is to give the group characters in the TV series a frame combination. Such a framework is actually a routine, not an innovation, but if it is applied well, it can give TV dramas a foundation for success. It is not so easy to create such routines, and those who are capable of creating routines often become very popular, such as Togashi Yoshihiro, author of YuYu Hakusho, Hunter x Hunter, etc. As for American dramas, what is needed now is a routine.
Unlike Japanese comics, when making TV dramas, you must consider who is watching. Copying Japanese blood, friendship, and hard work is, of course, not enough; each situation has to be treated differently.
"As a TV series, the main concepts that need to be reflected are family, mid-life crisis, and what is rewarded with good. The so-called golden rule and the outstanding character of the protagonist are also for these services. And now, what we have to do is to disassemble the character of the characters and disperse them to each person. Doing so can make these problems more prominent and attract more attention." American TV series are broadcast to the age group of 18-49—because they have purchasing power, and advertisers like them the most, so TV dramas must be filmed for them. Therefore, in American TV dramas, the emphasis is always on the concerns of people of this age group.
On the one hand, people in this age group all have families, so there must be an emphasis on love for family. Family is good, and from time to time, it shows how empty and lonely the life of a playboy is. This is one of the main themes: because most people see everyone has a family, let them find their happiness. Secondly, TV dramas often like to emphasize various crises after people reach middle age, such as family, body, work, interpersonal communication, and all aspects-because the audience in front of the TV also has similar problems, showing such issues, they are very concerned and have a sense of substitution. So, in the end, no matter how severe the crisis is, it is best for the protagonist to get through it, lest the audience feels cruel. And how to get through? One is naturally the support of the family. The other is to solve this problem with unrealistic good rewards for good people: the audience must have room to dream; life is so miserable, so TV dramas should stop adding to it.
TV shows are made for people to watch. Is Playboy empty and lonely? Are good people rewarded? Can the crisis people encounter be resolved? Why should you care about those things? It's enough to make people believe that it's true.
The so-called golden rule is to bring all these problems together in one person: he must have a family, psychological issues have contributed to his mid-life crisis, plus the good and evil retribution of the protagonist's friends and opponents and made it into a TV show.
But now, Levi wants to take it apart.
"Several main characters, each responsible for different tasks. The male protagonist is in charge of mental illness. This role needs to be older, so it is perfect for undertaking the task of midlife crisis. And his assistant, I suggest setting the character as a woman. This can better focus on the family. It is easier for a woman to take care of the family to be recognized by the audience. Then, among the several agents under the two, one person must be in the team for a longer time. For such a person, there should be all kinds of entanglements, finding awkwardness at work; in short, let people see that hard work can overcome troubles at work. The other one is a young person who has just entered the work, letting people see a person's progress in growth. These few people shoulder all the main things everyone wants to write, and each is responsible for a part. Then, there will be a gag plus chicken soup for the soul and a jerk police detective who will make trouble for them; that's basically it. The villain on the criminal side, which we can shape later because there's more flexibility in that."
Levi scribbled briskly on the paper, writing all his ideas. Concentrating all the highlights on one person can certainly increase a person's role and charm, but doing so may also cause the plot to lean too much on a specific person and cause the structure of the whole drama to become out of control. In many American dramas, all leading actors are paid ridiculously high salaries after reaching the later seasons. This is the result of this kind of loss of control. Moreover, with such shaping, the characters are too similar. Every protagonist has psychological problems, family disputes, and all-around work. It is also easy to make the audience feel aesthetically tired-the inevitable prerequisite for becoming the protagonist of a TV series must have a tragic background.
"Finally, for the character of the team leader, I suggest using a perfectionist character. The advantage is that it can deepen the plot. Moreover, leadership talent can be distributed to female characters so that female characters will not be irrelevant." Finally, Levi also proposed the idea of the protagonist: In his memory, there are three different bosses in the three CSI series. However, Levi believes that the protagonist of the LV chapter can best reflect the difference.
It's time for a change in Hollywood. The Pay-TV stations are generally more sophisticated in production, larger in scale, and better in actors. With the increase of Pay-TV stations, the public TV stations have only begun to change into the model of team-type characters with academic-style protagonists. Rich Pay stations fight for production fees, while public stations without money can only fight for storylines. They can squeeze out the market by relying on further storylines. It's just that Levi gave these things in advance. Others have no pressure and don't want to make progress, but Levi is full of anxiety.
"However, this does not conform to the Bruckheimer model." Bob was still a little worried.
Bruckheimer is one of the top producers in Hollywood, and since the 70s, he has been a leading figure in Hollywood. There are many legends about him, including Bruckheimer's characteristics in film shooting and Bruckheimer's mode in TV drama production. This mode appeared for the protagonist of the traditional high-level encyclopedia. Before him, the protagonists of most TV dramas preferred to create all-around characters, but his pioneering work was to develop a new hero mode. The protagonist always has some charismatic aura; still, he can get closer to human beings and make people like him more.
In the 1970s, people were unsatisfied with the protagonist's omnipotence. At that time, the hero mode of the protagonist was born, which solved this problem and made Bruckheimer an immediate success. And in the 1990s, people were not particularly keen on the heroic model anymore—almost all the protagonists of TV dramas were like this, and people naturally rebelled against it. When many people have regarded the valiant hero as the golden rule, new things should emerge as the times require.
When others can already play the hero mode well, there is no need to keep this mode. The first one to create anything new is a genius; the one who has been using it for twenty years and still doesn't give up is a fool. What others don't have, I have; what others have, I have - this is the law of business. Many people consider the Hero model a treasure and strictly follow it, but in Levi's view, it is already outdated.
"Heroes... it's really interesting, but let's not think about it now." Levi smiled, "Since I'm filming a TV series, let's make a Levi model—with our own model, what kind of successful producer will I become?"
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