Pengpai News reporter Yang Qian
A round table, a few plates of snacks, a fragrant piece of lit up, a familiar opening song sounded, and a chat like a "night talk around the fire" began... Before I knew it, " Round Table " has reached its sixth season.
"Round Table" Season 6 Poster
Recalling the 2016 when "Round Table" was just aired, at that time, " Qiang Qiang Threesome " had not stopped broadcasting. For many people who love to listen to the Dou Wentao's chat bureau, "Round Table" is a shallow test of Dou Wentao's adaptation to the Internet trend. At that time, the number of Internet programs was increasing, and many online variety shows broke away from the shackles of tradition to get creative. If "Changqiang Threesomes" was a front row with sharp topics and tight time, "Round Table" with four people on a table is a slow and relaxed rear garden with a wider theme.
Now that six years have passed, "雅雅雅雅雅雅雅" has been suspended on September 12, 2017; the online variety show that once surprised may become a new generation of the genre that is full of fatigue, or has been forgotten; on the contrary, "Roundtable" has 12 episodes per season, maintaining high-level output and interesting chats, and even ratings are getting higher and higher, which is a "poetry and distant place" that allows people to temporarily withdraw from their impetuous life.
"Round Table" producer Linghu Lie is an "old Phoenix man". From "Round Table" to "Round Table", he has accompanied Dou Wentao and this team all the way to the present. Linghu Lie recalled that in 2016, Internet platforms emerged and programs of various types and durations can be watched at any time. "Quanqiang Threesomes" has always been a TV program, with episodes broadcasting every 5,000 episodes a day, and "quasi-live broadcast" recording. Each episode has advertisements for the opening and endings within half an hour. Everything is recorded on site in the studio, and there is generally no post-production editing. Dou Wentao described it as "scratch-headed and thick-sexed costumes."
Although he had been talking in that simple set for 20 years, Dou Wentao was not emptied at all, but was in better and better condition. "To a certain extent, "Qianqiang Threesomes" urged him to learn more, read books, and understand, but in fact it also enriched his experience in dealing with people. Dou Wentao's strength is increasing in the process of accumulation." After coming into contact with Youku, Linghu Lie's understanding of Dou Wentao, "It is not particularly stressful to do another conversation program." He also felt that in Phoenix TV for so many years, "Qianqiang Threesomes" has become a fixed pattern. After discussing with Dou Wentao and his team, they decided to take this step first and then talk to see if they can open a new door and touch the new world.
The good-looking "Round Table" is naturally inseparable from Dou Wentao's ability to be a host. Linghu Lie bluntly said that Dou Wentao is the most important "leader" of this program and the "author" himself. "Everyone in the team can fully feel Dou Wentao's control over the quality of this program."
Although "The Round Table" only adds one guest compared to "The Round Table", the difficulty is doubled. Linghu Lie explained that the three people sat together, and the triangular sitting method stabilized the aura, and one more person was added, "This aura dispersed in an instant." Second, when meeting guests, the chat areas and enthusiasm between guests are all things that the host should pay attention to in real time in the program. Dou Wentao's algorithm is that there are three lines connecting between three people, and there are six lines between four people, but the mediation difficulty is doubled. The original two guests were almost all old friends, but when it comes to "The Round Table", the repetition of the guests is not so high, so Dou Wentao has to rebalance.
"The Round Table" is naturally inseparable from the "Round Table".
was first recorded in June 2016, and was selected in a teahouse in Shenzhen. Because the table was not selected properly, Dou Wentao thought after watching the movie that the four of them seemed a little alienated and should be put together to appear closer, so these two episodes were invalid. I bought four or five small round tables before I decided to make it. From the initial diameter of 120cm to 110cm, I finally decided to use a round table with a diameter of 80cm. "In the eyes of others, what does these 10 cm and 20 cm have to do? But in the show, it really has something to do." In a four-person chat occasion, the intimacy of the four people represents the intimacy of the audience with the show.
Dou Wentao emphasized that all success comes from details.After the table was settled, he visited and asked the prestigious photography celebrity and director of the film industry for advice. After describing the lighting effect he wanted to Lu Le, Lu Le led his team and Dou Wentao to do several effect experiments before setting the tone of the picture. Moreover, between seasons, the lighting engineers were constantly trying to fine-tune the details of the facial lighting.
Even Dou Wentao repeatedly considered the air conditioner on the scene: Should the air conditioner blow directly on the guests? Will it be colder if you blow it? Will the smoke in the incense burner be a little swayed by the wind? If the wind does not blow on the guests, will you feel hot? What should be placed in the fruit plate on the table?
Linghu Lie said that if the production team holds a meeting, it will start at least five hours, and Dou Wentao will participate in the repeated discussion of every detail. Sometimes, the audience may seem like a fixed shot of shooting, but behind it, everyone has tried many times between moving and not moving.
Dou Wentao always emphasized to the production team that first of all, don’t think you are a producer or director, you should first treat yourself as an audience - how do you think of this guest? How do you view this topic? How do you look at the logic in the topic selection, these processes, the direction of these questions, these scenes, and these pictures?
"Are the table placed small tomatoes or peanuts? Light a small stick of incense stick. All these details are to make the chat guests feel comfortable." Linghu Lie sighed that Dou Wentao was absolutely controlling the details, and he was always called "Mr. Almost" by Dou Wentao.
In one of the episodes of "Round Table", Dou Wentao once said that the reason why he was able to make a program actually relies on the protection of many people, such as some problems that producers will help deal with and deal with. Linghu Lie said that Dou Wentao was too modest. No one could match Dou Wentao himself in terms of his efforts to the show. He calculated that Dou Wentao spent more than 100:1 on the time he spent on each episode of the program and filming. The outside world saw him as a host, but in fact, his longest working hours were spent on film editing. Sometimes at two or three in the morning, Dou Wentao even sent an opinion in the work group. At around 7 in the morning, he replied to messages in the group again, which is often in this state.
Although there have been many interviews and chat programs in the past two years, "Round Table" has not changed much. Zheng Yanfei, producer of Youku Culture Channel, said, "I don't want "Round Table" to make any subversive innovations. For example, I have not moved "Round Table" outdoors to do it. Just like an old restaurant that has been running for decades, old diners will come, and new customers can still taste the authentic old taste."
And Linghu Lie thinks that if you have to say what you did right, it is "idealization".
"Whether the program is good or not is a matter of opinion. I can only say that our program is done more ideally. First of all, it is very important to have a host like Dou Wentao. After all the guests sit at this table, he can make everyone feel relatively relaxed and comfortable. This ability is really not something that everyone has; coupled with his desperate struggle with content, he is an extremely serious and professional person. Second, I think the program team needs to be sincere. Over the years, we have never looked at the problem from netizens. We always watch side by side with netizens. What should we think about this matter? Do this with the most sincere service attitude. "
"Round Table" host Dou Wentao
[Dialogue]
" After learning constraints, we find freedom"
The Paper : How to set and select topics for each issue? Will you pay attention to some hot issues for young people, or should you take out what you want to talk about first?
Linghu Column: This is a big problem. Take "Changqiang Threesomes" as an example, because it is a relatively short program. Within 27 minutes, you can start chatting about an event and then "off-topic and running", which is easy to control in terms of time. But The Roundtable is now beginning to enter a topic, not an event.
When we started working on "Round Table", we wanted to extend from the usual ideas and do the most familiar things. For example, the first episode talks about master and apprentice, talks about some debates at that time, and then extends from this news topic to talk about a social phenomenon.
When I transitioned from "鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘鑘� But in the past two years, we think that today's audiences also want to gain some new knowledge, such as life science, geography , and astronomy. Of course, the transformation is a gradual process, which does not change from chatting with old friends to imparting knowledge in a flash. We are also trying, and we don’t know which direction is absolutely correct or absolutely incorrect.
Although netizens are young netizens now, we think that elderly netizens are also very important, and young netizens can also attract friends. We are also in the process of learning. How to choose a topic and how to determine the guests is a very complicated process.
Then see which guests are, whether they happen to be our friends, if they don’t, they have to make a list. Every season has to make a list of hundreds of guests, and see their time. In fact, "The Roundtable" does not have a particularly sophisticated and processed process of finding topics and guests.
Aesthetic theme
The Paper: So many questions, what is the reason for your screening?
Linghu Lie: Although some topics are highly concerned about, they are not easy to discuss. We who do programs are also afraid of public opinion and work needs affirmation, but we are also afraid of causing particularly big debates and will be difficult to deal with in the end. Don’t mislead others and mislead some social topics, or we have not found the most appropriate guests in this field.
The Paper: Is it difficult to control the sensitivity of the topic and the scale of the conversation?
Linghu Le: Every person who makes a program will balance the scale, but this is not the most important issue for us who make a program. Isn’t there a platform and review department? As content creators, let’s not close the door for ourselves, unless it is something particularly extreme and some questions that are unknown. Let’s move forward first, and then listen to the opinions of all parties when we reach a certain point, and then make corrections. Brother Tao said in the show, "If you learn to restrain, you will find freedom."
When setting up the topic in the early stage, we are not very good at doing some topics that may be controversial in public opinion. It is something that everyone can understand and not touch, and we generally don’t do it. Generally speaking, we don’t lock ourselves in a relatively cramped environment to think about problems at the beginning.
The Paper: How to balance trendy topics that attract young netizens and leave behind cultural topics that old audiences like?
Linghu Lie: Brother Tao is actually a very open person. He often says in private that he is not so persistent about topics and guests, and old audiences do not love culture, and young people do not love culture.
I think "Roundtable" has done a good job on this issue. It is actually hard to say whether it is young or not. I am in my forties, and I don’t think I am old either. I don’t think young netizens refer to those in their teens and twenties. Today, the range of young people is still very wide in today’s society. When we were talking about topics, we never said which topics were liked by teenagers and which ones were liked by 20 to 35 years old. We will see what issues that everyone is more concerned about on the Internet. At the same time, even if you know what netizens care about, you cannot immediately cater to the topics they particularly want to hear. We will definitely care about their concerns, but we will not cater to them. Even if we may say something that some people don’t like to listen to, we are sincere because we think that if everyone cares about this issue, we should do some homework to share.
Sleep Theme
Don't "design homework" for guests
Pengpai News: Does have no topic settings at all?
Linghu Lie: Anyway, "Round Table" has not had any in advance reminder with the guests. At least the four people on that table are sincere and have never sent a message saying, "Teacher Zhang, you are here to talk about these points, Teacher Wang, you have never come to us for a conversation, and we will never tell the guests what points should we talk about. What Brother Tao said most often to the guests in the past recording is: Today's so-called topic is just an introduction, without preset topics, don't be kidnapped by the so-called topic, just follow your feelings and say whatever you are interested in.
We did not give a guest homework in advance, and this kind of thing has not happened once in the past six seasons. This shows that Dou Wentao is really strong in terms of business ability, and it cannot be called control. I think it is a strong bonding ability. His always-on view is that chatting will not stop.
His adhesion in the middle allows everyone to walk in a relatively relaxed and aimless chat venue. From a certain perspective, this ability is related to his own homework and is consciously accumulated in daily life.
For example, he once did another program, an interview, and a week before the program, he listened to all the CDs of the guest, read all the books he wrote, or people wrote his books, and I just called him and listened to the background music, all the songs of the guest. So, don’t look at the words that just make a big difference on the court. It is possible that he has done his homework for one week behind the scenes for one or two words. The information for each episode can reach hundreds of pages. He just read it at home, sometimes he will take notes and then take it to the scene. He told me that this is a belief, and all the information is in his mind, but chatting is natural. It is better to be unprepared if you are not prepared, but the main reason is that you are not prepared for fear of retribution. His request to us was to finalize the guests 15 days in advance and prepare all the information 10 days in advance. He wanted to digest all the content of this episode within these 10 days.
The Paper: just talked about different fields, such as doing quantum mechanics , what are the requirements for preparing data?
Linghu Le: This may be a problem that every host has to face, but I think it is mainly because Wen Tao is a person with a strong curiosity in his life. He often reads these books in the sixth season. Wentao is one who doesn’t pretend, but doesn’t understand, but doesn’t understand; the other is one who pretends, even if you understand, you can’t understand. He said that if the host doesn’t understand, he won’t ask; if the hosts understand, what are the guests doing?
One of his main tasks is to make these three guests feel comfortable. This habit has been integrated into his blood. As for whether he needs to express his profound views or precise insights on quantum mechanics in this matter, he does not need it. The quantum mechanics that everyone is concerned about in society are some states in this field, rather than really talking about scientific formulas. The problem of
will be more obvious in the post-editing editing, that is, how to grasp the problem that gives the audience a feeling, and the depth of the field.
From the early stages of "Clang Qiang Threesome" to "Round Table" and then to now, it has been getting longer and longer. "Qianqiang Threesomes" is a live broadcast as much as possible, with a 27-minute program and a 30-minute video. "Round Table" started with a 60-minute program, and it may be recorded in 90 minutes. But now, we may be involved in some relatively professional fields. We define it as a relatively niche field. We must take into account the audience's habits. If it is too vertical and too niche, we don't understand it ourselves, so don't let more netizens not understand it. We will consider cutting some more deeply discussed content. What's more, sometimes the program can be recorded for about two and a half hours.
Brother Tao often says that the audience is much smarter than us now.For example, in this issue of Astronomy, Teacher Zhu Jin and Teacher Deng Licai, Teacher Deng is our old friend. He has also been a guest in "Qianqiang Xingtian". Everyone likes Teacher Deng very much. We think that it seems that many people like astronomy.
To give an example, the question of "how gravitational waves are discovered" I think this is too vertical, so it should be cut off, otherwise everyone will find it boring, and at this time, it can only be voted in the group, so Brother Tao gave a group name called "Photo Review Jury". We cannot find a physicist to say, "Do you see this content too deeply? Should you say it?" This is all a very individual view. We don't do things that we think are self-righteous, but try to present the audience what we think is more interesting. As for whether the audience likes it, there must be some feedback. Then we will understand whether these attempts are OK.
Astronomical Theme
Maybe every comment read
Pengpai News: Do you attach great importance to barrage comments or online discussions?
Linghu Column: attaches great importance to it. I even think that Brother Tao can read every barrage comment and the short comments on Douban . The staff may not be as careful as him, and he often posts in our group - you see what netizens mentioned, do you think there is any reason? We said at the beginning why I didn’t see this one. When we saw that it had turned over hundreds of pages, we all thought that you were so hardworking...
and this year’s Spring Festival extra chapter. A netizen said that the lip and voice were two or three frames apart. He (Dou Wentao) said that I read it, and it seemed to be true. We have verified for several days, which is a problem with the PAD and mobile phones, not a problem with the film, and it is difficult for the naked eye to see it. After Brother Tao said that, we changed it overnight. He paid too much attention to netizens in this matter. He would read almost what netizens said in his mind.
The Paper: The issue of inviting celebrities to "Round Table" has been discussed before. Some viewers believe that the tone of celebrities and "Round Table" does not match the tone and cannot explain it. It is a waste of time. Have you ever thought about it?
Zheng Yanfei: is more obvious in the fourth season, and there were many hot comments at that time. Brother Tao pointed us at that time, that we can invite celebrities, but we must be very restrained. In fact, everyone can see that in the past six seasons, the stars who can name the name are first of all very awesome. Secondly, we have also digged to the ground to what extent they can say. We cannot say it is a matter of level. They act or sing, which is completely different. We also have very exciting chapters, such as the issue of Jiang Wen and , which was very well explained.
. First of all, we must be suitable. We have done some reviews internally. We have found that celebrities come and we must restrain ourselves. Don’t record so many episodes at once. Choose a suitable topic, or you must repeatedly think about whether this celebrity can come. Don’t easily go to the next conclusion. Of course, on the other hand, there will definitely be great benefits for celebrities to come to us. It will help us attract new things and let more people see it. This is a mission of doing cultural content. We are definitely not a program that is aimed at traffic, but we can’t completely ignore traffic. Just like we have already been quite restrained in inserting advertisements, but without advertisements, there will be no programs, so the key is proportion, measure and selection of people.
"Round Table" has never been an exclusive interview with a celebrity or an announcement program. We will be very cautious in the future, evaluate first and then make judgments. But how to say it, celebrities are also a kind of social identity, and it is understandable that guests pay attention to this area. Whether you ask for a request or not is not a matter of principle. Sometimes it may be a matter of luck.
talk show theme
Find some friends in professional fields is a new idea
Pengpai News: Have you encountered any situation where the program team doesn’t know how to continue, how to make progress, and how to find new topics? It is very difficult for conversation programs to continue to attract people in one mode.
Linghu Le: Our biggest confusion is that in the early stages of the first two seasons, everyone was thinking whether old friends would be together or more new guests would be invited to provide new knowledge. From last year to this year, we will be more hesitant on this issue, which is the last issue to come to the conclusion.
finally found that netizens also hope to have some new friends, especially some professional friends, and tell you about some new areas that may not be so paying attention to in daily life.
Zheng Yanfei: For example, what we just mentioned, taking this direction of popular science is also due to the two big hits we made in Teacher Yin Ye last year. We were also inspired by this and opened a new road. We may think that it is a bit too much to talk about humanities and social sciences, and Yin Ye’s attempts in these two issues were particularly good and shining. This is a new round of small-step iteration of innovation for us, opening up the circle of popular science.
The Paper: Now everyone listens to podcast . How can we differentiate it from podcast audio content products? What are the advantages?
LinghuLian: We can think about it ourselves, so we can be careful with every detail. Videos are not TV series, and you are not variety shows. How can every audience feel their kindness, their sincerity from the status of the guests on this screen, and enjoy the feeling of the four of them talking around the fire at night?
Whether in terms of form or the mood of post-recording, only the atmosphere is impossible to replace.
How did gravitational waves come about? You may understand it by using audio, so I learned a knowledge point, but if you are in "The Round Table", you will see Teachers Deng Licai and Teacher Zhu Jin telling it in such vivid language, as well as movements and body language. You will feel comfortable after listening to them, and at the same time, you will also feel intimate and sincere.
In fact, for a program that can implement personal style and attention to every detail in front of the stage and behind the scenes, differentiation is inevitable. Just like you can't find two identical people, their personal creation and expression are the fundamental reasons for the differentiation.
Zheng Yanfei: As the topic density of "Round Table" becomes increasingly large and the content information becomes increasingly large, we have a lot of supplementary information, such as some information, or insert some pictures. It is very useful and serves your main program. "Round Table" is a program with very high in long-tail effect. Everyone will watch it repeatedly. We have such a tracking in the background. We found that "Round Table" will not be ignored in the previous season just because it reached its sixth season.
This issue is edited by Zou Shan
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