Chapter 84 Ah Yi's articles

Guest views that cannot be designed ——From the Topic Design of TV Debate Program Text/Associate Professor A Yi, School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University Misunderstanding "topic design" as "designing ideas for guests", this is a well-known habit in the mainland TV production industry. It often offends the guests, but I am ignorant of it. The guests walk away in anger, and I feel extremely Aggrieved, and rumored to scold the guests for their uncooperative attitude is really hateful. Not long ago, I agreed to be a guest on a fashion column to discuss "Is excessively luxurious fashion a waste?"Before I could open my mouth to express my point of view, the director had already begun to arrange a position for me.In order to make the show better, she arranged for two guests, and at the same time arranged the opposing views of the two guests - one advocated that "fashion must be luxurious, and luxury is not a waste", and the other was me, who had to stand on the opposite side , thinking that "fashion is too luxurious, it becomes a waste" - also for the sake of the show, she also arranged for us to switch positions in the second half of the show, pretending to understand each other's reason.

This kind of topic design mode is commonplace, and it seems to be a sign of the serious work of the director. It has even been circulated in the market that "Tell the Truth" and "Art Life" not only finalized every sentence of the guests, but also the opinions of the audience. Arrange it well in advance, otherwise, the drama will never be possible. As the planner of these two major programs, A Yi told me: first, we never devise positions and viewpoints for guests and audiences; second, in teaching practice, A Yi always prohibits And vigorously criticized the imposition of the program group's views on the guests and audience, forcing people to perform, so I can't take the lead in breaking this rule.

The director was stunned, and muttered on the phone, what else should the director do. Ah Yi smiled and said that she could write an essay for this purpose and send it to you later. This is the reason for this short essay. In fact, to do a good job in talk shows, it is very important to understand the views of guests and special audiences in advance, almost a matter of lifeblood.Therefore, it takes a lot of time for the editor and director to search the speeches or texts of the guest on the Internet, find her/his relatives and friends to understand her/his position, and directly interview her/his views.In addition, stating a point of view doesn't look good on screen, so a series of vivid and attractive popular short stories should be attached to the point of view.Usually, the stories we get are complex and unsavory, and we need to screen and select the most concise and most effective ones.Sometimes, screening is more time-consuming than collecting, and we are always worried that what we discard may turn out to be good things.In the end, I had to reconsider the order of telling the few short stories that were left behind in pain, so as to achieve the best telling effect, and at the same time avoid letting the guest tell some embarrassing things at the beginning.Experience tells us that if the guests are unhappy, they will stop talking about what they would like to talk about. If they are happy, they will take the initiative to mention the issues that were originally agreed to be absolutely not involved.This surprise is often caused by deferring potentially embarrassing issues to the backcourt when planning in the early stage.And so on, etc., all need to be exhausted, and all need to be devoted to grinding by the director.And the only thing that doesn't need to be bothered by the director is to influence the guests' positions and opinions.

In a word, we only need to understand and verify the opinions of the guests.The quality of the program depends entirely on whether the guests can release their true positions, accompanied by a series of vivid and unique stories.If this is not the case, it is not a "guest interview", but a "guest acting", which can be done by professional actors.Regarding fashion, Ah Yi's consistent stance is, "Fashion itself is waste, luxury is even more waste, and both are abhorrent."If I express my own point of view, I will be superb and from the bottom of my heart.If I want to express another meaning, I have to lie, cover up in rehearsals, and not reveal falsehoods in performances. It is simply impossible.In addition, all the guests we are optimistic about must be expressers of certain types of issues in social life. Ignoring their original positions and forcing them to design opinions for others, this is a blasphemy against authority and its true speech.

My classmate Kong Qingdong, who became an academic authority at Peking University 10 years ago, was once a guest on a certain TV station and was forced to show the director’s point of view. The director also instructed other guests to deliberately object, otherwise the show would not end, and it was delayed for two hours.Dr. Kong said, "Wouldn't this be a bitch?" The director asked, "Who is the bitch?" and ordered the cameraman to hurry up and take pictures.Dr. Kong angrily scolded: "You are a bitch!" All the guests said that they were very happy.Why?Because you hurt the freedom of speech of experts!

The female choreographer who called me wanted to know how to create an atmosphere without affecting the views of the guests. Ah Yi told her that the real atmosphere is two people with naturally different views arguing about it, not two people who pretend to have different views trying to act.The real way for the editor and director is to find guests who have naturally different positions and are willing to sit and discuss together, use the topics you design, connect them together, and let them speak freely, quarrel or make peace. Which method looks better, you can check the ratings of the two types of programs, and you will know at a glance.

December 16, 2005 Tiantong Dongyuan, Changping District, Beijing