Daily work, life records, talent show, gourmet food and broadcasting...
Their stories are in their own lens
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Since the media era, everyone is a vlogger, and the migrant worker group is no exception.
Site introduction, life records, talent show, gourmet food and entertainment... It may be just a mobile phone, but the simple shooting content has the most sincere and touching smoke. When they point the camera at themselves, how will they tell their own stories?
"Hello everyone, I went to work again today. I ate an egg in the morning and rushed to the construction site." After the weather passed, the crane driver Chen Jie finally waited until the day when the work was restarted. He habitually took out his mobile phone and used it. The footage records the daily life of the construction site and makes videos and uploads them to major video platforms, where there are more than 200,000 fans waiting for him to update.
The reporter learned from interviews that the increasingly open self-media creative environment has attracted more migrant workers like Chen Jie to join the creators, using the lens to tell their own stories.
From bystander to creator
Chen Jie, from Huaying City, Guang'an, Sichuan, is 26 years old. He is an "old driver" of tower cranes with 10 years of service, but he has been engaged in self-media creation for less than two years.
From the second half of 2018 to 2019, major video platforms have launched various plans to encourage self-media creators to publish vlog (video network log) works, attracting a large number of netizens to watch, and Chen Jie is one of them.
Due to the irregular working hours for tower cranes, Chen Jie, who occasionally rests at home, also began to study the starting video and decided to try it himself.
"There are a few particularly popular creators who will explain how to make videos and how to get profits, which gave me a lot of motivation as a novice at the time." Chen Jie told reporters that at the beginning, many people around him questioned how to make videos, not to mention. Dare to shoot in front of relatives and friends, for fear that others will look at yourself with strange eyes, and then slowly let go of courage.
Chen Jie began to use his mobile phone to record life on the construction site, as well as details of life with his family, and interesting events around him.
As the shooting got better, Chen Jie also saw the actual results brought by the video creation.
"In the beginning, the number of views of the video was only tens or hundreds, and then it gradually increased to several thousand. Every day, you can see tangible benefits. It doesn't matter if you have more money or less, but it shows that this is not a lie."
For the generation of Hui of the 80s, the video creator that impressed him is the group of "backhouse boys" that once hit the whole network.
"It feels that ordinary people can also show themselves through the Internet, so that more people can see him. At that time, I wanted to try it myself, but there were no conditions." Dai Hui comes from Zhumadian City, Henan Province, which is known as the "waterproof and moisture-proof town in China". Gaoyangdian Town, himself has officially entered the construction industry since 2010, becoming a waterproofing worker.
Setting up a family, giving birth to a child, buying a house and decorating...Life pressure makes Dai Hui continue to work on construction sites.
Until May 2019, he saw the explosion of self-media creation in China, and he began to try to shoot some daily work.
"The Internet and smart phones are gradually popularizing, and the conditions and environment for video creation are better. The platform will also have online training including content guidance, topic selection, and cover." Since then, Daihui has never stopped. With video submissions, he has slowly grown into a video creator with nearly 280,000 fans.
From love, loyal to persistence
In Dai Hui's view, for migrant workers with limited shooting conditions and equipment, video creation requires not only platform support and the interest of creators, but also the persistence of creators.
“Actually, when I first made the video, I didn’t dare to appear in person and felt very nervous.” Dai Hui said, it was the encouragement and concern sent by fans that made him decide to stick to it. Recognition is a very happy thing."
The strangeness of the camera also made Chen Jie make a lot of jokes.
"At first, I didn't know how to shoot. I kept looking at myself on the screen. Later I knew I had to stare at the camera." Apart from overcoming the nervousness of facing the camera, Chen Jie felt tricky as well as video editing.
With only a junior high school education, he doesn't have any shooting experience, and there is no one around him to ask for advice.
For this reason, he began to find instructional videos on the Internet, constantly practicing shooting and editing skills, and the video content also changed from a single speech to the camera, gradually adding more pictures and elements.
Nowadays, his equipment is more abundant. There are not only mobile phones suitable for shooting at hand, but also card cameras, sports cameras suitable for shooting on construction sites, as well as drones, microphones, and tripods.
Chen Jiangshan, a 23-year-old construction site guy, is more natural when facing the camera.
In March last year, he quickly became popular with a video of playing the guzheng in work clothes and was reported by various media.
After the heat, he returned to the Qingdao construction site to work steadily, only to update the video more diligently on the Internet.
"I now only rely on a mobile phone to complete the creation, but I will pay more attention to the content than before."
In addition to young creators, there are migrant workers in their 50s like "Brother Chuan" He Chuan.
With the support of his eldest son He Songlin, He Chuan began to engage in video creation in 2019, and has a reasonable division of labor with his son: He is responsible for taking tripods and cameras to the construction site to shoot every day, and the editing, subtitles and other tasks are entrusted to He Songlin. Finish.
He Chuan said frankly: "It was not easy to shoot. It took half a year to dare to look directly at the camera. At the beginning, I didn't have any expressions. I just rely on hard work day by day to persevere and hardly rely on time to polish it."
He Chuan, who has accumulated two years of filming experience, also has his own ideas in content planning.
On July 1 of this year, He Songlin suggested that He Chuan should add content celebrating the centenary of the founding of the party when shooting. When he got the material, he found that his father had brought him more "surprise."
"He found 21 workers on the construction site, recorded the cheering video together, and unified actions. I really didn't expect it." He Songlin believes that this is due to his father's own love of video shooting and his always optimistic and positive attitude. Attitude to life.
Let more people know about migrant workers
He Songlin told reporters that many fans left messages saying that "Brother Chuan" is in a good state of mind and gave everyone a lot of courage to face the difficulties in life.
He also mentioned that if there is no video, a father who is in his 50s and has no culture will not have the opportunity to try new things, let alone know so many fans and friends, "this is actually a process of mutual promotion."
In Dai Hui’s view, “No one shot the subject of construction sites before. I just used my little influence to bring everyone to know and understand the group of migrant workers.” His only equipment was purchased with creative proceeds. A mobile phone worth 2,000 yuan, due to the frequent replacement of the construction site, the video content can only simply record what you do and what you eat every day.
But it is these real contents that have been loved by fans.
"There are still many people who leave messages that their parents are also migrant workers. Watching the video, they realize that it is not easy for their parents. It resonates well."
Dai Hui's number one fan is his wife and children in his hometown.
"My wife will give me a thumbs-up for each issue of the video, and the children can watch the video anytime and anywhere if they miss their dad." For himself, being busy with shooting and editing every day also makes the life on the construction site more fulfilling.
In this regard, Chen Jie also feels the same: “In the past, taking a break was playing games and watching videos, but now it’s all day long to figure out how to make a good video of oneself and learn to make better-looking content.” The daily work of the crane driver has attracted many peer comments. Check in to remind him to pay more attention to safety during operation, and also provide a window for netizens who do not understand the profession.
At the same time, he hopes to do something for his hometown through his video, so that everyone can see the changes in the countryside.
Chen Jiangshan feels that as a migrant worker self-media creator, he also has more responsibilities: "There are not many young people on the construction site now, but people must do a job and love a job, and migrant workers can also have their own. Hobbies." Although he has experienced popularity, Chen Jiangshan believes that he still has a lot to learn and grow, and hopes to bring more positive effects to everyone.
Reporter: Liu Xiaoyan