The major revolutionary historical drama "Fragrant Mountain Leaf Zhenghong" with Sheng Heyu as the chief screenwriter will end on the evening of December 16 on CCTV. China's audiovisual big data shows that the show's ratings have ranked first in the country for three consecutive weeks, repeatedly reaching new highs. The drama was even more well received, especially attracting young audiences to follow the drama, triggering strong repercussions inside and outside the industry. Some viewers told reporters, "Walking into the historical scene, into the depths of history, into the fate of the characters, "Xiangshan Ye Zhenghong" uses the historical events that are 'happening' to make the history in the textbook come alive, and narrows the distance between the audience and the major revolutionary historical dramas. ”
Near the end, sheng heyu, the chief screenwriter of the play, was interviewed by the Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter and reviewed the creative process of the play. The poetic title of "Fragrant Mountain Leaf Zhenghong" is one of the rare "rushes out" of his artistic career. He said that "Fragrant Mountain Leaves Are Red" is a creative journey of "shouzheng innovation".
"Fragrant mountain leaves are red" rushed out
Purple Cow News: What is the origin or original intention of the script of "Fragrant Mountain Leaf Zhenghong"?
Sheng Heyu: I have seen such a historical document. On January 31, 1949, Peiping was peacefully liberated. On February 3, the People's Liberation Army held a grand entrance ceremony. Mao Zedong only made a simple request, the PLA team must pass through Dongjiaomin Lane! On February 3, when the mighty division of the People's Liberation Army, guided by the red flag, marched to the Qianmen Arrow Tower, it suddenly turned to the right and advanced into Dongjiaomin Lane. Suddenly, thousands of Beiping citizens watching the city enter the city on both sides burst into tears and emitted earth-shaking cheers... Looking at this information, I also burst into tears!
After washing away the century-old national shame, the Chinese people who stood up began to build a new era that truly belonged to themselves. This moment ignited my creative passion. Speaking of the original intention or main purpose of the creation of this play, if it is boiled down to one sentence, it is: "founding weather", showing the founding weather of the People's Republic of China!
Purple Cow News: What is the creative process of "Fragrant Mountain Leaves Zhenghong"? What are the biggest difficulties and challenges encountered?
Sheng Heyu: From having the initial idea, to providing materials, collecting style on the spot, and holding many forums, until the filming was completed, our play was carried out under the direct guidance and support of the Propaganda Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and the Beijing Municipal Radio, Film and Television Bureau, and also received great attention and attention from the Literature and Art Bureau of the Central Propaganda Department, the Television Drama Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, and CCTV. The screenwriting team led by me, Liu Hua (he is the main force of creation), Dong Wei, and Chen Yichao are all idealistic and down-to-earth confidants. Wu Hongliang, general manager of Tangde Film and Television, and Liu Fang, chief producer, have supported and enthusiastically participated in our entire creative activities. In particular, producers such as Zhejiang Radio and Television and Tencent Pictures have always fully respected the creative freedom of our creative team. I am deeply grateful for all this.
As for the biggest difficulty and challenge, that is, how to seek breakthrough innovation? I think this is not only the problem we encountered in creating this TV series, but also the problem faced by all major revolutionary historical themes and main theme works.
Purple Cow News: From the perspective of creation, what is the biggest artistic feature of "Fragrant Mountain Leaf Zhenghong"?
Sheng Heyu: The biggest artistic feature is shouzheng innovation. The so-called observance of righteousness means that we must maintain the political, serious, and authoritative nature of major revolutionary historical themes. And innovation, we have made three attempts:
Change the retrospective summary to the ongoing style: for example, when we write about the battle of crossing the river, the rise and fall of the river and the changes in the enemy situation are all happening, and the screenwriter should follow the development of the plot, not "confident". The change of the creator's perspective will make our narrative more realistic and vivid.
The title of "Fragrant Mountain Leaves Are Red" has been praised and loved by many friends, "the title is half a text". But when this topic arose, I rushed out without thinking, as if it had existed there for a long time, which was really an accidental phenomenon in my artistic creation career. This title gives this theme a poetic meaning, and "positive red" is the process, which can better present the founding weather of the country that is full of vigor and vigorous growth!
While laying out major events, highlight the emotions of the characters: our characters, whether they live in the height of the temple or are far away, should be expressed through emotion. Emotional performance does not necessarily have to have an emotional plot or scene, and the lines are also important. For example, in the first episode, Vice Chairman Zhou told Chairman Mao about the comparison of the strength of the enemy and us:
Zhou Enlai: "... The Kuomintang army fell from 4.3 million at the beginning of the war to 204 million, and including the navy and air force, the maximum number of army units that could be used for combat was only 1.46 million, and we already had five field armies, including Ichino and Erye, with more than 4 million people-----
Mao Zedong: "Once upon a time?" Star Shift Bucket Turn! Zhou Enlai: "The chairman is full of poetry again!" Mao Zedong: "It's just a bit of a sentiment, writing poetry, it's not time yet." You go on! Then, Zhou Enlai continued, "Our army has liberated most of the provinces north of the Yangtze River... It can be said that we have achieved half of the country. Mao Zedong: "Half of the country can't contain the Feelings of serving the country of the Chinese Communists, we must fight across the Yangtze River and liberate all of China!" These lines are not simple narratives, but contain strong emotional colors!
We are a work of macro narrative, but the more a macro narrative work, the more we have to pick up as many brilliant details as possible. For example, the details of Chairman Mao's letter to Liu Eryong, a guard soldier in this drama, make people move, warm, and even feel a touch of elegance.
Feelings are spring rains that make major historical themes warm
Purple Cow News: In addition to the great leaders represented by Mao Zedong, jiang Laiyang, the leader of the People's Liberation Army, Xiao Jingxian, a young cadre, Liu Eryong, a central guard, and other small characters in the play also have flesh and blood, which are particularly brilliant and are deeply loved by the audience. What kind of experience do you have in character shaping and writing characters?
Sheng Heyu: In terms of character building, I think every screenwriter has different experiences. For my part, I still emphasize that characters should be shaped through character. For example, when Mao Zedong mentioned the People's Liberation Army's Beiping-style request to enter the city, he said, my request is very simple, that is, the People's Liberation Army must pass through Dongjiaomin Lane! How infuriating is that? What a deep national sentiment this is? What kind of stirring national spirit is this? Who but Mao Zedong could say such a thing? This is through character, shaping the character.
Purple Cow News: This drama is multi-dimensional perspective and multi-line parallel in narrative, with both vast historical events and thrilling enemy struggles, both the strategic deployment of great people, the growth of small people, and the good story of cracking Huang Yanpei's "cycle rate" and resolving Liu Yazi's "complaints". How do you see this complex and chaotic multi-line narrative in the creation of major revolutionary historical themes?
Sheng Heyu: A major revolutionary historical theme TV series, in terms of narrative, must be multi-dimensional perspective, multi-line parallel. So, how can this narrative be complex and not chaotic? This is indeed a test of the screenwriter's skill. However, as long as we grasp the most important clue, other problems will be easy to deal with, which is also what we often call "the outline is clear". So, what is the main clue of this show? Entering Beijing—peace talks—crossing the river—economic construction (cities represented by Tianjin and Shanghai)—preparing and convening a cppcc meeting. This thread, which we call in screenwriting terminology, is "action through the line." Firmly grasping this action through the line to organize and promote the development of other clues (such as democrats, PLA commanders and fighters, ordinary people, enemy specials, etc.), will achieve the effect of complexity and chaos.
Purple Cow News: There are many "famous scenes" in the play that are emotional and impressive. For example, the separation and reunion of the guerrilla leader Zhang Shuhua's family; the mother of political commissar Wang Kaishan left a note and waited for her son to return every day under a big tree at the mouth of the village; Mao Zedong visited Liu Yazi and waited outside the door until Liu Yazi woke up from a nap. How did you incorporate these human, empathetic scenes into your grand history?
Sheng Heyu: Some of these "famous scenes" originally exist in real history, and we just excavated them and treated them with a little artistic treatment; some are screenwriters Liu Hua's artistic creations. I have always believed that feelings are spring rains, and it will make major historical themes warm.
Purple Cow News: "Fragrant Mountain Leaves Are Red" portrays some fictional characters such as Jiang Laiyang, Xiao Jingxian, Liu Eryong, Zhang Shuhua, Zhao Yutian, huang Amao and so on. What do you think is the necessity and subsidiarity of fictional characters in the creation of major revolutionary historical themes of authenticity?
Sheng Heyu: The appearance of fictional, small characters is something we decided at the beginning of our creation, and it is a very conscious action. Marxist-Leninist materialism holds that history is created by the masses of the people. So in such a major historical theme TV series as "Fragrant Mountain Leaves Are Red", how can there be no emergence of the masses of the people? And Jiang Laiyang, Xiao Jingxian, and Liu Eryong are the representatives of countless masses of the people who really existed in history. Their role is by no means merely auxiliary, they are also protagonists.
Purple Cow News: As a screenwriter, what do you think is the practical significance of this drama in the present?
Sheng Heyu: The theme of this drama is to present the vigorous founding weather and show the real course of our revolutionary ancestors to struggle and build for the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the happiness of the Chinese people. This will inspire us to never forget our original intentions in the new era, not to fail in our mission, and to strive for our nation, motherland and people for the rest of our lives.
Actually, I don't understand "ratings"
Purple Cow News: You, Liu Heping, Zhu Sujin and Jiang Qitao are known as the "Four Great Writers of Historical Dramas". How to let young people enter history and love to watch historical dramas? This is a hot issue of concern in the industry. From a creative point of view, how do you think it should make historical dramas "good-looking" and meaningful?
Sheng Heyu: Shame. In fact, there are many masters of writing historical dramas in our country, like Mr. Long Pingping and his "Age of Awakening", which I like quite a bit. How to let young people enter history and love to watch historical dramas, I think we should pay attention to it, there is no need to worry. The so-called historical dramas that are strange and chaotic or take the imperial power as the narrative axis have made our young audiences feel tired, and their perspective is shifting to historical dramas with real historical patterns, aesthetic values and cultural tastes, which is a gratifying reality.
As for how to make historical dramas "good-looking" and meaningful, my personal experience is that don't think about "ratings", which will only lead to the collective sinking of creators and audiences. The "ratings" of the TV series I created and participated in have always been very high, but I still can't understand and don't want to understand the word "ratings", which is not something that the screenwriter cares about and can influence.
Purple Cow News: As a national first-class screenwriter, you have created excellent works such as "Xiangshan Ye Zhenghong", "Qia Classmate Youth", "Blood Xiangxi", "Mao Zedong" and so on. In the current market context, what do you think are the difficulties and breakthroughs in the creation of major revolutionary historical themes?
Sheng Heyu: Yes, "Qia Classmate Boy" and "Blood Xiangxi" are two works that I have hosted and participated in, but the main screenwriter of these two works is my eldest disciple Huang Hui.
The difficulties and breakthroughs in major revolutionary historical themes are a big article and a big project. In the work "Xiangshan Ye Zhenghong", we have made some innovative breakthrough attempts, due to the great efforts of director Bartle, teacher Tang Guoqiang and all the cast and crew, the huge support of the producer and the platform, the always care of the leaders and experts, especially the enthusiastic encouragement of the audience, making its performance excellent, which is gratifying and exciting. But I know we haven't done enough, and there's still room to improve. Therefore, we are willing to listen carefully to the opinions of all sides and make a real contribution to the innovative breakthroughs in major revolutionary historical themes.
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News reporter Zhang Nan