TV series "Fences: Women and Dogs"
When I was a student at the Beijing Film Academy, our mentor, Professor Wang Di, a graduate of the Moscow Film Academy, often put a sentence on his lips: "Literature is the mother of film and television dramas." "He burned this idea deeply into our minds. After graduation, in the long practice of artistic creation and art appreciation, I have gained a clearer and more profound understanding of the blood relationship between literature and film and television dramas. Later, I summed up a few words myself: "Screenwriters without theoretical support are not far away, directors without literary support are not far away, and actors without cultural support are not far away." "I think, in a sense, it can even be said that literature is the "wand" in the hands of screenwriters and directors. With this "wand", you can turn stones into gold and turn decay into magic; without this "wand", it is very likely that you will turn gold into earth and turn magic into decay.
When I was the deputy director in charge of literary and artistic creation in Changying, starting from the purpose of further improving the quality of our own film creation, I organized some screenwriters and directors to observe, analyze and study the works of director Zhang Yimou very seriously. As the leader of the "fifth generation of directors", Zhang Yimou's intelligence and talent are recognized. Because he is a photographer, the beauty of his images, the uniqueness of color and light, the strong visual impact, and the many imaginative and creative classic passages and colorful chapters are very commendable. However, after careful analysis, his works can be roughly divided into two different situations: one part is based on excellent writers and works, such as "Red Sorghum", "Ju Dou", "Big Red Lantern Hanging High", "Qiu Ju Fights lawsuits", etc. Because there are excellent writers such as Mo Yan, Liu Heng, Su Tong, Chen Yuanbin standing behind him, there are influential novels such as "Red Sorghum", "Fuxi Fuxi", "Wives and Concubines in Groups", "Ten Thousand Family Lawsuits" and so on, so most of the films are solid and thick, with high aesthetic character and profound humanistic connotations. It is often refreshing, and even blue-eyed foreigners have to look at Chinese movies. Almost all of his more successful works are married to literature. But some of his other works, such as "Code Name Jaguar", "Three Guns Shooting Surprise", "There is Something to Say", "Happy Time", including "Ten Faces Ambush", "Golden Armor in the City", etc., most of them lack "literary shoulders", or although there are "literary shoulders", they are relatively immature, so in the narrative, in the writing of people, in the expression of ideas, there are more or less unsatisfactory places, and even in the "Ten Faces Ambush" that shows the life of the Tang Dynasty, there are also common sense errors such as the "Wukou" that only existed in the Ming Dynasty. For this reason, it has been severely criticized by colleagues in the literary and film and television circles. Through careful observation, analysis, and research, we have drawn the following conclusion: even a director like Zhang Yimou, who is very intelligent and talented and very familiar with the lens and picture, leaves the "magic wand" of literature, and the cognitive value and aesthetic value of his works will be greatly reduced. Therefore, I myself and my screenwriter and director friends around me fully realize that in the creation of film and television dramas, we must always hold the "magic wand" of literature, only in this way can our works truly achieve the harmonious unity of "viewability" and "evaluatibility", and have a relatively permanent aesthetic charm and artistic vitality.
In the practice of artistic creation and artistic appreciation, I have deeply realized that the concentration of film and television drama works Chinese and the depth of writers' involvement in the creation of film and television dramas can determine the height of film and television drama creation to a considerable extent. Changying Xiaobailou can be said to be famous in the Chinese film industry. What does The Little White Building do? It is the location of the editor-in-chief of Changying, the place where foreign writers are invited to create and revise scripts, and it is also an art salon where writers and editors, writers and directors interact with each other. In the course of its own development, Changying had two peak periods of artistic creation: the 50s-60s and 1980s. These two peak periods of artistic creation have a common very eye-catching landscape and significant sign, that is, the Xiaobailou is always full of three generations of writers from all over the country. Not only please come in, but also go out. The editor-in-chief of Changying once had more than 40 professional literary editors, which were divided into northeast group, northwest group, Jiangnan group, southeast group and southwest group. At that time, as long as there were writers, there were long-shadow editors running around, and almost all important literary journal editorial departments had the footprints of long-shadow editors frequently visiting. Often, the writer's new work has just been arranged, and the lead characters of the novel have been placed on the desk of the leader of the long shadow. Many writers have become excellent playwrights themselves after being invited into the Long Shadow XiaobaiLou, and even those who do not personally participate in the creation of the script, their novels provide vivid stories, rich details, vivid characters and a large number of dialogue extracted from life for future films. Many of the popular works of Changying that have had an important impact at home and abroad have been created in this way. It is no exaggeration to say that the "magic wand" of literature is the "secret weapon" that the long shadow constantly makes good films. Unfortunately, the vast majority of film studios in our country have now dissolved the Literature Department, showing indifference and alienation from literature. This is the "high box office, low reputation" of many films, which only act on people's senses, but it is difficult to reach the crux of people's hearts. In fact, not only those who are engaged in script creation, but also film and television drama creators in all departments, including our directors, actors, photographers, artists, and composers, should accumulate thick and thin hair, so that they have a relatively deep literary literacy and literary foundation, and have as much as possible the delicate feelings of novelists and the feelings of poets, so that the choice of script, the understanding of the script, the revision of the script and the expression of the script will be very different.
Literature is the mother of film and television dramas, and writers, a creative group with their stomachs full of life, characters and stories, and with their own different ways of telling, are the most powerful force for lifting the pull-ups of film and television dramas. Now, the Tenth National Congress of the Chinese Writers Association is held, and there will certainly be many outstanding writers of the three generations of old, middle-aged and young writers. As a film and television drama creator, I sincerely congratulate the successful convening of the conference, and look forward to more outstanding writers joining the ranks of film and television drama creation, using their wisdom and works to give Chinese film and television dramas a stronger support, and jointly create a new and vigorous side of film and television dramas!