The author | Gu Han
Editor| Li Chunhui
The much-watched "Knife Line in the Snow" has finally begun, should it be said to be unexpected or not unexpected? The response was quite polarized. After a whole year of audience lamentation about the downgrading of costumes, the "PPT play" at the beginning of "In the Snow" is no less than the Martian child floating towards the straw pile, which once again ignites public opinion.
Today's netizens criticize a work, which is no longer a silly white sweetness of general firing, but can be performed, "filter", "mirror", story rhythm... The first word is the Word.
On the one hand, as the internet natives of the post-90s and post-00s, the number of films read far exceeds that of the previous generation, and the aesthetics have indeed improved. On the other hand, after the advent of the self-media era, film and television reviews have become popular, and self-media, true and false industry insiders, and rice circle KOLs have spared no effort to comment on the latest content, and invisibly popularize many true and false professional terms.
More importantly, the content payment model gives and fiercely emphasizes the consumer identity of an audience, and the IP adaptation boom and idol cultivation culture have cultivated a certain "Party A" mentality among the audience. Watch the film list and group news, read the long creative interview, track the Reuters during the shooting, pull the experience of the project participants, social accounts... A considerable number of veteran drama fans and fans have manipulated their own homes and perhaps their hearts for home in advance with this degree of "specialization".
In this case, it is difficult for the people behind the scenes not to attract much attention. If the screenwriter is the active "uprising" ("Screenwriter Uprising"), using social media to speak out, and set out to improve the situation of their own B B's "back pot man"; the directors are forced to "debut", occupying an increasingly critical position in the discussion of a play, and newcomers and big people do not want to escape.
You know what an empty mirror demon is
After the controversy caused by the premiere of "Knife Line in the Snow", director Song Xiaofei was turned over that night in an interview in August this year. Among them, "the first episode deliberately slowed down a bit... I want to cultivate a little patience to watch the drama", "make the action scenes more ethereal, a little freehand", "we use the film camera to shoot the whole time", etc., rather than responding to appeasement, it is more like adding fuel to the fire, pulling a lot of hatred.
Moreover, the most controversial thing at the beginning of the play is not the common plot magic change or the line reduction. It is the dark tone, the abuse of slow motion, etc., and the director is really to blame.
It is not difficult to find out from the Douban Filmmaker page that although Song Xiaofei is a senior photographer and has been nominated for the Golden Horse Award, he only began to work as a director in 2016 and is one of the co-directors of the film "Love Saint" produced by Xinli. "Knife In the Snow" is his first TV series work, and it is also his first independent directing (let's say, this decision is not a bit sloppy).
It's not uncommon to switch from other types of work to director, actors, screenwriters, cinematographers, martial arts instructors... There are some well-known cases. However, directors with cinematographer backgrounds may be the most concentrated and obvious in the group.
Content and form, the photographer is responsible for the latter more, after turning to directing, many people also maintain a certain formalistic pursuit. In this regard, the film can give enough space to play, the filming of period dramas and urban theme dramas can be reasonably suppressed, and it is most likely to lose control when encountering costume dramas.
Among the drama directors, the earliest to play a difference with "photography background, exquisite picture" may be Zhang Li, and it is definitely Cao Dun who sacrifices himself to reveal the other side of the loss of control for everyone.
This difference is not necessarily due to the level of ability of the two. When Zhang Li filmed "Towards the Republic" and "Daming Dynasty 1566", it was still the era of domestic drama pastoral pastoral, the TV general resolution was not high, the drama relied on more scripts and performances, and the image was the foil.
When Cao Dun filmed "The Tale of The Sea Muyun", the video website basically can choose the Blu-ray picture quality, and at the same time, when the hot money in the industry is surging, each family has made enough efforts to think of the entire "Oriental Power Tour" out, and handed over too much money to the director of the big IP costume drama to burn.
Thinking back to the beginning, the film flower of "The Tale of the Sea Muyun" was exposed, and any one of them was a piece of praise. The result is that the positive film is protracted and obscure, quite ugly. The show aired in November 2017, and the audience did not expect that the chocolate flavor of Xiang or Xiang flavor of chocolate, such a difficult choice will be encountered many times after that.
At the end of the year, the two big costumes of "Wind Rise Luoyang" and "Snow In the Knife Line" are opposed, and coincidentally, the directors of the two dramas are both photographers. Song Xiaofei's situation is more conventional, the pursuit of artistic conception, so that a little abuse of empty shots and upgrading, resulting in narrative delays, fighting is not smooth enough. On the contrary, xie Ze, the director of "Wind Rises in Luoyang", is too lively in audiovisual language and is suspected of showing off, which makes some viewers tired and tired.
Xie Ze has been in the industry for more than 20 years, and has cooperated with top domestic directors such as Feng Xiaogang, Zhang Yimou, and Zheng Xiaolong as a photographer. Since his transformation into a director in 2015, he has participated in directing "Great Prospects" and "Fu Shao", and this year, before "The Wind Rises in Luoyang", there was a "Jun Jiuling". This drama has left a lot of black history for the male protagonist Jin Han, and also made Xie Ze "famous in the first world war" in major forums, and won the evaluation of "shooting people ugly" and "aesthetics are not good".
The opposite is "East Palace" director Li Muge. After the broadcast of "Jun Jiuling", many netizens missed a series of beautiful shots of the heroine Peng Xiaoran in "East Palace".
Li Muge, who studied computer-related majors in encyclopedia display, but after "East Palace" and "Si Teng", it is recognized that the scenery is beautiful and the actress is more beautiful. It has provoked Xiaohua fans to lick the cake, which can be called Cui Junchao in the TV series director's world.
The label has two generations, and the type is segmented
Of course, when it comes to the director of the cinematography who has a stunning picture and tells a story and pulls his crotch, there is also a character who has to be mentioned, that is, Zhang Kaizhou, the director of "Qing Ping Le" and "Children of the Qiao Family".
The more special point of Zhang Kaizhu is that the general director can avoid lightning from the time when the goods are not right. But there are many people who love and hate Zhang Kaizhou and repeatedly watch his plays and are masochistic.
The reason is not him, four big words: "Noonday Sun".
Looking back at 2015, "The Pretender" and "Langya List" have been broadcast continuously, Hou Hongliang, Kong Sheng, etc. have just left the mountain shadow, and the new company founded by the noonday sun has become an Internet celebrity team, and the personnel association and operation mode have been pulled by fans and media, and the strengths and hidden worries are more transparent - in the end, they are all people.
Long is long, the team composition is relatively fixed, there is a layer of family and friend mentorship relationship between each other, eliminating a lot of communication and running-in, from the script to the film of less damage. Hidden worries are hidden worries, turning over the works of the noonday sun over the years, the only one who has never lost his hand is still Kong Sheng.
However, director Kong Sheng is now in Huajia and has been repeatedly called up by the main melody. Therefore, when will the "second generation of noon" such as Jian Chuan, Zhang Kaizhou, and Sun Molong grow up to be independent has become a concern of all walks of life in recent years.
Among them, Sun Molong's output is not high, and the genres of The subject matter of Jian Chuan's operation are relatively traditional. Zhang Kaizhu is the one with the most network IP and traffic stars, netizens are the most familiar, there are many controversies, and the casual search is a victim of true feelings.
In fact, not only the noonday sun, but now many production companies and brokerage companies with production business have some long-term cooperation, in the actual form or in the public opinion to form a brand binding relationship of the main creators.
Let's say the ancient puppet labels. In the early days, ancient puppets were mainly dominated by Hong Kong directors who went north, but in recent years, there have also been some post-80s mainland directors who have been "milked" by the explosion of production capacity.
For example, Yin Tao, the director of "Liu Li" and "Ancient Dust", currently has a certain degree of recognition and audience disk as the director of Xian Xia drama. Of the 12 works he signed as directors, at least 6 are Huanrui dramas.
In the eyes of netizens, the director is characterized by abuse, especially good at abusing the female protagonist, but can shoot the male actor very well. Can't help but wonder, this is the reason why he was selected by Huanrui, or is it a habit of long-term cooperation with Huanrui?
Similarly, Guo Hu, director of "Zhou Sheng As It Was". According to online information, he was born in 1986, studied under Hong Kong director Lin Yufen, and previously participated in many well-known IP dramas as executive director or co-director. Probably because of following Lin Yufen, it is obvious that There are more projects of Great Aim.
Some of the works (some of which are co-directed)
Netizens discussed that he has the shadow of the master in the emotional portrayal, which is delicate enough, but the emotional rendering of the key scenes is even worse. The red-clad falling tower at the end of "Zhou Sheng Is Like a Past" is a popular clip loved by short video users, but many netizens who watched the original film believe that there is still room for improvement.
This is to be lifted up, and there are those who cannot be lifted up, such as "Lady Hu Zhu" director Jinsha. The 88-year-old director is known as the "Jia Xing Royal Use", and has also filmed other Jia Xing self-made dramas such as "Dream Building Love" and "Thunder Warrior". There is no need for outsiders to scold, and it is probably the fans of Jiaxing artists who have the greatest opinion on her.
Spell Breakers
This year's domestic dramas are still chaotic and booed, but they are not completely without surprises. In addition to "Mountains and Seas", "The Age of Awakening" and "Meritorious Service", which bring together the main theme of the national team, there are also some dark horse dramas that rely on word of mouth, such as "Royal Gifts" and "Love is Delicious".
What the two have in common is not limited to the dark horse of word of mouth. Both are works that have made breakthroughs in the long-homogenized category (sweet pet dramas, female group portrait dramas), and the success of both dramas has also allowed their directors to break some prejudices or "spells".
The threshold of sweet pet dramas is extremely low, and it can also be filmed with the most vulgar online routines, and it can be sold high with the most blunt kisses and hugs, but it is not easy to shoot well and shoot high scores, but "Royal Gifts" has done it. It blends criminal investigation dramas and professional dramas on top of sweet pets, and because of this, the sweet pet part is not reduced to industrial saccharin, but lets the feelings grow secretly and play a more advanced ambiguity.
Even more interesting is the behind-the-scenes story. Director Lou Jian is born in 67 years, this is the first time to shoot a web drama, before the film is not a movie or a spy war. The detective part of this drama is very complete, and it should have a lot to do with the director's experience.
However, not all male directors have feelings when filming emotional scenes, and not all direct drama directors who shoot online dramas are dimensionality-reducing blows and "lower mortals" (netizens' rainbow farts to Lou Director). The reason why "Little Servants" can also work in this regard is because the two screenwriters are young people, and director Lou Jian has both directed and let it play, bringing new people and shooting good dramas.
Beijing News interview
"Love Is Delicious" is co-directed by Taiwanese directors Chen Zhengdao and Xu Zhaoren, and the other co-directed works of the two include the 2018 fantasy sweet pet drama "The First Love of Chitose Adult" and the 2020 female suspense drama "Skyscraper", both broadcast on Tencent Video, with a good reputation.
Film directors filming dramas are also a common topic, and this year alone has the big coffee directors Feng Xiaogang, Wang Xiaoshuai and the new director Ke Wenli. Chen Zhengdao's filming results are good, the texture is outstanding, and the rhythm is good. Taking "Skyscraper" as an example, this drama can be said to be intertwined with thrillers, and there is some cold humor from time to time, which will not make the audience in the same mood for too long, so it will not be tired of watching many episodes in one breath.
What is even more rare is that Chen Zhengdao may have really carefully considered these types of stories, and the audience wants to see something from them. Many female group portrait dramas will be filmed as women around men, and "Love is Delicious" is one of the few bold implementation of "iron sisters, flowing water men", and thus has been affirmed by the audience.
In fact, it is still that sentence, today, the audience does not need the director and screenwriter to be decathlon, perfect; nor does it really require everyone to erase their original value and be a tool person; but the audience really needs the creators to put down their bodies and shoot what to at least grasp and respect its core spirit.