The author | Wang Banxian
Tonight, "Ebola Frontline", which tells the theme of "aiding Africa and fighting against Egypt", came to an end, and this ups and downs story ended on the screen.
Looking back at the beginning of the plot, a patient stepped into the China-Qatar Friendship Hospital to detonate the epidemic, and the audience, together with the Chinese doctors in the play, faced the horror of the Ebola virus as a fourth-level virus, and felt the optimism and positivity of the African people in the face of life.
At the same time, in the play, Zheng Shupeng, a doctor who aided Africa, went deep into the outbreak of the epidemic alone to track down the virus, and the details of the Chinese medical team wearing protective clothing to fight in the hot world also made the audience more deeply appreciate the difficulty and difficulty of the medical cause of aiding Africa, and empathize with the courage and love of the doctors who aided Africa.
On social platforms, the audience's evaluation of the series focused on words such as "tears", "shock" and "moving", which shows that "Ebola Frontline" has truly won the recognition of users with high-quality plot content.
Before "Ebola Frontline", "aiding Africa and resisting Egypt" was a rare theme in the field of film and television dramas, facing the basic difficulties in creation and production, as well as the risk of handling other details of aiding Africa, which was a difficult bone to gnaw. It is precisely because the subject matter is rare, this history is also a blind spot in the cognition of many audiences, with natural dramatic tension, which is worth writing for film and television people.
Therefore, while taking into account the popularity and watchability, "Ebola Frontline" combines the anti-Egyptian process with the local changing social environment with a two-line narrative, on the one hand, the Chinese medical team launched epidemic relief in Kabaria, on the other hand, the reporter investigated diamond smuggling into Sangyi Village, and then reported the progress of the Ebola epidemic to the world.
In the process of parallel two lines, the local customs and customs of Africa and the 60 years of hard work of the Chinese medical team to help Africa were woven into it, and finally at the key node before the peak of the epidemic, the two lines converged, bringing the dawn of Kabaria's fight against the Ebola epidemic. During the advancement of the plot, the real and unknown plot always leads the audience to continue to go deep into the story.
Only when the main theme works truly impress the audience can they play a silent educational and propaganda significance for society and users, and as "Ideals Illuminate China - The State Administration of Radio and Television Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China" theme works creation and broadcast repertoire" is also one of the key TV drama projects of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television in 2020, "Ebola Frontline" has done this.
At the same time, As the producer of the series, Tencent Video and the producer of the extraordinary and endless culture have taken the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of being a platform and a content exporter, so that more and more users can understand the history of "aiding Africa and resisting Egypt", as well as China's responsibility and contribution in the international community.
Now we'll refocus our perspective on how Ebola Front has conquered audiences creatively.
01 Restoration: Many years of preparation to reproduce the anti-Egyptian resistance
China-Africa friendship has a long history, and this year is already the 65th year of China-Africa diplomatic relations. But for most Chinese audiences, perhaps the deepest impression of Africa remains the vast forests and abundant wildlife.
In this context, the cause of aiding Africa and the Ebola epidemic are undoubtedly stranger to Chinese audiences, which puts forward higher requirements for the creation of "Ebola Frontline".
Because in the past, the content products around this theme were mostly documentaries and documentary literary works, with authenticity as the first priority, coupled with the audience's natural demand for such serious theme works, it was determined that the background color of "Ebola Frontline" must be "real", so the crew has made efforts for many years.
The most important restoration is in the main story line, the prototype of "Ebola Frontline" is the process of the Chinese medical team to aid Africa in 2014 to fight the Ebola virus, and the timeline of the plot basically follows the various nodes of the Epidemic in West Africa from the outbreak to the end, so that the audience can directly substitute into the history of that year.
Every re-creation of the Ebola outbreak in the play is based on real events that took place at the time. In the recently updated plot, Zheng Shupeng found that the hospital coordinator Timos still had Ebola virus in his eyes after curing Ebola, which was supported by the infection experience of Dr. Ian Crozier, an American doctor.
And the restoration in the play is not bluntly set in, but closely related to the development of the plot, when Zheng Shupeng found Timos's eye disease, he finally realized that in the early days of the outbreak, his African doctor friend Qasm's dying abnormality was a reminder of the "eye", which further highlighted The image of Qasm's doctor and the transnational friendship between the two.
In terms of specific details, "Ebola Front" has not been mentioned in a single stroke. Instead, it is a serious restoration of life scenes and professional medical scenes, and the Kabaria Market and Sangyi Village in the play are all built after the crew personally went to Africa to collect wind. The P3 and P4 laboratories that appear in the play, as well as the disinfection and treatment processes, are guided by professionals throughout the process.
At this point, "Ebola Frontline" has surpassed most of the same type of drama in China, so that the content is not wrong, and the audience does not play.
But the play does not stop there, but achieves a higher level of restoration, that is, a heads-up perspective on this period of history. In the past, many foreign blockbusters may have achieved the same production restoration, but often appeared as "rescuers".
While highlighting the dedication of Chinese doctors to Africa, "Ebola Frontline" does not ignore the efforts of the local people, restores the relationship of equal help and love between China and Africa in those years, and portrays the various measures taken by Kabalia to fight the epidemic in the play, and also portrays a heroic character, such as Dr. Qasim who was infected by the treatment of Ebola patients, Timos, the coordinator who has always fought in the frontline of the fight against the epidemic, and Manan, who became an anti-epidemic nurse who inherited his father's business...
The true restoration of "Ebola Frontline" constitutes a big premise, that is, to make the audience believe that this is a real story, and when the audience establishes a sense of trust in the story, it is possible to be attracted by the plot and immerse themselves step by step.
02 Ups and Downs: The Twists and Turns of the Two-Line Plot
High fever, convulsions, vomiting blood, in the first episode of the Sino-Qatar Friendship Hospital to receive 18-bed patients, the audience was popularized by the horrors of Ebola virus: a higher level of sars, a fourth-degree virus, a mortality rate of up to 90%, known as the life blackboard wipe.
But because the Ebola virus itself is transmitted through body fluid contact, the anti-Espresso process is not imagined every second in the water. Most of the time, medical personnel do heavy work in layers of protective clothing.
So out of the consideration of the fullness of the story, and the desire to present the whole picture of African history and style, "Ebola Front" uses a two-line narrative in the creation of the drama, which is very different from the way the medical genre drama relies on events to promote in the past.
In the two-line plot, on the one hand, the Chinese doctors' collective anti-Egyptian process, on the other hand, the reporter entered Sangyi Village for investigating diamond smuggling, and then began to report on the progress of the Ebola epidemic. The two lines advance together, bringing a stronger sense of dramatic tension and rhythm.
In the early part of the story, because the first 18-bed patient is from Sangyi Village, the origin of black diamonds, the complexity of the identity makes it particularly difficult to trace the virus, so that Zheng Shupeng enters the epidemic gathering place of Sangyi Village as a doctor and meets He Huan, a reporter who tracks down the diamond case, regardless of his safety.
Later in the story, because of the efforts made by Zheng Shupeng and He Huan to fight the epidemic in Sangyi Village, as well as the accumulation of Nearly 60 years of hard work by Chinese doctors aiding Africa, the anti-epidemic line and the diamond line converge, prompting reconciliation between kabaria's complex political forces and making the process of fighting the Ebola epidemic see the dawn of victory.
Because the two lines run parallel, adding more suspense and unknown colors to the story, the audience's mood is always affected by the thrilling tracking process of Zheng Shupeng and He Huan.
And it is precisely because of the two-line narrative that the camera can leave the hospital scene and further penetrate into the daily life of the kabariya people, and experience the customs and beliefs of the local people.
For example, in Sangyi Village, when Zheng Shupeng and He Huan successfully helped pregnant women give birth to children in danger, Sangyi villagers preferred to risk contracting the Ebola virus and perform a celebration ceremony for newborns, which had a shock to Zheng Shupeng, who has always been cautious, and also to the audience in front of the screen.
"In the eyes of the Kabaria people, death is not the end, but the beginning of another life." The ritual of locals kissing the dead and their attitude towards death make epidemic prevention and control particularly difficult, but in-depth plot can make the audience continue to understand the concepts of the kabaria people.
And these are all thanks to the two-line narrative method, the previous medical type drama unit form of the narrative method has brought a stimulating story, but "Ebola Frontline" can give the audience a layer of in-depth drama chasing experience.
The early anti-epidemic line began, shocking the danger of the fourth-level virus, and the medium-term diamond line brought challenges to African customs and complex situations, and after the convergence of the two lines, it was more difficult to appreciate the difficulty of Chinese doctors to provide assistance in this environment.
For episodic works, the plot and characters often complement each other, and in the process of double-line advancement, a personal character continues to appear, forming a group portrait of the doctors who aid Africa.
03 Moved: Chinese Doctor Ren Ai Group Portrait
"Doctors are human beings too."
During the broadcast of "Ebola Frontline", this sentence always appeared on the bullet screen of Tencent Video, almost from the first episode to the last episode. This is because the play does not create a "fearless hero" type of character, but depicts the Chinese doctors as real people.
It is people who have fear, especially in times of danger to their lives. In the African aid team, Xiao Yuan, a member of the testing team, was in a panic because after detecting the virus, he was cut through the protective gloves by the corrosive liquid of the handrail, and said to the captain the words "never participate in the test again".
However, after the fear, xiao Yuan, who was seriously thinking, still made a request to the captain to continue to participate in the test, and Xiao Yuan had tears in his eyes, both regret and trepidation, but still resolutely returned to the front line of anti-Egypt and paid for the life and health of the people of Kabalia.
"Ebola Frontline" does not avoid the doctor's fear moment, the play and Xiao Yuan, occasionally revealed that there are not many vulnerable doctors, such as Xie Yunhu, who self-isolated because he touched the railing of the Ebola patient's contact, and the nurse mosquito who was sprayed with blood by the patient, but the fear did not defeat them, but helped the medical staff to continuously improve their vigilance and better diagnose and treat services.
The way the characters who do not avoid human weaknesses make the doctors in "Ebola Frontline" not fall into the trap of "false big space", and gain the widest empathy from the audience.
In addition to the true presentation of human nature, "Ebola Frontline" also created a group portrait of Chinese doctors aiding Africa, showing the audience the story of each character.
Zheng Shupeng, as the male protagonist in the play, has been persevering in Kabalia for many years, has courage and wisdom, not only went to Sangyi Village alone to track down the virus, but also helped Kabalia establish a long-term tracing mechanism in the process of anti-Ethiopia, and jointly discovered with Qasm that the Ebola virus may be hidden in the eyes, making outstanding contributions to the anti-Egyptian war.
The story of He Dong has a deeper sense of inheritance and emotional concentration, because both grandfather and father have sacrificed in the land of Africa, resulting in He Dong's complex feelings for Africa, and he has always frowned at the beginning of his arrival in Kabalia, until he has cured Ebola patients, and the audience in the bullet screen sees "Dr. He finally smiled".
The rest of the characters also have flesh and blood, such as Captain Feng refused to accept the treatment because the hospital was not ready, but after deeply reproaching himself; Xie Yunhu refused Zheng Shupeng's overtime work for the physical fitness of the test team members, but worked alone in the testing room until he fainted; Xiujuan set a rule that the menstrual period must change shifts for her colleagues' infection in SARS many years ago.
In the process of group portrait shaping, the actors have contributed excellent acting skills, passing on the tension of every danger, the fear of life threat, and the selfless care for patients to users.
The line of "sometimes healing, often helping, always comforting" in the play is not only the words of the doctor who assists Africa to spur himself and encourage himself, but also allows the audience who chases the drama to continuously understand the concept of aiding african doctors to treat diseases and save people, which is beyond the love of skin color, race and class.
The most crucial point in the portrayal of doctors in "Ebola Frontline" is that the audience no longer watches the drama with the mentality of watching a story, but really achieves the deepest empathy for the non-medical group. In order to take the initiative to understand the history of "aiding Africa and resisting Egypt" and establish a more comprehensive understanding and cognition, this is the educational significance brought by this drama as a content product.
At this level, in order to better popularize the history of science to the audience, Tencent Video has set up a number of topics on the "Ebola Frontline" page: "Ebola Aid Online Report of Big Countries Acting as Bloody Foreigners", "Ebola Frontline Micro Classroom" Science Popularization Video, etc., to help high-quality main melody dramas spread positive values with platform power.
04 Conclusion
Under the joint promotion of the market, users and officials, the main theme has become a popular creative category in the industry, but the problem of routine and slogan shouting will sometimes occur when the works are piled up, which is not conducive to the further market of the main theme works.
From the experience of "Ebola Frontline", the indoctrination significance of the main theme work must be based on good content, which requires creators to base themselves on real creative concepts, solid production levels, and care for the fate of the characters.
However, if you want to further shine, you also need the creative team to boldly innovate while respecting the law of content, breaking through the stereotype of the original drama narrative, just like "Ebola Frontline" as a medical type drama, the courage to arrange the story process according to historical time, portraying solid and professional medical content, restoring the ups and downs in the real story, and winning the recognition of the audience.
Today's market environment is in the process of moving from impetuous to precipitating, and audiences and the industry need more genre dramas like "Ebola Frontline".
For Tencent Video, as the producer of the series, "Ebola Frontline" is not the first time that the platform has deeply participated in the filming of such TV series, looking back at the big hit dramas broadcast this year, including "Sweeping Black Storm", the platform has been constantly trying to explore the innovative expression of the main theme of the series, and has output the same high-quality works on different themes such as anti-gang crime and even aid to Africa and anti-Ethiopia, which have both market benefits and social benefits.
In the future, Tencent Video will continue to explore "diversified" content innovation on the main theme track, and reserve a series of works such as "County Party Committee Compound", "Eighty-Eight International Brigade", "Banner of the Fathers" waiting to be launched, perhaps we can look forward to more high-quality main theme content of Tencent Video, and look forward to the positive value and sense of responsibility conveyed by the platform.