Looking back on 2021, the most remarkable achievement of domestic TV dramas is undoubtedly that breakthroughs have been made in theme creation, especially in the creation of major themes, creating a large number of phenomenon-level works represented by "The Age of Awakening", "Mountains and Seas", and "Meritorious Achievements", depicting moving stories and heroes emerging in the history of the party in the past century in multiple dimensions. Its "collective circle-breaking" posture highlights the comprehensive rise of the "new mainstream TV series" that integrates value transmission, artistic expression, emotional reach, and market arrival, forming the most prominent literary and artistic production phenomenon of the whole year, and expanding new space and providing new experience for the future main theme TV series, especially the innovative production of theme creation.
Red Blockbuster: Theme creation leads the peak road of new mainstream TV series
Organized and themed literary and artistic creation at several major time nodes in the history of the development of the party and the country is a socialist literary and artistic production practice with Chinese characteristics, which is vividly called "gifts" by people. Last year coincided with the historic moment of the centenary of the founding of the party, the theme creation of the TV series focused on the major decisions, major events and important figures in the course of the party and the country, kept right and innovated in the selection of themes and character shaping, realized a new way of telling and expression perspective, vividly showed the magnificent course of the party leading the people to struggle hard with ideological and artistic intertwined video narratives, and practiced the pursuit of artistic peaks with creative achievements.
"The Age of Awakening" focuses the long lens of history on the front and rear of the founding of the Party in 1921, focuses the narrative scene on "Peking University" from a microscopic perspective, and shows through the social activities of Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the early leaders of the Communist Party of China, at Peking University how they gradually enlightened the people's wisdom on the road of seeking truth, inspired the ideological awakening of a large number of new young people, prompted a group of people with lofty ideals to break through the shackles of the old world, and wrote a brilliant starting pen for the magnificent century-old epic. Thus, with a small view, the spiritual core that only the Communist Party of China can save China will be fully expounded.
"Hundred Refining into Steel" selects eight iconic golden songs of the times as narrative threads to enter the history of the centenary party, providing a new perspective of interpretation for the magnificent history. A song "Internationale" pulls time and space back to the turbulent land of China, and we see the difficult journey of the early Communist Party leaders who adhered to their convictions in pursuing the light in the dark night and bowed down to the motherland and the people; in the joyful singing of "Singing the Motherland", the audience was able to glimpse the moving story of Qian Xuesen, Deng Jiaxian and other scientists who resolutely gave up their excellent lives abroad and took root in the Gobi to serve the motherland during the period of new China's construction.
"Mountains and Seas" deeply describes the historical changes in the development of yongquan Village, which is poor and difficult in Xihai, Ningxia, into a prosperous and prosperous Minning Town, and explains in the most down-to-earth way how the poverty alleviation cadres work, how the assistance experts help the people in difficulty and how to get rid of the difficulties of the "China Way of Poverty Alleviation", and through the description of the typical case of the "Minning Model" of building the "dry beach" of flying sand and stones into a "golden sand beach", the arduous process and great achievements of comprehensively lifting off poverty and building a well-off society are crediblely and perceptively displayed. It has opened up a new realm of poverty alleviation drama.
In addition, "The Great Armageddon" presents the three major battles of Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin in a panoramic manner, accurately expressing the superb strategic deployment of the People's Liberation Army while allowing the audience to hear the voices of ordinary people in detail, highlighting that the liberation war is a great victory won by relying on the people; "Xiangshan Ye Zhenghong" takes Xiangshan as the incision, a bird's eye view of the March 1949 Chairman Mao led the Party Central Committee to complete the liberation of all China in Beijing's Xiangshan, depicting the "pregnantness" moment of the vigorous new China, revealing the difficulty of the establishment of new China; "Red Flag Canal" Returning to the historical scene of 1959 when the people of Taihang Shanlin County built the Hongqi Canal on their own under the leadership of the county party committee, it took ten years of hard work to completely change the millennium water shortage dilemma, and effectively interpreted the "Hongqi Canal Spirit" that embodied the spiritual genealogy of the Chinese Communists.
These major theme creations have achieved the soft landing of hard themes, endowed revolutionary beliefs and ideals of the times with flesh-and-blood details and emotions through highly artistic narrative expressions, imprinted ideals and beliefs into the spiritual background of TV dramas, become the brightest popular colors of TV dramas in the past year, and also made domestic TV dramas take a big step forward in the process of climbing the artistic peak of the new era.
Moving Youth: Youthful aesthetics stir the spiritual resonance of new mainstream TV series
Young people are the main force of TV drama consumption, and they are also the core audience group that theme creation needs to face. In the process of broadcasting the new mainstream TV series last year, there were many times when young audiences chased the drama and the network "urged" the phenomenon. This means that the new mainstream TV series is actively embracing the times, using young aesthetics as a means, using the way that young people like to hear about the artistic creation of TV dramas, creating a comprehensive art space for spiritual dialogue with young audiences through exquisite artistic conception, opening up the obvious or potential channels for coordinated communication with the aesthetic needs of young audiences, achieving resonance in in-depth spiritual interaction, and stimulating the spiritual growth of young people.
On the one hand, the new mainstream TV series focuses on the history of the youth growth of the country and the nation, and focuses on showing the turning point in the historical process of the development of the country and the nation. On the other hand, when the youth growth process of the individual is superimposed with the youth growth history of the country and the nation, its artistic expression not only condenses the individual, but also rises from the individual to the level of the country and the nation, which also eliminates the aesthetic obstacle formed by the so-called age limit and time segment.
The major theme TV series "The Age of Awakening" shows the historical picture of the period from 1915 to 1921 from the New Culture Movement and the May Fourth Movement to the founding of the Communist Party of China. With the early leaders of the party, Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao as the core, and the Peking University as the field, hu Shi, Lu Xun, Qian Xuan, and others of the May Fourth New Culture Movement, as well as the peking university youth student group, with the theme of ideological change, the poetic elements are organized with the rhetorical technique of "Fu Bixing", laying out the reality to visualize the thought; using imagery to convey meaning, construct aesthetic artistic conception, artistically present classic literary works, awaken the audience's aesthetic vitality; create an epic temperament of rigidity and softness, and trigger a common emotional experience. It has realized the cross-era dialogue between the two generations of young people, formed a high-quality realm of two-way mutual growth between the aestheticization of thought and the ideologicalization of art, and achieved the effect of "poetry with words". "Building Dreams and Blue Skies" presents the story of the struggle of three generations of aviation people before and after the first generation of aircraft chief designers for China's aviation industry, reflecting the growth history of China's national defense science and technology from scratch and from existence to strength in the past 70 years, so that "Made in China" aircraft can soar to the blue sky of the motherland. "Mountains and Seas" also focuses on the story of how a generation of young people such as the Defoe Debao Brothers and the Shuihua Mai miao sisters got rid of poverty, pursued a dignified and happy life and became the tide of the times, so that young audiences in different historical time and space but in the same life situation can get positive emotional feedback. By strengthening the ideological and artistic capacity of video narrative, the new mainstream TV series has simultaneously exerted its power in storytelling and artistry, so that emotions can break through time and space to achieve the same frequency resonance between contemporary youth and historical youth on and off the screen.
At the same time, the youthful aesthetic also triggers spiritual resonance with highly artistic scenes, completing the emotional mobilization of the young audience's thoughts. In "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian", Li Yannian admonished and inspired other fighters by criticizing the deserter Xiao Anton, saving Xiao Anton's life and condensing the answer of "why fight" in the hearts of the soldiers, making the cry of "for thousands of second girls" a shocking scene. In "The Age of Awakening", the plot of Chen Duxiu's farewell to Yannian and qiao Nian's brothers studying in France became one of the biggest climaxes of the whole drama, the back of leaving his hometown in search of a way to save the country and the firm footsteps of generous death on the execution ground overlapped with each other, supplemented by a solemn and majestic soundtrack, and the heroism and heroism of the young people's sacrifice for the country formed a touching image soul at this moment, making countless viewers cry for it. Stories and scenes that meet the spiritual aesthetic needs of young people and have historical significance and artistic appeal form an "emotional hot chain" in the text of the TV series, effectively linking the emotional pool of young audiences and thus stimulating the aesthetic waves of thought.
Not only that, the youthful aesthetic is also reflected in the creative attitude with inclusiveness as the core, and the addition of many young actors injects the "youthful atmosphere" of the era into the new mainstream TV series. These young actors immerse themselves in the role, truly reproduce the typical characters of the typical environment, complement the advantages of the old actors with rich acting skills, and transform the market "traffic" into artistic "quality". For example, the performances of Zhang Wanyi, Li Yifeng, Zhu Yilong, Zhang Yixing and others in "The Age of Awakening", "Trumpeter in Place", "Rebels" and "Sweeping Black Storm" all left the audience with a "stunning moment". In fact, young actors and actresses create young and spiritually appealing artistic images by participating in theme creation and deeply accessing the historical scene, which is also a practical recognition of ideal beliefs and "virtue and art" for individual actors, showing the mutual achievements of the new mainstream TV series and the artistic growth of young actors. At the same time, in the historical torrent of traffic that has repeatedly fallen behind in 2021, the growth and progress of young actors has further highlighted the artistic pursuit of "preserving righteousness for history, promoting virtue for the world, and leaving a clear name for oneself", as well as the importance of building a "self-respect and self-love, mutual learning and mutual learning, and clear air".
Diversification: Artistic innovation creates a versatile face for new mainstream TV series
Theme creation because of its important theme, grand theme, often easy to walk high and high the grand narrative, resulting in the artistic imagination of the TV series is framed in a limited range of rotation, the art form is single, the expression method is outdated, it is difficult to adapt to the aesthetic needs of the TV series audience in the new era, but also leads to the TV series theme transmission is suspended, the value appeal is weak, it is difficult for the audience to form a identity. On the one hand, the theme creation of last year's new mainstream TV series moved the viewpoint down, allowing more ordinary people to become the protagonists of the TV series and sing songs for the times and the people; on the other hand, according to the characteristics of the theme content, further innovate the form of artistic expression, so as to better combine the content and form dialectics, forming a polite and new artistic effect.
The new mainstream TV series highlights the people's main body in the interweaving of the implementation of the people-centered art concept and the people-centered creative concept, and sets the viewpoint on the revolutionary and labor individuals who have worked hard in various eras, showing the vivid ideal story of the individual, and condensing the grand meaning in the subtleties. For example, "Our New Era" focuses on young party members in different professions such as communities, workers, and village officials; "Meritorious Service" depicts the brilliant lives of yuan longping, Yu Min, Tu Youyou and other first eight recipients of the "Order of the Republic". In addition, "Sweeping The Storm" reflecting the anti-gang crime and anti-corruption struggle was also launched; "Trumpeter in Place" and "Boat of Peace", which showed the image of the army in the new era; "Little Shedd" and "Hello! Mother", as well as the stories of ordinary workers of different groups and different professions, such as "Winning Gold" and "Flying with You in the Wind", which concentrate on the struggle of sports athletes, show "Chinese stories, Chinese spirits, and Chinese strength" from different levels, expanding the breadth and thickness of the new mainstream TV series. Although the ideals belonging to individuals are not necessarily great, they are all full of affection for the motherland, and when the ideals of countless individuals converge and merge, they form the ideal of the entire Chinese nation in pursuit of great rejuvenation.
What is more ingenious is that in the face of many moving deeds emerging in the long river of history, the new mainstream TV series breaks through the tradition, explores the complementary drama structure, and successively appears in the epoch report drama, unit drama, series of short dramas and other drama modes, so that the transmission of the ideal theme can achieve the "1+1> 2" artistic incremental effect. Unit dramas tell the moving stories of multiple characters around the same theme, integrating the dual characteristics of TV series continuity and seriality, showing the unique advantages of TV drama art in conveying the spirit of the times and shaping the heroes of the times. The reason why "Meritorious Service" can become a high-scoring "god" work is precisely because the series writes a small biography for different characters, which not only grasps the commonality of the eight first meritorious figures who won the Order of the Republic to closely link their personal fate with the development of the country, but also combines the personality and fate trajectory of the meritorious characters, sublimates the historical narrative into realistic value through the artistic charm of the "drama" itself, and writes a magnificent song of the times that is full of vigor and vitality, so that the TV series can be rationally blended, into the eyes, and conquer the audience. Similarly, the background of "Our New Era" is the current rapid development of society, every young person in the story is the gear of the times, although small but very important, the coordination belief of community volunteers, the belief of the smith of sheet metal workers, and the persistent belief of the detonation engineer are all reflected in the unit story, and the convergence of emotional expression evokes the audience's will to believe in the collective, the ideal responsibility for the nation, and the yearning and longing for the national mission. "Ideal Shines on China" is told in the form of a series of short dramas of "one story per episode, one ideal per episode". "Anti-epidemic hero" Du Fujia, Zhang Renya father and son who guard precious revolutionary documents, Wulan Muqi, who inherits the red faith and serves the people wholeheartedly... The drama collects 40 historical fragments that shine in different periods of China, and narrates the "ideal" story of the individual with no more than 30 minutes of image length, fully demonstrating the narrative power of the "combination of long and short" of the TV series. These diversified drama structures fully release the unique imagination of the TV drama art form, forming an artistic expression of "the same breath and branches, each with different flowers and different expressions", and the small character writing era has realized the landing expression of the national ideal, so that the audience can more easily reach its profound connotation in the historical scene of life.
In short, last year, domestic TV dramas frequently produced excellent works in theme creation, led the comprehensive rise of new mainstream TV dramas with the attitude of large-scale production, explored new possibilities for China's TV drama creation at several levels such as production mode, aesthetic paradigm, art form, etc., and proved that "creation depends on painstaking efforts, performance depends on strength, image depends on shaping, efficiency depends on quality, and reputation depends on virtue and art". Standing at the new historical node of 2022, the new mainstream TV series should adhere to the people's position, adhere to the people's position, adhere to the integrity and innovation, tell Chinese stories with high-quality works, write epic poems of people's struggle, and further promote the high-quality innovative development of China's TV dramas in the new era to meet the increasingly strong spiritual needs of the people for high-quality TV drama works.
Author: Zhang Bin (Professor and Vice Dean of Shanghai Film Academy, Shanghai University)
Planner: Shao Ling
Editor: Zhou Minxian
Editor-in-Charge: Li Ting
*Wenhui exclusive manuscript, please indicate the source when reprinting.