Tonight's good banquet, joy is difficult to show.
Taking traditional culture as the source, the stage art is collected, and between the sound of the clouds and the dance back to the sleeve, it will bring a new audio-visual feast to the audience. In the past two years, various TV stations and Internet platforms have successively launched a variety of festive evenings with distinct themes and different characteristics in traditional festivals such as the Spring Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, and the Mid-Autumn Festival. Behind the "brush screen" and "out of the circle", it reflects the gradual transformation of the festival party as a stage art form in the planning concept and overall narrative.
The active attempt to expand the creative space of more dimensions is extended to the routine and de-trafficization, so that the production of the evening party can not be limited to the stereotypical positioning of "celebrating festivals" and "literary and artistic performances", but as a mass cultural practice, adding footnotes to the grand proposition of "explaining the beauty of culture".
Behind the frequent surprises of the festival party, the young creative force cannot be ignored. A festival party, how to integrate modern elements based on tradition, how to innovate artistic expression under the empowerment of cutting-edge technology, to maximize social benefits, and its young creative team behind the scenes is based on the vision of youth, the idea of not falling behind, and the artistic aesthetic of advancing with the times, giving different concepts and creativity.
1. From entertainment evenings to cultural dinners
In the impression of many people, the festival party is often equivalent to the song and dance sketch and the "platter" performance of the celebrity. But in the past two years, we have observed that the aesthetic fatigue of many audiences for such evenings has become more and more obvious. What frequently "goes out of the circle" is the evening party that is not "evening style" - the content is more prominent in cultural connotation and ideology, the arrangement is more prominent in the unified and coherent theme, and the form is more like a complete feature film, rather than the program "skewering".
In 2021, Henan Satellite TV's Chinese festival series of galas, which frequently brushed the screen on major media platforms and was called "phenomenon-level" cultural dissemination by netizens, is an innovative work in which the content and form are more inclined to "cultural films".
At the "Qixi Wonderful Tour" evening, the whole program continued the narrative line of the Spring Festival Gala of Henan Satellite TV, and unfolded from the perspective of three "Tang Palace Sisters" night tour to Luoyang. They shuttled through luoyang city during the Tang Dynasty, "encountering" many historical figures and traditional cultural carriers such as shadow puppetry and opera popular in the local area, and also participated in traditional ceremonies such as Qixi begging. Through a main line of stringing together the dance "Dragon Gate King Kong", the song "To the Girl", the opera "Love", the instrumental performance of "Broken Formation Music" and the song "Applaud for Yourself" and "The Brightest Star in the Night Sky", a gala program is like a "film" with both story, culture and ornamentation.
The relevant creators of Henan Satellite TV have revealed that since the Spring Festival Gala work "Tang Palace Night Banquet", colleagues are thinking about what makes the programs in the station get so much recognition. In many re-examinations, a train of thought gradually became clear - to find content that can really resonate in the deep traditional culture, and completely change the thinking of tv stations in the past to do evening parties, and make programs suitable for mobile phone small screen dissemination.
Why let traditional culture play the lead? In the view of Xu Na, executive planner of Henan Satellite TV's Chinese festival series of galas, culture has the power to penetrate ancient and modern times and reach people's hearts. At the same time, "traditional culture is in line with the pulse of the times, resonates with the emotions of contemporary people, and can burst out of deep vitality."
Xu Na introduced that in the planning of the party, the continuous depth of traditional culture can break the limitations of time and space, and become the key to the overall "coordinate system" of the series of evening parties. The horizontal axis of the coordinate system looks at history, such as the light and shadow floating of "Roselle Water Endowment", the impassion of "Lanling King's Entry Song", the graceful grace of "Li Ren xing", and the historical stories and folk customs echo through the background of traditional musical instruments and ancient poems, showing the thickness and splendor of Chinese culture. The vertical axis of the coordinate system shines into the future, such as "In heaven and earth" makes Tai Chi and aerospace technology intertwined into a visual spectacle, "Furong Pond" makes time turn back, singing and dancing under the Heavenly Gate in Luoyang, and restoring the beauty of the Tang Dynasty with a prosperous song. The three kinetic energy of creative drive, aesthetic guidance and technology empowerment promote the slow unfolding of the scroll of the evening.
The change of the audience's aesthetic taste is also an important force to promote the transformation of the party planning. "The vast audience has been leading our footsteps - their positive feedback has strengthened our determination to take root in the Yellow River culture and create cultural products." In the process of sensing the audience's demands and actively interacting, we jointly depict the 'beauty' of the traditional festival evening. Xu Na said.
Xu Na also told reporters that the upcoming Spring Festival Gala of Henan Satellite TV In the Year of the Tiger will continue to build a brand effect of the cultural evening through the interpretation of the concept of "Nian Universe", and they are stepping up preparations for this. At the same time, many television stations and Internet platforms are also interested in playing the "cultural card" and "history card" at the Spring Festival Gala. From entertainment evenings to cultural banquets, the "transformation tide" of festival evenings has arrived.
2. "Traffic" is fading, and content is still king
"In the early stage of program planning, we abandoned the idea of only traffic, chose the hobbies of fans close to the national wind circle, and made the style of 'national style', 'national rhyme' and 'national tide'." Talking about the original intention of building content, Ma Yuqi, the general director of Sichuan Satellite TV's "2022 Blossoming World • National Rhyme New Year Concert" and a young man after 80, said so.
In 2021, many festival galas have made similar choices in planning - intentionally "de-trafficization" and instead create unique content IP.
"Blossoming the World" is an original New Year's Eve IP independently created by Sichuan Satellite TV, which is intended to attract young audiences, deeply cultivate the vertical category of national style, and launch an immersive national style music show.
How to fully express the elements of national style? A breakthrough in technology is the first step. "We innovated the format of the evening and broke the space setting of the concert." Ma Yuqi introduced, "Using the main stage, XR visual presentation and exterior to create three fantasy spaces, focusing on creating an 'immersive national style drama illusion'. "In the past, there was a general on horseback standing proudly in the thunder and lightning, and then there was a Chang'an girl who looked forward to the long night and transformed into a lonely and beautiful ancient Chang'an Pavilion... Advanced technology empowers artistic imagination, and in the combination of virtual and real, it creates a freehand painting with a very oriental charm for the audience.
A grass hall in the west of the Wanli Bridge, the water of the Hundred Flowers Pond is a wave. In order to create the beauty of Bashu in a limited space, Ma Yuqi and the team took a step in the design of the stage. "We gathered the grass, trees and trees of the real natural world between the square inches of the stage, and designed a lake in the center of the stage." Ma Yuqi recalled the details of the setting up of the live stage, "In order to present a more natural and realistic effect, we sprayed the plants with nutrient solution four times a day after planting them. I kept it on the stage for 3 days before I started rehearsing. ”
In addition to stage performance, the evening party does not stick to specific forms, fields and audience circles in program arrangement, but actively breaks the barriers and realizes the "circle breaking" of content. In the opening show "Meet You Across Time and Space", Yongling Twenty-Four Tricks music is combined with the Sichuan Philharmonic Orchestra, Western symphony, traditional Chinese folk music, modern electronic music combined with e-sports game elements, staging wonderful Chinese and Western fighting music, and the almost lost ancient instruments "sound into people's hearts" in a modern and trendy way.
In Ma Yuqi's view, "national tide" is an innovative expression of traditional culture; loving "national tide" is a new gesture for young people to embrace traditional culture. "Today's young people were born in a good era and have a strong sense of national pride. They actively embrace traditional culture and explore the beauty of traditional culture, which is the future of our country's cultural inheritance. Therefore, using the words and preferences of young people to explain traditional Chinese culture has become a new topic for the planners of the party.
3. Participation of the whole people, more ordinary people on the "stage"
It is not difficult for the loyal audience of the evening program to find that ordinary people have appeared on the stage more, and they are not just "foil" roles, but often become the protagonists of a certain program or link.
In the 2021-2022 New Year's Eve party, Hunan Satellite TV played the concept of "New Year's Eve for the Whole People". "In the past 2021, there have been too many 'highlight moments' that constitute the common memory of Chinese: fighting the epidemic, rural revitalization, and welcoming the Winter Olympics... A dazzling era is made up of every dazzling person. In the highlight moment of the motherland, the light of every dreamer is so beautiful. Under the theme of "you are the light", Xie Liujiarun, the main creative director of the party and a young man after 90, and the team tried to create a "New Year's Eve for all" party, hoping to make every audience become a luminous body.
The team meticulously designed a giant "Tree of Light" in the center of the stage. "Each 'leaf' is a small screen showing the little stories sung by the audience. These little stories are 'transported' to the 'trunk' and gathered on the big screen to form the big story of everyone. Xie Liu Jiarun introduced that the meaning of the "Tree of Light" is that the personal struggle is integrated into the struggle of the times and shines together.
At this party, "vegetarians" from all walks of life took turns to appear. For example, the medical staff, police, and firefighters version of "Flying in the Sky" uses cool rap to promote anti-fraud, firefighting and epidemic prevention knowledge. The tense stage performance shows the vivid and vivid side of the "retrograde".
In order to allow the audience to participate in the interaction more extensively, the main creative team innovatively designed the "National Continuous Wheat" link, inviting ordinary audiences to sing and interact with the actors "across the screen" and live. Under the support of audio and video technology, the party presented a grand scene of "10,000 people cross-screen and frame zero point chorus".
"As the zero-point 'finale' track, this year all the actors and the audience sang 'I Love You, China'. A netizen said that at the moment of entering the New Year, no language can express the excitement of the heart, but the whole people can participate in singing the motherland - singing our hearts! Xie Liu Jiarun recalled that when the whole people sang, his heart was still surging in his heart, "The great river is north and south, online and offline, and our stage has become so broad in people's songs." ”
Today's headlines 2021 opening year speech "True Insights", "Mid-Autumn Night" duo dance "Kyauk · Burning", "Rice Flowers Fragrant Li Says Good Year" National Day special program "Ballet on the Field", etc., all of which connect artistic concepts and aesthetic pursuits with a wide audience.
Cultural experts commented that the significance of the festival party is that people connect with each other at special times by watching the program together, commemorating and celebrating the wonderful moments in life together, so as to get a beautiful emotional experience. This may be the deep reason why the form of the "National Evening" is popular – the creator of the beauty of art, the creator of the spirit of the times, the propagator of excellent culture, and part of the millions of people. (Trainee reporter Wang Yuxin reporter Li Danyang)
Source: Guangming Daily