For those of us who were accustomed to the "Bermuda Triangle" mystery in various versions of The Unsolved Mysteries of the World as children, a story about a plane crash and a passenger being forced to be stranded on a desert island is too much of an appetite.
Remember the American drama "Lost" just began to broadcast in the years, the home computer is not every family, the drama and instant noodles constitute the golden partner in the Internet café, the popularity of the NBA Houston Rockets Yao Ming, Maddy combination, it is not only many post-90s "American drama first love", but also the most deeply imprinted American mainstream cultural symbol in China that year.
"Lost" has been popular for several years, and the countless confusing suspense and metaphors hidden in the details of the play have always haunted the audience's mind, it is like an "unsolvable" problem, some people understand, some people do not understand. It's okay not to understand, because there will be a moment of sudden understanding in the future of life, which is called enlightenment in Buddhism.
Today, I will talk to you about this "first love" of this American drama of countless people -
Lost
One
There are not many American dramas that can be called "divine dramas", and "Lost" must be one of them. Its "god" is multi-faceted and three-dimensional.
It has a complex plot structure, seeing the last episode, you are still like falling into the fog, do not know the answer, but feel as if you understand everything;
The many characters that appear in the play, each of which has an edge and an angle, has a story behind them, the boundary between good and evil has been blurred in them, and the audience can feel empathy with any character at any time;
In terms of video narrative, the show frequently uses the editing technique of "flashback", in the middle and late episodes, "flashback" (compared to recalling the flashback of the past, the flashback plays a role in foreseeing the future), "flash edge" (presenting parallel time and space or the experience of another world, afterlife) all of which are used, quite novel narrative techniques, so that the audience's brain is running at a high speed, it seems that there is a possibility of explosion at any time, but after each episode, it is still unfinished, and still wants to continue to explore the past and future of each character...
Even more noteworthy is the symbols, religions and occult symbols in the play. Ancient civilizations, myths and legends, cutting-edge science, conspiracy theories, cults, paranormal phenomena, aliens, agnostic theories and other miscellaneous elements and labels come together to dazzle you, leaving you with only a sense of awe for the screenwriter's brain hole.
Some netizens summed up: "Lost" is a big pit that has been dug for six years, you can't see the bottom, once you fall into it, don't want to climb up.
Two
This divine drama, which has been admired by many drama fans, was originally inspired by a variety show called "Survivor".
This famous program, the form is simple and rude, the program team will gather a group of people on a small island, penniless, in a primitive state divided into several squads (or tribes) to fight, the average performance of the contestants will be voted out by everyone.
"Lost" is derived from this show, the show's American production company CBS (CBS), wanted to find someone to shoot a series based on the eye-catching elements of "Survivors" such as islands, adventures, and tribes. CBS spread the news, but unexpectedly was intercepted by the faster ABC TV station, missing a piece of "fat meat".
With the basic idea for Survivor, ABC brought in J. Lee, who was unknown at the time. J. Abrams and Damon Lindelof planned.
Abrams is familiar with many audiences, he later directed commercial films such as "Mission Impossible 3", "Star Trek: Diablo" and "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", and also worked out high-profile dramas such as "Suspect Tracking" and "Westworld" as a producer.
Damon is obsessed with the creation of the story, and his screenwriting works are not small - "Prometheus", "Zombie World Wars" and "Tomorrowland" are all well-known masterpieces.
The brain circuits of the two young people are different from ordinary people, which makes the world view of "Lost" immediately attract ABC TELEVISION. But damon didn't have much hope for the show's ratings at the time, and he felt that the settings and puzzles written in the synopsis of the episode alone were crazy enough, and if the audience watched the series, they would definitely feel that they were undergoing a difficult IQ test. Moreover, the screenwriting team of "Lost" has more than these two fixed members, and the whole team has created the "Lost World" that some people still try to interpret in detail.
According to Damon's recollection, the writers' conference room of "Lost" was filled with whiteboards with various keywords written on them all year round, and the windows and walls were plastered with various clues and related background knowledge. The screenwriting team has set at least three narrative lines for each episode of the story and each character, and everyone continues to add and delete plots in the debate to ensure that every detail can form a perfect closed loop at the end.
Three
"Lost" premiered in the fall of 2004, and the audience showed unprecedented enthusiasm, which greatly exceeded the expectations of the main creative team. Bigger surprises ahead, the show swept the 2005 Emmys.
Six years later, the 121-episode American drama has won a mountain of trophies at the Emmy, Golden Globe, and Saturn Awards.
In the early summer of 2010, "Lost" aired the finale, breaking the Us television program's Sunday night ratings record, with a price of $900,000 per 30 seconds and more than $80 million in advertising revenue per night, creating a miracle exclusive to "Lost".
It's been a decade since the final episode of Lost aired. Ten years ago, Chinese audiences still had a vague concept of American dramas, and ten years later, if you did not chase American dramas, there would be less talk at the party.
It can be said that "Lost" knocked on the door of American drama for many Chinese audiences, unveiled the mystery of American drama, everyone discussed the set of numbers "04, 08, 15, 16, 23, 42", pondered the meaning of various symbols of the "Dharma Organization", and the experience of watching the drama was like participating in a puzzle game.
Even after the episode ended, Lost still left a huge labyrinth for the addict to explore deeply, and to this day, there are still people who enjoy discussing the show tirelessly, such as me.
Four
In my drama genealogy, Lost is defined as a "hyper-unfolded series." The meaning of "hyper-unfolding" is that its worldview is extremely malleable, and as the story unfolds, the multi-layered worldview deeply attracts the audience. In the history of American dramas, this drama can be described as unprecedented.
The play of "Lost" is definitely textbook for me as a "third-rate screenwriter". Analyzing it is a very fun job. You will find that the script of the entire series has been using a method of constantly adding suspense to attract the audience.
For every suspense, there will be a logical line, and in explaining this logical line, other suspense points that are also on this line will emerge, and at the same time lead to more overlapping logical lines.
If you make a suspenseful structure diagram of "Lost", you will see that the dense, interlaced plot is like a spider's web, and the huge challenge it poses to the screenwriter is accompanied by a strong creative pleasure.
It is respectable that these suspense is not simply in the service of narrative, it is tied to the characterization.
Flashback, pre-flash, and flashback use to keep each character's past and future coming from providing fragmented information that raises questions and constantly explains them.
They enrich and nourish the spiritual core of the characters. The audience wonders how the story should go on, while at the same time getting excited to spy on and dispel the fog that surrounds the characters.
Laying out high-intensity puzzles on the play, while not neglecting the polishing of the characters, is the key to "Lost" becoming a classic. Leaving aside the inexplicable and inexplicable hints, oracles and strange images in the series, the people who live on the desert island are even more moving and impressive.
Jack, as a doctor, takes the protagonist's aura as soon as he appears, but he also has a bleak past without an aura;
Sexy Kate, with a tough personality, but is an arsonist who burned his loved ones;
Locke, who always has a calm temperament, was once tricked out of a kidney by his father who abandoned him;
The fat big boy Hurley, who has won the 100 million yuan lottery jackpot, but also suffered great bad luck; Charlie, who looks like a naïve big child, plays in a band, but has an unknown drug addiction...
These multi-faceted characters support the vast world behind Lost's puzzling puzzle matrix. None of the characters in the play have a God perspective, and everyone is trapped in darkness, and only a faint light can illuminate the way forward.
Every choice an individual makes in the series affects the fate of everyone. The closed island makes the characters feel like they are in the light of the stage, and they may be the biggest wealth created by "Lost".
Five
September 22, 2014, coincided with the tenth anniversary of the premiere of Lost. A group of creators held a private gathering, and according to the news circulated by foreign media, Carlton Kuss, one of the screenwriters of the show (who is also the producer of the show), proposed to "recreate a lost world".
Pulling out his treasured props at the party — the countdown clock that enters mysterious numbers every 108 minutes — he said: "It's time for the countdown to ring again." ”
Unfortunately, Cuss's proposal was rejected by other creators who were embroiled in the affairs. Josh Harlowe, who plays Sawyer, exhorts Cus: "Lost is over, really, it's over. No one can escape from that island, it's always been there. So, let's not think about going back, or doing it again, it's always been there, and every time I fly, I can see it in the window. ”