Summary: Do you still have to grit your teeth? Also "non... Can't..."? Do you still care too much about the outside world's gaze? Let's relax a bit and listen to a story, a lyric poem full of "echoes."
Text/Lei Zhang
Visual/Wang Ye
This year is Zhang Yimou's original year. Age 72.
In the conference room in the second half of the night, young people were twisting and turning. Zhang Yimou said, "Look at you one by one. ”
Opening ceremonies often begin at 12 midnight and run until dawn. As the oldest person in the conference room, Zhang Yimou put the young people down.
"Director Zhang Yimou is infinitely energetic." Tao Wenting, director of the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, said.
In 2018, when the 10th anniversary of the Beijing Olympic Games was reported, I asked several of the main participants of that year, if you received an invitation, the opening ceremony of 2022, would you still come? Their answers were almost unanimous: I would hesitate, or I wouldn't want to do it again.
But Zhang Yimou will definitely be there.
"Contribute to the country." He said this four years ago during his flag-picking performance at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. At that time, he only had one request: "We have also held the Olympic Games, and we have finished talking about China's five thousand years, and everyone knows it, can we return to this specific program this time, can we be pure?" ”
At the opening ceremony of the 2022 Winter Olympics, Zhang Yimou wrote a romantic story belonging to the Chinese.
1. Can you tell a story?
Artist Cai Guoqiang once proposed when doing the APEC meeting celebration: Can we tell a story and tell a joke in such a relaxed way? Let foreigners know that we have more than just beating gongs and drums and tactics of the sea of people.
When making ideas for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, the core creative team, including Cai, also flashed such a thought in the brainstorming: Let's make a wedding banquet, showing Chinese various philosophies of life and the worldview of ordinary people.
"How romantic!" Everybody says. Then he laughed and said, "But it's impossible." ”
It was also suggested that from the beginning of the opening ceremony, the whole opening ceremony will do one thing, and finally reach a concept of "co-construction".
The opening ceremony of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games basically realized this concept. Athletes from all over the world leave footprints on their walks, which are an important part of the rising canvas. Zhang Yimou believes that it was the biggest highlight of the opening ceremony of that Olympic Games, and reached the concept of "let's walk together" in the form of three and a half hours of stepping on the footprints.
However, at that time, the domestic broadcast team did not understand, the broadcast still highlighted the literary and artistic performance, the introduction and presentation of this concept was not sufficient, passed to the audience, the voice was weak to almost inaudible.
This time, on February 4, 2022, at the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Zhang Yimou and his team told the story of a snowflake. From the beginning of the countdown, to the holding of the signs of the guides, the admission of the delegations, the real-time interaction of the floor screen, the performances stepping on the snowflakes, and then to the facilitators turning into dancers, gathering snowflakes from all over the world, and finally condensing into a big snowflake - the main torch platform of this Winter Olympic Games. The heart of the snowflake is a small but bright flame.
In a stadium with a capacity of 100,000 people, Zhang Yimou told a "small" story about snowflakes.
2. Can you tell a romantic story?
In December 2005, Zhang Yimou and his Iron Triangle team conspired to prepare for the opening ceremony of the Summer Olympic Games.
He passionately elaborated on a great dream: "Our torch is designed as a phoenix feather. "The feathers flutter on the five continents, that is, the global transmission of the torch, and finally reach the bird's nest, and the large burning feathers fly around the field, and when it flies to a specific position, the torch bracket unfolds to catch it, giving all those who are struggling to find the torch stand a surprise: the feather, is the main torch.
"The 'Bird's Nest' was changed to a name, and the relevant units and institutions of the state officially named it 'Phoenix Nest'. At the same time, more importantly, we convey an imagination, flying, auspicious (concept)..."
The idea was fascinating, but lacked technical and engineering support.
Fan Yue, one of the "Iron Triangles", expressed their original intention this way: "We have a clear idea to engage in a romantic and relaxed Olympic Games. ”
"Romance is a lot of times not actually something we Chinese. At that time, people will say that we are very sonorous, majestic, and mighty, so that the world can see the protrusion of the dragon, the sleeping lion wakes up, we rise, this time you say that we do a romantic, it is not the same. ”
Wang Chaoge, another member of the Iron Triangle, said, "Including the director of yimou, I, Fan Yue, and other directors, they all really see that romance is powerful, not simply the flower before the moon and the moon." It has the potential to have a very great power. It is even more obvious that this nation is confident, without howling loudly, without sonorous and powerful, and still able to let the world see our self-confidence and our confidence. ”
After the team won the bid, Zhang Yimou became the general director, he wanted to express "romantic feelings are the most important part of traditional Chinese culture" at the opening ceremony, but "relaxation" is not just a conceptual problem, from the effect at that time, "relaxed" is not realized.
The beating session was shocking, but in the final stages of rehearsal, the performer's task was to learn how to laugh. The creative team was worried that they were pushing too hard and not soft enough to express "having friends from afar."
The criteria for selecting actors also reveal that they are waiting for a strict line, and there must be no difference. Children who can sing at the opening ceremony must have no appearance and singing skills.
In the theme song session, Zhang Yimou and music director Chen Qigang originally selected two young people to sing, which truly reflected the empathy of "me and you". However, after the rehearsal with makeup on July 16, the decision to "change the big name" can no longer be changed.
This is such an important appearance of China in front of the world, and everything must be perfect.
3. What to tell a romantic story?
The opening ceremony after 14 years is not to relax hard, but to work hard in relaxation and return to romance.
The whole opening ceremony was used by a large number of ordinary people, they are not professional actors, they do not need to play who, they are themselves. Weakening the performative nature of the opening ceremony and skillfully combining the program with the prescribed actions of the ceremony also makes this kind of authentic performance valid.
For example, the "Salute to the People" session.
"This show was also unthinkable in 2008. Strictly speaking, this is not a show, it is a show of behavior, it is an ordinary person who walks on this stage, just walks from south to north, walks through it, is this a show? Can you act like this in 2008? We can't get through it ourselves, so this is a very prominent manifestation of cultural self-confidence. ”
Zhang Yimou said, "I am very moved. Convey such an idea in this form. It seems like nothing, no great sense of performance, but straight to the heart. ”
During rehearsals, the director of the scene often has such a dialogue with the general director.
General Guide: What the people are supposed to wear, they should wear, do not dress up.
Narrator: Huh? Is that it?
DIRECTOR: That's it.
Derivative: Is it so simple?
Director General: It's so plain. Believe in the power of simplicity.
For example, the trumpeter of the national flag session solo "My Motherland and Me".
The trumpeter blows the melody of "My Motherland and Me"
"The trumpeter's level of playing is actually very immature... But they are also some kind of typical representative of us. He didn't play perfectly, and it seemed very appropriate to the scene. Tao Wenting said, "They are very real and simple, every time they come to rehearse, they are very happy, they are not nervous, and they are reluctant to leave every time they come." ”
Trumpeter Judean said he was changing his teeth, but "the rabbit teeth have been changed", meaning that it would not affect his blowing.
But to tell the truth, after just over a year of study, he still leaked wind when he blew it, but this was not fatal. He practiced blowing on the bird's nest ring gallery, and the music reverberated in that long space, so melodious that even the broken sound was a bit moving. The actor dressed in green passed us with a long pole (Li Chun Link) and couldn't help but look back at him. Judean asked me, "What are they doing?" I said, "They're going to perform spring." Xiao Zhu tilted his head: "Isn't spring colorful?" ”
The most daring part of the opening ceremony was the singing of songs, which was enabled by the children in the mountains of Fuping, Hebei Province, who had no professional foundation and had to learn Greek, but they loved music very much and had a pure texture.
Yang Rong, the director of the song session, repeatedly determined with Zhang Yimou in the early stages: Do you want the standard of art or the fragrance of the earth? The general director said firmly: I want the fragrance of the earth - you want the fragrance of the earth to ascend to the hall of elegance.
The director of the scene, Wang Xing, said that the actors were "fat and thin, tall and short, all very real." "He liked it.
With a relaxed posture, return to romance, the ultimate embodiment is that romantic dream.
At the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics, we saw the "feathers" that once existed only in the imagination. It is covered with frost and snow, and after 14 years, the flowers fall into the nest.
4. Why can it be "romantic"?
When I first received the creative concept drawing from the general director, Song Xiaofeng, the person in charge of the torch burning system, was a little confused.
"I don't know what to do." Song Xiaofeng said, "Just one, how does it (rise)?" ”
The main torchbearer of previous Olympic Games has not been dynamic, because it is necessary to solve the problem of the sustainability and safety of fuel delivery in the dynamic. Moreover, this torch platform that Zhang Yimou wanted was not only moving, but also rotating.
The Beijing Aerospace Propulsion Institute, where Song Xiaofeng's team is located, can be called the "national team of liquid power". After research and discussion, the team decided to firmly grasp the main line of combustion and solve the construction of all links from materials to structures. This ignition ceremony embodies the technical capabilities of the aerospace level.
Four years ago, Zhang Yimou finished an eight-minute performance at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics in Beijing, and was reluctant to talk about the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics. But there are two points that he is particularly sure of, the first is that no matter who does it, the sense of science and technology and modernity must be strengthened, although "science and technology is a double-edged sword"; second, "large-scale activities, which company does not adopt the tactics of the sea of people?" ”
These two points, at this opening ceremony, he refreshed the answer himself.
Under the dual consideration of the objective conditions of the epidemic and the requirements of simple running the game, Zhang Yimou decided not to use the tactics of the sea of people. This time, there are only about 3,000 actors, and the Summer Olympics used 2,008 people in the Tai Chi chapter alone. To achieve a small number of people and not empty, in the huge bird's nest, it needs the support of science and technology.
The entire stage of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games is actually an LED screen like an ice surface, with an area of more than 10,000 square meters, far exceeding the "picture scroll" of 2008.
In the stage of discussing the idea, the general director revealed a few words to the team: "Ice has taken photos, snow has left traces." ”
Tao Wenting recalled that she did not know whether it was because the director walked on the frozen lake near the studio every day, and he caught this way of presenting the "reflection", "it seemed that the stage was very full." ”
In fact, the ground screen is not only an image of the performer. The application of real-time interaction in a large-scale performance event was realized through 3DAT - the camera captures the position of the actor on the field, converts it into coordinates and transmits it to the rendering server, identifies the actor according to the algorithm and renders the fantasy art effect, and transmits it back to the ground screen. Before the main torch is lit, the children dancing the "peace dove" run freely on the field and step on the snowflakes under their feet, which are all algorithmically realized.
Convincing the seventy-year-old director in artificial intelligence is a long process of reliability that requires rigorous testing.
In 2008, Li Ning ignited The wheel of The Hoista and prepared two sets of plans for people and electric, and in a pinch, Zhang Yimou was more willing to believe that "people can't make mistakes."
In the eight minutes of Beijing in 2018, the interaction between roller skaters and the lines of the ground screen was actually precise positioning and high degree of bite; but that time Zhang Yimou tried the "robot" - a robot shaped like a piece of Great Wall bricks, which came from the main position according to the program. Zhang Yimou found that in an unexpected situation, the actor may fall, but the robot as an actor can always find the position accurately, even if the environmental changes affect the judgment, they can always correct themselves - "the robot lives up to expectations." ”
Until today, Han Ke, the head of the AI real-time special effects team, admitted that after a lot of communication with the general director, only the 3DAT was placed in a small part of a program for testing at the beginning, and more than a dozen rehearsals were made in a row, and the algorithm did not drop the chain, and the director decided to use it on a large scale in the important link of peace dove.
"Promising!" Han Ke believes that these three words are the highest praise for the director to their team.
The technology content is also reflected in the smaller details behind the scenes.
The arrangement of all the programs in this opening ceremony was deduced by the Team of Beijing Institute of Technology on the computer, "All the points, rhythms, and music of all the programs were restored on the video, and the discussions we choreographed and directed were all based on this." Zhang Yimou said, just like the sandbox of the past, it is also like an earlier one, "take a stick and draw a route on the ground", and the efficiency has long been different.
Even if the guide holds up the snowflake card, the glow should be transparent, stable, and durable, and its power supply is so small that you may not feel that there is any technological content at all, but "these things have not been possible in the past." ”
"It's a shift. Let me distinguish between good and bad, good and bad, compared with the past, compared with 2008, in fact, it is not so distinguished, it is a change of concept. We have improved and improved, and we ourselves have a deeper understanding. Zhang Yimou said.
The general director, who has experienced the tide of the times, fights at the head of the wave and is also pushed by the tide. He believed in the times, and with super talent and super diligence, he was not disappointed by the times in the end, and with his non-stop creative enthusiasm, he wrote this lyric poem that he had been remembering for a long time.