On October 23, the 2021 Chinese Science Fiction Nebula Award was announced at the Chongqing Grand Theatre, and the creators of the radio drama "Shiyun" of Cat's Ear FM also came to the scene of the grand ceremony. Famous voice actors Zhao Ling and Jiang Guangtao used sound art to interpret the short story "Shiyun" by famous science fiction writer Liu Cixin, providing a fantasy intertwined audio-visual feast for on-site science fiction writers and countless science fiction fans.
Sound is neither limited by time nor space, nor limited by imagination. Radio drama is an artistic expression that uses sound entirely to build scenes, shape characters, express emotions, and interpret stories, so it is also called "film and television works without pictures". Cat Ears FM's radio drama is "to depict the most beautiful story with the most beautiful voice". It follows the "sound", makes full use of and amplifies these advantages inherent in sound, and uses film and television production standards to give users a sense of immersive experience of sound. Therefore, the radio drama of Cat Ear FM is not "telling", but "deduction", which restores the story scenes and character emotions depicted by the author to the greatest extent through sound, and at the same time retains a beautiful imagination space for users. Hear its voice, see its scene, and see its people, so that users can really sink their hearts to listen to a good story.
Main voice actors Jiang Guangtao and Zhao Ling mentioned in the interview: "Sound and science fiction works are imaginative. They all extend time, space, and cognition through imagination. Rather than being the impetus for Cat Ear FM to start making science fiction radio dramas, it is better to say that Cat Ear FM is a large magnetic field, and 'sound' and 'science fiction' are the two natural and mutually attracting magnetic poles in this magnetic field. Therefore, science fiction radio dramas are a natural and inevitable theme for Cat Ear FM. ”
Teacher Liu Cixin's "Poetry Cloud" is a short story published in Science Fiction World in 2003. Although it is only more than 18,000 words, it is very storyful and literary, and it puts forward a very avant-garde and thought-provoking idea of whether technology can create art. There are stories, emotions, conflicts, and thoughts, which are the reasons why "Poetry Cloud" has become the preferred science fiction radio drama for Cat Ear FM. In addition, Cat Ear FM has been exploring how to innovate and present traditional Chinese culture. And "Poetry Cloud" is to start from the familiar poetry culture, the "poetry", "sound" and "science fiction", these three elements that sound completely incompatible, to create a poetic science fiction story.
When talking about the difficulties encountered in the creative process, voice actor teachers Jiang Guangtao and Zhao Ling mentioned: "There are only 8 episodes of the "Shiyun" radio drama, and the number of words in the novel is not much. How can a story full of science fantasy be fully interpreted in such a short period of time with sound? How to simplify complex multi-dimensional expressions? These are the difficult problems before us. For example, a large number of science fiction scenes in the novel can be described in words, but how to shape them with sound? How to show users the spiritual empathy of poetry? The three different cosmic life forms represented by Yi Yi, Li Bai and Big Tooth, how they take the strap and perceive the poetry... It is already difficult to show the world of science fiction with sound, and the story also needs to incorporate cultural ideas and physical derivations. Therefore, the main creative team and Teacher Liu Cixin repeatedly discussed together, and finally there was a radio drama of "Shiyun" that the audience can hear now.
"ShiYun" is the exploration of cat ear FM science fiction radio drama, through the derivative development of the radio drama of the science fiction novel "Shiyun", and the derivative development of the sound type of science fiction novel is achieved. In the future, I also hope that "sound" and "science fiction" can have more combinations and explore the world of imagination together.
Upstream journalist Wang Mingyue intern Li Zhijiao