Concept poster for "Innovative China".
West China Metropolis Daily - Cover News Reporter Chen He Intern Ren Yihan
There is a machine that can carve complex Chinese characters on a 0.3 mm egg shell;
The use of microbial technology to make the miracle of "creating life with life" occur in the saline and alkali land where no grass is born;
There is an editing technique that changes not an article or a book, but the whole life, knocking out one fragment and inserting another...
When all kinds of black technology still sound like legends, documentaries, which have always been regarded as the cultural territory of "Yangchun White Snow", have accidentally become the "debut show" of high technology. On January 22, the world's first large-scale documentary "Innovative China" that uses artificial intelligence to simulate human voices to complete the dubbing was launched, and the program commentary used artificial intelligence to dub throughout the process. The voice of the deceased "dubbing master" Li Yi reappears with the support of information technology. Shi Yan, the general director of the documentary, said in an exclusive interview with West China Metropolis Daily-Cover News that he wanted to record the great innovative practices of China at present with the vivid stories in the film.
Innovate China
Document innovative practices with vivid stories
"Innovative China" is a documentary about China's latest scientific and technological achievements and innovative spirit. It pays attention to the most cutting-edge scientific breakthroughs and the latest trend of scientific and technological hotspots, focuses on cutting-edge fields such as information technology, new energy, Made in China, life sciences, aerospace and marine exploration, and records The great innovative practices of China at present with vivid stories.
Stills from "Innovative China".
The film used innovative speech synthesis technology in its production and is the world's first large-scale documentary to use artificial intelligence dubbing. The film consists of 6 episodes, each 50 minutes long, including "Information", "Energy", "Manufacturing", "Life", "Air and Sea", and "Rising Tide". "The film lasted a year and a half from planning to filming, and each episode contained about 6-10 stories and cases, and in the episode of "Information" that just aired yesterday, there were six presented." Shi Yan told reporters about the experience of shooting.
Wang Jian, founder of "Alibaba Cloud", Yang Hong, chief designer of the China Space Station Program, Wang Yifang, a famous high-energy physicist... In the documentary, these scientists who dare to challenge the unknown world, engineers who strive for excellence and dedication, and entrepreneurs who face challenges and do not give up tell vivid and innovative stories.
Nan Rendong, the "Father of The Eye of Heaven in China" and a famous astronomer
Shi Yan revealed, "Before shooting, we set up a special research team to carry out the work of case selection. The scope of scientific and technological innovation itself is very wide, and the themes are very rich. Energy, manufacturing, etc., almost every field can be made into a set of series. Our films mainly focus on the innovative and innovative stories in this industry, tell these stories well, and finally reflect the spirit of innovation through these people and stories. ”
Director Shi Yan.
Combining science and art is one of the highlights of this documentary, and in Shi Yan's view, in the dimension of documentary, science and technology documentaries are weak compared with the historical and humanistic documentaries that have attracted much attention. "In filming, many stories involve a lot of professional scientific and technological information, and how to transform cutting-edge and professional scientific and technological knowledge into an expression of image, which is accepted by ordinary audiences without losing accuracy, is also an aspect that we focus on."
"For example, the first episode involves some things about quantum science and quantum mechanics, which are difficult to say clearly in a short period of time. We use a large number of animation forms, figurative expressions, and demonstrative pictures to tell the audience why this thing is powerful and what it does, and to explain clearly what the audience can understand. I also hope that after "Innovation China", there will be more and more scientific and technological documentaries and will be popularized among the audience. Shi Yan said.
AI dubbing
Using artificial intelligence technology to simulate the voice of voice actor Li Yi
"Speak with facts, focus on interviews", this deep and powerful voice is part of many people's memories of the years. The owner of the voice is called Li Yi, a famous announcer, voice actor and language artist in China, who has dubbed many documentaries and film and television works such as "Say the Yangtze River", "Daming Palace", "Beautiful China", "Human Planet", "Migrating Birds" and so on, and is highly renowned in the industry. "Teacher Li Yi has a deep relationship with our CCTV documentary channel, the first film broadcast by the documentary channel is "Beautiful China" co-produced by CCTV and the BBC, which is the voice dubbed by Teacher Li, it can be said that the first sound born of the documentary channel is the voice of Teacher Li Yi." Shi Yan recalled.
However, the excellent announcer tragically died of illness in 2013 at the age of 50. Many people miss Teacher Li Yi and his voice, especially the documentary director, Shi Yan is one of them, when he considers the choice of voice actors for the show, he still thinks about Li Yi is the most suitable. "Teacher Li Yi's voice is particularly thick and stable, with little ups and downs, not drifting at all, and can hold down the whole film."
Famous announcer, voice actor and language artist Li Yi.
The Scythians have passed away, but a special opportunity has also been created. "Innovation China" is a program that pays attention to the cutting-edge scientific and technological achievements of China and the world, and the program team has spent half a year screening in the vast sea of scientific and technological innovation projects, which can be said to be familiar with the domestic high-tech "market". Speech recognition technology as part of artificial intelligence, China has reached the world's leading level, the film specifically filmed and produced a paragraph for this purpose. General director Shi Yan therefore "made a clever move" and came up with an idea: Can you use artificial intelligence technology to simulate Li Yi's voice?
After the researchers learned of this idea, they also felt that this was an opportunity to optimize the algorithm and improve the level of artificial intelligence, so the two sides hit it off. But the ordeals experienced later are something that no one expected. To this end, from artificial intelligence engineers to directors and music editors, they have paid great efforts, working overtime day and night, and constantly improving to have today's wonderful performance.
When watching the documentary at Station B, many netizens marveled at this AI dubbing technology, "I can't hear the sound of the machine at all, and it's too powerful", such an emotion is overlooked. Shi Yan said, "Our documentary is called "Innovation China", and the practice of all AI dubbing is also practicing the spirit of innovation. ”
Sichuan elements
Focus on the State Key Laboratory of Traction Power of Southwest Jiaotong University
In recent years, Sichuan's scientific and technological research and development has also achieved remarkable results, and "Innovation China" has also focused on the development of Sichuan. In the third episode, when talking about "manufacturing", some Sichuan elements will be involved. At that time, we were filming at Southwest Jiaotong University in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, where there was a State Key Laboratory of Traction Power. ”
Speaking of this laboratory, Shi Yan was full of praise. "This laboratory is very powerful, and the scientists and academicians in it are also very young. The high-speed rail we ride on in our daily travel can only be driven under the power of traction, and the traction relies on the locomotive of the high-speed rail, which is the field they study. Internationally, the United States and Japan are studying the power mode of the next generation of high-speed rail with a speed of 1,000 kilometers per hour, that is, the next generation of superconductivity technology for magnetic levitation. Our country's scientific and technological workers are also at the forefront and have begun to act from the principle and experiment.
State Key Laboratory of Traction Power, Southwest Jiaotong University.
Maglev train.
It is understood that the laboratory aims at the international frontier in the field of rail transit, according to the development trend and technical characteristics of rail transit, focusing on the basic theory and technological innovation research of high-speed trains, heavy-duty trains, urban rail transit, etc., and has achieved important results in train system dynamics, wheel-rail relationship, fatigue reliability, traction transmission technology, and detection and testing technology. In particular, for high-speed trains, a large number of basic theories, technological innovations and detection technology research work have been carried out, which has supported the innovative design of high-speed trains in China and provided a guarantee for the operation performance of high-speed trains.
Across the country, innovation has become a tense, and China has been restructured by countless "ongoing" moments of innovation. "This is a great era of change, a new round of scientific and technological revolution has come again, in recent years, China is undergoing profound changes, especially in the field of science and technology, a large number of scientific and technological workers have begun to put into thinking and action, a large number of innovation stories have emerged."
C919 large aircraft.
Chinese aerospace workers.
At the premiere of the documentary, Mr. Cheng, a special guest, deputy chief designer of the big aircraft Y-10 and a member of the C919 big aircraft advisory group, said that innovation is a quality that human beings have been given in their lives, a quality of thinking, we are accustomed to cultivating good students, docile lambs, but today we must defend the innovation gene in everyone's heart, to be active, and make our due contributions to the brilliant future. Shi Yan also said that he hopes that through the vivid characters and stories in the documentary, the audience can feel the hard work and dedication of the pioneers and innovative scientific and technological workers, which can continuously infect more and more industries and people, and stimulate everyone's sense of innovation. ”
<b>[If you have a news thread, please report to us, once adopted, there is a fee reward.] WeChat attention: ihxdsb, QQ: 3386405712].</b>