The erhu sounded, the curtain opened, Zhang Yixing and the dancers stood in the center of the stage, following the melody and began to release their movements. The live broadcast signal was transmitted to countless viewers, and the screen superimposed by the color filter was black and white all around, and Zhang Yixing was particularly bright in red.
This is the stage scene of Zhang Yixing's masterpiece "Veil", a work that combines Chinese style and hip-hop to tell the story of a woman who is looking for a mysterious Western Regions. As the penultimate program of the 2023 Hunan Satellite TV Mango TV Spring Festival Gala, its presentation is "not so much Spring Festival Gala".
The stage scene of "The Veil". /"2023 Hunan Satellite TV Mango TV Spring Festival Gala"
The light and shadow change, the performers wake up from the dream, walk twice to the world, then go to the bamboo sea, and finally explore in the desert, the mysterious style of narrative and the beauty of sound, light and dance seem to be more like a big show that requires people's patience to taste at an art exhibition, rather than the down-to-earth family show that we are familiar with in the traditional sense.
But it was this version of "The Veil" that received praise from netizens after the live broadcast of Xiao Chinese New Year's Eve, and the second creation continued. According to the ratings data of young viewers under the age of 35, the Hunan Spring Festival Gala ranked first among provincial satellite TV in the same period. On the other hand, as a native of Changsha, Zhang Yixing is also very happy to go home for the young year, he hit it off when communicating with the director team about the stage design, the rehearsal was smooth, and the performance process was also very relaxed and enjoyable.
Today, when the Spring Festival Gala is mentioned, we subconsciously feel that it has lost young people, and more popular short videos and games have stolen people's attention. But as the stage of "The Veil" and the outing of the Hunan Spring Festival Gala show, when the Spring Festival Gala abandons some routine paradigms and presents good stories, gestures and aesthetics in front of people, this sincerity can still be exchanged for good feedback.
The main theme begins to "overcome the thorns"
As an annual Hunan Spring Festival Gala, it is natural to show Hunan's achievements in politics, economy, science and technology and culture in a year. In front of Ding Jie, who served as the chief director for the first time, is such a "hardcore" news report: in 2022, the construction of "four major laboratories" and "four major scientific and technological infrastructures" in Hunan will be strong, the "three tips" innovative talent project will be solidly promoted, and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements will double.
Hunan Spring Festival Gala short film "Dazzling New Hunan". /"2023 Hunan Satellite TV Mango TV Spring Festival Gala"
Ding Jie entered the TV station as an intern in 2006, worked in the front line for 17 years, and is now one of the main directors of Hunan Satellite TV's Liu Xin team, with a lot of experience. If he followed the usual "empiricism", he could have invited the scientific and technological innovation personnel of the four major laboratories to the studio, talked with the host, and introduced the results to the audience very directly.
But Ding Jie felt: "In fact, technology for the people, far and far, close and close, but what kind of way do you have to make everyone feel that these four laboratories are very good, really related to life, I think we must do it from the perspective of everyone's attention." "When visiting the lab, the directors found that these top students are not Frankensteins, they also have their own lifestyles and hobbies. Coinciding with the hit of "Through Thorns" in 2022, the idea of a "scientific and technological version of "Through Thorns" is brewing.
Another representative work of Zhang Yixing, the spokesperson of the Hunan Spring Festival Gala, "Xiangjiang River Water" has been widely spread, it is a rap work by Changsha natives to introduce local cultural customs and call on everyone to feel the unique charm of Changsha. After refilling, "Xiangjiang Water" "transformed" into "Song of Xinlu Mountain", Lushan is because the four major laboratories are built on the bank of Yuelu Mountain, which is the "Song of Xinlu Mountain" and the "brother of Xinlu Mountain".
In three months, young directors composed of post-90s, post-95s and even post-00s carpet searched four laboratories, carefully selected 8 talented and good-looking young science and technology workers, and conducted rap "surprise training" around them. The scientific research brother of Yuelu Mountain Laboratory sings "a small seed can change a world", and the top students in Xiangjiang Laboratory implement "no matter how difficult it is to jam the neck technology, it is necessary to overcome difficulties" to the end.
Eight young scientific research workers partnered with Zhang Yixing to perform "Song of Xinlu Mountain". /"2023 Hunan Satellite TV Mango TV Spring Festival Gala"
During the performance, 8 young scientific research workers partnered Zhang Yixing, skillfully interacting with the camera, telling the story trendy, just like the popular singing scene. The directors standing on the side are very pleased, these young people with high IQ who are all masters and doctors, while engaged in scientific research, while rehearsing, it is not easy, such as Li Zhecheng of Furong Laboratory put down the microphone and turned around to be a doctor shuttling through Xiangya Fuyi, full of contrast.
The presentation of "Song of Xinlu Mountain" shows that content innovation is a characteristic in the genes of the Hunan Spring Festival Gala, and as producer Liu Xin said: "To do the Spring Festival Gala of Hunan Satellite TV, we will use some reverse thinking, that is, the more simple the content, the more modern we will package, the more modern the content, and may be packaged in a traditional way." ”
"Song of Xinlu Mountain".
National songs and dances get rid of fatigue aesthetics
When it comes to national song and dance programs, every Chinese may be familiar with it. We have long been accustomed to the form of singing and dancing on the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, the tactics of the sea of people, and the color. It's not that the original presentation method is bad, but the convergence of aesthetics will make such programs lose their own value in spreading national culture, and the audience may listen to it and pass, leaving no memory points.
On the Hunan Spring Festival Gala, the national song "Inspired Beat" sung by Ayunga and Yuan Yawei is different, and the production team changes the traditional routine through various forms such as lifting the stage, actor settings, and song selection, and "making people remember" is an intuitive audience response.
Yuan Yawei and Ayunga "Beat of Encouragement".
For example, the "drum" of "inspiration" comes from the real drums used in the festivals of the four ethnic minorities of Uyghur, Tibetan, Mongolian and Miao. For audiences who are accustomed to short videos today, it is better to lead the dance than to dance in a group. The camera accurately captured the four female dancers of ethnic minorities, fully mobilizing the sense of interaction between the audience and the dancers, the eyes were prominent, and the charm of national dance was conveyed.
Even more important is the ingenuity of one of the lead singers, Ayunga, who is from Mongolian nationality and retains the Mongolian language when performing live, and dances casually, showing the heroism of the wine song to the fullest. The addition of Yuan Yawei also made the whole work have some pop colors and rock elements.
Ayunga dances casually during the performance. /"2023 Hunan Satellite TV Mango TV Spring Festival Gala"
Four folk music songs end, with "Beautiful China" as the finale. Last year, on social media, netizens from all over the country brought the topic of "beautiful China" to introduce their hometown, as a communication event, in fact, it stood on the profound theme of "people and home" to present the culture of various ethnic groups.
Many times, cultural communication will fall into an absolute subjective and objective situation, the story you want to tell, the people you want to report, as an object to show, but the enlightenment brought by new national song and dance programs such as "Inspired Beat" is that there is no need to make a distinction, the current you and me, in fact, are more familiar with this kind of interaction that eliminates the sense of distance, in short, closer to the person itself.
Good evening party with "breathing"
In the circles of TV industry practitioners, "the Spring Festival Gala is difficult to do" is a well-known consensus, and the Hunan Spring Festival Gala, which meets the audience in the form of live broadcast in the small Chinese New Year's Eve every year, is even more difficult. This year coincides with the deep integration of Hunan Satellite TV and Mango TV, and what is in front of the production team is how to retain the original audience while being able to pull back the young people who "ran away".
"We can't be too preachy, we can't be too blunt, we must return to people's vision, return to people's perspective, what are the things that people are interested in, what are the things they care about the most?" In the eyes of the production team, this is not only the innovation and change that the Spring Festival Gala should have, but also the advantages of Hunan Satellite TV and Mango TV, to get close to young audiences, tell the daily stories of ordinary people, and serve people with programs.
Producer Liu Xin.
Therefore, in this Spring Festival Gala, we saw the perfect combination of thematic expression and art and flowers from "Song of Xinlu Mountain" and "Beat of Encouragement", and a bold attempt to challenge conventional aesthetics from "The Veil". Others such as Ren Xianqi and Xu Huaiyu reunited after many years, singing the nostalgic song "Crystal", after the recovery of the film market, the "Nameless" crew appeared, and the adaptation of "Annual Comedy Competition" "Spring Festival Opera Navigation" are all very new and down-to-earth content that meets the spiritual needs of audiences of different ages.
Ren Xianqi and Xu Huaiyu reunited and sang "Crystal" together.
There is also a program called "Four Seasons Honey Talk" that is frequently mentioned. Four popular actresses cover songs related to the season, with sweet pictures and full of atmosphere. But in fact, this is a show that was almost killed in the preparation stage, because it does not seem to have much meaning for a Spring Festival Gala. But the production team worked hard to keep the show alive.
"Four Seasons Honey Talk".
Liu Xin feels that considering the watchability of each program is a criterion they will not give up. Ding Jie used the term "breathing", and he believed that a good party needs to have breath. Programs such as "Four Seasons Honey Talk" are representatives of the new trend of the times. Why not a relaxed, enjoyable show that is what the audience needs today?
The "breathing" Spring Festival Gala program also complements the creative attitude of the production team from the perspective of ordinary people, after all, in real daily life, we have major moments of mental tension, and there are also moments of pleasure in busy times. Good cultural works are between a relaxation and a relaxation.
Chief director Ding Jie.
Looking back at many classic Spring Festival Gala clips in the 90s of the last century, good-looking sketches and crosstalk often start from a small but very real life emotion; The songs and dances that are worth savoring also retain many of the characteristics and charm of the singer himself.
Today, 30 years later, technology brings a better dance experience, and the boundaries of cultural consumption are constantly being expanded, but the essence of the really attractive party or program is still "serving the people themselves", which may never change, but more and more people need to discover it again.