January 26, 2023 issue | Total Issue 3128
On the left, there is "Crazy" Rush, and on the right there is "Three-Body Problem" in parallel. In the lively drama Spring Festival file, the 6-episode "Moses on the Plain" looks a little different.
Some fans compared it to an artificial lake in Beiling Park. That is where Zhuang Dezeng and Fu Dongxin meet on a blind date in the play, and it is also the place where Zhuang Shu and Xiaofei's fates meet for the last time. But outside the plot line, it is also the home of the local winter swim. And watching "Moses on the Plain" is like winter swimming. Mental construction is needed before entering the water, but when you really get into the rhythm, you will feel comfortable and warm.
From a creative point of view, "Moses on the Plain" has little to do with the calm artificial lake. From the beginning of its creation, this adaptation was destined to be a "triangle" of trekking.
One corner is suspenseful expectation, which is the original novel of Misty Theater and Shuang Xuetao, teaming up to release a signal to the audience;
The role is authorial expression, producer Qi Kang invited Zhang Dalei to participate in this long adaptation as a director and screenwriter, and his "author" mark was selected;
There is also a social melodrama, that is, a serious, sophisticated, focused drama that can spread to a wider audience through the social issues touched. This is the long-term goal of iQiyi's original short series, whether it is 12 episodes of "Undocumented Crime" and "The Silent Truth", or 6 episodes of "Moses on the Plain" all follow this rule.
Each triangle has its own centripetal force, rolling up waves in different directions. "Moses on the Plain" travels through it, only finding balance and crossing the "sweet zone" in groping. For the 6 episodes and 400+ minutes of adapted answers that are broadcast today, viewers with different preferences and warmlayers have different evaluations. But in the case of such an experimental series, the departure is meaningful, and the process is more worth investigating.
On the closing day of "Moses on the Plain", director and screenwriter Zhang Dalei, producer and head of iQiyi Canran Studio Qi Kang had an in-depth dialogue with the film and television monologue, reviewed the long creative journey of the show, and also responded to the focus issues of concern inside and outside the industry about authorship, hometown, image rhythm, audience preferences and the boundaries of short dramas.
Qi Kang (third from left) and Zhang Dalei (first from right) on set
Film and television monologue: "Moses on the Plain" from novel to series, the biggest change is the complete reorganization of the sense of time and space. What was the original intention of this adaptation?
Zhang Dalei: The story of the novel unfolds from the perspectives of different characters. It is not necessarily according to the logic of time, but mainly relies on the logic of the relationship between events and characters. When making a show, we still want to follow life experience to the greatest extent. It is a duty to start from the source of these two generations, filming how a character was born, how he met others, and then what kind of situation changes he encountered.
Film and television monologue: Why did you change the background of the story from the northeast to Hohhot?
Zhang Dalei: It's very simple. Making a movie is first of all a "fake" thing, it is all acted. If you want to be vivid, you have to put yourself in, and it is not enough to have been there or understand. Almost none of our main creative team is from the northeast, and neither am I. If you have to shoot the northeast, it is equivalent to doing something out of nothing. Hohhot is at least something in my life, my hometown, and it doesn't have such a strong sense of "manufacturing" when filmed.
Hohhot is a small city, and it is very similar to the city in the story. If you must go to Shenyang, the hometown of teacher Shuangxuetao, Shenyang is actually a big city, its industrial base and city scale are larger, but it is difficult to restore the old feeling in the novel.
In addition, adaptation is also a process of finding common ground. Some of the changes of the times and family problems experienced by Zhuang Shu in the story are actually the common experiences of our generation. How to solve the livelihood in the wave of layoffs, how to deal with the tense father-son relationship... Whether it is urban families in the northeast or Hohhot, these experiences are connected.
Moses on the Plain seems to share a spatial backdrop with your previous films August and Blue Train, including the short film My Friend. Is this your choice? Or a creative dependency?
Zhang Dalei: When I first started creating, I definitely didn't think to connect them all together, but in the middle, the connection naturally appeared. Maybe it's also because I always use the same non-professional actors.
I think this problem can be understood by jumping out of the play. The characters in these stories generally live in the same era, and they all belong to two generations of their parents and our generation. Placing them in the same urban space is likely to create a relationship, or at least pass by. Everyone is experiencing an era together, feeling the same breath, and I think this kind of relationship between people is very interesting.
My hometown of Hohhot is really important to me. What my parents and life at that stage left me was very beautiful, I don't have to heal my childhood with my life, I am willing to use my life to reminisce about my childhood.
Film and television monologue: What does Hallebt mean when Zhuang Shu and Xiaofei agreed to meet in the play?
Zhang Dalei: I don't know (laughs). It is a Mongolian phrase (meaning long bush, editor's note). The street that was filmed is called Hallebout, which was once an urban village and was later developed by Wanda into a commercial area, but a small piece has been preserved, similar to the environment of the clinic in the play. My home is near Hallebut. In the play, Xiaofei and Zhuang Shu sit on the No. 4 bus, and I have been sitting since I was a child.
Film and television monologue: The reading pace of the novel "Moses on the Plain" is fast, why did you choose a slower pace when filmed into a drama?
Zhang Dalei: When I first read Moses on the Plain, I didn't notice that it was a collection of short stories. I read the third and fourth chapters until I realized that the story of Moses on the Plane ended at the end of the first one. It's a long process.
I think fiction is a more condensed art. It is precisely because it is more concentrated that it leaves more space, and we can unfold it and turn it into a living image. After unfolding, the natural rhythm will change.
We have to add things, we have to help this group in the play build a city, what their home is like, who they are around, how they behave... Including everything around you. For example, in the play, Xiaofei and her father go out from the street, passing by a neighbor's house, and the neighbor is at the door to pick up the coal stove chimney. The novel is refined, and Shuang Xuetao does not write the details of the chimney. But his literature inspires us, connects with our memories, and we bring these details back again.
Film and television monologue: Why do you prefer long lenses?
Zhang Dalei: The long lens I understand is not a long physical time, nor is it simply a long lens to design a narrative. Long shots are not enough if they only serve the narrative. I use a long mirror in order to present as much as possible the trajectory of people and the trajectory of time that can be seen in a space. Wherever you want to stand and look at them, the machine is there, and as far away as you want to be from him, the machine is as far away from him. Long shots are an angle to see the life of the character.
Film and television monologue: Zhuang Dezeng and Fu Dongxin's wedding banquet is a long shot with a relatively large scale of the whole drama. How many were filmed?
Zhang Dalei: There are not many films, only five or six.
It's actually still an old tradition. Director Hou Xiaoxian likes to shoot eating scenes, and he shoots eating scenes at the meal, and the table is full of edible and delicious rice. Everyone will react normally, which is nothing more than the actor having to complete some of the actions in the play while eating.
When we filmed the wedding banquet, everyone didn't eat. Before filming, try to get every actor, including the group and main actors, take a sip and get acquainted. After the meal came up, everyone began to eat. To take this as true, there can be no rush.
Film and television monologue: The character of Fu Dongxin is more sad than in the novel, why is it so changed?
Zhang Dalei: This is the Fu Dongxin I imagined.
Fu Dongxin in the novel is first of all an intellectual, and it can be said that it is parasitic under Zhuang Dezeng's tolerance and love for her that she can travel around the world in the second half of her life and look down on release. This character is a person who has been hurt by the times. She can't become her ideal self, and she can't land, which is embarrassing. Her inside is light and pitiful.
In the play, we made her more detached and no longer relied on the material environment created by Lao Zhuang. Fu Dongxin is more independent, and Laozhuang is more lonely. When I was growing up, I had similar people around me. It's quite sad in the memory, there is not much color. This is not cruelty, but there is a little suspense, a little unspeakable emotion in this type of person.
Film and television monologue: The character of the Fu family's eldest sister is almost not mentioned in the novel, why did you pick it out when filming?
Zhang Dalei: It's about being a family. Be a family, a character, a space, and let the protagonist become a living person. Fu Dongxin must have relatives, a father, a sister, she is the youngest, her sister is the pillar of the family, and her sister is also a worker, but she is very tolerant of her, which is a character relationship. We hope that each character in the play does not exist independently.
This sister played by Teacher Ai Jing is also representative. When she was young, she loved literature and art, and she didn't have to worry about life at all in the factory era. Once the backers of the factory were gone, she, as the head of the family, had to give up some things, run the household, and support the lives of others. She performed the appearance of "aunt" in the memory of many audiences.
Film and television monologue: From the observation of the barrage, the audience prefers Zhuang Dezeng, but it is difficult to empathize with Fu Dongxin. What do you think about this phenomenon?
Zhang Dalei: This is also normal. Because the character of Zhuang Dezeng is easy to understand, what he has done, what he has paid for family life, and what efforts he has made to maintain the relationship with his son and wife can all be seen. So, his loneliness is understandable.
But the character of Fu Dongxin has a threshold. Why do you say she is like this, let go of a good life? That's the big problem. Even if she meets such a person in her life, it is difficult to understand what is really going on in her heart.
It can only be said that in the audience's personal life experience, it can be right, and if you have met such a familiar person, this character can be established. If not, it's really hard to empathize.
We do not define Fu Dongxin as an intellectual, she cannot become an intellectual, she has aspirations, but she is out of reach. She may not have really read many books, and reading books is to some extent a setting or psychological comfort for herself. She herself is not clear about what she wants, and she will be affected by any sudden event or emotion. Mr. Haiqing has done a very good job, and this role is more difficult to grasp than any other character.
Film and television monologue: Why did Zhuang Dezeng become a boss who opened a dance hall in the second half?
Zhang Dalei: Zhuang Dezeng is very successful in his career, but he is also very lonely. The dance hall is opened because this person is too lonely and wants to find some "popularity". Chinese fathers are lonely and reserved, making it difficult to communicate with their children, especially their sons. My son always thought, I don't need to say, you know. Father also thinks, I don't say you understand. But in fact, I don't understand it at all, guess and guess and finally trouble.
Is Zhuang Shu bad for his dad? Very good, but he can't say it. He couldn't wait for something to happen to his dad before he could have an excuse to express it. It is impossible to have that everyday expression of emotion like Westerners.
I also like dance halls very much, and there are often dance halls or live houses in the film. Because it's a place where there are sounds, people, movements, breath, but no talking. This is very important, the emotions are all intuitive, you don't have to say anything, just feel the music and the movement.
Film and television monologue: There is a scene in the dance hall where the old man dances alone, is it a restoration of "Mohe Dance Hall"?
Zhang Dalei: "Mohe Dance Hall" has heard this song, but I have not understood the story of solo dance.
Qi Kang: Pure coincidence. Shortly after the filming of that scene, because "Mohe Dance Hall" became popular, we also listened to the song and learned the story behind it.
But if you've actually been to that kind of ballroom, you can understand this coincidence. Because this is very common in dance halls. It's like a shelter where a lot of unemployed or retired lonely people go to find fun. The communication between people is also because of the darkness, there is a certain sense of hazy and security, and everyone does not have to care about their own dressing, grease and powder, can interact naturally.
Zhang Dalei: It's the romance of ordinary people. Chinese is too subtle, and outside of the ballroom, most people are ashamed to express it physically. But in that environment, you can see many ordinary people expressing emotions with their bodies, and the infection is very strong. You will feel that he is so comfortable.
Film and television monologue: What is shooting emotions and what is shooting stories?
Zhang Dalei: Customarily, emotions do not belong to the story, or the story must be a strong plot.
But I don't think that's accurate. In fact, there is no story in the emotions, but the way of expression is different, it is through the details, through the emotions of the characters, let us see the process. In the usual story, the process may not be so important, the ups and downs and the points of conflict are important. This is probably the biggest difference between the two.
Let me give you an example, for example, in the last scene of the fifth episode of "Moses on the Plain", the Xiaozhuang family has dinner with old colleagues from the tobacco factory.
From the perspective of the story, it is said that Lao Zhuang and Fu Dongxin can finally get together with Fu Dongxin to eat with old friends who have not seen each other for many years, and everyone forgets all about the festival, which seems to be peaceful. At this time, Zhuang Shu came and mentioned the matter of cigarette butts. But the way the actors behaved was emotion, and we didn't shoot this thing explicitly. Actors play people within the scene, their mind is at the party, singing, drinking, and we see them partying.
If it must be divided, it is the dramatic conflict in traditional melodrama, and "Moses on the Plain" will be less.
Zhang Dalei (first from left)
Film and television monologue: "Moses on the Plain" was shortlisted for the drama unit of the 73rd Berlin Film Festival, and some media compared it to iQiyi's "Roma". When the project started, did you have the idea of "rushing the prize"?
Qi Kang: No, it was completely accidental.
We will definitely consider multiple dimensions when we do projects. The first level is still from the perspective of expression. What story to tell, what emotions to express, what value to convey, this is the core. The second level is economic logic, what kind of business goals it is likely to achieve.
From the perspective of expression and story, I think "Moses on the Plain" is very different from most suspense themes at that time.
It writes about ordinary people, everyone with a clear dilemma, but there is no shortage of goodwill. It talks about the big time, there is pathos, but each character is sad and not sad. In the posters and trailers of "Moses on the Plain", there will be some image of fire. This means that the Mars of life, people are not turned to ashes. Maybe a gust of wind comes, there is enough oxygen, and it may burn up again.
Stripped of the anachronism, this is another coming-of-age story. It expresses some of the feelings that children feel as they grow up, the regret of understanding relationships between people. Such a somewhat sad story can make people who watch cherish the predecessors and the things in front of them, and open up their perception.
On the online drama port, the difference in expression of "Moses on the Plain" is quite prominent.
Film and television monologue: Why did "Moses on the Plain" become 6 episodes?
Qi Kang: In terms of volume and form, there were really no short episodes of 6 episodes in China at that time. But the volume of this story is not suitable for the length of 12 episodes.
We look overseas, British dramas and American dramas have 6 episodes, 8 episodes, and even 4 short episodes like "Olive Kittredge", why can't we do shorter experiments? At the same time, the audience's time is now increasingly limited. Let the audience spend about 6 hours digesting a story, get an experience, and perhaps also a space for innovation.
The length of each episode of 70 minutes is also the length that we have repeatedly chosen. Compared to the short series on the market, "Moses on the Plain" is also different in terms of story structure. Instead of using each episode to tell a relatively complete story, we went to find the form that best suited the story.
So this play has been working on the script for a long time, and it has experienced 2-3 years of iteration. Executive producer Diao Yinan and writer Shuang Xuetao have also been accompanying us, and everyone in the director and screenwriter and planning team of Da Lei is contributing their experience and wisdom to make this story continue to grow.
Film and television monologue: How long did "Moses on the Plain" take before and after? Is it still slightly faster than the pace of film work?
Qi Kang: For more than 70 days, excluding the impact of the epidemic, the production pressure of the film is still greater, but the creative conditions are still better than the drama, and on the whole, production safety is the premise to ensure creative expression.
Film and television monologue: From a production point of view, is making short dramas a long movie?
Qikang: I don't think so.
The source of the film and television art form is "film", the ritual and religious nature of collective viewing are written in the genes, doing this, it is inevitable that there will be a "genetic obsession".
But movies are also developing with the advancement of science and technology. From sound to silent, from black and white to color, and then from film to digital, from the cinema out of the cinema... "Media is information", I will also think that with the development of technology and media, it may seem narrow to talk about movies and dramas, and the barriers of film and television may be broken. The process of creating this miniseries is a kind of imagination and proximity to it.
Miniseries can't be done exactly according to the production and creation mode of movies, but there are some film creation ideas that can be applied to them. With the development of mobile phones, tablets, computers, TVs, and projection multi-screen technologies, audiences have greater rights to choose reading venues and watch a film and television work.
At present, the creation and production of miniseries is still "crossing the river by feeling the stones", and the company's innovative mechanism protects this exploration.
Making short episodes also requires a lot of adventures and sacrifices from the creators.
For example, filming "Moses on the Plain", starring Zijian and Haiqing teachers, they have many choices, and they are fully capable of choosing a more "safe" project in the same cycle, but they took three months (from preparation to shooting) to accompany us to create such an experimental 6-episode work, which is quite courageous and admirable.
For example, editing director Liao Qingsong, photography director Lu Songye, art director Lan Zhiqiang, styling director Kong Lingyuan... They are all front-line film creators and can work in a more familiar production system. In "Moses on the Plain", their workload is greater and the cost pressure is greater, and they are obligated and dedicated, so that this show has a so-called "film texture".
Film and television monologue: "Moses on the Plain" is a series you made at iQIYI Canran Studio, has the platform perspective changed your creative tendency and way of thinking?
Qi Kang: The company is really tolerant and protects individuality under the premise of conforming to regularity. In addition, on the platform, the vision will be broader, the systematic support will also make the creation more practical, the communication between colleagues is frequent and harmonious, can provide me with a lot of information, such as topic selection ideas, revenue models, audience needs, etc... Of course, the pressure to work on the platform is also greater, on the one hand, you can see all the masters, on the other hand, you want to directly "To C" the market, the unknown is stronger.
【Text/Tin Snare Drum】