Since the announcement of the film and television of "The Three-Body Problem", the controversy around casting, adaptation scale, special effects presentation and other aspects has not stopped. It wasn't until the episode was broadcast that the audience, who had been looking forward to it, could finally relax their hearts.
In Douban, nearly 200,000 people scored 8.1 points for "The Three-Body Problem", and most of the praise focused on its restoration of the original work, the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" tells the first "Earth Past" of "The Three-Body Problem", and there are three clues in the original work, namely the real world in 2007, the "Three-Body Problem" game and Ye Wenjie's experience of the "Red Bank Past". The degree of restoration of the plot and famous scenes is so high that many netizens call it a "book-picking adaptation".
In fact, for such a work, the difficulty behind the word "restoration" may also exceed the audience's imagination.
For example, the part of the "Three-Body Problem" game alone is almost more than 100 minutes long, which is equivalent to the volume of an animated movie; The difference in the form of text and film and television determines that the series cannot be shot word by word, but needs to consider the connection of the plot and the strengthening of the relationship between the characters, or a great test of the creator's imagination.
The particularity of "The Three-Body Problem" is undoubted, whether it is its own unique "original aura", or the great difficulty of development, and the almost blank hard sci-fi theme in the field of dramas, it means that it has no experience to refer to, and every step forward, every link, is an exploration of new fields.
In the absence of experience guidance, the success of "The Three-Body Problem" is only the only support left, that is, "determination". After Poison Eye chatted with a number of creators, this was also confirmed, from the Tencent platform to the main creative team of the series to the actors, everyone was determined and attitude to "be worthy of "The Three-Body Problem", and invested in the project almost regardless of cost and cost.
Everything is always difficult at the beginning, but fortunately, "The Three-Body Problem" is a good start for the landing of science fiction dramas in China.
Realist science fiction
"Restoring the original work" is the most praised since the broadcast of "The Three-Body Problem", which means that the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" has found the most correct path from the very beginning.
The process of determining this direction is not easy. From the launch of the project in 2016 to meeting the audience at the beginning of this year, almost half of the seven-year lead time was spent on direction and project adaptation.
How should the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" be presented? In answering this question, the main creative team frankly admitted that because everyone was inexperienced, the entire team "took a lot of detours" in pre-development, and walked almost all the roads that could be taken.
A total of nearly twenty adaptation options were considered, such as moving the 2007 timeline in the original book back half a century to make the whole story more "sci-fi". And when multiple schemes were put in front of them, everyone found that only returning to the original work was the most "down-to-earth" and more worthy of the thickness of this work.
This is also the result of joint discussions between the drama party and the platform. Usually, in the early stage of the project, the platform will have some past data for analysis to determine the direction of the content, but the particularity of "Three-Body Problem" is that it has no benchmark project. After several discussions, at a meeting in 2017, Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent and CEO of Tencent Online Video, finally made a decision, "Let's still focus on the original book." ”
Of course, focusing on the original work does not mean "abandoning" all the audiences who do not know "The Three-Body Problem", but taking the plot of the original work as the context, while adding the interpretation part used to lower the threshold, and adding intermediate frames that are more convenient for the audience to understand the direction of the plot, and improving the part of the original work, which has become one of the focuses of the adaptation.
The role of "Shi Qiang" in the play represents the perspective of the audience to some extent, and when communicating with scientists such as "Wang Miao" and "Sha Ruishan", he often asks: "Can you explain this question so that I can understand it?" ”
Several classic theoretical fragments in the original work, such as the billiard ball collision test, turkey and farmer, etc., are also presented in the play in a visual form, in a more understandable way, so that even audiences who have not read the original book can understand the meaning behind "physics does not exist".
In addition to lowering the threshold of understanding, telling science fiction stories in a realistic way is also the adaptation strategy of the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem". In the original work, the story of "Wang Miao" does not focus on much, more as the introduction of the three-body universe and exists, and even some "tool people", and in the play, Wang Miao's personal image has increased, and many people believe that the drama version of Wang Miao is even fuller than the image in the original work.
More representative is the adaptation of the fifth episode, "Wang Miao" and "Shi Qiang" drink and chat in a stew shop, return home after "reconciliation" with the countdown, and go to give a physics lesson to their daughter's classmates. Tencent video producer Wang Tiexian believes that these are "warmth from human nature", and it is also the values with humanistic temperature conveyed by "The Three-Body Problem" in addition to theoretical knowledge and science fiction.
"The biggest difficulty in the filmization of "The Three-Body Problem" is not science fiction", chief producer Bai Yiqian said, "Compared with the very difficult "three-body" game and 'Guzheng Action', what is more difficult is restoration, which not only means restoring the original work, but using realistic techniques to express what happened and exists in reality, which is the most difficult thing in practice." ”
In the view of chief director Yang Lei, realism is both a method of expression and an attitude. "Because "The Three-Body Problem" is a Chinese science fiction story, the first thing in making "The Three-Body Problem" is not to consider genres and special effects, nor to sell 'science fiction', but to make Chinese audiences believe in this story, and then gradually bring out the feeling of science fiction."
In order to ensure the authenticity and sense of the scene, scenes such as the high-energy particle accelerator machine room, the Beijing positron and negative electron collision station, and the National Nanoscience Center in the play are all shot on the spot. Wang mentioned that from the previous project production experience, this situation is usually completed by building or studio shooting and special effects, because although the actual shooting effect is better, the degree of freedom will be relatively low, and it is also necessary to coordinate the location and shooting time.
The truth is also hidden in countless details, such as the CCTV building under construction, the 2007 car inspection sign on the car window, and so on. The news broadcasts involved in the play about the preparations for the Olympic Games are also true information obtained through a large number of on-site interviews and confirmations. The main creative team mentioned that when watching the barrage and social media discussions, they would feel very moved when they found that the details they hid deeply were discovered by the audience, "I have the feeling of meeting a confidant." ”
This also provides a new way of thinking for the landing of science fiction themes in China. Yang Lei explained: "In most cases, the science fiction we are familiar with is still based on special effects, which is similar to steampunk, doomsday wasteland, space opera in the Western context, but apart from these, the starting point of science fiction is actually based on their understanding of their own history or future." ”
As a "Chinese science fiction" work, "The Three-Body Problem" also has a unique core. "We hope that one day, when someone mentions Chinese science fiction, they will be able to perceive the Chinese value system it conveys, which is why we finally decided to think about this science fiction story from a realistic point of view."
At the end of the fifth episode, "Wang Miao" is lying on the bed, the sunlight outside the window is obliquely shining, he unloads the baggage that has been entangled in the "ghost countdown" for many days, and steps on the ground of life again. Perhaps, this is the best profile of "give life to time, civilization to years".
Pathfinder
The high fan base of the "Three-Body Problem" novel around the world makes the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" face much more rigorous scrutiny than ordinary projects, and correspondingly, there are many more problems that need to be solved.
In addition to the confirmation of the direction of adaptation, as a science fiction work, its special effects content is also very important. According to the main creative team, "The Three-Body Problem" can be counted as four projects from the production point of view: the suspense drama in 2007, the period drama of the Red Bank period, the game part and the final "Guzheng Action".
The content involving special effects in the play is divided into three categories during production, namely the "Guzheng Action" part, which is mainly used for the artistic animation part of the "Shooter and Farmer" clip, and the "Three-Body Problem" game part that uses motion capture + full CG shooting.
Among them, the "Three-Body Problem" game, as one of the main lines of the story, is the special effects content that has been the most thoughtful. Initially, the team considered setting up the scene and playing it by a real person, but after simulation and demonstration, it was finally decided to present it in the form of a game, which meant a huge CG workload.
The duration of the "three-body" game part of the play is about 100 minutes, which is equivalent to an animated movie. After the broadcast of the game content in the seventh episode, it was well received by the audience, which proved the correctness of this choice, and Tencent Video's technical exploration and accumulation in recent years also provided a lot of experience for game production.
The highlight "Operation Guzheng", which will be presented at the end of the series, also encountered many difficulties. After the scenes originally scheduled to be filmed in Panama were moved to China, it was not possible to visit the site as planned, and it was necessary to analyze the local landscape and waterway characteristics with the help of documentaries and public materials.
Another difficulty lies in how to restore the picture of "ship cutting". Visual director Lu Beike mentioned that they can find a lot of ship design data, but there is no ready-made, large steel ship after the kinetic data after being cut, so it is impossible to imagine the picture described in the book after the ship is cut by nanomaterials, and can only be combined with the description of the original book, repeated power tests in the computer until the most realistic looking effect is simulated.
"The Three-Body Problem" is really a very special work, it has no precedent to refer to, and every step is like "crossing the river by feeling the stones". The huge "aura of the original", longer project cycles and unmeasurable production costs mean unimaginable risks for both the platform and the show.
For such a project, as a trader, the attitude of the platform is quite important, and sparing no effort to calculate the production ratio is obviously not the best way to do "The Three-Body Problem". As a producer who has experienced multiple projects at Tencent, Wang Tiexian also feels the particularity of "The Three-Body Problem", "We will not look at it according to the existing experience and methodology, which also means greater freedom." ”
Talking about the cooperation process with the platform, the main creative team has repeatedly mentioned the words "trust" and "tolerance", for example, in terms of funds, the platform has never revealed the meaning of "big difference" to the drama party, but in order to ensure quality and try to meet the needs of funds.
The project cycle is also a problem, and the cycle of almost every part of "The Three-Body Problem" is much longer than the average series. Yang Lei mentioned that the regular post-editing of the series took about four months, while "The Three-Body Problem" took about a year and a half, and the composition part also took more than seven months. "For the platform, after a large amount of money is invested, it is waiting for us to push forward little by little every day, which really requires courage."
The fact that "The Three-Body Problem" can deliver such a report card that exceeds everyone's expectations today is not the efforts of a few people, but the result of everyone working cautiously and with love under the premise of consensus. The ideas of all the creators are very simple, and the goal is the same: "Since you have the opportunity to do "The Three-Body Problem", don't be sorry for this work." ”
The promoter of "The Three-Body Problem"
Audiences who follow dramas should be able to feel that the viewing and interactive experience of "The Three-Body Problem" is different from other dramas, such as specially set "soaking" and "dehydration" barrage special effects, and interstitial advertisements that integrate into the plot.
Behind these fresh experiences is the platform's innovative attempts in operation strategy, which maintain the same pace as content-level protection.
Sun Hongzhi, head of the TV drama IP Operation Center of Tencent's online video platform operation department, mentioned that the operation strategy of "The Three-Body Problem" is to take the original readers as the core group, and drive the circle-breaking effect through topics and word of mouth to attract more users, thereby driving the consumption of derivative content and cross-category content.
"Science fiction" is undoubtedly the most prominent label of "The Three-Body Problem", so Tencent Video has created a special feature of "Goose Factory Science Fiction Season" for the attributes of hard science fiction, integrating sci-fi content from four channels: dramas, movies, anime and documentaries. At the same time, the relevant tidbits and documentary content of the series have been integrated to facilitate the audience to understand the story behind the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem".
Matching the "immersion" emphasized by the episode itself, the playback page has also been adjusted in a targeted manner. "Three-Body Problem" is the first episode in which Tencent Video has enabled personalized skins on the bottom page, and corresponding elements will be synchronized at key plot points such as "Ghost Countdown", "Cosmic Flash", "Red Bank Base" and "Operation Guzheng" to meet the audience's drama chasing experience.
In addition, in everyone's traditional impression, the big screen is obviously a scene that can better carry sci-fi content, and the corresponding small screen may be weakened in the presentation of the picture. The simultaneous launch of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos versions of "The Three-Body Problem" will enhance the audience's perception of the series' graphics and soundtrack. Technological innovations are implicit and may not be as intuitive as the content itself, but they can greatly enhance the viewing experience.
As a national-level IP, many people have paid attention to how "The Three-Body Problem" will develop in the future, as well as the adaptation plans of the subsequent two films. From the feedback on social media, you can also see everyone's expectations, although only the content of the first part of the original book was broadcast, but the key characters of the later parts such as "Luo Ji" and "Cheng Xin" have triggered many discussions about casting and so on.
Therefore, the long-term operation of the "Three-Body Problem" IP is crucial. Sun Hongzhi said frankly that the development cycle of "The Three-Body Problem" will be very long, and the development is also very difficult, which needs to be carefully polished. On the one hand, the platform will carry out pre-marketing for the content that the audience cares about, such as character lineup and time nodes, in the development process of follow-up projects; On the other hand, the undisclosed tidbits and documentaries of the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" will also continue to be released after the end of the series.
In addition to "The Three-Body Problem", the release of "The Wandering Earth 2" during the Spring Festival has further driven the attention of the whole people to the sci-fi theme. The sci-fi theme, once considered "exclusive to the West", is blossoming under the progress and drive of the domestic film and television industry. Doing sci-fi content is undoubtedly difficult, whether it is plot, technology, special effects or talent reserves, it requires a solid foundation. The success of "The Three-Body Problem" is an incentive for both the platform and the creators.
"In the past, we may still have some hesitation about the science fiction theme, and we have encountered many difficulties in the development process," Sun Hongzhi said, "but "The Three-Body Problem" has made us more determined to continue to cultivate science fiction content in the future, and has also brought a lot of successful experience and inspiration, such as moderate adaptation, insistence on high-quality special effects production, and so on." ”
At present, hard sci-fi dramas such as "Stars" adapted from the original work in July, and "The Abyss of Time" adapted from Fu Qiang's science fiction novel are in preparation, although the development cycle will still be relatively long, but everything is always the most difficult at the beginning, only by accumulating more experience can the film and television industrialization chain be more mature, so as to ensure the continuous filing of high-quality sci-fi content.
In addition to hard sci-fi content, "sci-fi +" is also the direction that Tencent Video will continue to break through in the future, last year's hit "The Beginning" and the dual-timeline "Crossfire" both belong to the category of "sci-fi +", compared to the more difficult hard sci-fi genre, adding sci-fi elements to the more mature drama genre is one of the ways of content innovation.
In a certain sense, the drama version of "The Three-Body Problem" is the product of the development of the domestic drama industry to the current stage, and it is a result.
At the explicit level, it can test the further construction of technology application and process management by the film and television industry for so many years; At the implicit level, it is also the result of the gradual evolution and gradual precipitation of the platform's cognition of content. These constructions and achievements are not empirical, but future-oriented, which also echoes the science fiction theme itself.
The opposite of innovation is an unpredictable risk, but sticking to business as usual is the beginning of the industry's shrinkage. Therefore, for the platform, becoming the promoter of such a project is both a responsibility and a responsibility - whether from the perspective of the industry or as an ordinary domestic drama audience, they are looking forward to the emergence of more "Three-Body Problem".