Rhino Entertainment Original
Text|Fat Department Editor|Park Fang
He Ran and Xiao Han waited for the blossom to bloom, and when filming this key scene where the two made a relationship, Chen Zhufei, the chief director of "Summer Flower", sat in front of the monitor but kept frowning, according to the original design, filmed the conversation between the two people indoors, and the flowers bloomed, but they just felt that the effect was not good.
"I said maybe we have to go to the sea and shoot in a different way." The original plan was scrapped, and the whole crew urgently dispatched cameras, lighting and various departments to rush to the beach outside the house to shoot in the skylight. This is the famous scene: He Ran and Xiao Han turned their backs to the camera, facing the sea, and Chao Xia seemed to record the passage of time.
Similar texture shots, audiences who have seen this drama can name a few. Behind this is what Chen Zhufei said: "In this play, no one will give up the effect in order to catch up with the progress, and we have been insisting that if it is not good enough, we will shoot in another way." In this way, there is the texture of "Summer Flower" that "every frame can be used as a screensaver".
The current audience has a positive perception of this carefully polished texture. With the recent conclusion of the play, whether it is the HE supporters of "forever in love" and "parallel worlds will be together for life", or the difficulty of "willing to end in the snow", these discussions of the open-ended ending convey the audience's true feelings of chasing the drama, and also show the strong empathy and appeal of "Summer Flower".
Zhang Na, senior director of Natural Studio of Tencent's online video film and television content production department and chief producer of "Summer Flower", said: "In fact, love should be a very broad theme that audiences like to watch. But the labels of sweet pets and young age have led to this theme becoming the bottom of the industry's contempt chain. This is also the original intention of the "Summer Flower" team for the romantic drama genre Topwei, and the core of the upgrade is to "believe in the audience's IQ and respect the audience".
"Finally a drama that boldly expresses love"
"If I don't come back, you're not allowed to cry." The farewell to the snow that broke the hearts of countless audiences was still He Ran smiling and comforting Xiao Han, who was crying silently, which couldn't help but remind people of the gerbera words she said to Xiao Han: "Brave the difficulties and pursue the life you want." And He Ran also let himself live as that colorful and full of vitality "summer flower".
He Ran, who was shouted "too provocative" by netizens, showed the audience an extremely rare image of the heroine of a romantic drama, when Xiao Han tried to give up because of the age and identity gap between the two people, it was she who took the initiative to pursue love, frequently expressed her good feelings for Xiao Han, and did not hide her impulse.
This enthusiasm and courage of bold pursuit of love opens up a gap with the playful narrative of the happy and unhappy family in the sweet pet drama. And He Ran and Xiao Han were finally filled into their complete selves in each other's love, taking the audience to rediscover their desperate self in love.
"I saw some netizens commenting on "Summer Flower" and thinking that China finally has a TV series that talks about how to boldly express love." For the current increasingly patterned romantic drama production, the freshness brought by this "anti-routine" has become the advantage of "Summer Flower", and the persistence of "anti-routine" is also reflected in all aspects of the plot.
For example, the adaptation of the finale, the main creative team also took a lot of effort. The tragic ending of the original novel is actually in line with realistic expectations, but for the audience, romantic dramas often attract them to substitute emotions and pay emotions, so everyone's hearts will look forward to a happy ending, and the current version also pins on the intentions of the main creators, hoping that the audience will continue to "believe in beauty".
"Many people have told me that they especially want to fall in love after watching "Summer Flower", and I think it's great." The special thing about "Summer Flower" is that it really allows the audience to taste the sweetness of love and achieves an excellent "dream-making" effect.
Therefore, Zhang Na will insist on "opposing the deliberate plot, allowing two people to forcibly meet, forcibly create coincidences, and even forcibly kiss." Compared with everything is a mistake and a strange fate from the sky, the active pursuit of love and the love that is stable in hand can make the mature audience believe, "Let the audience understand, go up, and want to chase the drama from the heart, rather than just to pass the time." ”
This is also why the drama can drive audiences in multiple circles to follow the drama with real feelings, including many who are not deep users of Tencent Video and groups with higher relative ages. Zhang Na specifically mentioned that she noticed that someone in the barrage said that this was the only drama that did not fast forward recently, which gave her great encouragement.
In this era when audiences are accustomed to using dramas as "background sound", "Summer Flower" hopes to make a good drama that allows the audience to put down their mobile phones to watch. "It's hard, but I think we got it right."
Use visual style
Open the door of adult love
The choice of Chen Zhufei, a male director, to direct a feminine work like "Summer Flower" stemmed from Zhang Na seeing the title of Chen Jufei's "Double Detective" and appreciating the aesthetics and colors it expressed. And "Summer Flower" is actually Chen Zhufei's first time to take on a romantic drama.
This choice is not unbelievable. In Zhang Na's view, a very important part of filming "Summer Flower" is the tone style, "The story of this drama itself is actually quite simple, so it is important to find a director who meets the requirements of picture and texture." Chen Zhufei did not disappoint, and in the end, "Summer Flower" presented a dream-like, ultimate aesthetic style.
Audiovisual texture has also become the memory point and interest point of "Summer Flower" that first hit the audience, whether it is the color aesthetics of the opening and ending animations, or the scenes and lighting design of several heavy scenes, it has become a hot topic for discussion.
On the one hand, this is due to the crew's original intention to create high-quality content, and is willing to pay time to polish the texture. According to reports, the play is set in Sanya, Lingshui and Wanning in Hainan, "the abandoned houses by the sea are specially built real scenes", and the eye-catching picture has also become one of the biggest highlights of the play.
Zhang Na was deeply impressed that when filming the scene in the studio of 15 episodes, the director accidentally encountered a slide button, which made the whole scene have a completely different aesthetic effect, and also made the scene that day overtime for five hours for reshooting. This kind of timeout is actually very common in the crew, including Yan Chengxu and Xu Ruohan will repeatedly try for better lens texture.
On the other hand, director Chen Zhufei and the main creators also have very clear creative intentions, and the entire shooting process is poured into various designs and ingenuity, and is reflected in the "anti-routine" of production.
For example, in terms of art style, the usual romantic dramas give the impression of freshness and relatively single colors, but in "Summer Flower", you can actually see a lot of retro tones and furnishings, and also increase the "dream-making" texture of the whole drama through the separation from reality; For example, Xiao Han's home refers to the element style of many old barbershops in Shanghai, and also allows the audience to accept Xiao Han's escape and story-filled setting.
Chen Zhufei was deeply impressed by a scene, it was He Ran and Xiao Han in Xijing for treatment, He Ran rushed to the alley to find Xiao Han like crazy, the whole light and shadow around Xiao Han and He Ran brought a sense of loneliness, and released all the emotions of the actors, photography, lighting and the actors' performances constitute a high emotional concentration and extremely complete beauty transmission.
The intentions of various types of work converge into the outstanding aesthetic texture of the whole play, and also make the sense of atmosphere and immersion the core experience of watching the play. "Whether it is photography, lighting, art, costumes, props, recording, all are indispensable", which is also Zhang Na and Chen Zhufei always emphasize "we are a team".
""Summer Flower" proves that the audience can fully understand the 'texture' thing, and they can perceive it when you try differently, which is the harvest of "Summer Flower"." In Zhang Na's view, spending more money on the production itself is the most valuable experience of the innovation and quality of the whole drama.
Break through genre barriers
Find the "greatest common divisor" of emotion and aesthetics
In the past few years, with the gradual expansion of the market and the richness of communication media, the audience of long-form videos has become increasingly diversified, and the requirements for the production side to break through the mainstream group and cover a wider age circle have also been put forward. In this context, some major types are still limited to the so-called mainstream consumer group, and it is difficult to further activate more potential audiences.
To break this barrier in production ideas, "Summer Flower" chose to start with a romantic drama, precisely because the theme itself has enough possibilities. The main creative team hopes that this drama can attract some non-sticky users to watch, "this is very difficult".
The final result exceeded expectations. "There are friends around me who don't usually watch dramas, but after watching this drama, they will take the initiative to tell me that they like it and shoot it well."
Behind the "breaking the wall" of the type audience comes from the attitude of respecting the audience and believing in the audience. Whether it is the production principle of "anti-routine" or the attitude of carefully designing and polishing the work, it is achieving a "greatest common divisor" for more diverse audiences and reaching consensus with the audience in terms of emotion, value and aesthetics.
This ability to meet the needs of more diverse audiences through innovation makes it possible for the series to break the circle with a good reputation.