Singers such as Huang Qishan and Ju Hongchuan sang the song and dance film "Wings of Song" to explore "letting music participate in the narrative"

Good music can be the soul of a movie, and even more so for song and dance films. On March 28, the song and dance film "Wings of Song", organized and planned by the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, supported by the Department of Culture and Tourism of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, and created and filmed by Tianshan Film Studio, will be released soon. The film was composed by Dong Yingda and sung by Singers such as Huang Qishan, Tusken Tabis Khan, Alai Aydar Khan, Cui Zige, ju Hongchuan and other singers. The film contains eight round songs, four groups of big songs and dances, two musicals, showing the folk customs, music and dance of as many as eight ethnic groups, and is a music and dance film that integrates the scenery and ethnic customs of all parts of Xinjiang. Dong Yingda, the composer of the film, said in an interview that music can express emotions and is an extension of emotions.

Song and dance films not only have high requirements for actors, but more importantly, the requirements for composition are very high, and a good song and dance film needs to achieve a very good degree of cooperation between the film industry, the music industry and the dance world.

To this end, Tianshan Film Studio specially invited Dong Yingda, who has composed original music for well-known film and television works such as "Long Day in the Earth", "Shadow", "No War in Peking" and so on, to compose music for "Wings of Singing".

When Dong Yingda, a Han chinese girl, first received the invitation, she thought it was an "impossible task." But with her dedication to music and her yearning for Xinjiang elements, she embarked on a flight to Urumqi. 10,000 kilometers, visit all the local art and culture song and dance troupes, watch four or five original performances a day, drive to the home of folk artists at 12 o'clock in the middle of the night to record materials... Dong Yingda believes that only a complete style can better extract the content required by the film from the fragmented various musical elements.

Dong Yingda said, "Before the start of filming, we traveled all over southern Xinjiang and northern Xinjiang, looking for filming locations and creative inspiration. During the filming process, I went to the scene many times to experience what kind of songs the characters in the film needed. "In one of the scenes, the actors were filming a dance scene. Dong Yingda took a small stool and sat in the distance, completely "immersed" in the environment, and wrote a song in only 20 minutes, which was appreciated by other creative staff. In the subsequent close-up shooting, Dong Yingda taught the song to the actors on the spot to help them better interpret the role.

"As is customary, composers can't do these things on the spot, but I did a lot of 'no's' things in the process of this film, thanks to the cooperation and understanding of all departments."

At the expert observation seminar of the movie "Wings of Song", experts believed that "letting music participate in the narrative" is a new exploration of the film's creation of domestic song and dance films, which is in stark contrast with Western song and dance dramas and has the unique characteristics and charm of the Chinese nation.

As we all know, the appeal and impact of music and dance are very strong, if the main energy is focused on literary narrative, it will cause the weakening of music and dance, losing the style of song and dance films; if you simply create songs and dances, it weakens the narrative.

In order to solve this problem, Dong Yingda thought for a long time and finally decided that "composing should live in the play, feel and create from the perspective of the character." She let herself "play" as a singer participating in the draft, and performed plot deduction with "mentors" such as screenwriters and directors, not only gaining a deeper understanding of the creative direction and musical style, but also revising part of the plot and dialogue with the screenwriter, so that the music could participate in the narrative more completely.

Dong Yingda said that in the past we have seen Bollywood music films, music does not participate in the narrative much. But "Wings of Song" is different, using a lot of musical forms, that is, lines, dialogue are sung, music, song and dance is not only an extension of emotion, such an attempt is not abrupt, but more interesting.

In the end, according to different ethnic groups, different plots, and different scenes, Dong Yingda created eight original music. Dong Yingda said that because of the particularity of music films, this is the strongest "initiative" of all her film and television works, and only by participating in the creation of "strong" can music and narrative be integrated and give the work a more in-depth expression.

It is worth mentioning that the singers Huang Qishan, Tusken Tabis Khan, Alai Aydar Khan, Cui Zige, Ju Hongchuan, etc. dedicated their voices to the film, they said that they like the music in the film very much, each singer needs to match the role when singing, and the protagonist is always in a state, which is also the most unique place of "Wings of Song".

After completing the creation of "Wings of Song", Dong Yingda believes that this film has changed her life. "I'm also envious of people living in a diverse region, and this film enriches my imagination about life. As a northern Han Chinese, I often imagine myself as Uyghur girls, reading how they see Beijing and Shanghai; and as a creative person, I will also keep thinking, breaking the circle is very important, "Wings of Song" makes my life different, more perspective on the world, it has changed my life. ”

Text/Beijing Youth Daily reporter Xiao Yang

Editor/He Mengyu