May 19, 2023 | Total Issue 3240
On the afternoon of May 17, a seminar on the online drama "Long Season" hosted by the China Television Arts Committee was held in Beijing.
"The Long Season" starts with a case of broken corpses, and the three timelines of 1997, 1998 and 2016 cross narratives, outlining a different atmosphere of life in suspense dramas and presenting exquisite visual effects. On April 22, after the drama was launched on Tencent Video, its popularity quickly exceeded 26,000, and Douban scored 9.0, and soared all the way during the hit, and the highest on the closing day of membership rose to 9.5, and it is currently stable at 9.4, which is the highest-rated online drama so far.
Yi Kai, host and secretary general of the China Television Arts Committee, said that the symposium "aims to deeply discuss and summarize the creative characteristics of the play, hoping to provide some inspiration for future creation." ”
Relevant responsible persons of the TV Drama Department of the State Administration of Radio and Television, the Network Audiovisual Department, and the Fujian Provincial Radio and Television Bureau attended the meeting; Representatives of producers, broadcast platforms, and main creators also shared their creative insights at the meeting; On the one hand, the expert group praised the artistic breakthrough of the play, and on the other hand, it also put forward higher requirements and expectations for the main creator.
Creative insights: difficult, but also confident
Although "Long Season" is a suspense drama involved in the case, it does not strictly follow the creative routine of genre dramas, but creates a new form of "life suspense drama". This leaves no success story for this show. However, good stories and ideas make all those involved always maintain full confidence.
Huang Changhua, Director of the Network Audiovisual and Media Integration Division of the Fujian Provincial Radio and Television Bureau, recalled: "The Long Season brought us strong confidence at the project approval stage. On the night I received the finished film in the mail, I saw three thirty in the morning and couldn't stop. ”
Wang Juan, Vice President and Editor-in-Chief of Tencent Online Video, introduced the work done by the platform in promoting the show: "The Long Season is the first work of Tencent Video X Theater. During the broadcast, we gave the highest attention and the greatest resource support. Customized ingenious designs such as barrage countercurrent and bullet screen color change enhance the experience of watching the drama. ”
Zhang Na, Senior Director of Natural Studio of Tencent's Online Video Film and Television Content Production Department, Producer and Chief Producer of "The Long Season", said: "This project originated from a chat I had with screenwriter Yu Xiaoqian. After having the first draft of the script, it took another 2 years to find the most suitable production team and director. Although there is no benchmark data for reference, we are willing to support artists' creation and support innovation. ”
Producer Lu Jing explained the genre positioning of the play: "Our creation comes from life. Life is the biggest tentacle and background framework of "The Long Season", so in terms of genre, we define it as a 'life suspense drama', and make a new positioning and new thinking for the audience of suspense dramas. ”
Director Xin Shuang not only answered the questions raised by the expert group, but also shared his creative experience: "We very much want to explore the relationship between people and time, people and fate in this story framework involving past events, and hope that this creative direction can stimulate some audiences to think about life." I was born in Tohoku, and although I have been away for many years, I still want to do what I can for the development of my hometown through a work. ”
Qin Hao talked about his experience of appearing in this play: "Gong Biao is in some ways a microcosm of optimistic Northeasterners, never compromising on fate, always working hard to live, no matter how much hardship he has experienced, he can always remain optimistic. I hope that he comes from the lives of the people, so that the audience can experience a sense of intimacy and authenticity. ”
Expert comment: There are innovations, but there are limitations
"The Long Season" has formed a unique style and taste with a texture close to life, a narrative rhythm of the chapter back body, and a stylized audiovisual language, and has won numerous praises after its launch. While affirming its artistic innovation, on-site experts also talked about the limitations of creation in their vision and put forward higher expectations for the main creators.
Li Jingsheng, vice president of the China Federation of Radio and Television Social Organizations, praised the drama as "expanding the breadth of suspense dramas to express life, broadening the level of life suspense, and setting an example of pioneering and innovative for similar themes." At the same time, he said: "The shortcomings of this drama are not the shortcomings of this drama, but some common deficiencies in the creation of such dramas." ”
"Do all suspense dramas have to be expressed in cases? Do all case dramas have to be expressed in terms of murder? Is it necessary to express blood in all murders? This is where the suspense drama needs to be studied and breakthrough when it is created. ”
"All individual misfortunes are attributed to the original family, which is also a not very clever way in our recent film and television creation. Too much attributing a person's problems to the original family is not particularly scientific in sociology and psychology. In future creation, we must try to jump out of this routine. ”
Yang Chenghu, vice dean of the School of Arts and Media of Beijing Normal University, believes that "The Long Season" is an online drama that is typically constructed with film thinking, and analyzes the cinematic artistic expression of the series from three aspects: "the glory and dreams of professional people", "sharply revealing the pain of the times and the pain of life", and "deep life aria and cultural metaphor".
Lu Fan, director of the Audio and Video Office of Peking University Media Center, focused on the three enlightening meanings of "The Long Season" for genre films, "anti-genre, de-type to shape large genres", "suspense design gives way to people's material sense, philosophical speculation and detail madness", and "deepening from art to sociology".
Professor Lu Rong of the School of Drama, Film and Television of Communication University of China almost missed the play because he "saw too much of the corpse crushing case". Under the Amway of the circle of friends, she began to follow the drama and fell deeply in love. "In The Long Season, I see the blend of realism and poetry, I see the thinking of existence and time, I see the glimmer of human nature under fate. This is a manifestation of the maturity of aesthetics. ”
Niu Mengdi, director editor of the Literature and Art Department of Guangming Daily, lamented that when watching the first four episodes, he still felt that the pace was a little slow, and chased back and found that "life is the biggest surprise of this drama". She used a combination of three elements to interpret the success of the play: "life + suspense" in the plot structure, "mortal + hero" in character shaping, and "image + metaphor" in artistic conception.
Zhong Chengxiang, a librarian of the Central Research Museum of Culture and History and a well-known literary critic, believes that some media are not rigorous in their statements that this play belongs to "warm realism" or "cruel realism". He believes that the most appropriate description should be "the combination of the spirit of realism and the feeling of romanticism".
In addition, he also highlighted the leading role of "The Long Season" in online drama audiences. "This play cultivates a social group that is calm but not impetuous, profound but not superficial, humorous but not oily, elegant but not kitsch. Deepening pleasure into spiritual beauty is called true art. ”
Li Fang, deputy editor-in-chief of the overseas edition of People's Daily, combined her identity as a northeasterner, lamented that this drama triggered her deep emotions for the northeast land and deep thinking about the fate of the characters. "The most valuable thing is that there are many characters in the play, and everyone is good-looking. Create a complex polylinear relationship composed of many characters. ”
【Text/Full Hoard】