"Ordinary people love to watch" is one of the reasons that prompted Zheng Xiaolong to serve as the general director of "Meritorious Service".
| Author: Liszt
| Editor: Curry
| Editor: Su Su
Recently, viewers who are accustomed to automatically checking "automatically skip the opening credits" when chasing dramas on video websites have left a bullet screen at the opening of the TV series "Meritorious", "I cried at this head", "I was completely broken by the opening of the film" "Tears when I saw Yuan Longping's grandfather approaching"...
In the opening scene, there is first a close-up of a "Medal of the Republic", and then the 8 actors who play the meritorious characters slowly come to the audience one by one, gradually transitioning into real meritorious figures. Zheng Xiaolong, the general director, said that this opening of only 1 minute and 30 seconds is the most difficult part of the whole drama to achieve creativity, and it can also be seen as a technical exploration of China's TV drama production ability.
"We took a picture of the actors coming over, and after the shooting, we did a facial scan for them, but the biggest problem was that of these eight meritorious people, Mr. Yu Min had died at that time, and there was no possibility of letting the other seven meritorious figures go through it, they were all old, and even some people were in wheelchairs when they went to the award, and finally we got their award-winning hd photos from Xinhua News Agency to remodel, starting from the eyebrows and eyes, and completely becoming a person through modeling."
Looking back on the modeling process, Zheng Xiaolong has seen it an unclear number of times, from the production of special effects in December last year, until the first ten days before the start of the broadcast, it was still adjusted, including how the hair changed, how the clothes became military uniforms, they were all cut out little by little, and the process was very trivial and troublesome.
It is with this solemn and unique title that "Meritorious Service" has brought the series closer to the real people from the beginning.
Realism is the general tone of Merit
The seventh unit currently being broadcast, "Tu Youyou's Gift", is a unit that Zheng Xiaolong directed separately as the general director. "The character of Tu Youyou is really different from any female character I have ever filmed before. She is very personal — her personality is not manifested in the ups and downs, but in daily life, in the interaction with people, she seems very different. ”
Stills from "Tu Youyou's Gift".
How to create an image of Tu Youyou, who is both ordinary and vivid, different from other film and television works and different from other female scientific researchers, is the first question that Zheng Xiaolong thought about at the beginning of the creation of this unit.
After a lot of interviews, they found Tu Youyou's character traits - undistracted concentration and stubbornness that ignored the discussion and gaze of others. Tu Youyou drills the horns in her ideal kingdom, so her words and actions are different.
Zheng Xiaolong has formed her own dramatic story by showing her persistent personality: Tu Youyou talks to people without looking at each other's faces, there is one to say, because scientists believe in science, believe in experiments, data; her life is simple and simple, and she does not care about eating and wearing; she is very loyal to the tasks entrusted to her by the state, and she is full of compassion for patients.
"We don't seek to write a long biography of each meritorious person, but to intercept the most brilliant part of their lives." Zheng Xiaolong said that each unit of "Meritorious Service" focuses on discovering the "highlight moments" of the characters.
When casting for Tu Youyou, a meritorious figure, Zheng Xiaolong and Wang Xiaoping, the screenwriter of this unit, unanimously selected Zhou Xun. "Xiao Zhou has some things about Tu Youyou, such as they are not good at interpersonal relationships and focus on their own work." Zheng Xiaolong revealed that the State Administration of Radio and Television had four requirements for the selection of actors at that time: first, both virtue and art, second, both form and spirit, third, superb acting skills, and fourth, the consent of the meritorious person himself.
Tu Youyou has been focusing on scientific research, does not look at the current film and television dramas, does not know the actors, asked "who is Zhou Xun", her daughter praised "Zhou Xun is good, acting sticks", and "popular science" Zhou Xun's film and television works, so the candidate was recognized by Tu Youyou.
Tu Youyou in reality and Tu Youyou played by Zhou Xun in "Meritorious Service".
In the play, Zhou Xun cut his short hair from the 1980s, wore wide glasses, brown pants, and earth gray pants. In addition to trying to get closer to himself in appearance, Zhou Xun also found similarities between himself and Tu Youyou, resonating with the character: "I have a similarity with Teacher Tu's personality, she studies medicine, I study acting, so as soon as I change, I feel some doorways." Zheng Xiaolong said that Zhou Xun later even walked with his bag, more and more like Tu Youyou.
Realism is the overall tone of this drama, as the general director, Zheng Xiaolong's first requirement is to be real, and use pictures and stories to accurately restore the real life of that era.
The crew of "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian" lasted for a month, from zero to one to copy the historical 346.6 highlands, nearly 20,000 shell casings, 372 gun props, countless large and small craters... Restore real war scenes;
Li Yannian played by Wang Lei in the unit of "Nengwen Nengwu Li Yannian".
In order not to disturb the normal life of the elderly, the crew of "Obscure Zhang Fuqing" copied Zhang Fuqing's real home for filming one-to-one, director Kang Honglei said that "even a needle and thread brain is retained", Zhang Fuqing himself was amazed when visiting the class, here and his home is exactly the same;
Stills of "Obscure Zhang Fuqing".
The crew of "Shen Jilan's Proposal" carried out a comprehensive "chronological restoration" transformation of Shuangzhaoquan Village in Pingshun County, Shanxi Province, where the filming site was made, the new brick house was changed to yellow mud wall, the big red tile was replaced by black tile, the cement road was paved with loess, and the old house was rebuilt...
Stills from "Shin Ji-ran's Proposal".
Even the title of each unit has a "coming". "Yuan Longping's Dream" comes from a dream that Yuan Lao had, the dream of cooling under the grass, which is actually Yuan Longping's dream of increasing rice production and hoping that rice will be planted as tall as a tree; "Tu Youyou's Gift" is taken from Tu Youyou's "Artemisinin is a gift from Chinese traditional Chinese medicine to the world" after winning the Nobel Prize.
Shoot a TV series that "ordinary people love to watch"
Nowadays, when it comes to director Zheng Xiaolong, most young audiences first think of "The Biography of Zhen Huan", and long before this popular drama in Asia, he directed or participated in the planning and production of film and television dramas that have produced sensational effects. Some media even likened him to "General Patton of Chinese TV dramas" and the first "pioneers" of China's TV drama industry.
Zheng Xiaolong served as a soldier in his early years, and in 1982 he transferred to the newly established Beijing Television Art Center, which was the first professional film and television drama production unit in China. From the initial screenwriter to the director of the center, he has worked for more than 30 years in the humble gray building of the Soap Jun temple in Haidian District, witnessing the development of China's TV drama industry and becoming one of the most influential figures in the field of TV drama.
It was here that Zheng Xiaolong created China's first feature-length chamber drama "Longing", the first TV series "The Story of the Editorial Department", and the first TV series filmed overseas, "Beijingers in New York". Feng Xiaogang, Zhao Baogang and other directors who later became active in the front line of the film and television industry also "set off" from here to witness the golden age of Chinese TV dramas.
Stills from "The Story of the Editorial Department".
In the 1980s and 1990s, when Zheng Xiaolong planned and directed "Beijingers in New York" in 1992, there was no precedent for all TV drama crews to go abroad to shoot abroad.
The crew is also facing the problem of tight funding, compared with the investment of tens of millions and hundreds of millions of yuan in the current filming of TV series, Zheng Xiaolong's cost of shooting in the United States was only 1.2 million US dollars. After arriving in the United States, the crew tried everything to save money. Several people in the art department live at the Northland Hotel in The Small Town of Oyster Bay, New York, opposite a dump that specializes in enlarging waste. Every now and then there are things that can be used in the garbage heap. So the refrigerator, washing machine, cabinet were all picked up as props, and they even picked up a 40-inch color TV that could be played.
"Beijingers in New York" set a record for ratings after it was broadcast, including many film and television drama awards such as the "Feitian Award", "Golden Eagle Award" and "Five One Project Award".
Stills from "Beijingers in New York".
Entering the new century, Zheng Xiaolong's name has appeared as a director, chief planner or producer in the titles of excellent domestic dramas, "The Happy Life of Poor Mouth Zhang Damin", "Golden Marriage", "Zhen Huan Biography", "Red Sorghum", "Mi Yue Biography", "Emergency Department Doctor" are all good works with "double high" reputation and quality. "Ordinary people love to watch" is also one of the reasons that prompted Zheng Xiaolong to serve as the general director of "Meritorious Service".
In fact, the preparations for the Meritorious Service began less than a month after the award of the "Order of the Republic" on September 29, 2019. At that time, the comrades of the State Administration of Radio and Television found Zheng Xiaolong and hoped that he could take over this task, but Zheng Xiaolong played a drum in his heart and did not agree on the spot.
"I learned that the main reason why the leaders of the General Bureau came to me as a director was that they thought that the films I made were more watched by the people and had high ratings. So, I thought, then this time I will combine 'top-down' and 'bottom-up'. Zheng Xiaolong took a stack of materials of meritorious figures back home and plunged into it, "The more I looked at it, the more fascinated I became, and I was really moved by the stories of these people." While watching, he thought about how to express their life experiences and life realms, and it took more than 20 days before he felt that he "could do this."
The main theme of film and television dramas frequently "out of the circle"
2021 is a year when the main theme of film and television dramas frequently "goes out of the circle", and it is also a year of increasing maturity of the new paradigm of the main theme film and television dramas that are grounded and shape "real people". From "The Age of Awakening", "Mountains and Seas", "Meritorious Service", to "Changjin Lake" and "My Father and Me", which strongly lead the National Day film market, from the small screen to the big screen, a well-made, acclaimed and popular main theme film and television dramas appeared, and the opening of the broadcast ushered in a continuous surge in word-of-mouth and popularity.
After the release of the movie "Chosin Lake" on the 9th and 30th, the box office broke records one after another.
In the past two decades, with the changes in the creative model and market environment, in the commercial environment of excessive pursuit of ratings and traffic, most of the main theme film and television works have gradually fallen into the trap of "scripted propaganda", lack of good works, limited influence, and once regarded as a synonym for not looking good and having no market. But this year's main theme film and television works that have successively come out of the circle have once again proved that the theme is not a barrier, and the main theme and serious history cannot only be made into the flower of Gaoling. As Zhang Yongxin, director of "The Age of Awakening", said: "Young audiences never reject the main theme, they reject suspended, ungrounded, rough and loose works." ”
The commonality of these successful main theme film and television works lies in the de-conceptualization and "facialization", focusing on the big stories of small people and the small stories of big people in the grand historical background, and making the characters three-dimensional and vivid, real and tangible, and desirable.
In "The Age of Awakening", after Chen Duxiu raised the investment of "New Youth" magazine in Beijing, he was so happy that he ran like a child and ran to roll in the snow; in "Mountains and Seas", Mai Miao and his fellow villagers went to Fujian to work, and at the fraternity meeting, they remembered the autumn red of the children in their families, and stuffed one balloon after another into his pocket; in "Meritorious Service", Li Yannian was not only a brave and good warrior, courageous and knowledgeable combat hero, but also a political worker with firm faith, open-mindedness, and good use of people.
In "The Age of Awakening", Chen Duxiu, played by Yu Hewei.
These flesh-and-blood character images and storylines eliminate the distance between historical figures, heroes and young people at present, and are closer to the new era expression of the audience's real feelings, passing through time and space and geographical barriers to achieve empathy.
Zheng Xiaolong played the empathy point of this main theme to the extreme, and now he has "Meritorious Service" that has received 9.1 points in Douban. By meticulously depicting the ordinariness of the heroes and the noble personalities of ordinary people, and concentrating on writing the "highlight moments" of the heroes, he let the audience understand the excellence of the heroes, the noble spirit and the value of the times.