Director of "Black Soil Without Words": The female boss Deng Jiajia has tension, Chen Jianbin and Hu Jun love to ponder the drama丨The people in the play

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"People in the Play" column

Tencent Entertainment and New Entertainment partners jointly launched the "People in the Play" column, focusing on the behind-the-scenes of hit dramas, this is the (6th). Exclusive conversation with Zang Xichuan, director of Tencent Video's hit drama "Black Soil Without Words", tells the behind-the-scenes story.

During the critical period of withdrawing the county and demarcating the district, three people died mysteriously overnight. The suspect was caught in the first episode, and the suspect confessed to murder in the third episode...... Tencent Video X Theater's fourth drama "Black Soil Without Words" made the audience deeply immersed in it not only who the killer was, but also the countless "why?" that popped up in their heads.

And this is the "one drama and one style" of "Black Soil Without Words" in the X theater. It focuses on the cold realistic criminal investigation drama route, showing the appearance and fate choices of social beings under the changing times from the perspective of criminal investigation. The process of "slow reasoning" is a deep excavation of human emotions and human nature.

From "Ten Day Game", "Sleeping Garden" to "Nine Righteous People", the first three genre dramas directed by Zang Xichuan have a Douban score of more than 7 points. "Black Soil Without Words", he led the team to Mudanjiang, a snow city in Northeast China, to shoot live, injecting a chilling temperament into the series with the lens, and also leaving more ingenuity in the lens, bringing the audience the ultimate sense of immersion and participation. 

The following is Director Zang Xichuan's own statement:

Shooting in the ice and snow was so cold that it was shivering, and there was an evil wind blowing during the shooting

The screenwriter of "Black Soil Without Words" writes the story of the Northeast, and we also hope to create a cold winter atmosphere in the play. Because in this environment, the rush and struggle of those little people for their lives is more in line with the mood of the characters. Therefore, we chose to start the operation in Mudanjiang in February, presenting the story of the Northeast under the ice and snow in an authentic way.

Filming in the Northeast in winter is really hard. It's normal for a car to get stuck in the snow when it's cold. The most difficult thing was the shooting on the ice. The ice surface is very slippery, and the speed at which everyone walks on it is not the same as usual, and the whole efficiency must be usually low, safety first, and you can't rush. But the winter in the Northeast has very short daylight hours, and I, as a director, are not good, sometimes in order to grab the daylight, I may not be able to put the meal on time, or let the staff eat in shifts, and the winter meal will be cold after a while, and they have to eat with a cold wind blowing on the ice.

The drama was filmed on location in the Northeast

Ice shooting was cold and difficult, but the picture looked so beautiful

There are a lot of night scenes in "Black Soil Without Words", it is normal to stay up late to shoot, and we have also survived several big all-nighters on the ice. At night, the ice is colder than during the day, so it's good that there is no strong wind, but when the wind blows, it is even harder. Yang Xuesong and Chen Xiaoming were lying on the ice and chatting, and the audience seemed to be very comfortable looking at the two, but it was quacking and cold that day, and I was shivering with cold in my down jacket and cotton shoes, and they filmed on the ice for two hours. There was also an evil wind, and if the viewer were to pay attention to the details, they would find that the snow was blowing in from above the picture as they spoke. The wind is very strong, and the light lamp is not able to shake after it is hung up, and there is a shadow when it is flickering, and it is not right to have a shadow. Wait for the wind to stop shooting again, and several lights were blown out by the strong wind in the middle. After the filming of this scene, Yang Yutong (played by Chen Xiaoming) said that he was about to freeze.

Therefore, I always say that if you don't have love, you can't really do it. It's really cold, but every time I see the picture from the lens, I feel that it's worth it, oops, it's right, great, I won't feel cold at that time.

Filmed in a subtle way, it doesn't affect the drama if you can't understand it

Seeing the audience's various interpretations of Chen Xiaoming's mother holding the key to the new house given by Yan Hongqiao to persuade her daughter, I am especially glad that the audience noticed the details of the key, which is indeed some ingenuity we added during the shooting: the mother shook her head at her daughter with tears in her eyes, but the key was already in her hand. Some people may do a very high moral kidnapping, but in front of their own eyes, how will they choose? Some people may say that I will definitely not be like them, I believe, but everyone has their own aspirations, and I also believe that she takes it, and people are different.

I use a subtle way, the camera passes by, and if I see it, I understand, and if I don't understand it, it won't affect the play.

Filming "Black Soil Without Words", I didn't want to express it in a particularly obvious way, and I was a little cautious, not only through the language of the characters. In the first scene of Chen Xiaoming's parents, I used a fixed shot. The two actors were not given a close-up. Because of the furnishings and environment in her home, the contradictions and entanglements between husband and wife are not an individual case of a certain family, but a point in the group portrait. It doesn't matter what these two faces look like, what kind of environment are these two important people, what are they doing, and what do the audience feel after seeing them?

Still

In "Black Soil Without Words", Chen Xiaoming's house in 2005 and Guan Yu's house in 1990, the pictures of these two fixed shots have the same effect

In fact, in every scene, we are pondering what is a better and more clever way to express it, not so straightforward. For example, in the scene before Yang Si killed his master when he was young, our camera slowly went up from a pair of feet on the ground, and the feet were full of cigarette butts, so that the audience could feel that this person had been standing for a long time and had a fierce ideological struggle. Because the hammer he threw was too difficult. If you kill the Master, maybe the child will be saved, but how should we weigh these two lives? This is a very worrying thing. Those who can see these ingenious ideas can also see more things.

Chen Jianbin said, "If you want to shoot more, say it directly", Deng Jiajia's performance is tense

Teacher Chen (Chen Jianbin ) and Brother Jun (Hu Jun) really love to ponder drama. Every scene is thought out thoroughly, and the best thing possible is brought out, and if you don't do it, you won't deal with it. In the scene of feeding dumplings in the interrogation room that everyone talked about, it was written in the script to eat dumplings, but they either fed dumplings or they figured it out.

The good thing about our script is that we didn't write the opposite side so stupidly, so that the characters are for tat instead of one side being crushed. The two of them played this-for-tat confrontation to give people a feeling of being wiped out in the middle of talking and laughing, and they finished the trick while talking and laughing. I watched the two of them act on the spot, and I had a very strong sense of substitution, basically a machine, just watching the play there, and sometimes I have to remind myself whether some important points have been given.

This dumpling feeding scene was figured out by Chen Jianbin and Hu Jun on the spot

Netizens praised Mr. Chen's first scene of picking green onions and eating noodles, saying that he understood how Northeast people eat noodles. The scene of eating noodles is written in the script about picking green onions, but he came up with the green onions himself. He must have inquired about how people in the Northeast eat noodles. Brother Jun also did a lot of design for the character. For example, in the fourth episode, his son gave Yang Si a new mobile phone, put it on the table, he was eating, and after his son left, before he took the mobile phone, he wiped his hand on the clothes on his chest a few times. is such a subtle action, which not only allows the audience to see the living habits of people at his level, but also sees his cherishing of the mobile phone given by his son and his love for his son.

Wang Ping played by Deng Jiajia, the audience said that her aura did not look like a female boss. In fact, we chose her because we didn't want to be abandoned. If you find an actor who looks like a female boss, everyone may think it is natural for her to do anything, but Deng Jiajia looks like she is not aggressive, making people feel that she can't be a good person, can do such a thing and achieve such a big career, which will make people interested in digging how many things she shoulders and how many things she carries in her heart. 

Wang Ping, played by Deng Jiajia, doesn't look like a female boss, but has another kind of momentum

And Deng Jiajia's performance is very tense, quiet, and can also make people feel her inner things and strength. She herself is also striving for excellence in performance. There is a scene that is not only an actress, but also a very hard scene for a male actor, she has her hands tied behind her back, she is dragged all the way on the ice, and she has to struggle and roll in various ways. We shot two, each one was long, but each one felt a little flawed, and I thought it was OK to put the two together. She said that the director has no regrets, come again, and shoot until she is satisfied.

Mr. Chen also told me after a few days of shooting, if you want to shoot more, just tell me, no problem. Brother Jun is also very talkative, and told him that he should shoot more time today, and he always said, "You shoot". really met a wave of good actors, there may be a lot of good actors like this in China, but it is rare to meet so many good actors together.

Focusing on the back of the case, it reflects people's control over desires

In July 2021, Bingchen, the casting director of "Black Soil Without Words", told me that there was a genre drama project that wanted me to shoot, and I thought it would be the kind of drama with a strong plot and special drama, and I felt that it was difficult to have new ideas. I didn't read the script and rejected it. Because they were good friends, he insisted that I read the script.

After reading the script, I found that it was different from what I imagined. It takes the delicate route of social reasoning, and is more about excavating people, the emotions between people, and what is behind the case, rather than the case itself. It reflects the complexity of human beings, the complexity of human nature. I find this interesting.

In "Black Soil Without Words", what is reflected behind the case is the complexity of people and human nature

Just like on the first day of the broadcast, I saw that the audience was guessing the murderer, and they all guessed it. But it is this seemingly simple case that can see at a glance who the murderer is, but it can make the audience see countless whys? For example, Yang Si denied it at the beginning, why did he suddenly admit that he had killed someone? Why did he kill someone? What did he have with Yan Hongqiao? Speaking of the back, it is an emotional thing, a matter of father-son blood.

Yang Si's life is very miserable, he has encountered countless forks in the road in his life, and countless choices, all because of his relatives, because of his family, and because of his emotions. His choice is very heart-wrenching, everyone's perspective is different, and their understanding is also different.

In this environment, after seeing some opportunities, some people hope to struggle with their own hands, and some people want to speculate and do a profitable thing, so as to express people's control over desires. Many people in the play are led by desire to the point of no return precisely because they can't control their desires.

The doorway of this kind of drama is to play games with the audience, and it is interesting to have a pull

From 2020 to the present, he has directed four genre dramas in a row, and he is not fond of plots with this kind of theme, but because he started filming "Decameron Game", he has found this kind of drama with a little reasoning. After filming several dramas, based on his observations in life, audience feedback from dramas filmed in the past, and watching dramas filmed by others, he gradually found a little way to this kind of drama. I think doing this kind of drama is actually playing a game with the audience, and you have to make them feel right or wrong, and if you can see the head at a glance, it's boring. The communication between the director and the audience must be pulled to be interesting. The audience won't stop watching because it's slow, as long as the hook can be hooked.

This kind of drama is difficult to do, and it's hard here. So, when dealing with some scenes, I put myself in the audience's point of view, this scene is handled like this, do they like to watch it? Do they find this line interesting? If they don't like it, if it's boring, change it or don't want it. I don't think it's interesting, why do the audience think it's interesting? I can't stand it, it's boring and embarrassing, how can I think the audience loves it? Especially now that the audience has watched so many good dramas.

In fact, in addition to this kind of drama, I can also shoot other genres. I like to be a little more grounded, that is, the so-called down-to-earth and life-oriented type, so that the audience can see themselves like a mirror by watching dramas. Although each subject has its own unique charm, I still like not to be too far away from me, let me shoot science fiction and fantasy, I may not be able to shoot it, or I can shoot it, but I may not be able to shoot it well, then don't spoil this project, just shoot what I like or are handy.