Since its broadcast, the TV series "When the Mountains Are Blooming" has not only achieved extremely high ratings and word of mouth, but also became the highest-scoring Chinese drama series this year with a Douban score of 9.4 points (128,000 scores).
In the past, the main theme dramas often faced the challenge of stereotyping, with a lack of hierarchy in characters and formulaic storylines, which made the audience feel stiff. The recently aired works with main themes such as "When the Mountains Are Blooming", "The Great Sea Road", "City of Sunshine" and "People's Police" have made subversive innovations in narrative techniques and character building, and have achieved quite good reputation and results.
As an important art form that promotes the core values of socialism and transmits positive social energy, the main theme drama has made remarkable development and progress in recent years, showing more ideas and possibilities for the creation of the main theme theme, and providing valuable experience and inspiration for the creation of the main theme drama.
Regarding the new development of the main theme, the author also tried to briefly talk about thinking and observation. The following will discuss with you how to create a good main theme drama from the aspects of theme ideas, creative methods, character archetypes, and moving details.
Epochality: The spirit of the times with the main theme theme
When it comes to the main theme, we can't leave the profundity and epochality of the theme expression of this type of work. Especially the times, it is almost the lifeline of the creation of the main theme. The main theme drama should closely focus on the theme of the times and reflect the changes and development of the times. For example, "The Age of Awakening" takes major historical events such as the New Culture Movement, the May Fourth Movement and the founding of the Communist Party of China as the background, showing the ideological awakening and fighting spirit of the people of that era, and has become a classic work in recent years with the main theme of works.
The characters in the main theme are not only representatives of individuals, but also symbols of the times. In the creation of the main theme, the character archetypes should be closely integrated with the background of the times, and they should be given the meaning and value of the times. Then, through the stories of the characters, it reflects the spirit of the times and the development of society, so that the audience can better understand and feel the changes of the times. For example, the cyclists in "The Great Sea", in the process of chasing their dreams, also show the development and changes of the Xinjiang region, as well as the fighting spirit of young people.
Stills from "The Great Sea Road".
"When the Mountains and Flowers Are Blooming" also has a strong spirit of the times because of the characters. Different from the common "sacrifice" and "dedication" female images in traditional main theme dramas, "When the Mountains Are Blooming" creates a multi-dimensional and complex female group portrait. The protagonist Zhang Guimei not only has strong ideals and beliefs, but she also shows a rich emotional world.
Screenwriter Yuan Dan mentioned that Zhang Guimei's optimism, humor and tenacity have transformed her from a "hero" image to a more relatable and closer to life female character. This work also enriches the relatively scarce education-themed film and television dramas in the market, especially in the field of focusing on the education of girls in poor mountainous areas, showing the uniqueness of the series.
This shift shows that the main theme drama is expressing women's social roles and historical missions through new perspectives. This not only responds to the current society's demand for gender equality, but also provides a new narrative template for China's main theme film and television works on a global scale.
It can be seen that only by closely combining the theme of the drama with the times can it resonate with the audience and allow the audience to better understand and feel the spirit of the times.
Authenticity: The "Flag Bearer" of Realism
In recent years, among the high-quality main theme dramas, a commonality can be observed: a strong real texture close to people's lives. Whether it is "Mountains and Seas", "My Altay", or the recent "City of Sunshine", they are all truly restoring the people's life style, the real emotions of the characters, and the growth process, and it is this authenticity that allows the audience to substitute, resonate, and watch. When it comes to the "main theme", it is no longer the "Gao Daquan" and "Wei Guangzheng" many years ago, which is the "blessing" that the creators of this genre have paid attention to authenticity in recent years.
For example, "When the Mountains Are Blooming" is extremely careful in creation. In order to truly reproduce Zhang Guimei's life and work, the crew went deep into Lijiang Huaping to conduct extensive research, and tried to restore the real scene and atmosphere of the women's high school in the play. The creative team conducted in-depth field research, especially at Huaping Girls' High School led by Zhang Guimei, and collected a large number of real stories about students and teachers.
These stories are effectively integrated into the play, which greatly enhances the realism and immersion of the series. For example, the growth story of Gu Yu, a female student in the play, stems from the synthesis of multiple real characters. Gu Yu initially dropped out of school and was forced to marry by her father, but returned to school under the inspiration of Zhang Guimei, which eventually changed her life. This plot vividly recreates the fate of countless girls in the mountains, and shows the central role of education in the twists and turns of these girls' fates.
Stills from "When the Mountains Are Blooming".
In order to avoid "selling miserably", Zhang Guimei herself also put forward a request to the crew, not to overshow the suffering of students, and not to show their personal lives as a gimmick. Screenwriter Yuan Dan mentioned that they collected many touching student stories, but they all got the consent of the students before making film and television adaptations. This kind of creative method that respects reality and does not overly dramatize makes the audience feel the real emotions and life dilemmas of the characters when watching, and then be deeply moved.
The authenticity of different main theme episodes, and the focus of their "restoration" is still different. For example, in the main theme drama of historical themes, the restoration of the historical background is very important. Including the atmosphere of the times, social style, character costumes, etc., it is necessary to pass rigorous research and careful design, so that the audience can feel the atmosphere of history as if they were there. For example, the restoration of scenes such as the streets of Beijing and the campus of Peking University during the Republic of China in "The Awakening Age" makes the audience feel as if they have traveled back to that magnificent era.
For the main theme drama of the realistic theme, it is necessary to truly present the scenes of contemporary society and people's living conditions. Avoid over-embellishment or exaggeration so that the audience can see life as it really is. For example, the presentation of Tibet's natural scenery, cultural customs and contemporary Lhasa life in "City of Sunshine" allows the audience to have a deeper understanding of Tibet; The life scenes of ethnic minority compatriots in Xinjiang are spared no effort to depict and display the life scenes of ethnic minority compatriots in "The Great Sea Road", which also allows everyone to better participate in this story. Although it is a distant foreign land, it can make audiences from different regions, different customs, and different nationalities feel the common joys, sorrows, and joys because of its authenticity.
In the current market, contemporary realist themes have actually been given a cold reception, and many producers are discouraged by the difficulty of creation, the risk of passing the review, and the high requirements for the creative production team. Nowadays, it is the main theme theme that was once "questioned" by the market and the industry, and it has carried the banner of realism.
Innovativeness: A bold breakthrough in narrative techniques
In recent years, the main theme theme has also shown a trend of "abandoning the routine of grand narratives and telling the stories of ordinary people from the perspective of individuals".
For example, "Mountains and Seas" shows the great achievements of the national poverty alleviation policy by telling the hardships and struggles of the people in the Xihaigu area of Ningxia in the process of getting rid of poverty and becoming rich; "Our Decade" shows the struggles and achievements of ordinary people in different industries and fields in the past ten years through multiple unit stories; Even the drama "Meritorious", which tells about "meritorious figures", focuses on the ordinary side of these meritorious characters, so that ordinary audiences can empathize with these "heroes" and believe in these characters more.
Stills from "Our Decade".
In addition, in recent years, there have been many technical innovations in the creation of scripts for the main theme. For example, in terms of narrative structure, "When the Mountains Are Blooming" has stepped out of the simple and linear biography mode and incorporated more group drama writing, placing Zhang Guimei's story in the context of interaction with students, teachers, parents, and leaders of higher departments, presenting a more complex and three-dimensional social reality. The series shows how the students awaken and grow under the guidance of Zhang Guimei through multiple details, which enhances the audience's sense of emotional substitution. In addition, screenwriter Yuan Dan also described the drama as adopting the narrative method of "entrepreneurial drama", and regarded the process of Zhang Guimei's founding of the women's high school as a difficult but meaningful "entrepreneurial journey". This unique narrative not only enhances the watchability of the series, but also makes it easier for the audience to accept and understand this fighting spirit.
Another example is "The Awakening Age", which integrates some light-hearted and daily elements into the shaping of the revolutionary ancestors, adding a lot to the plot, and these dramatic treatments do not weaken the power of the main theme, but make the characters more vivid and cute. sets off the tragedy of their sacrifice with a beautiful daily life, and adds touching to the audience and the cherishing of their own daily life.
"Asking the Boundless" is to create a poetic narrative of the main theme theme, the romanticism of the revolutionaries, through the perfect presentation of audio-visual language in the creation, the main theme theme that has always been "realistic", presenting a unique style of "imagery" and "romanticization", which is unique in the creation of many main theme themes and is very worthy of reference.
Stills from "Ask the Boundless".
In recent years, these remarkable advances in the main theme drama have not only made the main theme drama recognized by the audience, but also achieved good reputation and results; It is more worthy of more thinking and research in the industry. At a time when the creation of various commercial genres is in a bottleneck and the market response is cold, whether the main theme drama can give more inspiration to the industry: the times, authenticity, and innovation are still a weapon recognized by the audience.
Imagine the future, the main theme may continue to deepen the connection with the times, more keenly capture the pulse of the times, and reflect the new trends and new problems of social development. In terms of authenticity, more diverse presentation methods may be explored to meet the audience's more in-depth and detailed real needs for different themes.
Not long ago, some netizens shared their story of telling Zhang Guimei's story in the IELTS field, which made the examiner cry and achieved a high score, which is like a successful output of oriental theme values. Truth, goodness and beauty are always the narrative themes that adapt to the world, and perhaps with the global return of conservative values, in addition to Douyin videos, global audiences will also pay attention to domestic main theme dramas, so that excellent theme dramas such as "When the Mountains and Flowers Are Blooming" will go international and no longer be a dream.