Text │ Cream Dai
The revolutionary historical drama "Big Waves and Sands" officially ended.
Rich group portrait drama and a strong sense of substitution give the audience a novel viewing experience, looking at the comment area of Platforms such as Douban and Weibo, "praise" is not only in the full star score and official topics, but also from the content to the role are said, every clue in the play, every scene can arouse the audience's desire to express, which undoubtedly confirms the law that high-quality content will eventually win.
Since its broadcast on May 11, the audience has followed Chen Qihang, a young man of the 21st century, from Jiaxing all the way to Yan'an, witnessing the ups and downs of the Communist Party of China from the "First Congress" to the "Seventh National Congress" for more than 20 years, witnessing the growth of young people a hundred years ago from a third-party perspective, and Mao Zedong Thought from scratch, from infancy to maturity in the debate.
The beautiful viewership data is also supportive.
According to the statistics of CSM 59 city ratings, the ratings of "Big Wave Taosha" in the two satellite Ties have been stable at more than 1.8, and during the broadcast period, the ratings of the two stations have repeatedly broken 2, and won the national ratings championship in the same period.
At the end of the show, director Jana Shahati shared with us some of the stories from the creation of "Big Waves and Sands".
Jana Shahati is the general director of "Big Waves". Mention this name, audiences familiar with revolutionary historical film and television dramas will not be unfamiliar. "Classmate Qia Teenager", "Dark War Before Dawn", "Autumn Harvest Uprising", "Communist Liu Shaoqi"... So far, she has been deeply involved in the field of revolutionary history for many years, and in the minds of many viewers, seeing her name, she feels that the quality of the series has been guaranteed. But "Big Waves" is still a new challenge for her.
On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, China's stage victory in the fight against the epidemic has widely aroused the patriotic enthusiasm of the people and ignited a strong will to look back at history. The new historical background and social environment indicate a new era proposition, and the creator's concept renewal and narrative innovation are not waiting for me.
"We are all Chen Qihang"
In the same period, revolutionary historical dramas faced a common difficulty, that is, in the process of telling the history of the party, they must face a vast sea of historical materials and characters, and how to connect the scattered contents with a running vein in the continuous narrative has become a problem that the creators need to solve.
Jana was thinking too.
Coinciding with May 2020, the society affected by the epidemic has seen a widespread trend of "looking back at history", "When encountering real problems, everyone will naturally look back and find answers from the past." It is based on the emergence of this patriotic trend among young people that the creators decided to portray a young blogger Chen Qihang. His narration replaces the traditional objective narration, and in the play, it plays the role of combing the story line and has an important narrative function. In addition, Chen Qihang's expression has a more far-reaching meaning in terms of content.
"His account is personal, a subjective expression of a contemporary youth."
In the series, Chen Qihang freely shares his insights and perceptions of history, which may not be official enough, and even has a strong subjective color, but it is precisely because of this that Chen Qihang's narration is full of temperature, which makes serious subjects come alive on the screen, and communicates with the audience on an equal footing, thus evoking emotional resonance.
And such resonance exists in a wider range of time and space. "The people who emerged in the 'May Fourth Movement' were the post-80s and post-90s of a hundred years ago, and the average age of the participants in the 'Big One' was only 28 years old. Therefore, Chen Qihang and them are actually two generations of young people spanning a hundred years in dialogue. ”
Chen Qihang, as a video blogger, in order to do a good job in each issue, we must consult a lot of historical materials, "and in the whole process of shooting, we are like him, we must go deep into the folds of history, explore the relationship between events and characters, think about what to say, what not to say, and make trade-offs in content, to some extent, we are Chen Qihang." ”
Chen Qihang is a symbol. He is the epitome of many contemporary young people, and also represents the creative group behind "The Great Waves and Sands", who trace the flow up to explore the words and deeds of their peers in the whirlpool of history a hundred years ago, look back together, taste together, and pay tribute together.
People, history, drama, the three are one
The plot of "The Great Waves and Sands" spans twenty-six years of history, starting with the "May Fourth Movement" in 1919 and ending with the "Seventh National Congress" of the Communist Party of China in 1945. This is precisely the process of the Chinese Communist Party from inception to maturity, from young to strong.
This history covers countless major events, but throughout the play, many major events are in Chen Qihang's narration, which becomes the background for the development of the plot, and the camera focuses more on the process of these major events becoming resolutions.
"Most of the historical events involved in the series have actually been filmed into film and television dramas many times. Take the 'Autumn Harvest Uprising', for example, there are versions of old movies and TV series that we shot a few years ago, a central event, a span of one year, but with the length of the whole drama to expand in detail. This time, however, we have focused on the twenty-six years of revolutionary course, on the growth and changes of these principal figures, and on how the first generation of Chinese Communists, represented by Mao Zedong, have explored a revolutionary road that conforms to China's reality in the midst of bloody rain and wind. ”
In the play, Chen Qihang and Yang Yi said something like this when they recalled the "big one": "The big one has hardly left any physical historical materials, and the memories of the deputies also contradict each other, and it is difficult to sort out the clues." ”
Although this statement comes from the mouth of the characters in the play, it is also the personal feelings expressed by the creators through them, "For so many years, countless experts and scholars have continuously promoted and deepened the research on party history, and new materials and new research results have also appeared, so it must be read a lot, there is a process of selection and confirmation, and everyone can see Chen Qihang using WeChat reading software in the play, that is because we also use it." ”
For the historical events involved in the series and the positioning of historical figures, in the creation, they will be based on authoritative party history works, which is also to make Chen Qihang's narration more rigorous.
Artistic thinking takes direction after reading through.
At the beginning, the show was named "A Big Representative", but they faced two problems in the creative process. The first is that the group portraits in the play are not only represented by "one big". Instead, it is "13+2+1+N", which represents the 13 major representatives involved in the play, the 2 founders of "Nan chen bei li", the 1 "big" behind-the-scenes hero Wang Huiwu, and the "N" represents many early revolutionaries. Second, the four words "a big representative" are difficult to explain.
At this time, at the suggestion of a teacher, the producer decided to change the title of the play to "Big Wave Taosha".
"All of a sudden, the topic is on point, 'big waves and sand', this is the theme we want to express." Once the theme is established, then choosing what to watch, what not to watch, and how to watch it becomes a criterion. Jiana said, "If we regard the whole revolutionary process as a process of 'tao', then without the comparison of sand, where is the precious gold?" Therefore, there is also a certain amount of space in the episode for those "negative characters" in history, "Since history has chosen them, then we will really restore them." ”
Of course, as a film and television drama, "restoration" depends largely on the performance of the actors. This drama has three criteria when selecting actors: one is that the appearance and temperament are close to the characters, the second is the ability to shape, and the third is whether the actors have enough interest and enthusiasm for the role.
"When I received this project, the matter of Bao Jianfeng playing Mao Zedong was already decided, and later we met and talked deeply. He told me that ten years ago, he had played Mao Zedong, and over the years, there have been many dramas that want to ask him to play again, but he has not agreed. Because, for the shaping of this character, he has always been in awe. In Jia Na's view, Bao Jianfeng's appearance and his elegant temperament and affinity are in line with the character, throughout the filming process, he is not impetuous, always with full enthusiasm to treat every scene, every detail, from the feedback during the broadcast of the series, the audience's recognition of mao Zedong played by him is still quite high.
Chen Duxiu, another important character in the play, can be seen from the memories of many contemporaries that although he is grumpy and has a paternalistic style for people, he has always been right about things and wrong people in arguments. He has a pure heart, and he is especially fond of jokes, often teasing everyone forward and backward. Chen Duxiu's actor Cheng Taishen, in terms of image and temperament is very suitable for the character, from the enthusiasm of the first appearance, to the sad loneliness after learning of the sacrifice of his best friend Li Dazhao, from the spirit of the early days of the founding of the party, to the calm relief before his death, his performance accurately reflects the state and emotions of the characters at that moment, and has a strong appeal.
This is a group portrait play, and the shaping of each character plays a key role in the final presentation of the series, so the reading of the script is almost throughout the shooting. In order to have a deeper understanding of that history and a more accurate grasp of the characters they played, they also actively read relevant historical materials, pondered repeatedly, and devoted themselves wholeheartedly, which has a three-dimensional and vivid character image.
"I'm very grateful to these actors, without them, there would be no "Big Waves and Sands" now."
The "Year of the Fight" on the Theme of Revolutionary History
In 2021, on the occasion of the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, a large number of TV dramas with revolutionary historical themes appeared on the screen, and countless stories and characters from the past shone with endless light in the images. Many dramas such as "The Great Wave of Sand", "The Age of Awakening" and "Ideals Illuminate China" have performed well in popularity and word of mouth, which has aroused unprecedented attention from young people to revolutionary historical dramas.
According to the audience portrait of "Big Waves and Sands", it can be seen that young people aged 19-24 account for the highest proportion, reaching 44.26%, and the audience in the age group of 25-34 accounts for 29.88%.
Among the reasons for the formation of this phenomenon, one is that the creators' requirements for the quality of the series are constantly improving, and at the same time, the patriotic enthusiasm of the young people is gradually rising in the historical background of the centenary of the founding of the party.
Revolutionary historical dramas originate from history, artistic creation must follow historical facts, in the face of the tolerance of the market and the acceptance of the youth circle, creators should hold their ground, the so-called "artistic freedom" can not shake the original historical logic.
Director Jiana introduced that over the years, the creation method of revolutionary historical dramas has a principle recognized by the industry, that is, "big things are not vain, small things are not informal"
"In the creation, adhering to a rigorous attitude is not only a respect for history itself, but also based on the consideration of the effectiveness of the transmission of TV series. But after all, the TV series is not an academic paper, it is to show the state of people, human emotions, human relations, so under the premise of historical records, it is necessary to expand reasonable imagination, create an atmosphere, reflect the conflict, and strive to be fascinating, which is actually a process of dramatizing historical stories, but in any case, the creators must have a full understanding and understanding of the historical materials, on the basis of strictly grasping the measure. ”
History is like a vast ocean, magnificent, compared to the picture presented in the image is only a wave.
Chen Qihang's life continues, and the creators will not stop.