Peninsula all-media reporter Wang Yue intern Zhou Run
This TV series that "bubbled" in tears is over! After the large-scale industrial epic drama "Fiery Red Years" was broadcast in a set of prime time on CCTV, it not only triggered "memory killing" and "emotional killing" among the older generation of third-line builders, but also brought a large number of young audiences deep shock and empathy: "The builders of new China are too remarkable" "Their fiery red years see my blood surging "... Lead the audience through time and space to feel the spirit of hard work and entrepreneurship of the third-line builders. The director of the drama, Wang Wenjie, is a native of Shandong, who has directed a series of popular dramas, and there is no "traffic" of "Fiery Red Years", why is it so hot? Recently, he was interviewed by all-media reporters on the peninsula and revealed the behind-the-scenes story.
Inherit the "three-line spirit" with realistic brushstrokes
"The White Brow Hero", "Kong Fansen", "Gan Nineteen Sisters", "Red Cross Square Team", "Genghis Khan", "The Great Dye House"... As the ace director of Shanying Group, director Wang Wenjie has created many phenomenon-level works in the industry for 35 years, and has also become a strong cornerstone for the development of domestic dramas. Whether it is the main theme, historical drama, martial arts, commercial themes, he can master a variety of themes, at the same time, carry forward the mainstream spirit, tell the "Chinese story" is also his consistent creative style.
Wang Wenjie is not a prolific director, what makes him out of the mountains again? The answer is to be moved by the spirit of the "three lines". "I was still very excited when I saw the script, the screenwriter spent six or seven years interviewing, the story is solid, the characters are infectious." What touched him the most was that the martyrs who died due to the construction of the "three lines" in the script, Wang Wenjie admitted that the core conveyed by this work has educational significance for the current young people, in his view, some spirits should not be forgotten, and the creators cannot just shoot some very entertaining things.
In October 2018, the Central Propaganda Department listed the "three-line spirit" together with the "spirit of two bombs and one satellite, the spirit of manned spaceflight, and the spirit of flood relief" as the national spirit and the spirit of struggle vigorously promoted in the new era. So, what is the "three-line spirit"? "The Fiery Red Years" gives the answer!
With the national "three-line construction" as the background, the famous third-line industrial enterprises as the story prototype, and Panzhihua City as the main filming location, "The Fiery Red Years" portrays a group of builders who uphold the three-line spirit of "hard work, selfless dedication, unity and cooperation, and courage to innovate". They were a group of people who sacrificed their lives for the ideal and for the interests of the country, and they started from scratch in the remote "third-line" mountains at that time, in the barbaric land full of rocket grass, they threw blood and sweat, created a magnificent steel industry for the country, and wrote a rich and colorful stroke for the history of industrial development of new China, which is itself a legend.
"We use simple expressive means to show the history that we can touch and have a real texture, so as to look at reality. What is historical contemplation? We see a story, we see the joys and sorrows of this group of people in the story, we seem to be in it, see our own fathers, see ourselves, see the good and the ugly, see the selfless and selfish, see the sublime and the small, see the persistence and betrayal, we are moved and worried about it. The protagonist Xia Fangzhou is a microcosm of the new Chinese intellectuals, through this microcosm, we see that for the development of new Chinese industry, based on this, our observation will be successful. Director Wang Wenjie said.
How to achieve "epic" in large industrial dramas
"The Year of Fire" is also the first time in the history of Chinese TV dramas to depict the large-scale industrial theme of the construction of the "Big Third Line" in a positive and panoramic way, and also sets the tone for the artistic creation of the entire team. "As a play, the panoramic representation of this, the script has provided us with a complete framework platform, so we must complete our shooting work according to the story line and theatrical framework provided by the script." In the director's view, in actual operation, it is necessary to achieve "epic".
In this regard, he interpreted it this way, "First of all, what is epic? Literally, this 'history' is the recording of major events, the recording of the actions of important people, and what I want to emphasize here is the concept of 'recording'. The construction of the 'Great Third Line' is a pivotal part of the industrial construction of New China, which itself is an important part of the history of the industrial development of New China, and the display of events in this context, as well as the performance and shaping of the fate of the characters, should strive to restore the essence. What we are recording is the real history, the construction of the 'Great Third Line', which is only more than 50 years away from us, and the historical appearance is still very clear. This requires that we must always measure our artistic creation with a realistic aesthetic. And what is 'poetry'? It should be said that subjective attitudes and emotional tendencies are the requirements and imaginations of this record in our hearts. In other words, it is a rendering with subjective emotions, and the direct effect of this rendering is to make the recorded content more infectious and more shocking, thus constituting an epic picture of the development of China's steel industry with the construction of the 'fiery red years' as the core. ”
This is also shown in art, photography, costumes, and sound and music, with the director encouraging the team with the motto "Those who seek it get it; those who seek it get it down; those who ask for it get nothing".
Spanning more than 50 years, the character group is like a living person
In any play, the actor is undoubtedly the most important part, and it is also the key to the final presentation of a play, which determines the success or failure. The "Fiery Red Years" shows a group portrait of the builders of the Chinese steel industry with Xia Fangzhou, Chen Guomin, Qin Xiaodan, Zhao Dianchu and other major characters as the core, and each character has its own unique personality, and the script gives the characters a distinct color. Different classes, different regions, different personalities, and even at specific historical nodes, each character makes different choices based on the character's personality, and the script provides a fairly solid internal motivation. The characters, plots, and values are all tempered and sublimated in the will of steel.
There is no "flow" in the selection of actors, and Wang Wenjie asks the main actors to carefully study the script and analyze the character personality and action line. At the same time, it is necessary to have a full perceptual and rational understanding of the background of the times and the state of the crowd at that time, and understand the state of the characters depicted in the script with a strong sense of age. "The play has a time span of more than 50 years, and the characters in different historical periods and different eras are presented in different historical periods and different eras, which is caused by the profound influence of the background of the times on people. The shaping of the character should follow a basic point of view, that is, we are filmed for the modern audience to see, but the character is living in the time and space of the play, and all the actions of the performance must conform to the prescribed situation in the play. For a considerable part of the group, there was a collective memory of that era. If you want to create a good character, you must be close to the true nature of life. ”