With an average age of 9 to 12 years old and nearly 200 million hits, this group of small drama bones played "Dream of the Red Chamber"

Small drama bone version of "Liu Grandma Enters the Grand View Garden" Stills: Shi Taijun Two Feasts grand view garden Golden Mandarin Duck Three Xuanya Card Order.

They are small drama bones, not small fresh meat

China News Weekly reporter / Kui Yanzhang

This article was first published in the 828th issue of China News Weekly

During the National Day, the small drama bone version of "Dream of the Red Chamber Of Liu Grandma Enters the Grand View Garden" was on fire.

This work, which has an average age of only about 10 years old, is considered to be a "god restoration" of the 87th edition of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and has received a rating of 9.2 points on Douban.

Behind this work is the small drama bone team of Hunan Radio and Television Center, which is not the first time they have created a miracle.

"Pull the dark tone of the Dream of the Red Chamber upwards"

One day in December 2016, in an office on the top floor of the Hunan Radio and Television Center building in Changsha, director Pan Liping smoked a pipe and was reading the script of "Liu Grandma Enters the Grand View Garden" on the computer. Earlier, Pan Liping said in an interview with the media that he would not shoot "Dream of the Red Chamber" because the tone was gray.

In his opinion, it is very clean to choose the subject matter for children's works. "Adults have a lot of problems, such as drinking alcohol and eating betel nuts, but adults don't like children to have these problems." In addition, in his experience, radio and television have higher requirements for the scale of children's theme review. "This is common in the world, foreign countries will be graded, some content minors can not watch." Children have no discriminating ability and are easily induced. ”

After reading the script of "Liu Grandma Enters the Grand View Garden", Pan Liping decided to shoot this work. Grandma Liu, who entered jia province, opened a window for the princes and ladies in the dream of the red chamber, allowing them to understand the poor. In the end, Jia Fu fell, and Liu Grandma rescued Sister Qiao, which also embodied the spirit of Zhi En Tu Bao. "These can pull the gray tone of the Dream of the Red Chamber upwards." Pan Liping said.

The script was written by Liu Yujie, a member of Xiao Xi Bone's team. She is a "red fan" who insisted on continuing filming after Pan Liping said that she would not shoot the Dream of the Red Chamber. She spent a week picking out the narrative line of "Liu Grandma Entering the Grand View Garden" from "Dream of the Red Chamber" and removing the love line at the same time, so that it could run through the rise and fall of Jia Fu and there was no content that was not suitable for children to shoot.

However, she has some regrets, "Scenes like Xiangling composing poems, Yihong courtyard birthday banquet, and Xiangfei drunkenness also want to shoot, but they can't be strung together." Liu Yujie said.

At the beginning of this year, "Little Drama Bone's Grandmother Liu Enters the Grand View Garden" officially began to recruit actors. At this time, Pan Liping still has some concerns, worried that the tone of the shooting is still not sunny enough.

Actors mainly come from Weibo for the national open recruitment, as well as to find performing arts training institutions recommended, the age is best between 9 and 12 years old. The crew will first send the corresponding 87 version of "Dream of the Red Chamber" clips to the participating actors, let the other party shoot imitation videos, and then select the actors to audition in Changsha. In the end, Pan Liping and four other directors determined the casting.

Referring to the criteria for selecting actors, Pan Liping said that "the most important thing is whether the appearance is in line with the original temperament."

The fastest actor identified was Chen Shuyi, who played Yuan Chun. The first time the director team saw her put on her golden noble concubine costume and put on makeup, it recognized her. Executive director Hu Junhao said, "Her aura is like a noble concubine. ”

The director team went through a process from worry to acceptance for determining that Shi Xiaosong would play Baoyu. Shi Xiaosong studied martial arts at the Shaolin Temple at the age of 4, and his manhood was too much compared to Baoyu. Pan Li Pingyuan will let him play Guo Jing in "The Legend of the Eagle Shooter", and has rehearsed for most of the time. However, the copyright of "Shooting Eagle" has not been negotiated. In order to let Shi Xiaosong continue to act, Pan Liping let him try to play Baoyu.

In the first few auditions, Shi Komatsu always played, and it was difficult to enter the state. But Shi Xiaosong's tenacity touched the director team, "a scene requires him to cry, he can't cry, so he kept trying to cry all day." In addition, the director team also gradually felt that he also had the temperament of Baoyu, "When Bao Dai first met that scene, Jia Baoyu looked up and felt that he had that kind of dancing prince and an unworldly feeling in his heart. Hu Yunhao said.

There are also often differences between the roles in the initial audition and the roles in the final performance. Lin Daiyu's actor, Zhou Yangyue, originally imitated the video shooting of Xue Baochao. Once, when trying out a play in Changsha, Zhou Yangyue met Pan Liping in the corridor, his eyebrows were low, and his voice softly called "Uncle Pan". "The eyes, movements, and demeanor are all Lin Daiyu, and it was decided at that time (she played Lin Daiyu)." Pan Liping told China News Weekly.

Coincidentally, Xue Baochao's actor Zhong Yipan first tried lin daiyu, her eyebrows have the delicacy of daiyu, but her face shape is round, and Lin Daiyu is not thin enough. In the audition, the director team gradually felt that she was very "sister fan". Therefore, it was finally determined that she would play Xue Baochao. "Although she is a child, she already has the beauty of adulthood." Pan Liping said.

The selection process of Luo Xiyi, the actor of Liu Grandma, is quite tortuous. The first characters she tried were Ping'er and Jia Mu. Playing Ping'er, her personality is partial to boys, and playing a little girl is not a good match. As for Jia Mu, her body type is thin. Halfway through, her mother almost wanted to give up, but Luo Xiyi insisted and tried Liu Grandma again. Luo Xiyi's mother recalled that at the end of the day of the audition of Liu Grandma, in the elevator of Hunan Radio and Television, Luo Xiyi said to her, "Mom, I feel like I am like Grandma Liu, I am Grandma Liu." ”

Two weeks later, Luo Xiyi received a notice from Taili that she was identified as the actor of Grandma Liu. Pan Liping believes that the best state for training small actors to act is to let small actors sink in and think that the role is themselves.

3 to 4 months of rehearsals

The biggest difference between the shooting of the small drama bone series and adult film and television dramas is that the actors must be rehearsed for 3 to 4 months before the official shooting, and the rehearsal effect is up to standard, and then officially filmed.

During this period, in order to allow the actors to enter the role, Pan Liping asked people around them to call the role names of the young actors, whether in the crew or back home. For example, Lin Daiyu is played by Zhou Yangyue, during this time, others will not call her "Zhou Yangyue", but always call her "Lin Daiyu".

At the same time, the actors will be asked to watch the children's version of "Dream of the Red Chamber" and the 87 version of the "Dream of the Red Chamber" TV series to study the characters. In Hu Yunhao's view, as long as the actors really understand the characters, the effect of the performance will not be bad.

At the beginning of the rehearsal, the director team found that the actors' manners did not meet the expected standards. To this end, the crew invited a teacher majoring in ancient literature at Hunan University to explain the etiquette required by the living environment in which the Dream of the Red Chamber is located, specific to how high the chin is raised, how to take the teacup, and how to walk.

The effect of this kind of etiquette training is most obvious in the "Yuan Concubine Provincial Relatives". In this play, the standing posture, sitting posture, walking posture of the palanquin, and the posture of saying "free" all strive to reflect the true etiquette of the royal family. This kind of etiquette is not easy to grasp, before Li Shaohong directed this scene in "Dream of the Red Chamber", it was complained by netizens that it was too perfunctory and did not meet the real etiquette norms.

The crew has five executive directors who will repeatedly tell the scene to the children in a language that they can understand. For example, in the scene where Baoyu mistakenly thought that Lin Daiyu was going to Suzhou, Shi Xiaosong did not understand why Baoyu had to cry like that? Hu Yunhao said to him, "You imagine that you have a very good friend, and you will never see him again, will you be sad?" ”

In addition to these technical details, executive director Liu Yujie said, "The most important thing is to ask the actors to be like adult actors and avoid acting children's plays." Zhong Yipan's mother also mentioned that before, Zhong Yipan also participated in the shooting of two movies, but they were all directly filmed, and it was over after shooting a few times. In the small drama bone team, not only the rehearsal time is long, but also many times during the shooting.

At the end of July this year, "Little Drama Bone's Grandmother Liu Enters the Grand View Garden" was officially launched in Rongguo Mansion, Zhengding County, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province. Due to the long shooting time, some young actors not only stay away from home, but also delay some of their homework. To this end, the crew is equipped with about 10 life teachers to help the young actors cook and wash. At the same time, several teaching teachers are equipped to tutor children in their homework after filming.

In an interview with China NewsWeek, Zhong is preparing for her upcoming midterm exams. Zhong Yipan's mother said that before participating in the shooting, she had already found a teacher in advance to learn the school curriculum during the shooting. Luo Xiyi did well in the previous final exam, with scores of 98, 97 and 99 in the three main courses, respectively.

On August 29 this year, the filming of "Liu Grandma Enters the Grand View Garden" ended. The scene that impressed Pan Liping the most was "Yuan Fei Provincial Relatives". This scene is quite difficult in terms of scene scheduling and character emotions. In the filming, not only is the character interaction everywhere in line with royal etiquette, but Also Yuan Chun, played by Chen Shuyi, also makes him stunning, "This role must maintain the model of the concubine, and the heart is eager to see relatives." She played this complexity and depression very well. ”

During this year's National Day, the small drama bone "Liu Grandma Enters the Grand View Garden" was broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV and Tencent Video, and as of the end of the broadcast, it ranked first in the ratings of Hunan Satellite TV, with 160 million times of Tencent Video playback and a Douban score of 9.2 points.

But what concerned Pan Liping was the statement of the state media, and he relaxed his mind after seeing the affirmation of the People's Daily on Weibo. "Removing one of the previous concerns, (confirming) that our thematic orientation is safe."

Small drama bone series

At a planning meeting in 2015, Pan Liping put forward the idea of the "Small Drama Bone" series: children perform adult dramas and use contrasts to attract audiences. Inspired by his reality show Farmer Story Club. The core of the show is also contrast, in which simple farmers speak stories like "I am the male god of the village" on a luxurious stage.

In his previous career, Pan Liping is willing to try innovative solutions. The "Evening News" he created in his early years was the first program in China to speak the news in spoken language. In 2012, against the backdrop of a crisis of integrity for the Red Cross, Pan Liping produced "Heart Music", proposing for the first time a face-to-face donation model.

Five years ago, Pan Liping went to the Hunan Satellite TV Drama Channel. He first produced "Fast Drama", using one episode to perform three episodes of the story, speeding up the pace to create a stunning effect. Since then, there have been attempts such as the whole trick show "Music Drama" and the reality show "Farmer Story Club".

After proposing the idea of "small drama bones", he successively let the young actors shoot "Jiao Yulu", "Liu Sanjie", "Honghu Red Guard", "White Haired Girl" and other works.

Most of these subjects are red classics. This stems from both personal interests and strategic considerations. Previously, Hunan Satellite TV's "Where Did Daddy Go" was offline on satellite TV, making Pan Liping extra cautious about pinching the scale. "From the beginning of the child to adult, be sure to choose the safest to try." He told China News Weekly.

In 2016, Lu Jianmei, a member of the small drama bone team, proposed to shoot "The Legend of the White Snake", and Zhao Yazhi's version of "The Legend of the White Snake" is her unforgettable childhood memory. But Pan Liping had difficulty making up his mind. The main reason is that there are love scenes in "The Legend of the White Snake", which is not suitable for children, and once there is a value-oriented problem, it may destroy the brand that Xiao Xi bone has worked hard to establish.

During the hesitation, after the broadcast of "White Haired Girl", it was well received by "People's Daily". At the film viewing conference held in Beijing, it was also praised by the relevant departments and some old artists who participated in the seminar, "The affirmation of the upper level made me feel that I had a (scale) hard hat." Pan Liping said.

After that, Lu Jianmei removed the love line in "The Legend of the White Snake" to highlight family and friendship, and the theme was passed at the planning meeting to start filming.

The process of filming "The Legend of the White Snake" is quite similar to that of "Liu Grandma Entering the Grand View Garden", which is a bottom-up proposal within the team, encountered internal controversy, and finally passed under the insistence and compromise. This is a characteristic of the small drama bone team: decision-making is more democratic, and the production of the nodal works of these two teams benefits from this.

In addition, except for Pan Liping, who is older, the rest of the members of the small drama bone team are mostly post-80s and post-90s.

According to Lu Jianmei's recollection, the most difficult thing in the filming of "The Legend of the White Snake" lies in the management of small actors. The show was filmed in the summer, and one of the location scenes was performed by more than 100 people, quite a few of whom were four or five-year-old children. Many children can't stand shooting for a long time in the heat, and give up halfway through, resulting in a shortage of cast members. Therefore, the group director of the crew had to go door to door, and each school went to find small actors to persuade and explain one by one.

After the actors were reassembled, the shooting was also quite laborious. Due to his young age, the actors will wipe sweat, drink water and laugh during the performance. Lu Jianmei repeatedly filmed many times before the shooting was successful. After this incident, when the team selected the actors, they tried to choose small actors aged 9 to 12 years old to ensure that the actors had enough physical strength and understanding.

On October 2, 2016, the "Legend of the White Snake" was released. One night a few days later, Lu Jianmei was boarding a plane at the airport for a trip to Chengdu. Suddenly, she received a call from Pan Liping and asked her to hurry back to Changsha, when she learned that the "Legend of the White Snake" of the little drama bone was on fire.

After the success of "The Legend of the White Snake", the selection of the small drama bone team is no longer limited to the red classic. The team has successively filmed works such as "Mulan", "Journey to the West", "Let Go of the Three Kingdoms" and so on, until this year's National Day a year later, "Liu Grandma Enters the Grand View Garden" is once again popular on the Internet.

According to Pan Liping, the previous works of the small drama bone team based on red classics have been played in about millions, of which the largest number of "Liu Sanjie" is tens of millions. After broadening the theme, the number of hits of "The Legend of the White Snake" and "Liu Grandma Entering the Grand View Garden" generally rose to 100 million or 200 million.

After the small drama bone series became popular, Pan Liping would repeatedly advise parents when inviting the parents of small actors to dinner, and in the WeChat group, "If the child wants to take the road of acting in the future, he must also become a powerful faction and an old drama bone, and not to be a star." And if you don't take the road of acting, it is very good to just be a special experience of youth. "He has his worries. After the work became popular, there were a variety of dramas and advertising contracts to find the group of children and parents, before, for these commercial interference, he made restrictions, but later, there was no choice.