Tian Qinxin, deputy director of "The Great Journey", talked about the idea of choreography: stars participating in the performance can be remarkable

Tian Qinxin, deputy director of the literary and artistic performance "The Great Journey" celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, talked about the idea of choreography and directing

Stars can circle the point of multiple camera positions to protect the effect

Celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the literary and artistic performance "The Great Journey" was presented in the form of a large-scale sitcom epic. In the creation, from literature to choreographers and even design teams, top artists in various fields are brought together, including many heads of state-level academies and troupes, and Tian Qinxin, president and director artist of the National Drama Theatre, is one of them. Yesterday, Tian Qinxin, deputy director of the performance, was interviewed by a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily on the drama creation of "The Great Journey".

The most feared sentence is "The sky is bright again"

Beiqing Daily: When did you start creating? Which part of the show is primarily responsible?

Tian Qinxin: Since the Spring Festival of the previous year, he has been involved in the preparation of the performance plan, although the final performance venue was selected at the Bird's Nest of the National Stadium, but in the plan stage, it also includes the plan version of the Great Hall of the People, the Great Wall version and other indoor and outdoor venues. The real entry into the creation was before this year's "two sessions", when we were preparing in the southern district of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and by the end of the "two sessions", the overall plan had taken shape. Work will be put into work on March 10 until the end of the show.

We are mainly responsible for the presentation of the drama and theatrical videos in the performance, after entering the bird's nest, our daily work is from 23:00, because only the big screen can see at night, and the next day at 4:00 a.m. the day is light, so the most said by our group is "the sky is bright again", and the dawn means that there is not much time left for us to work. Also because our work is carried out at night, we also call ourselves "night action groups".

Beiqing Daily: You are a drama director, good at the stage, even if you have participated in the creation of the CCTV variety show "China in the Story" in recent years, but this outdoor square performance form is still the first time, right?

Tian Qinxin: Yes. Previously, he and the writing and literature groups have carried out more than ten drafts in the structure and presentation of the play. How to let tens of thousands of audiences see the performance of the drama in the big square, and finally we thought of using the method of instant shooting and live screen projection, but this requires the accurate cooperation of actors and camera positions, and it is necessary to shoot like a movie.

Broke into three fractures and returned to work in two weeks

Beiqing Daily: Remember that in May, many people saw hospital beds and flowers from your circle of friends, and later when you appeared in public, you were also in a wheelchair, were you injured during rehearsals?

Tian Qinxin: It was May 19th, we had been staying up for several days in a row, and at 3 o'clock in the morning, I fell and was injured when I went from the dormitory building to the steps on the main stage. At Jishuitan Hospital, three fractures were diagnosed. I had surgery on May 24th. I told the crew that I would be back on June 6. But then I learned that when the anesthesia was over, the pain was unbearable. It wasn't until June 9 that I finally came back and started working late again.

Beiqing Daily: Until the day of the performance on June 28, you have been wearing protective gear and sitting in a wheelchair, and it will feel very different to participate in such a performance in this way, right?

Tian Qinxin: After the fall, I lay in my hospital bed, enduring pain, thinking more about the digital relationship between 1921 and 2021, and through the study of party history during this period, I seemed to be able to feel the hardship behind the four words of hardship. One morning, like a movie, I thought of the party's one hundred years of history, wind and rain, and forge ahead, and I had endless motivation in my heart.

Technology and art enhance the aesthetics of square performances

Beiqing Daily: In the past, we all felt that drama is difficult to make a difference in this kind of large-scale evening party, and this is also the first time that the form of drama video has appeared in large-scale performances, is this way of combining drama and film shooting with some similarities with the variety show "China in the Story" that you have done on CCTV?

Tian Qinxin: Yes, I am very grateful for the inspiration given to us by CCTV's two variety shows, "China in the Story" and "China in the Classics". In this performance, we used real-time shooting technology that can attract young people, so that everyone can see the expression of star artists in the square, which is a wonderful effect given to us by technology. We want to use innovative ways to create fantasy together with science and technology on the basis of expressing emotions. This method is the first of the square literary and artistic performance, whether it is technical means or artistic presentation is proud, the combination of science and technology and art, together completed the square performance of an aesthetic upgrade.

We rehearsed in a dramatic fashion, then shot in four camera positions, constantly switching directions, and on the evening of July 1, the audience saw the best effect we had edited after many shootings. In fact, there are regrets, sometimes the focus will be false, and the effect of focusing cannot be so perfect. But this is after all the first time to put a theatrical performance in a large-scale evening, which is an innovation and the domestic first of a large-scale evening.

Traffic stars tell young people about party history

Beiqing Daily: In the drama part of the party, there are many traffic stars participating, how to comment on their performances?

Tian Qinxin: The national well-known stars, artists, and actors began to assemble on June 13, and although the drama part does not occupy a large space in the entire scene epic, each appearance is an important ideological turn or a major historical time node. Throughout the process, artists and stars are very involved.

The "Breaking Dawn" in the prologue shows the "Southern Chen Bei Li" meeting to establish the party, with the participation of yu Hewei and Zhang Tong, two actors in "The Age of Awakening", and the support of Zhang Yongxin, a classmate of my Chinese opera and the director of "The Age of Awakening". The costumes and props were used in The Age of Awakening. In addition, the young Mao Zedong in this period was played by Liu Ye, the young students were played by Bai Yu, Deng Lun, Song Yi, Yang Zi and others, Chen Wangdao, who translated the "Communist Manifesto", was played by Yang Yang, and the translator of "The International Song" Qu Qiubai was played by Li Xian, so during the rehearsal, when they appeared on the scene, they cheered. The young actors who participated in the performance also studied the history of the party with practical actions and gave a vivid party lesson.

The scene restoration of the "Zunyi Meeting" puts forward high requirements for the performance. The actors are basically from the National Drama Theatre team, in which Wang Hui plays Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai is played by Yu Yang, and Wang Jiaxiang is played by Li Naiwen. Starting from the sub-shot, the actor has to act, say his own words, and at the same time listen to the voiceover, and write down all the movements and rhythms in the voiceover, which is very difficult to perform, as Li Naiwen said, "We have to use it three times.". In addition, the performances of Hu Ge and Haiqing in this chapter are short, but very wonderful, presenting the colorful passages in "The Eternal Electric Wave" and "Sister Jiang", in which Hu Ge's recitation is only one sentence, but every rehearsal is very engaged.

In the second chapter, in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea, Zhang Yixing played a small soldier of the volunteer army, Wu Fan played the instructor, and Zhang Yixing performed very well on the 15-meter rotating stage. This section is put into the big screen through real-time shooting, allowing the audience to see the background environment in 1:1 ratio, restoring the realistic tunnel and shooting a sense of cinema.

In the program opera and dance "Passionate Years", several iconic figures from the socialist construction period were restored, Ou Hao played Lei Feng, Guo Xiaodong played Jiao Yulu, Li Yifeng played Qian Xuesen, Wu Gang played Wang Jinxi, and Liu Wei played Shi Laihe. When Ou Hao played Lei Feng saluted the military, the audience gave warm applause. These outstanding representatives of the construction of new China can be expressed in a dramatic way, which is a very glorious presentation.

The poetry recitation and chorus "Leapfrogging" in the third chapter show several great projects such as the south-to-north water diversion, the west-to-east gas transmission, and the north-to-south coal transportation. This paragraph uses a male-female combination of recitation, representing plumbers, stringers and other workers, the male actors are Jin Dong, Zhou Yawen, Li Guangjie, Zhang Han, the actresses are Liu Tao, Xiao Songjia, Gao Yuanyuan and Liu Jingjing, when they raise their hands to swear "I am a communist party member", the atmosphere is very high.

In the fourth chapter of the drama and song and dance program "Oriental Miracle", we invited Kong Sheng, the director of "Mountains and Seas", and the 40-second performance brought together Zhang Jiayi, Huang Xuan, Yan Ni, Huang Bo, Wen Yujuan and Song Qian, etc. Each theatrical performance is not long, but what we see is the presentation of China's top actors. I once applied with the general director Chen Wei whether it could take 50 seconds, the drama could not be reduced, and the actor's performance was wonderful, but then the director said that it must be strictly in accordance with the time.

The story of The Eighteen-Hole Village in Hunan, which first proposed "precision poverty alleviation", was interpreted by Wang Lei, Xu Wenguang, Liu Shishi and others, while the anti-"epidemic" story showing the relationship between nurses and patients during the epidemic brought together Tong Liya, Wan Qian, Jin Chen, Li Yitong, Liu Peiqi and others.

Focusing on the "strong country" part of the achievements of 5G and domestic large aircraft, the recitation of Chen Daoming, Zhang Guoguo, Chen Baoguo and He Bing can be called a magnificent display. Working with these excellent actors, what I want to do is to help everyone express the voice of literary and artistic workers with the best presentation.

It has achieved a collection of 100 gardens of literature and art

Beiqing Daily: Usually we feel that in such a performance, the space for artists is not very large, because there are too many things to express, what kind of feeling do you have?

Tian Qinxin: This time, under the leadership of director Chen Wei, the whole director group really achieved a hundred flowers. There are songs, including folk songs, bel canto, popular, chorus, folk beauty, folk music, etc.; dances include folk dance, classical dance, modern dance, ballet and even national standard dance. In addition, opera, recitation, drama, film and television shooting can be described as a collection of hundreds of literary and artistic gardens, and various art disciplines jointly express the voice of literary and artistic workers.

Text/Reporter Guo Jia Photo/Wang Haochen

Source: Beijing Youth Daily