2017 is a year of frequent good dramas, "White Deer Plain", "Hunting Ground", "The First Half of My Life", "Surgical Storm" and other realistic theme works are popular, but the most concerned works are not "The Name of the People". During the broadcast of this anti-corruption theme TV series, the ratings went all the way up, becoming a national-level hit, and the ratings once broke 8 (from CCTV-Sofrey released data), setting a record for domestic TV drama ratings.
The success of "In the Name of the People" is inseparable from its chief producer and director Li Lu. Li Lu has been in the industry for nearly thirty years, directing very few TV series, and "The Name of the People" is his tenth work. He calls himself an "amateur director", with low output and "disobedience", and various details in creation, such as the selection of actors, have always been "the investor said it does not count, I say it counts". After the popularity of "In the Name of the People", Li Lu had to push out 3 or 4 TV series and 1 to 2 movie invitations every day for a while. He loves film and television drama creation, but is very vigilant about "turning artistic creation into industrial operation", Li Lu believes: "If you become a professional from amateur, you will be affected by capital and human feelings, and you will easily become a worker in this industry." ”
At the scene of the "Seamless" conference, the third from the left is Li Lu
This steadfastness and calmness is also not easy to come by, once Li Lu was also wrapped in pressure and anxiety, busy every day, "Once I was a friend from abroad, came to my unit to see me work for a day, and at night he said to me: You are busy with such a day, is it interesting? Is there any creation for society? I thought about it and thought it was not interesting. Because of this sentence, Li Lu felt that he really should stop and think about the meaning and direction of life.
This incident also became the opportunity for the creation of one of his works. Many years ago, Li Lu saw a simple story outline at the Beijing TV Festival, which was only a few hundred words, which touched him and made him decide to make a TV series: "The Happiness of the Boss". This TV series starring Fan Wei tells the story of a foot therapist who lives in a small city in the northeast, and under the arrangement of his successful siblings, he goes to Beijing to find a "happier" life, but he runs into walls everywhere, and also witnesses the seemingly happy but problematic life of his younger siblings.
Li Lu Infographic
"That year, CCTV took a microphone all over the street to interview the people' 'Are you happy', and I also observed the problem of 'all the people are businessmen' at that time, and those who could not do business at all had to work hard to do business, and this society should not be like this." Li Lu recalled. The creation of "The Happiness of the Boss", in Li Lu's view, is to call on everyone to think about the meaning of life and the concept of happiness. This work, which was in line with the hot social issues at that time, became the ratings champion of the year.
The same is true of the subsequent TV series version of "Hawthorn Tree Love". Li Lu observed that in contemporary society, life is worry-free, singing and dancing, concepts are open, and all kinds of enjoyment are within reach, but people's discussions and attitudes towards "love" have become either shallow or full of ridicule. Li Lu feels that this is an opportunity to guide everyone to rethink "what is love". Before Amy's novel "Hawthorn Tree Love" was published, Li Lu saw the novel through a friend, immediately decided that it was a work that could cause heated discussion, and immediately bought the copyright. However, due to the slow work, it took five years from preparation to completion, and the TV series version was preempted by the movie version.
Stills from Seamless
Li Lu also has a well-known creative habit of "only one drama per genre", because he feels that this will bring him new creative impulses and will give him the idea of learning new things. His most recent new work is the spy drama "Seamless". Li Lu believes that he usually loves to watch spy dramas and likes the work of "Latent". He also said bluntly: "Now on the small screen, in addition to the war of resistance, even spy warfare can also move some guns, a little bit of strength confrontation." Other genres may not make you shoot that way. The Chinese nation is still quite brave and good at war, so let's put it in a specific environment. In Li Lu's view, espionage is a very interesting theme: "You think that film and television dramas are such elements, (action) such an important element, you pull it back, put it on the struggle between good and evil, appropriate and good-looking." 」 And there are a lot of intellectual games in spy dramas. ”
This work is written by the screenwriter Daniel Zhang of "The Pretender", Li Lu greatly recognized the ability of Daniel Zhang, but he also put forward his own unique secret to reading the script: "I pick the script, I don't look for professionals, I often let my drivers, the company's finances, they think it looks good, then this script is really good, representing the attitude of the general audience." In terms of actors, Li Lu selected young actors such as Qin Junjie and Xu Lu to play the role, and Li Lu was very confident about the performance of young actors: "It's okay, the emotional intelligence IQ is quite high, and the acting is good." Bad I've already changed people. ”
Li Lu said that "Seamless" and "The Name of the People" are the same as the group portrait drama, showing the sentient beings in the Republic of China period, "you can't spy for the sake of espionage, espionage is only an external form of expression," Li Lu said: "Good works, still about human nature." ”
【Dialogue】
The Paper: In the genre of spy dramas, there are many classic works, but the homogenization of many works from performance, story and style is also very serious, how do you think you can innovate in the creation of this genre?
Li Lu: There are indeed several spy war dramas that are very good, filmed well, the audience also likes, but also a lot of good actors, you see many chinese male actors are spy war dramas. To say how to innovate, the TV series emphasizes the basis of a play, the script should be good, then the script of "Seamless" is good, the screenwriter Daniel Zhang's writing skills and ability to structure the story is indeed very strong, of course, after I entered, I will also give him some advice. Because I have always been a trader producer before, for the current spy drama, what the country wants, what the party wants, what the TV screen wants, I know better, otherwise, others would not dare to make "The Name of the People". After that, we made a lot of adjustments to the thoughts of the characters, the depth of the story, and the care for reality, and adjusted thirty or forty percent. Espionage warfare is only an external manifestation, in fact, what is more to be shown is that without the workers of these hidden fronts throwing their heads and spilling their blood, we cannot have the current peaceful life. Then this kind of ideological expression in the creation should be concretely implemented into a vivid character, a beautiful story.
The Paper: The word main melody is easy for young audiences to have stereotypes as soon as they hear it, how do you understand the word main theme?
Li Lu: The main theme is actually a concept from music, the main melody in the symphony, and the dubbing soundtrack of our TV series will also have a main theme, right. The main theme is what we need in any era, that is, what this era wants to preach, this is the main theme. The main theme of Hollywood movies is that The United States is the most powerful. As for us, we want to show the achievements of our country over the years and the truth, goodness and beauty in society through film and television dramas. But in terms of expression, it must land, because our current audience taste is too picky, the Internet era, the new American drama comes out, the audience can watch it immediately, this contrast is too obvious. If you shoot badly and don't speak human words, the audience will definitely not accept it. What can impress the audience must be three points into the wood, you are not enough to enter the wood, about the main theme, follow the call of the country must be right, but good looks are the premise.
The Paper: When it comes to realistic themes, many creators feel that it is necessary to shoot urban dramas and contemporary dramas, but in fact, the audience is also calling for ancient costumes and espionage battles to have realistic value and temperature.
Li Lu: Realism is broad. For example, South Korea's "Please Answer 1988", which tells the story of life in Korea in the 1980s, is also realistic. For example, some of the costume dramas that Hu Mei filmed in that year also have high practical significance by borrowing the past to look at the present. The same is true of Seamless.
I choose materials based on feelings, many of them now use big data to calculate, what subject matter to shoot, I think, if this should work, but also what people to do. Film and television dramas are more or people's feelings, good and bad, often just a little bit worse, I mean the absolute master, in the martial arts, eighteen steps away, take a look, the other person will go.
The Paper: Now we are advocating the creation of realistic themes, but from the perspective of the market, we have always had a tendency, Gongdou has filmed a good one, everyone rushed to shoot Gongdou, Xuan fantasy fire one, everyone swarmed to shoot Xuan fantasy. So do you think there will be a rush of realism after that, especially a lot of works that are under the banner of realism but are actually pseudo-realism?
Li Lu: Chairman Mao said at the Yan'an Forum on Literature and Art that "a hundred flowers bloom and a hundred schools of thought contend" means to allow the presentation of various art forms and style themes. In fact, the theme is not good or bad, mainly depending on whether the things you promote are positive, whether they are positive energy, and whether they can bring positive effects to society. The theme of realism was originally recorded and publicized by the Radio, Film and Television Bureau, and in the past ten years, it has also accounted for the majority, accounting for about 60 percent. But if turning on the TV is all of that, that's a problem, too. In particular, as you just said, the subject of pseudo-realism is not at all something that is rooted in the lives of the masses of the people, shouting slogans out of thin air and rubbing heat, which is certainly not good-looking.