At a trend music festival, the young boys and girls on the stage looked at the DJs on the stage, and the dazzling lights and rhythmic electronic music echoed each other... A scene in the youth film "Midsummer Future" is out of the circle. From the soundtrack, the scene construction to some of the highlights, the film is narrating the electronic music and electronic music culture to the audience. "This is the first youth film I have ever seen that can make electronic music so good" "Every capital wants to 'listen to songs and recognize songs', and the music is too memorable." The comments of netizens prove that the electronic and audio elements integrated into the film of "Midsummer Future" are deeply loved by everyone.
In the Internet era, the current young people's song list is unprecedentedly rich and diverse, not only electronic music, but also folk music, classical music, rock music and so on. However, on the domestic screen, there are still few films with music and musicians as the protagonists of the story or important narrative threads. In recent years, only films such as "Birds and Phoenix", "Flash Girl", "Sewing Machine Band" and so on have music as the main line. This summer, the box office of "Summer Future" exceeded 300 million yuan, which not only gave electronic music the opportunity to express and get more recognition, but also made people look forward to more movies telling the stories of music and musicians on the screen in the future.
An electric sound mix that conveys subtle emotional changes between characters
In the movie "Summer Future", electronic music is one of the important elements, and it has not been reduced to a symbolic embellishment. As the film's music director Tina C.Wang Wang Qianting said: "We hope to fully explore the effect of electronic music on the plot and atmosphere, so that when the audience watches the movie, they can not only experience the plot development through the soundtrack, but also enjoy it." ”
This campus youth theme film starring Wu Lei and Zhang Zifeng delicately shows the psychology of adolescent teenagers, and the rich and diverse electronic music also conveys subtle emotional changes between characters in the film. The young boy Zheng Yuxing (Wu Lei) performs a beautiful electronic sound mixing passage with a handsome DJ posture - this is Zheng Yuxing's 18th birthday gift to Chen Chen (Zhang Zifeng), and the boy combines his favorite "Moments" with the girl's favorite "Hug" into an electronic mixing song. Before this, Chen Chen had been a guest at Zheng Yuxing's home, accompanied by Zheng Yuxing's guitar, the girl sang a piece of "Embrace", the boy recorded the girl's voice when she sang, and made it a unique "musical coming-of-age ceremony" that belonged to her alone. When the girl hears her own song transform into a moving electric melody, many viewers in front of the screen "tear up" - poetry, songs, and precious feelings that are difficult to say are pinned on beautiful notes.
Root Ni Yusen, who is in charge of the mixing production in the film, said bluntly that it is difficult to integrate the two songs of "Moments" and "Embrace", "They are not in one key, the style is a little worse, if they are forced together, there will be a lot of discord." And it is precisely this challenge that may lead to "disharmony" that gives the electronic music work inclusiveness. As Wu Lei, who fell in love with electronic music after filming, said, "There are many different genres of electronic music, no matter what type of music you listen to, you can find your own belonging from electronic music."
At the end of the film, Chen Chen, who bid farewell to the 18-year-old college student, stood in front of the music festival poster, and the protagonist on the poster was Zheng Yuxing, who gave her the "musical coming-of-age ceremony" - the boy grew into an electric music master with the strength to perform on stage. Justin, an electronic music consultant for "Midsummer Future", said: "Such a work can at least let everyone understand that electronic music is beautiful, and the scene of electronic music is very happy and very romantic." After watching the movie, many netizens did go to various music platforms to press the play button and walked into the open door of electronic music.
From classical music, pop music to folk music, I look forward to more music on the big screen that can debut in the C position
Looking at the global screen, there are many films in Europe and the United States that take music as the leading clue, such as "Red Violin", "Sea Pianist", "She is lonely than fireworks", "Spring of the Cattle Herding Class" and so on. The production of these films is based on the deep roots of classical music culture in the West itself. An inventory of Chinese films released after 2000, there is no shortage of music-themed films that have attracted attention - in 2002, Chen Kaige directed the film "With You", which tells how a teenager who plays the violin plays a violin and follows the true wishes of his soul to grow up, and sprout the buds of his youth. In 2007, singer Jay Chou directed and acted in the movie "The Secret That Cannot Be Said", piano genius Ye Xianglun launched a fantasy love story with Lu Xiaoyu in high school, and the piano passage played in the piano room in the film has been regarded as a classic by many fans. In 2010, singer Wang Lihong directed and starred in the movie "Love Notice", the protagonists of the story are big stars and talented women of the folk music department.
If the reason why the above three films have gained attention is mainly due to the appeal of the director and the singer, then five or six years ago, the two films involving folk music, "Flash Girl" and "Hundred Birds and Phoenix", stirred up relatively less splashes. As a youth film released in 2017, "Flash Girl" shows the conflict between the folk music department and the Western music department attached to the conservatory. In the film, a plot in which Western music and folk music are played against each other, and the victory of The End of the Film has recently been "reddened" on a video number, which has made more people begin to pay attention to this movie again. Another movie about the culture of Na Na, "A Hundred Birds and a Phoenix", was first released in 2016 and encountered the dilemma of fewer films. The acceptance and attention of domestic music theme movies are far less enthusiastic than today.
Fast forward to the summer of 2021. At present, music is more like a necessity among young audiences in China, and the endless music variety shows have also made different sparks of various types of music collide - whether it is folk music, classical music or rock music. From pianist Lang Lang, pop singer Park Shu and rock singer Liang Long appearing in the same variety show, "playing" music with younger musicians together, and witnessing that this traditional instrument can also be combined with electronic music, which can show the vitality of the Chinese music industry from the side. In the context of the vigorous development of China's music industry, I believe that more good stories of musicians belonging to our country and this land will be born, and the "sound" will enter the hearts of the people on the big screen in the future.
Author: Jiang Fang
Editor: Xu Yang
Image source: Stills