In front of the TV series "Meritorious Service", there are eight of the first batch of "Order of the Republic" recipients of the dusty merits, and their great stories are told to more people in a flat manner; and behind the scenes of "Meritorious Service", there are more than a dozen art creators, nearly a hundred actors, and thousands of cast members, who have respect for the meritorious figures, go up to the mountains, brave the thunderstorms, stand up to the wind and sand, drive ox carts, do farm work, and nibble potatoes... Although there are only six episodes per unit, it has been filmed for an average of more than forty days. Their persistence and sincerity in their creations are equally worthy of being recorded.
"The Unsung Hero Yu Min": Comedy elements like "salt grains sprinkled on white rice"
Director: Shen Yan
Screenwriter: Wang Xiaogun
Actor: Lei Jiayin
Lei Jiayin plays Yu Min.
"Indifferent to Mingzhi, quiet to far-reaching" is the evaluation given to Yu Min by the outside world. In his life, there were not too many dramatic moments of great sorrow or great joy, or life and death, only the persistence of science from beginning to end. The study of hydrogen bombs is the main line of his life. But this also made Wang Xiaogun encounter no small challenge when creating the script.
After collecting a lot of public information, interviewing Yu Min's colleagues and people around him, and adding some little-known stories from Yu Min's son Yu Xin, Wang Xiaogun decided to use Min's real experience of studying hydrogen bombs as the "trunk" of the script, while the rest of the "branches" were rationally "virtual and real". For example, in the play, Lao Ma, Lao Hao, and Lu Jie, who either increased Yu Min's research resistance or gave support, are all fictional characters. Since Yu Min was very fond of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Wang Xiaogun distilled two character relationships from it to string together the story of Yu Min - Yu Min and Lao Ma were like Zhuge Liang and Sima Yi, and Yu Min and Lao Hao were like Zhuge Liang and Liu Bei. "Yu Min was particularly fond of Zhuge Liang, including the Yin 'Table of Later Masters', and he thought that 'bowing down to exhaustion, after death' was something very similar to Zhuge Liang."
In addition, the play also adds a little bit of comedy elements. For example, when Yu Min's wife gave birth, Yu Min rushed to the hospital, but she mistakenly recognized the ward. "It's like sprinkling salt grains on white rice." Wang Xiaogun described, "In the face of such a theme character, we also want to think of some TV series creation methods and skills to help the pace push faster." Lei Jiayin has also played a more exaggerated and somewhat cute character in the past. ”
"Huang Xuhua's Deep Dive": a "narrative prose poem" that is not exalted and does not sensationalize
Director: Yang Yang
Writer: Shen Jie
Actor: Huang Xiaoming
Huang Xiaoming plays Huang Xuhua.
After receiving the creation of "Huang Xuhua's Deep Dive", Yang Yang observed a large number of domestic and foreign submarine-themed films, consulted a lot of historical materials about Huang Xuhua and China's first generation of nuclear submarine research, but still could not find the right creative tone. Yang Yang believes that "Huang Xuhua's Deep Dive" cannot damage the truth of history and the charm of the characters in order to pursue drama and tension. And it shouldn't be a biopic either. "Because China's nuclear submarine industry is completed by one generation, or even several generations." Elder Huang once said firmly: 'Absolutely cannot say what kind of father I am.' I'm just one of countless nuclear submarine men'. ”
It was not until July 2020, when Yang Yang met Huang Xuhua in Wuhan, that he found the exact answer. When Yang Yang led the team into the place where Huang Xuhua had worked, an old man with white hair on crutches quietly walked in. He whispered in a southern accent, "Hello." He pointed to one of his white hairs and said, "My wife just got my haircut." That morning, Yang Yang listened to Huang Xuhua tell a lot of stories about the past, talking about the first encounter with nuclear submarines, talking about his father, mother, and wife. "It was that day that I decided to tell his story in a calm tone, just like he himself, not deliberately pursuing drama, not exalting, not sensational, not overly forceful, and presenting the story of Huang Lao's dedication to his life in the way of 'narrative prose poetry'."
In Yang Yang's view, Huang Xuhua's work and environment need a hard tonality, and lateral backlighting, thickness, and coarse particles are suitable image styles. The underwater nuclear submarine screen is all produced by special effects, "this drama is no less difficult than any long story we have ever shot." ”
"Tu Youyou's Gift": Zhou Xun and Tu Youyou have similar personalities
Director: Zheng Xiaolong
Screenwriter: Wang Xiaoping
Actor: Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun plays Tu Youyou.
After announcing that Zhou Xun played Tu Youyou, there was a lot of controversy in the outside world. But in Wang Xiaoping's view, Zhou Xun and Tu Youyou in private have many similarities - they don't like to be lively, they are not good at interpersonal communication, and they don't like to talk when there are many strangers. "It is that she is not good at expressing herself in words, and when filming, she is very focused, so after Zhou Xun read the script, she also said that she was very similar to Teacher Tu in many places." Zheng Xiaolong said.
In addition to the similar personalities, Zheng Xiaolong also liked Zhou Xun's "sense of shaping". In Zheng Xiaolong's view, the character of Tu Youyou is different from any female character he has ever filmed before, and he has a very personality. It is also through her personality and persistence that Zheng Xiaolong and Wang Xiaoping formed the dramatic story of "Tu Youyou's Gift" - in the play, she does not look at the face when she talks to anyone, one says one, two says two; scientists believe in science, believe in data, believe in her experiments; her life is very simple and simple, and she is not even willing to waste time in order to go to the street to buy meat and queue up, so she always goes to the canteen to eat casually, or get some noodles at home. "Everything about her, her loyalty is here [scientifically], including her loyalty to the tasks entrusted to her by the state, full of compassion and affection for those patients." This I think is the reason why she finally finished artemisinin. ”
Wang Xiaoping said that after watching this drama, Zhou Xun rarely voted for his performance. "But what's more important is the judgment of the audience." After the broadcast, if the audience feels that Zhou Xun has acted particularly well, it is particularly good. Zheng Xiaolong said.
"Yuan Longping's Dream": Huang Zhizhong deliberately learned the violin
Director: Yan Jiangang
Screenwriter: Song Fangjin
Actor: Huang Zhizhong
Huang Zhizhong plays Yuan Longping.
"Yuan Longping's Dream" is set in Anjiang, Huaihua District, Hunan Province, and is where Yuan Longping first worked. Due to the rainy season, 30 of the more than 40 days of filming were raining; the first three days were foggy, and no one could be seen face to face, and the crew almost did not shoot the scene. The economy of that place is also not developed, there is only one-way road up the mountain, and it is impossible to turn around if you make a mistake. So the crew had to line up the car every day, go up and down the hill according to the number; if there was any process error, the whole group would be stuck on the mountain.
Farm work is also a test. The rice fields at the beginning of the unit were rented by the crew, and rice was only planted a few months before the start of the unit. But when the actors shoot, they also have to work in the fields and plant seedlings. Yan Jiangang said that when he was young, whether it was Huang Zhizhong or the crew, he was already familiar with planting seedlings and planting seedlings, "staying in the mud every day." ”
As for why Huang Zhizhong was chosen to play Yuan Longping, Yan Jiangang and Song Fangjin invariably called him "the best candidate". "He is similar to Yuan Longping and is the consensus of the industry." Yan Jiangang said. In addition, in Song Fangjin's view, give the words and situations to Huang Zhizhong, he can immediately perform in place, so that everyone is convinced. There is a scene in the play where Yuan Longping is criticized by the leadership and arranged to work. He played basketball at night to vent, so much so that he accidentally fell. "Huang Zhizhong and Yuan Longping actually have some similarities. Yuan Longping likes to play, Huang Zhizhong is a professional basketball player; Yuan Longping likes to swim in the sea all his life, and Huang Zhizhong can also swim in the sea (level). The two of them have a lot in common, except that Huang Zhizhong can't play the violin. But this time he also specialized in violin. Song Fangjin said.
"Sun Jiadong's Heavenly Road": The ending scene is Tong Dawei improvising
Director: Yang Wenjun
Screenwriter: Xu Su
Actor: Tong Dawei
Tong Dawei plays Sun Jiadong.
The most colorful scene in "Sun Jiadong's Heavenly Road" is that after the failure of the launch of the Dongfeng No. 2 missile, Sun Jiadong led the team to prefer not to eat, but also to crouch on the Gobi Desert for several days and nights, endure the bone-chilling cold wind, dig out the wreckage of the missile, take a little bit of sieve parts, and then piece it together to carefully analyze the reasons for the failure.
When writing the script, Zheng Xiaolong discussed with Yang Wenjun and Xu Su that he could write a story of failure, because often the outside world only saw a satellite successfully go to heaven, but did not see how many failed and exploded behind it. "This story is very touching, it is all real historical materials and records (adapted)." Yang Wenjun said frankly.
What also impressed Yang Wenjun was that the last satellite was successfully launched into the sky, but Sun Jiadong was not at the scene, but saw the red headline "The Eastern Red Satellite is in the sky" in the newspaper the next day. On the street, Sun Jiadong suddenly cried like a child and said excitedly, "Director Chen, we have finally ridden our bicycles to the moon." Yang Wenjun revealed that this scene is actually Tong Dawei's improvisation. Originally, the script only stayed in Sun Jiadong and was very excited to read the newspaper, and then the camera cut to the people cheering in Tiananmen Square, and Sun Jiadong and his wife were in the crowd. But because Tong Dawei changed this scene particularly well, experts felt that it was better to stop abruptly, so they chose the current ending. On the contrary, the big scene did not have this sense of power. ”
For this scene, Tong Dawei said that because it was the last scene filmed before the killing, when he experienced Sun Jiadong's experience, he had a deeper understanding of every scientist who paid silently in the whole story, and when he saw the newspaper, everything seemed to be vividly remembered. Director Chen, whom Sun Jiadong shouted in this scene, was the first leader to lead him to be a missile. In the process of Sun Jiadong's growth, he has always helped him and supported him. I also said that line because I felt that science was the inheritance of this kind of help. ”
Zhang He, a senior reporter of the Beijing News
Senior Editor Tong Na Proofreader Zhai Yongjun