Author / Seiichi
Since the forms of youth are diverse, youth dramas should not have only one "color".
"Our Reverse Youth", which is being screened on Youku, novelly integrates "youth" and "suspense", with two lines of blood chasing dreams and cross-ocean pursuit of murder, and through the layers of the plot, let us see the protagonist growing up on the thorny music road and bravely moving forward in the journey of youth.
"Youth drama shoots a new trick". Since the launch of the series, the audience has not lacked praise for the innovation of its theme, and the broadcast data and word of mouth have also risen.
At present, the marketing of "Our Reverse Youth" has entered the second stage, director Tian Zicheng is still busy for the project, he laughs at himself as "more nosy", the script, preparation, shooting, post-production, marketing and other links are personally experienced, deeply involved in control, but also "to create more possibilities and opportunities for themselves".
From a musician to a film and television, director Tian Zicheng is also the screenwriter of "Our Reverse Youth", and also covers the creation of three original songs in the series. The theme of chasing dreams has always been consistent, whether it is the core expression or the external form, these three songs are very close to the temperament of the series itself, and the blessing helps "Our Anti-Youth" to become a rare musical struggle youth drama in China.
Our "reverse" youth: to do it is to be unique and unique in the market
After fully analyzing the youth drama market, Tian Zicheng's goal is very clear, to do what the market does not have, unique and unique. Focus on the differentiated market, "on top of the unique basic attributes, and then pursue the excitement of the plot and the rationality of the plot."
He has seen too many single homogeneous youth dramas spawned because of the satisfaction of vertical precision users due to the requirements of "big data". The inner volume brought by this kind of big data is a kind of thinking solidification and waste of resources in the market and the essence of users. "Computers do basic quantitative work, and what the human brain can do is the future of innovation." Tian Zicheng was full of faith.
"Our Reverse Youth" director and screenwriter Tian Zicheng
The idea of "Our Reverse Youth" originated because Tian Zicheng was deeply inspired by a conference to participate in the "Mysterious Superstar" starring Amir Khan, so he wrote the song "Fireflies" with a pen, dedicated to all "dreamers". "At that time, many friends felt and resonated with this song very much, so I burst out with an idea to create a play based on the dream theme of this song to commemorate those who had persevered in their youth in adversity for their dreams." The director recalls.
Tian Zicheng said that youth is not only ignorant and fresh, everyone's life trajectory is different, and there must be a sad and tortuous dream experience in life. Moreover, all aspects of youth adversity are part of life.
In his pen, he gradually has the appearance of "anti-youth":
Fifteen years ago, a rock band's special performance suddenly caught fire, and the tragedy directly led to the breakdown of two families, and also made the good sister of childhood Xiaojiu break with Wei Wei's feelings, the musical dreams of two generations, the love entanglement of three people, and the friendship bond between sisters began. Tiezi (played by Cao Jun) guards Xiao jiu (played by Xi Ge) with warmth and companionship to bravely pursue his dreams, and travels far across the ocean to investigate the truth of the mystery case many years ago, Xiao Jiu and Wei Wei (played by Shao Yun) also freeze their previous suspicions, and the three finally feel the true meaning of love in the entanglement of friendship, love and family affection, and finally achieve each other's musical dreams. Among them, there are also two generations of dreams and values colliding, and finally they all return to simplicity. "What is the driving force behind the dream? It is happiness, not the brilliance and substance it brings. Tian Zi explained.
In the director's cognition, "Our Reverse Youth" is not a sweet pet drama, it promotes "positive energy of youth dreams". The series takes the sisters' musical dream-chasing route as the main line, supplemented by transnational pursuit of murder, and the multi-line branches of the two-line narrative, which are also mixed with the current hot social issues, the changes of several musical eras, and the inheritance of musical dreams, etc., and the plot system is huge. Therefore, Tian Zicheng also expects the audience to feel the creator's intentions more after the interweaving of the 10 episodes of basic plots.
In summary, "Our Reverse Youth" is an attitude. "Reverse youth" represents growing up in adversity, and on top of the homogeneous youth dramas on the market, embracing a reverse thinking to create. There is the inspiration of chasing dreams, there is the sweetness of love, and there are many helplessness and bitterness, and it is because of these complex feelings that we constitute our entire youth. The core of these stories is more complex, and it is more able to withstand thinking, scrutiny, and scrutiny. Therefore, Tian Zicheng decided to combine youth dream chasing and case solving suspense to do a two-line narrative.
Do your best to make a play with a cinematic attitude
Born as a musician, Tian Zicheng has participated in the production of Jacky Cheung's creative musical "Snow Wolf Lake" and CCTV's "Same Song".
Creative transformation, everything is the best arrangement. He continued his love of music into film and television, and with a more sincere love, he made plays with the attitude of making movies.
As one of the few music-themed youth dramas in China, in the setting of Tian Zicheng, the song "Firefly" is the signal light that lights up dreams in "Our Reverse Youth", always illuminating the road ahead for Xiaojiu; the theme song "Xiaocao" expresses the protagonist's indomitable spirit on the road of chasing dreams, this small and tenacious grass spirit is upgraded, and the persistence on the road is deeply in line with the theme of the series, "Tears never drown the anxiety of youth"; and "Dawn Watch" encourages everyone to wait for the dawn of dawn in adversity, insist, insist and then insist. On the other hand, when Xiaojiu sang this song to complete the uncompetited dream of that year instead of his father, it was also related to the inheritance and relay of the musical dreams of the two generations.
From music to episodes, the theme expression is integrated, and the spiritual core is highly matched. Director Tian Zicheng personally created these theme songs and interludes for "Our Reverse Youth" for half a year before shooting, which also deeply reflected the original intention of creation.
Secondly, in order to construct such a huge story structure that integrates elements such as love, friendship, family affection, dream inheritance, suspense and murder, Tian Zicheng introduced that the script of "Our Reverse Youth" has changed fifteen drafts alone, which is extremely difficult to create, reasonable, and pay attention to the excitement of the plot. The final script did not disappoint the audience, and the strong plot setting left a rich thinking.
In addition, in order to better complete the scene conception in the script, "Our Reverse Youth" uses a lot of art concept maps and storyboard drawing work, which is usually a preliminary step in large-scale cinema films. The crew also spared no expense to go to the Philippines, Chongqing and other places to investigate and shoot scenes. Whether it is the Philippines, where the high-energy drama is concentrated in the play, or Chongqing, where the emotional conflict occurs, each episode and each scene is carefully selected by the main creative team.
Tian Zicheng has always firmly believed that in the face of difficulties, "what can be changed is the method, not the goal." "At a limited cost, in order to perfectly show the realism of the "Extreme Trainee" talent show scene in the plot setting, the director and the producer coordinated the stage lighting and sound at the concert level, and specially tuned two distinctive locomotives to create a different stage scene, and finally successfully achieved a shocking audiovisual effect in the film. A large number of dancers also began to practice dance and learn guitar early, in order to make the overall draft atmosphere created in the play more believable and more quality.
"Our art team was involved in the logo design of "Extreme Trainee" early on, and the brand packaging, event rules, stage presentation and other aspects of this talent show were planned in advance. Even if this 'virtual' big show is carried to any platform, it is still a program that can survive independently. Tian Zicheng still remembers it, and in the process they overcame a lot of difficulties. Moreover, finding an abandoned warehouse 1:1 to create a renovated, decorated museum that has undergone changes, and the Philippine boxing gym is built, the crew is doing their best to present details, just to give the audience "a good play".
Innovative thinking and creativity. At present, "Our Reverse Youth" is being screened on Youku, and the follow-up works of director Tian Zicheng are also advancing in an orderly manner. As a film and television person, his self-requirement is that the next work must be more quality improved than the previous work, and step by step firmly and steadily take the road of creation.