Children's film and television should touch the childlike heart
Yang Hongtao
Film and television arts play an important role in children's enlightenment education, especially aesthetic education.
Children's movies are truly "all-aged" and most suitable for "family fun" movies.
Children's TV dramas, cartoons, and children's programs all have a large, stable and steady audience.
Therefore, it is necessary to pay special attention to the creation of children's themes of film and television, from the psychological perspective of children, use children's words to observe the world and weave stories.
Only by returning to the innocence, inspiring childishness, and touching the childlike innocence, can we create excellent works that meet the growth needs of children in the new era and reflect their spiritual outlook.
Returning to innocence is methodology
Childhood has a vast future, colorful dreams and life visions full of infinite possibilities.
Whenever looking back on childhood, people are always willing to pick up good memories again, because childhood has the most true and pure emotions in life.
From the enduring popularity of Westward Journey-themed film and television works to the popularity of Disney theme parks around the world, it is not difficult to see that innocence is a spiritual treasure that almost everyone aspires to preserve.
Ming dynasty thinker Li Zhi's "Innocent Theory" pointed out: "A husband who is innocent is sincere." Children's film and television works involve precisely the most authentic spiritual trait of human nature, that is, innocence.
From a global perspective, children's film and television works have the inherent commonality of artistic codes. They can cross countries, races and regions without too much cultural translation, allowing everyone to perceive the innocence, purity and sincerity.
Like the poor but caring little brothers and sisters in the classic movie "Little Shoes", they are afraid of being punished by their father because they lost their shoes, so they guard their inner secrets together.
Therefore, my sister tried every means to help her brother "cover up" the "worse mistake" she had committed, and her brother tried every means to buy a pair of new shoes for her sister... The work uses simple narrative and simple images to deeply capture the most authentic children. The psychological trail, their clear eyes, immature smiles, and the mutual care they showed made the audience moved.
The creation of children's themes of film and television works cannot be themed first, cannot tell stories in a disciplinary and educational attitude, cannot simply and mechanically treat children's psychological confusion and emotional needs, and cannot arbitrarily deprive children of their right to make choices and decisions.
Film and television creators should start from innocence, try to lower their perspectives, calm their minds, empathize with them, get rid of routine and patterned creative stereotypes, and discover and record children's most true nature, most sincere emotions, and most sincere aspirations.
In fact, adults with too many distracting thoughts and fetters should learn from children in many cases to cleanse their souls.
The documentary "Kindergarten" records how a kindergarten travels through spring, summer, autumn and winter from the perspective and tone of children.
The work uses children to look at adults and four seasons as a metaphor for life, so that every audience can feel the warmth and emotion when they know how to smile and recall their childhood.
Stimulating childishness is the main theme
Childhood is the most active and creative stage of life thinking.
Many behaviors of children cannot be restrained by rules, nor can they be explained by common sense of life.
The words that pop out of children’s mouths are often weird and can't help but laugh.
This is the initial nature bred by life, and the desire for freedom born of human beings.
Feng Zikai once said in his article "Children": "My heart is occupied by four things, gods and stars in the sky, art and children on earth." In his spiritual world, children and art, gods and stars Pay equal attention to.
From the perspective of children's film and television creation, this is even more true.
Losing childishness means losing the main theme of children's works, and losing the basic elements of children's works.
From the movies "Little Soldier Zhang Ga", "Sparkling Red Star" to "Thunderbolt Beibei" and "Happy Planet", whether it is the arduous revolutionary years, the thriving New China, or the unconstrained science fiction world, children are in various contexts. The city often reveals the shining childlike innocence and the rainbow-like childishness, which cannot be concealed and obliterated.
Children's film and television creation can neither consume suffering nor sell anxiety, nor can they escape reality and blindly optimistic. It is necessary to work hard to find solutions to "growth troubles" in childishness.
The movie "Summer in the West Creek" tells a warm and somewhat lost story between a little boy who loves football in a small southern town, his father and the grandfather who lives alone next door.
In the little boy’s world, football is an important source of his dreams and happiness, and joining the school football team is an important ceremony for him to announce his growth.
However, the busyness and emotional dissatisfaction of his parents, the misunderstanding and estrangement between himself and his friends, the failure of the school team selection, and the sudden goodbye of the grandfather next door made the little boy unhappy in the depressed summer, and also made him in the early autumn. The season went out of the trough, learned to understand, persevere and be self-reliant, and gained spiritual growth.
The movie "The First Parting" takes the life of a young boy in Shaya, Xinjiang as a clue, telling the three partings between him and his mother, brother, and childhood friend.
The work focuses on every growth in life from the perspective of children, taking parting as an important proposition for grown-ups, accurately capturing the happiness and sadness naturally revealed in children's nature, and the innocent and natural original ecology of the young actors is also deeply impressed. Moved the heartstrings of the audience.
Reaching the childlike heart is the end point
The infinite curiosity of the world and the rapid absorption of knowledge give children special learning ability and spiritual space.
Similarly, for creators, it is difficult for a person without childlike innocence to create high-level children's film and television works.
At present, earlier media exposure and adequate nutrition have led to precocious puberty in contemporary children.
How to dynamically capture the mental trajectories of children of different ages, so as to make targeted artistic creations, is very important.
In children's film and television creation, there should be no content that exceeds children's cognitive level and reading ability, there should be no vague areas where good and evil are indiscriminate, good and evil are not clear, and the so-called ambiguous and obscure depiction of human nature should not be advocated.
Children, especially young children, are passive when they first come into contact with film and television works, and their viewing depends on the choice and guidance of their parents.
Therefore, parents must be the first "gatekeeper" for children to watch film and television works.
Parents should watch the movies and TV works that children may come into in advance, so as to make some choices, interventions, and guidance.
It is necessary to introduce healthy thinking and correct values to children at the beginning of the budding of independent thinking and at the beginning of the development of independent personality.
Excellent children's works can reflect the adult world in a mirror image, thus triggering in-depth thinking about truth, goodness and beauty.
For example, "The Spring of Cow Herding Class" uses music to open the door for adults and children to each other's hearts, "Miracle Boy" uses love and tolerance to let a boy with a facial defect out of the haze and embrace the sun, "Great!
"Juvenile" tells the story of a group of teenagers from all corners of the world who are living in difficult situations who use baseball as a kind of fire to light up their lives.
They are orphans or left-behind children, and they falter in the process of growing up. However, it is this group of little boys who are not favored who have won respect and glory in the international arena through unremitting efforts, conveying a kind of The power that makes one's eyes full of tears.
A person's original intentions and dreams always sprouted when they were young.
The creation of children's themes of film and television can be described as broad and promising.
In the context of the new era, film and television creators must have a sense of mission, deeply portray children’s psychological portraits, and initially shape children from the aspects of behavior training, character training, and moral training; they must moisten things and stick to the righteousness of creation. To lead, integrate enlightenment education on ideals and beliefs into the works, let the seeds of faith germinate from childhood, and show the spiritual outlook of children in the new era.
(The author is a professor at the School of Drama, Film and Television, Communication University of China)