Post-90s actor Cai Wenjing plays Wu Lizi in the TV series "Light"
Bian Yunlu
Counting the new trends in TV drama creation in recent years, "reality turn" is one of the key words.
The reason for this is firstly related to the failure of traffic chasing and the elimination of IP superstitions, and secondly to the theme creation planning and the return of literary spirit.
Specific to this year's TV drama creation, more and more dramas have tended to be true and avoid fiction in terms of themes.
Many historical and realistic aspects that were not originally in the field of view of the topic of TV dramas have begun to meet with the audience on the screen.
For example, in the turbulent times of the Republic of China, "Light", which talked about industry and financial salvation, was based on the anti-Japanese background but focused on showing support from the rear, and "Chasing Dreams" which used three generations of aviation to link the development of China's aerospace industry in the past 70 years. Blue Sky, etc., are among the representatives.
It is a good thing that these selected topics based on history and reality can stand out and form a scale based on the pulse of the times.
But judging from the specific presentation of the drama, the realistic turn of the topic selection and the return of artistic expression of realism are not always in step.
The deviation of the subject matter and artistic expression of this kind of TV series is worthy of in-depth discussion.
The myth of youth
In today's environment of media integration, whether young audiences care about or recognize a drama will have a great impact on the word-of-mouth formation and secondary dissemination of the work.
Therefore, full consideration of the role and influence of drama series on young people has become the creative consciousness of current TV drama workers.
This type of drama series based on historical facts and realistic prototypes is no exception, but as to what the expression of youthfulness is and how to adapt to serious themes, some of the main creators are ill-conceived.
Pursuing youthful expression, shaping the young protagonist, and giving young audiences a more accessible perspective of peers, this is naturally a shortcut.
However, young people in different historical periods and realistic backgrounds are different in terms of collective personality and thinking preferences, medium to family structure and emotional patterns, and small words and behaviors and body habits.
It's the same personality. There is a big difference between the cynicism of contemporary young people and the rebelliousness of young people in the war years.
If the main creators merge similar items for granted, and implant contemporary youth's life focus, hot topics and even language habits into the modernization period young people, even revolutionary fighters, it will inevitably create a sense of "crossing".
This is also a common problem in the creation of many TV dramas with serious themes but inaccurate expressions.
The pursuit of youthful expression does not mean that you can break away from the historical and realistic background, and add the spice of love and the coolness of women's independence at will.
Nowadays, because young audiences have to interact, express, and socialize, some of the main creators have developed the creative habit of burying topics, hiding anxiety, and poke the pain points in the plot.
However, these techniques often create a sense of separation in the creation of serious themes that require deep exploration of realism.
The protagonist who should have been shining on the main line of struggle and construction must consume enthusiasm at first sight and be entangled repeatedly in a multi-faceted relationship.
Whether it's a rich lady or a simple but strong rural woman, she must talk about women's awakening lines.
Not only can this not arouse the topic and hit the pain points, but it will easily derail the plot logic.
These myths about youthful expression are ultimately due to the specialization of young audiences.
Although audiences of different age groups have different aesthetic preferences, the ultimate artistic standard is the same, that is, whether they express an era alive, whether they speak the truth and act real people.
In "Feng Huo Kang Da", the camera is vivid as long as it is aimed at the classroom, even if it is a scene where the warp and carrot are used as teaching aids in the military terrain class, the barrage is well received.
It can be seen that as long as the real word is in the lead, young viewers do not just love sugaring and refreshing.
The inertia of the legendary routine
In terms of the laws of art, legendary and realism are not completely opposites, but legendary routines are another matter.
Specifically, in the tradition of TV drama creation, the Republican dramas and anti-Japanese dramas with the background of the democratic revolution, and the period dramas with the background of the socialist construction period have each developed a set of strong dramatic narrative models that seek strangeness and seek difference. .
Nowadays, some dramas have found historical blanks and realistic breakpoints expressed on the screen, but they have unconsciously followed the legendary inertia in the narrative tradition, which has affected the in-depth exploration of the subject matter to a certain extent.
For example, in the past legendary dramas, it is customary to create the image of a secular hero with a bizarre life experience, extraordinary experience, and superior ability.
The TV series "Light" used a similar technique when portraying the actor Cheng Yizhi.
He was born in a humble beginning, and later quickly entered the traditional money industry because of his marriage with the banker's daughter.
At the bank, he grew rapidly with his ears, eyes and long sleeves.
But soon, he discovered the dirty details of the old money industry, so he chose to embark on the road of founding a new bank, and started his own financial journey.
The character creation in the play is not unbelievable, and the fate is not without twists and turns, but now that the details of the times have been laid out, and the development of the economic lines has been drawn out, let the protagonist be more groundless and less peculiar in the situation and marriage. Would it be better?
This is worth thinking about.
For another example, legendary dramas are accustomed to amplifying the drama of the relationship between characters, using a large number of accidental and coincidental elements to push the fate of the characters to a climax.
It is true that when we look back at history now, we can often find a lot of drama in the subtleties.
However, in a story that is set in the background and scientific research is the main line of the drama, the two protagonists are designed as siblings who have been separated for many years. Can they help characterize the characters?
In socialist construction, sacrifice is inevitable.
A young woman who lost her husband suddenly and was in grief, but was pregnant with the courage to regain her life, this kind of plot has a certain realistic representation.
But whether it is necessary to concentrate the tension of the drama in a scene of suicide in a lake, as in "Dream Blue Sky", to show it through the ultimate line of a friend shouting at her, "You are pregnant", is debatable.
Side effects of aligning with "fast"
With the transformation of the TV series viewing environment from family to individual, audiences now have higher requirements for the information density and plot intensity of the series, and the speed of the TV series has become a common phenomenon.
However, whether the fast-paced, strong plot, and multi-reversal narrative method is applicable to certain realistic themes needs to be carefully considered, and the grasp of the scale is also a science.
The main creators of some serious TV dramas are worried that the real turning points and contradictions in history are limited, and there is no way to guarantee the plot density, so they set up another typed branch to increase the plot intensity.
For example, in the TV series "Far Huo Anti-Da", which reflects the preparation, construction, management, and development of the Anti-Japanese War, a large number of plots of spies lurking and screening were designed.
Objectively speaking, this kind of plot layout escalates the intensity of conflict and accelerates the pace of the plot.
But if you can change your mind and work hard on small history, writing down the small contradictions and small conflicts in ideological and political education, classroom and actual combat teaching, will it be more flavorful?
There are also some main creators who have gone to extremes in their understanding of fast-paced and strong plots. Not only are the characters and the relationship between characters designed extremely complex, but the main line plot is also advancing rapidly.
This blindly aligning with "fast" has caused a lot of harm to the character creation.
Many of the vivid supporting roles that were finally created have the potential to form group portraits and profile the times, but because the plot speeds up, they become functional characters and suddenly go offline.
For the protagonist with a growth arc, the main line of speeding up for speed has also lost the function of "plot is the development history of character".
A key character growth is often "figured out" in one or two lines. Sometimes, in order to serve the plot development, there is even an unrealistic expression of character logic "playing checkers".
In the normal drama creation ecology, realism and romanticism go hand in hand, leading the work and the flower of entertainment to perform their duties.
In recent years, the problem is that the realism of the subject matter has been turned steadily, but the supporting realism creation theory has slowed by half a beat.
We not only look forward to seeing more TV series based on reality, but also hope that these good themes can demonstrate their due on-screen influence.
(The author is a doctor of radio and television art and a lecturer at Shandong Normal University)