Dragon TV's musical variety show "The City of Philharmonic" was launched, and the audience's experience was mixed.
Musicals are put on the variety stage, and it is difficult to think "authentic"
Recently, a musical cultural promotion program "The City of Philharmonic" was launched on Shanghai Dragon TV.
The main mode of the program is to invite 32 actors who are strongly related to musicals to advance according to different stage themes, and compete on the all-round stage of "singing, dancing and acting" in the competition of diverse musical plays. The ultimate "Philharmonic Crown".
As a variety show that combines TV media and musicals, "The City of Philharmonic" has attracted many topics from the perspectives of drama fans, actor fans, and ordinary audiences once it is broadcast. , the audience quickly established their respective camps.
Nowadays, audiences have more and more opportunities to watch performances online. Variety shows about stage plays have appeared frequently in recent years. Although they are only fragmented works, the concept of stage plays including musicals has gradually penetrated into more and more more audience.
When "video" has become the way for many people to contact the stage play, "how to more professionally convey the professional elements of the stage to the audience" has become a problem for creators in the industry. "It is still technically very different from variety show shooting.
The Beijing News reporters sorted out the different opinions of relevant professionals, revealed and restored the difference between the filming of stage plays and the shooting of variety shows.
1 Variety show audience feedback
Helpful for the promotion of musicals but lacks stage charm
In the audience survey conducted by the Beijing News, 54.84% of the audience are "willing" to watch musical variety shows. Most of them are from the perspective of the industry, hoping to better understand musicals and care whether the industry is Hence "breaking the circle".
Among the 45.16% of the audience who were "unwilling" to watch, most of the audience insisted that musicals are stage art and should be experienced in the theater, while in variety shows, whether it is sound-editing or camera shots, people feel very deliberate, not the stage of musicals. look.
Some viewers believe that the core audience of musicals generally have actors who are attracted to them. Unfortunately, there are basically no scenes for the interaction between actors and on-site reactions in variety shows, and the editing rhythm in the later stage is not well controlled, and the shooting methods do not pursue the understanding and performance of the work. Insights, the lens performance is lack of a sense of story.
The original intention of the "City of Philharmonic" program was to popularize the culture of musicals. In this questionnaire, some ordinary viewers said that the program did cater to this point of view, but they hoped that the variety show window could help the public know more about the unpopularity Knowledge of musicals, listening to good songs expands horizons, and more able to create "star actors" to drive the development of the industry.
But there are also many senior drama fans who insist that in the clips of the play, they can neither feel the classics nor the charm of musicals.
The audience "Magic Pepper" left a message to the Beijing News in the questionnaire, saying that entertainment variety shows around the packaging of musicals will definitely play a role in the promotion of musicals to some extent, but the previous "Sound into the Heart" brought In fact, it has clearly exposed the shortcomings of such programs: such as the lack of popularization of the basic concepts and knowledge of musicals, the overall introduction of the play, not to mention its connotation and history, but only some of the players and actors. Celebrity packaging boosts the popularity of some songs.
She said that she did not know whether the audience who "entered the pit" would actually enter the theater in the future, and what kind of appreciation purpose would they take to view a musical.
All in all, whether variety shows can have a lasting positive impact on the industry is still a question mark so far.
In the audience's return visit, most of them mentioned the technical level of the stage drama variety show. What are the difficult places to break through in this field?
A reporter from the Beijing News interviewed Li Congzhou, president of Beijing Ao Zhewei Culture, which belongs to the "New Live" brand, and in the first episode of "City of Philharmonic", he created a single person to stand up from the "Philharmonic Appreciation Group". Zhang Zhilin, the founder and CEO of Miao Shike and a well-known musician in Shanghai, who competed with the judges on the basis of reason.
2 Is the shooting technique difficult to reconcile?
The shooting logic of stage dramas and variety shows needs to follow TV
In the history of Western musicals, the successful combination of stage and video is not uncommon. From the 1998 classic version of the musical "Cats", which is still regarded as a masterpiece by musical audiences, the video version of the musical "Cat" will pass the "Disney+" in 2020. The musical "Hamilton", which was broadcast to the world, is a classic case of combining musicals with video.
In recent years, with the "New Live" brand of Aozzi Culture, the concept of "high-definition live video" has been gradually popularized in China, and more high-quality theater live video projects have been introduced into China, including many high-quality live video projects. High-definition video screening of musicals.
However, Li Congzhou feels that, whether it is online performances or high-definition theatrical images developed in China for so many years, although people are no longer unfamiliar with the concept, the overall quality has not improved.
Compared with domestic choreographers, the concept of video is still used in the production of stage performances, and there is no production process and awareness like NT Live (see version B06/07 for technical disclosure).
Li Congzhou especially emphasized that "The City of Philharmonic", as a variety show, is actually not the same as the high-definition video shooting of the stage play from a technical point of view, but it is similar in terms of team logic.
When ordinary audiences are not satisfied with the image presentation, the first thing that comes to their mind is the shooting method. In this regard, Li Congzhou believes that many problems with different shooting methods will actually be exposed in the "product positioning" before shooting.
Take the 1998 classic version of the musical "Cat" as an example. This work is positioned as a TV product. When the show was filmed, there were no audience at the scene, 22 cameras were set up, and the film crew concentrated on filming for two weeks.
From the movement trajectory of the camera to the use of special lighting effects, the shooting logic is carried out according to the TV product, so that compared with the later tour version, the fineness of the actor's makeup is almost incomparable.
"The so-called high-definition that we often refer to today is actually a technical standard, referring to HD (high-resolution) and above (such as 2K, 4K), most of which are broadcast live to theaters (2K onwards), and it was only after 2005 The changes that have taken place can only be broadcast live to TV before. "Cat" is a bit special, according to today's standards, this video is relatively close to high-definition standards, but they have added a lot of post-production."
In fact, there have been some commendable cases of domestic stage plays that have been combined with TV, such as the large-scale original cultural program "China in Stories" directed by Tian Qinxin. Presenting the design of the combination of the semi-circular main stage and the sub-stages on both sides, and using the box space on the upper and lower floors to ensure a multi-line parallel stage narrative structure at the same time, the actors not only need to face the real drama audience under the stage, but also Accept close-up shots.
This year, the dance drama "Only Blue and Green", which shined at the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, had already become popular on the Internet in the New Year's Eve version at Station B. Tones are more in line with the logic of TV broadcasts.
Li Congzhou believes that directors should have a certain professional foundation in the two fields of TV and drama, no matter whether they are doing drama images or TV programs, but the overall shooting logic should still revolve around TV logic.
"Because a work will definitely change when it crosses media, but in the face of any change, only if the logic remains unchanged, you will not lose the selling point of the program."
But Li Congzhou also said that "variety directors must understand the characteristics of the stage" is difficult in practice. "There is no precedent to prove that a director who understands the stage will definitely be able to shoot a good variety show."
In his view, many British directors did not grow up as stage workers at first.
The British director of the first high-definition theatrical video work "The Book of Water" in China, he was born in the 1980s in the production of music TV, and later entered the fields of concerts, musicals, operas, dramas, etc. In fact, their growth paths are the same. accumulated little by little.
Li Congzhou believes that as a TV director, the most basic principle is to at least understand the selling point of the content you are shooting before you start shooting. In what aspects should it be reflected?
The professional scope to understand is at least a good understanding of the content of the play and a full understanding of each scene in the play.
3 The challenge of the stage play variety show?
Drama fans and "outside" audiences have different perspectives
Zhang Zhilin, founder and CEO of Miao Shike, a well-known Shanghai musician, said that the program "The City of Philharmonic" is aimed at popularizing musical theater culture for some audiences who are interested in musicals but have not been to the theater. Therefore, it is difficult to compare the TV effect of the program with the live effect.
"The City of Philharmonic" just uses a TV shooting method to let the audience experience the musical. The audience is in front of the TV, watching and making up their minds, making The Hunchback of the Clock Tower, The Phantom of the Theater, and Mamma Mia by the sea appear in the theater. In my mind, this is the role of the simulation and the sense of substitution that the show itself has."
Zhang Zhilin does not deny that in order to deal with the perspectives of drama fans, actor fans, and ordinary "outside the circle" audiences, it is impossible to achieve a balance with just one show.
For some audiences who have never been to the theater to watch musicals, the program at least gave them an initial understanding of the form of musicals.
But for fans of dramas or actors who used to be in the theater every week, those who are keen to watch musicals and buy tickets out of their own pockets every day, the standards for reviewing this show will be different.
Zhang Zhilin believes that, compared with other musical variety shows of the same file, musical variety shows like "The City of Philharmonic", before this, there are no similar program cases in the world for reference, and the difficulty of the program is also here, with the most writers and directors It can only be learned from the classic musical movies of the Oscars and some musical images officially recorded by Broadway.
"Compared with the cost and energy invested in foreign musicals and movies, there is definitely a big gap between musicals and variety shows," Zhang Zhilin said. In order to make the quality of the program as satisfactory as possible to the audience, the editors in the later stages of the program are under great pressure. "I think so far, the degree of completion of the show is still very high. Although the live audience must have many dissatisfactions, but for many audiences who have not seen the musical in front of the TV, there are certain benefits to watching it. "The City of Philharmonic" is regarded as a musical cultural promotion program, which is very promising, but if the program is put on the variety show track to compete, it may be slightly disadvantaged."
From a technical point of view, Zhang Zhilin said that no matter how high-end "head microphone" is used by the actors in the show, it is impossible to compare the sound transmission effect of a high-end "hand-held microphone" in music variety shows. These are two technologies in themselves.
In addition, after being edited from the TV technology layer by layer, and then broadcast on the network platform, the collection method of human voice will also be damaged accordingly.
"Whether it is a stage play variety show, high-definition video projection or online cloud broadcasting, they are all supplements to offline performances. If you have the conditions to watch offline performances, everyone will definitely choose to go to the theater. This is because all plays The rehearsal method itself is not aimed at the camera, and it is completely different from the way that the film and television works use the language of the lens to convey the story and characters.”
4 Thoughts after "variety show"
The increase in the number of programs can increase the voice of the industry
Zhang Zhilin believes that a dialectical analysis should be made when viewing the stage play variety show of "The City of Philharmonic".
First of all, this kind of program has played a role in the audience's understanding of the performance and the promotion of the performance market. "The program can provide actors with an opportunity to meet the audiences across the country on satellite TV, and it is a rare good thing that elite actors from the entire industry gather together. But in the short term, the impact on the production company also exists, because actors can't perform when they go to variety shows. Variety shows take a long time, and various preparations and photography together take at least half a year. Actors' performances in theaters will definitely be affected, and these problems will also involve the box office, which are all real problems."
Zhang Zhilin hopes that, inspired by Dragon TV's "City of Philharmonic", more and more production companies with experience in variety TV will participate in the future. "During the production of each issue, the main creative team of "City of Philharmonic" It is also adjusted during production, constantly collecting opinions from all parties through review meetings, discussion meetings, etc., and constantly adjusting to make the program better and better. Only with continuous improvement of the program can the volume of the musical theater industry be brought to a higher level. More people know about the musical theatre industry. We cannot always use musical theatre actors as a selling point to do this. In fact, the actors currently available are limited. We look forward to creating another new environment in the future, allowing more people to enter musical theatre. industry".
Written in this edition / Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen