How to "applaud and speak" major theme TV series in the new era?

Zhongxin Wanghai, March 3 Question: How to "applaud and applaud" major theme TV dramas in the new era?

China News Network reporter Xu Jing

"Since 2021, the creation of major theme TV series can be said to shine, leading the creation and production of Chinese TV dramas to a new artistic height, and giving birth to a large number of excellent works that can stand, spread and shout." Lu Yanmei, director of the Industrial Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, said when attending an academic seminar on "High-quality Innovation and Development of Major Themed TV Dramas in the New Era" in Shanghai.

In recent years, the creation of major theme TV dramas has continued to launch a large number of "peak" works with profound thinking, exquisite art and excellent production around important nodes such as the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up, the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China, the comprehensive poverty alleviation and the construction of a moderately prosperous society, the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China and the Beijing Winter Olympics, and initially established a new pattern of major theme drama creation and production. With the popularity of works such as "Our Decade", "County Party Committee Compound", "Big Exam" and "Bottom Line" in 2022, major theme dramas have ushered in a peak of communication. A series of works not only have a strong creative lineup, but also take into account the broadcast effect market and social benefits, "applauded and applauded".

Seminar site. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Film Academy, Shanghai University

Based on the new starting point of the development of major theme TV dramas in the new era, how to create and develop major theme dramas with high quality and innovation? On the 25th, guests from the national academic circles and industries participated in the academic seminar on "High-quality Innovation and Development of Major Theme TV Dramas in the New Era" hosted by the Film and Television Society of China Higher Education and Shanghai University, and organized by the Film and Television Review Professional Committee of the Film and Television Society of China Higher Education and Shanghai University and Shanghai Film Academy of Shanghai University, to deeply discuss the Chinese-style modernization path of the development of major theme TV series.

"How is the main theme TV series called and sold?" Zhang Guotao, executive director of the Media Art and Culture Research Center of Communication University of China, vice president and secretary general of the China University Film and Television Society, has been quite confused. He noticed that some of the main theme TV series were applauded but the market response was very poor, and the popularity was not necessarily recognized by all walks of life, and this problem has always plagued the entire creation.

The academic seminar on "High-quality Innovation and Development of Major Themed TV Dramas in the New Era" was held at Shanghai University. Photo courtesy of Shanghai Film Academy, Shanghai University

"In recent years, both movies and TV series have weakened the concept of 'main theme', and TV series creation is called theme creation, which is a change in the new era." Zhang Guotao was pleased to find that the creation of major theme dramas has achieved a very rare degree of unity in terms of applause and applause.

In Lu Yanmei's view, a large number of major revolutionary historical TV series such as "The Age of Awakening" and "Ideals Shining on China" have greatly expanded the creative life of major revolutionary theme dramas, filled the gap in the creation of major theme TV dramas in multiple dimensions, and also stimulated the strong empathy of contemporary youth; The theme excavation and narrative techniques of major reality TV series have opened up new realms. For example, works such as "Mountains and Seas" focus on the theme of poverty alleviation and beautiful rural construction, showing the picture of China's countryside in the process of Chinese-style modernization; Works such as "The Courtyard of the County Party Committee", "Our Decade" and "The Great Examination" focus on social changes and praise the spirit of the times; Works such as "The World" depict the joys, sorrows and sorrows of the people, show the spiritual atmosphere of the new era with short stories, and stimulate the spiritual power of the people to be good and good; Anti-corruption dramas such as "Crazy" break through the creative trap and face the contest between red and black, crime and punishment in real life.

In this regard, Professor Rao Shuguang, president of the China Film Critics Society, pointed out that the key to the "breaking the circle" of major theme dramas such as "The Age of Awakening", "The Great Examination" and "The Bottom Line" lies in the fact that the drama has new discoveries in life, new expressions of art, and can establish emotional commonalities and aesthetic commonalities with younger audiences, meeting the diversified and personalized needs of the market.

Ding Yaping, president of the China College Film and Television Society, analyzed that more and more theme dramas are "breaking the circle", which shows the aesthetic inclusiveness of Chinese audiences to TV dramas, and fully verifies that the intrinsic quality of the head drama is still the key to obtaining market keys and extensive social influence.

"Reality theme creation also drives the creation of realistic dramas in the industry." Lv Yanmei said that driven by the creation of major theme dramas, a diversified production pattern has been formed, and a number of famous screenwriters, directors and actors with both virtue and art have emerged.

What are the realistic approaches to creating major themes? How to tell the grassroots story of the new era? What are the themes and production experiences of major realist dramas? At the seminar, a number of first-line key theme drama creators pointed their answers to keywords such as "sense of reality" and "next life".

Feng Weiwei, the chief producer of "The Great Examination", said that the main creative team has visited more than 10 high schools and more than 10 universities, consulted and collected a large number of materials and materials, obtained vivid materials of the main character prototypes, and finally formed a three-dimensional big test story, aiming that no matter which section the audience enters from, they can feel the real characters, moods and character journeys.

"Realist theme dramas can only generate a link with the audience if they are authentic and credible." In 2022, Liu Guotong, director of Hunan Dangran Film Co., Ltd., filmed China's first panoramic TV series "The Bottom Line" that shows the achievements of the judicial reform of the people's courts. Recalling that when he first received the task, he confessed that he was "very apprehensive". "How to anchor the theme of the story, target typical characters, and how to present the solemn and serious rule of law theme in a form that the audience likes to see, is a difficult problem that we have to overcome." Liu Guotong's first step was to choose "next life", and in the 8 months of collecting style, he went deep into the court to understand the ecology of the court and grasp the underlying logic behind the court's practice.

At present, the number of major theme dramas has increased and the quality has also improved, but many experts at the seminar site also reminded that the high-quality innovation and development of the creation and production of major theme dramas should continue to be promoted in the future.

Lv Yanmei bluntly said that on the whole, there are still deficiencies in the creation of TV dramas, such as the overall level of creation of dramas is not high, there is a phenomenon of blindly taking root in creation and following the trend of creation, the main creation guidance is strong, and diversified creation is missing. Rao Shuguang, who has recently watched some major theme creation dramas, also admitted that "there are still uneven".

Hu Zhifeng, deputy secretary and vice president of the Beijing Film Academy, believes that compared with the creative concept of "warm realism", there are still problems such as "hanging realism" and "gray realism" in the creation of major themes. In his view, Chinese realist film and television dramas should not only face sharp social contradictions and problems, but should not fall into the gloom, but should explore the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature, and truly base themselves on warm realism.

Experts attending the meeting believed that in order to achieve high-quality innovative development of major theme dramas, it is inseparable from people-centered creative thinking, pay attention to showing social issues that are in line with the pulse of the times, and always pay attention to the new expression of art brought about by the development of media forms, so as to meet the "greatest common divisor" of the viewing needs of audiences in different circles in terms of content and form, and create more high-quality works that can withstand the test of the times and the people. (End)