Screenwriter Gao Mantang: Domestic TV dramas with contemporary themes have a small pattern and a small vision

In Gao Mantang's view, contemporary themes, or realistic TV dramas, have profound charm. But unfortunately, many domestic TV series are now increasingly avoiding something. Nowadays, many screenwriters use narrow materials when creating reality-themed works and like to hide into the shell of family affairs. As a result, today's TV series often only hear "hip-hop" and not see suffering.

In Gao Mantang's view, contemporary themes, or realistic TV dramas, have profound charm. But unfortunately, many domestic TV series are now increasingly avoiding something. Nowadays, many screenwriters use narrow materials when creating reality-themed works and like to hide into the shell of family affairs. As a result, today's TV series often only hear "hip-hop" and not see suffering.

Experts speak with data. In 2014, modern urban dramas accounted for more than 60% of Dragon TV's film review process. In fact, the pattern of urban drama can completely expand wider. Overseas returnees, new Shanghainese, and international students are all people who are closely related to the city, and their stories are bound to be mixed. If you can choose more such themes, urban dramas can also see deep topics.

Gao Mantang, president of the Writers Association of China, who wrote works such as "Breaking the East" and "Children of the River", Hou Hongliang, producer of "No War in Peking" and "Ma Xiangyang's Journey to the Countryside", Wang Liping, screenwriter of "Revelation of Life" and "The Beautiful Times of Daughter-in-Law", Cai Yinong, president of Tang Dynasty Film and Television and producer of "Step by Step"... Yesterday, industry leaders from all over the world gathered together to use the platform of "Shanghai Film and Television Four Seasons Salon Winter" to take the pulse of domestic screens. As a result of brainstorming, experts found that in the creation of TV dramas in China, there are many "thunder spots", but there are more hopes.

?? "Thunder Point" 1: Don't ask about suffering, just create a hip-hop pattern.

As an industry leader, Gao Mantang bluntly said that his character is only "true". Because of this, when he talked about the shortcomings of current domestic TV dramas, he showed no mercy. "Contemporary themes, or realistic TV dramas, have profound charm. But unfortunately, many domestic TV series are now increasingly avoiding something." In Gao Mantang's view, many screenwriters nowadays use narrow materials when creating reality-themed works and like to hide into the shell of their parents 'shortcomings. This is a major misunderstanding that today's TV screens only hear about "hip-hop" and not see suffering.

Experts speak with data. In 2014, modern urban dramas accounted for more than 60% of Dragon TV's film review process. But with such a large size, the problems are surprisingly consistent. There are many fake topics, but less true thinking; there are many stories about small families, but less about big society; there are many people who shed 'dog blood' and few people who write noble themes; there are many people who laugh and laugh, but there are few people who pursue the true feelings of life. The entire urban drama is almost one-sided and belongs to a light comedy theme, with a news-oriented plot and a paragraph based line. The male lead is often "tall and powerful", and the female lead often suffers from "brain damage".

In the atmosphere of rising flirtatious temperament, the birth of "Lei Opera" was a matter of course. Some experts said during the discussion that the film reviewers once laughed and laughed at an urban drama,"Because from the first episode to the last episode, the screen was filled with slaps. So much so that the film censors finally joked that 'watching the film is like a few slaps in the face.'" In fact, the pattern of urban drama can completely expand wider. Overseas returnees, new Shanghainese, and international students are all people who are closely related to the city, and their stories are bound to be mixed. "If you can order more such themes, urban dramas can also see deep topics."

?? "Thunder Point" 2: No contact with each other, each

having a different vision. At the small salon, experts mentioned two types of "isolation" in TV drama creation, one south and one north are not integrated, and the new and the old are not penetrated. Over the years, rural dramas in the north have not been able to enter the south, and urban dramas in the south have not been able to impress the audience in the north. This has become the biggest worry about the isolation of China's TV drama culture from the north to the south.

Wang Lifu, the screenwriter of "Reunion Dinner", admitted that he had given up the idea of bringing the script to the south at all because he was not sure that the audience south of the Yangtze River could accept the aesthetics of the north. What makes Wang Lifu think even more is that in the context of rapid changes in the times, there is a time lag of two to three years between the creation of the script and the release of the TV series. If the creator works behind closed doors during this period, it is likely to cause the new and the old. Out of tune. She reflected on her two dramas,"Home Cooking" and "Reunion Dinner":"Looking at it now, these two dramas are old. Because life now is not what I originally imagined. China has entered an unprecedented era in the past two years. Just like everyone was singing "Jiangnan Style" before. If the script at that time had written this into it and aired it again this year, it would obviously be outdated."??

"Thunder Point" 3: Don't touch the focus and avoid conflicts.

Before completing "No War in Peking", gold medal producer Hou Hongliang and Gao Mantang collaborated on a "Wenzhou Family" that reflects modern Wenzhou business. The various collisions in the creative process made him sigh,"If a TV series wants to impress people, they must have the creative courage to touch hot spots."

Both Hou Hongliang and Gao Mantang mentioned that when "Wenzhou Family" was still in the creative stage, it often conflicts with some archetypes in the play. The screenwriters and directors insist on portraying the parts that can most resonate with the people, and of course there are various disagreements. The TV series finally became popular, and the publicity benefits Wenzhou gained were comparable to the hundreds of millions of yuan in advertisements placed on CCTV. But Hou Hongliang asked, how many domestic TV series creators can dare to face conflicts and break through obstacles like Gao Mantang?

"Choice of Life and Death" produced by Shanghai Film Group also became a courageous work praised by experts at the meeting. Experts believe that this work reflects the creative spirit of Shanghai's film and television industry in facing reality and being brave enough to take responsibility. Such an anti-corruption work touched on many sensitive topics at the time. It was filmed quite vividly and full of characters, leaving a deep impression on the audience. Gao Mantang said bluntly: "It is this kind of courage to reach out to sensitivity and the style of daring to stand up against prominent contradictions in society that is precisely the most scarce character in our current reality-themed TV series creation."

Problem 1: Go deep into life and discover the "love of sound"?

There are many creative problems, but there are many ways to solve them. The key lies in how much creators are willing to invest and how much they are willing to separate entertainment or the market.

For example, the problem that the audience and the creation cannot find a resonance point can be solved with just four words in front of Gao Mantang-"Deep into life". Take "Old Farmers", which is being popular in Shandong, as an example. Gao Mantang spent five years visiting Shandong, Henan, Heilongjiang and other provinces. He used materials from more than 200 people, and he personally walked through almost every corner of rural life. After entering the filming stage, he only had one requirement for actors-to do farm work with real knives and guns. "How to make a TV series good is actually true. Audiences can find various substitutions in TV dramas. If they are distorted, they will lose the audience." Gao Mantang said that the only way to seek truth is to "truly go deep into life."

Because he went deep into life, Gao Mantang also gained unexpected gains. Once in Heihe collecting news, he heard of a past: there was once a female college student who was assigned to work at a radio station. Her task was to monitor Tass news agency broadcasts every day and broadcast them overseas. While working, she suddenly fell in love with a voice, which belonged to a male announcer from TASS. The story begins, and the ending is unexpected. When a female college student was transferred to raise pigs because of this admiration, she unexpectedly learned that the male announcer of the Tass news agency opposite him also fell in love with her while listening again and again. "As soon as I heard this story, I said I was grateful to life, and the play was done." Gao Mantang immediately decided to cooperate with Hou Hongliang to bring this "love of voices" to the screen. It can be seen that if a writer wants to pursue boundless imagination, he can only resort to the accumulation of life and the essence of life.

Such a good story with fresh and exciting themes is certainly popular for everyone. Ren Zhonglun, president of Shanghai Film Group, extended an olive branch to Gao Mantang and Hou Hongliang on the spot at the venue, hoping to present this "open soul story in a closed environment" on the big screen.

It is also because of going deep into life that creators can overturn all inherent thinking that they take for granted. Hou Hongliang admired Gao Mantang for his courage to overthrow himself from the bottom of his heart. When writing the sequel to "The Wenzhou Family", Hou Hongliang and Gao Mantang followed Wen Shang's footsteps into Africa. After running through South Africa and transferring to Tanzania, the screenwriter waved his hand and "wrote it again". According to the original plan, the situation of Chinese people living in Africa was often miserable."Unexpectedly, when I went there, I found Wenzhou people wearing long robes and becoming local chiefs." Hou Hongliang said that if this "unexpected" thing remains intact, the audience may not have any objection, but Gao Mantang regards life as the highest source of inspiration."Even if there are 200,000 words, he will definitely start again."

Problem 2: Dare to try something new and regard sports as a "modern martial arts"?

Drama critic Mei Zixiao mentioned that judging from the IP data in the background of the Internet, swarms of bees are the most concentrated and common problem that has not changed for a long time. In today's environment where domestic TV series reaches 15,000 episodes every year, how to avoid homogenization is an extremely high requirement put forward by the industry for screenwriters. Unfortunately, at least 70% of the 15,000 episodes of dramas each year are not qualified and are not broadcast by television stations. Even among the dramas that have already been available to the audience, the vast majority have the same themes. Has the story dried up?

Cai Yinong gave a negative answer. At yesterday's salon scene, Cai Yinong seemed a little unique, because most of the TV dramas familiar to the audience by Tang films and television companies were fantasy themes. "The Legend of the Sword and Fairy" and "Step by Step" have both set off a craze for watching dramas and even formed a hot topic of social discussion, but both dramas tell stories that exist in a different dimensional space.

"However, we are starting to try alternative themes this year." Cai Yinong's "alternative" is not out of touch with reality. Instead, they need to explore material in reality that is rarely explored by screenwriters. In this way, animation and sports came into view. Animation is a theme that young people, especially the "second generation", are keen on. If you want to break the intergenerational gap and use young elements to guide it, it is Cai Yinong's unique way to find a new way. "We are collecting a large amount of historical data, including works such as" Historical Records ". I hope we can popularize history to young people with themes that they like." When "Historical Records" meets anime, what sparks will be produced? Cai Yinong did not need to say much, and those who heard it had already aroused enough curiosity. Sports is another material that can win the hearts of young people. But what is strange is that the domestic screen, which once burned by the Japanese TV series "Volleyball Woman", has made sports themes scarce in recent years. "Scarcity goods are the direction that screenwriters should explore." Cai Yinong revealed that Tang Dynasty Film and Television has produced a "Whirlwind Eleven" that tells the story of young football. In order to open up the market and ferment the topic, they also went to the Premier League Club Manchester United, asked the team for stories, and asked the stars to record the opening speech. After the football drama, the Tang people will gradually focus their cameras on basketball, volleyball, etc. "We intend to shoot one competitive sport every year." Cai Yinong's vision is that realistic sports dramas can completely become another kind of "modern martial arts."

Problem 3: Open your arms and walk with the "poisonous tongue" of the commentary

. During yesterday's salon discussion, participants had a heated discussion on the style and bottlenecks of TV series creation. Drama critic Li Xingwen used the term "love and kill each other" to describe the interdependent and inevitable tit-for-tat relationship between the playwright and the commentator. In his view, just like literary criticism, the voice of critics cannot be absent in the creation of TV dramas. Otherwise, the above-mentioned lightning points and misunderstandings will repeat themselves.

However, Li Xingwen also admitted that the current drama review groups are mixed. There are academic scholars and experts, as well as literary and artistic critics whose main focus is print media, but more are voices on the Internet. "There are two types of online commentators. One is the so-called 'big V' who use blogs, Weibo or Weixin Official Accounts to comment and have a certain say; the other is purely grassroots netizens." Li Xingwen said that the latter is the most likely booster to follow others 'comments and the most likely booster to guide film and television drama creation into deep misunderstandings. In just an instant, netizens can put a movie and television drama topic at the top of the hot list. In the current situation of film and television drama reviews, the overall trend is that the voices of academics and elites are getting weaker and weaker.

"Everyone may wish to recall that after the premiere of" One Step Away ", an outsider posted three words 'I can't understand it'. For a time, whether or not they watched the movie,' I can't understand 'became a recognized fact added to" One Step Away "." Li Xingwen is worried that the strong throughput of the Internet has drowned out truly rigorous voices, but these voices are exactly what creators need most. Some experts believe that it is the responsibility of critics to let correctly oriented literary and artistic criticism prevail, but the real challenge is that film and television practitioners and critics cannot avoid the current diverse, complex, rich and even somewhat difficult public aesthetic taste. In any case, it is the unshirkable mission of critics to correctly orient and conduct in-depth analysis of works.