Guangming Daily reporter Niu Meng Flute
More than half of 2022, looking at the TV screen, whether it is the ratings or the audience’s word of mouth, the main theme dramas will come out on top. At the beginning of the year, CCTV took the lead with the Winter Olympics-themed drama “Beyond” and the realistic masterpiece “The World” adapted from serious literature. Followed by “Dashan’s Daughter” and “Happiness to Ten Thousand Family”, a series of main theme dramas focusing on personal struggle and growth and showing the great changes in the mountains and villages in the new era also opened a new situation, making rural stories the focus of film and television creation.
In the second half of the year, the main theme dramas still dominate the screen, such as “Splendid Mountains and Rivers”, “Hardcore Era”, “The Backbone of the People”, “Tianwang”, “County Party Committee Compound”, “Our Ten Years”, “Top Priority” and “Universiade” A number of key plays such as “The River” are gearing up for their debut.
The perspectives are diverse, the themes are not labeled; innovation is excavated, and the content is not conventional. The creation momentum of the main theme drama in 2022 is strong and the market competition is fierce. In the competition of a batch of high-quality dramas, the main theme dramas on the screen are getting more and more popular.
Impress people with real life
In the first half of the year, the CCTV integrated channel of the main station successively launched 7 premiere episodes including “The World“, “Love Fighting Will Win”, “The Green Mountains”, and “Sanquan Stream Warming” in prime time, firmly occupying the position of the main theme drama series. bit. Known as “a rich life history of the common people”, “The World” has become a phenomenal hit. With the Beijing Winter Olympics as the background, “Beyond” closely follows current events and tells the story of the struggle of three generations of forestry people. “The Green Mountains Don’t Ink” opens up a strange world in the forest area of the Xiaoxing’anling Mountains in Northeast China for the audience… These main theme dramas are closely related to major events such as reform and opening up, rural revitalization, and the Beijing Winter Olympics, focusing on the historic achievements and occurrences of the party and the country’s cause. The historic change of the People’s Republic of China demonstrates the new style, new struggle and new spirit of the masses of the people in the new era.
Satellite TV and online audio-visual platforms have also stepped up to a new level in the presentation of the main theme dramas. “Numbers of Lovely People”, which appeared on the three TVs in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shandong, started from the May 4th Movement, showed the history of the bloody struggle of the early Chinese Communists, and portrayed the red spiritual pedigree since the founding of the party. Based on the background of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way, the contemporary rural reality drama “Happiness to Ten Thousand Homes”, jointly launched by Beijing Satellite TV, Dragon TV and Youku, reflects the great era with small characters, showing the brilliant achievements of rural spiritual civilization construction. It won the first place in the TV ratings. The military drama “Special War Glory” broadcast by Dragon TV and Zhejiang Satellite TV is even more enthusiastically sought after by young audiences.
In the process of the theme drama becoming more and more popular, the “Our New Era” theme works creation exhibition and broadcasting activity carried out by the State Administration of Radio and Television established the theme of the theme and provided strong support. Many exhibition dramas have become the main works of the satellite TV platform, and they have also become the favorites of the audience. “Although it’s a TV series, it really expresses the aspirations of ordinary people.” Ma Lingyue’s family, from Yingkou City, Liaoning Province and now living in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, have been chasing “The World” in full swing. “The world in “The World” The story of ‘Light Character Film’ is similar to the story of my hometown in Northeast China that I heard from my grandfather when I was a child. It is rare to see such kind people and things on TV. When the older generation watched it, they shed tears frequently, as if they saw themselves in their youth. There is a strong nostalgia.”
Wang Wenting, an audience of “Happiness to Ten Thousand Homes”, said in an interview: “Watching He Xingfu started from scratch and continued to grow along the way, it seems that she has gone through these twists and turns with her. I also saw her hard work in her work from her unwillingness to admit defeat. , The self who works hard for life. Those who work hard and are not willing to be mediocre are happy.”
These main theme dramas not only attract the audience with their realistic creative concepts, carefully set plot characters and excellent drama quality, but also move people’s hearts with their real, plain and realistic artistic background, reflecting the mental journey of ordinary people. And aroused widespread empathy among the audience. The good audience reputation and excellent market performance even tell the truth of the film and television industry, “A good drama will not be buried.”
Story escape routine mode
Whether it’s “The Age of Awakening”, “Beyond” and other dramas that escape the routine narrative, or dramas such as “Mountain and Sea Love”, “The World“, “Happiness to Ten Thousand Family” and other dramas present vivid and vivid characters… Invisibly reversed the audience’s stereotype of the “propositional composition style” of the main theme drama.
On the one hand, novel stories and vivid audio-visuals bring surprises to the audience. In terms of subject matter, poverty alleviation dramas and rural revitalization dramas that respond to national development policies have entered a high-yield period. Last year’s poverty alleviation drama “Shan Hai Qing” triggered a phenomenal hit. Spring Breeze and the South Bank of the Green River”, “Happiness to Ten Thousand Homes”, “Three Springs and Streams Warm” and other drama series took over the baton, and then narrated the rural stories of the new era with authentic and innovative content. For example, “Happiness to Ten Thousand Homes” opens with a “rusty” farmhouse wedding. The red balloons, red stage, red clothes and people’s red smiling faces make this drama “realistic” to open the hearts of the audience. Door.
On the other hand, the group of characters is vivid and vivid, reflecting the perseverance and beauty of ordinary people’s struggle for life, and the blood, tears and joyful songs of advancing and retreating with the times. When the big female protagonists who appeared on the screen were “throwing down” one after another, Li Shuihua and He Xingfu, who had no halo and no filter… Relying on tenacity, perseverance and stubbornness, they continued to work hard to protect themselves and their lives in the countryside. People around her have created a new life and a new atmosphere, and become mainstream screen characters that demonstrate the power of women.
“Like “Shan Hai Qing” and “Happiness to Thousands of Homes”, the fate stories of a group of ‘earth-flavored’ characters have aroused heated discussions on the entire Internet. Under the down-to-earth character setting and life-like narrative, the main theme dramas are delicate and fresh It vividly reflects the current living conditions and struggle ideals of ordinary people, and also reveals the beauty and hope contained in ordinary life.” Wang Jing, associate professor of the School of Drama, Film and Television, Communication University of China, said in an interview.
In recent years, under the theme of the main theme, the integration of strong genre elements such as suspense and criminal investigation has made dramas of this type more and more attractive. With the theme of “grassroots governance” as the highlight, the party’s 20th National Congress tribute drama “County Party Committee Courtyard” tells the story of the county party secretary Mei Xiaoge and his colleagues uniting the people to build Guangming County. Through the vivid carrier of the “County Party Committee Compound”, it reflects the real and vivid picture of grassroots governance in my country and the colorful life of the people. The anti-corruption drama “The People’s Backbone”, which is included in the CCTV’s “Original Power, Family and Country Feelings” film list, is based on the words “Strictly administer the party”, which has firmly grasped the society since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. The focus of public opinion also captured the audience’s favor and expectations.
Show a strong sense of family and country
After the appearance of the creative team and performance lineup, “County Party Committee Courtyard” has become the main theme drama expected by many audiences in the second half of 2022. According to screenwriter Wang Xiaogun, in order to create the “County Party Courtyard”, the screenwriter and director team worked at the grassroots level for 4 or 5 months respectively. Just to create a real setting, the crew went to Hunan, Hubei, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and other places to conduct inspections, visited 50 county-level governments, and finally determined the setting plan. With the process of going deep into life, going deep into reality, and going deep into the masses, we can tell the story more deeply, shape the characters more vividly, and show the thoughts more powerfully.
Yang Chenghu, deputy dean of the School of Art and Media at Beijing Normal University, said: “A good script is created by ‘stepping’ on the foot, casting your eyes on the broadest masses of the people, and stepping into the deepest grassroots front line, you will It is found that the main theme drama still has unfinished stories, and the key to creation is to have the ability to tell a good story.”
In the creation of the main theme dramas in recent years, the creative spirit of realism runs through. Small incisions reflect the big theme, small characters reflect the big era, and small stories tell the big truth, which has become a wider and wider creative path. Some dramas have begun to capture the appetite of young audiences in terms of narrative strategies and dramatic conflict settings, allowing youth to express “the heights are too cold” to resolve serious topics, and liven up the screen with a new look. Some episodes also subtly incorporate genre elements and paradigms, follow the creative methods and rules of genre films, and use innovative technologies to break the outdated audio-visual paradigm, so that the main theme episodes have more artistic expression and market influence.
Looking at the excellent main theme works, the screen theme creation also opens up a new creative mode and expression space. The creator is breaking through the inertial thinking and keeping up with the changes in the audience’s aesthetics. In 2022, the popularity of the main theme drama series will continue to rise, and the word-of-mouth will even become a screen “inspection-free product” trusted by the audience. This achievement is inseparable from the guidance and support of policies, and it is also inseparable from the dedication of the creators. Linking the above, the screen calls for more main theme dramas that witness social changes with life group images, show the style of a great country with economic rise, and pay tribute to the spirit of the times with great achievements of characters, and use colorful, lively, healthy and upward excellent dramas to meet the cultural needs of the people, enhance the The spiritual strength of the people leads the social fashion.
“Guangming Daily” (August 19, 2022 09 edition)
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责编：孙满桃 ]