From the “Awakening Age” at the beginning of the new year to the “Fragrant Mountain Ye Zhenghong” at the end of the year, from “Mountain and Sea Love” which focuses on the story of one place to “Merchants” which focuses on eight national meritorious figures, and also runs through different historical ages and important events. Major revolutionary historical dramas with heroic deeds, such as “The Great Battle”, “Crossing the Yalu River”, “Glory and Dreams”, and “Ideal Shines in China”, etc., in the domestic drama market in 2021, the “main theme” is the most dazzling existence.
This is not simply winning by quantity, but refreshing the audience’s perception of the “main melody” with a clear increase in quantity and quality. The main melody can also be very beautiful, the main melody can also win young people, and the main melody can also be ranked first. This year, the main melody drama is seizing the main position of public opinion and becoming the new mainstream.
“Awakening Age” stills
Multi-screen resonance
In October 2021, the “2021 Network Audiovisual Platform Mainstream Value Communication Power Research Report” was released at the 29th Beijing TV Program Fair. The report pointed out that “the main melody drama” has become the “new mainstream” and is the biggest market trend this year.
The report shows that the broadcast volume of the main melody works is growing rapidly year by year. Take the TV series “Mountains and Seas” as an example. Among the 944 million online video users in my country, the show is only on the Youku platform, and the use of online videos by audiences between the ages of 20 and 29 has reached 97%. The works with the highest click rate on the Internet and the works with the highest ratings on TV stations overlap with 80% of the top 10 works. Really high-quality film and television works have broken the barriers of media and the restrictions of circles, and the online and offline screens are different. Resonance has been recognized by the audience and the market.
“Mountain and Sea”, “Awakening Age”, “Glory and Dreams”, “Sweeping the Dark Storm”, and “The Great Battle” and other major themes of TV series, not only have achieved a very high reputation, but also have a “one in the TV viewing and Internet viewing volume”. Qi Juechen”. Among them, the average ratings of “Mountain and Sea” exceeded 1.5%, “Awakening Age” also exceeded 1.5%, and “Glory and Dreams” and “Sweeping Dark Storm” and other dramas exceeded 2%. On Douban.com, which has always been known for being fussy, the word-of-mouth reviews of these main melody dramas have generally set a new record, with a Douban score of 9.3 for “Awakening Age” and 9.2 for “Mountain and Sea Situation”.
The “multi-screen resonance” of the main melody drama has also broken the physical isolation formed by TV dramas and online dramas in the past, expanding the scope of the audience to young audiences, and has been recognized by young people. “Sweeping Dark Storm” has been viewed 5.39 billion times on Tencent. “Ideal Illuminates China”, “Da Jiang Da He 2”, “The Great Battle” and “Sentiment in the Mountains and Seas” have also leapt to the forefront of the entire network. The content of the aforementioned report also shows that today’s online platform has become a new scene of young users’ audiovisual consumption and is becoming an important carrier for mainstream value communication.
Incorporate personal life into the grand narrative
If the main melodic dramas in the past mainly carried the mission of writing major historical and revolutionary themes, and their expression styles were mostly based on heavy narratives, then the main melodic dramas this year have obviously made innovations and attempts on multiple levels such as themes, ideas, and expressions. The main melody doesn’t mean to talk about history with a straight face, but to incorporate more audiovisual methods that are easy for the audience to tell more stories and write more people.
“Glory and Dreams” mainly tells the story from the founding of the Communist Party of China to the founding of New China to the great victory in the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea. The history spans 38 years. There are many events that need to be covered, and the clues of the characters are also very complicated. It is not only necessary to complete the historical narrative close to the “chronology”, but also to maintain the audience’s interest in watching. Faced with such a “propositional composition”, Liu Jiang, the director who took over major revolutionary historical themes for the first time, revealed, “I didn’t treat it as a special work, but as a story.”
Liu Jiang chose to enter the emotional world of great men from the perspective of family members, and then enter their revolutionary years. The play starts with the family emotion dramas of Mao Zedong, Yang Kaihui, and Mao Anying, and uses simple emotions to establish a sense of substitution, and vividly depicts the moving aspects of revolutionary martyrs.
“The Awakening Age” is also the same method. Li Dazhao, Chen Duxiu, Lu Xun and others are presented in the play. They have both heroic gestures of generous statements and family trivialities of ordinary characters. The vivid characters draw contemporary audiences and history closer. The distance between the characters also understands the historical inevitability of personal choice under the torrent of the times. Wang Xuebin, professor of the Department of Culture and History Education and Research of the Central Party School (National School of Administration) and director of the Chinese History Education and Research Office, believes that the key to the popularity of “The Awakening Age” is that “it uses fresh and superb film and television art forms to tell the wonderful story of the establishment of the Chinese Communist Party. It clearly clarified the historical logic, theoretical logic, and practical logic behind the magnificent historical changes, and thoroughly explained the time-honored and abundant Chinese spirit.”
Pay attention to the perspective of youth and lead the trend of the times
Let the main melody drama become the mainstream, but also win the love of young people. The biggest indicator of the hits of dramas such as “Mountain and Sea” and “The Awakening Age” is the high level of social enthusiasm aroused by young people. The young people learned how to grow mushrooms from “The Love of Mountains and Seas” and went to Yanqiao Road in Hefei to present flowers to the martyrs after watching “The Age of Awakening”. From screen to reality, from online to offline, real power touches contemporary young people through virtual images. The main melody drama truly realizes the “meaning in the title” of leading value orientation and reshaping mainstream values.
From the beginning, Liu Jiang realized that the main melody drama should make more young people interested and willing to watch, “TV dramas should use the law of storytelling to film party history.” A large number of movie-level dramas appeared in “Glory and Dreams”. War dramas, regardless of the form of expression of TV dramas, used the highest standards of shooting for every important battle. Flesh-and-blood battlefields, unbridled narrative rhythms, and even the youthful leaders, all reveal the breath of youth and restore the truth of revolutionary history.
In addition to the heroic narrative of “Xiangshan Ye Zhenghong”, fictional young characters are also interspersed. The play includes the positive perspectives of leaders such as Mao Zedong, Zhu De, Zhou Enlai, Chen Yi, Deng Xiaoping, and Su Yu, as well as the heroic fighting of frontline fighters such as Jiang Laiyang, commander of the People’s Liberation Army, the personal growth of Liu Eryong, the guard corps guard, and the thoughts of Xiao Jingxian, a cadre of the southward cadres. change. These ordinary talents in the torrent of history are the protagonists of history, and their stories are also worth writing.
Long Pingping, the screenwriter of “Awakening Age” and the former director of the third edition research department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, said that in addition to Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, there must be young people’s stories to tell the stories of revolutionary ancestors. The play intensively tells the tortuous experience of a group of idealistic revolutionary youths represented by Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in pursuing truth and burning passion, highlighting Chen Yannian, Chen Qiaonian, Zhao Shiyan, Deng Zhongxia, Cai Hesen, Yu Xiusong, He Mengxiong, etc. , The great personality and brilliant demeanor of the revolutionary martyrs who are talented and noble. “This is to allow the broad audience, especially young people, to know and understand revolutionary pioneers from the true party history, draw strength from their deeds, and find examples.”
Memorabilia
On January 1st, to celebrate the centenary of the founding of the party, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television organized and carried out the “Idea Illuminates China-State Administration of Radio and Television to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China, the creation and broadcast of themed works”, and many masterpieces began to land on the screen.
On January 12, “Mountain and Sea”, which tells the story of poverty alleviation, was launched simultaneously on WudavidTV and the three major video websites, with an average ratings exceeding 1.5%, and won the 27th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Award for Best Chinese TV Series in June Awards, at the same time the Best Supporting Actress Award and Best Supporting Actor Award will be included in the bag.
The TV series “The Awakening Age” premiered on February 1. In addition to the top ratings and the Douban score of 9.3, it also touched the memory of young people for heroes and martyrs such as Chen Yannian and Chen Qiaonian. The play won three awards for Best Director, Original Screenplay, and Best Actor at the 27th Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Award in June.
In May, “Glory and Dreams”, which gathered more than 100 film and television stars, began to air, and then unit dramas such as “Ideal Illuminates China” and “Merchants” were also aired successively. The main theme of the TV series has opened the star-brushing mode. In addition to the grand theme, the real history also touches the heartstrings with the truth.
In December, the TV series “Xiangshan Ye Zhenghong” was premiered on CCTV. As one of the TV series in 2021, “Ideal Illuminates China-State Administration of Radio and Television Celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the Founding of the Communist Party of China” TV series, the ratings ranked first in the country.
(Original title: The main melody drama has become the new mainstream)
Source: Beijing Daily | Reporter Li Xiazhi