Family dramas are a very dazzling existence in my country’s TV dramas and online dramas. They are numerous and influential. Since the broadcast of “Desire” in 1990 opened the prelude to family dramas in my country, there have been many explosions in family dramas in the past 30 years. Why is this type favored by the audience? What new changes and highlights have appeared in family dramas in recent years? What impact might the implementation of the three-child policy have on family dramas? We invite industry insiders to express their views on these issues.
Guests (in alphabetical order of surname pinyin)
Chen Qiqing Deputy Director of Content Copyright Purchase and Sale Department of Jiangsu Radio and Television General Station
Dai Qing, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, School of Drama, Film and Television, Communication University of China
Hongzhi Sun, Head of TV Drama Channel, Tencent Online Video Platform Operation Department
Wang Liping, vice chairman of China Television Artists Association, national first-level screenwriter
Moderator: Miao Chun Yang Wenying
Why does family drama endure
Host: Compared with other genres such as idol dramas and spy war dramas, why are family dramas more popular?
Wang Liping: It shows that the family must walk into the family. The small family world is enough to express all aspects of society. The most helpless and sad is the beginning of a family story; and the warmest and most beautiful part is also the part of the family story.
Chen Qiqing: Attachment to family and affection is the common emotion of mankind. Family dramas take family life as the main content, show the ups and downs of the people’s life and the joys, sorrows, sorrows and joys. It is popular and grounded. It is easier to resonate with the audience, and it is easier to meet the spiritual and emotional needs of the audience.
Sun Hongzhi: Compared with other types of dramas, family dramas tell the lives of ordinary people. They are based on stories around them, and the audience is more likely to resonate. Many excellent works not only show the protagonist’s life dilemma, but also give some solutions to guide the audience and provide inspiration for the audience to look at their own lives.
Host: Over the past 30 years, family dramas themselves have undergone development and changes. Family comedies have appeared, as well as dramas and family fights. What are the reasons for the development and change of family dramas? What are the lessons learned?
Sun Hongzhi: In the past few decades, Chinese society has undergone earth-shaking changes, and our family life has also undergone tremendous changes accordingly. At different stages of life, people face different problems, such as housing problems, parenting problems, education problems, and pension problems. Even the same problem will cause new contradictions due to the development of the times, thus providing more material for the creation of film and television dramas. Creators need to actively grasp the pulse of the times and keep pace with the times in order to create works that resonate with the audience.
Dai Qing: The reasons for the development and changes of family dramas are firstly the changes brought about by social factors such as family structure and demographic structure. It is even more prosperous, replacing family ethics dramas such as “The Happy Life of Poor Zhang Damin” because the “post-80s” have grown up and moved to the center of the social stage. The popularity of parenting dramas in 2013 also has social factors, such as changes in the demographic structure. Another reason for the changes in family dramas is the changes in popular aesthetic tastes. This is also in line with the basic law of the development of general genre dramas, that is, following the development and evolution of “innovation-sticking-patterning-new innovation”.
Wang Liping: Some of the production of bitter drama and family fighting drama are to gain eyeballs and pursue ratings. Suffering to the extreme, fighting to the violent, may become a momentary viewing hot spot, but it deviates from the truth of life and the laws of art, and the shelf life is limited. This reminds creators that they need life accumulation, knowledge reserves and artistic cultivation.
Truth is the most important criterion
Moderator: What are the criteria for a good family drama? What do family dramas rely on to attract audiences?
Chen Qiqing: The pyrotechnic plot setting, the vivid and three-dimensional character creation, and the warm expression of emotions are essential elements for an excellent family drama. Reflecting reality and sharing emotions are the biggest advantages of family dramas. Good family dramas attract audiences by empathy.
Dai Qing: Excellent family dramas are created “for life”, which can truly reflect the living conditions, life experience and emotional destiny of the people. They condense the creators’ profound experience and aesthetic discoveries about life and life, and are full of the creators’ love Social thinking and deep sympathy for ordinary people’s living conditions and destiny can enable the audience to establish aesthetic empathy and produce a strong sense of substitution.
Some family dramas blindly create tricks, pile up misery, and exaggerate bitter feelings, and some creators lack the sincerity, enthusiasm and persistence of leaning over and sinking into life, and blindly use quarrels and conflicts between family members as fuel to advance the plot. When such a work first appeared, the audience felt fresh and repeated, and the audience would inevitably suffer from aesthetic fatigue. Only to pay tribute to life with sincerity, explore the rich ore of life, and work hard to write about life-to write a life familiar to the creator and with a deep life experience, to write the true taste and meaning of life, and to write touching details and mellow meaning. In order to attract the audience.
Wang Liping: A good family drama should be suitable for all ages. The elements that attract the audience are the truth of life and the truth of emotion, with sympathy, compassion, compassion, and kindness. The creator’s true feelings will be accepted by the audience. There are wit, wisdom, the power of humor, abundance of imagination, and the exploration of the unknown, especially the field of science fiction. Always believe that the audience is smarter than the screenwriter, and the screenwriter must “use heart, affection, and work hard” to live up to the audience and live up to his youth.
Moderator: Contrary to the past when audiences liked the happy endings, dramas such as “It’s All Very Good” and “The Sons and Daughters of the Qiao Family” ended in a happy ending, but the audiences complained about the reality of life too much. What do you think of this phenomenon?
Sun Hongzhi: Compared with the past, our audience is better at thinking and expressing. The experience of each audience is different, and there are also certain differences in values. The angle and attitude of viewing the same thing may be different, which is normal.
Dai Qing: The quality of the creation of “All Are Good” and “The Children of the Qiao Family” is generally good. The conflicts in the individual plots of “All Are Good” are too intense, and the final happy ending is too big for the audience to accept; “Qiao Family” In “The Sons and Daughters”, too much misfortune is concentrated on the children of the Qiao family. Everyone has a very miserable life, which also makes the final reunion feel far-fetched. There are many plot conflicts and many character encounters, which can indeed increase the plot points of long dramas and strengthen the drama. In an environment of fierce media competition, it is easy to capture the audience, but whether it conforms to the logic of life is always a more prioritized creative principle and Art requirements.
Focus on hot spots and reflect new changes
Host: What are the new changes in the recent family dramas?
Dai Qing: The overall trend of family drama is inheritance and breakthrough. For example, “Reunion Dinner” and “Sentimental Siheyuan” continue “The Happy Life of Poor Zhang Damin”, which shows the story mode of the big family with many children and the ups and downs of the characters. It has a strong nostalgic color and integrates the new era people’s feelings about the past years. The imagination is a kind of reminiscence under the screen reshaping and filtering; some are biased towards the expression path of urban emotional drama, the urban fashion sense is stronger, and the elements of workplace and children’s education are mixed. “Happy”, “Little Willingness” trilogy, “I’m pretty good in a foreign country”, etc. as representative. There is another category based on family dramas, which mixes elements of sweet pet dramas and idol dramas. “In the Name of Family” and “Dear Mayang Street” are its masterpieces.
Chen Qiqing: Pay attention to social hot spots, such as “Little Will” and “Little Joy” and other dramas directly hit children’s education, parent-child relationship and other hot spots; focus on conveying warmth, such as “Children of the Qiao Family” and “All Are Good” finally return to warmth and reunion; focus on fine products For example, dramas such as “Children of the Qiao Family” and “Parents Love” have gained high ratings and good reputation, showing the development trend of high-quality and high-quality family dramas.
Moderator: At present, our country implements the policy that one couple can have three children. What impact might this policy have on family dramas?
Wang Liping: I hope to see comedy stories. Use light comedy to integrate social life, elderly care, education, housing, medical and other family stories together, which not only shows the three-child story in the big era, but also reflects the endless life of generations in a relaxed, humorous and inspirational manner.
Chen Qiqing: The theme of family dramas changes with changes in social development. In the future, more new social hot spots, new family relationships, and new family concepts will be integrated into family dramas. The implementation of the three-child policy has provided more material for family dramas, allowing family dramas to incorporate some three-child family life and social topics in character creation, relationship building, and plot weaving.
Dai Qing: The change in family population will enrich the relationship between the characters in family dramas and give birth to more big family stories. To a certain extent, they return to the big family stories of the 1990s, but they also bring new ideas in the environment of the new era. And breakthrough.
The pictures in this article are all Baidu pictures
.