Zheng Xiaolong, director of ＂Golden Wedding＂： TV dramas should be filled with ordinary people.

Zheng Xiaolong and his film and television dramas.

Beijingers in new york

Scraping

Golden wedding

　　It is no exaggeration to call Zheng Xiaolong one of the pioneers of China TV series.

　　In the 1980s, he served as the deputy director and director in charge of production of Beijing Television Art Center. Zheng Xiaolong planned and organized a number of TV dramas that caused a sensation in China: the first feature TV series "Four Generations under One roof", the first feature indoor drama "Desire" and the first TV series "The Story of the Editorial Department".

　　The first time he directed a TV series, he handed over a perfect answer: A Peking Man in new york, which became a classic to show China’s personnel career and emotional course when he went to the United States to seek gold in the early days. This is also the first TV series filmed by China in the United States.

　　After that, he directed the film for the first time, and gained a good reputation with Guasha, which showed the cultural differences between China and the West.

　　In the meantime, he founded the first China TV program distribution position overseas, explored the market-oriented road of China TV series at home, and signed contracts with several provincial TV stations to open the first domestic TV drama boutique theater "Ivy Theater" in China.

　　At present, the TV series "Golden Marriage" directed by him is being broadcasted on the national ground channels, and once it was broadcast in Shanghai, it quickly became the ratings champion of the same program. Another TV series "Ten Days of Life and Death" directed by him is also being broadcasted in Shanghai these days.

　　"Golden Wedding" tells the story of parents.

　　Reporter: Director Zheng, how did you come up with the idea to shoot such a theme as Golden Wedding?

　　Zheng: Three years ago, I went back to my hometown to persuade my parents to fight. When I was driving back to Beijing, I thought about their life-long marriage. It would be interesting to reflect some of them. Later, when I told the big guy that it was all good, I found a screenwriter to start work.

　　Reporter: So, The Golden Wedding is your parents’ autobiographical marriage?

　　Zheng: Not exactly. My parents are both soldiers, and their occupations are very different from those of the two protagonists in the play. It should be said that "Golden Marriage" is the epitome of our parents’ marriage life, which has the shadow of my parents’ marriage and the shadow of other people’s parents’ marriage, so it has been resonated by many people.

　　Reporter: Since we are talking about our parents’ life, will we worry that the post-80s generation don’t like watching it?

　　Zheng: Not worried. "Golden Marriage" can help the post-80s understand the marriage life of the previous generation, and also help them understand an era. Besides, married life has a lot in common that has nothing to do with the times. People born after 1980s will get married sooner or later. Many interesting things will happen in marriage.

　　Reporter: These interesting things come from the most trivial and plain life.

　　Zheng: "Golden Marriage" is about the possibility in a normal marriage, and it has nothing to do with legend. Nowadays, many ethical dramas, which I call urban romantic dramas, are full of where will you go and bizarre plots. It doesn’t mean that legends can’t appear in life, but legends are not the normal state of life. After all, most ordinary people still live a normal life. Compared with legends, I hope to find interesting details in ordinary life.

　　Original, adhere to the civilian perspective

　　Reporter: This kind of family ethics drama with twists and turns in common places has been very popular in recent years. This year, there are New Marriage Times and Double-sided Adhesive, etc. In the past, there were Hand in Hand and Chinese Divorce, etc. Is Golden Marriage a work that follows the trend?

　　Zheng: Literary works need to be close to life to have life, and life will provide you with endless materials. Because the works that everyone took before shooting must be born with insufficient vitality. Not to mention "Golden Marriage", such as "Happy Life of garrulous Zhang Damin", "Ten Years of Marriage" and "Year after Year" and other ethical dramas, were also filmed by our center, not because others filmed us. Including The Golden Marriage, these plays have a common feature: they have entered the lives of ordinary people.

　　Reporter: But it is undeniable that "following the trend" is a feature of Chinese screens in recent years. Maybe, after your Golden Wedding, there will be Silver Wedding and Diamond Wedding to catch up with you.

　　Zheng: Following the trend, to put it bluntly, is a lack of originality. For every film and television company, the core competitiveness is originality. In fact, we are not short of original materials, there are too many in life. But many of our creators don’t want to enter life. For them, it is far more important to pay attention to whether the series makes money than others. In this way, "following the trend" is undoubtedly a good way to save effort.

　　Reporter: What do you think is most needed for originality?

　　Zheng: Step into life and enter the hearts of ordinary people. Many of us who engage in film and television dramas now regard ourselves as "aristocrats", which is wrong. How can you create something that ordinary people like if you don’t treat yourself as an ordinary person and have a civilian perspective? Stick to the common people’s point of view and shoot what they like, then the common people will definitely see your work.

　　Audience rating is not an artistic standard.

　　Reporter: It should be said that the ratings of Golden Wedding are very good everywhere, but it can’t be compared with the high ratings of Desire and Peking Man in new york. What do you think?

　　Zheng: I think the ratings of Golden Wedding are normal. On the contrary, the high ratings of Desire and Beijingers in new york are not normal. At that time, people’s entertainment life was monotonous, there were few TV channels, and people didn’t have many choices, so a single TV series had such high ratings. Now the environment is different, so our TV works should be more innovative and reasonable, and we should not fool the people.

　　Reporter: But compared with the era of Desire, people now pay more and more attention to the counterexample of ratings.

　　Zheng: The ratings can’t be ignored, but they are certainly not the only criterion to measure a work. Some TV dramas with grandstanding and poor production level may have temporarily high ratings, but does high ratings mean that they are fine? Boutique is a work that is still full of vitality after experiencing big waves and sands. The core of this kind of works usually has realistic criticism or cognitive value to the times and people. Only such TV works can really withstand repeated replays. For example, "Beijingers in new york", many years later, if someone talks about China’s gold rush abroad, they will think of "Beijingers in new york". I think that only shows that it is a successful work.

　　Star, choose the right role

　　Reporter: Zhang Guoli and Jiang Wenli are the two leading characters in Golden Wedding, both of whom are star-rated actors. In recent years, many TV dramas have invited big-name stars at a high price, but they still can’t guarantee the ratings. What do you think of this?

　　Zheng: When using actors, the most important thing is to fit the role. Choosing stars, from the perspective of reception psychology, people like to choose people they are familiar with, and stars are "familiar" people.

　　Give me an example from my own life. A few years ago, I went to the supermarket to buy toothpaste. There were more than 100 kinds of toothpaste, and it was impossible for me to read all the descriptions of these 100 kinds of toothpaste before choosing, so I quickly chose a toothpaste I had seen in an advertisement. In the same way, stars are like advertisements. Stars can make the audience stay for a few more seconds or minutes on the TV screen, and because of these few seconds or minutes, the audience is likely to enter the plot and lock in the play. Of course, if the star is not suitable for the role, the audience will "defect" halfway.

　　Industry needs scale effect.

　　Reporter: Some old films, including "Desire" and "The Story of the Editorial Department", are still being replayed, and many viewers follow them. What will it feel like for you to look back at your old work after many years?

　　Zheng: When I finished filming, I always felt that there were some problems. I felt that the lens here could be better and the story there could be changed again. On the contrary, looking back now, I will appreciate it. It feels more like looking at other people’s works, probably because of the aesthetic feeling of distance produced by time.

　　Reporter: Now, watching "Golden Wedding" at a close distance will probably be less tolerant.

　　Zheng: The Golden Wedding has many problems, such as running out of light. But I can’t help it. The shooting time is too tight. I filmed 50 episodes in more than 4 months and worked 14 hours a day without a holiday. When I was filming "Desire", I shot multiple cameras together, and in this way, I also filmed it for one year. What about Golden Wedding? It took 4 months and 8 days from the startup on September 10 last year to the shutdown on January 18 this year. Not only "Golden Marriage", but now the shooting time of many TV series is getting shorter and shorter, which is contrary to the law of artistic creation.

　　Reporter: Why are you in such a hurry?

　　Zheng: The TV drama industry is immature, and the capital flow is not equal. In China, TV plays are a buyer’s market, and the buyers of TV plays are TV stations. Generally speaking, the advertising revenue brought by TV series accounts for about 70% of the total advertising, but the expenses that TV stations spend on buying TV series are often only a few percent of the advertising revenue. The income of TV series can’t be guaranteed enough, so we have to reduce the cost, which of course includes shooting as soon as possible.

　　Reporter: You mentioned the TV drama industry in China. As a senior authority, what do you think of the current situation of TV drama industry in China?

　　Zheng: It is better to say that the industry is not mature than it has not formed. To form an industry, we must first form a complete industrial chain. This "chain" should be linked with the large-scale production of scripts, production, shooting, distribution and operation. However, the threshold of domestic film and television dramas is low, and there are a large number of workshop-style units. Taking scripts as an example, Hollywood, which has a mature film industry, can choose one of tens of thousands of scripts to operate. What about us? We often grab a script from somewhere, then grab a few more people, rent a few venues, get two machines and start shooting. This is not impossible, but it is still far from the so-called industry.

　　Reporter: Do you have any personal suggestions?

　　Zheng: I hope our management organization can pay more attention to TV drama creation and make corresponding policies. I also believe that China TV series will get better and better tomorrow.

Editor: Fan Jing