Author | Wei Jie
After " Gloomy Fire " was broadcast, some friends told Yao Xiaofeng and Zhang Shuwei that the film was too painful and not easy to watch.
It is a less typical suspense drama model. Twenty-eight episodes in length, there is only one main plot. On Millennium New Year's Eve, Xu Yi, a wealthy man in the town, was killed by his wife.
In this relatively simple case, it shows more of an exploration of human nature. How a rural town eats people without spitting out their bones, how it habitually throws dirty water on people, and how it justifies the harm caused by ignorance.
"This time's willfulness has created difficulties and troubles for everyone (the team)." Although Yao Xiaofeng expected that there might be such market performance, he was still a little sorry for it.
But on the other hand, it is precisely this kind of "blackness" that made "Gloomy Fire" the biggest comment it received once it was released, as "it's so daring to shoot."
An interesting point is that "Dark Fire" was actually filmed before "Storm Chaser". After the "Holiday Warm Ocean" series, this is Yao Xiaofeng's first step to explore based on his personal preferences.
"I have taken a big step forward. Since the final result is good, I think we can continue to explore, but we still have to follow the market rules."
When "Dark Fire" was halfway through the broadcast, Entertainment Capitalism met Yao Xiaofeng in Dongzhimen. He looked the same as in the previous video, smiling, wearing a pair of slippers, sitting on the beanbag and answering questions.
’s conversation of more than an hour is enough to take us back to the year 2022 when “Dark Fire” was filmed, and learn about his exploration of boundaries, insistence on “thresholds” and texture, the truth about his high productivity, and his plans for the future. We can also understand why Yao Xiaofeng has become a rare person in the industry in the hearts of all his colleagues..
How did the dim fire ignite?
"Dark Fire" was not an easy film to make.
An obvious difficulty is how to capture the relationship between Nanya and Zhou Luo clearly .
The emotional line between Zhou Luo and Nanya has caused huge discussion due to its scale since it was broadcast. The audience marveled at the play's lack of taboo on young people's erotic fantasies, and also lamented the appropriate proportion.
In Yao Xiaofeng's view, the relationship between Nanya and Zhou Luo should be about the mutual redemption of two souls. "Actually, this kind of subject matter will inevitably encounter criticism. The creators must capture this rare emotion in a difficult life with innocence and present it cleanly."
In "Dark Fire", the relationship between the two is presented as hazy and dreamy , also tightened very tightly.
When Zhou Luo's boyish fantasies were first born, shame, humiliation, confusion, and entanglement would always appear quickly, causing his sexual origins to come to an abrupt end and fall back into the poems he had read. For example, "Two roads diverged in the yellow wood" read by Zhou Luo on the swing, and Françoise Sagan's sentence "This world is absurd, depraved, and inhumane. But you are sober, gentle, and spotless." ". Yao Xiaofeng wants to keep these impulses in fantasy, hoping to show the two people as soul friends and achieve mutual redemption.
For Zhou Luo, Nanya is the person who gives him the greatest stimulation and enlightenment. "Nanya helped him complete the enlightenment of human nature, letting him know more about good and evil, good and bad, and that in addition to science and humanities, there are also poetry and distance. I hope to make the relationship between the two of them more pure, from the physical perspective It rises to the point of true soul fusion. "
Such an atypical male and female protagonist is actually not easy to find.
Nanya's image is very complicated. She has been criticized, is young and beautiful, and has children. These attributes are even contradictory to many actors.
Tong Yao came on a volunteer basis. "After she read the script, she took the initiative to come to us."
What Yao Xiaofeng liked about Tong Yao was simple, "Her temperament is very clean."
"Because I want to realize a realization. In the play, all the rumors are dirty water poured on her by others and are not true."
Zhang Xincheng is a good young talent that Yao Xiaofeng met very early.
Yao Xiaofeng saw a film of Zhang Xincheng many years ago. It was an internship shot for his classmates when he just graduated. After watching it, Yao Xiaofeng He was very impressed. He asked "Who is this kid?" and went to see Zhang Xincheng's later plays.
After getting in touch with him, Yao Xiaofeng also felt that he was a good actor, "Whether it was about the exposure of the body or about desire and love. He puts himself into this role, and does not have the baggage of an idol because of his image and style, and purely realizes his expression as an actor. "
Another difficulty lies in the presentation method .
Yao Xiaofeng realized very early on that this book was relatively simple. If it was just a love story, the capacity would not be enough to support a TV series.
"I wanted to find a unique format at the time. Come and do it. I chose suspense. But this case is too simple, and it is difficult to do it in a conventional suspense style. I think there is an ecological problem behind this. Everyone has secrets, so based on this consideration, I wanted to make a multi-line narrative, which will have a stronger literary style and literary temperament. "
But such a story was difficult at the time, and there was no market template. It was difficult to find
screenwriters. Yao Xiaofeng met many people and chatted many times. Many people were interested, and many people gave up. In 2018 It was only then that he decided on Mao Yunfei, who dared to face the difficulties. The two of them spent about three years writing the script of "Gloomy Fire".
After the filming was completed, in order to realize the case. In the two-way process of advancement and character development, Yao Xiaofeng adjusted the story editing structure four times, and it took him nearly half a year to cut out two satisfactory episodes.
"This kind of effect is the best I have found in this story so far. expression. "Yao Xiaofeng sighed.
It is also cruel and real.
The sense of life is also a feature of the drama.
Qingshui Town in "Dark Fire" seems to be different from the Wuyuan in most people's impressions. Qingshui Town The bricks and white walls are well-proportioned. There are mountains and rivers here, a sense of nostalgia from around the millennium, and the agility of small town life.
Yao Xiaofeng used the four towns in Wuyuan to spell out Qingshui Town
. Even though there are very original villages, there are also relatively mature commercial attractions such as Likeng and Huangling. Before the shooting, the creative team coordinated with the surrounding businesses one by one, hoping to remove the signboards and lanterns and restore the original style of the ancient town. When
was filming in Huangling, the hotel owner warned Yao Xiaofeng several times that if there were too many people during the holidays, the team would not be able to shoot. Fortunately, during the months when "Gloomy Fire" was filmed, there happened to be fewer tourists. , the team also successfully communicated with the surrounding residents, and built a realistic millennium rural town in the camera.
This sense of life and realism also extends to the characters here. Every character has "round" rights .
Yao Xiaofeng likes to use a sentence to describe the characters in the play, "Good people are not bad, bad people are not bad"
Liu Xun is the most typical one. Because of his jealousy, he posted gossip about Zhou Luo and his university teacher on the blackboard, and played the recording to force Zhou Luo to admit perjury, which led him step by step toward distortion and no return. But looking back, his life is full of tragedy that cannot be ignored. His father died tragically, and he has been in the abyss of accusations all year round. He was beaten severely after being misunderstood, and was scolded by the girl he had a crush on as "a toad who wants to eat swan meat." Everything seemed to be promoting his darkening.
Lin Fanglu added. It is a collection of contradictions.
He feels guilty about Nanya and hopes to prove Nanya's innocence, but he must firm up his responsibilities and pursue the truth. At the same time, he also seeks advantages and avoids disadvantages, just like Zhou Luo. He doesn't believe there are brave people, so he also wants to confirm his knowledge. This result makes him have to face his mistakes and regrets.
Yao Xiaofeng is unwilling to let every character be exploited as a tool. In a suspense drama with strict logic, there is no reason for the characters to become that illogical existence. "Everyone makes mistakes, and they have their own reasons."
And in such a town where everyone is "alive", the display of human nature is even more tenable.
Taken apart, the two words "loneliness" include children, fruits, puppies, mosquitoes and flies, which are enough to support the entrance of the alley in Qingshui Town in midsummer.
But what is loneliness?
Lin Yutang said that children, fruits, cats, dogs and flies are certainly lively, but they have nothing to do with you. This is called loneliness.
Nanya's loneliness and pain are embodied here. It is the street she walked through carrying fruit, the cane in Xu Yi's hand, the small bed in the factory dormitory, and the woods she was pushed into when the sky darkened.
Yao Xiaofeng also wants to show this corresponding evil. "Clearwater Town is like the Witch of Salem. It is the carrier of a fable and the evil of ignorance. When his mind is not open, he does not know that what he does is hurting a person, and he thinks it is natural. . This kind of unperceived harm is the biggest problem. "
" Of course, you said this thing doesn't exist? I think this kind of human criticism should be shown in the work. For "Gloomy Fire", the important thing is behind the sense of life.
Shoot what you want to shoot, and also shoot what the audience wants to see.
Yao Xiaofeng actually has no shortage of films.
's good results have always made him a sought-after star in the urban drama circuit. But he wanted to shoot something he really wanted to shoot.
From "Holiday Warm Ocean Series" to "Dark Fire", "Storm Chaser" and the upcoming " North to ", he has been experimenting and innovating in the past few years. Yao Xiaofeng revealed that he would also like to try costume themes in the future.
In fact, before the broadcast of "Dark Fire", Yao Xiaofeng had anticipated the impact of "threshold".
's jumping multi-line narrative structure, tragic story tone, human entanglement and sunny narration are all suitable for audiences with certain movie-watching habits. But he couldn't give up this challenge. "For us, it's not about retreating if we don't advance, but it's about dying if we don't advance."
An undeniable current situation is that the crisis faced by the domestic drama market has always been multifaceted. Creators need to start from short videos and cross-cutting. More and more excellent imported works, from offline and other types of entertainment projects, continue to attract the attention of the audience.
For every drama company, how to differentiate and how to survive in this storm has always been an inevitable problem. "Everyone is walking on thin ice. But it is this sense of crisis that ensures that the work can still have vitality."
's exploration also brought surprises.
"Storm Chaser" has become iQiyi's first drama to reach 10,000 ratings in 24 years. It ranks first in prime time ratings and has a Douban score of 7.8. It can be said to be in full bloom. "Gloomy Fire" also exceeded his expectations and was featured on Yangba.
"I actually care about the market. I don't make things purely based on personal preferences. I think directors should be responsible for business and effectively control risks. Of course, while controlling risks, you can also express yourself personally."
Formerly Yao Xiaofeng believes that most TV drama shootings do not require particularly strong breakthroughs and director's stylization, because it is difficult for directors to convey expressions throughout long-form TV dramas. "It is more like the art of screenwriters and the art of actors."
"But it's different now. We can see that, whether at home or abroad, the director's style is gradually being perceived by the audience and recognized by the market, which also supports this road to go wider and better. is in the current market "Don't try to test the audience's patience. If someone likes it, it has value, and there should be more self-expression ." Yao Xiaofeng hopes to find his own style beyond preferences, rather than a label.
After "The Storm Chaser" was broadcast, "texture" became one of Yao Xiaofeng's labels.
But he never thought of stopping here."Image is my strong point, and I have the conditions to do better. But as a director, you can't be obsessed with images, but also present your expression. Image is a prerequisite for quality dramas, but good image does not mean that this It’s just a good movie.”
In Yao Xiaofeng’s case, a very clear argument is being confirmed – creators always do not establish or break .
Yao Xiaofeng is the only post-60s generation in Enlightenment Pictures.
Because of this, he seems to be more willing to accept new things than his peers, more willing to keep learning, and more willing to listen to opinions and suggestions. In a sense, the two generations have realized a true two-way journey towards enlightenment.
Yao Xiaofeng is honest that the choice of subject matter actually involves some personal preferences. Fortunately, there are many young people around him who can provide him with fresh perspectives, objective and even mainstream evaluations, and are also responsible for a large part of the peripheral work of creation. Work.
"Because of their presence, I can maintain my purity and maintain a certain creative ability. Now I can judge whether to do a project based on my knowledge."
"Gloomy Fire" is an enlightenment film This is the second drama released this year. After that, "Going North" was also put on the agenda. Three dramas a year brought Enlightenment Pictures into the public eye, and it was also labeled as "highly productive".
"Actually, our rhythm has always been relatively stable. One film a year or three every two years, but these films happened to be released this year." Yao Xiaofeng was a little frightened by this label, "We will not be very productive, and we will not be very productive." Don’t dare to be productive”.
Enlightenment has made steady progress along the way, and its goal is simple and clear - "Tell good content and make good stories."
