documentary "Qian Lang" uses 7 episodes to show the real life picture of the elderly through long-term tracking shooting - "The God of Eternal Love" records the pursuit of love of the elderly group who went on a blind date at IKEA; "Tomorrow Will Be Better" continues It follows a 96-year-old man on his way to take the driving test; "Sail with the Current" tells the story of an old man's online shopping life, mixed with pathos and humor; "Taking a Bath" takes a group portrait of five old people taking a bath, telling the story of the pain and suffering of life. The dignity of...
The film aroused heated discussions after being broadcast on Tencent Video and Dragon TV, and received the attention and recognition of many young and middle-aged viewers. "The Wave Before" recently concluded. Chief director Fan Shiguang accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the Beijing News and shared his feelings about filming the elderly group for a long time: the quality of life in old age has a lot to do with one's own personality. He revealed that the next season of "Before the Wave" is already in preparation. The film crew plans to focus on middle-aged people who are more difficult to photograph than the elderly. The filming area is no longer limited to Shanghai. They hope to break the restrictions of dialects and reach a wider audience. audience group.
Episode 6 of "The Waves Before" "Sail with the Current" is not only the story of Wang Minhua, but also a microcosm of the life of contemporary elderly people.
How well you live when you are old has a lot to do with your personality
The film crew of "Qian Lang" began research and filming in November 2022, and spent a year filming the stories of nearly twenty contemporary Shanghai elderly people. Fan Shiguang said that "Before the Wave" hopes to change the public's stereotypes about the elderly through vivid characters, and also wants young and middle-aged people to understand what old life is like, because that is everyone's future. "There will be many myths and obsessions in life. The lives of these elderly people will let everyone see through these myths. 'Everything should be long-term and have a broad view.' After the time span becomes longer, there are many things that are particularly persistent and wanted. , you will feel that it is not that important." Fan Shiguang and his team observed that the most important thing in old age is not necessarily money, but a healthy body and a harmonious family atmosphere are the real "hard currency."
In the process of tracking and photographing the elderly, the filming team of "Front Waves" deeply saw their sorrows and joys, and was deeply touched by the saying "character determines destiny." "Whether you live well when you are old or not has a lot to do with your personality. If a person has been complaining about others since he was young, is very glass-hearted, and always feels that others are sorry for him, then there is a high probability that he will not live well when he is old." " The protagonist of the sixth episode of "The Wave Before" - 75-year-old Wang Minhua, inspired the film crew a lot. Originally, they wanted to film how patients with early Alzheimer's disease struggled with the disease, but unexpectedly found that Wang Minhua did not take the disease seriously and was still happily shopping online. "The original name of this episode was 'Sail Against the Current'. After the film was finished, I felt it was inappropriate. Because Ms. Wang Minhua taught us that we have a good attitude towards life, so we changed it to "Sailing with the Current".
Restraint should not be sensational when making documentaries. Truth is the most important
"Foreign Waves". "" not only presents the real life of the elderly, but also reflects the multi-faceted nature of human nature and the complexity of life. For example, the third episode of "Tomorrow Will Be Better" follows a 96-year-old man taking his driver's license test. The story sounds very inspiring, but this episode does not stay on the good side, but allows the audience to see more complex aspects of life - still The contradiction between the longing for poetry and the distant soul and the body that "tomorrow will not be better"; the conflict caused by the out-of-sync aging of partners; the pressure brought by caring for elderly parents on middle-aged children who are burdened with burdens, etc. …Fan Shiguang said that the reason why people can watch documentaries must be because of their authenticity. “Reality must also be complicated. But whether it is literature or documentaries, their purpose is to present the complexity of reality. Let everyone better understand life and live a good life. "
There is a warm and romantic side to the life of the elderly.
Fan Shiguang is one of the directors of the high-scoring documentary "Human World". This time, "Qian Lang" is more restrained in narrative style than "The World", with almost no narration and commentary, and the use of music is also quite cautious.Fan Shiguang said: "I specifically told the composer Dong Xiaojiao that the music in this documentary should not be sensational, but a companion." However, under the restrained form, the creator's keen antennae and abundant emotions have not changed. . Fan Shiguang admitted that he thought more about old age because of filming "The Wave". He believes that aging is a gift from God to mankind. "It gives life an end. It is no longer a wilderness, but a track with a starting point and an end. Then this process becomes meaningful."
The next season is already being prepared. The protagonists of "Front Waves" are middle-aged people.
The subjects of "Front Waves" are all elderly people living in Shanghai. They speak in Shanghainese most of the time. After the broadcast, some viewers also said that they had to use subtitles to understand what the grandparents were saying, which seemed a bit tiring. Fan Shiguang admitted that the dialect of "Qianlang" did bring some difficulties to the audience. Therefore, the crew is considering looking for subjects in a wider geographical area for the next season of the show. Not only for the sake of better understanding of the language, but also for the program to have more placement points and the characters photographed to be more representative. Fan Shiguang revealed that the next season of the show will target middle-aged people and is currently in preparation.
Every era has important social issues. Fan Shiguang believes that "middle age" is an important issue in Chinese society today, just as "youth" was a very important social issue in the 1980s. Fan Shiguang revealed that the film crew has already begun to search for and contact potential subjects for filming. "Photographing middle-aged people also requires planning some aspects in advance, such as childbirth, marriage, workplace, etc. Each of them is not a small problem, so we start from these aspects to look for it." After initial contact, he and the team felt that shooting middle-aged people was It will be more difficult to photograph people than the elderly. Because the elderly are relatively free and easy, middle-aged people are still within the rules of society and will have a lot of worries and care about their own dignity and image. We have to do it even if it is difficult, because - "What we want to shoot is the plight of every person. The pain of middle-aged people is very real, no worse than that of the elderly."
Beijing News reporter Yang Lianjie
Editor Tong Na
Proofreader Liu more
