After days of tossing and a night of terror, Zhang Fengxia didn't care about the awkward journey. But the Mongolian grandma, whom she had never met before, blurted out: "Even a bumpy life should be lived brightly." The speaker's tone was indifferent, and it was not just the people in the story who were touched.
Adapted from the essay collection of the same name by writer Li Juan, the 8-episode mini-series "My Altay" is currently being aired on CCTV 1. In the story, Li Wenxiu, a Han girl who grew up in Altay, pursues her literary dream in a big city but repeatedly encounters obstacles. She returns to her mother who runs a canteen and lives like a herdsman. Gradually, she got closer to the locals and discovered the beauty of Altay. As a support project of the State Administration of Radio and Television’s high-quality online audio-visual program creation and communication project, this is the first online drama to be broadcast on a set of prime time slots on CCTV. It is also a work that has been successfully shortlisted for the main competition unit of the 7th Cannes TV Drama Festival. Netizens commented that it has movie-level picture quality and can help young people in the Internet era "cyber oxygen": Under the 4k ultra-high-definition lens, the valley is green but shining with golden light, the Kazakh boy on horseback, and the Han girl with flying skirts , flocks of sheep, running horses, bright and pure vitality penetrates the image, and the vastness of Altay is described in a fascinating way.
However, from the perspective of the main creator, "My Altay" is more than just a promotional film for tourism. On the occasion of the hit broadcast, our reporter talked with the main creators and listened to them sort out the creation of two different grammatical systems from prose to drama, and review the story of Altay that is distant and close in the beautiful pictures, but always has a broad character.
An optimistic rendering of "not going smoothly"
"The spring in Altay is very short. The ice and snow just begin to melt in April and May, and summer is about to come in a blink of an eye. The spring in Altay is also very special. The hay left last year is still flourishing. , obeying the earth.” Director Teng Congcong’s memories are very graphic. A year ago, the crew shot from winter to summer in northern Xinjiang. When the wind of Altay passed through the spring wilderness, they shot the calmness and loveliness in the trivial life, and the tranquility and ease in the vast nomadic life, "like what flows in the book." ".
Books or words are the origin of this creation, but they may also be the shelving due to another kind of judgment. Li Juan's original work is a collection of essays, without a clear narrative line, and lacks the dramatic conflict that is usually valued in film and television creations. But Teng Congcong believes in the preciousness of it: "Li Juan has a unique perspective on the world and a perception of life. When we make 'Altay', we want to introduce various stories in the vast land of China to the audience."
wrote The author's uniqueness lies in his delicate and rich observations and descriptions, as well as his unique ease of doing things, which coincides with Teng Congcong's philosophy. "The lack of material life and the hardship of the living environment may exist objectively, but if the difficulties are exaggerated in creation, the story will be obedient and boring." The director bluntly said that compared to the dilemma of "direct payment", she is more willing to give The image is given a layer of "unruly" and optimistic rendering.
Therefore, in the play, heavy labor and uncertain migration are daily life, but they are also described as the joy and dignity in the lives of herdsmen. The line describes "that was a grand festival." Therefore, the protagonist Li Wenxiu experienced deception and bullying while working in the city. She lived in a leaky tent in a valley and kept company with rats that occasionally passed by. However, the girl was always chirping and jumping for joy. She hung up plastic bags of various sizes, and the water from the sky leaked into the tent and dripped into the bags. From high to low, it formed an interesting musical scale in the girl's heart. It is precisely because of her sincere admiration for this tenacity that can turn suffering into abundance that Li Wenxiu’s mother Zhang Fengxia is portrayed as a very glorious character in the play - all the destined frustrations and loneliness are calmed by her free and exuberant life energy. Dissolve.
A creation that strips away "utilitarianism"
Teng Congcong is a newcomer in the drama industry, but "My Altay" is not her directorial debut. Four years ago, for the movie " Send Me to the Blue Clouds ", she received many nominations including the Shanghai International Film Festival's Asian Newcomer Award for Best Director and the China Film Golden Rooster Award for Best Screenplay, and attracted the attention of the film industry.What people didn't know was that as soon as they got the paycheck, a newcomer in the film industry turned around and sent an email to Li Juan to discuss copyright. She has been fond of "My Altay" for a long time and spared no effort.
Qi Kang, the current chief producer of the series and general manager of iQiyi Canran Studio, and Teng Congcong are classmates. In his chat history, the first time the two discussed "Altay" dates back to 2018. "At that time, I was not a series producer, and she didn't have the copyright. No one was rushing to work on projects. It was purely out of appreciation for the text." Looking back now, there is no "utilitarianism", which is exactly the final completion. The key to the episode.
Back to the initial evaluation of the project, commercially, it is not a movie, it does not have theater income, and it does not dilute the cost like a long-form drama. An eight-part miniseries is undoubtedly an adventure. In terms of creation, prose adaptations with high artistic standards and strong stylization will face challenges in image expression. Someone asked Qi Kang why he was willing to take risks, and the answer was consensus and empathy. Innovation in a relative sense is the consensus of the creators; the yearning for idealism and attention to life poured into "My Altay" are the empathy that the creators firmly believe can be achieved with the audience.
The next step is to go to Xinjiang, to Altay, to truly feel the wind in the mountains and fields in the text. "Without the two interviews, we might not be able to grasp the texture and quality of life in the original work." Teng Congcong said that during their time in Altay, they met a group of local people who were enthusiastic, straightforward, simple and persevering. From them, Teng Congcong and another screenwriter Peng Yining jointly brought out the characters in the original work - the protagonist mother and daughter, the mother Zhang Fengxia is bold and free, the daughter Li Wenxiu is straightforward and cute, the relationship between mother and daughter, between man and nature, the nomadic culture and Urban civilizations are intertwined with many relationships.
Batai’s character is not mentioned much in the book. In Gossip Town, creators make friends with veterinarians. He was a Kazakh young man who had received modern education and was engaged in horse breeding. "He shared his love story and professional experience with great energy." The driver I met in Fuyun County was named Ba Tai. He had a simple personality, but as long as he held the steering wheel, he was full of indescribable domineering power. The people he has seen and the things he has heard are integrated by the creator, and there is Batai in the play. He has a close relationship with horses. He is a young man who was born in the forest and pasture, takes root in the mountains and snowfields, and has a flesh-and-blood aura with heaven and earth.
’s shooting days were also leisurely. Teng Congcong said: "It is very comfortable for us to wait for the wind to come, for the clouds to open, and for the sun to rise and set."
A "high information density" movie feel
After the broadcast of "My Altay" , the cinematic feel has become the most common comment online. The "native HDR" shooting and production process and the specially original music incorporating ethnic styles are all talked about by netizens. In the opinion of the main creator, including pictures, music, and the sense of cinema are embodied in the "high information density" audio-visual language. If the beautiful scenery stretching across the sky and the ground is fascinating, then the strong sense of immersion established through audio and video is the space that locks eyes and attracts people's imagination.
In the play, a young woman in the confused period of youth is interested in literature, but she doesn’t know what to write or how to write. The teacher told her to start from the most familiar place, "to love, to live, to get hurt." In the house rented by herdsmen, she asked her grandmother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. Her mother was an educated youth from Jiangsu and her grandmother was from Shenyang. "Am I from Xinjiang, who was born here?" On a day when the door was closed due to heavy snow, she wrote "Not a single line of footprints leads to my home." The process of return, homecoming, collision, and integration repeated itself over and over again in her body. "The prose was written around 2000, and we collected it in 2020. 20 years apart, the Internet era has irreversibly changed the lives of the younger generation, and so have the herders." Teng Congcong said that she was attracted by such collision and integration, and also I thought more about the theme of my hometown. "Even in mainland cities, many people will miss their childhood countless times and look for their spiritual hometown amid the changes of the times."
In the audio-visual woven with "information density", some viewers noticed the name of the heroine.In the original work, Li Juan writes in the first person voice. In the play, the literary young woman is named "Li Wenxiu", which is the same as the character in Jin Yong's novel "The White Horse Roars in the West Wind". Teng Congcong admitted that it was her personal "little tribute." In the writings of the martial arts master, even though there are all kinds of good things in Jiangnan, in the end, the beautiful girl said goodbye, "Those are all very good, but I don't like them." The director hopes that the female characters in the play will be open-minded and free. "They may not be nomads, but they have the chivalrous and heroic spirit to dare to travel to the far corners of the world, and have the ability to choose their own way of life, and take the first step from rejection to freedom."
It is precisely in the experience of rich information that the 8-episode mini-series has the possibility to leverage the long tail effect. Ma Yili , who plays the mother Zhang Fengxia, once said: "The two months in Altay were like a beautiful dream. I hope everyone can stay away from the hustle and bustle and dream there if they have the opportunity." Now, the response from netizens is positive and enthusiastic. Read a good book, catch up on a good drama, go to a good place - this is probably the ideal look of a film and television drama.
Author: Wang Yan
Text: Wang Yan Pictures: posters, stills Editor: Xu Yang Editor: Li Ting
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