Beijing, December 5 (Reporter Shangguan Yun) A few days ago, the reality TV series "Welcome to McNugget Village" was launched. In terms of plot, characters, etc., this drama quickly accumulated a wave of popularity and word-of-mouth.
Welcome to McNugget Village" comprehensively selects the real deeds of China's medical teams from more than 30 African countries, including Mali and Tanzania, and creates a story of Chinese medical teams represented by Ma Jia, Jiang Daqiao, Wu Mei and others who went to Africa to save lives and help the wounded, and established deep friendship with local people.
Liang Zhenhua is the chief screenwriter and chief producer of "Welcome to McNugget Village". For him, the creation of "Welcome to McNuggets Village" was a precious experience, with the script outline alone lasting between 120,000 and 150,000 words. The script has also undergone repeated polishing.
Welcome to McNuggets Village: How does it tell a story?How to create a character?How to make a plain restoration of real life?In an exclusive interview with *** reporter, Liang Zhenhua answered these questions one by one.
Slightly idealistic Ma Jia.
In "Welcome to McNugget Village", Ma Jia and Jiang Daqiao are two characters who have attracted more attention. They all work in the medical team, and they have very different personalities, and they will have a small quarrel from time to time.
Welcome to McNuggets Village" stills. Photo courtesy of the show.
Many netizens are keen to interpret the personalities of the two, and think that Ma Jia is a bit "prickly", but it is very cute;Jiang Daqiao's handling of problems is rather rigid and a little unkind.
In this regard, Liang Zhenhua analyzed that Ma Jia is talented, has good medical ethics, is dedicated to work, usually a little idealistic, unwilling to bend to meet him, and seems to be not very gregarious, but his heart is very kind.
Ma Jia has his own emotional, family and even workplace anxieties, and he chose to join the foreign aid medical team, not to escape, but to change his life. There, he did find a balance between ideals and reality, and he was growing. Liang Zhenhua said.
Actually, both of these people are very good, but sometimes they may look at the problem from different angles, which can lead to arguments. Jiang Daqiao doesn't smile, he puts everything in his heart, and rarely expresses his inner emotions.
As the captain of the foreign aid medical team, he needs to take into account the overall situation, must be steady, and has an introverted personality, it is difficult to have that kind of 'heart-to-heart' type of communication with people, and some disputes between him and Ma Jia are misunderstandings caused by information asymmetry. He said.
Back to basics, the work does not show off skills.
Not only the character building, but also the story of "Welcome to McNugget Village" has also been polished for a long time.
Before officially putting into the creation of the script, Liang Zhenhua completed an outline of 120,000 to 150,000 words based on the materials of the field interview, and each episode was about four or five thousand words, describing the character settings and story direction in great detail.
At first, he planned to write about three generations in chronological order, but after a few rounds of "grinding" of the outline, he found that this perspective was more traditional.
Welcome to McNuggets Village" stills. Photo courtesy of the show.
Later, he simply adopted a back-to-basics approach to writing, honestly following the line of the story, following a most conventional time thread. "We didn't play tricks with the structure of the work. When you go back to this regular time line, the requirements for story details are very high. Every paragraph, plot, and everyone's performance and expression should be full and solid. ”
Almost at the same time as the script writing, Liang Zhenhua also completed the creation of the eponymous **, "When writing **, I borrowed some methods of writing the script, such as careful settings in advance, thinking methods of drama structure, etc.
How to avoid "levitation" in film and television dramas?
As mentioned in previous reports, in order to more realistically and comprehensively outline the picture of China's foreign aid medical treatment, the creative team of "Welcome to McNuggets Village" went to Africa for in-depth research, visited three groups of medical teams and five local hospitals, interviewed more than 100 Chinese foreign aid doctors from various provinces across the country, and consulted millions of words of various materials.
The "Maile Village", the residence of the foreign aid medical team in the play, is a combination of the "Pemba Courtyard" of the Chinese (Jiangsu) medical team on Pemba Island and the old building of the China (Shandong) medical team. From the beginning of the design of the floor plan, the medical scene is guided by a number of foreign medical consultants, and the layout of the clinic and the layout of medical equipment are extremely rigorous.
Watching this drama today, no one said that it was suspended. 'McNugget Village' is not something we imagine out of thin air, but a plain restoration of the real life situation, from which everyone can really see the life of the medical team. Liang Zhenhua said.
In addition, during the filming of "Welcome to McNugget Village", he constantly reminded the main creative team not to make any exaggerations, whether it is costumes or props, etc., try to adopt a simple aesthetic style, be consistent with reality, and be "down-to-earth".
Welcome to McNuggets Village" stills. Photo courtesy of the show.
The 'sense of suspension' in many dramas is something that the audience can't accept from the outside: how can there be such a real life?For example, McNugget Village is home to the medical team, and if we were to shoot it in a modern way, it would definitely not work. Liang Zhenhua said.
How can film and television dramas do a better job of "not levitating"?He concluded that it is necessary to proceed from reality and strive to restore real life, "The method and tone of storytelling should also be simple, and not be disturbed by some external forms." ”
A "cultural communicator".
Teacher, screenwriter ......Leung Chun-wah has multiple identity tags. And he positions himself as a "cultural communicator".
I teach creative writing and contemporary literature in my classes, and I also work in film and television, where I am deeply rooted in my work and answer my doubts through practice. He feels that screenwriting is different from writing poems and **, and the final result should be tested by the finished film.
It's not uncommon to write for style. He insisted that especially in realist subjects, the author can only feel the breath of real life when he is immersed in the scene, and it is almost unimaginable if he does not come into contact with life and the times, and it is difficult to write good works.
When he doesn't have to teach, Liang Zhenhua can write, "There will definitely be ups and downs in the state of creation, as a professional screenwriter or writer, it is particularly important to keep yourself as creative as possible and maintain a relatively active creative state." He said. (ENDS).