Author Apo
Those who will still stay in the film and television industry in 2023 and work hard must be both enthusiastic and dedicated to this industry. This is the most common phrase that creators talk about in 2023.
On the one hand, the content is improving in quality, and there have been many popular word-of-mouth dramas in the past year; On the other hand, the industry bubble and hot money are gone, and what is left behind is naturally pure craftsmen who create with heart.
Director Liu Jiang must be one of them, whether it is in the most vigorous stage of the development of China's film and television industry, or in the current stage of pursuing high-quality development by improving quality and reducing quantity, he is a "top-notch" director.
From the first director's TV series "Iron Youth" in 2003, through "The Beautiful Times of Daughter-in-law", "Before Dawn" to "Let's Get Married", each of his works is a work of both ratings and word-of-mouth. The "Grand Slam" results of the Best Director Award and the Best Work Award of the three major TV awards of Magnolia, Feitian and Golden Eagle are the best evidenceHe is also the youngest Grand Slam winner. In 2022, director Liu Jiang was also awarded the title of "National Young and Middle-aged Literary and Art Workers" by the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, and the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and was elected as the vice chairman of the China Television Association in September 2023.
When we were discussing that the film and television industry has begun to call for high-quality dramas in recent years, Director Liu Jiang insisted on practicing the direction of high-quality dramas in his mind as early as 20 years ago. The times are changing, and the content track and scene may also change, but in the matter of intensive content creation, director Liu Jiang and the creative team he established will not change.
After 20 years in the industry, when the famous director Liu Jiang took a new identity and faced the new wave of the industry, what kind of changes have taken place in the industry he grew up, and what will the future look like?
Standing at the crossroads of the new era of film and television with "Warm, Sweet".
For director Liu Jiang, filming female emotional dramas again is already a completely different era from "The Beautiful Times of Daughter-in-law" and "Let's Get Married", but the director's ** on people's emotional appeals and thoughts has never changed. "It's not to please women, and it's not just about making cool dramas", in the face of the emotions of different eras, in 2023, what does director Liu Jiang want to do with the audience?
"Warm, Sweet" is the "bitter child" in the mouth of director Liu Jiang, he met this story very early, and was moved by the idea of "female independence" when he first got the script; Later, whether he first filmed "Old Tavern" and "Glory and Dreams", or later started filming and was trapped in Shanghai for 61 days due to the epidemic, he wanted to insist on completing this project. The hard work paid off, and in the end, the show achieved the first place in the ratings and share of CSM National Network, 65 cities, and 64 cities, and the first place in the live broadcast attention of Kuyun Satellite TV. On the other hand, "Warm, Sweet" has twice won the award of the ** TV drama project for the audiovisual development of Beijing Radio and Television Network, which also proves Director Liu Jiang's benchmark position in the field of emotional dramas.
Entertainment Capital: Is it because women's topics have become more popular in recent years because "Warm, Sweet" will be broadcast in 2023?
Directed by Liu Jiang: First of all, I have always wanted to shoot this drama a few years ago, but due to various emergencies in the middle, it was not started until 2022, and it ended up with the epidemic again. Although the title of "Warm, Sweet" itself is warm and sweet, it is a "bitter child". Secondly, you see, such a story that was scripted many years ago, the topic is still not outdated, and this play is also profound, quite deeply ** the pure appeal of contemporary women for love.
Looking back on 2013, the slogan when "Let's Get Married" was "Love without the purpose of marriage is a hooligan". Nowadays, women have higher and purer requirements for love and marriage. Independent thinking and adherence to the mentality of "not compromising" are also characteristics of a civilized society.
Entertainment Capital: A few years ago, an emotional drama "Returning" was also broadcast, what is the difference between it and "Warm, Sweet"?
Directed by Liu Jiang: I don't think "Returning" is a purely emotional drama, it is also an inspirational drama with a wide theme, and the reason why I was moved is that the script is both dramatic, topical and ideological, which is especially rare. The core of this play is not **emotional issues, but in **values,** whether the characters in it are to be refined egoists or idealists, whether to do "the right thing" or "to do something beneficial to themselves", and to make a choice in the direction of these values, which is a small incision and a big theme.
Warm, Sweet" has been broadcast for a long time from preparation to broadcast, and there are few film and television dramas that can thoroughly explain the emotional problems of contemporary womenThis is not a superficial love story, but wants to express some deeper, more complex characters and stories.
Entertainment Capital: Why are there fewer works with purely ** deep emotional issues now?
Directed by Liu Jiang: It seems that many people now think that the subject matter has a chain of contempt, for example, the common opinion is that contemporary emotional dramas are easy to shoot, but in fact it is the opposite. This kind of drama is slightly fictional, and the audience can see through it, resulting in a sense of unreality. In contrast, period dramas, costume dramas and other themes that are far away from our real life, even if they are integrated into many imaginations, the audience will tolerate them, and the distance produces beauty.
Contemporary emotional drama is very difficult to be both real and not suspended, but also dramatic, and it has to be expressed in it, and how to achieve "unexpected and reasonable" is also the creator's eternal homework.
Entertainment Capital: It's been more than 10 years since "The Belle Epoque of the Daughter-in-law" to "Warm, Sweet", has your approach to emotional drama changed?
Directed by Liu Jiang: At that time, most of the family dramas were bitter dramas, and "The Beautiful Times of the Daughter-in-law" created a precedent of "warmth", don't look at the strong drama conflict in it, but the values are warm, this is a light comedy, which is deeply loved by the audience. However, now is the era of fragmentation and shallow reading, and the audience's energy is easily taken away by the short **, which is caused by the changes of the times.
In addition, the audience's tastes are varied. Before the ** era, emotional dramas and bitter dramas were quite popular. Later, there were many changes in taste. Luckily, all of my films have done well, which shows that people still pay attention to the stories of their emotional lives, and on the other hand, it shows that you have to talk about emotional issues thoroughly and poke them into people's hearts in order to stand out from the competition.
The realist theme is a kind of deep creative resonance
"The Beautiful Times of Daughter-in-law" once set the highest rating of 10 for the launch of Beijing Satellite TV's TV series22%, now spanning more than ten years, "Warm, Sweet" still won the 12-day ** period of satellite TV attention champion,When director Liu Jiang creates, he never deliberately accommodates anything based on the changes of the times, and the current results confirm that this unaccommodating creative method is successful.
Different from many fast and frivolous film and television drama creation methods, even in this highly fragmented era, director Liu Jiang still insists on excavating the depth and breadth of his works, rather than using some labeled, shallowly understood, and simply refreshing stories to cater to the audience's superficial preferences. Among many current film and television people, "digging deep" is a thankless literary pursuit, but for director Liu Jiang, this is just his creative routine for more than 20 years.
Entertainment Capital: The values of the "Love Trilogy" of "The Beautiful Times of the Daughter-in-law", "Let's Get Married" and "Warm and Sweet" seem to be relatively sunny and positive, is it your personal preference?
Directed by Liu Jiang: Promoting truth, goodness and beauty is the pursuit of all human beings, not just my personal pursuit. In fact, in my three works, the dramatic conflicts are still very intense, I do not avoid the contradictions, but face the contradictions, such as "The Beautiful Times of the Daughter-in-law", although there are fierce conflicts, even to the point of pulling hair and teeth being knocked out, but in the end they will return to warm values. This is the basic requirement of being a creator, and it is also the responsibility of being a literary and artistic worker.
Entertainment Capital: "Warm, Sweet" is an emotional issue for young women, and you get these observations from?
Directed by Liu Jiang: Now we are surrounded by post-90s and post-00s, such as the children of the company, I can ask them what their lives are like now and what emotional appeals they have. In addition, everyone has been young, and every generation will encounter some emotional problems when they are young, and many of them are common.
Entertainment Capital: Are the emotional stories filmed in each different era an observation of different social stages?
Directed by Liu Jiang: I think it's a matter of chance, I didn't deliberately make these regular observations, these works are more like some of my creative impulses in different periods, or based on personal observations, or born from some manuscripts by chance.
Entertainment Capital: How can the creation of realistic themes have both resonance and personality expression?
Directed by Liu Jiang: The creation of film and television works is often a difference of thousands of miles, and the difference is only in the balance, which is the embodiment of the comprehensive index of the creator's own cultivation, feelings, knowledge accumulation and other aspects.
In terms of personality expression, film and television dramas are like works of "one person, one world", everyone understands differently, but as long as you dig deep enough into the problem, you can really resonate, otherwise it will be all different on the surface. And in all philosophies, it is often necessary to see the deepest human nature in order to see the essence of things. This also provides a basis for our creations, such as "eating men and women, people's great desires", such as "people are dying, and their words are also good".
In the beautiful era of daughter-in-law", the mother-in-law Cao Xinmei, who is kind and excessively thrifty, buys a pair of slippers to bargain for a few dollars, and is afraid that her son will suffer a loss and will always work against her daughter-in-law. At the time of filming, my editor said that it was too much like her mother, and my friends and audience members said the same, which shows that the character plays the commonality of this generation of middle-aged women, and it only resonates when you dig deeper.
Entertainment Capital: In the past two years, more and more digital and AIGC technologies have been added to the filming of film and television works, what do you think about these?
Directed by Liu Jiang: The technical digital assistance, such as uploading the shooting material to the digital management system, helps the team to synchronize the editing in different places, but I can't imagine AI creation.
Since my debut, I have firmly believed in Gombrich's "History of Art Development", which says that "there has never been art in the world, only artists", artistic aesthetics are related to the creator's attributes as a "person", and the aesthetics and expression presented by the works are related to the creator's own growth and aesthetics, not a production technology that can be copied, which is also the aesthetic coordinates that affect our generation. AI can do a lot of statistics-related things, such as quickly counting the number of scenes and scenes in the scriptBut the essence of artistic creation is still in the human heart.
Compared with the instant hit, it is more loyal to the long-term boutique
Director Liu Jiang debuted in an era when film and television works were frequently classic, and his benchmark works appeared in each theme category, which was also a very scarce phenomenon back then. In 2014, after the broadcast of "Let's Get Married", he felt the end of a "** decade"; Later, the influx of hot money, data fraud, and inflated copyrights were bizarre; Later, the high-quality iteration of Internet film and television appeared, and both the platform and the audience were calling for high-quality products; Then there is the three-year epidemic period, the industry is accumulating, and it will break out in the post-epidemic period of 2023 (explanation: The "industry accumulation" mentioned above refers to holding back enough energy to start making high-quality products, and this momentum has erupted in today's post-epidemic era, so there are more and more popular and high-scoring dramas), so that the market can see the continuous emergence of good works.
After ten years, director Liu Jiang's works are still at the forefront of the trend, and the good results obtained in exchange for personal aesthetics and the solid creation of each work may be the secret of being able to stand in the industry for a long time than the short-lived popularity of some popular models.
Entertainment Capital: Your works cover a wide range of subjects, in addition to emotional stories, inspirational, spy warfare, public security, procuratorate and law related, do you have some common experience?
Director Liu Jiang: There is no new trick in terms of skills, and the biggest common denominator is personal interest. Only by understanding society can we gain insight into ourselves; Only by understanding oneself can we comprehend society. In my opinion, creative competition lies in aesthetics and cultivation, not in mere technique.
Entertainment Capital: We have been saying that now is the era of fragmentation and short-**, will this change some of your creative habits? For example, some ** don't need to be too complicated, but more straightforward?
Directed by Liu Jiang: I can adjust according to my needs to increase the density and rhythm of the plot, but I must follow the logic of the characters and not break my creative bottom line. There are dramas that require a wall knock every 5 minutes and a kiss every 10 minutes, which is beyond my creative boundaries. The pace of my work itself is not slow, but I stick to the bottom line of this kind of creation.
Entertainment Capital: For many years, there seems to be a successful formula of "traffic actor + big IP = hit" in the film and television industry, would you want to try it?
Directed by Liu Jiang: There have been many big IP** who want to cooperate, and I have tried, but I found that the narrative logic is very different from mine, and I have not been able to cross my own hurdle. I don't want to make works that are just for a momentary pastime.
Entertainment Capital: In the past two years, realism has been very popular, have you ever heard of a "hot search drama" model?
Directed by Liu Jiang: This "hot search drama" does not seem to be a product of creation, but more like a piling technique. Real literary or dramatic creation stems from the growth of characters, and the lines and changes are naturally grown from the characters created and conform to the prescribed situations of the characters. This method of stacking may lack the real feelings of the creator, or even violate the laws of nature, and it is difficult to produce the appeal of art.
Entertainment Capital: Have you considered how a drama can cater to the current audience's preferences and become a hit, and can become a classic?
Directed by Liu Jiang: Popular styles are hard to come by, and I think it is difficult for creators who pursue explosive styles excessively to polish their works. Most of the popular models were born by taking advantage of the trend. As a creator with a conscience, creating high-quality dramas is an inevitable goal, and good creations are often the embodiment of idealism. When we rely on our own aesthetics and excellent shooting skills to complete a literary and artistic work that conforms to the laws of art, we are not utilitarian, but enjoy it; Only seek to cultivate, not to harvest. Then when the opportunity is ripe, the classic hits that can be handed down may naturally arise.
Entertainment Capital: As the helmsman of Perfect Pengrui Film and Television, will being the head of the company and the film and television producer and director make you feel pressured?
Directed by Liu Jiang: It's true that there is pressure to make a profit from running a company, but I'm still working on copyright dramas because it gives me more freedom to create what I want to express, and the bottom line of creation is the lifeline of the creator.
In addition, all my works have not been broadcast for more than 11 months from the start to the online broadcast, and "Warm, Sweet" minus the 2 months when it was blocked in Shanghai was also in this cycle. And none of my normally broadcast works are losing money, which is also my confidence**, as a producer, I am very cautious about the commercial judgment of a work, and I must have this sense of responsibility.
Entertainment Capital: Can you tell us about some of the upcoming films?
Directed by Liu JiangIn the future, there will be several themes related to public security, procuratorate, law and spy warfare, including literary adaptations, including the national security drama "Quiet Blue", the spy war drama "Auntie's Bullet" and "Linyuan".
The fastest to start will be "Quiet Blue" with the theme of national security and anti-espionage, which is related to the civil commercialization of nuclear energy just broadcast by "News Network" some time ago. The ** of the national security police is the same as that of the public security police, they are all navy blue. If the public security officers are the "blue of blood" and "the blue of boiling", then the national security soldiers on the hidden front are the ...... of "Quiet Blue" who "listens to thunder in a silent place".That's what the title of the show means.
Entertainment Capital: Please tell us about the development direction of the film and television industry in the future.
Directed by Liu Jiang: Now the audience craves high-quality dramas and has gradually become accustomed to the increase in high-quality works. In the future, the industry will become more and more prosperous. The only variable is whether the TV channel will thrive again. But with the rapid development of the country's economy, culture must keep up, cultural power is a call, but also a goal that will be achieved! As an optimist, I am confident about the future.