On October 18, the first round of the education-themed TV series "Big Exam" ended. Based on the college entrance examination in 2020, this drama is based on reality, integrating elements of education, youth, family relations, epidemics, floods, etc., and finally positioned as a realistic drama with warm undertones and romanticism.

On October 25th, a symposium on the creation of the TV series "Big Exam" was held at the State Administration of Radio and Television.

"Big Exam" poster

Describes a small family, reflects everyone

Regarding the subject matter of the "Big Exam", Shen Jijun, deputy director of the Central Radio and Television Station Film and Television Documentary Center, believes that many film and television works focus on the college entrance examination, and the uniqueness of "The Big Test" is that it places the college entrance examination in the special epidemic situation. In the background of the movie, it describes a small family and reflects everyone, allowing the audience to see the warm background of the whole society under the sudden epidemic and flood.

"Da Kao" Creation Forum

Director Shen Yan believes that the uniqueness of "The Big Exam" lies in the fact that among the many main themes, it is not only about the college entrance examination, but also a big test that the whole society and the whole country have experienced together under various difficulties: "Our true The protagonists are not only the roles of teachers, students, and parents, but also the Chinese people and the spirit of the Chinese people. Real life is often rough and has burrs, but if we grind away these burrs, the work will lose its true texture. "

Shen Yan's creative concept is practiced in "The Big Exam", which is shown in the play, which boldly presents some of the existing problems in the college entrance examination system. Shen Yan believes that the more controversial the place, the more rational voice should be made. "In addition, for example, Chinese people attach great importance to education and are willing to forbear and sacrifice for their families. This is a very valuable and fine tradition. However, typical Chinese parents are often not good at expressing and communicating, so their children feel not love but pressure. Only by not evading these issues and truly expressing people's joys, sorrows and sorrows can we find the living water of creation."

"Big Exam" stills

Nie Chengshuai, the chief screenwriter of "Big Exam" said that after the broadcast of "Big Exam", it was praised and encouraged by many audiences, but there were also some different voices. And the authenticity of the characters has been questioned, such as why the students in the two schools in the play do not wear school uniforms; why the security personnel who transported their father got off in Nanjing instead of Hefei; why the principal in the play is so serious and responsible for the students, while They have never encountered such educators. Anyone who has read the script of "Big Exam" knows that our script has undergone several verifications by multiple departments and is strictly compared with actual data, which can be accurate to the date and time of each scene. The time is highly consistent with the development of various current events in 2020. In the play, the construction of a base station for a poor student, the principal who eats and lives with the students, and the live broadcast of the national flag raising and other plots and characters are all based on real events."

"Big Exam" stills

Yan Bingyan, who played the role of Zhou Bowen's mother in the play, shared her feelings about "The Big Test" from the perspective of an actor. "I seriously discussed the details of the script with Mr. Wang Xiao, the director and the screenwriter, and made clear the causal relationship between the front and back. I believe that the actors can be more hypocritical in the early stage of creation, and the later presentation can be more infectious. some audience."

Rong Zishan said that the conflict between Wu Jiajun's personal dream and her mother's expectations, played by herself, is actually a big test of mother-child relationship, and the same is true for mothers in turn. For the first time, she has to communicate with adolescent children. It's also a big test for her. Rong Zishan said, "I started acting at the age of 8 and a half, and I am 16 years old this year, and I often feel pressure, but when I saw this role, I was very interested, and Wu Jiajun's experience of chasing his dreams was very touching. "

The process of creation and shooting has gone through "big exams" again and again

The creation and shooting process of the play "Big Exam" also went through "big exams" again and again.

Wang Xiaohui, the director of the "Big Exam", introduced that the epidemic was encountered as soon as the film was turned on. The crew stopped filming several times, including temporary replacement of actors in the middle, but in the end, with the insistence of the main creative team, the shooting was completed in 64 days and 81 days. Post-production.

Director Shen Yan introduced the filming process in detail: At the beginning of 2022, the main creator of the crew went to Shexian for on-the-spot investigation, the local education director and leaders provided great help in the preparation, and also arranged for the crew and many local teachers, students, The story prototype characters such as the parents of the students met. "The script has become more and more full and mature in the process. When the film started in April, the domestic epidemic was serious, and several actors in the play could not be in place. We were caught off guard. Fortunately, an emergency plan was quickly arranged to ensure the shooting. It can go largely as planned.”

"Big Exam" stills

In the story of "Big Exam", the teachers and students just overcame the epidemic, and they encountered a flood before the exam, which also challenged the crew. Shen Yan said that it took a lot of trouble to shoot the flood scene, "We calculated what if All using CG special effects, the workload will be very large, the time-consuming will be very long, it may not catch up with the broadcast cycle, and the effect will be greatly reduced compared to the real scene. Therefore, we adopted the scheme of combining the real scene and special effects, and dug a huge pool in the The scene was set up inside. The director team and the actors spent almost ten days in the pool, and finally completed the content of this part of the shooting. Looking back on it now, it is like a child facing the college entrance examination. Build bridges, overcome all kinds of unexpected situations along the way, and hand in this answer sheet for the "Big Exam" to the audience."

Aesthetic Innovation of Youth Elements

In the expert speech session, Yin Hong, vice-chairman of the China Literature and Art Critics Association and professor of Tsinghua University, said that over the years, we have learned from some excellent foreign TV drama creation experiences, such as strong drama, strong crisis, strong closure, including strong typing, These also have an impact on our creation, and have also brought a positive impetus to the creation of some of our popular themed works. "But it may be more aimed at the consumption needs of specific audiences, and it is difficult to become a real masterpiece or masterpiece in art, and I think this work reflects the background of realism very deeply, so that everyone can restore it to His life scenes, family scenes and era scenes. With this restoration, the characters are lively and lively, completing the basic state of realist creation."

Lu Rong, a professor at the School of Drama and Film and Television, Communication University of China, believes that the first thing to do with themes such as "Big Exam" is publicity and individuality, and the transformation and symbiotic relationship between integrity and individuality. At the same time, it is necessary to describe all living beings, so that private emotions, public care, rationality, sensibility, private space and public space can be presented in both images and stories. The whole play passed a big test, which examined not only the individual family and its growth, but also cured Jiajun's mother's functional illiteracy, cured the Bimisin Conference in the QQ group, and Wenwen's mother's coming-of-age ceremony. Secondly, for the narration of major livelihood issues affecting social nerves, characterization needs to show its diversity and depth, and grow from it leading. Including the deliberate camera language in the play, the relay of motorcycles in the rainstorm, the chorus of the flashlights at the resettlement point, the graduating class watching the rising sun, those theme songs are all sublimated paragraphs.

"Big Exam" stills

Lu Fan, deputy director of the TV Research Center of Peking University, paid attention to the aesthetic innovation of youth elements in "The Big Test": "The fireworks in the play have a sense of purity, the child's face has a particularly pure look, and there are people in the streets. The warmth and the overall tone are also bright. Every major event in "The Exam" is very calm and objective, with a kind of intimacy and a warm attitude."

According to iQIYI, in order to show the world the youthful demeanor and fighting power of young Chinese students, the "Big Exam" has been released to more than ten overseas TV stations and new media platforms, including Hong Kong and Taiwan Channels in Hong Kong, Phoenix Satellite TV, TVB, ABC Television in Macau, which radiates mainstream TV channels in many African countries, as well as Singapore, Cambodia and other countries and regions, is currently recommending the "Big Exam" to mainstream media in Thailand, Russia and other places.