In recent years, the summer vacation has always been a battleground for puppet strategists. Recently, a realist youth campus-themed TV series aired by CCTV set has been shining brightly this summer. Not only did the peak ratings of CCTV’s live broadcast break through 1.45%. , Youku's popularity exceeded 10,000, and Douban's score reached 8.4, which has achieved quite good reputation and response.

"Days of Chasing Light" poster

"The Days of Chasing the Light" tells the moving story of an "unruly" teacher Hao Nan and his "cow herding class" in the third year of high school, redeeming each other and chasing the light together. Although it is a common theme setting for youth school dramas, the drama stands out with diverse styles such as light joy, refreshing, sincerity, and reality, and has attracted many audiences to follow. , teacher-student relationship, and parent-child relationship reflect real issues such as education and native families, and arouse the resonance of audiences of all ages.

"To make a down-to-earth work with life" is the chief producer of the show and the original intention of Li Zheng, the vice president of Perfect World Film and Television. For him, "Days of Chasing Light" is not only a school drama, but also a "life drama". "I have always wanted to make a true 'life drama'. The friendship between classmates, teachers and students, workplace relationships, and family relationships in this drama is like a small microcosm of Chinese society."

This idea coincides with that of Zhao Xiaying, a screenwriter who has gone through repeating the college entrance examination. She told Li Zheng that in her later life, no matter what difficulties she encountered, she would always think back to the year of studying hard under great pressure, and then gain strength from it.

The college entrance examination is a key node in life for high school students, but let go of the age limit, for the general public, where in life is not "the college entrance examination"? How to take the teachers and students of Qingyun Class 14 as the main body, use the "college entrance examination" to gain insights into life, and create a youthful and inspirational life drama is the focus that the entire team needs to clarify in the early stages of project preparation.

Restore the truth to the greatest extent

"We hope to restore the reality to the greatest extent." Regarding this work, Li Zheng said, "We hope that the work grows from the soil, it has the real fragrance of the soil, grows with the power of life, and gradually grows into a Giant trees."

In order to write this play well, Zhao Xiaying went to Maotanchang Middle School to collect stories for more than a month, interviewed local teachers, students, and parents, and collected a lot of real materials. The main creative team mobilized relatives and friends to find a number of special teachers and become consultants for the play. According to Li Zheng, every family and every child in the play has a real prototype, and there are many real cases in the plot. The development of the script took more than two years in total.

"The Days of Chasing the Light" was filmed in Huizhou

After visiting many cities, Huizhou was chosen for the filming. "Chongqing, Foshan, Huizhou, Zhanjiang, and Xiamen were all visited, and finally Huizhou was chosen." The story of the play took place in 2011. Li Zheng said that he hopes Choose a city that looks alive and close to the collective memory of the audience. "We hope that this city can represent the most typical city appearance in China more than ten years ago, and represent the living conditions of the most common people in China at that time. It is only close to our real life, so that the audience can truly empathize with it." Li Zheng Frankly speaking, "Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen passed the first step, and it will not be able to achieve this goal."

When the crew officially started work, it hit the worst period of the epidemic, but hundreds of people worked hard and did not miss a day of filming. After filming, they refined it for another year, and it took four full years to complete the production of the play. Li Zheng said with a smile that for all the creators, these creative journeys are also a period of "chasing light".

Make a good entrance "capsule"

In recent years, there have been few original works, and even fewer educational themes. Undoubtedly, an original educational work has to bear greater commercial risks. "Educational subjects are indeed relatively rare in recent years. To do it, we must make something that has a sense of life and is interesting." Li Zheng put forward his original "capsule effect" point of view.

"The capsules and sugar coating on the outside of the medicine, the sweetness makes it easy to swallow when you take it in, and the nutrients inside will help you heal. Similarly, film and television are first and foremost market-oriented products that bring joy to everyone." The drama "Days" has both the non-threshold nature of comedy and the emotional resonance of igniting and moving. The diverse styles ensure that it satisfies the palatability of the public who follow the drama.

It is Li Zheng's creative concept to organically unify the social significance and market value of the work and make it into a beautiful, cute and easy-to-eat "capsule". "Humor, humor, new angles, avoiding boring and monotonous preaching" is the starting point of the play's style.

Hao Nan (played by Guo Jingfei)

For this "capsule", the addition of actor Guo Jingfei is undoubtedly crucial. Guo Jingfei is not only an important clue character in the play, but also the source of many hilarious jokes. In the first episode, the jokes he contributed became the motivation for many viewers who didn't understand the story to follow the drama.

Guo Jingfei fell in love with the script of "Days of Chasing Light" at first glance, "He was moved when he showed the script to Mr. Guo, and he also knows very well how much a good teacher and helpful friend can help young people."

Li Zheng recalled Guo Jingfei's harmonious and free way of getting along with the young actors in the crew: "He created a space for everyone to perform. He is 'living water', just like a big parent, including Ren Min and Wang Yuan. The creative desires of all the children were aroused, which inspired everyone to do secondary creations." Such as Hao Nan's landlord knelt down and bowed to each other, Hao Nan and Director Li went to the wrong bathroom, etc. The funny points that the audience talked about were all on the scene A flash of creative inspiration.

Stills of "The Days of Chasing Light"

Li Zheng introduced that in terms of casting, the actor's own characteristics need to be highly compatible with the role. The students in Qingyun Class 14 are also young actors of the new generation in reality. Young actors such as Wang Yuan and Ren Min have drawn a realistic group portrait of high school students with sincere performances. "Some actors themselves are also students, and their parents come to accompany the group, and they will also talk to us about their understanding of the script and their educational concepts. They also participated in guest appearances and played parents in the parent meeting." This work is half successful in the sense of real substitution first.

life is a long run

"I just want to bring a new way of thinking to this society." As a film and television producer, Li Zheng described his expectations for this work in this way. "Children should try their best to do what they are passionate about and are good at." In his view, people should do what they love and are good at. Desperate days. Some people like football and are willing to play football without eating or sleeping;

Gao Yuan (played by Wang Yuan)

Stills of "The Days of Chasing Light"

"But if you look at life as a long-distance race, only you know your strengths." In Li Zheng's view, you should follow your own strengths and strengths to make life plans, rather than follow the trend and chase after a certain hot topic. Profession and work, these will change with the change of the general environment. "You can be the number one in everything, it depends on how far you can run. Life is a long-distance race, not a sprint. Of course, this is my personal point of view, but I hope to leave a thought for parents and children in front of the TV. , How should I choose my own life?"

The "cure" of value return

Going back to "The Days of Chasing the Light", there is a scene in which Hao Nan participates in the class reunion. It can be seen with the naked eye that the old classmates in the class may be more successful than him in the worldly sense. But for Hao Nan, "I want to be a teacher in this life", and I want to be a torch bearer who lights up a beam of light for children. He started with a problem solving, a class, a home visit, and a heart-to-heart talk. During countless moments with the students, he really pulled every student of Qingyun Class 14 out of the "mire" and taught them knowledge. , and guide them to find their shining point in life and pursue it boldly.

Idealism has always been difficult to write convincingly, and "paying for others" has even fallen into a certain stigma in recent years: paying for love is a "love brain", and paying for work is a "stupid social animal". But shouldn't the image repeatedly chewed and eulogized in film and television works be an idealist who faces reality but always holds enthusiasm? Hao Nan happens to be such a character who comes from reality to ideal, and because of the ideal light shining on his character, many viewers can't help feeling "the whole world owes me Hao Nan" while watching the drama. "It would be great if I could meet such a teacher when I was a student."

Ren Zhen (played by Ren Min)

Stills of "The Days of Chasing Light"

In addition to the ideal teacher Hao Nan, "Days of Chasing Light" also shows the warm redemption of "giving" and "love" in the group portraits of students, parents, and teachers. Whether it is Ren Zhen who aspires to become a doctor because of his mother's illness, the mother who works hard to support the family for Ren Zhen, or Hao Nan who devotes herself to work for the sake of the children, they all inspire a kind of simple touch and beauty. Hao Nan's mentor, Mr. Xu, did not give up Hao Nan, a "poor student", so that Hao Nan was admitted to the ideal school and became a good teacher. Someone lit a lamp for him, and he also passed on this dedication and love to the later children, lighting the lamp for them.

The group portraits of teachers, students, and families depicted in "Days of Chasing Light" explore many youth issues, but they are not limited to youth. Realistic issues such as life choices, native families, and student psychology have responded positively and rationally to hot topics of social concern, and demonstrated that the significance of education lies in helping young people find their own path and complete the self-salvation and fulfillment of life. growing up. The value of "everyone can become a talent, everyone is brilliant" is highly inspiring in today's society.

For this drama, many experts participated in the consultant guidance, and also gave a lot of help and encouragement to the drama to a large extent. "The teacher-student relationship, classmate relationship, and parent-child relationship shown in the film are reflected in the details of life, reflecting the various aspects of life. It highlights the importance of education, and the mission and dedication of teachers to build morality and cultivate people." These are from experts Li Zheng was also encouraged by the evaluation, "I hope it is a good and touching story. To borrow Aamir Khan's words, I don't want to go to the world, I just want to be closer to my heart." He hopes "The Days of Chasing the Light" not only inspires teenagers, but also stirs the hearts of every adult. Together with the ideal "Hao Nan", they have the courage to get out of their inner difficulties, strengthen their goals and work hard for it.