On February 26, a seminar on the TV series "True Heroes" hosted by the China Television Art Committee was held in Beijing.
"True Heroes" is a political and legal drama based on the story prototypes of eight groups of heroic characters from the five major political and legal units of public security, procuratorate, courts, justice, and national security. It reveals the stories behind major cases in recent years for the first time in the form of unit dramas. Each unit focuses on different political and legal fields, such as "The Prosecutor", "Women's Prison", "Public Security Bureau Chief", etc., which not only presents the explicit theme of case detection, but also deeply explores the implicit theme of good and evil in human nature.
Seminar site
Sun Hao, the producer and representative of the production organization, vice president and chief editor of Shanghai Yaoke Culture Co., Ltd., shared his experience in creating the series. He pointed out that if heroic dramas want to attract audiences, they must innovate in content and form. In terms of content, the plot and suspense should be strong; in terms of form, different units should adopt unique audio-visual styles and narrative methods. Sun Hao emphasized that the creation of heroic dramas cannot only stay in the dense plot presentation, but also explore the flesh-and-blood connection between heroic characters and the people.
Yin Shuo, representative of the co-producer of the drama and head of the Film and Television Center of China Changan Publishing and Media Co., Ltd., pointed out that the characteristics of the unit drama format and the collision of some plots with the values of contemporary audiences provide new possibilities for future creation.
Breaking the traditional way of drama
During the seminar, the main creative representatives reviewed the creative process.
Jin Chen, the director of the unit "The Prosecutor", said that this unit not only presents the explicit theme of pursuing fairness and justice, but also explores the implicit theme of seeking the space between good and evil in human nature. Moreover, the actors make the characters more full and add depth to the series. Jin Chen revealed that the lines about how the prosecutor should face the crime when communicating with his daughter were created by actress Yan Ni, and Fu Dalong completed the exploration of the psychological changes of the criminals through a poem he wrote.
Wu Yao, the screenwriter of the "Women's Prison" unit, said that she set her creative goal to show the "beauty" of women's prisons. Through interviews, she gained an in-depth understanding of the work and life of women's prison police officers and was moved by their human care and warm law enforcement methods. In her creation, she focused on depicting the unevenness of human nature, showing the complex human nature between police officers and prisoners, and finally created a story about how a "rookie" prison guard grows up.
Xie Xiaoxu, the screenwriter of the "Luo Ping'an" unit, said that through the stories of grassroots police officers, it not only pays tribute to political and legal workers, but also conveys a value concept: heroes are not out of reach, and true heroism is to stick to the original intention in trivial matters and never give up in adversity.
Stills from True Heroes
The screenwriters of the unit "Public Security Bureau Chief" Yang Zhe and Li Yang shared the great challenges they faced in their creation. The police chief they wanted to portray was a hero who did not follow the ordinary path and was a police chief who had never solved a case directly. In order to overcome the difficulties, they conducted in-depth interviews, grasped the characteristics and details of the characters, magnified the real characteristics of the characters, and showed the protagonist's spiritual world from different angles by breaking the traditional playwriting method, hoping to present his spirit to the audience in its original form.
Stills from True Heroes
Luo Yizhou, an actor in the "The Last Mission" unit, shared his experience of playing the role of drug enforcement police officer Zhang Yiyang. He said that when he received the role, he was full of awe for heroes and models, and hoped to promote the heroic spirit by gaining a deeper understanding of their deeds. The scene that impressed him the most was the inner dialogue between the character and his father in the cemetery, which made him deeply feel the greatness of the heroes, their perseverance in ordinary posts, and the inheritance of the heroic spirit.
The genre expression of the main theme suspense drama
During the expert discussion, Zhao Tong, director of the Television Art Center of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, said that the drama systematically and integratedly displayed the deeds of heroes and models in multiple fields within the political and legal system in the form of unit dramas. Unlike previous political and legal dramas, it is no longer a single story, but an integration of multiple stories, showing the charm of systematic political and legal dramas.
Stills from True Heroes
Liu Qiong, deputy director of the Literature and Art Department of People's Daily, believes that in terms of character creation, the play focuses on portraying the image of heroes, as well as the characters around and against the heroes. It digs deep into the characters' hearts and focuses on showing the heroes' loyalty and performance of their duties. In addition, the play also analyzes the image of criminals at the level of human nature, explores the causes of crime and the criminals' reflections, making the work more profound and attractive.
Drama critic Li Xingwen conducted an in-depth analysis of the unit drama format of "True Heroes". He pointed out that the unit drama format can open up the horizons to the greatest extent, showing the professionalism and complexity of the political and legal system. Drama conflicts often arise between emotions and law, which can easily arouse the audience's empathy. In addition, he also mentioned the trend of "long dramas becoming short", and believed that creators should adapt to this change and pay attention to structural ingenuity and material selection in the creation of short dramas.
Niu Mengdi, editor-in-chief of the Literature and Art Department of Guangming Daily, believes that True Heroes has opened up a new path for the creation of unit dramas. The drama breaks the framework of traditional suspense dramas and forms a unique expression of the main theme suspense drama genre. At the same time, the drama has pioneered a two-way innovative path of reality plus drama, showing the life scenes and human confusion of heroes, breaking through the single-dimensional description of the original heroic works.
