Special feature of 1905 film network "I started shooting League of Legends in September. This is my first time shooting an online drama."At the recent film channel M List and China Film Big Data Festival,Zhang YimouOfficially announced that he will participate in the filming of the online drama League of Legends, which is the first time that the 73-year-old director has challenged the small screen.
It’s nothing new for film directors to switch to online dramas. Wong Kar-wai, Xiaogang Feng, Guan Hu, Luyang, Chen Zhengdao, etc. all made similar attempts, but Zhang Yimou chose to dedicate his first show to the theme of e-sports, which really surprised many people.
He further said that he wanted to make the e-sports "cool, handsome and timid", emphasizing fast pace and high quality. This is his original intention of choosing this theme, and it is also in line with his creative trend of trying to be close to young people in recent years.
On the one hand, it is an explosive online game with an average monthly user of 67 million in the world, and on the other hand, it is a 73-year-old international director with 35 years of director experience. When Mou’s aesthetics meets the theme of e-sports, what kind of spark will it collide with?
Film directors shoot online dramas.
"Descent" or "robbery"?
"In fact, I have never rejected filming, whether it is a TV series or an online drama." Zhang Yimou’s statement is easily reminiscent of his advice to Zhang Ziyi in his early years: "Don’t shoot TV dramas just to make money."
Once upon a time, there was a clear barrier between movies and TV series, and the cross-border of these directors was also called "descent" and "dimensionality reduction".
But now this "contempt chain" is no longer clear. Online drama is no longer synonymous with "shoddy", and the rise of short drama has attracted many traditional film directors to enter. The film director’s online drama is not only a breakthrough in personal style, but also a signal to actively explore the market.
As early as two years ago, Xiaogang Feng filmed the first online drama "Going North", and recently brought the suspense drama "Echo". Last year’s well-received "The Wind Rises in Longxi" is the debut of online drama directed by Lu Yang. Wong Kar-wai’s first drama, Blossoms Shanghai, is also highly anticipated.
The greatest advantage of a film director in shooting a drama series is that he can bring the "film sense" needed for "quality" at the production level. For example, Xiaogang Feng, Luyang, Wong Kar-wai, Guan Hu, etc. will bring the film-level teams that have cooperated all the year round into the production of online dramas, and improve the texture and artistic level of the dramas from the aspects of service, photography, art and sound.
Xiaogang Feng once said that although it’s an online drama, it won’t cut costs in production, and it’s all movie-level. Blossoms Shanghai, directed by Wong Kar-wai, also spent huge sums of money to build a shooting base, which is unambiguous in production.
However, it is worth noting that the film director’s switch to the small screen is not without disadvantages, and the problem of "acclimatization" often appears.
Xiaogang Feng’s "North Road South" and "Echo" both received a mediocre response, with only 4.9 points and 6.0 points; Guan Hu’s "Yellow Leather Grave" also failed; On the other hand, "The Wind Rises in Longxi" directed by Lu Yang has the phenomenon of word-of-mouth and upside-down ratings, and it is accused of being high and low, and the threshold for watching the drama is high.
Accustomed to the big screen shooting techniques and narrative rhythm, how to complete the transformation and connect with the "local spirit" of online drama audiences is also a big challenge for famous directors.
Xu Hongyu, a young director who directed the movie I Like You and the series Crossing the Line of Fire, summed it up like this: "You can’t make a play by the way of a movie. Movies are the art of the big screen. Every detail, expression and actor’s expression will be magnified many times. However, dramas are generally watched on mobile phones and TV, and the tension of the picture is not so great. On the contrary, the performance of the actors is more important for the mobilization of the atmosphere of the whole scene. "
Let’s go back to Zhang Yimou. Although he is 73 years old, he still maintains the vigorous creative vitality of five works in five years. In recent interviews and activities, he also frequently mentioned that he should be close to the needs of young people in his creation, emphasizing fast pace and innovation and change.
This can be seen in his two recent creations "Sniper" and "Man Jiang Hong". "Shooting works that young people like to watch" is also the core driving force for him to choose the theme of e-sports.
E-sports theme creation is not easy.
How to shoot is "cool"?
According to the Report of E-sports Industry in China in 2022, the income of e-sports industry in China reached 144.503 billion yuan in 2022, with an e-sports population of about 488 million, and 108 e-sports events were held throughout the year.
The popularity and popularity of e-sports have driven the popularity of e-sports dramas to rise. Although the number is small as a whole, many explosions have emerged.
In 2016, "Love O2O" was adapted from a novel of the same name, which became the first phenomenal explosion of e-sports.
In the following years, "Dear, Dear" starring Andy and Li Xian, and "You are my glory" starring Dilraba and Yang Yang also caught fire in the summer and became the topic drama series of the year. YiBo and Wang Zixuan starred in "Accompany You to the Top of the World", which was also well received, with a score of 7.5.
The above-mentioned films all focus on the mode of "e-sports+love", which combines the passionate inspiration of e-sports line with the sweet sprinkling of sugar in love line, reaching a wider audience, thus becoming an explosion.
In contrast, "Crossing the Fire Line" starring Lu Han and Leo and "Full-time Master" starring Yang Yang closely revolve around the e-sports itself, and interpret the passion and charm of e-sports through the experience of the protagonist and the team turning over the wind and the wonderful presentation of the game scenes.
Undeniably, the theme of e-sports is not empty, and dramas such as "Beautiful Days and Good Times" and "You Smile Beautiful" have been caught in word-of-mouth disputes, with scores of only 5.7 and 3.2 respectively.
How to shoot the theme of e-sports in order to look good and out of the circle? "Handsome, cool and timid" is the key word extracted by Zhang Yimou. From the gains and losses of the above works, it is not difficult for us to sum up the following points:
The first is to restore faithfully and show the charm of e-sports. At this point, the drama version of "Love O2O" is a counterexample. Although the overall evaluation of the drama series is good, it has been criticized as "five-hair special effects" because of the rough texture of the game lens.
This aspect has been significantly improved in "Full-time Master", using live CG+ motion capture technology to restore 18 professional 56 skills, realistic special effects to make fans hooked, calling "every frame of funds is burning".
"Crossing the Fire Line" innovatively adopts the method of 2.5-dimensional real-life shooting, and builds classic maps such as the transport ship, New Year Square and black town in the game at 1:1, and highly restores the costumes, weapons and equipment of the players and even the way of walking, which makes the game powder feel full of feelings and sincerity.
As an authorized drama series in the glory of the king, You Are My Glory is escorted by a game team all the time, and participates in the creative planning of the visual part of the game together to ensure the professionalism of the game screen and the excitement of the competition.
Second, the theme is clear, and it resonates with blood and dreams. As a kind of sports competition, e-sports also has the characteristics of blood and inspiration, perseverance in adversity, and deep brotherhood among teammates are the charm and ignition point of e-sports theme.
Xu Su, the screenwriter of Crossing the Fire Line, also bluntly said that e-sports is a minority theme. If you want to expand it, you can do sports competitions and make it a "life film".
It is precisely because of the discussion of the growth situation of two generations that the drama closely follows the spiritual core of passionate pursuit of dreams, so that non-e-sports fans can feel the same, which has become the key to the circle.
From this point of view, the theme of e-sports can also be classified as a kind of professional drama. If you want to explode, you must balance the different needs of gamers and ordinary audiences.
The professionalism of the game should be excellent, and you can’t play idol dramas in skin, or violate the common sense and laws of e-sports. On the other hand, it can’t be "self-sprouting", which forms an excessive threshold for non-gamers to watch drama.
Indeed, the professionalism and youthfulness of e-sports themes give netizens reason to worry about Zhang Yimou’s filming League of Legends. But at the same time, this kind of cross-border collision may also spark a different kind in generate.
Zhang Yimou’s 36-year experience as a director and his unique aesthetic style will be combined with the characteristics of e-sports theme to produce fast-paced and high-quality online drama works, which is the common expectation of game fans and fans.