Bright Era of China Entertainment

Chapter 824 Award Ceremony (I)

The host of the Magnolia Awards is Chen Rong, who graduated from the Shanghai Theatre Academy with a master's degree in hosting. She is one of the ace hosts of Shenghai TV Station. Her elegant and dignified image has made her the exclusive host of the Magnolia Awards. She has hosted the Magnolia Awards for several consecutive years.

The host is very good, but his fame is far less than that of He Jiong and Wang Han from Mango TV.

In other words, if we compare the fame of hosts from major TV stations across the country, none of them can compare to Mango TV, including CCTV.

Just because Mango TV was lucky, in the late 1990s, taking advantage of the opportunity of exporting the drama "My Fair Princess" to South Korea, it became the first mainland TV station to cooperate with KBS, the largest TV station in South Korea.

Through the cooperation, Mango TV learned about the South Korean entertainment market and understood what precision marketing is, which is reflected in the TV program in one sentence: "The guests come and go, but the host remains."

Having understood this, Mango TV changed its publicity strategy. Whenever it promotes a program or a guest, it would include topics such as "He Jiong's high emotional intelligence helps a certain big star out of trouble" and "Jie Na's hilarious dance with a certain big star".

Over time, the audience has had a central point when looking at Mango TV programs, and this central point is hosts like He Jiong.

Programs on other TV stations are mainly focused on promoting program content, and the host and other things are not important.

This has created a situation that continues to this day. When watching programs on other TV stations, viewers only see whether there are guests of interest in this episode. If so, they will watch it; if not, they will not watch it.

Watching Mango TV programs is a different situation. As long as the program is hosted by He Jiong, Wang Han, and Jie Na, no matter what the content is, there will be a large number of viewers who come to contribute to the ratings, and the guests become secondary.

In this case, how can Mango TV not become the number one local TV station in the country?

This can only be said that Mango TV was the first to master advanced things and make full use of them, seizing the initiative ahead of its peers across the country.

If not, it would not have the status it has today.

In other words, this is a perfect interpretation of the saying "knowledge changes destiny".

However, a host's fame does not mean that he or she has excellent hosting ability. For example, although Jie Na has become famous, her hosting skills still need to be honed. She cannot be compared with He Jiong and Wang Han, and is far inferior to Chen Rong.

"Before the ceremony begins, let us watch a video to appreciate the hardships and glory of our motherland over the past 60 years." Chen Rong finished her opening remarks gracefully. After announcing the first process, she turned around gracefully and looked at the big screen on the stage with the audience.

Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei also looked up, and as the picture was played, the whole place gradually quieted down.

This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of our country, and Magnolia thoughtfully produced a video as the opening of the ceremony.

The artists present here represent half of the domestic entertainment industry. Even though they are shining stars, they should also be proud of their country.

Without a prosperous country, where would these so-called shining stars come from?
When the teacher said, "The country has been established!", the older generation of artists were overwhelmed and their eyes became red for no reason.

Looking at the battle of the rebel army on the 38th parallel again, they were frozen into ice sculptures but remained motionless as mountains, they did not flinch even when faced with airplanes and artillery, they blocked the bunkers without fear of death, and a letter home said they had no regrets in their life. The black and white scenes in this video, as well as the true feelings expressed by the veterans in later interviews, deeply touched everyone in the audience, and many of them had tears in their eyes.

Chu Xuan clenched his fists, trying his best to suppress his emotions, until he saw the success of the two bombs and one satellite, and the carnival and shouts of the people on the streets of Tiananmen Square in the documentary. Only then did he let out his pent-up breath and applauded with the whole audience.

Then there was the era of national infrastructure construction, the WTO, the Olympic Games... the rough market trends of film and television development were also mixed in. Today, the film and television market is also booming, as shown by reliable data.

This shows more clearly that even if we have a civilization heritage of five thousand years, if the country is not strong, how can it shine?
Only when a country is strong can its culture be strong. The master-slave relationship between the two is an irrefutable strong logic. This is the truth that people in the cultural industry and the film and television industry should remember.

Only when the idea is right, the way of thinking will be right.

If the idea is right, then people, companies and industries can truly and correctly develop and achieve success.

This year's Magnolia Awards' opening was undoubtedly very successful and inspiring.

In ancient times, there was a saying that "actors bring ruin to the country" to criticize artists. That was because at the end of the dynasty, the country was about to be destroyed, and a group of powerful officials and corrupt officials wanted to shirk responsibility during internal fighting and family division. They ridiculously imposed the heinous crime of the destruction of the country on those artists in the way of "you can always find a pretext to accuse someone of a crime". It was illogical, ridiculous, and lamentable.

Since ancient times, if there were no artists, how could the Tang and Song poems, the Book of Songs, the rhythmic opera, the ancient Jiangnan rhyme and the Henan drum be passed down to this day? How could people today dig into history by tracing back to the past and inspire many unique ideas to shine in various industries today?
The essence of the existence of artists is just to spread culture. However, due to irreversible changes in human culture in ancient and modern times, there will always be different groups of people who ridicule, insult, abuse and misunderstand them at every time.

This is a natural manifestation of humanity. Of course, there are also deviations in the thinking of profit-seekers who have forgotten their original intentions and do not understand the essence of artists, which has led to the current complex circles with mixed fish and dragons and different market perceptions.

But who is a real artist and who is a profit-seeker in disguise has been difficult to distinguish since ancient times. It can only be said that different people have different opinions.

This is not only true for the artists, but also for the audience.

In front of this video, it seems that all the artists in the audience have become passionate, as if their original intentions and dreams when they first entered the industry have been awakened. However, how long this passion can last will remain to be seen.

No matter what, with such an opening, the structure and purpose of this year's Magnolia Awards are absolutely at their best, and can be said to have beaten all other awards.

"Wow——" After the ten-minute video was played, Chu Xuan, Liu Yifei and the whole audience burst into long applause again.

Chen Rong also wiped away the tears from her eyes that were moved by the video and walked to the center of the stage.

After this process is completed, the award ceremony officially begins.

Compared with the Golden Eagle, Feitian and other television awards, the Magnolia Awards do not have many awards, including the "News Award", "Media Award", "Popularity Award" and other miscellaneous awards that are not directly related to film and television.

If we count them carefully, there are thirty-four awards such as the Golden Eagle, Feitian, and Micro Entertainment Night, but only sixteen Magnolia Awards. Each one is strongly related to film and television dramas. There are not too many awards to achieve the so-called equal treatment. Such a face-saving project has no practical significance. This is also a manifestation of the authority of the Magnolia Awards.

"The winner of the 15th Magnolia Award for Best Art is... "The Legend of Zhen Huan", congratulations." The award presenter was Yao Chen, nicknamed Big Mouth Yao by people in the circle. She unveiled the first award presented by the Magnolia Awards. After the list of winners was announced, it was greeted with applause.

Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei smiled, and looked at Zheng Xiaolong along with many people present. As the director of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", he went on stage to accept the group award on behalf of the team. His group members Chen Jianbing, Sun Li, Cai Shaofen, Jiang Xin and others congratulated him one after another.

The art award refers to costumes, makeup and props, and the core depends on these three elements. TV series such as "Legend of Red Flame", "The North Wind Blows" and "Big Life" were also shortlisted, but when compared with costume dramas, no matter how well other types of dramas are filmed, they cannot compare with them. This is a consensus in the industry.

The costumes and props of "The Legend of Red Flame" are not inferior to those of "The Legend of Zhen Huan". Chu Xuan thinks that the reason why "The Legend of Zhen Huan" wins is mainly because "The Legend of Red Flame" is a fictional history, and there is no reference for whether the costumes and props are good or not. It looks glorious on the surface but has no cultural background to support it.

"The Legend of Zhen Huan" is a palace drama set in the Yongzheng period of the Qing Dynasty. There are historical records to provide reference for the quality of costumes and props. If "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has a high degree of restoration, then the costumes and props art supported by this cultural heritage will be better than "The Legend of Red Flame" which has no historical background.

Such an art award may not have much value in the eyes of the audience in front of the TV, but it has a great impact on people in the industry and even at the producer and director level.

This award represents the Brilliant Times Century Culture Company. Its crew team has made great achievements in costumes and props, making the drama "The Legend of Zhen Huan" not only popular with the audience with its high ratings, but also won the Magnolia Award for its professional ability, which means that it has both market value and award-winning.

Then, some producers or directors in the industry may look to Century Culture to do more business in this area in the future. This is not only a recognition of the artistic attainments of the crew of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", but also an affirmation of the professional ability of Brilliant Times in this regard. There will always be gains.

"The winner of the 15th Magnolia Award for Best Photography is... "Red Flame", congratulations." The award presenter was Zhao Wei, who awarded the second award.

Chu Xuan and Liu Yifei clapped their hands, turned their heads to look at Kong Sheng, who was sitting a few seats away, and congratulated him through eye contact.

The photography award considers camera movement, lighting, and the adaptability of the image presentation of characters and scenes. These three elements are the core considerations.

When playing the three roles of Princess Nihuang played by Liu Yifei, Mei Changsu played by Ren Quan, and Prince Jin played by Qiao Zhenyu, Kong Sheng used lens aesthetics and optical matching concepts to interpret the characters, using light without any lines to present the characters' moods and personalities.

Such camera movement and lighting technique amazed many people at the time, and they praised such artistic camera movement and lighting technique.

At last year's Golden Eagle Awards, "Legend of Red Flame" also won this award.

This also shows that the Magnolia and Golden Eagle organizing committees have reached a consensus on this award. The artistry contained in the lens aesthetics and optical blending of "Red Flame" is excellent. Currently, no TV series can match "Red Flame" in this aspect. Therefore, "Red Flame" deserves this award.

This award is an individual award, and it also reflects that Kong Sheng has unique camera concepts and attainments as a director. Perhaps he is not remembered by too many audiences, but as he has won this award consecutively in the Golden Eagle and Magnolia Awards, he is destined to become famous in the director circle and the circle that pays attention to directors, just because he has a unique artistic thinking, which is enough to occupy a place in the circle of television directors.

Chu Xuan felt a little envious and yearning. If he was just an actor, he might not care about this award, but through the drama "My Love from the Star", he has entered the world of directors. If he can also win this award, it means that he, as a director, has something unique and is appreciated and recognized by artists in the circle. This will give him a sense of accomplishment.

But does his "My Love from the Star" have anything unique? He himself doesn't know. As a first-time director, he doesn't have a clear understanding of his directing skills. He can only wait and see whether he can make some achievements next year.

However, the Magnolia Awards do not accept idol dramas, and it seems that the Feitian Awards also do not accept them, which is a bit embarrassing.

At this point, Chu Xuan felt embarrassed, but immediately threw away these distracting thoughts.

"The winner of the 15th Best Drama Story Award is... "Legend of Red Flame", screenwriter Liu Yi, congratulations." The award presenter was a screenwriter from the Shenghai Screenwriters Association, who announced the winner of the third award.

While many people were cheering, there was also some discussion and talk.

"Will the Brilliant Era take on everything again?"

"Probably not. The rest of the drama is not bad."

"This is Magnolia. If it's good, it's good. If it's bad, it's bad. Just look."

"..."

Last year's Golden Eagle Award was clearly a TV drama award, but the company Brilliant Times was the biggest winner.

This is because "Legend of Red Flame", "Empresses in the Palace", "Zhu Xian" and "Chinese Paladin 3" are all dramas from Brilliant Times, and someone has won awards in each drama. It can be said that Brilliant Times has made a lot of money, gained a lot of fame in the circle, and opened up a certain range of brand effect.

Many people present had been to the Golden Eagle Awards last year. Knowing this situation, they saw that the three consecutive Magnolia Awards were all for dramas from the brilliant era, and subconsciously thought of the situation at the Golden Eagle Awards last year.

But in the final analysis, it is "The Legend of Red Flame" itself that has made unique contributions to this award, which allows it to stand out from the many shortlisted candidates.

The Drama and Story Award, as the name suggests, means that both the plot and the story are excellent.

The plot refers to the characters and the story, and the story refers to the entire framework and the central idea and connotation to be expressed. These two elements contain a lot, and generally it takes a lot of time to consider them step by step.

Therefore, neither the Golden Eagle Award nor the Feitian Award has this award because there are too many and complicated things to consider, and if the judgment is not made well, there will be controversy.

The Magnolia Awards established this award for a reason, and the members of the organizing committee are all very professional and well-versed in literary literature.

The reason why "Legend of Red Flame" won this award is mainly reflected in three aspects.

First, the male protagonist Chu Xuan only exists in the memory scenes, and the main line is interspersed with the story of the female protagonist Liu Yifei and the male supporting role Ren Quan to use flashbacks and interpolations to unravel the suspense of the whole story.

Although this method of storytelling is not common on the market, it has existed, and there are two classic works for reference.

One is "The Inspector General of the Song Dynasty" and the other is "Detective Di Renjie".

These two dramas often use flashbacks as a way of expression to unravel the mystery and ultimately solve the case.

Well, since it already exists, the storytelling style of "Red Flame Legend" is not new, and this point should not be used as a criterion for winning the award.

However, this way of expression did exist and was good, but the difference of "Legend of Red Flame" is that the flashbacks and flashbacks are present throughout the whole play, until the finale, when the mystery of Chu Xuan's Lin Shu and the demise of the Red Flame Army solved the biggest doubt of the whole play.

From this point of view, this is something that is not available on the market. Before "Legend of Red Flame", no other drama has used flashbacks and flashbacks from beginning to end, with a coherent plot and a tight rhythm, and it does not interfere with the main line and the plot is not chaotic.

From this perspective, "Legend of Red Flame" is the highlight among all the shortlisted films.

The second place is the reversal of Princess Linglong. While the audience all thought that Princess Linglong had died long ago, Qin Banruo, played by Yang Rong, unveiled Teacher Tao Huimin's true identity as Princess Linglong, which really shocked many people at the time, and the reversal of the plot was also logically self-consistent.

In the past, there have been many TV dramas with twists in character design, but in terms of the degree of stunningness, none is as stunning as Princess Linglong in "The Legend of Red Flame", so it was also regarded as a highlight of the award.

The third and most important place.

In all the historical dramas in previous years, the role of the emperor has always been the highlight and cannot be flattered. It needs to be portrayed in a positive way. Even if bad things are reflected, an effect of not outweighing the good has to be achieved.

This is because Chinese civilization has a history of 5,000 years, and the emperor is the representative figure of the civilization inheritance of each era. When the older generation of artists shoot historical dramas, they interpret the character of the emperor with this concept. No matter whether the emperor is good or bad in historical records, the presentation in the TV series after artistic processing must be good.

This cultural concept has been instilled for decades and is still followed in the portrayal of emperors in historical dramas today.

However, it is wrong to simply applaud without distinguishing the facts.

For example, Emperor Wu of Han, it is true that he was powerful and influential, but it is also true that he was surrounded by suspicion and murder in his later years.

For example, Emperor Qianlong, who was known as a wise ruler or a sage, but why were Qianlong's greatest failures and actions that were enough to get his ancestral graves dug up not shown in the TV series?
Why does the West have Western-centrism?
Why does the West say that Chinese civilization is inferior to theirs?

It was because of Qianlong, in the name of "compiling history", that he secretly burned millions of volumes of the essence of 5,000 years of civilization, among which perhaps the original version of the "Yongle Encyclopedia" was included.

After it was burned, the manuscript was given to Western missionaries in the name of Western civilization.

In other words, Qianlong described Han culture as Western culture, and then let Western missionaries take it back to the West. He then brainwashed the Han people of the Qing Dynasty in the name of the West, saying that Han culture was not theirs but Western.

Such behavior has only one purpose, which is to make the Han people "foolish" and forget their own heritage. Even if they believe in the West, they cannot believe in China. This is to achieve the goal of making the Han people "foolish" and never overthrowing the Qing Dynasty.

Just looking at this and then looking at those TV dramas and movies that portray Qianlong as so awesome, isn't this just a joke?
The root cause of this situation lies in the creative concept that "the emperor is the representative figure of the civilization inheritance of each era, and in order to keep the inheritance from being broken, the emperor must be beautified as much as possible."

The starting point of the older generation of artists is good, but it also has its drawbacks. It will fool the audience and cause overly blind ideas. In short, it is not conducive to society's judgment.

This requires transformation, requires change.

How to change? The Legend of Red Flame allowed the senior members of the organizing committee to discover the point that could trigger change.

The King of Liang in this drama is also an emperor, but he is also the mastermind behind a series of bad things and is eventually overthrown by a group of ministers.

This story structure shows that no matter if it is the emperor or the common people, wrong is wrong and right is right. Wrong is punished and right is rewarded. Isn't this a very correct value? Why should the emperor be described in a positive way? The emperor is also a human being. What's the difference?
The only thing worth discussing is that being overthrown by ministers seems to be the same as rebellion, and there are drawbacks in conveying such an idea.

However, the ending of "Legend of Red Flame" avoids this point very well. After Liu Yifei's Princess Nihuang cleared the name of Chu Xuan's Lin Shu and the Red Flame Army, she left alone without any reputation or integrity.

The emperor is Prince Yu. As a pusher, she only does what she is supposed to do. After doing her job, she never forgets her identity as a soldier. She does not want the honor that she should not bear, and does not take any rewards that she should not take. She returns to the Yunnan Palace alone, telling the audience what it means to be dedicated to the public and the country.

This is the expression of the character of "the highest good is like water" and the idea that those who are successful should benefit the world.

Judging from the ideological significance conveyed by the ending of the story, it has a completely different feeling than those historical dramas that only show the good side of the emperor. It is also in line with the values ​​of the current era and the direction of establishing a correct world view.

At this point, Mr. Zhou Hongqi, Chairman of Shenghai Television Association, praised it highly and said: "This award is it!"

(End of this chapter)