After more than 100,000 kilometers, how was the documentary ＂Love in the Yangtze River＂ filmed？
Coming from the snow-capped mountains, heading for the East China Sea — — The Yangtze River, a great long river, has passed through thousands of years of Chinese civilization and nurtured a nation.
"A total of great protection and no great development." This is the general secretary of the supreme leader’s earnest entrustment to the construction of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Great progress has been made in China’s economic and social development, and the coastal areas along the Yangtze River basin have taken on a new look, and people’s concept of ecological construction in the Yangtze River has also changed to a new height.
As a result, it traveled more than 100,000 kilometers, traveled all over the Yangtze River, sang the new chapter, and the large-scale documentary "Love in the Yangtze River" was released.
An innovative work dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.
The six-episode documentary "Love in the Yangtze River" is an innovative work focusing on new ideas and new practices, and it is also a masterpiece of dedication for the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.
"In the past few decades, there have been many environmental crises in the Yangtze River. This film focuses on the ever-changing changes in the Yangtze River under the great protection policy and the story of how Chinese children feed back the mother river, while emphasizing our deeper emotional interaction with the Yangtze River." Liu Liting, general director of Love in the Yangtze River, said.
The documentary "Love in the Yangtze River" tries to show that people along the Yangtze River "share a river" from the characters and details, but it breeds different feelings and stories about people’s attachment to the Yangtze River. At the same time, we not only pay a return visit to the stories and scenes of the classic documentary "story of the yangtze river" and "Let’s Talk about the Yangtze River", but also look for the vivid stories of social changes and green transformation. For example, Tudan Danba, the first college student in the pastoral area, returned to the Sanjiangyuan area at the source of the Yangtze River after graduating from Qinghai University for Nationalities, and began to protect the environment and wildlife. For more than ten years, he undertook the work of animal and plant protection, data recording and environmental protection propaganda at the source of the Yangtze River, and witnessed the changes visible to the naked eye in the snowy plateau with his lens. On the Jinsha River, Yan Liang, a former drifter, and his more than 6,000 companions put down their crowbars and picked up hoes, and embarked on the road of natural forest protection "fighting for green". At the mouth of the Yangtze River, Gu Yuliang and his colleagues spent 19 years finding a high-quality water source for the people of Shanghai on the beach "Qingcaosha" near Chongming Island.
In order to find theoretical support and academic background for these changes and stories along the Yangtze River, the creative team visited nearly 100 experts and scholars in hydrology, water conservancy, geography, climate, animals and plants, history, economy and humanities, including more than a dozen academicians from China Academy of Sciences and China Academy of Engineering. Among them are Academician Lu Dadao, the economic geographer who first put forward the development strategy of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, Academician Zheng Shouren, the chief engineer of the Three Gorges Project, known as the "son of the Three Gorges", Zhong Zhiyu, the chief engineer of the Yangtze River Water Conservancy Commission of the Ministry of Water Resources, Fan Hengshan, former secretary-general of the National Development and Reform Commission, Mark Levin, the Nobel Prize winner and former director of the Department of Environment and Energy of the National Laboratory of the United States, and Wang Shiguang, the composer of the documentary story of the yangtze river and former vice chairman of the China Musicians Association. Many of them are white-haired old men, who have given authoritative guidance to documentaries with their rich knowledge and experience.
Panoramic stereoscopic recording of the Yangtze River
In the early spring of 2019, eight film crews set off from Shanghai, traced back to the source of the 6380-kilometer Yangtze River, and traveled all over the provinces and cities along the Yangtze River for more than 100,000 kilometers, hoping to record the Yangtze River in a panoramic and three-dimensional way.
In the early summer, the members of the first episode of Love on the Yangtze River put their winter jackets and trousers in their suitcases. They were going to explore the Sanjiangyuan area, the source of the Yangtze River. After arriving at their destination, altitude sickness made everyone "fall down", which made the crew unexpected. Director Dong Jiexin and chief photographer Zhu Qian have entered the plateau for the fourth time. I didn’t expect to feel dizzy and unwell on the first day. Time is tight, and the task is heavy. Everyone takes anti-hyperreflexia drugs, grits their teeth when they have a headache, slows down when they have difficulty breathing, and faces strong ultraviolet rays. In the Tuotuo River Basin where the air is thin, the members of the film crew shake the dust on their shoulders and pick up the camera to start shooting one after another.
Panzhihua is the hottest in May and June every year. When the director Dong Lingli led a team to shoot here in the second episode, the temperature was above 40 degrees Celsius, and the surface temperature was close to 80 degrees Celsius. Even the equipment had to be cooled down to run, and many people in the film crew got sunburned. From Dujiangyan to Hanyuan to Yibin and then to Dujiangyan and Chongqing, the longest journey took 13 hours from Yibin to Panzhihua, but the fatigue of the boat did not affect the creative enthusiasm of the film crew at all.
Such stories happen every day in the film crew. The sultry environment in the factory, sweat soaked clothes countless times; Facing the mud on the Yangtze River beach, the film crew trudged hard, but every step was steady and solid. In the third episode, the film crew Chen Lin led a team to shoot in Hubei for more than 20 days, and everyone struggled to the last minute.
The film crew led by Liu Wei, the director of the fourth episode, went deep into Xiaoxiang to record those respectable and lovely people by Dongting Lake — — Volunteers from the Ecological Protection Association. Most of the filming was carried out on a small boat, with a long time, big waves and changeable weather. At that time, it was in the high incidence period of schistosomiasis in Dongting Lake. As soon as everyone put on rain boots and a life jacket, they went deep into the middle of the lake with the boat to shoot. "Eight hundred Li Dongting is my home", and the film crew used every shot, every sound and every interview to record the most beautiful guardians by the lake.
Zhang Bajin, a native of Tongling, Anhui Province, grew up by the Yangtze River, and now she is a conscientious finless porpoise breeder. In the morning, director Zhang Yanfen led a team to feed the finless porpoises with Master Zhang. As soon as his bamboo pole struck, the finless porpoises came to their friend Master Zhang. Late at night, in a canoe, Master Zhang came to feed and take care of his friends in the river. The film crew is in a canoe, and it is necessary to keep the balance of the boat in order to shoot a good story. Facing the shooting characters, everyone seems to have found that meditation and initial heart.
Directors Wang Xiangtao and Shi Jianian led the team to Chongming Island again and again. "Qingcaosha" is the largest Jiangxin reservoir in China, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River. Gu Yuliang, a designer of Qingcaosha, said, "I have a pair of children, one is my son, and the other is Qingcaosha." Such a simple and moving sentence expresses his deep affection and attachment to his work.
Present an ordinary and great story on the clear water
"Love on the Yangtze River" is all shot in 4K, which strives to present the most beautiful "Love on the Yangtze River" visually, and accumulates and preserves real and precious image materials for contemporary China. In the early planning, the program group designed a special shooting mode according to the preset structure of the documentary. The shooting was divided into three parts: story, interview and empty mirror, and the best shooting scheme was worked out respectively.
Every member of the film crew of "Love in the Yangtze River" has full creative enthusiasm and professional professionalism, and maintains the initial heart of a documentary filmmaker. "Record the stories of contemporary people with a lens, fully show their style, record society and life, and record their style and reality." They marched along the Yangtze River and recorded every ordinary and great story on the clear water of this bay.
Yi Li, director of the Documentary Center of Shanghai Radio and Television Station, said that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television and Shanghai TV Station attached great importance to the creation of this documentary, and held several coordination meetings to guide the deployment. Based on the documentary center of Shanghai Radio and Television Station as the main creative force, satellite TV stations in 12 provinces and cities gave great support in shooting and resource scheduling.
It is reported that after the national premiere of "Love in the Yangtze River" on Oriental TV and Shanghai Documentary Channel, the film will also land on more than 30 provincial TV stations and local TV stations in Hunan, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui. (Reporter Meng Yudi)