The scores of the two departments are obviously different.
Food Documentary 1.0 Stage: Panoramic Presentation
For a long time before, the audience's impression of food programs was probably "Serving You" broadcast by CCTV 1979, which popularized some cooking knowledge to the audience in the form of "service"; Or "Everyday Diet", which was born in CCTV 1999, has been a smash hit ever since. This program takes "diet" as the theme and introduces some cooking methods to the audience through live cooking in the studio. Whether it is "Serving You", "Daily Diet" or a series of imitations of daily diet, they are all food variety shows, not documentaries.
What really made the food documentary top of the list was China on the Tip of the Tongue, which was broadcast by CCTV 20 12 and directed by Chen Xiaoqing. The idea of making a documentary with the theme of "eating" haunted Chen Xiaoqing's mind as early as 10 years ago, but it was not realized due to the conditions and technology at that time. Until 20 1 1, CCTV-9, the documentary channel of CCTV, was established, and the project "China on the tip of the tongue" was approved and made a stunning appearance on 20 12, which set off the upsurge of food documentary afterwards.
The poster "China 1 on the tip of the tongue" depicts great rivers and mountains with delicious food, with elegant design.
Generally speaking, one of the shooting ideas of 1 and 2 seasons "China on the tip of the tongue" is: the food is beautiful, delicious, delicious-this is the first level; The second level is that food is not only for "eating", but also has people, stories and culture behind it.
China on the Tip of the Tongue not only pays attention to eating, but also makes a fuss about the people and things behind eating. It presents a panoramic view of food, all kinds of food and all kinds of tastes. It also presents a panoramic view of food culture, and what stands behind it is China's tradition, culture and human feelings-through the window of food, we can see China people, the relationship between people and food, and the relationship between people and society.
China on the Tip of the Tongue gives a panoramic view of the food and the culture behind it.
Chen Xiaoqing himself is a veteran food lover. He knows and likes to eat food. Under his overall grasp, China 1 and 2 seasons on the tip of the tongue highlight "China", but "delicious food on the tip of the tongue" is the foundation and foundation. Documentary is full of all kinds of popular science about food, and the presentation of food has become the main body of documentary. Although some people say that the food in Chen Xiaoqing is too high-end for most ordinary people to eat; But in fact, food is not just diet, but also culture and aesthetics. "Although you can't reach it, your heart yearns for it."
Food Documentary 2.0 Stage: Vertical and Subdivision
Chen Xiaoqing pushed the panoramic food documentary to the peak, and it is difficult for successors to reach such a height. Until 20 18, Chen Xiaoqing, who left CCTV, released Flavor House again, which continued the model of China 1 on the tip of the tongue and still won excellent reputation.
Successors dare not follow, on the one hand, it is too difficult to surpass, on the other hand, the difficulty coefficient of panoramic shooting is too large-it takes time, effort and money. For example, Chen Xiaoqing's team filmed 7 episodes of Flavor House, spanning 5 continents and visiting more than 20 countries, which cost a lot of money.
Slicing technology of Spanish ham balls in flavor room.
Therefore, verticalization and subdivision have become a direction of the development of food documentaries: dividing regions, dividing foods and dividing genres, which can not only save shooting costs, but also achieve differentiated competition.
20 16 "China on the Tip of the Tongue 2" The creative team produced a film "Exploring Shunde", focusing on the excavation of Shunde cuisine in Guangdong, which received rave reviews. "Looking for Shunde" failed to form a circle, and what really made the vertical food documentary "excellent research" was "A String of Life" produced by Bi Li Bi Li 20 18 and directed by Chen Yingjie and others.
The poster of A String of Life has a vertical angle, focusing on a string of children.
The 1 and 2 seasons of A String of Life are quite clever. They found a "blue ocean" in the vast "Red Sea", and all six episodes of a special topic were about mutton kebabs. In the first season, the film crew screened out more than 30 stores from nearly 500 stores in 32 provinces for shooting, which was rich in materials and combed all aspects of barbecue for us in detail: besides roasting, what other methods are there? What are the ingredients? What are the special barbecues all over the country? The title of "China's first feature film showing Chinese barbecue complex" is worthy of the name.
Some people have cooked regional dishes, while others have cooked specific dishes. For breakfast, China and snacks Jianghu found a new breakthrough point of three meals a day, with different dietary characteristics at different times. For example, each episode of "Breakfast China" introduces the most popular breakfast shop in a place, and it also builds a food map and a food China. Snacks Jianghu takes snacks from Shenyang, Xi, Wuhan, Chongqing, Hangzhou, Nanning, Xiamen and Guangzhou as the media to outline the characters of different cities and the life scenes of night markets.
Breakfast China focuses on the morning of the day.
It is worth mentioning that although vertical and segmented documentaries are small investments to do big things, compared with panoramic food documentaries, they also have the disadvantage of homogenization, shooting food stalls, small restaurants and roadside stalls. It is fashionable and life-oriented, but it lacks aesthetic feeling and cultural sense.
Without food, you will lose your "soul"
Whether it is a panoramic food presentation or a segmented food presentation, the word-of-mouth of different food documentaries varies greatly. Like China 1 on the tip of the tongue, the douban score is 9.4, and the douban score in the third season is only 3.8; The douban score of A String of Life 2 is 9. 1, but the score of Breakfast China is 7.9 and the score of Jianghu is only 5.2. What is the root of word-of-mouth disparity?
One of the fundamental reasons for the success of China on the Tip of the Tongue (1 2) and Life Series (1 2) is that they have well balanced the relationship between food and stories. Like A String of Life 2 and the first season, the lens is particularly simple and direct. It doesn't have so many twists and turns, but it is directly aimed at food. Pieces of meat are strung together, roasted with a charcoal fire, smoky, steaming and bright in color. Even in front of the screen, you can feel the fragrant aroma. The biggest affirmation of food is undoubtedly the word "delicious" spoken with different accents. A good food documentary should also make the audience feel "delicious" and send out a barrage of "thank you for your hospitality". Life series 2 did it again.
Since the first season, it has become the audience's practice to brush "thank you for your hospitality" at the end of each episode of the life series.
Of course, food is never just the food itself, and there are many people behind it. Although Life Series 2 focuses on depicting food, it doesn't mean deliberately rejecting the story behind food, but trying not to be sensational, grotesque and overwhelming. Director Chen Yingjie once said that he wanted to pay attention to street food, life and grassroots heroes. Many viewers just accepted the temptation of taste buds at first, and accidentally found themselves walking with their kidneys and leaving their hearts.
For example, the first episode "How many do you have" finally talked about the Yueyashan barbecue in Emei Campus of Southwest Jiaotong University. Diners are mainly college students, so it is sad that they naturally transition from the dinner at the barbecue stall to the friendship, confusion and parting of the university. "A String of Life 2" is not only good-looking food, but also the fireworks and "oily vitality" behind the food.
A series of stills of life II.
The audience will wonder, this "snack Jianghu" also has delicious food, and there are many different ways in the world. Why is the word-of-mouth difference so big? The crux of the problem lies in the improper proportion of food and humanities in Jianghu snacks, and the relationship is reversed; The copy is deliberately exaggerated, "whitewashing mistakes." In Snacks Jianghu, snacks are more like an introduction, but they are just fun. It seems that the creative team has no intention to tell the audience what the materials needed for a snack are, how to make them and what the final taste is. Sometimes even a single shot that stays on food is in a hurry for a few seconds. What the program wants to focus on is the story of people who sell or eat supper. Without fur, there will be no touching food, and the food-related stories you tell will be too deliberate and full of carving flavor.
In the first episode of Snacks in the Jianghu, there was a scene of drinking in the basin, and the audience applauded.
For example, the first episode of Snack on the Rivers and Lakes tells the story of Shenyang's snack. The first short story is about roast beef bone marrow and charcoal roast pig heart in a party program, which lasts for seven minutes, but the total time of the two foods in the program is no more than two minutes (roast beef bone marrow is no more than 30 seconds), and the rest of the time is the heartfelt wishes of the party singers. The question is, what is the connection between the two? Moreover, although it is understandable that it is not easy for an evening singer, a large section of the program presents night culture such as drinking a lot (vomiting after drinking) and setting off firecrackers in the mouth (in a gesture of praise), which conveys not the "heroic" temperament, but "taking dross as treasure" as some people say.
Stills of Snack Jianghu.
Another example is Snack Jianghu and Life Series 2, which just happens to be the same series of mutton gun barbecue in Shenyang. Snack Jianghu lasts for about 5 minutes, and Life Series 2 lasts for nearly 9 minutes. Snack Jianghu is dominated by "aphrodisiac" edge ball, reflecting the market atmosphere (closer to "tacky"). Life Series 2 is not just about food.
Life series 2 (1) and snacks Jianghu (2) have different interpretations of the human touch of the same store.
In a word, the presentation effect of food documentary and food will determine success or failure. The effect of food is ideal, and the story is a plus item, otherwise everything seems erratic.
□ Li Yu (drama critic)
Wu Longzhen, editor of Beijing News, proofreads Liu Jun.