First, the beauty of the fireworks
? Life on a string" is based on barbecue, the intention is to shoot a barbecue sense of life and sense of story. Therefore, the main theme of the movie is the city's barbecue stores everywhere. The film crew did not intentionally take the scene, but pursued a sense of realism in the shooting. Barbecue is usually done at night, so many shots of the documentary are done at night with natural light. There is no intentional color mixing and spectacular long shots, the barbecue store is still bustling in the late night, the neon signs are lit up in the dark alleys, the warm yellow lights of the barbecue store at night, the diners chatting and drinking in the store, and the store owner shouting and selling the skewers... These life-affirming shots are more likely to bring the audience closer and give them the desire to explore further.
Although the tone of the documentary is "urban", the shots of the food are not bad. Life in a Skewer, like other food documentaries, uses a lot of close-ups and high-speed footage. In particular, the process of seasoning, handling of ingredients, and grilling, using high-speed footage with bared sound effects, the tantalizing sensation of grilling and roasting is fully brought out. In the second episode of "Darker Than Night", some ingredients that ordinary people would not normally choose to try, such as silkworm chrysalis, silkworm worms, pig's eyes, etc., are also utilized to increase visual stimulation with close-ups and high-speed lenses, and at the same time, the theme of the second episode of the "darkness" is expressed in the best way possible, which adds a sense of jianghu to the barbecue.
In addition to the beauty of the food, the film also makes extensive use of warm colors, the reddish-brown color of the ingredients, and the warm yellow lighting in the store, all of which add to the documentary's enjoyment, and convey the "warmth" of a late-night barbecue to the audience.
But the use of these shots is not enough to emphasize the jungle atmosphere of the barbecue. The soundtrack of Life on a String reinforces the meaning of what the director is trying to convey. In the section of the documentary that introduces the Guangzhou barbecue, the drum beat is intense and the scene changes rapidly, and the drum beat is used to switch the scene until the "bang" sound, the scallop is spread out on the grill. The change of rhythm makes the documentary extremely beautiful in form. And the soundtrack is the cherry on top. Harbin barbecue is about to appear, the documentary sounded Harbin classic soundtrack, the camera from the overhead, high and low buildings fly past, the soundtrack gradually strengthened, until the camera through the grill in front of the white smoke shot to the clear shopkeeper's face, the music cut off, at this time before the long baked the protagonist of the official debut.
Second, the Jianghu human story sense
The biggest contributor to the unique style of "Life in a String" is the narration and dubbing. In China, the audience can generally get in touch with the voice of the feature-length documentaries are with broadcasting skills, the voice of the voice of a thick and righteous voice. But in order to better fit the theme, director Chen Yingjie took on the role himself.
Chen Yingjie's raspy, smoky voice dubbing has a strong sense of storytelling, like a barbecue store owner who has tasted the sweet and sour of the world, telling the audience the story of the jungle of barbecue. This dubbing attempt, which is different from the mainstream, was initially met with some opposition, but it has set up a distinctive "city flavor" style for "Life on a String", giving people more room for imagination outside of the words and images.
The highlight of the movie is the narration. The narration of Life in a Row abandons the traditional "science fiction" style of narration. It uses the first person more often, with a friendly as if the nagging name address, such as "Ping", "Wang", "lively brother" to bring out each independent barbecue story. This is more like the opening of a story, as if the narrator is right next to you, with a pot of wine, talking about life with you, the one who is listening.
In addition to the use of the first person, the narration also anthropomorphizes the ingredients, giving life. In the grilled silkworm pupa's narration, "If the time is reversed, the pupa back to the childhood, into the green green silkworm it can spend away from the barbecue of the childhood"; in the grilled pig's eyes in the narration, but also to capture the "eyes" of a double entendre, "only to experience it yourself can you enjoy it," he said, "I'm not sure if I've ever seen it. "Only personal experience to appreciate the mystery, like the first close contact with the careful by it electrocuted" "pig's eyes of the fire can not escape the eyes of sister Ping, countless times to see, which belongs to the Queen of the darkness of the toughness."
The narration of "A String of Life" is extremely witty and humorous in addition to being full of fireworks. The narration often seizes on a single feature to develop an association or exaggeration, and expresses it in a trivial colloquial manner to the effect of black humor. For example, in the episode "Darker Than Night", the documentary is about a variety of strange barbecues, and the opening narration states that "there is no better way to eat than the lower three ways, and the excitement needs to be heavy flavors", which sets the tone for the whole episode. The narration of the Brain Blossom Barbecue utilizes associative hyperbole to its fullest extent. "At midnight, in the city with the most restaurants in the world, there are greedy zombies wandering around in search of brain flowers", the narration not only points out that the theme of the next barbecue is brain flowers, but also has a great sense of picture, and at the same time, is witty and humorous, which makes the audience laugh.
In addition to these two points, the creation of the jianghu atmosphere, there are also for the diners of the shooting screen. Life on a String often shoots many close-ups of diners while filming barbecue restaurants. The close-ups of the mouths of those eating barbecue and the faces of those chatting and chatting with each other are also shot. The interviews with the diners not only enrich the audience's understanding of barbecue flavors, but also enrich the characterization of the store owner as the main character. The most important thing about fireworks is that there are people, and where there are people, there is a jungle. Life on a String captures this very well, and uses a lot of footage of diners to create the legend and "groundedness" of each barbecue restaurant.
Each of the stories in Life in a Skewer is a standalone story that the documentary collages together to create a sense of the world, and then ends with a recap of the entire episode. The unfinished or upcoming actions of the protagonists are summarized and edited in a collage, giving the audience a sense that the story will continue, and that the protagonists are just like us, repeating the previous day's life every day, but waiting for surprises. It also expresses the documentary's attitude of paying tribute to ordinary life. "How can we be soft in the face of the hardness of life. Lick your fingers, wipe your lips, bone your bones, and take another taste."
Third, the legend of the heroes of the city
Another major feature of "Life on a String" that makes it different from mainstream food documentaries is that it pays more attention to the story of "people". Without being melodramatic or deliberate, the documentary shows the viewers the smoldering lives of the shopkeepers, but digs into the beauty of the people behind the barbecue with more meaningful meaning.
In Life on a String, each barbecue restaurant owner is a big shot in his own field. Diners get together because they love barbecue, a period of time, but in the enjoyment of delicious at the same time and barbecue store owner made friends. And some barbecue store owners, despite moving through different cities, cell phone number has not changed, diners a contact, know where to look for this unique flavor.
And Harbin barbecue restaurant owner room brother but with her daughter-in-law in the barbecue to spend a lifetime. Smoke and fire flavors of love is also the most long-lasting love. Fang's silent confession to his wife is hidden in the years of barbecue craft.
The barbecue restaurant of Yangzhou Shang Laosan is the most beneficial to the students of Yangzhong. The documentary even jokingly said that "do not know Shang Lao San, not Yangzhong students". For these students, years later, recalling their hometown and youthful days, how can not bypass the business old three barbecue restaurant. This place carries their memories of one of the most beautiful and wonderful times.
In the wandering outside the heart of the traveler, the barbecue aroma is the best explanation of the hometown. About one or two partners, order three or two kebabs, and then ask for a bottle of wine, years of hard work outside in this atmosphere of words and laughter dissolved.
For each shopkeeper, the documentary focuses on shaping the shopkeeper's understanding of barbecue, of time, of flavor, and of the diner, from the selection of ingredients to the treatment of ingredients, and from the reception of customers to the banter. Different people have different situations, changing careers, unemployment, inheritance, but the different stories contain each main character's attitude towards barbecue and life. This atmosphere creates the audience willing to fall into different people's barbecue rivers and lakes, and meet a surprise in the ordinary life.
Life on a String
was first released on B-station, and the 30-minute length of each episode fits well with the habits of users of new media platforms, and with a unique narration and voice-over, it immediately stands out in a kind of "high-brow" documentary. But the most important thing about this documentary is not the form, but the expression of the fireworks of the world contained in it. People's Daily commented: the so-called "to our seven meat and eight vegetarian desire", in fact, is not to encourage everyone to go to eat barbecue, the deeper meaning is to pay tribute to the audience's ordinary life - there is a "longest love confession", as well as the "longest love". There is "the longest confession", "the most vulgar mood", and even "the flavor of time". And that's exactly why we feel so nostalgic after watching "Life in a String". "Without fireworks, life is a lonely journey", we all hope to find a resting place in the busy life, venting the pent-up emotions during the day, and someone **** a good time.