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 "At Your Service" broadcast by CCTV on 1979, which popularized some cooking knowledge to the audience in the form of "service"; It was born in CCTV 1999, and it became a smash hit every day. This program takes "diet" as the theme, and introduces some cooking methods to the audience through live cooking in the live broadcast room. Whether it's At Your Service, Diet or a series of programs imitating 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 on 20 12 and directed by Chen Xiaoqing. As early as 10 years ago, the idea of making a documentary with the theme of "eating" haunted Chen Xiaoqing's mind, 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 in 20 12, which set off the upsurge of food documentary since then.
The poster "China 1 on the tip of the tongue" depicts great rivers and mountains with delicious food and 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 so beautiful, delicious and delicious-this is the first level; The second level is that food is not only used for "eating", but also 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, with various foods and tastes. It also shows a panoramic view of food culture, behind which 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 planning, China on the Tip of the Tongue 1 and the second season highlight "China", but "Delicious on the Tip of the Tongue" is the 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 only diet, but also culture and aesthetics. "Although you can't reach it, your heart longs 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.
Younger generations dare not follow, on the one hand, the difficulty of transcendence is too high, 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 shot seven episodes of Flavor House in two years, spanning five continents and visiting more than 20 countries, which cost a lot of money.
Slicing technology of Spanish ham slices 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 main creative team produced the film "Looking for Shunde", focusing on the food excavation in Shunde, Guangdong, and received rave reviews. "Looking for Shunde" failed to make a success, but what really made this vertical food documentary an "extraordinary work" was "A String of Life" produced by Bi Li 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 ingenious. They found a "blue ocean" in the vast "Red Sea", and all six episodes of the first issue were about kebabs. In the first season, the film crew selected more than 30 stores from nearly 500 stores in 32 provinces across the country to shoot, 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 "the first feature film showing Chinese barbecue complex in China" is well deserved.
Some people have cooked local food, and some specific foods have also been cooked. Breakfast China and Snacks Jianghu have found a new breakthrough in three meals a day, with different dietary characteristics in different periods. For example, every episode of Breakfast China introduces the most popular breakfast shop in a place, and it also builds a gourmet map and a gourmet China. "Snack 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 pays attention to the morning of the day.
It is worth mentioning that although vertical and subdivision documentaries are big things with small investment, compared with panoramic food documentaries, they also have homogenization disadvantages, 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 Aauto Quicker 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 balance the relationship between food and stories well. Just like A String of Life 2, like the first season, the lens is particularly simple and direct. It doesn't have so many twists and turns, but it is directed 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 fragrance. 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, this does not mean that it deliberately excludes the stories behind food, but tries to be non-sensational, non-grotesque and non-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, but when they were not careful, they found that they walked with their kidneys and left 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 natural to transition from dinner at barbecue stalls to friendship, confusion and parting at university, which makes people feel sad. "A String of Life 2" is not only delicious, but also the fireworks behind the food and the "oily vitality".
A series of life 2 stills.
The audience will be curious. There are also delicious foods in this "Jianghu", 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; And the copy is deliberately exaggerated, "whitewashing mistakes." In Snacks in 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 ingredients of a snack are, how to cook it and what the final taste is. Sometimes, even a single shot that stays on food will be in a hurry for a few seconds. The program wants to focus on the stories of people who sell or eat supper. Without fur, there would be no touching food, and the food-related stories you told would be too deliberate and full of carving flavor.
The first episode of "Nightingale in the Jianghu" showed the scene of drinking with a basin, and the audience applauded.
For example, the first episode of "Nightingale in Jianghu" tells the story of Shenyang's nightingale. The first short story tells the story of roast beef bone marrow and charcoal roast pig heart in a party program, which lasts for 7 minutes, but the total time of these two foods in the program does not exceed two minutes (roast beef bone marrow does not exceed 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? In addition, although it is understandable that it is not easy for an evening singer, a large part of the program presents night performance culture such as drinking a lot (vomiting after drinking) and setting off firecrackers in the mouth (in a position of praise), which conveys not the "heroic" temperament, but "taking the dross as treasure" as some people say.
Stills of "Night Snack Jianghu".
Another example is "Snacks Jianghu and Life" series 2, which happened to talk about the same mutton cannon barbecue series in Shenyang. Snack Jianghu is about 5 minutes long, while Life series 2 is nearly 9 minutes long. Snack Jianghu focuses on "aphrodisiac" to reflect 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.