How to tell the legendary life of the "father of hybrid rice"? Screenwriter Song Fangjin said so

How to tell the legendary life of the "father of hybrid rice"? How to shape the character characteristics of Mr. Yuan Longping? How do you polish the thickness of your story? Recently, Song Fangjin was a guest of the People's Network "Literary and Art Star Lecture" to tell the creation story of "Yuan Longping's Dream". "In the play, we strive to show Mr. Yuan's rich personality characteristics." Song Fangjin said, "Behind the seriousness, he has a witty and humorous side; behind the boring scientific research, he has a romantic and amorous side." ”

Talk about the script: show the rich personality characteristics of the characters

People's Daily Online: When writing the script, you went to the National Southern Breeding Scientific Research and Breeding Base to interview Mr. Yuan Longping, what did you gain from that interview?

Song Fangjin: The focus of that interview was not to understand Mr. Yuan's scientific research deeds. Scientific research deeds can be found, the biggest gain is to feel his true colors face to face, help us find the character image.

Sanya's Nanfan base is a 20-square-meter cottage, very simple and old, with a small bedroom and a small living room. As soon as I went in, tears flowed out, and my first impression of him was very simple. Ask him: Mr. Yuan, we are going to make a TV series about you, what are your requirements? He said: I only have one request, that is, to find a handsome actor to play me. He was both a great man and a man of humor.

People's Daily News: In addition to the field interviews, what preparations did you make for writing the script?

Song Fangjin: There is a vast amount of written information about Mr. Yuan Longping, including the writing of his books, interview materials, speeches, collections of papers, and so on. Before going to interview Mr. Yuan and his team, I did a lot of desk research with the director and actors to find valuable and informative materials.

People's Daily News: How to show Yuan Longping's personality characteristics in the script?

Song Fangjin: Previously, a media outlet wanted Mr. Yuan to write a message that read, "The motherland is a seed, and it harvests the fruits of happiness every year." Mr. Yuan read the message and said that there is a word that is not very accurate, this sentence should be "the motherland is a seed, and it bears the fruit of happiness every year." This is the rigor of a scientist, who cares a lot about the accuracy of his words.

In "Meritorious Service", we strive to show Mr. Yuan's rich personality characteristics. Behind the seriousness, he has a witty and humorous side; behind the boring scientific research, he has a romantic and amorous side.

People's Daily News: In the creation, how do you grasp the relationship between the real characters and the fiction of film and television?

Song Fangjin: We didn't make a complete biopic. Because of the limited space, there are only 6 episodes in total, and there is no way to show his entire life, so we are intercepting the highlight moments of his life.

We insist that "big things are not vain, small things are not informal", and we cannot change the facts of life, scientific research, and life facts, but in terms of details, some dramatic treatment can be appropriately carried out.

People's Daily News: In the process of writing the script, did you impress me?

Song Fangjin: The deepest impression is still in the stage of collecting wind. When I really write a script, I am very touched that if the subject matter or character chosen by the screenwriter has a certain artistic height, the writing realm of the screenwriter will also improve. In the process of writing this script, I feel that I went to write Mr. Yuan Longping, and it was Mr. Yuan Longping's life realm that raised my writing realm.

People's Daily Online: There are many pictures of Yuan Lao standing in front of his mother's tomb to tell his scientific research experience, how did you think of using a self-described tone as a clue to unfold the narrative?

Song Fangjin: The earliest structure, I wanted to tell this story through a reporter who constantly interviewed him and kept getting closer. When I read the information, I found that he wrote a letter to his mother on his 80th birthday, and all the facts he told about standing in front of his mother's tomb were unfolded by the letter written by Mr. Yuan.

This letter is written very affectionately, recalling his lifelong scientific research experience and expressing gratitude to his mother. I suddenly felt that in the most important scientific research process of Mr. Yuan's life, his mother's influence on him was crucial. Later, we changed the structure of the reporter's interview into his confession to his mother, and used it in the structure of the whole play.

Talk about creation: work hard to polish the thickness of the story

People's Daily Online: Limited by the volume of the unit drama, the drama mainly tells the story of Yuan Lao's overcoming the key technology of hybrid rice. When writing, how to make this story clearly prioritized?

Song Fangjin: The play shows the key period when he conquered the hybrid rice three-family method, and also integrated into Mr. Yuan's childhood, his mother's teaching and encouragement to him, with a certain thickness of life.

Yuan Longping has a saying, "A seed is a seed, and a person is also a seed", which is a very valuable sentence of his. We grasped the key events in his life, one was the destruction of hybrid rice, the second was that he contributed seeds to scientific researchers across the country, and the third was his relationship with his mother.

People's Daily News: This is your third cooperation with director Yan Jiangang, what new sparks have emerged from this cooperation?

Song Fangjin: I have worked with director Yan Jiangang three times. Yan Jiangang is my brother in Chinese opera, we are all from the theater background, in the communication is almost zero cost, we often have a surprising tacit understanding of a play, a character's understanding. During the task of receiving the creation of "Meritorious Service", he asked me which meritorious person to choose, because we all had the experience of farming, so we chose Mr. Yuan in one shot.

During the preparation, I talked about my understanding and understanding of Mr. Yuan with Yan Dao and Huang Zhizhong, who plays Mr. Yuan. This collaboration gives us a big inspiration, if the actor can experience life or talk about the script in advance, it will be more helpful for creation.

People's Daily News: Is the episode the same as you thought before?

Song Fangjin: Just like I thought. In my past creative experience, the degree of completion of "Yuan Longping's Dream" is the highest in my opinion. Of course, this depends not only on the script, but also on the director's narrative skills and the actors' performance skills, which I feel very satisfied.

People's Daily News: Do you have any favorite plots to share with us?

Song Fangjin: One of my favorite episodes is Huang Zhizhong's self-play on the spot. At that time, his jack-of-the-millennia failed, and when looking for the reason, he found that the rice followed the 3:1 genetic rules, which meant that the experiment did not fail. I described Mr. Yuan as "very excited" in the script, and after filming began, Huang Zhizhong made a violin playing action to show Mr. Yuan's excitement. Because Mr. Yuan's biggest hobby is playing the violin, when he found that a scientific research law came true in reality, he made a virtual violin playing action. I think it proves that the actors really blend in with the story and the characters.

People's Daily News: By writing this story, what kind of thinking do you hope to bring to the audience?

Song Fangjin: I want to show two points in the play: First, a person only focuses on one thing in his life, and this thing is very vast and magnificent. In his lifetime, Yuan Longping did everything in order to better invent hybrid rice.

Second, life goes on and on. When I went to interview Mr. Yuan Longping, he was 90 years old and still in Shimoda, still directing papers, and still attending lectures. When I met Mr. Yuan, he was very thin, but he had so much energy. I think this is what today's young people need to inherit and learn.

epilogue:

"A nation with hope cannot do without heroes, and a country with a future cannot do without pioneers." Identify with heroes, remember history, mainstream values bloom dazzling light; follow heroes, build the future together, truth, goodness and beauty bring the strength of the people to move forward. Classics of the times, tribute to the creation! The "Literary star opening lecture • "Meritorious" series of interviews" broadcast exclusively by Luzhou Laojiao in 1952 will reveal the story behind the "meritorious figures" for everyone.