Exploring the Cultural Context for a City

The online documentary "Illuminating Linchuan" was launched at the end of 2020 and took nearly two and a half years to complete its creation and release. The work is based on the culture of Linchuan in Jiangxi, striving to empower the ancient and traditional regional culture with a new digital form

The online documentary "Illuminating Linchuan" was launched at the end of 2020 and took nearly two and a half years to complete its creation and release. The work is based on the culture of Linchuan in Jiangxi, striving to empower the ancient and traditional regional culture with a new digital form. We hope to explore the cultural context of a city through such a documentary, thereby highlighting the profound connotation of China's excellent traditional culture.

The work has a total length of 80 minutes and is divided into three episodes: "Family and Country", "Feng Gu", and "Xin Yu". It takes representative figures such as Wang Anshi, Tang Xianzu, Lu Jiuyuan, Zeng Gong, and Yan Shu from the "Linchuan Talent" as the bright line, and the representative Linchuan Academy in ancient Linchuan culture as the dark line. The aim is to explore the cultural, social, and contemporary values highlighted by excellent traditional Chinese culture. The title of the film is taken from the famous line "Zhu Hua in the Ye River, shining on the brush of Linchuan" in the Tang Dynasty poet Wang Bo's "Preface to the Tengwang Pavilion". At the same time, "Illuminating Linchuan" also implies that through the natural path of "harmony between heaven and man", the beauty of Fuzhou's humanities, ruins, and ecology from ancient to modern times unfolds slowly like a scroll of paintings.

People like to watch documentaries because this non fictional image carrier has the inherent advantage of high credibility. This is a relatively authentic cultural product that can transmit positive social energy and trigger public reflection. At the beginning of the polishing of documentaries, we insisted on ensuring the authenticity and academic nature of their origins, and the "tracing" work was the top priority in the early stage of creation. During the wind harvesting period, we visited eleven counties and districts in Fuzhou, seeking nearly a hundred local personnel, and organized more than ten academic seminars on the "Linchuan Cultural Spirit", script polishing meetings, and review meetings. The cultural history of Linchuan is long, profound, and profound. It is quite difficult to summarize the cultural and historical context of Linchuan. This requires both the control of writing and a sense of relaxation in the knowledge of literature and history. We invite nationally renowned experts and scholars such as Lou Yulie, Deng Xiaonan, Pu Cunxin, and Zou Jinliang to discuss Linchuan culture together, in order to consolidate the solid academic foundation of our works.

A documentary that wants to gain public attention and popularity not only needs to have a touching true story and gripping suspense plot, but also a novel form of expression. If a documentary wants to tell the story of Fuzhou well and achieve wider dissemination, it must attach importance to storytelling construction, enhance the dramatic tension of the content, and continuously improve the expressive and infectious power of the work. The novel "Illumination of Linchuan" selects legendary characters and stories from Linchuan, some borrowed from the past to the present, and some blend ancient and modern, including Wang Anshi's diligent learning story, Zeng Gong's anti-corruption family style story, Lu Jiuyuan's debate story... There are also ongoing stories of Baishe Kiln, Nuo Dance, and Qingtian Academy. Small stories connect the grand chapter of Linchuan culture from point to surface.

Visual presentation is also the key to a documentary. In the scene restoration special effects section, we not only use ultra high definition 4K shooting, but also fully utilize augmented reality technology. The unique expressive functions of the lens, such as composition, lighting, zoom, and tone, combined with technical reinforcement, make the work full of tension in the narrative pattern. We also pursue innovation in camera language, attempting to stimulate the audience's emotions through concise visual language, thereby triggering deep associations and insights.

To achieve "breaking the circle" dissemination of documentaries, it is necessary to continuously innovate expression and dissemination methods, enhance industrial elements, and pay attention to the exploration of "cultural tourism integration". At the beginning of the planning, we attempted to integrate the natural scenery, cultural landscapes, and social styles contained in Linchuan culture into a specific image, with flesh and blood, warmth, and the public's willingness to perceive. We hope to explore and launch such a regional cultural image, inspiring more young people to have a desire to get close to, explore, and understand Linchuan culture. We have also designed and planned the later stages of the Linchuan Cultural Digital Exhibition National Tour, Linchuan Cultural City Image Design, and other links, thereby leading people to pay attention to the historical and cultural context in a digital environment.

Looking back at the creative process of this work, we attempt to ignite the "light of Linchuan" through visual means, and then open a "window of time" to explore the vitality and vitality contained in the natural, humanistic, and spiritual aspects of Linchuan culture, tell the legendary history spanning several centuries, and also answer the question of why the "light shining on Linchuan's pen" can shine to this day.

(Author: Song Liang, Director in Chief of the Documentary "Light in Linchuan")

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