Magnolia Award jurors discuss the creation of realistic TV dramas

At the STVF Magnolia Award Jury President MasterClass on Monday, jury members actor Chen Baoguo, scriptwriter Gao Xuan, and director Kang Honglei, discussed the importance of scripts in an increasing number of realistic dramas and how to better present them.

Chen Baoguo, president of the jury, emphasized the importance of scripts in TV dramas.

"Actors rely on their roles to tell the story, and the roles come from the script," Chen said, "For example, 'The Grand Mansion Gate,' I was lucky to get this script, which I knew at the time would be a rare occurrence in 50 years."

"Nowadays is a time when the audience's aesthetics are changing and becoming more diverse, and our creations should become more diverse as well, as scriptwriters we have to keep evolving ourselves," Gao said.

She encouraged young scriptwriters to focus on society, to pay attention to issues and characters that concern everyone.

"As a scriptwriter, you have to respect the times and the characters of those times, get close to them, and turn yourself into a character among them," Gao said.

She said she had become "less courageous over the years," and that every step of her creative process relies heavily on life experience and interviews, focusing not just on a single character or story, but on the industry.

Director Kang Honglei agreed. "A good script can't just be about men and women, but some other things mixed in besides emotions," Kang said.

Filmmakers are dealing with many people, and how to present them all on their artistic platform is something directors and scriptwriters have to think about.

While scriptwriters and directors are emphasizing the creation of realistic themes, Chen pointed out that actors often have the problem of "not acting from the heart." He emphasized the importance of learning to become skilled in the use of characterization in the process of acting.

"Acting is a study and a science," Chen said.