By buying a movie ticket, you can "watch" Pu Cunxin, Xu Fan and Guo Da, thousands of miles away, perform in real-time on the big screen of the theater, and listen to Xin Boqing chanting classic poems.

Recently, China Film and Television made an appointment to screen the "second scene" of the stage art of the National Grand Theater, and broadcast the original drama "Lin Zexu" starring Pu Cunxin in more than 100 theaters across the country. 10 theaters in Shanghai are on the list. In early April, the original innovative work of the National Theater "Su Di Chunxiao" starring Xin Baiqing opened the "second scene", and the live performance in Chengdu was broadcast live in large-screen theaters in 13 cities including Beijing, Harbin, Suzhou, and Shenzhen. Some people think that this new way of watching performance is cost-effective, while others think that the image cannot be compared with the real person.

The omniscient perspective cannot replace the sense of scene

The drama "Lin Zexu" is written by Guo Qihong and directed by Wang Xiaodi, and starring Pu Cunxin, Xu Fan, Hong Tao, Guo Da, Guan Dongtian and others. In the six years since its performance, it has performed more than 50 performances in 7 rounds and 50 shows, and it is hard to get a ticket. With the help of the "second scene", Huang Wangli, a professor at the Film Academy of Shanghai Theatre Academy, watched "Lin Zexu" at a Paleo Cinema in Shanghai. "I have long heard that the drama is famous and the actors have participated in many familiar film and television works. I have always wanted to watch their stage performances." She often goes to the experimental theater of Shanghai Theatre to watch dramas, and is also curious about the experience of watching live broadcasts in the cinema.

The audience watched the drama in the theater. The bell rang and the curtain opened, and then they entered the world built by the drama. During the live broadcast of the "Second Live", before the drama starts and during the intermission, guided audiences are specially provided for theater audiences, bringing completely different viewing experiences. Huang Wangli was impressed by this, "The audience not only enjoyed the stage performance up close, but also stumbled into the dressing room on the live broadcast, listening to the actors and hosts' conversations, and understanding the behind-the-scenes creation stories."

Whether to watch a drama in the theater, whether to watch a "drama" or a "movie", Huang Wangli firmly believes that it is the latter. "I regard the 'second scene' as watching a drama movie, not a real drama. The camera replaces the eyes under the stage, with scene scheduling, close-ups of the lens and perspective changes, but the omniscient lens cannot replace the sense of the scene of the drama." She noticed that the front and back scenes of the stage setting of "Lin Zexu" have a certain slope. The actors sometimes need to roll down and sometimes have to slowly move up to show a sense of weight. This slope is designed based on the perspective of the audience watching the stage, which also makes the performance more realistic. However, the camera has a higher perspective than the audience, and this slope is not obvious.

In the "Second Scene" of "Su Di Chunxiao", some viewers keenly discovered that "the depth of field is very good. I originally thought it was just a simple center-level recording, but the result would also be cut into the far and near shots or even the side shots. It is very easy to make up for the experience of not focusing on some characters. The flaw is that they can only watch from the director's perspective and cannot be intoxicated by the plays of the small characters."

In a movie-level audio-visual environment, the actors' performance details can be clearly seen, and the audience can enjoy the immersive performance effect of "every seat is a VIP in the theater", which will also destroy the habit of drama to some extent. Huang Wangli said bluntly, "The makeup and body language of the drama are relatively exaggerated, which is different from the sense of life pursued by film and television performances. In the live broadcast of the big screen, the sense of age of the actors becomes more obvious."

Stage plays need to be processed again on the screen

From last year's Yue Opera movie "New Longmen Inn", the dance drama movie "The Never Eliminated Radio Waves" and "Only This Green" to this year's stage documentary movie "Preliminary Evidence", more and more stage works have been brought to the screen in recent years. The stage recording method of multi-camera shooting and accurate editing is also favored by many famous artists, believing that it can restore the stage to the greatest extent.

"Due to the restrictions on the theater, it is not easy to spread the best dramas. The National Theater has opened a new business model to try the "second scene" to achieve "alive together at the same time and enjoy them thousands of miles away." Tian Qinxin, director of the National Theater, introduced the origin of the live broadcast.

The live broadcast of the drama "Lin Zexu" uses a series of advanced technical means such as ultra-high-definition live broadcast, panoramic sound system, and intelligent director to create an immersive experience of "full-time, all-region real live broadcast" for the audience. "Su Di Chunxiao" was performed live by China National Theater and BOE Zhonglian Ultra-Default and China Unicom with "4K-level ultra-Default picture quality + 5G stable signal transmission".

In Huang Wangli's view, the "second scene" is a new form of exploration of watching stage works. "It is unprecedented that it can simultaneously broadcast and screen the National Grand Theater drama in more than 100 theaters across the country. Live broadcast as a new technology can graft any content today, and high-quality stage works can enter thousands of households with the help of live broadcast."

However, Huang Wangli proposed that to truly adapt to the screen, artistic processing is required. She gave an example. The movie version of "Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land" directed by Lai Shengchuan is a successful adaptation. It not only makes corresponding adjustments to the stage performance, but also integrates the stage itself into the film script and participates in the narrative. "Now people are accustomed to watching live broadcasts on TV and mobile phones. The large screen of the theater has a more audio-visual impact. Watching competitions and evening parties in the theater can also make up for the social functions and collective carnival atmosphere that are not available for watching live broadcasts at home, but it can never replace the charm of film art."

What determines the box office is always content

According to the staff of the Wanda Cinema Marketing Department, the average ticket price of the live broadcast of the drama "Lin Zexu" is more than 50 yuan, which is similar to the ticket price of ordinary movies. Among the several Wanda Cinemas participating in the live broadcast of the drama, the two Huanying Cinemas located in the city center have better sales, while the suburban cinemas are relatively average. Compared with movie audiences, drama audiences are relatively niche, and the theaters located in the city center are more conducive to gathering viewers. The attendance rate of Shanghai Huanying Cinema Sun Palace Store is nearly 50%. "Doing live dramas and doing Olympic live broadcasts are similar to doing Olympic live broadcasts. They both bring certain income to theaters during the off-season box office, but the more meaning is to attract new people and let audiences who don't usually watch movies enter the theater."

The release calendar of Lighthouse Professional Edition shows that as many as 13 movies have been scheduled for May Day 2025, 4 more movies than last year's May Day 2, but as of 18:30 on April 24, the pre-sale box office was only 9.917 million yuan, and the popularity of many films before the screening was not ideal. Huang Wangli believes that for cinemas, to solve the problem of insufficient content supply, it is still necessary to truly high-quality works. (Liberation Daily reporter Zhong Han and Zhuge Yi)

[Editor in charge: Tang Wei]