The first challenge of making a food documentary may be the body of the crew. In the second season of shooting towards midnight, director Han Jingguo specially made a statistics. In the preliminary research, the main creators ate 814 stores in 78 cities in 21 provinces. During the preliminary research of Jianghu restaurant, the crew ate hundreds of restaurants. Fortunately, the efforts of creators are rewarded. What can make the audience stop chopsticks is the food documentary. After watching it, the food documentary will still be bought. In fact, there have always been food documentaries, such as some shop exploration and cooking programs made by TV stations, but China on the tip of the tongue has opened up a new form of food documentaries - "food + human". It suddenly dawned on everyone that eating can get such a high level of shooting and watching. Chinese food has accumulated energy for 5000 years and has not been "consumed". The aftermath of a big explosion ignited by it has been stirring up to now. Young people watch food documentaries, watching the workplace, family, hometown, Jianghu With the development of food documentary, there have been various sub categories: according to time, from breakfast to midnight snack; By region, it covers the north and south of the motherland; According to the type, hot pot, string, noodles, seafood... Different categories place different emotions on the viewer. For example, the late night canteen is about synonymous with a story in life, and the late night snack is also more suitable for storytelling documentaries, such as the late night Jianghu, come to the late night snack, the direction towards the late night snack, the taste of youth night Night snack is not dinner. In an agricultural society where the sun rises and the sun sets, few people eat night snack. Because of this, the story of midnight snack has more modernity. When Han Jingguo went to Panzhihua, he learned that this Sichuan city has been planting mangoes on a large scale since the 1960s and 1970s. Now it is one of the largest mango producing areas in China. Mango picking needs to be carried out at night, so the local has developed a rich night snack culture. Zhou Kui, associate professor of Communication University of China, has "invented" a word - Food populism, which uses food to reflect the real people's life. "As long as food documentaries tell people's stories well, their reputation is usually not bad". Zhou Kui felt that next, he should take a good picture of lunch. Breakfast is about family, supper is about friends, and lunch is closely related to career. "The lunch eaten by express brother, office white-collar workers and university teachers is absolutely different". One day at noon, Zhou Kui crossed the road and saw a little brother delivering takeout eating boxed lunch with isolation pier as the table. "People passing by look at him, and he is also looking at people passing by. The interaction of eyes and expressions reminds people of many stories". The food documentaries by region cover almost the whole map of China. The "flavor origin" series includes Guiyang, Gansu, Yunnan and Chaoshan, as well as the taste of laoguang, the Millennium Shaanxi cuisine and the charm of Xiangdang... Young people who work in a foreign country miss their hometown while thinking about the distance. It happens that these two food documentaries are included. "When I was in college, I wanted to eat some hometown dishes, so I had to go to the Beijing office. Today's young people have convenient Internet and rapid logistics. When they miss their hometown, they can have it at the click of a mouse," Zhou Kui said, "Delicacy hot pot" special snack for novel coronavirus pneumonia, such as hot dry noodles, small steamed buns, meat steamed buns, hot pot, etc., is personified to represent provinces. "Food documentaries open up an emotional connection," Zhou Kui said. When young people watch food documentaries, they may see workplace, family and thoughts... Food connects people with these scenes. There is also a food documentary. It is difficult to define its classification, but once you see it, you can understand it, such as Jianghu restaurant. Jianghu, a special Chinese concept, makes the narration of the documentary a bit like martial arts novels. The street restaurants haunted by strong fireworks and incense stubbornly stick to their own characters and form this reckless Jianghu. "Changsha people will never make do with eating. Those high-profile tempers and decibel burst voices are all related to eating seriously. The essence in this is summarized in one word - don't tease bullies." What is "don't tease bully"? It doesn't matter. You'll know it after watching the film. In Jianghu restaurant, there are also Mo Chui in Nanning, Manfu in Lanzhou, and banyan in Wuhan... You know the words. Only that Jianghu can understand the meaning of being together. The environment makes people want to go in, the hard food makes people want to eat, and the boss makes people want to make friends - these are the selection criteria of Jianghu restaurants. Qu Chu, the producer of Jianghu Restaurant 2, said that this "Jianghu" is not a shadow of swords, but a hero in the fireworks of the market. In those restaurant owners, we can see the "Jianghu temperament", such as paying attention to rules, integrity and generosity, and being forthright and forthright. Eating this matter has the most mass base and can cross national borders The Internet, which has changed mankind and the times, has also had a profound impact on food documentaries. In 2012, when the "tip of the tongue" was hot, the audience watched and bought online; now, video websites have become the main place for young people to watch documentaries; documentary creators have also joined the video platform to provide professional support. Youku currently broadcasts nearly 50 food documentaries, ranging from "having friends" to "private feast of the earth", which are rich and thrifty; in the weekly hit list of Tencent video documentary channel, 6 of the top 10 are food documentaries; iqiyi has "a small barbecue one night" and "the soul of eating in the countryside"; station B has "a string of life" Zhu Lexian, director of documentary studio of Tencent's online video program content production department, once served as the producer of the first and second seasons of China on the tip of the tongue. He said: "Looking back on China's food documentaries as a whole, with the 'tip of the tongue' as the dividing line, food documentaries before 2012 were columnized, mostly 'shop exploration', and then there was a qualitative leap. After 2018, online students' self-made documentaries emerged." Zhang Wei, director of Youku documentary center, once made a large-scale production such as the maritime Silk Road. In his opinion, the reason why food documentaries are most popular with the widest audience is that the theme is grounded. "Eating is the most popular thing, the viewing threshold is low, it is suitable for young and old, and it can cross national borders and cultures". In the first season, Jianghu restaurant was released to the United States, Canada, Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, the Netherlands, Hungary, the Czech Republic and other countries, with good ratings. Zhou Kui believes that gourmet food is a good method of flexible publicity. "Some scholars have made a survey before. What impressed Westerners most after Chinese? The answer is Kungfu and food.". As Zhu Lexian said, human beings have made delicious food, but delicious food has also shaped human beings. "People who eat rice and beef have obvious differences in personality, physique and cultural connotation. People in one place are different from those in the other. Therefore, the ultimate goal of our food documentary is to see people, society and the world through delicious food". The next food documentary Previously, there have been discussions on food documentaries that focus too much on people's stories and ignore food. In this regard, Zhang Wei believes that food is the main body and people are the main line. "In a food documentary, the audience wants to see where the ingredients come from and how the food is made. Food must be the main body, but it is people who ultimately endow the food with charm. The story of employing people connects the food." Han Jingguo and his friends were very strict in their "selection". They went to Qinzhou, Guangxi and decided to focus on the food of pig's feet powder. They ate all the top 10 pig's feet powder on the Internet. Each director group will "equip" Southerners and northerners, both sides must agree before this store can be selected. However, in the end, because the boss did not meet the requirements, Qinzhou pig's feet powder was not made, "these 10 stores ate for nothing". Han Jingguo said: "Expensive or cheap food is not our choice standard. We just want to shoot the food with stories and the boss. Some people say, does your film advertise the restaurant? It is possible, but it is not necessary. Because the restaurants we choose are very famous locally, the premise for the boss to accept our shooting is not to disclose the address, because he doesn't want to receive more guests People are dead. " Qu Chu said that the restaurants selected in Jianghu restaurants must be "within reach" of the audience. "Some food is state banquet level and delicacies. The audience sees it as curiosity; we want to make food documentaries functional. When people go to a city, they can use it as a guide to experience food". However, there are so many food documentaries, especially when Li Lihong's iconic voice rings out, Zhou Kui sometimes can't tell which film he ordered. "I hope to see something more social and more confrontational in the future, reflecting people's living conditions, including difficulties. Eating itself is a highly social activity, and dinner is a Jianghu. The current food documentaries are well filmed, but not enough in the Jianghu." Zhou Kui said. In the summer of 2006, the world cup in Germany was in full swing. Zhou Kui, who was still studying at the National People's Congress, and his classmates went to Sanlitun to watch the ball. At that time, Sanlitun SOHO was still a construction site, but the bar street was already bustling. "I saw a group of migrant workers squatting on the road teeth, holding a large water cup soaked in tea and eating steamed bread with water. The changing neon lights in the bar made the faces of migrant workers red and green." Many years later, Zhou Kui still remembers this scene. The food in the bar may be made into a documentary, and these people outside the bar, Zhou Kui also wants to hear their stories. (Xinhua News Agency)