The 24 Solar Terms
From the spring breeze in Beijing's hutongs to phenology and the farming calendar, a family capturing spring, honoring ancestors and working together links Pure Brightness remembrance with the vitality of spring.
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01 / Background
Pure Brightness is one episode of the 24 Solar Terms series and, like the others, has a bright spring palette and a humanistic tone; the challenge was giving it a character of its own. The spring scenery of the first four episodes could easily look the same, so Pure Brightness changed the kinds of flowers, used an animal's point of view and filmed new farming scenes to set itself apart, while keeping the series' core content of nature, family and modern production and daily life.
Pure Brightness is both a solar term and a festival. The film pulls back from a wind bell on a roof ridge to Beijing's hutongs and flocks of pigeons, then moves through leaf-pounding dyeing, paulownia blossoms, field mice, a rainbow and sowing, before a family climbing stone steps with flowers to honor their ancestors, a mother and son making qingtuan, a father and daughter planting a tree and young people cycling link remembrance with the energy of spring. The final segment uses a water-diversion canal head, farmland and villages to match “life goes on and on,” widening from one family's cultural heritage to a life that people and nature carry forward together.
02 / Creative Highlights
The camera pulls back from a dragon ornament and a wind bell on a roof ridge, bringing gray-tiled courtyard houses, the White Dagoba and blue sky into a wide shot as pigeons sweep through the foreground. The architecture and the density of the flock are modeled on Beijing itself, giving the opening both cultural atmosphere and the liveliness of a spring breeze.
Paulownia blossoms pull back from a close-up to people camping under the trees, a field mouse slips into green grass, and wheat ears and a rainbow give way to a seeder. The farming segment first films seeds dropping into the soil, then pulls back to machines working their way forward; concrete objects and actions make the wide shots more engaging and set this episode apart from the other spring episodes.
A family does leaf-pounding dyeing: the mother hammers the leaves, the father hangs up the dyed cloth and the children watch nearby. This idea takes spring out of the scenery and puts it in people's hands, and the scenes that follow, a mother and son making qingtuan and a father and daughter planting a tree, are also about a family working together.
A family carries flowers up stone steps surrounded by green trees; the ancestor-honoring segment is shown with open surroundings and the figures seen from behind, quiet and natural, with a sense of remembrance. After the cyclists, the film turns to the canal head, farmland and villages, the images widening further with the closing lines, so heritage and vitality expand from one family to the whole country.
03 / Scene Breakdown
The narration announces “Pure Brightness,” and the images begin with a wind bell on a roof ridge, pulling back to Beijing's gray-tiled hutongs, the White Dagoba and a flock of pigeons.
Under a blue sky, a bronze wind bell hangs from an iron dragon ornament on a roof ridge; the camera circles back from it as layer after layer of gray-tiled roofs comes into view.
The view widens to a full shot with the White Dagoba in the distance, as a flock of pigeons flies in from the right and sweeps over the hutongs.
A family in a courtyard pounds leaf dye into cloth, keeping spring on the fabric; then comes the first sign of Pure Brightness, “paulownias begin to bloom,” moving from a close-up of paulownia blossoms to a whole paulownia grove.
The mother uses a wooden mallet to pound the color of fern leaves into white cloth, two children lean on the table watching, and the father hangs the dyed cloth on a line.
Pale purple paulownia flowers hang from a branch; the camera pulls back to tents pitched in the paulownia grove, children running on the grass and adults sitting and chatting.
A field mouse slips into the grass and a rainbow appears above the wheat, matching the second and third signs of Pure Brightness; as the soil warms, sowing begins on the black soil.
A low camera hugs the grass as a field mouse hides deep in the green; the camera rises through ears of wheat and a rainbow appears on the horizon.
In a close-up of a green seeder, seeds drop one by one into freshly turned black soil; the camera pulls back to several red tractors working in a line across the field.
A family climbs stone steps with chrysanthemums to tend the graves; back home, a mother and son make qingtuan together, and a father and daughter plant a sapling under a big tree.
A long flight of stone steps runs between bamboo; a family of four climbs with their backs to the camera, the mother carrying a basket of yellow and white chrysanthemums, and a white memorial stands at the top.
In a small white-walled courtyard, a mother and son arrange qingtuan on a plate one by one; in the next shot, the father crouches under a big tree and plants a sapling with his daughter.
A team of cyclists races down a mountain road, and finally an aerial shot of the head of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project shows clear water flowing through fields and villages, closing on “Presented by the NDRC.”
Riders in yellow and red cycling jerseys ride down a winding mountain road lined with fresh green forest, with the caption “warm spring, bright scenery.”
An aerial shot pushes forward along the blue-green aqueduct, a sluice bridge spanning it, with rapeseed fields and villages on both sides and open water in the distance.
04 / Storyboards & Final Frames
Listed in the order of the finished film: each shot describes what it shows, followed by the final image used in the film.
Shot 1.1
The opening starts with a close-up of a wind bell, its swaying in the breeze expressing the “clear” in Pure Brightness.
Shot 1.2
Pulling back to a wide view of gray-tiled hutongs, looking down on rows of courtyard-house roofs, the White Dagoba in the distance and pigeons flying in from the right: unmistakably Beijing.
Shot 2.1
A family pounds leaves to dye cloth: the ancients gathered fresh greens to “taste spring,” and leaf-pounding dyeing “keeps” spring's colors, giving the family something to do together.
Shot 2.2
The first sign of Pure Brightness: “paulownias begin to bloom.” Paulownia blossoms belong to Pure Brightness alone, so we start with a close-up of the pale purple flowers.
Shot 2.3
Pulling back from the flowers to the whole paulownia grove, with tents pitched under the trees, children playing and adults chatting; first and last frames join the close-up and the wide shot into a single shot.
Shot 3.1
The second sign: “field mice turn into quails.” A low camera hugs the grass as if from an animal's eye level, and the field mouse slips deep inside.
Shot 3.2
The third sign: “rainbows first appear.” The camera moves through ears of wheat as a rainbow appears on the horizon.
Shot 3.3
A green plateau and villages in sunshine under piled white clouds, matching the narration “the soil warms.”
Shot 3.4
First a close-up of the seeder dropping seeds into the black soil, then pulling back to a wide shot of tractors working the field.
Shot 4.1
A family, backs to the camera, carries chrysanthemums up stone steps through the bamboo to a memorial at the top. A wide shot with no faces shown keeps the image quiet and solemn.
Shot 4.2
In a small white-walled courtyard with red lanterns at the door, a mother and son arrange qingtuan on a plate together.
Shot 4.3
Under a big tree, a father and daughter plant a sapling together, with other families planting trees behind them.
Shot 5.1
A team of cyclists races down a mountain road, matching the narration “warm spring, bright scenery.”
Shot 5.2
The ending lands at the starting point of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project: clear water flows north from here, matching “never forgetting our roots, life goes on and on.”
05 / Script Excerpts
06 / Results
We completed a vertical Pure Brightness short of about 44 seconds and a matching poster, with the film using the series' unified logo and caption style.
Case Study
By Pure Brightness, the 24 Solar Terms series had reached its fifth episode.
Late-spring scenery looks much the same north and south: blue sky, green trees, flowers in bloom.
Another round of sunny sweeping aerials, and viewers would have a hard time telling which episode this was.
The Pure Brightness episode had to solve the problem of “looking alike.”
01
Every episode in the series has a fixed backbone: the date, what the solar term means, its seasonal signs, its customs, and a closing line of good wishes. A unified backbone is a good thing, but it can easily make the images look the same too.
Before production, we listed the locations and image types used in the first four episodes, compared them with solar-term shorts made by National Geographic and TV stations, and boiled the similarities down to four causes: too many sunny sweeping aerials, farming shots that were all winter wheat, group shots that were always a family of four, and animals that appeared only in single shots.
The fixes were set to match: more details and low angles; a palette leaning toward emerald green; seasonal signs that belong to Pure Brightness alone; a different kind of farmland; and animals that act rather than just appear.
The hutong opening was reworked with the same thinking. A low-angle shot of the White Dagoba could have been found in another city; switching to a view from above put rows of gray-tiled courtyard houses in front of the viewer, the White Dagoba in the distance and pigeons flying in, unmistakably Beijing.
02
The three signs of Pure Brightness are “paulownias begin to bloom, field mice turn into quails, rainbows first appear.” Paulownia blossoms never take center stage in other spring solar terms, which made them ideal for standing apart from peach and apricot blossoms.
We first gave a close-up to a branch of pale purple paulownia flowers, then pulled back to the whole grove, with tents under the trees and children running, using first and last frames to join the close-up and wide shot into one shot. For the field mouse, we placed the camera low against the grass, as if looking out from the animal's height; the camera then rises through ears of wheat as a rainbow appears on the horizon.
Pale purple paulownia blossoms pull back to reveal the grove and people camping under the trees.
The farming also moved to different land: earlier episodes showed wheat fields turning green, while this one shows sowing on black soil. First a close-up of seeds dropping one by one into the soil, then pulling back to tractors working in a line across the field, matching the narration's “sowing melons and planting beans.”
03
Pure Brightness is the only solar term that is also a festival, and the grave-tending segment called for the most restraint. The first draft was a close-up of flowers being laid before a gravestone: too close, and too direct in its emotion. This segment needed restraint, so we switched to a wide shot: a family, backs to the camera, carries a basket of chrysanthemums up a long flight of stone steps through the bamboo, with a white memorial at the top. No faces are shown, the image is quiet, and the sense of remembrance is still there.
Another change came at the opening. We originally planned a family planting willow sprigs by their door, then switched to leaf-pounding dyeing: leaves are laid on white cloth, hammered with a wooden mallet to release their color, then hung up to dry. Pure Brightness has long been a time for spring outings and gathering fresh greens; the ancients gathered greens to “taste spring,” leaf-pounding dyeing “keeps” spring's colors, and the family gets something to do together.
A family, backs to the camera, walks up stone steps through the bamboo toward a memorial.
04
The final delivery for Pure Brightness was a 44-second, 9:16 vertical short and a matching vertical poster, whose couplet reads “Clear breeze and bright scenery, spring is astir; honoring our forebears, remembrance runs long.”
For the closing “never forgetting our roots, life goes on and on,” we didn't use abstract establishing shots; from options including shelterbelts and sea walls, we chose the starting point of the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project: clear water flows out of the canal head and is carried north through fields and villages. “When you drink water, remember its source” carries the same meaning as the remembrance of Pure Brightness, and it also gives the solar-term film the weight of national development.
For the series, this episode left behind a method: first find where episodes would look alike, then set them apart point by point through seasonal signs, viewpoint, palette and farm work. Every solar term after it can be planned the same way.
An aerial shot pushes forward along the aqueduct, a sluice bridge spanning it, with fields and villages on both sides.
FAQ
Before starting Pure Brightness, we listed the locations and image types of the first four episodes, identified why they looked alike, then fixed each point: more details and low angles, an emerald-green palette, seasonal signs unique to Pure Brightness (paulownia blossoms, field mice and rainbows), and farm work moved from greening wheat fields to sowing on black soil.
This film replaced a close-up of laying flowers before a gravestone with a wide shot: a family, backs to the camera, carries a basket of chrysanthemums up stone steps through the bamboo, with a white memorial at the top. No faces, simple actions and a quiet image make it suitable for an official government account.
The Pure Brightness script was settled and production started in late March; the first cut was ready on March 31, the grave-tending and opening segments were then redone, and the film was finalized in early April and delivered together with the poster, about ten days in all.
This film also came with a vertical poster featuring the solar term's name in calligraphy and the couplet “Clear breeze and bright scenery, spring is astir; honoring our forebears, remembrance runs long,” using the same presenter logo as the video.
Approach
In pre-production we compared the four finished episodes and references from other spring solar terms, sorted out what should stay unified and what should differ, and then turned the script line by line into specific compositions. Pure Brightness is built on green: close-ups of paulownia blossoms lead to group shots under the trees, the field mouse and wheat ears show the seasonal signs, and sowing details lead to wide shots of machinery. Shifts between close and wide shots give this episode its own character while keeping it consistent with the series.
Gathering spring greens becomes a family doing leaf-pounding dyeing, and honoring ancestors is shown as an open scene of climbing stone steps with flowers. The tree-planting shot follows the everyday order of setting down the watering can, pressing the soil firm and then watering; the ending uses the canal head, paddy fields and villages to match the theme of “life goes on and on.”
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