24 Solar Terms: Grain in Ear

01

“Harvesting, and sowing too,” brought together in a single shot

If harvesting and sowing were each shot as a segment and cut together, they would look like two separate things. Our approach was to show them apart first, then bring them together.

When the narration explains the literal meaning, one line gets a wheat field: three combine harvesters advancing in a staggered line and a farmer arranging sheaves on harvested ground; the next line gets a paddy field: ridges dividing the water into squares, one person walking with seedlings and another bending to plant.

When we reached the line “there is harvesting, and sowing too,” we put both kinds of machine in the same frame: in the foreground a rice transplanter splashes muddy water in the paddy, and across a single ridge a combine harvester raises wheat dust in the wheat field. Green and gold, splashes and dust, all on the same piece of land.

Play clip ▷

Before this shot, we also tried another approach: two farm tricycles passing each other on a country lane, one loaded with wheat grain, the other with seedling trays. The finished film went with the version that puts both machines in one frame.

02

The lotus pond in early June: not yet in bloom, so we showed the bud

The few seconds when the date is announced at the opening had to make people feel that summer has begun. We chose a lotus pond: a dewdrop slides off a lotus leaf, and the camera pulls back to reveal the stems.

In the earliest version, this shot ended on a white waterbird swimming across the pond. But waterbirds can be seen in any season, so they could not say “summer has begun.” We changed the last frame to a lotus, first checking the flowering season: in early June, lotuses in most places have not yet bloomed widely, and some early-flowering varieties in the south are only just budding and starting to open. So the finished film shows a lotus in bud with a young seedpod beside it, rather than a pond in full bloom.

We also sped up the dewdrop’s fall a little, so there is movement on screen within the first two seconds.

Play clip ▷

This bud was later used on the matching poster and banner as well, so the film and the poster share the same image.

03

“Tasting new wheat”: putting food northerners actually eat on the table

For the line “people taste new wheat and eat new grain,” the first version showed a family around a table eating whole-wheat bread and pastries. Bread and pastries don’t read as new wheat, and they aren’t a traditional way of eating it either.

We checked our sources: around Grain in Ear, people in northern China taste the new wheat as dumplings, noodles, steamed buns and egg pancakes. So we kept the courtyard, the wooden table and the family of four, and replaced the bread on the table with a steamer of buns, a plate of noodles and a dish of egg pancakes; the little girl now holds an egg pancake too.

Play clip ▷

04

The people in the nursery should look like they work there every day

We turned the closing lines, “one harvest, one planting, working with the season, busy yet orderly,” into one continuous thread: an unloading auger pours wheat into a truck bed, marking the end of this season’s harvest; the next shot moves into a greenhouse, where seedlings grow under mist on vertical racks, showing the next season has already begun.

In the nursery shot, the agricultural technician had to look like someone who works in the greenhouse every day. We left the setting alone and only changed the person: the clothes became ordinary work wear, the skin got realistic texture and blemishes, instead of a smooth, filtered “influencer face.”

Play clip ▷

The final shot looks down from high above on a winding river, golden wheat fields on one side and emerald rice paddies on the other. Harvesting and sowing, shown separately at the start, lie side by side again on the land at the end.

05

What this project achieved

This episode has just one main thread: harvesting and sowing happen at the same time. From the literal explanation and the two machines in one frame to the riverbanks at the end, every part tells this one story.

We based the seasonal and folk details on how things really are: lotuses in early June are still in bud, and northerners taste new wheat as steamed buns, noodles and egg pancakes. The film keeps the series’ bright palette and sweeping aerial shots, so it sits naturally within the full set of solar-term films.

For shorts that explain knowledge and are published on government accounts, every detail on screen has to stand up to an expert’s eye, and this episode was made to that standard.