On the evening of May 10, the Shaanxi-themed cultural drama The Protagonist premiered in the prime time slot on CCTV-1, the general channel of China Central Television, and was simultaneously released exclusively on Tencent Video. Notably, faculty and students from the School of Culture and Media at Xi’an Eurasia University participated in the production: Mr. Liu Supei, head of the UAV imaging workshop, led a team to provide aerial cinematography services, while several students joined as extras on set. Through engagement in real production projects, Eurasia faculty and students entered the production site of a national-level cultural production, enabling new media education to truly connect culture, technology, and industry.
Mr. Liu Supei (second from left) with team members
Credits in the ending sequence of the drama listing Liu Supei as aerial cinematography pilot
Liu Supei is a nationally certified senior photographer, a contracted aerial cinematographer for CCTV Documentary Channel, a featured photographer for Planet Research Institute, a signed aerial photographer for DJI SkyPixel, and a Premier creator for 8KRAW. He has extensive experience in aerial cinematography and strong professional expertise. During filming last year, in order to accurately present the cultural and geographical essence of Shaanxi depicted in the original novel and to achieve high-quality cinematic imagery, Liu Supei led his team to travel across various locations in Shaanxi according to narrative requirements. They employed low-altitude aerial filming, spatial storytelling, and humanistic visual creation techniques to meet the visual demands of scene reconstruction and narrative tone enhancement. As drone cameras rose into the sky over the land of Shaanxi, how to open up the scene, how to convey regional atmosphere, and how to serve narrative rhythm all tested not only the operator’s technical skills, but also the creator’s comprehensive understanding and judgment of image, space, and cultural expression.
Aerial footage from The Protagonist
In addition, multiple students from the School of Culture and Media participated in the filming of The Protagonist as extras, experiencing the full filmmaking process both on and off camera and gaining a deeper understanding of the professional system behind a completed production—from concept development and scheduling to on-set execution. On set, students followed the director’s instructions, coordinated with scene arrangements, and adapted to filming rhythms while experiencing the collaboration among costume and makeup, cinematography, lighting, and staging departments. The industrial filmmaking processes discussed in class became vivid and tangible; narrative theories from textbooks came alive through repeated blocking, waiting, shooting, and collaboration. From observers to participants, from classrooms to film sets, they witnessed professional standards and glimpsed the industry they may one day enter.
The drama The Protagonist is adapted from the novel of the same name by Shaanxi writer Chen Yan, which won the 10th Mao Dun Literature Prize and the “Five-One Project” Award, and is regarded as “a soul-stirring chronicle of fate.” The series follows the artistic life of Qin opera performer Yi Qin’e over nearly half a century, weaving together the struggles and fortunes of generations of Qin opera artists. It integrates the artisan belief that “opera is above all else” with a life narrative where the performer is as small as dust, depicting the struggles, perseverance, and breakthroughs of ordinary people amid changing times. With delicate storytelling, it portrays a collective portrait of Qin opera artists and their intertwined relationships of mentorship, camaraderie, and emotional bonds.
The Protagonist tells the story of how a person becomes “The protagonist” in the face of time and fate. The participation of Eurasia faculty and students in the production directly responds to the core question of new media education: how students move from classrooms to real-world contexts, from learners to creators, and from academic training to industry practice. This is also a reflection of the school’s long-term efforts in industry-education integration, project-based learning, and practice-oriented education.
On-set Filming of the TV Series The Protagonist
In recent years, the School of Culture and Media at Eurasia has developed a new media talent cultivation system centered on “Media + Technology + Art,” integrating drone cinematography, intelligent imaging, XR virtual production, short-form video communication, and cultural content creation into courses and project-based practice. The school continues to bring real projects into classrooms, industry environments into teaching, and student works into public communication.
With the official broadcast of The Protagonist, the School of Culture and Media will successively launch a series of special reports titled “Eurasia Culture and Media Participation in The Protagonist Production,” focusing on aerial filming services, on-set extras, faculty and student practice, behind-the-scenes insights, and professional development. These stories will continue to document how teachers and students enter professional production environments and contribute to high-quality cultural works, showcasing the youth power behind a major drama and illustrating how Eurasia’s new media education takes root in real projects and evolves within the living landscape of contemporary media production.
