|A Po
At the finale of "The Art of Freesia", netizen Miaomiao shouted "Lovelorn". From Miaomiao's point of view, it is getting harder and harder to eat candy in dramas now, and what's worse, there are fewer sweet pet dramas that can be eaten.
According to rough statistics from the Pufferfish film and television archives, the broadcast volume of sweet pet dramas in the first half of 2022 has been reduced by half year-on-year. Coincidentally, iQiyi revealed more than half a month ago that the self-made, customized and copyrighted content on the platform will be withdrawn from the sweet pet track, and the content of this track will be entrusted to the account-sharing drama. This move can be described as the clearest "cost reduction and efficiency increase" in the industry since the end of last year.
Since 2017, " Double World Favorite Concubine " has become a summer hit, Tencent Video has joined forces with " Fox's Summer ", " To Our Simple Little Beauty " and several other annual hot idol dramas to launch " The "Sweet Pet Drama" label has always been popular among young audiences and female audiences.
The representative works of popular "sweet pet dramas" over the years
In 2020, "Sweet Pet Drama Professionals" Zhao Lusi with " Rumored Chen Qianqian" "I, Like You" became a top actress after the hit; Shito ", " you are my city stronghold ", " fell in love with the special forces ", " you are my glory " occupy the top 10 of the annual list of effective playback data of Yunhe data. Now that the summer program "Canglan Jue" has exploded, the audience's demand for sweet pet dramas does not seem to have diminished, but it has encountered a "cut off" between video platforms and sweet pet dramas.
The five-year bonus theme is about to "end" when the industry is cold? Pufferfish Film and Television Archives (ID: htysda) talked with some industry people to understand the innovation and pain of the industry from their perceptions and responses. Why was
" Sweet Pet Drama" cut? It seems inevitable that
can't compete with short dramas, and can't break through long stories
sweet pet dramas are "cut" out of key content areas by the platform. Even if
does not "reduce costs and increase efficiency", under the heavy blow of short videos, many film and television companies and film and television people have already had a hunch about this in advance. There are two main reasons for , which are the limited stories and resources.
First, most of the sweet pet drama stories themselves have major flaws. Although they could meet the audience's needs for quick "sweet sugar" before, users can now obtain such needs from other channels.
"We usually call sweet pets a joke drama. It is more about selling jokes. It may not require the screenwriter's profound skills to weave such a touching story, and some of them can't even be called a story." Yi Qi Tian Chuan, the founder of entertainment, bluntly said that if everyone just wants to watch jokes, they can quickly get them to users from short videos and short dramas, saving time and money.
In general, long dramas have high-frequency "sweet sugar", and only three or five high-sweet bridges are made in an episode of 30-40 minutes, but short videos can directly cut three or five high-sweet clips into one or two minutes. You can also use two or three minutes to shoot a few high-sweet scenes in a short play.
Two years ago, Yiqi Entertainment's account-sharing drama "Love you during the contract period of " achieved a score of over 60 million accounts. Some of the high-sugar clips and famous scenes were cut and moved to the short video platform, and a single video traffic exceeded 100 million , Tian Chuan sighed that if these traffic were converted to the episode itself, the results of the account sharing would inevitably increase by another level.
In this state, the advantage of long videos and short videos grabbing users' time is not necessarily the use of "duanzi" or "playing memes". If you want to use this logic to make sweet pet dramas, naturally no one will pay for it again.
This year, from , Sohu, to iQiyi, they have made it clear that they will cooperate with short video platforms. In fact, it can be seen that the content of long video platforms must be "so"Things" logic, then the self-upgrade of the long drama in the script is essential.
Second, the appearance of sweet pet drama is based on the era of high-quality online drama in 2017, and it can still impress a large audience at a small cost, High cost performance to obtain super value income, but the real "small but beautiful" boutique rate is already very low.
Founded in 2016, Langang Pictures has been committed to the creation of young and female-oriented online content, and is also In 2018, " came to your world " was born with a score of 6.8 on Douban, which is considered a high score in the field of sweet pet dramas.
Langang Pictures CEO Yan Yusong said, "In 2017, when the sweet pet drama started, the platform Crowd size and demand are simulated based on user preferences, click-through rates, and audience analysis. We can also find that 2017-2020, when put forward a lot of demand for sweet pet projects on the platform, also happened to be the time period for platforms to snatch users, and a large number of sweet pet drama reserves were more conducive to snatch users, so the platform’s standards for sweet pets at that time were It will be relaxed, will have a high pass rate, which will eventually lead to uneven quality. ”
And when the capital ebb in 2018, Langang Pictures found that the confidence of peripheral capital in the film and television industry began to weaken, but many practitioners in the film and television industry were pushed to a high point by the previous capital, resulting in the inability of existing capital. Matching appropriate resources, so that although a project has paid a high cost, the actual ability of the actors and production team is degraded, and the final product becomes a non-low-cost drama that seems to be "low-cost", which also leads to sweetness. Pet dramas are gradually "pulling the hips".
It is understood that the cost of "small and beautiful" self-made and customized dramas in the early stage of sweet pet dramas can be compressed within 50 million, and many can be controlled within 30 million, which is almost the same as the current account-sharing dramas. The price is no different. Then from 2018 to 2020, when the platform has a large demand for sweet pet dramas, the cost of a platform B-level sweet pet drama will reach about 80 million, and the A-level will inevitably exceed 100 million yuan. Costume dramas of the same level cost more than urban dramas. If it is higher than 10 or 20 million, it is obviously far away from the "small and beautiful" in the public perception. During the period when the
platform spends money to stock up, it can still be tolerated because the production cycle of sweet pet dramas is short and it is easy to "recharge" quickly. "The price is high and the quality is low". Once the platform enters the stage of stopping loss and improving quality, and encounters the impact of short videos, the sweet pet drama will inevitably become a tasteless track with no advantages. It is the platform's expression that it will no longer pay for inferior sweet pet dramas.
If the film and television company has confidence in its own sweet pet project, the split account model can allow the film and television company to take care of its own profits and losses, and no longer hold the "platform support". It is a fluke mentality, so there is pressure on the quality of the content. On the other hand, film and television companies make their own sweet pet dramas, and only the online platform is the first choice, so they can still stock up on the projects on the platform. Are user rights and interests damaged?
"Account-sharing dramas and short dramas cannot carry the demands of the audience of real traditional long dramas, and the same is true for sweet pet themes. "A well-known screenwriter told the Pufferfish Film and Television Archives that although the audience of sweet pet dramas like to eat candy, most people in still have demands for "coherent plot" and "audio-visual perception", which may not be obtained from ordinary "duanzi dramas". Satisfaction.
The film and television market produces sweet favorite dramas every year. Taking this year's "Canglan Jue" as an example, the production of head sweet pet dramas, whether it is the story or the special effects of clothing, is maintained at a high level. On top of that, this is often impossible for low-cost account-sharing dramas.
This year's story and production are known as the ceiling of the account-sharing drama "Twinkling Star", and its cost has reached 65 million, which is comparable to some B-level platforms on the platform. It is a customized drama, but the overall quality is still no better than the sweet pet drama of the head.
As for the vertical screen micro-short drama, the picture does not have any details except the main character's head, and it lacks the continuity of long dramas.Consistent narrative.
For the audience who really need high-quality sweet pet dramas, how can they get real satisfaction when the platform and the sweet pet drama are "separated"?
It is understood that the female group aged 18-21 & 25~35 needs the most to satisfy their fantasy of love through sweet pet dramas; in addition, after short videos occupy the sinking market, the audience of sweet pet dramas is larger than two years ago. Gather to first- and second-tier cities and elite groups. Such groups are more interested in the content and audiovisual quality of long episodes, and they also need higher-quality sweet pet dramas.
In terms of quantity, the total number of long episodes broadcast by the platform each year has decreased. In this year and next two years, after the platform has finished broadcasting the past inventory items, the number of new listings in 2024 will drop even more significantly, and even drop to half of that in 2021.
"Of course, the platform pays more attention to the broadcast of top dramas and high-quality dramas, for better advertising and membership income." Yan Yusong, CEO of Langang Pictures, told Fugu Jun. The total number of
has decreased, and the number of episodes that can be watched by the audience of sweet pet dramas is bound to decrease.
From the perspective of the actors, the platform strives to promote large-screen memberships, and the number of home users and living room audiences has increased. Many such users are still stuck in the TV viewing habit of "selecting dramas based on the national popularity of actors". The actors who can be invited in the account-sharing drama have limited national popularity, and usually they use talent show idols with a highly sticky core fan base to guarantee traffic, and the platform may also lose users due to this.
iQIYI has experimented with the feasibility of "Sweet Pet +" series through the online theater mode in the past two years. The works that can reach the target in terms of both popularity and word-of-mouth performance include " Moonlight Variation " and " Becomes Yours" On that day, , , , and , and "Canglan Jue" were all based on top actors or top IPs, and all links reached the real platform A level or above before they were recognized.
These real platform A-level and above works, the production cost must exceed 100 million yuan, and the finished product effect is "exquisite" that cannot be achieved by the account-sharing drama below 30 million and the mini-drama below 5 million.
So many sweet pet drama users now need high-quality dramas above A-level.
sweet pet drama "lost power", practitioners "forced" to upgrade themselves
After the number of sweet pet dramas plummeted, what should practitioners do?
Starting from 2021, platform A-level and above idol drama works no longer "self-proclaimed" sweet pet dramas, even if the emotion is pure sweet and not cruel, it will only promote "romance dramas", in order to compete with low-cost sweet pet dramas" Cut the seat", this is the way the film party responds.
"If you want to make non-account-sharing romance dramas or idol dramas, you can't have sweet pets in the main tab, otherwise the project will arouse natural prejudice, thinking that you are a small cost, or you just want to give sugar if you have no actual content." Planning Slowly tell the Pufferfish film and television archives like this.
This is the external status of 's "sweet pet drama", which is a label that will attract negative prejudice; the internal status quo is that from the perspective of directors, screenwriters or planners, the category of "sweet pet dramas" may It never existed from the beginning.
For Luo Ji, a screenwriter who has worked on sweet pet dramas in the past two years and has recently participated in A-level urban romance dramas produced by head companies, there is no difference in the creative logic of romance dramas and sweet pet dramas. It's just that the audience now prefers a love model with light comedy elements, pure sweetness, less abuse or even no abuse. This style is more reminiscent of the word "sweet pet" in terms of expression. Yu Zhongzhong, director of
who is good at shooting urban romance dramas, told Fugu Jun that from " Dear Princess Sick ", which was filmed before the "sweet pet drama" label appeared, to the once popular " is half honey and half hurt. ", and then to the " Summer of Love " that is currently being broadcast, he will not label his works as "sweet pet". He thinks that the labels of "love" and "idol drama" are moreIn order to be appropriate, that is, by shooting the "Su" feeling of Mary Sue, it will arouse the audience's sense of experience, which is more like an "adult love fairy tale", expressing more beautiful parts of love.
For director Yu Zhongzhong, the word "sweet pet" is more like the stage when the protagonist's emotional relationship reaches a sweet state, rather than the whole of this emotional relationship.
Yan Yusong and Tian Chuan, 's views on "sweet pet drama" are more inclined to this "narrow" definition, that is, a sub-type of "romance drama", The only difference is: Yan Yusong believes that the audience of sweet pet dramas The positioning is more extreme towards younger and female-oriented user portraits; Tian Chuan believes that sweet pet dramas are more like the product of high-frequency patchwork of "sweet" and "pet" bridges.
The viewing habits of Chinese audiences are the works that focus on the change of emotional relationship, so there must be a huge demand for "romance dramas". When the platform negatively "cuts" sweet pet dramas, the audience demand for high-quality sweet pet dramas can only be met by "high-quality romance dramas".
"But this forces people in the industry to upgrade themselves. Even if the cost of making split dramas is not high, the script must be upgraded, otherwise it will not be able to compete with micro-short dramas. The screenwriters of some sweet pet dramas we have used, according to the current The script standard can no longer cooperate." Tian Chuan believes that the platform's abandonment of sweet pet dramas is not a "one size fits all" approach, but a signal for the filmmakers to upgrade themselves:
If you just want to make a superficial film for the audience, "nibble" "Sugar" dramas will become "sweet pet dramas" that the platform wants to cut; but if you give deeper meaning to character growth and emotional stories, you can "upgrade" to "high-quality romance dramas".
Pufferfish Film and Television Archives counted 55 non-accounted sweet pet and romance dramas that have been broadcasted on 55 platforms this year. Among them, 13 of them have not yet been divided, and 19 of the 40 dramas that have been divided are 6 points or above. The success rate is 1/ 3 or so. Among them, the success rate of the works shot last year is higher than that in the past. In addition to the aesthetics that are closer to the present, it is also because the industry has been aware of the quality improvement since last year.
planning slowly and screenwriter Luo Ji agreed from the perspective of script creation, romance + other elements, romance dramas with superimposed themes must be the future trend. There are three advantages of superimposing themes:
First, it can add a richer dimension to the story from the source of the theme, solving the major problem that the protagonists "have nothing to do except love".
A drama needs to try to avoid that the hero and heroine will only bring sensory stimulation to the audience through kisses. In fact, like last year's " Zhou Shengru ", which was praised as having a great atmosphere, even if the protagonist does not kiss, the audience can still be stunned by the two. People are emotionally moved.
Second, the superimposed themes are not just to attract the audience's attention or improve the project meeting rate, but to deeply dig the connotation of the story and the arc of character growth, so that the play has a larger meaning.
For example, most of the head romance dramas to be broadcast filmed in the past two years have added elements of special occupations. The superimposed occupations are not only rarely paid attention to in previous episodes, but also occupations with social and popular science significance.
"Realistic care must be an element that needs to be added to future romance dramas." The planner slowly thinks that maybe your drama does not have to be made into a realistic theme like " Ideal City " or " The World ", but be sure to put more "realism" in it.
For example, you can't work for the sake of love, even "Canglan Jue" will be criticized by some viewers for "love brain" at the end because the male protagonist Dongfang Qingcang is no longer dedicated to his career and thinks about "smoothing the sky"; " Menghualu " also added female inspiration in addition to love; even the account-sharing drama focusing on sweet pets, last year's drama king has changed from a traditional costume drama to an urban drama, and even last year's Top 3 works were all cityDrama, because it increases the sense of reality.
The third is to make content creators survive the fittest and make production participants more focused. In the long-term writing of sweet pet dramas, many screenwriters can't even complete the complete and smooth story framework and plot. The planner slowly said, "This kind of screenwriter can only write short dramas at most, not long episodes."
Yan Yusong, CEO of Langang Pictures, also believes that after the overall project volume is reduced, the era of "making quick money" in the film and television market will gradually pass. In the past, many first- and second-tier directors and actors were unable to concentrate on one play because of a lot of invitations. Now the industry is cold. There used to be three or four plays a year, but now there is only one play a year, so naturally you can focus on this one. in.
However, Yan Yusong also pointed out that now the platform has higher requirements for customized dramas and copyrighted dramas. Except for a few leading film and television companies, most projects must be based on the selection of source IP and the ability of the producer to code the disc. Higher requirements, such as higher-quality IP, more head writers and actors, etc., will be the bargaining chips to stand out from the massive projects (refer to the "Partially Start Modern Romance Drama within 2 Years" table).
Blueport Films used to shoot original series like "Come to Your World", but now it prefers to lock high-quality IP in advance, such as "Falling in Our Love" currently under development, which is adapted from Erdong Rabbit 's novel. The planner of
slowly sighed, "Original projects will definitely be more difficult to do, and it may not be fair to many new writers who have no experience in broadcasting works, but it is a fact that the platform will no longer be a 'take advantage', and the film and television industry still needs to formulate More standardized standards and industrial processes more respected by practitioners. For example, every drama can reach a benchmark on average like Korean dramas, and every drama is "Canglan Jue", in order to achieve greater fairness and direction. A more orderly future." The "loss of power" of
's sweet pet drama is actually the beginning of a new order in the film and television industry...
