December 31, 2022 | No. 3102
Maybe many people haven’t noticed that recently Dragon TV’s “80 Minutes Heartbeat” weekly theater has released an interesting drama series “Sisters at Home”.
Viewers who have watched Dragon TV programs before probably still have an impression, isn't this the name of the crew in that variety show? Yes, "Family with Sisters" is the country's first sitcom ip incubation variety show "Starting! "Sitcom" was hatched, and the entries of Yang Chaoyue's group lived up to expectations and successfully produced a sitcom.
To be honest, I was shocked when I saw the news that the show started. From May "Start Broadcasting! "Sitcom" is new, and "Family with Sisters" will be broadcast in December, and it will take only 6 months to fully calculate. I knew that variety shows would spawn related dramas, but I didn't expect Dragon TV to be so efficient that they didn't even finish New Year's Day.
"Family with Sisters" is jointly produced by Shanghai Dongfanglong New Media Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shangshi Film Co., Ltd., and Dragon TV, produced by Beijing Chunguanghao Culture Media Co., Ltd., directed by Zhang Xiaohe and Ota Yun, written by Yang Siyuan, Yang Chaoyue, Liu Yan Starring Fan Ming, Wang Ning, Shang Jiuxi, Zhuang Zexi, Han Mo, and Bugatti, it will be broadcast simultaneously on Dragon TV, BesTV, and BesTV.
As the name suggests, this drama takes a Shanghai family as the main scene, takes the relationship between father, daughter and sisters as the core drama power, and uses the trivial things in life as clues to intersperse the stories of ordinary families. Although "Family with Sisters" has only updated four episodes so far, after watching it in one go, I still breathed a sigh of relief: This taste, yes.
The successful incubation of "Family with Sisters" not only presents the sitcom, the most familiar form of TV comedy to the audience, but also awakens the sitcom complex deep in the national memory, and also marks the practical operation of comedy variety shows to promote long-form TV comedies The feasibility of the program provides an effective boost to promote the diversified development of TV comedy.
Sitcom and "Tomorrow"
A sitcom that audiences have been waiting for for a long time. In the past few years, we often see a question on the Internet, why no one makes sitcoms anymore? Someone gave a very official answer, because talented creators like Liang Zuo disappeared, because sitcoms can't make money, because the era of sitcoms has passed.
It is undeniable that since the Internet entered the film and television industry, sitcoms and other drama types that cannot produce commercial benefits have gradually disappeared from the audience's field of vision. The last sitcom that impressed everyone was "Love Apartment", which was launched ten years ago. Counting up, it is "Wulin Biography".
But "Family with Sisters" went against the wind, dismantling the sitcom with a "old wine in new bottle" gameplay, and on the basis of inheriting the fine traditions of traditional sitcoms, it fits the aesthetic preferences of the current audience.
Dragon Satellite TV launched a comedy variety show "Starting! "Sitcom", presumably not many people have much confidence in it. The brilliance of Dragon TV, Baishi TV and Chunguanghao Media is that they have adopted a form of combination of drama and variety, and the drama is more like a "derivative" of variety shows, successfully achieving one fish to eat more.
This provides a lot of experience for latecomers to learn from. Variety shows derived from
drama series, and variety shows derived from variety shows, are nothing new. Many popular works have met the long-tail needs of fans through after-sales service. As for variety show derivative film and television dramas, there are very few successful ones. What is the reason? Without him, the validity period of feelings is short. Those works in the past can impress the audience, which is essentially the victory of art. Just want to play the sentimental card to harvest fans "leeks", and rational audiences are naturally unwilling to pay for it.
The foresight of Dragon TV, Baishi tv and Chunguanghao Media is that they did not wait for the variety show to become popular before announcing the derivative series, but greeted the industry and the audience one step ahead: through the competitive performance model, select excellent works Filming and broadcasting. "Family with Sisters" is not "Starting! After-sales of "Sitcom", but the result.
Not to mention, "Family with Sisters" is not a simple rerun of the performances in variety shows, but a new creation based on the relationship between characters. The story is more ironic, more lively, and more down-to-earth. Which graduates do not have trouble finding a job? Who doesn't have hard-to-recite scriptures? All of a sudden it was on top of me. Another surprise in
"Family Has Sisters" is that "Start Broadcasting!" in the sitcomThe opponent group was also filmed in the play. At the beginning of the chapter, Yang Xiaomian, the hr of Lang's chicken rack, appeared. Who is Yang Xiaomian? A character in the crew of "This Family in Shenyang". The background of the story revolves around Lang's Chicken Rack Shop.
This belongs to the "feelings" part. Although "Family with Sisters" does not rely on feelings to make a living, but seeing the crews I support appear in the play, the audience must also smile knowingly.
The re-innovation of domestic short dramas
In terms of categories, "Family with Sisters" is a sitcom. In terms of length, it is another short play.
Recently, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a notice on "Opinions on Promoting the Prosperity and Development of Short Drama Creation". The notice pointed out that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the people have raised new expectations for the film and television industry. The increasingly active creation of short dramas can enrich people's spiritual and cultural life and meet diverse viewing needs. "Short dramas are urgently needed by the people. They conform to the development law of high-quality spiritual and cultural products. They have become a new trend and should be vigorously advocated and promoted."
To a certain extent, the emergence of "Sisters in the Family" is in line with the SARFT's The notifications coincided. But it must be noted that "Family with Sisters" is not a "responsive poem", but a preemptive response to the demands of the times and the people. Since
broke out in an all-round way in 2021, short plays have quickly become a dark horse in the film and television industry. Walking into any film and television city, the most starting projects are often short dramas. The influx of producers, the long and short video platforms that release incentives, and the audience feedback that the number of broadcasts are increasing, all show that there is a market for short plays.
But the short play also faces many problems. Along with the "Opinions", there is also the "Notice of the General Office of the State Administration of Radio and Television on Further Strengthening the Management of Online Micro-short Dramas and Implementing Creation Improvement Plans". The "Notice" pointed out that today's "small program" online micro-short dramas are developing rapidly, gaining momentum, irregularities, and many problems, forming a crowding out effect on mainstream works of "bad money drives out good money", and it must be severely rectified.
For the industry, creators and short drama categories, "Sisters in a Family" has profound significance. On the one hand, it satisfies the public's innovative demands for short plays. Article 4 of the "Opinions" points out that creators should be good at using new technologies and means to stimulate creative inspiration for short plays, and explore new art forms and means of expression.
In the past, when people made short plays, they were mostly limited to sweet pets, ancient puppets, and male-frequency genres. For a long time in the past, short plays showed stereotyped and homogeneous phenomena. Using sitcoms to break the theme of short plays, while broadening the creative track, it also brought the sitcoms back to the ancient charm. Don't forget, an episode of "I Love My Family" is only that long.
In addition, the introduction of sitcoms in the form of short plays is also in line with the aesthetic preferences of current audiences.
Comedy has its own rhythm. If it is said that historical dramas and dramas involving cases require long and lengthy dramas; then sitcoms must realize "although the sparrow is small, it has all internal organs" in a short space. On the other hand, this drama also coincides with the proposal of "enhanced reality-themed short drama creation" proposed by the General Administration. I’m tired of watching the fantasy world of drunkenness, dreaming and death. In the field of short dramas, watch Fang Xiang (played by Yang Chaoyue) find a job, watch Fang Hong (played by Liu Yan) display multiple languages, and watch Fang Ming (played by Fan Ming) chase after his youth. The dream is also very gratifying. Isn't this a typical "small story tells a big truth"?
It's not "only" a comedy
If the audience watches the show carefully, they will find that "Sisters in a Family" is not exactly the same as the traditionally recognized sitcom. From the perspective of the breadth of topics discussed, it has the flavor of a topic drama; from the form of storytelling, the monologues in the ending drama are quite clever; from the analysis of the humanistic value in the drama, it has the shadow of a life drama. The reason why
presents such diversity is inseparable from the good intentions of the creators. The producer of this
drama is "Start Broadcasting!" "Sitcom" is produced by Fang Chunguanghao Media. Xin Weijia, chairman of Chunguanghao Media, said in an interview that sitcoms are an art form that is truly close to the lives of ordinary people. They hope that through their own efforts, the sitcom will return to the public eye.
Objectively speaking, in the national drama market today, the fertile ground for sitcoms is scarce. Five-minute talk shows and ten-minute cross talks have gradually compressed the living space of long-form TV comedies. Compared with short videos, the scenes of an episode of 20 or 30 minutes are hilarious.Drama does not provide an "instant catharsis". Its value is to provide thinking. The first story of
revolves around the youngest daughter of the Fang family. How should a college student find a job after graduation? Do you want to find a place to go to work and then ride a donkey to find a horse, or listen to the family's crush and go to the entrance examination, or prepare to go to school again, embark on the road of postgraduate entrance examination or go abroad? Employment is a major problem in today's society.
"A Family with Sisters" adopts a clever way to solve the problem: a full-time up master. The
direction made a video of his daily life of finding a job and fighting wits with his family and uploaded it to his account. In fact, this is exactly what many young people are doing. Open station b, Douyin, and Kuaishou, and new up owners such as "food" and "homecoming" appear almost every day. The choice of direction just fits the tone of the times.
However, becoming an up master is not that simple. Although the tolerant father has no objection, in the eyes of Fang Hong, who is a successful person, this is pure nonsense. So amidst the chaos, the sisters started a tit-for-tat struggle. If you are grilling meat in front of the coffee shop, I will write a black draft to report you for arson. Fang Ming, the middleman, passed on messages from left to right, plus the "two little ones" who couldn't help but only added to the chaos, it was very lively.
The protagonist of the second episode was replaced by Fang Ming, who filmed the journey of chasing dreams of the elderly. Whose youth has never been surging? Whose story has not been passionate? Although I have been a pedicure shop for half my life, my dream is to travel around the world on a motorcycle. "My name is Jiangbo, and I have never given up on my ideal of becoming a great composer."
Young people's employment choices, middle-aged people's family choices, old people's dream pursuit, women's workplace difficulties, and "Generation Z"'s view on parenting Hot social issues such as love and love are fully presented in the play. Through those warm and funny scenes, "Sisters in the Family" subtly allowed the audience to complete their thinking on serious propositions.
Our audience needs the witty and humorous "Tom and Jerry", and even more the "I Love My Family" which is full of laughter and scolding. Maybe "Family with Sisters" can't impress everyone, but it has left a mark in the history of domestic sitcoms. When
"Starting! Sitcom" was broadcast, the program group put forward a beautiful vision of "creating a new era of sitcom". This did not happen overnight, and the dilemma of sitcoms cannot be solved by a "Family with Sisters". But fortunately, there is hope if you try. It is reported that "Family with Sisters" is just the first of its kind. For other well-crafted IPs in variety shows, Chunguanghao Media will release related dramas one after another in the future.
"A Family with Sisters" is currently being aired on Dragon TV, BesTV, and BesTV, and it will be updated every Friday night at 22:00.
【文/马二】
