▲A still from one of the popular short dramas on ReelShort, "Never Divorce the Secret Billionaire Heiress". Picture/Social media platform video screenshot
When Long Aotian becomes Sebastian, when Leng Bingning becomes Selena, a number of Chinese hegemonic short dramas are becoming popular in the United States.
According to "China News Weekly", the video app ReelShort, which publishes these short dramas, once ranked first on the US iOS entertainment list and second on the overall list. Users need to pay about US$20 to follow a drama. It is higher than Netflix’s standard membership subscription price of US$15.49/month, and Hollywood is “a little anxious” about this.
Judging from the content composition, in addition to the "Overlord", ReelShort also has the types of "Marriage first, love later, sadomasochism, werewolf, counterattack", but the "Overlord" story is the most popular and has become the label of ReelShort. ReelShort has also carried out targeted expansion in content delivery based on the cultural background of different countries and regions. Compared with Netflix's hit rate of only 10%, ReelShort pursues a hit rate of 30%-50%.
Overlord-style skits not only create pleasure, but also bring anxiety. This is no exception in the United States. The anxiety caused by ReelShort is divided into three levels: First, it is the anxiety of the producer. The person in charge said that he is not the "overlord" of the content audience and "even resists cool narratives." The production team also has a lot of hits. Anxiety; secondly, the anxiety of the main creative staff. The short play production model has had a great impact on the concepts of hired American directors and actors. Hollywood actors said, "This is not how movies work, how can you act like a madman?" Some directors Said "I won't cooperate with you anymore"; finally, there is audience anxiety. Reports say that "many people have not actually finished watching it, and more than 50% may leave if they don't like it." After the audience has figured out the routines of the drama, whether There will also be an incentive to continue paying, which is a question mark.
has these three layers of anxiety. The achievements of Overlord-style short plays overseas need to be viewed rationally: First, the content of the short play does not represent the cultural export of Chinese stories. There has been a similar statement before, but it is actually closer to " The ridicule of "Subject Three to Unify the World" is not serious; secondly, after relying on "overlords" and "hot hits" to have a certain market share, if the problem of rich and diverse content cannot be solved, the Bodhidharma on top of the short drama will The sword of Chris could fall at any time. In the development process of
ReelShort, the duration of short plays has been gradually compressed into shorter and shorter lengths, from "3-minute or 9-minute short plays" to "1-minute short plays", which means that in a few tens of seconds, To accommodate a large amount of information including eye-catching plot conflicts and exaggerated and deformed performances, such short plays can only please the audience's momentary emotions. While they are quite addictive, they can also easily stimulate the psychological protection mechanism of the audience. Feeling of boredom.
To put it bluntly, the short play is a game similar to walking a tightrope, with huge profits on the left and a cliff on the right. Life or death depends on the point at which the audience's curiosity and patience will explode and disappear.
It is true that from the perspective of human nature, short dramas that highly cater to the audience's emotions have a strong vitality that makes the audience want to stop. However, while consuming the short dramas, the audience is also "fighting" with the short dramas all the time. For example, for the Regret for the time taken away by the short drama, and the rebellion after being conquered by the short drama.
Once these gray emotions overwhelm the excitement created by the short drama, the short drama will be abandoned as fast as it expands. Therefore, the anxiety of short drama producers is not so much caused by the fear of not producing enough hits as it is caused by the essential "short-lived" characteristics of short dramas. If
short plays want to have a "longevity", they must, like other video content and even other works in the field of literature and art, provide the audience with a wealth of choices, so that the audience can consciously seek to change their interests in the conversion of diverse short play contents. Filling points with emotional voids. In this way, short dramas can truly find a foothold in the lengthy content competition in the future.
writing / Han Haoyue (columnist)
editor / Liu Tianhong
proofread / Liu Jun
