Interface News Reporter | Zhang Youfa
When discussing this year’s drama industry, Shuangju is undoubtedly an unavoidable topic. The effective ranking list of all online drama series released by
Yunhe for the first half of 2024 shows that " Qing Yu Nian Season 2 " and " Mo Yuyunjian " ranked first and second, and "Qing Yu Nian Season 1" ranked first and second. 》ranked 12th. Among them, the revenge drama "Mo Yu Yun Jian" produced by Yu Zheng Company still ranks second in the weekly list of feature films played on the Beacon Professional Edition on the entire network one month after its launch.
Shuangju has a large audience market, but this concept does not have a clear boundary. In a recent interview with Southern People Weekly, Yu Zheng talked about the works that he considers to be good dramas, "So far in China, "Yanxi Palace (Strategy)", "Celebrating More Than Years (Part 1)" and "The Son-in-law" "Mo Yu (Clouds)" can be called a cool drama. "
Compared with the other three cool dramas mentioned, "Mo Yu Yun Jian" is a collection of Shuang Wen adaptations, Yu Zheng productions and long dramas and short plays. The three major elements of drama basically include several important driving factors for the development of dramas in recent years, and also explain the process of the drama industry gradually becoming dramas.
This is a process in which the content industry continues to shift towards the shallow needs of the audience, and the drama market is also swinging accordingly.
The birth of the first year
The popularity of "Story of Yanxi Palace" has led some self-media to call 2018 the first year of Shuangju.
When the filming of this series first started, the outside world did not realize that this would be a groundbreaking and enjoyable drama. Yu Zheng’s caliber in an interview with The Paper in 2017 has nothing to do with this: “Story of Yanxi Palace can be said to be a very serious drama, quite heavy, without a lot of idol stuff.” He also talked about his change of direction, “I think Find a new direction - cultural inheritance, and I will have a sense of responsibility for it. If there is no cultural mission, I will not do it. "
It is worth noting that in 2017, we are still in the drama bubble of "big IP + big traffic".
When filming "Strategy of Yanxi Palace", Yu Zheng's crew was adjacent to the crew of " Sweet Ashes Like Frost ", which was also a popular atypical hit in 2018. The latter's producer Liu Ning was there almost every day at noon. You can see Yu Zheng. At that time, major dramas filmed in Hengdian were chased by the media due to the support of big IPs and popular stars. Liu Ning later confessed to the media: "The pressure is indeed quite high, both of us are under pressure."
At that time, most of the big IPs came from online articles, and online articles were to c, but the drama market was still to b, and the Internet had not changed communication relationship. In 2019, Zhang Chaoyang talked about streaming media and still believed that the long video field was only half of the Internet, and the other half was equivalent to TV stations or content platforms. Television means one-way communication and communicator dominance. The logic of
online articles is completely different. "Angry Banana", the original author of "The Son-in-law" once said, "The most valuable thing about online articles for twenty years is that we understand what readers are thinking." Compared with other online articles,
As cultural products, online articles care more about the needs and feelings of readers, and the sense of satisfaction is the most concentrated and intensive service provided by online articles. "Angry Banana" observed, "In fact, most readers don't care whether the needs being met are shallow or deep." The only connection points that
dramas think of with the public are traffic stars and proven ip, but in essence it still faces away from the audience, which caused a lot of dislocations in the changes in the web text.
The director of " Battles Breaking the Sphere " is Zhang Li, who has been shooting historical dramas for a long time. Obviously, he hopes to meet the deep-seated needs of users. He once mentioned, "We have a lot of shortcomings today. In the final analysis, this lack is a lack of history, not a lack of the material world. In my heart, I hope to find these deficiencies through history, the lack of forgetfulness and the lack of humanity."
Zhang Li said in a dialogue with Film and Television Dushe that he hopes to enhance the cultural and historical flavor in "Martial Universe" and connect some of the imaginations of contemporary young people with the cultural classics of their ancestors. Therefore, he spent a lot of time researching the "political, economic and cultural system" behind "Martial Arts", trying to find a position for it in the historical coordinate system.
Wang Jun, the director of another major drama "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace", once said that the series was originally intended for satellite TV, "It was filmed for TV people to watch." As for the theme, we hope to depict the tragic ending of the harem women from a broader perspective and reveal the sorrow of human nature under the shackles of the system.
By the time it was broadcast in 2018, both "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace", which told TV viewers about the tragedy of the harem, and "Fights Break the Sphere", which tried to find the historical coordinates, encountered huge challenges. word-of-mouth controversy.
The underappreciated "Story of Yanxi Palace" unexpectedly became popular because of its fast-paced narrative. A highly praised Douban film review reflected the mentality of many viewers: "Although the heroine has a golden finger all the way, it is so enjoyable to watch! Life is so difficult. It’s fun to watch the heroine upgrade and fight monsters. The bubble of “big IP + big traffic” of “
” was broken this year. Platforms eager to reduce uncertainty found that in addition to IP and traffic stars, “Coolness” is the magic weapon that can truly reduce content uncertainty. Wang Xiangjun, chief marketing officer of iQiyi, also said at the celebration banquet of "Story of Yanxi Palace", "Every revenge must be avenged, and the revenge must be avenged within two episodes. It was very enjoyable to watch it."
She also said, "This The drama has set a new record in terms of membership income and advertising revenue, and the advertising format sold has also reached a historical high."
Shortly after the success of "Story of Yanxi Palace", former Shanda Literature CEO Hou Xiaoqiang exclusively told Media Broadcasting and Television. Said that the origin of Shuangju's story can be traced back to the "Shuangwen" of online novels. It's just that these Internet article practitioners didn't expect that the pleasure of the male channel's refreshing article, which was lost after adaptation due to the difficulty of adapting it and the inertia of the drama industry, was instead found by market-oriented Yu Zhengxian.
Shuangdrama as a method
In 2019, the male channel Shuangwen finally found a successful adaptation sample "Celebrating More Than Years". Mao Ni, the original author of
, said in a conversation with Shao Yanjun that the "Big Red Book" must have a sense of security. The source of security is the background and golden fingers. These are the two most common ways. "For example, Fan Xian, his father is the emperor, his mother is Ye Qingmei, his adoptive father is the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, and he has the support of the old black dog (Chen Pingping). With Wuzhu as a bodyguard, I can't die even if I want to."
The sense of security undoubtedly supports the feeling of happiness in celebrating more than one year. But in an interview with gq, screenwriter Wang Juan said that the first half of " Celebrating More Than Years " is a classic cool novel, but after watching the whole episode, you will find that it is just the shell of a cool novel, "After letting you enter this pit, a little more Peel it away and see a cruel truth. "
But because it was filmed in separate seasons, the first season became a purely enjoyable drama. Wang Juan believes that this makes the conflicts encountered by the protagonist not strong, and there are no breaking points or climaxes. Under such circumstances, how to make the audience follow the protagonist is the difficulty in the first season. His method is to rely on shaping the characters and leaving a small amount of suspense, and use this to push the audience forward.
Compared with previous dramas that had their headlines changed, "Celebrating More Than Years" retains the original work to a great extent. At the same time, Wang Juan added a lot of laughs, making "Celebrating More Than Years" a phenomenon this year. of episodes.
"The Son-in-law" in 2021 can be seen as a continuation of the success of "Celebrating More Than Years". It is also the so-called "troika" development system of Xinli Media, Tencent Pictures, and China Literature Film and Television, and even the two leading actors played important supporting roles in Qing Yunian. Compared with "Celebrating More Than Years", which has both a sense of refreshment and joy, "The Son-in-law" expands the comedy color, further strengthening the sense of security in the comedy atmosphere.
After the IP bubble burst, the impact of online articles on the drama did not disappear, but became more profound.
The Screenwriting Education Working Committee of the Chinese Film Association and the Chinese Film Screenwriting Research Institute of the Beijing Film Academy released the "2019-2020 Online Literature IP Film and Television Drama Adaptation Potential Assessment Report" in Beijing. It shows that among the 100 most popular film and television dramas, The proportion of IP adaptations of online literature is as high as 42%. Among them, "Celebrating More Than Years" ranked first in the user review satisfaction ranking of film and television dramas adapted from online literature IP in 2018-2019.
This change has led to an increase in the overall sense of fun in the drama series. Except for the occasional hit drama, many popular dramas in recent years have the shadow of a cool drama.Shuangju has become a production method and way of thinking, and has entered the drama industry.
writer Mao Jian calls this change "shuangdrama directism" - "There is an episode in " Menghua Lu " (2022). Zhao Paner misunderstood Gu Qianfan because he overheard a conversation between Gu Qianfan and his superior eunuch. This This kind of contradiction, compared with other ancient novels, will not stop until five or six episodes, but the misunderstanding is solved in one episode of "Menghua Lu", which not only benefits the heroine, but also adds points to the overall drama. Small events are very popular with the audience, which not only takes care of the patience of the audience in the small video era, but also eliminates the redundancy left in the old era. "
is produced in a large creative environment. Fang also intends to go down the path of "satisfaction". In an exclusive interview with The Paper in 2020, screenwriter Li Xiao once said, "To be honest, I have received a lot of explicit hints like this to make you feel happy in some plots."
But as a creator, she is obviously opposed to using "cool" as the first driving force. "Nowadays, everyone loves to label a certain type of people or a certain type of drama. A certain type is called a cool drama. For example, we used to watch "Deadly Woman" is labeled as a cool drama, but in fact, the connotation of that drama is much richer than the word "shuang". "
The long drama can't take off the gorgeous robe
in the online article. After being in harmony with the drama industry, another variable micro-short drama is also quietly brewing.
For the market, micro-short dramas are nothing new. Except for earlier attempts at long videos, in 2019, Kuaishou has launched the "Kuaishou Small Theater" section, combining previous plot numbers and subsequent micro-short dramas. The content is integrated, and a micro-short drama traffic sharing strategy is launched in the second step, which provides a more direct and refreshing video outlet for mid-range web articles.
In 2021, DouKuaidu will be more active in micro-short dramas, but the film and television industry is still in a wait-and-see mode. Ma Shishi, the director of "In the Clouds", had just finished filming the short play "A Piece of Paper" this year. Yu Zheng recommended the project of "In the Clouds" to him and invited him to be the screenwriter of the first draft of the play. .
According to a report from Houlang Research Institute, Ma Shi has never done a long drama, but Yu Zheng gave a more macro explanation for this choice, "Teacher Yu Zheng's view is that the future trend of film and television dramas must be long dramas and short dramas. The audience will definitely be affected by short videos, which will affect their perception of long-form dramas, so he said that the next long-form drama must be directed by a director with a short-form thinking, so he found me. Zheng also mentioned in a recent interview that he saw shadows of his past works in the short plays, "I just watched two of the most popular short plays, and unexpectedly found that its rhythm was similar to my "Palace" and "Lu Zhen" (Legend)" "Yanxi Palace (Strategy)" is similar - fast-paced, with four to five plot reversals in one episode"
Compared with long-form videos, the membership growth has reached a bottleneck. In recent years, short videos have become the new Internet. Infrastructure has also expanded the consumer base of video content. According to the "China Online Audiovisual Development Research Report (2023)", as of December 2022, the number of online audiovisual users has reached 1.04 billion, of which the proportion of users who have watched video content such as micro-short dramas and micro-variety shows within three minutes has reached 50.4% .
The new media environment has disciplined the public’s consumption behavior. Film and television commentary accounts have shaped the public’s consumption habits of content, and their significance lies in using auxiliary means such as commentary to complete the deconstruction and reconstruction of long videos. The commentary account is not only a secondary dissemination or promotion of long videos, but also profoundly changes the narrative and consumption logic of the content.
When the audience has become accustomed to watching the story between "Xiao Shuai" and "Xiao Mei" in a few minutes, they will inevitably require long video producers to provide content in the same mode. The excitement and reversal must come quickly. , instead of lengthy shots and plot foreshadowing.
But the creators of the series still have resistance to the label of a simple drama. On the one hand, the industry hopes to attract audiences with a sense of pleasure, but on the other hand, it always hopes to express something besides pleasure.Self-media entertainment hard candy calls it "the shame of cool dramas". Titles such as "Stars and sea, more than just cool dramas" can be seen everywhere on WeChat platform.
is regarded as the "Story of Yanxi Palace" that opened the first year of Shuangju. In the exclusive interview of that year, the main creator talked more about respecting the restoration of history and how the "nearly 100 million" investment in the service road established the New aesthetics. The focus of the external publicity of "Celebrating More Than Years" is "industrialization" and the "Troika", and the core of the drama is "tragedy".
Of course, Wang Juan also advised the creators not to rush into making "comedy on the surface but tragedy at the core" just because of "Celebrating More Than Years". The creators of
short dramas do not need to think so much. Compared with long dramas that can use IP and celebrities as selling points, short dramas are faced with users whose threshold has been raised by short videos. The only thing they can do is to continue to enjoy them. Accelerate to stand out in this involution market. This process has further changed user habits, making users more demanding on the narrative rhythm of long dramas. When
was talking to Xinbang, Liu Yuyan, the deputy general manager of the short drama production platform Diandian Short Drama, viewed the relationship between creating short dramas, "Long dramas are just wearing a gorgeous dress, and many of the cores are similar. Like "", although the expression form is more advanced and the actors are more textured, the core is still cool and logical. The short drama is actually "The King of the North"
Compared with other drama creators, Yu Zheng has obviously seen this trend of user changes faster, “What’s funny is that there are still many people who look down on short dramas. In fact, this is the trend of the times. Short dramas are exquisite. The fast pace of long-form dramas and the condensation of narratives are urgent.”
Despite the creator’s own resistance, the creation of Shuang dramas is not as easy as outsiders imagine. In the birthplace of Shuangju, the writing routines for online articles are still constantly being updated. For example, the scene of copying poems in "Celebrating More Than Years" has long been considered cliché by readers who have traveled through history. It is necessary to make
cool, but how to achieve it is a problem. Yu Zheng also said, "The protagonist will definitely win, but if you want to be in front of the audience in terms of how he wins, it must be unexpected, feasible and believable. This requires skill."
Of course, the short drama version is a long-term one. Has the drama reached the end of the user's journey? maybe.
A head mcn founder once told Interface Entertainment that short videos have brought about content differentiation, and dramas and movies have become more high-quality, and short videos are conducive to the development of long videos because long videos can focus more on excellence. big production. Whether
will reduce dimensionality and pursue the so-called trend of long-form dramas and short-form dramas, or accept the diversion of content and produce more industrialized and high-quality drama products, both producers and platforms will experience a long swing. This proposition originated from the so-called first year of Shuangju, but it has not been resolved until now. Nowadays, drama series have gradually retreated from the positioning of popular cultural products and are more serving the needs of the audience.
Going forward and thinking deeply, it is what kind of needs the drama needs to meet the audience. The emotional structure of the public is at a critical juncture of being reshaped. Compared with long-term dramas, fragmented Internet content is participating in it quickly and deeply, and is stirring up changes in public sentiment.
Outside the series, there is a steady flow of direct production about superficial desires. The creative logic of "Angry Banana" is that the core is self-oriented, "To explore the shallow feelings needed in online articles, we can first start with desire. It is said to be the reader's desire, but in fact it is our desire. We sometimes He will avoid his own desires, unwilling to think about them, and unwilling to admit them.”
