A year later, sturm und drang competed for the ＂fourth minute＂
One minute to know the plot, two minutes to have ups and downs, and three minutes to perform rebirth and revenge … Around the themes of hegemony, rebirth, crossing, etc., with "straightforwardness" as the core feeling, the short, fast-paced mini-drama is soaring all the way.
According to the "China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report", the micro-short drama market will reach 37.39 billion in 2023, and it is expected to exceed 50 billion in 2024.
Under the heavy traffic, more and more "players" enter this track, and the supervision is also upgraded. After nearly a year of rapid development, what changes have the miniseries brought? Where does its future face? Recently, the reporter explored in Hengdian, a major film and television town, and the pro-film factory of the mini-short play. We saw the appearance of the mini-short play in the "fourth minute".
People in the "vertical shop"
The "boiling" micro-short drama industry has made Hengdian Film and Television City, which can meet the needs of all aspects of the film and television industry chain such as scenes, costumes, equipment and group performances, gather together many micro-short drama crews. Because the mini-play screen is basically a vertical screen, some people even ridiculed: "Hengdian has now become a’ vertical shop’."
At the end of March, when the reporter was in the Huaxia Cultural Park of Hengdian Film and Television City, he met four short drama crews shooting. In May last year, smelling the micro-short drama, Huaxia Cultural Park quickly transformed from a cultural scenic spot, and reconstructed and designed a number of scenes suitable for shooting micro-short dramas.
The micro-short drama crew filmed at the Huaxia Cultural Park in Hengdian Film and Television City. Reporter Shen Tingyu photo
In the park, the reporter met a mini-short drama crew that was shooting. I saw a camera in the corner of the corridor. In front of the camera, the executive director is talking to an actor in costume, "’Who are you? Why are you here?’ Pay attention to your expression and tone when you say this word. Read it after me. "
Here, the actors don’t have time to recite the words. The executive director reads a sentence, and the actors follow it. After repeating it four or five times and mobilizing the actors’ emotions, they immediately start shooting. Under normal circumstances, a "pass".
"The micro-short drama has a fast rhythm. The most important thing in each episode is to bury the hook and attract people to look down." At the shooting scene, Lin Qing, the actress who plays the heroine, told reporters that she started shooting miniseries in November last year, and now she has shot almost 10.
At first, the whole person was stupid, and the vertical screen was completely different from the horizontal screen. There is not so much time to pave the way for mood and state, and the performance is more exaggerated. "My longest record is 27 hours of continuous shooting. Shooting a short play can be finished in 5 days, and it will definitely not take 7 days. " Lin Qing said.
"Since its opening in October last year, it has been able to receive 50 to 60 short drama crews every month. At most, it has received more than a dozen short drama crews a day." Yuan Man, the person in charge of the park, said that the traditional large-scale drama group has high requirements on the details of the scene, and the short drama brings new opportunities to the park because of its low cost, quick shooting and universal setting.
In order to receive more mini-short drama crews, the park is transforming some indoor offices into modern drama scenes such as conference rooms and hospitals. Yuan Man also has a blueprint: to build a "micro-short drama community"-at the same time of shooting, film and television companies, post-production companies, casting companies, etc. will be introduced to win with the short drama industry chain.
Hengdian Film and Television City Huaxia Cultural Park has built-in scenery. Reporter Shen Tingyu photo
The micro-short drama crew filmed a corner. Reporter Lin Yushe
In the recent year, miniseries have given more opportunities to people. Many group performances in Hengdian have transformed themselves into producers or directors of miniseries. The low threshold and low cost have made more and more people flock to this industry. "It is better to be seen first than to play a bad drama."
Wang Yifan is a special actor in Hengdian. Since he began to "drift" in 2021, he has acted in TV series, movies and miniseries. "The number of working days and income is increasing, and I have accumulated a lot of experience." He said that not long ago, he served as the deputy director of a short play, which he didn’t dare to think about before.
Stills of Wang Yifan’s miniseries. Photo courtesy of respondents
The reporter saw that people from all over the country lined up 10 meters away at the time when the Actors’ Guild of Hengdian Film and Television City arranged for the actor’s pass. The person in charge of the guild said: "There are more people coming to drift, which is in line with the current hot short drama market. We even canceled the previous requirement that girls should have long black hair for registration, because many miniseries with modern themes need short-haired actresses. "
Hengdian Film and Television City Actors Association accreditation entrance. Reporter Lin Yushe
Not only the actors but also the local people in Hengdian seized the opportunity. Some of the crews who shoot miniseries can take pictures in the street, so the locals redecorate their houses and rent them to the crew for filming.
"In March last year, we set up a micro-short drama special class group, which is responsible for expanding the shooting base and docking the micro-short drama shooting company." The person in charge of the base operation of Hengdian Film and Television Studio Service Co., Ltd. said that in order to standardize the scene management and provide better services, the theatrical costume company has successively signed cooperation contracts with some private shooting locations since the beginning of the year. Next, there will be a support policy for micro-short plays.
Wenlv micro-short play, really fragrant.
Many people call 2023 the first year of miniseries.
This year, the mini-short drama market broke out, practitioners rushed into the track, and the number of works blew out. The disorderly expansion of the industry has also caused many problems: serious homogenization and bad value orientation. At the same time, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has carried out a series of network miniseries management, removed the miniseries containing pornographic, vulgar and bloody violence, and constantly improved the normal management.
"The cycle of barbaric growth of the micro-short drama industry has gradually come to an end, and practitioners have begun to make a fuss about market development and industrial linkage, hoping to incite new development of the industry with’ micro-short drama+’." Many people in the industry said that the combination of micro-short plays and cultural tours will become a major trend in the development of the industry.
In January this year, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a creative plan of "Traveling with Short Plays", proposing that 100 excellent short plays with the theme of "Traveling with Short Plays" should be created and broadcast in 2024, and formulated eight requirements. The reporter found out that the micro-short drama mentioned in the requirements can be combined with historical and cultural cities, towns and villages, drawing materials from non-legacy projects, focusing on rural revitalization, etc., which will open up more new possibilities for county development.
As the first promotion project of the creative plan, the miniseries "Flying Youth" was filmed in Caocun Town, Ruian, Wenzhou, which deeply integrated the local beauty, food, culture and plot. After the broadcast, it drove the local tourists to receive nearly 200,000 person-times, an increase of over 30% over the same period last year.
Attractions and scenic spots enter the drama, micro-short dramas empower cultural tourism, and the road of "breaking the circle" in third-and fourth-tier cities ushered in a new track.
Quzhou, Zhejiang Province tasted the sweetness. Following last year’s concert "out of the circle", this year plans to take advantage of the spring breeze of micro-short plays.
Quzhou short play super factory renderings. Photo courtesy of respondents
The reporter learned that Quzhou City is 17 kilometers to the east, and a short drama super factory with an area of about 170 mu and a total investment of about 700 million yuan is under construction. Wu Hongjian, manager of the investment management department of Kangtou Group in Qujiang District, who is in charge of the project, said that they are optimistic about the two-way trip of micro-short plays and cultural tours. On the one hand, short plays can give Quzhou a better exposure, and the series of industries involved in it, such as actors, service and venues, are also the driving force for local development of cultural tourism industry; On the other hand, Quzhou’s natural resources and cultural heritage are all nourishment for short drama shooting, and the promotion of regional characteristics in Wenlv micro-short dramas is also one of the core elements to remove homogenization.
In Quzhou, more people are entering the micro-short drama industry.
Zhou Jianming, the chairman of Quzhou Tengyun Cultural Tourism Development Company, began to "test the water" at the end of last year. The production of "Supreme Jade Emperor" was only 48 hours on the line, and the income was over 10 million. He began to think about the next miniseries.
"Take a sip of grapefruit juice, have a taste of spicy food, and match it with the folk love story of Qiongnu and Benlang. A piece of picture is already in my mind." Zhou Jianming envisioned starting from Changshan, his hometown. At present, he has reached a preliminary cooperation intention with the Changshan County Wenguang Tourism and Sports Bureau, and the Wenlv micro-short drama with Changshan characteristics will be launched in May.
Linying factory Photo courtesy of respondents
In front of Linping Linying Factory in Hangzhou, the street scene with dopamine color attracted many citizens to take photos and punch in. This is one of the shots that Linping took with the script of "Micro-short Drama Empowering Local Industries". Linping plans to build a service system for the whole industry chain of micro-short dramas from creation, shooting, production, distribution, trading to derivative industries through the film and television micro-short drama brand of Linying Factory.
At the 11th China Internet Audio-visual Conference being held, Linping announced that this year, in addition to the micro-short drama industry and policy support, it will launch a new track of "micro-short drama+"and innovatively explore such formats as "micro-short drama+real economy", "micro-short drama+rural revitalization" and "micro-short drama+cultural heritage" to empower local development.
"Beautiful scenery and stories can form a unique cultural memory." Zhou Kui, a special expert of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and director of the research department of the Network Video Research Center of China Communication University, said that the popularity of Zibo BBQ and Gansu Tianshui Mala Tang could not be separated from story elements. At present, tourism has changed from "focusing on scenic spots" to "focusing on people and events", and the good content represented by excellent miniseries is not only the added value of tourism, but also one of the core competitiveness of tourism products.
Break the "barbaric growth"
"At this stage, many viewers’ impressions of micro-short plays are still shoddy. With more and more professional film and television companies entering the market and the follow-up of a series of regulatory measures, from a longer period of time, micro-short plays are bound to get rid of streamlined production and develop into quality products." Fu Weibing, head of heritage film and television who just moved his office to Hengdian Huaxia Cultural Park after the Spring Festival, said.
In the interview, the reporter has found the clue of change.
The most intuitive thing is the adjustment of the talent structure in the industry. From Jing Wong, Stephen Chow and other "off-stage" short plays to professional film and television production companies such as Huace and Noon Sunshine "crowding into the track", the mechanism of talent training for long plays has been gradually copied to the field of micro-short plays, and the original production pattern has formed the survival of the fittest. For these professional companies, "it is better to call them game breakers than to call them entrants."
Secondly, the production cost of miniseries has increased significantly. "In the early years, the cost of shooting a miniseries was about 100,000 to 200,000, but now it has risen to 300,000, 400,000 or even 1 million, and most of them are used in shooting and production." Fu Weibing said. Obviously, miniseries have entered the stage of improving quality.
Of course, the quality of miniseries does not mean blindly rolling costs. The basic existence of short plays lies in low cost. On the basis of conforming to the business logic of short plays, "the content will eventually be rolled up."
The mini-short drama crew filmed in Linying Factory. Photo courtesy of respondents
Screenwriter Xiaoqi has found a rule in the creation of micro-short plays for more than a year. The rapid outbreak of short play market depends on "cool feeling+delivery+payment", but attracting audiences can’t just rely on "cool". In her view, every link in the micro-short drama industry chain is like a consumable that caters to traffic. The content does not undertake creative expression, users do not bring in-depth discussion, and the platform only pays attention to online distribution, which ultimately leads to the lack of sustainability of the industry.
She believes that a good script that conforms to the law of creation is the key to the quality development of miniseries.
Chen Ruiqing, chairman of Dianzhong Technology, who participated in the production and distribution of many explosive short plays such as "I became a stepmother in the 1980s", once said at the first short play conference: "If we can’t get rid of vulgarity, we can’t get rid of over-commercialization, we can’t enhance the cultural connotation of our works, we can’t leap into high-quality products, and the content keeps sinking, and the short play market may not be 5 billion."
As a new content product in the film and television industry, the development path of miniseries now reminds many people in the industry of online movies. In the early stage of market development, the market was full of vitality, but the quality was mixed. After several rounds of industry elutriation and internal competition, what finally stood firm was the quality content that took into account social value, ideological value, aesthetic value and commercial value.
Miniature plays are obviously on such a path.
Hengdian has seen too many popular trends, how many glories and how many declines; In the film and television industry, some people have always become famous at one fell swoop, and some people have left the scene in a daze; On the internet, how much expectation, how much regret is buried.
"Call it a day!" At 21 o’clock on the day of the interview, another miniseries shot by Lin Qing was finished. She took off her costume and prepared to take a little vacation for herself. On the street just 1 km away from the other side, there is also a mini-play with headlights on to catch up with work.