＂Yu Huanshui＂ and ＂Longling Cave＂ are on fire, and short plays will become a new trend？

There is a kind of drama chase, which makes you finish before you have seen enough. Recently, 12 episodes of detective chinatown, I am Yu Huanshui, and 18 episodes of Ghost Blowing Lights in the Cave of the Dragon Ridge have been well received by the audience. Many netizens are addicted to it: "brush it in one breath" and "finally don’t have to play at double speed."

"Short plays are popular because of their strong visibility and’ cool feeling’." He Tianping, a TV research scholar and researcher of Beijing Network Audiovisual Research Institute, said in an interview with the reporter of People’s Daily Online Entertainment Department, "At present, more people use fragmented time to watch dramas through mobile phones, ipad and other mobile terminals, forcing the content and form of the series to adapt to the new habits of the audience. The popularity of boutique short plays with small volume and strong plot is a new content trend triggered by the technical trend of the network audio-visual industry. "

Both texture and "cool feeling"

The plot is not enough to recall, and the play is repeated three times in slow motion … … For a long time, some domestic dramas have sixty or seventy episodes at a time, and the content plot is seriously flooded, which causes the audience to "spit", so double-speed broadcasting has become the "standard" for many people.

In contrast, several short plays broadcast recently are refreshing. In the online drama "I am Yu Huanshui", the protagonist suffered a car accident as soon as she appeared, followed by a double whammy of marriage crisis and work failure, and was misdiagnosed as cancer. This roller coaster story only took three episodes. Many netizens said in the barrage, "Am I right? There are only 12 episodes of this drama?" Similarly, each episode of "Ghost Blowing Lights in Longling Cave" is only 30 minutes, and the plot climax comes one after another, which makes netizens continue to watch the drama "nervously".

While the drama series is shortened, it also brings a good reputation. After detective chinatown, I am Yu Huanshui, and The Ghost Blows the Lantern in Longling Cave were broadcast, they all gained a lot of fans and a high score.

In He Tianping’s view, the popularity of short plays is mainly due to the characteristics of fast pace, strong plot and narrative style similar to that of unit plays in American dramas. "These short plays are relatively strong in terms of visibility and’ cool feeling’. Some emphasize suspense, and some emphasize realistic expression, which can bring emotional resonance to the audience at different levels. " He Tianping said.

Yan Wei, editor-in-chief of China Television Art Committee, believes that the short space not only relieves people’s pressure to follow the drama, but also makes the plot spread more lively and proper, and the drama conflict more concentrated and intense, achieving "pithy" while being "short". The story is more enjoyable, which naturally greatly enhances the audience’s stickiness in watching the drama.

It will take time to become mainstream.

In addition to the short plays currently broadcast, it is reported that major video websites such as iQiyi, Tencent and Youku will continue to launch a number of new short plays, with themes mainly focused on suspense and emotion.

Gong Yu, founder and CEO of Aiqiyi, once said that the super online drama with the standard American drama model will be the mainstream in the future, and the short drama series will be an important way to present the American drama model. In recent years, Iqiyi has successively launched a number of high-quality short plays, among which "River God" and "Crime without a license" have also become the first China online dramas to land on Netflix.

"We will continue to work on short plays. Since 2018, we have set up the’ Strange Suspense Theater’ and joined hands with partners such as Wuyuan Culture to develop fine short plays. At present, there are still a large number of 12 collective contents being produced. " Iqiyi said.

In February this year, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Work Related to the Creation and Production Management of TV Drama Network", which advocated that TV drama network drama shooting and production should not exceed 40 episodes and encouraged short drama creation within 30 episodes.

"The rapid development of short plays has both policy reasons and market reasons." Yan Wei said that in addition, due to the increasing market competition, the continuous maturity of industry development and the innovation pressure of creative institutions and broadcasting platforms, short-length dramas tend to become the choice of creators and broadcasters. Some successful American TV dramas and Korean TV dramas have adopted short drama production mode, which has also exerted a subtle influence on the development of domestic industries.

"Short plays are actually a new product of content form driven by new technology forms. Now people rely more on mobile terminals such as mobile phones and ipad to watch dramas in fragmented time, which makes the content and form of dramas need to adapt to the audience’s habits. The popularity of fine short plays with small volume and strong plot is a new content trend triggered by the technical trend of the network audio-visual industry. " He Tianping said.

Will short plays become the new mainstream of online drama market?In He Tianping’s view, short drama is a very important development direction, but from the audience’s point of view, long drama should still be the mainstream choice for cultural and entertainment content consumption for a period of time. Moreover, from the production company’s point of view, whether it is the control of the rhythm and various elements of the play, or the production ability and production cycle, the difficulty of short plays is actually higher than that of long plays. "A boutique drama like" I am Yu Huanshui "is tested by a well-known team like Noon Sunshine. Under the current film and television industry system, if you want to have more teams with such capabilities to produce, you need a process of upgrading and slowly cultivating. "

Iqiyi also said that maintaining the quality of content is the primary challenge encountered in the production of short dramas, and good stories need excellent production strength to match. In addition, the long-term output needs to change from content to production mode, and the quarterly broadcast mode can effectively follow up user feedback, but this change still needs a process.

"All-media drama" or deeply rooted in people’s hearts

In recent years, with the joint efforts of iQiyi, Tencent and other video platforms, online dramas have been upgraded rapidly, and the "circle-breaking" effect of head dramas is still remarkable. High-quality original content is still the focus of layout, and content is the core of competition.

Online dramas are full of flowers in content and form. In addition to long dramas and short dramas, there are also various forms such as vertical screen dramas and interactive dramas. Traditional film and television companies have joined the production team — — "I am Yu Huanshui" is jointly produced by Noon Sunshine and iQiyi, which is known as the "golden signboard of Chinese opera", and "Imperfect She" is a cooperation between Penguin Film and Dongshen Film. In addition, Zhou Xun, Kara Wai, Pan Yueming, Zhang Yi, and many other big names in the film and television circles "entered the network", which accelerated the process of online drama quality.

As for the overall development trend of online drama, He Tianping believes that the quality and scale of online drama will definitely go up at the same time, because more and more high-quality resources will enter this industry, and the appearance and scale of the whole industry will develop in the direction of high-quality and intensive production. Nowadays, many online dramas perform better than traditional TV dramas, and this trend will become more and more obvious.

"In addition, traditional TV dramas emphasize the content of Xian Yi, young and old, while online TV dramas will be more vertical and subdivided in types. For example, detective chinatown and Yu Huanshui are not the mainstream and popular contents in our traditional sense. For different audiences. Especially for the viewing needs of young audiences, online dramas will pay more attention and attention. " He Tianping said.

In Yan Wei’s view, in recent years, the overall production quality of online dramas has been continuously improved, the types and styles have become more diversified, the market share and social influence have also been continuously enhanced, and breakthroughs have been made in overseas communication in recent years.

"But at the same time, we should also see that the current online drama creation still has obvious uneven quality, and the development of the industrial chain and the allocation of resources in the market still need to be improved. In the future, the boundary between TV dramas and online dramas will be more blurred, and the concept of’ all-media drama’ may be more deeply rooted in people’s hearts. " Yan Wei said.