Written by丨Zhang Yuan.
Editor丨MeiqiEntertainment Value Officer Interpretation:
id:wenyujiazhiguan
Looking back on the film and television entertainment industry in 2023, short dramas are a key word that cannot be bypassed.
At the end of the year, short dramas have become a "powerful magnetic field" to attract platforms and audiences to devote themselves to it. What followed was all kinds of controversies surrounding the chaos in the short drama industry, and how to standardize the development of the short drama market and avoid sudden stops has also become the focus of attention of all parties.
If we look back at the development process of the "new thing" of short dramas from a long perspective, and refer to the evolutionary history of film and television forms such as Internet University, it is not difficult to find that short dramas are rapidly iterating on their own, from high-quality content to self-discipline of practitioners, and short dramas are striving to be on the right track.
Say goodbye to "wild growth".The skit strives to be "on the right track".
In 2017, short dramas took advantage of the east wind of short ** and opened up a new content form of "vertical screen short dramas".
In 2019, with the entry of the long and short ** platform and the throwing of olive branches, a large number of creators who tried to share the pie began to pour into the short drama track, but because the business model did not run through, many teams returned home, and the short drama "false fire" once subsided.
In 2021, platforms such as Douyin Kuaishou began to explore the payment model for short dramas, and film and television teams that re-entered the market began to pay attention to cost control and input-output ratio, and the short drama industry gradually established a sustainable cycle.
In 2022, the exploration of short dramas in terms of production, distribution, and subscription models will gradually mature, and they will begin to enter the fast lane of rapid growth, with the number of filings for the year increasing by 600% year-on-year.
Under the soaring industry, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television put forward the guidance of "improving the innovation and creativity of short dramas and strengthening the management of online micro-short dramas", and the measures to promote standardized governance began to be put on the agenda by major short drama distribution platforms.
Entering 2023, short dramas have become popular in the strong momentum of the entertainment industry, but at the same time, a large number of "mixed works" and "myths of getting rich overnight" have emerged, and they have once again reached the forefront of the world.
Like any "new wave" in the entertainment industry, short dramas have taken detours, from the early "false prosperity" to the "content chaos" such as similar themes, rampant piracy, and vulgarity in the past two years, all of which have been staged in formats such as "Internet University". Just as the "Internet University" has undergone a "transformation" from high quantity to high quality, the short drama industry is also stepping up its "right track" - under the joint efforts of industry self-clearing, policy supervision, and platform guidance, it has moved from extensive to formal.
From the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television adding a micro-short drama category to the filing system, to the inclusion of short dramas in the "Online Drama Film Distribution License", to making clear instructions on the phenomenon of "rapid development, strong momentum, non-standardization, and many problems" in short dramas, the regulatory authorities have taken a series of governance measures for short dramas, which have greatly promoted the standardization of the industry in terms of access filing and content review, provided evidence-based "yardsticks", and curbed opportunism and unhealthy trends in the industry.
The "self-purification" of the short drama industry has also begun to operate, and the head film and television companies are entering the game in batches, improving the professional level of the whole process of the short drama industry, and some "gold digging teams" who only come for profit have been eliminated.
The positive response and close cooperation of major platforms to regulatory policies have also enabled the governance measures of short dramas to be implemented. The platform took the initiative to take a variety of measures to take comprehensive actions in terms of content self-inspection, promotion and review, etc., and forced short dramas to embark on the road of high-quality development through the "normalization" of content governance.
On November 15, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced that it would once again carry out a one-month special rectification work for online micro-short dramas, and platforms such as WeChat, Kuaishou, and Douyin all took collective action at the first time to remove illegal short dramas from the station in batches, dispose of accounts that publish short dramas in violation of regulations, and severely crack down on content that touches the "red line" from all aspects of release and promotion.
In addition to collectively purifying the ecology of the short drama industry, the short ** platform is also guiding the industry to move towards the direction of diversification of themes and sophisticated production through various ways, and contributes to the long-term development of short dramas with outstanding practitioners. Since 2020, platforms such as Douyin, Kuaishou, and Weishi have begun to test the waters of joint production, copyright purchase, traffic sharing and other models, introducing more high-quality dramas to the platform, building their own content brands with quality labels, and the healthy competition between platforms has continuously raised the production level of short dramas.
Taking Douyin as an example, as early as the beginning of 2021, it proposed to jointly build a high-quality short drama track with the strategy of "head showcase + IP batch + personality training", which attracted a number of senior film and television companies to enter the game. In the summer of last year, in the "Hot Summer Drama" list released by Douyin, more film and television studios such as Huace Film and Television, Ningmeng Film and Television and so on emerged. Under the guidance of the "strong production strategy", in the past two years, Douyin has continued to dig deep into the consumption needs of platform users, relying on in-depth cooperation with leading content parties, and continued to launch high-quality short dramas with multiple themes such as realism, urban emotion, and traditional culture. With the emergence of a large number of high-reputation short dramas on Douyin in the public eye, it has gradually reversed the stereotype of short dramas in people's minds.
Not only that, the short ** platform has also further extended from content production, boosting the upgrading of the short drama track from the aspects of talent reserve and ecological support. Taking the talent reserve as an example, Douyin, Kuaishou, etc., have actively revitalized the resources of influencers on the station and promoted their in-depth participation in short dramas, which not only helped the talents to complete their dreams of drama stars, but also injected more fresh blood into the industry.
Small teams, light subscriptions, platform distributionSkits open up new paths for the film and television industryThe reason why short dramas have been able to usher in an explosion in the past two years is inseparable from the reallocation of resources under the tone of "prudent investment and inventory consumption" in the film and television industry. As the entire industry is in a state of tightening production capacity and insufficient start-up, short dramas have become the choice of many practitioners to find another way out. As the investment in short dramas continues to heat up, it has also helped the film and television industry to accelerate its recovery.
For the entertainment market, the significance of short dramas is not only to open up a new living space for film and television practitioners, so that they can have another way to display their creativity and talent, but also to "trip" a new path for content production, trading, distribution and other links through several years of exploration and trial and error. For the long-term film and television industry seeking market breakthroughs, the "success" of short dramas undoubtedly has important reference value.
First of all, it is the production mechanism of the short drama "lightweight". For the current conservative industrial environment, projects with small teams, short cycles, efficient carryover, and quick start-up are more likely to be favored by investors. "Lightweight" means that film and television creation can respond to the needs of the audience in real time, innovate in a short period of time, and adjust and iterate according to user feedback, thereby greatly improving the market hit rate of the work, so that film and television investment is no longer a "bet" with unknown results.
The rapid response of short dramas can help film and television companies "strike while the iron is hot" and amplify the derivative value of content IP as much as possible. Nowadays, the linkage between film and television IP and short dramas is becoming more and more frequent, and in the 2023 promotion list announced at this year's Douyin Short Drama Annual Enjoyment Conference, the derivative short dramas of the movie "Disappearing Her" and "Lion Boy" all appear in it. In the future, the launch of derivative short dramas by popular films and television may become a regular operation in the industry.
Secondly, the "light subscription" model is also an important reason to attract countless viewers to watch short dramas. The free trial can quickly grab the audience's attention and make it "planted" by the fast-paced and dramatic plot full of conflicts, while the buyout system has changed the problem of "members have to pay for screenings to watch dramas" in the past, allowing users to put the "initiative in watching dramas" in their own hands.
For the film and television industry, trial viewing + light subscription can be used as a supplement to the ** membership system, which not only allows the audience to have more choices and consume their favorite works more freely, but also provides a relatively reasonable business path for the production team to ensure the stability and sustainability of long-term content production.
Finally, the short drama industry has a trend of high-quality at the same time as the outbreak, also because following the footsteps of the platform, the publicity and distribution of a series of high-quality short dramas have taken a "free ride" of short dramas. Not only can large-scale productions and high-investment dramas become popular, but "small and beautiful" works can also pass the short ** "circle of fans" with excellent quality, and the platform is becoming an "influence amplifier" for high-quality content, so that teams that work hard can reap positive returns, which is self-evident for the film and television industry to achieve a virtuous circle.
From "roughing" to "finishing".Skits will unleash greater cultural valueThe reason why short dramas can become a major "bright spot" in the recovery of the film and television industry and capture more and more audiences is also because it meets the needs of users for "multi-theme, multi-category cultural consumption", and forms a useful supplement to medium and long film and television content.
In an interview, Wood, assistant to the president of Changxin Media and head of the micro-short drama business, once said: Compared with the "scrutiny" perspective of the long drama, the short drama is more of a "gaze" perspective, just like a call, which can allow the audience to gaze at the interpretation of the character in a short period of time and be touched by the straightforward and extreme emotional expression. If used properly, this kind of face-to-face communication will allow the audience to go directly into the depths of the character's heart, obtain an unprecedented emotional immersion, and can more effectively convey cultural values and spiritual energy.
The short drama "I Am a Famous Actor" launched on Douyin in the summer file depicts the persistence and promotion of the quintessential Peking Opera by the older generation of artists and the integrity and innovation of the new generation of inheritors from such a "gaze" perspective. Through the "zero distance" presentation of the short play, the audience seems to have witnessed their sweat in front of and behind the scenes, not afraid of setbacks on the road to chasing their dreams, and strengthened their life belief of "being their own protagonist" with them. "Escape from the British Museum", which was fully out of the circle on Kuaishou, Douyin, Xiaohongshu and other platforms in the summer, also confirmed the strong appeal of short dramas in quickly mobilizing the audience's emotions and stimulating the feelings of family and country.
Compared with long dramas, short dramas are often closer to ordinary audiences in terms of story design, lens perspective, aesthetic style, etc., and can carry more "down-to-earth" realism. Taking the short drama "Twenty-Nine" jointly produced by Ningmeng Pictures and Douyin in the first quarter of this year as an example, the reason why this drama was able to achieve a double harvest of traffic and word-of-mouth is not only because of the texture of the TV series, but also because the unsuspended plot makes the audience empathize, truly presenting the collective plight of women in the workplace and life. And in the spin-off short drama "Beyond! In "Ajuan", we will also see an ordinary person who still adheres to his ideals even if he is questioned by everyone about his "way of living".
It can be seen that the form itself does not determine the level of cultural value, and micro-short dramas can be "small but not weak, short but not shallow", and can use their unique advantages to focus on social issues, explore core values, and present grand themes of the times with small incisions.
The transformation of short dramas from "rough processing" to "fine processing" also reflects the progressive cultural consumption needs of the audience, and we have reason to believe that short dramas will play a greater role in emotional comfort, social care, and cultural inheritance in the future. For the entire film and television industry, the relationship between short dramas and medium-length dramas has never been a competitive relationship, but in-depth cooperation in IP derivation, mutual learning of models, and cooperation between long and short to jointly meet the increasingly diverse spiritual needs of the audience.