The movie and drama linkage has evolved again

Visual China.

Text |Rhino Entertainment, Author |Xiaofu, ed. |Pu Fang.

At a time when the linkage of film and drama is all over the market, the "Three Teams", which was released almost simultaneously, has made it possible to shoot film and drama that previously only existed in the industry's imagination.

And will this new IP development model lead the next industry outlet?

The film and drama linkage that we are more familiar with already has a large number of mature samples in the current industry.

Specifically, there are two common modes of operation in the market today. One is to carry out cross-media adaptation and development after a certain IP became popular, and there is a wide range of domestic film and drama linkage, from the sitcom "Wulin Gaiden", the adventure drama series "Notes on Tomb Robbery" to "Step by Step" and other love-themed works, and even variety shows such as "Where Are You Going, Dad", derivative movies can also be launched.

With the development of the industry in recent years, the dimension of film and drama linkage has been further expanded. For example, the online movie "Son-in-law: Jixing Gaozhao", which was launched in the summer of 2021, is a derivative IP work of the hit drama "Son-in-law", and won more than 25 million yuan at the box office after it was launched.

The seed player "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star", which will be released on New Year's Eve, also came into being in this mode. This film is also the first film in the domestic industry to be adapted from an account-sharing drama, and it is also a rare return of the original cast to star. Its market performance will undoubtedly bring important reference value to the development of more similar works in the future.

The second model is closer to what we call "one fish, two eats", that is, the same IP starts the development of two versions of the series and the movie at the same time. However, in the past, this model would basically be handed over to two independent companies for development, and even if the progress was similar, it would still be two completely independent teams. Popular IPs such as "Why Sheng Xiaomo" and "Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms" were all born under this system.

Traditional film and drama linkage has one of the biggest shortcomings, whether it is derivative development after IP becomes popular or IP "one fish and two eats", in most cases, there will be a version with a high reputation to meet the audience first, which will cause the audience's preconceived ideas to a certain extent, and it is also easier to expose the quality problems of another version.

In addition to the traditional film and drama linkage, in recent years, the IP universe-style linkage development has also quietly emerged. In this field, Marvel is undoubtedly the frontrunner in the entire industry. After more than ten years of layout, the growing Marvel Universe has launched more than 20 theatrical movies, and decided to start a series of live-action series in the fourth phase of the Marvel Universe.

This batch of dramas not only uses the original actors of the movie, but also appears in several new superhero movies of Marvel, and the characters of the series also appear, realizing a deep link with the movie in the content of the series.

Pulling the perspective back to China, the only one that can approach this IP development model is the "Detective Chinatown" series directed by Chen Sicheng.

As one of the few leading series of film IPs in China, "Detective Chinatown" has laid a solid audience foundation with three films that have received excellent market responses, and the cumulative box office sales of the three films have reached 8.5 billion+. The first drama "Detective Chinatown", which was built in the "Tang Detective" universe, also received good word-of-mouth feedback after it was launched, and Douban has maintained 71.

However, it is not difficult to find that whether it is Hollywood's Marvel or China's "Tang Detective", compared with the traditional film and drama linkage, IP universe development tests the IP audience base and content volume more, and the threshold is extremely high.

The film and drama used in "The Three Teams" are filmed at the same time, and in Rhinoceros Jun's view, the implementation threshold is between the traditional film and drama linkage and the IP universe development model.

Compared with the film and drama linkage, which is more independent and often has an obvious sequence, the film and drama co-production can ensure that the same company will carry out the first development, and the two are more synergistic, but there is no need to pave a lot of pre-works like the IP universe.

In fact, in recent years, the first time that film and drama were proposed to be filmed together was the main theme work "Crossing the Yalu River".

The episodes and movies of this work are broadcast less than a year apart, and both are produced by ** radio and television stations. As the first film and drama in China, the two versions of "Crossing the Yalu River" are starred by the same set of actors, which is a groundbreaking work on the surface.

However, judging from the finished film, Rhino Jun found that the development model of this project is closer to the model of refining materials and re-editing them into a new film during the filming of the series, which is different from the synchronous development we understand. The previous movie "A Good Show" directed by Huang Bo also launched an extended version of the drama "A Good Show" after its release, which has the same effect as "Crossing the Yalu River".

The Three Majors is more in line with the standard film and drama co-shooting mode in our understanding of the concept.

The IP was developed by two different companies under Wanda Films. The drama version is filed and co-produced by Zhejiang Dongyang New Media Eslite Culture Media (the first producer is the iQiyi platform), and the film version is the first produced by Wanda Pictures.

In terms of production rhythm, the two works are almost quasi-synchronized. According to online information, the film version of "The Three Teams" will be officially launched on October 19, 2022 and completed on December 22 of the same year, while the drama version of "The Three Teams" will be launched in mid-December 2022 and completed in early April 2023.

In addition to the official broadcast date, the official announcement time of the two versions of "The Three Teams" is also very close, and the first trailer will be issued on September 15 and September 21 respectively, and the interval is basically the same as the final release and broadcast time of the two, and the whole process remains tight**.

It is worth mentioning that although Chen Sicheng, the producer of the film version of "The Three Teams", did not directly appear in the list of creators of the drama version, he still left his shadow among the producers. The co-producer of the play, Cheng Ya Film and Television, was jointly established by Chen Sicheng and Wanda Film and Television when preparing the film version of "Beijing Love Story", which was wholly owned by Wanda Film and Television, Zeng Maojun, who was the chairman and president of Wanda Film at the time, served as the legal person and Chen Sicheng served as the general manager. Last year, with the departure of Zeng Maojun, Chen Sicheng also announced his withdrawal from the company.

Compared with the traditional film and drama linkage, the advantage of film and drama shooting at the same time is very prominent. First of all, due to the close cooperation between the producers, the two will have more even and stable content quality controlSecondly, the nearly synchronous development process can also ensure that the broadcast time interval between the drama version and the film version is shorter, and the popularity can feed back each other.

Of course, although the synchronous start can maintain a high degree of consistency in the development progress, it also brings the difficulty of the original team to present*** It is reported that the original "Three Teams" was also intended to be filmed by the same actors, but due to a series of reasons such as the schedules of most of the main actors, in the end, only Yang Xinming basically achieved the same role.

In addition, in view of the differences in the content capacity and censorship system of the two film and television works, there are also many differences between the plots of the two versions - but this does not prevent both from stabilizing their reputations at present.

However, some netizens have put forward different views.

On the one hand, the simultaneous release of two dramas and movies with the same name and content will inevitably cause the audience to compare the two versions of the plot, and may be more likely to have a negative perception of different adaptation techniques;On the other hand, for audiences who have already watched the film version in advance, knowing the plot development and story ending, the freshness of going to the ** drama version is already greatly reduced.

For more content developers, at the same time, a big project such as the film version of the drama version is already unattainable, not to mention the high risk caused by the uncertainty of the final content presentation level.

Whether from a content perspective or an industrial point of view, there are only a handful of projects and production companies that can take risks like "The Three Teams".

Fortunately, the birth of the two versions of "The Three Teams" finally made our previous ideas possible. Whether the model of film and drama co-production can go further in the industry and be accepted by more practitioners and audiences will take a lot of time to test.