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"The Three Teams" is a successful case of adapting the special IP into a film and television work. Although many feature articles are of excellent quality, they are not easy to follow on the road of film and television because of the difficulty of passing the review and adaptation.
After 14 days of release, the box office exceeded 500 million and the Douban score was 78, the full story, good reputation, and superb acting skills of the actors make the movie "The Three Teams" outstanding in the film market at the end of 2023.
At the same time as the movie was released, the drama version of "The Three Teams" was also launched simultaneously on iQiyi's Fog Theater, and it topped the iQiyi popularity list after only 3 episodes.
The film and drama linkage tries to maximize the IP effect, and the IP of "The Three Teams" was originally published in a special article.
In 2018, NetEase's *** thelivings" published a work entitled "Please tell the director, the task of the three teams has been completed" (hereinafter referred to as "The Three Teams"), the author Deep Blue is the contracted author of the world, and the deep blue who used to be a police officer wrote the real story of the people around him into a special article.
This article tells the story of Cheng Bing, the captain of the three major teams of the local public security bureau, who accidentally caused the death of the suspect in the process of handling the case and was sentenced to prison. After he was released from prison, he still insisted on tracking the fugitive suspect as an ordinary person. The whole story has ups and downs, especially Cheng Bing's persistence, which has moved countless netizens. This article not only won the 2018 NetEase Literature Annual Click Champion, but even appeared in the grand occasion of tens of thousands of netizens leaving messages begging to make a movie.
The special draft of "The Three Teams" was quickly bought by the film and television company, and the film and television were put on the agenda.
Since 2016, there has been a climax of IP film and television in China, and one after another high-quality special articles have been bought by film and television companies. However, the film and television of many feature articles have not been followed for a long time, and the blossoming and fruition expected by the market have become a mirror flower.
Now, the double harvest of dismantling the "Three Teams" movie and web series may bring some inspiration to the IP film and television of special articles.
01 Stimulus of millions of royalties In January 2016, "Esquire Esquire" released a 17,000-word news feature - "Pacific Battle Royale Witnesses' Statement". As soon as this manuscript was pushed, it exploded the circle of friends, and the number of reads on the WeChat platform reached 30 million+ in a short period of time.
Such a high popularity has also made the film and television industry smell business opportunities. 2 months later, LeEco bought the copyright of "Pacific Battle Royale Witnesses" for more than one million**, and decided to develop it in multiple dimensions, including making it into a movie.
He Fengyun, then vice president of LETV, believed, "Such a topicality, such a wide range of dissemination and influence, has injected a strong IP attribute into this special article, and the magnitude of the number of people it covers is close to the super IP "Tomb Robbery Notes". ”
Millions of copyright fees have directly stimulated the news feature industry, film and television companies, and related capital have paid attention to the track of feature IP film and television, and "non-fiction" writing and related institutions have ushered in the most lively and exciting moment.
At that time, Li Haipeng, known as the "Godfather of Chinese Non-fiction", led the "Chinese Feature Dream Team" he formed to establish the "One Lab" with Han Han's Tingdong Culture. A number of new platforms such as NetEase's "TheLivings", Tencent's "Gu Yu Story", Interface Noon, True Story Project, and Sandwich have emerged, coupled with "Southern People Weekly", "Zhizu GQ", "People" and other veteran brands that focus on special articles, non-fiction projects under the new communication climate dominated by the mobile Internet have begun new explorations.
A large number of special articles created by these institutions, such as "Life and Death Badain Jarin", "Chinese Version of Flying Over the Asylum: Seventeen Years of Conspiracy to Escape", "The Father Referred to by a Thousand Husbands", "The Last Enemy of the Gangster Godfather", and "1986, Life and Death Drifting", have sold film and television copyrights.
However, judging from the subsequent film and television landing, there are not many cases where feature IP has achieved such a successful transformation as "The Three Teams".
The success of "The Three Teams" is both inevitable and accidental. Wang Fan, who has been engaged in IP film and television for many years, told "Leopard Change", "It must be because this story is really good, touching and in line with the mainstream values of society." Incidentally, it is because it is not easy to make film and television, not only to have money in place, but also to adapt well, and to keep up with the actors, publicity and distribution, "The Three Teams" undoubtedly has all of these, so it succeeded. ”
The story should be good, which is undoubtedly the background color pursued by the feature. The reason why "The Three Teams" can form a hit is not only because it involves many elements such as crime, adventure, and suspense, but also because the story is wonderful and conforms to the mainstream values of society, which can capture the hearts of readers to the greatest extent and is easy for people to empathize.
In fact, the IP film and television of feature articles has formed a mature industrial chain in foreign countries. The film "Escape from Tehran", which won three awards at the 85th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Editing, and Best Adapted Screenplay, is adapted from Josewa Bellman's article "The Great Escape" published in Wired magazine.
But a good feature does not equal a good film and television work, and it takes a long transition from a feature to a film and television work.
In Wang Fan's view, the feature market was hot in those years, and there was a certain false prosperity. "The popularity of China's feature IP film and television is mainly stimulated by these millions of copyright fees. Some foreign feature articles and films can interact in depth, and it is obvious that all aspects of China are far from enough. Looking at many features now, they can't be made into movies and television at all. ”
02 How difficult is it to turn feature IP into film and television? Although the article "Pacific Battle Royale Witnesses' Statement" was bought by millions of copyright fees, the road to film and television was bumpy, and only a radio drama was released at the end of 2016, and movies and other film and television works have not been able to meet the audience for a long time.
Coincidentally, the feature "China's Version of Flying Over the Asylum: A Seventeen-Year Conspiracy to Escape" was bought by Five-Star Legendary Pictures for 1 million yuan in 2018, which is also the third million-yuan feature IP to be published. This work was followed up into the movie "Escape from Youth", and the trailer of the movie will be released in 2022, but there has been no news since then, and it has not been finalized for a long time.
These are the epitome of feature IP film and television.
In fact, it is difficult to make a feature IP film and television, and I think the biggest difficulty is not that the manuscript is not bad, but that it is difficult to adapt and pass the review. Wang Fan explained, "At the beginning, the film and television company thought our company's manuscript was good, and then took the initiative to find me to discuss the matter of buying copyrights. But after several rounds of negotiations, the film and television company finally felt that it couldn't be done and refused to buy the copyright. ”
The difficulty of adaptation is a problem that almost all feature manuscripts encounter. Even the hugely successful "Big Three" can't get around it. In the process of writing Captain Cheng Bing's pursuit of the murderer, the original author Shen Lan only used a few sentences to summarize. Shenlan himself recalled: "When the screenwriter Zhang Ji asked me how Captain Cheng found Wang Eryong, who had changed his name and changed his surname, and washed his hands in a golden basin, I could only tell him that I didn't know. ”
After all, Captain Cheng has never revealed the details of his pursuit of the murderer to anyone, except for the necessary related persons in the case. As for what he has experienced, all this requires the screenwriter to use his imagination according to reality, enrich the whole story, and make the characters more full.
For screenwriters, the more important problem is that there is a big difference between written language and film and television language, the pursuit of true records in special articles, and the pursuit of dramatic conflicts in film and television works, which are completely different in terms of creative concepts. In addition, how to express some details and stories in a way that is acceptable to the audience is also a test of the screenwriter's ability.
Film and television works, whether they are online dramas, TV series, or movies, if they want to meet the audience, the most critical link is to pass the review. But in this regard, it has become a difficult problem for film and television works adapted from feature IP to pass the review.
Wang Fan's company has sold film and television copyrights for many special articles, among which most of the good works of criminal investigation and suspense have been planted on the threshold of passing the trial.
A practitioner in the film and television industry told "Leopard Change", "Criminal investigation is a good theme, but in fact, many creators can't handle the scale well, and it is easy to cross the line, so they can't pass the trial." ”
What exactly is this scale, in addition to the regulations of the regulatory authorities, different people's understanding is also different.
In fact, it is only possible to write a feature if the social topic is deeply rooted to a certain extent. However, film and television works that reveal social problems are themselves subject to censorship risks. This also determines that the IP film and television of special articles on some sensitive topics will not go too smoothly. Wang Fan said.
The movie "Sea Festival", adapted from the feature "Pacific Battle Royale Witnesses", is shown on Douban to be released in 2030. Director Weng Ziguang was originally scheduled to start filming in October 2016, and he once said that the script had been changed by 10 drafts, and the relevant announcement showed that "the filming was agreed after modification", but since then the film information has not been followed.
Whether it is difficult to revise the article or pass the review, the most important thing for film and television companies is to be able to make money. In terms of the ability to attract money, the cost-effectiveness of feature IP film and television is not high.
In contrast, the film and television of male and female frequency online texts are less risky, lower cost, and the market path is more mature.
In addition, the material of the feature article is also derived from real events, and in the process of film and television, some film and television companies choose to bypass the feature article and directly purchase the copyright from the parties involved in the incident, so as to avoid the hidden copyright risks that may be brought about by the re-adaptation of non-fiction works. This has also become an obstacle to the commercialization of feature IP.
Film and television are carried out directly according to the open information of the public domain, and for the main creators of film and television works, there may be a lot of room for display, and there are many themes that have been proven by the market to be both popular and popular.
I Am Not the God of Medicine", adapted from Cheng Yong's real experience, hit the audience's tears. "Operation Mekong" is adapted from the "Mekong River Case", and the production process has received strong support from the Ministry of Public Security, so it has broken through the previous police and bandit movies in many aspects. For example, the scenes such as the gate of the Ministry of Public Security and the minister's office in the film were all filmed in real time at the Ministry of Public Security.
Obviously, the film and television of feature IP does not seem to enjoy these "dividends". For film and television producers, they are more willing to produce some works that are blockbuster and have a good reputation. Film and television works based on feature articles are more realistic, costly, and difficult to adapt and review, all of which make the film and television of feature IP a little unpopular in the market.
03 Where is the road? It is no exaggeration to say that the special article IP sold so hot back then, and now the road to film and television is so tragic.
One Lab announced its dissolution half a year after its establishment, putting a big question mark on the exploration of the business path of non-fiction writing. After experiencing the impact of the epidemic and the cold winter of film and television, the film and television projects of non-fiction platforms have become more silent. Other feature agencies are also stumbling to find their own new outlets.
The success of "The Three Teams" proves the success of feature IP film and television, but it does not mean that the way out of feature IP film and television will be better. In Wang Fan's view, special articles still have commercial value, after all, good stories never lack monetization channels.
In addition to the road of IP film and television, there are also people in the market who hoard the copyright of feature articles. Abu, the person in charge of a company engaged in copyright trading, told "Leopard Change" that his company is specially to collect the copyrights of these special articles and **, which can be sold to film and television companies in the later stage, or can choose to publish books or other monetization channels.
When encountering a well-written feature and **, it is to talk about acquisitions, for example, Da Liu (Liu Cixin) was not popular at the beginning, but later became famous, and the copyright fee naturally rose. To put it bluntly, we are middlemen, but we will judge for ourselves what we can buy and what we can't. ”
The commercial value of feature IP is also more diversified in the path of paid reading, book publishing, audio**, etc.
As long as there is good content, there is no need to worry about not making money. Wang Fan said, "Just like the big IP of "Tomb Robbery Notes", I have made books, movies, peripheral products and even games. It's nothing more than to find a business model that suits you, and when the feature first came out, almost everyone was selling film and television copyrights, which was a narrow road. ”
At the request of the interviewee, the names in the article have been changed).