In recent years, the creation of suspense crime dramas has undergone a qualitative leap, not only in terms of genre production, but also in the pursuit of literary and artistic dimensions, which fully demonstrates that TV dramas are the most popular form of popular literature and art. Its unique social and cultural charm.The picture shows the stills of “Thirteen Years in the Dust”
Tan Jie
Since 2023, there have been frequent hotspots in the drama broadcasting market, and successively set off phenomenal drama chasing scenes. Before that, there were “Hurricane” and “Three-Body Problem”, followed by “Thirteen Years in the Dust”, “The Road to Life”, etc., “The Long Season” “The drama has become the highest-rated domestic drama in the past eight years. However, the question facing immediately after the heat wave is whether the audience’s enthusiasm for watching the drama and the raised expectations can survive in the series that will be aired later? It’s not because of one or two lackluster dramas after that, which interfered with the audience’s confidence in domestic dramas and the cultivation of viewing habits.
It can be seen from the list of dramas to be broadcast in 2023 on the head video website that there are many genres and titles, but there are also some existing works. In recent years, due to the very limited broadcasting time and capacity of the first round of dramas on satellite channels, “first online backstage” and “internet-station linkage” have become the first choice for drama distribution. Big dramas, hot dramas, and slow-moving dramas have flocked to video websites. Judging from previous broadcasting experience, some audiences will feel old-fashioned and old-fashioned at first glance, and some projects that have been difficult to produce for many years due to various reasons such as production may turn out to be tasteless and a pity to discard.
It takes a long time for a TV series to be broadcast from the beginning of planning. This is determined by the overall production model of Chinese TV series “write first, shoot before broadcasting”. How to overcome the time gap between creation and broadcasting, It is a question that every creator of TV drama content must think about and face.
Find the Constant from the Law of Creation
TV dramas are popular art for the public, and they are also popular industrial products, and one of the characteristics of industrialization is the use of mass production to ensure sustainable benefits. The stability of TV drama content and production relies on mature industrialization as the basis to ensure that the average production level of drama dramas is always above the qualified line to achieve the goal of meeting the audience’s basic appreciation needs. Due to the production method and production and broadcasting system of “write first, shoot before broadcasting” TV dramas in my country, objectively determine the longer creation cycle and slower capital turnover, which will also indirectly lead to increased blindness and speculation in investment and production. There are too many TV dramas put into production, and the production funds are scattered. It is easy to form a situation of overcapacity on one side, and an oversupply of episodes and durations, while on the other hand, the quality is unbalanced, and the supply of high-quality content is in short supply.
If the entire TV drama industry wants to coordinate this systemic problem, it must first start from the beginning of TV drama content creation, and cannot blindly look for hot spots and pursue popular styles. , a certain character or a certain type of shooting method is still very interested; moreover, do not artificially prolong the time spent in the release process, many “dystocia” dramas and unsalable dramas often have serious problems in themselves; finally, do not start from the current From the commercial point of view of the market and income, we should deduce the content and form backwards. For example, it is necessary to limit the increase of actors’ remuneration and lower production costs, and it is not allowed to have dozens or even hundreds of episodes at will, so as to reduce the negative impact on artistic creation. The production of TV dramas must follow the constant and essential laws of artistic creation, and give the works an artistic core that can stand the test of time, so as to win the audience, win the market, and thus outperform time.
find iterations from genre works
In the early stage of the development of video websites when content was scarce, the overall demand for drama content was more on quantity than quality. Now Aiyouteng has three pillars, the market competition pattern is basically stable, and the top video websites have more and more say in the production of TV drama content. The bigger it is, the less attention and investment it has on the waist and tail works, and the more it wants to pursue popular hits and word-of-mouth premium ones, hoping to drive the website to attract new members and members through the hit broadcast of a high-quality drama Renewal upgrade. On the other hand, the huge number of Chinese audiences and the continuous demographic dividend have also made the content reserves of the three major video websites for a long time not to be significantly differentiated in terms of themes and types. , The competition of the same type is particularly fierce at the level of works.
Take the crime drama, one of the most popular genres, as an example. Around 2017, there were a number of high-quality suspense dramas such as “White Night Chase”, “Undocumented Crime”, “Forensic Qin Ming”, “Original Sin” and “Remnant Sin”. Crime dramas have almost formed a trend of centralized viewing of online drama crime genres, which has accelerated the expansion of the power of video sites, and then “The Hidden Corner”, “The Silent Truth”, “The Twelve Hours of Chang’an”, “Rivals”, and “Hunting Crime Guide” , and then to the recent “Hurricane”, “Moses on the Plain” and “The Long Season”, after just over five years, the creation of suspense crime dramas has undergone a qualitative leap, not only in terms of genre production. It also presents a mellow prototype in the dimension of pursuing literariness and artistry, fully demonstrating the unique social and humanistic charm of TV dramas as the most popular form of popular literature and art.
Achieving such a quality upgrade in a short period of time is also an invisible pressure and driving force for content creators on the same track and at the same time. This means that creators must not only control the time cycle of TV drama creation itself, We must also actively respond to peer competition to avoid elimination. We should not stop at taking successful excellent works as benchmarks, but think about the success and shortcomings of these works, and regard them as objects to surpass, and strive to create better works that can be iterated. His work fundamentally transforms passively overcoming the time difference between creation and broadcast of TV dramas into actively creating another kind of “time difference”.
On the other hand, the tomb-robbing-themed works that also started on video sites were once very popular, but they have not been able to break through their own limitations and embarked on an iterative road of healthy development. As for the costume dramas with the most stable audience base, although there have been no out-of-the-box works that surpass the comprehensive level and artistic height of “The Legend of Zhen Huan” in recent years, the overall creation situation is good, and the disadvantages that were once complained by the audience are relatively rare. Sophisticated production has become the fundamental aspect of costume dramas, showing more diverse and diverse pursuits. In addition, in the past two years, high-quality works such as “Menghualu”, “Yunxiang Biography”, “Wind from Longxi”, “Tang Dynasty Strange Events”, “Daming Silk Case under the Microscope” have been distinguished in terms of subject matter, plot, performance, aesthetic style, etc. The painstaking exploration of all aspects has more or less pushed forward the production and aesthetics of costume dramas, and the next leading iteration of the work may be on the way. Fortunately, after solving the problem of “network first background” + “network station synchronization”, the video website building brand theater gradually formed a flexible and stable schedule system, which further shortened the time difference between production and broadcasting for excellent works, met the audience in time, and provided guaranteed.
find changes in real life
Urban dramas are most sensitive to the difference in production and broadcasting time of TV dramas. Because the content should reflect the real life picture of the public in contemporary society, emphasizing the connection and empathy with the audience, the creation of such dramas often pursues “short”, “flat” and “fast” in production, admiring the sense of fashion, leading the trend and being influenced by the trend. Coercion, keen response to current social hot events and topics, adapting industry hot spots and social news that have occurred into the plot, but often superficial because of the lack of depth in the discussion. This has led to some workplace elite dramas and urban emotional dramas, where handsome men and beautiful women are well-dressed, work and love with both hands, and both hands are amateurish. The “brother love” and “little milk dog” are highlights, and they do not involve the changes in the public’s psychological and emotional values reflected behind the phenomenon.
In fact, social structural changes do not happen overnight, but take a long period of time, longer than the normal creation cycle of a film and television drama. If we want to grasp the ever-changing social phenomena in creation, we must grasp the deeper logic of change and the psychology of the public, deeply understand and grasp a series of “changes” in reality, and make TV drama creation more consistent with contemporary real life. Resonance at the same frequency is the way to truly overcome the time difference.
The key to the success of the hit drama “To a Windy Place” at the beginning of the year is not just the enjoyment of watching the drama brought by beauties, beautiful scenery and beautiful things, but the appearance of this drama is like a breeze, a spiritual healing, is It is a precise response to the current social phenomenon of “anti-involution” among urban youths who are feeling stressed and anxious. It is also an urban love drama “It’s Just Love” that expresses “sister-brother love”. Through authentic and believable life and work scenes, solid and delicate character growth and subtle plot development, this sister-brother relationship is presented as reasonable and reasonable. It comprehensively shows the state of work and life of contemporary young people, as well as their pursuit and attitude towards love and ideals. What’s more worth mentioning is that “Grandma’s New World“, which uses a middle-aged and elderly female character as the protagonist, expresses the desire of elderly women to be themselves, get out of the family, and travel the world alone, changing the role of elderly women in domestic dramas. “Evil mother-in-law” and “good grandma” labeled supporting roles will also make the audience reflect on whether they subconsciously have stereotypes of the elderly women around them. Although the series is not perfect, it is an awakening to express the awakening of women no matter how late they are from the perspective of elderly women.
It can be seen that creators not only need to find a series of changes in reality, find out the deep-seated reasons for these changes, and explore the psychological changes of the public and society, but also have the eyes of discovery to find out how the current TV dramas express the “changes” in reality. Short boards, gaps or gaps, find another way, boldly innovate, and create masterpieces with novel themes, unique perspectives, and advanced consciousness, which will inevitably meet or even exceed the psychological expectations of the current audience, and bring the audience a refreshing surprise that keeps pace with the times.
After the explosion, the ratings may enter a period of downturn, which may be reasonable, but it is definitely not an inevitable law that needs to be abided by or a necessity to maintain the healthy development of the industry. As the film and television industry gradually matures, the structure continues to optimize, and the inventory continues to adjust. After many excellent dramas have been broadcast this year, although not all of them can be “hurricane”, audiences will always have dramas to follow. Looking forward to more fresh and hot “zero-time difference” drama series for audiences to choose from in more types and market segments in the future, so that good dramas will continue to be released.
(The author is a doctor of film studies and an associate researcher at Shanghai Art Research Center)