Author / Meteor
After 15 days of broadcasting, rising cumulative playback, and a Douban rating of 8.4, the drama "Love Is Delicious" created by Chen Zhengdao and his team has undoubtedly become the dark horse of this year's Q4. For this result, the platform may be unexpected, and the crew may not dare to think about it, but for the audience, it is definitely a first-class surprise.
In addition to "Love Is Delicious", there are many recent dramas led or created by the film team. For example, "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" not only invited Powerful actors such as Huang Xuan and Yong Mei who have had outstanding film performances to star, but also applied a lot of film techniques in audiovisual language. Another example is "Who is the Murderer", which is also close to the "sense of cinema" in terms of actors and audio-visuals.
However, in the film team to create a series is not a new thing now, the audience's inspection of a drama work has shifted to the film team's brilliance and "overturning". From Chen Zhengdao's team's "First Love of Chitose Adult", "Skyscraper" and "Love is Delicious", to Feng Xiaogang's team's "Sword Dynasty", "Heart House Hunter", "North Ru Nan Yuan", and then to Wong Kar-wai's "Flowers" and "Guoshi" Zhang Yimou's "Protagonist", the audience is curious about the reasons why they are involved in the field of dramas, and they are even more ruthless about the good and bad of their works.
In this case, why are more and more film teams choosing to "cross over" production series? In the long run, can the communication between the film team and the drama team bring China's film and television content production to a higher level?
Whose team is filming what?
Literary and art theory tells us that movies and dramas (including TV series and network dramas) are two completely different creations and expressions, and then unconsciously, the film and television market has also subtly subdivided the concept of "film coffee", "TV coffee" and "drama coffee" to the audience and practitioners.
However, times have changed. Zhang Yimou was able to tell the fledgling "Mou Girl" Zhang Ziyi 20 years ago not to make TV dramas in order to make money, and 20 years later, he also had to keep pace with the times and say to the new "Mou Girl" Liu Haocun: "Whether it is a movie or a TV series, as long as the script is OK, it can be picked up." At the same time, "Guoshi" himself signed a contract to shoot the series, and the latest news said that he would direct the adaptation of the Mao Dun Literature Award, "Protagonist".
A typical case of advancing with Zhang Yimou with Zhang Yimou is Zhang Zhen. Once upon a time, "movie café" and "no drama" were deep labels to describe Zhang Zhen, but when the Xianxia ancient puppet drama "Chen Xi Yuan" was broadcast, almost all the audiences led by Zhang Zhen's fans were shocked and dropped their jaws. Later, Sina Entertainment interviewed the producers and directors of "Chen Xi Yuan", who said that it was the script and overall operation of the show that gave Zedong and Zhang Zhen confidence. Fortunately, "Chen Xi Yuan" has a good reputation, the audience directly called "true incense", and many netizens even wrote bluntly "Thank you Zhang Zhenxiafan".
Therefore, today, the film team with the director as the core probably has no reason to reject the production of the series, and for most of the actors who are amphibious in the film and drama, as long as the work is good enough to be brilliant, it is natural to accept this more and more.
So, the question is: what are the film teams doing in large-scale "cross-border" dramas for several years? What is the trend in the newly established projects?
According to sir shooting, first of all, we can still see the strong continuity between the film team and its episodic projects. For example, the team of Zhang Yimou and Han Sanping is good at handling some grand narrative works, and has taken over many projects that can give them room to play; Wong Kar-wai is good at handling retro and timeless stories, so he took over the "Blossoms" that fit perfectly with them; Chow Sing Chi, Wu Yusen and other directors who first got involved in dramas are also projects that originated under their own IP.
For example, looking at the mesozoic directors (team), Chen Zhengdao's handling of emotional pull and suspense stories has been continued, Urshan's control of mythological fantasy style has been applied, and Lu Yang's "Wind Rises longxi" and Ke Wenli's web drama version of "Detective Chinatown" have also been quickly understood by the audience.
Secondly, the rise of Internet platforms and their competition in the field of original long video have also accelerated the demand for film teams, among which directors with international backgrounds like Zeng Guoxiang have received olive branches from overseas streaming media.
For example, Guan Hu and his apprentice Fei Zhenxiang have been deeply bound to Tencent Video's "Ghost Blowing Lights" IP series for several years; iQiyi has achieved a steady rise in production funds and production team investment since successfully developing the "Mist Theater" track; and the sinkhole "Blossoms" that has long been "in production", not to mention how much money has been continuously invested in the platform.
In addition to inviting or ordering film creation teams by name, the platform has also used more film technical teams in the production of online movies or online dramas in recent years. Taking Tencent Video's online movie "The Peak Moment of Siping Police" launched this year as an example, the "Russian Arm", which won the Oscar Technology Award, was dispatched during its filming process.
Finally, from the current trend, the head film director (team) has a relatively large right to speak and choose more when creating episodes, and the fault tolerance rate of the film team by the platform and the series producer is also relatively high.
Taking Feng Xiaogang's team as an example, after experiencing the Douban rating trend of "The Battle of the Fire King's Dawn" 4.1, "Sword Dynasty" 6.4, "Heart House Hunter" 6.1 and "North And South", it still created iQiyi's latest mist theater "Echo". It is reported that the play is adapted from the novel of the same name by writer Dongxi, newly established group, tentatively starring Song Jia, Wang Yang and Bao Bell.
And even if there are cases like Xu Hongyu's loss of "In the Dust of the World" or Ke Wenli's loss of "Female Psychologist", the platform will probably still be willing to let them continue to explore.
For money or for talent?
However, because there are indeed certain cross-border barriers between movies and dramas, the reason why the film team actively or passively crossed the border before the platform network drama was widely affirmed was nothing more than the word "for money".
First, some directors are indeed in prison for capital turnover and need to take the initiative to find money.
For example, Lu Chuan, when the movie "749 Bureau" started in 2018, released a long autograph letter, saying that due to the cold winter of film and television, the project capital "ran away", and the film had to start with a 50% funding gap. However, the "749 Bureau" controlled by Beijing Culture is still "still in post-production", and Lu Chuan has also frequently appeared in variety shows such as "I Am an Actor" and "Actors Please Take Place" in recent years, and then took over the "Mango Monsoon" custom drama "Extraordinary Doctor" (Chinese version of "Good Doctor") and the Ministry of Public Security's Golden Shield Film and Television Culture Center "Western Police" series of web dramas, the meaning of "self-help" is still obvious.
▲ In October 2018, "749 Innings" was launched
Second, some directors need to complete the betting target signed with the investor, or need to cheer for the producer who is familiar with each other, so they "naturally" developed the drama business.
Specifically, since 2015, Feng Xiaogang has been bound by a VAM agreement with Huayi Brothers, Zhou Xingchi and New Culture. Among them, in 2015, Huayi Brothers issued an announcement that it intends to acquire 70% of the equity of Feng Xiaogang's company Dongyang Meila Media for an equity transfer price of RMB 1.05 billion, and Dongyang Meila needs to promise that the performance target for 2016 is that the net profit after tax audited for the year is not less than RMB100 million, and then it will increase by 15% every year, with a commitment period of 5 years. During the same period, New Culture and its affiliate Young & Young also signed an Equity Transfer Agreement with Stephen Chow to purchase 40% and 11% of the shares of Star's film production company Premium Data Associates Ltd (PDAL) for RMB1.04 billion and RMB286 million, respectively.
Unfortunately, in 2021, Feng Xiaogang lost the bet and lost 230 million yuan to Huayi Brothers; in 2020-21, New Culture, Young & Young and Zhou Xingchi went to court and pulled each other.
In contrast, the situation of Zhang Yimou's cooperation with Huanxi Media in 2018 or Chen Kaige's supervision of Tianhao Shengshi's drama in 2018-19 is much more decent.
Of course, it is unfair to kill all film directors with one rod and give them the hat of filming purely "just right food". For example, Wong Kar-wai undertook "Blossoms", Wang Xiaoshuai choreographed and directed "Misty Theater" "Octagonal Pavilion Mist", Chen Zhengdao restarted the urban sitcom "Love is Delicious", Tsang Guoxiang took over the first season of Netflix's "Three-Body Problem", etc., all of which show that they are pursuing more diversified creative exploration, not limited to a single form.
▲ Chen Zhengdao's "Love is Delicious" creative note written on Douban
However, as mentioned above, there are still no small limitations in the current film team's cross-border creation of dramas. On the one hand, if the head director's main control is too large, it will cause the platform to fall into a vicious circle of continuous burning money; on the other hand, if the waist director wants to produce some works to achieve self-expression, the platform side may not necessarily pay in the case of a successful benchmarking case in China. Judging from the results, descriptions such as "film team" and "film sense" have not become the guarantee of the quality of the series, and may even consume the trust of the audience.
Outlook: Continue to promote the industrialization of domestic film and television production
Therefore, the concept and practice of "keeping pace with the times" are needed, and it is even more necessary to continuously sum up experience in the process of exploration with the times. From 2015, when the "first year of Chinese film industrialization" was mentioned to the present, but only six years have passed, it has migrated to the field of drama production, and the industrialization of drama production still needs to borrow the film team.
Taking the high-quality dramas launched this year as an example, there are many film teams behind them; in the case of film industrialization taking a step forward, the relevant teams have also brought one surprise after another to the audience in the field of dramas.
For example, the one-handed creation of "My Babylonian Lover" is Chen Guofu's Kung Fu Pictures, Chen Guofu himself said in an interview with the media: "I don't use the word film texture, and I hope that everyone will stop talking about this label." To this day, the good domestic and foreign dramas that are made today, whether they are good in quality or creativity, exceed most mediocre movies. We have already entered a new era of film and television, if there is a chain of contempt, it is also a contempt for inferior products, not the neglect of old media to new media. ”
Retrospectively, the drama list of Kung Fu Pictures also (will) include "River God", "Animal Administration", "My Name is Huang Guosheng", "Gentleman's League", "Qingming River Map • Code" and other works.
For example, the veteran film production company Huayi Brothers, Wanda Pictures, Light Media, etc. have also added drama business in recent years. Among them, Huayi Brothers won the right to adapt many online works, covering elements such as urbanity, brain-burning, blood, justice, ancient style and other elements; Wanda Pictures' mid-year official announcements include the third part of the "Zhengyang Gate" series "Young People Under the Noonday Gate", the second part of the "Dear" series "Dear Parents" and the classic IP "Paladin Legend Series" New work "Paladin 4"; and as for Light Media, the main theme is to continue its business tone of youth and manga themes, "Dali Temple Journal" The official announcement of the live-action drama has also caused a lot of boiling.
Despite this, the industrialization of China's films and dramas is still in the stage of development and exploration, and it is bound to experience some tortuous progress. Coupled with the fact that movies and dramas are still quite different in audiovisual language, production expenses, user portraits, consumption habits, etc., practitioners and creators also need to be humble and thoughtful in the process of flow - looking at foreign mature experience, even if it is excellent such as HBO or Netflix, it is not built in a day.
Further, in the case that foreign countries have long had the mature experience of film team mastery of drama production, the vision and heart of China's film and television practitioners should also find more open goals and motivations.
In this regard, Wong Kar-wai and Amazon Prime Video opened the series "Tong Wars" in 2017, and had no choice but to die in 2020 under the new crown. He was followed by Zeng Guoxiang, who has now confirmed that he will produce and direct the first season of Netflix's "Three-Body Problem." Regardless of the results, these cooperations are no small stimulus for China's film and television industrialization.
Then, we still have to look at the phenomenon of film team filming with the perspective of development. If there are fewer and fewer "North and South" and more and more "Love is Delicious", China's film and television industrialization can really move forward.