Written by | Ho Furong
Edit | Wu Xianzhi
"At the beginning of this year, Youku found a short drama that we wanted to cooperate with. Before that, we mainly in the Kuaishou incubation of the talent output short drama, Youku noticed, and then came to find us. "Zhao Hui is a producer at an online literature IP incubation company." Our advantage is that we have a lot of IP copyright in online literature, and Youku mainly wants to cooperate with us to do FILM and television adaptation of IP. ”
Zhao Hui said: "Youku's effect is very good, we have also reached a cooperation with Tencent Video, and now we are the main long video platform." Although Douyin and Kuaishou also do micro-short dramas, the effect is not as good as that of long video platforms. ”
As a content section that the current long and short video platforms are competing to do, the emergence of micro-dramas is also adapting to the current short content viewing habits of users. In this long and short video PK competition, the micro-drama's lack of optimism about jitter seems to be one of the few good news for long video platforms in recent times.
At the beginning of the month, iQiyi exposed the news of layoffs, and the proportion of layoffs was as high as 20%-40%. Consecutive years of losses, the suspension of talent show variety shows, this year's mist theater has not become a hit and other events have exposed the difficulties of iQiyi's open source, and layoffs are a throttling road to survival with a broken arm.
The outlet for layoffs has not yet passed. On December 15, iQIYI then announced the news of the membership price increase, which is only a year after the increase in membership prices in November last year.
The revenue of the long video platform mainly comes from membership and advertising, the channel is single and internally and externally blocked, and increasing the price of members seems to be the most direct way to break the game. iQiyi took the lead in tearing open its own scars, but in fact, the industry has the same disease.
For the coldness of long videos, everyone attributed the main reason to the short video, of course, this is true. However, after communicating with a number of film and television industry people, Photon Planet found that the shortcomings of the long video industry itself are not in the minority, and the emergence of emerging formats has further put these problems in front of the stage.
Domestic and foreign difficulties, the long video industry has come to a crossroads, even if Youaiteng has not yet fallen, but many film and television companies in the upstream industry, because there is no giant protection, it will be difficult to get out of the cold winter and see the next spring.
Film and television companies spend the winter
What is the current situation of the film and television industry? A national first-class screenwriter and director who has been in the industry for nearly 30 years sighed helplessly: "One word, difficult!" ”
User time and attention are constantly eroded by short video platforms, and long video platforms are difficult to balance. Under the epidemic, the shooting of many projects has come to a standstill, and cinema films have been hit hard. The film and television industry is experiencing a cold winter.
And these are just a few of what we see.
At the upper end of the industry chain, film and television production companies as the source of long video content production, their cold winter seems to come earlier.
The above-mentioned national-level screenwriter and director told Photon Planet that the first thing is that the production funding requirements for film and television dramas are too high, and mainly fall on the production units. "Now the production cost of a random TV series and a movie is hundreds of millions, billions, which is not something that ordinary small and medium-sized film and television companies can afford."
Film remuneration is still the most important expense of many film and television dramas. In the past two years, restrictions on actors' salaries have been in place. Previously, it was stipulated that the actor's single episode remuneration (including tax) shall not exceed 1 million yuan, and the total film remuneration (including tax) shall not exceed 50 million yuan.
However, even after the restriction, the salary level is still very high, and compared with the average salary level of showbiz circles such as South Korea and China, the salary of Chinese actors is still at a very high level. "And the water is too deep, the relevant departments have limited the remuneration for so many years, and it is difficult to implement it in practice."
"'My Ugly Lady', starring Teacher Zhang Shaohua, spent a total of 8 million yuan in 2008, and now under the condition of salary limit, an actor's salary is 50 million, which is too much of an increase." said the above-mentioned person.
In addition to the remuneration, the cost of publicity is also very high. A film investor told Photon Planet: "If the cost of a movie is 1 billion, the cost of many movies will account for 500 million." Especially now under the epidemic, cinema movies are even more difficult. ”
"Generally, the box office of a domestic film, the cinema is divided into 51%, the tax is about 9%, and the proportion of the investor, that is, the producer copyright party, is 33%-40%. If the box office reaches 3 times the cost, investors will not lose money. Take the movie "Watergate Bridge" (Chosin Lake 2) as an example, its cost is about 600 million, if the box office reaches 1.7 billion, it can make money. The above-mentioned film investors said.
After the investor subscribes, in addition to providing financial support, it also plays a role in publicity. "But there are very few good movies this year, coupled with the uncertainty of the epidemic, many investors have not invested in film and television in the past two years, afraid that they will not be able to return to this book." The market response of the main theme theme is better, and many other projects can only be shelved without investment. ”
Another point is that many dramas can not be filmed and broadcast is also a big problem, filmed and sold out, resulting in no one dares to shoot, and then good content is less and less. "In the Internet age, everyone says that there is more and more content. However, whether it is satellite TV or online video platforms, what we see is only a part, and there are many dramas that have not been broadcast. A film and television copyright worker said.
"In recent years, a better TV series can be sold to satellite TV for several million yuan an episode, but selling to a video platform is basically tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of episodes." Therefore, only on satellite TV can we maximize the return of payment, online video platforms and many small local stations can not recover much cost. ”
However, the situation of TV stations is also very difficult now, and there are only a few satellite TVs that can really afford to buy large-scale productions. In addition, in the past two years, TV stations have become more and more demanding for TV series content, and the standards have become more and more stringent, and many dramas cannot be sold.
Most of the dramas in South Korea and Taiwan are filmed while broadcasting, and the market response is not good enough to stop filming, and the risk of trial and error is small. The mainland is filmed and then broadcast, if the filming can not be sold, can not be broadcast, it can only be abolished.
In addition, many problems such as the professionalism of practitioners, capital interference shooting, flow control content, and buying ratings fraud are also affecting the normal operation of the film and television industry.
"Now there are only so many big film and television companies that are really filming dramas, and they can afford to lose money without lack of money." More small and medium-sized film and television companies close their doors and change careers. A practitioner told the Photon Planet.
Escape long videos
Why video platforms such as Youaiteng can't do China's Netflix, and the content quality can't keep up with the main reason. Whether it is watching ads or paying for memberships, users can only be retained if the content makes them feel that they are worth the money.
As the source of film and television content output, film and television production companies affect the normal operation of the industry. Under the influence of internal and external factors, many practitioners are leaving the industry.
After the epidemic eased last year, Yu Fei turned his business from a film and television company he had opened for nearly 10 years to short videos, and they decided not to make dramas. The two dramas in 2019 have not been broadcast so far, directly abolished, lost a lot of money, coupled with the impact of the epidemic, simply turned to short videos that are currently on fire.
"Due to the experience of drama production, we initially made a drama account on the short video platform first, and after the fans were counted, they took over the advertisement and brought the goods. This process is also very difficult, there are too many new things in the short video industry, it is very difficult to adapt, but fortunately the company survived. Yu Fei said.
After the transformation, Yu Fei's company set up a department for short video creation. In addition, there is a department that is mostly the old people who stayed in the original, and they mainly turn to making advertising films, promotional films, and short dramas that are now supported by various platforms.
"Now that our company is recruiting people more and more young, short videos still have to be played by young people." It turned out that when filming TV series, many employees could not adapt to short videos, and many people left their jobs. ”
He said that although he can't make a lot of money now, it is good not to lose money. Doing short videos is much less risky than the original drama. "In recent years, many industries have been unstable during the epidemic, and they do not expect to make a lot of money. Although you can't shoot a drama, it's good that you can still do short videos without losing your job. ”
The rise of short video has undoubtedly had a great impact on the long video industry, especially in the competition for fragmented time for users. However, many traditional film and television industry practitioners do not regard short videos as the root cause of the cold in the film and television industry.
The above-mentioned film and television industry practitioners said that short videos have an impact on the film and television industry, but the emergence of short videos is not a bad thing for many film and television practitioners. Long video is now too difficult to do good content, do not fundamentally change the long video industry cost is too high, traffic rampant and other issues, content quality is also difficult to improve, can not retain the audience is very normal. "Only when the creative environment is good, more people are pouring in, and the industry is blooming, will there be a steady stream of good content output."
"For many practitioners, in the case of the long video industry can not continue, switching to short videos, micro-dramas I think is a good thing, at least can not be unemployed, while enriching network content." The audience can't find a FAVORITE TV series, so they go to brush short videos, film and television workers are the same, long videos can't go on and will naturally change careers. “
A person from a film and television company in Guangzhou said that their company originally mainly made online dramas and online movies, and did not go to satellite TV and theaters. However, the cost of an online drama is also about 50 million, the cost of online movies is between 10 million and 20 million, and the cost of inviting stars is higher.
"Now the homogenization of such dramas is very serious, and if there is no publicity and endorsement by traffic stars, the number of broadcasts is not very high." We also have plans to transform into short dramas next. He said.
In addition, the above-mentioned film and television copyright workers said that the long video platform has significantly reduced the external procurement copyright from about three years ago, but is biased towards self-made dramas. "In recent years, the proportion of copyright expenditure on the platform has been very small, but the cost of self-made dramas has become higher and higher."
For the loss of long video platforms, most of the reasons are attributed to the fact that copyright is too expensive, but in fact, the overall production cost of long video content is too high, and self-made dramas cannot save the platform.
The high cost of long videos automatically screens many small and medium-sized players, and it is difficult for the industry to make a profit, and more practitioners will leave.
The road to transformation is tough
Under the cold winter of film and television, the entire video industry is in a critical period of active and passive transformation. In the exchange with a number of film and television industry practitioners, Photon Planet learned that the direction of the transformation of traditional film and television-related enterprises is mainly in the rush to online platforms.
First of all, at a time when the uncertainty of the film market is increasing, some companies that originally made movies have begun to turn to TV series, online dramas, and online movies. For example, the web drama "Under the Sun" produced by Bona Pictures, the online movie "Nine Fingered Gods" produced by Huayi Brothers and so on.
Large film and television companies occupy an advantage in terms of funds, and in the case of setbacks in the cinema film business, involving in TV dramas and online dramas can be regarded as the company has opened up the second growth curve.
However, more small and medium-sized film and television companies are in a state of passive transformation.
Short dramas are another direction for the transformation of many film and television companies. "It turns out that many people who shoot online dramas and network movies have transformed into online dramas." The above-mentioned person from a film and television company in Guangzhou said.
Compared with TV series and movies, short dramas are more like a small and beautiful business, with low cost, short shooting cycle, fast online, and payment at any time.
Zhao Hui, the above-mentioned producer, told Photon Planet: "Now 5-15 minutes/episode, a total of 30 episodes of a short drama cost a total of 1.3 million -1.5 million. The shooting cycle is about one and a half months, and it can generally be online after shooting. Split with the platform, the rate of return is about 40%-50%. ”
The short drama incorporates the common feature of long and short videos, that is, shortening the length of time in the form of a long video with heavy content. At the moment of the popularization of short videos, short dramas are actively following the trend, and many long video practitioners regard short dramas as the entry point into short videos.
"Now all platforms have support for micro-dramas, such as traffic exposure, publicity support, etc." While more and more people flock to short dramas, the platform is also increasing its support for this area.
"Now the main source of traffic is young audiences, and short dramas are mainly based on capturing young people, such as sweet pets, urban, youth, suspense, martial arts and other themes." Net text is the main IP source of the current short drama, just a few minutes of the plot covers a lot of "cool points", reversal, crossing, counterattack, high sweet plot are intended to conform to the tastes of young people, seize the young people is the most important. Zhao Hui said.
In the process of chasing young people by traditional film and television companies, it reflects the changes in the external environment of the video industry, because some people in the industry even directly abandon long videos to mcN.
Secondly, advertising films and promotional films are the most direct choices for many small and medium-sized film and television companies to tide over the difficulties. Compared with the short video content of Douyin and Kuaishou, the promotional films oriented to the needs of Party A are more easily accepted by traditional filmmakers.
"The gameplay of short videos is too different from that of long videos, and short videos are different in terms of shooting methods, network sense pursuits, and monetization." A film and television company editor said.
However, in the process of more and more film and television people flocking to short videos and traffic, the quality of content is also worth pondering. "Short videos have caught a lot of traditional film and television practitioners, which is a good thing." But now a lot of network content is good or bad, the whole people chase traffic, short video content in the presentation of art is difficult to compare with long video, film and television content belongs to artistic creation, in the long run our road will be narrower and narrower. The above-mentioned national-level director said.
The epidemic and policy factors are also the reasons for the decline of this round of film and television companies. Based on the commonality of video, many companies have seized the trend of short video to temporarily tide over the difficulties, but many have not survived the process.
According to the data of enterprise investigation, as of now, the number of film and television-related enterprises hanging and canceling in 2021 reached 49,000, and the number of cancellations in 2020 was 48,000.
In the case of difficult production of upstream content, the entire industrial chain such as distribution, publicity and screening is at an impasse, and the long video industry is becoming increasingly difficult.
The interviewees in this article are pseudonyms