The author | Gu Han
Editor| Li Chunhui
What content on the Internet has traffic? Handsome man? belle? delicacies? Cute pets? It doesn't stop there. The living conditions of middle-aged and elderly people and the "contrasting cuteness" that contain the wisdom of the years have always been the most enthusiastic onlookers of netizens. Just a few days ago, a short video of a big mother exercising with a lightsaber got thousands of retweets on Weibo.
But on the other hand, the viewing of the curiosity psychology will inevitably lead to the creation of the curiosity psychology, and over time, the medium image of the middle-aged and elderly people will become more and more magical and even extreme. Either it is extreme beauty, such as the temperament grandmother who wears a cheongsam to blow up the street; or it is extremely strange, such as the fitness uncle who plays with the equipment in the park; or it must reflect the ultimate local flavor and regional characteristics.
Sometimes, it is inevitable to miss a series of classic "big mothers" that old artists such as Zhao Lirong, Song Dandan, and Cai Ming have portrayed in sketch stages or sitcoms. They have a very down-to-earth careful thinking and small calculation; they have their own set of great wisdom in the face of young people and new things; at the same time, they are very enthusiastic about small things in the neighborhood and the major affairs of the family and country, which is the image of the elder who is close to them but has the ideal of the world.
Careful speculation and good intentions, rather than traffic-oriented stereotypes and distortions, it seems that there is little content to shape middle-aged and elderly people in this way. This may also be why, funny content is endless, but we still continue to miss those sketches and sitcoms that draw textured people.
However, the back wave follows the front wave, and the trend is a circle. Recently, a "Chinese Big Mama Romantic Hilarious Short Drama" with a pair of old girlfriends as the protagonist, "Big Mama's World" was broadcast in a hot broadcast circle, which made people smell familiar tastes and see new hope. Every Spring Festival, when the whole family re-watched the "Empress Dowager Restaurant", a new film list can be added.
When a mature aunt meets a mature micro-short drama
Look at the doorway of the explosive content, first know its origin and end. Under the vigorous promotion and enthusiastic testing of the waters by various platforms, the micro-short drama that was once questioned as a pseudo-concept has gradually grown into an emerging content. Its landmark turning point is that in August 2020, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television incorporated micro-short dramas into the regulatory system, and its mainstreaming prospects were certified. Since then, many professional film and television companies and actors and stars who hold a wait-and-see attitude have begun to go down, prompting the specifications of micro-short dramas on various platforms in 2021 to improve one after another, and the works out of the circle continue to be released.
It is not difficult to see that "Big Mama's World" is exactly the stage result of the micro-short drama seeking high-quality and professionalization, a nodal work.
The drama is one of the first projects launched by Tencent Video's "Ten Theater", and it is not difficult to see the expression of "positive energy" pursued by TenCent Theater from the conception - focusing on the silver-haired group and telling the interesting life of the "new elderly" in the Internet era.
In terms of lineup, Li Lingyu and Mu Liyan, the actors of the two big mothers, are old drama bones who have been in the art for many years. The former is the actor of "Jade Rabbit Essence" in the 86th edition of "Journey to the West" and the original singer of "Tianzhu Maiden", which was extremely popular that year. The latter is a veteran drama, film and television actor, and has starred in a series of popular domestic dramas such as "Battle Changsha" and "Ode to Joy".
In terms of cameos, there are Liang Tian and Kou Zhenhai, who are also familiar to several generations of audiences, mature actor Chen Yanxi, young idols Mu Ziyang, Zhao Jiamin, lingchao, Yu Shasha and Yi Yunhe, who were created by the last batch of online comedy booms, as well as Internet celebrities Zhang Quanegg, second-hand rose lead singer Liang Long, etc., and the lineup is quite strong.
From the content itself, the show is well-produced, mature, the special effects are used properly, and the original soundtrack adds points. More importantly, the topic selection is both creative and valuable, reflecting the professional team's insight into the market trend and social reality. The most obvious point is that the audience's bitter stereotyped female image and female friendship have been shaped for a long time, requiring fresher experience and touch, and "Big Mama's World" obviously seizes this gap and depicts the witty old age life exclusive to the digital age with a witty and ingenious approach.
This drama depicts the late life of two retired aunts, Wang Yutian and Yang Defu, on the one hand, some typical problems faced by the elderly in this digital society - software monitoring and pushing, health IQ tax, health care product sales... One by one, they are presented to the public. On the other hand, it also allows the protagonists to make various witty responses that are unexpected to the audience, thus showing the fresh and hot appearance of the "new old people" group.
Since its broadcast, the drama once entered the Top 3 of The Cat's Eye Tencent's popularity list. The diverse viewing points captured by the drama chasing group are naturally also very diverse: both the central party media Blue V have praised, the English version of China Daily has a long report, and Meng Da understands, high-energy E Beizi, Hall 3 ticket checking staff, Teacher Liu said that the movie and other entertainment critics participated in the discussion, and many young netizens have a real sense of amway in major forums.
Social changes are changing rapidly, and young people inevitably have a sense of confusion and anxiety about the future. In "Big Mama's World", the protagonists and aunts live a colorful life, like young people sniffing CP, grabbing blind boxes, krypton gold and spitting krypton gold, so that young people in empathy at the same time, invisibly also got comfort - after becoming a big mother, life is not bad, but also age anxiety?
A new proving ground for comedy?
If there is anything that is never out of breath and is always just needed, it is comedy.
From traditional music to comedy movies, TV sketches, sitcoms, and then to funny short films, ghost animal clips, variety shows in the Internet era... In different media environments, comedy has developed different forms. And the front wave and the back wave are endless, and whenever the former form develops to saturation, there will always be a new wave in time.
The latest wave, without a doubt, lies in "condensing wonderful stories in fragmented time." On the one hand, short videos give many ordinary netizens a stage to show themselves, whether it is accidental capture or active creation, it is possible to produce explosive models and hot stems. On the other hand, professional creators also follow the trend and localize "exotic species" such as talk shows, comic talents, and sketch comedies to create more innovative and anachronistic works.
Comedy is the hard currency that breaks down the circle and wins empathy. All online content has a stage of relying on comedy to open the situation when it first flourished. Micro-short dramas are naturally no exception, and many of the works out of the circle are comedy themes or have comedic elements. The debut of Tencent Video's "Ten Theater" is also a comedy season, and the status of comedy can be seen.
Medium and short videos are not simply dividing long videos, which has basically reached a consensus in the industry. The rhythm control of short dramas is a new proposition for practitioners, and the importance of rhythm to comedy need not be said. After several years of micro-short dramas, there are more than one case of traditional comedy stars and popular comedy labels coming to shoot micro-short dramas but returning home.
So, what did Big Mama's World do right? In the eyes of the hard candy jun, the first is not greedy. Each episode captures only one theme for divergence. Second, the theme of each episode comes from life. It is equivalent to putting the big mother into some situations familiar to young people, and then creating "laughter" results with contrast or layer by layer of exaggeration.
Let's say that episode 6, borrowing the big moms to discuss the color matching of square dance costumes, to reflect the invasion of privacy by shopping APP in order to achieve accurate push. In just 5 minutes, there were two upgrades, first the words "scrambled eggs with tomatoes" and "pandas" in the dialogue misled the software; then the two sensed that something was wrong and actively tested whether the software was eavesdropping.
Finally, the mothers took the initiative to put their mobile phones aside during the discussion, hoping for an objective result. Unexpectedly, the grandchildren were chatting about Ultraman nearby, so there was an absurd scene at the end, and the drama tension was full.
It is not difficult to see that this is similar to the sketch comedy that has recently been widely popularized by variety shows.
Sketch comedy, also known as sitcom sketches, originated from European and American TELEVISION programs, such as the well-known "Saturday Night Live", which is characterized by short and concise, close to life. It doesn't seek to tell a complete and reliable story or how deeply characters to create, but more to design a plot around an inspiration, and to upgrade it many times to make it more exaggerated than ever. This form of content is placed in the present and is highly compatible with short video transmission.
The attempt and success of "Big Mama's World" in a sense confirms the fit between sketch comedy and micro-short drama, and gives a set of new ideas for the content exploration of micro-short dramas and the rich innovation of Internet comedy.
The "very aesthetic" of the micro-short drama
The development of micro-short dramas to the present, the more benign point is that there is no situation of spelling coffee and spelling IP. The advantages and media attributes of each platform are different, and the micro-short dramas that have grown have also appeared in different styles and specifications, but in general, they are exploring the way for micro-short dramas.
Taking Tencent Video as an example, its micro-short drama exploration reflects the professionalism, resource coordination ability and operation ability of the long video platform, leading the micro-short drama to develop towards high-quality and positive energy.
After launching blockbusters such as "Psychic Princess", "Moyu Xuanqi" and "Ru Meng Ling", Tencent Video officially released the industry's first micro-short drama brand "Shifen Theater" on December 22, 2021. This means that Tencent Video's exploration of micro-short drama quality has entered a new stage, and micro-short dramas have since also had a content matrix layout similar to long videos and marketing quarterly dissemination.
Tencent Video announced 14 new dramas covering cultural IP, cultural innovation, comic comedy, modern criminal investigation, modern reasoning, costume food, costume light comedy, fantasy healing and other genres. Li La, deputy general manager of Tencent's online video platform operation department, said that he expects "Ten Theater" to become "a social field for young people to fragment time, a voice for positive energy values, a measure of fine micro-short dramas, an advanced path for young talents, and a test field for film and television industrialization." ”
Based on the broad vision of "embracing a more avant-garde and beautiful expression", Tencent Video has further refined the content requirements for micro-short dramas into three directions: "positive energy, refinement, and new experience".
"Big Mama's World", as the vanguard of the "Ten Theater" comedy season, is an excellent demonstration: paying attention to issues that are rarely concerned by other platforms such as silver-haired groups and intergenerational communication, highlighting humanistic care; cooperating with the Dapeng team to drive the front-to-back and behind-the-scenes lineup and content production level of micro-short dramas to continue to improve; drawing on sketch comedy to bring the audience a fresh viewing experience.
In addition, other plays in the "Ten Theater" comedy season have also innovated in different degrees and in different directions:
The "Master Brother Please Follow the Script" that has been broadcast has a relaxed meal and a continuous hot stem, and it is also a combination of professional music teams to create a growth decompression light comedy "sofa drama"; the light comedy love short drama "Please don't pet me" has been on the all-platform hot list many times with the plot of "anti-routine"; the "Ivory Mountain Of Rural Love" that will soon land on Tencent Video, which gathers the familiar faces of the people such as "Xie Guangkun" and "Zhao Si", and pioneers the new model of "sound bullet screen hilarious short drama".
As Hard Candy Jun said before, micro-short dramas are in the ascendant, whether it is soil or tide, whether it is short-lived or permanently rooted, it depends on the practitioners of each link to define in the future practice. Tencent Video's investment in micro-short dramas and the operation of theater not only helps to cultivate the awareness and love of existing users for micro-short dramas, but also has strong leading significance for the industry.
2021 is regarded as the first year of the micro-short drama founding sect and going to the public, Tencent Video is preparing for 2022 with "Ten Theater", how will other platforms take over? Whether the real public explosion will be born in healthy competition, we will wait and see and look forward to it.