Under the policy requirements of "advocating no more than 40 episodes and encouraging 30 episodes", it has been difficult to see costume idol dramas with 70 episodes and 80 episodes in the past two years. So, can the costume idol drama with big investment, big production, and big IP adaptation still do it? How to broadcast it smoothly?
It can be seen from the recent broadcast of "Acquaintance with Junchu" and "Just Like the Return of the Deceased" that the costume drama has begun to popularly split an IP into two independent dramas before and after the broadcast, while other large-scale costume dramas choose to be produced and broadcast in seasons, controlling each season within 40 episodes.
Recently, the costume idol dramas "Acquaintance with Junchu" and "Just Like the Return of the Dead" starring Zhu Ruibin as the general director and Starring Di Lieba and Ren Jialun have been broadcast successively. These two dramas are filmed by the same group of people, the main actor, director, and screenwriter are the same group of people, adapted from the same network literary IP "The Tale of the Tamingbird", but it is true that there are two dramas with two online filing numbers, the former is a few days after the end, and the latter drama is broadcast again, continuing the story of the previous one. Two dramas can chase a story, which is still relatively new for the current audience.
Not only "Acquaintance with Junchu" and "Just Like the Return of the Dead", recently many costume idol dramas have begun to produce and broadcast models.
Recently, "Star Han Brilliant", adapted from an online novel and starring Wu Lei and Zhao Lusi, has been changed from the TV series filing to the upper and lower parts of the network drama, the upper part of "Star Han Brilliant" 30 episodes, the next part of "Moonrise Canghai" 26 episodes.
Starring Yang Zi and Zhang Wanyi, "Sauvignon Blanc" was broadcast in two parts, and it was also on the hot search. The number of episodes currently revealed by "Sauvignon Blanc" is 70 episodes, and if it is divided into two broadcasts equally, it can be maintained at 35 episodes.
Another costume drama starring Yang Zi, "Agarwood Like Crumbs", is said to be divided into the upper part "Agarwood Like Crumbs" and the lower part "Agarwood Chonghua".
Costume dramas have been split into two broadcasts, which is considered to be a strict implementation of the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of the Creation and Production of TV Drama Network Dramas" issued by the State Administration of Radio and Television in February 2020. The "Notice" pointed out that in order to promote the transformation of TV series creation and production from the expansion of scale and quantity to the overall quality improvement, the production of TV series is recommended to be no more than 40 episodes, and the creation of short dramas within 30 episodes is encouraged, if more than 40 episodes are indeed needed, the production agency needs to submit a written explanation to explain in detail the necessity of more than 40 episodes and promise that there is no "water injection".
After the "Notice" was issued, the relevant person in charge explained that the implementation will not be simple "one size fits all", the specific number of episodes of the TV series needs to be analyzed according to the richness of the plot, and advocating 40 episodes and encouraging 30 episodes will provide a development direction for the industry, which is one of the measures to solve the problem of water injection. There is no hard and faster policy than 40 episodes, but the short drama of ancient puppet dramas has become a trend in the past two years.
"Acquaintance with Junchu" and "Just Like the Return of the Dead" were officially broadcast for a total of 42 episodes, which was different from each of the more than thirty episodes that had been circulated before. Judging from the split control of each film within 40 episodes, the costume drama is trying to find a way to deal with or implement the above policies.
The reaction of costume idol dramas is not the beginning of this wave of "splitting". Last year's most typical dramas were "Zhou Sheng As Old" and "One Life" starring Ren Jialun and Bai Lu. This drama will cross the novel "A Lifetime of Beautiful Bones" ancient drama and modern drama separately, the former sadistic love, the latter sprinkled sugar, the original close to 60 episodes of the series successfully split into each 30 episodes or less. It may also be that the creative ideas of "Zhou Sheng As Old" and "One Life and One Life" inspired the latecomers, and only then did they have the trend of "one book and two beats" and "one IP shooting two films".
A large IP is split into two dramas broadcast in succession, and the biggest advantage is that to a certain extent, the broadcast effect of the original costume drama is maintained. Do not compress the plot, but split the work, this is because the ancient puppet drama wants to maintain the return on investment of the long drama, maintain the broadcast time of the long span, form a publicity effect, marketing heat, and maintain the audience's enthusiasm for watching the drama.
"Acquaintance with Junchu" and "Just like the return of the deceased" can explain the problem, in "Acquaintance with Junchu", the heroine Ji Yunhe and the male protagonist have long staged the sweet love between the immortals and the fish people; and in "Just like the return of the deceased", the male protagonist throws himself into the North Yuan with hatred, incarnates as the domineering King of the North Yuan, and specially "abuses" the heroine. Xian Xia dramas can't escape the "Three Lives Three" style of sweet love and sadistic love routines, but the love story of "Three Lives three" must have at least 50 episodes of capacity. Broadcast in two parts, the story line continues, and the popularity can continue.
Episodes "slimming" are trendsSlightly different from the practice of splitting a story into two dramas, there are also some costume dramas and big IP genre dramas that choose to be produced and broadcast on a quarterly basis. For example, more than 60 episodes of the tomb robbery adventure drama "Restart the Extreme Sea Listening to Thunder" were broadcast in two consecutive seasons, while several costume dramas such as "Son-in-law", "Knife Line in the Snow", and "Qing Yu Nian" chose to broadcast on a quarterly basis, and each season can be controlled within 40 episodes.
Before the 70 episodes, 80 episodes of costume dramas, often criticized as "water injection dramas", and now, in addition to a small part of the drama chooses to split two, or produce by season, the vast majority of costume dramas have achieved "slimming", down to less than 40 episodes, such as the recent new drama "Shang Food", "Yan Yu Fu", "Wind Rise Luoyang", "Homemaker" and so on. Many costume dramas have begun to take the "small and fine" creative route to achieve diversified transformation of creation. The TV drama market now has few crazy water injection of lengthy dramas, and audiences no longer have to watch dramas at double speed and have to endure boring water injection plots.
At present, on the whole, the costume network drama is basically controlled within 40 episodes, and many of the various theme dramas broadcast by satellite TV just end in 40 episodes, such as "Perfect Partner", "Win or Lose", "The Happy Life of the Police Old Forest" and so on. Among the dramas broadcast by satellite television, there are more than 40 episodes, but most of them are controlled within 50 episodes. At present, more than forty episodes of dramas are considered long dramas in domestic dramas. The series are getting shorter and shorter, and there are also data to prove that in 2021, 194 dramas and 6722 episodes of the "Domestic TV Drama Distribution License" will be produced nationwide, an average of 34.6 episodes per episode, compared with an average of 37 episodes in 2020. The term "water injection drama" may go into history.
The "slimming" of the series ultimately benefits the audience. Under the guidance of the policy of "advocating no more than 40 episodes and encouraging 30 episodes", high-quality TV dramas have been frequently produced in the past two years, and they have fully blossomed on various themes, and high-quality suspense, espionage, urban, youth and realistic dramas have emerged in an endless stream. In the case of continuous good dramas, even if the costume idol drama is broadcast in upper and lower parts or seasons, in fact, it is still necessary to pay attention to the quality of the work and resolutely "prevent water injection", otherwise the audience will not buy it at all. In the face of high-quality dramas, audiences may want to shoot more episodes and more seasons. In some TV drama markets, dramas that can be broadcast in ten seasons are good dramas recognized by the audience and renewed by the platform for many years. In the final analysis, behind the number of episodes should be the upgrade of content and the real demand of the market.