【Literature and Art Trend】
Author: Wen Weihua (Special Researcher of Beijing Xi Jinping Research Center for Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, Associate Professor, School of Language and Communication, Beijing Jiaotong University)
The "Poetry Theater" of the "2022 Chinese Poetry Conference" or the sitcom form to lead the audience back to the historical scene, let the audience immerse themselves in the creation background of classic poetry and the poet's state of mind, or let He Zun, Li Gui and other cultural relics "speak", so that the audience can understand poetry and understand history from the perspective of "epic mutual verification"; with the rise of short videos, micro-variety shows relying on short video forms for dissemination have emerged, with a brisk rhythm and the characteristics suitable for fragmented consumption, successfully attracting the attention of the audience... Recently, "integration" has become the key word in the creation of variety shows, opening up a broader imagination space for creation.
Stills and information pictures of the variety show "Dance Millennium"
Different art disciplines are linked to bring multiple viewing experiences to the audience
In recent years, there has been frequent interaction between art disciplines such as variety shows, TV series, movies, and dramas, showing a new development trend of cross-border linkage and form blending. Among them, the integration and exploration of variety shows is the most active. Practitioners break through the inherent boundaries between categories, and through the exchange and integration with movies, TV series and dramas, broaden their artistic dimensions and aesthetic dimensions to meet the aesthetic needs of audiences in the new era.
From a professional point of view, it is a conventional integration model to introduce the work content of different types of work in the film and television and drama industries. For example, "Director Please Advise" and "Let's Start Shooting" push the mysterious profession of film and television director from behind the scenes to the front of the stage, and present the director's working method and the operation process of the film and television industry in the form of variety shows. The first show, "Drama New Life", which focuses on the working status of dramatists, uses dramatists from different types of work such as directors, screenwriters, actors, and choreographers to jointly create performances and run troupes, simulating the real ecology of the industry and broadening the public's understanding of the theater industry. These programs condense the content related to the development of the film and television drama industry, express the love and dedication of film and television people and dramatists to art, and give reality SHOWs more cultural connotation and social value.
In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the audience's appreciation level, "immersion" has become an important demand for them to watch the program. Many creators are aware of this market demand and have integrated film and television drama creation techniques into variety shows, opening up a new space for the integration of dramas. For example, "National Treasure", "China in the Story", and "China in the Classics" build a theater in the studio space, reproduce the historical or era scenes, tell historical stories in the way of short drama interpretation, shape heroic model characters, and explore a development path that uses "drama expression" to convey excellent traditional culture and highlight the spirit of the times. There is also a program that draws on the strengths of both film and television dramas and variety shows, emphasizes the continuity of the plot and the audiovisual experience of the quality of the series, and makes the concept of "drama-style variety" enter the audience's field of vision. "Dance Millennium", jointly produced by Henan Satellite TV and Station B, designs a story background that spans time and space, builds a complete narrative line, shows the classic works of Chinese dance with variety shows, and produces variety shows with the standards of film and television dramas. "Under the Same Roof" uses cinema-level cameras and lenses, and the shooting team focusing on documentary directions, to record the lives of six ordinary guests under the same roof for 105 days, and through real-time prediction and accurate capture of the real reaction of the guests, the scene structure carefully designed on the basis of respecting the sense of truth, and the post-editing that emphasizes the ultimate storytelling, the audience can get the fun of "chasing the drama". This attempt further broadens the form and expression of variety shows, bringing multiple viewing experiences.
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Media integration realizes multi-screen linkage communication and enhances the influence of programs
The integration and innovation of variety shows is also manifested in the field of communication. In recent years, media integration has become the trend of the times, information dissemination channels have become more and more extensive, the speed of dissemination has become faster and faster, and the scope of influence has become larger and larger, bringing new opportunities for the development of variety shows. In the process of transformation, radio and television media not only build their own new media clients, but also strengthen in-depth cooperation with third-party new media platforms. CCTV's audio-visual new media platform "CCTV" is a representative achievement of the transformation of television integrated media. The "YangYoung" IP series program "Yangyoung Summer", "Winter Warm Yangyoung", "Start of Construction Xiyang Young" created by CCTV fully excavates the resource advantages of the main station, adopts the mode of taking the host of the main station as the core subject, the youthful voice, the content presentation of the network, and the multi-screen interactive communication method continuously output hot topics, triggering the audience's hot discussion and participation. Since 2020, SMG has promoted the BesTV+ streaming media strategy with the strength of taiwan, and customized "Golden Song Youth", "Perfect Summer" and "Punch Card" for Blockbuster TV! A number of high-quality variety shows such as "Foodie Group" have boosted the rapid growth of their users. Oriental Satellite TV's brand variety show "Our Song" has opened the exclusive functions of Baishi TV to select songs, add points and codes, listen to songs and share, and the music variety show "All the Way to Sing" is also broadcast exclusively by Baishi TV, forming an ecological closed loop of SMG content network linkage.
With the continuous deepening of the integration of Taiwan and networks, the road of integration and dissemination of variety shows has also surpassed the initial stage of broadcasting on multiple platforms in the past, but has carried out strategic cooperation with different media platforms in the whole process of program research and development, production, broadcasting and publicity. This not only helps each platform to integrate resources in a wider range and realize the complementary advantages of team, experience, technology, etc., but also an effective measure to deal with problems such as audience differentiation, single program creation logic, and limited scope of dissemination in a multi-screen environment. Through the accurate docking of content and platform, double diversion is carried out on the mobile terminal and the TV terminal, realizing the communication linkage of multi-screen intersection and enhancing the influence and value of variety shows. For example, the cross-screen interactive music variety show "Praise for Songs" jointly produced by Zhejiang Satellite TV and Douyin uses the innovative concept of "big screen first singing, small screen two creation" to integrate media linkage innovation, singers sing songs on the TV big screen, and users like songs on the small screen of mobile phones, hit the list comments and create secondary creations, so that good music spreads across screens and circles.
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Broaden the boundaries of the industry and realize the coordinated development of variety show + industry
At present, practitioners continue to expand the boundaries of the industry with integrated thinking, so that the positioning of variety shows has broken through a single entertainment function and become a comprehensive carrier to promote cultural, economic and social development. Among them, the construction of an industrial collaborative innovation model around the variety IP and the continuous upgrading of the industrial chain are a useful attempt to use industrial integration to achieve significant improvement of comprehensive benefits.
The Global Tourism Destination Analysis Report shows that variety shows and film and television dramas have an important impact on tourists' choice of tourist destinations. 24.5% of Chinese tourists will be moved by the filming location after watching a certain variety show, so that they want to experience the scenery in the camera and experience the same play route. This reflects the general trend of the integration and development of culture and tourism from one side. In recent years, more and more cities and tourist destinations have joined the production of variety shows, and the number of cultural tourism-themed programs has increased significantly. "The Most Beautiful Central Axis", "Ten Thousand Miles To Ride Alone", "Debut! Luoyang", "There are poems and distant places, poetry and painting In Zhejiang", "All the way to sing", "Treasure-like Countryside", "My Peach Blossom Garden", as well as "Extreme Challenge Treasure Line • Green Water and Green Mountains Public Welfare Season", "Run, Yellow River" and other programs, fully excavate the rich cultural tourism resources of the mainland, use the form of documentary reality shows, lead the audience to approach historical and cultural heritage, appreciate the magnificent rivers and mountains, feel the modern urban style, and experience the poetic pastoral life. The popularity of these programs has also driven the local tourism industry and provided a new development direction for the integration of culture and tourism.
The use of creative elements to activate history and culture, combined with modern aesthetics of the national trend of cultural and creative products, has become a new trend for young people. Programs such as "National Treasures", "Shangxin Forbidden City", and "Tang Palace Night Banquet" are linked with cultural and creative design, helping cultural heritage to transform cultural heritage into cultural resources, integrating tradition into modernity, letting classics enter life, and releasing a strong social influence. The cultural and creative products launched by the program not only have a traditional cultural temperament, reflect chinese aesthetics, but also have daily practical value. Historical relics have thus broken through the limitations of time and space and flown into the homes of ordinary people. In addition, with the "reasoning fever" set off in the variety market, with the help of reasoning variety shows, the scripts of the emerging cultural and creative industries have flourished all the way. For example, Mango TV relies on the ace program "Star Detective" to develop an IP matrix of "online content + offline entities", open a theme real-life detective shop, and organize "Ming Detective City Tour" and other touring offline activities. iQIYI intervened in the script killing industry with the content IP of the "Fan Season" and actively explored more possibilities for the integration of online variety shows and offline consumption.
All in all, under the environmental changes brought about by new media and new technologies and the new trend of cultural industry development, domestic variety shows actively respond, strengthen cultural connotations, explore model innovation, promote cross-border cooperation, and achieve value creation, resulting in a number of high-quality works covering different types. It is believed that under the guidance of the concept of integration, the road to variety show creation will become broader and broader.
Guangming Daily (2022-04-20, 15th edition)
Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily