April 19, 2023 | Issue 3210
Since last year's autumn fair, the exchange activities related to the mini-drama have always been the most lively category, and the more people hear the ending, the more people are. Whether it is a film and television person who has transformed from a long drama to a micro-short drama, or a new player who has made a blockbuster with zero experience in the game, every time he talks about the creation of micro-short dramas, he is always full of inspiration and has countless new ideas to share.
The micro-short drama roadshow of Youku's "Pioneer Plan" is no exception, with eye-catching new projects and industry dry goods that go deep into pain points.
The four theme film lists of the 2023 Youku micro-short drama were announced on the spot, and the five producers showed the preparation details of the five head works of "Immortal Jun Has Robbery", "Desire Trap", "A Thousand Gold of Thousand Gold", "Yang Zhaozhao's Self-Help Guide" and "When I Reunited with Jun for the First Time".
"Pioneer Plan" is a venture capital plan launched by Youku Open Academy last year, focusing on the investment, financing, incubation and research and development of online dramas, mini-dramas and online movies. The five works displayed in detail in this "Creation Plan 2023 - Go All Out, Short 'Gathering' the Future" are displayed in detail, some of which have just completed the filing, and some have not been started soon. The roadshow format gives more industry exposure to high-quality projects, and the comments and "open mic" after the project display also provide valuable experience for creators who want to dive into this track.
Senior practitioners such as Bai Yiqing, CEO of Linghe Culture, He Junyi, chairman of Wannian Pictures, appeared at the judges' chair to gain insight into the key to each roadshow repertoire, and even did not forget to teach young producers "hand-in-hand" PPT speech experience. Every team that wants to try a mini-drama is among them, not only to sweep away the anxiety of creation, but also to learn and be useful.
After the outbreak period in 2022, micro-short dramas have now entered the era of quality. For this promised land of milk and honey, each platform has relevant support plans. Youku's pioneering roadshow demonstrates Youku's unprecedented determination in the micro-drama track. Whether it is the richness of the story of the film list or the experience sharing of the project producer, everyone on the scene can personally feel the heavy upgrade of the support scale of Youku short drama.
Liu Huabo, head of Youku PGC long dramas and short dramas, said that the platform's budget and business scale for micro-short dramas have gone further than last year. The works selected for the creation plan can receive one-on-one assistance in the whole production process such as script optimization, visual upgrade, and marketing gameplay. Zhang Zhang, the producer of "Reunion with Jun at the First Meeting", mentioned in sharing that when the script was polished and submitted to the platform, it was recognized by Tencent, Youku and Mango at the same time, and finally chose to cooperate with Youku, precisely because Youku not only gave professional script evaluation opinions in the early stage, but also encouraged the main creative team to start again when the project encountered a bottleneck, and finally had today's work.
"When I reunited with Jun at first meeting" producer Zhang Zai
Zhang Weiwei, vice president of Xinge Culture, said that the company had previously focused on the field of copyright custom dramas, and the help in Youku short drama business gave the company a lot of confidence. The platform has the systematic advantage of integrating resources, which not only allows good stories to go from zero to one, but also helps the story advance through linkage cooperation.
More than 50 representatives of investors and VCs were invited at the event. After the roadshow ended, the two works "When I Reunited with Jun at First Meeting" and "A Thousand Golds" reached new cooperation intentions in terms of content and business respectively.
Resource supply and practical support are on the one hand, and the other major aspect of the creation plan is the summary and sharing of production methodology. This is also the service that Youku, which adheres to long-term principles, has been doing.
At the end of last year, the "Pioneer Project" held three online sharing activities, inviting the main creators of popular projects, professional commercialization teams and platform business parties to share in detail the experience of short drama creation, content commercialization gameplay, and the platform's creative philosophy, which received numerous praises.
In this roadshow event, Bai Yiqing and He Junyi, as senior producers, will give their own suggestions on the immature ideas of the project during the Q&A session. Referring to the positioning of the producer, Bai Yiqian shared, "Our company's great requirement for the producer is to see if he can guarantee that if the director is replaced in the middle of a play, the finished film will still not be out of shape. Deep involvement in quality control is the core capability of producers. ”
Bai Yiqing
The quality of the subdivided theme breaks through
Emotional mini-dramas have become platform hard currency, and how to "roll" new ideas in the Red Sea track has made every creator scratch his head. The five mini-dramas of this roadshow are all in the romance category, but the emotional narrative and element integration are eye-catching.
"Immortal Monarch Has Calamity" is a rare fairy game theme in the field of mini-dramas. Producer Yang Jie called it the fairy tale pure love version of "out of control player", the female protagonist entered the brain-computer game to find her lover's consciousness, but unexpectedly became the villain of the Demon Sect opposed to the male protagonist. "Desire Trap" is a woman's revenge on an elite family, and the contract love is full of extreme pulls. "A Thousand Gold" is an emotional werewolf killing of the heroine and four men. "Yang Zhaozhao's Self-Help Guide" fuses books + infinite streams, telling how the daughter of the prime minister lurks around the tyrannical villain to break the cycle. There is also a rebirth cycle in "When I Reunited with Jun and First Met", and the male protagonist was repeatedly assassinated by Bai Yueguang but never gave up.
Qian Jing, general manager of Youku Content Open Platform, mentioned at the beginning of the event that he was very worried that after a certain theme and setting exploded, he received many similar projects. The platform should take the lead in raising the banner of innovation, and it can be seen from the several works announced by the roadshow that Youku micro-short dramas are deeply rooted and attentive in the romance genre, and the emotional models of the five works have been differentiated.
After the roadshow, Liu Huabo announced the 2023 Youku short drama list. The film list subdivides the romance genre into three themes in response to women's emotional appeals.
One is the sweet but not greasy spring heart "pure love"; One is the "love and hate" that deeply integrates emotions with elements such as suspense and crossing, and is full of tension; The third category focuses on female power, with a wide range of genre radiation, parent-child ethics and anti-routine farming literature.
At the same time, although women are the main force of watching dramas, Youku has not forgotten the demands of male audiences, and the film list also includes four male frequency dramas such as "I Am Not a Soft Persimmon".
The weight piece is single, and the scene "wants to see" sounds. However, a good story from text to image still needs to overcome thousands of difficulties. As the producer said in the roadshow, after the script is formed, any link such as venue selection and shooting team running-in is "lost", and the final quality of the story will be "thousands of miles worse".
The main creators of the roadshow have brought their own first-hand experience to the practical problems of production. Talking about the paradox between the high investment of costume dramas and the low cost of micro-short dramas, Bai Yiqian mentioned that the construction cost of fairy tale scenes is quite high, and when some high-quality fairy dramas are filmed in Hengdian, if the micro-short dramas can be integrated and decentralized, it may be better solved.
After the roadshow is over, for the optimization and landing of different projects, Youku Short Play also has a perfect process to undertake to ensure maximum coverage of each pre-project, and the quality control of each link is not taken lightly. As early as 2021, Youku short dramas have launched the "Shake Plan" in response to the problem of scarce content sources and lack of support for potential creators, connecting Youku, IP platforms and producers through BB matching (cooperation between B-end companies) to escort high-quality projects, and successively launched high-quality short dramas such as "Heartbeat in Love" and "Don't Go Wild with Your Sister".
After nearly two years of development, the "Shake Plan" has been upgraded to a full-link support system from IP adaptation, pre-script, and promotion and marketing, and has been iteratively upgraded in multiple dimensions such as content, data, funds, and resources. In the project of this roadshow, "When I First Met with Jun" has been involved in advance, and the platform has matched corresponding resources in visual upgrading and creative marketing to help the project break the circle.
In the recommended film list, the IP of 6 short dramas has been screened and evaluated by the platform, and 80% of the projects have enjoyed pre-marketing services, further in script optimization and creative design, and can also receive strong support such as resource tilt after launch. Sun Ye, head of the short drama middle office of Youku Content Open Platform, said, "There is not much content in the refinement, how to explore high-quality pre-projects and do a good job in the whole process quality control, and better serve the short drama creators, this is our most concerned issue. ”
Platform advantages, driving the advanced business model
At the micro-short drama forum of last year's autumn fair, various producers were still talking about the dilemma of micro-short drama brand implantation. But now the popularity of the micro-short drama track has also made more brands pay attention to this new marketing outlet.
The short cycle and light volume of micro-short dramas bring more possibilities for brand cooperation. The refined narrative and viewing scenes of the micro-drama are closer to the market, the marketing is immediate, and the conversion link is clear. Li Dandan, general manager of commercial marketing on Youku, believes that the billing model of TOC also determines the commercial flexibility of micro-dramas. The commercialization requirements of TO B are higher, the value guidance and plot must be in line with the brand tone, and the micro-short drama facing users directly has more commercial space.
Li Dandan, general manager of commercial marketing on Youku
Youku is backed by a large entertainment group and has explored an innovative model for micro-drama brand marketing. For example, "Toast to the Sisters" named by Watsons in the film list, and "Human Intelligence Bureau", which has been launched on the platform, are trying to "advertise content", and the audience can feel the plot while realizing the effect of automatic planting, balancing the story and business.
During the roadshow of "A Thousand Gold", Li Dandan pointed out that there are many commercial monetization methods worth trying in addition to implantation. For example, integrate creative special effects, do online AI and other innovative advertising forms. In a large entertainment group, Youku can also do joint publicity with Tao, and distribute the plot highlights in the shopping. The rich ecological resources and merchant system outside the site are Youku's unique advantages, and the distribution scenarios and contact points are diverse, which will help the platform explore more ways to combine marketing and plot in the future.
It can be seen that from content output, promotion to commercialization, micro-short dramas continue to achieve value leaps in Youku. The foundation of good marketing is good stories, good stories come from co-creation, and this roadshow allows more practitioners to feel how platforms and creators can help each other. Starting a plan is just a small step in the platform, and then we are waiting for the film list to meet us one after another.
【Text/Kwai Chung】