Platform change, the return of the original cast, the change and unchanged of film and television sequels?

The first half of this year is the spring of domestic sequel drama shooting, and has ushered in the start of "Great Rivers 3" and "Tang Dynasty Mystery 2", "Qing Yu Nian 2" and "White Night Chase 2" that have not moved for many years have also been officially announced to start filming, and sequels such as "Son-in-law 2", "Chang'an Twelve Hours 2" and "Langya List 3" are also appetizing.

The era of sequels is coming, but good sequels are difficult to produce, on the one hand, the fans' eagerness, on the other hand, the "fate" of dog-tailed sequels, under the trend of the overall development of the quality of domestic dramas in the direction of quality, can these sequels to be filmed to be broadcast break the "sequel curse"? became our concern.

Quality decline, main creative changes

The platform is still willing to pay

For domestic drama sequels, the biggest problem is how to maintain the continuity of word of mouth and quality. Looking at the previous sequel works that were expected to be full before the broadcast, there are very few that have a double harvest of real popularity and word-of-mouth, and most of them from the "Forensic Qin Ming" series, "River God 2" to "Youth Pi 2" are difficult to escape the doom of declining quality.

The main reason for this problem is the change in the main creative lineup. After the first drama caught fire, it was difficult for the sequel to get together the original production team, firstly, the problem of actor's salary and schedule could not be properly solved, and secondly, the actor was popular and avoided such dramas because he was worried about the fixed role. And the change of actors, the audience will inevitably compare with the previous work, and the preconceived impression will also affect the popularity of the sequel. For example, the directors, screenwriters, and starring actors of "Heartless Mage 2, 3", "River God 2" and "Will Night 2" have all undergone different degrees of blood changes, not only the quality has plummeted, but it is also difficult to attract original fans.

After the explosion of the series, it will attract more advertisers and investors, the "creative environment" is becoming more and more complex, and the voice of content controllers such as screenwriters and directors may be weakened, affecting the overall quality of the sequel, producer Hou Hongliang revealed in an interview that after "Ode to Joy 2" pushed off half of the ads, it was still complained by the audience that there were too many advertisements, and there was a "water-injected plot".

Due to the production mode of domestic dramas, unlike British and American dramas, there is a concept of "season broadcasting", actors cannot focus on one role for many years, and the main creator lacks forward-looking and long-term when doing project development, and the production of sequels is often based on market feedback to decide whether to continue. The creation cycle is inevitably rushed, and the subsequent word of mouth can be imagined.

However, the "sequel curse" does not stop the platform's determination to develop a sequel, and for the platform, the sequel is undoubtedly a "safety card" in their hands. Since the previous work has been successful in the market, it is natural to shoot a sequel, it is not only more time-saving and labor-saving than redeveloping new projects, but also has a more brand effect, the previous work has been tested in the market, investing in a sequel will also reduce risks, and there is no need to re-conceptualize the sequel in terms of publicity. In addition, viewers' complaints are more about the quality of the series than about the "sequel" itself. The point is that the tastes of the audience are getting higher and higher, and only really high-quality sequels will stand out.

Change: A difficult attempt to break the "sequel curse"

Therefore, in recent years, platforms and producers have begun to explore the development of sequels, although it cannot be said that they have summarized a successful creative methodology, but at least they have gone in several directions, each with its own characteristics.

First of all, it is to use the brand effect of the original work to develop serially from the same IP and play the concept of "universe".

For example, after "Little Parting" focused on the "young study abroad tide" fire, Ningmeng Pictures began to consciously create a "small series", so the audience saw the "college entrance examination family" formed by Dong Wenjie and Fang Yuan in "Little Huanxi". It not only avoids the problem of the main creator being uneven, but also maintains a little correlation with the original work, which will not waste the value of "IP" and will not cause the aesthetic fatigue of a single story.

In terms of data, according to CSM35 city data, "Little Parting" won the championship in ratings for a total of 11 days during the broadcast period, with a cumulative number of 4.68 billion online views, and its search volume ranked TOP5 in Baidu's TV drama list and third in Baidu's mainland drama popularity list. and "Little Huanxi" ranked first in the TV drama screen list with a market share of 13.08%; The latest ratings of Oriental Satellite TV and Zhejiang Satellite TV also broke 1, and the effective playback of Yunhe Data feature films also reached 4.18 billion.

Secondly, there is the set mode, that is, all sequels are shot at once.

For example, after the "Ode to Joy" fire in 2017, Tencent announced that it would continue to develop the "Ode to Joy" series of TV series, the same actors, the same choreographers and production teams, but with a new story actor and character. "Ode to Joy 345" was filmed in one go, which lasted a total of 228 days. Although the subsequent reputation of the "Ode to Joy" series is controversial, this move undoubtedly ensures the continuity of the original cast and the story to the greatest extent.

The third is to unify copyright and plan ahead.

For example, the film and television development of the "Ghost Blowing Lights" series and the "Ghost Blowing Lights" IP once showed a chaotic state. Until 2015, Penguin Film and Television bought the adaptation rights of eight online dramas of "Ghost Blowing Lights" and announced that they would develop and launch them one by one. Starting from "Dragon Ridge Labyrinth", the planning of a number of consecutive seasonal dramas was opened, and a fixed cast composed of Pan Yueming, Zhang Yuqi and Jiang Chao was determined, which was stable in the content of the previous season and the next season, leaving a possibility for the follow-up. Even if there is a problem with the reputation of one season, the main creator can modify it in time in the next season. In other words, the creator has the opportunity for trial and error.

From these attempts, it can be predicted that the development of sequels will inevitably become an important development direction of the domestic drama market, so under this trend, it is foreseeable that from the reserve of IP to the development of sequels, "sustainable development" may become a measure of the selection of projects in the film and television industry.

Unchanged: Boutique strategic layout

However, if producers want to form a strong brand effect, they also need a cumulative and precipitated running-in process, and under the guidance of the payment model of video websites, the competition for content quality is also intensifying, and the production of sequels is further transformed.

It can be seen from the latest sequel project that major platforms are vying for the exclusive broadcast rights of popular sequels, and independent broadcasting has become the mainstream broadcast mode of major platforms, and the copyright of high-quality dramas has become a must-fight for major platforms. For example, "Big River 1 and 2" was originally broadcast on iYouteng Sanjia, and "Big River 3" became exclusive to iQiyi. In addition, some sequels have changed the broadcast platform, such as "Chang'an Twelve Hours 2" from the original broadcast platform Youku to Mango TV, and the copyright competition is extremely hot.

In addition, cost reduction and efficiency increase provide a good external foundation for the quality of dramas, and in recent years, the platform has focused all high-quality resources on the head content, which has higher requirements for the production team, and it is necessary to focus more on creation and focus on the quality of the content of the series. For the development platform of the sequel, it is no longer blindly following the trend, the recently launched sequel project is preparing for the development of the next season when filming the first season, and the preliminary preparation of the second season has taken a long time, generally waiting until the script is perfected and the actor schedule is negotiated before announcing the start of filming, escorting the quality of the series.

The stability and continuity of the original team provide more possibilities for commercial operations, and are also in line with the IP thinking of long video platforms and the strategic thinking of IP operation. Although the market competition is more intense, the probability of "explosive models" is gradually increasing.

epilogue

Sequels are an important symbol of the film and television industry, which requires a framework for industrial operations to provide creativity and recruit stars to replicate the elements of success, and in this regard, Europe and the United States are obviously very experienced. And now domestic sequels have also begun to mature, indicating that practitioners have formed a consensus on the marketization of the film and television industry, and the multi-dimensional attributes of the drama are slowly being strengthened, which is an attempt by domestic dramas to follow the laws of the industry, and I believe that next year, domestic dramas will usher in the climax of the sequel.