Author: Weinika
Editor|Li Chunhui
"Flowers" was a hit, and the "cinematicization" of the drama finally achieved a comprehensive victory. Wong Kar-wai "went down to earth" to make movies, and his strong stylization was talked about inside and outside the circle, and he was about to set off an aesthetic revolution in the TV circle.
With the general trend of global streaming media development, it is not new for domestic and foreign directors to shoot dramas. From Feng Xiaogang to Zhang Yimou, domestic film directors all have drama projects in their hands. In terms of drama promotion, the "cinematic" gimmick has been popular since six or seven years ago, and even replicated the movie publicity and distribution model, putting the drama on the big screen for offline premieres.
But in addition to the fanfare of drama series "cinematicization", Hard Candy Jun noticed that the trend of "drama" of movies cannot be ignored. This aesthetic influence relationship between movies and TV series is not a single arrow, but a double arrow. While TV dramas are becoming more and more like "movies", movies are also becoming more and more like "TV series".
It's just that compared with the high-profile action of the "cinematic" drama, the "drama" of the movie is a little quiet. Maybe it's because there has always been an unwritten chain of contempt between movies and TV series. Saying that a TV series is like a movie is a compliment, and saying that a movie is like a TV series doesn't sound like a good thing no matter how you listen to it.
However, the real market is another matter. Looking back on domestic movies in 2023, movies with a deep "sense of drama" have become popular and have achieved great results.
The first is the head effect, from the summer champion "All or Nothing" to the National Day champion "Solid as a Rock", and even the Chinese New Year's word-of-mouth films "Three Teams" and "Annual Meeting Can't Stop!", etc., all have a strong "TV drama flavor". The second is the overall trend, standard Hollywood and Hong Kong genre films are no longer blockbusters, but the "simple" suspense film "Rescue the Suspect" is the blockbuster.
Of course, Hard Candy Jun is by no means belittling the above films. "TV drama taste" is not vulgar, mainly in terms of audio-visual language and movies. For example, TV dramas rely on line expression, near and middle scenes are the mainstay, and the scenery changes are small, etc.
In general, the audience for TV series is much larger than that of movies. If movies are becoming more and more like TV series, isn't it the movies that are expanding the audience?
What is "TV drama flavor"?
The most intuitive example is that if a Hong Kong director is asked to shoot a wire fraud theme like "All or Nothing", there will definitely be a lot of gunfights, spy wars, and police and bandit dramas. In short, the big scenes and big special effects are all in one pot, and strive to give the audience a thrilling and exciting audio-visual experience.
However, our mainland director bid for the Olympic Games, but he made an anti-fraud education propaganda film style like "When the Rule of Law is in Progress". Through the tripartite perspective of victims, police, and criminals, it tells a story about the damage to the interests of ordinary people through wire fraud.
In the general perception, "TV drama flavor" represents more of a down-to-earth atmosphere, and "earthy flavor" is its substitute word. But Hard Candy Jun thinks that movies and TV series are two different audio-visual language systems, and there is no distinction between high and low. Nowadays, because of the impact of streaming media on the film and television industry, the two audiovisual language systems have a tendency to gradually "assimilate".
Due to the different durations, broadcast media and audiences of movies and TV series, two different creative systems have been formed. The TV series is longer, and there is time to slowly lay out the characters and stories. But at the same time, because the average budget for each episode is limited, it relies more on close-up and medium-shot shots and a large number of lines to express. The plot of the TV series is mainly advanced through the dialogue of the characters, and the story is conveyed to the audience with lines.
Because of the limited duration, movies prefer concise line expressions, and tend to convey the story through richer audio-visual language and scene scheduling, which needs to mobilize the audience's subjective initiative to experience the complete story, or give the audience an ultimate sense of experience. For example, the movie "A Quiet Place", there are not a few lines in the whole process, but it is still a very successful sci-fi thriller. The audience can feel the state of the characters through its sound and picture, and follow the emotional ups and downs of the characters, and even dare not make a single sound throughout the whole process.
Nowadays, these style distinctions are difficult to say. Director Zhang Yimou, who pursues large-scale scenes and once persuaded Zhang Ziyi not to make TV series, has become more and more like a TV series since he took the light of "diligence and thrift" and made movies that are not too expensive. The taste of "Sniper" is close to the ancient CCTV movie, although "Solid as a Rock" has the blessing of "neon" photography aesthetics, but the narrative style is like the film version of "Hurricane".
The movie "The Three Teams" is directly like the super long trailer of the TV series. In addition to the fact that there are many medium and close scenes in the scenes, and the plot is driven by lines, its story volume is also very similar to that of a TV series. tells the history of ordinary criminal police chasing murderers for more than ten years, this kind of story with a large time span is more suitable for telling it in TV dramas. In the movie, it feels like the story is presented at each time stage, and it is all superficial and not enough fun.
Of course, the film book of "The Three Teams" was operated together with the purchase of the copyright, so it was calculated to use this kind of "not happy" to engage in drama and film linkage to attract a large number of moviegoers to watch the TV series of the same name.
Director Feng Xiaogang, who failed on New Year's Eve, previously revealed in a variety show that he was trying to keep up with the rhythm of the times and swiping a short video when promoting "If You Are Honest Do Not Disturb 3". But in his eyes, movies and TV series are still very different.
He likened the film to a dinner party, which he didn't know anyone, and the purpose was to make a deep impression on the people who came to the dinner party at a two-hour party. If the audience can't remember, then you're in trouble. And the TV series is like who moves a bunk to roll up in your house, you can't remember it today, and you will have a chance tomorrow.
Is Feng Xiaogang's understanding outdated? This is why he suffered a double kill of drama and film? We can't say, but maybe the era of "dinner party" in movies is really over for the time being.
Where did the "movie taste" go
There is no doubt that "cinematic taste" requires capital investment.
In the early years, Chinese films were produced within the planning system, but in fact, it didn't matter about the effect of the big screen, and there was not much difference between watching them on the small screen. Around 2000, after China's accession to the WTO, China's film industry was given a new mission - to develop China's film industry and make Chinese-language commercial blockbusters. Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang and other big directors have joined the ranks of blockbusters and made blockbusters with Chinese characteristics. In 2002, Zhang Yimou's "Hero" cost as much as 200 million.
Looking back at the present, the decline of "movie flavor" is closely related to the general environment of "reducing costs and increasing efficiency". The cost of the movies Zhang Yimou makes now may not be as good as 20 years ago.
Let's just say that these days, the announcement of the Spring Festival file is in full swing, but the most discussed topic in the circle is: there is no blockbuster in the Spring Festival file in 2024.
Judging from the trailer, Zhang Yimou's "Article 20" doesn't even have neon aesthetics, only the same documentary footage as "All or Nothing" remains. And "Let's Shake the Sun Together" is another terminally ill romance film directed by Han Yan, the "Holy Hand of Crying Films". "Mr. Red Carpet" is Ning Hao's version of "Dream Showbiz", which should be a money-saving light comedy. In contrast, "Flying Life 2" may barely be considered a "blockbuster", at least with director Han Han's beloved drag racing scene.
In the past three or four years, in addition to big IPs like "The Wandering Earth", which are escorted by official capital China Film, private capital has basically detoured to large-scale films, and a bunch of low-cost tear jerking films have emerged in the market. For example, the promoters of romance films represented by light, such as "Your Wedding" and "Ten Years of Warm Words", etc.; the promoters of "crying films" represented by Lianrui include "My Sister" and "Life Events"; even Bona, the big brother of the movie who made a lot of money at the box office, was extremely cautious and did not start a big project for a long time, and it was not until the end of last year that "Operation Red Sea 2" was opened.
Of course, it's not that only special effects blockbusters are called blockbusters. The main reason is that the current movies have lost their big-screen nature, and there is no rich audio-visual language and scene scheduling, which is closely related to capital investment. A lens shot for a regular shot, and a lens shot for a well-designed shot, is certainly not a cost price.
From the perspective of the development of global films, another reason for the decline of "movie taste" may be that "movie taste" itself is a bit out of date.
Under the impact of streaming media and short videos, the audience's viewing habits are changing. At the same time, because of the rise of short video film marketing, it has also affected the creation of the upstream end from the downstream end, and commercial trading projects will give priority to those that do not meet the characteristics of short video communication.
And since there is a short video, the market is like suddenly having channels and voices that represent the sinking market. Rough, unpretentious, down-to-earth creations are becoming a trend.
Is the fusion of drama and film a trend?
Hard Candy Jun is still struggling to distinguish between movies and TV series, but maybe, there will be almost no difference between movies and TV series in the future.
From the perspective of the global market, after the reshuffle of the film and television industry by streaming media, movies and TV series have a tendency to accelerate integration. Taking the Marvel Universe as an example, Disney's streaming series and movies released in theaters use similar production teams and post-production special effects. Even said that in terms of story, the quality of the series is better than that of the theater as a whole.
The three major domestic long video platforms have also been pushing "boutique short dramas", referring to the idea of making blockbuster online dramas in foreign streaming media, and this kind of "boutique short dramas" are indeed becoming more and more cinematic. At the same time, these older videos have also attracted a lot of film directors to make dramas. Film and television companies that smell the "cinematic" business opportunities are actively promoting the "drama and film linkage", and the filming of a story can eat both ends, both the drama market and the film market.
The recently released movies "Twinkle Twinkle Twinkle Star" and "Three Teams" can be regarded as a successful drama and film linkage. The former relied on the IP effect of the drama series to drive the box office of the movie of the same name, and the latter relied on the high reputation of the movie to bring a certain degree of popularity to the TV series broadcast in the same period. In terms of "drama and film linkage", the most concerned is Wong Kar-wai's "Flowers", the TV series has exceeded expectations, and the movie version naturally has no shortage of box office.
Although the integration of forms and styles of movies and TV dramas has become an inevitable trend, filmmakers still need to be cautious. The convergence trend of accelerated streaming media is actually on the opposite side of the traditional film industry. If film creation loses the characteristics of the big screen, it will also lose the need to watch it in the cinema.
Then, the entertainment method of cinema will eventually be abandoned by the times and become a very niche art form. Just like two years ago, Ning Hao and Jia Zhangke embraced streaming media and teamed up to shoot the short film "The Last Director on Earth" directed by Xu Lei, which allegorically said that in the future, films will become "intangible heritage of protection", and film equipment and materials are displayed in museums for people to visit.
According to the 2023 China Film Market Data Insight Report released by Maoyan, the number of movies per capita in 2023 is on a downward trend compared with before the epidemic, and even worse than the data in 2021. The number of moviegoers who watch more than three movies a year is decreasing, which means that cinemas are losing their depths.
Hard Candy Jun asked his fans and friends around him that the number of movies in the cinema has declined, mainly because of two points: one is that the window period is now shorter, and you can watch it online without waiting for a long time, and the other is that the number and quality of global cinema movies are declining, and there are not many films to choose from.
Movies have indeed entered the sinking market, festivals and social viewing in third- and fourth-tier cities have become consumption habits, and the repurchase rate of old fans is declining. The choice in front of filmmakers is nothing more than to either take the initiative to embrace a new style and attract new audiences, or to refine the taste of the film and please the fan-level audience. It's the audience who still likes the traditional movie style, so they can only watch it and cherish it.