Author|Jianjiao
Are "Hot and Hot" and "Flying Life 2" considered sports movies? How did the film and game linkage of "You Are My Glory" and "Battle to the Peak" come about? How to complete the integrated narrative of film and television works and sports events? Where should the creation of sports-themed content go in the future?
On April 18, Entertainment Capital (ID: Yulezibenlun) was invited by the Organizing Committee of the 14th Beijing International Film Festival to host the Beijing International Sports Film Week's vertical forum focusing on sports film and television comprehensive projects. At the forum with the theme of "Persistence and Innovation in Sports Content Creation", many industry representatives and producers who have handled successful cases in the field of sports competition shared their observations and thoughts on these issues.
Founder of Entertainment Capital Dawson Cheng
Whether it is traditional sports or emerging e-sports, the proportion of sports in people's lives is gradually increasing, and correspondingly, film and television variety works with sports as the incision have also become the creative trend that industry professionals pay attention to. However, the sports audience and the film and television variety audience do not coincide, how to lower the threshold of understanding, break down barriers, and make the organic integration of sportsmanship, sports culture and film and television variety content have become a proposition that both sides are concerned about.
The two key words of film and game linkage: respect and two-way professionalism
From the drama "Full-time Master" and "You Are My Glory" to the variety show "Battle to the Peak" and "Steady Sister to C", e-sports-themed film and television variety works emerge in an endless stream, and it is also one of the categories that often receive cross-circle praise among sports-themed works.
Hero Sports VSPO is the largest organizer of e-sports events in China, and senior producer Yang Xiao positions himself and his team as "a person who tells good e-sports stories in film and television comprehensives". Yang Xiao has served as a game director for works such as "Full Time Master" and "You Are My Glory". In his keynote speech, he summed up the two most important keywords for making film and game linkage products: respect and two-way professionalism.
The first is to respect the creative rules of film and television works, in his opinion, there are three main themes that can be used for products that can be linked to film and games: realism, life emotions and hardcore sports. "Games lay a certain audience foundation for film and television works, and games can also enhance brand value and even increase daily activity through film and television works." ”
Bai Hongyu, the head of Tencent Video's Seven Ounces Studio, is also the producer of "Battle to the Peak", in his opinion, this e-sports variety show with the glory of the king as the carrier strives to achieve a two-way "breaking the circle": "From the perspective of pan-entertainment, variety shows are trying to promote the spirit of e-sports, and at the same time, the influence of the show is also amplified by the powerful circle energy of e-sports." ”
When it comes to the practical level, both parties need to respect each other's professionalism. Yang Xiao mentioned that "You Are My Glory" adopted the design of the literary drama and game parts of the film and television works to be completed by two directors respectively, "The production team fully gave our team trust and creative freedom, which also made "You Are My Glory" highly praised by the core players of "Glory of Kings" to a large extent."
In e-sports variety shows, this respect is reflected in the observance of the rules of the event. Bai Hongyu took "Battle to the Peak" as an example: "The e-sports industry itself has the foundation that can be varied, because its entire order and logic are clear, and there is a lot of space for reality shows when the rules are used, and then celebrities from all walks of life who really love and respect e-sports come here, and the strong competitive attributes of the show may amplify the relationship between characters and emotional expressions, such as the relationship between teammates and opponents, and also include the real emotions brought by the rules of competition." Third, respect the rules and respect the truth, 'the future is undecided, you and I are dark horses', which is also the biggest charm of sports competition. ”
Bai Hongyu, head of Tencent Video Seven Ounces Studio
The second key word of film and game linkage summarized by Yang Xiao is two-way professionalism. In the early creation of the film and game linkage, Yang Xiao heard the most from his collaborators: "The director is the player of this game, so we have new confidence to do a good job." But in his opinion, the director's mere hobby of gaming does not guarantee the emergence of blockbuster film and game linkages.
"The two-way major requires that the director needs to have a deep understanding of the e-sports culture and the e-sports industry, so as to know how to avoid the thunder points and realize your character creation and story expression in the cross-border culture of the e-sports circle. Similarly, if you are a senior e-sports practitioner, you also need to raise your directing level to the industry average level when directing film and television dramas, so that you can really output your views in the crew and form a better linkage. ”
On this basis, the main creative team has to solve two key problems: one is how to make ordinary audiences who don't usually play games understand the scenes of the game, and the other is how to let gamers who prefer to watch e-sports events put down their handles, mobile phones, keyboards, and mice to watch the movie and game linkage drama series.
Hero Sports VSPO Senior Producer Yang Xiao
For the first question, Yang Xiao proposed the concept of "cross-border translator", that is, to translate the emotions and stories contained in the game screen to filmmakers in a language that they can understand, so that they can understand the logic of expression in the game world. At the same time, it is also necessary to translate the content to every audience in front of the screen. The most basic requirement of this translation is to distill the lowest level of emotion contained in the game's visual presentation.
Take "You Are My Glory" as an example, episodes 13 to 14 have 50% of the footage playing games, but this part still doesn't "drive away". "The most brushed barrage in these two episodes is 'Although I can't understand what's going on in it at all, but I'm burning in a mess', we have done it by splitting the entire e-sports event into the most basic common human emotions, such as letting the commentary accelerate the speed of speech when it is going to burn, and the screen selection has a strong impact, and it is about the bonds to play back their tacit training, the accumulation of emotions, etc., and use traditional film and television language and the way to expand emotions to express it. ”
So how to make the game e-sports audience interested in film and television variety works? Yang Xiao also extracted four specific suggestions:
First, tell the player's own story. When gamers' hobbies are not generally recognized by society, they want their true stories and their passions to be shown by dramas, which is the core of attracting players.
Second, players should feel that the main creative team is their own people. "Once the player feels that the director understands us, whether it is a player or a fan of that team, even if there are some small mistakes in the back of the work, the player will take the initiative to help you out. This is very evident in "Full Time Master". ”
Third, professional game technology and visual presentation. For example, "You Are My Glory" uses the original picture of Glory of Kings to undertake the CG lens screen with the picture of the push camera, in order to let players experience the game we all love from a different game perspective, and win unanimous praise from players.
Fourth, the fun of finding memes. Use clever ways to bury game-related stalks in the plot to stimulate the second creation of self-media.
From the emphasis on competition to the return to the individual, a new narrative of the sports theme
From "Women's Basketball No. 5" directed by Jin in the 50th year of the last century, to the later "Breaking the Wind", "Winning the Championship", "Chinese Ping Pong", "In the Octagonal Cage", "Warm", etc., sports-themed films have never been absent in the Chinese film market.
The two head films of the Spring Festival file also contain sports elements: the heroine in "Hot and Hot" "wins once" for herself by practicing boxing, and the protagonist in "Flying Life 2" realizes his bloody dream through motorsports. Generally speaking, if the main character of a movie is engaged in a certain sport, we would call it a sports movie, but at the beginning of the forum, the guests had a heated discussion about whether "Hot and Hot" and "Flying Life 2" are sports movies.
Founder of Entertainment Capital, Wu Lixiang
Xu Zhiyong, vice president and senior producer of Chinese Pictures, believes that both films can be called sports movies, because they both have sports projects and graft personal growth stories from sports projects. "In the past, we would look at whether a sports project won glory for the country from a more macro perspective, but these two films are more inward-looking, interpreting sports as a part of life, which is also the reason for the high box office of the two films. ”
Professor Wang San, head of the performance major of Shanghai Sport University, believes that "sports and movies can reflect people's pursuit of beauty, and sports movies, sports stories, sports characters and sports projects that are expressed in movies are sports movies, which are also popular movie themes among the audience." ”
Professor Wang San, head of the performance major of Shanghai Sports University
Yu Wenhao, chairman of Yourui Media, is a professional martial arts athlete, in 2003 as a professional manager of a large domestic production company, his team not only produced the first domestic variety show "Brave Mobilization" in which ordinary people challenged movie stunts at that time, but also cooperated with Beijing Satellite TV and Jackie Chan in China's first kung fu talent show "Descendants of the Dragon".
"I don't think either movie can be considered a sports movie. "Hot and Hot" is a pure comedy, while the "Flying Life" series is a counterattack film produced according to the Hollywood model, in which the sports elements are replaced by any element that can stimulate the protagonist to make a breakthrough. The first basis for judging whether a work is a sports-themed work is to look at its circle, that is, who the first audience it attracts, but the basic plate that these two movies attract is not sports fans. Yu Wenhao said.
Yu Wenhao, chairman of Yourui Media
Although there are different opinions on whether a specific movie is a sports movie, the guests present agreed that a new narrative trend has emerged from the country to the individual in sports-themed content. From the early "glory for the country" to the narrative related to personal life and destiny, this also indicates a new incision in the creation of works of this kind in the future.
"Sports movies need to find more emotional connections with the audience", Zhu Ling, vice president of Sun Moon Starlight Media, analyzed, "In the past, when we talked about sportsmanship, we all worked hard and fought back, and these associated emotions were 'volume', but this doesn't seem to be a word that young people like now." Therefore, simple "inspirational stories" can no longer move them, and they need to have more resonant values. For example, the heroine of "Hot and Hot" does not fight boxing to win the championship, for work, or for her boyfriend, but in order to get herself out of the trough, in fact, it explains the concept of why you win and win from another level. This is something that most young people can relate to now. ”
AI Mapping by Entertainment Capital
Non-fiction documentaries may be more closely associated with sports than fictional film stories. The team of Cai Qiude, the founder of Bell Frog Sports, has been focusing on the field of sports documentaries, and has spent two years filming the Japanese high school football documentary "Football Youth Development", and also filmed "Ala Shenhua" and the Chinese League documentary in China.
Cai Qiude believes that the focus of making sports documentaries is to find the real way sports are in life. For example, he wanted to go to Japan to shoot "Football Youth Development" because he learned a story through a small feature film: "The Japanese high school football competition is a single elimination from the county competition to the national competition, for all high school football children, the entire high school career only has this one chance to play, he used this game to say goodbye to all teachers, classmates, seniors, farewell to his entire high school football career, in fact, this sense of ritual is very full in their lives, is a very touching theme of passionate youth." ”
Founder of Dangwa Sports Cai Qiude
Cai Qiude still remembers a subject in "Ala Shenhua", he is a fan of Shenhua, who has opened a string of incense shop next to the Hongkou Football Stadium for seven years, and the main customers are fans who watch Shenhua games every week. But because of the epidemic, the store couldn't support it, and the boss even replaced his Land Rover with Roewe to drive an online car-hailing car, but a year after filming the documentary, he still lost 40,000 yuan a month, and finally had to close the store. "Shenhua, the city's business card symbol, love and belief in sports, and the real appearance of their lives are part of our sports culture. ”
Different from the content of traditional film and television comprehensive topics, sports itself has its own order and rules, and when the two are linked and blended, it is often necessary to find a different narrative method from the past.
Chinese Pictures is currently preparing to develop two sports-themed films, involving sports elements such as rafting and e-sports. In the creative process, Xu Zhiyong found that the creation of a sports-themed film was difficult from the beginning, "We had to decide whether the story should focus on the professionalism of the athlete or the story behind him, and at the same time find a universality for everyone to understand the sport." In addition, it is not as easy to distinguish between good guys and bad guys in the arena as in cop movies or other drama films, and you can't tell the story with traditional routines, so you need to find a special way of storytelling. ”
Xu Zhiyong, vice president and senior producer of Chinese Pictures
In this fusion narrative, Wang San and Yu Wenhao both emphasize that specific creation needs to follow the objective laws of sports, that is, the competitiveness and fairness of sports, "The purpose of competitive sports is to strive for victory in the process of never giving up, and victory is not just the victory or defeat of the game." The final ring match of "Hot and Hot" did not allow Jia Ling to win against professional athletes, which not only respected the law of winning and losing in competitive sports, but also reflected the sportsmanship of overcoming oneself. Wang San believes that this is the reason why "Hot and Hot" is worthy of affirmation.
Yu Wenhao once wrote a movie script for an amateur soccer team to win a professional soccer team, and the main character is a yesterday's star who retired ten years ago. But the biggest challenge the project faced at the time was: "It doesn't fit the general perception of the vast majority of people." Even though the Football Association Beijing Guoan was defeated by a purely amateur team last year, this kind of story still needs to find a way to tell it that is more acceptable to the public. ”
Connecting emotions and leveraging events, it is a new possibility for sports-themed content to break the circle
Generally speaking, the audience of film and television variety does not completely coincide with the audience of sports events, so how to promote it from the circle to the wider public level has also become a difficult problem in content creation.
Bai Hongyu mentioned that when thinking about sports themes from the perspective of content production of variety shows, he will think from the perspective of vertical development, such as a high concentration of circles means the blessing of user stickiness. "We may consider the strong appeal of the representatives in this field in the user group, whether the existing order has a clear promotion path for the reality show to dismantle, the prominent logo of the cultural category and whether it is possible for the guests to cut in, etc. ”
The second is from the perspective of cultural promotion, "We are infected by the spirit of these professional e-sports athletes, and we hope to use the means of variety shows to graft this kind of theme to convey the spiritual core of the theme and the charm of the fresh circle" In addition, the circle is more active in the context of communication, and objectively helps the spread of the program.
Sun, Moon and Starlight Media produced and produced the original basketball competition programs "This is Slam Dunk" and "I Want to Play Basketball". In Zhu Ling's view, the big difference between sports variety shows and other variety shows is respect and persistence, that is, respecting the professionalism and rules of the sports project itself, and at the same time, insisting on protecting real games and real stories. Because, "every score on the field is unpredictable, we can't set the outcome of the game, and we can't control everyone's choices in the face of competitive pressure, but the best and most exciting things are often these things that you don't expect." For example, the 'King of Passers-by' will be defeated by the students of the Conservatory, which is a plot that the screenwriter can't write. ”
And the director's consciousness should be used more to amplify the personality and cuteness of the characters. "Creating more possibilities for character relationships and space for testing choices will make the character's personality fuller. Zhu Ling said.
Zhu Ling, Vice President of Sun Moon Starlight Media
Xu Zhiyong believes that the most important thing in the creation of sports-themed content is character creation and audience resonance, "Participating in the Olympic Games or other events is just a carrier, the most important thing is the charm of the characters, and whether the values of the characters are recognized by everyone." For example, the curling event may not be understandable to everyone, but when the national flag is raised, I believe everyone resonates. ”
In addition to content creation, Migu also provides new opportunities for sports content to "break the circle" in the publicity and distribution stage.
Sun Weijia, director of film and television publicity and distribution business of Migu Music Co., Ltd., shared that at present, China Mobile's video CRBT business has more than 400 million users, with a monthly playback volume of more than 17 billion. Relying on the dual core advantages of mobile media communication network + Internet, it has brought a full-scene marketing medium for sports content promotion and distribution through matrix products such as Migu Music Express APP, Video Color Account, Subscription Account and rich online and offline channel contacts in 31 provinces across the country.
China Mobile Migu is currently one of the most comprehensive sports rights platforms in China, including the Olympic Games, World Cup, European Cup, Chinese Super League, five major leagues, Champions League, CBA, NBA and other event copyrights. In Migu Music Extreme Edition, users can not only watch the live broadcast of the Super League on the vertical screen, brush up on the short videos of massive event content, but also set the highlights of the event as video ringtones, so that every call can cheer for sports.
Sun Weijia, director of film and television publicity and distribution business of Migu Music Co., Ltd
In addition to innovating with "dual-core" advantages to help sports content reach users in an all-round way and help sports content go out of the circle, Migu also attaches great importance to the integration of quality and efficiency. Not only is it exposed simultaneously through video ringtones and celebrity alarms before and during the call, but Migu also sends text messages after the call through 5G color printing, CRBT red envelopes, coupons and interactive activities, etc., to further achieve actual conversion.
Cai Qiude found that the current proportion of sports in the structure of Chinese people's life is still very low, far from reaching the level of "sports is life", which leads to the output and feedback of domestic sports content To C is still in a very early stage, and everyone is still entangled in the problem of "professionalism" in sports theme content.
However, Zhu Ling believes that the trend of national sports has become more and more obvious, not only young people, but also the elderly and children will consciously participate in sports, compared with five or six years ago, the age and gender differences of the audience of sports-themed content are narrowing. This is a great opportunity for sports content creation.
The biggest challenge of sports variety shows comes from innovation, compared with the previous consideration of how to make the content "break the circle", at present, Zhu Ling's team is thinking more about how to make the content into an IP, an event, they are preparing for middle school football as the theme of games and stories, "Do it in a more active way, integrate character stories, hot events, long and short videos, it is no longer just a program, but an event." ”
Extending sports content to combine with the sports industry, borrowing the broader energy of events and society to "break the circle", the innovation of sports vertical content is bursting out more energy from point to point.