"The long night will be over, and the truth will be revealed. ”
In the main visual poster of the White Night Theater, the strong contrast between black and white, light and dark, and the "protagonist" who stands on the top of the city as if watching the truth and justice are all interpreting the charm of the suspense drama, and it is also the new value anchor left by Youku on the suspense track.
On April 24, two days after the official announcement of the theater upgrade, Youku released the first batch of film lists for the White Night Theater. From the eight dramas of "Faint Fire", "Once Upon a Time by the Water", "Sandstorm", "Black and White Jue", "Wilderness", "Cocoon Breaking 2", "Snow Labyrinth" and "New Life", we can clearly understand the long-term goals and content value pursuit of White Night Theater: build a unique social suspense temperament, focus on the issues of the times and social issues, and deepen the core value and humanistic care.
Nowadays, the video platform has been in the suspense track for about ten years, if in the last stage, the entire market and Youku are continuing to explore the way of high-quality suspense themes, then with the launch of the White Night Theater as a starting point, Youku aims at the current mature suspense track, the way to establish differentiated competitive advantages and first-mover advantages.
The first shot of differentiation
The official announcement poster of the White Night Theater takes the transition from the night before dawn to the light as the core vision, and after the darkness fades away and the light returns, the slogan of "The long night will end, and the truth will be revealed" emerges. From the contrast between black and white and chiaroscuro on the poster, it is not difficult to see the new idea of the White Night Theater, that is, in the suspenseful journey of peeling off the cocoon, not forgetting the pursuit and exploration of truth and justice.
Nowadays, suspense dramas are not only an evergreen theme in the market, but also one of the most important content tracks for video platforms. Youku, which was the first to achieve high-quality products in a track, was the first to realize the importance of establishing differentiated competitive advantages with a relatively unified value anchor.
In the first stage of the development of suspense dramas, it was the content that built the label effect of suspense theaters, but now, the high-order thinking embodied in Youku's White Night Theater venue is the deepening of the underlying logic of theater creation: to explore deeper social issues and interpret deeper human care.
"Faint Fire", which carries many social issues, is about to fire the first shot of the White Nights Theater, and if you read this first series, you can understand where the White Nights Theater will go in the future.
The story of "Faint Fire" revolves around a bizarre murder in the town of Clearwater at the turn of the millennium, after the town's tranquility is broken, the most beautiful woman in the town, Nanya, is swept into the center of the storm, because the deceased is her husband. And there is also an eyewitness involved in the case with Nanya: Zhou Luo, the first person in the town to be admitted to a prestigious university but dropped out halfway.
In the "Riddler" trailer of "Faint Fire", it is difficult for the audience to judge whether this murder case is Nanya's legitimate defense or her conspiracy with Zhou Luo. But one thing is for sure, Nanya has not only been slandered by rumors and obscenities for a long time, but also a victim of domestic violence.
"In terms of appearance, anyone will choose Nanya. ”
"They always want something from me, and if they don't get it, they will be cruel and smeared. ”
The trailer of "Faint Fire" is full of oppression and pain, but the tone of the story is rebellion after being suppressed to the extreme. Nanya questions why she can only live in a dark corner, and asks if what happened to her is fair, and she does not surrender to fate. It can be seen that the landing point of "Faint Fire" is Nanya's awakening and redemption, the independent spirit of the individual, and the refutation of "beauty is a kind of original sin".
Nanya struggles to survive like a butterfly trapped in a glass bottle in the trailer, and the shattering of the glass bottle undoubtedly symbolizes freedom and rebirth. Unlike traditional suspense dramas, which prefer dark tones, there are a lot of bright tones in "Faint Fire", which is also a hint of the direction of the plot.
After releasing the rekindled version of the trailer and the trailer of the millennium unsolved case, "Faint Fire" sparked heated discussions on Weibo and Douyin and other platforms, and the public's discussion points were the strong suspense thrown out by the trailer "whether she killed or he killed", and the second was the social issues such as anti-domestic violence, anti-public opinion violence, and legitimate defense that were deeply discussed in the play.
In recent years, Youku has been involved in a wide range of social issues in the suspense track, such as "Meritorious Service: Old Things in the Northeast" and "Coward" are both "Northeast Narratives", but the core of the value discussed is completely different, the former focuses on the greed of small people in the big era, and the latter tells about "perseverance and betrayal" and "courage and fairness".
The audience needs suspense dramas that reflect reality realistically and sharply, and they also need them to give gentle humanistic care, which is why "Faint Fire" will be popular before it is broadcast. From suspense theater to white night theater, Youku's focus on social issues is becoming more and more diversified, and its speculation on human nature, fate, and complex social issues is also further deepening.
As the first series of the White Nights Theater, the configuration of "Faint Fire" can be described as quite high. First of all, the leading actors are all powerful actors, with a high degree of adaptability to the characters in the play, Tong Yao, who reveals a sense of perseverance in the fragility, and Zhang Xincheng, the "Genius Boy Queen" in the domestic drama, were evaluated by the audience as the chosen Nanya and Zhou Luo.
Secondly, director Yao Xiaofeng has won the Huading Award for Best Director of Top 100 TV Dramas, and "Together" and "Wind Chaser" in the past one or two years are all high-scoring masterpieces. After the trailer was released, the topic of #"Faint Fire" lens language# became hot, in addition to the affirmation of the film-level texture and composition, the audience is also discussing the deep meaning behind the upside-down lens and the contrast between light and dark tones.
Step into the "deep water" of social suspense
In exploring deeper social issues and interpreting the two major values of deeper human care, Youku White Night Theater's long-term goal is to build a social suspense content matrix and find a new path and space for high-quality suspense dramas. In the next year or two, the content layout of the White Night Theater has been clearly revealed in the first batch of films.
"Faint Fire", "Once Upon a Time by the Water", "Sandstorm", "Black and White Jue", "Wilderness", "Cocoon Breaking 2", "Snow Labyrinth" and "New Life" The eight dramas have different characteristics, but they basically follow three creative rules: one is the differentiation of subdivided themes and styles, the second is the diversification of social issues and value cores, and the third is that there is a solid creative team standing behind them.
Let's first look at the subdivision of themes and styles. Youku has always been very good at the production of composite themes in the suspense track, such as the theft theme "The Gate of Rebirth", the legal theme "Out of Court", and the youth theme "Coward", and now the White Night Theater has been upgraded to "social suspense", in addition to the traditional crime suspense "Sandstorm" and "Snow Maze", "Faint Fire" is an emotional theme, "Once Upon a Time by the Water" is a survival adventure theme, and "Wilderness" is an anti-fraud theme.
In addition, the eight dramas have their own unique styles, such as the coexistence of fireworks and technology in "The Wilderness" from the trailer, the "Western" of "Sandstorm" filmed in Dunhuang and Guazhou Liuyuan in Gansu Province is full of aesthetic charm, and the three-sided slope in "Once Upon a Time in the Water" is full of exotic colors. The differentiation of subdivided themes and styles is not only to meet the needs of suspense lovers with different preferences, but also to ensure the diversity of the content of the vertical track.
The second is the diversification of social issues and values. The domestic drama version of Rashomon's "New Life" tells the story of the deceitful genius Fei Ke: the scammer may not have good intentions, and the victim may not be completely innocent, "New Life" outlines the desires of all living beings under the complex social ecology and the good and evil in the chaos.
The original script "Sandstorm" uses a chase that spans eight years to connect the life process and human struggle of a group of people in a small western town who are affected by a serial murder. "Sandstorm" not only focuses on human nature, but also is a microcosm of the times, as screenwriter Zhao Dongling said: "We hope that "Sandstorm" can write about the fate of people and the difficulties encountered by people in the context of rapid development of modernization. ”
Among the eight dramas, adapted from the novel of the same name by the Genius Catcher Project Oral True Story Library, the two protagonists are very rare "old and young matches" in the previous suspense drama market. The story between Uncle Chai, who wanders between various forces, and Shen Xing, a part-time worker who accidentally lives on the three slopes, tells the magical thriller and cruel tragedy in the real disordered environment, and it is also a rare perseverance to beauty and doing good.
The typical feature of social suspense dramas is to deeply explore the complexity of human nature in the context of social changes, and to explore the collision and integration of individuals and the big era. The depth of art determines that social suspense is the most difficult bone to gnaw on the suspense track, and this time Youku is all bet in, which shows its courage.
What matches Youku's content ambitions is the first batch of staggering main creative lineups with luxurious film lists. In addition to Guo Qilin, Zhang Yu, Wang Qiang and other powerful actors of the new generation, Wu Zhenyu in "Once Upon a Time in Border Water", Duan Yihong in "Sandstorm", Wang Yanhui and Huang Jue in "New Life", Liang Guanhua in "Snow Labyrinth", etc., are all actors or old actors, which can be said to be suspenseful and ecstatic lineups.
The production team of the eight dramas is also highly matched. "Snow Labyrinth" is produced by Zhang Yimou, and the director is Lu Xing, who has directed the high-scoring suspense drama "Undocumented Crime"; the producer of "Once Upon a Time by the Water" is Cao Baoping, and the director Lao Suan has collaborated with Youku on the high-scoring suspense drama "Madhouse"; the producer of "Sandstorm" is Gao Qunshu, and the script is written by gold medal screenwriter Zhao Dongling, and "New Life" is directed by the director of the 2023 summer box office champion "All or Nothing" for the Olympic bid.
From the suspense theater to the White Night Theater, the upgrade and transformation of Youku's suspense content texture is inseparable from the value pursuit at the macro level of the platform, as well as the "thousands of dramas and thousands of faces" innovation realized in the theme style and social issues based on accurate market judgment, and it also needs a solid creative team to support the implementation of the content. These are all components of texture, and they are indispensable.
Judging from external feedback, Youku's creative attitude of strict selection and control in the social suspense track is also where the audience's confidence lies. "Faint Fire" exploded before it was broadcast, and since last year, after the trailer of "Once Upon a Time in the Water", "New Life", "Wilderness Realm" and the finale special of "Sandstorm" have been released one after another, the audience's expectations are full.
Building the unique social temperament of the White Night Theater is Youku's long-term goal in the suspense track. In the current era of relying on content to speak, Youku's first batch of film lists is enough to convince the outside world that it has the confidence to go further and more steadily in the most challenging deep water area.