Text | New Sound Pro, Author | Fan Jiaheng
The short video brings an unknown city out of the circle, and we have seen a lot: Zibo, Harbin, Tianshui, Litang......
There are countless cases of a long drama bringing fire to the city and traveling: "The Twelve Hours of Chang'an" is in Xi'an, "The Wind Rises in Luoyang" is in Luoyang, "To a Windy Place" is in Dali, "Hurricane" is in Jiangmen, and even "The Red Lantern Hangs High" in Pingyao.
What about micro-skits?
In terms of the density of appearance, it is not as good as short videos. Behind the latter, there are countless influencers, Internet celebrities, and ordinary users who chase traffic passwords, and the repeated second creation blessings of ordinary users, with their own topic amplification levers and hot search physique;
In terms of immersion and persistence, it is not as good as a long drama. The city becomes a container for the story and even a part of the fate of the characters, sparking widespread discussion during broadcasts and discussion periods that last for weeks or even a month or two.
The common feature of the two is that behind the outing of a city, there is actually the support of a large number of resources. Short videos are the creation and onlooker time invested by countless users, and the broadcast of long dramas itself is guaranteed and supported by high-level funds and platform resources.
In contrast, the investment volume of micro-short dramas is small and the broadcast cycle is short, can it leverage the content and traffic and bring fire to a city?
But micro-short dramas + cultural tourism are indeed becoming a topic of more and more discussion. The driving force behind it is not only the pursuit of more business opportunities by short drama practitioners and the natural pursuit of the + industry, but also the continuous hunger and thirst of cities, cultural tourism, and scenic spots for attention and tourists, as well as the guidance of relevant competent departments to empower the real economy with content.
On April 23, the Network Audiovisual Department of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television announced the second batch of recommended catalogs of the "Follow the Micro Short Drama to Travel" creation plan, and 21 short dramas such as "Your Island Has Arrived" were selected.
This is the second batch of catalogs announced since January 12 this year, when the General Office of the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued a plan and proposed to create and broadcast 100 excellent micro-short dramas in 2024, promote a number of physical filming locations to "go out of the circle" with the popularity of micro-short dramas, and form a "micro-short drama + cultural tourism" to promote a new consumption model.
From the first batch of 7 recommended micro-short dramas to the second batch of 21, it shows the enthusiasm and speed of response to this plan from all over the world, the short drama industry and related cultural tourism scenes.
In just three months, the plan has been quite large-scale and has achieved initial results, and it is foreseeable that in the next few months, more cultural and tourism-themed micro-short dramas will be broadcast online, driving more places, scenic spots, and check-in points "hidden in deep alleys" into the vision of the general public.
After the top-down guidance successfully realizes the "cold start", there are still more problems that need to be explored by the industry to further develop micro-short dramas + cultural tourism.
How to avoid the two skins of cultural tourism and short dramas, and better integrate cultural tourism into the story of micro-short dramas, instead of becoming a simple and crude extended version of the advertisement?
How to continue to amplify the traffic effect and even form a broken circle, instead of broadcasting? How can cultural tourism undertake the "splashing wealth" of the traffic explosion, rather than just a wave of excitement?
And most importantly, how can micro-short dramas + cultural tourism form a closed loop of commercial value, so that production companies, distribution platforms, cultural tourism scenic spots and all relevant parties have sufficient commercial benefits, money to make and profit?
Shangri-La
After watching a few episodes of "Your Island Has Arrived", I have silently added the Peach Blossom Garden in Changde, Hunan Province to the list of travel destinations, and plan to take my family to the Lantern Festival in the future, stay in the homestay inside, watch the fireflies on the summer night, and drink a glass of plum wine.
This is an idyllic story that travels through time and space, both "abuse" and healing, the heroine Shen Qi, whose mission is to protect the island, loses all her memories after a few hundred years, and becomes a flower farmer on the island. The male protagonist Chi Ye, in order to bring the dead female protagonist back to life, is willing to be cursed and immortal, but he will never be able to know and love the female protagonist.
The picture is beautiful and fresh, with streams, small bridges, flowers, valleys, lakes, fireworks night markets, simple islanders, and interludes with bells, sunsets, moons, and moths, which are ethereal and soothing, natural and dreamy.
In the overwhelming barrage, the audience was sad for the fate of the male and female protagonists, for the two to break through the hardships and finally be happy together, and for the people who love each other to die and cry for only seven days together.
The audience repeatedly empathized in the barrage: It's too sadistic, calling for the male and female protagonists to pair up, this is Changde Peach Blossom Spring, so beautiful, I want to go too......
Producer Zhan Yali told "Xinsheng Pro" that "Your Island Has Arrived" is a boutique custom drama planned by Mango TV's Damang, which is fully invested by Damang. At the beginning of the project, we hoped to create a warm and healing pastoral work, and considered the serialization of island IP to do a combination of culture and tourism.
The main creative team repeatedly surveyed the scenery around Hunan, and finally selected Changde Peach Blossom Spring, because Peach Blossom Source is a scenic spot with a strong cultural heritage, which fits the ancient and mysterious presentation temperament of the series itself, and the beautiful environment by the mountains and rivers is also very suitable for filming and landing on the "island".
So far, the show has received more than 200 million views on Mango TV. Judging from the barrage, the audience is eager to see the beautiful Peach Blossom Spring.
At the same time, as a high-quality micro-short drama, "Your Island Has Arrived" was also broadcast on Hunan Satellite TV in the evening file, ranking seventh in the broadcast data of the same period, and it is the only local satellite TV program in the top ten.
In terms of commercial income, in addition to the membership income brought by the series itself, "Your Island Has Arrived" has also won the title and sponsorship of Changde Peach Blossom Land and Tomato Novels.
"Everyone has an island in their heart, their own utopia. When mentioning the name of this drama, Zhan Yali said that she hoped that it could have a strong ability to disseminate cultural and tourism copywriting like "To a Windy Place".
Windy
"Going to a Windy Place" is a popular TV series that will be broadcast in early 2023, and it has a role in stimulating tourism in Dali, the filming location, and is a benchmark for the past year.
According to a report by Yunnan Daily on February 6 last year, before the broadcast of "To a Windy Place", the number of visitors to the Fengyangyi Tea Horse Ancient Road was 50 to 100 per day, and from the third to the fifth day after the broadcast, the number of tourists soared to 500 to 1,000 per day.
Dali Spring Festival tourism received a total of 4.2393 million tourists, an increase of 219% year-on-year, and the total tourism revenue was 3.16 billion yuan, an increase of 162% year-on-year, a record high.
At the end of last year, the Dali Bureau of Culture and Tourism issued a public announcement that it planned to give a subsidy of 2 million yuan to "Go to a Windy Place", fully affirming the drama's leading role in local tourism.
The pulling effect of "Going to a Windy Place" is still continuing, and before this year's small holiday, various tourist products with the theme of this drama are still selling well. On the Xiaohongshu platform alone, there are nearly a million notes related to "going to a windy place".
In addition to dramas like "Your Island Has Arrived" that I want to learn and emulate, Huace Film and Television, the producer of "To a Windy Place", also produced a spin-off short drama "My Way Home is Windy". This is a vertical screen short drama, co-produced by Great Aim and Douyin, with a total of 18 episodes, each episode of 4 minutes.
This drama takes the intangible cultural heritage food in Leshan, Sichuan Province as the cultural background, and tells the story of Xu Youfeng, a white-collar girl who has worked hard in a first-tier city for many years, returning to her hometown in Leshan, re-understanding her hometown, and picking up intangible cultural heritage food from the folk with Xie Guitu, the owner of a century-old Sichuan restaurant who is a childhood sweetheart.
In addition to various intangible cultural heritage delicacies, this drama also contains various hot social topics such as women's independence, workplace dilemmas, pressure in first-tier cities, domestic violence, long-distance relationships, helping younger brothers, the efficiency of big cities VS the warmth of small cities, the original family, the inheritance rights of boys and girls, and returning to their hometowns to start a business.
The plot reverses at high speed, "The boyfriend who can't pass the level of girlfriends must be divided", "The alias of the hometown is home", "If you don't love someone, you will clearly mark the price, and true love just wants to give you everything" and other golden sentences are frequent.
"My Way Home" was recommended by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television as a high-quality micro-short drama for the 2024 New Year, and was also selected into the first batch of recommended catalogs of the "Follow the Micro-short Drama to Travel" creation plan.
Up to now, this short drama has been played more than 190 million times on Douyin, and the local characteristics and intangible cultural heritage delicacies of Leshan, such as Pixian bean paste, roast duck, boiling cabbage, roasted pepper preserved eggs, Juntun pot helmet, etc., traditional culture such as face changing and tie-dyeing, as well as the leisure and self-consistent living conditions of Sichuan people, have all been fully demonstrated in the play.
Liu Zifan, the producer and head of Huace short drama in Beijing, told "Xinsheng Pro" that the origin of the project was to realize the linkage of long and short based on the IP of "going to a windy place".
Although the content forms and expressions of long and short dramas, horizontal and vertical screens are different, the core of them is the process of working women in first-tier cities, who go to another city to rethink and start again because of some accident. Both are aimed at urban women and focus on healing style.
Liu Zifan introduced that at first, there was not a clear business model of short drama + cultural tourism, but starting from the IP core and the story itself, and from the logic of the film and television content itself, food was naturally chosen as the entry point.
After careful research and analysis, Leshan, Sichuan Province was selected as the main location and filming location of the story, and various cultural and tourism elements such as intangible cultural heritage food and traditional culture were naturally integrated into the script creation.
Perhaps it is precisely because of the unintentional natural integration, with the blessing of the fascinating plot and story, that the willows are unintentionally inserted, which drives the audience's curiosity about Leshan's food and lifestyle.
Although there are no exact statistics, Liu Zifan introduced that after the broadcast of "My Way Home", the cultural and tourism departments of many places have successively approached Great Aim in the hope of discussing cooperation, and the short drama "Windy 2" is also already being planned.
However, she also emphasized that for projects with cultural tourism themes, it is necessary to do in-depth research and investigation, understand the local customs, and fully consider the demands of cultural tourism, while fully considering the demands of cultural tourism, create stories based on local regional cultural genes, avoid simple elements piling up and floating on the surface, and achieve a win-win situation of content and driving effect.
Returning to your hometown to start a business
If there is no accident, the 24-episode horizontal screen short drama "Flying Youth" should be the first local cultural tourism-themed micro-short drama to be broadcast online after the release of the "Follow the Micro Short Drama to Travel" creation plan.
This drama is produced by Wenzhou Kunuo Pictures and created by the director team of Zhang Jun of Beijing Film Academy, starring national first-class actor Tao Huimin, "old drama bone" Yang Houxiang, young actors Zhang Menglu, Xia Chenyi, etc., telling the story of college student Cao Feiyang returning to his hometown to start a business in Jinshi Town and help the development of local rural cultural tourism.
The prototype of "Flying Youth" is Caocun Town, Ruian City, Zhejiang Province. Caocun Town has the reputation of "the first village of Chinese Jinshi", with 82 Jinshi in two hundred years, and 800 years of lantern cultural history, as well as a number of cultural and gastronomic business cards such as Nanquan culture and Jinshi "Suomen".
In addition, Caocun Town is a demonstration village of the "Ten Million Project" and has been selected as a national rural governance demonstration town, with beautiful pastoral scenery and landscape rivers, and is 1 hour's drive from Wenzhou and Ruian cities. On June 25, 2023, Caocun Town, together with several other villages and towns in Rui'an, made the headlines of CCTV's "News Network" for 6 and a half minutes.
Although the software and hardware conditions are already very good, the cultural and tourism industry in Caocun Town still faces shortcomings such as insufficient operating income, insufficient reception capacity, and low local consumption.
During the epidemic, director Zhang Jun's team came to the homestay in Caocun Town because of the filming of another online drama, and was warmly received and supported by the local government, and also had an intuitive experience of the local scenery and local people.
Later, in the communication with the local government, the two sides reached an agreement to create a horizontal screen micro-short drama in the direction of rural revitalization and common prosperity to spread Caocun culture to the outside world.
In the creation of the script, "Flying Youth" is almost entirely based on the true story of the development of the cultural tourism industry in Caocun Town, with college students returning to their hometowns to start businesses and driving rural revitalization as the main line and entry point, and presents the Jinshi culture, Nanquan culture, Jinshi "Suomian", paragliding, lantern night tour and other characteristic projects in Caocun Town one by one.
In addition to the male and female protagonists Cao Feiyang and Mo Qingchun, two college student representatives, a group of new rural youth representatives, as well as rural entrepreneurs and small-town teachers who are running for rural revitalization.
Through the combination of "drama + light comedy", "Flying Youth" ranked at the top of the short drama popularity list on the whole network after it was broadcast on Youku on February 17 this year. According to the data of Maoyan Professional Edition, as of now, its cumulative exposure on the whole network has reached 110 million.
According to the data provided by Caocun Town, during the broadcast, the five B&Bs in Caocun Town were in a state of "bursting orders", and it was difficult to find a room, and the whole area received nearly 200,000 tourists, an increase of more than 30% over the same period last year.
Despite this, director and producer Zhang Jun admitted that he decided to make this drama at that time, mainly because he was moved by the enthusiasm of the local government and local villagers, and also out of a simple enthusiasm: a township like Caocun Town, which has excellent software and hardware, should be seen and understood by more people through micro-short dramas.
In the actual implementation of the project, through the help and communication of the local government, the series has received investment and support from several local enterprises, but the production cost of the show cannot be recovered only by the sharing of accounts from the Youku platform.
Fortunately, as a high-quality main theme micro-short drama focusing on the theme of youth returning to their hometowns to start a business and rural revitalization, it coincided with the release of the "Travel with the Micro Short Drama" creation plan released by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television at the beginning of the year.
Puzzles and hopes
As a scarce main theme + cultural tourism micro-short drama, Zhang Jun introduced that after the broadcast of "Flying Youth", many local cultural and tourism departments came to contact and cooperate, and they are currently in close communication with relevant institutions to discuss the plan to jointly create cultural tourism + short drama.
Zhang Jun believes that in the next project, it is necessary to make short drama content in a more popular way, and at the same time strengthen the combination with the business model, and create a communicative story based on clear scenic spots, scenes, and products.
From the perspective of capacity short dramas, micro-short dramas + cultural tourism, in addition to responding to the call of the competent authorities, also contain practical business opportunities in its ability to attract attention and resources from all walks of life.
As the leading short drama content platform company in China, the capacity short drama has produced and participated in a number of cultural tourism micro-short dramas, such as "Linping, Departure to Happiness" co-produced with Hangzhou Linping District, "Take You to a Good Place" co-produced with Zhijiang Film Group, and "Hot Mom Returns to the Village" co-produced with Huashu.
Among them, "Take You to a Good Place" and "Hot Mom Returns to the Village" were selected into the first and second batches of recommended catalogs of "Traveling with Micro Short Dramas" respectively.
When talking about the upcoming "Hot Mom Returns to the Village", Hu Chaoqing, co-founder of the capacity short drama, introduced that the story focuses on rural life and explores the theme of rural revitalization and common prosperity. The whole process was filmed in Pan'an County, Jinhua City, Zhejiang Province, with Shuangfeng Township, Zelch Village and the Confucian Family Temple in Pan'an County as the main filming locations, accurately showing the scenery of the beautiful countryside in the new era of Pan'an, as well as the profound history and culture of the largest Confucian settlement in the south of the Yangtze River.
This drama takes "new rural construction" as the context and takes the airline purser as the first secretary of the countryside as the starting point, comprehensively showing the diversified aspects of "new rural construction", aiming to promote the realization of rural revitalization and common prosperity.
According to reports, the development of this drama will start in August 2023, and the screenwriter of many high-quality poverty alleviation online movies such as "Donkey on the Tree" will serve as the chief screenwriter.
Yan Wenjiang has rich experience in related themes, and has won the "51 Project" award twice, but the script has been overturned, rewritten and polished many times. In late December last year, the project was officially launched, jointly produced by Zhejiang Huashu Exploration.
Hu Chaoqing told "Xinsheng Pro" that the capacity short drama is optimistic about the commercial growth space of "short drama + cultural tourism", and there may be new opportunities in the new direction, so the "capacity cultural tourism" label was specially released.
Under the label, a special project team of more than 20 people has been set up for capacity short dramas, and is committed to building "capacity cultural tourism" into a top service label for cultural tourism short drama marketing. The capacity short drama has also launched the cultural tourism short drama "Joyful Plan", which has reached partnerships with more short drama teams and creators in the mode of joint production and joint operation to jointly create more excellent cultural and tourism short drama works.
Hu Chaoqing said that this year, the capacity short drama will focus on creating the IP product "Dream Fulfillment", a high-quality short drama IP product for cultural tourism, and unite cultural tourism and corporate brands in many local cities to form a sustainable, accumulative, and transformable "micro-short drama + cultural tourism" model.
Of course, if short drama + cultural tourism wants to continue to form a scale and achieve a win-win situation of social and commercial benefits, there are still many problems to be broken through and solved.
For example, in terms of content presentation, horizontal screen short dramas can have a more complete display of the filming location, but there is room for improvement in the level of playback and the ability to break the circle;
The difficulty of vertical screen short dramas is relatively low, but the high-frequency and fast-paced play with reversal and emotion as the main focus is difficult to leave sufficient room for the scene to be displayed.
In addition, in actual filming and production, in order to save costs and improve efficiency, most vertical screen dramas are single indoor scenes, and how to balance shooting efficiency and framing also needs to be explored.
The production agency has already adopted some methods, such as the Kuaishou vertical screen short drama "Intern Lettuce Cai", which was also selected for the second batch of recommended catalogs, cutting from the perspective of confinement centers and postpartum care, and creating a first-tier city atmosphere through the switching of empty mirrors of typical architectural backgrounds such as the Temple of Heaven, CCTV, and Drum Tower, and the theme and scene of the story also leave room suitable for brand and prop placement.
The capacity short drama and another short drama + cultural tourism project in Linping District, Hangzhou are planned to be filmed in the B&B in Tangqi Ancient Town. According to our understanding, at the end of the episode, the entire ancient town will be presented in the form of drone shooting.
Of course, there are more specific questions: who pays the cost, and how can the investor recover the cost?
How to ensure and meet the demands of sponsors, and achieve good results in brand display, communication effect and actual transformation?
How to accurately measure the pull effect brought by micro-short dramas, and how to form a sustainable positive cycle in business to give more institutions room to enter?
There are many things that can be proposed, just like the short drama "Flying Youth" described, Cao Feiyang returned to Jinshi Town, with the original intention of developing the cultural tourism industry in his hometown and promoting rural revitalization, but there are still specific problems that need to be solved.
This is the real business world.
Under the guidance of the competent authorities represented by "travel with micro-short dramas", after the initial realization from 0 to 1, the next micro-short dramas + cultural tourism need more short drama companies, distribution platforms, and industry stakeholders to enter the game and open up space.
For the short drama industry and enterprises eager to seize new opportunities for growth, there is at least a general consensus that in order to gain greater development space, short dramas need to see the trend, control risks, and go to windy places.