Author / Qiao Miao'er
The ranking of hot dramas within the video platform and the major data lists are places where you can grasp the direction of changes in the industry first-hand. Opening Tencent Video's TV drama list, an adventure-themed costume martial arts drama called "King of the Tomb King" attracted the attention of reporters from new drama observation (ID: xinjuguancha). The drama is produced by Beijing Taomeng Film Co., Ltd., this non-hit, non-big card theme of the adventure theme costume martial arts drama is currently ranked 14th on the list, online for nearly 1 month, more than 130 million hits, the amount of the account has achieved good results.
Sure enough, it was a split-account drama again.
If 2016 is regarded as the first year of the sub-account drama, it has now ushered in its fifth year. From last year to this year, the C-end attributes of the drama market have been continuously enlarged, video websites have increased the layout of the sub-account drama business, and the veteran companies of the newcomer team have entered the game. "It seems that overnight everyone around me has started a sub-account drama," a veteran media person lamented in a small talk.
Whether it is at the level of the content itself or the entire industry level from the perspective of the overall situation, "The King of the Tomb King" still has great observation value: after the costume sweet pet has become the main force of the sub-account drama, where is the new possibility of "costume +"; when the theme of exploration, which has higher requirements for audio-visual production, appears in the sub-account drama, does it mean that the sub-account drama is consciously bidding farewell to the label of low-quality copyright drama and self-made drama, and officially moving towards high-quality products; and where is the competition point around the sub-account drama between platforms?
The Rise of the Track: Visible theme innovation and production upgrades
The rise of ledger dramas is closely linked to changes in supply and demand between users and content. User iteration, known as the Z generation of young user groups aesthetic changes accelerated, the circle attribute is obvious, they are more willing to be proactive than traditional TV viewers, but also have a stronger motivation to "pick" like the content.
The change of the audience market determines that the producers and content producers must unite to seek the only way to upgrade the industry and directly face the user.
The web drama "The King of the Tomb King" is based on the explosive national comic of the same name, telling the news of the Kunlun treasure in the tomb sect world, Luo Shiqiu (played by Yi Baichen), Lin Shuiyao (played by Wang Yueting), Lou Manfeng (played by Ma Zhenhuan), and Han Qianluo (played by Sun Lulu) formed four people to join the "tomb attack team" to join the tomb breaking challenge, bravely breaking into the tomb of Gu Ziqi guarded by the "tomb guard faction", after the open struggle between various forces, finally attacked the tomb to obtain the tomb breaking order, unveiled the mystery behind it and guarded the legendary story of the tomb school world.
From the content level, we do not press the table for the time being in the adaptation of national comics, after all, when the work is facing the audience as a film and television drama, the audience group that has not seen the original work is higher, so let's put aside the adaptation to see the series itself. In recent years, the adventure theme around the tomb has shown a strong potential energy of "sucking powder", especially in the field of online movies as a mother of the sub-account drama, which has developed into a mature theme that can pull new solid powder in the long run. Taking the beginning of this year as an example, in the network movies with tens of millions of accounts, the same kind of "Lop Nur of the Nine Dragon Coffin" occupies a place.
"King of the Tomb King" integrates the hot adventure with the costume martial arts in terms of elements, and realizes innovation and upgrading in the integration, invisibly attracting the audience of tomb hunting adventures and costume martial arts at the same time. Not only that, Luo Shiqiu and Lin Shuiyao's feelings warmed up in the process of adventure along the way, from a happy enemy to a like-minded fairy couple; the pair of lou full of wind and cold plum bamboo horses also regained their true hearts in the ups and downs, and the addition of the "sweet pet" element also made "The King of the Tomb King" favored by female users at the same time.
Moreover, in recent years, the increasing emphasis on audio-visual production in sub-account dramas is an indisputable fact and an important symbol of industrial upgrading. Looking back at the beginning of the development of sub-account dramas, due to the limitations of investment volume, most of the sub-account dramas pay more attention to the network sense and novelty at the plot level, which is really unsatisfactory in terms of production, and the service can be seen with the naked eye that there are obvious differences with self-made dramas and customized dramas. Nowadays, the sub-account drama "small and broad" has been given a new meaning, which can be a small and beautiful subject, but it is no longer a small and rough production, which explains why the adventure theme with higher requirements for audiovisual and set has begun to appear in the vision of the theme selection of the sub-account drama.
It can be seen that "King of the Tomb King" has made great efforts in audio-visual production. The scenes and furnishings in Gu Ziqi's tomb, such as the crystal coffin, the tomb breaking order, and the various formations of the Qi men and qi men, have been raised to a higher level. In addition, "The King of the Tomb King" has the original national comics that were previously popular in front, and the exquisite pictures of the two-dimensional dimension are deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. In the play, the shapes of several main characters, such as the Cold Ancient Blood Sword, the Silver Bone Fan, and the Flower Broken Soul Sword, are highly restored.
It can be said that the emergence of "King of the Tomb King" has a morale-boosting significance for the sub-account drama track: from the theme itself, the current production level of the sub-account drama has reached the height of putting the tomb exploration and ancient costume martial arts themes that pay attention to listening to the screen, and the novel theme can attract the attention of more young circle users; from the perspective of the audience market, when the user's attention can support the blue ocean of the theme, it will attract more high-quality content producers to enter the game and further raise the quality ceiling.
Trend forward-looking: rich sources of content, industrial development is good
Previously, New Drama Observation (ID: xinjuguancha) had talked with a number of senior practitioners in the field of sub-account dramas, and found a consensus among creators: sub-accounts, customization or copyright are clear concepts for creators, while the audience is more concerned about whether the plot is attractive and whether the picture is exquisite and good-looking.
From the macro level, the shorter production cycle of sub-account dramas can grasp the aesthetic changes at the forefront of users faster and more accurately, and vertically meet the needs of users in different circles; as mentioned above, as the new talent team continues to accelerate its rise, established production companies have entered the game, and the competition for sub-account dramas has also entered a white-hot stage, and the "inner volume" or "two-eight principle" will appear in the sub-account drama track one after another.
Another dimension of thinking brought about by "The King of the Tomb King" is the prospect and prospect of the source of the creation of the sub-account drama. The drama is also a comic drama, before there were quite successful animation works for the audience, thinking also extended to: when the development of national comics matures, whether live-action comics can also become a rising star in the sub-account drama track, to achieve the transformation and linkage between different categories of forms.
With the launch of "King of the Tomb King", Tencent Video invisibly showed its advantages in content reserves. Once live-action comics can provide content sources for sub-account dramas, its original animation and manga reserves will become its unique competitiveness. Tencent Video not only has a rich and diversified content reserve in the field of national comics, but also has formed a label in the minds of users. This part of the user can provide a ready-made audience base in the field of live-action comics, and this group of Z generation groups dominated by young people also provides the possibility of linkage and circle breaking.
The favorable policy of the platform also determines the number and level of creative teams that can be attracted to the alliance. Since last year, platforms have increased their support for sub-account dramas. According to the information released by Tencent Video, the cancellation of the rating of sub-account dramas has released a signal that the platform and the producers are allied, risk sharing, and win-win cooperation.
Not only that, Tencent Video directly set the unit price of "the number of valid plays of members" to 1 yuan. Some account dramas "the number of valid members played" are equal to how many yuan, multiplied by the agreed fixed share ratio (exclusive cooperation 90%, non-exclusive 45%), the drama party can intuitively know the number of "member account income" of the drama, more open and transparent. In terms of volume, it is stipulated that the length of the single/quarterly sub-account drama (excluding the opening credits) is not less than 20 minutes, and the number of episodes is not required for the time being, which also invisibly shows that the "short dramas" that are popular nowadays may also become cutting-edge members of the sub-account dramas and stir up new changes in the industrial pattern.
The tomb adventure legend of "King of the Tomb King" has come to an end, and the new "adventure journey" of the entire sub-account drama track may have just begun.