Is it difficult to reproduce the domestic sitcom scene?

Recently, the reality-themed sitcom "After School" directed by Yingda is in full swing. In the media visit, Indah called the new drama "a children's version of "I Love My Home". On the other hand, another classic, "Northeast Family" will also launch a film version, and Indah will serve as the screenwriter of the film. This new action of "British comedy" has filled the audience's expectations. Some people even optimistically predict that this may end the long-standing "drama famine" of excellent domestic sitcoms. However, after years of searching for "the spring of domestic sitcoms", can this time really survive the winter? Is it difficult to reproduce the domestic sitcom?

Equivalent to the good memories of the Spring Festival Gala

On short video platforms, there is a type of "inventory" that often becomes popular and has received a lot of praise, that is, "parsing sitcoms". If the United States's "Growing Pains" has "opened up" the understanding of indoor sitcoms by the majority of Chinese audiences, then domestic dramas such as "I Love My Family", "Northeast Family", and "Wulin Wai biography" have really led people into this kind of "laughing" TV art. For the "post-80s", the whole family sitting in front of the TV to watch the drama is equivalent to the beautiful memories of the Spring Festival Gala. Even today, these classic pictures and lines still contract the source of people's daily happiness - "Ge Youliang" in "I Love My Home" is made into emojis and spread wildly; Tong Xiangyu's mantra "Forehead Drop God" in "Wulin Wai Biography" may be the only Shaanxi dialect that many people will say...

In the view of Zhong Nan, a Beijing entertainment critic, the reason why sitcoms can win the audience's lasting attention and love is because there are several outstanding characteristics in creation: first, based on daily life in the subject matter content, the relationship between the characters is relatively simple, and the scene is relatively single and fixed, which invisibly prompts the creation to focus on narrative and comedy effects; second, each episode of the story is relatively complete, independent, the pace of the episodes is faster, and the laughter points are dense; third, in China's traditional song art cross-talk, sketches and other art forms to fully absorb nutrition. The natural application of local dialects has also greatly increased its favorability among the audience; fourth, the star lineup is strong, the audience's favorite comedy celebrities have their own laughter, and there are many cross-border cameos by cultural and sports stars. "In short, it integrates the strengths of television art, stage art, and music art, which is an advantage that other types of film and television dramas cannot have."

"What's more, sitcoms in China also represent a kind of mass culture, which focuses on depicting the daily lives of ordinary people, and the audience can see their own shadows." Zang Lina, a professor at Shandong University, told reporters. Starting from "I Love My Home", domestic sitcoms focus on the most common class of people in society, the elite class is deconstructed, the most ordinary and most daily moods and sorrows, food, clothing, housing and travel are displayed in front of the audience, and the viewer can always find some resonance in it, resulting in the effect of immersive appreciation.

Zang Lina believes that in addition to showing the concept of "family", domestic sitcoms also attach great importance to the feelings of "country". Big things that happen in society or things that have an important impact are reflected in sitcoms. For example, "I Love My Home" reflects major events such as Beijing's first bid for the Olympic Games in 1993; "Idle Centaur Sister" reflects the living conditions of laid-off female workers in the early stage of economic system reform; although "Wulin Waichuan" places time in the Ming Dynasty, it can be seen that the director wants to express various phenomena that deserve praise or reflection in social development and change. Director Shang Jing once said that they combine the teachings of traditional realism with the deconstruction of postmodern styles, and strive to appreciate the elegance and customs... It also surprised us to find that presenting big themes in a light-hearted, humorous way not only made it possible, but also received excellent responses.

More and more jealousy, less and less enthusiasm

"After 'The Tale of Wulin', we have never been impressed by domestic sitcoms again." On the Internet, this sentence has attracted many likes.

In recent years, there has not been no sitcom creation. On the online platform, such dramas are often launched, such as "Need for Women", "Report Boss", "Waste Wood Brothers", etc., but in terms of quantity or quality, they cannot be compared with the peak of domestic sitcoms. What is more worrying is the "cliff" of sitcoms, the fifth season of "Love Apartment" launched after six years has been popular, and dramas such as "Never Expected", which caused great repercussions on the Internet in previous years, have no follow-up. Arguably, the glory of sitcoms is a thing of the past.

Why is the glory no longer there? It is undeniable that the "field" of watching the drama has disappeared. One view is that sitcom audiences tend to be family-based. Generations of people have stood by the TV, not so much watching the drama as enjoying the joyful atmosphere together. Today, with the richness of computer and smartphone functions and the diversification of entertainment forms, most people pay more attention to meeting the personalized needs of self-entertainment, even within the family, even if it is the same program, the same drama, each member is very likely to choose a different terminal to watch. The atmosphere of "family fun" has been greatly weakened, and it no longer has a "strong stimulus" for the production of related types of film and television dramas.

The more important reason is that the sitcom creative environment has been affected by many aspects. On the one hand, the extremely low cost and highly disseminated network environment has made fast-food cultural consumption popular, and young people are addicted to various funny short dramas and short videos, and the 15-second joke seems to improve the so-called "efficiency of comedy", but in fact, it has dealt a heavy blow to the creation of serialized and plot-laid sitcoms.

On the other hand, changes in the film and television production environment have also brought more survival pressure to sitcom creators. A film and television drama screenwriter told reporters that in recent years, the industry's popular film and television works production of three magic weapons, namely "super big IP" + "exquisite production" + "traffic star", many film and television companies have spent huge sums of money and blood, pinched the preferences of the young generation of the main group of viewers, and obtained quite high returns. But what sitcoms are missing is precisely these three magic weapons - generally independent scripts, no IP adaptations, and some even write while shooting; in terms of production, most of them are low-cost, and even called simple because of ugliness, like the props of "I Love My Home", some are taken from the home of the film crew, some are bought from the used goods market; "Wulin Waichuan" Because of the tight budget, the meals filmed in the Tongfu Inn in the play are not just props, and after filming, they become the actor's working meals; in addition, very few traffic artists choose to star." Test the acting skills and not flattering" sitcom, even if it is a star who is popular from the sitcom, most of them are not willing to take over the film again, many professional comedians prefer to maintain the heat through various variety shows, or appear on the big screen to enhance the "coffee position"... In such an "unfriendly" creative environment, it is easy for domestic sitcoms to be applauded and applauded.

Witty and deep, very little has been flashed

Of course, to find a way out, in the end, we still have to work hard to enhance the originality.

"I'm not optimistic about remakes and sequels." The screenwriter of the above-mentioned film and television drama told reporters. Examples of "rollovers" are numerous. "Underground Traffic Station" was on fire, and the second "No. 2 Traffic Station" was "sprayed" with the suspicion of "dog tail continuous sable"; "Family with Children" crew created "Family with Children" was criticized for "no laughter" and "smooth street throwing". "If you want to rely on the classics to gather popularity, rely on 'OEM' to take shortcuts, and talk about 'tribute' to sell feelings, in fact, you will greatly limit your creative thinking, easily fall into the quagmire of 'constantly being compared, always difficult to surpass', and may also cause a lot of harm to the classic comedy IP."

Back to the creation itself, funny still has to be serious. In previous interviews with the media, Indah had an in-depth analysis of sitcom creation. He said that many TV series and movies do not have to deliberately shake the baggage, but they often discuss how to shake a good baggage for a long time, and some actors have been acting for several years before gradually groping for some of the comedy rules. He also stressed that sitcoms often need to memorize a lot of lines, and if the actors don't go back to do their homework, they will be very embarrassed the next day and can't take it down on the spot.

Funny this technical work, pay attention to a lot. The reporter had previously interviewed Chen Peisi, who came to perform in Ji, and for comedy creation, he said that producing "laughing fruit" must be a hard indicator. "Comedy has a standard, not laughing is not OK, but also can not laugh vulgarly. Comedy is actually very difficult. I don't think comedy has a high or low level, but in terms of artistic level, it can be seen as high. What determines the level of art is the level of technology. Why do some theater audiences just don't like to watch? Because it's rough. With superb technology and advanced creativity, the play can give people a very comfortable feeling. ”

An industry insider told reporters that for comedy creation, good actors and directors are important factors, and good stories are necessary factors. "We still lack a lot of talented comedy writers who are willing to think about it. Only with a solid text as the foundation, during which the moving lines are carefully arranged, the funny points are 'buried', and the actors vividly flash and move the roles in between, and cause laughter with reasonable and intelligent humor, can an organic whole and high-level comedy be formed. On the contrary, the lack of genius ideas and literary talent, and the loss of 'sincerity' and 'creativity' to the 'arm' audience, triggering only the collective 'awkward look' in front of the screen, and the 'laughter' may only be the background sound of 'canned laughter' added later. ”

In addition to "sincerity" and "creativity", there must also be "intention". In addition to being funny, sitcoms still have to focus on reality. Indah said: "Sitcoms have their own mission, have their own social responsibilities, if it is to amuse, it does not make much sense." "There are already many plays based on the lattice between the family, apartment and office, can the creators open their perspectives, pay more attention to the new occupations, new cultures, and new hot spots in front of them, and absorb more of the ideas and expression characteristics of the current people in terms of character and language?" If so, it may further enhance the closeness of the work and attract "new fans" for sitcom creation.

In addition, removing the preaching of sitting on the front and being able to convey the feeling of life in addition to laughter is the most popular and should be best at sitcoms. It seems to be imaginative, but in fact, it is a flaw in the needle and satirical chaos, which is enough to make the audience look happy and addicted. It is precisely because of this delicacy that even after many years, these sitcoms are still outdated, and the replay rate is extremely high. But what is lamentable is that in the new creation, there are too many blunt laughs, deliberate tears, and far-fetched truths, and those witty and deep seem to have rarely flashed. How to make a fuss in this regard is probably the key to reproducing the classic. Tian Kexin Intern Xu Ruikun

Source: Volkswagen Daily