What is the trend of the drama market in 2020? In the face of some of the trends that are already on the table, how should platforms and producers respond? These are the questions that the entire drama industry should answer from theory to practice, whether it is macro or detail.
On the morning of November 18, Fang Fang, Vice President of Penguin Films, was invited to deliver a keynote speech at the "5th China New Entertainment and New Consumption Annual Summit" in Sansheng, reviewing some insights of Tencent Video on the drama market in 2020 and its outlook for the future drama market.
Fang Fang said that "long-term layout and sustainable development" has become a consensus among practitioners, and under this consensus, the discussion of how to operate the drama market for a long time and how to reshape the boutique will be more valuable.
In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic and the overall environment, the supply structure of the series continues to adjust the process. Under the reality that the overall supply is reduced and the head content is more favored, low production capacity is gradually eliminated, and it is more and more difficult to "sit" on the user dividend for content that is too mediocre. "Backward production capacity is self-perpetuating and self-seeking may become the norm." To attract the attention of more audiences, it is bound to bring them more surprises. ”
On the user demand side, short videos watching dramas and hot searching for dramas have become a phenomenon, which is mixed for the industry. "Worrying" is that this shows that more and more forms of entertainment are seizing the attention of users, the user's time is cut, and the degree of fragmentation is getting higher and higher; "happy" is that although the user's eyes are attracted by other forms of entertainment, these drama works are still popular content by the audience, and short videos and hot searches encourage secondary creation and derivative discussions, which also greatly improve the popularity of the series and extend the vitality of the series.
Fang Fang said that under the changes on both sides of supply and demand, there is no law for "making explosive models", but the premise of making explosive models is to avoid some traps. Four traps: the ability to adapt is not worthy of ambition, the content theme distorts the kidnapping values, the pursuit of gorgeous but expresses emptiness, and the mediocre plot lacks hindsight.
In addition, in the process of creation, we must also grasp three kinds of balance: one is the balance of the sense of high-level and the sense of topic, the second is the degree of reduction and innovation, and the third is the personality and resonance.
Fang Fang said in her speech: "No matter how the film and television industry changes, no matter how iterative the technology is. To do content and do a good job in content, we must always be based on 'respect' and 'love', adhering to the original intention of respecting the law of creation, and loving the content of the heart. ”
To achieve such a goal, it is also necessary for the platform to connect more partners, and according to its own strength, support young teams with creative vitality, small and medium-sized companies, and participate in the creation of the film and television industry.
"We hope to be able to explore more diversified production models and business models with many high-quality partners, and work together to open more breakthroughs." Fang Fang said.
The following is the transcript of Fang Fang's speech at the 5th China New Entertainment and New Consumption Annual Summit:
Hello friends!
I am Fang Fang of Tencent Video, and I am very happy to be here today to communicate with all of you. In this extraordinary year, the TV drama industry has also experienced a series of changes from rules, to methodology, to practice. I would like to talk about some of our feelings about doing TV dramas on some of my experiences and discoveries, and hope to discuss with you how to run the drama market for a long time and how to reshape the boutique under the consensus of long-term layout and sustainable development.
01 | Industry trends
First, over the past year, we've seen changes in the supply and demand of episode content. Judging from our platform Tencent Video, although the overall playback data is still strong, the supply of episodes, whether it is the number of online parts or the number of episodes, has declined. From the perspective of the industry as a whole, the total number of TV series filed in the first half of 2020 also fell by 16% year-on-year.
There are many reasons for this phenomenon, on the one hand, the epidemic has led to the postponement of many projects. Moreover, for the TV drama market, the "pain" of the epidemic is lagging behind, which may have a certain impact on the broadcast of episodes in the next year or two.
On the other hand, there is an important signal released by the market: low capacity is being gradually eliminated. In recent years, there have been fewer new episodes, but our investment in head content has been increasing.
Everyone has the feeling that although our stock users have been steadily rising, it is becoming more and more difficult for a drama to create various broadcast records as in the past. Due to the changes in supply and demand, the audience's attention will appear more "eccentric" to the head content, and the resources of the platform will be more inclined to these high-quality head episodes.
In the past, even if it was plain and decent content, it could eat a wave of user dividends. But later, such a "fluke" will not work. Backward production capacity will fend for itself and seek self-blessing may become the norm. To attract the attention of more audiences, it is bound to bring them more surprises.
Second, there is a change in user behavior. In the past two years, there have been some new words in the industry, such as "hot search chasing drama", and a few short videos can watch the essence of an episode of the drama.
Short video watching dramas and hot searching for dramas has become a phenomenon, and for the industry, it is both worrying and happy.
The "worrying" is that this shows that more and more forms of entertainment are seizing the attention of users, the user's time is cut, and the degree of fragmentation is getting higher and higher. This also shows that the user's patience is no longer enough to spend a lot of time on an entire drama, and double-speed viewing, high-energy clips, etc. have become their first choice. How to make users change from "good road" to "die-hard", rather than relying on fragments alone, is a big test for our creation.
Of course, the "happy" thing is that although users' eyes are attracted to other forms of entertainment, the content they like to consume is still our work. Moreover, short videos and hot searches have encouraged secondary creation and derivative discussions, which have greatly increased the popularity of the series and extended the vitality of the series.
Another of the hottest words in the industry is called Focus. This is not a new word, we noticed the layering of users a few years ago, providing different content for users with different preferences, and even on the episodic content map of our platform, it has been subdivided into more than 30 categories. In fact, the underlying logic of the concept of focus, the core is still to understand the user. Dramas such as "Full-time Master" and "Crossfire" launched by our platform can receive praise, and to a certain extent, they also have enough understanding of e-sports and players at the production level.
The advent of the Focus era also allows us to see that as long as users are understood, they are willing to pay for high-quality content. This also allows our business model to radiate to more diverse people, such as Kochi people, two-dimensional people, gamers, sports experts and so on.
Third, it is the change brought about by innovation. The hottest this year is the short drama, whether it is the peer 'Hidden Corner', or the "Skyscraper" and "Imperfect Her" launched by our platform, these dramas have caused discussion in the industry. The popularity of the short drama ignited the optimism of the innovation track, and the feedback from users and the market let us see the future potential of this track.
But we also see that these new tracks are still uncertain because no one has crossed them, and there may still be uncertainties on the road ahead.
From the perspective of theme, the content combined with the short drama form on the market is relatively narrow, mostly based on suspense, assisting some niche word-of-mouth dramas. From the perspective of business model, the business model of short dramas remains to be seen. A short drama has a small gap with a long drama in terms of production cycle and single integration book, but the influence cycle of a short drama is relatively small, and the ability to monetize is relatively insufficient. Objectively speaking, several of this year's hot short dramas, although they have won word of mouth, have not made much profit at the commercial level. This is also why, at present, the short dramas on the market are mostly customized and paid by the platform, and there are almost no spontaneous short drama projects of film and television companies.
Therefore, how to break through the above two obstacles and develop more sustainably is a problem we have to think about.
Finally, there are the distractions we encountered in the creation of the series. Previously, through the efforts of the entire industry, we curbed the chaos of "sky-high film remuneration". The salaries of top actors have also returned to rationality. However, off-site factors such as "fan position cancer" have become new interferences. Over the years, I believe that many producers have had headaches about the actor's position problem, tearing up, C position dispute and other issues, which not only affected the production and publicity progress, but also triggered a lot of social issues. By the end, everyone was hurt. In fact, we have always called for creation to return to a more essential and authentic track.
02 | The birth of the blockbuster
As you can see, the market is always changing. Over the years, the two words that everyone hears the most may be inseparable from "explosive models", everyone is eager to explode, and even many people summarize the so-called "explosive law" for us. But in fact, the birth of the explosive model needs to be timely and geographically favorable, and there is no routine to speak of.
Especially in our industry, it has the nature of "ahead of the curve". This year's preparations for the establishment of the project are likely to be filmed next year and broadcast the following year. Ninety percent of the hot spots seen when the project was established were "cold" when they were broadcast. Other industries are "chasing hot spots", and we can only "create hot spots" ourselves.
However, although there is no iron law of success, we can share some experiences through the cases we have seen and done over the years.
From the unsuccessful cases we have observed and analyzed in recent years, as well as the detours we have taken, we have summarized some traps that must be avoided if we want to produce good works:
First, the ambition of the script adaptation is not worthy of ability. Some TV series, the original fan base is strong, the result of the screenwriter's will wavering, the theme is not clear, the branch line is complex, and finally the aura of the original novel is exhausted, and the new original content is difficult to convince the audience, and eventually becomes a mediocre work that both sides "offend". Now some dramas in the market have changed to become "four unlikes", and it is difficult for you to define which type it is, as if everything is wanted and nothing is displayed.
The second is a distortion of the content theme and the kidnapping of values. We found that many TV series with relatively unsuccessful reputation and market, some of them are usually serious violations of the values of the current audience, and this kind of creation method that is detached from the present can easily cause the audience's "discomfort".
The third trap may feel aggrieved by many practitioners - the picture design is gorgeous but the expression is empty. For a good work, it is necessary to work the service and improve the texture. But the problem is that if there is only a beautiful composition, the audience can not feel the "dry goods" under this gorgeous shell, and finally can only choose to abandon the play.
Finally, there is another trap that is the most critical, that is, the plot is mediocre and lacks the power of the back. I found that some dramas seem to have no obvious shortcomings, but the audience just doesn't like to watch them. In fact, the biggest problem with this type of drama is that it is too mediocre. The audience's senses and thinking need to be stimulated, dozens of episodes of "thin water and long flow", the lack of clear views and gripping dramatic conflicts in the middle, this tug-of-war audience is difficult to "survive".
After avoiding the four-point trap mentioned above, we have also summarized the three-point balance in creation here, which may not be a universal law, but I believe that in project development, it is very helpful to take fewer detours.
First of all, there is the balance of "sense of premium" and "sense of topic". Some past experiences have taught us that the pursuit of a sense of luxury obviously does not work. High is possible to be low, and high level means that there are some "fireworks that do not eat human fireworks", and it also means that part of the audience is turned away unconsciously. It is true that everyone does not have to cater to the audience without a bottom line, but a topic that can go out of the circle and trigger spontaneous discussion among the audience is still very important for a drama. Of course, such a topic must be logical and self-directed, rather than blindly eyeballing and stepping on the red line.
Secondly, there is the balance between "reducibility" and "innovation". In the past few years, we have seen too many examples of people who came with the aura of IP and ended up without a trace. In fact, for IP adaptation, we must highly restore the classic elements of the original work, but "restoration" is not blindly copying and pasting the original work, but also needs to be new in character shaping and plot settings, full of "presentness" and "innovation". In fact, the audience is not willing to always see the "unchanged" content, but the innovation is not "wanton" and ignores the basic creation rules and user preferences, how to balance the two is the key to determining the success or failure of a work. Like our platform to develop the "Ghost Blowing Lights" series, we also faced a lot of doubts at the beginning, but we slowly began to find the law of adapting this type of IP, and the reputation was established.
Finally, there is the balance between "individuality" and "empathy". The episodic market is actually a "iterative" market that is very fast. After a theme is on fire, it follows the trend and homogenizes in a rush. Therefore, in recent years, everyone has avoided "homogenization" and is also racking their brains to find "personality". But just having "personality" and forgetting "resonance" will also be more than worth the loss.
In our opinion, no matter how market-pioneering your content is, how much "personality" or "differentiation" tension, in the end everything needs to be based on the premise of "resonance". The essence of resonance is still to understand the user's current psychology, play with them, and let them have a "heartbeat". Like the two realistic dramas that we have broadcast relatively well this year, "An Jia" and "Thirty Only", they have found a good balance between "personality" and "resonance". The former focuses on the emerging field of real estate agencies, the latter focuses on the female group of thirty this age group, the themes of the two dramas have market personalization, but they invariably grasp the most realistic psychological needs of the current audience for the workplace, marriage, etc., giving the audience a strong sense of participation, and also making the popularity of the series high and becoming a national hit.
03 | Our view of content
Some of our thoughts and experiences on creation have been shared earlier. In fact, I want to say that no matter how the film and television industry changes, no matter how iterative the technology is. To do content and do a good job in content, we must always be based on "respect" and "love", adhering to the original intention of respecting the law of creation, and loving the content of the heart.
For good works, our platform has always adhered to the attitude of "a hundred flowers blooming" over the years, so everyone can not only see the works of drama linkage such as "Full-time Master" and "Chen Qingling" on our platform, but also see the national topic dramas such as "Thirty Only" and "An Jia", which can not only take various adventures in male frequency dramas such as "Longling Labyrinth", but also gain emotional power in female dramas such as "Rumored Chen Qianqian" and "Double World Pet Princess".
Of course, for high-quality content, we have always adhered to judgment and standards. First of all, the values are correct, the transmission of positive energy is an unshakable principle, we do not do and will not purchase the three views of distorted, vulgar and vulgar episodes, we hope that the series can convey more goodwill, positive, sunny side. In the measurement of content value, we emphasize innovation, ingenuity, sincerity, freshness, innovation, not stereotypical conventions; to the ultimate highlights, not to be decent; to observe reality, real and powerful; not to suspend the void, exaggeration; to deep resonance, not obscure; to make well-made, compact rhythm, do not drag water injection, assembly line manufacturing. We will continue to invest in high-quality content, and we also need to truly stimulate the new products of the times that can stimulate user value and social value.
This year has been a really tough year for the film and television industry. Therefore, we hope to be able to explore more diversified production models and business models with many high-quality partners, and work together to open more breakthroughs. We are also willing to use the best cooperation model and open and shared attitude to give partners all-round resource support and commercial returns. Of course, this is based on the fact that we have common goals and common beliefs, rather than blindly holding a short-sighted vision.
At the same time, we are also willing to support young teams and small and medium-sized companies with creative vitality as much as possible to participate in the creation of the film and television industry, so that these new forces can bring more high-quality content to the drama market and promote the long-term development of the film and television industry.
The above is my sharing today, thank you three times, thank you!