Zijin Chen has been a bit busy lately.
On October 16, "The Silent Truth" won the "Best Streaming Media Original Drama Award" at the Busan International Film Festival, and he fought for the creators' right to speak in the interview with CGNT, "I think we need more time to let our text creators have a greater voice in the entire industry chain." Only when the story is good can it attract more people. ”
On October 20, he flashed in Shanghai again, dropped a bombshell at the "Youku 2020 Boutique Preview", and announced that he would join hands with Youku to launch ten dramas in the next five years. The content covers three series: "Women's Suspense", "Urban Transparent People" and "Foggy". Among them, the "Women's Suspense" trilogy tentatively named "Double Star", "Gray Vortex" and "Deep Pit"; the "Transparent Man of the City" series will focus on the neglected profession, as well as the desires and emotions behind it; the "Foggy" series will be themed "Old Case Restart".
In recent days, there has been news that Tadayoshi Yoshida, the producer of "Kikujiro's Summer" and "Bad Boy's Sky", will officially join the Japanese team of Zhuoran to launch the Japanese version of "Bad Boy".
Suddenly, the Zijin Chen IP blossomed on all sides, and the limelight was no less than when the two "Mist Theater" explosions last year were in hand.
Why Zijin Chen?
There are so many speculative fiction writers at home and abroad, how can the popular suspense dramas pick Zijin Chen?
From "Undocumented Crimes" in 2017 to "The Hidden Corner" and "The Silent Truth" in 2020, it is enough to prove the adaptability of Zijin Chen's novels and images.
Writing for more than ten years, Zijin Chen is not a prolific author. In 2012, he serialized his first speculative novel, Murder Officer, at the Tianya Forum, and completed four serials of the series (renamed High IQ Crimes when published) in the following two years.
But after 2014, Zijin Chen's creative speed began to decline. In his nearly ten years of full-time writing, he has written a total of 7 novels, three of which are shorter works. Among these works, he presents a typical feature of strong text and weak writing.
Last year, when "The Hidden Corner" was popular, "tears rolled out like Lanzhou ramen" and "stretched out a big hand like Zhang Indian flying cake in front of him" and other Qingqi metaphors made Zijin Chen feel a lot of complaints.
Zijin Chen responded with poor writing
The weak writing skills limit his line design to a certain extent, but it does not affect his strong plot structure ability. The two novels "Bad Boy" and "Long Night" are both compact in writing, so that readers can always hang their breath. At the same time, there is no shortage of accurate insight into society.
In short, this "partial discipline" does not limit Zijin Chen's ability to tell stories. Storytelling is exactly what video sites need today.
In 2017, Youku launched "White Night Pursuit", which won a very high reputation. But unfortunately, whether it is the follow-up "Rebirth", which is known as the sequel to "White Night Pursuit", or the "suspense theater" launched by Youku, it has failed to continue the myth of "White Night Pursuit".
Nowadays, Youku has "snatched" Zijin Chen from the hands of iQiyi, obviously in preparation for the follow-up "suspense theater". Therefore, to be precise, Youku bet on Zijin Chen's future creation and drainage ability.
In fact, it's not just Zijin Chen. In recent years, writers such as Ma Boyong, Anai, and Tianxia Baxiang, who have been on fire, have ushered in the harvest period of film and television of their works.
On September 12, "Daming under the Microscope" announced its launch. This is Ma Boyong's third work in cooperation with iQIYI after "Wind Rises Luoyang" and "Wind Rises Longxi", in addition, "Two Beijing Fifteen Days" and "Fenjing" also appeared in iQIYI's Enjoyment Club.
After the "Ode to Joy" series, the "Great Rivers" series and "All Is Good" and other dramas have received market praise, Anai's "Can't Die" has also officially launched film and television. On October 20, the adaptation of "Savage Growth" announced the start of production, directed by Fu Dongyu, written by Zhang Ting, and starring Zhao Liying and Ou Hao.
The "Ghost Blowing Lights" sung by the world has repeatedly run in with Tencent Video and found the most suitable creative team. The fixed combination of Fei Zhenxiang + Pan Yueming + Zhang Yuqi + Jiang Chao is recognized as the most brilliant "Ghost Blowing Lights" adaptation "squad" in recent years. At present, the "Longling Labyrinth" and "Yunnan Worm Valley" completed by them have been broadcast, and "Kunlun Shrine" has also been completed.
A generation that "carries on from the top to the bottom"
There are so many writers active on the Internet and the print media, why do they stand out?
This has to mention the special period that these writers experienced when they were creating. After 2000, China's publishing industry ushered in a special period of prosperity. On the one hand, there are more and more varieties of books, and the content market is extremely prosperous; on the other hand, readers' preference for books to be relaxed and fast-food makes the shelf cycle of books shorter and shorter.
In this period, online literature sprung up, and the linkage benefits of online literature and paper books began to stand out. Xiao Ding's "Xue Xian" has driven the hot sales of paper books through the dissemination of the Internet.
A group of writers born in this period were deeply influenced by online literature, but they were not completely separated from the writing framework of traditional writers, and their creative style was often more popular than traditional literature and more serious than online novels.
When "The Silent Truth" was broadcast, some people praised it as a creation with "the will to promote social progress". Unlike "The Hidden Corner", which tells about the evil of human nature, "The Silent Truth" is about the problems in the system and ecology, and its care for reality is even thicker.
However, in the classification of works, Zijin Chen's definition of his works is "fast food literature", "the requirements for literature are not my target customer group, they will not read future works, my target customer group is those who usually read popular novels." ”
Therefore, the definition of the identity of this group of writers is often vague.
Earlier, regarding Ma Boyong's identity as an internet writer, Sanlian Life Weekly once wrote: If the standard definition of "internet writer" is to carry out VIP paid serialization on commercial literary websites and basically maintain daily authorship, then Ma Boyong has never been an online writer; but if this definition is extended to authors influenced by Internet culture, then Ma Boyong is a typical internet writer, and his creation has never been far from Internet culture.
Ma Boyong
There is no doubt that this definition also applies to Zijin Chen, Anai, Tianxia Baxiang and others. And this kind of work that occupies a unique position in the literary market is highly compatible with the current genre film and television creation. They are not only different from the homogeneous, low-grade, and cool culture of the network literature, but also do not resemble the traditional serious literature that often has the problem of high and low, which is most in line with the demands of film and television adaptation.
Earlier, Ma Boyong revealed in an interview that in 2010, when he was still writing a book for "Secrets of the Three Kingdoms", his contracted publishing house Zhonglian Baiwen had already selected the next topic for Ma Boyong according to market preferences - "Antiques Bureau Central Bureau".
At the same time, in the initial planning, Zoomlion Baiwen also considered the layout direction of the work in the future adaptation of film and television dramas. For example, among the five branches, only two or three struggles are written in the novel, and the rest is buried in the story, so that there is enough room for adaptation, and these lines can be picked up and used at any time.
These factors have given this group of writers in the period of "carrying on the top and starting the bottom" a more prominent opportunity for adaptation. In September this year, Mango TV announced that it had signed a contract with the China Writers Association, presumably with the intention of tapping potential writers and intervening in creation from the source of IP.
It can be expected that this group of writers who occupy a unique position in the literary market will continue to explode.
Is it worth paying for video sites in advance?
Judging from today's market trends, the strategy of video sites to cooperate with these writers is to establish a cooperation model of multiple works, jointly develop the author's content universe, and even buy their creation time and future works in advance.
At this year's iQIYI Promotion Conference, iQIYI announced that it will cooperate with Ma Boyong in twelve works, including two animated dramas, two animated films, one online movie and seven web dramas.
Not long ago, Tang Fan, general manager of Mango TV Film and Television Center, revealed in an interview that Mango TV has signed six novels in the future of Qin Ming. Three of them have been completed and the other three are still in the works. Perhaps in the near future, Mango TV will also launch the "Qin Ming Universe".
From Zijin Chen to Ma Boyong to Qin Ming, when the work has not yet been created, the video platform is deeply bundled with it. In other words, this is an early payment for the ability of content creators.
For writers, this is an opportunity worth seizing. The direct docking of video platforms with writers can give writers sufficient funds and channel advantages on the one hand. On the other hand, the intervention of the platform from the creative link also gives the series more opportunities to become "blockbusters".
For video platforms, this is a big gamble. The opening situation of this year's "Mist Theater" proves that in today's drama market, the director and cast cannot hold up the story of insufficient tension, and the importance of the text is once again highlighted. The audience's pain points are difficult to shoot, and even sharp archers like Zijin Chen cannot guarantee that they will hit the bullseye every time.
At the same time, the construction of the "universe" is not easy. It not only requires the consistent talent and ambition of creators, but also the support of platform resources and strategies. A deep consensus between creators and video platforms is only a prerequisite.
Another problem that early binding can cause is that writers may compromise because of the market's short-term preferences.
In 2017, "Ghost Blowing Lights of Makino Mystery" was launched. This was not originally a complete novel, but a column that Tianxia Baxiang used to denounce the doubts of interest to the audience in the "Ghost Blowing Lights" series. With the popularity of the world's hegemonic singing and "Ghost Blowing Lights", "Ghost Blowing Lights of Makino Mystery" was finally assembled into a book and adapted into a series broadcast in 2017.
But unfortunately, this drama that tells the adventure story of the children of Hu Bayi, Big Gold Tooth and Wang Fatzi did not help Tianxia Baxiang and "Ghost Blowing Lights" to go further, but caused a huge impact on ip reputation, and for the author himself, it is also a great consumption.
Of course, the success of a work does not depend solely on the author. It's a protracted battle from creation to production to marketing. Every level is not to be relaxed.
Binding popular writers, of course, is easy to create stable expectations and brand effects. However, whether it is a platform or a film and television company, bound to the head writer, it cannot completely eliminate market risks. As Youku announced his partnership with Zijin Chen, his response on Weibo said: "The follow-up of the film and television depends on luck, but the story itself is good or bad in plot, rhythm and logic, which is my responsibility alone." ”
This is already the biggest insurance factor that a writer can bring to content.
【Text/Pomegranate】