The annual meeting of Shanghai TV drama production and broadcasting held every spring is an important gathering of domestic TV drama industry after the year, which plays a certain role as a weather vane for the TV drama industry. Especially in the industrial forum, many elite guests from the industry jointly feel the pulse of China TV drama, and various dialogues and speeches have a far-reaching impact on the development of the industry.
China’s TV drama industry is entering a new era in which content is king. Last year, a number of high-quality "hot dramas" and "big dramas" were just signals. The industrial forum held the day before yesterday was based on the theme of "A New Start of China TV Drama in the New Era", and invited many industry elites and company bosses who were active in the front line to discuss three major topics: "New Integration of Television Networks in the New Era", "Breakthrough and Innovation of Realistic Theme Creation in the New Era" and "Breakthrough and Innovation of Ancient Costume Theme Creation".
Website and TV Station: From Game to Resonance
In 2017, after experiencing multi-screen interaction, network-platform linkage and other modes, China TV drama industry appeared a lot of big dramas that were broadcast in the background or even on the internet alone. However, Chen Yuren, vice president of Shanghai Culture, Radio, Film and Television Group Co., Ltd., pointed out that "the real explosive dramas are all network-platform resonance", so he advocated that producers, traditional platforms and network platforms should "join hands" on the spot. If we can build products that are basically close to the common denominator, we can make its broadcast benefit the most.
Chen Yuren’s words made all the guests agree very much. Regarding the integration of networks, Yang Weidong, the rotating president of Alibaba Culture and Entertainment Group and the president of Dayouku Business Group from the network platform, said: "The mentality between TV stations and network platforms may be the most critical basis for cooperation."
After the topic of "mentality" was put forward, the producer also pointed out the topic of "posture". Hou Hongliang, the chairman of Noon Sunshine Film and Television Co., Ltd., said: "In order to win-win, everyone should consider each other as much as possible, including our content production. It will be difficult for all platforms to adjust the content production conditions to the highest level. This is not necessarily a virtuous circle for the whole industry. The gesture of cooperation is to make the other party satisfied and comfortable. "
When the three parties can cooperate smoothly, the discussion on the broadcast mode becomes the top priority. In order to maximize the influence of TV series, Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent and CEO of Penguin Film and Television, said with his own experience: "Video websites and first-line TV prime files are broadcast simultaneously. At the same time, paying members of video websites have certain priority. We have basically tried and tested, and this model will not affect the ratings of TV stations, but also benefit the paying members of video websites. " In this regard, Wang Zhonglei, co-founder, vice chairman and CEO of Huayi Brothers Media Co., Ltd. agrees that this will be the mainstream model in the future: "Network broadcast, members give priority to it in advance, it must be a masterpiece."
Process and result: respect the creative system and don’t expect "explosion"
On the screen of China in 2017, the performance of realistic TV series is very eye-catching, and a series of realistic masterpieces, such as My First Half of Life and Bright Days of Life, have achieved fruitful results in terms of word of mouth and ratings. Therefore, the topic of the second forum was "Breakthrough and Innovation in the Creation of Realistic Themes in the New Era", and invited Chen Xiao, Huang Lan, Liu Liu, Li Xiao and Shen Yan, who are active in the field of realistic TV dramas, to participate.
Chen Xiao, vice president of iQiyi, is optimistic about the frequent trend of "explosion" of realistic themes, and even predicts that "this recovery may continue until 2018 or even later". However, the directors, screenwriters and producers at the scene are quite calm. They said that they are focused on creation and it is difficult to predict whether their works will become "explosive". Shen Yan, director of My First Half Life, said, "Every play has its own life, I think ‘ Explosions ’ It is really something that can’t be met. " Producer Huang Lan pointed out with a burst of blood: "I hope that when I come up, I think I am an explosion, and often people like that will not succeed." Screenwriter Li Xiao also believes that the key to making a good TV series is to "like yourself and put your true feelings into it", and the result is unpredictable.
The result of the work is hard to predict, and the creation of all the guests has its own system. The screenwriter Liu Liu said seriously that every work needs her to experience three or even five years of thinking and experience life: "You don’t have three or five years of infiltration, no in-depth communication, you don’t go into the souls of the characters, you are not familiar with their normal language system, and you can’t write such a play." Huang Lan also shared: "Without the investment of time, it is difficult to truly gain universal recognition in details and lines. This is the biggest difficulty."
Huang Lan also said: "Although the investment is great, you get a high income, and you can get the evaluation of so many viewers within a wide broadcast range. That kind of happiness, I think, is a lifetime harvest and memory."
Theme and Market: Broadening Dimensions and Avoiding Homogeneity
Despite the rise of realistic themes, costume drama is still a magic weapon for the traffic and viewing of many platforms. Facing the implementation of new control policies, the creation and broadcasting of costume drama are also undergoing new adjustments, and the content of costume drama is also undergoing "variation". Ma Boyong, a screenwriter and writer, said: "In recent years, the creation of historical themes is obviously not limited to the struggle for political power. The themes are very wide, and even what kind of industries have a stage for costume dramas. I think from the general trend, costume drama can indeed be extended to a very broad dimension. For example, it is also a good attempt to adapt the costume TV series to the style of spy war. "
In the writer Chang Jiang’s view, the theme expansion of such costume dramas is "the market forces everyone to produce something new and look good" and "because there are many costume dramas on the market, everyone is considering how to avoid homogenization". After the theme is expanded, the big coffees are also thinking about how to close the distance between the costume drama and the audience. Ding Hei, who created the series "Daqin Empire", said that although they wrote "imperial dreams", they focused on emotions, including family ties and friendship. "It is this kind of costume drama that brings closer communication with today’s audience." Fang Ying, vice president of Huacekerton, agrees: "This is the emotional communication between the audience and us, including people’s understanding of society and their experience, which will resonate more easily."
One of the difficulties in the creation of ancient costume themes is the bridge between historical truth and artistic fiction. Ma Boyong said: "After all, historical dramas are not historical papers, and there will definitely be fiction, but we must respect historical logic. Many times, the audience thinks that this costume drama is not good-looking, not that it does not conform to history, but does not conform to historical logic. " Fang Ying also mentioned that some changes are inevitable. "We want to make the vision itself look better, so we will make some minor adjustments in colors and fabrics, which may not be reached by ancient people at that time, but the picture will look better."
Text/reporter Yang Wenjie
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"Quality Festival" pays tribute to China TV series for 40 years
(Reporter Yang Wenjie) SMG Film and Television Drama Center and Oriental TV jointly produced the "Drama Glory Oriental 2018 TV Drama Quality Festival" which was announced in Shanghai on the evening of 13th. Jin Dong and Sun Li won the "Outstanding Quality Star of the Year (Male/Female)" respectively, and the three plays "Full Moon in that Year", "My First Half Life" and "Emergency Doctor" shared the "Quality Model Plays of the Year".
That night, the comprehensive evaluation results of TV series of Oriental TV were also announced for the first time, including three heavy honors: quality model drama of the year, theme innovation drama of the year and quality drama of the year. Among them, three hit dramas, Full Moon Blossom that Year, My First Half Life and Emergency Doctor, shared the grand finale, and Mr. Love won the theme innovation of the year.
At the quality ceremony that night, the crew of "Flowers bloom and the moon is full that year" gained a lot, not only being selected as "the best quality drama in 2017" by many actors in the background interview, but also gaining many "quality fruits" at the ceremony. Sun Li, the heroine, won the honor of "Outstanding Quality Star of the Year (Female)". When taking the stage to receive the award, the host asked Sun Li to put his "crescent moon" and a "half moon" together, and this "half moon" must be a choice between Wu Pin and Shen Xing. The witty Sun Li finally decided to put the two "half moons" together and put on his own "crescent moon" to make the "flowers that year" perfect "full moon". The appearance of "Wu Pin" and "Shen Xing Shift" on the same stage also captured the audience’s attention.
At the same time, Jin Dong also won the honor of "Outstanding Quality Star of the Year" for his outstanding performance on the screen in 2017. After appearing in many hot dramas such as Mr. Love and My First Half Life, he felt that "I didn’t stay at home for more than 15 days in the past three years", and he expressed his deepest gratitude to his family for their support.
One of the most touching performances of the evening was the performance of "Time Story" suite "Tribute to the 40th Anniversary of China TV Series" brought by Wang Kai, Zhang Yi, Huang Xiaoming and Zhang Jiayi. Accompanied by music on the big screen, China TV dramas that have been popular for 40 years have been played. These four actors with many years of performance experience expressed their "most unforgettable experiences as actors" before singing. Wang Kai said that when filming "Educated Youth" in the northeast of MINUS 40 degrees, the crew used a blower to blow snow on them because of the need to create a snowstorm scene. After that, his fingers were frostbitten, and water dripped from his chin to form ice ballast. Through that role, he realized the value of courage.
