Capital forces to build industry leaders

Author: Feng Qian language

Source:Ginkgo Finance (ID: yinxingcj)

On September 25th, aichi art misty theater "The Truth of Silence" ushered in the grand finale, this adaptation of Zijin Chen's original "Long Night Is Hard to Know" suspense short play, the domestic drama once again put on a hot search.

"The Truth of Silence" currently has a 9.2 rating, surpassing "The Hidden Corner" (8.9 points) from the previous brush-screen network, and so far, the Misty Theater has had five short plays online.

As a theater that only came online in the second quarter of this year, it was a surprise to see five in a row maintain a relatively high standard, and two of them were still bursts.

Starting in 2020, suspense dramas became popular, Youku launched "The Suspense Theater" and Tencent Video produced the critically acclaimed "Skyscraper".

Suspense was the second-largest of all TOP10 network dramas between 2014 and 2020, while Aichi covered a 40% share of head suspense dramas.

In the context of the video platform's home-made drama master control, the fine suspense net drama has gradually become a new trend in the development of the network drama, and the "fog theater" of the standard American drama has become a case worth studying.

Ai Qiyi for three consecutive years, quarterly losses, but also in the "fog" prominent re-surrounding, at least explained two things, one is high-quality content can not be separated from high-cost input, and the other is only the continuous output of high-quality content can continue to live.

All along, the long video platform is faced with an important problem, that is, user stickiness, many users open members just for a play or a star, as long as the competitors have new actions, users will immediately shift their positions, no loyalty to say.

Continuous output of high-quality content tests both capital investment and team perseverance. Compared with Ali's Youku and Standing on penguin shoulder Tencent video, has been an independent brand to show people's love of Qiyi appears much thinner, but in the online drama is the most steady step.

However, the urgent question is, high-quality domestic drama can not only stay in suspense, and domestic drama later is also like Korean drama, any subject matter into the era of short plays? Where is the suspense synth worth learning from?

Suspense drama in all kinds of dramas the most test of logic and plot convergence, but also the least applicable to the "big IP plus star."

After the traffic star era, can really win the film and television market is "dewatering" boutique.

"To water" is not so easy to say, film and television drama used to take investment according to the number of episodes, but also used to sell dramas by the number of episodes, short plays because the volume is too small has not been optimistic.

It wasn't until the 12-episode synth "I Am Yu Huanshui" that the market suddenly noticed the value of the synth.

In fact, as early as "I am Yu Huanshui" before, Ai Qiyi launched a short drama "Chinatown Detective", when the synth drama did not become a common phenomenon, really ushered in the outbreak of the synth is 2020.

In 2020, the long video platform of the higher quality of the short drama, suspense accounted for the majority. Later there is a platform to shoot suspense drama, are inevitably to be compared with the "silent truth" and other explosive.

The audience struggled for a long time.

"I am Yu Huanshui" is not a suspense drama, but for the later suspense market opened up a "realism" road.

Xu Wei was skeptical of "realism" before he made "I Am Not a Drug God", and the final box office proved that the market demand for realism was actually very large.

Unfortunately, many studios understand "realism" as simplistic unemployment, cheating, divorce, and paradoxes, see "Thirty" and "Dear Yourself."

No one expected that the real interpretation of the so-called reality is cruel is a series of suspense dramas represented by the Misty Theatre.

Instead of sticking to the traditional logic of murder, these suspense plays combine the cruel side of real life with the complex side of human nature, thus forming a tense plot.

Take "The Hidden Corner" as an example, the complex discussion of human nature has finally shifted from adults to children, when we are discussing whether Zhu Chaoyang will become the next Zhang Dongsheng, the essence of the discussion is how people in the process of growth become not pure.

It is by this personality is not purely as the plot of the paving, there is worthy of repeated "details of the crime."

These details may not be clever, but they are placed in the most appropriate place, like the transition in The Silent Truth, and the virtuosity of the editor alone is not enough.

Above the details is the grasp of the story structure, the past domestic drama is not without good details, but they do not know what to tell the story, how to tell, which also provides a wide field for water injection.

The logic of self-harmony and the plot of strict silk stitching should have been the most basic condition of the TV drama, but slowly became a rare existence in the pursuit of the market's quick success.

Just as there is always a new generation of actors who praise dedication, many people forget that engagement is their job.

And what's the job of making a TV series? It's nothing more than telling a good story.

Before the fog, the domestic drama also had a long period of glorious years, that is Wang Hailin missed the "coal boss investment" era. Therefore, a series of suspense dramas in the Misty Theatre, not so much to raise the height of domestic drama, but also to return to the original intention of storytelling.

Take "The Truth of Silence", in fact, it is not a strict sense of suspense drama, because often watching the suspense drama audience from the first episode of "subway body-throwing case", it can basically guess that this is a "sad snow" story.

A suspense drama that has guessed the contours of the story from the start can only be attracted by the "story" itself.

Compared with "Skyscraper" to the audience to constantly guess who the starting point is different, "the truth of silence" would like to pass on the "cruel reality" in the case, so that every further progress of the case, depression deepened a point.

The return to reality, so that the suspense drama broadens the field of vision, let the audience see more possibilities.

And the success of the Misty Theatre not only presents the real world, but also conveys a kind of domestic drama in urgent need of quality return of the realistic appeal.

It is important to note that in the field of content production, large production and high returns are difficult to maintain positive correlation, the occasional burst does not mean that long-term high-quality output can be maintained.

Investing a lot of money in a vertically segmented film and television theme is risky from the start. The success of the Misty Theatre does not mean that the Misty Theatre will be able to continue to replicate as a good template.

After the quality of the content has improved, the next face is the issue of profitability, here we have to mention advertising implantation.

"The Truth of Silence" did receive a high score for the Misty Theatre, but also opened a low-point advertising implantation, it is hard not to believe that the good shop is the real protagonist of the play.

Dai Ying, vice president of Ai Qiyi, admitted that the Misty Theatre does not make money, from "The Truth of Silence" began to make money, is to eat the previous few short plays of word-of-mouth benefits.

Advertisers look at the popular dishes, the production can earn a little is a point, there is no reason because 999 cold spirit and Mo Xiaoxian do not meet the suspense drama of the painting style will be the advertising shut out.

Because of the characteristics of the suspense theme itself, the difficulty of medium-insert advertising is much greater than other plays, at any time in the "let the audience play" the edge of crazy testing, beyond the general level of subtle transition skills to the advertising link as if to disappear.

Even so, The Truth of Silence is lucky - the only place you can spit is advertising.

This luck in the final analysis is still due to the continuous output of fine content, assuming that from the beginning of the Misty Theatre to attract advertisers countless, the ability to insert advertising may not be improved, but word-of-mouth will decline predictably.

Word-of-mouth is to serve the brand, and the ultimate goal of the brand is revenue.

Aichi is still some way from real profitability, with the number of members reported dropping to 105 million in the second quarter of 2020, and while revenue from member services has increased, the value of member services to users is declining.

Not only do users feel that the value of membership is declining, the platform side also increasingly feel that the simple membership fee can not achieve the revenue target.

Users want to see boutique dramas, but boutique dramas mean high costs, and who pays for them has become the main thinking of the platform.

Since there is no way to rush up prices, the addition of new payment methods is a top priority, pay-per-view will come into being.

The high cost of boutique dramas ultimately has to be "shared" among advertisers and users, as are Youku and Tencent videos.

YouTube is based on Google big data, depending on the user's advertising operating model, for example, a thousand people may see a thousand ads, although there are 5s to skip options, users do not necessarily skip, not only to avoid user antipathy to ads, but also conducive to advertising to achieve higher commercial value.

YouTube this article sounds very ideal, there are platforms in China to follow suit, such as Youku has tried YouTube's TrueView bidding ranking of the form of advertising, but this directly led to CPM (thousands of exposure costs) correspondingly raised, so Youku gave up.

Another reason why personalized advertising models are not possible is that domestic advertisers don't value the quality of ads that are more important to them.

In the case of poor advertising quality, it is futile for any algorithm to optimize against the target group.

And video platforms such as Achiyi, which is dominated by solo copyright, differ from UGC-led video platforms, and copyright means greater operating costs and more urgent demand for reallocation, so there is no way to fully copy the advertising operating model of platforms such as YouTube.

But in the long run, the foggy theatre, which is innovative and unique as the entry threshold, may really wish to spend more time on advertising.

Ai Qiyi first took a big step on the road of suspense drama, and then in the advertising implant but in place, still stay in the "old nine door" era. There is still a reliable burst of money to accommodate this "mistake", but this is clearly not a long-term solution.

Maintain the excellent output of the follow-up content, and expand the theme of the fine drama to the non-suspense world, perhaps in order to provide advertisers with more choices.

The tension and even repression of suspense drama to a large extent limit the scope of advertising can play, a group of police overtime must be "good shop" is very rigid, but a family reunion must be "good shop" is not necessarily.

For Ai Qiyi, the Misty Theatre is the boundary of the road, and it only takes one step to move forward and backward.

On the face of it, the increase in the number of high-quality domestic dramas in the last two years symbolizes some kind of prosperity, but whether it is a return to light or really full of hope is hard to say.

Before the popularity of "Traffic Star and Big IP", there were many fine domestic dramas, such as "Daming Dynasty" "Wu Lin", and now many excellent episodes can not be said to go beyond, can only be regarded as a return.

The first step of the regression is to go to the water, and the second step is to upgrade. "Dewatering" is beginning to bear fruit, and upgrades need to be strengthened.

The primary upgrade should be the subject matter, only by suspense drama can not support the development of domestic drama.

Workplace dramas float in palace-style workplace rules, and life dramas cling to the number of dog bloods that infuriate the audience. "Thirty" is more suitable for "dog blood only", "dear self" in fact "without their own", "ordinary glory" is not ordinary at all.

Too much pursuit of conflict and revenge-style pleasure, so that the last decade of domestic drama the highest peak of the anti-is palace fighting drama.

However, in the recent official explanation of the reasons for the downing of the relevant Miyagi drama, it is possible to see the negative impact of the Miyagi drama.

In short, such episodes promote the luxurious imperial life of the feudal era, carefully interpret the plot of "The Palace Fight", and worsen the social ecology and positive spiritual guidance of the times.

Down a lot of popular palace fighting drama, although there is a one-size-fits-all suspicion, but passed out a phenomenon: what subject matter fire, on what subject matter, as to the good depends on nothing.

Following the hot topic is a relatively safe choice, but also easy to go one way to the black.

After "The Truth of Silence", it may be difficult to go beyond the work, if other subject matter of the short play can not catch the peak of suspense, that fog theater is only a flash in the pan of domestic drama.

Out of the "fog", the domestic drama may face a greater fog forest.

The spleen of the short play is the most suspenseful, and the difficulty of water injection is relatively large. Such as "Chang'an 12 hours" such as fine antique suspense drama, at the end of 12 episodes is the ideal state, but hard 12 hours of the matter of the interpretation of 48 episodes, the loss of word-of-mouth is also from the length of the beginning.

It can be said that the suspense theme can make the audience obviously feel the charm of "dewatering", but that's all, because the current market, it is still very difficult to use this idea for all subjects.

Abandoning the length of time means continuing to output, the same cost input, a few more episodes is obviously more secure than shooting a few less episodes, after all, the burst is an uncontrolled thing.

It's both a blast and a long time, and the odds are even smaller.

The era of "Censorship" has passed, now the domestic drama is only in debt repayment, but also a long time owed "traffic star and IP" debt, is called "true return."

For the long video platform, whether it is the suspense represents the fog theater series, or the industrial sacchary representative of the "rumoured Chen Wei" and so on, these series with content and quality to win can only form water flowers for a period of time, can not be produced intensively.

Intensive output is the key to increasing user stickiness.

Retaining users doesn't necessarily require a lot of money, it's important to keep home-made dramas at a better average, and Aichi's Misty Theatre has pulled up the average score of its own home-made plays, with only what's to worry about after the fog.

Tencent video in recent years excellent home-made drama is not a small, but has not been as foggy as the theater caused "phenomena" discussion. However, Tencent Video, which has a complete IP incubation industry chain and strong capital, is not difficult to catch up with.

Youku video may face more challenges, not enough self-control plus not much money, and then need to work on a variety of aspects, including the copyright aspect of the explosion and content creativity.

In addition to Ai Youteng, mango TV strong attack, watermelon video, B station also has the opportunity to become a dark horse in the field of home-made drama, fierce competition, for the industry in the end is a good omen.

The sleepy domestic drama may eventually still need the video platform's homemade drama to add a spring of live water.

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