Recently, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Work Related to the Management of Production and Production of TV Drama Network Dramas" (hereinafter referred to as "Notice"). "Notice" pointed out that some TV dramas and Internet dramas over-emphasized commercial attributes and economic benefits during the production process, and there were phenomena of artificially lengthening the episodes and adding water to the story plot, resulting in dragging the narrative rhythm, lowering the artistic level, affecting the viewing aesthetics, etc. problem. Indeed, anticlimax and plot water injection are almost common problems in domestic dramas.
Pursue business interests, from stunning opening to plot injection
Good ratings and longer episodes can bring considerable benefits. In order to obtain higher commercial benefits, many film and television creators have "spent their brains" to achieve a double harvest of ratings and episode length.
Many creators are superstitious about the saying, "A good start equals half of success." In other words, if a TV series cannot kick the first three legs, it is difficult to turn over in the back. Therefore, many creators are digging their brains, accumulating wisdom, and riveting their strength, and strive to win a lottery at the beginning of the play. As a result, many plays have a logical, meticulous plot and brilliant dialogue. For example, spy war dramas always presuppose foreshadowing and dark lines at the front of the play, leaving clues and suspicious clouds with a sly fight or a mysterious joint whisper, and using strong plots and big scenes to make the audience curious and lead. Feeling. The costume drama often lays the earth-shattering secrets and national hatred at the beginning of the play, and builds the plots and calculations of all forces into a three-dimensional wrestling field. Urban emotional dramas often have a huge amount of information at the beginning, and pile up all kinds of workplace disputes, emotional entanglements and fate of the fate of the audience to the audience. In short, a good start can quickly bring the audience into a specific drama situation, generate a desire to continue to follow, and thus quickly gather popularity, form a hot topic, get a good reputation, and then supplement it with dynamic announcements for ratings. Continue to rise to lay the foundation.
After harvesting a good start, many plays started the journey of water injection. As we all know, in the production of TV series, if the lens cannot be converted into a film, it is difficult to achieve profitability. Therefore, the creator will edit the lens into the film as much as possible. One of the important criteria for commercial procurement is to conduct transactions according to the number of episodes. The more water injection, the longer the episodes and the more profitable the commercial benefits. The "beautiful opening chapter" of the previous fan has aroused the audience's interest in viewing and locked the basic viewing platform. The possibility of the audience abandoning the drama is greatly reduced. At this time, the water injection is quite "insurance". As a result, the narrative rhythm began to slow down, and "correct nonsense" often appeared in the dialogue. The empty shots and relationship shots were repeatedly edited. The affectionate dialogue between the male and female protagonists should last for a long time. Above, the double speed mode of the network platform is a powerful response to the water injection of TV series. Imagine that if the plot is tight and solid, and the lines and sentences are continuous, the audience will certainly not want to miss the bridges that mean timeless and interesting. Other creators are good at "sizing the situation" and segmenting water injection, that is, a planned, "low-key" dilution of the original high-density, strong plot. For example, in the more outstanding episodes, secretly add a few minutes of "moisture". Or edit the more exciting bridges from the previous episode to the next episode with "title", "flashback" and "interpolation".
There are also some dramas, which lack both a strong storyline to promote the development of the plot, and a complete narrative method of inheritance and transformation to stitch the story chain. Misalignment of the main line and misalignment of the text become another way of water injection in disguise. Some workplace dramas basically do not show the characteristics and rules of the industry. For example, in "Negotiator" and "Perfect Relations", there are not a few reliable negotiations or convincing public relations activities throughout, and some are just emotional games with male and female protagonists pretending to be cool and eye-catching. Some medical dramas do not take medical diagnosis and treatment, life-saving and wound-relief as the main narrative, but put the emotional entanglement between doctors, doctors and patients, and family disputes in the first place. Some spy war dramas are equipped with too many emotional secondary lines outside the hidden front, turning intelligence warfare into a tug-of-war between love rivals, degrading the type foundation and artwork style of spy war dramas.
Provide solutions to ideas, stop creative creations
In recent years, many domestic dramas have gone up and down, ending badly, and even some works whose artistic quality and word of mouth are excellent are not immune. A bad ending means that the fate of the characters in the play does not have a complete account and a reasonable destination; or it ends happily under the premise that the drama conflict is not fully released; or the ending of the play is very different from the logic of the plot. For example, in the rare drama "Icebreaker" in recent years, the audience was dissatisfied with certain forced play and deliberately sensational bridges at the end of the play, so that the main creator had to apologize publicly.
Why is the phenomenon of anticlimax and water injection in plots so common? The author believes that there are mainly the following reasons: One is to shake the machine. As mentioned earlier, many creators have put "treasure" in the first few episodes. Some "big screenwriters" are only responsible for the writing of the opening or highlight; or they are only responsible for the construction of the story frame and the establishment of the fate of the characters; or they are only named, and the writing is handed over to the "small screenwriter" or the screenwriter team to complete. This approach can easily lead to an inconsistent overall style in the play, uneven levels between episodes, inconsistent stories and unsustainable characters. The second is poor endurance. The creation of TV series is like a marathon on the track and field, and it requires the mental, physical and willpower to run for a long distance. At present, many domestic screenwriters and directors lack sufficient cultural accumulation and artistic cultivation, and lack endurance. Some screenwriters, with a little creative talent and aura of flashing light, quickly wrote the outline of the script or some sections of the bridge that are worth looking forward to, and then Jiang Lang finished. The third is platform overweight. After completing the market transaction, some broadcast platforms will re-edit the work according to their own broadcast needs. The main operation is to lengthen the second half of the work as long as possible. Therefore, after water injection of content, water injection of editing and water injection of rhythm, the works that were originally "water" are even more "water". In addition, the film and television industry as a whole is impetuous, and the motive for the creation of motives has made mass production and mechanical replication a popular industry slant.
In response to the problem of domestic TV dramas, the "Notice" pointed out that it is necessary to enhance the awareness of the problem, promote the transformation of the production and production of TV dramas and Internet dramas from scale expansion to overall quality improvement, and firmly oppose water injection and lengthening episodes. The release of the "Notice" is both a norm and a guide. It raises questions for the creation of TV dramas and Internet dramas, and also gives ideas for understanding the questions. The key depends on how the creator answers.
Improve the quality of works and professional ethics before more masterpieces can emerge
The author believes that for the industry, the first thing is to watch the original intention and return to creation. The creators of TV dramas and Internet dramas in the new era should keep an eye on the original intention of the arts and realize self-improvement in the quality of works and professional ethics. Use extraction and concentration instead of dilution and water injection to extract artistic essence, and use high quality instead of large capacity to highlight the ideological value, artistic value and entertainment value of the work. Let the creative return to convey the thoughts, express emotions, and provide the artistic authenticity of pleasure, and cannot let the business logic constrain or even kidnap the creative thinking. The audience always has a rigid demand for good works, and the antithetical creation routine always makes the audience "the greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment." There is a feeling of being fooled. It is necessary to sound a wake-up call to the water injection behavior, and use industry contracts and industry rules to curb bad practices. In addition, many screenwriters often complain that the producers randomly modify the script and increase or decrease the number of plays, thus destroying the original tone and spirit of the script. Therefore, it is necessary to enhance the voice of the screenwriter, respect the spirit of contract and strengthen industry self-discipline.
The second is to comprehensively interpret and accurately implement strategies. Judging from the connotation of "Notice", the reduction of the number of episodes is not to limit the creation, but to add more fine works. For example, in the poverty alleviation TV series “No One Ca n’t Miss Less” broadcasted by CCTV, the 36-episode volume described the poverty village “Yanzhi Village” in a western part of China after it was merged into the richest “Danxia Village” in the county Villagers gradually discarded the stories of the past and the common path to prosperity. Poverty alleviation drama "Green Water and Green Mountain with Smile" first broadcasted by Hunan Satellite TV, with 44 episodes, tells Xu Han, Du Xiaoyu and other outstanding urban youths under the inspiration of the "Two Mountains Theory" to actively return to their hometowns to start business and build beauty Inspirational story of the village.
However, advocating no more than 40 episodes and encouraging the creation of short plays within 30 episodes is not a one-size-fits-all hard rule, but a precise policy that follows the laws of art and specific analysis of specific issues. For example, some dramas involved in the case and urban emotional dramas do not necessarily need a long narrative to complete the structure of the story. Compressing the number of episodes and squeezing out water just improves the quality of art. If the drama series has formed a certain influential drama brand and a large number of fixed audiences, it can also take the form of unit dramas and series dramas for planned and stepwise batch shooting. Another example is the adaptation of some famous works and red classics. The epic texture of the original works needs to be completed by grand narrative. For these types of plays, it is not necessary to limit the length of the episode. For example, dramas with major revolutionary themes such as "Liberation" and dramas with major historical themes such as "Greater Qin Empire", etc. The stories and contents contained in their themes and contents are rich and heavy, and require a long and large volume to complete.
In short, in addition to the necessary space, it is necessary to limit the approval of long-length TV series and broadcast audits, strengthen platform supervision, circumvent the behavior of randomly changing the number of episodes, lengthening the work, and curb the phenomenon of anti-coquettish and plot water. Only in this way can we cook a cultural meal that nourishes the soul, enlightens wisdom, and comforts life.
(Author: Fast Break, associate professor of the Department of Theater Film & TV Communication University of China, Ph.D.)