Can "online drama" help a good drama out of the circle? 丨 Investigation

Beijing News reporter Guo Yanbing

  From the early stage of the epidemic, state-owned or private group performance agencies and theaters have performed online screenings with videos of past performances and previous offline events, and then theater fans can see the major outbreaks in Europe and the United States. Dances, theaters, Broadway in New York, and the West End of London have provided classic performances, art festivals, workshops, master classes, etc. to the audience online, and then to the recent 68th anniversary celebration of Beijing Arts and Arts, the first online music With the paid live broadcast of the drama "One Thousand Years", "online drama" has become increasingly rich and diverse in the minds of drama audiences.

  But for "online drama", whether it is a drama practitioner or an audience, the support for this form is polarized. Is "online drama" a drama? How was an "online drama" born? What kind of "online drama" does the audience want to see? The Beijing News reporter’s interview has been exploring new forms of online drama, such as Barley Mailive, Shanghai Dramatic Art Center, as well as drama practitioners and multiple audiences, who want to find new directions from their discussions.

Evolution

From the screening of past works to live performances

  June 12 this year is a special day for Beijing People's Art Theater and Shanghai Dramatic Art Center. In accordance with the practice of previous years, the Capital Theatre has staged the drama "Tea House" every year from the 65th anniversary of the Beijing Arts and Crafts Academy to the present day. This year was affected by the epidemic. On the occasion of the establishment of the hospital 68 years ago, the theater decided to perform the first time through a live webcast form of 16 classic dramas performed by 30 generations of veteran, middle-aged and young actors. In this two-and-a-half-hour online performance, the number of people who watched it in real time reached more than 5 million times, and the number of people who watched Chinese drama "online drama" performance peaked.

  Almost at the same time as the commemorative performance of the Beijing People's Arts Academy, at the Shanghai Dramatic Art Center more than 1200 kilometers away, the first online drama "The Taste of Hot Noodles" completed its premiere from online to offline. Although the audience's current limit measures were taken at the scene, only 69 spectators were present, and the attendance rate was 30%, but at least some Shanghai spectators re-entered the theater after an interval of more than 140 days. The brand-new drama "The Taste of Hot Noodles" directed by He Nian was previously broadcasted online, and the two-hour performance in the live room of Station B reached 165,000 people online.

  As of the above two drama online performance projects, the time has passed. The Chinese drama circle has experienced the form of online review of past classic plays, script reading sessions, cloud appreciation music, and micro-classes since the early stage of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. As early as February 8th, Beijing Performance Company launched the "Beijing Anti-epidemic Literature and Art Online Performance Series". As of April 3, a total of 56 columns have been launched, involving concerts, operas, and dramas. content. On March 2nd, the first stage of the "Poly Cloud Theater" of the Beijing Poly Theater was launched, which launched a total of four sections of drama, concerts, master classes, and anti-epidemic literature and art, including three recent dramas "Beijing" "People", "New Field" and "Seagull". On March 4th, the China Theater Theater launched the "Cloud Opera House", which pushed the highlights of the classic opera works at home and abroad that were staged in the "Theater Theater" in multiple installments to the audience. On March 5, the National Grand Theater launched the "Tongji Tongji War Epidemic and the National Grand Theater in Action". In addition to creating many original works on anti-epidemic themes, the Grand Theater also opened online exhibitions such as Cloud Exhibition and Cloud Theater. , And launched two seasons of live online concerts, which lasted until the end of June.

  On April 6, China's first new line "Online Drama" "Waiting for Godot 2.0" completed the live broadcast premiere. The online performance directed by Wang Chong watched a total of 290,000 people in two days. Among them, April 5 The online audience for the first act of the day was 180,000, and the online audience for the second act on April 6 was 110,000. On the same day, Beijing Renyi launched the "Online Script Reading". As of May 25, the five episodes of live broadcasts had been viewed nearly 3 million times. On May 13th, after the "Online 730 Script Reading Conference" was held at Gulou West Theater, each platform paid more than 800,000 attention.

  For the audience, during the epidemic, in addition to interactively participating in the online creation of the above-mentioned Chinese dramatists, the online drama projects that have been opened by European and American drama circles have become the first choice for killing time at home. From the first batch of famous classical music orchestras such as the Metropolitan Opera House, Carnegie Hall and New York Philharmonic Orchestra, high-definition online screening and on-demand of past works were opened, and then the Berlin Theatre Festival was shut down to become an "Online Theatre Festival", Broadway. , A seven-day online body teaching course started by the famous Israeli modern dance group Bacheva, and British musical composer Andrew Lloyd Webber opened "The Shows Must Go On!" Channel, online drama screenings in Europe and America reached an unprecedented blowout period in the past six months. At the beginning of April, the British National Theatre NTLive first released the high-definition video of Shakespeare's comedy "One Servant and Two Masters" for the first time in a free form for a limited time. As the "new scene" of NT Live's exclusive introduction in China, it also synchronized with several domestic video platforms. Online live broadcasts are reserved for free playback for one week, and domestic audiences are synchronized with the world for the first time in the online field.

  But are viewers optimistic about the future of "online drama"?

debate

"Online drama" may be a double-edged sword

  In the questionnaire survey of more than 100 audiences collected by reporters from the Beijing News, only 23.8% of the viewers "watched online performances frequently", and 42.31% of the viewers had a "general" support attitude for online dramas. Interestingly, most The audience said that their expectation for online dramas is not to watch full performances, but to see master classes, art interactive projects or knowledge-based dramas online.

Counterparty: Missing interaction

  Among the audience interviewed, the reasons given by those who did not recognize "online drama" were mostly "lack of a sense of on-site rituals, and the interaction between viewing and acting was not as good as offline, and the cast members were far away from the audience." Ziweier said that he watched "Frankenstein" on NTLive HD video for the first time during the outbreak. She feels fresh for the first time, the actor performance is indeed wonderful, the physical performance is particularly rich, in line with the character setting and plot development, and there is a language barrier, but the actor's performance compensates to a certain extent. Even so, there is still a sense of distance in this performance, you can't feel the aura of the stage performance, you can't feel the tacit understanding of the audience watching the drama together, and it is difficult to invest from the psychological to the physical.

  The insiders explained this "missing sense" in this way. The young director and actor Miao Ge said: "When the drama chooses online, it loses the viewing relationship of the drama, and the drama without the viewing relationship is incomplete. Theater "The real charm lies in'this moment'." Miao Ge added that one of the relationship between the audience and the audience is the relationship between the actor and the audience, but this relationship cannot be connected at any time in the "online drama" There is no feedback on communication. Most of the "online dramas" are technical and ornamental, and they are not comparable to film and television works. The value reflected is very limited.

  He Ye, a former practitioner of drama directors and producers, also believes that it is difficult to understand "online drama" from an artistic perspective and "interact between actors and audiences". She believes that even if you can use the technology of TV guides to use the audio-visual language to convey the dramatic scenes that are happening on the stage to the audience, the channel that should be a two-way influence can only be one-way at present, even if there is VR technology, "online" This method is also difficult to replace traditional theater performances in a short time. "In any case, my attitude and position are open and positive. Because any new art form was controversial at the beginning," He Ye said.

Supporter: Irrelevant form, value content

  In the camp that recognizes "online drama", the audience of professional drama lawyers Daodao believes that although drama is "the art of the stage", with the advancement of technology, the stage has changed from flat ground to stone field to wooden platform. As the cement roof continues to change, the network may not necessarily become a new form of stage. From the point of view of the knife, the audience of the offline drama (including immersive drama) is in the drama, and can only choose one perspective and focus at a time, which is essential to the constantly changing perspective created by the film and television with the close-up close-up of montage The difference: "The current "online drama" cannot provide a sufficient sense of presence, so it is inevitable that some technical advantages will be given to the audience, and some drama images will continue to switch between various cameras, which will only cause the drama to lose its characteristics. Another On the one hand,'Online Drama' has liberated the audience to a certain extent, and can spit and express, but it may be a double-edged sword."

  In some camps with a neutral attitude, the media person Liu Yang believes that although she does not agree with the appearance of "online drama" as a form of drama, she can readily accept the form of "online". If it is content you like, it will be displayed on site and online, in no particular order. If the play is not good, the scene and online refused. Audience Wang Xingping, who is a class teacher of a certain primary school, believes that "online drama" is a form of "quasi-drama". It is infinitely close to "drama", but it lacks or weakens part of the sense of atmosphere and presence, and is between drama and non-drama, live art and non-live art. "'Online drama' retains most of its usual drama characteristics. In terms of the NTLive online multi-platform free limited-time screening during the epidemic this year, this is undoubtedly a record of theater art, but at the same time, the exquisite lens language, Later editing, distribution, and behind-the-scenes interviews are another layer of artistic creation."

  Senior drama promoter, drama media, and performance worker Yang Xiaoran believes that "online drama" must be a drama: "If you only use video plus live broadcast to perform online drama, that is the most basic online Drama. The advantage of online is that through a super platform such as the Internet, viewers can enjoy your work no matter where they are, as long as they have network and equipment. In fact, this is a cross-border integration, and creators can sink their hearts. Understand the functional characteristics of the Internet and Internet-related products and even the above culture, and then integrate with the drama to make some unique works."

  What kind of "online drama" does the audience want to see?

look forward to

The "online drama" the audience wants is not in the repertoire itself

  Wang Keran, the chief producer of Yanghua Drama, has a new layer of thinking about "online drama". He believes that the so-called "online" is a social program related to art under the special conditions of the epidemic. It cannot be regarded as an art category itself. In his view, the more accurate explanation is that "online" is a new opportunity for everyone to socialize during the epidemic. It is a social method, rather than the methods and rules of the drama industry itself. “It’s like a company’s annual meeting, where you can perform drama clips in the hotel’s dining hall for fun, but it’s not drama. You can play in the cloud, but practitioners need to know clearly that this is actually an extension of the drama, not a drama. Skeleton and root."

  Similar to Wang Keran's thinking, the audience's appeal for "online drama" in this interview is mostly not about watching the complete performance of the traditional drama. Vocational teacher Wang Xingping expressed the hope that "online drama" can explain drama from a pluralistic perspective, such as "Sleep No More" (Sleep No More), which was performed at the "Shangyangu" in Shanghai on the evening of June 13, and Tmall. The four-hour live broadcast is a successful online drama case. It has created an amazing number of audiences and economic efficiency under the premise of keeping the distinctive immersive performance style unchanged. "It is not difficult to imagine a high-quality line after the epidemic. Taking master classes, workshops, script reading and other forms may be more popular, more innovative and bold drama education, drama therapy, drama exhibition and other network-based'drama +'model is more worthy of attention. Cloud drama will Become a tributary in the future development of drama."

  The audience's taste has a similar point of view. For her, the "online drama" she expects to see is not only the domestic classic dramas that have been missed on the stage, but the foreign classics that she has no chance to see in China. Seeing the production process of classic drama works online, "Human Arts has published "Tea House", "World's First Floor" and other related books on stage art, hoping to have the opportunity to explain the rehearsal process of these plays through the workshop Popularize to the audience."

  The audience is more imaginative, and she hopes to achieve "theater cloud travel" online. She explained that she hopes that future theaters can lead audiences to watch the drama from a subjective perspective, from boarding to landing, walking to the theater to buy Tickets, watching the full drama, this may be more substituting. Audience Li Li hopes that online dramas will be more open, and there will be dramas that audiences can interact with. For example, audiences can vote on the direction of the story, or participate in interactive discussions about the characters’ stories. The end is not fixed, causing the audience to think more and interact and inspire drama innovation .

future

"Online" can become a means of drama marketing

  During the epidemic, Barley launched the "parallel wheat scene" performance content label, breaking various time and space restrictions for music, theater and other performances, creating a parallel online performance model online. You Jia, general manager of the Barley Mailive business department, said that in fact, in the European, American and Japanese and Korean markets, the digital content of dramas is relatively mature. Whether it is a large-screen movie theater or a network broadcast, there are more mature models, mostly as live performances. Derivatives. In addition, the Internet is a very good platform for the dissemination of dramas, and has great potential for making dramas circle and attracting more audiences. Therefore, online and digital performances are an inevitable exploration of the development of the domestic performance market, but this epidemic has accelerated this process.

  You Jia believes that the current development of "online drama" can be roughly divided into two categories: one is online performances, such as the live broadcast of the National Academy of Arts, which has relatively high innovation requirements for drama creators and video production. On the one hand, it is necessary to consider the visual expression of online viewing, on the other hand, the use of the lens perspective must satisfy the audience's daily experience of traditional drama viewing. The other category is content related to drama, such as master classes in popularization and communication, uncovering behind the scenes and interviews with artists. "Studies have shown that video is the online marketing method for drama with the highest conversion rate. Using various video content to let viewers understand drama is very important for cultivating audiences, box office sales, and drama outing. Barley also did this year. The upgrade of platform functions, the establishment of repertoire IP positions, etc., to build a platform for displaying more promotional video content. I hope that the audience will not only buy tickets in the future, but to learn more about the front and backstage of drama-related, planting drama, Fall in love with drama." But You Jia also said that the "online drama" monetization model is still in the exploration stage. "From the point of view of several current cooperation cases, it is more difficult to rely on online ticket sales to recover drama costs. Barley It is also actively exploring how to make'online' a'monetization' of dramas, including the linkage of online and offline performances, the introduction and innovation of online interactive models, and diverse online commercial models."

  After "The Taste of Hot Dry Noodles", the marketing department of Shanghai Dramatic Art Center under the charge of Chen Li is also reviewing, which has also entered the stage of "performance online" development and discussion. Chen Li felt that Shanghai Dramatic Art Center had star performances in previous years, but there were not many relative performances. If we borrow the NTLive model, in the future, more viewers can see star performances in the form of paid on-demand. On the other hand, the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center has been doing a "new text incubation plan" for five years. The original dramas of the small theater can try to form strategic cooperation with some live broadcast websites and put them online for audiences before there is a public performance. Because the "barrage" sent by the audience is a good and timely feedback for the main creator. "When the production team sees the real audience feedback of these incubation works, they come back and polish it carefully, and finally return to the theater to commercialize it. Perhaps the audience recognition will be higher."

★Extended reading: How to make an online performance?

Beijing People's Arts Academy Celebration Performance

  The live broadcast used 6 planes and adopted the technical means of live broadcast. Barley's filming and live broadcast team was deeply involved in the rehearsal and synthesis of the stage, so that they could get acquainted with the actors' position and facilitate the design of the lens language. The main point in the live broadcast is to achieve as much as possible the rhythm of the camera switching and the rhythm of the drama, so that the audience can feel the performance of the actors and the tension of the drama. In addition to the performance itself, the whole memorial performance also planned a backstage tour, which is a new content that online drama can add to the audience.

Online performance of "The Taste of Hot Dry Noodles"

  Unlike the experienced live broadcast and Xuanfa team behind the live broadcast of Beijing People's Art Academy, the platform chosen by Shanghai Dramatic Art Center is not a professional drama live broadcast platform, but the new addition to this project is to allow viewers to participate in Live streaming". Chen Li said that before the launch of "The Taste of Hot Dry Noodles", a questionnaire survey was conducted on the audience. 80% of the audience chose "Station B", and then they have cooperated with them. On the day of the live broadcast, Chen Li found that during the one and a half hour performance of "The Taste of Hot Dry Noodles", the average length of the audience for the entire performance was 21 minutes, indicating that most of the audience did not see the beginning from the beginning. From the investigation after the performance, she learned that the audience from the beginning to the end are relatively senior "drama fans", who haven't entered the theater for a long time and miss the theater.

  Beijing News reporter Liu Zhen Guo Yanbing