Yangcheng Evening News reporter Hu Guangxin
"Short" and "high-quality products" have become the new trend of global dramas.
In foreign countries, Disney+ launched the two major Marvel dramas "Wanda Vision" and "Falcon and the Winter Soldier" in 9 episodes and 6 episodes of miniseries, respectively; in mainland China, 2020 will be regarded by industry insiders as " The first year of fine short dramas", "The Hidden Corner", "Chinatown Detective", "I Am Yu Huan Shui" and other short dramas within 20 episodes were broadcast on the Internet platform and became a hit that year.
The skit trend has also spread to the field of Hong Kong dramas.
Last year, "Hong Kong Love Story", "February 29", and "Bridge of Sighs" were released. This year, major producers have continued their efforts in short dramas. Among them, TVB alone will soon launch "The Absurd Theater" and "Youth Not "Face" and "Fall in Love with My Bad God" three skits.
More flexible production and broadcasting of short dramas for young audiences has brought a new atmosphere to the once dormant Hong Kong drama field.
Hong Kong dramas have tried to shorten, and in recent years they have repeatedly produced high-quality goods
In the field of Hong Kong drama, there is actually no fixed standard for what a short drama is.
However, TVB's regular drama series are mostly 20 to 40 episodes. According to the traditional schedule of 5 episodes a week on Jade Channel, the broadcast of each drama takes 5 to 8 weeks.
However, with the rise of online platforms and on-demand technology, the audience's viewing habits have changed, and "short and refined" dramas are more popular.
As a result, both TVB and other producers began to produce short dramas with less than 20 episodes.
The biggest promoter of skits is the network platform.
In 2018 and 2019, Fox Media Group produced 5 episodes of original financial drama "Oriental Wall Street" and 10 episodes of crime drama "Heart Injustice". The broadcasting platform in Hong Kong, China was FOX+, and the broadcasting platform in China was Tencent Video.
Among them, "Oriental Wall Street" was co-produced with Tencent's Penguin Video, which scored a good reputation on Douban with a score of 7.6, which is a successful attempt for a boutique short drama.
The veteran "TV giant" TVB actually tried the skits as early as 2018, but unfortunately the first attempt was not considered a success.
In 2018, the 15-episode short drama "Saving Wife and Classmates Meeting" with the theme of youth and love was broadcast on Sunday evening in prime time, with 2 episodes every week.
However, the popularity of the show has been declining, and in the end it only recorded an average rating of 13.9 points.
Two years after the "fire", TVB's confidence in the short drama was rekindled by the 12-episode short drama "Hong Kong Love Story" broadcast last year.
The show was broadcast during non-prime time at 10:30 pm from Monday to Friday, but the highest ratings reached 24.7 points. With a high score of 8.7 points, it became the highest rated TVB series on Douban in 2020.
At last year's Ten Thousand Stars Awards Ceremony, TVB added the "Best Short Story" award, and "Hong Kong Love Story" won the award without any suspense.
With the successful example of "Hong Kong Love Story", TVB is bolder in the layout of the short drama this year.
This year’s first crime drama "The Absurd Theater" to meet with the audience is TVB’s exclusive development for online platforms. It will be launched on TVB’s paid network platform myTVsuper on April 16th simultaneously with the Mainland Buiduidui APP. No plans yet. Broadcast on Jade Channel.
In addition, TVB has two short dramas in production: 15-episode nostalgic youth short drama "Youth Shameless" has been filmed in February this year, jointly by Pan Jiade ("Absurd Theatre Company") and Lincoln ("Hong Kong Love Story") Producer; the fantasy love story "Fall in Love with My Bad God" is currently in preparation. It will be directed by Fang Junzhao, the producer of "The Devil", and 10 episodes are expected to be produced.
In addition to TVB, the 15-episode short drama "Uncle's Love" adapted from Japanese TV dramas, the sequel "940920" of "February 29" and other Hong Kong short dramas created by other producers have also received attention.
Aiming at young people, love themes are hot
In contrast to mainland boutique skits, which emphasize suspense and reasoning and other "hard" themes, Hong Kong-produced skits dominate love themes.
Last year's three most popular short dramas produced in Hong Kong were all related to love: the 10-episode sci-fi romance "February 29" called "Hong Kong version of "I want to see you"" tells the story of the heroine born on February 29 accidentally traveling through time and space , Meets two men who are connected to her fate; 15-episode short drama "Bridge of Sigh" tells the confusing relationship between six men and women; "Hong Kong Love Story" tells the difficult love story of urban men and women under high housing prices.
And then TVB's upcoming "Shameless Youth" and "Fall in Love with My Bad God" will also take love as the theme.
Why do Hong Kong-produced skits prefer romance themes?
The most direct reason is, of course, cheapness: most of the fine short dramas with "hard" themes require high costs from script development to filming and production. Unless there is a big capital blessing like "Eastern Wall Street", it will be financial and human resources. For producers who don't have much advantage, these themes are extremely difficult to control. In contrast, love has become the most cost-effective theme. As long as you choose a suitable angle that can resonate with the audience, you have a chance to break through.
On the other hand, Hong Kong dramas have been dominated by TVB for many years, and TVB, which emphasizes the "mass market", used to prefer professional dramas, family ethics dramas and other family themes. Love themes are considered shortcomings. Nowadays, Hong Kong-produced short dramas target the young market Start with the topic of love that is extremely scarce in the market and that young people love to watch.
Different from traditional pure love dramas or sweet pet dramas, Hong Kong-produced skits are good at adding various elements to the story and shooting techniques.
For example, "Bridge of Sighs", which has a good response in both Hong Kong and the Mainland, the story is just a common emotional entanglement between men and women, but it appears advanced because of the novel narrative method.
Each episode of the play is developed from the perspective of different characters, presenting the memory deviations of different individuals in the same event, thus triggering the audience's thinking about emotional relationships.
"Hong Kong Love Story" produced by TVB strikes a good balance between entertainment and experimentation.
Realistic topics such as the difficulty of newlyweds to buy a house, the divorce after their parents retired, the remarriage of the widowed father and the young girl, and the concept of "post-00s" love are interlaced in the 12 episodes, and the rhythm is tight, which has caused heated discussions among the audience.
The "experimental" of the play is more embodied in the language of the lens, which is different from the traditional TVB series. This play greatly reduces the dialogue and is closer to the aesthetics of young people.
Use fresh faces to change the ecology of the industry
The popularity of short dramas, in addition to promoting innovation in themes and shooting techniques, has also given rise to a group of new actors.
The industry believes that this may, to a certain extent, change the dilemma of the Hong Kong film and television industry for many years.
In the "Hong Kong Love Story" broadcast last year, the average age of the three protagonists-Luo Tianyu, Gong Jiaxin, and Wang Minyi was 30.7 years old. As a result, the show became the youngest protagonist in the TVB series last year.
The university branch in the play even used a group of freshmen in their early 20s, such as You Jiaxin, Lin Zhengfeng, Xu Wenhao, and the response was good.
"Hong Kong Love Story" producer Lincoln once revealed in an exclusive interview with our reporter that when casting for "Hong Kong Love Story", he almost met all TVB artists under the age of 22. "TVB often finds some Older actors play young people, but I hope to find people who fit the age of the role to play college students."
He confessed that he hopes to create more opportunities for newcomers, but he also puts strict demands on them: "For example, You Jiaxin, in her first scene after joining the group, we will teach every movement and every dialogue. New actors dare not. Don't do your homework, because I will'intimidate' them:'If you don't remember the dialogue, I will replace you!'"
The lineup of the three short dramas that TVB will launch this year is also quite new.
Ao Jianian and Jiang Jiamin of "Absurd Theater" are the first male and female number one for the first time; Lincoln and Pan Jiade co-produced the short play "Youth Shameless" also boldly recruited many newcomers, including 31-year-old Yu Decheng and 23-year-old Ding Zilang The average age of 23-year-old Liu Yingxuan and 26-year-old Dai Zuyi is less than 26 years old; Fang Junzhao’s "Fall in Love with My Deteriorating God" is starring Hu Hongjun, Ma Guandong, Mai Meien and Chen Jiahui. Among them, 24-year-old Chen Jiahui is currently a child The host of the show "Think Big World", has guest appearances in "Miwang" and other dramas.
Link: "The Absurd Theater" reveals the secrets of the film and television industry
TVB's first short drama of this year "The Absurd Theater" will be launched simultaneously on myTVsuper with the Muiduidui APP on April 16th.
The show recently held a filming meeting in Guangzhou, exposing the plot of the first two episodes in advance.
"Absurd Theater" is backed by veteran producer Pan Jiade, starring Zheng Danrui, Ao Jianian, Jiang Jiamin, Zhang Xiuwen, Zhang Darun and others. It tells the story of seven down-and-out filmmakers who formed the "Absurd Theater" to raise funds for filming. A scam story.
"The Absurd Theater" takes "alternative skits" as a selling point and integrates the secrets of the film and television circle into the plot.
In the first two episodes, you can see a lot of self-tackling from film and television workers: for example, Zheng Guochang, the producer, played by Zheng Danrui, teased that the award ceremony was a "small circle game"; the screenwriter Li Shasha, played by Jiang Jiamin, was owed wages by the black-hearted boss, and inner monologue. A screenwriter must have courage—the courage to seek salary"; the down-and-out director Chen Zhiyang, played by Ao Jianian, was rarely invited to work, but was asked to adapt his literary and artistic masterpiece into a brainless idol drama... In the play, the producer, director, The screenwriter, actor, art director, action director, and deputy director of the seven fell from filmmakers to liars, but only to fulfill a dream-to raise funds to shoot the movie "Golden Dream".
There are only 8 episodes of "The Absurd Theater", and because the episodes are short enough, the rhythm is quite tight.
Judging from the first two episodes of the show, each episode has a dramatic highlight that attracts the audience to watch: In the first episode, seven people from the troupe pretend to be food critics, playing the arrogant restaurant owner. Turn around; in the second episode, they pretend to be rich again, attracting the goddess stick to the bait.
As Zheng Danrui said in the play: "The movie is a 90-minute scam, and our absurd troupe is to be a non-NG "big dragon and phoenix"." Every case in the play is a "play in play". "It not only gives the actors a lot of room to play, but also brings freshness to the audience.
Ao Jianian has been playing TVB for decades. This is the first time he has been the first actor.
In the interaction after watching the film, he frankly found resonance in his director Chen Zhiyang: "The most memorable scene was that I took the script to recommend myself to the film company, but was driven away. As an actor and creator, We also encounter this kind of thing in reality." Ao Jianian is full of confidence in "The Absurd Theater". He believes that the biggest feature of the play is "globalization": "Neither drama series nor variety shows should be limited to Hong Kong. Different markets. Every dialogue and lens of "The Absurd Theater" is very novel. In the future, Hong Kong will launch more global film and television works."