Popular in July and complained in August
Looking at the risks and benefits of literary IP film and television from "August Weiyang"
◎Su Qi and Zhang Huiyu
On April 16, "August Weiyang" was released, 20 years after Qingshan (Annie Baby) published the novel of the same name "August Weiyang" in 2001.
This classic IP, which carries many memories of youths born in the 80s and 90s, has been spit out on various social media after its film and television.
This also prompts us to reflect on the problems of literary IP film and television.
IP timeliness
How does the film adaptation deal with the relationship of the times?
In the process of literary IP film and television adaptation, directors and screenwriters generally consider two issues: one is how to retain the characteristics of the original IP and attract "original fans" with emotional elements; the other is how to increase the realism elements to enhance the timeliness of the IP Sex.
The novel "August Weiyang" was born at the turn of the century. Internet technology began to enter people's lives, the market economy developed rapidly, and consumerism subtly invaded the spiritual world.
At that time, the young people felt the vitality of the development of the century, and correspondingly experienced the pressure of the changes of the century. They actively sought common experience from online literature, and sought the spiritual home from the prose-style words of Internet writers such as Annie Baby. Construct a poetic spiritual home in conflict.
Twenty years later, the discourse of the times has undergone tremendous changes. If the adaptation of literary IP remains in the past, there will be problems with timeliness.
The so-called timeliness of IP does not mean that IP can only adapt to the era at that time, and IP will become obsolete when the era is replaced, but whether the constituent elements of IP can adapt to the social background, lifestyle, and discourse structure of the current era.
One of the grooves of "August Weiyang" lies in the lines.
The film not only retains the prose language in the original work to a great extent, but also adds a lot of positive and springy dialogues, such as "time will heal pain" and "on a stormy night, you look up at me and I will always remember" .
Perhaps the screenwriter tried to evoke the emotional memory of the original fans by retaining and catering to the original IP discourse narrative, but in fact the audience did not buy it at all, and attributed most of the male protagonist’s lines in the film to "modern scumbag love words." .
Of course, "August Weiyang" echoes the times by adding some realism elements. For example, in the film, Xiao Qiao asked to "add WeChat" the first time he saw Weiyang, reflecting the change in the way people understand and communicate. This is compared with the movie " "July and Ansheng" is an adaptation of the elements of the times in a more realistic way of communication in letters.
However, the realistic adaptation of the film's highlighted plot is too deliberate and decoupled from the main line of the story.
In the movie, a passerby holding a "Hug" sign appears repeatedly. He is standing in a busy street with pedestrians. Only a little girl tries to give him a hug, but is stopped by her mother. The director intends to express the current situation by adding such a plot. People's social distance and indifferent social attitude.
However, this kind of plot is not closely related to the theme of the story, but it is easy for the audience to have a sense of escape from the plot.
In addition, the film deliberately added a "demolition" lens, the heroine Weiyang's favorite wonton shop was painted "demolition", Weiyang and Xiao Qiao ran outside the window and painted a red love on the word "demolition", and finally finished writing neatly. After the little brother with the word "demolition", he ran away on a motorcycle.
Demolition is an important topic in the process of urbanization, but trying to reflect this reality through friendship stories between heroines is thin and far-fetched.
IP video
How does the adaptation transform the original theme of the story?
Unlike literature, film is a comprehensive art that integrates sound, picture, time, and space.
To transform the single text medium expression of the text into a comprehensive narrative of multiple media, directors and screenwriters generally make dramatic transformations in the original IP's story plots, role modeling, and plot conflicts.
However, in the process of transformation, problems such as irrelevance of primary and secondary, over-rendering, and loss of theme are often prone to occur.
In youth love movies, the director’s usual techniques are girlfriends intervening, accidentally getting pregnant, cutting their wrists, and dying in a car accident. This kind of motifs can be found everywhere, such as "you at the same table", "in a hurry", "left ear", "July and Ansheng ", and "August Weiyang".
How to avoid the same in the video presentation of the original IP story?
"July and Ansheng" can be regarded as a dark horse that broke through in the same type of romance movie. It retains the spiritual theme of the original IP, which is the self-expression and redemption of women, and uses the mirrored narrative of the dual heroines to shape the role. "July is Ansheng, and Ansheng is also July" to show the complex friendship.
Adding to the conflict plots such as the conflict between the two in the bathroom due to love entanglement, the audiovisual language is very dramatic.
In addition, the IP film and television transformation of "July and Ansheng" did not focus too much energy on the "love triangle", nor did it use too many shots to describe the male characters in the film that inspire contradictions.
It is this kind of strong feminine narrative that differentiates it from other love movies of the same type, and the theme of the story has been improved, and it has won a better reputation.
However, "August is Young" doesn't seem to have absorbed the successful experience from the IP film and television transformation of the sister work "July and Ansheng". What it presents is a "love triangle" story in which the original IP is transformed into a purer girlfriend. And highlight the main theme of the film: "Love hard."
There are few male narratives in the original "August Weiyang", and the female self-monologue is full, and the main theme of the story is not a sentence of "strength love" can be interpreted.
In the process of film and television, the feature of the original IP, that is, the female narrative, is weakened, and it outlines the story lines of Chaoyan being ambiguous with Wei Young in the name of love, hurting Xiao Qiao, and Xiao Qiao cutting his wrists and committing suicide in the name of love. , Believes that "ruin the three views."
In addition, the original "August is Young" is more brilliant in the entangled mother-daughter affection and the original family influence. From the hit film and television works "Ode to Joy", "All Very Good", "Settle Down", etc., the original family Judging from the heated discussion in the society, this topic can bring considerable dramatic effects to the film.
However, in the actual presentation of the movie, due to the excessively exaggerated and obscure treatment of the conflict scene between Wei Young and her mother, the movie scene overwhelmed the subject itself. The audience's focus was on the bloody dark scenes and the actors' acting skills. And spit on.
The film and television of literary IP needs to deal with the problem of transforming the theme of the story. A safer way is to add or adapt some elements to enhance the audiovisual language on the basis of following the spiritual core of the original IP story.
IP industrialization
The film industry’s "good wind", is it pros or cons?
Literary IP, especially online literature IP, has been in the ascendant in recent years. By leveraging the reputation and fan base accumulated by the original IP, a batch of online articles such as "Flowers and Bone", "Langya Bang", "Celebrating the New Year", "Youth in Youth", etc. The adapted film and television drama has won the favor of the market.
In addition, after the successful shaping of some film and television IP, the cultural and creative industry chain has also been extended. IP has gradually become synonymous with industrial operation, attracting more and more film and television companies, directors and screenwriters.
"August is Young" is a wave in the wave of Internet-based IP film and television. It is Annie Baby’s second online literary work. Annie Baby began to publish novels on the Internet in 1998. At the beginning of the 21st century, Internet literature gradually emerged. Because of her unique prose writing style and gloomy self-styled love story narrative, she has become a leader among Internet writers and has gained a large number of fans.
"July and Ansheng" in his first collection of short stories "Farewell to Vian" was adapted as a movie of the same name and was released in 2016. The two heroines Zhou Dongyu and Ma Sichun won the Golden Horse Award for the best. actress.
Therefore, with the influence of IP's own feelings and the reputation of successful sister IP film and television transformation, it stands to reason that "August is Young" can take advantage of the power of two "good winds" to soar.
However, the reality is that it was criticized as soon as it was released.
Literary IP seems to provide a convenient entrance to the film and television industry, which not only does not need to spend too much energy and financial resources to conceive script ideas, but also reduces the risk of market competition.
It seems that "good wind relies on power", but in fact it will fall to the bottom of the market if you are not careful.
"August is Young" is not without lessons from the past. The movie "Shanghai Fortress" is adapted from the IP of Jiangnan's novel of the same name. It has a certain foundation of science fiction fans and is blessed with the lineup of big stars such as Shu Qi and Lu Han. The sibling relationship, the protagonist’s hairstyle and other issues ended up losing heavily at the box office, with a Douban score of only 2.9.
This is enough to show that IP is by no means the only weight to win film and television works, and more importantly, the presentation effect of IP adaptation.
It’s well presented, "good wind" can really help, and some can also strengthen the influence of the original IP. For example, "Qing Yu Nian" retains the original IP story line by adding new characters and enhancing the comic style. After the adaptation, it has stimulated the audience's interest and goodwill in the original work; if it is not presented properly, the "good wind" is destructive, such as "Shanghai Fortress" even aroused the disgust of the original IP fans, commonly known as "destroying the original".
Literary IP film and television will inevitably continue as a popular wave, but not every "trendr" can win. Two classic works by the same author, "July and Ansheng" succeeded, but "August Before Young" is facing a dilemma. This seems to also warn the film and television industry not to be impetuous, and the text should be considered and handled in the future IP film and television. The relationship with reality, the transformation of the theme of the story, the presentation of audiovisual language and other issues.