In recent years, with the popularization of smartphones and 5G networks, the audio-visual mode of mobile Internet content has been continuously renovated, and short-form mini-dramas with episodes of a few minutes have become the "traffic upstarts" of many video platforms.
Especially in 2021, the domestic micro-short drama market will explode. Major short video platforms, video websites, film and television companies and other forces have joined the micro-short drama battlefield, which profoundly reflects the "involution" between the domestic film and television industry and online platforms. status quo.
Massive online content "changes in the city", why are micro-short dramas "quite favored"?
What are the prominent problems in content production or value dissemination of micro-series that are closely related to commercial realization from the very beginning?
The online products in "Accelerating Society" regard fast, short and new as the standard. How should we view the new relationship between individuals and the network built by micro-short dramas?
These questions are worth pondering.
The micro-drama quickly "spreads its wings", and after a test of water, it enters the state of "flying"
According to statistics, in 2020, the industry status of my country's short video platforms surpassed that of comprehensive video platforms for the first time. By June 2021, the number of short video users will reach 888 million.
The utilization rate of netizens' short video platform continued to rise, approaching 90%.
What's more worth mentioning is that short videos are quite powerful in grabbing users' attention: the average usage time per person per day is more than two hours, and user loyalty is higher than other content.
With the cooperation of capital and users, micro-short dramas gradually emerged from many short video content, and became a "head" existence, and at the same time became a key target for the future development of short video platforms.
In fact, micro-shorts are not a new form that has only appeared in the past two years.
As early as the early days of the development of video websites, mini-series already existed.
Small series with certain influence, such as "Hip-Hop Quartet" in 2009 and "Unexpectedly" in 2013, can be regarded as the earliest mini-series in my country.
The above works are remarkable, but in the era when long series dramas were popular, they failed to form a trend.
With the development of the viewing habits of mobile phone users on short video platforms, the micro-short drama market has begun to take root.
In 2018, the emergence of several popular vertical-screen dramas proved the vitality of micro-short dramas in the mobile Internet era.
In 2020, the relevant departments will clarify the standard of "Internet mini-series" and define it as: a series of online dramas that have the characteristics of film and television programs, plots, performances and other elements; have a relatively clear theme and are filmed in a more professional manner. Original audition programs, etc.
The guidance of policies and the pursuit of the market have brought unprecedented opportunities for the development of the mini-series. The mini-series quickly "spreads its wings". After some testing, it will enter the "flying" state in 2021.
Most of the early mini-series were produced by ordinary content providers. However, with the continuous upgrading of the account-sharing mechanism of the short video platform and the large-scale investment game of the "leading" platform, the mini-series has formed a development pattern of multi-platform strong wrestling.
Driven by such a trend, the development of micro-short dramas is changing with each passing day, from the simple interpretation of funny jokes at the beginning, to the relatively diverse, mature and refined types of today.
In the era of mobile Internet stock, micro-short dramas are not only a new growth point for the user stickiness of short video platforms, but also an outlet for the short video industry in the future.
"Short time", "Cool content", "Story is earthy and sweet": the characteristics of mini-series make it an emotional outlet
British scholar Judy Wigman pointed out in his book "Time-shrinking Society" that human beings' pursuit of speed will never stop, "Modern people are like fast-forwarding into twenty-four hours in two and a half minutes. We are in a 'time-shrink society' of accelerating speed, almost running at a stall."
The German scholar Rosa, from the perspective of historical materialism, took the time dimension as a theoretical cut to diagnose the increasingly significant "acceleration" characteristics of modern society, and summed up three dimensions of social acceleration: the acceleration of science and technology, the acceleration of social changes, The accelerated pace of life.
The scarcity and unrepeatability of time resources, and the resulting acceleration of the pace of life, call for the acceleration of technology, and the direct consequence of the acceleration of technology is the acceleration of social changes, which in turn stimulates the pace of life under the lack of time. of acceleration.
It can be seen that the acceleration of modern society is a self-promoting process.
People feel this kind of acceleration in their daily life, and are surrounded by its power, from the era of "step by step" to the era of "star rushing to electric mai".
The emergence and popularity of mini-series is the epitome of the acceleration of modern society. The acceleration of audio-visual content production and consumption is not only the result of time anxiety, but also its origin.
With the popularization of smart phones and 5G networks, the change of media for urban life adjustment is "TV-computer-mobile phone", and some rural areas have directly completed the transition of "TV-mobile phone".
The media forms of the digital age, such as vertical screen playback and up and down screen, are all specific details of the acceleration of technology to shape the contemporary time experience.
The "short, flat, and fast" attributes of micro-short dramas just fit the cultural and psychological needs of online audiences in the "time-shrinking society" and have become "digital pickles".
How to understand the "digital pickles" of the mini-series?
The first is "short time".
Mini-series are generally only one or two minutes per episode. They are small and light in size, simple in plot, and compact in content. They are suitable for mobile phone users to watch in fragmented time such as commuting and eating.
The time fully and deeply involved by various media is fragmented and atomized point time: a 30-episode mini-drama, which is less than a movie.
You can watch several episodes in one meal, and watch a whole one in one night.
For viewers suffering from "time anxiety disorder", watching micro-shorts will not be so stressful. It is diverting the attention of traditional TV series, allowing the public to "smack" with relish and enjoyment.
The second is "cool content".
The reason why it's easy to "get on top" when watching mini-dramas is that the storytelling is hearty and addicting.
In order to produce the audio-visual "dishes" in the shortest possible time, the micro-shorts have to constantly adjust the "seasonings", and strive to hit the audience's "taste buds".
Therefore, the plot has little foreshadowing and brewing, the plot reversal is sudden, and the "cool points" are dense. It feels that each episode is a narrative climax, and at the end, I don't forget to hang up the "hook" (suspense) to attract the audience to continue to brush.
The micro-short drama inherits and carries forward the cool point strategy of web articles and web dramas, and makes full use of the projection and touch of cool feeling, which is refreshing and delicious, and reaches people's hearts.
Again "the story is earthy and sweet".
The mini-series cover a wide range of genres such as costumes, youth, idols, inspirational, workplace, suspense, women, fantasy, and two-dimensional, but in the character story mode, these themes can actually be classified as "master", "counterattack" and "rebirth" several.
Most of them are crudely made and have a strong earthy flavor. When people watch the drama, they do not hold the pilgrimage mentality of looking up to art, but feel superior and relaxed.
The little drama that doesn't require brains and allows emotions to find an outlet is salty and sweet, and has a lot of aftertastes.
Improve the "digital menu" in the Internet age, and cultivate a richer "cultural taste" for the broad audience
As we all know, pickles are pickled vegetables with salt, and are often eaten with porridge and staple food.
However, pickles generally contain nitrite, so it is not advisable to eat more, otherwise it will become a health burden.
The same is true for "Digital Pickles". It will keep the audience's "taste dependence" on the micro-series high, and it also makes the producers dare to "cut the material", which prevents the micro-series from truly becoming a "series filmed with more professional techniques". Network original audiovisual programs".
Since micro-shorts are an important traffic gate in the short video industry at present, they will inevitably cater to the behavior and psychology of urban men and women to "accelerate life", and in order to maintain user stickiness, it regards the general emotional needs of young and middle-aged users as the biggest convention. number.
Therefore, the content production strategy of "sweet characters" and "sweet pet counterattacks" has become the trend of the industry.
It must be vigilant that, as "digital pickles", micro-shorts are, in a sense, a series of gluttonous illusions created by the new media industry for users with too much "industrial saccharin" added.
In it, the audience can briefly escape from daily life, obtain a moment of self-imposed exile, and fulfill their dreams beyond reality.
The mini-series shows a high degree of homogeneity in character design, plot development and audio-visual elements.
It uses this stereotyped content structure to concoct the illusion of "efficiency" in people's schedules that "I make the most of my spare time".
As everyone knows, people lead to a kind of compression of mental space through a compression of time use.
The streamlined and single mini-play simplifies the complexity of real life and compresses people's rich experience and bold imagination.
It speaks frankly of the universal human emotional need to be loved or recognized, while indulging in simple and crude instant gratification.
The reason is that people in today's society continue to fall into the panic of delayed gratification.
Behind this panic, there is the surge and expansion of emotional possessiveness and resource possessiveness. This process is not only manifested in the efficiency theory of the time dimension, but also in the immediacy of the psychological dimension.
Can "digital pickles" replace "cultural staples" and become an effective and secure way to "fullness"?
Do we have the power to question this compensatory choice and a better "menu"?
It must be recognized that "digital pickles" have unavoidable harmful substances.
The "micro" or "short" of the micro-sketches can't be a rhetoric with a broken plot and lack of logic, nor can it be an excuse for shallow thinking and limited connotation.
We can't have enough time to eat the "digital pickles" that are both convenient and appetizing, and then talk about more nutritious audio-visual entertainment when we have time.
The constructive and creative value of art must be incorporated into the production standards, and the aesthetic taste and ideological value of literature and art must be pursued.
Blindly "sweet" and "sweet" shows that the literary and artistic form of short dramas lacks scrutiny and appreciation for the real life of the majority of people.
The protagonist of the mini-drama is not a real person, not a person who "has flesh and blood, emotions, love and hate, dreams, and inner conflicts and struggles".
From a certain point of view, the micro-drama just replaces the capitalized social relationship with "parallel community relationship", decorates the paralysis of reality with "sweet points" and "sweet pets", is obsessed once and for all, and avoids ideal practice.
The popularity of micro-sketches is also related to the lack of emotion among contemporary youth. Media industry products with increasingly heavier tastes temporarily bridge their mental schema that they are eager to repair, reflecting that the younger generation has not yet found an exit from the real predicament and is forced to live in illusory perfection. The true state of lingering.
The extreme homogeneity of mini-series is also the result of vicious competition, stagnant imagination or abuse of empathy among content producers.
Accompanied by "digital pickles" swallowed are "digital nitrites" such as traffic supremacy, anti-intellectualism, shoddy manufacturing, and copying.
Therefore, it is necessary to work hard and painstakingly to observe, study and diagnose the micro-sketches.
At this stage, the creation of mini-dramas must be truly diverse in subject matter and practically improved in quality. It is necessary to respect the laws of network communication and the laws of audio-visual art creation. It is necessary to implement platform responsibility regulations, resolutely crack down on vulgar and inferior content, and strive to purify The content industry ecology should also play the guiding role of professional strength and media resources.
Specifically, it is necessary to carry forward the main theme, show the main line of high-spirited development, and reflect the essence of a bright and progressive society; it is necessary to tell the Chinese story, spread good deeds, and guide society to be kind;
Only in this way can we improve the "digital menu" in the Internet age and cultivate a richer "cultural taste" for the broad audience.
(Author: Huang Zhongjun, professor at the School of Cultural Creativity and Communication, Zhejiang Normal University)