Online mini-series becomes the audience's new favorite (deep observation)

　　Cui Xiao

　　Online mini-series are increasingly favored by audiences, and major video platforms have launched project strategies and support plans to further revitalize the upstream and downstream markets.

　　At the end of 2020, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television added a new section of "Internet mini-series" to the filing system, and defined it as "an online drama with a single episode of no more than 10 minutes", thus officially incorporating the mini-series into the video drama track. In 2020 It is also known as "the first year of network micro-miniseries".

Because of the low difficulty of production, online mini-series quickly occupied the platform content pool after a short development period, and the Internet audience responded enthusiastically. As soon as many online mini-series were launched, the number of hits exceeded 10 million, such as "The Princess is on the Long". "Mindless Mind" etc.

　　Obviously, the popularity of online mini-series has become a new landscape of the new media ecology.

　　Why is it hot

　　Objectively speaking, micro-short dramas have existed since the rise of online dramas. Corresponding to online dramas and long videos, they were once called short videos, short dramas, medium videos, etc. Its production history has been around for 10 years. It has always been tepid, but since the end of 2020, the development momentum of online mini-dramas has been amazing.

According to data released by the Kuaishou platform, the platform’s revenue from micro dramas will exceed 1 billion yuan in 2021.

In the first half of this year, there has been an increase in the number of online micro-short series filing projects, and the frequency of launching and updating on various video platforms is extremely high.

　　Why are online mini-dramas becoming popular at this moment?

Behind this phenomenon, there must be a cultural hotbed and development opportunity that drives and fuels it.

People in the industry generally believe that the time curve of the popularity of online micro-short dramas coincides with the time line affected by the epidemic in China.

Due to the different epidemic development and control policies in different places, the output of long dramas that used to rely on the clustered production model has been affected.

Most of the long dramas that went online after the outbreak were produced before the outbreak, and the number of newly released long videos was relatively reduced. During the stay at home, the thirst for information and the need for entertainment products of the younger generation who are accustomed to relying on new media have shown an increase. trend.

In this context, the booming online mini-series naturally attracted the attention of the audience.

　　The rich themes of online mini-series greatly satisfy the curiosity of online audiences. It is short and concise, and sometimes it only takes more than an hour to watch the whole drama, which just fits the browsing habits of online users.

During the epidemic, micro-dramas also played a certain psychological buffering role for online users.

Behind the ebb and flow of popular culture and art genres, there are always factors and assistance of the times.

For example, in the early days of reform and opening up, Hong Kong and Taiwan movies were all the rage, and the rise of variety TV shows gave birth to a large number of comedy sketches, all of which reflected the influence of the times on culture and art.

The principles and development paths behind the current prosperity of online mini-dramas are similar.

　　Precisely target audience

　　In every link of the birth of online mini-series, the producers who have in-depth cooperation with video platforms rely on online big data to perform user segmentation.

　　In terms of content, professional screenwriters are less likely to use professional screenwriters for original script creation in online mini-series, and they usually tend to adapt online literary works.

According to the different preferences of users, the online text platform finely divides themes and styles such as ancient idols, urban emotions, two-dimensional, military blood, etc., and according to the user's browsing popularity and ranking data, it outlines the user's background map, and produces micro-short dramas. Party to carry out targeted IP recommendation.

In terms of actor selection, online micro-shorts often do not give preference to film and television actors who have graduated from professional colleges, but use network talents with a fan base to match IP works with similar styles to help their fan growth and attention further. Obtain.

The playback platform fine-tunes specific groups of people based on users’ browsing habits and preferences, such as Hanfu fans, animation fans, military fans, game fans, etc., and pushes vertically for group users, consciously promoting different styles of online mini-dramas. Direct traffic to the eyes of target users.

Through precise positioning along the way, every link of the planning, production and promotion of online mini-series is customized according to the target users, which provides a guarantee for their viewing.

　　In the previous creation and broadcast of film and television dramas, there have been almost no works that are precisely delivered according to user preferences, such as online micro-shorts. Conventional film and television dramas often require millions or even tens of millions of early investment, which makes the content producers. It's hard to be so willful.

There are not too many concerns about online mini-series. An episode of online mini-series is no more than 10 minutes long, and it can be as short as two or three minutes.

With the advantage of "small boats make a good turn", the producers of the micro-short dramas will also make more attempts within the scope of the subject matter according to the changes in the attention of the audience on the Internet. It quickly became popular on the Internet, allowing the audience to spontaneously spread word of mouth for it.

As for the finely divided mini-series, the style of each type is very clear. Due to the low pressure of production investment, as long as the precise target audience is captured, the return can be ensured. As a result, the stylized tendency of mini-series goes to the extreme. in order to meet the stronger emotional needs of the audience.

The producer hopes to gain more attractiveness with the output, which objectively leads to the richer themes and contents of online mini-series, and provides a wider choice for the audience as a whole.

　　Improve grade quality

　　The top priority of online mini-series is to make real efforts to improve the taste and quality, increase investment, and improve the fineness of the work.

After all, when the short and frequent sensory stimuli are eventually exhausted and the aesthetics are exhausted, professional creators are less involved, which will inevitably lead to the lack of professionalism of the works.

　　Online micro-shorts can be divided into two camps in terms of creative intent. One is the horizontal-screen shorts that settle on the four major video platforms of iQiyi, Youku, Tencent Video, and Mango TV. The duration of a single episode is less than 10 minutes, and the production is relatively short. Sophisticated.

This kind of mini-series adheres to the original intention of creating a story narrative, and more professional actors are used to participate.

Another part of the mini-series is dominated by short video platforms such as Kuaishou and Douyin, and it routinely promotes vertical-screen mini-series within 3 minutes.

This type of mini-series usually recruits Internet experts with 1 million to 5 million fans as the main actors. Through the filming of online mini-dramas, the network talents have added another actor status, which makes it easier to share accounts through traffic and attract investment from brands. , e-commerce live broadcast, etc. to realize the realization of talents, and also bring effective traffic to micro-short dramas.

　　The prosperity of online mini-series has distinct staged characteristics, and it also serves the online audience well.

As a type of video series, whether online mini-series can maintain continuous growth and sustainable development, the key lies in whether the creators can consciously overcome the imperfections in the content and form of communication, and pursue the pursuit of profound thinking, exquisite art and well-made production. Classic work creation standards to avoid fast-food consumption from damaging the development vision.

In fact, the improvement of the artistic quality of online mini-series has a positive relationship with its value upgrade. A well-made, eye-catching online mini-series, no matter in enhancing the topicality, gathering fans' stickiness, or the realization of talents more beneficial.

Sincere creation will eventually pay off in terms of audience word of mouth.

It is worth mentioning that the producers of online mini-series generally have the basic experience and conditions of Internet content production, and abide by the filing process and relevant regulations on radio and television listening production. Foundation.

　　(The author is an associate professor at Shenyang Normal University)