In recent years, the quantity and quality of children's dramas have fallen off a cliff, and Beijing News reporters interviewed practitioners to discuss market development
Excellent children's dramas should be filmed for children, and more people should "see"
In the past, children's TV dramas were an important window for the post-70s, post-80s, and post-90s generation of teenagers to reach the real world: "Little Dragon Man" teaches you to face life bravely and strongly; "Family with Children" allows us to develop an independent personality with self-esteem and confidence in the love of parents and brothers; "Happy Planet" and "Bala La Little Devil Fairy" open the entrance from real life into the magical world, satisfying children's imagination... And now, a wide range of ever-changing animation products fill the eyes of children. The romance of wandering in a dream world makes the expression of deep cultivation of reality seem to lose its aesthetic soil; Children's TV dramas are gradually being forgotten by the market and becoming the exclusive term for "childhood memories". In this era, do you still need children's TV series? The answer is self-evident.
1 Children lack age-appropriate content
According to data from the National Radio and Television Think Tank, a total of 2022 domestic TV cartoons will be released nationwide in 331; 737 key online cartoons have been approved, and 222 have passed registration and obtained online filing numbers... Under a series of huge figures, the children's content market is approaching saturation; The "snatching war" of animation products for children's time has intensified. Under such a competitive situation, are there still survival gaps in children's TV series?
In 2018, Tencent's online video platform operation department head of the children's channel found through a survey that children's demand for content is as diverse as that of adults. They are looking forward to more children's movies, animations, short videos, including children's live-action TV series. Like young children full of fantasy, they prefer the fantasy animation world, but nowadays there are also many preschool children who like to watch live-action toys, princess live-action skits and so on. Children over the age of seven are more obviously eager to contact real social expression, and the medium for understanding the world is gradually approaching that of adults.
"Most of the story backgrounds of live-action dramas are real around children, campus, neighborhood, family affection, friendship... Children are more likely to have emotional empathy. For example, some children will say that there is a small circle of rice in our class, and there is Li Li (the character in "The Notes of School in the Small Circle"), so who am I. In addition, live-action dramas will also make children more convinced that these stories will happen in life. He can reflect himself from it, and believe that he can continue to grow and improve like the characters in the play. This is the resonance of consciousness. Yu Yinbin said.
On the other hand, children's excessive attention to adult TV dramas also supports their rigid demand for live-action dramas to a certain extent. Li Nan observed that at present, due to the lack of children's age-appropriate TV series, when children do not want to watch cartoons, they can only follow their parents to watch adult dramas. This inevitably involves exposure to non-age-appropriate content and values. "It's not that children don't want to watch live-action dramas, it's that the market doesn't offer works that suit them, and once it appears, I believe there is still room for development in this part of the market."
2 Children's dramas are easier to integrate into complex topics
Children's TV series in the current market are usually 20-30 minutes per episode, which is 2-3 times the market for a regular cartoon; In addition, the live-action content is detached from the dreamy foreshadowing of animation, and is rooted in life, and the family relationships, social relationships, children's topics, etc. that can be unfolded are more realistic and direct than other children's content, and there is more room for in-depth discussion.
For example, the first episode of "Mi Xiaohuan School Notes" tells about Mi Xiaohuan's "betrayal" of friendship - what should I do when my best friend becomes friends with other classmates and feels as if I am isolated? Zhao Cong, the director of the drama version of "Mi Xiaoquan School Notes", believes that on the surface, "betrayal" is a topic that belongs to the adult world alone, but in fact, children will encounter similar confusion when they grow up. "Compared with other forms, children's dramas are enough for us to make the story structure richer, more layered, and integrate some relatively profound issues. We also hope to tell children what friendship is and how you should solve it after you encounter it. ”
Yingda, the director of the live-action drama "New Big Head Son and Little Head Dad", also believes that cartoons are more presumptionary, and the authenticity of live-action dramas themselves and the importance of plot language will make children's topics "stand". He cited the topic of "where do I come from" that many children will ask as an example, "This question is very difficult to answer, when we were children, parents would say that it was picked up from the garbage can." Now there are also children who ask, what is the difference between a boy and a girl? What happens when a person dies? So why can't we answer positively, or correctly guide children to pay attention to these physical and psychological problems? In live-action sitcoms, we can have a part of these topics, and it is healthy, positive, and not contrary, not that we make up some stories, but can really go deep into their lives, and then reflect some social issues, philosophical issues. ”
3 Children's TV series are more suitable for parent-child co-parenting
At present, when Chinese children choose children's content, the role of parents is more "supervision" and "guidance" than "accompaniment". To a certain extent, children's TV dramas that are relatively in line with adult viewing habits are more suitable for achieving "parent-child appreciation".
"We hope that parents can accompany their children to watch live-action dramas, and children's live-action dramas can also help parents." Wei Yinbin said that the outside world will always say that adults should squat down to talk to children, but with the gradual loss of childlike heart, it is difficult for parents to really consider problems from the perspective of children, and the so-called "squatting down" has become a metaphysical "leaning over". For example, many adults in children's TV series such as "Family with Children" and "Mi Xiaohuan School Notes" are treating children's shortcomings with a tolerant and spoiling mentality, and constantly correcting and adjusting children's behavior through humor.
"The live-action drama is actually filmed for parents, hoping to use a subtle expression as possible to make parents realize that their children's small mistakes can be understood; What kind of correction is desirable ... Then in the process of parent-child appreciation, parents will also become more understanding of their children. Yu Yinbin said.
future
More works are urgently needed to give market confidence
In 2021, the live-action + animation work "Big Monster in the Forbidden City" series entered the market. At that time, Yu Yinbin and the team had "no bottom in their hearts" about the performance of children's TV series, so only 42% of the drama was live-action, and the remaining <>% were still completed by animation. But in the end, this work has achieved good results in terms of user feedback and customer level. Today, two years later, many video platforms, film and television production companies have begun to try to get involved in the creation of children's TV series. For example, the Happy Superman spin-off live-action drama Isn't It! I Became Superman" has been completed recently; Linghe Culture, the production company of the TV series "The Three-Body Problem", is about to cooperate with Tencent Video in the live-action drama "Hostel <> Alien Visitors", and Youku will also continue to create the "Fani Magical Girl" series...
"What we are trying now is to hope that children's TV series can be seen by more people in the industry, proving that this category is marketable, valuable and meaningful, so that more creators will be willing to write stories for children." In the future, our children will be able to see more and better TV productions that suit them. Yu Yinbin said.
【Data analysis】
Phenomenal children's dramas have been absent for a long time
Chinese children's TV dramas can be traced back to the late 50s of the last century, the embryonic period of Chinese TV dramas. According to media reports, between 1960 and 1966, CCTV (formerly Beijing Television) broadcast nearly 90% of children's TV dramas. With the popularity of television sets and the blooming of the television industry, a number of excellent children's TV series emerged in the market at the end of the 1990s of last century. For example, "Kiss Me, Teacher", which was broadcast in 1992 to tell about the holiday life of teachers and students; China's first mythological children's TV series "Little Dragon Man" broadcast in 1996; In <>, the realistic children's drama "Sanmao Wandering" and so on. Among them, "Little Dragon Man" continued to break ratings records that year, and the theme song "I Am a Little Green Dragon" is still a melody that countless middle-aged people can sing casually.
In the past two decades, although there are also social influence children's TV series such as "Family with Children", "Happy Planet", "Little Drama Bone" series, and "Mi Xiao Circle School Notes" in the market, under the strong impact of massive domestic animation works and diversified children's content, children's TV series seem to be quietly withdrawing from the competition center, showing a cliff-like decline in both quantity and quality, and phenomenal children's TV series have disappeared.
Written by/Beijing News reporter Zhang He