Original, Wang Yaqi, e-commerce online
Text | Wang Yaqi
Editor | Sask
The mini-drama market is welcoming a "regular army", and this time, it is Zhou Xingchi.
On June 2, Zhou Xingchi’s short drama "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" was launched, and the first hour of go LIVE’s broadcast volume exceeded one million. As of press time, the first episode of the update has attracted extensive attention in the industry, and the broadcast volume in two days exceeded 31 million.
As a heavyweight figure in the domestic comedy industry, the name "Xingchi Zhou" itself has its own popularity. Especially in the past two years, the output of "Xingye"’s works has not been high – in addition to serving as an executive producer in last year’s animated film "Monkey King", the last film where Xingchi Zhou served as director was "New Comedy King" in 2019, and the work basically remained "updated every three or four years".
This means that although "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is a short drama, it has the appeal of "Star Lord", and the audience chassis will not be weak.
From Chen Sicheng, Wang Jing to Zhou Xingchi, the end of the "regular army" is making micro-short dramas gradually standardized and marketable from a supplementary shooting method. The "2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report" shows that the micro-short drama market size has reached 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, is expected to exceed 50 billion yuan in 2024, and will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027.
In 2023, the total box office of Chinese movies is 54.92 billion yuan, and the micro-drama market has reached 68% of the movie box office.
Ten years ago, online dramas, like today’s short dramas, gradually occupied the market share of the traditional film and television industry. Ten years later, micro-short dramas became popular in the market. For actors and directors who are familiar with long videos, shooting micro-short dramas is often ridiculed as "dimensional reduction", but as short dramas become more and more popular, this ridicule began to weaken, and instead, audiences chasing short dramas quietly became a new trend.
However, one question was, could Zhou Xingchi win the reputation of the short drama by relying on the big director and famous characters?
Zhou Xingchi made a short play and encountered acclimatization
"Golden Pig Jade Leaf" tells the story of a "romance scam". The main plot revolves around intern lawyer Ye Xiaolai teaming up with live streaming host Zhu Hao to uncover the truth of the "romance scam" in order to save his sister Ye Xiaohui. From the first episode, it can be felt that the filming team tries to generate jokes in the process of joint adventure through the strong contrast between Taiwanese girls and Northeast guys.
With the golden sign of "Zhou Xingchi", whether it is the production team, the cast or the texture of the picture, it can be seen that they have spent a lot of time. In terms of actors, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" has invited many comedians such as Tudou, Jiang Shimeng, Pai Xiaoxuan, Zhang Baiqiao, Xu Zhisheng and so on. In terms of shooting methods, the use of film-level photography art teams also guarantees the camera presentation of short dramas.
However, after the first episode aired, it was obvious that "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" encountered "acclimatization" in the skit industry.
Some netizens commented: "If it wasn’t for Zhou Xingchi, I might not have clicked on this short drama." The lack of fast pace and dense setting of explosive points are the most criticized problems. The first episode is more than 6 minutes long, but the plot is still in the foreshadowing stage – which is obviously not in line with the viewing habits of the short drama audience. According to the data compiled by the short drama study room, in the popular short dramas from January to July 2023, 90% of the themes are still dominated by "cool", such as God of War, crossing, rebirth, counterattack, etc., which are all popular themes.
In the first episode, the only joke that was caught by netizens was a joke by comedian Xu Zhisheng. The company employee he plays uses "irony" to convey a number of social hotspots such as "nuclear sewage in Japan" and "the proliferation of shootings in the United States". But this is obviously not related to "cool". From the plot of a single episode, I can’t feel the ups and downs of the plot. In summary, it is "not enough to catch people".
In an interview with The Beijing News, Yi Xiaoxing, the executive producer of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf," once said, "With the sign of Stephen Chow hanging, the layout of what you make is smaller, and it seems almost interesting." This may also be the reason why "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" bypasses the market-proven answer to the cool drama, and instead combines suspense, love, comedy, thriller, action and even science fiction elements into one drama.
The short dramas that have become popular since last year, such as Fang Mimeng, the producer of "Black Lotus Superior Manual" and "I will be a stepmother after the 1980s", have said as early as the official account era that the highest forwarding rate of the title is nothing more than "hot spots, money, sex, violence". After starting to shoot the short dramas, the dramas that come out of the circle are also closely attached to "revenge", "reversal", "counterattack" and other eye-catching elements. In contrast, the concept and layout of "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" have been established, but whether the plot can attract the audience will be a more difficult challenge.
On the other hand, although it is a short play, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" is more like a work under the shell of a traditional film and television drama.
It started on April 12 and finished on the 25th. It only took 13 days to shoot in total. The short shooting period is in line with the usual characteristics of short dramas, but in terms of shooting methods, it is reported that it adopts the rhythm of movies, but the plot is split into 24 episodes. This directly led to its plot promotion being "film-style succession", and the single-episode viewing experience was not good. In fact, it did not grasp the essence of short dramas. In addition, on the short video platform with vertical screen viewing as the mainstream, the use of horizontal screen shooting is not in line with the consistent viewing habits of short drama audiences.
At present, "Golden Pig and Jade Leaf" has only been released for one episode, and it will start to be updated during the Dragon Boat Festival. This method of breaking down movies into short videos has almost never been tried before. Whether it can break industry stereotypes depends on whether the plot of the second episode can reach a breaking point.
Compared with grades, amplifying the "Stephen Chow effect" is more critical
The birth of "Golden Pig Jade Leaf" is inseparable from the promotion of the short video platform.
In January this year, Douyin announced an exclusive collaboration with Stephen Chow to develop and operate "9527 Theater". "9527" is named after Stephen Chow’s classic film "Tang Bohu Dips Autumn Fragrance". Chow played Tang Bohu sneaking into Washington as a servant, and the servant number was "9527" at that time. According to New Arm, Douyin and Chow are expected to be paid at least about 30 million yuan for the 9527 theater, but it is not clear how many skits will be filmed.
"E-commerce Online" once mentioned in "The" Rapid "Short Drama, Using 100,000 Costs to Leverage Ten Million Businesses" that there are different sharing standards for the cooperation between the producer and the short drama company and platform. First, the account sharing system, the company and the platform will guarantee the bottom income of the producer and the user’s payment of the account sharing income, which can reach 7% or more; second, the buyout system, the company and the platform spend a certain price to buy out the series, and the producer cannot get the subsequent account sharing. In the profit model, there are also brand customization, user recharge, paid subscription and other methods.
At present, "Golden Pig Jade Leaf" has not yet started paid episodes, and the first season has not been implanted with advertisements, so the income cannot be observed. However, according to the short play study room, the second season of "Golden Pig Jade Leaf" has been sold on February 28 this year, and the price has reached 8 million yuan.
Zhou Xingchi is a golden signboard. If fans pay attention, they will find more than 100 easter eggs with Zhou Xingchi elements in "Golden Pig Jade Leaf", which can be called "Super Love Killing". But how long this head appeal can last may be marked with a question mark.
Some netizens said, "Zhou Xingchi has never understood that the audience likes to watch him, not watch him shoot other people." Many fans also questioned this time’s "Golden Pig Jade Leaf": "Is the star content low? Zhou Xingchi neither directed nor acted, is this a real-life version of’romance scam ‘and killed me?" Contrary to the audience’s expectations, Zhou Xingchi served as the producer of "Golden Pig Jade Leaf" this time, directing the creation of characters, plot setting and post-editing, but did not star or direct.
However, even if the famous director ends up, it may not necessarily make the audience buy it. Not long ago, Wang Jing, a director who has directed many business cards such as "Nine-Pin Sesame Official" and "God of Gamblers", ended up shooting a short play and served as the screenwriter + director of "Billions of Silly Princes". For this reason, "Sister Pomegranate" Yuan Qiongdan was invited to play the mother of the heroine in the play. The play has a total of 100 episodes, and the last 90 episodes need to be paid to watch, and it will cost about 150 yuan to unlock the whole film. But as of press time, "Billions of Silly Princes" has only been played 8.60 million times in Douyin.
Since the development of micro-short dramas, big factories and platforms with more resources and strength have been discontinued one after another. Kuaishou is one of the earliest platforms to enter the market. It launched the "Xingmang Short Drama" record label very early to build a quality support system for short dramas. In January this year, Douyin launched the "Chenxing Plan" to support high-quality content creators, announcing that it will invest the highest million-level cash and 100 million-level traffic support for single works.
The platform’s enthusiasm for short dramas is not difficult to understand – there is a joke in the short drama industry: "The producer and the distributor are all working for the platform. Your drama may be mushy, but the platform will not lose money". This is because the cost of in-feed ad will account for 80% or more of the total cost of a short drama from production to market. There have been media reports that even in a relatively ideal situation, the ROI (return on investment) of the domestic market can reach 1.1-1.2, that is, spend 1 million yuan in-feed ad to earn 100,000 yuan.
In addition to the competition between platforms, the various roles in the traditional film and television industry chain, the "regular army" is also quietly entering the industry. For example, Chen Sicheng also prepared a mini-drama of the same name after the movie "Vanished Her" exploded.
Drawing in Zhou Xingchi, can "Golden Pig Jade Leaf" win word-of-mouth? It is still unknown.
But perhaps for the short video platform, word-of-mouth is no longer so important. Through the "Zhou Xingchi effect", pulling more big directors, famous celebrities and brands to settle in, jointly making the cake bigger and attracting more small and medium-sized players, may be a sure-fire business. As for switching from long videos to short videos, will you encounter "acclimatization"? When the head practitioners with their own traffic enter the game, constantly explore the gameplay and accumulate experience, the quality of short dramas is bound to have a qualitative leap, and a more word-of-mouth short drama record label will be born.
Original title: "Zhou Xingchi shot a short play, the first episode on the line has been credited 30 million?"
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