Summer film and television industry faces embarrassing situation: IP needs to be effectively developed and high-quality transformed

This summer, major IP dramas focusing on fantasy and youth themes will be broadcast in turn, and the subject types and cast will inevitably be similar. Will there be more highlights and highlights in this summer's film and television series? How to interpret the current current situation of the summer film and television drama market? What are the opportunities and risks behind its vigorous development?

Beginning in July, with the advent of summer, the film and television drama industry has launched a "war" without smoke. Whether it is theater movies or TV series, they strive to gain a place in the annual "prime time". Based on previous years 'experience, July and August are the months that witnessed the birth of the box office miracle of domestic movies, and the box office of the summer period of 2016 has not brought us too many surprises so far. In terms of TV dramas, compared with previous years, TV dramas with diverse themes, this summer's summer season, major IP dramas with fantasy and youth themes will be broadcast in turn, and the subject types and cast will inevitably be similar. Will there be more highlights and highlights in this summer's film and television series? How to interpret the current current situation of the summer film and television drama market? What are the opportunities and risks behind its vigorous development?

Box office difficulties Last year's results

With the rise and prosperity of the domestic film industry, a diversified film and television landscape has gradually taken shape, and the film schedule has also shifted from single to diversified. The "summer" schedule, which lasts for nearly three months, has gradually attracted attention. The real attention of this schedule is due to the explosive growth in the past two years.

Film market analyst Nan Rumin believes that in North America, for most Hollywood seed films, the summer season is basically the first choice. For the mainland market, at least from an audience perspective, the summer season is second only to the Spring Festival season.

In 2015, the summer film market broke many records with the joint efforts of domestic films such as "Monster Hunt","Pancake Man" and "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage". In the end,"Monster Hunt", a well-produced representative, not only set a new box office record for domestic films, but also surpassed the box office of "Speed and Furious 7" in mainland China, becoming the benchmark in the industry;"Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" expanded the audience of domestic animations, set a new box office record for domestic animations, and surpassed the box office maintained by "Kung Fu Panda"; In addition, various types of films have enriched the summer movie market, gradually gaining the concept of family fun movies, and achieving a win-win situation in both reputation and box office. In short, after China's film industry has gone through the Lunar New Year and May Day holidays, it has also further confirmed its own development vitality in the summer of 2015. This is the development of the film industry to a certain scale, including policies, environment, talents, etc. The synergy demonstrated by the combination of factors.

However, entering the golden period of the summer of 2016, the box office explosion expected by many industry insiders did not come. However, the box office results in the mainland declined during the same period. Since July, domestic box office revenue has fallen by 16% year-on-year, which is the first time in the past five years that China's movie box office has fallen. The film genre also reflects obvious "China characteristics"-action, comedy, and drama films are all content that domestic films can skillfully control. Animation, suspense, disaster, science fiction, etc. have shrunk significantly. On July 15 last year,"Return of the Great Sage" had completed a counterattack in word-of-mouth, and its ability to attract money was increasing day by day."Monster Hunt" and "Pancake Man" had already demonstrated their box office strength. Comparing the market conditions in the same period last year, we can speculate that this year's summer season is difficult to match, whether it is word of mouth or box office. Judging from the future theater film lists, this year's summer season will also be difficult to reproduce the grand occasion of 2015.

Analyzing the reasons, industry insiders believe that, first of all, the biggest shortcoming facing China's film industry is the issue of production capabilities."Although so many companies invest in making films, how many people are actually creating high-quality films? It is difficult for us to stably produce films with guaranteed quality. It is impossible for us to produce twenty or thirty "Monster Hunt" films every year. A stable film industry system has not yet been established."

Secondly, the rise of online ticketing platforms has been an important factor in the rapid growth of box office in recent years. However, after the integration of resources by major e-commerce platforms this year, and the weakening of "ticket replacement" efforts after "Ip Man 3", the willingness of viewers to purchase tickets and ticket prices have created conflicts, which led to a slowdown in ticket sales growth.

In terms of the types of summer movies, as many as 10 domestic animated films were released during this period, including "Big Fish Begonia","Rock Tibetan Mastiff","McDull Rice Treasure","Hedgehog Boy's Born to Thorn","Elf Throne","Adventures of the Mysterious World 3", etc. However, judging from the current box office, there has been no phenomenal film such as "Return of the Great Sage". Nan Rumin believes that taking "Big Fish Begonia" with well-produced pictures as an example, its advantage is that it can regain the audience that should not belong to domestic animation. It can win the favor of young audiences and even mainstream audiences, but it has lost the value that should belong to it. Children's audiences, as well as family fun groups. Of course, judging from the final compromise market results, the advantages still outweigh the disadvantages, but it is impossible for it to replicate "Return of the Great Sage" because it does not have the breadth of audience coverage of the latter. At the same time, this year's summer comedy films "Clockwork City","Lu Yao Know Ma Li", and "Fast Hand Shooter Quick Shooter" fell short of expectations one after another. After audiences taste comedies like "Charlotte Worries", their appetites are already growing and their standards are improving. Blindly copying comedies will be a dead end.

But in the following August, there is a high possibility that the film will be restored. No matter the size or quantity of the film, it will reach a new height. The heat of the summer will eventually burst out, and the audience will still pay for the good works. "This year, the large-scale production" Tomb Robber Notes "is expected to hit 1 billion yuan in the box office. At the same time, several imported films such as "Pet Secret","Ice Age 5" and "Bourne Ultimatum 5" will occupy a large market share. In terms of other films,"There is a Qiao Mu in Summer","My Best Friend's Wedding" and "Lies to Sicily" during the Qixi Festival will all contribute their market share, but there is no great guarantee in terms of reputation. In terms of genre films,"Dangerous City","Apostles","Warrior's Gate","Shocking Sky","Keep Silence", etc. are all expected to appear." According to the analysis of the above-mentioned industry insiders, the layout in August is much more reasonable than that in July. The diversification of types, the guarding of large areas, and the contribution of separate accounts all ensure the capacity of the entire market, and the summer season is expected to reach a climax.

Drama actors are silly and confused.

As young audiences have gradually increased their voice, this year, major TV stations and video websites have unanimously used fantasy dramas to prepare for the summer season. This year's summer TV series: Costumes include "Fantasy City","Xian Xian","Long Song of Beautiful Mountains and Rivers" and "Jiuzhou·Sky City"; urban dramas include "Slight Smile","To Youth","God Dog Xiaoqi 2","Whirlwind Girl 2","Spicy Deformation Meter", and there is also a main melody drama "Rouge". Most of them have one common attribute-IP drama. These TV series based on popular online novels are aimed at young audiences. Among them, fantasy TV series have become a hot topic of discussion in the industry and the audience. It is reported that from the second half of this year to next year, the Xianxia fantasy dramas "Three Lives of Ten Miles Peach Blossom","Jiuzhou Sea Herding Clouds","Chosen Heaven" and "Fengshen" will meet the audience one by one. "The leading lineups of this kind of TV series are almost all front-line youth idols, fully meeting the standards of 'appearance' and 'fresh meat' in film and television dramas in the past two years." Young drama critic Gao Qing said.

As the broadcaster, Wang Leiqing, director of the SMG Film and Television Theater Center, once said,"In today's prosperous online culture, student audiences are the main force of the Internet. IP dramas from the Internet have a very high degree of aesthetic compatibility with their aesthetic. They are positive and inspirational youth dramas, and are relatively close to the lives of young people. Now is the era of the post-90s and post-00s, and the main audience and young people with spending power are more influenced by the Internet."

Huang Guofeng said that from the perspective of broadcast methods, due to the network-station linkage broadcast model, in order to cover all media platforms, in terms of broadcast, in addition to "Kyushu Sky City" choosing to broadcast on Jiangsu Satellite TV,"Fantasy City" and "Zhu Xian Qing Yun Zhi" both replicate the "Hua Qiangu" model, which was jointly broadcast by Hunan Satellite TV and the online video playback platform during the summer period, hoping to recreate the hot situation of "Hua Qiangu".

From "Ancient Sword and Qi Tan" in 2014 to "Flower Thousand Bones" last summer, fantasy dramas have been sought after and complained about. Huang Guofeng believes that many fantasy TV series belong to overhead historical dramas. They do not need to rigorously verify historical facts. They mainly rely on the imagination of writers and screenwriters. They are less difficult from creation to adaptation, and the creative space seems to be larger. However, from the perspective of story content structure, the contradictions and conflicts of fantasy dramas are relatively similar. Gao Qing gave examples: the confrontation between the upright Qingyun Gate and the Demonic Ghost King Sect in "The Immortal Dynasty and the Demon Sect", the confrontation between the Ice Tribe and the Fire Tribe in "The City of Illusion", and the war between the Human Tribe and the Feather Tribe in "Jiuzhou·Sky City". Generally speaking, the stories of these three dramas are told by two opposing sides.

What makes many viewers even more "embarrassed" is that the simple special effects and costumes and props destroy the beauty of the picture. The general rejuvenation of fantasy drama actors in China leads to poor acting skills and affects viewing effects.

Ma Zhongjun, chairman of producer Ciwen Media, said that he bought many novel IPs 10 years ago, but he couldn't shoot them at that time. Shooting big fantasy is technically difficult, and the works have a grand world view. Without certain technical means, they cannot be realized at all. The "Five Hair Special Effects" cannot produce special effects such as gods, demons, half-orcs, elves, and sharks; Moreover, shooting big fantasy requires a lot of money and a lot of investment. At the same time, the market also requires a large enough to ensure profits. In 2016, BAT (Baidu, Ali, Tencent) entered the film and television industry, and video websites began to be willing to spend huge sums of money to pay for the drama. Once the money was in place, the special effects would have the conditions to be realized, and the fantasy would have the possibility of visualization. Judging from some fantasy dramas that have been exposed, fantasy dramas are expected to escape the curse of "five-hair special effects".

The reason why producers are eager for fantasy is that such IP resources can create a huge long tail effect. Fantasy IP can be adapted into diversified product forms such as movies, TV series, online dramas, dramas, mobile games, online games, animations, etc., and the industrial chain continues to expand, commercial value can be transferred between different forms, and the commercial value of this IP resource continues to be accumulated.

Rao

Shuguang, secretary-general of the China Film Writers Association and president of the China Film Critics Society, said that he has always held relatively optimistic expectations for the summer season that has already begun and the National Day and New Year holidays that follow. He believes that China films will surely win more attention and favor by virtue of their natural emotional connection with local movie audiences. However, China films must not unreasonably waste and consume the trust of local film audiences. They must effectively improve the quality and quality of films, otherwise they may not go in the opposite direction but run counter to each other.

Talking about various problems in the film and television drama market this summer, Rao Shuguang felt that these phenomena should be analyzed from a more macro perspective: there

were many reasons for the slowdown in the growth rate of China's film market in the first half of 2016, many of which were structural. There are two basic points that require us to have a clear and rational understanding and grasp. First, after China's films have experienced rapid development with a compound growth rate of 30% for more than ten consecutive years, shortcomings in the industrial system, communication system, effective resources and their in-depth development, creativity and imagination, and talent training have become increasingly prominent. It is unrealistic and irrational to over-expect rapid development. Second, in order to gain more initiative and initiative, it is better to reduce the development speed in a timely, appropriate and appropriate manner than to passively slow down. In other words, we should be able to take advantage of the slowdown in the growth rate of China's film market to accelerate structural reforms and adjustments, especially to increase the intensity and intensity of supply-side reforms, increase high-quality supply, and reduce ineffective supply., further enhance the endogenous driving force for the development of China's film industry, and effectively realize the historic transformation from quantitative development to quality development.

Can China's film market reach 60 billion yuan in 2016? Can China's film market become the world's largest film market in 2017? This is not the goal of China films. The goal of China films is still to improve the quality and quality of China films to the greatest extent possible, consolidate the market share of domestic films, expand the international dissemination of China films and gain more say. In a word, it is to continue the good development trend of China films and extend and expand the golden opportunity period and strategic opportunity period for the development of China films. By solving this main contradiction, other problems can be solved through patient and meticulous work.

When talking about the creation of China's film and television works entering the "IP era," he believes that it is natural for the film and television industry to rely on IP for its development. Even developed countries rely to a large extent on IP: on the one hand, to increase effective supply, on the other hand, to effectively reduce investment risks. IP itself has no original sin. The problem is that many people are eager for quick success and instant benefit, hoarding and over-exploiting IP, turning IP, which was originally an effective resource and support for film development, into a "cross-street mouse." In fact, many non-professional companies compete for and hoard IP in the film industry regardless of cost. They think they have dug up gold ingots. In fact, many of them are already riding tigers, even falling into their own hands. In fact, how to convert an IP that has accumulated a certain number of viewers or readers into qualified, especially high-quality film and television products and even film and television works is a new problem and new test faced by China film and television practitioners in the new era.

Editor: yvette