"3.15" focuses on where the bottom line of the film and television industry will fall?

Fake ratings, fake box office, fake performances... What is even more helpless is that while the producers, actors and broadcast platforms in the "production chain" make considerable profits as a result, the audience as "consumers" can only pay the bill and have nowhere to defend their rights. Fake ratings and fake box office are often sensational public opinion storms, and to this day there has been no substantial progress that can be solved.

Original title: Where will film and television fraud fall?

Every year,"3.15" is International Consumer Rights Day. The key word on this day is "rights protection". Consumers will sometimes encounter various counterfeit goods and fraud in their lives, such as fake food, fake drugs, fake brand names, telecommunications fraud, online fraud, etc. Once criminals are convicted, they will be severely punished by the law. However, there is still another kind of fraud that has not yet attracted public criticism, but it is the "spiritual food" that concerns every consumer. This is the various "nerve-wracking" and "eye-piercing" fraud that are prevalent in the film and television industry. Fake ratings, fake box office, fake performances... What is even more helpless is that while the producers, actors and broadcast platforms in the "production chain" make considerable profits, as "consumers", the audience can only pay the bill and have nowhere to defend their rights. Fake ratings and fake box office are often a sensational storm of public opinion. To this day, there has been no substantial progress that can be solved: "fake performances", or stand-in acting, have become a pain point in the industry that is now criticized. Regarding this obvious behavior of deceiving the audience, relevant departments are called on to "crack down on counterfeiting" and make the "counterfeiters" pay a corresponding price.

Data fraud has become more and more serious

. From host Cui Yongyuan's words that shocked the industry,"ratings are the source of all evil", to 2012, when Wang Jianfeng, the producer of "Da Ancestral Hall", revealed the news in his real name,"As long as you have money, no matter what drama, no matter where it is broadcast, and whatever time period, ratings data can be purchased." TV series ratings can be bought and sold, and they can enter the top ten national ratings for 50 million yuan a year, which has aroused admiration from outside the industry for a while. Then in December 2016, the China TV Drama Production Industry Association held a press conference when "the costume drama" Beauty's Private Kitchen "was urgently withdrawn due to low ratings," declared war on the black industry chain with false ratings, and released some shocking data: The ratings fraud industry earns 4 billion yuan a year, and the current price for purchasing ratings has climbed to 300,000 to 500,000 yuan per episode... At this year's two sessions, actor Zhang Guoli once again mentioned the issue of ratings fraud. "At present, there is only one ratings supervision and monitoring platform in China, so it is 'convenient' for some people, leading to ratings purchases and fraud. Because the reasons are complex, no one can expose these things." In recent years, the problem and seriousness of film and television data fraud have been exposed many times by the media, and it has become common.

The problem of film and television data fraud is not only in the television field, but also in the box office of movies. Terms such as "ghost field" and "box office theft" are often seen in the media. As early as 2009, the film "Astro Boy" released by Enlight Pictures attracted the attention of relevant departments due to the "box office theft" scandal. In March this year, the publisher of "Ip Man 3" achieved a "box office theft" scale of 56 million yuan, which was even more eye-catching. According to statistics, in the past few years, at least 10% of the national box office has been "stolen".

It is gratifying that on November 7, 2016, the 24th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 12th National People's Congress voted to pass the "Film Industry Promotion Law of the People's Republic of China", which was officially implemented on March 1 this year. It clearly requires that "false reporting and concealment of box office" be prohibited, and penalties ranging from 50,000 yuan to 500,000 yuan will be imposed for "box office theft" with varying severity. Although some commentators after the law was promulgated believed that the symbolic meaning was greater than the practical meaning, the demonstration effect of "having laws to follow" is worth learning from the TV industry.

If data fraud in the film and television industry has a long history and has become a deep-rooted industry cancer that is difficult to eliminate, then the problem of "performance fraud" is a newly highlighted phenomenon accompanied by the craze of big IP. From the Internet's lament that "a certain fresh meat (Yang Yang has become the biggest suspect) new drama has a reverse film and a human skin mask, and uses a double for all except for close-up shots", to the broadcast of "Lonely Fragrance Don't Appreciate Yourself", which made people truly see this "amazing" embarrassing effect of "using a double for all except close-up shots","How can movies nowadays be filmed like this?" The exaggeration and perfunctory nature of "performance fraud" really opened the audience's eyes.

Who should take the blame? Investors have a share, celebrities have a share, and so do TV stations and video websites. It is probably because some broadcasters are willing to pay for the so-called big IPs, big stars, and small fresh meats, but do not care about the content and production level at all. That is why investors are so unscrupulous and produce some shoddy works that ignore industry standards and audience feelings. Because as long as some actors are named (in fact, most scenes are still completed by doubles), there is no need to worry about not being able to sell them. At most, they can buy them for ratings after the broadcast and give an explanation to the TV station. In such a closed loop of interests, every link is the beneficiary, and the audience, as the ultimate payer, has become outsiders and can only passively choose to accept or not accept this cultural garbage.

Performance fraud

is different from fraud in food and drugs, which can bring direct physical harm to the victim. Various frauds in the film and television industry are different. They seem to have no direct harm, but in fact they have endless consequences. At the smallest, it is related to the spiritual life of the people; at the largest, it is related to a cultural power. Regarding shoddy IP and irresponsible performances, screenwriter Song Fangjin pointedly pointed out the harm caused by them in an interview with the public account "Serious Gossip" recently."The most terrible thing is the distortion of the aesthetics of minors. Adults have certain social knowledge, some foundation for reading, read a lot of books, and watched some other American dramas, Japanese dramas, and Korean dramas. They have a sense of protection. They may refuse or not watch bad films when they see them. But today's primary school students or junior high school students, when they see these IP dramas, will think that works of art are like this. Because they have never read anything better, they think that such things are good. Just like those who read Guo Jingming's novels back then, they have no ability to distinguish. The harm caused by IP dramas to culture is to instil the aesthetics of people who have no cultural ability or aesthetic ability. Nowadays, we born in the 1990s and even primary school students will also watch these works, watch these IP dramas in class or in school, forming a kind of popular culture. This is the most terrifying thing."

Editor: yvette