Can the suspense drama starring Xia Yu Luo Jin drive the domestic short play word-of-mouth market to win？
After suspenseful dramas such as Chasing the Murder in the White Night, Crime Without a Certificate and Hidden Corner become explosions, the creation mode of suspense+short drama is becoming a trend. However, the similarity in texture, style or narrative makes many highly anticipated dramas less popular than expected.
The online drama Out of Court, which is being broadcasted by Youku alone, has attracted the attention of many suspense drama lovers with its strong lineup. The play consists of two unit dramas, Blind Zone Outside the Court and Drowning Man Outside the Court. Xia Yu and Luo Jin are the protagonists of Blind Zone and Drowning Man respectively, and they have important scenes in another unit. Different from the common unit dramas in the past, Blind Area and Drowning Man are quite different in genre. The former tends to be a type of criminal investigation, while the latter is closer to the legal industry drama, both of which have suspense elements and occur in the same time and space. Among them, the "Blind Area" unit has only six episodes.
Wang Ping, the chief producer of Out-of-Court series, is the chief planner of Chasing Murder in a White Night, and the screenwriter fingerprint is one of the screenwriters of Chasing Murder in a White Night. Zhang Li, the director of Blind Zone, has directed classic TV dramas such as Towards the Republic and 1566 of the Ming Dynasty, and Huang Wei, the director of the drowning man, has directed Great Rivers and Bailuyuan. For these senior content creators of film and television dramas, the shooting mode and drama structure of Out of Court are quite different from those of traditional dramas, which also challenges the creators.
In 24 episodes, 12 episodes, and 6 episodes, the global drama creation has moved closer to short plays, and China film and television people have also stepped out of the comfort zone and joined this wave, which has also brought challenges to the film side and platform. Despite the occasional explosion in the field of short plays, a mature business model has not yet been found, and every exploration is an adventure. "Out of Court" series tries to drain two different types of dramas by interweaving their characters and sharing their world views, so as to expand the audience.
In an interview with CBN, Wang Ping revealed that friends in the film and television industry had repeatedly advised her not to easily produce dramas with less than 24 episodes. Because it takes a lot of effort and money to invest in a short play, even if the quality is excellent, the drama is over before the heat rises, and the influence is limited, resulting in extremely unreasonable input and output.
However, Wang Ping thinks that short plays must be possible. "All over the world, Netflix and HBO have put out six wonderful short plays. There is a saying that our audience can’t watch short plays, but do they really need them? I am curious. I believe our audience deserves better content. I can’t say that we have done well, but we still want to try. "
16-hour extreme pursuit
One of the protagonists in Out of Court series is a judge and the other is a lawyer. Although the main plot takes place out of court, it is closely related to the judicial system.
"Blind Area" tells the story that happened within 16 hours, with the death penalty review of a case as the head, Lunan, a judge of the criminal court, worked together with the police and friends to find the truth in the complicated case. This case involves dismemberment, disappearance and smuggling. The relationship between characters is complex, multiple clues are parallel, the amount of information is huge, the narrative festival is extremely fast, and the details will be missed if the attention is slightly distracted. Because of the existence of the "blind area", the truth is confusing, and everyone involved in the case, lawyers and police officers seem to be suspected. The audience and the investigators have uncovered the fog together.
Judge Lunan played by Xia Yu is different from the image of Judge Gao Leng portrayed in the past film and television dramas. He explored the case in detail, broke into the scene of crisis alone and dealt with criminals. Some viewers questioned whether such judges really exist in reality. Wang Ping said that the audience’s confusion was actually expected, because for most people, the profession of judge is remote and mysterious.
In fact, the judges who participate in the review of death penalty do need to investigate, visit, adjust the papers and raise questions. "Judges don’t just knock the gavel in court. These are all important parts of our legal system." However, in order to make the audience close to the grand judicial system, it is very important to shape a figure who can empathize. "If you just do judicial interpretation, there is no sense of substitution. Create good characters, then show the values of the characters, and then lead the audience to understand and understand our judicial system. "
In Wang Ping’s view, the core of film and television IP is actually the most important thing to have emotional resonance. "IP can only exist if it is widely resonated on the basis of values. I think the core part of the creation of IP film and television works is the shaping of characters in order to achieve success and market recognition. Create a character that you really agree with and resonate with, and then present it through visual transformation. " When the character meets the right actor, the audience gets a good emotional experience from the story, and the subsequent IP series operation can be out of the circle.
Lunan and Qiao Shaoting in Out of Court are idealists. They are brave and resourceful, know how to improvise and have their own persistence in truth and justice. "We don’t want to present judges and lawyers in a facebook way simply. Under the new type of law+suspense, we try to create a solid legal ecology and publicize our legal system positively, which is both popularizing law and shaping heroes." Wang Ping said.
Types of dramas drain each other.
"Blind Area" is actually a branch story derived from the creation process of "Drowning Man". Judge Lunan became the power behind Qiao Shaoting’s investigation of the case in "The Fallen Man" and promoted the progress of the case. "When a character is created, it has its own independent vitality. We all love the role of Judge Lunan. He is strong and wise, and he is a tough guy we all like. In reality, we do see that many judges are really smart and wise. "
Therefore, the screenwriter’s fingerprint produced an idea to make the story of judge Lunan into unit B, and at the same time, it was connected with the drowning person, that is, unit A. Blind Area is a story that happened simultaneously when the story of The Drowner progressed to about 6 or 7 episodes. Judging from the sequence, the "Drowning Man" should be broadcast first, and the "Blind Area" should be broadcast later.
Wang Ping revealed to CBN that at first, she was very resistant to this way of broadcasting. "Based on the understanding of stories and people, the audience entered this world, and I hope it will start with" The Drowners "." However, after several rounds of watching movies, more than 70% of the feedback from the platform, the general audience and experts thought that it was more appropriate to put "Blind Zone" in front of "Drowned Man".
Compared with The Drowning Man, The Blind Area, which focuses on case investigation, is more popular, and can be established independently before understanding the world outlook and the complicated relationship between characters. From the genre point of view, the audience will not be unfamiliar with crime dramas. Coupled with the fast-paced and strong plot drama structure, Blind Area can quickly mobilize the audience’s psychology of chasing dramas.
The drowning man tells the story that Qiao Shaoting, a gold medal lawyer, is imprisoned for representing a bizarre case, and works hand in hand with his peers to investigate the truth in the face of the crisis. Unlike the fast-paced and strong plot Blind Area, it is a legal career drama with suspense elements. By shaping various legal images, it reflects the infighting and changes in the legal arena, and the threshold for watching the drama is relatively high.
Before the Blind Area, it sketched and paved the way for Qiao Shaoting’s wit, brave personality and character relationship, so as to facilitate the audience to establish feelings for Qiao Shaoting, enter into the drowning man with expectations, and realize the drainage between different types of dramas. "Usually the audience of one type of drama is not interested in another type. The genre is for the audience. What we want to do is to make the two types cross. "
For platforms, producers and creators, their purpose is to attract more people to watch dramas. "There are barriers between different types of dramas. Barriers will always exist, but can’t they be lowered? We hope to drain through this attempt. No matter who is in the front, Blind Area or Drowning Man is the drainage of one type to another.
In Wang Ping’s view, the aesthetic needs of audiences of any type and circle should be respected. "We should make every type the best under the existing market conditions. When the audience of "Blind Zone" enters "Drowning Man", even if some of them are lost, 60% of the audience of crime dramas are willing to watch legal career dramas, which is also a victory, because they may not watch them at all. "
Wang Ping said that her exploration of suspense dramas will not stop. Together with the screenwriter Fingerprint, she developed "White Night Chasing Murder", "Rebirth" and "Out of Court", striving to create a suspenseful "Tianjin-Hong Kong Universe", "I hope the characters in these stories can have a continuous dramatic life". "We are all looking for the same kind and resonance, so we hope to use these related characters and series to create good stories, whether it is criminal suspense or judicial law." She said.
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