Original title: Did you find it? Online drama is getting shorter!

18 episodes of Longling Cave

12 episodes of detective chinatown

12 episodes I am Yu Huanshui

Lin Baoyi starred in Bridge of Sighs.

Zhou Xun starred in Imperfect She.

Vertical screen short play "Life laid hands on me"

Horizontal screen short play "Never imagined"

Detective chinatown and I am Yu Huanshui are all 12 episodes and 18 episodes. Longling Cave has become the least episode in the series of "Ghost Blowing Lights".

The domestic drama market in the first quarter of this year is a bit interesting. Network-TV simulcast drama is still a long drama: 53 episodes of Anjia, 44 episodes of If Time Can Turn Back, and 69 episodes of Qingpingle … … On the other hand, online dramas are a different story, with fewer and fewer episodes. Popular online dramas such as detective chinatown, I am Yu Huanshui, Longling Cave and Bridge of Sighs are all within 20 episodes. It is worth noting that the douban score of this series far exceeds that of the network TV series in the same period.

In response to the voice of the audience, and with the higher requirements put forward by the State Administration of Radio and Television and various video websites, more and more sophisticated and high-quality domestic short plays are emerging. Behind the "short drama", it is also the result of the continuous integration and optimization of the domestic drama market.

A situation The popular online dramas in the first quarter were shorter than before.

On February 6th, this year, the State Administration of Radio and Television issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Management of the Creation and Production of TV dramas on the Internet, which mentioned the phenomenon of the flooding of TV dramas: "At present, in the process of creation and production, some TV dramas on the Internet place too much emphasis on commercial attributes and economic benefits, resulting in artificially prolonged episodes and obvious’ flooding’ of the story, which objectively causes the narrative rhythm to drag on, lowers the artistic level and affects the aesthetic appreciation of watching, and is criticized by the audience." Therefore, the notice put forward a request to oppose the content "water injection" and standardize the length of episodes: "From the date of issuance of this notice, the shooting and production of TV dramas and online dramas advocate no more than 40 episodes, and short drama creation within 30 episodes is encouraged."

In response to this requirement, the industry generally believes that short plays are the direction of future film and television drama creation. On February 26th, Youku published the "White Paper on Youku Short Play Cooperation": "We are now fully open to short play content cooperation for companies, institutions and individuals, and provide partners with a series of services such as content distribution, joint marketing and commercialization realization through Youku content open platform." The other two major video platforms, Iqiyi and Tencent, are also laying out short online dramas. At present, the volume of domestic online solo dramas has been basically controlled within 30 episodes.

At the right time, a number of popular online solo dramas broadcast in the first quarter of this year are shorter than before. There are only 12 episodes of the opening drama "detective chinatown" of iQiyi, which is supervised by Chen Sicheng. There are only 18 episodes of Tencent solo drama "Longling Cave" starring Pan Yueming, which is the least episode in the series of film and television adaptations of "Ghost Blowing Lights" so far; There are only 12 episodes of the urban life drama "I am Yu Huanshui" which is co-operated by Sunshine and iQiyi at noon. There are only 15 episodes of Youku solo drama Bridge of Sighs starring Lin Baoyi and Zhou Jiayi; Iqiyi’s solo drama "Dangerous She", known as the "domestic version of" Fatal Woman ",has only 14 episodes … …

It is worth mentioning that not only the number of episodes of online drama is decreasing, but also the duration of a single episode is becoming shorter. The data shows that in the first quarter of 2020, there were 47 short dramas with a single episode of online dramas of less than 20 minutes, reaching a new peak. In addition, among the 147 TV dramas that the State Administration of Radio and Television has put on record in the first two months of this year, 30 are short plays, including revolution, science fiction, rural areas and other themes.

The trend of B is developing towards high-quality production.

This short drama, which was launched in the first quarter of this year, revealed some industry trends of domestic online drama production. First of all, more and more high-quality film and television capital enters short dramas, which are deeply bound with the broadcast platform for multi-platform distribution. For example, "I am Yu Huanshui" is the first short online drama produced by Noon Sunshine Company, the benchmark of Chinese drama. It is jointly produced by Noon Sunshine and iQiyi and broadcast on three first-line video platforms of "Love, Excellence and Teng". "Imperfect She" starring Zhou Xun was produced by Penguin Film, Dongshen Film and Guangguang Film, and was broadcast on Tencent Video and iQiyi; The Bridge of Sighs starring Lin Baoyi was jointly produced by ViTV and Youku.

A series of online dramas, such as Longling Cave, have also undergone new changes in production. This drama is jointly produced by Penguin Film, Wanda Film and 7 Impression Culture Media. Due to the deep participation of Penguin Film behind Tencent’s video, after Longling Cave, the series of online dramas of "Ghost Blowing Lights" will be fixed, and the "Five continuous shooting" mode will be opened: the creative team led by producer Guan Hu and director Yang Fei, and the "Iron Triangle" starring Pan Yueming, Jiang Chao and Yuqi Zhang will run through from beginning to end.

In addition, in the first quarter, these short and pithy online dramas were all attended by first-line strength teams and first-line strength actors. Behind "detective chinatown" is Chen Sicheng’s team, who served as producer and chief screenwriter, with Roy Chiu and Zhang Junning as actors; Behind "I am Yu Huanshui" is the noon sunshine team. The screenwriter is the screenwriter Wang Sanmao and Lei Zi of "Everything is Fine", starring Guo Jingfei; "Imperfect She" brings together a group of movie giants such as Zhou Xun, Kara Wai, Angie Chiu and Huang Jue; The production team of Bridge of Sighs is from Hong Kong, with powerful actors from Lin Baoyi, Zhou Jiayi, Chen Huanren and Wu Yongwei as the cast.

Domestic online drama series are developing in the direction of high-quality production, participation of big-name actors and reduction of episodes. It is reported that several short plays will be broadcast on the first-line video websites, including White Moonlight starring Song Jia and Yu Entai, Sisyphus starring Wang Qianyuan and Lu Han, and Ten Days Game starring Zhu Yawen and Gina.

Definition of linked short plays

At present, there are several sets of standards to judge whether a play is a short play. According to the standards of the State Administration of Radio and Television, a drama with a single episode of about 45 minutes and less than 30 episodes is considered a short drama. According to the definitions of Youku, Iqiyi and Tencent, short plays are closer to the popular "instant noodle fan", that is, you can watch an episode after eating a bowl of instant noodles, which is considered a short play.

Youku’s standard for short plays is: in principle, the duration of a single episode is 1-20 minutes, and the overall duration is not less than 60 minutes. Tencent put forward the concept of "hot pot drama". The single episode lasts for 1-10 minutes, and the overall duration is not less than 30 minutes. Iqiyi is divided into more details: the single episode of the horizontal short play is 10-20 minutes, and the overall duration is not less than 120 minutes; The single episode of the vertical screen short play lasts for 4-10 minutes, and the overall duration is not less than 120 minutes. In October 2018, Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi, predicted that vertical screen content will become a mainstream direction in the future, and grassroots content will become professional content. This prediction is based on these two years, and indeed more people choose to follow the drama on video sharing platforms such as Aauto Quicker and Tik Tok.

However, there are not many real short plays that can be circled. The most well-known short plays on the horizontal screen are "Never Imagine" by Xiaoxing Yi and Ke Bai, and "diors man" by Dapeng. There are short plays with vertical screens, such as "Life has laid hands on me", which is popular with Yoko, and the recently popular funny short play "Psychic Princess". (Author Gong Weifeng)