How to ＂Short and Fine＂ Miniature Plays (People’s Commentary)
Dedicate more fine products, which are small but not weak, short and not shallow, and are artistic, ideological and ornamental.
As one of the hot spots in the film and television industry in recent years, "micro-short drama" has become a hot word on the Internet. At this year’s National People’s Congress, many deputies made suggestions and suggestions on micro-short plays, which aroused social concern.
From the initial stage of germination to the rapid growth, miniseries have become a "traffic highland" in the field of network audio-visual in a relatively short period of time. During this year’s Spring Festival holiday, the number of micro-short drama works and the scale of users have expanded significantly, and the "Spring Festival file" on the small screen has made a new splash, meeting the cultural needs of different groups of people. Inspirational drama "Beyond it! A Juan shows the traditional non-legacy of "Awakening the Lion", the romantic drama "The Great New Year’s Eve" reflects the contemporary young people’s views on marriage and love through personal growth, and the light comedy "Aunt’s World New Year’s Eve" focuses on social hot topics from the perspective of the elderly … According to incomplete statistics, only a short video platform has 8 works played more than 100 million times during the Spring Festival. According to statistics, in 2023, the market size of China’s online miniseries reached 37.39 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027.
The popularity of miniseries is inseparable from the artistic expression that conforms to the iteration of media change. At present, short video has become one of the important ways of people’s daily entertainment. Based on the short video, the mini-short drama has the advantages of small volume, fast pace, dense plot and many reversals, which is more suitable for fragmented viewing time. At the same time, in the early stage of the development of miniseries, most of the works were produced by users themselves. The low threshold creation of the Internet has ignited the public’s enthusiasm for recording all kinds of life and expressing their true feelings. In addition, the production cycle of miniseries is short, the cost of setting scenes is low, the shooting cost is low, and there are many opportunities for realizing. This provides more opportunities for young people, which is conducive to the emergence of ideas and the enhancement of content richness.
It should also be noted that some unavoidable problems have also been exposed in the rapid development of miniseries. For example, shoddy work for quick delivery and low style for eye-catching will certainly do harm to the healthy creative ecology and business cycle. As a new cultural product with a wide audience, miniseries can’t go astray in extensive development, and should pay more attention to quality while attracting traffic.
Supervision and support go hand in hand to guide the orderly development of micro-short plays. In order to promote the high-quality development of miniseries, the State Administration of Radio and Television has repeatedly carried out special rectification and industry standardization, and made efforts to curb its barbaric growth and turn the governance work into normalization. At the same time, for outstanding works, the management department also gives strong support in financial support, expert guidance, award evaluation, matrix publicity and other aspects, and actively expands new tracks, such as combining with local cultural tours, to open up new ideas for the development of micro-short dramas. Facing the future, further strengthening effective supervision and strengthening policy support can help the high-quality development of the industry.
Attract professional teams to enter the market and promote the upgrading of micro-short plays. On the one hand, we should give full play to the professional advantages of traditional film and television companies, well-known directors and actors, and start with the whole chain of project planning, content creation, shooting and editing, publicity and promotion, so as to promote the overall improvement of the quality level of miniseries. On the other hand, the video broadcasting platform can provide support for micro-short plays, content incubation, talent training, etc., and systematically arrange the massive content in the past, creating a schedule system and a theater system to make the works reach the audience better.
Strengthen the awareness of fine products and win a double harvest of traffic and word of mouth. Miniature plays have horizontal and vertical screens, but the key to touching people’s hearts lies in quality. Nowadays, more and more creators abandon impetuousness, seek inspiration from fiery real life, temper quality and improve taste with sincere attitude, and meet people’s growing spiritual and cultural needs. More dedication to fine works, micro but not weak, short and not shallow, both artistic, ideological and ornamental, this is the broad road to the high-quality development of micro-short plays.
In the long run, miniseries are also a new cultural format. It is expected that the miniseries will continue to shine with new brilliance, move towards a broader stage in creation and communication, and become an effective carrier for telling the story of China.
People’s Daily (April 1, 2024, 05 edition)