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Can classified-drama 'light up' the Chinese video platform?

2020/7/10 10:19:07   source:CGTN

Recently, the Mist Theater, a new content library dedicated to iQIYI suspense dramas, launched the suspense web series "The Bad Kids," which has been widely discussed on social media since its launch. The series tells a story of the web of consequences birthed among different families after three children accidentally film a murder. The excellent script story and acting performances, attracted a large audience. And because of the show's popularity on the internet, the concept of theater has gradually expanded from TV platforms to online platforms, and is finally emerging in front of the audience.

The theater model in a TV station has a long history in China. Different TV stations will classify different types of TV dramas according to their characteristics, and then schedule these TV dramas to run in different time slots. For example, station-made TV dramas are usually broadcast in prime time, while other popular TV dramas are broadcast in other time slots. With the gradual development of web TV series, each major video website is also constantly exploring their own "theater" road.

Fewer episodes and more compact content

How popular is the web series "The Bad Kids"? At press time, the topic of the series had 1.564 million discussions and 4.61 billion reads on Weibo.

Compared with the 1.39 million discussions and 1.64 billion reads of web series "Day and Night" in 2017, iQIYI obviously set a new record for a web series in the middle of this year.

Complicated story, detailed plot, the complex reversal of human nature, and all acting... As a mystery show, "The Bad Kids" is indeed blameless.

Also, "The Bad Kids" is not like traditional suspense series. Each episode is nearly an hour-long, with a huge amount of information and neat story-telling, which makes up the 12-episode online drama — unlike traditional Chinese dramas, it follows an American and British series format.

Although the whole web series is not long, it is full of content. According to iQIYI, the series invited Joe Cacaci, the scriptwriter of "House of Cards," as the script supervisor, and to assist several domestic front-line writers to create.

According to an Entertainment Capital report, the first thing Cacaci did after receiving the project was to ask Lu Jing, the series's producer "how many episodes and what kind do you want to do?" — 12 episodes of a suspense miniseries. With that answer, Cacaci came up with two story lines. One is the relationship of the three children as the mainline, solve the case as sub-content. The second is to solve the case as the mainline, the portrayal of character relationship as a supplement.

Lu chose the first one, even though the first option might lead to the slow progress of the whole story. But with the help of Cacaci, the creative team established the main theme of "family" for the entire series, and finally, according to the plot to determine the overall pace of the 12-episode story.

The 12-part miniseries has also proven very appealing to Chinese audiences. With the web series, iQIYI has at least gained some recognition from industry insiders and viewers for its "content production." So where does iQIYI go next? Continue to dig "suspense series"?

Become "China's Netflix"? Not necessarily

There is no doubt that Netflix has always been the leader in international video.

As the world's largest paid streaming media platform, Netflix has long taken suspense content as an important direction. In the United States, for example, "Mindhunter," directed by David Fincher, ran for two seasons and scored an 8.9 rating.

In addition, there is a local-focus on the campus suspense web series "13 Reasons Why," as well as the Spanish series "Money Heist," the German series "Dark," the South Korean series "Extracurricular," and other suspense series aimed at different users in the international market.

Many people have compared iQIYI's Mist Theater to Netflix, suggesting it could become "Netflix in China," but according to many insiders, Netflix's operating model is different from that of domestic video platforms, so it's not clear which one is more suitable for China.

However, from the ordinary video platform to a more precise and distinctive short series and drama platform, the theater mode of the platform is gradually transferred from extensive to refined operation. Behind this, there is not only the audience's desire for quality content but also the platform's expectation to promote the benign development of the Chinese series industry.

Despite the number of hit shows, it remains to be seen whether the online film and television industry, represented by video websites, can take the opportunity to escape the cash-flow and profit difficulties.

According to the financial data of 36Kr, a Chinese technology review company, iQIYI's annual content cost in 2019 was 22.2 billion yuan, while iQIYI's total revenue in that year was only 29 billion yuan, and content expenditure accounted for 76.55 percent of the platform's total revenue.

Until the first quarter, before iQIYI Mist Theater launched, the platform content cost is still more than 77 percent, not showing a better trend. And what kind of response will fog theater bring to iQIYI this quarter? Everyone is looking forward to it.

A film practitioner also told the Entertainment Capital that Netflix's main revenue comes from membership fees, while Youku, iQIYI, and Tencent's main revenue comes from advertising plus membership fees. By contrast, Netflix's model is not necessarily more suitable for Chinese platforms.

(Cover: Still photo from web series "The Bad Kids." /iQIYI) 

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