In recent years, China's short drama market has shown a trend of rapid growth and explosive expansion. Short dramas need to master narrative skills and focus on innovation in character creation and psychological description; be good at using advanced production technology, high-level picture quality and carefully designed sound effects; deeply explore and display the cultural connotation and social value behind the work; capture the pulse of the times and integrate social hot spots and people's livelihood issues into the creation. This article was published in the 11th issue of "China Television" in 2024.
Text丨Xiao Ning
In recent years, my country's micro-short drama market has shown a trend of rapid growth and explosive expansion. According to iMedia Consulting data, the scale of China's online micro-short drama market will reach 37.39 billion yuan in 2023, a year-on-year increase of 267.65%; it is expected that the scale of China's online micro-short drama market will exceed 100 billion yuan in 2027. ① The rapid development of online micro-short dramas has not only reshaped the audience's entertainment consumption model to a certain extent, but also had an important impact on the social and cultural ecology. However, the vulgarity, homogeneity, and suspension of some content have exposed certain deficiencies in the value guidance and artistic pursuit of the online micro-short drama industry. Therefore, it is urgent to optimize and improve the overall quality of online micro-short dramas to guide them towards a healthy development path.
01
Double innovation: narrative strategy and technical system construction
The information content of short video platforms is diverse and varied, but various types of literary and artistic content rarely form a fixed artistic form. Micro-short dramas have emerged as a new form of online literature and art based on short videos.
Micro-short dramas penetrate into users' fragmented entertainment time with their "short" volume; they satisfy netizens' habit of "accelerated" viewing of content with relatively straightforward plots; they stimulate users' sensory experience with extreme "cool points" and satisfy the audience's compensatory psychology; they continue to attract and maintain users' attention with continuous and fast-paced content output, gather a relatively stable paying audience group, and create a strong atmosphere for watching micro-short dramas. Miaozhen System Research shows that the weekly penetration rate of micro-short dramas among netizens is as high as 31%, and the average weekly viewing time of the audience is as high as 2.3 hours. ②
Technological progress has provided new possibilities for the creation of short short plays. The application of AI technology and virtual reality technology can not only assist in script creation, but also enhance the spatial expressiveness of story scenes, innovate narrative frameworks, and enhance the audience's sense of immersion. In the rapidly iterating digital media environment, short short plays, as an emerging literary and artistic form, require dual innovations in narrative strategies and technical systems. This is not only an inevitable requirement for artistic expression, but also an important way to adapt to market changes and improve user experience. This innovation process not only involves the expansion of the breadth and depth of content creation, but also includes the transformation of narrative methods and presentation forms through technological innovation.
1. Innovation in narrative strategy: breaking the traditional narrative structure framework
When exploring how online short dramas can weave fascinating stories within a limited time, we can draw on theoretical perspectives from multiple disciplines such as narratology, film theory, and psychology, and combine them with specific cases to deeply analyze the innovativeness of their narrative strategies.
From the perspective of narratology, as a unique narrative genre, the challenge faced by online short dramas is how to construct a complete and attractive story world in a very short time. This requires creators to have superb narrative skills, not only to be able to extract the core conflict and climax of the story, but also to maintain a compact rhythm and a moderate tension in the narrative process. At the same time, the use of non-linear timelines, such as flashbacks and interpolations, breaks the monotony of traditional linear narratives, allowing the story to show a richer sense of hierarchy and depth in the interweaving of time and space. This technique is particularly effective in online short dramas, because it can create a narrative experience that goes beyond the conventional time frame in a short period of time, stimulating the audience's curiosity and desire to explore.
The use of multi-perspective narrative is also an important manifestation of the innovation of online short drama narrative strategy. Showing the same event from different characters' perspectives can not only increase the three-dimensionality and authenticity of the story, but also allow the audience to understand the character's motivation and emotional changes more comprehensively. This narrative method requires the creator to have a deep understanding and grasp of the character's psychology, and to be able to switch freely between different perspectives to maintain the coherence and consistency of the story. Take "Your Island Has Arrived" as an example. The play tells the fantasy love story of the 100-year-old lonely knight Chi Ye and the cunning fox girl Shen Qi on the paradise-like Yinling Island. The play breaks the traditional narrative structure in terms of narrative method. It no longer just follows a single linear time sequence, but cleverly intersperses the protagonist's memories of the past and present lives. This non-linear time narrative technique not only adds depth and mystery to the story, but also allows the audience to gradually understand the fateful entanglement between the hero and heroine while following the development of the main plot, making the story more fascinating. In terms of story construction, the play adopts a multi-line narrative technique. It not only has a clear main line - the love story of Chi Ye and Shen Qi, but also shows the daily life and cultural customs of the villagers on the island through side plots. These side plots are intertwined with the main plot and advanced in parallel, jointly constructing a complete and three-dimensional story world, making the plot richer and more diverse. In addition, as a recommended work of the "Travel with Micro Short Dramas" creation plan, "Your Island Has Arrived" also actively explores the cross-border deep integration model with industries such as culture and tourism in terms of narrative methods. The entire play was shot in Taohuayuan, Changde, Hunan. Through the language of the lens, it shows the beauty of the mountains, rivers and pastoral areas and traditional customs of Taohuayuan, providing a visual feast for the audience, and also further promoting the development of the local tourism economy. "Finished! I'm Surrounded by Beauties" is relatively novel in combining short plays with games, providing the audience with a brand new viewing experience. This work combines real life with exaggerated fantasy, presenting the audience with a story world that is both real and imaginative: the player transforms into the male protagonist Gu Yi, and uses the first-person perspective to immersively meet six beauties with very different looks and personalities, and embarks on a light, sweet and romantic journey with them. This exaggerated plot setting is itself a fantasy. However, while showing this fantasy, the play also focuses on depicting the emotions, confusion and growth of the characters in real life, making the story closer to the audience's real feelings. This narrative method not only makes the plot closer to the preferences and habits of young audiences, but also enhances the audience's sense of participation and substitution, broadens the narrative boundaries of online micro-short dramas, and provides new ideas for related creations in the future.
In terms of character creation and psychological portrayal, online micro-short dramas also need to be deeply explored and innovated. By showing the changes and growth process of the characters' inner world through delicate brushstrokes, the audience can not only resonate with the characters emotionally, but also give the story a deeper connotation and meaning. "Intern Cai Cai" tells the story of Chen Cai Cai, an intern nurse who dreams of becoming an angel in white, who transfers to a confinement center to continue pursuing her dream after being frustrated in her internship at the hospital. Chen Cai Cai continues to grow in the face of various challenges, and eventually establishes correct workplace values and realizes her self-worth. The play reflects social reality with vivid brushstrokes, conveys rich contemporary connotations and humanistic care, and allows the audience to have an in-depth understanding of the hardships of the postpartum care industry, while also having a deeper understanding of the topic of women's childbirth. Such character creation and psychological description not only enrich the level and depth of the story, but also triggers extensive social discussion and reflection, which is a beneficial attempt to enhance the cultural connotation of online micro-short dramas.
In short, if micro-short plays want to tell fascinating stories within a limited time, creators need to have keen social insight, master narrative skills, and focus on innovations in character creation and psychological description.
2. Construction of technical system: using technology to promote narrative innovation
The innovation of the technical system provides strong support for the creation of online short dramas. With the penetration of technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, and cloud computing, the production process of online short dramas has become more efficient and accurate, and the presentation effects have become more diverse.
In terms of AI-assisted creation, AI technology can not only be applied to script writing, character design, scene layout and other creative links to improve creative efficiency and work quality, but also provide a scientific basis for content recommendation and personalized customization by analyzing audience behavior data. For example, creators can use natural language processing technology to generate a preliminary script framework, and then perform intelligent optimization and adjustments based on user feedback. They can also use machine learning algorithms to analyze audience preferences and recommend suitable short plays for different user groups.
In terms of virtual reality and augmented reality, the application of VR and AR technology makes the immersive experience of short plays possible. Audiences can wear VR devices to enter the virtual world, interact with the characters in the play, and explore unknown scenes. They can also scan specific patterns through mobile devices such as mobile phones to trigger AR effects, allowing characters and scenes to "jump out" of the screen and merge with the real world. This new way of watching dramas not only enhances the audience's sense of participation and substitution, but also provides more creative space for the creation of short plays. "Handan Dream: AI Don't Go" deeply integrates artificial intelligence technology with museums, not only presenting it in a novel way and giving it new vitality, but also demonstrating the great potential of science and technology in cultural communication and artistic creation. This integration helps to attract more young audiences to pay attention to traditional culture and promote the development of cultural inheritance.
If some elements of interaction with the audience are added to this type of micro-short drama, such as allowing the audience to participate in AI-guided historical exploration in a specific way, or determining the direction of the plot based on the audience's choice, it can greatly enhance the audience's sense of participation and interactivity, making the micro-short drama not only a one-way viewing experience, but also an interactive experience in which the audience can participate. In addition, some micro-short dramas such as "Hard to Find" and "Seven Two Lives" also apply new technologies to the shooting process, which not only improves the picture quality, but also saves shooting time and costs, further promoting technological innovation in the micro-short drama industry.
In terms of picture quality and sound optimization, with the popularization of ultra-high-definition video technologies such as 4K and 8K and the application of audio technologies such as Dolby Atmos, the visual effects and auditory experience of micro-short dramas have been significantly improved. The high-definition picture quality makes the picture details clearer and more realistic, and the panoramic sound effect makes the audience feel as if they are at the scene of the story, and can feel the subtle changes of every sound. The application of these technologies not only enhances the artistic appeal of the work, but also enhances the audience's sense of immersion. The all-media creative micro-short drama "Flowers Blooming in Four Seasons" uses visual enhancement methods such as AI and computer graphics (CG) to create a visual spectacle of time and space transformation and flowers blooming in an instant. It also reaches a high level in terms of picture quality and clarity, which can better meet the audience's needs for watching on the big screen. The play also closely combines background music with the plot, providing strong support for the development of the plot. For example, when showing the blooming of peonies and the movements of characters, the sound effects artist makes these scenes more vivid and realistic through fine sound effects design.
02
Value guidance: cultural awareness and realism
1. The creators’ cultural awareness and value-leading consciousness
As the direct creators of cultural products, the creative concepts and value orientations of screenwriters and core members of the creative team play an important role in the ultimate social impact and cultural value of the works. Therefore, they shoulder the important responsibility of integrating value orientation into the creative concept. This requires creators to have a high degree of cultural awareness, that is, to deeply understand and take the initiative to undertake the mission of inheriting and promoting advanced culture. Cultural awareness means that people living in a certain culture have "self-knowledge" of their culture, understand its origin, formation process, characteristics and future development trends. For creators, this means that in the creative process, they should not only pay attention to the plot and character creation, but also deeply explore and display the cultural connotations and social values behind the works.
In addition, creators must also have a sense of value leadership, convey positive values through their works, guide the audience to think, and promote social progress. Although the short drama is limited in length, it can still convey positive values through profound themes and clever narratives. "Escape from the British Museum" takes the return of cultural relics as its theme, and through a series of exciting plot designs, it shows the protagonist's unremitting efforts to recover cultural relics lost overseas. This work vividly reflects the creators' respect and protection awareness for China's cultural heritage, and inspires the audience's interest in history and culture and patriotism. Its success lies not only in the innovation of narrative techniques and the improvement of production level, but also in its profound cultural connotation and unique aesthetic value. "The Strange "Meow" Museum" takes cultural inheritance as its theme. From the perspective of a magical cat, it tells the various rare treasures in the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization and the stories behind them, making the cultural relics that have been sleeping for thousands of years "alive" and attracting a certain amount of attention.
The innovative exploration of these works has set a model of "small short plays, big feelings" for the creation of micro short plays. Their appearance proves that a double leap in art and value can be achieved in micro short plays with limited duration and flexible forms. This not only provides more high-quality spiritual and cultural products for the audience, but also provides useful reference and inspiration for the healthy development of the micro short play market. In future creations, we should encourage more creators to integrate value orientation into their creative concepts, and create more excellent works with profound cultural connotations and social values with a high degree of cultural awareness and value guidance.
2. Realism of the Works
With its short and powerful size and fast production cycle, micro short dramas have shown unique advantages in realistic creation. As an emerging form of cultural products, micro short dramas can better adapt to the rapidly changing social reality with their flexible production mode and efficient dissemination methods, and timely capture and reflect social hot spots and livelihood issues. This ability to respond quickly to social changes gives micro short dramas a unique advantage in realistic creation. "A Dream of Sincerity" not only has Su fans, but also incorporates intangible cultural heritage elements with "Su flavor" such as Suzhou embroidery, Song brocade, Kesi, Pingtan, and Kunqu Opera. These elements are not simple background embellishments, but are closely integrated with the plot, vividly showing the close relationship between intangible cultural heritage inheritance and local life, as well as their important position in Suzhou culture. This allows the audience to see that Suzhou not only has a long history and culture, but also has modern development thinking and innovative measures, showing the beauty of Suzhou's fusion of ancient and modern times. Taking Sangzhi folk songs as a starting point, "Take You Into the Moon" closely integrates natural scenery, cultural customs and plots, and has achieved a good result of "catching people with songs, moving people with emotions, and charming people with scenery", providing a sample for the deep integration of micro-short dramas and cultural tourism. Some viewers praised the play for being "full of relaxation" and "another cyber oxygen-absorbing drama", believing that it presents a multi-dimensional "poetry and distance". Other viewers said that through this play, they felt the unique charm of Hunan, just like finding their own "Altay". This mode of combining micro-short dramas with cultural tourism can not only promote regional culture and let the seeds of cultural tourism quietly sprout in the hearts of the audience, but also lead more micro-short drama creators to explore new modes of combining with cultural tourism, and promote the common development of the micro-short drama industry and the cultural tourism industry. "Left and Right" introduces the theme of roads into the creation of micro-short dramas, and explores the themes of life choices and growth by showing a series of adventures and challenges experienced by the protagonist on the road. This work is set on a highway and shows the life choices and growth process through the protagonist's journey, allowing the audience to have more thoughts and insights about their own lives while watching the play. These works follow the creative principles of realism and inject a breath of fresh air into the micro-short drama market through clever subject matter fusion and innovative narrative techniques. The emergence of these works also proves the great potential of micro-short dramas in realistic creation and provides useful reference and inspiration for future micro-short drama creation.
In addition, the advantage of micro-short dramas in realistic creation is also reflected in their ability to be closer to the audience's life and emotions. Due to the short duration of micro-short dramas, the audience can watch and receive information more easily, which also makes micro-short dramas more friendly and infectious when conveying social hot spots and people's livelihood issues. At the same time, micro-short dramas can also be disseminated through various channels, such as social media, short video platforms, etc., which enables them to cover the audience more widely and increase social influence. Creators should actively pay attention to social reality, capture the pulse of the times with a keen perspective, and integrate social hot spots and people's livelihood issues into their creations. I believe that in future development, micro-short dramas will become one of the important carriers for showing real life and conveying positive social energy.
Notes:
① iiMedia Consulting: "2023-2024 China Micro-Short Drama Market Research Report", https://www.iimedia.cn/c400/97005.html , November 22, 2023.
② Miaozhen System: "China Micro-Short Drama Market Development Research Report", https://www.miaozhen.com/all-reports/marketingeffiency/4262.html , February 27, 2024.
