On November 21, WeChat Coral Security, Kuaishou Security Center, etc. issued an announcement saying: During the special governance period, the platform found that the micro-short play “Black Lotus’s Handbook of Ascension” exaggerated the bad values of extreme revenge and using violence to counter violence, confusing right and wrong. Viewing “Yes, father-in-law.” chants, destroying the good ecology of the platform, the platform has removed the show from the shelves and is now announcing it. As the relevant departments halted the short dramas of the Mi Meng team, the answer to whether the regulatory hammer will fall on the short drama industry has become increasingly clear.
“Black Lotus” is invisible, the Mi Meng-style short drama triggers reflection
The reporter noticed that the Douyin account of “Black Lotus Master’s Manual” has now become a private account, all published content is invisible, and the account name has also been changed to emoticons, only the “Hot List of Short Dramas” The label has left traces of its popularity, and 1.64 million fans are still paying attention.
This paid short drama was launched on November 16. Two days later, it became a hot search topic and sparked widespread discussion. According to market news, it was reported that it attracted 20 million yuan in 24 hours. In just three or four days, it detonated the entire Short drama industry. Some netizens said that with the plot of the concubine’s revenge, the show is fast-paced and has many twists and turns, which makes netizens happy. It is regarded as a combination of “The Legend of Zhen Huan” and “Story of Yanxi Palace”.
What is striking is that public information shows that the producer of “Black Lotus’s Ascension Manual” is Shanghai Silver Earth Culture Media Co., Ltd. The Tianyancha APP shows that Zhang Jingsi is the legal representative and executive director. Intellectual property information shows that the company has applied for Internet celebrity blogger trademarks such as “Qiao Qiyue” and “Jiang Shiqi”. The current trademark status is mostly awaiting substantive review. It is reported that Zhang Jingsi was once a partner of Mimeng (Ma Ling).
As a result, Mi Meng, who was once popular on the public account track but fell into the dust, once again appeared in the public eye. In 2020, as the number of followers of Jiang Shiqi and other Douyin accounts exceeded 10 million, Mimeng-style short dramas began to appear in the circle, and the content produced by its experts was mainly short dramas. The popular short drama “The Dark Maid” during the National Day was also about “Why would my mother look at the baby like this?” Pei Yi felt a little uncomfortable and couldn’t help but ask. Produced by the Mi Meng team, some viewers complained that when they turned on the Mi Meng style short drama, cheating continued, quarrels and fights continued, and negative emotions such as anger, madness, worry, etc. came over them. This was not about making content, but Creating emotions. While “Black Lotus’s Handbook for Ascension” was removed from the entire network and banned from streaming, another hit short drama by the team, “Li Special Assistant is So Beautiful” was also banned from streaming due to the content being suspected of being pornographic and vulgar.
The short play “Crazy” is well versed in psychology to manipulate the audience’s emotions
The regret and hatred were revealed in the interview. ., the reporter found that from the long-dormant film and television teams to the leading companies in the industry, they have turned to short dramas to create “Rituals cannot be broken. Since there is no engagement, you must pay attention to etiquette to avoid fear.” Lan Yuhua looked directly at it. his eyes, said speciously. do. Industry insiders said that there may be more than 100 procedural short drama groups starting production in Hengdian alone, and more than 200 groups are in preparation. The leading MCN agencies have produced more than 100 short dramas this year.
Due to the simple and rude payment model and the huge number of short video users, the playback volume of mini program short dramas often exceeds 100 million, and good news spreads frequently in the circle. A short play screenwriter told reporters that short plays have different revenue methods from theatrical movies and online movies. The platform will not adopt prepayment or buyout, but basically broadcast and traffic sharing. In order to retain viewers, platforms value gimmicks and attention-grabbing far more than quality. To put it bluntly, short dramas do not rely on the quality of the series or word of mouth to attract audiences. Most of the time, they fall into the trap of “customary payment”. Arousing the audience’s emotions often makes people pay for their emotions and pay impulsively.
According to Zhou Xiao, the young director who made the hit “This Male Protagonist is a Little Cold”, rather than following market trends and betting on hit themes, he is more willing to start from the collective emotions of female audiences and analyze their desire to learn from short plays. Emotional compensation received. They look forward to a man who is both abstinent and full of sexual tension; they like the “coldness” of keeping away from strangers, and they are fascinated by the “pampering” that contrasts with it. “The more restrained we are in real life and the less we believe in what we can have, the more subconsciously it will be magnified and the more we want to have it. Ancient puppets and reality are complementary.”
Han Ning, a national second-level psychological counselor, a member of Jiangsu Nanjing 12355 Psychological Expert Think Tank, and a senior lecturer on ideological and political affairs at Nanjing Transportation Technician College, told reporters that the pace of work is getting faster and faster, and short plays are suitable for people to use fragmented time to gain short-term benefits. of happiness. The director is willing to approach the subject from a female emotional perspective because women bear more responsibilities in reproduction and childcare, and require more acute perception and emotional expression. Their emotions are more delicate than men’s, and they are easier to empathize with.
Catering to the audience cannot be without a bottom line, and the normalized management mechanism is being improved
But satisfying psychological needs does not mean satisfying bottomless desires. Recently, the three major short video platforms, WeChat, Douyin, and Kuaishou, have actively responded to the State Administration of Radio and Television’s regulatory management of the online micro-short drama industry ecology, and have successively banned a large number of accounts that illegally publish micro-short dramas. They all emphasized the need to control “Promote bad values, pornography and vulgarity, promote violence against violence, extreme revenge, gang involvement, and violent behavior.”
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television also took action. Beginning in late November 2022, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television spent three months intensively organizing and carrying out special rectification work on “mini programs” online micro-short dramas. As of February 28, 2023, a total of pornographic, vulgar, bloody, violent, and pornographic dramas have been offline. More than 25,300 micro-short dramas with low-style, vulgar aesthetics and other content, totaling 1,365,004 episodes, were removed from the shelves. 2,420 “mini programs” containing illegal content were removed from the shelves.
Since then, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has implemented regulations on online micro-short dramas.The work has become normalized, and a “blacklist” mechanism for online micro-short dramas has been established to supervise the timely removal of all online platforms, promote joint participation in governance, and effectively prevent and prevent illegal online micro-short dramas from shifting positions and changing broadcasts.
Next, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television will continue to improve the normalized management mechanism, including accelerating the formulation of the “Detailed Rules for the Creation, Production and Content Review of Online Micro-Short Dramas”, studying and promoting the inclusion of online micro-short drama APPs and “mini programs” into daily organizational management.
Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Zhang Nan