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. concept, destroying the good ecology of the platform, the platform has removed the play from the shelves and is now making it public. 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 will be launched on November 16. “She seems to be different from the rumors in the city. The rumors say that she is arrogant, unreasonable, willful, and never thinks about herself or others. . It was even said that she became a hot search topic two days later, triggering widespread discussion. According to market news, it was reported that she earned 20 million yuan in 24 hours. In just three or four days, some netizens said that the entire short drama industry was detonated. The play relies on the revenge plot of a concubine, with a fast pace and many twists and turns. “Then this is not a divorce, but a confession of marriage!” “To the satisfaction of netizens, 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. “Don’t worry, Hua’er,” became popular during the National Day, “Don’t worry, Hua’er, dad will definitely find a good match for you again. My Lan Dingli’s daughter is so beautiful, smart and sensible, it’s impossible to find a good family to marry. Don’t worry,” the short play ” “Dirty Maid” is also produced by the Mi Meng team, but 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. It’s not about creating content, it’s about creating emotions. This time, “Black Lotus’s Handbook” was removed from the shelves and banned from streaming. At the same time, the team’s other popular short drama “Li Teshu is So Beautiful” was also banned. Content suspected of being pornographic and vulgar is prohibited from being streamed.
The short play “Crazy” is well versed in psychology to manipulate the audience’s emotions
During the interview, the reporter found that from the film and television teams that had been silent for a long time to the leading companies in the industry, they all turned to girls to accompany you. The child was “I was relieved and wanted to go in person. Qizhou.” Invested in short drama creation . 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 crude payment model and the huge number of short video users, mini-program short drama plays frequently exceed 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 keen perception and emotional expression. Their emotions are more delicate than men’s, and they are easier to empathize with.
There is no bottom line in catering to the audience, 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. Micro-short plays with low style, vulgar aesthetics, etc. 25More than 300 movies and 1,365,004 episodes were removed from the shelves, and 2,420 “mini programs” containing illegal content were removed.
Since then, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television has normalized the management of online micro-short dramas, and established a “blacklist” mechanism for online micro-shorts to supervise the timely removal of all online platforms, promote joint participation in governance, and effectively prevent and prevent illegal online micro-shorts. The drama changed its location and changed its vest for broadcast.
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