Is it reliable to change the "after-sales" of online dramas while broadcasting?
【 Different opinions 】
Recently, in order to comply with the audience’s opinions and meet the audience’s expectations, the "changing while broadcasting" that timely modifies the relevant content according to the audience’s feedback and public opinion calls during the broadcast process has become a new operation mode of drama series in video website communication. From "Do you know whether it should be green, fat, red and thin" to "slow-motion play" in the new edition of "Eternal Dragon Slayer", there are various forms of expression. This rapid response mechanism is being used by more and more drama producers after achieving some visible communication effects, and has won many praises from the industry and the audience.
For creators and communicators, the behavior of "changing while broadcasting" represents the communication concept of respecting the audience, and also shows the creative attitude of being pragmatic and striving for perfection. Compared with those practitioners who regard film and television creation as a "one-shot deal", who know that there is a mistake but don’t admit it, or even face criticism and questioning, the behavior of knowing the mistake and correcting it in time is worth encouraging. However, this kind of "after-sales service" is, after all, a new phenomenon of production and broadcasting emerging in the process of rapid development of the industry. Most viewers don’t know much about it, and its operating mechanism is not perfect, so there are still some possible negative factors hidden in the actual operation process, which need to be vigilant. On the one hand, this model will subtly encourage the creator’s luck, that is, "it doesn’t matter if it is casual and rough in the original creation, even if there is an error, there is still room for revision in the broadcast process." Once such a psychological formula is formed, it will undoubtedly do harm to the development of the industry. On the other hand, respecting the audience does not mean blindly satisfying and catering. The audience can design whatever bridge they want to see and arrange whatever ending they want. In fact, it is an irresponsible cramming creation. Regardless of the ideological theme or aesthetic taste, the audience needs more guidance, and there is no need to say anything about it. In most cases, the forced temporary modification behavior in the process of broadcasting is a last resort.And is not a conventional operation mode. Creators should feel guilty about the lack of rigor and thoughtfulness when they started, and learn from it, so as to make it happen again. This must not be used as an excuse and retreat for inferior creation. And those so-called "at the request of the audience" to modify the fate of the characters and the ending of the story are even more cautious. After all, literary and artistic creation that appeals to people’s hearts is serious. If it caters to or even condescends to the tastes of some audiences at the expense of distorting the original intention of creation, in essence, it will make commercial benefits overshadow social benefits and abandon the basics.
In addition, there is a more dangerous business appeal to be vigilant. The producers of individual dramas know that their works have serious injuries and "slots", so they not only broadcast them directly without modification, but also hype these issues as gimmicks to generate public opinion topics to achieve the purpose of attracting attention. Then, we made a big fuss about the "after-sales service" while broadcasting, to show the film’s "attitude of admitting mistakes" and "speed of correcting mistakes", so that the audience could feel the satisfaction of being valued, and they seemed to enjoy a high-level drama-watching experience with high participation and strong interaction. This behavior takes the mode of "changing while broadcasting" as a marketing means and commercial trick to capture the audience, which makes the creation and dissemination of works taste worse and worse.
As far as the operation mode of "modifying while broadcasting" is concerned, domestic dramas are still in the primary stage of "correcting mistakes and filling gaps", while some countries with mature TV drama industry such as Europe, America, Japan and South Korea have already realized the operation paradigm of "writing, filming, broadcasting and modifying while broadcasting". In recent years, an interactive creative mode known for immersion and interactivity has become popular in the industry. This kind of work can be regarded as a mixture of watching and participating. It tries to give full play to the dynamic role of the audience, so that they can make choices at some key nodes in the process of watching, thus having strong control over the role decision in the work, and finally determining the plot development and the fate of the characters in the drama. Although all these measures are more rigorous and mature compared with the "broadcast while changing" mode, they fully integrate the wisdom of the audience into the drama creation, so that the works can basically keep pace with the market demand, but they have not fundamentally solved the disadvantages and hidden dangers of the "broadcast while changing" mode. If the operation paradigm of "writing, filming, broadcasting and changing" and interactive works become the possible development trend of China drama production and broadcasting in the future, then relevant practitioners need to keep a calm, rational and prudent attitude towards them and guard against their dislocation and deviation in practice.
Creators and communicators should at least be soberly aware of the following points: First, the original intention of "modifying while broadcasting" should not only be positioned at the omissions and deficiencies in the process of modifying and creating, but should achieve the balance between audience satisfaction and market ratings through deeper communication and reception interaction; Secondly, we should prevent the phenomenon of catering to the audience’s tastes to the neglect of the establishment of positive values and the original aesthetic style and artistic characteristics of the works, and grasp the degree of satisfaction and guidance under the principle of "social benefit first"; Third, the ultimate goal of "broadcasting while changing" is not to attract eyeballs to earn money, but to create a benign environment for full communication with the audience, to maximize the audience’s wisdom to bless the quality improvement of the drama, and to make the works more artistic vitality and market communication; Fourthly, we should devote ourselves to constructing a long-term mechanism of self-improvement and self-transcendence of drama series, so that the works can continuously gain the internal drive to the road of quality products in different links of creation and communication, and help the whole industry to mature and prosper.
(Author: Yan Wei, director and editor of China Television Arts Committee)