Text: Wei Ying
When "The Legend of Zhen Huan" was broadcast, the picture of Sister Mei and Imperial Doctor Wen saying goodbye to life and death in the deep palace made many viewers feel "uneasy". Now, the two actors are married hand in hand in the derivative variety show "Rejuvenation and Travel", which satisfies the BE ending of the year. When the people in the play enter reality, as if the past life and the present life meet, fans can also have a dream that was not finished 14 years ago.
That's the huge magic of the IP effect. "The Legend of Zhen Huan", as an evergreen IP with strong vitality, has been archaeological by Zhen scholars from all walks of life all the year round, and derivative variety shows can naturally use IP popularity to ensure market feedback, which is a classic practice of eating two fish. Therefore, "The Legend of Zhen Huan" has also been recorded as a derivative variety show by Tencent Video and Youku. However, Tencent Video's "Rejuvenation and Travel" did not invite guests such as Sun Li and Chen Jianbin , while Youku's "Zhen Huan Love Non-stop" claimed that Sun Li and Chen Jianbin could be present. After all, the "The Legend of Zhen Huan" group is missing Niu Colu · Zhen Huan, and I always feel that there is something "wrong".
Having said that, Tencent Video's "Rejuvenation and Travel" also has a lot of highlights, in addition to the reunion of the women's group to reminisce about the past, and more importantly, it is linked with cultural tourism to explore folk culture around the world. In the first episode of the program, the members of the rejuvenation troupe came to Hetuala City, Fushun, Liaoning Province, and passed on the local Manchu culture to the audience in front of the screen between talking and laughing.
The gameplay of "Cultural Tourism +" variety shows is not new, and "Rejuvenation and Travel" is a national cultural travel visit reality show in the name of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", the purpose of which is to experience folk culture and customs around the world through in-depth visits and study tours, and to discover the birthplace of treasure national culture. It's just that "Rejuvenating the Travels" can't escape the superficial experience of most travel comprehensives only staying at the "punch in", and does not dig out the shortcomings of the deep core of culture. However, we may be able to take a look at what new ways to play for drama derivative variety shows, in addition to fulfilling the dreams of drama fans.
The memory of the popular IP is killed
Among the drama derivative variety shows, the most important thing is the in-depth linkage between variety shows and dramas.
In the pilot film of "The Legend of Rejuvenation", the tenth-level Zhen scholar gave the girls exam questions, although these exam questions involved important props in the plot, but they stumped the girls who hadn't read the lines for more than ten years. For example: what is the size of a zhang red, what are the ingredients of An Lingrong's soothing gum, and a person's name in summer, winter and spring. The ignorance of the ladies is in stark contrast to the self-confidence and triumph of the Zhen scholars, and it also reflects the status of this drama in the hearts of the audience for more than ten years.
The fourteen-year reunion of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" Friends has not only the long-lost surprise, but also the sigh of time flies, and the embarrassment of not knowing each other. The resident guests of the program group are Cai Shaofen, Tao Xinran, Lan Yingying, Chen Sisi, Zhang Xiaolong, Yang Jiulang, and Hui Xi, and in the subsequent shows, they ushered in the surprise appearance of Su Gonggong, Aunt Jianqiu and others. And Queen Cai Shaofen was embarrassed to find that she didn't remember the actor of Liuzhu, because there was no rivalry between the two at all.
and Princess Haoyue, who was only 6 years old at the time, is now slim. Chen Sisi, the actor of Cao Guiren, couldn't help but sigh with emotion: "Where has the time gone? I thought I hadn't changed, but everything was changing. ”
This kind of memory killing, which has been separated by 14 years, not only moved the people in the play, but also moved the fans who have been with each other for many years. However, one of the big regrets of "The Legend of Rejuvenation" is that it cannot release the corresponding clips in the play because of copyright restrictions, which weakens the strength of memory killing. For example, in the small statue cutting link in the variety show, although Lan Yingying mentioned "hanging on the Yimei Garden", it is still difficult to resonate with the audience with the variety show picture alone.
The advantage of drama-derived variety shows is that they can break the barriers between film and television dramas and variety shows, so that the charm of the characters and the actors themselves form an interesting contrast. In this variety show, the audience also saw the actors behind the characters. They used to intrigue in the deep palace, but now they are giggling and slapstick, enjoying the joy of the world during the journey. As a netizen said: "There is a feeling of a parallel world, in another world they are no longer victims of the times, they live as they want." ”
As a derivative variety show of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "The Legend of Rejuvenation" did not drop the chain, and staged the highlight in the first stop Fushun - "Old Friends Reunion" and "Wen Mei Wedding". The second phase of the rejuvenation group came to Dandong to introduce the local culture of Dandong and check in the local pickled food, among which the Korean culture in Dandong opened the eyes of the women's group. This issue is also a program in cooperation with Dandong Cultural Tourism, but this wave of cultural output audiences may not be able to eat it.
The reason is very simple, judging from the first issue, "Rejuvenating the Travel" did not plan a truly immersive cultural tourism experience, but more like a scenic game or a cultural tourism promotional video, lacking moving highlight moments, so the discussion of this variety show on the Internet is relatively low. Most of the audience's evaluations are still mainly focused on memory killing, and complaining that the girls are "really noisy". It can be seen that even a popular IP like "The Legend of Zhen Huan", if it does not innovate around the core selling point of the program model, and only relies on memories to please fans, it is very likely that it will end up with a self-congratulatory fate in the circle.
A derivative variety show that is win-win for all parties
In recent years, drama-derived variety shows have begun to rise in the variety show market, and if this new program model runs through, it will be a win-win move for dramas, variety shows, platforms, and even audiences.
For dramas, it can improve the stickiness of drama fans and expand the popularity of IP; For variety shows, you can use the basic plate of drama fans to open up the circle, and for the platform, you can eat two fish and two fish, and maximize the value of popular IP; For the audience, it has a better after-sales experience and reduces the loneliness of "ending is lovelorn".
And drama derivative variety shows also have a certain threshold, generally speaking, only popular dramas have the need to develop, and those "cold dramas" that no one cares about, and no one cares about derivative dramas. For example, in August last year, iQiyi launched the first self-made interactive drama "1 Million Promises", which was invited based on the popularity of reservations on the site. This show is a two-way journey between the leading actors of popular dramas and the audience who follow the drama, and if there is a high number of reservations in the iQiyi station before the broadcast, the starring group may receive an invitation to build a team together for three days and two nights to fulfill the audience's wishes.
The first to be invited was the crew of "Seven O'clock Auspicious" starring Yang Chaoyue and Ding Yuxi, and the number of reservations for this drama on iQiyi Station exceeded 6 million. The second to be invited was the crew of "Ning An Like a Dream" starring Bai Lu and Zhang Linghe, and the number of reservations for this drama on iQiyi Station exceeded 7.4 million. The derivative variety show of "Ning An Like a Dream" began to be promoted before the broadcast of the drama to build momentum for the drama in advance, and after the series was launched, it was broadcast simultaneously during the interruption, bringing the emotional value of continuous companionship to fans who "have no drama to chase".
In the play, Jiang Xuening and Xie Wei's "forced love" is fascinating, and Bailu and Zhang Linghe also continue to make sugar in the interaction in the variety show, especially in the second phase of the escape room, as long as the scared Bailu shouts "Zhang Jiawei", Zhang Linghe will hug her and say "I'm here", which simply makes the audience have a sense of déjà vu to see the group comprehensive as a love comprehensive. The focus of this kind of group variety is not only in the linkage of the series, but also in the CP relationship of the actors, which is more watchable than a simple derivative variety show.
And after the end of "Da Song Boys' Chronicles 2", which was launched in July last year, "Team Building!" was launched one after another! Qi Zhai" and "Da Song Detective Bureau" are two derivative variety shows. Among them, the Douban score of "Da Song Detective Bureau" is as high as 9.1. The reason why the score of this variety show is high is that the suspense drama attributes of "Da Song Boys' Chronicles 2" and the reasoning variety show are naturally adaptable, and the second is that it focuses on the friendship and soul of "Seven Lents and Six Sons", which stimulates the audience's sense of belonging. Although the six actors and characters have greater or lesser contrasts, their way of getting along is very similar to that in the play, and there is a feeling that the six sons have traveled to modern times. This is also the unique healing power that the audience wants to see in acquaintance variety shows.
In addition, after the release of the movie "Fengshen Part 1: Chao Song Fengyun", the derivative variety show "Fengshen Training Camp" was also launched on Mango TV. The biggest attraction of "Fengshen Training Camp" is the audition and closed training of the "Proton Troupe", which allows the audience to review the past images with the leading actors, and witness how they have grown step by step from newcomers to today's movie protagonists. Although the core highlight of this variety show is not much different from the behind-the-scenes documentary "The Road to the Gods", it also continues to hype up the long-tail effect of the movie, which can be called an innovative idea for film marketing and promotion, and also paves the way for the release of the last two parts of "The Gods" in advance.
What are the new ways to play?
To sum up, as a kind of derivative product, the core gene of the drama derivative variety show is still the drama, and the derived content is the team building reality show of the "original team", and the core audience is of course also drama fans.
Therefore, drama derivative variety shows, first of all, should pay attention to the dream linkage of film and television dramas and variety shows, so that the audience's uneasy will to realize their dreams in another parallel time and space, just like "The Legend of Rejuvenation", whether it is the famous scene of "Wen Mei Wedding" or the official meme, all use the charm of the drama to highlight the emotions of variety shows and resonate with the audience.
The second is to pay attention to the planning of content. First, it should be close to the voices of fans, such as iQiyi's "1 Million Promises", which specially allows the leading actor to draw a wish blind box in the game link to fulfill the audience's wishes. Second, it is also a good choice to learn from the essence of other variety show genres for cross-border integration. For example, the Korea drama spin-off variety show "Witty Mountain Village Life", just like letting the original cast of the TV series "Witty Doctor's Life" Malay Mountain Village live "Longing for Life", the five people cook their own dishes in the village, showing the tranquility and warmth of rural life, continuing the ideal atmosphere in the play.
Finally, it is necessary to fully explore the charm of group portraits. Group dramas are naturally suitable for derivative variety shows, because there are enough emotional relationships to explore. However, "The Legend of Rejuvenation" only stays in the warmth of the reunion of the mother's group after a long absence, but does not dig deep into the inner emotional level, so they have been together for a long time, which will inevitably make the audience feel "noisy". and "The Great Song Detective Bureau" excavated the deep friendship relationship between the six people who knew each other for a while, but they have kept in touch for many years, which aroused the audience's nostalgia for youth.
Although the drama derivative variety show is limited by the framework of the original series, it has more possibilities in the exploration of genre integration. Whether it is the integration of reasoning slow variety elements like "The Great Song Detective Bureau", or the combination of rural slow variety features like "Witty Mountain Village Life", or the spin-off variety show "Won't Hurt You" like "Top Floor" to make "Bad Man Metamorphosis", it can go beyond the simple after-sales memories of the drama to create a more diverse and richer viewing experience.