From the successful breakthrough of "Flower Order" and "Cherish Flowers" as dark horses at the beginning of the year, to the summer files "Ink Rain and Clouds" and "Spending the Year of China" once again set off a boom in watching dramas, in the first half of 2024, Youku's performance in the field of costume dramas can be described as high and full of surprises.
According to the "2024H1 (First Half Year) Drama Market Insight Report" released by Lighthouse Professional Edition on June 26, Youku's "Ink Rain Clouds" topped the TOP10 in the 2024 H1 online drama feature film playback ranking, with a cumulative feature film playback of more than 2.3 billion, becoming the only online solo drama with more than 2 billion on-demand views in the first half of the year. and Youku's "Cherish the Flowers" and "The Order of the Flowers" ranked second and third respectively, and these three dramas are also known as the "2024 Three Masters of Ancient Costumes" by the audience.
According to Yunhe data, in 2024H1 (the first half of the year), among the TOP20 new online dramas broadcast for 30 days, Youku occupies eight seats, and the top four are: "Ink Rain Clouds", "New Life", "Cherish Flowers" and "Flower Order".
The reason why Youku can stand out in the fierce competition in the costume drama market is rooted in the unremitting exploration and pursuit of content innovation by the platform and creators. Zhou Jing, general manager of Ali Entertainment Kumi Studio, is one of them.
Starting from "Agarwood Like Crumbs· Agarwood Chonghua" in 2022, through "Long Moon Embers" in 2023, and "Between Ink Rain and Clouds" in 2024, Zhou Jing led the team to create a number of popular works one after another. She believes that the core secret of success lies in accurately capturing the emotions of users and the resonance of the times, and in creation, we must respect both users and content, and always remember and deeply explore user needs. This is not only Zhou Jing's personal insistence, but also the consistent adherence of the Youku platform.
Look for uniqueness and pierce the ceiling
How to successfully break through in the costume drama track of a red sea? How to pierce the ceiling of creation? According to Zhou Jing, the key is to find and strengthen the uniqueness of each work. "Every work should pursue a long board rather than no shortcomings, and give the audience a tangible reason to see you."
Zhou Jing: The uniqueness that Zhou Jing refers to covers two aspects: content and aesthetics. The uniqueness of the content is reflected in the innovative character setting and the profound character relationship construction. Aesthetic uniqueness requires the work to be visually distinctive, innovative, and capable of creating stunning visual spectacle. In addition, costume dramas also have the natural advantage of closely combining with China's excellent traditional culture. When it comes to creative practice, "creators need to follow the basic story logic and classic narrative structure, and have the courage to take half a step and make innovative attempts." ”
Looking back on past masterpieces, "Agarwood is like crumbs· Agarwood Chonghua" has won a good reputation for its aesthetic style, shocking visual performance and far-reaching cultural connotation that breaks through the traditional Xianxia theme. "Embers of the Long Moon" has aroused widespread attention and discussion with its novel plot, unique art style and positive values. "Between the Ink Rain and Clouds" can stand out in the field of costume idol dramas, and its three-dimensional and vivid character images and dramatic character conflicts are indispensable.
Innovation is the source of creators' continuous production of high-quality content. For the innovation of costume dramas, Zhou Jing has in-depth thinking. She believes that the innovation of Xianxia drama lies in building a unique world view, which can not only fully demonstrate the imagination and uniqueness of Xianxia drama, but also profoundly affect the overall temperament, development direction and even the aesthetics of costumes and makeup props of the series. The innovation of costume idol dramas pays more attention to the resonance with the audience's emotions, as well as the integration of emerging social scenes and types. "History is an endless treasure trove of inspiration, and the fusion of different types always inspires new sparks. Whether it is a costume idol drama or a fairy tale drama, with the changes of the times, it will continue to give birth to new ideas and inspiration. ”
In the face of the return tide of costume heroines, how to meet the aesthetic needs of contemporary audiences? Zhou Jing believes that compared with the simple emphasis on the strength of the heroine in the past, today's "strong women" focus more on showing the strength of the female group and providing space for different roles to show. At the same time, when creating a single female character, the renewal of values is particularly important, which needs to resonate with contemporary audiences and has practical guiding significance. "At present, the values of the audience are becoming more and more diverse, and creators need to respect the needs of the audience, adapt to market changes, and avoid the imposition of a single value."
Start from the user and empathize with the user
From a deep insight into user needs, to accurately meeting user demands, and then leading and creating new user demands, Youku's user-centered core concept runs through the whole process of content construction, which is the key rule for it to continue to break through and innovate in the field of costume dramas. "The birth of a work should not only be limited by genre or length, but should come from the grasp of user needs and the exploration of the essence of content." In Zhou Jing's view, film and television creation should serve the majority of users, and it is necessary to have a keen insight into market dynamics and flexibly adjust the creative direction to meet the needs of users.
At present, user time is fragmented, various forms of entertainment are emerging in an endless stream, and how to effectively attract and retain audiences has become the focus of attention in the industry. "Between the Ink Rain and Clouds" is an exploration and innovation of the creative mode of long dramas." In Zhou Jing's view, although the characters in the play do not have to strictly follow the daily logic, they must closely revolve around the core logic of the play, which is beyond the logical construction of daily life, bringing the audience a richer emotional experience and profound thinking space. At the same time, "Between the Ink Rain and Clouds" is not a shallow entertainment that blindly pursues "coolness", but deeply responds to the audience's desire for emotional resonance through diverse emotional choices and complex character relationships.
The efforts of "Ink Rain Clouds" in content innovation have been widely recognized by the industry. Yin Hong, vice chairman of the China Literature and Art Critics Association and professor at Tsinghua University, believes that the drama market is also looking for works that are both fast-paced and high-quality. "Between the Ink Rain and Clouds" achieves a balance between the two to a certain extent. Lu Jianing, an associate professor at the School of Drama, Film and Television at Communication University of China, believes that the show has crises, suspense and reversals every few minutes on average, maintaining a fast pace while taking into account the multifaceted and complex characters.
In the face of the ever-changing user status and communication environment, Zhou Jing firmly believes that touching people's hearts with real emotions has always been a solid bridge connecting creators and audiences. "The key to the attractiveness of costume dramas is that they can transcend the boundaries of time and space and touch the resonance points in the hearts of the audience." She took costume dramas from a female perspective as an example to elaborate on the importance of empathy, "In the creative process, we pay special attention to the real dilemmas faced by women and the road to self-redemption, and explore how women can find a way out of the predicament and meet their emotional needs through delicate depictions of common issues such as gender relationships, parent-child relationships, and the family of origin." On this basis, we look for specific and subtle story cuts to make the plot closer to people's hearts. ”
It is worth mentioning that the rapid planning and launch of the MV of "Ink Rain Clouds" is a model of personalized service provided by Youku based on user feedback. This measure not only responds to the audience's emotional demands in a timely manner, but also provides the audience with a reverie space for the character's follow-up stories, realizes the in-depth interaction and content co-creation between creators and users, and is an innovative practice of long video in the field of personalized services. The audience sighed after watching the MV of "Fei Chang Xiao Zhang" after marriage, "In the end, the audience also participated in the ranks of screenwriters." ”
"The creation process of every costume drama is full of unexpected gains, and these precious treasures are given by the audience, and the audience is the last link in content creation." Zhou Jing sighed, "The audience is not only the recipient of the content, but also the enricher and deeper of the story, they add a deeper connotation, richer interpretation and more three-dimensional character relationship to the story. ”
Organize a group to start a business and create good content together
Continuously outputting high-quality content is a major test of the platform's production capacity. In recent years, Youku has worked closely with many outstanding creators and teams in the industry to uphold respect for artistic creation, providing a solid guarantee for the incubation and presentation of high-quality content. During the ten years of working at Youku, Zhou Jing deeply felt that the platform and partners support each other and grow together.
"The birth of each work is a 'start-up', and the operation of the project is like forming a team to start a business. The future may be full of more unknowns and challenges, but every attempt may be an opportunity to surpass the previous one. Zhou Jing said that the Youku platform provides creators with full trust, support and tolerance environment, and encourages the courage to explore and try. Entrepreneurship can be successful or it can fail. I can learn a lot from every experience of failure, and the process of failure also gives the creator the motivation to start anew. Creators should always be in awe, respect the content, and respect the user. ”
The diversity of partners is also an important symbol of Youku's growth. "We tend to work with creators who have unique strengths in their respective fields." Zhou Jing believes that the power of teamwork lies in showing the strengths of each and maximizing the synergy. At the same time, the establishment of Alida Entertainment's self-made studio is an important achievement of Youku's internal mechanism innovation, which effectively promotes the diversification and specialization of content production.
In it, Zhou Jing has also witnessed the changes and growth of Youku over the years. For example, the genre is constant