Chapter 64: Benchmarking American TV
Series In April, Penguin Video's "The Darker Side" aired the finale of the first season.
Relying on the wonderful plot and the rare "dark knight" setting of domestic criminal investigation dramas, this slightly simple web drama has won a total of 450 million views and a score of 8.1, becoming the "web drama masterpiece" second only to "Soul Ferry".
In the early years, criminal investigation and reasoning dramas were actually an important type of domestic dramas. "Serious Case Group 6" and "Crime Scene" are the childhood memories of many viewers. Unfortunately, due to policy reasons, this type of script was collectively blacklisted after a certain period of time, which led to the decline of domestic criminal investigation and reasoning dramas.
However, this audience group did not dissipate, but relied on the gradually developed and improved Internet resources to turn to American and British dramas.
"CSI", "Bones", "Lies", "Criminal Minds", "Person of Interest (POI)"... A lot of high-quality foreign dramas have entered the field of vision, which not only meets the audience's viewing needs, but also makes many people gradually look forward to domestic criminal investigation dramas.
It is a criminal investigation drama with a truly exciting plot and realistic characters, rather than a "slogan drama" that is positive energy except for love.
Therefore, the appearance of "Darker" is just right. Although the quality and quality are a bit worse than those foreign dramas, the more down-to-earth social environment and cultural atmosphere will undoubtedly impress the domestic audience.
It's a pity that there is only the first season, and the audience who have just been hooked feel that it's over before they can get enough.
While this heat has not dissipated, Leshi.com announced that it will join hands with the original creative team of "Soul Ferry" to create a series of criminal investigation crime-themed web dramas.
At the same time, it also shouted the slogan "costing two million per episode, fully benchmarking American dramas", and officially announced the "Leshi Super Web Drama" plan.
I don't know how the audience reacted to this promotion, but the stock price of Leshi.com jumped. It opened two points higher the next day, and then continued to rise.
We have to admit that Boss Jia is very good at creating gimmicks and hyping up the popularity.
However, what followed was a lot of doubts from the audience.
"More than 40 million to shoot a web drama? Leshi.com has gone crazy?"
"Is this true? I'm afraid they deliberately shouted out a high price so that they can take the opportunity to launder money?"
"And you want to benchmark it against American dramas? I'd say you're thoughtful if you can benchmark it against Detective Conan."
"What's the point of watching domestic criminal investigation dramas? Anyway, it's all about the police uncles showing their prowess, and a bunch of slogans to make criminals obey the law and turn over a new leaf."
"That's not the case. The censorship of web dramas is much less than that of TV dramas, and the plots will be much more interesting. Like the recent "Darker", I think it's pretty good."
"Yeah, and didn't they say it was the original production team of "Soul Ferry"? I don't know if the screenwriter has changed. If not, I'm still looking forward to it."
"It seems that the above didn't pay attention to the list at the end of the film. The screenwriter of "Pendulum" is their producer and the boss of the crew. How could he change?"
"But can something like the "film and television universe" really be created by web dramas? Those who tried to imitate Marvel in the past two years have basically failed miserably."
"I don't have any expectations for domestic criminal investigation. It's a joke for online dramas to create a 'film and television universe'. American dramas can't even do that. By the way, that 'Pendulum' is also trash, just a collection of online jokes and borderline stories."
"Stupid, go back and continue watching your American dad!"
"Brother, steady! Extreme foul mouth, pure enjoyment!"
"..."
The online audience comments are mixed, but the overall attitude is almost "expecting, but a little worried". No one knows whether this "serial criminal investigation drama" will give everyone a big deal or a big mess in the end.
However, neither Leshi.com nor Meng Bai took the online disturbances too seriously. On the contrary, as the producers, they just hope that everyone will argue as much as possible, because it's all free popularity anyway.
The biggest worry of all entertainment practitioners is whether the audience will praise or scold them. Anyway, it is better than no one paying attention.
Leshi.com also struck while the iron was hot and found several entertainment media to send to the crew of Lan Dao for interviews. Meng Bai pushed most of the interviews to Wu Bai, leaving only an "acquaintance".
"I remember your last name is Lin, right?" Meng Bai looked at the young man sitting opposite him and said, "When we were filming "Soul Ferry" last year, you also came to interview, Lemon Entertainment."
"Uh, Mr. Meng, we are Orange Entertainment." Xiao Lin reminded in a low voice.
After working for a year, Xiao Lin is no longer the newcomer who just joined the company last year and didn't even know what to do on the scene.
As a die-hard fan of "Soul Ferry" and an invisible fan of "screenwriter Meng Bai", this time when he heard that the company had accepted the interview task of Leshi.com's new drama "Psychological Crime", he immediately volunteered to come over.
When he first met Meng Bai, Xiao Lin was dumbfounded. He still remembered that he was received by this "handsome staff member" on the set, and he didn't expect that he was the "big screenwriter" he had always wanted to meet.
"Are you going to film the actress of the female lead this time?" Meng Bai said with a smile, "But our actress of the female lead this time is a newcomer, and I'm afraid she won't be very popular."
"Ah, no need, I'm mainly here to interview our crew this time." Xiao Lin grabbed his head and said awkwardly, obviously recalling the scene in the "Pendulum" crew at that time.
However, when it came to this, he decisively extended the topic: "Teacher Meng, I see that most of our leading actors this time are newcomers. Is this a deliberate choice by you and the director?"
Seeing that the topic was on the right track, Meng Bai also became a little serious. After thinking for a while, he said, "I didn't make an intentional choice. It was just a coincidence. Online dramas are a new thing. Many famous film and television actors will not choose online dramas at present because of their status and fame. In this situation, the crew will naturally choose newcomers when choosing actors."
"Then what do you think about the future of online dramas? Will they continue to develop into a status equivalent to TV dramas, or will they always be just a 'supplement' to TV dramas?"
Meng Bai said, "No one can say for sure what will happen in the future, but I am confident in the development of online dramas. Because in essence, there is no difference between online dramas and TV dramas except for the different broadcasting platforms.
And with the growth of the younger generation of audiences and the popularization of mobile Internet, the audience group of online dramas will inevitably grow significantly in the future, until it exceeds the TV audience. With more audiences, there will naturally be more works. Under the test of time, high-quality and high-standard online drama works will inevitably appear."
At this point, Meng Bai smiled and said half-jokingly, "Maybe one day in the future, even movie actors may come to participate in online dramas."
Xiao Lin was stunned. This argument was too bold. Although in recent years, with the rise of commercial films, movie actors are not as high and mighty as in the early years, they are still at the top of the actor industry contempt chain.
As long as those well-known actors have one foot in the film industry, they rarely even act in TV dramas, let alone more "down-to-earth" web dramas.
However, he did not refute Meng Bai, but just wrote down this passage. Although he is an entertainment reporter, he is also a reporter. He is only responsible for recording and reporting, and comments are the readers' business.
After asking several questions in a row, Meng Bai also told his thoughts truthfully. However, they are all related to the crew and the show, and those involving him are often fooled. Including the last one, he also rejected the other party's request to take pictures.
Although it is a pity, Xiao Lin also understands that there are indeed many behind-the-scenes personnel or company bosses who don't like to show up.
At least they agreed to their request for private photos. There
were many things to do during the preparation period of the crew, and the agreed interview time ended quickly. After sending Xiao Lin away, Meng Bai looked at Hua Yan who had been waiting for a long time and asked, "What's the matter?"
"Director Liu Zhi just gave me a message saying that the actor originally scheduled for the role of 'Liao Yafan' had some problems and might not be able to participate."
Thanks to "The World is Big" and "Supervision and Restriction" for the reward!
(End of this chapter)
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