The "Ten-Minute Theater" is released. Tencent Video explores the "ten-minute aesthetics" of micro-short dramas.​

文章出处：腾讯视频VIP开放平台 

​On December 22, 2021, the Tencent Video micro-short drama conference was held in Beijing. Feng Nai'en, director and party secretary of the Prince Gong's Mansion Museum of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, delivered a speech on "culture and technology accompanying each other"; Li La, deputy general manager of the platform operation department of Tencent Online Video, proposed the "ten-minute aesthetics" of micro-short dramas and officially released the industry's first micro-short drama brand "Ten-Minute Theater". This means that Tencent Video's exploration of the refinement of micro-short dramas has entered a new stage, and it also means that micro-short dramas have reached a new level of content matrix layout and quarterly marketing communication.

As a leader in the field of micro-short dramas, as early as 2019, Tencent Video created the first IP-adapted micro-drama "The Psychic Concubine" based on vertical screen aesthetics. In 2020, it followed up and developed the interactive drama "Moyu Xuanqi", exploring the experience boundary of micro-short dramas through interactive narration and receiving a large number of praises from users. In 2021, the emergence of works such as "Like a Dream" directed by Wu Qiang and starring He Hongshan and Wu Xize, and "Datang Little Foodie" produced by Shaanxi Cultural Investment and starring Li Zixuan further verified that "good content is not divided by length". More and more industry leaders have invested in the track of micro-short dramas. While reaping high reputations, it has also reaped surprising revenue-sharing returns, laying the foundation for the subsequent "refined" development of micro-short dramas and a complete business ecosystem. And this release also indicates that Tencent Video has deeper thinking and a clearer direction for the "refined" development of micro-short dramas.

 The brand of "Ten-Minute Theater" is proposed for the first time, aiming to embrace more avant-garde and beautiful expressions.

Driven by industry development and user demands, and shouldering the vision and original intention of “letting content create beauty”, Tencent Video, as a leading audio-visual platform with content as its core competitiveness, not only takes on the responsibility of “creating beauty” and spreading mainstream values but also tirelessly pursues artistic leadership and technological innovation to strengthen its internal capabilities. Additionally, it takes the initiative to shoulder its mission. Through the release of the “Ten-Minute Theater”, it conveys its understanding and definition of “excellent” content to the industry. “Ten” not only represents the duration of micro-short dramas of about ten minutes but also implies “extremely wonderful and extremely anticipated”. This indicates that Tencent Video has no limit to its original intention and pursuit of creating good content. It must adhere to integrity and innovation, promote the right path, and continuously tell Chinese stories well with refined content.

“Extremely wonderful” means laying out multiple genres to meet the multi-dimensional interests of users in different circles with vertical-category excellent micro-short dramas. As can be seen from the list of films released at the previous “V Vision Conference”, Tencent Video’s micro-short dramas cover multiple types such as cultural IP, cultural innovation, comic-adapted comedies, passionate heroes, suspenseful reasoning, ancient costume cuisine, and fantasy healing, expanding a brand new imaginative space for this category. “Extremely anticipated” means that short drama content is launched with seasonal themes throughout the year, bringing continuous anticipation to users. “Tencent Video has reserved a large amount of rich and excellent content and plans to broadcast in seasons throughout the year. Through comedy seasons, national style seasons, interactive seasons, suspense seasons, etc., it provides users with wonderful, diverse, and rich good content.” Li La, deputy general manager of the operation department of Tencent’s online video platform, explained.

In order to realize the brand vision of the “Ten-Minute Theater” to “embrace more avant-garde and beautiful expressions”, Tencent Video has put forward content requirements of “positive energy, refined production, and new experience” for micro-short dramas. Positive energy means taking on responsibilities in positive value guidance, making achievements in adhering to integrity and innovation, and creating expressions in promoting traditional culture. Refined production means paying attention to the artistic creation and content quality of micro-short drama works, continuously polishing the work quality and enriching the work spirit. New experience means exploring and breaking through from dimensions such as interactive narration, virtual shooting, and offline experience integration. It hopes to break boundaries through the innovative integration of content and form and help accelerate the industrialization process of film and television development.

In the process of strengthening the content layout of Tencent Video’s micro-short drama track, guided by mainstream values, taking refined content as the result, and driven by artistic aesthetics and technological innovation, continuously develop excellent micro-short drama content products and gradually build a complete content ecosystem.

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​l Positive energy. Tencent Video's micro-short dramas exhibit a leading stance.

​Micro-short dramas, with their strong social attributes, agile capture of hot spots, and high-information-density rhythms, are increasingly becoming a content form favored by young groups. Tencent Video has further insight into users' demands for "shorter and more refined" content. Different from the pattern of most short dramas on the market with simple plots and relaxed expressions, it has laid out a series of positive-energy micro-short dramas with the theme positioned as "telling Chinese stories well."

The interactive micro-short drama "Prince Gong's Mansion", which interprets the history and traditional architecture, cuisine, etiquette and other cultures of Prince Gong's Mansion from a new perspective, is one of the representative works. Feng Nai'en, director and party secretary of the Prince Gong's Mansion Museum of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, shared the beautiful original intention of cooperation with Tencent Video at the conference site - through cooperation with Tencent Video's micro-short dramas, show the essence of traditional Chinese culture and spread it to the audience.

Director Feng frankly said, "Today's world is an era of information explosion, and at the same time, it is a very fortunate era of joint dissemination with 'culture + technology'. Many people will ask me, as a practitioner of a cultural institution, how do you understand 'culture + technology'? I think culture and technology have always accompanied each other." Regarding the understanding of culture, Director Feng believes that "culture is actually a way of life and is inseparable from the living conditions of each of us - no matter food, clothing, housing and transportation, there are extremely rich cultural connotations and elements in it." He also recognized that micro-short dramas, as a new video product, arealso a new carrier of culture. Therefore, there is a combination between Prince Gong's Mansion as a representative of a cultural institution and Tencent as a technology and culture company, and a strategic cooperation is reached.

 In addition, the short dramas "Good Deeds in Ivory Mountain" and "Aunties' World" in the released list also convey the positive energy of kindness, justice, hard work and positivity of the times through the content form that young users love: Xie Guangkun, who is very familiar to the audience for being "mischievous", and Zhao Si, the "dance king", have changed their previous images and formed a "group of four doing good deeds" in the short drama "Good Deeds in Ivory Mountain". In the process of doing good deeds on the streets and lanes, they have contributed extremely dense funny jokes. It is a family comedy work presented by Tencent Video to the audience across the country on the occasion of the coming of the Year of the Tiger. Similarly, the comedy "Aunties' World" that gathers many "familiar faces of the nation" is starred by veteran actors Li Lingyu and Mu Liyan in a breakthrough way. In a humorous and highly communicable way, it leads to "golden sentences" and "jokes" about intergenerational communication. While bringing joy to the audience, it spreads warmth and hopes to arouse the care of the whole society for the middle-aged and elderly groups.

​l Refined production, the core competitiveness of Tencent Video's micro-short dramas.

"Refined production" means that Tencent Video's micro-short dramas upgrade artistic aesthetics under the trend of "improving quality and reducing quantity" and lead a more refined content orientation. Specifically, Tencent Video's micro-short drama projects introduce movie-level production teams and comprehensively enhance the texture from directors, photography, art and other aspects, striving to bring audiences a better viewing experience.

At the conference, the creative teams of the traditional culture innovation series "Washe Trilogy" made their appearances together and had wonderful interactions on stage with Cao Rui, head of the Galaxy Studio of Tencent Video's platform operation department. Cai Juntao, general manager of Hangmei Interactive Entertainment Media, believes that "micro-short dramas, as a new expression, are an efficient way to test the waters and have a lot of room for innovation." Li Haiying, founder and chairman of Tianhai Media Group, popularized the definition of "washe" on the spot: "For a particularly intuitive analogy, we imagine that the Tianqiao Grand Theater and the National Center for the Performing Arts now. The combination of the two is the washe in the Song Dynasty. washe is a place that combines the best of court culture and folk culture." Zheng Binbiao, founder and chairman of Haixi Media Group, proposed that "micro-short dramas are a trend" and recognized the value of the "Ten-Minute Theater" - "With the Ten-Minute Theater, we can see Chinese traditional culture and some emerging content in fragmented time. It is a very beautiful experience for audiences."

Wang Qiang, who participated in the production of the TV series "Like a Flowing River" and also directed "Caimenling" and "Yujishu" in the "washe Trilogy", shared his insights on creating short dramas: "We need to carefully review the script in the early stage, including creating plot conflicts. Strive to attract and retain the audience in the shortest time. Although short dramas are short in time, their information volume is still very huge. They have reversed plots, are compact and don't drag the rhythm. I think it can better meet the viewing habits of young people today."

Zhang Bo, the director of "Women Wrestling" from the "Washe Trilogy", explained the reason for choosing two cameras during the shooting process - to pursue a movie-like texture as much as possible. "First, it is more about how to find an effective narrative method or audiovisual expression method to serve the content. Second, sports competition-themed works have a large number of action scenes. Narrative in a small space will have more effective materials. The biggest challenge for creators is how we can capture the attention of audiences and users in the shortest time."

The two leading actors of "Women Wrestling" from the "Washe Trilogy", Liu Yongxi and Chen Ziyou, also spoke passionately for their own short drama works. Liu Yongxi recounted the hardships during the shooting of "Distant Dance of Plainness". At the same time, she is very happy to play a female role who "never backs down in the face of powerful enemies, dares to ignore worldly views, takes the initiative to change her destiny, and bravely be herself." Chen Ziyou said that the professionalism of the entire team of "Distant Dance of Plainness" has made him gain a lot. "In short dramas, the director can enable us to show our best state in a very short time."

Monleon Pictures, which focuses on producing fantasy and suspense online content and entered the micro-short drama track earlier, also introduced the suspense short drama work "The Card Game" jointly created with Tencent Video at the conference. The founder of Monleon Pictures and the creator of the "Unsolved Mysteries" series bluntly said that "suspense dramas, especially in the field of short dramas, are a very big challenge." Facing such a challenge, Yuan Zhe said that content refinement and theme innovation are two breakthrough points. "How to set up wonderful highlights and independent suspense in each episode of a suspense drama series? When everyone watches each episode, there is suspense to watch. At the end of this episode, there is a hook. At the same time, when watching continuously, there is also the pleasure of chasing the drama and exploring the truth in one go. This is also a brand new exploration of Monleon Pictures and Tencent Video in the 'Ten-Minute Theater'." Ou Dingding, the director of "The Card Game", also "recommended" this short drama on the spot: "The IP of 'The Card Game' itself is a suspense and fantasy-themed drama that unfolds with the quintessence of Chinese culture - mahjong as the introduction. The value of mahjong is to create 'order' from 'disorder' through random card drawing. We also want to give the audience seemingly random events and clues, reasonably peel off the layers and continuously reverse, and finally give everyone an epiphany."

l New experience, the innovation engine of Tencent Video's micro-short dramas.

Interactive dramas are an area that Tencent Video's micro-short dramas have been delving into. After continuous accumulation and the upgrade of interactive product capabilities, Tencent Video's micro-short dramas have taken another step forward – being committed to exploring a new model of immersive experience.

Take "Prince Gong's Mansion" as an example. The goal is to create a content product that combines online immersive drama viewing with offline real-life experience. Online, each user can assume different roles in the drama and explore the plot together. For instance, invite friends to participate in celebrations in the Yin'an Hall online, enjoy floating wine cups along the winding stream and compose poems while drinking in the Qinqiu Pavilion, and appreciate Peking opera and Kunqu opera in the Grand Theater... Offline, the Prince Gong's Mansion IP will also be extended to an immersive drama + social experience with themes. Nationally distributed drama-derived scripted murder mystery games and related cultural and creative peripheral products will be available. The offline and online content experiences are independent yet interrelated. Let users' "treasure hunts" and "case investigations" run through different scenarios. In an entertaining way, young user groups can re-understand the classical cultural life presented by Prince Gong's Mansion through multi-scenario and immersive interactions.When asked where the innovation points of "Prince Gong's Mansion" are reflected, Chang Jiang, the founder of Brain Celestial Palace Company, said, "In the field of interactive dramas, including scripted murder mystery games and immersive entertainment, in most cases on the market currently, the three fields are operating independently and doing work in different areas. For the cooperative parts, in fact, it is only a simple level of IP licensing linkage. But this time, the three of us, as a common creative model, film and television screenwriters, immersive entertainment screenwriters, and scripted murder mystery game screenwriters, jointly develop the world view and story from the beginning of the project. We are trying to truly achieve the penetration and integration of different entertainment forms and tell this new Chinese story of 'Prince Gong's Mansion' well with a new creative content system."

The “cross-border partners” of the interactive drama “Prince Gong's Mansion” truly catch the eye of the industry: Xiaoheitang, a leading platform in the scripted murder mystery game industry, and Pomei Culture, a leading team in immersive theaters. Wang Huanyue, the founder of Xiaoheitang Network Technology, believes that interactive dramas and scripted murder mystery games naturally share the “interactive social” attribute. “I hope that through the joint creation of the three parties, we can gain a drama viewing experience online through interactive dramas and immersive interaction through scripted entertainment offline. We strive to let users see, play and experience. I believe that deep down in the souls of young people, there is still a longing for traditional culture. Truly, it enables us to feel the charm of traditional culture in multiple dimensions.” Wang Huanyue said.

Pomei Culture, which has created popular immersive theaters such as “The Message” and “Peace Hotel”, has injected immersive drama into this interactive drama. Liu Boyi, the CEO of Pomei Culture Communication Co., Ltd., shared, “We have integrated elements of Chinese traditional culture such as etiquette, performance, clothing and cuisine into the rich game mechanism. From various aspects such as hearing, vision, smell and taste, we have deepened and restored the scene of Prince Gong's Mansion back then. We will strive to reproduce the scenes in history in front of the audience and let the ancient Prince Gong's Mansion and modern young people have a cultural immersive encounter spanning a hundred years.”

With the release of the "Ten-Minute Theater", Tencent Video has created a channel page for the "Ten-Minute Theater" of high-quality micro-short dramas with daily regular updates and uninterrupted scheduling. And it conveys relaxed, positive and pleasant values through content that meets the preferences of young people, continuously letting content create beauty. Just as Li La, deputy general manager of the operation department of Tencent's online video platform, said, "We expect Tencent Video's micro-short drama 'Ten-Minute Theater' to become a social arena for young people's fragmented time, a sounding board for positive energy values, a yardstick for high-quality micro-short dramas, an advanced path for young talents in the industry, and an experimental field for film and television industrialization."

The brand vision of the "Ten-Minute Theater" is "embracing more avant-garde and beautiful expressions". Under this vision, we will see the birth of more excellent micro-short drama works and also witness more delightful breakthroughs occur in this field. Looking ahead from this as a new starting point, perhaps one sentence is most appropriate: The road is long and arduous, but the future is promising!