The release of a web drama "Fleeting Time" created Chinese film and television history

Jiu Ye Hui's novel "Fleeting Time" which became popular five years ago suddenly set off a climax in the film and television industry. This novel, which focuses on youth campus, pure love and nostalgia, is currently being produced as a movie version and a long online drama version. The movie directed by Zhang Yibai follows the routine of a group of big-name stars to hit the box office on the big screen. As for the long online drama version of Sohu Video, it must be said that it is indeed creating something that has never been seen before in the online video industry that keeps clamoring to create history, and even in the Chinese film and television industry.

As someone who has been involved in traditional film and television circles and new media circles, this is the first time I have seen a web drama trailer being shown in the theater of the China Film Archive. You know, this screen is the largest single screen in Beijing besides IMAX, measuring 21*9 meters, and the projection equipment is 4K. This screen with hundreds of seats is a large venue for the premiere of a 4K movie. But is it a bit too much for a web drama to choose such a venue?

Sohu CEO Charles standing in front of the big screen

Sohu Video has big ambitions. After watching the trailer, it can hold its own on the big screen. The bad history of shoddy online dramas seems to be about to be changed. It is expected that using the big screen for trailer releases will soon become the latest part of the "arms race" among video websites. Starting with the online drama "Fleeting Time", will video websites also have to match the standards of movie premieres?

Video websites are moving too fast. Chinese TV series premieres don’t do this. Before, video websites would just hold a media conference in the office and play a trailer on the projector. Even if it was a major self-made project, if the room was too big and the projection effect was not good, it was common to pass two laptops around to watch. Later, if you booked a bar in Sanlitun and played a movie, it would be the level of the "big drama of the year" for video websites. If you can book a small theater, the picture will be so beautiful that the employees of online video can't even imagine it. These were all things that were complained about by traditional TV and film people two years ago.

But now Sohu Video has finally made the release of online dramas occupy the big screen, eliminating the complaints. Sohu Video used 4K technology equipment to shoot this drama. When I first heard about it, I thought it was too much. Our Chinese film industry has just used 4K, and the TV drama industry has not yet used 4K. A video website uses 4K to shoot? Can your broadband and small water pipes play such a large film? But the times are indeed changing rapidly. The role of 4K is not only to allow video websites to use 4K big screens to make press conference trailers in a "high-end" way. In terms of OTT, the large-scale rise of 4K Internet TV has made the production of 4K content a matter of combining with strong new media channels.

As it is the first 4K online series, it attracted many Xiaomis who have 4K TVs and set-top boxes. As shown in the following figure, new forces in the channel are rising. Traditional TV networks will be entangled again. If there were no restrictions, these manufacturers would make trouble. Moreover, Sohu Video really plans to play the 4K version on the online video. It is said that it uses H.265 encoding, and the bandwidth is acceptable. (If you don’t want to understand the technology, you can automatically ignore this paragraph)

There is also a piece of information that changes history. That is, the length of the web series "Fleeting Time" is a 45-minute TV-level long series. The longest web series we watched before was only 20-30 minutes, such as the legendary dramas "Diaosi Man" and "Never Expected". Video websites have finally taken the step of long dramas. Don't underestimate the length, which determines the pattern of a drama and involves a series of things such as production and investment. This drama is 45 minutes long and 16 episodes are broadcast weekly. Since the show went online on August 4, video websites can finally start to say that we can make dramas of the same level as TV dramas. In the TV drama circle's scorn chain for online dramas, there is another historically missing slot.

Whether it is the big screen 4k or the first online long drama, behind it is Sohu Video's budget of over 1 million per episode for "Fleeting Time". What does this mean? This is already the production cost of first-tier TV series. Those dramas that spend most of the budget on stars have a real production cost of less than 1 million per episode. Sohu Video has used newcomers in this drama, and the biggest star is "second-generation star" Yang Jue. More than 1 million is basically spent on the production process. Before, 1 million for a web drama was considered a big production, and now 1 million per episode is benchmarked against traditional TV drama production. In terms of specifications, this is a step that online videos have never taken. When the United States had Netflix's "House of Cards"-style big productions that challenged film and television institutions, Chinese video websites have always been talking about it and looking forward, and this time "Fleeting Time" has finally taken this step.

It is foreseeable that when video websites take the historic first step with the online drama "Fleeting Time", and then mobilize the power of 4K, long dramas, one million per episode, mobile Internet, OTT and other channel platforms, and add mature operation teams, when all these puzzle pieces are complete, where will the real moat of traditional film and television be? It seems that the future disruption will definitely be big.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.