There are many online novels in China that have high IP value. After selling their copyrights, they have been adapted into animated TV series, comic videos, etc. Some of them are well adapted, and some are not well adapted. I would like to conduct research in this area. Of course, the novel chosen as an adaptation is very good or very popular. And because of space issues, I do not intend to discuss failures caused by reasons such as poor acting skills of the actors and no logic in the plot change.
I listed a draft, listing the good works that have changed and the bad works that have been changed, and clearly stated why they are good and why they are not good. According to my investigation, I found that the biggest problem lies in the narrative structure.
The first is the poorly adapted works. Because online novels count money by word count, many authors like to write the novel very long, and like to add some dialogues and characters to extend the word count of the chapter. Especially masculine novels, with more than a million words at every turn. After the video is made, it will appear that nearly half of the content in an episode is a meaningless dialogue between the two characters, but between their dialogues will vaguely reflect the clues of the next plot. , So I can’t jump over to watch it, and there are still videos of the whole season until the protagonist hasn’t come out of Novice Village. And sometimes there are even cases where the protagonist does not appear in many consecutive episodes. These problems are all because of the narrative structure. There is also the fact that the plot itself is very complicated, but the adaptor does not have the ability to control the complex plot, or the key parts of the plot are deleted, so the plot is changed so that the audience cannot understand it. Of course, I ruled out the following reasons: because the heroine actor wants to appear quickly, the special effects are poor, the law does not conform to the laws and regulations, and the plot is completely different from the original.
The well-adapted works are not changed much on the basis of the original novel, especially some of the very exciting and important plots that have not been changed. In fact, for the audience, many times the requirements are not so high. As long as the special effects are good-looking, the modeling scenes are beautiful, the fighting is cool, and the plot is not too insulting to people’s IQ, the audience will easily accept it. I have singled out two examples here, the web animation “Douluo Continent” and “Sorrow in the Fire”. And both of these are 3D animations that match my major.
“Douluo Continent” is a typical Xiaobai essay, and the plot is very long. According to the data released by the “2020 China Internet Audiovisual Development Research Report”, the animation “Douro Land” has an average playback volume of 149 million per episode, and the album has a total playback volume of 12.5 billion, making it the first domestically produced animation with a playback volume of over 10 billion. It is currently the most profitable 3D animation in China. He has hardly any changes in the plot, and even the characters’ movements and expressions are somewhat rigid. It’s just that the special effects are beautiful, the modeling scene is beautiful, and the fighting is cool, which attracts most people to watch. Because of the development of motion capture technology and cheap and fast UE4 rendering technology nowadays, 3D animations can be broadcast quickly and at a low cost at the speed of one episode per week. So even if the original novel is very long, there are already hundreds of animation episodes, and the distribution is not that difficult for the audience to accept.
“Sorrow in the Fire” is a very complicated plot, with each link giving the audience a strong sense of suspense and surprise. Whether it is writing or adaptation, the requirements are very high. The editing technique used extensively in this animation is parallel editing, that is, the cross-editing of two or multiple events. Thereby causing synchronization on the timeline, or strengthening the potential connection between one’s own events. In addition, this animation brings the audience into the perspective of the protagonist Xuan Ji. Because Xuan Ji’s descriptions are quite detailed, both externally and psychologically. And many of Xuanji’s psychological descriptions often elicit and summarize the questions he and the audience have about the unknown world. Even if the audience does not understand it, Xuan Ji will summarize the plot for the audience.
After comprehensive consideration, I plan to use “Burning Fire to Sorrow” as the main cause of my article to study the narrative structure. Because the success of “Douluo Dalu” has nothing to do with the course I studied, but because the success of this animation is very interesting, I wrote another blog to study this phenomenon.
Here are my examples of good and bad adaptations, and why they changed for good and bad.
Sorrow in the Fire
Chekhov’s gun The foreshadowings made in the front will be useful in the back.
Alfred Hitchcock
Let’s suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, “Boom!” There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o’clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: “You shouldn’t be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!”
In the first case we have given the public fifteen seconds of surprise at the moment of the explosion. In the second we have provided them with fifteen minutes of suspense. The conclusion is that whenever possible the public must be informed. Except when the surprise is a twist, that is, when the unexpected ending is, in itself, the highlight of the story.”
Winter Begonia—— television series
http://www.iqiyi.com/lib/m_220178214.html
The director was very good and changed the script by calling the original author in the past. The costumes and make-up props were very good when filming, because it involved Peking Opera, professional guidance was also invited. The actors also took serious shots.
Douluo Continent——3D Animation
https://v.qq.com/x/cover/m441e3rjq9kwpsc.html
There is almost no change to the plot, and one episode a week is broadcasted at a very fast speed. The main special effects are good-looking, and there is no big logic error in the plot.
Ever Night——television series
https://v.qq.com/x/cover/rpup19lfbuf2skc.html
This drama is well filmed and conforms to the original text. And the adaptation is also very good. First of all, there is a very complicated relationship between characters in the original work, which needs to be clarified. There are also some supporting role gags. In the article, these mainly account for the number of characters, because Chinese web texts are charged by characters, but in the process of interrogating and mixing, they will reveal some necessary information. This must be controlled when making a TV series. time. And this article is very long, so it is very likely that the protagonist will not have much time to play after an episode.
The Longest Day in Chang’an——television series
This compact story must happen within one day and must end within one day. In order to render the sense of tension, the timing of the play is represented by the projection of the sundial scale, and it is advanced according to these 12 hours, and these episodes are finished. It was also exactly 12 hours. And the content is very compact, and the historical background is also very restored.
not good
Can Ci Pin——3D Animation
People who have never read the original will not understand it.
Jade Dynasty——Film
Xianxia drama was made into a martial arts drama. The laughter is vulgar, and the characterization fails.