The entertainment industry shouldn't be like this

Chapter 185 Who Says Anti-Commerce Can't Make Money?

Ma Qingshi, an old man who laughed at himself as "advanced old age" and "losing energy to die", finally started a new career of "never die or retire".

The last straw that made him "bow down" was "Spirited Away".

In another time, this is one of the gems of world animation.

This is a story about a little girl Chihiro who accidentally came to a mysterious world. In order to save her parents who became pigs due to gluttony, she had to face everything independently, experienced many hardships, and finally grew up and transformed.

This is a metaphorical "lost" story, which easily resonated in Ma Qingshi's heart.

Isn't he, or traditional animation people of his generation, "lost"?

——In the rapidly changing animation market environment, they lost their direction, and even felt a kind of despair of being eliminated by the times.

Therefore, this is not making an animation, but their traditional animation people are discussing how to find their way out and how the lost generation can redeem themselves.

So he joined Dunhuang.

Note that you are joining Dunhuang, not Dunhuang Animation Studio.

——Because joining belongs to joining, the old man has quite a few demands.

First of all, they should exist as independent studios, rather than being merged into the original 3D animation studio.

In his words--technical communication is fine, but dictating production is absolutely intolerable.

It is understandable to demand creative autonomy.

In fact, even the "Spirited Away" produced by Wang Wei did not strictly limit the script and storyboards, but gave a story outline and some settings, and left the rest to Ma Qingshi and the others. The team is free to play.

——He wants to see the excellent animators of this time and space, depicting a different style, but still fascinating fantasy world.

Moreover, considering that 3D animation and 2D animation need to create different brands, it is natural for the two studios to be independent.

On this basis, Ma Qingshi also said that the newly established studio will focus on original stories.

Well, domestic animated films have always followed two paths, either relying on the second development and continuation of IP, or creating a new story independently.

However, as production costs rise, the proportion of IP development is increasing, especially in the era of 3D animation films where production costs are soaring.

For example, his "old club" Lianya Entertainment, the first test of entering 3D animation is to "3Dize" traditional IP.

Ma Qingshi scoffed at this - if you just want to catch up with or even surpass Dunhuang animation by converting the original story into 3D, then it would be too insignificant to take Dunhuang's step-by-step investment and development seriously.

Of course, he has been retired, so why bother helping Lianya?

“I only hope that domestic animation has at least two completely different types of films—the kind that has a strong sense of commodity, pan-entertainment, and large-scale works that can stand shoulder to shoulder with live-action blockbusters; and the kind that has strong authorship or artistic style Strong content, what the audience pays attention to is actually the creation of the author..."

Ma Qingshi positioned the new studio in this way.

In other words, the original animation studio in Dunhuang was responsible for the former to make money; the new animation studio was responsible for the latter to improve the quality.

To achieve this positioning is not a one-sentence matter. He also plans to carry out a comprehensive innovation of the creative collaboration mechanism.

You must know that animation is a "team art". Without a good collaboration mechanism, it is impossible to create good works.

Before Lianya Entertainment, there was no doubt that it was a "producer/director-centered system". The entire team can be regarded as a pyramid, and the producer/director who is the core of the team is undoubtedly placed at the top of the tower. Location.

Regarding works, Ma Qingshi's attitude is often: "The works belong to me, and you can help me make them."

As for other team members who need to cooperate with the director to complete the work together, the situation of one word greatly reduces their room for creative expression.

Therefore, those who want to have a dream of their own can only choose to leave and change the stage - such as Gu Xiji.

Obviously, the fact that he was kicked out by Lianya shocked the old man a lot.

He even took the initiative to change his cooperation style, the "inverted gold tower" model of the team led by "stealing teacher" Gu Xiji——

The team as a whole is regarded as an upside-down pyramid, and the director is at the bottom of the pyramid. What he needs to do is to balance the individual creativity of the artists above, and at the same time, to move towards the established goal without overturning the pyramid. direction.

In this mode, the talents of team members will not be devoured, and the works created can have more individual artistic styles, rather than his own style.

——This is also aimed at "cultivating newcomers".

All of the above, Wang Wei agreed.

However, when reporting at the company's regular meeting, Lao Wang's temples couldn't help but swell.

In his eyes, personalized originality = niche = no money!
Dunhuang now has movies that can sell well all over the world, so what kind of movies can overcome language barriers and be accepted by different countries?

Bright, simple, easy to understand, even "low-intelligence" movies.

Ma Qingshi's demands are almost always on the opposite side, in other words, they are anti-commercialization.

Lao Wang couldn't help asking anxiously: "Has we in Dunhuang really reached the stage where we can not pursue making money but pursue excellence?"

But Wang Wei asked back: "Who says anti-commercials don't make money?"

He talked eloquently: "In your opinion, is it possible that one day, people's interests will become more and more similar, and a very small number of mainstream head content will sweep everything away, and the small circle culture - what I call subculture users The foundation will disappear, and there will be a cultural Matthew effect?"

Many people nodded unconsciously.

At least, investors especially believe in the myth of the "Matthew Effect" mentioned above.Therefore, including Dunhuang, all film producers are eager to find some "one size fits all" rules.

Wang Wei shook his head: "This is just a form that everyone wants to see, but it is by no means the final form. Instead, I see another scene-the development of social networks and social media will promote the maturity and maturity of the subcultural circle. expand."

"For example, hand-drawn animation, although in the 3D era, it cannot attract a large number of ordinary audiences, but it can attract a group of extremely stable fan groups in the subcultural circle. It is much easier to make money from them than ordinary audiences."

This is a lesson learned from the "after" - think about those homeboys and women who spend money like water, and you will understand that making money or not is often relative.

However, in the eyes of everyone, this guy is setting the flag again!
After getting along with Wang Wei for a long time, everyone also learned some of his word habits, such as flag.

"I'm really afraid that one day, when the flags you've got all over your body fall down, Dunhuang will be finished!"

Lao Wang's words made other people feel the same.

However, before they witnessed whether Wang Weixin's flag would continue to stand or fall, the promise he made opened the door to Dunhuang's "Superhero Universe".

……

(End of this chapter)