You don't understand the happiness of the director

Modu Art Film Studio is affiliated to Shanghai Film Group and is a brother unit of Shanghai Film and Television Studios, both of which have had great successes.

Wang Quan wanted to visit the Shanghai Film Factory. He originally just contacted the Shanghai Film Factory, but even the Shanghai Film Group was alarmed. Several high-level leaders expressed their willingness to accompany him. They thought Wang Quan wanted to cooperate with the Shanghai Film Factory. Well, of course, it would be better if we could cooperate with the film group.

In fact, Wang Quan just wanted to find a place to spend the day with Mimi, waiting for night to fall, and by the way, learn about the development of the domestic animation industry and prepare for the next industrial layout.

Finally, Wang Quan and Yang Mi began their visit accompanied by the four leaders.

When recounting the glorious past of Shangmei Factory, the leaders spoke eloquently. I don’t know how many Chinese and foreign guests have told this set of words, such as "Little Tadpole Looking for Mom", "Havoc in Heaven", and "Nezha Causing the Sea". ", "Tales from the Heavenly Book", Sheriff Black Cat and the Calabash Brothers, they are all childhood memories of Wang Quan and Mimi. Along the way, Mimi had several dolls hanging on her body, as if they were here to purchase goods.

To be honest, if domestic copyright protection was properly protected, this company would not be what it is now if it just relied on selling emotions to sell toys.

When Wang Quan asked some specific questions about the current animation industry, the answers from these gentlemen seemed a little inadequate, so they hired a young female director from Shangmei Factory. Rumor has it that Wang Quan is a womanizer. .

The expressions of royal power are all slander, slander, nonsense, and bastard bullshit!

This female director is Wang Quan and Yang Mi’s senior sister from Nortel. She majored in animation in the Department of Fine Arts, and later went to France for further studies.

She was able to get the opportunity to accompany Wang Quan, mainly because the animation "Big Ears Tutu" that has been the most popular at Shanghai Art Factory in recent years was produced by her, and she is considered one of the few young backbones in the factory.

"This is Director Suda." the leader introduced.

Suda, who was in his thirties, held Wang Quan's hand with both hands and said, "Hello, Director Wang. I have admired you for a long time!"

Judging from the light in her eyes, she seemed to have misunderstood that Wang Quan was going to acquire Shangmei Factory. Wang Quan smiled reservedly and said, "Director Su, I make movies and have invested in animation companies abroad, so I want to know about the current domestic animated films. When I look at this year’s movie box office rankings, it seems that only one film, “Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf,” has done well, and then there are no more domestic animations.”

This is so heartbreaking. Shanghai Film Studio has declined to the point where even Pleasant Goat would envy it. Their box office is over 100 million. Looking at them again, there are no animated films worth their salt since "Lotus Lantern". , millions of box office is a luxury.

Suda said with emotion, "The current situation of domestic animation is indeed not optimistic. "Pleasant Goat" has been regarded as a dark horse. Last year's Hong Kong animation "Wind and Cloud", which had high hopes, was actually mainly funded by a company in Shanghai. It has a solid foundation in the original work and a strong dubbing cast, but the final box office was only 30 million."

She was talking about "Wind and Cloud" Wang Quan Knows, with Nicholas Tse, Ren Xianqi, Tong Zirong, and Han Yu dubbing, and Lin Chaoxian directing. The lineup is indeed very strong.

"Can that movie make money with a box office of 30 million?" Wang Quan asked.

Suda shook his head violently, "The quality of the film was still very high. The cost was not 60 million but 40 to 50 million. In addition, there was no overseas market and no derivative value, so we lost tens of millions."

"With such a big loss, I'm afraid we'll have to weigh up the big investment in animated movies." Wang Quan lamented.

Suda, "Yes, but there are still companies that are willing to invest heavily in animated films. For example, the animated version of "Astro Boy" cooperating with the United States and Neon in Hong Kong is about to be released. Enlight Investment and Distribution, this film is known as investment 500 million RMB, the target is Pixar and DreamWorks Animation, they have had successful "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" before."

Wang Quan curled his lips, 500 million is more than the cost of Illumination's "Despicable Me", and the Astro Boy IP is too old and has not been maintained well over the years. It is really not as popular as the Four Turtles, so Yima uses it. With a Hollywood director and dubbing cast, he obviously has his sights set on the global market. However, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" only grossed over 90 million U.S. dollars at the global box office. It cost 500 million RMB to make an Astro Boy movie. This is a project that will definitely lose money. ah.

The same tragedy occurred three years ago with "The Ring of Magic", which was claimed to be the country's first 3D animation blockbuster with an investment of over 100 million. As a result, the box office was 3 million. He hurriedly spent money without even thinking about his market and audience. Not only Failure to cultivate the market will harm the market.

"Director Wang, are you not optimistic about "Astro Boy"?" Su Da caught something from Wang Quan's expression.

Wang Quan, "I think the overseas market is unpredictable and the taste is elusive. I am more optimistic about animation based on the domestic market."

Suda, "There are also domestic investors in animated films. Coincidentally, the CEO of this company is in Shangmei Factory."

"oh?"

Then Suda took Wang Quan and Yang Mi to meet Wu Hanqing, the CEO of Qingqingshu Animation Technology Company.

Unexpectedly, when she saw her, Yang Mi called out, "Sister Wu!"

Wu Hanqing looked at Yang Mi, "Mimi, why are you here? Ah, Director Wang Quan!"

Seeing Yang Mi, the surprise value is +100.

Seeing the royal power, the surprise value is +10000!

Wu Hanqing graduated from Peking University. She first worked in the planning department of Beijing Film Studio, and then served as a middle-level leader in China Film Studio. She founded China Film’s own animation company, and then joined her husband’s company Qingqingshu Animation. She met Yang Mi because she worked in " The crew of "Wang Zhaojun" has been working for a while, and people like Yang Mi who think it is useful will get to know each other.

Wu Hanqing must have remembered this popular young actress, but he didn't expect that Yang Mi would still remember him, and she would be accompanied by a film industry legend like Wang Quan.

She came here this time because the company was filming a 2D animated film that had some technical problems that could not be overcome, so she brought several of the film's main creators over to learn and communicate.

This is also one of the important reasons for the existence of Shangmei Factory. Although it has long since declined and its main employees have left, its technical reserves are still quite strong. As a state-owned enterprise, it is also willing to support and help its younger brothers from private enterprises, as long as you give money.

When Wu Hanqing saw Wang Quan here, he immediately thought, "Director Wang, do you also want to invest in the animation industry?"

Wang Quan, "I have this idea. Mimi and I still liked watching animations when we were young. Even when we grow up, we still watch animations, but we watch less domestic ones."

Wang Quan: Think about it, is it caused by your lack of effort?

As domestic animators, Suda and Wu Hanqing were both a little ashamed.

At this time, Yang Mi spoke up to ease the embarrassment, "Sister Wu, what is the name of the animation produced by your company, and when can we watch it?"

Wang Quan said, "Mimi, this is a company secret."

Wu Hanqing waved his hands hurriedly, "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. Our movie is called "Kuiba". It is a passionate animation. The project was approved in 2005 and officially launched last year. Mimi, come here and show you our character design."

Kui Ba ~ Wang Quan scanned this name when watching movies in the film and television library. He has also filmed several movies. It should be very successful and profitable.

"Excuse me, I need to go to the bathroom~" Wang Quan ran away, leaving Yang Mi and Wu Hanqing to reminisce.

Funding has always been a major problem plaguing domestic animation, but Wu Hanqing's husband, Wang Lu, is worried that the company will not be under his control and that his hard work will be wasted by capital, so he has always been cautious about external funds. Over the years, he has been making money while doing external projects. Use the money to support the development of "Quiba".

But Wang Quan not only has enough funds, but as a director, he understands the meaning of a movie to the director, and should be able to respect the director's labor results more, so at this moment Wu Hanqing was tempted.

After a while, King Quan came back. It was miserable. Three films were made and three were lost. Until Wu Hanqing died of illness, the fourth film was not produced. It was only completed through crowdfunding in 2025, but it still failed to make a profit.

Kui Ba Kong is so famous, but it can't be converted into profits. However, Wang Quan watched one of it and it was quite good. The rhythm was not interesting, but it still scored 7 points. No wonder so many reviews were unflattering.

"Director Wang, here you go, this is the setting of our "Kuiba", as well as the plot summary of the first part, and this is the character design..." Wu Hanqing couldn't wait to push all the current results of this project to Wang Quan at once look.

Wang Quan frowned slightly. It stands to reason that these two people have been working hard in the animation industry for so many years. How could they be so stupid as to launch a movie version directly without any warm-up and without any mass base? Isn't this just asking for revenge?

Later in the exchange with Wu Hanqing, Wang Quan probably understood.

First, it should be that their entire team is very confident in this story and believes that the quality is so high that it will directly refresh domestic animation and directly make animation audiences admire it, just like "Toy Story" is to Pixar and "Toy Story" is to Pixar. Shrek is to DreamWorks.

Secondly, it’s a matter of funding. Because I don’t have money, I don’t have money to make a TV version to slowly expand its influence, so I hope to directly launch the movie to earn box office and expand its influence at the same time. This is a pure gambler’s mentality.

It was not until they were severely beaten by the market that they turned to developing a TV version and built IP influence from scratch. But it was too late, and the entire IP has been half-dead. I wonder if Wu Hanqing's illness is related to his unsuccessful career.

Now that there are no leaders around, they are all real animators, so Wang Quan said directly, "Mr. Wu, such an animation with a grand story must be made into a series."

"Well, that's our idea."

"The box office of the first film must be very important. What are your expectations?"

Wu Hanqing thought for a while, "Thirty million, we can accept a small loss on the first one."

30 million. In fact, the box office of the first movie was only over 3 million, a huge loss!

Wang Quan shook his head, "I think the audience for this story should be teenage anime fans."

"Yes, we are not from Zi Gongxiang."

Wang Quan, "Then I can barely be considered an audience, but without the foreshadowing of comics and TV, I feel that I will definitely not go into the cinema from the beginning. After all, watching movies in the cinema requires a double cost of time and money. If it is not to watch a movie with my girlfriend, It’s not enough to just rely on love to meet a rigid need.”

Wu Hanqing's expression was a little solemn, "Do you also think it's risky to go directly to the movie version?"

"It's tantamount to asking for a dead end." Wang Quan said seriously. After all, it turned out that this road was a dead end. If he could persuade them to change to another road, it would not be worse than this.

After chatting with Wu Hanqing for a while, Wang Quan and Yang Mi continued to visit Shangmei Factory accompanied by Su Da. Wang Quan asked Su Da, "Are there any domestic animation works worth watching recently?"

Suda, "You mean a movie? A short film or..."

"It will be all right."

Suda said, "There is really nothing to show for the movie. Only five domestic animations were released last year, and the strongest one, "Wind and Cloud", only had more than 20 million. As for dramas, Hangzhou's 3D animated series "Qinshi Mingyue" It’s quite interesting, and it’s very popular online. I heard that the third part will be released soon.”

Although the quality of current 3D animated dramas is still very poor, the story of Qin Shi Mingyue is very fresh to the current audience. After a few years of cultivating it like this and accumulating some loyal fans, even if the quality is not as good as "Quiba", the box office will be high. few.

However, the longer a 3D animated drama is produced, the lower the cost will be amortized. This is an advantage that 2D does not have.

"As for short films, oh, by the way, there was a short film last year that caused widespread discussion in the industry. Director Wang, do you want to see it? I can find it online," Su Da said.

"Oh, sure, let's take a look."

Then Suda took Wang Quan and Yang Mi to watch an animated short film called "Hit, Hit a Big Watermelon".

Yang Mi's initial feeling was, what, it feels so rough. Is this how you in the industry were shocked? Then your industry is not very earthquake resistant.

However, after looking inside, Yang Mi was a little shocked. This imagination and core are amazing!

The short film lasted for 16 minutes. Yang Mi became more and more enthusiastic as she watched it, completely ignoring the roughness of the production. Although Wang Quan watched it for the second time, he still watched it with gusto.

After the short film was played, Yang Mi nodded, "It's really good-looking, but the production is a bit rough."

Suda told her, "This short film was completed independently by one person over three years."

"What!" Yang Mi was completely impressed this time. It was actually done by one person. This is incredible!

Suda continued, "Furthermore, this director used to study medicine. Because he loves animation, he changed his profession and stayed at home for three years before this work came out. We in the industry admire him very much."

Wang Quan lamented, “Sure enough, studying medicine can’t save domestic animation.”

After visiting for most of the day, Wang Quan also invited Su Da to have a meal. After all, he came from the same school, so he might be able to use this future new director of Shangmei Factory in the future.

After dinner, Wang Quan and Yang Mi returned to the hotel. Mi Mi couldn't wait for a long time and wanted to do anything in the car.

Wang Quan did not respond at all, closing his eyes like an old monk in trance.

At this time, Yang Mi's cell phone rang. It belonged to Wu Hanqing. The two had known each other a few years ago, but they had just left the phone number.

Wu Hanqing asked a little embarrassedly, "Mimi, I want to ask, when will Director Wang leave?"

(If Wang Quan opened an animation industry company, what do you think would be a good name?)