China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

Chapter 493 The gap between us and DreamWorks is not just about technology

"9.4?"

In an office at the headquarters of United Cinemas, one of the six major studios in China.

Chairman Sun Liheng was a little unbelievable: "Isn't Douban's rating inflation too fast? "Inception" is 9.5 and it doesn't matter. An animated movie also has this set of rules? Is this robot animation really that good?

Isn't "The Return of the Monkey King" only a few minutes past eight? How much is "Kung Fu Panda"?"

Fang Tao, director of the marketing department, quickly added: "So far it is 8.4 points, and when the painting started it was 8.7 points."

Sun Liheng's face was full of confusion: "So "Wall-E" is directly one point higher than "Kung Fu Panda"? It is directly one level higher?"

During the Spring Festival holiday, most companies will have a holiday, but film and television companies are not included.

Not to mention those who participate in the Spring Festival stalls such as United Cinemas, they are even busier than usual during the holidays.

Even he, the leader, must always pay attention to market trends and changes in numbers.

This year's Spring Festival, United Cinemas participated in the production of three movies, one of which is "Tang Detective III". There are many producers of this film, and United Cinemas is the largest producer of this No. 1 seed player, with a relatively large investment share.

Highest.

But United Cinemas is self-aware and not arrogant. It carefully used the resources at its disposal to create such an exquisite parent-child movie in Sun Liheng's opinion. It is enough to dominate the parent-child movie viewing market and give these two a lesson.

The arrogant DreamWorks ripped off a large piece of flesh from the animation market.

However, the animation director didn't seem to receive his glance and was in a daze. Fang Tao could only express his opinion: "Well... how to put it, the story is very simple, but the story is very sincere and can directly touch the audience.

The heart, whether it is an adult or a child..."

Of course, if it wants to reach a box office of more than one billion, it must attract adults to watch the movie.

It would be different if DreamWorks produced a sequel to "The Return of the Monkey King" or "Kung Fu Panda" this year, but an original robot animated film without the blessing of myths and legends does not have a mass base.

Sun Liheng is naturally aware of the technical gap. Let’s not talk about the gap between animation talents and DreamWorks. The production cost of "Dinosaur" is only 100 million. Although it is considered a lot of money, in the field of 3D animation, especially the theme of 3D animated movies

Still not enough to watch.

But obviously things didn't go as he expected.

The popularity and topics of "WALL-E" are also growing rapidly on the Internet.

In fact, he has an accurate positioning for his own animated films. Currently, due to investment risks and technical level, it is naturally impossible for United Cinemas to invest huge sums of money to produce animations of the level of "Kung Fu Panda" like DreamWorks.

"This is no longer a technical gap!"

Of course, the ambitious Sun God has raised huge amounts of money, so it is not just this one project. Five or six animation projects such as Monkey King, Nezha, and Fengshen are in progress.

Even though it was the second day of the Lunar New Year, there was still a small meeting going on.

Is there such an animated movie in the world?

"You said you watched this movie during the day. What do you think? Is it so much better than "Panda" and "The Great Sage"?"

A 7-star movie and an 8-star movie usually won't bring about a favorable or unfavorable effect in public opinion, nor will it lead to box office differentiation just because of the difference in quality.

At that time, DreamWorks' "Your Name" and "The Return of the Monkey King" had already proven the domestic box office potential of animated films with box office sales of 700 million and 1.5 billion respectively.

The starting point for a movie adapted from such a very popular animation is not on the same level as "WALL-E".

"The Adventures of Dinosaurs" is an animated film solely produced by United Cinemas. Sun Liheng's attention to this work is no less than that of the two blockbusters "Tang Detective III" and "Parallel Mission".

"This is an animation that just needs you to feel it. If "Kung Fu Panda" is an animation with a kingly plot, the skills shown by DreamWorks in this movie are top-notch.

This score surprised Sun Liheng extremely.

Well, this "WALL-E" has reached a state of perfection. I can only describe it as a master-level story-telling ability.

After all, all profits and copyrights of "Dinosaur Adventures" belong to United Cinemas. Although the production cost reached 100 million, it was still less investment than "Tang Detective III" and "Parallel Mission", and the profit margin may still be

will be higher.

Could it be another Gravity for animation? Great visual spectacle?

The animation director also watched "WALL-E" today just like him. The other person is a professional in the animation industry, so his evaluation should be more accurate than him.

In fact, judging from the film schedule and early market response, "The Adventures of Dinosaur" is still ahead of "Wall-E".

Although Sun Liheng knew in advance that DreamWorks' "WALL-E" would be its biggest competitor, especially since the online marketing of "WALL-E" in recent months has indeed made the company nervous for a while, he is still confident.

Reputation gap!

If parents ask their children which animation they want to watch, it will definitely be "Dinosaurs", and adults' wallets must follow their children's lead.

But with regard to this storytelling ability, no matter how much I disagree, I have to admit that I don’t think that the colleagues I know and I can reach this level, and I don’t even think that I will be able to reach this level in the future.

It’s not that Douban score is very important to him, but it reflects a dangerous signal.

Sun Liheng stared at his right-hand man, and Fang Tao, who was in charge of the marketing department, continued to ask questions.

But "Dinosaur" is aimed at the parent-child viewing market. According to market research, this part of the market is worth 5.678 billion.

"Just one level ahead in terms of technology?" Sun Liheng interrupted Fang Tao impatiently: "How does it compare with "Kung Fu Panda"? You mean it's higher than "Panda"?"

Fang Tao did not answer directly, but turned to look at another participant sitting opposite him, the animation director and the producer of "Dinosaur Adventures".

As long as the technology is sufficient.

As a boss with many things to do, he has never seen this magical animation that makes him feel a little unbelievable.

The year before last, Sun Liheng made the decision to acquire a well-known animation company.

The last one is "Dinosaur Adventures: Tyrannosaurus Crisis".

One of the three animated films released during the Spring Festival this year, "Young Lei Zhenzi", was produced by Sun God.

Sun Liheng acquired this company with the purpose of adapting this cartoon into an animated film for the Spring Festival.

Even more emphasis is placed on it.

If Douban hadn't gone crazy, a score of 9.4 would have been considered a masterpiece or a classic among large-scale animated films.

"It's not about technology!"

In the eyes of the audience, it is a whole level higher than "Kung Fu Panda". What is this concept?

This kind of reputation is enough to create public opinion topics through social platforms, and let the audience vote with their feet with their children.

But this animated film is exclusively produced by United Cinemas.

The protagonist of the topic is still "WALL-E", a bomb dropped by DreamWorks on the entire animation industry during the Spring Festival.

But you can make up a lot by spending money. The gap between 50 points and 90 points can be seen at a glance, but the gap between 80 points and 90 points is not so obvious. It doesn’t have to be a hair like Hollywood.

It has to be done to the extent possible.

The difference between us and DreamWorks in animation is not due to us animators. I'm not shirk responsibility, I'm just telling the truth.

One is "Parallel Mission", a film co-produced by United Cinemas, Penguin Pictures and Hong Kong's Cheng Long Emperor Pictures.

In an office building in Hangzhou, more than a thousand kilometers away, a similar conversation was taking place at the same time.

No matter how hard "WALL-E" is marketed on the Internet, no matter how cute it is, it actually attracts young people and animation fans, and it is unlikely to attract children.

Helios is also a newly rising star animation company in China, and is one of the main winners in this wave of investment in the animation industry brought about by DreamWorks.

But when this difference reaches a certain level, and the same type of film crashes in the same schedule, the differentiation of word-of-mouth can easily lead to a large-scale differentiation of public opinion and evaluation, forming a cult + stampede effect, which will directly affect the subsequent box office curve.

"Old Zhao, you have also watched it. Do all the lines that appear in the entire movie add up to one page?

I watched it twice. During the second time, I specifically looked at my watch. There was no real dialogue in the first forty minutes of the movie! The two robots, and almost all the robots that appeared in the movie, only had tone-of-mouth dialogue.

Particles, I can only stumble and recite the other person's name..."

This is the headquarters of Helios Animation Company.

Lao Zhao, who was cueed, also nodded silently and faced the curious eyes in the conference room who had either watched the movie or not, and said: "Indeed, the plot is very simple, and I don't even think there is anything to spoil.

And it can almost be regarded as a silent film, especially the first twenty minutes. I even think this plot can be included in the history of film, please note that it is not included in the history of animation, and it can leave a name in the history of film."

…

If it were just a technical gap, Sun Liheng wouldn't be so afraid.

High scores do not necessarily represent danger. There is no saying that the box office of high-scoring films will be higher than that of low-scoring films. However, for films in the same track, excessive reputation gap in the same schedule and time period may bring obvious consequences.

market effect.

The director of one of the animation projects still seemed to have not woken up from some kind of shock. He spoke with a strong sigh: "This is no longer simply something that can be achieved by catching up with technology..."

Unlike "Dinosaur", which was screened in advance - which is also one of the reasons why "Dinosaur" was able to get the highest screening among the three animated films - "Wall-E" was not screened, but at the beginning of the new year yesterday

After the first two shows, before the prime time in the evening, it quickly came out with a high reputation, becoming the first movie among the Spring Festival movies to stand out based on its reputation.

Facing the boss's frowning gaze again, Fang Tao took a breath and continued: "The technology is very good, the CG effect is very good, it's completely ahead of us -"

Animation technology has marginal effects. It is difficult to achieve a 90-point technology, but it is not impossible to get close to an 80-point technology by spending money. This is enough. The audience is not Leeuwenhoek, and the intuitive perception gap will not be so obvious.

The animation director who had been silent finally spoke, causing bosses Sun Liheng and Fang Tao to look at him.

Penguin, Tianrun Pictures and other major companies have placed heavy bets on Sun God, setting a record for the largest financing in the domestic animation industry.

In addition to the company's senior management and marketing department, there were also several project team leaders present at the meeting.

The most important thing is that "Dinosaur" has a strong mass base. It has been popular on CCTV for three consecutive years and has been the cartoon ratings champion for three consecutive years. It can be said that there is no child in the country who has not watched this animation and is not accompanied by this animation.

Growing up.

On the second day of the new year today, in addition to further fermentation on the Internet, Douban also gave "WALL-E" its first score of 9.4.

What Sun Liheng cares about is not the score itself, but the meaning behind the score, which means that the quality of "WALL-E" may be to the extent that all crash movies of the same type are in great danger.

I am confident that I can catch up with the technology gap in the future. Xiang Xuan from DreamWorks and I are also old classmates. When we were in the United States, I had a higher position than him. Of course, this requires the company to devote enough funds.

His tone was a little bitter: "This is not a technical gap at all..."

It's just that "Young Lei Zhenzi" was completed first, and the investment amount was not high, less than 100 million, so it was pushed to the crowded Spring Festival period to test the waters.

Including Xiang Xuan, including the people I know in the DreamWorks Animation Department, these are the top animators in our country. Everyone actually knows the basics. I don’t think they will be able to open up their two channels when they arrive at DreamWorks, and they can achieve this level.

degree.

"The Adventures of Dinosaurs", which has been broadcast during prime time on CCTV Children's Channel for three years, is the company's pillar work.

The difference between Xiang Xuan and me is not in our skills or our teammates, but in Chen Jingxing or the legendary powerful screenwriter team at DreamWorks.

I suggest that if the company's ambition is to compete with DreamWorks in the animation industry in the future, and the two heroes compete, I think they should poach at least one or two of the screenwriters from DreamWorks.

I’m also very curious about how they came up with the ideas for these animation works, how they set up the projects, and how they completed the scripts.”

Lao Zhao's words with strong unwillingness were loud and clear in the office, but the response to him was silence.

(End of chapter)