China Entertainment King of Science Fiction

Chapter 515: Colleagues’ Concerns

On the one hand, Chen Jingxing wanted to win over Netflix, and on the other hand, DreamWorks did produce relatively few TV series and responded to fans’ concerns, so he launched three series in one go.

One is the ancient zombie drama "Dynasty".

After preliminary agreement by the screenwriting team, the background was set to the changes in the three dynasties of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, the post-Jin, post-Han and post-Han Dynasties.

Although it lasted for three dynasties, it actually only lasted three or four years.

When the Khitan went south, Du Chongwei, an important minister of the later Jin Dynasty, surrendered to the Khitan. Emperor Shi Chonggui was forced to surrender and his family was captured and taken to the Khitan.

The later Jin Dynasty collapsed.

After the fall of the Later Jin Dynasty, Liu Zhiyuan, King of Beiping, the governor of Hedong Province, proclaimed himself emperor in Taiyuan and established the Later Han Dynasty.

The Later Han Dynasty only lasted for more than three years. The feudal vassal rebelled and Guo Wei conquered it. However, the king was jealous and wanted to kill him. Guo Wei had no choice but to rebel. The Later Han Dynasty was destroyed and the Later Zhou Dynasty was established.

There are Khitan invasions and plunders in the north, there are ignorant and tyrannical kings, there are intrigues in the court, rebellions in vassal towns, careerists everywhere, people's livelihood is suffering, plus the plot of zombies, it is definitely more exciting and more interesting than "Le Shi Joseon"

Dramatic contradiction.

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhu, these two costume dramas are not considered idol dramas, and Netflix will also invest in them. They are considered to be co-produced by the two companies."

DreamWorks obviously does not want to be a disruptor in the domestic TV drama market, but instead began to use Netflix to export drama series.

It even attracted Netflix to buy the overseas broadcast rights.

The TV drama market and the movie market cannot even be considered to be of the same scale.

Zhu Wenjiu, who is the director of Tianrun Pictures, is obviously different from the curiosity of ordinary viewers.

Chen Jingxing is also happy to see this happen. This is what he wants to see. Instead of letting South Korea export movies and TV series through streaming media, it is better to let China get a piece of the pie.

These are the two tracks.

TV dramas need more marketing than movies, especially the current mainstream TV dramas are adapted from novels, which can use the fame of the novels to make fans become spontaneous promoters. DreamWorks dramas do not have this advantage, so they need marketing even more.

It's not an idol drama, my heart fell to the ground halfway.

After all, the signal of ancient costume is indeed a bit dangerous. It is the most popular TV drama theme nowadays.

"Stars Like Rain" is a popular ancient puppet recently. It is jointly produced by Tianrun and Penguin Video. It has also been introduced by South Korea, South Vietnam and other countries, and the ratings and response are good.

He wished that DreamWorks would keep producing short series like this.

If you include the downstream Internet platforms and TV station advertising investment and peripheral development, the output value of the TV drama industry is more than 200 billion.

Not to mention "Black Mirror", "Person of Interest", and "The Walking Dead" are all online dramas, the episodes are getting shorter and shorter, and the themes are becoming more and more heavy-handed.

It has a stronger sense of science fiction, but is also further away from real life.

With the popularity of dramas such as "The Signal", "Person of Interest" and "Black Mirror" on Netflix, especially after "The Walking Dead" became popular around the world, Chinese TV dramas other than those produced by DreamWorks are actually becoming more and more popular abroad.

audience attention.

In fact, among the so-called traditional five giants in China, except for China Film Group, the other four are straddling the two lines of film and television. TV series even bring more profits than movies.

Although domestic audiences sometimes complain, the production level of domestic ancient puppets is actually the best in all of East Asia.

DreamWorks' high-quality short dramas with niche themes that imitate American dramas can be exported abroad through Netflix, but there is no way to hit the mainstream audience in China, which means that some young netizens flock to them.

Chen Jingxing understood Zhu Wenjiu's worries and gave him reassurance.

In 2018 last year alone, national TV stations spent 25.8 billion on purchasing TV drama copyrights, and online platforms spent nearly 30 billion on purchasing TV dramas. The total TV drama copyright market reached 55 billion.

As for other things, he did not intend to reveal too much information. He did not say that two of the costume dramas were actually costume zombie dramas and costume science fiction dramas.

That is, the earliest "Signal" was sold to Mango TV. It became a hit in the ratings and gave other companies a sense of crisis.

In Zhu Wenjiu's view, although these "The Walking Dead" dramas produced by DreamWorks are eye-catching, they are also a win-win for domestic drama production companies.

"Source Code" and "Edge of Tomorrow" have a high-speed train and an alien invasion. One protagonist is an Air Force major and the other is a soldier who fights aliens.

Although Zhu Wenjiu was not particularly worried, he did want to find out more information.

Of course, everyone is greedy for the IP created by "The Walking Dead", but this is also based on its popularity in overseas streaming media.

DreamWorks' previous film and television dramas have never touched on the theme of ancient costumes. However, the most popular theme in China is the theme of ancient costumes, so this news really makes many fans and audiences very curious and looking forward to it.

Science fiction is the concept of Omnic Crisis, and the costume is because the "reality matrix" created by humans in the play to enslave robots for fun is ancient.

Not to mention animated dramas, which are also niche subjects after all.

But in fact, the TV series industry is always the most important in the domestic film and television industry.

It's a bit like a human-machine interchangeable version of "The Matrix", except that the "playground" here is in the real world.

But then I felt relieved again.

Of course, this is actually the marketing plan that Wang Peng asked DreamWorks’ marketing and publicity department to set.

In fact, Chinese dramas originally had a good influence in Southeast Asia, especially idol dramas and ancient puppets. All East and Southeast Asia like these dramas.

"Mr. Zhu, thank you for the award. Tianrun's recent production "East Wind Blows Down Stars Like Rain" is also very popular overseas. Idol dramas are also the main force in domestic film and television exports."

Although South Korea's TV drama production industry is generally more mature, China is not without good TV dramas.

Don't look at DreamWorks' rapid momentum in the film industry, and it is so cruel that it even forced the three major studios to join forces and force Chen Jingxing to make concessions on the schedule.

In Chen Jingxing's definition of idol drama, in addition to handsome men and beautiful women, the most important thing is that the story is mainly about love.

"Dynasty" and "The Indescribable World" are obviously not in this category.

Although there are tens of billions of box office revenue in the movie market, most of it is in the hands of theater chains. Excluding theater chains and distributors, the share that producers get is only a little over one-third at most.

The last one is "The Beginning", which is also a time loop drama.

This will bring a strong sense of substitution.

The other one is "Edge of Tomorrow" directed by Guo Fan.

Overseas streaming media users like this kind of drama quite a lot, but it is difficult to make a big splash in China. Even for a drama as popular as "The Walking Dead", its actual playback volume is not less than that of the popular ancient puppet drama.

distance.

DreamWorks has produced two time loop works before. The first one is Chen Jingxing's "Source Code", which is now a classic benchmark for this genre.

After three new dramas were approved, news that DreamWorks was planning to produce a costume drama also spread like wildfire.

Compared with these two time loop blockbusters, "The Beginning" has a different kind of beauty.

But after all, DreamWorks has enviable creative capabilities. If it really enters this market, it will still be very scary with its sophisticated film and television production capabilities.

In particular, ancient puppets are the genre that attracts the most buy-in from audiences nowadays. Among the S and S+ dramas positioned on major video platforms, nine out of ten are ancient puppets.

It is also in line with DreamWorks' positioning of high-quality science fiction dramas, and the production cost is not high.

Only by maintaining a certain sense of mystery can fans be surprised.

"DreamWorks' dramas have always been very popular among young people, and they are also a pioneer in overseas film and television exports. Other domestic production companies, including us, Tianrun, actually have to learn from DreamWorks."

However, Chen Jingxing's words also made Zhu Wenjiu's heart drop, and his smile became even brighter.

Netflix participated in the investment, and the other half's heart also fell into place.

The scene of "The Beginning" is a bus, and all the characters, including the male and female protagonists, are real-life.

Most of this money is directly available to the producers.

First of all, the background is quite life-like.

The tentative name is "The Indescribable World", which is also the original translation name of the previous life plane "Western World".

DreamWorks' dramas are basically science fiction themes, and science fiction themes are modern or future genres by default. If a sci-fi professional starts to film period costumes, even viewers who are not very interested in DreamWorks dramas will become curious.

It is a perfect story that combines science fiction concepts with life themes.

Obviously this is the kind of short series with tight rhythm and novelty, although he still can't think of how to pursue novelty in ancient costume themes.

It is true that DreamWorks has not put much effort into the field of TV series.

The other one is a science fiction costume drama, the Chinese version of "Westworld".

In addition to mirroring "The Matrix", the concept that the protagonist, a bionic robot, cycles through a fixed story line every day in the play is also similar to "Source Code".

As a pioneer, DreamWorks has made a name for itself as a Chinese TV drama, and the domestic TV drama industry has actually benefited from it.

Regardless of the length of episodes, the mainstream features of domestic TV dramas are idols, urban emotions, life, and palace battles.

Usually only with at least one of these four elements can a big explosion be possible.

This is definitely an alternative, high-concept science fiction costume drama that has a very familiar feel.

Moreover, in the movie market, imported films, including approved films and bonus films, account for at least about 40% of the box office, and it can be as low as 35%.

This is also the reason why DreamWorks can compete with several giants without breaking through. Otherwise, just relying on the film market, these major companies would have been fooled and would definitely be at odds with DreamWorks.

He doesn't think "The Beginning" belongs to the category of idol drama.

Both are science fiction blockbusters.

However, although the Chinese TV drama market has its own characteristics and style, it also has a thick enough firewall.

Therefore, Zhu Wenjiu's compliments after he was reassured were not all polite.

But it is indeed easier to export dramas above Korean standards than dramas above domestic standards, much easier.

The fragrance of wine is also afraid of the alley, which can make Chinese TV dramas more famous and have a better impression, which is good for the export of Chinese TV dramas.

I am not afraid of being embarrassed by exporting too many bad dramas. Netflix and TV stations from other countries do not reject all comers. There must be advantages to being able to be purchased by Netflix or TV stations from other countries, even if it seems average to domestic audiences.

Letting domestic dramas, especially good dramas, be seen more is valuable in itself. This does not mean that foreign audiences are nobler than domestic audiences, but that a certain country is a habitual offender in stealing culture. You can't do it without robbing some things.

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(End of chapter)