Interview with Shanghai Mingcheng Film and Television Wang Cheng's domestic thrillers will be wiped out?

Since "Jingcheng 81" created the box office myth of domestic thrillers and broke the 50-year silence of thrillers, there has been no big movement in domestic thrillers. Even in the context of a 22% year-on-year box office growth in the first half of 2016, the performance of domestic thrillers is still unsatisfactory in terms of box office and reputation. Are domestic thrillers going to be wiped out?

Since "Jingcheng 81" created the box office myth of domestic thrillers and broke the 50-year silence of thrillers, there has been no big movement in domestic thrillers. On the last day of the first half of 2016, the film industry was unsurprisingly swept by an article-"The national box office in the first half of the year was 24.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22%." Judging from the overall trend, this is expected. thing.

However, the performance of domestic thrillers is still unsatisfactory in terms of box office and reputation. From a numerical point of view, the proportion of thrillers in the total box office of domestic films still did not exceed 7% last year, and the growth trend is not obvious every year. In the first half of last year, the average box office per piece was only 13 million yuan. Even the Douban score of "Jingcheng No. 81" was only 5 points, and the overall score was hovering around 3 points. Therefore, it is generally a type of film with weak box office influence.

The reason is that Wang Cheng, CEO of Shanghai Mingcheng Film and Television, expressed his views on the current domestic thriller market in an interview.

Thrillers need to go into blockbuster mode to save them.

Reporter: What do you think of the current domestic thriller market?

Wang Cheng: Although China audiences complain more than like current thrillers, the market for domestic thrillers is still a blue ocean and there is still a lot of room for development. For example, Hollywood said that the recent weekly box office champion "Conquering 2" was a low-cost production based on Hollywood's size. Why did it have a better response than the blockbuster Warcraft in the same period? To sum up, in a mature film industry system, no matter how powerful marketing or special effects are, high-quality content is still needed to gain market recognition. This is what everyone often mentions as "content is king."

Reporter: What do you think are the reasons why China thrillers are not good and how to solve it?

Wang Cheng: The main reason for the poor reputation is the uneven quality. Thrillers must go from a blockbuster model, not always make small costs, and not challenge the market with a small and broad mentality. The market is realistic and the audience has sharp eyes. This requires higher requirements for the content of the film. Where are all these reflected? Excellent production, from the good story creativity at the beginning to the improvement of the story structure, character relationships, conflicts and conflicts of the entire script, and then the director and a high-quality creative team shoot textured pictures, and the subsequent secondary creation. The heart of each small link is inseparable. Only by grasping every detail can we present the unique temperament of a high-quality film.

These are also areas that the "Guman" project produced by Mingcheng Film and Television has been pursuing. We also have reason to believe that the thriller market is a blue ocean, and as long as there is high-quality content, it will have great development value.

Create original content and be your own IP

reporter: You just mentioned "Guman". We all know that this film will be released nationwide on August 5. What do you think of this project?

Wang Cheng: "Guman" is a project that our entire team has been polishing for nearly three years. I hope we can let the audience see our intentions. This intention is reflected in the fact that we strive to grasp every detail from content to production.

Reporter: What kind of energy have you spent on this project?

Wang Cheng: First of all, from the perspective of script development, after the script had a film theme, it took a year to finalize the script, and more than a dozen drafts were revised before and after. In the end, it was very difficult to pass the review. There are also some differences between the finalized script and the final shot, because according to the suggestions of the creators, we have made varying degrees of changes in terms of content, background, etc.

In terms of actor configuration, many thrillers are developed based on newcomers. This time, we added big celebrities on the basis of newcomers and improved our cast. The beautiful girl Han Xue plays thriller. I hope it can bring a different feeling to the audience. Fresh feeling.

In addition, we have also added Dolby Atmos to more realistically create far-to-near sound effects and show more sound details. This technology is very rare in all thrillers.

Reporter: Ming Cheng has two or three consecutive thrillers. Is this a coincidence or is it a deliberate attempt to create a thriller brand?

Wang Cheng: This is definitely a coincidence. We are also preparing various types of movies now. For example, there are projects with themes such as comedy and science fiction suspense under preparation. The script is almost ready, and the main creative team is also building it. Regardless of the genre, my main thing is to read stories. Stories can move me, and core values can resonate emotionally with the audience. I think it is a project worth doing.

Reporter: I saw earlier that you mentioned the importance of a good story to the movie. What layout is there in the content in the next plan?

Wang Cheng: Yes, a good story plays a very important role in the movie. So next, we will focus on creating original content and incubating our own high-quality content. In an era when content is king, the core competitiveness is content production capabilities, and the business model ranks second.

By incubating high-quality content and then going through market trials, it is recognized by the audience to create a strong IP that allows the entire Mingcheng Film and Television to produce The content is richer and more diversified, and the original script is created as IP. For example, because of the success of "Charlotte Worry" content, it can now be better developed on the stage drama platform.

Reporter: Now that everyone is competing for hot IP, why does Mingcheng want to develop it himself?

Wang Cheng: Regarding this issue, we must first clarify one question, what is IP? In the past two years, I have also tried to compete for some IPs that I think are good, but in the process, I found that the data of some IPs is relatively good, but the core content may not necessarily have the characteristics of being converted into movie works, which reflects the advantages of IP. Because developing IP is not just a matter of script transformation, but an engineering system with multi-faceted, multi-angle, and multi-channel process industrial chain layout.

Many companies have to modify the screenwriter after buying it, which will take a long time. Buying an IP only saves some money during marketing, but from the creative perspective of directors and screenwriters, it also increases the difficulty. We must not only take into account the content and structure of the original IP, but also the current market and the content of script creation. If you turn it into a movie for the audience, you will still have to do a lot of homework. After all, what the final movie presents is different from the original IP. This is a qualitative difference.

Since it takes so long to create high-quality content, you can also spend the same time doing it yourself. What we guide and advocate is the spirit of innovation. Nowadays, Hollywood blockbusters are all IP, but now the audience no longer has such great expectations for this.

Why? Because of the rise of domestic genre films, it gives us more choices. We want the audience to see more types of movies and enrich more content and types. This is one of our original intentions for doing original works.

Because only high-quality content can become IP if it is recognized by the audience and the market.

Reporter: Does that mean that there are more possibilities for Mingcheng in terms of subject matter and type?

Wang Cheng: There will definitely be this. Because China still lacks some genre films that dare to imagine and innovate elements, from the perspective of creation itself, they should be more imaginative in the end, so as to enrich the genre film market. For example, some foreign B-rated films are very good both in terms of the structure of the story and the structure of the world view.

So we will also try more types of films next, and we are also preparing for animated films. The China cartoon market has had certain stimulation after the return of Great Sage, and the production level of the entire industry has also made a leap. While learning from foreign countries, we must also give localized animation a place. The increasingly mature technical support is not only learning but also developing.

I hope to give newcomers a platform.

Reporter: In addition to creating content in the future, what else do you pay attention to?

Wang Cheng: As far as the current development situation is concerned, Mingcheng Film and Television is a film company whose core productivity is the development of high-quality original content, film investment, production, and marketing. In addition to genre films in the future, we will continue to work in animated films, movie and game linkage, and peripheral derivatives development and even artist brokerage and distribution. We are not just making one movie, but creating high-quality movies with different content in the spirit of building a brand, because only with a brand can we spread the entire industry chain.

Therefore, during this period, we will learn from more outstanding colleagues, communicate and share, and hope that more outstanding companies in the industry will cooperate with more outstanding companies to create more excellent works for presentation to the audience. At the same time, while we welcome other mature screenwriters to join us for original content, we also need fresh blood with ideas and creativity to join us.

There is a saying that is often said within Mingcheng Film and Television Company,"I'm not afraid that you dare to think, but I'm afraid that you won't think of it." Not only Mingcheng, but the entire film market also needs it. Whether it is a new screenwriter or a new director, we give them a platform to play, so that we can bring more creative and fresh things to the entire market.

Editor: vian