China's films have entered a new era of rapid development, low quality is a "common disease"

In 2015, China films entered a new period of rapid growth. At the beginning of September, the national box office had exceeded 30 billion yuan, exceeding the box office of 29.6 billion yuan in 2014. The cumulative box office of the three domestic films in the summer,"Pancake Man","Return of the Great Sage" and "Monster Hunt", exceeded 4.5 billion yuan. At the same time, with the deepening of Internetization and the large entry of cross-border capital, IP movies and pan-entertainment have become new "keywords."

For China films, this is an excellent and worrying phenomenon. The lowering of the industry threshold has not only brought unprecedented vitality and opportunities to the film market, but also caused some phenomena of eagerness for quick success and shoddy production. How to view the new ecology of the current film market? How should China films develop better in the future? Recently, the China Film Industry Development Forum hosted by the Institute of Literature of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, the Film School of Shanghai University, and the Shanghai Cultural Property Exchange was held in Shanghai. Experts, scholars and industry insiders attending the meeting provided suggestions and suggestions on the new trend of China's films.

A. Entering a new era of rapid development

● Data: According to statistics, in the first half of 2015, a total of 161 new films were released nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 22.9%, with a total box office of 20.363 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 48.9%. The total number of screens nationwide exceeds 28000. From 2005 to 2014, box office increased from 2.046 billion yuan to 29.639 billion yuan, and maintained an annual growth rate of around 30%. The industry generally believes that the box office in 2015 can exceed the 40 billion yuan mark.

Zhang Wenyan, deputy editor-in-chief of "Contemporary Film" at the China Film Art Research Center, analyzed that China's film industry is in a new stage of prosperity and growth and in a rising economic channel. China's annual economic growth is around 7%, while the film industry grew by more than 36% in 2014. This is related to the steady growth of my country's economy and the general increase in residents 'cultural consumption demand. Nowadays, movies have become an important part of residents' consumption and life.

Since the beginning of this year, the performance of domestic films has been particularly eye-catching, withering the repeated impact of imported blockbusters. By early September, the box office exceeded 18.287 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 72.89%, and the market share had exceeded 60%. Among them, several films in the summer period contributed a lot-"Pancake Man" finally won 1.159 billion yuan in box office 66 days after its release;"Return of the Great Sage" broke the four-year animation box office record maintained by "Kung Fu Panda 2" and became the champion of mainland animated films;"Monster Hunt" box office exceeded 2.4 billion yuan 63 days after its release, surpassing "Speed and Passion 7" to become the highest-grossing domestic film in mainland film history.

"China's film market is about to become the world's largest film market, and its huge consumption potential brings us huge imagination." Liu Hanwen, director of the Film Institute of the Development Research Center of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television, said. In his view, China films are becoming an important carrier for spreading China's excellent culture and an important force influencing the world's film landscape.

While domestic films are facing competition from imported films, cooperation with foreign countries is also deepening in order to better enter the international stage. In 2012, China signed intergovernmental film cooperation agreements with several countries, allowing co-productions to enjoy the treatment of domestically produced films. In late March this year, Radio and Television Media joined hands with Lionsgate Films to launch a huge cooperation of US$1.5 billion; in September, 3ality Technica, the world's largest 3D technology company, reached a cooperation with Zhejiang Huasheng Film and Television Media Co., Ltd.; the China-France co-production film "Wolf Totem", the Sino-US co-production film "The Sky Will Be Xiongshi", and the China-South Korean co-production film "Return to 20" have all performed well in the market.

"The biggest advantage of co-production is the integration of resources and the complementarity of technologies." According to Zhou Bin, director of the Center for Film Art and Research at Fudan University, because the funding sources are more diversified and the market is more extensive, the effect of "1+1 is greater than 2" can be achieved, and it can promote a certain genre and style of films to develop faster. "For example, thrillers and horror films are an immature genre among domestic films, so South Korean director An Byung-ki was invited to direct" Bi Xian 2 "and" Bi Xian 3 ", which promoted the progress and development of this genre of films in my country." Zhou Bin said.

B. The Internet brings a new industry ecosystem

● Industry: In recent years, Internet companies have begun to enter the film and television industry one after another. In June 2014, Alibaba completed the acquisition of Alibaba Pictures; in July, Baidu announced the establishment of iQiyi Pictures; film companies on video websites such as LeTV and Youku Tudou were also established one after another. In September this year, Tencent announced the establishment of Tencent Pictures and Penguin Pictures to join the film industry in a high-profile manner. Capital has entered one after another, and the integration of the Internet and movies has become the general trend.

Nowadays, both the production, marketing and consumption models of movies are inevitably branded with the Internet age. Various movie crowdfunding products from Alibaba, Jingdong, and Baidu have been launched one after another, and crowdfunding movies have begun to enter people's attention."Return of the Great Sage" is a successful case. In the past two years, Tencent's concept of "pan-entertainment" broke the boundaries between movies and other content industries such as animation, novels, and games, forming an industry-wide production chain. At the same time, it also promoted the recent new concept of "IP movies". "The reason why IP works are different from adaptations of past works is that the original works have been tested by users, carries the users 'feelings, needs and traces, and has a certain popularity foundation." Zhang Wenyan said.

Zhang Wenyan believes that the biggest advantage of the Internet is that it can use big data for analysis. "Big data can grasp each user's dynamics, each user's likes and dislikes, making it easier to find users 'hot spots."

The popular American drama "House of Cards" is a typical example of successful use of big data. By collecting and analyzing a large amount of user behavioral preference data, it was found that most users who like the old BBC version of "House of Cards" like TV series directed by David Fincher or Kevin Spacey. So he invested 100 million US dollars to shoot a new version of "House of Cards" and invited the two of them to join, which achieved success.

Feng Ting, senior director of public relations at Heyi Group (Youku Tudou), also described Youku Tudou's practice in this regard: "After the launch of" Old Boy's Raptors Crossing the River ", we analyzed keywords and found that 'music' appeared 1.49 million times,'Dream' appeared 1.03 million times, and 'Youth' appeared 1.02 million times. Therefore, the investment in music was increased in this movie. After the trailer was launched, the post-editing was changed based on netizens 'feedback."

The Internet has given many young filmmakers from non-academic courses a stage to perform. Feng Ting said that the power of the Internet can be used to launch creators through users, such as pushing the works of new directors to new media such as mobile phones, computers, and high-speed rail screens, first understanding and acceptance by users of these channels, and then pushing them to the big screen.

"Not only that, in the game with the Internet, the promotion of intellectual property protection and legal protection are promoting the optimization and upgrading of China's film industry model." Rao Shuguang, secretary-general of the China Film Association, pointed out that the development of China films has entered a critical period. It is necessary to actively absorb the vitality injected by the Internet into films, as well as cross-border financial forces and various talents and other positive factors to achieve the sustainable development of the film itself.

At the same time, the deepening of networking has had an impact on traditional film companies. Faced with changes in the ecology of the film market, they urgently need to reposition and adjust their strategies, seeking to cooperate with the Internet or try to diversify their operations. "Our country's films are undergoing positive structural changes. The top priority is to reduce speed, optimize structure, improve quality, and innovate and develop." Rao Shuguang said.

C. Low quality is a "common disease"

● Case: The box office of "Lost in Hong Kong" on the National Day hit 200 million yuan on its first day after its release, setting a new single-day box office record for a Chinese movie. However, the audience's evaluation of the film is not proportional to the box office. "Hard lines, exaggerated acting skills, and sloppy plots are completely common problems in bad films." Ms. Jiang, who has just seen the movie, believes that the phenomenon that movie sequels are not as good as before is now very common. At the same time, some high-reputation film and television works did not receive ideal box office revenue.

Although some "conscientious productions" have recently emerged in the market that win both word of mouth and box office, overall, the quality of domestic films is uneven, and there are still common problems of serious homogenization of artistic styles and rough production. From "Tiny Times" two years ago to "Lost in Hong Kong" today, it is not uncommon for "bad films" to be drowned in saliva to have high box office prices.

From this perspective, the lowering of the industry threshold has become a double-edged sword, which not only provides more possibilities, but also causes many phenomena of "making money" under gimmicks. Many viewers believe that in the era of fan movies, many films are "fast-food works" built up with elements due to their eagerness for quick success and instant benefit. From some youth films with highly similar content to movies adapted from popular variety shows, they all relied on the fan base of the original to attract a large number of box office, but attracted criticism because they lacked high-quality plot support.

Rong Yueming, deputy director of the Institute of Literature of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, believes that the rapid development of China films in recent years has mainly relied on the drive of hardware construction and the emergence of online marketing methods. However, if we want to truly become bigger and stronger, content should become the core element and intrinsic driving force for the development of China films. To not lose our way in the tide of the Internet, we must insist on content being king and creativity winning.

Lu Xiaoming, former vice chairman of the Shanghai Films Association, also has a deep understanding of this: "To become a film power, in addition to indicators of production capacity and output, we also need to create excellent film and television culture and improve film quality and artistic standards. In this regard, state-owned film companies should lead and demonstrate." He pointed out that the state recently issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting State-owned Cultural Enterprises to Put Social Benefits First and Achieve the Unification of Social Benefits and Economic Benefits", which clearly stipulates that when social benefits and economic benefits conflict, economic benefits must obey social benefits., this points out the direction of creation for film producers.

Compared with the popularity of the commercial film market, some high-reputation art films have poor returns. "The Assassin Nie Yinnian", which won the Cannes Best Director Award, has been in preparation for 25 years, with a box office of only 60 million yuan. Previously,"Golden Age" box office of only 51.55 million yuan, while other art films ultimately set at a box office of several million yuan. There are also many. In this regard, Zhang Wenyan believes that China films not only need mainstream commercial films, but also colorful art films, but also directors with exploration spirit and pioneering spirit to promote the development of films towards more diversity, depth and possibility.

D. Exploring new formats for film and television development

● Story: Wuxi Film and Television Base is the first film and television base in China. It was originally built to house the props used in filming "Journey to the West." After opening up to the outside world, Wuxi has become a major tourist hotspot. The maximum daily income reaches tens of thousands of yuan, and all investment will be recovered in the next year. Soon, Tangcheng and Sanguo City were established one after another. Affected by popular dramas, a large number of tourists came to visit one after another. Scenes originally designed for film and television creation became an emerging form of tourism.

As a 5A-level tourist area, Hengdian Film and Television City is a successful example of developing film tourism. In 2014, it received 13.75 million tourists and received more than 170 crew members every year.

At the same time, theme park construction and derivative development have also become new ideas to expand the film consumer market, like film tourism. It is understood that Hollywood's market derivatives revenue accounts for 70% of total film revenue, far more than twice the box office; although China is already the world's second largest box office market, 90%-95% of film revenue still comes from box office and advertising, and there is still huge potential space.

"More and more film and television cities are combining with other business formats, exploring upstream and downstream industrial chains, promoting their integration with music, performing arts, and sports, and enhancing the consumer experience through more and better services." Liu Hanwen said.

Hua Jian, director of the Cultural Industry Research Center of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, also pointed out that the current industrial elements of the film and television park are highly concentrated, starting from film location shooting venues to gradually develop into film investment, film policy, film shooting, film circulation, and film tourism. He said that the Internet +'s new entrepreneurial film and television industry park can be described as "entrepreneurship, venture capital, and entrepreneurship assistance", among which entrepreneurship refers to cultivating more entities including micro-films and supporting services, and venture capital refers to attracting more funds to enter. Entrepreneurship guidance refers to the introduction of more entrepreneurial mentors and related service mechanisms.

This broadens ideas for the future development of the film and television park. For example, Hua Jian said that after the establishment of Huacheng Film and Television Base, it extended the industrial chain upstream and downstream and acquired a 26% stake in "Little Times"; in August 2014, it formed a joint venture with iQiyi, forming a horizontal platform focusing on creation, investment, production and distribution, and a vertical platform focusing on investment, consulting, networking, and derivative development.

Liu Haibo, deputy director of the Shanghai Vancouver Film Academy, believes that film industry parks can interact with film talent education. The Huanshangda International Film and Television Industry Park built in Shanghai has become a base for introducing film education and cultivating film talents. "The school education received by film students often has shortcomings in their abilities. They can use this platform to conduct training in improving skills and at the same time drive the development of the entire surrounding film industry. Film parks and film education institutions integrate industry, academia and research. Create a win-win situation." Liu Haibo said.

Editor: vian