The development of China films still has to overcome three hurdles: content, capital and technology

Discussions about the future direction of China films have never stopped. Against the background of the industrialization process encountering the Internet tide, China films face the dual ownership of the market and culture, showing a unique characteristic and temperament. However, there are still many rapids and dangerous shoals to cross on the way forward. What kind of movies do people need in the future? What kind of film and television capital operation will not encourage the development? What changes will new technology bring to movies? People will focus on three aspects: content, capital and technology.

Original title: The development of China films still has to break three levels.

Content control-good stories must have logic

If China films want to reach an industrial level, they must complete their own artistic transformation process

. It is undeniable that the Internet provides fresh "ingredients" for film content production. But how to make "delicacies" depends on the skills of the production team. In the past two years, when people mention film and television content production, they will think of the word "IP". However, within the film industry, the competition between "IP schools" and "original schools" continues. From the perspective of IP schools, content that can be recognized by the market can originate from any field related to movies. After forming iconic attributes, it can be developed across the entire network. The original school emphasizes the principle of filmmakers making films and always has certain prejudices about "cross-border". Although the differences between the two factions stem from different positions, in the recently released films, the game-adapted movie "Warcraft" and the original film series "Independence Day 2" still distinguish people from each other in terms of story structure and content production.

"The authors of movies and TV series adapted from online literature such as" The Quest for the Dragon "and" Flower Thousand Bones "are not professional. Without the Internet as a platform, these talents would never be able to come out." Zhang Qiang, CEO of Alibaba Pictures, believes: "The Internet provides a good environment for China films. Through almost zero-threshold market competition and elimination mechanism, newcomers who are naturally able to make up good stories can stand out."

Zhang Qiang also observed an interesting phenomenon: most of those who oppose IP are directors and screenwriters, and those who support IP are often Internet companies or publishing companies. The latter view film content creation more from a company perspective. Faced with the film market where young audiences are the main consumer group, Zhang Qiang believes that the Internet has provided people with new standards such as clicks. "This data has been verified by the market and allows us to make more scientific judgments. This is also an important reason why we choose more online literature."

What kind of content can be adapted into a good movie? "A strong readership will be a good starting point, but it is not a guaranteed box office for a movie." said Sun Zhonghuai, head of Penguin Pictures, a subsidiary of Tencent Group. Wang Chen, CEO of China Television Entertainment Investment Group Co., Ltd., put forward five key words: correct values, grand world view, good fan base, strong visibility and scarcity.

"It is not easy to realize a particularly grand IP where you need to see a fictional world." Ye Ning, CEO of Huayi Film Co., Ltd., believes that whether it is literature or games, the logic that popular IPs can be transformed into movies does not hold true. The key still depends on the quality of the movie script. He used "Warcraft", which has been hotly debated recently, as an example to describe the many challenges it faced from changing from game IP to movie IP. "For example, to respect the story structure that game fans like, it has to become a movie logic. In the first part, the big world of transition must be expressed in a simple story logic, while satisfying the background of the game story and making it acceptable to game and movie audiences. This already contains considerable challenges and conflicts." He said,"We left after watching the movie, but there are very difficult hardships behind the creative process. This is the artistic transformation process that must be completed when China films form an industrial level."

Capital barrier-Capital helps improve the right to speak.

The film industrialization system must achieve source control and gain the right to speak, and capital can help improve the right to speak.

"Young filmmakers do not have to grow up very fast. Let everything happen naturally, and never rush the seedlings encourage them." "I hope everyone will not be impetuous and practice basic skills well." "I hope that this is just the beginning of the golden age of China films, and that it will move towards a virtuous cycle."... Film director Ang Lee's series of "hopes" are pertinent and strike the hearts of filmmakers and the reality of film development: Perhaps in the eyes of many people, movies are movies, but there are also people who give movies more "functions", such as using movies as a battlefield for capital and a tool for finance.

Sun Zhonghuai gave the concept of "goodwill capital" for the movies that Ang Lee identified as good. "There is no need to gamble when signing a contract, so that the power of capital will be in good faith and excellent works of art can be made." He said,"I hope that more and more bona fide capital will emerge, especially investors with long-term investment visions in this market and professional producers who can support good stories."

In recent years, domestic capital has frequently "gone out to sea" to deploy overseas markets. Zhao Fang, general manager of Wanda Film and Television, said that the logic behind "buy, buy" is learning. It is by participating in the entire process of film production overseas, and learning in Hollywood to select scripts, select projects, build teams, shoot planning, budget, promotion and distribution. The operation of a series of processes.

Huang Jingyan, managing director of Fosun Group's film and television investment department and director of Studio 8, mentioned the keyword "source control". "The American film system is very complete. It has a complete set of professional teams and a rich accumulation of knowledge. At present, we have not reached this level." Huang Jingyan said that the film industrialization system must achieve source control. If there is a lack of voice and control in financing, script writing, and finding production and shooting teams, it will be difficult to achieve learning and communication. Capital can help improve the right to speak to a certain extent.

"Nowadays, more and more China people, especially young people born in the 1990s, are studying abroad and learning a lot of knowledge. We hope to lay out China's film and television industry for the next generation in the next 5 to 10 years." Huang Jingyan said: "What we can leave to them is an industrial platform. I hope that this generation of young people can talk to the United States and let their works truly go global."

Technology key-Self-evolution does not hype

VR applications should not be conceptual hype, but to actually provide users with a better experience and make them willing to continue to watch the

Internet and mobile Internet. The speed of development is always amazing and gives people a refreshing feeling. Internet movies with the spirit of "continuous learning and self-evolution" often have their inherent characteristics that make their development beyond the general imagination. Facebook's acquisition of Oculus has made VR a hot topic. In the past two years, the rise of cutting-edge film and television production technologies such as VR and AR has made the film industry develop faster and faster.

At the recent Shanghai International Film Festival, Tao Hong and other well-known artists attended and starred in the first VR promotional film for the film festival. In addition, the film festival also welcomed more than 30 VR films. Among them,"Fire Burner", adapted from Liu Cixin's science fiction works, and the VR drama short film "Black Fairy Tales" jointly produced by Youku, Digital Kingdom, and Yixing Media have attracted much attention. The film festival promotional videos are also being opened simultaneously with the "Creation." Meet with the audience in the VR park of Vision.

"Some people say that there is a huge bubble in the film industry, and I think VR is the industry with more bubbles." Li Jie, senior vice president of Heyi Group, said: "Judging from the operation of the entire industry chain in the past year, people who have anything to do with VR are talking about VR, which shows that the bubble in this industry is even bigger."

"VR applications should not be conceptual hype, but actually provide users with a better experience." Xu Wei, chief operating officer of Damai Group, believes that they will launch a VR online seat selection application and work with AEG, the world's largest venue operator, to build smart venues in key domestic cities. In addition, Face Recognition technology will also be applied to the ticket inspection process to achieve paperless ticket purchase.

Data shows that AR/VR technology is expected to generate a profit of approximately US$80 billion by 2025. The film, television and entertainment field is also one of the nine scenarios most likely to promote the development of AR/VR technology through the market. However, the recent "2016 China VR Film Market Special Research Report" pointed out that most VR films are still in the exploratory stage. The lens language and director logic have been subverted, making "how to let users continue to watch according to my logic" a common industry problem in the field of VR video production. In addition, narrative mode (try to make one shot to the end), production cost, stitching special effects, content specifications (terminal restrictions), duration, etc. are all many problems encountered in the VR movie production process. In view of the production cost of VR movies (at the same time, it is generally 5 times the cost of traditional movies), VR movies are currently in the form of short films of about 10 minutes.

Editor: yvette