Post-80s producer Ming Qiucheng's "Ghost" is just the beginning of the next big move

"As producers born in the 1980s, they are the generation with close contact with the Internet and the generation closest to the current audience. They are using their own methods to create their own film and television dreams and using Internet thinking to create one film after another. The era of post-80s producers is approaching us!"

Amid the attack of Hollywood blockbusters, the horror film "The Ghost" co-produced by China and South Korea has now received more than 18 million yuan at the box office in the half month since its release, hitting the 20 million mark. This dark horse that is being released in major theaters, the chief producer and chief planner behind the scenes is an out-and-out post-80s generation. In fact, this is not Ming Qiucheng's first work. Before "The Ghost", The movie "The Pen Fairy" produced and planned by Ming Qiucheng was forced to change to "The Cry of the Pen Fairy I" for special reasons, which also earned more than 25 million yuan in box office. In a small and broad way, it finally made profits for investors.

Why can the post-80s generation quickly create good movies? Will the post-80s and post-90s generation be a trend for future producers?

The reporter interviewed Ming Qiucheng specifically and listened to him share his experience in successfully operating small-budget films.

Small investment and

big marketing product managers who don't understand marketing are not good producers!

Reporter: The screening rate of "Wrath" was only 3% at first. After multiple interplanetary travel and the gap between single men and women, the screening rate continued to soar after falling repeatedly on Friday. Can you introduce the reasons?

Ming Qiucheng: First, if you have seen our film, you will know that "Wrath" is a film that we really work with our heart and have the audience in mind. It is not a film that deceives the audience purely for commercial profit. In terms of quality, I can be very responsible for saying that it is the best film of its kind with the same investment volume.

Second: I know very well who the audience of our films is, what they like to watch, and why they go to watch them.

Today's young people are different from previous audiences. They have their own ideas and pursue their own personalities. The traditional high-ranking production model can no longer meet their needs. Only by content that captures the audience's local atmosphere and perspective that pokes the audience's pain points can we find our own market. It is based on this concept that during the production process, we look for the audience's attention, listen to what styles they like, and find out the future of the film.

Third: Good movies speak for themselves. Don't say how good you are when doing marketing. The audience will not believe how good your actors are and how good your production is. They are already tired. Marketing must be as conflicted, rhythmic and popular as scripts.

For example, we tried 3D horror posters and local stickers, which was the first of its kind.

As a producer, we must consider issues from the user's perspective. I am a product manager myself and consider the user experience. For example, I myself crouched in the theater to watch the audience's reactions. I saw them and our materials posing in various poses, and a series of chemical reactions would occur. Our content dissemination would appear on Weibo and WeChat. In this way, the audience will have a special sense of participation and will proactively initiate various topics about our films and create various content. This is something that has never happened before when releasing film promotional materials. In addition, I took a unique approach to make full use of "haunted houses" in marketing this time."Ghost spirits" appeared in haunted houses. What an interesting thing. Audiences who go to haunted houses will definitely be interested in my movies when they see my movies. This is an accumulation of my movie audience.

If we keep the audience in mind and make movies with our heart, the market will reward us. "The Ghost" had only 3% of the screening on the first day. Due to the high attendance rate, the support of the audience and theaters pushed the screening of "Ghost" hard through market behavior. Through this experience, I also firmly believe that with the transformation of the film market structure, the proportion of film marketing in the future needs to receive more attention as the film itself, and more innovation and the creation of more new thinking models are needed.

Product managers who don't understand how to interact with users are not good independent producers.

Producer Ming Qiucheng told reporters that producers should understand how to relate to various matters. He expressed three aspects.

How to have a relationship with the project, as a producer, you must have foresight and know how to discover good scripts and directors when doing projects.

This requires experience and accumulation. From the current point of view, the growth rate of films is much higher than the expansion rate of the film market. In order to pursue good film quality and market returns, producers not only strictly control the script, but also need to participate in the entire process in other aspects. Be careful. For example: finalizing the director, interviewing actors, participating in poster conception and design, inspecting the shooting location, selecting relevant staff, instituting and supervising the shooting plan, reviewing the edited samples and proposing revision opinions, participating in the promotion and distribution of the whole process to formulate plans, grasping the details of press releases, etc., and having a comprehensive relationship. I don't know what other producers do, but in short, I strictly require my project to be run.

How to have a relationship with funds and allow investors to invest money in producers with peace of mind is one of the greatest abilities of being an independent producer."There are many wonderful things in the film industry, and we must have our own stance." Film funds must be maintained. If funds outside the industry don't understand, they will manage more things. As producers, they must weigh the pros and cons of this before choosing good partners.

How to have a relationship with the audience, poke the audience's itch points, poke the audience's pain points, and make the audience feel good!

We will definitely win this way. In fact, the original title of "Ghost" was not called "Ghost". We need to know what the audience likes."Ghost" obviously has a certain fan base, so everything should be thought from the audience's perspective.

The niche releases great energy

"Ghost" VS "Jingcheng 81"

thriller has always been classified into the field of niche films. As a film of this genre, it is difficult to compete with international blockbusters. However, there are exceptions. However, unlike "Ghost", this film, which has just won countless box offices in the China film market, is a truly big production.

What do you think of the thriller movie "Jingcheng 81"?

It was very successful and worthy of admiration. It broke the pattern that domestic thrillers could not exceed 100 million yuan, and even exceeded hundreds of millions. So I hate his behind-the-scenes promoter, Fujian Hengye, Chen Hui, Mr. Chen, very much. I originally wanted to make a horror film with a maximum of more than 80 million yuan in the theme of "Pen Fairy". I am still a little confident that I want to make a horror film and strive to surpass the challenges. Now, President Chen has made hundreds of millions of horror films in one go. I guess I can only rely on age to win.

What is the difference between "Wrath" and "Jingcheng 81" in the operating methods?

In a huge market, every player has his own way and method to obtain resources. The methods are different, but as long as he can get his own piece of the pie, it is worth recognizing. "Jingcheng No. 81" has been very successful in market operation, but today's "Ghost" also has its own market under the attack of international blockbusters. What does this mean? Not only is the audience interested in the subject matter, it is also an era for pursuing personality risks.

You have repeatedly been successful in running low-budget films. Can you tell me what are the important factors for success?

First of all, there is still a large market vacancy in China's thriller film market. Although this is a very niche market, most viewers have imagination and curiosity about supernatural events and the unknown world."Ghost" satisfies the audience's curiosity and desire for exploration to a certain extent. The second is to explore the market and control costs. Selecting materials according to quantity is an important factor in the success of "Ghost" and "Pen Fairy". Of course, partners are also key, and even the most important part. The output of every work is the result of a group of people's efforts, so when every work is completed and successful, there are many people I want to thank in my heart.

The

"China Dream", which shows the big and willful talents

from the small scale, has made three films, all of which are small-budget films. However, Ming Qiucheng seems to be more comfortable with the marketing of thrillers. This post-80s "Ghost Talent" independent producer is using his own philosophy of thinking to explain what the China Dream is.

How did you enter the film and television industry?

Before I became a producer, I worked in marketing. At that time, my monthly salary was only four to five thousand yuan and commission. To be honest, it was very empty and had almost no motivation. Later, I went to Donder to do planning, but the salary was not too high and only more than 2,000 yuan. At this stage, my job was mainly to contact book publishers and plan projects. At that time, I had my fancy to many good novels, and "Bi Xian" was the project planned at that time.

At that time, someone was optimistic about the "Pen Fairy" project?

Of course not. I was a newcomer at that time, and no one wanted to believe that the subject matter I liked was good. Thinking about it, I wanted to do "Bi Xian" in 2006, but Bi Xian was released only in 12 years. During this period, I kept insisting. Finally, the theme of "Bi Xian" was finally moved to the big screen and achieved success. Although there are many obstacles, I have always been moving towards my dream. I have always believed that dreams will come true as long as you have them in your heart and don't give up any opportunity and persevere. Later, I became associated with Star Rain Films in Singapore. It was this opportunity that allowed me to meet many big shots in the current circle in China, which was of great help to my future film operations. I am very grateful to Wu Hongliang, who gave me my first job opportunity in the film and television industry, and Mr. Yun Huixiang, the former star of Xinglin Film Company, Mr. Wu, who has always encouraged me.

What are your plans next?

At present, I have planned and produced three films as an independent film producer before the age of 30, which can be regarded as a realization of my "film and television dream". When I worked for a Singapore film company, China films were rarely shown in Singapore cinemas, and most people looked down on films made in China. In the future, my dream is to be an independent film producer born in the 1980s with the "China Dream." No matter how long it takes and no matter how tired it is, I hope to spread China's culture to the world through films, shoulder our mission as film and television practitioners born in the 1980s, and do our part to realize the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.

Ming Qiucheng revealed to reporters that "The Mystery of Death Pisces Jade Pendant", which he is the producer, has been completed and will soon be available to everyone. In addition to preparing to cooperate with foreign film and television companies to develop the new horror film "Nursery" planned to be filmed next year, he will also plan and produce a touching war film about the War to Resist U.S. Aggression and Aid Korea with his long-time friend, Internet writer Zhou Xiaoping. At the same time, the new film project developed is also in contact with the management, and it is not ruled out to jump into a big movie with hundreds of millions of investment.