the secondary industry has begun to rise, but it has not yet formed industry barriers and real leading enterprises, which occupies half of the fantasy, fantasy, alien, blood and other types of novels in network literature, and naturally accords with the secondary attributes. it is suitable to be expressed in the form of animation.
China Literature Group, who integrates Tencent literature with the original Shanda literature resources and becomes a leader in the field of domestic online literature, has actually become the largest animation producer in China.
when the development of pan-entertainment industry chain is prevailing, and IP has become a scarce resource sought after by the market, as the largest source of IP in China, China Literature Group will not be satisfied with the business model of selling IP copyright. from advocating "national reading" to putting forward the model of "IP joint venture partner", China Literature has been trying to participate more deeply in IP development, strive for a greater say in the industrial chain, and extend the life cycle and development value of his core resource IP.
Luo Li, vice president of China Literature Group, said in an exclusive interview with reporters a few days ago:" all our animation plans must be built around the IP development plan of the whole industry chain. Therefore, China Literature will not do a simple secondary industry, which is why we are different from many secondary companies. Animation is actually a good marketing link in the development of the whole industry chain. We do not expect to make money from the animation business, but pay more attention to the function of animation in filling the gap in the IP development cycle and doing pre-marketing for follow-up products. "
2016 is the second year of China Literature's animation business. Seven animations have been produced and 12-15 animations are expected to be released in 2017. However, China Literature launched the animation strategy, not to become a two-dimensional company. strong > 1. Animation strategy: whether to make money is secondary, and the key lies in IP marketing / strong > in 2015, China Literature Group officially established the animation business department, and the first self-made animation is "choosing Heaven", which is also China Literature's first IP developed by the whole industry chain. However, China Literature's animation business department does not have a production staff, but is production planning-oriented. There are four producers in the department, responsible for planning, directing, screenwriting, process control and other work, while the specific production is completed by external animation companies.
this light asset outsourcing mode allows China Literature to produce more animations with the least manpower in a short period of time. China Literature Group has already produced seven animations in 2016 and will continue to increase production in the future. In addition to the drama, the IP project to adapt animated films has also been launched this year, which is currently under early planning.
however, the biggest problem in maintaining high yield is downstream production capacity. China Literature does not have his own production staff, and his production capacity depends on an external production team, but the current situation in the industry is that more and more copyright owners begin to adapt animations, and domestic companies that really have the ability to produce a complete animation are actually full. And the animation companies that used to take orders as the main business developed to a certain stage, also began to do original animation, reducing the number of outsourced orders, resulting in the production team in short supply. "even in Japan and South Korea, there are not as many teams as people think, and the entire Japanese animation market is shrinking, not only in terms of content, but also in terms of talent. So how to solve this capacity is the biggest challenge we face. " Luo Li, vice president of China Literature Group, told reporters. in fact, China Literature is actually reluctant to hand over IP to Japanese companies for animation at the moment. Wang Yun, deputy general manager of China Literature Group's copyright development, told reporters: "A Japanese company came to us a long time ago in the hope of adapting our work. But now we do not want to make a special Japanese style, many of our novels, the story background in China, so the details, such as streets, decoration, etc., still hope to restore the Chinese style. Although many two-dimensional audiences grew up watching Japanese animation, but now for the adaptation of domestic IP, we still hope to let everyone get used to the'de-Japanization 'style, and then gradually form China Literature's own style. " in order to solve the production capacity problem, China Literature has invested in Shanghai Fuxu Film and Television Culture Investment Co., Ltd., which once produced the animation "Happy Town". Luo Li said: "We have contacted a lot of companies and hope to reach stable cooperation with them through investment or other means to ensure production capacity." The challenge next year is relatively big, because the demand of the industry has increased all of a sudden, but the talents have not been cultivated yet. If this problem cannot be solved, we may only be able to maintain this year's output next year. But in the long run, there is such a great demand in this industry, and the treatment and social status of employees are improving, so there must be more and more people willing to enter the industry. " China Literature is not stingy with investment in this fledgling animation business. The animation of "choosing the Heaven" has invested 50 million yuan, while the blockbuster IP "full-time Master" animation, which will be launched next year, will invest about 100 million yuan to launch five and six seasons of animation. But at present, the animation series itself is very difficult to realize, the launch of animation can not bring any profit for the company. in response to this, Luo Li said: "We don't really want to make money from cartoons, unless the market for cartoons can be expanded several times, and people who really watch animation and online dramas can tolerate or get close to each other. But animation is very effective in filling the schedule, incubating IP, or doing the marketing of the entire industry chain IP. " A movie with a large investment usually takes 3-5 years to prepare and shoot, while a TV series also takes 2-3 years, and it takes some time from shooting to actual broadcast. Therefore, when an IP enters the agenda of the development of the whole industry chain, there is often a gap of more than a year from the beginning of the planning to the release of the film and TV series. for IP, an one-year gap is actually unacceptable. You have to keep the topic level, but you can't always use shooting tidbits to create topics. The production cycle of animation is generally one year, just to fill this gap. From this point of view, although it does not bring any cash flow, animation is actually very cost-effective. Nowadays, the promotion of a TV series or movie costs as little as 10 million to hundreds of millions of dollars, but it is even cheaper to make animation. " Luo Li said. is precisely based on this logic. The IP adapted by China Literature into animation must also be suitable for the adaptation of live-action dramas. If it is only suitable for the adaptation of animation, it will not be developed. strong > 2. Challenge the existing rules: in order to grasp more initiative in IP development / strong > as the source of IP, China Literature Group values the vitality and value of his own IP more than other downstream companies in the industrial chain that buy copyright. In fact, there is another reason for launching the animation business-- to take the initiative in IP development. some of China Literature Group's super IP film development licenses were sold before the architecture was mature. Take "full-time master" as an example, at present, only the right to develop animation in this IP is still in the hands of China Literature. "We hope that at least animation will allow the 'full-time Master' to continue, because I don't know what will happen to the TV series in the end, so at least one end will satisfy the fans." Luo Li said. at least for fans of the original works, what they care most about is the quality of adaptation from novels to movies and TV dramas. The more important IP is, the more likely it is to arouse dissatisfaction among fans. In Luo Li's view, the problems in the adaptation mainly involve two aspects. The first is the issue of auditing. In order to pass the review, compromises are often needed, which can easily hurt the world outlook and plot of the original work, but this is not the main reason. "in the whole circulation process, when the original IP is missing, the IP drama is easy to have problems in adaptation. Because this era happens to be in the process of transition from the traditional film and TV drama production to the new network era, the value of the traditional film and TV drama production editor is also reflected in the revision of the original work, he will add a lot of his own understanding. But now this is an era of public opinion, all movies and TV dramas are actually called cultural goods, and goods have a standardized production mode. Since it is an IP adaptation and fan economy is involved, in fact, the original author or the authorized person of the original work is the one who decides how to tell the story. " Luo Li said. according to the previous model, once the copyright is sold, China Literature Group will easily lose her right to speak on the IP adaptation. Wang Yun, deputy general manager of China Literature Group's copyright development, also told reporters, "if you just sell the copyright, it will be difficult to put forward any opinions on the adapted works." Even if it is now working with external animation companies, there are many places to run-in, because those mature animation companies, often have their own style and aesthetic, more adhere to their own ideas. " all in all, China Literature Group hopes to challenge the original rules and have a greater say in the adaptation of IP and even other developments. based on this demand, China Literature Group put forward the "IP joint venture partner" system. "originally there was nothing we could do to sell IP, but now we need to have a say, and as partners we need to be exactly involved in the whole process. At present, network literature has a history of only more than ten years, it is still an emerging industry, and the direction of adaptation is still in the traditional and new transition period, so we established the IP partner system in order to maximize the value of IP. " Luo Li said. strong > 3. IP partner: change the traditional outsourcing cooperation mode / strong > it has been less than 3 months since the proposal of "IP joint venture partner" in June this year. Although there are no concrete products to be formed, many projects are already in the process of establishment. if the cooperation between producers and distributors in the past is more like an outsourced cooperation, then the partnership system that China Literature wants to create is based on physical projects and pays more attention to the ability of both parties in the whole linkage, and both parties participate in the whole process together, rather than one upstream and the other downstream. in March this year, China Literature Group set up a joint venture with Light to develop the "Star change" IP of the platinum writer "I eat Tomatoes." at present, the basic framework of the script has been completed, but the whole project is still in its infancy. "the strong point of light is movies, so let's start with movies. In the future, the TV series of "Star change" will also be developed, just because the company has just been established and everything has not yet been finalized. " Luo Li said. after the establishment of the company, the distribution of revenue is no longer in the form of the distribution of film production, distribution, and cinema lines in the past. As shareholders of the joint venture company, the parties who join the board will distribute the final income according to the equity relationship. In Luo Li's view, corporatization is a mature system, which will be more open and transparent to all parties than the project system, less risky than the project system, and better able to ensure the interests of all parties. in addition to film and television companies, China Literature also hopes that more game companies will join the partnership system. Luo Li said: "We are already talking about cooperation with game companies, and we are still in the confidential stage." In fact, it is the game companies that are most interested in our IP. Film and television companies may still be in a process of changing from the traditional era to the Internet era. They may think that IP is very good, but without IP, it will not be so bad, so they will not pay all they have to get an IP. This is different from the game company, the game company is very clear, maybe this IP will become the company, can not get it will be closed, so it is more willing to pay a lot of price to get an IP. however, game development is already a way of cashing in IP, rather than further development of IP. Therefore, at present, China Literature Group is mainly seeking cooperation with film and television companies to launch more film and television and animation products, while cooperating with game companies is mainly to reserve more game development cycles to avoid not being timely because of early intervention. Can only rush to do skin games this kind of situation. Edit: yvonne