How can film festivals, trusts, guarantees, star shareholders, and Hehe Pictures enter the forefront of the film industry?

Since participating in the First Youth Film Exhibition in 2011, Yang Wei, the later chairman and general manager of Hehe Pictures, gradually gathered the network resources of the film industry and gradually entered the film industry through various methods such as investment, guaranteed distribution, and participation in investment. The core area of the chain.

Original title: Film festivals, trusts, guarantees, star shareholders, how does Heyhe Pictures enter the forefront of the film industry from capital?

Three years after its establishment, Hehe Pictures made its first public appearance.

At the First Youth Film Exhibition in Xining, Qinghai on July 27, the upstart in the film industry, which led the guaranteed release of "Mermaid", announced a series of new plans: including nearly 30 movie lists, announcing equity cooperation with Alibaba Pictures, establishing seven film and television investment funds totaling 1 billion yuan, and introducing a series of film and television celebrities such as Jiang Wen, Chen Kun, Yang Kun, Cao Baoping, and He Caitou as shareholders of the company.

In the past three years, relying on the application of a series of financial innovations such as trust plans, bank asset management, contractual funds, and guaranteed distribution systems in film projects, Hehe Pictures has rapidly emerged in the industry, gradually moving from simple capital investment to film content production. The most upstream of production. If we go back six years ago, we can see a clearer picture: how financial capital has gradually entered the core of the film industry through various methods such as youth film festivals, trust investment, guaranteed issuance, and equity bundling.

Youth Film Festival: Public welfare projects leverage resources in the circle.

"It's the First Youth Film Festival that opened the door to movies for me." Yang Wei, chairman and general manager of Hehe Pictures, said. In the past six years, she and First Film Festival have exchanged resources and achieved each other. Hehe Films, which she is at the helm, has become a new film and television company, and First Film Festival has become an influential platform for discovering young directors and filmmakers in China.

The First Film Festival was founded in 2006. It was originally a student event on university campuses. In the early days, it was in a state of exile: there was no fixed location and funding source. The founders Song Wen and Li Ziwei were both students of Communication University of China. In addition to enthusiasm, they had no funds and resources.

In 2011, Yang Wei's arrival helped the film festival enter the fast track. Yang Wei was then deputy general manager of Minmetals Trust. She introduced the film exhibition to Xining, Qinghai, where Minmetals Trust's headquarters is located. The Xining City government has given great support to the film festival. Through the Urban Investment Company, Song Wen, Li Ziwei and others, a special media company was established to operate the film festival as a fixed project, and Xining has become the fixed venue for the First Film Festival. Yang Wei also became the co-founder of First Film Festival in 2011, mainly responsible for the docking of funds and various resources.

In this way, Yang Wei's resources helped the First Film Festival gradually grow and develop. The First Youth Film Festival, whose influence has gradually increased, also found Yang Wei the fastest opportunity to intervene in the film and television industry. Linking young directors with capital became the theme and feature of First, which also helped Yang Wei and his later Tianhe Films accumulate a large number of network resources and affect many film companies or individuals.

To this day, Heyhe Pictures has cooperated with young directors and famous bigwigs who participated in the First Film Festival through various means. Young directors who have made their mark in the industry due to the First Youth Film Festival, including Xin Yukun, director of "Heart Maze", Hao Jie, Wang Yichun, etc., all have received investment support from Heyhe Pictures and are listed on Heyhe Pictures 'film list. Jiang Wen and Wong Kar-wai, who successively served as chairmen of the jury of the film festival, and Chen Kun, who served as promotion ambassadors of the film festival, also directed, produced or starred in several films for Hehe Pictures.

As Yang Wei herself said, during the process of participating in the First Film Festival and serving as the chief producer, she and Minmetals Trust communicated with a large number of senior professional filmmakers and accumulated important information on the industry situation and overall operating mechanism. Professional information.

"I have witnessed the growth of Hehe Pictures. The First Film Festival inspired Yang Wei's movie dreams. When she inspired her dreams, I hit it off with her." Chen Kun, who starred in "Hot Pot Hero" of Hehe Pictures and is now a shareholder of Hehe Pictures, said,"Now she has achieved good results, so I want to hug her thighs and ask her to make money for me."

Not only that, Ho Ho Pictures was able to cooperate with Jiang Wen and Wong Kar-wai on two to three new films and invited Jiang Wen as a shareholder of Ho Pictures because "Director Jiang Wen was the chairman of the previous jury, and Director Wong Kar-wai was the chairman of the tenth jury this year." Yang Wei emphasized,"So I have to be particularly grateful to the First Film Festival, which allowed me to become acquainted with the two directors."

Trust investment gradually opened up to the upstream of content.

One year after sponsoring the First Film Festival, Minmetals Trust began to engage in more in-depth cooperation.

First, there was a forum on capital and film in 2012. During the First Film Festival, film, financial practitioners and government officials discussed the possibility of docking trust and film. Xu Bing, general manager of Minmetals Trust, said at the forum that he hoped to "build a bridge between capital and film."

A year later, Minmetals Trust officially took action to prepare a special film and television investment trust plan. The first phase will be about 300 million yuan, mainly invested in film and television drama projects. This trust plan is divided into three levels: priority, intermediate and secondary, accounting for 6:2:2 respectively. The secondary level is completely floating income, closely tied to the success or failure of the film and television project invested, with the greatest risk and the highest potential return.

Through this trust plan, Minmetals Trust began to have closer ties with the film and television industry. By the time the subordinated trust was officially established in July 2014, Minmetals Trust had raised a total of 44 million yuan in subordinated funds. These funds mainly came from film and television organizations, such as China Film Group, Pony Benteng, Light Media, and Dasheng International. These institutions will also cooperate with Minmetals Trust in production and distribution.

As for the priority with relatively low risks and relatively stable returns, according to Yang Wei, who led the plan, stated at a promotion meeting at the end of 2013, they hope to introduce stars. "Among the films and television dramas we invest in, we pay part of the remuneration of some stars in cash, and the rest can be subscribed for shares of the trust plan." Yang Wei said at the above-mentioned promotion meeting that in this way, it not only provides them with good investment channels, but also bundles their interests and works together to create high-quality film and television products.

In addition to funds, this plan also introduced Zhou Xingchi, Chen Kun and others, who helped the trust plan control risks. At the same time, the trust plan will cooperate with Stephen Chow's Star Films on no less than two film and television dramas, and will also carry out long-term cooperation with it in the fields of children's entertainment and education. In addition, in Yang Wei's plan, the partners of this trust plan will also introduce Dongshen Tong Hua, a company under Chen Kun, as well as Bei Zhicheng (Master Yi Mao Tun), writers Jiang Nan, Tang Jia Sanshao, Lu Qi, etc.

In addition to content-side resources, Minmetals Trust also found a platform in the film and television industry as a partner, and they chose Harmony Pictures. According to Yang Wei's introduction at the end of 2013, Hehe Pictures had nearly 30 film and television talents at that time, and team members participated in the production and distribution of "Lost in Thailand","The Promise","The City Full of Golden Armor","Ambush from All Faces","Heroes", etc.

In order to control risks, Minmetals Trust chose to enter Heyhe Pictures through equity. Through Hehe Pictures, Minmetals Trust can enter all production aspects of film and television drama projects and directly participate in project financial management, production management, publicity management and other aspects.

In September 2014, Minmetals Trust used 27 million yuan of sub-trust funds to increase capital in Heyhe Pictures, holding 90% equity in Heyhe Pictures. Yang Wei directly joined Heyhe Pictures as legal representative and chairman. In October 2014, the film "Mermaid" co-sponsored by Hehe Pictures was filmed in Shenzhen. After about a year and a half,"Mermaid" was released at the beginning of this year, with Heyhe Pictures leading the guaranteed release and setting a historical box office record of 3.38 billion yuan.

Industrial and commercial data show that in May 2016, Minmetals Trust was no longer a shareholder of Hehe Pictures. It is currently unclear whether the withdrawal has been achieved due to projects such as "Mermaid". However, Yang Wei, who was originally assigned to Heyhe Pictures from Minmetals Trust, remained in office and continued to serve as chairman and general manager of Heyhe Pictures. Information obtained by the reporter shows that Yang Wei resigned as deputy general manager of Minmetals Trust in September 2015.

Deeply bound, directors and stars have become shareholders of Heyhe

. So far, the most profound impression that Heyhe Pictures has given people is still guaranteed distribution. In addition to "Mermaid", Hehe Pictures also led the guaranteed release of "Hot Pot Hero". In addition, the guaranteed party behind Jackie Chan's movie "Escape from the Jedi", which is currently being released, is also represented by Hehe Pictures.

Yang Wei, who has spent six years gradually entering the film industry, and He, who has been established for three years, are obviously not satisfied with just being a guarantee. "We are a company that invests in film content, not the legendary guaranteed professional households." Yang Wei emphasized that from the beginning of its establishment, she positioned Heyhe Pictures as to use a benign innovative financial system to conscientiously make every film well.

Since participating in Stephen Chow's "Mermaid" in 2014, Hehe Pictures has successively invested in film projects such as "Heart of the Champion" and "Qinghe Male Tall". On September 15 this year, the movie "The Murder Chaser" cast by the owners of Hehe Film will be officially released. If we refer to Yang Wei's plan when Minmetals Trust first established the film and television trust plan, in the future, among the film and television investment of Heyhe Pictures, films and TV series may be in the seventy-third category, and the main investment and participating projects will account for 70% and 30% respectively.

It is precisely because of its ambition in the field of content production that, unlike the original idea of just introducing stars as trust plan investors, Hehe Pictures chose to bind directors and stars more deeply through equity. According to industrial and commercial information and information provided by Heyhe Pictures, in addition to Yang Wei and private equity manager Yan Binglun, a group of directors, stars, and writers have entered or are entering the shareholder list of Heyhe Pictures: Jiang Wen, Chen Kun, Liu Bo, Yang Kun, Cao Baoping, He Jian (He Caitou), Hao Jie, Jiang Zhuoyuan, Zhang Chong, Lin Danyang.

Almost all of these directors or stars will participate in the films invested by Heyhe Pictures. Yang Wei introduced that Jiang Wen will cooperate with Heyhe Pictures in three films in the future: among them, he will personally direct the film "Xia Yin", following "Let the Bullets Fly" and "One Step Away" to complete his "Republic of China Trilogy". Jiang Wenhui will be the producer of "Fool's Camera" and "Fantasy Journey".

Hehe Pictures, which has a strong financial background, also has new financial plans. It will conduct equity cooperation with Alibaba Pictures. In fact, Heyhe Pictures and Alibaba Pictures have long cooperated. In addition to participating in the Series A financing of Alibaba Pictures 'Taobao tickets with Lianrui Pictures, Heyhe Pictures also cooperated on many specific projects such as "Escape from the Jedi" and "The Ferry Man".

Hehe Pictures has also gathered seven "small partners" that have equity shares, holdings or long-term "partners", including Lianrui Pictures, Beijing Matt Culture, Black Ant Pictures, Bingchi Pictures, Beijing Zhile Huicui, and Hehe Garden (Beijing) Culture Media Co., Ltd. has established seven film and television investment funds with a total scale of 1 billion yuan to make strategic financing arrangements.

Among them, Black Ant and Zhile Huicui are shareholding in Heyhe Pictures, and Black Ant's legal representative Liu Bo is also a shareholder of Heyhe Pictures. Lianrui Pictures and Hehe Pictures jointly participated in the guaranteed release of "Mermaid" and "The Escape of the Jedi". Matt Culture is He's long-term partner, responsible for the promotion and distribution of films such as "Mermaid" and "The Murderer". Bingchi Pictures has a closer relationship with Hehe: Bingchi's shareholders Song Wen and Li Ziwei were the original two founders of the First Film Festival.

This article is reproduced under the authorization of Sansheng. "Sansheng" focuses on enterprises, people, hot spots, and capital in the field of entertainment and entrepreneurship, and provides professional entertainment industry reports.

Editor: yvette