With Jaunt VR camera technology in the United States, backed by CMC and SMG, two major media giants, "Jaunt China" has come up with a mature game in the VR film and television production and publicity industry for the first time.
Wisdom and east-west, | Lina
In a year's time, VR has encountered a capital cold wave from the hot spot of the wind outlet, which is lamentable, and the theory of the first year has rarely been mentioned recently. But in a sluggish environment, a breakthrough in business models has become a crucial step.
On December 23, Zhidong had an in-depth exchange with Fang Gan, CEO of Jaunt China, who had just been in office for 90 days, and Jaunt, a star VR film and television shooting and production company founded in the United States three years ago, landed in China through capital cooperation and made its first public appearance in Beijing after 3 months of establishment.
Fang Gan, who has a gorgeous resume in large companies such as the Internet, IT, and entertainment, was selected as CEO by the senior cmc (Chinese culture) and SMG (Shanghai Wenguang), Fang Gan explained the development status of Jaunt China, which just landed 90 days ago, showed the cooperation content between Jaunt China and Micro Whale Technology (under the Chinese Culture CMC) and Xianwei Digital (under the Shanghai Wenguang SMG), and unveiled the preliminary strategic agreement of jaunt App to enter the Xiaomi platform.
But what we are more concerned about is the Commercial Play Routine of this American VR company in China, can it flow out of a sunny avenue in the cold winter? In the in-depth interview, we sorted out the routine and found the answer.
"Jaunt China" was established by the American VR startup Jaunt (with its self-developed commercial-grade VR camera Jaunt ONE, as well as the supporting VR photography software technology), Micro Whale Technology, and Shanghai Wenguang SMG in May this year, with the goal of providing VR video content production, introduction and distribution for users in the film, advertising and other industries.
After the meeting, Fang Gan, who had just stepped down as CEO of Oriental DreamWorks and turned into CEO of Jaunt China, accepted interviews with several media outlets, including Zhidongxi, and explained in detail Jaunt China's business model, cooperation with Xiaomi and other manufacturers, future development directions and other hot issues. As one of the most closely integrated and rapid cases of foreign VR technology teams with Chinese investors, with Jaunt VR camera technology in the United States, and backed by the two major media giants of Chinese culture and Shanghai Wenguang, which once created oriental dreamworks, "Jaunt China" has for the first time come up with a mature combination of Chinese and Western methods in VR film and television production and distribution.
Jaunt was founded in September 2013 and after three rounds of financing, the total financing amount has reached $100 million in September 2015. Although Jaunt VR has repeatedly emphasized that it is not a camera company, but a VR company that integrates hardware, software, tools, application development and content production, benchmarking Netflix (an online video subscription site, which later spawned the self-made dramas "House of Cards" and "Hemlock Grove"). However, at present, Jaunt VR is best known for its self-developed commercial-grade VR camera Jaunt ONE and supporting VR film and television production system.
(Mac computer operation interface of jaunt one shooting system)
Jaunt ONE has a custom 360° capture lens system, 24 shutter sensors, which can use algorithms to seamlessly engage the images obtained by each lens, shoot synchronously without dead ends, and can also be combined with Dolby Atmos. Using a spherical shutter, the maximum support is 120 frames per second frame rate, 8K image quality (monocular 4K), ISO supports up to 3200, can capture high dynamic range images in low-light environments, 8K resolution (monocular 4K) and 60FPS above 360 degrees of video, the maximum output resolution of the whole machine up to 10k, each shooting minute of about 12G data volume. It also fully synchronizes the global shutter sensor array, supports time-lapse and high-frame rate shooting, and has a powerful and extensive collection of specifications, rendering, and footage management tools for better image results.
(Jaunt One Shooting System)
Jaunt China, similar to Jaunt VR, emphasizes its positioning on VR content rather than hardware. In a media interview after the meeting, Fang Gan, CEO of Jaunt China, said that although it has a professional-level VR camera, Jaunt China will not develop towards hardware manufacturers to make a VR content platform. Jaunt cameras will continue to develop more versions for iteration in the future, but Jaunt cameras will only be rented to partners, not sold ($70,000 is only the nominal price). And although Jaunt cameras will develop a smaller version, they are all products for professional camera teams, and will not introduce consumer-level products.
"We are a media company," Fang Gan said, "we have hardware business, content business, distribution business... But we don't sell cameras. ”
In addition, Jaunt STUDIO , a film and television studio established by Jaunt VR in the United States ( which provides manufacturers with VR advertising, VR video, etc. shooting ) and a cloud-based VR video stitching and rendering platform Jaunt Cloud Services ( which will be open to different VR cameras ) will be brought to China by Jaunt China. At the same time, Jaunt VR has also built its own app for VR content distribution.
Overall, Jaunt VR provides creators with VR content shooting, production, service, and platform distribution, which is consistent with Jaunt China.
Having said the same, let's talk about the difference.
The biggest difference between Jaunt China and Jaunt VR is that Jaunt China has a cross-cultural background between China and the United States, in addition to the production of its own VR film and television videos, Jaunt China also has the promotion and distribution channels of China and the United States.
First of all, because the domestic distribution policy is more complex than that of the United States, many American VR content manufacturers who are interested in entering China do not have the appropriate channels to enter the domestic market. Jaunt China can introduce foreign content to help foreign studios review and publicize VR content through domestic channels, push content to its own App platform, or cooperate with existing platforms (such as Tencent, Youtu, iQiyi, etc.) to bring domestic and foreign VR film and television content to these video sites. Since VR is still in the early stages of development, VR video content, especially high-quality head VR film and television works, has always been a scarce resource to attract audiences.
According to Fang Gan, in addition to the VR film and television work "Invisible Man" that has been launched with doug Liman, director of "Spy Heavy", and the VR documentary "Polar" co-produced with Micro Whale Technology, Jaunt VR and Hollywood in the United States have also had many projects in negotiations, and specific news will be announced in January and February next year. After the meeting, the Zhidong reporter also watched "Invisible Man" in the experience area of the venue, which was indeed an extraordinary movie viewing experience.
Secondly, Jaunt China can not only distribute its own content globally, but also domestic VR film and television content can also indirectly use Jaunt VR in the United States to promote foreign online distribution through Jaunt China.
"Our (Jaunt China) business covers the entire chain from idea to distribution, including shooting, production, distribution, promotion, etc., and can cooperate with different companies in different ways. We also have an international VR production creative group that can unite with international creators to make VR content better. ”
In addition, at the meeting of Jaunt China, Tang Mu, head of Xiaomi VR, also held a signing ceremony with Fang Gan, in addition to the existing video apps such as iQiyi, the Jaunt App specially created for Xiaomi will also be stationed on the Xiaomi platform. The difference with the universal Android version of the Jaunt App is that the Xiaomi version of the Jaunt App is specially configured for Xiaomi and is closely integrated with the Xiaomi helmet. Fang Gan said that in the future, Jaunt China will cooperate with more mainstream mobile phone manufacturers and settle on more mainstream platforms.
As for the "live broadcast" and "2C market" that are currently in full swing in China, Fang Gan believes that VR live broadcasting still has problems that need to be solved in terms of technology: the embodiment of the 360 3D environment, the quality and clarity of live video brought about by broadband problems, and so on. Therefore, although there is a certain idea of live broadcasting at present, there is no specific investment, or it is mainly based on the shooting and production of VR film and television. As for the consumer market, "there is a market for C-end content production, but Jaunt China will not enter the market for the time being." ”
Why is it the next VR DreamWorks? First, let's start with the CEO. Jaunt China CEO Fang Gan was appointed CEO of Oriental DreamWorks since November 2014, participated in the production and distribution of Kung Fu Panda 3, and was responsible for all of DreamWorks' content production, distribution, consumer derivatives licensing and other businesses. In July, Fang Gan stepped down as CEO of Oriental DreamWorks and appeared a few months later as CEO of Jaunt China.
Established in January 2013 in Shanghai Municipal Administration for Industry and Commerce, Oriental DreamWorks is a joint venture jointly established by DreamWorks Animation Company, Chinese Culture CMC, Shanghai Wenguang SMG, and Shanghai Lianhe Investment SAIL, with 55% Chinese holding and 45% us holding shares, with the first round of investment of 330 million US dollars.
At this moment, our focus shifts back to the newly established Jaunt China , a joint venture of $100 million in the first round of investment by Jaunt, an American VR company Jaunt, Micro Whale Technology under Chinese Culture CMC, and Shanghai Wenguang SMG. At the same time, Chinese Culture CMC and Shanghai Wenguang SMG are also investors in the $65 million Series C financing completed by Jaunt in 2015, which also includes the American Walt Disney Company.
Fang Gan also confessed in an interview after the meeting that American companies rely on Jaunt China to enter the Chinese market, which is the same as the positioning of Oriental DreamWorks. Whether it is Chinese culture CMC or Shanghai Wenguang SMG, it will bring excellent local film and television production and distribution experience to the company, after all, Jaunt is still an American technology company, and it needs to rely on two other companies to understand the Chinese market.
At present, for any global film and television company, China's 1.3 billion people with strict censorship system mean a huge treasure to be tapped – in 2015, the total box office of Chinese mainland cinema reached 43.863 billion, 54.38 million screenings, and 1.260 billion moviegoers, making it the world's second largest film market. The total number of theaters in the country exceeds 6,000, and the total number of screens has reached 31,627, which is only about 7,000 blocks away from the world's largest North American market.
In the face of this ever-increasing delicious cake, Hollywood is eager to move: from "Kung Fu Panda" to "The Great Wall", more and more "Sino-US co-production" film and television works have become the norm in the film and television industry. At the same time, Oriental Capital also has the heart to break into the global market, before, Chinese culture has Warner Bros. joint venture to set up flagship pictures, Wanda spent $3.5 billion to acquire Legendary Pictures and other mergers and acquisitions, investment matters emerge in an endless stream, coupled with "Ring Messenger", "X-Men Reverse Future", "Transformers 4", "Iron Man 3", "Resident Evil 5", "Cloud Atlas"... More and more oriental capital appears on the investment list of Hollywood blockbusters, and the proportion is getting larger and larger.
Asked what criteria Jaunt China's team recruits, Fang Gan also said that employees are best to have a bicultural background.
"VR is a very interesting technology, and there is an opportunity to revolutionize the film and television industry." Fang Gan said, "At present, film creation technology is still dominated by the West, but VR movies are a new way to play. At present, overseas directors and Chinese directors are on the same starting line, groping and learning how to tell stories with this new technology. At this point, China has the opportunity to make progress with overseas markets, even surpassing overseas. ”
Through Jaunt China, we see a complete business model based on VR film and television production, introduction, and distribution. And unlike the general small workshop VR film and television producers, the joining of large media groups CMC and SMG makes the business model more mature, after all, although VR is different from traditional film and television in terms of shooting and production, the publicity and distribution links are still very similar.
As the Chinese film market rises and is expected to surpass North America in 2018, the Hollywood-dominated Western film and television industry is scrambling against the yet-to-be-fully developed Chinese market. In this context, with the Jaunt VR camera technology in the United States, and backed by the two major media giants that once created the Oriental DreamWorks, Chinese culture and Shanghai Wenguang, "Jaunt China" can be said to be the first time in the VR film and television production and distribution to come up with a mature combination of Chinese and Western gameplay.
However, from the current point of view, the company's business covers a wide range, and it seems to have found three lines based on VR content (shooting equipment rental, VR photo/video production system/shooting service, VR content distribution platform), but relatively speaking, the scale path and barriers in a single direction have not yet been formed; and jaunt VR's role in Jaunt China is only a brand, technology, and international channel provider. The company's core business may still be led by Chinese culture and Shanghai Wenguang VR content production and foreign VR content introduction, the future of its main role may become a member of the business ecosystem of these two companies, only at one point to become bigger, in order to vr film and television production, distribution of the business path towards the unicorn position further.
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