Entering 2019, the online big film industry has officially entered its fifth year. In the past five years, the big online movies have experienced embryonic and barbaric growth, to high-quality and quality competition. In this process of rapid development, the voice of doubt and criticism has always been accompanied by the industry.
In the face of the year-on-year decline in the number of new works of the Internet University, some voices asked whether the development of the Internet University industry has encountered a bottleneck? However, from the just-concluded NetDa Industry Forum, such a "decline" is a turning point in the change of the quantity of net works to a qualitative change, and it is also a new starting point for the online cinema line quality under the new model of "movie + Internet".
iQIYI Movie Forum
As a participant in the Internet University, how to continue to survive in this evolving industry? Is it to rely on the model, to rely on differentiation, or to rely on quality, or to rely on concentration?
There is such a team, they are born of film and television, silently betting energy on online content. With the influence of the series of online movies "Mengjia" gradually fermenting, they are also gradually revealed in front of the industry. At the same time, attached to them, there are also symbols such as "boutique, big IP, And Academy Awards hong Kong director producer", they said that the company's core attitude is happy creation, but to do only head films. At the same time, the team has also achieved excellent results in the past two years of net university works.
Series of web movies "Mengjia"
But as industry observers, in addition to these symbols and achievements, we are more interested in the causes behind these results.
According to the founder Wang Zhenwei, he entered the film and television industry as early as ten years ago, and in 2008, he followed the well-known producer Chai Zhiping to the mainland, participated in the production of "Those Years, the Girl We Chased Together", "Xiaoju's Spring" and many other film and television dramas, and was the first batch of TV drama producers in the mainland.
Such a film logo
In 2015, with the further penetration of the Internet into the film and television industry, the concept and model of "network movie" came into being. It is also in the context of such a period that Wang Zhenwei and his team have also begun to enter the production army of online content.
"In fact, in the first two parts of the "Mengjia" online movie series, we have cooperated with well-known film and television companies in the industry such as New Studio, Yingmei, and Mango Entertainment. But what really makes everyone start to recognize us is to benefit from the gradual fermentation of the influence of the "Mengjia" series of works. Especially from the third work of the series, "The Stealing of the Day", it was selected into Mango TV's "Super Mango Plan", which aroused sufficient expectations from the industry and the audience. Wang Zhenwei said.
Everyone learned about "Mengjia" through the "Chao Mang Project", but the results of all the works were not achieved in one day. The reporter learned that the first work, "The Reappearance of the River and Lake of The Ship", was formed in 2017 and was released in 2018. Immediately after the release, there is the second work of the series, "The Hero of the Ship" Red Girl. Later, in November, the third work also has a joint investment in Mango Entertainment, and it is expected to meet with you on Mango TV in the second half of this year.
Stills from "The Day of stealing the day"
When the reporter asked why the series was so "productive", the reply given was "because this subject is popular with many groups!" ”
When we asked where it was popular, Wang Zhenwei of the film industry said the "secret" of it: "The first popular performance was popular with the audience in terms of subject matter, and everyone should understand the word mengjia, which represents a culture in Hong Kong and Taiwan." Stories that occur under this genre are more likely to generate dramatic tension, and at the same time have a strong action martial arts plot, which are the elements that the audience loves to watch. The second popularity is in the investors, who are also part of the audience, and such themes are also attracting their investment decisions. The third popularity is manifested in the distribution platform, because the first two popularity has reached a full audience and production guarantee, the online distribution platform is of course willing to 'pay' for the selling point. ”
The poster of the fourth film in the series, "The Hidden Sky Across the Sea", was first released
"Although our 'Mengjia' series has reached the third part, it is not the end," Wang Zhenwei added, "The fourth film in the series, "The Hidden Sky Across the Sea" has been put on the shooting schedule. Because it is the end of the "Mengjia" network series, we also attach great importance to it, from the production quality to the main creative strength have a very good configuration, I hope to give the series a perfect ending! ”
Cinema-level directors "touching the net" is not a new thing, in the key projects of iQiyi in 2018, the first "touch the net" works of Chen Kaige, Feng Xiaogang, Zhao Wei and others on the web drama were announced. But back to the field of the Internet, first-line directors are absolutely scarce.
According to such a film industry revealed: "In the fourth part of the "Mengjia No Secret Sky Across the Sea", after all, as the last Mengjia network movie series, we also invited the directors who have been shortlisted for the Golden Horse Award and the winners of the Academy Awards, as well as the team creators are senior seniors of the theater level. The name we will not announce for the time being, to give you some suspense when the time comes. ”
Old Hong Kong star Yin Yangming starred in "The Stealing day of the Ship"
When the reporter asked what kind of "magic" was used to invite these first-line directors, Wang Zhenwei replied, "This is a two-way choice, and while we invite them, they are also examining us." For a film industry like ours, the long-term accumulation of industry resources provides us with the conditions to contact first-line directors. But the important thing is not to reach them, but with the development of the internet industry, their views on the industry have changed.
Chen Haomin and Lin Zicong
Like Wang Jing, Chen Haomin and others who are very representative of the Internet University industry in recent years, these previous cinema coffees have gradually noticed the field of Internet University and have also achieved good results. Coupled with the irreversible trend of Internet + movies, first-line filmmakers will also begin to consider online film and television more. Of course, it's also important that your team and work get recognized by them. ”
In further conversations with the founders of such a film industry, I learned that so far their return rate of return on large online projects is quite high! Under the sound of "10% of the Internet makes money", this news is undoubtedly a refreshing stream. What is the reason behind this? How did they do it?
"Although the phrase 'the rate of return is quite high' sounds very surprising, this achievement is a result of our production philosophy." Wang Zhenwei continued, "Our concept is first of all to do only head content, which represents high-quality products, which also means that it is easier to maximize revenue. But the head content is not something that can be done if you want to do it, it requires a lot of conditions to accumulate, such as our script ability is very strong, we have the screenwriters of large dramas; the CP value of our main creative team is very high, and the production uses cinema-level personnel; and long-term accumulated industry experience, which can identify what project matches what kind of investment.
Secondly, our philosophy is to respect the marketization of films. Where the market goes, what the market needs, we provide what kind of content. We ourselves are a company positioned on online content, in addition to the internet university, in the network drama and short video vertical screen drama will also be involved.
In addition, we continue to evolve in content production. Like the "Mengjia" series, we have woven a film and television IP from a story theme and achieved a qualitative upgrade. According to this idea, we have incubated a new IP project "Six Doors", this series is scheduled to open in the second half of this year, in addition to inheriting the high configuration of the main creative team, this IP will also have a web drama work born. ”
Concept poster for The Nether Bones of the Six Doors
At present, it is understood that the early stage of the "Six Doors" series of such pictures is composed of two networks, namely "The Nether White Bone of the Six Doors" and "The Red Fox of the Six Doors". The film tells that during the Tang Zhenguan period, in order to prevent the strength of the jianghu, the Tang Emperor set up six doors outside the Punishment Department and the Dali Temple to deal with various strange cases in the jianghu. The charm of the play lies in the four female catchers, which are different from the big male protagonists such as "Four Famous Catches" and "Jinyi Wei", and use female perspectives to interpret different story lines.
Moreover, the six doors appear as a new "institution", and the Dali Temple and the East and West Factories have also formed a greater difference, so that the entire plot also has a sense of freshness, presenting the audience with a different costume film.
Concept poster for The Red Fox of Six Doors
According to the staff of the series, in addition to the highlights on the IP, the "Six Doors" series has also achieved a new breakthrough. The first online film by two Academy Awards and Golden Horse Award directors on one play at the same time. The two of them served as the supervising producer and director of the series, plus the screenwriters who had written several TV dramas, officially forming an iron triangle on the main creative team. But the names of these three big coffees still need to be announced at the launch conference, but according to the staff, "they absolutely want to shock the market!" ”
Finally, Wang Zhenwei, the founder of such a film industry, told us that in addition to the "Mengjia" series and the "Six Doors" series, they are actively preparing for the start-up. This year, the company and Xinhua Entertainment Company jointly invested in the production of several IP works of Tianxia Baxiang, and also hope that related film and television works can meet with the audience in the near future.
As an observer and reporter of the industry, we also hope to see more and more excellent film and television companies continue to carry forward their "small and beautiful" in the internet industry.