Dialogue丨Zhang Zhao explored the way alone: "After the reconstruction, the entertainment industry will give birth to trillion-level giants"

Zhang Zhao is a lonely person.

This loneliness stems from his experience and from his thinking. To a certain extent, Zhang Zhao is not a complete filmmaker, born in Fudan Science and Engineering, attaches importance to the framework and chain, and deliberately keeps a distance from emotions. But he could not let go of the non-standard film industry, experienced the "silent period" of six generations of directors, and experienced the "darkest moment" of LeTV. Still stuck here.

He has struggled, but says it's limited to the details of the choice of work agencies, not the industry. The background of the speech is that the film market is sluggish, and capital and key figures are using actions to show that they are "fleeing". Zhang Zhao said that this is a final coordination plan between rationality and sensibility, and he is still optimistic about the film industry.

Talk to Zhang Zhao in the office of Orange Pictures in Beijing's East Third Ring Road. Orange Pictures is his entrepreneurial project, as the founder, this time, Zhang Zhao has an absolute right to speak. The source of the company's name is in tribute to Chu Shijian, and it has also "counted eight characters", which is a name that is very satisfactory to all aspects.

Orange Pictures has completed initial financing, and investors include Heli Chenguang, Hualu Baina and Asahi Capital. Heli Chenguang founders Li Li and Zhang Zhao have cooperated in projects such as "Little Times" and "Return", and are like-minded; behind Hualu Baina is beautiful. This is a small start-up team, and one of the examples is that the headquarters of Orange Pictures is in the office building of Heli Chenguang, which not only saves costs, but also facilitates Zhang Zhao to meet with Li Li. Although the company has only just started, it already has a considerable amount of business and there is no problem of survival.

To a certain extent, Zhang Zhao's career changes are like a kind of epitome of China's film marketization, from the president of Light Pictures, the chairman of LeTV Pictures to the vice president of Fosun Group. However, this direction is different from the old film companies such as Huayi, which is more externalized and industrialized, which has been the focus, but also the edge, ups and downs. Represents another possibility.

In the eyes of the outside world, Zhang Zhao's professional highlight is in LeTV Pictures. This rookie, relying on new ideas and new frameworks, quickly entered the first camp and became one of the five major private film companies. But it also fell with LeEco.

This experience, Zhang Zhao is still very grateful, LeTV's big ecology, broadened his framework, so that he can look at the film industry from a broader market and put it into practice, which is a completely different mode of thinking from traditional filmmakers. "Lao Jia (LeEco founder Jia Yueting) is an artist who knows the risks, but he just can't pull them back." Things have changed, Zhang Zhao concluded. "Sanity is important."

After a long career manager road, Zhang Zhao chose to start a business. It's a kind of letting go, and it's also a kind of gain. The last time he was interviewed by 21st Century Business Herald, it was the transition period after Sunac took over LeTV, and he chatted for more than 5 hours, and he sincerely carried some restraints. This time, it was much more free. "Take your time, I position myself as an industry person."

At present, Zhang Zhao is building a new species in the film industry. It is like a business hub, which can participate in film grouping, trading, and also be responsible for commercialization, user operation, or only one of them, modular operation. The core is the market-oriented marketing of the project, the commercialization is placed in the initial stage of the content, and the long-chain market is systematically planned in advance. This model has been verified in the "Bear Haunting" series. In fact, this has always been the direction of Zhang Zhao's experiments, but it is only independent entrepreneurship to make this model more controllable.

Can Zhang Zhao succeed? At least he and his investors are optimistic about the future of the industry. "Disney and Netflix are companies with a market value of trillion yuan. With the restructuring of the industry and the use of a new framework, in ten to fifteen years, the Chinese market will definitely give birth to trillion-level cultural and entertainment companies. He said.

This time, he seized control. Image source: Zhang Zhao's team

<h4>Dilemma</h4>

"21st Century": The film industry is clearly in a trough, the box office is sluggish, the film company has lost a lot of money, and capital has fled. What's the problem?

Zhang Zhao: The industrialization of the film industry is not enough, it is more like an industry. There are many elements of the industry, including policies, content, marketing, channels, capital, technology, talents, etc., which have not yet been actually integrated. The industry must include users, and the industry must completely self-circulate.

Why is capital far away from the film industry? From 2000 to 2010, China's box office went from 800 million to 10 billion, at this time, the relationship between Chinese films and capital was two words - "huayuan". Ask capital to give some sponsorship, that's what it means. Because you can't self-cycle.

After the film company went public, there were changes, and the film opened up with the secondary market and began to make itself hematopoietic. But the capital and capitalists of this industry use it as a means of getting rich, rather than as a root in the industry. Capital wants film companies to form a circular industrial logic, expected gradual growth, but it has not been done at all, and everyone is shedding wool. As a result, the film company became a cash-out channel, and the box office was high and fled. The core problem is that a long-chain market has not been formed.

"21st Century": Why hasn't a long-chain market been formed, and what should be done?

Zhang Zhao: The industry monetization model is too single. The premium for movie tickets is limited, and it is impossible to rely solely on movie tickets plus copyright, so the growth is problematic, and the ticket price cannot be moved.

For example, Zhang Yimou made a movie for 30 yuan a ticket, and other directors are also. But this in itself is not reciprocal. Once you put yourself in the cultural industry and become a brand in the cultural industry, there is an overflow.

21st Century: Ip Empowerment? But IP does not only depend on the IP itself, but also depends on the enabled field, and even the latter occupies a more important position, IP is just a traffic entrance. For quality control after IP, the film industry seems to have no control. How to solve it?

Zhang Zhao: There needs to be a process. Like the real estate industry is very heavy, the game is difficult. At present, it is easier to do "Bear Haunting" premium to the stationery industry. FMCG is more space-free. The practical area of suitability is consumer goods with cultural attributes.

In addition, cultural tourism is also possible, this is a trillion-level market. At present, the path is parent-child tourism, a relatively standardized paradise. Like "Bear Haunting" for the pull effect of Huaqiang Park.

"21st Century": What is the current cooperation model with Huaqiang Fantawild in "Bear Haunting"?

Zhang Zhao: They are responsible for making content, and we are responsible for film brand operations, including publicity and distribution. Movie branding refers to, what is the content positioning of each episode like this? We do brand product design, and the content is the script. Intersect with the script, determine the brand positioning crowd, direction, market. Then the cultural tourism industry is operated by Huaqiang Fantawild. It's essentially marketing.

<h4>try</h4>

"21st Century": Even Huaqiang Fantawild is on a relatively limited scale. Why are you so optimistic about the entertainment industry?

Zhang Zhao: The entertainment industry is part of the consumer service and has a linking effect. Its brand value, the most important thing is that all products must be branded, at this time, the cultural industry has become the core connotation of branding.

Disney and Netflix are both trillion -- (RMB) market capitalizations, and with the scale of the Chinese market, there will be. This is the competition between countries, you can see by looking at the Internet, Ali is only twenty years now. In the future, there will be policy support, and the market will also have just demand. In ten to fifteen years, the Chinese market will definitely give birth to trillion-level cultural and entertainment companies. ”

"21st Century": What is Orange Pictures doing?

Zhang Zhao: This time, I don't want to come up to a big company, first do a product design institute, live more comfortably and calmly. Next, we will go to marketing companies, production companies and derivative consumer companies.

The product design institute focuses on products, any material to do the movie, we give the design into a diversified medium, series of movies, insert a few dramas in the middle, it is possible. It is like a business hub, which can participate in film grouping, trading, and also be responsible for commercialization, user operation, or only one of them, modular operation. The core is the market-oriented marketing of the project, the commercialization is placed in the initial stage of the content, and the long-chain market is systematically planned in advance.

From the perspective of traditional film companies, there are scripts, look at changes, do genre films to strengthen a little, with actors, investment, distribution. This is the step when I do the light. Later, in the era of streaming and social media, some sustainable influence was expanded, so there will be "Bear Haunting" and "Little Times" series. The Internet accelerates the precipitation of users and can continue to operate.

By 2017, I began to think about it, in fact, I can consider doing branding. Because it is very clear about Disney's operation, there is a Marvel character, can it be made into a series of movies, a brand? They will argue that there is product design first. Producers and planners will come in, then the game department, then the cultural tourism department, the consumer department, the television department, the Internet department will come in, and everyone will study how to get the product together. This is what Disney did.

China's Internet is heavier, then I will find people in charge of the vibrato media, and also find people in charge of e-commerce to discuss how to do it.

Film branding has an innate advantage. It is the only medium that has no urine spots and is forced to brand at a specified time. The dark environment, amplified by sound and light, will highlight the emotional value of this brand.

21st Century: Why not try the aforementioned on big platforms?

Zhang Zhao: The platform always has expectations for you. As a professional manager, you can't get rid of the pressure of this expectation. I let go, I was confident, this is a personal matter anyway, can be fully released. At this time, the power of the individual is greater than the power of the platform.

There are too many distractions inside the platform, and the starting point is for yourself. This time, I'm going to use a way that's not for the platform, both for myself and for the industry.

"21st Century": Is there a timetable for the planning of Orange Pictures?

Zhang Zhao: Not yet. I guess it's pretty fast, a year or two, but there's no specific time now.

I hope that the various companies, which are relatively small companies, will be merged in the future. Because there is a long-chain market, financing is easy to do, and capital is all about the future.

21st Century: How do you define yourself in the present?

Zhang Zhao: A person who does industry. Calmer.

<h4>Further reading:</h4>

Feature丨 Saving the Chinese film industry

Zhang Zhao: "Living in the Spring"

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