In the new industry cycle, the original intention of content is not only to support the creation of high-quality content, but also to establish a good industry closed loop to help high-quality content land.
Text / Pang Hongbo
"The emergence of new directors is an inevitability."
In the past summer, the film market has made a strong comeback with a number of new records. In addition to the gratifying figures, the new characteristics and new phenomena presented by the summer season are also very worthy of attention.
First of all, among the top five at the summer box office, works directed by young directors accounted for four. Compared with the previous sporadic hits, the new content directed by young directors seems to have formed a kind of "explosive cluster".
Secondly, the total box office of 20.6 billion in exchange for a record 505 million total moviegoers, of which nearly 20% of "new users" have become the "fuel generator" of the market.
New directors, new content, and new users will inevitably undergo new "chemical reactions" in a new cycle. Supporting young directors has long been no longer a new word in the industry, but how to support young directors should actually conform to the characteristics of the new era in terms of "methodology".
Just before and after the end of the summer file, the 6th China Film New Power Forum was held in Changchun, Jilin, as the director of the Golden Key Project, Conley summarized the process and thinking of the first Golden Key Venture Capital through the three keywords of industrial closed loop, type pre-setting, and content original intention in the venture capital section of the forum. On the occasion of the official opening of the second Golden Key Venture Capital, we also chatted with Conley about his understanding of venture capital trends under the new environment and new characteristics.
(Conley, manager of Golden Key Venture Capital Program and founder of Centaur Culture)
1
—How to let young directors enjoy the new "dividends of the times"? —
"Undertaking" of industrial experience.
In the 10 years from 2010 to 2019, it was actually a decade in which young directors gradually "attacked" the film market. Although the Chinese film industry is no longer divided by generations after the "sixth generation of directors", if each decade is used as an industrial cycle, some common characteristics will inevitably emerge.
Golden Key Venture Capital has a total of five directors as initiators, and these five directors can to a certain extent outline some of the young directors of Chinese films in the last decade.
(Conley and Golden Key five initiators and directors: Zhang Yibai, Xu Zheng, Wu Jing, Guo Fan, Wen Muye)
"Many of the excellent directors who are active now, they all grew up in the 10 years from 2010 to 2019, they were young directors when they entered the market, and now they have become the backbone. After they grew up, they helped the growth of a new batch of new directors, and I think this is also a kind of era dividend and industry dividend for young directors. ”
The five promoters and directors of Golden Key Venture Capital, director Xu Zheng has supervised the feature film debut directed by Wen Muye; Director Wu Jing has made outstanding contributions to Guo Fan's "The Wandering Earth" series; Director Zhang Yibai has also supervised the production of film directorial debuts such as "Later Us" directed by Liu Ruoying and "Caller Ringing" directed by Yu Miao in recent years. In fact, over the years, several directors have been doing things to help support new directors, and Golden Key Venture Capital is to gather these forces, use a more systematic, platform, and organized way to establish a complete set of support chains, and is committed to helping new directors make movies and go to the audience.
Conley said: "Over the years of making films, I myself have also come into contact with many new creators and fresh works, which may be a story, a script, a film that the director has done his best to shoot, only to find that he does not know how to go to the market and walk in front of the audience, every step in this process has condensed the great efforts of the creators, and some even paid for the battle." Such love and determination are moving, but the confusion and hardship they face are also poignant. Therefore, in the early days of its establishment, Golden Key Venture Capital Program has been discussing how to help a new author and a new work in a more industrialized and full-chain manner, integrate the resources of all links of creation, production, publicity, distribution and post-window, and truly efficiently and directly realize the closed loop of the whole process from "air" to "landing". On the one hand, let the creators feel at ease, return to the fundamentals of creation, and do not have to worry about the next stage without being in the previous stage; On the other hand, through the closed loop of the industry, young film and television newcomers can learn quickly, accumulate practical experience, and grow and mature in a more systematic and industrial process. ”
In addition to the five promoter directors, the first Golden Key Venture Capital also has 13 honorary producers, including Lei Jiayin, Huang Xuan, Song Jia, Ma Yili, Yu Hewei and other outstanding actors - there are stalwart directors as executive producers to provide guidance on genre film production experience, and mature actors participate in filming and contribute to performance, which makes the film more efficient at the level of "production".
(Honorary Producers of Golden Key Venture Capital Program: Dong Zijian, Han Tian, Huang Xuan, Huang Zhizhong, Ke Wenli, Lei Jiayin, Ma Yili, Ni Hongjie, Song Jia, Tan Zhuo, Yu Hewei, Yi Xiaoxing, Zhang Zifeng (in alphabetical order of last name)
Industrial closed-loop is the first keyword that Conley has repeatedly emphasized in the New Power Forum and interviews, and the Golden Key Venture Capital Program itself has also consolidated this idea in various links. For example, the overall training course of Golden Key Classroom, in addition to creative guidance, also refines the support for young creators from the whole industry chain such as actor and director cooperation, behind-the-scenes music creation, and law, publicity, etc. In addition, in terms of copyright during the post-promotion and theatrical screening window, Golden Key Venture Capital has also reached strategic cooperation with some platform companies.
"The complete operation of the film actually takes place mostly in a company system, and the advantage of the company's operation is high efficiency; At present, Golden Key makes more use of industrial collaboration, which has the advantage of allowing multiple projects to work together at the same time. But which mechanism is more advantageous, whether it can be combined, this is the direction we are exploring next, hoping to continue to iteratively optimize and improve our operational level and cognition. ”
2
—What is needed for a new industrial cycle that no longer "clears land"? —
The ability of industrial collaboration needs to be enhanced through repeated practice to encourage continuous innovation in creation under the framework of genre.
Through observation, the box office polarization of the entire film market in the past two years has become more and more serious, and the total box office of the top five box office in this summer is 13.532 billion, accounting for 65.6% of the total box office. Compared with the total box office of the top five box office in the summer of 2019, it is 3.337 billion more, and the box office accounts for 8.3% more. This means that the market environment faced by small and medium-cost and even ultra-small cost films is more difficult.
After 2018, new talent has become a high-quality asset that the industry competes for. Venture capital plans have also emerged intensively, and the types of venture capital are also more abundant. But the biggest criterion for all venture capital plans is the "survival rate".
"In the background of the Golden Key Venture Capital platform, when contestants submit works, they will be forced to choose the first type and second type of works, otherwise they will not be able to submit. We had some internal discussions and disputes when we initially set up this feature, but ultimately chose to keep it. In fact, this function is not to limit anything, but to consciously type the creator guidance, I hope that from this moment on, everyone will realize that their works will eventually face the audience, and hope that everyone can have a certain thinking about the positioning of their works in the market in addition to artistic expression. At the same time, by competing works of the same type together, it is also convenient for the better works in the same genre to stand out. ”
"Deepening and refining on large types of relatively mature markets is undoubtedly the key to the success of venture capital projects in the market. On the one hand, large genres mean that the work has a relatively stable audience, and on the other hand, the vitality of innovation in genre can make the audience refreshed. ”
(Conley at the China Film New Power Forum)
Type prepositioning is the second keyword that Conley said.
The first session of the Golden Key Venture Capital Program, with the main purpose of facing the market and going to the audience, pursued the policy of pre-genre and diversified genres, and was open to creators across the country for collection, and finally received more than 2,000 feature film works, after three rounds of review and selection, and finally 22 works were shortlisted, and after face-to-face links such as public statements and questions, 12 works were finally selected for the first annual film list. Judging from the film list, the basis of the 12 works are all types that have been repeatedly verified as having commercial potential in the current market, and some works will be refined or superimposed elements under the framework of large genres.
At present, the market demand for high-quality genre films is very large, and upstream content is needed to be quickly supplied. This year, some of the works in the selected film list of Golden Key are already preparing for upcoming shooting, and some have developed the second and third drafts of the script, but no matter what link, there is the deep participation and accompaniment of the initiators, honorary producers and teams of the venture capital, and then, the Golden Key Venture Capital plan will also help these projects complete the production, publicity and other follow-up links throughout the process.
3
—How venture capital is not "overkill"—
Venture capital needs to emphasize the "market", but also avoid being too "utilitarian" and return to the original intention of content.
The abundance of venture capital plans itself reflects the entire film industry's thirst for new talent. From the perspective of the industry, market type films must be the mainstream of content supply. Therefore, from the perspective of talent support, it is natural to adapt to such industrial needs.
"All venture capital, may all have the same and essential vision, we go to build one platform after another, use our own strengths, gather the efforts of all parties, in the end, in order not to bury excellent content, excellent people, so that more excellent works have the opportunity to be seen."
Enhancing the "industry awareness" of young creators is a long-term process that requires a sound system construction. Too much emphasis on the market, but without a targeted layout, does not actually help young creators substantially.
At the same time, in the process of enhancing the "industry awareness" of young creators, the current demand of the entire market is also undergoing slight changes. This summer, several blockbusters have a more far-reaching impact on social value in addition to clear types. The audience's demand for genre films is also increasing, and the value of genre elements + social emotions has become the key to the film's breakthrough in the market, and this content trend naturally puts forward new requirements for the director support system.
"Before 2019, our entire industry was thinking about how to make genre films well, because relatively speaking, the audience still watched less things. But this year, it is definitely not enough to shoot genre films, users have higher demand, which actually pushes the work to continue to improve. Marketization and typification are the original intention of Golden Key, but we are also thinking about how not to overkill. In the general direction, we definitely insist on making commercial genre films, but we can't bury those works whose genres are not so standard but prominent in social value and can show the uniqueness of the director. ”
In addition, the first Golden Key Venture Capital Program from its launch to the launch of the final annual film list coincided with two difficult years for Chinese films. "The operations team found that many of the works we received in the first session did not continue halfway. The common reason is that creators see no hope and have many practical life difficulties. ”
(Five promoters and directors jointly announced the launch of the second session of the Golden Key Venture Capital Program)
Therefore, the second Golden Key Project has added a pre-stage "Jiaobi" fund, and the creators selected for the "Jiaobi" fund will receive a monthly living subsidy of 5,000-8,000 yuan, and will have a 12-month peace of mind to complete the script.
"The Pen Fund is a support program for creators, not a strict selection program. We just want to give young creators who can't finish it one more chance, but we don't have utilitarian expectations in this matter. In the future, if the creators of the Pen Fund are officially selected into our selection unit and can finally start shooting and go to the market, it will be a huge incentive for young creators, and we mainly look at this matter in the long term. ”
Let young creators "mature" rather than "mature" is bound to be a long-term process, in this process through the industry closed-loop systematic help young creators to grow, through the type pre-set to guide creators to recognize the market, face the audience, through firm support to help creators overcome difficulties and bravely express, trinity, in order to form the real core of young director support in the new cycle.
(Golden Key Pen Fund Plan Released)