Reading tip: As far as "the emergence of animated film master figures, master-level works, and the storm in the global market", Chinese animation is still on the road.
From the purchase of Japanese dramas to self-made animation series, in recent years, from Tencent, iQiyi, Youku, to Alibaba, b station, have been involved in the animation industry. A popular phenomenon at present is that these Chinese companies have hired Japanese animation companies to work on their behalf.
"Time is really interesting - think back to the beginning of reform and opening up, first Shenzhen began to undertake animation OEM for Jade TV in Hong Kong, and then Shenzhen, Suzhou, Wuxi and other places have developed animation OEM industry, undertaking some animation OEM business in Taiwan and Japan. Nowadays, the animation industry in Hong Kong and Taiwan is declining, and the Chinese and Japanese animation industry has a tendency to reverse its size - Japanese animation companies have begun to oem for Chinese companies. Mr. Zheng, a senior domestic animation industry insider, revealed to the reporter of Xinmin Weekly.
Competing with Japan for the Chinese animation OEM business are companies from North Korea, Thailand, India and other countries. Chinese companies, on the other hand, still have OEM jobs for overseas - but they have upgraded from making two-dimensional TV animation to mainly doing film animation in developed countries such as the United States.
They used to go south to do OEM work
Looking at a fire in the dongying animation industry, China's animation industry is also full of people who look back at the times.
As early as 1983, Jade Tv and some TV programs began to contact some cultural companies in Shenzhen for OEM business, mainly to undertake two-dimensional animation from Europe, America, Japan and other countries, as well as China's Hong Kong and Taiwan regions. The animation industry, especially in the stage of original painting and other stages, is a combination of labor-intensive and technology-intensive industries, and receiving business requires a large number of skilled painters. In Chinese mainland, such resources are limited, and the Shanghai Fine Arts Film Studio is a large resource library.
"In the 1980s and 1990s, more than 100 employees of our Shanghai Film Studio went south to Shenzhen. It can be said that it was the most bleak period of shanghai film studio. Chen Bo, deputy director of Shanghai Mei film studio, said this to the reporter of Xinmin Weekly. For three or four years, the Shanghai Film Studio almost walked through the turmoil of a large number of personnel losses.
The film studio was originally a national unit, and it did not worry about eating and wearing. There are works in the production field, which are ultimately purchased by China Film Company, and there is no need to worry about sales. Until the mid-to-late 1980s, films such as "Black Cat Sheriff" and "Hulu Brothers" were still in this mode - the film was filmed well, and the money of China Film Company was paid. But later, with the advancement of the reform process, the US film studio also needed to produce and sell itself. If there is no certain market expectation, no one dares to invest limited funds in the production of animation movies. Until there is a market-oriented diversified investment into the market, the US film studio dares to make an animation movie. For example, in 1999, the work "Baolian Lantern" directed by Chang Guangxi, produced by the American Film Studio, was invested within 10 million yuan at that time, but it was already a big production of animated films.
The film production is small, and there is no unified purchase and marketing, the employees in the factory have to eat, and it is inevitable to go south to Shenzhen to meet the needs of the industrial enterprises of the time. At that time, the monthly salary of the ordinary choreographers of the Us Film Studio was just over three digits, and the colleagues who could resign and go south to Shenzhen suddenly had a monthly income of three thousand yuan. But within three or four years, the situation had reversed. The efficiency of Shenzhen's foundry enterprises has declined, and the "South Flying Geese" have returned to the north. Because they resigned and left, the vast majority of people did not return to the Us Film Studio - some people even fell into the situation of eating low insurance and changing careers, which affected the development of their life's careers. The benefits of the US film studio began to improve at this time. The well-known animation director Yao Guanghua once saw his colleagues around him go south, and he also had a small envy from the heart. After all, he has experienced "Dark Hour" since directing parts of Shuk and Beta. Later, as the efficiency of the US film studio improved, he took charge of the director, and the success of several animation films made the national first-class film and television director feel that he had "achieved something", and Yao Guanghua felt that it was "a pity" that colleagues who left the US film studio to do processing films in other places.
Later, Zhu Yuping, who was the deputy director of the film studio, recalled that in the mid-to-late 1990s, the studio also began to take over the work of oem workers. Through the establishment of Elion Animation Co., Ltd., meiyi film studio ushered in a long era of processing films, which can also be regarded as the opportunity to win jobs and increase income for employees, and completed a certain capital accumulation for meiyi studio. "Producers from the United States, Europe, and Japan all came, and various animation companies circled around Elima."
At that time, Chinese mainland became an important base for animation OEM, mainly divided by several families.
One is a Japanese-backed enterprise. For example, Beijing Shuraku, a subsidiary of Osamu Tezuka's apprentice Takasei Matsutani in China, was incorporated in 1991 and participated in the production of many anime adaptations of Osamu Tezuka's manga, such as Astro Boy, Doctor Strange Black Jack, and The Emperor of the Forest, and represented many of Osamu Tezuka's manga works. There is also the earlier dragon riding animation in Hangzhou, formerly known as Hangzhou Feilong, also a Japanese-owned company, founded in 1988, since its inception has been an important enterprise for Japanese animation OEM in China, more than 100 employees in the heyday of more than 80,000 paintings per month, that is, the weight of about 20 animation films, "Detective Conan", "Legend of the Sword Wind", "Ranger Sword Heart", "Chess Soul" and other Japanese classic animation are produced from here.
The other is a company with a capital background in Hong Kong and Taiwan. For example, some Hong Kong companies that have set up enterprises in Shenzhen, and then Taiwan Red Eagle Cartoon Company that have set up enterprises in Suzhou.
In addition, it is a subsidiary established by the original State-owned art film factory and television station in China.
Time has passed, animation companies with various capital backgrounds have undergone different changes. Companies with a Japanese background still have their own advantages and live a very moist life. However, many enterprises have transferred labor-intensive, long-working hours and relatively low wages such as original paintings to Southeast Asia. The animation industry in Taiwan has been in decline for a long time, and the senior producers currently on the island can only find some odd jobs - such as making some TV animation advertisements, or making titles for TV series. Even the Red Eagle cartoons, which have set up factories on the mainland, are also facing the loss of high-level personnel. Zhu Mingcan, who started his career in the Japanese animation industry, left Red Eagle and officially joined China Film Niannian (Beijing) Culture media Co., Ltd. in May 2018 as the director of the system, responsible for the overall planning and quality control of China Film's annual 3D animation project.
When a field is not yet mature and growing, doing OEM work can actually learn a lot of things. Today's Chinese animation industry is still doing OEM work for some big foreign films; however, some animation, Chinese companies can't even do OEM work. "In the field of animation production, especially in the field of 3D movies, the United States is still thriving. As far as I know, some of their three-dimensional animations are not done well by us and Japan at present. There are also some render shots that we can already do – but it takes us days to make such a shot, and the American company does it itself, much faster and better quality than we do. Why did that person still ask you to do it? Therefore, in the field of animation, the most high-end OEM work is not yet the turn of China. Yao Guanghua said.
He extended his feelings that outside the United States, European animation films are also strong, but often in the market performance can not meet expectations. "For example, the Irish, French, and Belgian films "The Secret of the Book of Kells", as well as the British-French co-production of "The Magician", are classics of animated films in previous years, leaving a wealth in the field of animation, but this phenomenon seems untenable." "In the field of animation, sometimes it is a kind of lonely persistence, and even nothing can be kept. For example, Miyazaki's son, Miyazaki Goro, although he has also directed several cartoons, but in the end Miyazaki still believes that he is not this material. ”
As far as "the emergence of animated film master figures, master works, and set off a storm in the global market", Chinese animation is still on the road.
Now outsourcing anime to Japan
At present, the new fashion of the domestic animation industry is to find a reliable OEM in Japan. Referring to the advantages of Japanese animation companies in doing OEM work, Mr. Zheng revealed: "The Japanese animation industry is old, and the core team is systematic. The most important thing is that in addition to the investors and bosses behind the scenes, the long-established animation companies, from executives to grass-roots team members, are craftsmen. In Mr. Zheng's view, craftsmen have more craftsman spirit and rarely consider commercial elements.
Specific to a project, if you negotiate with a Japanese company, most of the long-established animation companies will report how much the company's production capacity is, can do several levels of animation - whether it is TV level or theater level, and can do several dramas at the specified time. "Long-established Japanese animation companies generally do not subcontract, quality control is very strict, and have a relatively good reputation in the industry." For example, if he can do a 15-minute film at the specified time, he will never report that he can do 20 minutes. And some domestic companies will continue to challenge their ability ceiling, which is not necessarily bad, but once it can't be done, it will subcontract or reduce the quality, which is the reason why I trust Japan's long-established companies to do OEM work. In Mr. Zheng's view, the animation industry OEM, quality control is particularly important.
"For the animation industry, there is a problem with the renovation rate. For example, several dramas are packaged to different companies, although the original character design and sub-shot script are the same, but the styles of things drawn by different companies are different, and someone must rework and renovate, which is not a favorable thing to spend more money. Mr. Zheng revealed to reporters, "So a drama, try not to divide it into several." A quality animation producer will definitely have a core relationship team that he is familiar with, and he will not find a new team to consume unless he has to. ”
Speaking of the current industry quotation, it is indeed a problem involving industry privacy. The reporter inquired in many ways, and the data obtained was - TV animation, the current high-end company quotation is 60,000-80,000 yuan a minute; the film level can reach 100,000-120,000 yuan a minute. Specific to the income of animators, the monthly income of excellent original artists and art directors of domestic companies can reach 20,000 to 30,000 yuan, and the income of similar positions in Japanese companies is higher, but the company's quotation is similar to that of domestic companies. Japan's long-established animation company has a low renovation rate of the price tag and "no shortage of scales", which is a favorable factor for the producer. This has also led to the fact that although Chinese production companies need to increase the cost of language communication and other aspects of contact with Japanese foundries, in general, Chinese companies now prefer to find Japanese long-established animation companies to do OEM work.
There are also some Chinese bosses who have gone to Japan to set up companies, and in Mr. Zheng's view, some newly established Japanese animation companies in recent years have attracted mostly domestic business, so they should be careful. "It's better to find a senior domestic animation company OEM!" ——Nowadays, the more famous national comics such as "Full-time Master" and "Town Soul Street", according to reliable sources, are not issued to foreign companies for OEM, but are all oem by domestic enterprises; the more famous low-grade animation "Bear Haunting" and the like are mainly oem by some companies in Suzhou.
Yao Guanghua revealed to Xinmin Weekly: "In addition to Japanese foundry companies, Chinese animation companies can also choose OEM companies at present, including companies from North Korea, India, Thailand and other places. Two-thirds of my 2009 national fantasy animation work, Ma Lanhua, was painted by North Koreans. ”
Although the voice of "Ma Lanhua" is lin chiling, Yao Ming, Zhou Libo, LiMing and others, it takes the star route, but specific to the drawing of the work, it still uses pencil and paper hand-drawn. The reason why he chose the DPRK company oem, Yao Guanghua mainly focused on the management ability of that enterprise. "Many people think that North Korean companies are cheap and expensive, but in fact, they are not, and people's quotations are market prices, not cheap." At that time, the foundry of the North Korean company was in Qingdao, and the employees were all North Koreans. "In recent years, Indian and Thai companies have joined the competition. Yao Guanghua believes that this is mainly because since 2012, the Chinese film market has blown up all the way, making the "cake" of animation FOUNDRies continue to grow. Many new entrants can't even find senior, reliable foundries.
On the other hand, Yao Guanghua also believes that there are variables in this situation in the future. "You see that many painters in Kyo Ani died after the fire to save the original painting. They still use the traditional paper and pencil hand-drawn method, burned and gone, so they do not hesitate to take risks. Since "Ma Lanhua", most of the animation works I have directed have been drawn on digital hand-drawn boards using paperless animation software. "The so-called digital hand-drawn board, is not simply the use of programming design, it is also hand-drawn, the need for the painter to draw a stroke, but the software setting can be selected, including the use of pencils, pens, brushes and other painting materials, can be virtual, even once in the international animation industry reputation of Chinese ink animation, can also be presented with computer boards." If most of the original paintings of Kyo Ani Company were painted on computer boards and saved to cloud disks, even if such a fire occurred, it would not cause such irreparable losses to the company and the painter.
This article is supported by the Tree Project, produced by [Xinmin Weekly], and published exclusively in today's headlines, and may not be reprinted without authorization