The King of Huayu Science Fiction

Chapter 215 "Your Name" (6000 words)
Mo, a chubby employee with round glasses leaned against his desk, poked at the colleague who was still binding the modeling characters on the workstation, pouted towards the conference room: "It's really amazing! Big Boss? Chen Jingxing?"

"Don't you wear glasses? Didn't you wave to us when they came? Are you face blind?" Li Chun replied while building the character's skeleton on the software. He is a modeler and Mo Weiwei He was the "veteran" of the company when it was controlled by DreamWorks.

"Didn't I go to the bathroom before? I didn't have time to see my face. I have been in the company for two months and I haven't seen the big boss. Of course I am curious." The name of the person wearing round glasses is Chen Chaozhuo. The job is an animation rendering engineer, and his last job was in the game company upstairs. He was attracted by Mo's generous treatment, passed rigorous inspections and interviews, and finally doubled his salary.

In fact, it is not only Chen Chaozhuo who is curious about him, a celebrity in his own family. Many people in the company glance at the meeting room surrounded by frosted glass from time to time. Of course, it is also because the two major projects of the computer animation department have been completed one after another. The reason why they are all in the state of fishing.

Li Chun picked up the cup full of coffee, took a sip comfortably, and said, "What's the hurry? I'll definitely come out to say hello to everyone after the meeting. It's rare for the big boss to come for an inspection, so he definitely won't leave after the meeting. I guess your leisure time Time is probably coming to an end soon, so you don’t have to worry about whether you will be kicked out.”

"Really? Is it a new project? I haven't heard anything about it." Chen Chaozhuo blushed. It has been more than two months since he switched jobs. He is satisfied with the strength, workstation equipment, and salary, even better than he thought.

Although Mo has long been famous, being supported by DreamWorks, the most glorious new force in the film and television industry, he has no worries about food and clothing, no performance pressure, and good remuneration. He is already a legend in the animation circle and special effects industry.

All parties are good, except for one, there is no work task.

The production of "Gravity" has a fixed working group, and the members of the three animation projects are also working well. Chen Chaozhuo can only help a little, and has been an idler with full salary for more than two months. In this way, it is inevitable that my heart will beat a drum.

Li Chun leaned comfortably on the ergonomic chair: "Your worries are superfluous. Haven't you seen that our company has been recruiting people? Since DreamWorks first became a shareholder, recruiting has never stopped. Don't look at the 7000 million production Three large-budget animation series, and it shocked the animation industry, in fact, these are appetizers, and there will definitely be big projects coming next."

"Big project?"

"What is the identity of the big boss? What kind of company is DreamWorks?" Li Chun leisurely shook his chair to give a hint.

Chen Chaozhuo was a little surprised and pleasantly surprised: "You mean movies? Animated movies?"

The animation industry in Huaguo is sluggish, which naturally includes animated films, especially after the box office of the theatrical version of "Star God", which cost a lot of money four years ago, the capital has basically no interest in animated films. It doesn't mean that no one makes domestically produced animated films. It's just that most of these movies are low-cost and cheap 3D animation movies based on well-known CCTV animations, and occasionally 2D animation movies are also cheap three-rendering two.

Of course, domestic animation production is not the only one in the doldrums. Imported animation films from the United States and Japan have not found much market. Even the theatrical versions of popular Two-dimensional animations often have less than [-] million box office at the domestic box office.

"It's not just an animated movie, but it must be a big production, maybe it's a science fiction movie!" Li Chun said in an affirmative tone with the air of a veteran of the company.

"The domestic film market doesn't accept animation very well... let alone science fiction animation films..." Although Chen Chaozhuo was very excited about making animation films, he felt that animation films are being watched by the current Chinese audience It is still for children to watch - the current domestic animation films are indeed like this, although this is also a big market, after all, it is one for two or even one for three, but Mo also does not have a well-known sub-supply for animation IP, there is no such thing on TV. For animation works, if you make an original animation film, children have never heard of it, and adults are naturally not interested in watching it. Is there really a market?
"It won't be a movie version of "Star God", right?" Chen Chaozhuo thought about it, and Mo also only had this well-known youth animation work, but the market for youth-oriented anime movies is really not big. Take the theatrical version of "Star God" four years ago as an example. The hot-blooded movie version of Japan and the United States and the super-English animated film are also lessons learned. In short, most adult moviegoers are not interested in seeing the animation theme shown in the cinema. Yes, Two-dimensional alone really can't support the box office.

"Who knows, but has the Big Boss ever missed it so far? Every movie has been a success, and TV dramas are also a double harvest in the word-of-mouth market. Even the two animated dramas "Evolution" and "Battleship" can't lose money now." .”

Although Li Chun is an old employee of Mo, Mo was hesitant when DreamWorks became a shareholder and gradually moved the company from Chengdu to Beijing. He is also nearly [-] years old, has a family and children, and changed to another city. It's not as simple as it is said, but now he is very glad that he chose to stay in the company. Although the housing price in Beijing is much higher than that in Chengdu, the development prospects are much greater. Not only is the salary good, but the bonus after completing a project is also great. very high.

In less than a year, Mo established the computer animation department, and set up four project teams. In addition to a special effects team, there are three animation project teams. According to the tone revealed by the boss, Mo will start more and bigger projects, maybe In another year or two, he can become the project leader. Coupled with the brilliant "record" of DreamWorks so far, although Li Chun doesn't know what kind of animation can be welcomed by the market, he knows to follow DreamWorks and Chen Jingxing. This legendary director who is much younger than him is always right.

"That's true." Although Chen Chaozhuo didn't have as much trust in DreamWorks and Chen Jingxing as Li Chun did, he knew the box office of "Source Code" and had seen how much money DreamWorks had made in the past two years analyzed by the media. According to the article, DreamWorks is definitely the company with the least money in the film and television industry at present. With such a big cow to support, so what if it loses money in animation?

What's more, Mo also works in the special effects department. He is a 3D rendering engineer, and he thinks his level is not bad. In his opinion, with Mo's current scale and the treatment he received as a son of DreamWorks, if he can't survive in this industry, other animation companies and special effects companies will go bankrupt.

However, unlike the big boss in Chen Chaozhuo's mind who was rich and not short of money, Chen Jingxing was talking about money in the conference room.

"Boss, I just said casually before. It is said that the company on the 14th floor is still in arrears and has not paid the rent. It is estimated that the operation has encountered relatively large difficulties. If we rent this floor again, there will be no shortage of office space in at least two years. The problem." Mo's CEO Xu Sheng said to Chen Jingxing with a face of embarrassment.

Xu Sheng told Chen Jingxing before that the office space is a bit crowded, mainly due to the continuous expansion of the team, the rapid expansion of the number of employees, and the addition of various equipment, not to mention the fact that there are currently more than 700 computers In the rendering farm formed by the company, Mo's rendering array is placed in a warehouse in the suburbs of Beijing. If it is placed in an office building, it will not fit on the first floor, not to mention that the cooling equipment is not easy to install, and the office property management will not agree.

But he just complained a little bit. Mo’s office space is not spacious, it’s a bit more crowded than in Chengdu, but it’s nothing compared to his counterparts in Beijing. It’s still spacious among game companies, animation companies, and even special effects companies. Yes, 300 people spread over three floors is not too crowded.

Unexpectedly, the solution proposed by Chen Jingxing was not to rent an additional floor, nor to find other more spacious office buildings, but to directly build a building!

Of course, it’s not that Xu Sheng has never dreamed of owning his own office building, but the cost of building his own office building in the capital city is huge. Even if DreamWorks claims to be "the most affordable film and television company", it is difficult to afford it alone Such costs - if other sources of financing are not used.

And instead of spending money on building buildings, it might as well invest in project production.

Chen Jingxing smiled and shook his head: "It's not an office building built solely for Mo. I said before that DreamWorks and Mo will work together in the future. The office building is more convenient, this is not only to create a better working environment for the employees, the rendering farm is too far away from the company, and the office is also very inconvenient, as for the money, DreamWorks will take care of it, so you don’t need to worry about it.”

Many film and television production companies in Hollywood have a very superior office environment. For example, the office of Lucasfilm and its subsidiary Industrial Light & Magic is Skywalker Manor. The reason is that this kind of creative work needs to be comfortable, Relaxed creative atmosphere, working environment is an important part.

As for the source of funds, going public is the best way to raise funds. However, Chen Jingxing has not made up his mind about where to go public. He doesn't like ChiNext, which is just a small pond. After going through the thousand-share price limit, Chen Jingxing tended to think that there would be a long period of bear market after this round of stock market crash based on the memories of his previous life, and the A-share IPO queue time was long and the requirements were high, so it was not Chen Jingxing's first choice.

As for U.S. stocks, first of all, DreamWorks is not an Internet company. This is a congenital deficiency. It can’t even open the door to Chinese concept stocks. Even considering that several of DreamWorks’ films have performed well in the global market, it is still difficult to get overvalued in U.S. stocks. value.

The Hong Kong stock market is an ideal secondary market for Chen Jingxing. Unlike the A-share market, the market is relatively stable, with a large market, and it is easy for capital to understand the value of DreamWorks.

However, this is far away, and listing is a long process. Even though some film and television companies established by well-known domestic artists have successfully listed on the Hong Kong stock market in the past year, the size of DreamWorks is different from these "bubble companies", and it is not a circle. It is natural to be cautious when leaving a sum of money.

Chen Jingxing was the first to pass the equity financing, so there was only credit financing left. He is now very confident about the loan.

After all, DreamWorks’ loan this time is not for the purpose of making a movie. Commercial banks are naturally afraid to avoid crazy projects like “Gravity”, but this time he wants to build the headquarters building, plus DreamWorks and his current status ——It has already been listed on the publicity window. It has just been selected as one of the "Top 30 National Cultural Enterprises" and also won the honorary title of "National Copyright Demonstration Unit". star enterprise.

It can be said that obtaining the land itself is not too difficult. Under the current policy environment, not everyone can squeeze into the real estate market in Beijing. It is extremely difficult for real estate companies to obtain residential land to build commercial properties in Beijing. Moreover, the cost of obtaining land is extremely high, and there are various policies and red line constraints. Without the magic power of the Eight Immortals, it is impossible to obtain it.

But commercial land, especially for star companies to build their own headquarters, the city government is definitely quite happy. If it is a high-tech company, it is not uncommon for half-selling and half-giving. Of course, it must be a well-known company that is officially optimistic about its future development. There is this treatment.

The status and popularity of DreamWorks are not bad. Every movie can be sold well, and even earn money in overseas markets. In addition to its subsidiary Mo, it is not only a first-class special effects company in China, but also an animation company that has caused huge waves in the animation industry. The name of the company and high-tech enterprise is no problem. It can be said that the cultural buff and high-tech buff are all full.

For the government, it is of course a wishful thinking for such a promising high-tech cultural enterprise to build its headquarters, which can not only gather high-end industrial talents, enhance the strength of the cultural industry, but also generate tax revenue.

However, Chen Jingxing didn't want to take much land. DreamWorks is not the Penguin Group and Ali Group, and it doesn't plan to build a large headquarters. Under this premise, the bank has absolutely no reason to be unhappy. If Chen Jingxing is not decent, take the land. It is not impossible to mortgage to the bank to obtain a loan. The land itself is a very high threshold. Not any cat or dog can get the land for the headquarters building in the capital.

It can be said that commercial banks need 1 credits to support the construction of headquarters buildings for star enterprises, let alone building office buildings in the capital. Xu Wenshen has been busy with this recently because DreamWorks has abundant cash flow—relatively For the peers in the film and television industry, the debt is not high. The low-interest loan from the China Development Bank used to invest in Station C is not a burden for DreamWorks. Many media believe that if DreamWorks is listed now, the market value is expected to reach tens of billions. Therefore, many banks are very interested in DreamWorks' plan to build a headquarters building.

Chen Jingxing skipped this topic, and started to talk about Mo's next project plan.

"The script of "Journey to the West: The Return of the Great Sage" has been finalized. We estimate the production cost to be 1.3 million. If we add the publicity and distribution costs, we can basically confirm that the total cost of this project will not be less than 1.6 million." Computer Xiang Xuan, director of the animation department, said a little unconfidently.

As soon as the voice fell, everyone present was silent, and some people even let out a gasp.

Wu Han, the original animation director of Tianhe Animation and the project team leader of the second season of "Star God", although he didn't say anything, he was also surprised.

He has been busy with the production of "Star God". For this "child" created by him, Wu Han cherishes it very much. He forgets to eat and sleep when he works, and he doesn't pay much attention to the project that Mo is preparing. Whether it is 1.3 million or 1.6 million, it is somewhat beyond his expectations. An animated film with this cost is the only one in today's domestic animation industry.

Of course, it can’t be compared with American animated films, but even compared with Dongying’s animated films, it is definitely a top-level production. Most of Dongying’s theatrical production costs are between 800 million and 2000 million US dollars.

Of course, considering that most of Dongying animation films are 2D animations, and "The Return of the Great Sage" is a 3D animation film, this cost is already considered cheap.

In the previous life, the production cost of "The Return of the Great Sage" was about 7000 million, but that was also because most of its production was outsourced to other domestic animation companies. The production team had less than 30 people, and there was no need to support a large team. A part of the cost is left to the outsourcing company. In addition, the investment is often cut off, and it takes 4 years intermittently. This cost control is quite impressive.

The version that Mo wants to produce cannot take so long, and all of it is completed by Mo's team. Although the manpower is relatively sufficient, coupled with the first-class salary in the industry, the labor cost is also high.

In addition, this version of "The Return of the Great Sage" has also added a lot of new plots. The original version is actually less than 80 minutes long, and there are not many big scenes. This is also caused by the tight production budget. It also takes time.

For example, Sun Wukong, Bajie and Bailong are together. I don’t know why the MV scene suddenly started, and some masters are also trekking around to find Jiang Liuer. There are no necessary arrangements for the three people to promote.The appearance of Zhu Bajie is just one more person in the team, adding some jokes, and it is best that the person who appears here should bring the next round of tasks and open a new branch.

So in this version, a section of Bajie becoming the little leader of the mountain monster and some fighting plots are added.

In the end, the seal suddenly loosened and disappeared, and the Great Sage returned.Chaos threw a stone, which was also melted by the fire of karma.Lava armor, flame cloak, the great sage can determine the world with one stick.

Here, the audience may still hope to play more, and there are indeed some shortcomings in terms of viewing experience, but from the setting point of view, the return of the Great Sage, what other monsters can be his all-in-one enemy?So it's not about fighting more complicated, but how to satisfy the audience.Audiences craving enough orgasm may need some context.For example, the scene of Tengu eclipsing the sun was set before, but this point was not taken care of in the original fighting.

The animation team led by Xiang Xuan and the screenwriter sent by DreamWorks have made some improvements to the entire script, enhanced the narrative rhythm and the big fighting scenes, and the duration of the entire movie is also 90 minutes, so there is a production of 1.3 million Cost estimate.

"1.3 million... is less than I thought." Chen Jingxing looked like a big dog: "Don't have any worries, the domestic animation market is not big, but it will be different with the IP of Journey to the West. I will let you make it I didn’t come up with all the animation projects out of nowhere, I must have found the market first before doing it.”

Chen Jingxing understood the concerns of Xu Sheng, Xiang Xuan and others. First, the special effects projects that Mo had undertaken before were all films invested by DreamWorks. basket.

"The Return of the Great Sage" invested 1.3 million yuan in one movie, and this is not a project of DreamWorks, but Mo's own project. Even if the box office fails in the end, DreamWorks will have the bottom line, but Xu Shenghe will become the project of "The Return of the Great Sage" Xiang Xuan, who is in charge, also felt a lot of pressure.

The second is that the market environment has changed recently. The impact of the stock market crash on the film and television industry is still very strong. Even though the film and television stocks are relatively less damaged due to the hot box office market, it still causes problems in the capital chain of many film and television companies. , which led to a sudden increase in the box office on the one hand, and on the other hand, many large film projects have been postponed or even cancelled.

Under such a background, Mo suddenly set up a project with an investment of 1.3 million non-sub-supplied animation films, which seems a bit out of place. 1.3 million is not an exaggeration in a live-action film, but it is quite terrifying in the field of animation. The animation market The ceiling is too low.

Two-dimensional will not buy low-cost, low-quality non-sub-supplied animated films. Two-dimensional will buy animated films with large costs and large investments, but they cannot afford the box office that can cover the cost.

Therefore, if animated films want to make money, they must attract adult audiences other than Two-dimensional and children.

Therefore, the selection of animated films responsible for "breaking the ice" in the market must also follow this logic.

"In addition to "The Return of the Great Sage", I have another project here." Chen Jingxing glanced at the crowd with wide-eyed expressions of astonishment, and finally his eyes fell on Wu Han: "A sci-fi animated film."

Seeing Chen Jingxing looking at Wu Han, Xu Sheng couldn't help asking: "Boss, are you going to start the second theatrical version of "Star Gods"?"

After Wu Han's astonishment, he was also a little excited. The animation series of the second season of "Star God" has not been produced yet, and the movie version of "Star God" will be launched again?Chen Jingxing is simply his benefactor!
As for the box office hit of the theatrical version of "Star God" that almost bankrupted Tianhe Animation four years ago, he has long forgotten about it. Dreamworks is so rich, even if it loses a few more movies, it won't hurt its bones.

"It's not "Star God", it's an original script." Chen Jingxing interrupted Wu Han's delusion without hesitation. He wanted to revitalize Huaguo animation, but he was not a fool. For children, they have never been on CCTV, children have basically never watched it, and most adults have never watched it. No matter how high the word of mouth is, there is only the Two-dimensional market. Even if they shout loudly, they will not bring much profit. , if the production cost is reduced, maybe Two-dimensional will not buy it.

Of course, he is optimistic about the IP of "Star God", but he is looking at it in the long term. The market for domestic non-subsidiary animation dramas will definitely grow bigger and bigger. Now we must work hard and use the excellent quality of animation dramas to achieve word of mouth. It is not yet time to reap the box office for spreading and cultivating audiences.

"This is the script." Ignoring Wu Han's disappointment, Chen Jingxing took out a dozen thin pages of bound paper and gave them to Xu Sheng first.

Xu Sheng took over the obviously unfinished script, looked at the first page, and read out the name of the animation project:

""your name"?"

(End of this chapter)