After making a wish, financial freedom

Chapter 456 Investing
Li Zhuo arrived at the Imperial Capital around 2:[-] p.m., and then went directly to the Everbright Home Community on Quanzong Road, Haidian.

It's not that Li Zhuo wants to buy a house, he came here to find an animation company named Brilliant Star Culture Development Co., Ltd.

Li Zhuo had seen "Peking Opera Cat" produced by this animation company by chance before, and thought it was an animation wrapped in a cartoon skin. No matter in terms of world view, national characteristics, or overall design, it was actually quite brilliant.

Sadly, it didn't make any money, so after three seasons, it was unsustainable.

Generally, most of the companies that use residences as their office locations are start-up companies, and they don't have much money to spend, so they can save as much as they can.

The same is true for this company, which was founded on the basis of the founder Du Yang's private house, but later it raised some investment, which is a step further than a start-up company.

Li Zhuo took the elevator up to the 8th floor, came out of the stairwell, looked up at the name on the signboard, then walked over and knocked on the glass door.

Looking at the layout inside it, this is an ordinary animation studio with a relatively dense number of workstations.

However, many seats have been vacated, and there are only a dozen people working, and there is not even a reception desk.

Various promotional posters of Peking Opera cats are pasted at the entrance of its company, and several cat figures of the characters in the animation are also placed on the windowsill not far away.

Someone looked up from the work station, saw Li Zhuo walking in, and asked:
"Hello, who are you? Is there something wrong here?"

Li Zhuo said:

"I have something to do. My name is Li Zhuo. I want to see the current progress of "Peking Opera Cat". If necessary, I can invest some money in the company."

The man stood up quickly, this is a man with glasses, his face looked a little pale because of looking at the computer for a long time, he asked Li Zhuo to sit down, and then ran to an office further inside.

There was no place to sit here, and Li Zhuo watched a staff member render a fighting scene on the computer with his hands behind his back.

After standing for more than ten seconds, I heard someone hurrying over.

Li Zhuo turned around and saw a young man in his 30s, about the same size as Li Zhuo, walking behind the staff member just now.

Looking at the image, this guy looks like a rich second generation. He stretched out his hand from a long distance and said enthusiastically:

"Hello, Mr. Li, my name is Du Yang, and I am the chairman and general manager of this company. Welcome to invest here. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Li Zhuo reached out and shook his hand.

Under the watchful eyes of the surrounding employees, Du Yang took Li Zhuo to a meeting room beside him.

The overall condition of this company is not good at present, and it is unsustainable. I am eager for someone to invest.

When someone came to invest, the employees couldn't sit still. They didn't see Li Zhuo clearly and even stood up to watch.

After Li Zhuo walked into the conference room, everyone began to discuss:
"It's been a long time since investors came. When I saw investors, I thought they were vampires, but now I think it's good to have them."

"It looks quite young, maybe it is a fan who really likes our animation, the investment may not be too big."

"Hey, I don't expect anything else, I just hope that we can make the fourth season and be seen by more people, instead of being weak like now."

"Yes, because of the poor efficiency, many colleagues have already left. If there is no investment, maybe I can't last long. I have to support my wife and children."

"Don't be discouraged. Mr. Du has done his best. The house and the car are mortgaged. There is always hope. Let's work harder."

……

In the conference room, Du Yang briefly introduced himself. He is a major in painting. In order to learn animation well, he once studied with Kubo Masaichi, the creator of the animation "Pokémon" for a period of time.

Later, with the idea of ​​making Tianchao's own animation, it came out in 2009 and established Bright Star Company.

Only one "Peking Opera Cat" took a full six years from planning to final production, with repeated revisions and overturns several times in the middle, and only the founding team knew the hardships involved.

Du Yang was afraid that Li Zhuo would not understand, so he talked about the situation of animation from a macro perspective.

Japan's animation started later than China's, and the art film studios in Shanghai have always been very strong.

However, at the beginning, Meiying Studio was funded by the state, so there was no financial pressure to do animation, and the work of commercialization has never been carried out.

Later, when Meiying Studio was responsible for its own profits and losses, Japanese comics were already in full swing, and they could only undertake the contract manufacturing of Japanese and American comics. This resulted in a large number of employees being poached or resigned, and many talents were lost.

It was not until after 2000 that domestic capital really entered the industry that it advanced rapidly on the road to commercialization.

Finally, Du Yang concluded:
"In fact, our own animation starting point is very high. Once our commercial operation model is mature and we have cultivated a large number of industry talents, then we can rise, let alone occupy the overseas market, at least occupy the domestic animation market. You must know that the scale of the domestic animation and animation market exceeded 400 billion yuan last year. This is a promising field."

Li Zhuo nodded after hearing this, and his judgment was the same.

To put it bluntly, China is rich in capital, second only to Laomei, and its domestic market is large, its audience is wide, and there is no shortage of talents in the industry. How could it not rise.

But Li Zhuo also noticed a problem with Du Yang.

That is, he actually came from an animation background, including his main creation "Peking Opera Cat", which is actually a type of animation, and the audience is children and teenagers under the age of 15.

But obviously he was influenced by anime again, and wanted to make the world view, story, and character of the character more in-depth.

This creates a worldview, and the conflict of values ​​is somewhat complicated, and children cannot understand it.

Teenagers, because of its misleading name, thought it was a cartoon and didn't bother to watch it.

The result is to fall into an embarrassing situation, the income is getting worse and worse, and it is unsustainable.

But in fact, this animation, or animation, in fact, regardless of design, art, or plot, is quite brilliant and has great potential.

In particular, it combines the quintessence of Peking Opera with cute cats, which is actually very thoughtful and completely feasible.

In line with the purpose of supporting domestic production, promoting the quintessence of the country, and promoting the development of the domestic cultural and entertainment industry, Li Zhuo is also willing to invest.

Li Zhuo chatted with Du Yang for more than two hours, and finally Li Zhuo said:
"I can invest, but there is a basic premise here, that is, the studio must figure out what kind of people the main audience of this work is, and design stories according to the interests and hobbies of the audience. Don't be greedy for too much, and don't want to eat too much, and you can't have both fish and bear's paws. This must be clarified."

What Li Zhuo means is that animation is animation, don't try to do it in the direction of animation, there is a big difference between them.

……

Ten minutes later, Du Yang couldn't wait to announce to the studio:

"Mr. Li Zhuoli from Hangzhou will inject 4000 million yuan into our company to support the production of the fourth season of "Peking Opera Cat" and the big theater movie. He will thus obtain 30% of the company's equity and become the company's second largest shareholder. Welcome, everyone... I would like to ask Mr. Li to tell us a few words."

This news is quite exciting. It immediately stabilized the situation of the company and let everyone see the momentum and hope.

Amid the applause, Li Zhuo simply said:
"There are already many excellent animation works in China. Whether it is "Joyful" or "Bear Infested", they are deeply loved by children. I hope that our "Peking Opera Cat" will become the next excellent work that can represent domestic animation..."

……

(End of this chapter)