John UM
The TV anime “Evangelion” (hereinafter referred to as EVA), which was first broadcast in Heisei 6 (1995), became a historic turning point in reversing the trend of the Heisei animation industry. Zhong Xihao, a producer who has participated in this landmark work and many well-known animation productions and formerly belonging to STARCHILD of KING RECORDS, is a witness to the development of Japanese animation in the era of Japanese education. One
At the time of the interview, the Chinese and Western were slightly sorry. For some reasons, I was unable to pull the famous music producer Taiyue Junlun before KING RECORDS to chat with Pingcheng
Chinese and Western entered KING RECORDS, in Heisei 9 (1997), when the TV version of “EVA” was over, just in time when making the theatrical version. In March 1997, “Apostles” (/death and new students) was released, and in July of the same year, “Air/True for You” was released. At the time of the Chinese and Western admissions, the “EVA” boom was in the ascendant. The STARCHILD community was divided into 95 years of “EVA class”, 96 years of “Fuzizi class” (“Mobile battleship Yamato Fuzi”) and 97 years of “Ottina”. Classes (“Girl Revolution Ottina”, 97 years) and several other working groups
Because Chinese and Western were very interested in science fiction and robot animation, they were eager for the “Fuzi No.” class, but they were eventually assigned to the “Ottina class”. Therefore, they were busy with the relevant content. The situation of the wolf howling, the Chinese and the Western is still vivid. Sen Shan Dun, who is in charge of the “Ottina class”, is the top boss of China and the West. The earliest Chinese and Western were joined as an assistant to Moriyama
There is a consensus in the industry today that the form of the production committee was originally initiated by the producer of KING RECORDS, Da Yue Jun Lun, and promoted it, and has had a profound impact on the development of Heisei Animation
At first, STARCHILD was established for the production of animated music, but after joining the behind-the-scenes animation, the company has successively participated in the production of “EVA”, “Mobile Warship Yamato Fuzi”, “Girl Revolution Ottina” and after A lot of popular original animations. In retrospect, it was a “golden age” by the producer, Da Yue Jun Lun, with his keen sense of perseverance and the benevolent interaction between the creators and the “sparks.”
The Chinese and Western, who are eager for the future, are fortunate enough to be squeezed into the “train” of the times. However, the “big month coach” who always believes in “making a new person to be happy” and believes in “gold is not a good thing” has already prepared him a “special training list” full of Dangdang. At that time, the Chinese and Western people did not see the big moon in the company during the day. They were called to the Shinjuku area to participate in the “social practice” to open their eyes
There, China and the West have met many various creators and the heads of the funders. On the one hand, the Chinese and Western cultures that grew up in the night were very grateful to the leaders for their intentional cultivation. However, they met the morning and evening at 4 or 5 in the morning, and said goodbye to the “big moon coach” who was noisy at night, waiting for the Chinese and Western, and the next day. A lot of work that must be handled… Day after day, year after year, and the year-to-year rotation, the Chinese and Western people who have been exhausted have tried to ask the boss to “release themselves”, but he also understands that if you want to get ahead, only bite Tight teeth are hard to support
According to Chinese and Western recalls, there was no current management system for “STARCHILD” at that time, and it was all based on the big moon to “hold the DPRK”. The company never held a seminar to listen to the opinions of all parties. The big month is even more in the community. Therefore, the so-called departmental meeting is nothing more than to inform everyone about which new plan will be implemented in the next stage. Regardless of whether it is internal or external, the “Great Moon Special Administrative Committee”, which is used to the world, always dominates the right to speak
According to the Chinese and Western sayings, Da Yue himself never accepts the “hat” of the “father of the production committee”. Da Yue’s point of view is that the creators have gathered together in groups to express their opinions and do not contribute to the birth of new works. For the control and operation of production funds, Da Yue always takes the lead in people, so that everyone has confidence in their personal ability, and by the way, the “Silver Two” raised from all parties is firmly stuck in the pocket. In short, China and the West have not seen the Great Moon initiative to hold a “production committee meeting”, and based on this, the early “mobile warship Yamato Fuzi” “Akihabara computer group” production committee, there is no such thing
According to Chinese and Western recalls, KING RECORDS is going through the production committee process, starting with Di Gi Charat (Super Idol Cat Bell) in 1999. The production committee of the work consisted of its own and Broccoli and TBS. As a result, the two proposed to convene a committee, and KING RECORDS thought it was reasonable and only opened the meeting. The fact is that after being passed down by the outside world and opening the “EVA” of the “production committee”, the system has survived for several years
Plus Da Yue’s dislike of the “production committee” is well known in the industry. Therefore, when a meeting was not allowed to hold a meeting, the name of the “promotional meeting” was specially adopted
Different from the current practice of many funders gathering to make the work tend to be averaged, the production committee was almost at the beginning of its birth, almost implementing the personal production concept of Da Yue. According to the Chinese and Western, the original Da Yue Jun Lun did not intend to create a so-called brand-new “business model”, or have such a magnificent concept
Put it out, the matter is very simple, that is, there is a group of creative friends who have ideas around the big moon, and these people often take their own plans for the big moon, or let the big moon help out with their ideas. When the case was considered to be almost implemented, these people thought that instead of going to the TV station or the agency to discuss cooperation matters, it would be more efficient for the brothers to raise money privately. What’s more, in the business talks, the sales performance of the packaged discs in the same year is still quite impressive. If it is a late-night animation, you only need to pay the TV station to pay the broadcast time, you can buy the broadcast time file
Another important reason for the birth of the “production committee” is that the producer pursues his own ideals. The result is to find a team that works with their own like-minded partners. For example, Da Yue likes toys and wants to make toys around, so naturally he will go to the toy makers to cooperate. From this analysis, China and the West feel that the “production committee” should not be the tool for large-scale money financing at the earliest. One of the evidences listed in China and the West is that STARCHILD’s investment ratio will not be less than 60%. In the usual situation, his family took the lead of 7-88%, and the remaining 20%, and then the committee Sharing. This is the basic form of the “production committee” during the Great Moon period
Of course, at the same time, non-STARCHILD-led “production committee”, China and the West did not dare to assert that people may have a regular meeting from the beginning. Here, China and the West once again stressed that he has never seen a big month attended even a production committee meeting
However, as the market smelled the business opportunity of “making animations profitable”, investors from financial and commercial institutions flocked. That was about 15 years ago, that is, in 2004, when China and the West presided over the production of “Favna of the Sky”. At that time, it was catching up with a wave of “animated bubble period”. Not only did the number of cartoon works show a rapid growth, but the disc also sold so much that “animation makes money” became a common sense of investment
Just because “professional investors” are constantly coming in, the industry has gradually pursued the concept of “doing animation with a business vision.” For example, since then, there have been requests for a profit and loss (PL) form, that is, an income and expenditure account. After that, more and more companies, at the beginning of the committee’s establishment, asked for a series of statements such as income and expenditure statements and profit expectations. Since then, the original “interesting the likes to make favorite animations” has gradually evolved into a purely profit-seeking “business.” To be honest, at the beginning, this rapid change in business format made China and the West feel super uncomfortable
At that time, the animated work “has a must-pay”, the Chinese and Western frank, most of them are nonsense. Because the work is popular after it is put on the market, it is unpredictable to not operate. In accordance with the heart of China and the West, I intend to work with professional creators to create truly interesting cultural works. To this end, he will honestly declare in advance when he asks the committee to entrust the funds to his own operations, “there is no way to ensure that the work can recover the investment.” Otherwise, there is no basis for guarantee, it will become a deceitful money, blink of an eye
Therefore, in the days when the capital for profit-making invasion was invaded, China and the West experienced a very difficult career. But in the end, the world is full of benefits, and the world is all profitable. By 2010, when the market suffered a slow-moving blow, the faces that had been stationed on the committee were gone
Fortunately, the big waves are in the sand, and the hard times are still left. It is the “true love gold master” who knows how to do it. So, everyone abandoned the idea of “making a quick money in a single season” and changed to the long line. At the same time, however, there are also voices that clearly state that “if you can’t build an effective sustainable business operation and maintenance system, things you want to do will eventually fall into disarray.” In view of this, the production committee learned from the beginning to calculate the new film, the continuation of the box office or the market forecast of the package sales, using the reverse method, and gradually adapted to the days of careful planning
In the following years, the market situation has undergone further changes. In 2014, the first season of the production of “The Knights of Sidney” was completed. The sales model of the disc package has reached a dead end, replaced by The involvement of “overseas” assets
STARCHILD Teamed up with animation company Polygon Pictures to form a global trading structure through the Netflix platform and achieved high valuations overseas. This incident made China and the West realize the importance of opening up overseas markets. At the time of the production of “The Knight of Sidney”, China and the West often travel overseas to negotiate investment matters directly with companies in the United States and Asia
Later, the Chinese land also ushered in the “animated bubble period.” For a time, Japanese animation relied on the influx of funds from the Chinese side to maintain the book. In the first day, the production fee was 60% from the Chinese market and 40% from the US. At this time, the revenue of the disc is 点 dotted. The above expressions, although from the Chinese and Western personal perception of the industry, but for the entire animation industry, still have its representative reference value
In other words, in recent years, the “old bottle” still in the name of “production committee” is actually the “new wine” from other countries. The phenomenon that China and the West will occur in the industry during the Heisei year is called the “Shenfeng” that saves Japanese animation several times. At the earliest, it was “packaged sales”. After the disc was sold, it came to “overseas funds”. After the bubble subsided and subsided, a new form of “overseas + distribution” appeared
It’s quite interesting that during the entire Heisei period, whenever a business model of the industry went to a critical juncture, there were always new things to jump out-of-the-way to “renew” for Japanese animation. It is impossible for China and the West to believe that the “Shenfeng” that saves the industry has indeed been blown up for a while, but it is still unknown whether it will be scraped again in the future
The Japanese cartoon itself, also evolved into digital animation from the early celluloid animation, and then has CG animation. Production costs have also risen year after year. Looking back at the 22 years of entry, the Chinese and Western rough estimates are about 1.5 to 2 times higher than the original. The gap in these fees, if not borrowed by the “production committee”, is indeed difficult to maintain
The first half of Heisei is the transition period of animation digitalization. After contributing to the classic works such as “EVA”, “Mobile Warship Yamato Fuzi”, “Girl Revolution Ottina” and “Akihabara Computer Group”, STARCHILD passed the producer’s baton to the hands of Chinese and Western, and at the turn of the century, A series of people such as “Di Gi Charat”, “Pure Love House” and “Sister Princess” have been set up to create a cute, unified style, painting without collapse, and gorgeous colors. Even if you don’t emphasize the number of paintings and the dynamic effect of the picture, you can use exquisite and elegant. The still painting touches the animated masterpiece of the audience’s mind. After winning the audience’s reputation, this style of work once led the market trend, which directly led to the emergence of digital animation in the future
In this situation, forcing studios to follow the trend to introduce new technologies and high-profile PCs and other hardware devices, resulting in a continual increase in production costs, so the production committee will have to pay money to the funders. More and more “lions open”
Breaking this deadlock is the fresh blood injected by Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and so on. In line with the concept of “making high-quality and high-quality products”, overseas capital has been widely used, and the right to broadcast the works has been bought out accordingly. Against the backdrop of strong overseas capital, domestic production committees may become increasingly insignificant. Soon after, large overseas companies can fully fund and directly find a custom-made work of a Japanese animation studio..
When talking about the future development of Japanese animation after Heisei, China and the West said that, first of all, for those industries or companies that can obtain maximum user support in a certain period, if they choose to invest in animation, then they will invest in a single work. Capital is a viable option
There is also, so far, China and the West have made a number of “partners” who have been willing to follow the changes in various periods, and who are sticking to the existing production committee. This is a group of people who are pursuing their dreams. Therefore, they have seen these people in China and the West. They will still speak to them when they open their mouths. “Do you want to animate such works?” “Otherwise, let’s try some original animations.” Letting you save some money first is not the case. China and the West have determined that similar to “a ribbed head”, only when they encounter real creativity, they will only be able to raise money in the “stupid acts” of raising their ass. There should still be room for survival in the industry, and they hope that the parties will give such creations. The way is a way of life
[References].
- “Animage” April 2019