On September 17th, Tencent’s annual briefing on their newest theme “New exploration — total growth” was held in Beijing. At the press conference, Tencent pictures released a completely new title, after 21 film projects were immediately announced with Hu Haiquan (Beijing Pu Du Chun Cheng Culture Media Co. Ltd), to explore artists’ brokerage business. While exploring and absorbing talents, Tencent pictures will support young film talents through the “NEXT IDEA” program, it also announced the signing of an agreement with Niu Chengze and other backbone powers to establish a satellite studio for strategic cooperation. The conference lasted two hours, it showcased the professional development of Tencent pictures for one year since its founding and reflection on the layout.
Since Tencent’s mutual entertainment “Extension entertainment” is an important part of the layout, Tencent pictures attaches great importance to the construction of IP, diversified business linkage and exploration of innovative products. Based on that, the conference for the first time explicitly proposed the four major tags that accent their business, “young”, “unique”, “high quality” and “connecting”. This time, the released film and television projects already include the “Tibet code” “King Kong: Skull Island game”. These are already proven to be the classic big IP stars on the market that guarantee the performance of the box office.
This film festival produced by the Tencent’s “NEXT IEDA” and its partner, Peking University. The very FIRST Youth Film Festival and other internal and external talent platforms discovered new people and new types of work explorations.
The existing “Fighter of the Destiny” “Top Star” “Speed Car Era: Steel Angel” were derived from Tencent and entertainment literature. There is an internal IP linkage of the anime or games platforms. There is also movies such as “Dinosaur Taskforce”, “Tuzki “ that were developed based on the launched entertainment of external quality IP.
The conference and Tencent pictures together invited the world famous screenwriter David S. Goyer, directors Lu Chuan, Zhang Xiaobei, Yang Shupeng, author Ma Boyong, producers Ma Ke, Tang Lijun, Yang Xiaopei, actors Chen Shu, Liu Songren etc.; cooperating representatives from more than 40 positions from different domains of movies and television all came together to complete the project.
Cheng Wu: “young”, “unique”, “high quality” and “connecting” are the direction of the Tencent pictures at this stage
Vice president of Tencent group, Tencent pictures chief executive officer Cheng Wu said in a strategy lecture titled “New exploration — total growth”, “With regard to movies, “patience” is always the largest investment”.
The film industry is already standing at a new starting point, one has a future only if one has premium products, it is necessary to have the courage to explore ideas and opportunities outside the box. Tencent pictures hopes to create a more touching story together with all like-minded partners, to explore the possibilities, to build a cooperative ecological benign growth. Regarding the desirable way of creating a movie, Tencent pictures hopes that they could stick to these traits: young, unique, of high quality and connect.
“Young”: new theme, brand new style, and it fits the way of how young people perceive the world;
“Unique”: original, unexpected surprises, it needs to be brave, at best to reach beyond the knowing;
“Quality”: create with patient, and don’t be hasty. Be steady and sincere.
“Connection”: there should not be any isolated movies, connections between movies should be glue that holds Tencent Pictures together.
Cheng Wu also mentioned that the three studios of Tencent pictures: Big Dream Studio are highly encouraged to explore new themes and films style. Black studios can make more attempts at soap operas and movies linked with screen and stage development , and the evolution of entertainment workshops will be committed to creating original animation films.
Concerning the current industry hot debate on the value of IP and how much its final value is, Cheng Wu also put forward his views. He believes the approach of the current methodology is flawed.
“We should not ask what IP can bring, but instead we should ask ourselves what we can contribute to the IP”
If only IP acts as a reduction of the cognitive threshold, it will serve act as a tool to increase the number of users; it is only necessary to consider the liquidity of IP. In fact, it is the enthusiasm of the consumption fans. However, in reality, there are living persons standing behind IP. He also mentioned that the only way to gain respect from their fans is, to do everything possible to respect and cherish what they are doing, aim for quality instead of quantity, and also taking their fans’ feelings seriously and respectfully.
Soon after, Wu Cheng officially announced the new opening titles of Tencent pictures.
Big Dream movie studio: 12 parts of IP target young users to explore new themes of the new type
“Do not make an isolated movie, and do not make a movie deliberately”, — vice president of Tencent Pictures, president of Big Dream Studio Chen Hongwei said to the crowd.
Big Dream studio made a big move at the conference, tackling hard on their production, showing their will of commitment by issuing 2 movie projects in total.
- “Youth”
After the establishment of Tencent pictures, the first film projects will be released on December 9th. Director Yang Shu Peng, actors Ou Hao, Guo Shu Tong attended the conference. Yang Shu Peng said, “Youth” is a distinction between the current domestic youth themes, and it is a unique style of crime movies for our youth groups. - “Top Star”
According to the Tencent anime platform, the works of the same name adopted from science fiction have entered the preparation stage. As a science fiction film different from Hollywood, Director Zhang Xiao Bei, who has a partly different style of science fiction from Hollywood, tells the story of the new genre in the current Chinese film market. - “One hundred thousand lame jokes 2”, “Snow Child”
Chen Hongwei and directors Lu Hengyu, Li Shujie jointly released two IP projects, one is the latest progress of “One hundred thousand lame jokes 2”; the other is a new release, which is a reinterpretation of a classic animated film “Snow Child” about Shanghai in the 80's. - “Snow Child”
When introducing it director Li Shujie stated that “Snow Child” was a childhood dream, he hoped that together with Tencent pictures they would create a quiet one to let people accept the work. Vice president of Shanghai art film studio Co. Chen Bo, Beijing miniature films era science and technology Co. CEO Lin Ning also participated in the joint release. - “Great Master”
Chen Hongwei and Chenming pictures chairman Dong Chenchen issued a comedy film “Peerless Master.” - “Twenty thousand Mils plan.”
Director Lu Chuan’s “Twenty thousand li plan” is the first attempt of Big Dream studio to become their film project. Lu Chuan said, “This work partly targets the international market,” he also hopes to promote the movie simultaneously, it is also possible to promote games, animation, and to comprehensively exploit literature. It is clear that Tencent is the most appropriate platform for cooperation. - “Fighting God of War”
Five years ago, a CG trailer made base on “Journey to the West” — “Fighting God of war”. At the scene, Liu Xiaoguang shared why he chose “Fighting God of War” as the next work to explore the western cinematography. - “On the job”
It was adapted from the works of Tencent anime platform with the same name. Chen Hongwei and producer Maki, jointly the director of the Chinese lecher, who released the first season of broadcast drama network linkage. - “All the peoples’ assault”
It was adapted from the Tencent’s game star IP, general manager of Huace pictures Fu Binxing participated in the joint release. - Dinosaur Task force”
IP stars movie, once became widely popular globally, possess the collective memory of the youngsters from the 70s and 80s. At the scene, the famous Japanese producer Takashige Ichise described the development of the idea of IP “Dinosaur Task force”, and the expectations of the film industry layout of Tencent. - “King Kong: Skeleton Island”
After the release of the “World of Warcraft”, Tencent Pictures and Chuanqi Pictures are together again.
Black Body studio: 8 IP departments are actively exploring linkage between film and television linkage, and the new model of combining film and travel
Tencent Pictures’ vice president, Black Studio’s president Chen Yingjie said, “Black Body is paying more attention to the aesthetic trends and conversion of hottest topics of the young people from nowadays. Fresh subject matter, good stories are the project selection criteria for Black Body studio.”
From the beginning of the “Naruto Bo biography”, Black Body started to explore a new film linkage, a linkage between film and travel. They hope to join in hands in boosting the growth of IP through close ecological linkage, and to simultaneously help growing their revenue from investments into film and television.
Black Body Studio totally released 8 IP projects.
1. “Once upon a time there was a Spirit Sword Mountain”
It was adapted from the Tencent anime/reading group twin IP, and it is partly a subversion of the traditional anti-fairy type drama. The united producer of “Once upon a time there was a Spirit Sword Mountain”, Huace group president Zhao Yifang said at the press conference, “We hope we can draw support from the social networking platform behind Tencent Pictures, to gain better understanding at the audience’s demands and aesthetic trends through our cooperation, and to produce high quality of work.
2. “Turn 90 degrees left into the Forbidden Area”
It was adopted from the reading group (Tencent Literature) adventure novel, which was the latest work of the same name first written by Zhou Dedong. This project was jointly released by Chen Yingjie, Zhou Dedong, and producer Tang Lijun. After the success of “The Journey of Flower,” Tang Lijun said, “I am very honored to be able to start our cooperation with Tencent Pictures, we are very proud of being an original novel.” As vice president of Tencent, Tencent Pictures Group CEO Cheng Wu said, “Our greatest investment in IP is patience, today I am very pleased to open such cooperation with Tencent Pictures, to work together to jointly build artisan spirit, and to create classic IP together.
3. “Successor”
Plot revolves around urban love, with a brainy twist that sprinkles over the entire story. It was jointly issued by Chen Yingjie, director Yan Jiangang, and actor Damian Lau. Damian Lau said that during filming, he could really feel the attitude of constant improvement and attention to detail that’s coming from the movie crew.
4. ”Tuzki”
IP of Classic characters later received love by 95, 00. Authorized representative of Copyright Turner Corporation China Han Gang said, “Tuzki has already spent ten years of time, and thanks to Tencent Pictures Tuzki for giving them the chance to moved that onto the silver screen.” The original author Wang Maomao also went on stage to participate in the release.
5. “Antique Case”
It was written according to the novel adaptation of the same name by Ma Boyong. Chen Yingjie, Ma Boyong and the media chief executive officer Sun Hebin produced it together and jointly announced it on the stage. Ma Boyong himself served as a literary consultant. Sun Hebin said that this book was the first part of the antique series; it was also the first one to be adopted into a play. It was extremely significant for the readers.
6&7. “Fighter of the Destiny” (TV series + big movie)
It was adopted from expert works of the same name by a reading literature group. The shooting has already started, and Lu Has has been the leading actor of the show. The producer of “Fighter of the Destiny” is Yang Xiaopei, Chen Shu, the actress who played the role of holy empress, went on the stage together to inform their audience with their latest updates. Yang Xiaopei said that the play took more than 200 days of time to prepare, to modify dozens of drafts, to prepare dozens of costumes per person for all starring actors. The only objective of all those work was to tell a good story, to develop good characters. A trailer of the TV plays “Fighter of the Destiny” was first released. Chen Yingjie announced that a mobile game under the same name will be officially launched in 2017, and the big movie of “Fighter of the Destiny” will also be launched in 2017. Ceng Maojun, vice president of Wanda Culture Group, participated in the joint release.
8. “Code of Tibet”
It was written by He Ma, it narrates a global fatal forbidden adventure “Code of Tibet”. There were more than 50 different publishers fought their way to obtain the publishing right of the movie. The CEO of the state film company Luo Chunxiao mentioned, “Including companies and agencies from Hollywood approached us, still we chose Tencent as our partner because we are optimistic about their entertainment ecological connection.”
To be able to narrate a great story, Tencent invited Shandong movies, which created “Nirvana in Fire” and also many other masterpieces to join hands on this project. President of Shandong movies and television Ltd Wu Xuesong said, “We will use the power of the group to employ the best creative team.”
The conference released a concept version of the poster of “Code of Tibet”.
Evolution entertainment Studio: “It’s been a long time, yeah, we’re still doing “Speed Car”.”
“How does Evolution Entertainment exist as Tencent’s third film studio?” Half a year ago, in March, at the Tencent joint entertainment annual conference, Evolution Entertainment chose to stay in silence. Many internal partners and external colleagues were asking the same question: “What did Evolution Entertainment actually do during such a long period of time?” President of Tencent Pictures Evolution Entertainment Studio Liu Fuyuan went up on the platform and said, “After a year of thinking and exploration, I believe this the perfect time to answer this question.”
Before Tencent Pictures was officially established, there was a development announcement of a film project, “QQ speed movie”. “It’s been a long time. Yes, we’re still making it,” said Liu Fuyuan.
During the introduction, Liu Fuyuan said the team has done a lot of exploration in the past year. Constantly remodeling the styles of their characters. “We think that it is only necessary to let go of whatever is going on the exterior, return to the essence of creation, to master the power of creation. A film can only cross time and space, travel between the world of real and unreal, to present itself in front of the crowd.”
At the stage preceding the press conference, Cheng Wu published a speech which he had once stated that Tencent Pictures’ attitude to the basis of creating a film is a hope to be able to create a representative of Tencent Picture’s fine works. Money isn’t what costs us the most, but patience and artistic ingenuity that requires during the creation of art. Cheng Wu also mentioned the example of Liu Fuyuan. “Our Evolution Entertainment Studio is also creating original animation films.” Before the conference, Fu Yuan — the representative confessed that they did not make any significant improvement. Cheng We also said that it was necessary to polish the work before publishing, nothing is more important than quality. “What we are most willing to invest is patience.”
Liu Fuyuan said that the film was now giving a new name of, “Speed Car Era: Steel Angel”. “We want to gain a bigger momentum, gather more people who shares the same passion for animated movies. To appreciate our team’s efforts, and everything they’ve done to make this dream come true.”
Explore artists’ brokerage and Hu Haiquan team strategic cooperation to create a new type of entertainment
After the publication of the three major studios, Cheng Wu announced that the Tencent pictures is officially entering the “artist brokerage” business.
Cheng Wu believes that many forms of their entertainment’s content extended due to the power of interaction through the internet, and endless iterative new users view and admire the trend of the “artist brokerage” as a new exploration space, which is filled with infinite possibilities.
Through this process, Tencent Pictures has also found like-minded partners. At the site, Cheng Wu invited the representatives of strategic partners, Beijing Pu Du Chun Cheng Culture Media Co., Ltd. united with the founder Hu Haiquan.
Hu Haiquan said that a completely new point of opportunity emerged in the trend of the Internet opportunities, and it is creating of a new type of entertainment artists with internet attributes. In the future, it may be divided into two types. One will be “performing arts” relying on the new people, who will get public recognition through precipitation of the works; and another type will mainly rely on “interactivity” of the new people, it will accumulate and cultivate popularity through deeper and direct interaction with the fans and users. After achieving a certain extent of development, the team will help achieve mutual transformation to become a whole new type of artists.
Hu Haiquan said, “The reason why we want to cooperate with Tencent Pictures is that Tencent possess a massive social platform, a platform with powerful content, with traffics beyond flooding, and most importantly because it is exploring new forms of entertainment artists, pumping new blood into the artist industry. Our intentions aligns with Tencent, which is total grow as partners.”
On the scene, Hai Quan also introduced his own team, the core members of Beijing Pu Du Chun Cheng Culture Media Co., Ltd.
NEXT IDEA Pictures continued to support young talents and signed a contract for strategic cooperation with a satellite studio to strengthen the power of creativity,
There is a “future” only if there is a “desire”. The most important opening video of the conference was directed by 3 talented directors scouted from both the “Qingcong plan” and Tencent’s Next Idea Pictures talent plan. At the conference, there were three representatives of the new generation Bai Bing, Chen Congcong, Kang Bo who recently also got attention for two films under the banner of Tencent Pictures, the director of “Bewitched” Ma Kai, and the screenwriter of “Youth” Lu Wenying went on the stage together, several young people shared the story of their growing.
Among the horror films “Bewitched” came out shortly before the FIRST Youth Film Festival as a pleasant surprise, it was praised by the head of the jury Wong Kar Wai, and won the best prize for art exploration. After Tencent got the pictures copyright, the directors allocated a highly experienced team of ordinary members in the film industry to shoot, replenish and recruit, hoping to help Ma Kai complete the theater circuit debut.
In addition, the Tencent Pictures and director Niu Chengze, producer Ichise Takashige, director Zhao Tianyu, screenwriter Huang Hai, director Wang Zao and other industry backbone powers signed a contract to establish a satellite studio for strategic cooperation, to enrich the creative team, and to constantly explore and grow together.
At the conference site, Cheng Wu also conducted a round of discussion with the world famous writer David S. Goyer on cross-media entertainment linkage dialogue. S. Goyer David not only is the screen writer of the trilogy of “Batman”, but the brilliant story writer behind the world’s renowned FPS games “Call of Duty”.
David mentioned that: “Actually Marvel, Disney and DC have been able to show such a market, because their content are solid. For example, when creating Batman, Mr. Nolan (director) and I had a very in-depth discussion on how to make our protagonist more humane. In fact, as simple as a boy’s youth, it is a story about how a boy lead his own life towards his own resurrection after this lost of his own father’s life. The story of Superman is even simpler. It’s a story about an immigrant, and its content may get a sympathetic response from the human beings of the entire world. Superman is actually a hero from an alien world who came to earth because of the massive explosion of his own home planet. The story portraits the young super hero’s life of trying to fit into the human world. He is just like me; I am also a guest from outside China.”
Cheng Wu also mention that: “Everything is ready to be made into films and television shows. Working with Batman and Superman should be a good experience in the aspect of animated adaptation. I also agree with your point of view, it helped us to make a painstaking investigation and create a touching adaptation of the story. In recent years, Chinese film industry and foreign professionals starting to gain a lot more opportunities to collaborate, which also motivates the development and revolution of the Chinese movie industry.”
David S. Goyer expressed his approval of Tencent’s international planning, and he also approved the exploration of internationalization of the Chinese content. “Every country, every culture, and every language has its own barriers, but down under we are all the very same human being. Family, love and the pursuit of work baked right into everyone's’ intuitive. It resembles the history of mankind, the conditions when the first people did not share a language. People were sitting around the fire, singing together in order to show their affection and their emotions. This will always stay the same way for everyone. In the past productions, we’ve been working with a lot of creators around the world that do not speak English. Through different stories, different gestures, and different languages, we broke the invisible wall that stands between us where we truly connect with one and another. That is the joy of connection.”
Nearly 500 guests and media attended the conference. (In total)
The 2016 Tencent Pictures’ annual conference of single film
1. “Youth” (movie, Tencent NEXT IDEA partners — students of Beijing University won an award of Youth Film Festival for screenwriter’s work, directed by Yang Shupeng);
2. “Top Star” (science fiction film, original animation IP of Tencent, directed by Zhang Xiaobei);
3. “One hundred thousand lame jokes 2” (joint two dimensional animation comedy movie series; directed by Lu Hengyu, Li Shujie)
4. “Snow Child” (film, reinterpretation of classic IP, directed by Lu Hengyu, Li Shujie);
5. “Great Master” (comedy film, directed by Lu Zhengyu);
6. “Twenty thousand mils plan” (film, directed by Lu Chuan);
7. “Fighting God” (western theme movie, original IP of Tencent game, produced by Liu Xiaoguang);
8. “On the job” (network drama + TV series, original animation IP of Tencent, produced by Ma Ke);
9. “All the people’s assault” (movie, original game IP of Tencent);
10. “Dinosaur Taskforce” (movie, Youth Dream Classic IP, produced by Takashige Ichise )
11. “King Kong: Skeleton Island” (movie, legendary film industry strategic cooperation);
12. “Turn 90 degrees left into the Forbidden Area” (TV series, produced Tang Lijun);
13. “Successor” (TV series, directed by Yan Jiangang)
14. “Once upon a time there was a Spirit Sword Mountain”(TV series, anime of Tencent/native IP reading group, the first two dimensional anti-fairy costume comedy);
15. “Tuzki” (live +CG film, adaptation of classic IP image);
16. “Antique Case” (network game show, according to Ma Boyong’s novel of the same name, Ma Boyong served as literary adviser);
17. “Fighter of the Destiny” (TV series, Luhan acted the leading role, native IP reading group, Lemon Pictures etc. jointly produced the work);
18. “Fighter of the Destiny” ((film, produced jointly with Wanda Pictures) ;
19. “Code of Tibetan”(TV series, classic literature IP, jointly produced with Shandong Pictures Production Ltd CO);
20. “Speed Car Era: Steel Angel” (animated film, original game IP of Tencent);
21. “Bewitched” (film, black horse of FIRST Youth Film Festival, youth director Ma Kai);
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