Wang Wei's struggle, reflection and hope for his second venture failure and Light Chasing Animation

Wang Wei's second film, A Tang Adventures, premiered on July 21, with a top schedule of less than 8%, with a production cost of 85 million yuan, and finally stayed at 30.15 million yuan at the box office.

original title: the second animated film is still a failure. What's wrong with Wang Wei and his light-chasing animation?

he is an investor, creator, operator and entrepreneur. Why didn't the superposition of these identities make Wang Wei make a good animation?

Wang Wei's second film, A Tang Adventures, premiered on July 21, with a maximum production cost of 85 million yuan and a top production rate of less than 8 percent. The final box office stayed at 30.15 million yuan.

this also means that Wang Wei did not make a comeback with his second work. New Year's Day's debut film "Little door God", which was released in 2016, also had a total investment of nearly 100 million, and earned more than 10% of the films in the first weekend, grossing 78 million at the box office.

it is worth noting that the popularity of "A Tang Adventure" has fallen sharply when it was released, with the Baidu Index of only about 18000, while "Little door God" reached more than 50000 in its opening weekend.

this may explain the lack of interest among film peers, and the publicity and distribution resources for" Adventures of A Tang "are very limited. Co-production and distribution company is based on the Earth Cinema Earth Film, in addition to partners are Youman Cartoon, Hengdian Pictures and Jinyi Film and Television, are not the first echelon of Xuanfa Company.

A year ago, Wang Wei got much more than that. Alibaba Pictures announced that it has become the co-investor and issuer of "Little door God", investing millions of dollars in roadshows, publicity, derivatives promotion, and so on. Joint production companies also include: Tencent, Baidu Netcom, Guevara, joint distribution, China Film.

these companies that have worked together no longer appear in the lineup of "A Tang Adventures".

chasing Light Animation is Wang Wei's second venture.

in 2012, Wang Wei, who claimed to be "tired of the copyright price war in the video industry," sold Tudou, which he had founded for seven years. A year later, he officially announced that he and his partners Yu Zhou and Yuan Ye would start an animation company, and claimed that it would take 2 years to launch a full-length novel.

Wang Wei is an animation fan-as an audience, like many people, he has had a lot of fun from excellent animated movies such as the Journey of the Flying House, the Story of Superman and the Taming of the Dragon. The moral of "chasing the Light" is said to refer to the long-term impact of animation on the audience: a snowman running towards the sun, slowly melting, but also leaving things in the world, "time goes by, stories spread."

Wang Wei is worth more than $100 million after Tudou merged with Youku. After that, Juguang Animation also accepted venture capital from IDG and GGV Capital, earning a total of $25 million in the two rounds.

from the Internet platform to animation, it is completely two industries. But Wang Wei, who has capital and reputation, has found a way to get started and build a team-- go to Hollywood. Wang Wei chatted with people in DreamWorks, Pixar and the investment circle and claimed that he had "found the context in a few months."

Juguang has gradually grown from a team of more than a dozen people to more than 190 people, with some experienced people coming back from overseas to take up backbone posts. Wang Wei recruited three American film industry employees on his first trip to California, two Chinese animators and an American who once worked for Pixar Animation Studios and Industrial Light and Magic.

in the process of animated film production, the labor cost will account for 60% and 80% of the total cost. When the early script and 3D modeling are completed, the production will enter the tedious part of animation and rendering, and an animator often can only make a picture for a few hours or even one second.

but 2012 is a good time.

Chinese animation fans are looking forward to real domestic mainstream works. China's film market is growing rapidly, with a total box office of 17 billion yuan in 2012, ranking second in the world. Animation is considered the next growth hot spot: in 2011, "Kung Fu Panda 2" grossed 617 million yuan at the Chinese box office, which led DreamWorks CEO Katzenberg to set up a DreamWorks branch in Shanghai.

it is with this expectation that Big Fish and Begonia won 1.58 million crowdfunding with a dazzling Flash short film. Directors Tian Xiaopeng and Yang Zhigang (Bu Sifan) have also worked in the field of television and online animation for many years, and they later launched "the return of the Great Saints" and "Dharma Protection" respectively.

in the animation circle, Wang Wei looks like a powerful "outsider".

Wang Wei went to Hollywood companies to poach people, on the one hand, because of his yearning for technology there, but also because of his distance from domestic animation talents.

A person in the animation industry, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the reporter: "he (Wang Wei) was not in the animation circle, but suddenly came in and didn't have any contacts. Our circle was originally very closed, and people didn't like outsiders very much. If he wants to find a good player, he wants to dig it up from overseas. This is also the current situation of the animation circle, some bosses deliberately pursue technology, as well as explosive projects. Everyone blindly imitates Disney, this form does not work. Including Disney is also working with domestic cooperation to make films, the story is still not good. "

facts have proved that Wang Wei's manpower investment in Hollywood is not without results-Zuguang has aroused expectations because of technology. At the end of July 2015, when the return of the Great Saints continued to hit the animation box office records in cinemas, Little door God also sparked discussion because of a trailer.

the animation level of this trailer has become no small bright spot-the vivid and natural characters, whether it is the shot of shaking off a piece of snow from the branches of plum blossoms, or the quality of the picture of a face reflected in a sword, all impressive.

however, five months later, "the Little door God" was officially released, which disappointed some people who had expected a "good story". As a feature film, it is confused in the drama work, such as the principal contradiction of the characters, the design of the beginning and end, the grasp of emotion and so on.

this year, the second animation" Adventures of A Tang "still gives viewers the feeling of a regular beginning, wavering clues, the best part and a justifiable ending.

another problem emerges in a loose and inexplicable plot: the two films lack core values. "Little door God" has not clarified the relationship between "old-fashioned" and "change", which makes it stay in a didactic atmosphere. In A Tang Adventures, A Tang disguises his entanglement with mischief, hoping to solve the question of "why he looks different from everyone else", but at the end of the story, he seems to have convinced himself with his mind and easily got rid of his confusion.

because of the weak expression of value, the audience can not get emotional resonance from these two anthropomorphic stories. On the other hand, although the return of the Great Saints and the Great Protective Dharma are also missing in the plot and picture, they are recognized by the public because of the emotional appeal brought by values, and then they are successful at the box office.

the biggest reason for the weakness of stories and the lack of values is considered to be the problem of corporate power structure.

at the beginning of this year, Yu Zhou, the producer of Chuguang Animation, said in an interview that in the publicity of "A Tang Adventures", "in order to accurately convey the film's message," Wang Wei edited the trailer himself.

in pursuit of light, Wang Wei is CEO, producer, director and screenwriter. In the first stage of animation production, he is the main person in charge of "from concept, outline to screenplay creation". The employees of the company can give their opinions, and he is the only one who really has the right to change.

creation has always been an area where Wang Wei maintains self-confidence. In an interview, Wang Wei said that writing original stories is the most interesting and in line with his original intention.

Wang Wei wrote an autobiographical novel waiting for Summer at the age of 26, which was published in the magazine Harvest a few years later. He recalled to the reporter what the editor of Harvest once said to him, "you should have continued to write novels in the first place. why did you start a company? what a waste?"

in 2011, on the eve of Tudou's full of twists and turns, Wang Wei also devoted most of his energy to writing a play called "Courtyard" ("with the transformation of the old city of Beijing as the background, about the changes in the fate of people in and around the courtyard"). The play has been performed for three times and the sales have reached the level of "full".

he is keen to answer questions such as "Why do you like to make movies, and they are animated movies?" the answer actually seems sincere: "because there is room for imagination and the opportunity to create a world." it's best to see something we can't normally imagine, and it can come back to life. "

however, one of Wang Wei's imaginative motives is boredom of the real world. He told reporters before the release of "Adventures of A Tang": "I am not very interested in real subjects, very boring, it is just a matter of falling in love with whom and who is in love with each other every day." that is, this relationship between people has been written about for thousands of years. Not interested. Everyone has something they like, right? "

Wang Wei's decision and the law of creation form a paradox: as one of the oldest ways of communication, the purpose of storytelling is not to convey the story itself-- that's the purpose of the news report-- but to integrate the story into the life of the storyteller, thus passing the story as an experience to the storyteller.

according to Walter Benjamin, "A story bears the mark of the storyteller, just as pottery carries the handprint of the pottery maker."

at the end of A Tang Adventure, Wang Wei has been trying to find out the reason for his failure.

he summed up the disadvantages caused by the market environment. "this year's film market has been in the doldrums." In comparison with the Great Protection Dharma, he thinks that the topic produced by the adventures of A Tang is not enough-now he seems to realize the significance of the "realistic subject matter": "maybe we should do more social critical topics in the future." for example, equality, system, prejudice, anyone can say a few words …... "

in addition, there are doubts about your target audience. "the mainstream audience of A Tang Adventures is much weaker than the young audience in terms of communication power." the mainstream is "parents in their 30s," while "people in their teens and twenties see less, so fewer people participate in communication."

this means that Wang Wei began to doubt another foothold beyond "realistic themes": the "Family Happy" movie.

"Family Happy" is a mild term. According to the characteristics of existing products in China, it is more appropriate to say "cartoons that children can watch." Wang Wei believes that Zhuguang should technically make the 3D feature film that can best bring the visual impact of the big screen, but in the story, the 44-year-old said, "I hope to share his story with my two-year-old son."

"Family Happy" was once considered to be a product with high market potential. Its best representative should be "God stealing Daddy." the third film won more than 40% of the production share in the first weekend of 2017 and finally grossed more than 1 billion at the box office. "Pleasant Goat and Grey Wolf" and "Bear haunted", which have been popular on television since the 2000s, have also proved to have huge derivatives potential.

but the market turned quickly. The return of the Great Saints in 2015 and the Great Protective Law in 2017 prove that animated films may also have a more mature audience in China. If Wang Wei wants to catch them, the animated characters created before will seem out of place.

Wang Wei had hoped that he would finally get the same respectable result as before in the matter of "making a movie." He has a persistent determination: "what happened to the movie, we really don't know." So get ready, no one, no second, no second, and then the third, and then we have a chance to try a few more times, right? "

in Wang Wei's experience of founding Tudou, he enjoyed the joy of "creator". He lived in the United States and France for 8 years and 1 year respectively when he was young, earned three degrees in international business, computer science and MBA, worked in satellite broadband and satellite TV business at Hughes in the late 1990s, and was the CEO of Bertelsmann online China.

he describes the feelings he cares about most: "I don't think you can repeat what others have done. As long as anyone has succeeded, tens of thousands of people will imitate it, and it's hard to get a chance to come out."

as early as in the process of promoting and screening "Adventures of A Tang", some viewers kept telling Wang Wei that the design of tea pet toys made it hard not to think of Pixar's Toy Story. He took the initiative to mention the feedback he received, saying it made him feel "very ashamed".

he has a way of explaining: "We are trying to make a whole new feeling out, but why do they still feel like it?" What makes them feel like? On the one hand, you will certainly be influenced by your predecessors and great masters, but on the other hand, if we want to be able to leave our mark, it must be brand new. So these two are contradictory. "

however, Wang Wei admits that he has not found his "unique style": "I am still looking for it. I am still in pain. To tell you the truth."

Juguang will release its third work in mid-2018, which is still directed and written by Wang Wei, named Cat and Peach Blossom Garden.

after the drop-off of A Tang Adventure, Wang Wei began to say something he had never said before: "if this has always been the box office situation, what about the Cat?"

"I am indeed an operator, and I feel that I have been original all the time, which is too ambitious."

Edit: xiongwei