Special feature of 1905 film network Since the beginning of 2015, the news of Sino-US film cooperation, large and small, has not stopped. These two days, "Need for Speed 2" is determined to be completed jointly by China and the United States, and the film channel program center and its 1905 film company, Jiafu Company and EA Company of the United States will jointly produce the film. Zhang Yimou’s new film "The Great Wall", which just started on the 30th of last month, was also jointly produced by Legendary Oriental, AtlasEntertainment, China Film and LeTV. Disney DreamWorks and Oriental DreamWorks are rushing to produce the Chinese-American co-production Kung Fu Panda 3, and Bona Film, Studio8 and Sony’s Samsung Film Company jointly invested in Ang Lee’s new film Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime. The new progress of Sino-American projects is endless.
The cooperation with China Pictures has made it easier for Hollywood films to enter the China market, while the China market is now growing at 15 screens a day, which is expected to surpass the United States as the largest ticket warehouse in the world in the next few years. Last year, the box office of Transformers 4 in China even surpassed that of the United States. The rapidly growing market is redefining the cooperative relationship between Hollywood and China, and Hollywood’s strategy towards China is constantly changing. Large film and television production companies such as HBO and Warner have continuously promoted their cooperation with China film industry to a new level through establishing joint ventures, cooperative relationships and joint investment projects. So in the end, what impact will the new stage of Sino-US film cooperation boom have on the domestic film industry? How does China film seize the advantage in the international layout? We briefly look at the current Sino-US film cooperation through the following five parts.
Hollywood is coming to share the cake? China film industry’s "smart investment" has grown rapidly.
At about this time last year, Disney and China Shanghai Oriental Media Group (SMG) signed a cooperation agreement in the next few years, and the two sides will jointly develop Disney brand films; Fosun International "stepped in" Huayi invested in Hollywood film production company Studio 8. At that time, we said that the cooperation between China film and television company and overseas film industry has gradually separated from the level of single project cooperation, and is turning to more long-term and stable in-depth cooperation.
Over the past year, "long-term, stable and in-depth cooperation" has gradually become the norm. Lionsgate Pictures and Hunan Satellite TV Dianguang Media have carried out a huge cooperation of 1.5 billion US dollars and will invest in 50 films; Recently, Huayi America signed a cooperation plan with STX Entertainment for no less than 18 films in three years. Going further, we saw that in October last year, LeTV set up a subsidiary in Los Angeles with US$ 200 million to enter the American film market. The young Beijing International Film Festival also keeps up with the pace to support newcomers, and has deep cooperation with MPAA in the film market "project venture capital trading platform". Chinese and American movies have evolved from cautious politeness at first to showing love without scruple. In the words of Lindsay Connor, a famous American entertainment lawyer, "China and the United States can better understand each other’s needs, and the cooperation between the two sides has entered a new stage."
With the more frequent contacts between the two sides, the concept of Sino-US cooperation has also changed among domestic filmmakers. By other’s faults, wise men correct their own. When it comes to Sino-US cooperation before, it gives people the impression that world war z, a Hollywood revolution, flocked to China to share the cake. Now, it is increasingly obvious that China films have benefited from Hollywood through mutual cooperation. This is first reflected in the investment in Hollywood film projects, and the multi-level cooperation from financing, distribution to co-production tries to make China film industry grow rapidly — — Investing in Hollywood’s high-quality film content and participating in global profits has become another way for China’s film industry to make profits. The film channel program center and its 1905 film company have invested in Spongebob Movie and Need for Speed 2, which will be co-produced this year, from the China co-producer of Transformers 4, which not only controls a certain degree of discourse, but also facilitates more and better integration of China elements and actors into Hollywood movies, making the world.
Cooperation and upgrading: China filmmakers deeply participate in the integration of China characteristics and Hollywood industry
Another advantage of cooperation like Need for Speed 2 is that China film industry has more say as an investor, which not only gives China talents the opportunity to improve themselves in practical projects, but also deepens domestic filmmakers’ overall understanding of Hollywood film industry and American culture, and clarifies the advantages of China films. For example, Kung Fu Panda 3 and Moon Mermaid.
In January this year, Kung Fu Panda 3 was confirmed as a Sino-US co-production, which was produced by Hollywood DreamWorks and its China partner Oriental DreamWorks, and will be released in the spring of 2016. This is the first cooperation project between Oriental DreamWorks and Hollywood DreamWorks. Oriental DreamWorks is more fully involved in the development, design and production of this animated feature film, adding more China elements to the film, creating story scripts and creating some 3D scenes. In the studio of Shanghai Oriental DreamWorks, most of the more than 260 employees are engaged in the work related to Kung Fu Panda 3. Because they gave up Chinese dubbing, they even made two different animated versions for the film, and designed two different versions of animated characters’ mouth opening and closing movements for Chinese and American languages. "We are trying to cultivate creative talents in China," said Fang Gan, the new CEO of Oriental DreamWorks. "On the one hand, we make the best use of China characteristics, on the other hand, we make the best use of the essence of Hollywood creativity, and we will achieve something faster, cheaper and truly innovative."
Recently, Mermaid in the Sun and Moon, which entered everyone’s field of vision, was also a film cast by China film owners. James Pang, CEO of Kirin Film, the producer, talked about the system of "finished film guarantee" in an interview, which is also a great manifestation of the self-improvement of China film industry with the deepening of Sino-US film cooperation in recent years. In January this year, American Film Finance Corporation (FFI), the world’s largest film completion company, even set up a China branch in Shanghai, focusing on introducing the guarantee business model in the film field to China and promoting the development of China films.
The mature and orderly operation experience of American film industry chain is what China lacks. As small as the screenplay software development mentioned by Pang Hong — — Hollywood scriptwriters have adopted fixed scriptwriting software since they entered the industry, so that the number of actors, how to set the scenes and the arrangement of the screenplays are clear at a glance, and the reading habits of the staff are fixed, which is convenient for the efficient operation of the overall shooting. However, China’s screenplays are still relatively casual at present, and there is no unified norm and no good scriptwriting software development. As big as the whole film revenue composition — — 90% of China’s movies rely on box office revenue, while the box office of American movies accounts for less than 50% of the total revenue. More peripheral income, copyright income and China film industry are less developed. In the cooperation with Hollywood, China filmmakers need more exploration and progress on how to use financial means, reserve and cultivate high-tech talents, market content and express themes to meet the needs of most audiences in the world.
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