After the "cold winter", where is the "spring" of film and television youth

In 2019, more than 1,000 film and television companies were shut down, and popular young actors "turned" to variety shows without drama... This winter, the discussion about the "film and television winter" has continued to rush to the hot search list. In the eyes of industry insiders, the reasons for the "cold winter" are complex, and people do not have to be too pessimistic in the face of "cold winter".

A TV drama producer, who did not want to be named, told the China Youth Daily China Youth Network reporter that since 2019, at least from the perspective of investment, film and television dramas have indeed entered a "cold winter", "In 2017 and 2018, on average, more than 1,000 crews have started filming or are filming every year, but in 2019, there are only fifty or sixty crews I know, and all (crews) add up to a maximum of one hundred and eighty."

The producer introduced that China's film and television drama investors, the earliest most of them are from Shanxi coal mining enterprise owners, in recent years, Internet companies, P2P network lending platform "hot money" have also flocked to the film and television drama industry, "as long as the director, star contract is fixed, investors will give money."

He said that in the period of "more money", there was a large number of producers in the industry who "never entered the cinema and never watched TV dramas", they rarely paid attention to the script, "only looked at who the director and actors were", the emergence of this group of producers, to a certain extent, "supported" a large wave of "bad films" in the industry, "China's film and television drama industry, there is no shortage of good directors, actors, good scripts and good producers."

After graduation, Xiao Chen, a post-90s who worked in a screenwriting company in Beijing, jumped to an Internet company this year to be responsible for the evaluation and planning of film and television projects. In just one and a half years, her original company laid off 30% of its employees, and many of her peer projects, including her own projects, came to a standstill.

Xiao Chen believes that the change in investment situation is the most important reason for the "cold winter" of film and television; at the same time, the tax evasion incidents of actors exposed in the previous two years and the promulgation of the "salary restriction order" for actors are also influencing factors. "Now the total number of film and television works on the market has decreased, and the number of good works has also decreased under the condition that the rate of fine works has not changed; to some extent, good works are 'piled up by money'." She analyzed.

Xiao Chen mentioned that as the three major video platforms of "Aitengyou" have become the most important funders, the platform has grasped the initiative of project accounting, and the film and television companies and contracted actors who cooperate with it have become weaker than in the past. Another young screenwriter, Xiao Yu, revealed that "Aitengyou" is now very united, trying to unite to control the entire market, "a popular actress because of the selection of male actors to cooperate, annoyed a video platform, the result of the other two are not willing to use her."

"Some film and television companies have a few staff members to slowly develop projects, but they do not produce them, because the projects cannot be sold after production, but they will lose money." Xiao Chen also explained that compared with film and television works, the average production cycle of variety shows is short and the cost is low, so variety shows have become popular in the past two years.

Dai Zheng, an associate professor and director of the Department of Publishing at the University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, said that instead of saying that the film and television industry has suffered a "cold winter", it is better to say that the "survival of the fittest" period has arrived.

"In the past, the threshold for the film and television industry was too low, and the capital side may feel that the profits in this industry are high and invest money in it, and the project production is very unprofessional." In the industry, there are problems with script creation and cannot pass the review, and the quality of large online movies is poor and is hidden by video platforms. In the past two years, the number of actors in the industry has increased, and the performance level of some traffic stars is poor and not recognized by the audience, which is also normal. ”

As a school teacher and director, Dai Zheng feels that the professional level of young actors born in the class has also declined, and those who have "traffic" may not necessarily have strength. When filming, some young actors feel good about themselves and are reluctant to follow the director's guidance. "Compared with actors in Hong Kong and abroad, some young actors in the mainland are not very good in professional ability and do not understand well. For such an actor, the director used it this time, and he will not cooperate again next time. ”

"Some teachers focus on off-campus projects because of their low salaries, and their teaching is not concentrated; some acting students go out to take over the drama in their sophomore and junior years, and their professional learning is not solid enough." Dai Zheng believes that in the past 10 years, there are such problems in the teaching of film and television majors - some students stay in school to engage in the teaching profession, but this group of students themselves is not solid, and then they teach the students behind, resulting in the level of film and television performance students getting lower and lower. "I think to change the status quo is to start with school education."

He noted that in the past two years, the state has issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of Cinemas and Promoting the Prosperity and Development of the Film Market", the "Notice on Rewarding Cinemas with Outstanding Achievements in Screening Domestic Films" and the guiding documents of the cultural industry in various regions, aiming to encourage the production and dissemination of excellent works and play a guiding role in capital.

These documents involve national and local financial support for outstanding film and television works, such as the reduction and exemption of value-added tax on the sales of film copies (including digital copies) by film production enterprises, the income obtained from the transfer of copyrights, the income from film distribution obtained by film distribution enterprises, and the film screening income of film screening enterprises in rural areas.

On the official website of the National Film Administration, the reporter inquired about the special funding projects for the development of the film industry, such as "We Were Born in China" in 2016, "Big Fish and Begonias", "July and Ansheng" and so on.

Guo Changshun, the producer of the domestic animation film "Shan Hai Jing" and the founder of Jumu Pictures, told reporters that the arrival of the "cold winter" has just made a group of producers who insist on quality and were not favored by investors who "earn fast money" in the past get more opportunities.

In 2015, when Guo Changshun took the script of "Shan Hai Jing" that had undergone six or seven large-scale changes and hundreds of revisions to find someone to invest, he ran into walls everywhere, and many investors did not care about the quality of the script at all, "they could only invest money in it, sell houses and cars." His production company moved step by step from Magnolia Square, the core area of Shanghai's Huangpu River, to "Friends' House".

But in 2019, some finely polished works began to have investors ask, and his situation actually improved, "In the past, investing in a web drama or network movie, one or two years of achievements, recovering costs; now there is less hot money, (investors) but more people pay attention to slow and hot good products."

Guo Changshun said that at present, most film and television companies are not satisfactory, film and television company employees have switched to selling hot pot base, micro-business, selling insurance, but those film and television companies with good content and good scripts can find "bright lights" in the "cold" environment.

China Youth Daily, China Youth Network reporter Wang Yejie, trainee reporter Wei Qimeng Video Zhou Guanling Source: China Youth Daily

Disclaimer: This article is reproduced for the purpose of transmitting more information. If there is a source labeling error or infringement of your legitimate rights and interests, please contact the author with the proof of ownership, we will correct and delete it in time, thank you.