Per reporter: Li Biao Per editor: Duan Lian, Chen Xing
After one set of CCTV was broadcast, eight sets of CCTV continued to be broadcast; the media reported one after another that "In the World" is still a hot drama.
"The World of Man" poster Image source: Douban
Fifty years of cleansing suffering and confrontation, this "Human World", which follows the life trajectory of the three brothers and sisters of the Zhou family in the "light character film", depicts the people's hearts and minds in Chinese society, and presents the epic life of contemporary Chinese people, has become a good drama at the beginning of 2022.
In 2018, "The World of Man" won the Mao Dun Literature Award, and the author Liang Xiaosheng once admitted that "the world of man" is a concept far greater than the world.
Each character is specific and vivid, the group portrait is warm and gentle, and "The World of Man" is moved from the novel to the screen, and even the drama is adapted, and the difficulty can be imagined.
Behind this, it is inseparable from Wu Fengwei, the full copyright operator, the producer of the TV series "Human World", and the chief producer of the drama version of "Human World". Because of her professional ability in literary IP operation, she also attracted investment from New Hope.
After several turns, the Daily Economic News reporter finally contacted Wu Fengwei. "That day, Teacher Liang Xiaosheng actually praised me at the symposium, and all my pressures, grievances, and the spurs and doubts I received were affirmed as joy and happiness because of those few words." When she did not face Wu Feng face to face, she said contentedly.
Wu Fengwei took a photo with Liang Xiaosheng Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
Development of "The World of Man"
It was a difficult point in the milestones of realism
The torrent of history with ups and downs, the life of the three generations of the Zhou family and their relatives and friends paved the background of "The World of Man".
Since the broadcast of "The World of Man", it has set off a ratings frenzy, not only setting a new high in the ratings of CCTV prime-time TV dramas in eight years, the highest rating since the release of China's audiovisual big data (CVB), the popularity in iQiyi station has exceeded 10,000, and the number of viewers in the first round has exceeded 400 million.
"The World of Man" is undoubtedly a masterpiece, the drama is adapted from the novel of the same name by Liang Xiaosheng Mao Dun Literature Award, which is itself an "epic" of Chinese families spanning 50 years.
Lasting 8 years and writing 1.15 million words by hand, the masterpiece "The World" is condensed into a 58-episode TV series, and the difficulty can be imagined. Behind all this is a young woman, Wu Fengwei.
At the "Human World" symposium, Liang Xiaosheng publicly shared their story: "They talked to me about the agency copyright issue of "Human World" for the first time. I know both of them well, and I have always been supportive of the careers of young people, but I am very adamantly opposed in this matter, because I know that the adaptation of this book is quite difficult." "In my home, Wu Fengwei and Wei Tong (the founder of Beijing Yiwei Culture) were splashed with cold water by me and shed tears several times, and they came to my house to talk about this matter, estimated no less than ten times. Young people want to do things, can not stop, the later drama is also their efforts to push up. Because of them, the set of books was placed in Tencent's editorial department. ”
Wu Fengwei Studio Image source: Per reporter Li Jianning photo
Wu Fengwei is the first person at the helm of the world's first full copyright to win the IP work of "Human World", in fact, as early as 2017, she began to pay attention to the mainstream track IP. "In the past 10 long careers, China's entire entertainment market, including different categories of online literature, has changed."
It has to do with her own experience. Wu Feng did not start reading the works of Writers such as Yu Qiuyu, Liang Xiaosheng, and Yu Hua from his youth, and the ideas they conveyed were rooted in Wu Fengwei's mind. In 2016, when Wu Fengwei was chatting with a friend, the friend suddenly said: "My children are still looking at my original works, when will you cultural practitioners bring some more positive energy to the market and take root in the earth?" ”
This sentence gave Wu Fengwei a great touch, so she kept running to Liang Xiaosheng's home, expressing to Liang Xiaosheng her understanding of the ordinary Zhou Bingkun facing the great meaning of life and his admiration for his tenacity that still shines in his suffering life, which is also the fine culture of the Chinese nation.
Liang Xiaosheng has told Wu Fengwei many times that he did not dare to take out his work and cooperate with her because he was worried that she would not do a good job and cause her to be "scolded". Wu Feng did not reply: "Shouldn't we accept different voices on the road of our life growth?" Only in the midst of different voices and questions can we grow, and we know what the road ahead of us looks like. If a person wants to accomplish something and can't even accept different voices, I think he must not succeed. ”
Although he comes from the traditional publishing industry, as an IP operator, Wu Fengwei will look at and think about mainstream realist works with the thinking of facing business. She admitted that deciding to develop the "World of Man" IP is ten thousand times more difficult than the normal market works, because it faces not only a single dilemma, but a dilemma for the entire industry to reshuffle and return. "Some people are taking the road that their predecessors have already explored, and some of the roads are groping paths, and I think that "The World of Man" is a difficult point in the milestone of Chinese realism today."
Liang Xiaosheng pen and ink Image source: Courtesy of the interviewee
"If I think of things that are too distracting, such as whether it can win awards, what kind of audience it should attract, it's all a pandering mentality. When we see a literary work, we must have a sea of stars in our eyes, so that we have the opportunity to push this work forward. ”
Wu Fengwei never remembered that when Teacher Liang Xiaosheng decided to hand over "The World of Man" to himself, he was completely entrusted, and he did not even read the contract, he said: "I believe in you, just tell me where to sign." Now I have decided to sign you a global full copyright exclusive contract, believe young people, you are bold to do it. ”
Dig into commerciality
It is the first element of literary IP market-oriented operation
Will a good literary IP be able to develop satisfactory film and television dramas? Judging from the many existing IP adaptation cases, this is not an easy task.
How much capital is needed? What kind of market risks will be faced? How do partners choose? How to grasp the market portrait? This is a problem that all IP developers need to solve after getting the copyright of the work, and it is also the key to determining the final market presentation effect of the work.
"Playing iron also needs to be hard, and IP operators must first have a sober grasp and judgment of the entire industry." When I develop IP, I am neither a traditional publishing thinking nor a single film and television thinking, but a comprehensive commercial chain thinking to paint and review the works, otherwise even if there are ten 'Mao Awards', I have no sense of thinking, and I cannot develop successful works. ”
As a professional literary IP operator, Wu Feng has not managed many successful cases, and she believes that measuring the commercial value of an IP is 9 words - commercial, literary, and social. Among them, "commerciality" is not regarded by Wu Feng as the first element of the commercial development of IP of literary works.
"Any work must face business as soon as it starts to operate, and serious literature can achieve good commercial benefits." But not all works are suitable for development, if a work is only very literary but not commercial, then there is no need to commercialize operation, forced development is likely not to be accepted by the market, but is harmful to the work. Wu Fengwei believes that operators of IP development must have sufficient professional judgment ability, be clear about the market positioning and audience of works, understand other works of similar themes, know how to change in the context of film and television, and what are the rules and policies of the market, which is based on the judgment of the overall commerciality of IP.
Taking "The World of Man" as an example, Wu Fengwei was keenly aware of the commercial value of the original work when the work was not yet awarded, and after getting the full copyright of the work, whether it was a TV series adaptation or a drama version of the creation, Wu Fengwei chose to cooperate with the top team in the industry, according to the characteristics of different carriers to improve the operation plan over and over again, so that IP can be perfectly presented through different forms.
Wu Fengwei told reporters that in addition to the most common movies, TV series, and dramas, the operation of full copyright IP also has many forms such as games, animations, and theme parks that can be explored. "Games and animation are markets with large IP operations, I began to study related markets from a year ago, and at present, some works of Yiwei Culture will be launched in the future in the game and animation market, but it still needs more time to explore."
The great success of "Human World" verifies Wu Fengwei's judgment and strategy of commercial operation in realist literary IP. Wu Feng did not disclose that the "Scenery Here" and "Psychological Crimes" series author Remy's new masterpiece "Mermaid", created by writer Wang Meng and won the Ninth Mao Dun Literature Award, are all being operated by Yiwei Culture in full copyright, and the film and television adaptation of the works has been steadily advancing. In addition, Wu Fengwei also signed the copyright of "Lu Award" writer Shi Yifeng's "Crossing the Ocean to Send You", "Lu Award" writer Lu Min's "Running Moon", and "Small World" by Writer Wang Yiyang in the United States.
Image source: Courtesy of the producer
New Hope is professional
Expect to attract more "quality" investors
Looking back at Wu Fengwei's experience, she has entered investment banks and published, helped Times Chinese open up e-commerce channels, and created more than 100 million yuan of copyright income for writers such as Tianxia Basing. Before the establishment of Yiwei Culture, Wu Fengwei was the youngest vice president of Zhongnan Culture, a listed company, with the aura of "the first batch of professional IP traders", holding the successful cases of IP operations such as "Touching Jinjue" and "The West City of the Big Trick", and Ali, Tencent and other big factories also threw olive branches to her.
Why start a business?
"It can be said that the establishment of Yiwei culture is for the development of IP of literary works such as "Human World"." Wu Fengwei told the "Daily Economic News" reporter that he had noticed Liang Xiaosheng's work "The World of Man" before he founded Yiwei Culture in 2018, and in order to build a more pure operating space for "The World of Man" and other projects in the same period, Wu Fengwei formed his own new team. "In the capitalized operating environment, the development of literary IP will always inevitably be affected, and I hope that I can face the work with a product-based mentality, not thinking about how much money can be made by this IP, and more purely embracing the work."
Wu Fengwei pointed out that in the era of barbaric growth of the early literary IP market, writers were often the weaker side in the face of capital. Most writers are difficult to intervene in the follow-up development of IP after signing a copyright licensing contract, and the works cannot be developed for a long time in the hands of some unprofessional teams or the quality after development is not good, and the loss of capital will also weaken the enthusiasm of writers, so that the literary IP market will form a vicious circle.
"The fruits of a writer's labor have not yet been fully respected, and without a writer there would be no good text, and the market without text would lose its support." Wu Fengwei said, "Based on my many years of experience in book publishing, film and television adaptation, and IP operation, I hope to create a full copyright operation company with content as the core to better serve literary works and writers, which is not currently available in the entire industry." ”
According to Qixinbao data, the second largest shareholder of Yiwei Culture is Hainan Shengxun Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., which belongs to New Hope Group. Yiwei Culture's professional ability in literary IP operation has attracted investment from New Hope, and New Hope's support has also given Wu Fengwei and yiwei Culture team confidence.
"Entrepreneurship is a 'nine deaths' thing, and entrepreneurs who have a strong internal drive and are professional enough in the professional field have the possibility of success." I am also very fortunate to have met investors like New Hope, who have full trust and respect for us. Wu Fengwei believes that companies in the cultural industry must remain independent in operation and let professional people do professional things, which is why Yiwei Culture must choose to cooperate with first-line production companies and first-class creative teams when conducting IP operations.
"The World of Man" drama is about to be performed Image source: Wu Fengwei circle of friends
Wu Feng did not disclose that Yiwei Culture is currently seeking to introduce new strategic investors, she hopes that in the new round of financing can also attract more "high-quality" investors who can "read" Beijing Yiwei culture, exchange time for greatness, believe that capital respect for content can insert wings for high-quality works, help more writers and entertainment industry practitioners realize their dreams, and look forward to fighting side by side on the road of literary IP operation to help the cultural industry develop more far-reaching.
"The World of Man" Image source: Douban
Reporter| Li Biao Li Xuanzhang (Intern)
Edited | Duan Lian, Chen Xing, Du Hengfeng
Proofreading | Lu Xiangyong
| the original article of the daily economic news nbdnews |
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