Special feature of 1905 film network Late spring and early summer are the seasons when rain and dew nourish the soil. The same is true of the film industry.
Many film weeks have released relevant plans one after another, or started to recruit new season projects; Or officially announce the new reserve project. The brand-new venture capital project official announced that in the next half month, the director will work with other filmmakers to select the most potential projects in the future.
In the recent Wave Film Week, China Film Co., Ltd. launched the China Film Young Filmmaker Program, and announced that it will launch the China Film Young Filmmaker Program for three years this year, with a total investment of 1 billion, and plans to launch 30-50 works of young filmmakers, with an average investment of 20 million. From development, script, production to publicity and distribution, it will provide one-stop services for the whole industry chain, focusing on supporting films with commercial value and genre narrative.
There are often young filmmakers’ plans and venture capital projects, and almost every time they use brand-new words to package similar purposes and input brand-new blood for the film market. However, it is worth noting that Fu Ruoqing, chairman of the Board of Directors of Ocean Film Week and chairman of China Film Co., Ltd., stressed this time that the focus should be on supporting films with commercial value and genre narrative.
Coincidentally, H in Hainan Island International Film Festival! Action Venture Capital Association is also a slogan of "brand label of venture capital with’ commercial’ and’ genre elements’ as the core, providing a broader world and better opportunities for commercial films". The "Zhijiang New Director Plan" venture capital of the 2023 Youth Film Week (Zhejiang) was also clearly established as a type venture capital.
It can be seen that it seems that more and more film festival venture capitalists are paying more and more attention to the future development of these films in the market while pursuing the ability of new directors. Perhaps it is also a signal behind it, which is worth studying.
01.
It is difficult to make genre films, but it is difficult to make commercial genre films. It has strong requirements for directors, and at the same time it has a deeper understanding and exploration of funds and markets.
This is a lifelong lesson for many directors. Many young directors, in particular, pay more attention to the author’s self-expression in their creation, ignoring the market. In their debut or long-term creation, they all favor art films with weak commercialization, which is what everyone usually calls "literary films".
But in fact, it seems that there has never been a strong division between commercial films and art cinema, but usually everyone seems to be different from the "genre" itself, such as suspense, youth, action, science fiction and comedy, which are the mainstream types in the market.
For example, the first batch of selected films that China Film Young Filmmakers plan to announce this time: Looking for Cows, Cabbage Roses, Unaccompanied, Crazy Turn, An Unnecessary Movie, Underground Fire, Goodbye to Our Kindergarten, My Wild Friends, Friends from afar and Six Degrees of Suspicion.
These films include suspense, crime, comedy, family, adventure, youth, music, children and many other film types.
The most concerned thing is that A Very Unnecessary Movie is the sequel of the online movie A Very Unnecessary Spring Festival Evening directed by Wang Yinglun. It is understood that this movie will still be a pseudo-documentary movie with absurd style.
This inevitably makes people think that the same fake documentary films attracted high attention at the beginning of the year, and also gained the attention of the industry and fans because of online works. The Cosmic Exploration Editorial Department won the "Best Original Screenplay Award" as early as 2019 China Science Fiction Conference.
Although "Cosmic Exploration Editorial Department" seems to be a film with a small volume, its own market return rate and the director’s control of commercial rhythm in creation have blurred the public’s previous cognition of "commercial film" and "art film".
He stood out from the "Bad Monkey 72 Change Movie Plan" and directed the film and the director. Although the latter film has not been released yet, it has now been transformed and guaranteed to be the producer of two works, My Wild Friends and Friends from afar, in the "China Film Young Filmmaker Plan".
It is worth mentioning that, from the perspective of box office, the most successful way to support young filmmakers in China so far is the "Bad Monkey 72 Change Movie Plan" launched by Bad Monkey Film. Not to mention, the box office of "Beneficiary" in bidding for the Olympic Games alone has far exceeded the box office of many planned projects.
Perhaps with these experiences, we can also have more experience in bidding for the Olympic Games to face the new directors in the market and how to use their works to better talk to the audience.
Apart from the film list, the most attractive thing about the "China Film Young Filmmakers Program" is that the total investment promised in the first phase is as high as 1 billion yuan, of which 500 million yuan is funded by China Film itself, and the other 500 million will be jointly invested by industry companies with resource advantages after the film project is selected.
Compared with many venture capitalists in the past, this fee is already a large amount, covering almost the full budget of mainstream small and medium-cost commercial films. The purpose is also very clear. The plan serves both creators and investors.
Fu Ruoqing bluntly said that the creators who have commercial expressions and genre narratives are recruited and supported, and they will not focus on the author’s films and films that are too literary. They hope to provide good films for commercial cinemas and hope that creators will have awe in the market.
02.
Judging from the strong commercial film support of "China Film Young Filmmakers Program", people can’t help but think of the H! Action venture capital association.
H! Up to now, Action Venture Capital Association has produced many excellent projects. But among them, only the first project — — Directed films, as well as those that are being shown.
Although the theme types of the two films are either comedy or love, it is difficult to link them with commercial films in the end. The former box office was only over 5 million yuan, while the latter only broke 12 million yuan.
This dilemma is not only H! Action Venture Capital will encounter it, as well as the "Zhijiang New Director Plan" that ended last month.
In the delivered projects, besides those with commercial development potential, there are still a large number of works that tend to be expressed by the author, especially in their WIP (Work in Process) units. It is understood that in the WIP unit, both the delivered works and the finalists are mostly art cinema.
This in itself has higher requirements for venture capital judges, and more possibilities are needed in the later incubation process of the project.
Is a good example. The original name of the project was shortlisted for the venture capital activity of Pingyao International Film Festival, which is a solid story, but in essence, the commercial attribute is not so strong. However, in the later stage of the film, with the blessing of directors and actors, the film attracted high attention in the market, and finally achieved over 1.712 billion box office results.
Perhaps for many commercial film venture capitalists or young directors, they are eager to launch their own market feedback works of "Life Events".
A filmmaker admits that this kind of plan requires higher requirements for young directors, and it is not only a matter of funds for venture capital itself, but also requires a more professional production team to have higher constraints on it. "I have passed through many projects, some of which are very good, and I may have the opportunity to go to the film festival, but when it comes to the market, the box office is worrying."
In particular, he pointed out that the cultivation of commercial films is not only beneficial to the directors themselves, but also to the whole film market. When more works really enter the film industry and the film industry, a mature two-way interaction between "author and audience" can be truly formed.
Just look back at the ten young filmmakers’ support projects in the market. In the process of the whole industry becoming more mature, these projects also need to be more diversified, truly market-oriented and form a healthy film ecology.
For a long time, audiences prefer to watch commercial movies with China feelings, but how to make such movies more and more requires these venture capital and support plans. Nowadays, more and more people are picking trees and waiting for the final fruit.