Abstract

With the explosive development of large-scale outdoor variety shows and the emergence of the separation of TV station production and broadcasting, the segmentation of the TV industry has become a major development trend. Later, it also changed from the previous Pure technical positions have transformed into the third largest creative link after screenwriters and directors.

Interview | Chen Liyuan, Cui Jun, Luo Lizhen

"Actually, we are quite lucky, just in time to catch up with the trend of the industry." Gao Xiang, co-founder of Qianqiusui, said that in 2013, The variety show craze brought about by Hunan Satellite TV's "Where Are We Going, Dad" has brought entrepreneurial opportunities to the TV station's later staff.

Gao Xiang left Hunan Satellite TV to start a company this year. In the following three years, the number of variety shows on Chinese TV screens grew rapidly, and by 2015 there were about 200 programs.

As the viewership of variety shows increases, so does the revenue figures of emerging companies. Outdoor reality shows are a hot spot for growth in this round. Dozens of cameras are often used to film such shows, which brings a huge amount of material. The importance of post-production is highlighted. To a large extent, the post-production team assumes part of the responsibility. Program creation work.

"Longing for Life"

In the past three years, more and more editors have started their own businesses, and post-editing has become a small industry in the film and television industry chain. This industry is like an inconspicuous screw in the industrial chain. Although the overall scale is small, it is important.

But the industry quickly saw its ceiling. Later stages are like screws, difficult to move in the industry chain: horizontal expansion, the scale of the industry itself is limited, and will bring increased pressure on equipment and labor costs; the threshold for vertical expansion in the early stage is quite high, whether relying on internal learning or buying mature The team has its own challenges.

Acquaintance business

"To the End of the World"

"In fact, there were no specialized late-stage companies in China at the beginning." Before Gao Xiang started his business, he was a reporter at Hunan Satellite TV Post editor. At that time, in the post-production department of the TV station's news column and in-studio programs, the technical job of post-editor was an iron job with a fixed income, and the work was simple and streamlined.

At the beginning of starting his business, Qianqiu Sui also had a hard time. Three years ago, the money in the market was not as crazy as it is now. In the early days of Qianqiusui, it mainly relied on its own income to develop. The company initially had only one computer, and the three founders used it to edit films day and night, taking on any job no matter how small it was. They used the money they earned to buy equipment, one computer at a time.

This situation continued until we cooperated with Beijing Satellite TV on "The Most Beautiful Harmony". "A director who had a good relationship with me at the time was working on "The Most Beautiful Harmony", so he invited us, and this program started To change the company's embarrassing situation." Talking about the reason for choosing Qian Qiusui, Sun Wen said, "In addition to the fact that we were familiar with the director and had a good foundation for cooperation before, there was really no other company in Beijing that we could offer. ”

Sun Wen, who has 16 years of late-stage experience, successfully completed the "The Most Beautiful Harmony" project with his embryonic team, and later contracted almost all large-scale variety shows on CCTV and Beijing Satellite TV.

Similar to the situation of Qianqiusui, several other late-stage companies have also formed relatively fixed cooperative relationships with satellite TV: Huanwei and Dragon TV, Xingchi and Zhejiang Satellite TV, BKW and Hunan Satellite TV.

For satellite TV, the main considerations when choosing post-service services are business reputation and geography. Take Qianqiu Sui and Huanwei as examples. Qianqiu Sui, who has taken root in Beijing since the early days of his business, one of the most important principles when "taking jobs" is to try not to go to other places to edit films. Just a few months." Huanwei, a subsidiary of Shanghai SMG, was once regarded as a specialized editing agency for Dragon TV.

"No matter which circle you are in, personal connections are important, especially in the TV circle." Sun Wen said.

Post-production became a familiarity business.

Gao Xiang believes, "Nowadays, the production cost of front-line variety shows can easily reach hundreds of millions. Of course, for such a large-scale production, we need to find a production company that is easy to contact and has high trust, and most of these companies are local. "

In the view of Yang Xuebing, the founder of Band of Brothers, this made the industry’s dividend period extremely short. The first few companies to enter the late-stage industry quickly occupied and divided the market. “We actually entered a bit late, but we were able to catch up. ”

“At that time, all major TV stations came to us, and the resources were almost divided,” Yang Xuebing said.

For several leading companies, the industry structure has been basically stable. Compared with competition in the industry, a greater threat may come from partners. Since post-production is increasingly important to the overall quality of variety shows, major TV stations and powerful production companies are also considering setting up their own post-production departments.

Too low ceiling

"Crossover Comedy King 2"

Despite its important position, the voice of post-production has not been improved accordingly. Due to the increased creative voice, the post-production team has gradually gained certain bargaining power. According to industry insiders, the post-production costs for each phase, which were 300,000 to 500,000 yuan two years ago, have now doubled.

Seasonal variety shows have ushered in the "billion-yuan cost era", which requires high professional post-production. Upgraded technical equipment and labor costs have increased post-production expenses. However, the proportion of post-production links in the entire program budget has not increased. According to statistics from the "2015 Tencent Entertainment White Paper", in just a few years, the proportion of celebrity remuneration to reality show production costs has soared from 40% to 75%, so "the proportion of post-production budgets may still be declining."

Compared with foreign counterparts, Sun Wen believes that the cost allocation of variety show production is very unreasonable. He gave an example that in Europe, the United States or South Korea, the production of variety shows has reached a very industrialized and standardized stage. Korean variety show producers believe that the early stage accounts for 50 points, the middle shooting accounts for 5 points, and the post-production accounts for 45 points. "In China, the post-production period is far less valued than this, and the post-production costs for domestic seasonal variety shows only account for 2% to 3% of the total cost. This is unreasonable in variety show production," he said.

But the market is still growing. Since last year, the business volume of second- and third-tier satellite TV has become the main growth point of the industry. In addition to the first-tier satellite TV platform, Qianqiusui currently cooperates with dozens of second-tier and third-tier satellite TVs such as Shaanxi Satellite TV, Sichuan Satellite TV, Jiangxi Satellite TV, Phoenix Satellite TV, Hebei Satellite TV, Hubei Satellite TV, and Guangxi Satellite TV.

Online variety shows are also a battleground. When Zhu Huakai, the founder of Xingchi, talked about the future development of variety shows, he emphasized the network-based development of variety shows. Not only the content is becoming network-based, but the viewing habits of the audience are also becoming network-based.

The networked nature of variety shows has made special effects and calligraphy increasingly important in post-editing. An important part of the daily life of Qian Qiusui, the post-90s employee who is currently in charge of Huazi, is to browse the AB site. Ghost videos and language methods that approach young audiences are the main sources of inspiration for many online variety show editors.

In the proportion of Band of Brothers’ business, network operators account for a large part. Yang Xuebing said that online variety shows are naturally suitable for young people. Using the richness of shots as an example, a 70-minute online variety show requires 2,000 shots, but a TV variety show only has more than 1,000 shots. "Young people just like fast-paced, jumpy and trendy things."

Expansion problem

Xingchi and Yang Ying's group photo

In addition, as mentioned before The four post-production companies all began to explore the early-stage market, and devised a path forward that would stabilize their post-stage business while obtaining more early-stage resources and advertising revenue, and then open up the industrial chain to eventually become an independent production company.

Theoretically, this route is reasonable. The post-production team is very familiar with the market, and will be more professional in assessing variety show themes and future ratings development trends. After all, in the variety show production chain, this is the group of people closest to the audience.

But the founders of the post-production company are not yet familiar with program operations. Most of the managers of late-stage companies are editors. Whether they are running a company or investing in the early stage, it takes time to adapt. For example, Zhu Huakai, the founder of Xingchi, in the early days of the company's establishment, the team size was still small, and he could still rely on his long-term experience in the later fields to make his own judgments on the company's business operations and development. However, as the company develops rapidly and expands in scale, He was in charge of business operations and went to the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business to study professional business operations and corporate management courses.

Through study, he began to practice project management in the company, which was not a new theory. The specific method was to establish four project-based studios in the company. The studios operate relatively independently, and the company is responsible for It provides certain financial and personnel support so that the operation of each studio can be divided according to the characteristics of the project to achieve the goals of specialization and refinement.

However, after entering the early stage, he found that his shortcomings still could not be made up. The main source of income for domestic variety shows is advertising. "Only after I undertook the project did I realize how difficult it is to attract advertising investment for the project." The investment process for a cute pet reality show independently planned and produced by Xingchi this year made Zhu Huakai very distressed. "This year's economic downturn makes it difficult to attract advertising investment. Next year It’s going to be harder.”

Now is not the best time to get into early-stage investing. According to Zhao Linlin, director of Daqian Pictures, after three years of development, the variety show market has actually entered a relatively stable stage. "Now the 80/20 rule is becoming more and more clear. 80% of resources are concentrated in 20% of top programs. The more the market goes down, the more sober advertisers become."

Indeed, at the end of this year At the investment promotion meetings of major TV and video websites, "Someone Season 2" and "Someone Season 3" accounted for a high proportion of the variety shows that have been announced for next year. Compared with these programs that already have fixed fans, the risk of investing in an original program is much higher.

Specialization shortcomings

If you look at it from a purely technical perspective, the threshold for this industry is actually not high.

Before the post-production industry was "formed", post-production editors were still like stragglers of craftsmen. Gao Xiang recalled that at that time, "when someone with good connections found a "good job", he would drag his close friends to work together. He would accept any job, no matter how big or how small."

The post-editing technology at that time was not high, and easy-to-learn and easy-to-use intelligent editing software could be mastered with a period of practice. Gao Xiang described early editors as more like "operators".

Therefore, even today when the top content has been basically divided up, there is still a constant influx of new people.

At the filming site of "Bachelor's War", the reporter of "Three Voices" met the Daqian post-production team that specially set up a branch from Zhejiang to Beijing.

In 2014, Daqian Pictures was funded and established by Lantianxia Media. The company's first project was the second season of "Twelve Tao Feng Wei".

When he came to Beijing to edit "Battle of Singles", Zhao Linlin said that he didn't care about profits, but just wanted to fight for fame. "War of Singles" is planned to be broadcast on LeTV in January next year. The program format of "Dating and Dating Reality Show" is quite innovative, which makes Zhao Linlin full of expectations.

"The head office (Lantianxia) has no hard requirement for us to make business profits. As long as we don't lose money, we can take on some projects that can show our capabilities but are not so profitable." said Zhao Linlin, director of Daqian's later stage.

“There are hundreds of reality shows and variety shows every year, and it doesn’t matter if any late-stage company loses a program. The market capacity is large enough, and it is difficult for latecomers to compete with leading companies, so Several leading companies get along fairly well," Zhao Linlin believes.

As competition intensifies and the industry develops, the market’s requirements for editors’ standards are also constantly increasing. In Sun Wen’s view, creative editors are valuable resources that cannot be exchanged for twice the salary. “Even if people with creative desire and creativity are difficult to manage, I still want such employees.

"

Entrepreneurial ability is the most important criterion for post-production companies to judge the level of editors. Under the current variety show production process, post-production companies are currently undertaking a lot of creative work, which is what the industry calls "post-production" , “For many seasonal programs nowadays, after the director completes the pre-shooting, he has to prepare for the subsequent shooting, and there is little time for post-production. " Sun Wen said.

But it is difficult to find qualified editors in the market. Whether they are professional students educated in colleges or editing veterans separated from the original post-production department, they are facing extremely fast changes. In the evolution of variety shows, they have to go through long-term practical exercises

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