This celebrity is overly enthusiastic!

Chapter 6 Visiting the US Factory

Chang Guangxi was the director of the Shanghai Animation Film Studio and also the director of the animated film "Lotus Lantern".

The Shanghai Animation Film Factory has had a very difficult time these past few years.

The company, which once created classic animations such as "Havoc in Heaven", "Nezha Conquers the Dragon King", "The Legend of Sealed Book", "Black Cat Detective" and "Calabash Brothers" and enjoyed international renown, gradually fell behind due to its inability to keep up with the market after marketization.

In the past few years, we have pooled the last of the factory's manpower, material resources, and financial resources, and devoted a great deal of effort to it.

The animated film "Lotus Lantern," an ambitious work imitating Disney animated films, grossed 2500 million yuan at the box office, ranking third in 1999.

However, such results could not cover the production cost of 1200 million yuan, and the poor domestic peripheral and audio-visual market could not provide much benefit to the production company.

This last hurdle to revive the factory failed. Not only were the days even harder to endure, but most despairingly, even their morale seemed to have vanished.

Many people left the factory and went to work in industries such as advertising and gaming to make a living.

The older generation of animators retired, the middle generation suffered a setback due to his gamble on "Lotus Lantern," and the training system for the new generation collapsed due to funding problems.

The Shanghai Fine Arts Factory was in danger of losing its technological heritage. If it weren't for the relief grain it could receive from the city, it would have been unable to survive long ago.

Just as Director Chang was racking his brains for the future of Shanghai Animation Film Studio, a handsome young man came to his door seeking cooperation.

As Chang Guangxi learned more about the Kung Fu Panda project, he became increasingly amazed by Chen Yuan!
He suppressed his excitement and carefully examined the animal protagonist images drawn by Chen Yuan, as well as a portion of the storyboard draft.

The agile and swift kung fu can actually be combined with the round and chubby panda!
They also directly restored the original animal images of Xingyi Quan, which was created by people imitating animal movements, such as Tiger Fist, Monkey Fist, Snake Fist, Mantis Fist, and Crane Palm.

The combination of the quirky and exaggerated style of American comics with the sharp and elegant kung fu creates a powerful visual impact!
This is incredibly creative, and only a martial arts enthusiast who has mastered such skills at such a young age could come up with such a wildly imaginative idea!

They've even written a script! They're really well-prepared!

After carefully wiping his glasses again, Chang Guangxi solemnly took the script outline and studied it carefully, but the more he read, the more something felt off.

He directly raised his concerns with Chen Yuan:

"Mr. Chen"

"Director Chang, you can just call me Xiao Chen."

"Alright, then I won't stand on ceremony. Little Chen, the animal characters are quite interesting."

"How could Po, who only trained with Master Red Panda for a few months, directly defeat the formidable Fist of Fury and even the Crippled Leopard?"

Instead of directly answering Director Chang's question, Chen Yuan asked a seemingly unrelated question in return:
"Director Chang, have you seen the currently showing 'The Matrix'?"

(The Matrix was introduced to China on January 14, 2000)
“I went to see it with my grandson when he was on winter vacation.”

"How do you feel?"

"To be honest, I didn't understand it very well. Besides the cool fight scenes and gun battles, the movie also had a lot of cultural metaphors. I don't know much about American culture."

Chen Yuan poured a cup of tea for the over-sixty-year-old factory director and said with a smile:
"Do you know why the male protagonist Neo becomes the savior?"

Chang Guangxi picked up his teacup, pondered for a long time, and then said, "This must be related to the beliefs and customs of the chosen ones in Western religion, right?"

"That's right, that's exactly the point."

Just like Neo in The Matrix is ​​'the one,' Po is the Dragon Warrior because he is 'the one.'

Chang Guangxi took a sip of tea to calm his earlier excitement and the fatigue from his long period of thinking. He looked at the young man with sharp eyebrows and bright eyes in front of him and asked hesitantly:
"So, Xiao Chen, you wrote a coming-of-age story that's cloaked in Eastern kung fu and cultural elements, but actually has a Western core—a story of individual heroism?" Meeting the scrutinizing gaze of Director Chang, which held a hint of disappointment and hesitation, Chen Yuan readily admitted without batting an eye:
"That's right, that's exactly it. To be honest, I wrote the English script first, and then translated the version of the story you are seeing."

Chang Guangxi's back hunched over slightly as he put down his teacup and savored the bitterness in his mouth.

Sigh, I can understand.

After all, even "Lotus Lantern," which brought together the strongest animation production team in China, couldn't break even. Isn't it only natural for Xiao Chen to seek a market breakthrough by producing an animated film aimed at overseas audiences?

"So, Xiao Chen, the animated film you're making is deliberately written with such a simple story so that foreigners can understand it?"

"Yes, it's still too difficult for foreigners to understand our philosophy of 'emptiness is form, form is emptiness'."
Instead, give them a simple, easily understandable story of individual heroism.

Actually, the foreshadowing was laid earlier in the script, which closely linked the Divine Dragon Manual with the Divine Dragon Hero. Everyone believed that the Divine Dragon Manual contained unparalleled martial arts skills, and that only the Divine Dragon Hero could view it.

It even gives people the feeling that the Dragon Warrior is the Dragon Warrior because he practiced the Dragon Manual.

Finally, Po's father's words made him realize that the Dragon Warrior didn't become the Dragon Warrior because of the Dragon Manual, but because he was the Dragon Warrior.

The key to becoming the Dragon Warrior lies not in whether one has mastered the unparalleled martial arts in the Dragon Manual, but solely in one's own abilities.

The idea of ​​'believing in one's own strength'—this somewhat idealistic storytelling trope might seem absurd to us adults, but it resonates with children and a large Western audience.

To avoid any unforeseen complications and unnecessary trouble, Chen Yuan has no intention of revealing to outsiders that he plans to use the momentum of the Olympic bid to promote "Kung Fu Panda".

"I see, I see! I was so ignorant. I didn't know you, Chen Yuan, had such a deep understanding of the European and American film market!"

"It's nothing. Just look at their cultural and entertainment works to understand their thoughts and preferences."

Chang Guangxi admired the capable young man in front of him, knowing that he had carefully studied the overseas market and wanted to seriously produce an animated film.

He roused himself and began to seriously discuss the specific details of the collaboration with Chen Yuan: "Xiao Chen, what kind of movie do you plan to make from this script?"

"The script is a classic Hollywood three-act film, with a runtime of around 90 minutes."

Because of the large number of fight scenes, maintaining a smooth frame rate requires increasing the amount of animation work, which may be several times more than that of "Lotus Lantern".

"Director Chang, were you frightened?"

scare?
Haha, what he's afraid of is that all the employees in the factory will be out of work. He'll only be happy if there's endless work to do!
Doubling the workload means doubling the production budget!
Ultimately, Metaverse and Shanghai Animation Film Studio finalized a collaboration to produce an experimental short film to see how it went.

If everything goes well, Chen Yuan will use the Shanghai Animation Film Studio's brand to provide all the storyboards and animation requirements.

The film's copyright belongs entirely to Yuan Universe Company; Shanghai Animation Film Studio is merely the production company that undertakes Chen Yuan's drawing and animation needs.

Wages are paid in installments according to different production progress.

The production of "Lotus Lantern" took three years and involved more than 300 staff members, with a total of more than 150,000 animated frames. The production cost was 12 million RMB.

Although Shanghai Animation Film Studio didn't have to consider anything else and could only produce according to requirements, the production time for "Kung Fu Panda" was compressed to less than a year.
Furthermore, it seems that Shanghai Animation Film Studio can't handle computer-generated special effects; they'll have to find special effects companies in Hong Kong or Hollywood to do it.

A rough estimate suggests that it would cost at least 3000 million to produce.

There's no other way; this much money can't be raised just by casually asking for sponsorships. Right now, the only thing we can do is desperately shoot commercials to earn money!

(End of this chapter)