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Internet giants pushing future of film online
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Internet companies have become the latest change agents in China's booming film industry. At the 17th Shanghai Film Festival which ended on June 22, the buzzword on everyone's lips was BAT, referring to Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, the three leading Internet companies in China. Baidu is the largest Chinese search engine, Alibaba owns China's largest online business platform Taobao, and Tencent has multiple products widely used by netizens, such as social networking and communication service providers WeChat and QQ. The online giants are now turning to filmmaking. Tencent vice-president Sun Zhonghuai announced at SIFF that the company will invest in six films, including Dragon Blade, starring Jackie Chan, and Zhong Kui: Snow Girl and Dark Crystal, a fantasy blockbuster starring Chinese A-lister Chen Kun. Sun would not reveal the exact sum of money, but Chan's film has a budget of $65 million. Alibaba launched the second round of fund raising on Yulebao, a crowd funding service for films, on June 13. In less than 24 hours the funding target of $14.6 million was met by 160,000 purchasers, who have collectively financed five films. Baidu has set up a venture based in Los Angeles, the first project of which will be Kong, an animated picture adapted from the Chinese literary classic Journey to the West. Many other Internet companies have also entered the film industry, providing diversified products and services, including making films available to online viewers and discounted tickets. Gewara, an online ticket-selling website, sold 1 billion yuan ($158 million) worth of film tickets last year, more than many traditional theater chains. The biggest impact these Internet companies will have on the industry will be their influence in clamping down on piracy, according to Sun from Tencent, "People are now more used to paying to watch a film online," he says. "With more and more video providing websites joining in, a reasonable pricing system for copyright has been set up." Tencent releases a monthly package of more than 1,600 films on its website, priced at only 30 yuan, the cost of about five pirated films on DVD. Youku.com, a leading video sharing website, has similar products. "We are in fact eliminating pirated DVDs from the options available to viewers, because they will have easy and economic approaches to legitimate films of good quality," says Zhu Huilong, vice-president of Youku.com. The online video sharing can expose a film to more viewers - China had 618 million netizens as of December 2013, according to China Internet Network Information Center. "A film is usually screened in theaters for one month. It can be available on a video website seven or eight times longer," Zhu adds. But the Internet companies are more ambitious than to simply broadcast films, and moguls from traditional film companies are taking notice. Yu Dong, the chairman of Bona Films, a NASDAQ-listed studio and distributor which also owns theaters, claims that "all the film companies will work for BAT in the future". "As the number of big screens increases dramatically, small screens are developing with equal speed," Yu says. "Mobile Internet, iPads and the sitting room have become popular ways to watch films. Traditional film companies are facing severe challenges." Yu's words were echoed by Ren Zhonglun, chairman of Shanghai Film Group. "Today's filmgoers are younger than before," he says. "They live online, as what we call as 'aboriginals on the Internet'. The Internet companies have innate advantages in studying and understanding their preference." LeVision, the film arm of Internet company LeTV, has a special team studying data collected from various online communities. The analysis of the fanbase of Tiny Times, a 2013 Chinese film based on young writer Guo Jingming's novel, has contributed significantly to the film's success, says CEO Zhang Zhao. "The traditional model is, we make this film and we want you to see it, but in future the model will be, we find what you want to see and we make it for you," Zhang says. "It is totally possible that netizens will be involved in story development (of movies) in the future." Zhu from Youku believes that the Internet is also an excellent platform for rising actors and directors. "By online short films or drama series we can easily collect feedback from viewers on new actors and filmmakers," Zhu says. "From our platform we have easy access to find what kind of films are more popular than others, who are the favorite actors among different age groups, what is discussed the most by viewers." |
在6月22日結(jié)束的第十七屆上海電影節(jié)上,大家都在討論的一個(gè)流行詞是BAT,BAT指的是中國(guó)的三大互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司——百度,阿里巴巴和騰訊。 百度是中國(guó)最大的搜索引擎,阿里巴巴擁有中國(guó)最大的電子商務(wù)平臺(tái)——淘寶,騰訊已擁有被網(wǎng)民廣泛使用的多種產(chǎn)品,如社交網(wǎng)絡(luò)和通信服務(wù)——微信和QQ。 網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨頭們正在轉(zhuǎn)向電影制作。騰訊副總裁孫忠懷在上海國(guó)際電影節(jié)上宣布,騰訊公司將投資制作六部電影,包括由成龍和崔始源主演的《龍之刃》和由中國(guó)一線演員陳坤主演的奇幻大片《鐘馗:雪姑娘和黑暗水晶》。孫忠懷沒(méi)有透露具體的投資金額,但《龍之刃》制作費(fèi)高達(dá)6500萬(wàn)美元。 6月13日,阿里巴巴在余額寶上推出了第二輪資金籌集,即為電影而做出的融資服務(wù)。在不到24個(gè)小時(shí)的時(shí)間里,16萬(wàn)的買家使資金籌集達(dá)到了1460萬(wàn)美元的目標(biāo),他們籌集的全部資金將用于五部電影的拍攝。 百度已成立了一個(gè)合資公司,總部設(shè)在洛杉磯,它的第一個(gè)項(xiàng)目將是《悟空》,是改編自中國(guó)文學(xué)名著《西游記》的一部動(dòng)畫(huà)片。 許多其他的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司也進(jìn)入了電影行業(yè),并提供了多樣化的產(chǎn)品和服務(wù),包括使在線觀眾可在網(wǎng)上看電影,以及發(fā)售打折電影票。網(wǎng)上售票網(wǎng)站格瓦拉去年售出的電影票共值10億元,比許多傳統(tǒng)連鎖影院多。 騰訊副總裁孫忠懷說(shuō),這些互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司對(duì)電影行業(yè)最大的影響將是在打擊盜版方面。 “現(xiàn)在人們更習(xí)慣于在網(wǎng)上觀看電影,”他說(shuō)?!彪S著越來(lái)越多的視頻網(wǎng)站的加入,相關(guān)部門已經(jīng)建立了合理的版權(quán)定價(jià)系統(tǒng)。” 騰訊發(fā)布的觀影包月套餐中包括1600多部的電影,售價(jià)僅為30元,這是五部左右的DVD盜版電影的價(jià)格。優(yōu)酷網(wǎng)也有類似的產(chǎn)品。 “我們其實(shí)是在為觀眾消除盜版DVD,這樣他們就能很方面地觀看到實(shí)惠又合法的好電影,”優(yōu)酷副總裁朱輝龍說(shuō)到。 在線視頻共享業(yè)務(wù)可以將一部電影推向更多的觀眾,中國(guó)互聯(lián)網(wǎng)絡(luò)信息中心的數(shù)據(jù)顯示,截至2013年12月,中國(guó)有6.18億的網(wǎng)民。 “一部電影通常在電影院里放映一個(gè)月。而在視頻網(wǎng)站上放映的時(shí)間是電影院的七八倍長(zhǎng),”朱補(bǔ)充說(shuō)道。 但傳統(tǒng)的電影公司巨頭們都注意到,互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司的雄心遠(yuǎn)不止是簡(jiǎn)單地播放影片。 博納影業(yè)總裁于冬宣稱,“在未來(lái),所有電影公司都將為網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨頭打工”。 “隨著‘大屏幕’數(shù)量的急劇增加,‘小屏幕’以同樣的速度發(fā)展著,”于說(shuō),“用手機(jī)、平板電腦和客廳觀看電影已流行起來(lái)。傳統(tǒng)的電影公司面臨著嚴(yán)峻的挑戰(zhàn)?!?/p> 上海電影集團(tuán)董事長(zhǎng)任仲倫也表示贊同。 “現(xiàn)在的電影觀眾比以前年輕,”他說(shuō),“他們生活于網(wǎng)絡(luò)之中,我們稱之為‘互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上的土著人’。互聯(lián)網(wǎng)公司在學(xué)習(xí)和了解他們的偏好上具有先天優(yōu)勢(shì)。” 樂(lè)視影業(yè)的特別數(shù)據(jù)研究小組研究著各種各樣從網(wǎng)絡(luò)社區(qū)收集來(lái)的數(shù)據(jù)。2013年的電影《小時(shí)代》,是根據(jù)年輕作家郭敬明的小說(shuō)拍成的。樂(lè)視影業(yè)首席執(zhí)行官?gòu)堈颜f(shuō),對(duì)該電影粉絲團(tuán)的分析大大促進(jìn)了電影的成功。 “傳統(tǒng)的模式是我們拍了這部電影,我們希望人們看它,但未來(lái)的模式是,我們發(fā)現(xiàn)人們想看什么,然后我們?yōu)樗麄兣?,”張說(shuō)?!霸谖磥?lái),網(wǎng)民融入(電影)故事的發(fā)展完全是有可能的。” 優(yōu)酷副總裁朱輝龍認(rèn)為,互聯(lián)網(wǎng)也是新興演員和導(dǎo)演的好平臺(tái)?!蓖ㄟ^(guò)在線短片或電視劇,我們可以很容易地收集來(lái)自觀眾關(guān)于新演員和制片人反饋,”朱說(shuō),“通過(guò)我們的平臺(tái),我們很容易就可以發(fā)現(xiàn)什么樣的電影比較受歡迎,不同年齡段最喜歡的演員是誰(shuí)以及觀眾討論最多的話題是什么?!?/p> 掃一掃,關(guān)注微博微信
(中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)記者劉煒 譯者 Caijianying) |
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