1979 Golden Age

Feimaison has three founders, Shermer, Sutherland and Prescott.

They all started out as first-line animators and were able to write scripts, draw, and direct animations. They were all-round talents. They hit it off in the 1960s and established Feimeixun.

Early that morning, Xie Mo was reading the newspaper. Sutherland walked in and said: "I have prepared the content of the lecture. The level of Chinese animation is very high and we cannot let them look down upon it."

"Their technology and artistry are great, but they lack commercial value," Prescott said. "That's true, but maybe this time is an exception..."

Xie Mo, the eldest of the three, patted the newspaper and said with a smile: "This Chinese guy is very interesting. He has repeatedly said that he is preparing a dinosaur-themed cartoon, and they are coming to visit. I think there may be cooperation. intention."

"Cooperation? We are an old company! We can't agree to it casually." Sutherland said. "Since he revealed it in advance, he is making it clear to us. We will know after we take a look."

After a while, the visiting group arrived.

After introducing and greeting each other, Xie Mo paid attention when shaking hands with Chen Qi. The media said that this Chinese man was very young. When they met, they found that he was younger than expected and was still an apprentice in the industry.

Sutherland whispered: "He is about the same age as my child, can he really take care of things?" "Didn't he make a very popular movie, the one about smashing cars?"

"Oh! Is that him? He's very American. I even want He-Man to smash a Toyota car."

The three of them seem to be purer than those in Hollywood. It is also interesting for them to start this company. They do not accept financing or shares, nor do they accept listing.

If the sponsor's dad wants it, he has to buy the entire company. Then he can't change the internal structure or create anything, but he still has to provide funds. This was of course unpleasant, so a few years later, Feimison was directly dissolved by the parent company instead of being sold.

Everyone arrived at the conference room.

Xie Mo gave the lecture and said with a smile: "Welcome Chinese friends. We have been wanting to exchange something with you, and then we felt that our cartoon production model should be a good topic."

He also put up the slides.

"Feimeixun currently has about 100 employees. We mainly provide programs for TV stations. We produce an average of 40-50 episodes of cartoons every year, about 800-1,000 minutes.

There are usually two models. The first one is commissioned by the TV station. They propose ideas and we process them. The second method is to find the script ourselves and show it to them. If it works, we will do a pilot episode first. After it passes, we will sign a one-season contract.

If the ratings are good, I will continue to do more in the future. "

He gave a speech, and then Chen Qi came up.

I didn’t bring anyone from Meiying with me this time, because Meiying generally disapproved of outsourcing, so I simply didn’t bring them with me. Chen Qi is a film maker and came to the United States to teach cartoons. "Thank you Mr. Shermer. This is indeed a very good topic, which is novel to us. Every country has its own characteristics. I will also briefly talk about China's animation production."

"We are a studio system. All costs are borne by the country's cultural department, and production is planned every year. For example, if a studio is given a stipulation to produce 400 minutes of cartoons this year, that is their task.

Including wages, living costs, and work costs, all are borne by the government. Especially for work costs, you may have to consider discarded paper, dye, and film. We basically don’t use the rest except for film, which is limited.

Once the film is produced, there is no need to worry about the market. There is a specialized company that acquires the film. The purchase price is about 20% higher than the cost, and then the company puts it on the market. This creates a very stable and conducive environment for creation, and our painters and animators are able to maintain a maximum artistic atmosphere...

".." The three foreigners were dumbfounded.

They know that Chinese animation is great, but they don’t understand the studio system. It is no exaggeration to say that China's studio system is the best environment for animation creation, and it is the envy of many foreign colleagues.

"You don't have to consider the commercial nature of your work at all?"

"Yes!"

"Even the salary is borne by the state?" "Yes!"

"My God!"

Xie Mo exclaimed, those who make animations are different from those who make movies. To put it simply, although those who make animations also consider the market, they are generally more literary and youthful. "Then do you do TV animation?"

"Very, very few. We usually only make animated films, because those creators think... TV animation is vulgar. Sorry, I don't mean you." "It's okay, if it's convenient, I can ask about your salary. How much is it?" Xie Mo said.

"It's a few dozen yuan per capita. If it's convenient, can I ask you?" Chen Qi said with a smile. "$2,000 per capita!"

..” Both sides fell silent.

The wages of animators in the United States have been very high for a hundred years, and those in Japan were also very high at the beginning. Later, when the TV animation assembly line matured and there were more people working in it, they began to squeeze the bottom layer and became nothing more than cattle and horses.

People from the foreign affairs department looked around, feeling rather confused.

According to the usual understanding, Chen Qi's words are exposing his shortcomings and are not good for the country's image, but now he is not sure what happened.

The atmosphere in the conference room stagnated for two seconds. Chen Qi said: "Mr. Xie Mo, you just said that a new work will be released this year. We are very interested in it. Can you explain it in a little detail?"

"sure!"

Xie Mo went up again, and Balabala said, "Give me strength!" He also performed live and didn't feel like he was second-rate at all. Sutherland and Prescott even applauded.

Then, he took the initiative to invite: "I also want to hear about your dinosaur-themed animation!" "Okay, let me talk about it too."

Chen Qi went up and said: "I am an avid dinosaur fan. My job is to be a screenwriter and producer. I have been thinking about related stories. I finally got some inspiration not long ago and wrote a short story. I have asked you to My American friend contacted the publisher and prepared to publish it.”

"Publishing a novel in the United States is great, congratulations!" Sutherland seemed to be in the atmosphere group and clapped his hands again.

Chen Qi nodded in thanks and continued: "The original intention of this story is very simple. What would happen if a group of dinosaurs arrived in modern society? What would happen if these dinosaurs became intelligent and understood technology?

Continuing along this line of thinking, this is the article "Interstellar Dinosaurs". "

In 1937, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" was the world's first color animation and animated feature film, and earned a global box office of US$184 million at a cost of US$1.5 million that year;

11955 "Lady and the Tramp" was the first widescreen animated film and cost $4 million.