© Shen Xiangyuan · Author ｜ 吕 玥

  • “The one who can’t kill me makes me stronger.” This Nietzsche famous saying is the best summary of all walks of life in the epidemic.

    Although the black swan brings risks, shocks, pressures, and uncertainties, today, people are avoiding losses through anti-fragile strains, even in the longer-term time dimension, so “profit” .

    The hugely impacted catering industry increased its income through take-out business and online sales of food ingredients. The completely closed cultural tourism industry used the online “cloud tourism” to save the market. Model, the offline education industry has moved to the online “cloud classroom”.

    The film and television industry is not immune to this epidemic. During the Spring Festival and Valentine ’s Day, more than twenty films were all withdrawn. The crew in Hengdian Film and Television City stopped working, and the film and television company faced the risk of capital chain breakage and doubled its losses.

    But this is also a great time for bitter sea polyester. Losses are unavoidable. How to find vitality in the crisis is the challenge that all practitioners in the film and television industry must face.

    Holding crew and permanent motion producers

    Speaking from the “source”, film and television drama production is currently an industry driven by “people.” It requires a large number of staff to gather offline to start filming. Generally, a crew is composed of production, director, actor, photography, lighting, field affairs and other groups, and the total number of personnel is almost two or three hundred.

    So when the epidemic broke out, the crew was shut down. According to public data, in Hengdian alone, after January 27, there were 20 crew members and 11 preparatory crew members, with a total of more than 6,000 employees. The shutdown means that each crew has no output but still has to pay for hundreds of people. Chen Yitao, the producer of the costume online drama “Clear”, once said on Weibo that he would lose 500,000 a day after the shutdown.

    “As long as I don’t go back, all the crew who stay in the crew will be paid.” A camera told “Deep Sound”, which means to be on standby and resume work at any time.

    The crew encountered “no problem” and everyone can only wait. The good news is that the Hengdian Film and Television City has gradually resumed work on February 13 and has steadily advanced its implementation in stages. In other regions, such as Guizhou, where the epidemic is less severe,Some crews have also invested in the rhythm of overtime. And Chen Yitao also posted on Weibo that “Clearance” is actively preparing for the approval of resumption of work, and also received the medium-term payment of Youku platform in advance.

    In the upstream of the film and television industry, it is not just shooting that is in urgent need of recovery. The project development before the production, the preparatory work and the review of the film after production also need to be carried out normally to ensure the normal operation of the entire company and industry. Under the influence of the epidemic, these jobs had to be transferred online.

    But it is worth noting that due to the special nature of the film and television industry and the habit of practitioners to work offline for a long time, it is actually difficult to actually move the work to a universal online office platform. Zhao Meirong, deputy director of Beijing May 17th Film Culture and Media Co., Ltd., told Shen Shen that the epidemic caught film and television workers by surprise, how to bring completed projects to market, and how to carry out planned projects. Circling in my head I don’t know how to solve it.

    This actually exposes a problem: the digital management of domestic film and television started late, and the digitalization of the entire process of film and television production is far from universal.

    Overseas, Movie Magic Budgeting is the most widely used budget and cost estimation tool. Film and television practitioners can create and edit comprehensive budget and income and expenditure work of various sizes through the application, and can also efficiently control and supervise the workflow. Let the team make the best production decisions.

    In China, the Internet industryThe project management has been digitalized for a long time. The project management functions of tools such as Teambition are very mature. From the visual display of the project, the division of labor to the confirmation of the work progress, all can be implemented efficiently. Coupled with the online collaborative office on the air outlet, with the help of tools such as Dingding, Feishu, and WeChat, the wave of online business has arrived.

    Movie Magic Budgeting

    The epidemic is a crisis and an accelerator of film and television industrialization.

    More digital production management platforms for film and television production will increase industry awareness during this special period, and several mature film and television production management systems at the head will also be recognized by more practitioners.

    For example, during the Shanghai TV Festival in June last year, Alibaba Pictures launched Yunshang Production, a digital management platform for the entire process of film and television production. This platform can realize the digitalization of the production process, real-time data sharing, and budget and expenditure Strong monitoring.

    During this epidemic, Yunshang Filming mainly provided three services: telecommuting, cloud watching and live training for film and television companies and film crews.

    On the first day of construction on February 3, Yunshang Production released the “Remote Office Guide for the Film and Television Industry”, which provided customized online solutions for remote resumption of work for many film and television companies.. In response to the original “offline film review” situation, Yunshang Production also temporarily established a project team, which lasted for 7 days to launch the “cloud viewing film” function.

    Zhao Meirong, deputy director of Beijing May 17th Film Culture Media Co., Ltd., told Shen Shen that with the remote resumption solution of Yunshang Film Production, the team’s preparations for the establishment of the team were smoothly carried out. “The” Cloud Watching Film “is even more pleasantly surprised. No matter whether it is fluency or security, our film and television project review work can proceed smoothly.

    During the epidemic, Yunshang Production also launched the “Yunshang Film and Television Production Live Salon” project, which will be held once a week to provide learning channels and improve professional skills for film and television people whose projects are suspended and cannot resume work. Producer Weng Qianru from Dabaixiaohei said that the theme of each issue of Yunshang Live Salon is focused on the current hotspots and pain points. From the aspects of script, production, risk, etc., the experts are invited to share the actual practical cases to help everyone during the epidemic. Eliminate the worry, charge in time, full of dry goods, and benefit a lot. “It is reported that the Yunshang Live Broadcast Salon has currently held 3 sessions with a total of 2,200 participants.

    The timely action has given Yunshang Production a lot of positive feedback.

    Stop-loss in theaters, offline business awaits rebound

    Compared to productions that can be made online, offline cinemas are not so lucky.

    The epidemic has lasted for one month, and the cinemas that have lost two important dates, the Spring Festival and Valentine’s Day, are still unable to operate normally. Although the industry has released the “recommendations for resuming work” at the end of February, the public The reopening of extremely densely populated venues shows clear resistance.

    In addition, even if the epidemic eases the theater’s reopening, as the public is still in a panic, the number of moviegoers in the theater will not quickly rise to normal levels. According to iResearch data, after the epidemic, the viewing index is -0.15. Users in fourth-tier cities and below, and low-income users have more pessimistic expectations.

    In addition to the loss of box office revenue, the greater pressure on theaters comes from the cost of continued wear and tear. According to data from iResearch, a typical chain theater in a second-tier city has to pay at least 500,000 employees’ salaries, property costs, rent and social security payments each month.

    Shen Yan, the manager of Huaying Qinggong Studios, a subsidiary of Pearl River Pictures, also told “Shen Xiang” that although employees’ wages are only paid for some living expenses, other fixed expenses such as rent and management are still paid as usual.

    In order to minimize the cost loss and get out of the income-free state, the theater has started a take-out business of hoarding goods.

    Since February, cinemas across the country have begun to sell packaged foods such as popcorn, sausages, and colas. Many chain cinemas, including Wanda and Jinyi, have begun e-commerce business through Weibo and WeChat.

    But the problem exposed by the theater at this time is that the operating level of the online platform is uneven.

    According to Shen Yan, the manager of the movie studio interviewed by Shenxiang, each cinema has its own media and online platform, but whether it is done well or not is another matter. The cinema is not completely not paying attention to the online, but the public is used to buying tickets on the ticketing platform and buying snacks offline. The online sales model of the cinema has not been paid attention to.

    Shen Yan said that the hungry platform has largely solved this problem. Recently, Alibaba Pictures ’theater digital intelligent operation service platform Phoenix Yunzhi has jointly launched the” Cinema Delivery Service “business, which can help theaters reduce financial pressure. This is also the first platform where ordinary consumers can simply buy theater sales.

    According to public information, the “movie delivery service” business was first proposed by an Alibaba film company in Jiangsu in mid-February. Contact the local hungry first to launch it, and soon the project became a National business. Up to now, nearly 20 film management companies such as Wanda Cinemas, Pacific Cinemas, and Jinyi Cinemas have reached a cooperation intention, which is expected to cover the take-out demand of more than 1,000 theaters across the country.

    At the same time, the cinemas that have been closed have not completely stopped their work. Daily disinfection, cleaning, and maintenance workIt’s still going on, and there are employees on duty every day.

    Shen Yan said that Phoenix Yunzhi is also preparing to provide theater epidemic support. For example, Yunzhi Mall cooperated with 1688 enterprises to purchase and provided disinfection solutions, alcohol and other anti-epidemic materials to the cinema supply support. In addition, Phoenix Yunzhi also launched a health check-in function, allowing the theater to better understand the physical health of employees and prepare for safe return to work.

    In addition, according to Shen Yan, although there are currently support policies and special fund subsidies for theaters, because the units need to interpret their policies according to their own systems before they can be implemented, the theaters have not yet been implemented. Get subsidies on the spot.

    Phoenix Yunzhi has also launched financial support actions, such as providing 6 months of free services for newly opened cinemas, providing high-quality technology and after-sales team support, which has greatly reduced the opening of new cinemas. Operating pressure. At the same time, Fenghuang Yunzhi will also provide financial support for the restoration of theaters, and related services such as resumption of labor insurance, along with online merchants bank and entertainment treasures under Ali Pictures, an entertainment financial insurance service platform. Yunzhi Mall also cooperates with internal resources to provide accounting services for the theater’s material purchase in Yunzhi Mall, alleviating the cash pressure of the theater at this stage.

    Like film and television producers, studio employees can also take this opportunity to conduct business learning and training. Shen Yan said that during the shutdown, employees were also practicing internal skills. Recently, theater staff have been following live broadcast courses conducted by Phoenix Cloud Intelligence, which mainly include explaining a series of excellent marketing cases, effectively improving marketing conversion, and a series of methods to increase theater revenue and strengthen management.

    It is understood that at present, the first lesson of Yunzhi Public Class has been launched, and the number of people reported has reached 1,000 within 3 hours. After the emergency expansion into three groups of simultaneous live broadcasts, the maximum number of people online has reached 2,550, nearly More than 90% have expressed their willingness to take the course again, and the quality of the course has been widely recognized by practitioners.

    Marketing is worse than learning

    The film crew stopped shooting, the project was postponed, and the film was withdrawn. A series of events formed the domino effect. Film and television marketing was another card that was pushed down.

    Because there are no films released, the first major problem that the epidemic brought to film and television marketing companies was the extension and cancellation of the project.

    Zhu Weijie, Chairman of Infinite Freedom Culture, said in an interview with Shenshen that currently four of the company’s online drama and movie projects have been shut down due to the epidemic, because movie theaters can only be extended or changed to online issued. Fortunately, noneSince the beginning of the diversification of the “marketing +” industrial layout, it has completed the share reform and listed on the New Third Board in the past few years. Through standardized operations, advanced layout and enriched capital, it has greatly enhanced the company’s ability to resist risks At present, the company’s capital and business reserves are relatively abundant, the capitalization progress is smooth, and the team is very stable. At present, the company is preparing for an IPO, and is also stepping up the development and preparation of new projects, strengthening the online communication and training of the team, and making full preparations for the foreseeable market recovery and business growth after the epidemic.

    In addition, there is also a marketing partner of a certain film in the Spring Festival telling “Shen Xiang”. At present, marketing companies are mainly summing up and reviewing the previous marketing work, and also preparing for future films. It is hard to say when to resume work, it is estimated that it will be at least May.

    The extension of the project means that the film and television marketing companies, like the producers and theaters, are also in a state of living beyond their means.

    Since marketing is an intelligence + labor-intensive industry, the labor cost is relatively high. Some people in the industry told “Shenxiang” that some companies have already laid off employees. Some companies have adopted a method of paying only 70% of their salaries. Others have adopted rotating leave without pay. In short, at this stage, everyone is Control costs in a variety of ways.

    At the same time, the financial pressure on marketing companies is also very high.

    According to “Shen Xiang”, marketing companies are currently facing fierce competition. Many companies will provide advance services to secure cases. At present, the project is tentatively scheduled, which will increase financial pressure. In addition, the industry’s overall advertising costs are falling, because the network copyright fees previously sold to video sites are very high, and the basic good films are tens of millions. But now that the Internet copyright fee has dropped as a whole, the filmmakers have also reduced the cost of advertising. For most marketing companies with less bargaining power, the service fee has also dropped.

    The companies in the upper reaches of the industry are struggling to start, while film and television marketing may be “no job to start.” In this case, the first aid to the industry can only be to soothe emotions and make inquiries difficult.

    Shenxiang has learned from several film and television marketing companies that Beacon began to conduct one-on-one visits to industry customers in February and had difficulty understanding. After the inquiry, a series of market and industry analysis reports and future marketing development plans were released soon. The content completely touched the company’s many current pain points, and also helped the company to reduce the panic, and instead think more rationally about the countermeasures and future plans.

    In addition, marketing companies that are unable to start work are also actively learning to charge for the rebound after the epidemic. The lighthouse has also recently been promoted by the publicTwo programs, research empowerment and college empowerment, have been introduced to provide practitioners with more “dry goods”.

    From the content of Beacon ’s WeChat public account, we can see, for example, “User Word of Mouth Research Series: Finding the Key to Open the User ’s Heart” explains in detail how to predict movie word of mouth, user rating characteristics, and influence users on movies The elements of evaluation and the core elements that help the movie box office break the circle; “Lighthouse Class” has also launched the first lesson, which mainly interprets the value of the movie poster materials that are most easily overlooked in marketing.

    According to several film and television marketing companies interviewed by “Shen Xiang,” Beacon’s recent live broadcast courses are also very practical. The Academy Empowerment Program launched by Beacon includes four themes: “Beacon Academy Open Class”, “New Era of Digital Marketing of Movies”, “Data Kaleidoscope”, and “Playing Movie Data”. The main content includes both industry elites and Experts’ live courses also have a series of methodologies that rely on big data.

    To sum up, in the face of a “black swan” incident such as the epidemic, whether it is self-help or assistance, the film and television industry has paid more attention to how to find problems, learn lessons, and take this opportunity to learn to recharge and improve the industry’s ability. In addition to crying, these actions are obviously more beneficial.

    Looking back at history, after the end of SARS in 2003, the CEPA agreement rescued Hong Kong films, and Hong Kong films entered a new era of northbound cooperation. Private companies in mainland China have gained equal status with state-owned studios and have become the main force in the film market. At the same time, after the epidemic ended, a number of outstanding classic film and television content such as “Mobile Phone” and “Infernal Affairs 3” emerged and achieved great success.

    Demand is always there. The epidemic situation is just pressing the pause button, and the survival of the fittest will be accelerated when it is started again. Facing the black swan and jumping out of the quagmire in an anti-fragile manner is the universal method for turning dangers into safety for all walks of life.

    Fluctuations, chaos, pressure, and risks, which must also give birth to resilience and new opportunities.