My Animation Era

Movies in the Year of the Rooster are works that focus on emotions, focusing on nostalgia.

Since we want to feel nostalgic, we must try our best to prevent new characters from stealing the limelight of old characters. Therefore, in this movie, there is only one new character, and the other characters who appear are all old faces familiar to the audience.

The lambs in Yangcun, the Big Big Wolf family, the seven evil wolves, the handsome brother and the handsome black brothers, the giant frogs, bees and rabbit residents in the weird world...

The materials for the above characters, including the background scenes, do not need to be redrawn. They can just use the original drawings of "Odd World War".

This saves time!

If it were to be completely torn down and repainted, the preliminary preparations alone might take a month or even longer.

However, directly applying the original material greatly reduced the workload of the film "The Golden Rooster" production team and saved Guo Hongwei a lot of time.

As the saying goes, time is money.

Although the time saved cannot be directly converted into banknotes and used as funds for the production team of "The Golden Rooster", from a certain perspective, the ample production period can make the quality of the film more perfect.

Xiao Guo thought so.

It is the beginning of October on the Gregorian calendar and the beginning of September on the lunar calendar. There are still four months until the Chinese New Year! Although it is a bit rushed to make an animated film in four months, it still scores...

For a normal animated film, every aspect strives to be perfect, and the time spent is calculated in years, often starting in two or three years.

But the Year of the Rooster movie is not a normal animated movie, but an alternative continuation of "Odd World War".

High emotional intelligence: don’t take the usual path!

Low EQ: A condensed and simplified version of the second season of "Odd World Wars" wrapped in a zodiac movie...

Based on this standard, let alone four months, if Gu Miao is determined, he might be able to make a decent finished movie in four weeks.

certainly!

Don’t worry about the quality of the animated movie made in four weeks, it is an extended version of the TV animation.

“We still have to ensure quality!”

After Gu Miao read the script and listened to Guo Hongwei's introduction to the general situation of the "Golden Rooster" project team, she frowned and warned: "Sentiment does not mean shoddy work. In terms of film quality, it must be at least half of the level of The Lion King."

"Huh?! Lion King?"

Upon hearing this, Guo Hongwei's eyes suddenly widened with disbelief on his face.

Half as good as The Lion King?

It doesn’t sound like it’s very difficult to do, but what is the budget, the lineup, and the level of animation of The Lion King?

This is totally incomparable!

The production cost of one "Lion King" is enough to make ten major Pleasant Goat Zodiac series movies. The two are not of the same magnitude at all, and achieving half the level is far more difficult than imagined.

"Okay, stop pretending to be aggrieved."

Seeing Xiao Guo's bitter expression, Gu Miao rolled her eyes and said, "You also know that the Pleasant Goat Zodiac movie series is in urgent need of a salvation movie to save its reputation..."

The previous film was so mediocre, and coupled with the low popularity of Pleasant Goat TV animation, if the movie doesn't show some sincerity, I'm afraid it will really die.

The most direct sincerity that the audience can feel is undoubtedly the quality of the film.

It is difficult to achieve the same quality level as "The Lion King". It will cost a lot of money, and the production cycle will not be too short, so the cost perspective is not worthwhile.

But to achieve half the quality level of "The Lion King", to be honest, it is not as difficult as Guo Hongwei described. He is just complaining to Gu Miao for additional investment.

Additional budgeting is not possible.

The production budget of the Pleasant Goat Zodiac series of movies basically has a limit, and it is impossible to approve as much as you apply for.

This is just like a credit card limit.

The credit card limit is determined by the card-issuing bank based on the user's credit base and repayment ability. If the repayment capacity is exceeded, the bank is afraid that it will not be able to collect the debt!

The same goes for the production budget. Gu Miao allocates a budget based on a rough estimate based on the movie's expected box office revenue.

How much will be given according to the application?

Then if the box office cannot recover the production costs, wouldn’t Wanbao Animation suffer a huge loss?

According to the investigation and analysis of the movie "The Golden Rooster" from the script, production staff, subject matter, schedule and market, the box office is expected to be only about 500-800 million.

Based on this expected box office, Gu Miao approved a maximum budget of 100 million. If it exceeds 100 million, there will be great risks, and the budget may be wiped out.

…

With no additional budget and extremely high film quality, Guo Hongwei was worried.

But he is not the person who is most troubled by Wanbao Animation. There is another person who faces a more complicated and worse situation than him and bears greater pressure than him.

That's Ma Kui!

As the animation director of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" appointed by President Gu, Ma Kui has been completely stunned since the last time his leader came to Wanbao to inspect his work and patted him on the shoulder and told him to "do a good job".

This kind of demonic confusion refers to his mental state.

The instructions from the big boss, the status of the Four Great Classics... were like a heavy stone weighing on his heart, making him breathless. He was afraid that if something was not done well, he would not be able to see Jiangdong's elders.

Under constant pressure, it is understandable that Ma Kui suffered mental problems.

honestly.

Seeing Ma Kui's mental state getting weaker and weaker day by day, and the dark circles under his eyes getting heavier day by day, Gu Miao occasionally felt regretful.

Such a big leader would actually pay attention to a cartoon? This is something no one expected. If I had known this, I shouldn't have taken the job of "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" in the first place.

Whoever loves to do it will do it...

If the company does well, it won't make much money, but if it does poorly, it will not only be scolded by people across the country, but may also damage the company's reputation and reputation.

A real hot potato!

The most important thing is that Wanbao Animation has already taken over this project, and the leaders have also come to inspect it. It is too late to regret now.

No matter how difficult it is, no matter how much pressure it is, we can only bite the bullet and finish the animation. There is no possibility of giving up halfway.

As for Maguire’s mental state?

In response to this issue, Gu Miao also specifically talked to him, hoping that he would not put too much pressure on himself and minimize the impact of the leadership inspection.

It still worked. At least with Gu Miao's patient guidance, Ma Kui became less nervous and fearful.

But then again...

Ma Kui suffers from anxiety disorder, but this doesn't seem to have much impact on the production team of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms"?

Because Ma Kui was almost completely ignored by Koizumi in the production team, and became the kind of mascot who only signed and stamped.

This guy Koizumi really doesn't follow the rules at all.

He is obviously just an assistant director and an outsider, but he takes over all the work of the animation production team.

You could say he usurped the throne and seized power. He knew how to consult with Ma Kui and did not act arbitrarily. You can tell that he does his job well. He does all kinds of work, and even takes the initiative to apply for mopping the floor after get off work...