After one episode of CCTV ended, the eight episodes of CCTV continued to be broadcast; the media reported one after another, “The World” is still a hot drama.
“The World” poster image source: Douban
Fifty years of suffering and confrontation, this “Human World”, which follows the life trajectory of the three brothers and sisters of the Zhou family, depicts the life of Chinese society, and presents the epic life of contemporary Chinese people. It will become a good film for the beginning of 2022. play.
In 2018, “The Human World” won the Mao Dun Literature Award. The author Liang Xiaosheng once said frankly that “The Human World” is a concept far larger than the human world.
Each character is specific and vivid, and the group portraits are warm and gentle. The difficulty of “The World” has been moved from novel to screen, and even adapted into a drama.
Behind this, Wu Fengwei, the operator of the full copyright, the producer of the TV series “The World”, and the chief producer of the drama version of “The World”. Because of her professional ability in the operation of literary IP, she has also attracted investment from New Hope.
After several turns, the “Daily Economic News” reporter finally contacted Wu Fengwei. “Teacher Liang Xiaosheng actually praised me at the symposium that day. All the pressure, grievances, encouragement and doubts I received were turned into joy and happiness because of those few affirmations.” When she was not face to face with Wu Feng, she expressed contentedly.
Photo source of Wu Fengwei and Liang Xiaosheng: Photo courtesy of the interviewee
Develop “Human World”
is a hurdle for the milestone of realism
The ups and downs of the historical torrent, the various lives linked by the three generations of the Zhou family and their relatives and friends paved the background of “The World”.
Since the broadcast of “The World”, it has set off a ratings frenzy, not only setting a new high for CCTV prime-time TV dramas in eight years, but also the highest ratings since the release of China Audiovisual Big Data (CVB), and the popularity on iQIYI has exceeded 10,000. The number of viewers in the round broke the 400 million mark.
There is no doubt that “The World” is a masterpiece. The play is adapted from the novel of the same name by Liang Xiaosheng and Mao Dun Literature Award.
It took 8 years and handwritten 1.15 million words. The long-length masterpiece “The World” was condensed into a 58-episode TV series. The difficulty can be imagined. Behind all this is a young woman – Wu Fengwei.
At the “Human World” symposium, Liang Xiaosheng shared their stories publicly: “The first time they talked to me about the agency copyright issue of “The World”. I am familiar with both of them. The cause has always been supportive, but I am very firmly opposed to this matter, because I know that the adaptation of this book is quite difficult.” “At my house, Wu Fengwei and Wei Tong (founder of Beijing Yiwei Culture) were thrown into tears by me several times. They came to my house to talk about this matter, it is estimated that there are no less than ten times. Young people have to do things, and they can’t stop them. Live, and later the drama was pushed up by them hard. Because of them, this book was placed in Tencent’s editorial department. “
Photo source of Wu Fengwei’s studio: Photo by reporter Li Jianing
Wu Fengwei is the first in the world to take the helm of the IP work of “The World” with full copyright. In fact, as early as 2017, she began to pay attention to the mainstream track IP. “In the past long career of less than 10 years, China’s entire entertainment market, including different categories of online literature, has changed.”
This has to do with her own experience. Wu Fengwei began to read the works of Yu Qiuyu, Liang Xiaosheng, Yu Hua and other writers since he was a teenager. The ideas they conveyed are rooted in Wu Fengwei’s mind. In 2016, when Wu Fengwei was chatting with a friend, the friend suddenly said: “My children are still watching my original works, when will you cultural practitioners bring more positive energy to the market and take root in the earth? s work?”
This sentence gave Wu Fengwei a great feeling, so she kept running to Liang Xiaosheng’s house, expressing to Liang Xiaosheng her understanding of the ordinary Zhou Bingkun facing the great meaning of life and her admiration for his tenacity in his hard life. , which is also the fine culture of the Chinese nation.
Liang Xiaosheng told Wu Fengwei many times that he did not dare to take out his works to cooperate with her because he was worried that she would be “scolded” for not doing well. Wu Fengwei replied: “Shouldn’t we accept different voices in our life growth? Only through different voices and doubts can we grow, and we know what the road ahead is like. If a person wants to achieve One thing, if he can’t even accept different voices, I don’t think he will succeed.”
Although he came from the traditional publishing industry, as an IP operator, Wu Fengwei will look at and think about mainstream realist works with a business-oriented mindset. She admitted frankly that it was 10,000 times more difficult to decide to develop the IP of “The World” than the normal market works, because it was not only faced with a single dilemma, but a dilemma for the whole industry to reshuffle and return. “Some people are taking the path that their predecessors have already explored, and some are groping. I think “The World” is a hurdle in the milestone of Chinese realism today.”
Source of pictures of Liang Xiaosheng’s pen and ink: Photo courtesy of the interviewee
“If I think too much about things, such as whether it can win an award, what kind of audience it should attract, it’s a catering mentality. When we see a literary work, we must have stars in our eyes. The sea, so that we have the opportunity to push this work forward.”
Wu Fengwei always remembers that when Teacher Liang Xiaosheng decided to hand over “The World” to himself, he completely entrusted it, and he didn’t even read the contract, he said, “I believe you, you just tell me where to sign it. Now I have decided to exclusively sign the global copyright to you, I believe in young people, you are bold enough to do it.”
Mining commercial
It is the first element of literary IP market operation
Can a good literary IP necessarily develop satisfactory film and television dramas? Judging from the many existing IP adaptation cases, this is not an easy task.
How much capital investment is required? What market risks will it face? How are partners chosen? How to grasp the market image? This is a problem that all IP developers need to solve after obtaining the copyright of the work, and it is also the key to determining the final market presentation of the work.
“Blacksmithing also needs to be hard on its own. IP operators must first have a clear grasp and judgment of the entire industry.. When I was developing IP, I was neither a traditional publishing thinking nor a single film and television thinking, but a portrait and review of the work with a comprehensive business chain thinking. Otherwise, even if there were ten ‘Mao Awards’, I would not have a sense of thinking. Even more successful works cannot be developed. “
As a professional literary IP operator, Wu Feng has not dealt with many successful cases. She believes that the commercial value of an IP is measured by 9 words-commercial, literary, and social. Among them, “commerciality” is regarded by Wu Fengwei as the first element of commercial development of literary IP.
“As long as any work starts to operate, it must face business directly, and serious literature can also achieve good business benefits. But not all works are suitable for development. If a work has only strong literary but no commerciality, then there is no need for commercial operation. Forcible development is likely not to be accepted by the market. s damage. “Wu Fengwei believes that operators who conduct IP development must have sufficient professional judgment ability, know the market positioning and audience groups of the works, understand other works of the same theme, and know how to change in the context of film and television, and the rules of the market and What is the policy, and this is all based on the judgment of the overall commerciality of IP.
Taking “The World” as an example, Wu Fengwei keenly noticed the commercial value of the original work before the work won the award, but after obtaining the full copyright of the work, whether it is a TV adaptation or a drama version, Wu Fengwei chose to compete with the best in the industry. The top teams cooperate and perfect the operation plan over and over again according to the characteristics of different carriers, so that IP can be perfectly presented in different forms.
Wu Fengwei told reporters that in addition to the most common movies, TV series, and dramas, the operation of full-copyright IP also includes games, animations, theme parks and many other forms that can be explored. “Games and animation are big markets for IP operations. I have been researching related markets a year ago. At present, some works of Yiwei Culture will be launched directly in the game and animation market in the future, but it will take more time to explore. “
The great success of “The World” has verified Wu Fengwei’s judgment and strategy in the commercialization of realist literary IP. Wu Feng did not disclose that the new masterpiece “Mermaid” by Remi, author of “This Scenery” and “Psychological Crime”, which was created by writer Wang Meng and won the 9th Mao Dun Literature Award, is under full copyright operation by Yiwei Culture. The film and television adaptation has been steadily advancing. In addition, Wu Fengwei also signed the “Lu Award” writer Shi Yifeng’s “Across the Ocean to Send You”, the “Lu Award” writer Lu Min’s “Flying to the Moon” and the American writer Wang Yiyang’s “Small World”, etc. Copyright in multiple works.
Image source: Photo courtesy of the producer
new hope is professional
Looking forward to attracting more “quality” investors
Looking back at Wu Fengwei’s work experience, she has worked in investment banking and publishing. She has helped Times Chinese to open up e-commerce channels, and she has also created over 100 million copyright income for writers such as Tian Ba Sing. Before the establishment of Yiwei Culture, Wu Fengwei was the youngest vice president of Zhongnan Culture, a listed company, with the halo of “the first batch of professional IP traders” on his head, holding IPs such as “Touching the Golden Jue” and “Da Huer: West City Wind and Cloud”. For the successful cases of operation, big companies such as Ali and Tencent have also thrown olive branches to her.
Why choose to start a business?
“It can be said that the establishment of Yiwei Culture is for the development of IP of literary works such as “The World”.” Wu Fengwei told the “Daily Economic News” reporter that he had noticed Liang Xiaosheng’s work “Before founding Yiwei Culture in 2018” “The World”, in order to build a more pure operating space for “The World” and other projects in the same period, Wu Fengwei formed a new team of his own. “In the capitalized operating environment, the development of literary IP will inevitably be affected, and I hope that I can face works with a product-oriented mentality, not thinking about how much money I can make from this IP, and more Purely embracing the work.”
Wu Fengwei pointed out that in the era of the barbaric growth of the early literary IP market, writers were often the weaker party in the face of capital. Most writers are difficult to intervene in the follow-up development of IP after signing the copyright licensing contract, and the works cannot be developed for a long time in the hands of some unprofessional teams or the quality after development is poor, and the loss of capital will also weaken the enthusiasm of the writers. , let the literary IP market form a vicious circle.
“The fruits of writers’ labor have not been fully respected, and without writers, there will be no good texts, and without texts, the market will lose its support.. “Wu Fengwei said, “Based on my years of experience in book publishing, film and television adaptation, and IP operations, I hope to create a content-focused full-copyright operating company to better serve literary works and writers, which is currently the entire Nothing in the industry yet. “
According to Qixinbao data, the second largest shareholder of Yiwei Culture is Hainan Shengxun Enterprise Management Consulting Co., Ltd., which belongs to New Hope Group. Yiwei Culture’s professional ability in literary IP operation has attracted New Hope’s investment, and New Hope’s support has also given Wu Fengwei and Yiwei Culture’s team confidence.
“Entrepreneurship is a ‘near death’, and only entrepreneurs who have a strong internal drive and are professional enough in the professional field are likely to succeed.I am also very lucky to meet an investor like New Hope, who has full trust and respect for us. “Wu Fengwei believes that companies in the cultural industry must remain independent in their operations and let professional people do professional things. This is also why Yiwei Culture must choose to cooperate with first-line production companies and first-class creative teams when conducting IP operations. s reason.
The drama “The World” is about to be performed. Image source: Wu Fengwei’s circle of friends
Wu Feng did not disclose that Yiwei Culture is currently seeking to introduce new strategic investors. She hopes to attract more “high-quality” investors who can “understand” Beijing Yiwei Culture in the new round of financing. Great, I believe that capital respect for content can give wings to high-quality works, help more writers and practitioners in the entertainment industry realize their dreams, and look forward to fighting side by side on the road of literary IP operation to help the further development of the cultural industry.
“The World” Image source: Douban
reporter| Li Biao Li Xuanzhang (internship)
Edit|Duan Lian Chen Xing Du Hengfeng
proofreading |Lu Xiangyong
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