The branch venues of the 2024 CCTV Spring Festival Gala and Lantern Festival Gala both featured Li Bai from the animated film "Chang'an 30,000 Miles". The free and heroic Tang Dynasty poet used animated AR to travel to the ancient capital of Xi'an and recite poems with today's people. It once again aroused people's strong interest in Chinese history and traditional culture. During the Spring Festival, Xi'an, Luoyang and other places also launched a number of cultural tourism projects related to ancient poetry. Focusing on issues such as the expression of traditional culture in the animation industry and the development of the Chinese animation industry, Liu Chun, an associate researcher at the Institute of Literature of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, recently visited Song Yiyi, the producer of "Chang'an 30,000 Miles".

2024 CCTV Spring Festival Gala Xi’an Branch Venue

【dialogue】

The released version is the version that the team believes is the best.

Liu Chun : "Chang'an 30,000 Miles" is the eighth animated feature film launched on the tenth anniversary of the establishment of Light Chaser Animation. The film has received widespread attention and won many honors. It can be said that this animated film has reached the "outstanding" level. circle" effect. Please briefly introduce the creation of the film. Are you involved in the content creation stage or the specific execution stage? What aspects are you mainly responsible for? What difficulties did you encounter during this process, and how did you overcome them?

Song Yiyi : Thank you very much for your recognition of "Thirty Thousand Miles from Chang'an". I have been following this project since the film project was established. The entire film took a total of three years from the idea to the completion of the script, completion of animation production, and announcement and release. The preliminary research and preparation took about more than a year.

Compared with other projects, the biggest difference between "Thirty Thousand Miles from Chang'an" is the innovation of the theme. Correspondingly, the creation process will also have certain particularities. For example, it is the one that buys the most books among all our projects. In the early stages of creation, the director and directors and I had a book list to supplement relevant background knowledge as much as possible, and also organized reading sharing meetings. We hired a professional etiquette instructor for etiquette training. The main creators went to Xi'an, Songzhou Ancient City, Tongguan and other places to collect on-site experiences. When you are in the real geographical environment, you will have a deeper and more comprehensive understanding of the events and characters recorded in historical materials.

Also, this movie is probably the most version of a character we've ever done. For example, from the age of eight to the time when Gao Shi died in his sixties, there were almost twenty-five character versions of Gao Shi in different time periods, and there were almost fifteen character versions of Li Bai. That’s a lot for an animated movie.

A group photo of the main creators of "Thirty Thousand Miles from Chang'an"

Liu Chun : Please briefly introduce the animation production process of light chasing. In addition, will the script creation, models, synthesis, special effects, lighting and other work be completed by Chasing Light himself, or will some outsourcing team be hired? What is the approximate proportion?

Song Yiyi : To put it simply, most of our production, including early creation, is completed by our internal team. There will be some outsourcing, but the proportion is very small, maybe only 5 to 10%, or even lower. .

Speaking of our production process, the production process can be roughly divided into fourteen or five stages. After we have the first version of the storyboard, we will make a very detailed production-level plan. And this plan also depends on the production process, and depends on our production capacity and assumptions in each link.

In terms of production plans, perhaps the biggest difference between animated films and live-action films is that we will make the plan as detailed as possible, and we will make all the work plans down to the sky before officially entering mid-production. For example, there will be a relatively detailed production plan on which day it will be released and which scene or shot will be completed at what time.

Liu Chun : If you look back on the entire project now, what regrets do you have and what points are worth persevering in?

Song Yiyi : There must be a lot of regrets. Movies are inherently an art of regret. The director and I have actually talked about this issue before. There must be a lot of regrets in our hearts. But as far as the current presentation is concerned, the released version is the best and most perfect version that everyone in our team believes. If you persist, I think you should not forget the original intention of creating. Although "Chang'an 30,000 Miles" has received a lot of praise and has good box office results, we are still creators and we have to return to creation in the end. At this stage, the director and I have both entered into the creation of new projects - I think this is what makes us happiest.

Working photos of directors Xie Junwei and Zou Jing and producer Song Yiyi of "Thirty Thousand Miles from Chang'an".

Liu Chun : "White Snake: The Origin" and "New God List: Nezha Rebirth" and other works have been launched on Netflix in the United States. Has "Chang'an 30,000 Miles" been released in overseas theaters or broadcast on Internet platforms? How is the overseas promotion of this film going?

Song Yiyi : We will definitely pay special attention to this aspect and work hard to do it. For all Chasing Light projects, we will distribute them overseas. At present, "Chang'an 30,000 Miles" has been screened in Hong Kong, China and North America, and we are also in communication and contact in other places.

We still hope that Chinese traditional culture can have more opportunities to go out, so we will take this matter very seriously. For example, the current English subtitles have been reviewed in many versions. This may also be the reason why we focus on the English subtitles in all projects. The one with the most subtitle proofreading versions. I think it will still have many opportunities overseas.

Liu Chun : As a private animation company established only ten years ago, Chasing Light has grown very rapidly. May I ask how Light Chasing Animation defines the market positioning of its films, such as audience, theme, style, etc. Has the company’s creative strategy been adjusted since its establishment? If so, what is the specific basis?

Song Yiyi : One thing that Chasing Light has insisted on doing since its establishment is that the Chinese team tells Chinese stories for Chinese audiences. This creative concept is something we have never changed. Although the early works were oriented towards family fun, later we changed Adjusted to be young. In terms of planning, the current "30,000 Miles from Chang'an" may focus on young audiences and take into account the needs of family fun, but in general, it still adheres to the company's creative philosophy and insists on making the story of the Chinese people themselves; secondly, although everyone knows Chasing Light has been using traditional Chinese culture and Chinese historical themes like "Chang'an" to tell stories, but we are also observing today's young people and will create based on the concerns of contemporary audiences and the psychology of young people. I think the combination of the two is very important.

Producer Song Yiyi received the Best Art Film Award at the 36th China Film "Golden Rooster Awards" on behalf of the team.

Liu Chun : I also noticed that one of the outstanding features of light-chasing animation is that it will effectively respond to the culture of the times from different levels, especially the hot phenomena and cultural psychology that young audiences are concerned about. Based on your observations, what are the advantages and disadvantages of current domestic animated films compared with excellent animated films from Japan and Hollywood?

Song Yiyi : I think it is difficult to compare the current domestic animated films with Japanese and Hollywood animations, because it has now formed a very clear style of Chinese animated films. Of course, there are many excellent animated films in Japan and Hollywood. There is no doubt that these three are completely different types, with many differences in visual style and narrative.

I think the biggest advantage of Chinese animation for the Chinese market is that we are telling Chinese people’s own culture and stories that Chinese people care about. If there are any shortcomings, I think it may not be mature enough at the technical level. For things of the same technical difficulty, our production efficiency may not be very high, and our ability to develop new technologies may not be as advanced as abroad, but I think this The gap does not affect our ability to make good films and create good themes.

At the same time, we are also doing in-depth research and exploration into technology. Animated movies have a very important feature, which is the combination of technology and art, and the two cannot be separated. Animated movies are a creative process from scratch. Every producer is very important. The advancement of technology will also open the door to more imagination for us. Today's Chinese audiences already have their own preferences. I think this is very gratifying from an industry perspective. Ten years ago, it would have been hard for everyone to imagine that we would have such a good situation today.

There is still more room for growth in the production capacity of China’s animation market

Liu Chun : So what’s unique about the light-chasing animation production operating system? Facing technological challenges such as artificial intelligence and VR, does Chasing Light have any forward-looking technical plans?

Song Yiyi : The production process and system of light-chasing animation are indeed the basis for us to achieve output. Domestically speaking, there are very few industrialized production companies like Zhuiguang, and it can even be said that there are only a handful of them. This is a unique feature of Chasing Light, and it is precisely because of this that we can guarantee the production of one film per year, and it is very stable.

Secondly, from the perspective of technology forward-looking, we now have our own R&D department, and we will also develop a cloud platform system specially provided for production. We hope to have our own CG management software; the company will also consider the future technical layout. Most of the software we use now to make animated films is dependent on the United States, such as commonly used software such as Maya and Houdini. There is no software support in this area in China, and we also have some long-term plans for this. . In general, Chasing Light still attaches great importance to the field of technology development.

"Chang'an 30,000 Miles" won the "Golden Silk Road Award" for Best Animated Film at the 10th Silk Road International Film Festival.

Liu Chun : Frankly speaking, compared with current Chinese animated films and live-action films, there is still a gap in market share, social attention, policy support, talent training, etc. There are still relatively few animated works that can attract comprehensive attention. Based on your production experience, in terms of the industrial chain and industrial environment, what are the shortcomings of the current domestic animated film industry, and what aspects need to be improved?

Song Yiyi : We should see that animated films have great market potential. Judging from the box office in the United States or North America, their animated films account for more than 15% every year. In comparison, domestic animated films still have very large market potential. Speaking of the current shortcomings of the industry, I think the current production capacity of the Chinese animation market is not very high. There may only be two or three large-scale productions that can be counted every year, and the entire domestic animated film market should also be able to have a larger body. quantity. The reality is that if the total production capacity of the film is not that high, the total box office will definitely be directly affected. Therefore, I still hope that more talents can join this industry.

In addition, the cultivation of animation talents should also be taken seriously. Animation graduates trained by most universities cannot directly play a role in the industry. They also need to undergo industrial study and training before they can truly become a qualified producer. I think this may have something to do with the fact that this industry is relatively new. Many schools also hope to integrate with industry; teachers with industry experience and returning to school from industry are very scarce. So I think the entire education and talent training needs to be improved. It is not necessarily limited to universities. There may be some more professional animation schools, or some training for animation graduates to help them understand industry requirements and improve professional skills. This will also help the entire industry become more and more standardized from all levels including production.

"White Snake: The Floating Life" final release poster

Liu Chun : Finally, please briefly introduce your future creation plans for light-chasing animation. I am very much looking forward to seeing Chasing Light produced again, and I also hope that Chasing Light can once again set off a new movie-watching craze.

Song Yiyi : Chasing the Light has already confirmed several works. This summer we will release "White Snake: The Floating Life", which is the third part of the "White Snake Series". Other projects may not be revealed for the time being. But the next work has already begun to enter pre-production, and two other projects are currently in the script development stage. Thank you for your concern, we will work hard to produce better works!