Chapter 139 Original Come On
"Do you want me to look at this picture book?"
Seeing this, Jia Wenyan hurriedly flipped through the album in her hand.
This... should be the character setting collection that Zhen Shuwang created before.
Jia Wenyan quickly flipped through the contents of the album.
One after another, modern and original cartoon characters kept appearing in her sight.
"It seems that before he met me, he had already tried to create many original Chinese-style works of his own."
Jia Wenyan murmured, she remembered when she first met Zhen Shuwang, Zhen Shuwang was worried about the creation and release of "The Story of the Stubborn Stone".
At that time, Zhen Shuwang was like most domestic animation creators, although he also made many original designs of his own.
But under the pressure of reality, he, who focuses on theatrical movies rather than feature-length animations, can only choose some "existing characters" that can arouse the curiosity of most audiences in terms of publicity.
Such is the nature of domestic animated films these days.
It's not that they can't come up with good original stories, but without the accumulation of worldview through long-form animation, the vast majority of original animation characters cannot be as box office-bearing as national actors.
This was the creator's choice based on the current situation. Moreover, the bet between Zhen Shuwang and his family at the time was that only if he achieved success in the cinema, the so-called highest "platform" in the cultural industry, would Zhen Shuwang be allowed to continue his business.
Therefore, even though Zhen Shuwang had some "startup funds" provided by his family, he had to choose to start with existing mythological characters.
On this basis, choosing the relatively less popular Shiji is already the biggest compromise he has made in his own artistic creation.
For this reason, Jia Wenyan once asked him why he didn't choose some roles with higher traffic and more likely to attract public attention.
Zhen Shuwang's response to this was a test for himself.
He knew that what he did at that time was very childish, but as a worker in Donghuang Animation, there was no other lucky person who could enjoy the same treatment as him.
As he had not had to worry about start-up capital and debt since he started his business, he really had no way of putting himself on the same level to compete with other entrepreneurs.
In his eyes, since he enjoys resources that others do not have, he should challenge the peak that others dare not imagine.
When others create, they may prioritize the balance between survival and high-quality works. In his case, he should challenge the highest-level leadership position without the pressure of survival.
He hopes that as a lucky person with the conditions, he can help other colleagues to gain enough market space.
So when he chose to use characters from Donghuang's existing mythological stories to reduce the difficulty of his work's box office success, he felt that he should impose some restrictions on himself.
In his opinion, if he, with all these resources, couldn't even defeat a well-known person, then there was no need for him to stay in this industry.
Because what he wants to do from beginning to end is the original domestic animation that represents the highest level of difficulty in the animation industry.
He believes that as he has unique resources, he should create a purely original animation without any mythology or original novel as the basis.
Therefore, Niangniang Shiji in "The Story of the Stubborn Stone" is already the biggest concession he has made for the company and employees.
You know, when he first started the project, he planned to use original animation to win the battle.
If you win, you can continue the challenge. If you lose, you can use the pre-prepared compensation to give everyone some red envelopes as severance pay.
If you win, you get a bonus, and if you lose, you get a severance pay. This was Zhen Shuwang's original idea, but perhaps it was because the company's employees who started the business with him at the time really made a lot of efforts.
That's why he had to settle for a topic with existing popularity.
But his goal has always been to create the original Chinese-style animation that he most wants to do.
However, no one expected that the launch of "The Story of the Stubborn Stone" would cause such a huge sensation by chance.
Of course, they never deny the quality of their own works. But the domestic box office data of The Stone, which clearly surpasses animated films, is not what they originally expected to achieve based on the quality of their works alone.
So later, when a series of industries including Yongan College and Yongan Paradise emerged that required animation-derived IPs.
Faced with such a huge investment from both his own company and the government, Zhen Shuwang could only do as everyone imagined: take root among the people first, and use the works that are most familiar to everyone and easiest to achieve results to lay the foundation for the entire industry.
This is the case with the New Journey to the West, and the same is true for the later projects such as Princess Iron Fan and Concubine Zhaojun's Journey to the Frontier.
He is not a person who does not distinguish between the important and the unimportant.
His previous unnecessary self-esteem in "The Stubborn Stone" was purely because he felt he should have higher goals.
Moreover, his family is fully capable of ensuring that the employees around him receive the proper wages and severance pay.
But the premise of all this was completely changed the moment Zhenxin Animation was incorporated into the Yongan Group.
Zhenxin Animation was a test for him as he had his family to back him up, but everything about the Yongan system was different.
Yongan College and Yongan Amusement Park were both gambled by a large group of people in this relatively backward northwestern city with government investment.
He couldn't hold everyone back, so he swallowed his pride.
But this does not mean that he has given up his idea of making original animation.
He just kept all of this in his heart for the time being, thinking that he would start his own original work after everything in the Yongan system was stabilized.
That's why he was so excited when Jia Wenyan asked him to make a comic book with the theme of magic school, similar to Harry Potter, for Yong'an College.
Because no matter what the original intention is, the comic stories of Yongan College are a creative theme that has never existed before.
Especially after he completely Donghuangized everything and avoided Harry Potter-related elements as much as possible, he became even more excited.
The character design collection in front of him is Zhen Shuwang's selection and summary of all his original animation ideas over the years.
Jia Wenyan watched Zhen Shuwang's thoughts with great interest.
He has a lot of creative ideas, and he divides his original stories into several major categories.
There are anime versions of ancient palaces that are popular among female audiences, as well as mecha, racing cars, and e-sports themes that are loved by male audiences.
Jia Wenyan glanced at the design above, although there were many places where it was inevitable to get rid of the shadow of the predecessors.
But he did make it so that the audience could tell at a glance that this was Donghuangfeng's design.
For example, the racing animation in it, with one traditional Chinese style racing car after another, perfectly combines the two themes of future machinery and Donghuang traditional culture.
Jia Wenyan took a quick look at the character label above.
"Hanying Qinglong", "Four Seas Glass Phoenix"...
Each motorcycle has a cyberpunk style and is well integrated with Donghuang traditional elements.
Especially later on, when she saw one foreign racing car after another that was completely different from the Donghuangfeng, she became even more convinced that the Donghuangfeng design was a success.
It’s not that Donghuangfeng’s design is much better than the subsequent foreign cultures, but because when she saw the subsequent foreign vehicle designs, she immediately got the spark of the collision of different cultures on the same platform.
There is no high or low, but a true win-win situation for each other's cultures.
At that moment, the more she looked at it, the more she thought it might be a good idea, especially when she noticed that on several subsequent racing cars that had not yet been finalized, there were many notes and hints that attempted to incorporate elements such as "porcelain, embroidery", etc.
He is really becoming more and more optimistic about the design above.
She felt that the things above were indeed worth their attempt to promote.
Especially at this stage, although the princess series is very popular, apart from their Yongan Paradise, there is a contrast to the impression of "Oriental Disney".
Most of the audiences who pay attention to this type of film inevitably become a concentration camp of female audiences.
Although there is nothing wrong with being popular among women, it is obvious that as a cultural and tourism industry that is open to all tourists, it even strives to effectively promote Donghuang culture to the whole country and even the world.
They really can't allow the current situation where the audience is too extreme to continue.
Jia Wenyan is very clear that the vast majority of men in Yong'an Paradise, especially adult male tourists, are the result of the combined effects of the "New Journey to the West", which appeals to all ages and genders, and the various traditional handicrafts in the park.
There may not be any problem in the short term, but as time goes by, when these tourists begin to become familiar with the existing cultural and tourism layout, Yong'an Amusement Park, which lacks targeted attractions, will most likely become a tourist attraction that these tourists have "visited before."
This is definitely an extremely unfavorable phenomenon to the future development of Yong'an Paradise.
So if possible, Yongan Paradise should indeed add some themes targeting male aesthetics in addition to the princess series, which is mainly aimed at female tourists.
She thought racing was a great theme.
Although she knew little about this, she had also experienced a time when the boys in her class were extremely obsessed with "four-wheel drive vehicles" when she was a child.
And if she remembered correctly, these toys like four-wheel drive cars seemed to have been popular more than once during her childhood and youth.
It was popular in the first three years, and then it became popular again after a few years with a different IP.
Even if you include remote control cars in the category, it will be even more durable.
It is obviously just a simple toy structure, but toys like four-wheel drive cars seem to have a natural and almost dominant appeal to boys of all ages.
This attraction is even more exaggerated than fishing, which is something boys only decide to do when they reach a certain age.
Jia Wenyan felt that this was indeed a point that could be utilized, and if the animation IP in this area did well, they could also try to hold some events like large-scale four-wheel drive competitions.
Jia Wenyan’s favorite are those runways designed with themes based on scenic spots from around the world.
The Great Wall, the Seine River, the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe, and the track design in the desert with the Egyptian Sphinx as the theme, these are all things that Jia Wenyan thinks are very suitable for animation and film and television.
The most important thing is that this IP, which is composed of cultural elements from all over the world, will definitely attract the recognition of many overseas audiences as long as there are no scenes in the work that tend to favor or suppress elements of a certain country.
By then, wouldn't the arrival of overseas tourists be a piece of cake?
It would be best if we could create an international cultural exchange IP by then.
The more Jia Wenyan thought about it, the more excited she became. She was eager to draw more inspiration from these drawings that could be turned into reality.
However, this is just an idea that Zhen Shuwang has selected and has not yet been formally established.
At that moment, no matter how thick the character design collection in Jia Wenyan's hand felt, it could not provide her with too much information on a specific topic.
The feeling of being clearly interested but having to wait for updates helplessly made Jia Wenyan feel as if she was crawling with little bugs all over her body.
She wanted to pick up the phone immediately and ask Zhen Shuwang if there were any other related topics and ideas.
However, who would have thought that just as she was still unsatisfied and flipped through the animation themes that she was not that interested in.
Her attention was suddenly drawn to a sword with angel wings painted on it, and at the same time, the mechanism in the box next to her hand emitted an unprecedentedly dazzling light the moment she turned to this page.
"So you want me to see this page?"
Jia Wenyan turned her head and shifted her gaze from the album to the ring in the box.
She quickly searched for the message conveyed by the painting.
The message on the branch is a sword wrapped in feathers and a ring.
She could see that the ring had many similarities to the object in the box.
If nothing unexpected happens, these should be some adjustments made by Zhen Shuwang when converting the design drawings into real objects.
But perhaps because she knew that the ring was most likely related to her, the more Jia Wenyan looked at the ring, the more familiar it seemed.
She looked at the yellowed page of paper. Even the colors on the design had gradually faded away with the passage of time.
But she also understood that it was not an illusion, but she seemed to have seen this design somewhere.
When she was six years old, she traveled to Xian'an... the day her grandmother didn't go with her, the Terracotta Warriors...
Everything clicked into place at that moment.
At that time, she seemed to have indeed "chatted up" a young man who was painting in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses scenic area.
Although she had completely forgotten the face of that "little brother", she was very sure that there was such a person at that time.
And it seemed that the little boy did draw a lot of sketches related to the Terracotta Warriors and various weapons at that time.
…
Jia Wenyan muttered in her heart.
So that person is Zhen Shuwang?
My God, although I knew that I was very cute when I was a child, I never imagined that I was so charming when I was a child.
At the age of six, she became the white moonlight of a little boy. And he was a little boy of the rich... Nth generation.
Although I found out about this a little late, this kind of thing really makes people feel better the more they think about it.
Jia Wenyan even began to imagine what kind of expression she would see on Zhen Shuwang's face if she took this ring to tease him.
At that moment, he wondered if the other party had set a trap for him.
But judging from the fact that the spirit of Xuan-Yuan Sword still looks like a little girl, Zhen Shuwang himself should have only remembered that he has such a white moonlight, but has no idea who this white moonlight is.
And simply regard this as a beautiful memory of childhood.
So what is the plot now?
My childhood goddess is my partner and fiancée?
Why is it full of the style of short idol dramas?
With this in mind, shouldn't she find a more dramatic, more sophisticated way to make him realize this?
Should I take this album to discuss cooperation with Zhen Shuwang first?
No, don’t mix too much emotion into business matters, be as rational as possible.
Or should I just ask him to go to the beverage store where he was painting at the Terracotta Warriors Scenic Area?
Wait, if she remembered correctly, those small shops that sold drinks back then have now become fast food restaurants and souvenir shops in the scenic area.
And how is she going to bring up this matter then, saying that I am your childhood goddess?
Although it is true, it seems really difficult to say it. And if others hear it, they will think I am a very narcissistic lunatic.
If it really doesn't work, call my mother and ask her to help find some photos she took when she came to Xian'an when she was a child.
Wait... photos... she seemed to have asked her grandfather to take a photo with that "little brother"... back then.
Damn, I wonder if my grandpa developed that photo when he was developing it back then.
Also, have you kept that photo properly in your own photo album?
If there is a save file...
No matter what, she must post it on her Moments to show off.
The title is that when I was a child, I took a photo with my future boyfriend/fiancé for no apparent reason.
That’s right, it’s no longer important whether Zhen Shuwang remembers it or not. The greatest value of the whole thing now is that it allows me to post a circle of friends that makes my presence felt.
"Grandpa and grandma, you two must do your best to live up to the photo albums you compiled back then."
Jia Wenyan, who had already dialed the phone, kept praying silently in her heart.
It’s not that Jia Wenyan has any lack of confidence in her grandparents’ ability to keep the child.
But when she was six years old, Donghuang’s photography industry was still in the era of transitioning from camera film to digital cameras.
She remembered that before her grandfather traveled, the shooting quality of digital cameras at that time was not enough to completely offset their film cameras because of their high prices.
That's why they didn't have time to replace their travel equipment.
The disadvantages of film cameras are obvious. Even if they are in good condition when taking pictures, they are very likely to be damaged due to mistakes in camera storage and subsequent development.
This is also the reason why when we were young, when we talked about whether a photo was taken well or not, it was not about whether the photo looked good or not, but whether the photo could be used.
At that moment, late at night, Jia Wenyan was praying in her heart. She was waiting for her grandfather to give her a chance to show off in front of her friends.
Unexpectedly, a moment later, when grandpa sent the photo to me via WeChat...
Zhen Shuwang: "So you have this!"
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