Seven years after The Return of the Great Sage, the man finally came back to sprint for the Spring Festival.

Special feature of 1905 film network After the animation film was screened in 100 cities, the title topic rushed to the top of the hot search that night.

Judging from the feedback and attention on the internet, most of the attention comes from the director of the film.

The animated film he directed seven years ago (hereinafter referred to as "The Return of the Great Sage") was never optimistic, and countless people voiced it, making it a myth of "tap water".

Box Office, Flowers, Awards … … One after another, in the eyes of everyone, this animated film is a landmark work of "the rise of the country". Countless viewers expect him to launch a sequel and turn this IP into a series of works.

But he didn’t. Instead, he buried himself in the technical research and development of a concept in The Return of the Great Sage, and co-produced a brand-new original IP animated film Deep Sea.

Yi Qiao can’t be underestimated, too. As a producer, he has released such works, and the box office and word of mouth need not be repeated.

These two animators, who have been successful in the outside world, may have already explored their own "methodology" in business, but it seems that they did not put all this on Deep Sea, but chose a new beginning.

This has also become the key to our attempt to enter the Deep Sea. Why not use the past success to create a topic for the new work and bring more box office?

In an exclusive interview with the 1905 film network, producer Yi Qiao used their answers to string together the adventures belonging to Deep Sea.

01.

Yi Qiao is a person who boasts a high tear point, but after reading the script of Deep Sea for the first time, "I cried". At that time, he decided to make this story with the animator. As for the past experience, logic and methodology, it is no longer important.

Because in Deep Sea, he saw the sincerity of the creator and Tian Xiaopeng’s self-dissection once again.

In 2015, "The Return of the Great Sage" became the key word of that summer, and the striped house film industry under Light Media also began to explore and expand the animated film market, and invested in many animated film companies in one breath, including the October culture founded by Tian Xiaopeng.

Yi Qiao and Tian Xiaopeng, then the president of the striped house film industry, visited many successful overseas animation companies, looked at the achievements of others and then looked at their own achievements. "We are all thinking that we should do something different."

Tian Xiaopeng thought of the opening title of The Return of the Great Sage, so he threw out an idea, which covered the content of China’s unique ink and wash style. Is it possible to turn it into a whole film?

After returning home, Tian Xiaopeng almost declined all kinds of invitations such as interview announcements and plunged into creation. Yi Qiao also devoted himself to the creation and development of Ne Zha and other works.

The stories of two people are not parallel lines. They still talk about stories and creations. Yi Qiao will also introduce the excellent animators he meets to each other, including the director. "They are both creators who cherish each other very much.".

Yi Qiao still remembers that when we first talked about cooperation with jiaozi, the other party was just the boss of an animation outsourcing company, and directly released the lofty ambition of "I want to make a great movie, and if I want to turn the animation upside down, I will make trouble". It’s embarrassing to dig at the ground, but it’s just enough to prove the "genius" of the creator. In the movie, he shouted the sentence, "My life is up to me."

So is Tian Xiaopeng’s creation.

In 2012, he almost sold iron to do animation. He was an animation director to the outside world, but he was a director without a masterpiece, and even worried that his children would not mention their father at school.

This sentiment was put in the movie The Return of the Great Sage — —

"Hello, Great Sage! You are the Great Sage of Qitian. I’m sorry! "

"I’m not, I can’t fly, I’m not awesome, so don’t follow me."

In Tian Xiaopeng’s mind at that time, he may have self-distrust, and he may bring down his family. If his works are smashed, he may make his children lose face in front of his classmates.

When the first preview of "The Great Sage Comes Over" came out, there were various questions on the Internet. Why is the Monkey King a horse face? Why The Journey to the West, magic change?

The first appearance of the film was in the media attention unit of the film channel of the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2015. At that time, the propagandist tried every means to invite the media rushing around in various press conferences, hoping that everyone could leave the film for 2 hours.

In the end, the film became a success, and it broke through 100 million in four days after its release.

However, this did not bring enough excitement and joy to Tian Xiaopeng. In Yi Qiao’s view, "The Return of the Great Sage has a high box office, but it has brought him a greater impact and left him in a slightly closed state." A good creator never plunges himself into the mud. "He begins to think about how to dispel the haze and what is the motivation to live after success."

This is the beginning of every project that Yi Qiao did in the past. He first asked the creator why he made this film. This time, he threw the question back to himself.

Simple and sincere expression has become the stamina given to Yi Qiao by Deep Sea. On the way home from Tian Xiaopeng’s studio, Yi Qiao is still immersed in it. The car is quiet, and the outside of the car is noisy and noisy. "I will think why I cry, why I am willing to abandon everything I have done before for it."

Thinking about it, the answer is simple, "the vitality of the director."

02.

There is no absolute conclusion about the definition of commercial film in the market, but at least from the concept of labeling, the story of Deep Sea is not commercial.

The film tells about a little girl named Betelgeuse, who represents many ordinary people in life. "We want to be an ordinary hero and express people’s inner difficulties. If we fall into darkness, what can we support to go out?"

In the whole creative process, Yi Qiao heard all kinds of negative questions more than once. Do you really want to do this? Is it too risky?

He has been working all the way from Xuanfa to now, and he is very clear that this is an adventure. However, he also understands that there is no formula for high-box-office movies. It is impossible to say that simply making a sequel will succeed. Even if you end up making "The Great Sage 2" and "Nezha 2", if you don’t have enough vitality, "it is just a simple upgrade and meaningless."

During his tenure in the striped house film industry, Yi Qiao met many animators. He said something similar to almost every co-director, "I cut all the back roads. Don’t blame me for not being so mature, and I don’t blame you for not doing it … … We must travel all over Qian Shan, and we will encounter many obstacles, but we can spend three to five years to do it. If it is, it may be that we are on the right path; It didn’t work. It must be not done well enough. The market will not live up to any good work. "

It seems so this time, but only the second half is retained. The success or failure of the adventure of Deep Sea still needs the market and audience. It’s just that "Deep Sea" lasted more than 3 or 5 years, and it was done for 7 years.

In 2017, Tian Xiaopeng invited Yi Qiao to the company and showed him the achievements of the past two years. "We have been talking about the story, but I didn’t expect him to take action. I didn’t even expect that he made the whole system. It is very touching."

It was only a 3-minute clip, and how to turn it into more than 100 minutes of content became the biggest problem faced by the team of Deep Sea. Budget, research and development, personnel … … All problems are stuck around 2020.

After finishing Ne Zha, Yi Qiao left the striped house, joined the October culture and devoted himself to the team of Deep Sea. "Reorganize and start again, and the team has expanded from 60 people to 200 people now."

In the National Day of 2020, the film Legend of Deification was released, and the audience was amazed by the eggs at the end of the film "Deep Sea". At that time, it was less than two years before the scheduled release of Deep Sea.

This process is grinding, and the team hopes to mass-produce, but if the quality can’t be guaranteed, mass production will only be empty talk. "It took almost one and a half years, and at the end of 2021, we really started to finish all the scenes and gradually entered the stage of mass production."

03.

In 2019, the phrase "My life is up to me" started the pursuit of golden sentences in the whole market, and many animated films began to pursue "burning".

"Deep Sea" didn’t, and its story was not appropriate. "This is a story about facing yourself."

Yi Qiao knows very well that after meeting the audience, this story "should cause considerable controversy." "Deep Sea" will have some thresholds, but no one can say where the thresholds will go.

In the whole creative process, Tian Xiaopeng will also consider the market and feel that it is appropriate to integrate into the joke, but Yi Qiao thinks instead, "We are not selling jokes. It is better to remove what is imposed and not affect the style of the whole film."

After the first screening of the film, as Yi Qiao predicted, some people thought the story was simple, while others were poked by stories and emotions. Just from the team’s point of view, "Tian Dao and I are both pursuing, hoping that this movie is meaningful." We hope to make a good-looking movie. "

There is no IP, no stars, and even the promotion of Deep Sea borrows from the past successful cases of two animators and faces the market with a brand-new attitude.

Now, the movie "Deep Sea" has seen the world. What will happen to the follow-up market?

Yi Qiao has no answer.

Tian Xiaopeng wrote lyrics to The Clown, the promotion song of the movie Deep Sea. There is a sentence in it, "He is very grandiose and says that he has magic. People come and go and others treat him as a joke. Don’t laugh at him."

Yes, don’t laugh at him. Deep Sea is an adventure, and adventure never has a definite answer.