Chapter 1394 The Short and Powerful 'Academy of Agents'
A few minutes later, Wu Chuan knocked on the door and entered.
"Mr. Pei, this is the first episode of the "Agent Academy" animation produced according to your previous instructions."
Wu Chuan said as he handed over the tablet computer.
Pei Qian reached out to take it and clicked play directly.
Less than a quarter of an hour later, Pei Qian fell into silence watching the video that had finished playing.
Boy, what a length!
It disappeared without paying attention, which was really unexpected.
When Pei Qian watched "Successor" before, one episode was one hour long. After going to work in the afternoon, he watched three episodes of "Successor" in the conference room, and then he could get off work directly.
Turns out this "Academy of Agents" is pretty good. The first episode, including the opening and closing credits, is 14 minutes in total!
In other words, if you cut off the opening and ending credits, the episode would only be 10 minutes.
Although I had expected that "Academy of Agents" would be short, I never expected it to be so short!
Of course, this cannot be blamed on Wu Chuan, after all, Pei Qian asked for it in the first place.
Wu Chuan spent a long time inspecting all domestic animation studios. As a result, Pei Qian was not satisfied. He felt that the possibility of leaving it to these animation studios to make money was too great, so he patted his head and decided to use it to make games himself.
Way to do it, using real-time calculation method to create animation.
Of course, Wu Chuan also put forward a lot of opinions. The general idea was that if we want to do real-time calculations, these models may have to be redone, and we need to find special motion capture actors. It is not easy to control the cost, it is too difficult, etc.
So Pei Qian was happy, this is what he wanted!
In the end, "Academy of Agents" was forced to use real-time calculations. Wu Chuan recruited a group of people from within Feihuang Studio and poached a group of people from outside, and bit the bullet and started production.
Of course, Pei Qian will definitely provide the greatest financial support. How can he stand idly by when there is such a good thing that can burn money?
Pei Qian's request at the beginning was that an episode of fifteen to twenty minutes would be enough. This time was quite suitable.
As long as one phase is completed before settlement, the task is considered completed. At least the project is online. The system cannot pick this right.
Now it seems that Wu Chuan has completed the task ahead of schedule, but his completion of the task has been somewhat compromised.
What about the promised fifteen to twenty minutes? This is obviously only ten minutes!
Short and weak!
Pei Qian said: "It seems to be... shorter than I thought."
Wu Chuan hurriedly explained: "Actually, I originally planned to make it more than fifteen minutes, but during the actual production process, I found that the original "Academy of Agents" itself has a relatively fragmented plot, and it would be more appropriate to make it ten minutes.
If it lasts fifteen minutes, it’s hard to stop at a particularly perfect place.”
"Also, after all, this is a new way of making animation, which is full of risks. The first episode should be shorter, and the finished product should be released first to see the effect. If any problems are found, they can be corrected in time."
"Of course, if you, Mr. Pei, feel that the time is too short and the audience may not be able to accept it, then I can go back and cut it again and include some of the content planned for the second episode to make up to fifteen minutes, or simply two
It takes twenty minutes to make it into one.”
Pei Qian raised his hand: "Forget it, actually looking at it this way, ten minutes is okay."
He suddenly realized that the shorter and more out of context the audience would dislike watching it, wouldn’t they?
There's actually nothing wrong with being shorter.
The quality of the first episode, to be fair, was okay.
It can't be said to be particularly good, nor can it be said to be particularly bad.
Although there are ready-made hero models in GOG's games, and the modeling is also very detailed, it is still not enough to directly use it for animation. After all, GOG's perspective determines that it is not necessary to achieve the level of precision of a stand-alone game.
, which will occupy more resources, cause lags when running on some low-end computers, and reduce the number of players.
Therefore, although the production team of "Agent Academy" can directly use the hero models and some scene materials from GOG, it still needs to make some refinements and adjustments.
Judging from the finished product, "Academy of Agents" is definitely a qualitative improvement compared to some privately produced animations and short dramas.
After all, the entire animation production team is drawn from Feihuang Studio, and some professional talents are recruited from outside. This kind of regular army is definitely not comparable to ordinary amateurs.
But from another point of view, the production level of the first episode of "Academy of Agents" is still far behind that of some foreign dramas and the works of domestic first-class animation production companies.
Considering the large amount of resources Tenda Group has invested in "Agent Academy" and the speed of content production...
This project seems to be okay? Can it make a loss?
Pei Qian calculated with his fingers that the last time Wu Chuan came to him to formally finalize the "Agent Academy" was at the end of October last year, so the official start of production should be in early November, which is almost two months ago.
It took two months to produce one episode? Ten minutes?
That efficiency is really impressive.
Of course, Pei Qian had no intention of blaming him, but felt that Wu Chuan had done a good job.
We need more employees like this to lose money!
Even if the process becomes proficient and the production speed speeds up later, the efficiency will only be doubled at most, right?
One episode a month, no more.
As a result, one episode is only ten minutes long. Even if the number of views is as high as the sky, how much money can it make?
Since "Successor Academy" is a short animation, it must be the same as "Successor". It can only negotiate cooperation with video websites, either to buy it out at a fixed price, or to calculate the share based on the number of views and popularity.
But "Academy of Agents" is not as good as "Successor"!
No matter how much criticism "Succession" receives now, it is still a large-scale production with high standards. It also has cameos from movie stars like Lu Zhiyao, which can scare the Ellie website.
As for "The Academy of Agents", what kind of virtue is it? At most, it is treated the same as other Chinese comics.
At that time, no matter whether it is a buyout or a share, the profit will not be too much.
Considering the production cycle and quality...
stable!
Of course, there is another point that must be considered, which is the plot of "Academy of Agents".
Pei Qian thinks that this plot is okay, and it is a good reproduction of the original work. In short, it uses the heroic characters in GOG as the background to tell the funny daily life of a group of agents (that is, players). Many of the jokes are used in real life.
It has a relatively wide range of memes, and also created some humorous points, which is more than enough to be used as a mealtime video.
But do you want to say it is particularly wonderful?
That's it.
In short, this is an anime with a good plot and quality, but factors such as time, investment, and frequency of updates determine that it will definitely not be a big hit.
That would be reassuring.
"Okay, I think it's good, let's just play it!" Pei Qian handed the tablet back.
Wu Chuan was stunned for a moment: "Is it going to be broadcast now? Mr. Pei, why don't you give me any more opinions and change it?"
Pei Qian shook his head: "What's the point of giving advice? I don't know much about this. You are all professionals and you must do better than me."
"Besides, from the perspective of a senior Love Island viewer, the shooting is quite good, and there is no problem with it as a meal-making video. Since the quality is already here, there is no need to go further."
"Hurry up, hurry is the last word!"
Pei Qian worked hard to instill in Wu Chuan the concept of "just enough", hoping that the quality of "Academy of Agents" would stop here and never be raised any higher.
Even if there are any small problems, don't change it anymore, it's almost fine.
Wu Chuan nodded: "Okay, Mr. Pei, then I will do as you say. I will contact the video website right away."
"So... what specific charging model will be used for this "Agent Academy"? If it is a buyout system, I'm afraid the price won't be very high if we make animation for the first time..."
Pei Qian waved his hand: "This is easy to handle. You go to Huang Sibo and then talk to the Ellie website. It will be the same as "Successor", and the share will be calculated based on the number of views, ratings and other factors."
"But it still needs to be a little different from "Successor". The influencing factors of the rating should be as low as possible, and the influencing factors of the total play volume and total viewing time should be higher."
Pei Qian thought about it. The production level of "Academy of Agents" itself is acceptable. Although it is not as good as some of the top animated films in the country, it is still considered to be the best in the domestic animation section of the Ellie website.
Considering GOG players' preference for this genre, and the fact that comedy shorts may naturally benefit from it, this score will probably not be low, and there is absolutely no comparison with the situation faced by "Successor".
In this case, then the focus of the division should be tilted towards the total play volume, especially the total viewing time.
According to the extremely fast update frequency of "Academy of Agents", which is as short and concise as an embroidery needle, how many views can a 10-minute feature film get in a month?
Even if the playback volume is good, then the total duration won’t be a problem, right?
Wu Chuan was stunned for a moment, but he still didn't say anything and nodded: "Okay, Mr. Pei, I'll make arrangements right away."
Watching Wu Chuan leave, Pei Qian couldn't help but feel a little happy.
Double happiness!
"Successor" aired two more episodes last weekend, and Meng Chang's promotional resources have been pouring in, but the situation is still not profitable. The ratings fluctuate, but overall it is still very sluggish.
Strike while the iron is hot and "Academy of Advocates" is released again. Even if the reputation is good, as long as you can't make money, everything will be fine.
Counting it this way, among the three copyright adaptation projects of the inspiration class of the Dingmin Chinese website, two lost money and one made a profit.
The only one that makes money is "Eternal Fall into Reincarnation", which is completely acceptable.
After all, with the popularity of "Return to the Shore" first, and it was developed by Tenda Game Department, it is understandable to make money.
What's more, I also gained Yu Fei as the chief designer and arranged for Hu Xianbin. It's not a loss at all.