GUM REEL 2017 OCT
Green United Music (GUM) originally started in Paris, France in 2007. The company decided to set up shop in Shanghai three years ago to meet the growing demands of China’s advertising market. Through perseverance, cultural acumen, and some luck the company has established itself as one of the few fully foreign owned music production companies thriving in China.
Green United Music (GUM)于2007年在法国巴黎成立。三年前，为了迎合中国广告市场不断增长的需求，公司决定建立上海工作室。通过坚韧不拔的精神和文化敏锐感，再加上点好运，上海公司现在已成为中国为数不多的全外资音乐制作公司，发展前景大好。
GUM’s Shanghai French Managing Director and music producer, Thomas Faucheur, shares how the company got its start in Shanghai and continues to grow in China and Asia Pacific.
来自法国的音乐制片人Thomas Faucheur是GUM上海总经理，他跟我们分享了公司在上海的起步故事，以及如何在中国和亚太地区不断发展壮大。
Thomas Faucheur | CEO & Producer GUM Asia
1. What was one of the main obstacles when first opening a China branch of the company? 最初在上海成立分公司时，主要有什么绊脚石？
A big challenge for us at the start was not a lack of interest or business but the demand from clients wanting the most edgy and elegant soundtrack at the same time. So we’ve had a lot of discussions about this with the local market and we have found it valuable to spend time sharing our way of working.
成立之初，很大的挑战并不是中国市场对音乐制作没有兴趣，或者说没有这样的商业环境，但是客户却总想要独特优雅的音乐。我们要向人们解释，好的音乐的关键就是声音制作的过程。
2. Is there a particular project that you feel helped the company take off? 有没有哪个特定项目你觉得帮助公司开始走向了成功？
The BMW M3 M4, produced by MiC, was a project where we were able to show our expertise on music, sound design and mix where other music houses had failed on this same film. It was a perfect introduction for us to demonstrate our abilities to the advertising industry here in Shanghai and China.
是MiC制作的宝马M3 M4广告，我们通过这个项目展示了我们在音乐、声音设计和混音方面的专业水准，而其他音乐工作室给这部片子的配乐都没有得到认可。这也是一个很完美的开端，展示了我们在上海乃至中国广告行业的能力。
GUM created the sound for this BMW spot in 2015 | GUM做的BMW2015广告音乐
3. What are the main services GUM provides for the China market? GUM为中国市场主要提供哪些服务？
Right from the beginning, we were asked to cover the full scope of a soundtrack, including original music, sound design, and VO casting, recording and mix. Our experience with our music label – Label GUM – has really helped us to advise and to provide a full music licensing service to agencies and brands. The development of our music libraries – GUM Tapes, GUM Collections, and GUM Motion Tracks – has made it possible to have a more immediate response to projects needing existing music on an affordable budget.
从一开始，就有人让我们打造音乐制作的方方面面，包括原创音乐、声音设计、配音演员甄选、录音和混音等。我们的音乐品牌标签Label GUM真正地助力我们，能够给各个广告机构和品牌提供完整的音乐授权服务。我们的音乐库 – GUM Tapes，GUM Collections以及GUM Motion Tracks，可以给一些需要现成音乐的项目提供更为及时的服务，并且预算也不高。
4. How much support does GUM Shanghai receive from the Paris headquarters? 巴黎总部给GUM上海分公司给予了多少支持呢？
Before even opening GUM Shanghai, we made it clear to survive we needed to operate over here in the most independent way possible. We ended up building our first studio in the first four months after I arrived at Pudong Airport in April 2014!
在上海分公司开始运营之前，我们就明确表示，要想在中国市场生存下来，就要尽可能让我们独立运营。2014年4月我抵达上海之后，我们在前四个月就建立了第一间工作室！
Initially our biggest challenge was finding a Chinese sound engineer and producer who could be my ‘double’ and interact with our Chinese clients, since my Chinese was not up to business standards. It was originally difficult to build our in-house team but we are now a small, strong group with four composers and one in-house composer entirely dedicated to GUM Shanghai projects, and with this team we are able to cover most of the music genre when it comes to original music. So except for recording specific VO’s where Paris offers more choices, we don’t require any support from headquarters to produce a soundtrack. Our connection with Paris, however, is still an opportunity to more easily access certain information such as when dealing with licensing issues.
最初面临的最大挑战是找到一个中国的录音师及制片人，可以成为我的“替身”，跟中国客户打交道，因为我的中文还不能达到商业交流水平。最初很难难搭建内部团队，但是现在我们有了一个小而精的团队，我们有四个人作曲，另外还有一个内部的作曲全身心投入GUM上海项目中，有了这样的团队，我们差不多可以应对各种类型的原创音乐。除了配音录制的时候，巴黎总部会给我们提供更多选择，其余时候我们在制作音乐时不需要总部的支持。我们跟巴黎总部的联络可以让我们有机会更好地获取相关资讯，更好地应对音乐授权事宜。
GUM Shanghai office | GUM上海办公室
5. Where does GUM fit in the China music production market in terms of its main competitors? 从竞争的角度来看，GUM在中国音乐制作市场处于什么样的位置呢？
In Shanghai, and probably even greater China, there are very few other foreign music houses, maybe one or two outside of GUM, however, the market here is so large that we do not end up competing against those foreign music production houses also based here. Regarding local companies, and there are a lot of these, they are not competitors for us because they really operate in a different way and often they function more as a recording studio or mix studio rather than the full music house like GUM.
上海，甚至可以说大中华区，外资音乐制作公司很少，除了我们GUM，可能只有一两家，但是市场这么大，我们不需要跟其他外资制作公司竞争。就中国本土公司而言，确实有很多家，但是我们也不是竞争关系，因为其实他们的运营方式不同，通常都是做录音或混音，而不是像我们一样是全套的音乐工作。
6. Has GUM received any awards yet? Do you have a favorite? GUM得过什么奖吗？有没有最喜欢的奖项？
We have only been in China three years and have already received several awards, including a Grand Prix at the most recent AD STARS Festival for a film with Cheil (Beijing) for the non-profit Operation Smile, a Bronze Lion in 2016 for the film Memory Lab with Fred & Farid (Shanghai), Best Music at the 2016 ROI, and a Silver at Spike’s 2016 for the film “Child Safety” with BBH (Shanghai).
虽然来中国才短短三年时间，但是我们却得过好几个奖项了，包括最近釜山国际广告节的全场大奖，获奖作品是北京杰尔思行广告打造的广告片，这是一个为“微笑行动”打造的非盈利项目，另外还有佛海佛瑞（上海）打造的“回忆实验室”，赢得了2016年的铜狮奖，还有2016金投赏最佳音乐奖，以及Spikes 2016银奖，获奖作品是BBH上海打造的“儿童安全”。
I have to say my favorite project I’ve worked on was the film Canal + “L’Ours” (The bear) which ended up receiving a 2012 Gold Lions & Grand Prix. The film was also ranked in the top twenty best ads from the 21ST Century (Gunn Reports).
不得不说，曾经参与的项目中，我最喜欢的是Canal + “L’Ours（The bear），这部作品最终获得了2012年金狮奖和全场大奖。同时也被Gunn Reports评选为21世纪20部最佳广告之一。
“L’Ours（The bear）for Canal +
7. Are there plans to develop GUM Shanghai outside of the China market? 是否计划在海外市场拓展GUM上海的业务呢？
GUM Shanghai is right in the middle of the APAC region, which puts us in a great position where we can work with the surrounding countries like Australia, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and others. While we are continuing to consolidate our position in the Chinese market, we are already starting to work with other countries in the region. We recently did projects in South Korea for Samsung with Cheil Seoul and also in Singapore for IBM with Ogilvy & Mather Singapore. Our participation in regional festivals like Spikes this September is perfect for our future market development, where Shanghai will continue to be our main platform.
GUM上海处在亚太地区的中心，我们有着绝佳的地理位置，可以跟周边国家合作，比如澳大利亚、日本、马来西亚和泰国等等。我们一边继续整合我们在中国市场的地位，一方面也已经开始跟亚太地区的其他国家合作。近期我们跟杰尔思行首尔一起在韩国为三星打造了一部广告，还跟新加坡奥美合作，在新加坡为IBM打造了广告。今年九月我们参加了Spikes地区广告节，这正是我们开拓未来市场的完美途径，但与此同时，上海仍是我们的大本营。
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