In the world of Chinese commercial filmmaking, a profile page on New Studios (Xinpianchang) website is the new norm— everyone you collaborate with is highly likely to have one. Some of over 2 million registered users give their profile on Xinpianchang credit for around 40% of their yearly projects. We’ve had a chance to talk with Xinpianchang’s Vice President Chen Yue (Vincent) about the company’s development, their goals, and what it has to offer to filmmaking professionals.
在新片场上开设账号，是中国广告界的新常态——你的任意合作伙伴，都很可能已经是新片场的用户。在超过200万的注册认证用户中有些用户表示，每年有40%左右的项目来源得益于新片场这个平台。我们有幸就新片场的发展，目标与他们能为行业带来什么，对新片场集团副总裁陈跃（Vincent）进行了采访。
陈跃 Vincent
When four Master’s students at Beijing Telecommunications University came together to work on their first project, they might have not foreseen it growing into China’s biggest video creators community. In 2011, Yin Xingliang, Chen Yue, Li Yang and Zhou Di created a short video sharing website, quickly discovering that in China, there was no platform where creative professionals could showcase their work. Launched a year later, Xinpianchang slowly got the investment of Alibaba, Sequoia, Perfect World, and in 2018 was reportedly evaluated at around 1.15 billion yuan (nearly 167M USD).
当年北京邮电大学一起研究第一个项目的四位研究生，可能并没有预见到这个项目会成长为中国最大的影视创作人社区。2011年，尹兴良、陈跃、李扬和周迪创立了一个短片分享网站，很快他们发现中国当时并没有展示行业创作人作品的平台。创立一年后，新片场便开始陆续收到阿里巴巴，红杉，完美世界的投资，到了2018年新片场的估值便达到了11.47亿元人民币（相当于1.67亿美元）。
Xinpianchang continues to develop rapidly, constantly adapting and foreseeing the needs of the market. Witnessing the rise of smartphones and mobile internet, which has led to a big demand in content, the four cofounders grabbed the opportunity. Vincent shares, that today, the content-creating division is driving profits for the company. New Studios Pictures 新片场影业 specializes on production and distribution of online films for China’s major streaming platforms like Aiqiyi, Youku and Tencent Video. Vincent recalls the early days of nascent online films industry, when one could shoot a 90-minutes film for 200,000 yuan. Now the budgets skyrocketed to 10 millions, so did the profits. For the short videos, Xinpianchang strategically selects creators on the platform with potential, employing them as in-house talent. Short videos business now serves over 180 brands, partnering with Douyin, Kuaishou, Weibo, Meipai and other Chinese mainstream platforms.
新片场开始迅速生长，不断地满足市场需求，发掘市场潜力。目睹了智能手机与移动网络的崛起，四位创始人很快就抓住了这个机会。陈跃表示，如今，内容创作是企业最赚钱的部门。新片场影业专门为中国主流的视频平台制作和发行线上影片，比如爱奇艺、优酷和腾讯视频。陈跃回忆起早期的线上影视行业，20万就能拍一部90分钟的影片。如今，一部电影的预算已经一飞冲天到1000万，分账金额也随之增加。至于短片，新片场会精心挑选有潜力的创作人，将他们聘请为企业内部人才。而新片场短视频板块，则为超过180个品牌提供服务，成为抖音，快手，微博，美拍以及其他主流短视频平台的战略合作伙伴。
Xinpianchang is often compared to Vimeo, but it wouldn’t be an entirely accurate comparison. The Chinese platform grew into an entire eco system with offline events like NEW ERA Youth film festival, online Academy with courses on directing, montage, color mixing, in addition to wide-ranging services it provides to creatives. According to Vincent, the biggest group of Xinpianchang users are students and amateurs who aspire to enter the filmmaking industry, followed by creators of brand promo videos, and advertising specialists on top. Xinpianchang offers an aesthetically pleasing, user-friendly, albeit monolingual, platform to showcase creative work, different from other similar platforms in China. First of all, its essential functions are free, no ads playing before the videos, and no watermarks on any of the work. Coupled with functions to tag fellow creators on projects, these are the key elements that keep attracting users.
如今的新片场常被拿来与Vimeo相提并论，但这其实不算是很准确的对比对象。中国的新片场已经成长为一个巨大的生态系统，既有类似于NEW ERA青年电影季，也有线上学院提供导演，蒙太奇和色彩混调方面的课程，除此之外还为创意人士提供了很多其他五花八门的服务。陈跃告诉我们，新片场的主要用户群是学生和对影视制片行业感兴趣的业余人士，其次还有大量的品牌宣传创作人和职业广告人。新片场为用户提供了一个审美愉悦，使用方便，单语言（中文）的展示创意作品的平台，与其他中国类似的平台都不同。首先，新片场社区的主要功能都是免费的，视频播放前也不会插播广告，作品也不加水印，还可以标注项目相关的创作人员。这些对用户来说，正是新片场保持持久吸引力的关键。
Vincent firmly believes in the Xinpianchang model, to the point, when he confidently declares they do not have any competitors on Chinese market. As to the future of paid-membership only platforms, like TVCBook, he avoids a direct comment . Everything that Xinpianchang does, is with aim to elevate the industry’s effectiveness and bring value to the users. The filmmaking industry is growing in China, and if Xinpianchang can tap into 1-2% of its profits, that’s enough for them. Size of the company is not a correct marker of how good the company is, and Vincent admires small companies that are achieving a lot without big teams. With 300 people, Xinpianchang is on a mission to become “the next generation media company” through technology have their eye on international expansion and with the potential of nabbing some of Vimeo’s 240 million active viewers, the sky is the limit for this small but fast growing company.
陈跃坚信，在当今中国市场，新片场的这种模式，目前还没有任何一个真正的竞争者。至于那些需要付费使用的平台，比如TVCBook，关于他们的未来，陈跃表示不方便做评论。新片场做任何事情的出发点，都是希望帮助整个行业提升其影响力，并为用户带来价值。中国的影视行业正在腾飞，如果新片场能分到1%-2%的利润，对他们来说就足够了。此外，公司规模跟公司经营得如何并不直接相关，陈跃很敬佩那些虽然规模不大，但却成就满满的小企业。目前有300名员工的新片场，正在通过科技助力，为成为“新一代的互联网媒体公司”而努力，并且将目光对准了广阔的国际市场；这家有潜力“带走”Vimeo2.4亿活跃用户的小公司，正在无所畏惧地，飞速成长。
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