Original author: Twitter @Mingzin_
Original editor: Wang Hanyu
Original source: Twitter @N_SpaceDAO
The current NFT market is already active with many blue-chip projects with extraordinary value attributes, such as BAYC, CryptoPunks, Azuki and other Web3.0 brand NFT PFPs use their rich resources similar to IP to exert a huge commercial influence; here Under the premise, only resale transactions between investors can bring rich NFT royalties to project parties, which is enough for these project parties to earn a lot of money. If we say that in the grand blueprint and ambitions of these brand project parties for NFT PFP, we have to point out the existence of some kind of exquisite and familiar "painting cake" skills, then at the same time it must be admitted that these The source of the brand's vigorous vitality will be guaranteed by the continuous expansion of the future track and market territory.
However, the influence and market value of NFT PFP's future track are being strongly impacted. The "hypermedia" environment formed by various new audio-visual media such as games, animations and highly interactive metaverses is transforming users' immersive perception. They are also reshaping their new worldview, which inevitably poses a certain degree of threat to the NFT PFP market. If the brand project party is still obsessed with a single research on the PFP market, it will face the danger of becoming stubborn and conservative from a persistent spirit. Its commercial limitations will continue to be highlighted as the market diversifies, and it may even cause the brand to be active in the past. The loss of tonality will lead to the decline of its own brand value.
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What is the Japan Production Committee?
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Japanese film and animation market has gradually widely adopted the production investment model called "production committee", which mainly refers to the investment synergy of films, animation and related ancillary products oriented towards diversification of investment risks Relationships and production distribution process. For the commercial films and animation works at that time, both the front-end shooting and production and the back-end publicity and distribution required a long period of time and huge human resources. Small and medium-sized ordinary animation production companies in the market were often unable to afford huge Investment instead of giving up the development and production of many high-quality IPs, and the maturity of the production committee model in market exploration has eliminated the biggest pain point of insufficient funds and personnel for animation front-end production.
The sharp increase in the cost of Japanese animation production has its own reasons. In 1962, the production cost of Osamu Tezuka's original "Astro Boy" was 2.1 million yen per episode, or about 120,000 yuan. In 1982, the production cost of the epoch-making work "Macros", which combines the theme of beautiful girl idols and robot wars, was 5.5 million yen per episode, or about 330,000 yuan. By 1995, the production cost of an episode of "Evangelion", a landmark animation in Japanese film history, had climbed to 6 million yen, or about 360,000 yuan.
As far as the organizational structure is concerned, the production committee is essentially a type of commercial cooperation organization, which is established by a number of companies based on specific animation projects and is responsible for daily investment, planning management and profit distribution. Usually, the members of the production committee are composed of distribution companies, production companies, TV stations, advertising media companies, publishing houses, animation production studios, audio-visual manufacturers, etc. Among them, distribution companies and production companies often become the main executive companies of the production committee (as shown below) .
As we all know, the animation industry itself has market attributes such as high investment, high returns, and high risks. In this context, if a single-line investment model is adopted for animation production, the production company or animation studio will solely bear all the pre-production costs and post-production costs. In other words, animation production under the control of the single-line investment model will largely depend on the quality of the work, and the production level and presentation quality of the work will directly determine the success or failure of the investment and the benefits of returns. It can be said that the emergence of the production committee has provided a wide range of market attention opportunities for many original animations and non-popular original works that were unable to be released due to financial pressure, and has also strongly promoted the gradual emergence of small and medium-sized animation production companies such as Kyoto Animation in the market. .
Going back to the field of Web3.0, we found that the current market situation is to some extent monopolized by big blue chips (moreover, Yuga Labs acquired CryptoPunks) and marginalized small and medium brands. The internal structure is exactly the same. For example, IPs such as BAYC have gained an unshakable monopoly position in the industry by virtue of their multi-faceted influence, sufficient traffic level, and crypto native addition; for such brand projects, resources are not the same. This is a factor worth worrying about, because it is precisely its superior resources that allow it to carefully maintain its "top-tier" brand image in the industry, just like a business empire built by the entanglement of capitalism and neoliberalism through negotiation and even conspiracy. However, for many small and medium-sized brand IP project parties, resources will be the cake with the strongest demand and the most intense competition. In the field of Web3.0, they are also constantly attacking the city through the accumulation of their own advantages.
It can be seen that the extremely challenging problems faced by small and medium production companies in the animation field are now being interpreted again in the Web3.0 market environment. Many brand project teams with good imagination and extraordinary creativity are only due to lack of personnel. and financial resources have encountered difficulties in content production and value realization. On the other hand, the adjustment mechanism of the market itself is a double-edged sword to some extent for these brand project parties. The encryption field and the NFT track are moving towards a standardized, strict and systematic development trend, while the market The feedback effect is also subsiding from the initial fanaticism to calm rationality. Such self-regulation makes the brand project party have to solve the problem of balancing creativity and production. With the improvement of the project production industry level and the optimization of the market evaluation mechanism, the behavior of pursuing a quick pump and dump (pull up shipments) can no longer be easily realized. But it must also be noted that if the inherent anonymity of Web3.0 and the market orientation of creativity first provide a relatively level playing field for imaginative new teams, then the challenging creative ideas of these new teams have become Feedback to the disruptive innovation power of the market.
In the Japan Production Committee, investors come from a variety of sources, including but not limited to DVD sales companies, toy companies, production companies, advertising agencies, publishing houses, and TV stations. Then the new production committee built by Web3.0 may wish to follow this model, and can freely and change the combination according to the market operation plan of the project party. As far as the future planning roadmap generally adopted by major NFT brand projects is concerned, we can find that its investment sources can be explored in many directions such as content production, professional risk control end, cross-media production services, and offline distribution. The new production committee produced by Web3.0 will be composed of NFT PFP producers, potential venture capital institutions, game production companies, peripheral production companies, offline publishers and other organizations.
In the Japan Production Committee, investors come from a variety of sources, including but not limited to DVD sales companies, toy companies, production companies, advertising agencies, publishing houses, and TV stations. Then the new production committee built by Web3.0 may wish to follow this model, and can freely and change the combination according to the market operation plan of the project party. As far as the future planning roadmap generally adopted by major NFT brand projects is concerned, we can find that its investment sources can be explored in many directions such as content production, professional risk control end, cross-media production services, and offline distribution. The new production committee produced by Web3.0 will be composed of NFT PFP producers, potential venture capital institutions, game production companies, peripheral production companies, offline publishers and other organizations.
While inheriting the investment model of the Japanese Production Committee, it is also necessary to point out the significant differences in the Web3.0 production system. Focusing on the level of communication mode, we found that the Japanese Production Committee is an investment collaboration organization built around animation as a media commodity. Under the dual situation of the globalization of transnational capitalism and the emergence of the concept of Web3.0, NFT The emergence of PFP has created a new communication value system and pattern: for example, Web3.0 brand project parties usually own IP copyrights, which allows them to have the same creative freedom as original authors of comics when producing content, so to some extent , They have sufficient equity differentiation and negotiation advantages when facing investors with various backgrounds, which is fundamentally different from the production situation faced by Japanese animation production companies in the production committee. It is not difficult to predict that in the foreseeable future, Web3.0 will provide a wealth of track options for brand project parties with IP copyrights, and they will take advantage of the situation to find a development path that fits their own brand value attributes.
The Japan Production Committee is an organization formed around animation as a means of distribution. However, from a global perspective, animation is not necessarily the only commercially successful medium; even, the emergence of NFT PFP also provides a new communication value system. Moreover, unlike Japanese animation production companies, the Web3.0 brand project party owns the copyright of IP just like the original author of the comics, so to some extent, they have the advantages of negotiation and equity differentiation. With the development of Web3.0 in the future, brand project parties will have more options to match their own brand development path.
Note: Japanese animation production companies generally do not own animation IP ownership. In the current Web3.0 environment, brand project parties first use NFT PFP to promote their own IP to accumulate traffic and market effects, so brand project parties can be both IP owners and producers of NFT PFP track projects With the investor, the dual identity is not contradictory.
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investment diversification
"Judging from the cost of animation production, which can easily reach tens of millions of yen, if these companies are allowed to independently invest in the production, a single failure may cause a fatal blow. In the long run, whether the quality of the program is reduced or the original is abandoned, it will cause the audience loss, reducing the overall profitability of the industry, and making the industry's development fall into an endless vicious circle."
Industries such as animation and game production are likely to face the dual problems of lack of professionalism and exhaustion of funds in the operation process due to their inherent needs for large amounts of financial support. Therefore, the final complete product may have poor quality results, which is It also led to the dilemma of being forced to give up research and development for small and medium-sized project parties. In the same way, if the brand IP project party in Web3.0 only relies on the initial investment or the first wave of NFT PFP issuance profits to promote research and development, it will inevitably face the same production dilemma. In the future, it will develop new series of PFPs or spread new tracks. Cracks appear. In order to maximize the avoidance of investment risks, many brand project parties may choose to reduce quality control efforts or actively lower production standards under tremendous pressure, or even simply give up the possibility of innovation, which will cause irreparable damage to the virtuous development cycle of the industry.
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windowed operation
"The operation window makes the animation production company no longer bear the heavy responsibility of commercial operation alone, and the production committee manages the follow-up affairs in a unified way. The production committee finds the most suitable professional organization to complete the commercial operation according to the needs, such as handing over the broadcast and distribution of the program to the TV station , Hand over advertising planning and sales to advertising agencies, and hand over product development and licensing to toy companies.”
Needless to say, the maturity of small and medium-sized animation production companies is usually not satisfactory in terms of commercial operations, and their strengths are more focused on creative production rather than commercial operations. Therefore, through the window-based operation of the production committee, specific work such as distribution will be entrusted to a professional "authorization window". Different investment institutions will perform their duties in the entire chain of work production and be responsible for different business segments It greatly reduces the commercial operation burden of animation production companies.
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production division
"Production division", that is, the specialized division of labor among production companies, has been established in the Tezuka era and has continued. After the production committee raised funds and determined the production direction, it entrusted the follow-up work to a relatively powerful animation company, which was called the original request. The company was originally invited to be responsible for the management of the entire animation project production process, but it would not take care of all the production tasks, but outsource part of the process to other smaller companies to complete according to the actual situation, which is called "downloading". The "downloading" enterprises may also subcontract part of the work to smaller enterprises, which is called "secondary downsourcing", forming a clear echelon structure with high and low levels. "
The main reason for the production separation model is the Japanese market environment. In Japan, there is no group with complete industrial production resources on the scale of Disney. All kinds of small and medium-sized enterprises can only cooperate with each other through continuous strengthening of mutual cooperation and business exchanges. Promote the industrial production level of the industry. This also explains why Japan can establish an audio-visual product market that competes with Hollywood in the United States and has obtained more than 60% of the global audio-visual product market share. In other words, Japanese animation companies, most of which are small and medium-sized enterprises, weaved a set of corporate networks in which competition and cooperation coexist through this "segregated" industry distribution mechanism and hierarchical production system. 90% of the animation companies in this corporate network The production companies are all concentrated in Tokyo, which is conducive to business cooperation and exchanges on the one hand, and on the other hand greatly expands the scale of the industrial cluster, thus accumulating strong production capabilities for Japanese animation and animation giants such as Disney.
In a sense, the general representation of small and medium-sized enterprises in the field of animation production in Japan is similar to the inherent attributes of Web3.0 decentralization and the distributed industry structure. The absence of large multinational corporations and oligarchs has actually created a market "vacuum", which makes the emergence and maturity of production divisions a good industry soil guarantee. As far as its functional effect is concerned, the separation of production means not only the "separation" of the production process, but also the fine division of labor in the commercial operation of the entire project, which can often be gathered within a production committee. The power of a dozen or even dozens of members is used to form a competitive force that can compete with large enterprise groups. The establishment of the new production committee model can be said to be a backwash against the capitalist monopoly system of Web2.0. The environment is transformed into DAOs one by one, so that individual values and advantages can be retained.
"The production committee model enables more companies to participate in the animation industry, and promotes the overall development of the industry. The production committee has solved the biggest problem for Japanese animation companies-the lack of sufficient financial resources to develop the logistics channels and sales outlets required to promote the image of their works." Different Presented in the monopoly of Disney, the Japanese animation company is not the image of a business empire.
It can be seen that the distributed structure of the production committee is conducive to fully mobilizing the power relations in the entire industry involved in cross-media production, and combining various forces such as product design, commercial operations, and distribution networks, and incorporating traditional single animation products into more In the perspective of a broad and macro commodity network. In a word, the integration of resources and the division of business by the production committee revolve around the production of works, and finally effectively realize the services for the works themselves. It provides a solid foundation for filming and producing works with diverse themes, and at the same time, participates in the whole process of animation production to expand the business relationship of the company itself.
In the end, we return to the important question raised at the beginning of the article. How should the brand project party insist on ensuring the quality and creative presentation of the brand and its IP in a decentralized context? From the case of the Japan Animation Production Committee, we have discovered the huge advantages of hierarchical distribution, window-based operation, and focused communication, which provide valuable mirrors for small and medium-sized brand project parties to gain a foothold and create a place in Web3.0 experience.
The diversification of investment provides a solid foundation for brand IP, and the operation window ensures the reasonable business allocation of each member, who can do their best to improve the quality and influence of the brand. The form of anti-homogenization has brought rich creativity to the narrative expansion of brand IP in other fields and tracks.
References:
References:
Wang Shen: "Research on the Development and Current Situation of the Animation Production Committee Model", "Journal of the Art College of Henan University", September 2014.
Wu Zhanwei: "The Evolution of Japanese Animation Business Model and Its Reference Significance", "Academic Exchange", November 2008.
Yin Liangfu: "Mainstream Investment Model of Japanese Animation Industry——Work Production Committee Model and Case Analysis", "Modern Communication", 2012.
Sanwen Entertainment: "Is the Japanese Production Committee Model Obsolete?" ", April 12, 2018.
