A few minutes later, Wu Chuan knocked on the door and entered.
"Boss Pei, this is the first episode of the Executor Academy animation that I created according to your instructions."
As Wu Chuan spoke, he handed the tablet over.
Pei Qian reached out to take it and clicked play.
Less than fifteen minutes later, Pei Qian watched the finished video and fell silent.
Good lord, this length!
It was gone in a moment's distraction. It was really unexpected.
When Pei Qian watched Successor previously, each episode was an hour long. He could watch three episodes in the conference room in the afternoon and then knock off.
Yet, Executor Academy was different. The first episode, including the opening and ending, lasted a total of fourteen minutes!
In other words, if he cut the opening and ending, the episode would only last ten minutes.
Although he had expected Executor Academy to be short, he did not expect it to be this short!
Of course, Wu Chuan could not be blamed. After all, that was Pei Qian's request from the start.
Wu Chuan had spent half a day looking at all the animation studios in the country. In the end, Pei Qian was not satisfied with any of them. He felt that the possibility of them making money was too high. Thus, he smacked his head and decided to do it his own way of making games. He wanted to make animations using real-time calculations.
Of course, Wu Chuan gave many suggestions. The gist of it was that he had to redo all the models if he wanted to do real-time calculations. He also had to find professional motion-capture actors. It would not be easy to control the cost, and it would be too difficult.
Thus, Pei Qian was happy. This was exactly what he wanted!
In the end, Executor Academy was forced to use real-time calculations. Wu Chuan pulled a group of people from Fei Huang Workspace and poached a group of people from outside. He bit the bullet and started production.
Of course, Pei Qian would definitely provide the most financial support. How could he sit back and do nothing when there was such a good thing that could burn money?
Initially, Pei Qian's request was that fifteen to twenty minutes per episode would be enough. The timing was quite suitable.
As long as he produced one episode before settlement, he would have completed his task. At least, the project would be online. The System could not be picky, right?
Now, it looked like Wu Chuan had completed his task ahead of time. However, his completion was a little discounted.
What happened to fifteen to twenty minutes? It was only ten minutes!
Short and weak!
Pei Qian said, "It seems … shorter than I imagined."
Wu Chuan quickly explained, "Actually, I wanted to make it more than fifteen minutes, but during the actual production process, I realized that the original Executor Academy is more fragmented, and it's more suitable to make it ten minutes. It's hard to make it fifteen minutes at the perfect place."
"What's more, this is a new way of doing animation, after all. It's full of risks. The first episode should be shorter, and we can see how the finished product looks like. If we discover any problems, we can correct them in time."
"Of course, Boss Pei, if you think that the time is too short and that the audience might not be able to accept it, I can go back and edit it again. I can edit some of the content planned for the second episode to make it fifteen minutes. Or I can combine two into one and make it twenty minutes."
Pei Qian raised his hand. "Forget it. Looking at it this way, ten minutes is not bad."
He suddenly came to a realization. The shorter and more fragmented the chapters, wouldn't the audience dislike it more?
There was nothing wrong with being shorter.
To be fair, the quality of the first episode was alright.
It was not particularly good, but it was not particularly bad either.
There were ready-made hero models in GOG, and they were very detailed as well. However, it was still not enough to make an animation. After all, GOG's perspective determined that it did not have to be as detailed as a standalone game. That would take up more resources, and it would lag on some low-end computers. That would reduce the number of players.
Thus, while the production team of Executor Academy could directly use GOG's hero models and some background materials, they still had to make some refinements and adjustments.
From the looks of the finished product, Executor Academy was definitely much better than other animations and short shows made by ordinary people.
After all, the entire animation team was transferred from Fei Huang Workspace and poached some professional talents from outside. Such a regular army was not something ordinary amateurs could compare to.
However, from another point of view, the production standard of the first episode of Executor Academy was still very far from that of foreign dramas and domestic animation companies.
Furthermore, considering the huge amount of resources that Tengda Corporation had invested into Executor Academy and the speed at which the content was produced …
This project seemed to be alright? How could it incur losses?
Pei Qian counted on his fingers. The last time Wu Chuan came to him to finalize the deal for Executor Academy was at the end of October last year. That meant that production should have started in early November. It had been about two months since then.
Only one episode in two months? Ten minutes?
That efficiency was really touching.
Of course, Pei Qian did not blame him at all. Instead, he felt that Wu Chuan had done a good job.
He had to have more employees like that to incur losses!
Even if he became familiar with the process and the production speed increased, the efficiency would at most double, right?
One episode a month. That was the limit.
In the end, one episode was only ten minutes long. Even if the number of views was sky high, how much money could it make?
Since Executor Academy was a short animation, it had to be the same as Successor. It could only work with video websites. They could either buy it out at a fixed price or split the profits based on the number of views and popularity.
However, Executor Academy was not as good as Successor!
No matter how much 'Successor' was scolded now, it was still a high-standard production. There were even cameos from movie kings like Lu Zhiyao. It could scare Alice Island's website.
What did Executor Academy have to do? At most, it would receive the same treatment as other domestic comics.
Whether it was buying it out or splitting the profits, it would not make much.
Taking into account the production cycle and the quality …
Steady!
Of course, there was another thing that he had to consider: the plot of Executor Academy.
Pei Qian felt that the plot was not bad. It was a good reproduction of the original work. All in all, it used the hero characters in GOG as the background and talked about the funny daily lives of a group of executors (in other words, players). Many of the jokes were more common in real life, and Pei Qian had created his own jokes. It was more than enough to make a mealtime video.
However, was it particularly exciting?
That was it.
All in all, this was an animation with a good plot and quality. However, time, investment, frequency of updates, and other factors determined that it would not be popular.
That was reassuring.
"Alright, I think it's good. Just broadcast it!" Pei Qian handed the tablet back.
Wu Chuan was stunned. "Broadcast it just like that? Boss Pei, aren't you going to give some suggestions and make some changes? "
Pei Qian shook his head. "What's there to suggest? I don't know much about this. You're all professionals. I'm sure you can do better than me.
"What's more, from the perspective of an experienced Alice Island viewer, I think it's done well. It's not a problem to make it a mealtime video. Since the quality is already at this level, there's no need to improve it further.
"Time is of the essence. Speed is the most important thing!"
Pei Qian tried his best to instill in Wu Chuan the concept of 'just about enough'. He hoped that the quality of Executor Academy would stop there and not improve further.
Even if there were any small problems, they could not make any more changes. Just about enough would do.
Wu Chuan nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. We'll do as you say. I'll contact the video website now."
"Then … what kind of charging model will Executor Academy use? I'm afraid it won't be very expensive since it's our first animation … "Pei Qian waved his hand.
"That's easy. Look for Huang Sibo and talk to Alice Island. We'll do the same as Successor. We'll split the profits according to the views, ratings, and other factors.
"However, it has to be different from Successor. We'll try to lower the impact of the ratings, but the total views and viewing time should be higher."
Pei Qian pondered. Executor Academy's production standards were not bad. It might not be comparable to some of the top domestic animation movies, but it was considered one of the better ones in Alice Island's domestic animation section.
Considering the preference of GOG players for this theme, and the fact that funny skits might naturally benefit from it, the rating would probably not be low. It was completely incomparable to the situation faced by Successor.
Since that's the case, I'll focus on the total number of views, especially the total number of views.
Based on Executor Academy's tortoise-like update rate, how many views could a ten-minute film that was as short as an embroidery needle have?
Even if the views were good, there should not be a problem with the viewing time, right?
Wu Chuan was stunned, but he did not say anything. He nodded. "Alright, Boss Pei. I'll make the arrangements now."
Pei Qian could not help but feel happy as he watched Wu Chuan leave.
Double the good news!
Successor broadcasted two more episodes last weekend. Meng Chang had been pouring publicity resources into it, but it was still not making much money. The ratings fluctuated, but overall, it was still very low.
Now, he had to strike while the iron was hot. Even if Executor Academy had a good reputation, everything would be fine as long as it did not make money.
Zhongdian Chinese Network's inspiration class had three copyrighted projects. Two of them were incurring losses, and one was making money.
Eternal Fallen Samsara was the only one that was making money. That was completely acceptable.
After all, Repent and be Saved was popular first, and it was developed by Tengda Games. It was reasonable for it to make money.
What's more, he had Yu Fei, the chief designer, and arranged for Hu Xianbin. It was not a loss.
Thinking about it that way, Pei Qian was quite optimistic!
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