a Chinese Service Company’s Counterattack

Luoyang YinoCulture Development Co., Ltd. is a well-known animation production company in Henan Province. Adhering to the technology research and the continuous cultivation in art, YinoCulture has provided production services for many large domestic companies, including Shanghai Animation Film Studio, Tencent Games, Fangtewild Holdings and Changyou.com . In addition to improvement in production capabilities, YinoCulture also actively assumes responsibility for social services and has reached cooperation with a number of universities.  It actively carries out training business; and provides internship and employment opportunities for college interns.

Today, we will talk with this company in the business that is based in the Central China and radiates all of China.

CGGE: Can you briefly introduce your company to our readers?

YinoCulture: Our company is Luoyang YinoCulture Development Co., Ltd. which was established on November 11, 2015, with more than 120 membres. The company was founded by the animators from Shanghai Animation Film Studio that joints creative talents and high-quality capital. From the early scriptwriting to the post-production, we realized the one-stop service from creation to the post-production. The company implements the operation mode of technical management, production management and talent management to ensure the output of high-quality and high-volume animation works.

CGGE: At present, in addition to Luoyang YinoCulture, you have also established Shenzhen YinoCulture 2016 Development Co., Ltd. Why do you want to open a new company in these two places? This is exactly the opposite of many companies’ developments mode that is from the eastern or southern developed regions to the inland regions.

YinoCulture: We choose the business as a service provider is because it can bring stable cash flow which ensures the healthy operation of the company. During the service, we can also train the team in the production.

If we compare the animation industry chain to a fish, it seems to us that the service provider business is like the fish belly, which requires the most intensive part of the manpower; and the second and third level of the cities have the intensive population; therefore, we chose Luoyang as the location of the company where it has a lot of universities and convenient transportation.  However, the animation industry is more developed in first-level cities. Due to the demand of the industry and the company business development, we quickly established a branch in Shenzhen on the first of year that the company’s established.

CGGE: Since its establishment, the company has also participated in many outstanding projects. From movies to TV, we can see your name on the credits. Can you talk to you about your experience and what your opinion of the domestic animation and film production? Is there anything that can shared with our readers, especially overseas readers?

YinoCulture: The core members of the company have been engaging in the animation industry for many years because their passion to this business.  Of course, we have experienced the ups and downs; which we were ready for it from the very beginning. We started from scratch and now we get the recognition from the market. During this period, we have put our effort including in the establishing of the team and operating it. We have very strong capability of self-recovery.

The production level of domestic anime film and television has been getting better and better and the styles are also various. According to the present situation of the industry, it’s very daring for these production companies.  All the experience is treasurable. A lot of products get good score in the overseas platform. We all can see it. We hope the audience from both home and abroad can bring more interests in the domestic works. They have the Chinese characteristics and you can feel the charm of the different cultures and variety.

CGGE: You have produced a lot of outsourced works. Are you currently preparing your own projects? If so, can you disclose a little of it? What are the biggest difficulties and obstacles encountered on the original development? Is there anything that CGGE can help?

YinoCulture: Our positioning has always been a content-oriented company that focuses on human emotion expression. We also insist on developing three lines together of service providing, cultivating talents, and developing original projects. Therefore, for the contracted works, we will prefer to be a co-producer that invest the project with our production capability. In this year, we will start our own projects, and you can see some prototype in the latter part of the year.

It’s not easy to do a simple thing perfect. We will also meet a lot of difficulties in developing an original project. I believe my peers encounter the same problems; such as the patience of the outside funds and the other is the scarcity of talents, especially the preproduction talents. I hope that CGGE can promote animation industry to more people and let them know about this industry.

CGGE: Thanks for your trust. Regarding the production of overseas projects, what is the essential difference between them and domestic projects? What is the biggest difference between the overseas and domestic customers?

YinoCulture: There is no essential difference in the production process. Overseas projects are relatively more rigorous on the early stage; and there are few cases that the original creation would be overthrown during the mid-term production.

The cost of communication with customers is higher than that of domestic customers, and the production cycle is relatively long overall. The feedback time from the domestic customer feedback is shorter with the revision comments provided within 24 hours. Because of the time difference and work habits, etc. the overseas customers the feedback takes longer. And the overseas projects have more risks of on-time payment.

CGGE: A successful work needs indispensable talents. In terms of talent development, what’s your plan? Facing the uneven technical training in the market, what is your most concerned?

YinoCulture: In terms of talent cultivation, we generally choose to cooperate with the university in depth. Instead of waiting for the graduates, we prefer to select the freshmen who are really interested in this industry. We will regularly visit the university and communicate with the instructors. We feedback the requirements from the markets and help adjust the curriculum.

Including the university students, a lot of students in the public training centers choose animation course not because of love. more are because they don’t know what to choose. They are lost. Therefore; we will pay attention to those who are really passionate and fond of animation. We will help to do the psychological construction and help them to understand how to be a professional animator.

CGGE: At present, Nezha, the feature animation has broken a lot of box office record in China which inspires the whole industry. So what do you think about the future of Chinese animation and the Chinese animation market? What role will you be in the revitalization of Chinese animation?

YinoCulture: From the establishment of the company to the present, we have always believed that China has a great animation and consumer market. This has been approved by many movies, like the Return of Monkey King 2015, Boonie Bears or Nezha. However, the industry needs opportunities, market incubation and multi-resources coordination which helps s healthy and sustainable development. We hope that every year, there will be an average of 3-5 blockbuster films then it will be a new stage for the development of animation industry.

In the future, we will still take every step by step based on our own situation. We are not belittle ourselves nor arrogant; but to produce good original products with our capability and management service to meet the market requirement. We will also continue to cultivate talents as well.

In a few words, YinoCulte expressed their attitude and confidence. Adhere to their attitude to constantly pursue progress; to develop good products and to nurture new people who love animation and encourage them to service the Chinese animation industry. Because of these people have enthusiasm, perseverance, and persistence that push Chinese animation industry go forward further and further.

Today, when we see “Nezha” constantly refreshing the new record of Chinese animation history, let us cheer for the Chinese animation industry and encourage!

Editor:Sophia