A week before Christmas, the second work of Felix Animation, which was wholly owned by Lin Qi, officially opened to the audience in cinemas.

The final investment amount of the animated film "Court of Avalon" even exceeded 137 million Hong Kong dollars. If it weren't for the follow-up of the theatrical version of "The Legend of Sword and Fairy" to be released in many countries, and the small disc of the VCD version also generated revenue over a long period of time, all of which were remitted to the financial account of Felix Animation's work, it is possible that Felix Animation would have been dragged down by the production budget of the new animation.

Of course, Lin Qi continued to subsidize the injection of 20 million yuan, otherwise, Felix Animation Company might be too poor to pay the utility bills.

Animated films with a budget of 137 million yuan, let alone the box office in Hong Kong and mainland markets, cannot return to their costs. Even if the markets in Southeast Asia and Japan are added, it is estimated that it will be very difficult to recover the cost. Therefore, such a large investment must be a global distribution, as well as subsequent IP value-added benefits to obtain long-term benefits.

Judging from the animated film itself, it is actually not a very shrewd investment. This investment is a bit like Square Enix's investment in the Final Fantasy movie. From the late 90s to the beginning of the 21st century, Square Enix invested $160 million in the theatrical version of "Final Fantasy", which eventually caused a huge loss of 16 billion yen, almost bankrupting his company, and had to merge with Enix to survive. However, the biggest problem with the Final Fantasy movie is not the huge loss of the film itself, but the fact that the film is beyond the financial capacity of its company and shareholders. If Square Enix's finances can withstand a loss of 16 billion yen and continue to operate, then this investment, which can be financially lost, will at least make a gimmick, and sooner or later it will be able to earn back through the next-generation games of the Final Fantasy series.

The investment of "Court of Avalon" is 137 million yuan, and from the perspective of pure investment, there is too much money to overflow, and the expected financial return is also very low.

The reason why the investment is so high is not that the production team makes money, but that Lin Qi has strict requirements for the quality of this work, which exceeds the expectations of the production team. As a result, Lin Qi treats money as money, and overthrows it if he is not satisfied, even if he burns more funds before, he can overturn it and start over.

"Felix doesn't survive by winning prizes or by returning on capital. Later, the director of "Court of Avalon" recalled, "Our only way out is to make a very demanding, difficult audience beyond our imagination, and our boss Lin Qi is satisfied with the work! I think, there is no more willful audience in the world than him, in order to see the animation or movie he wants to see, he can directly interfere with the production team, provide funds, repeatedly push, redo!"

Artoria's voice actor later recalled: "The boss of Felix's company, at that time, asked me to play King Arthur, I said, mistaken, how can King Arthur be a woman? Later, I was taught a hard lesson, of course, the dubbing process is not a feng shui, the hints given are very vague, even if I am familiar with the script of "Court of Avalon", and I read the script and plot of the animation countless times every day, it still doesn't work, no, and constantly deny. Moreover, I was not the only one at the beginning, there were many King Arthurs, the director laughed, and there was even a script for "Million King Arthur" in the boss's drawer. Of course, I was one of the last three King Arthurian voices left, two female and one male. The male version of Arthur is not used in this work, it may be used in other works. The other girl is also very good, we compete with each other, at first she performed better than me, in the frustration, gradually strengthened, and then I didn't want to do it, and as a result, finally one day, the boss finally said, okay, this is my expected king, from now on, you are Artoria! ”

Without that production team, I don't want to make a stunning work. Of course, limited by cost and ability, not all animation production teams can make masterpieces that shock the world. At the same time, the limitations of the aesthetic vision of the times will also seriously limit the imagination of many creators.

For example, before the publication of the works of new martial arts writers such as Liang Yusheng and Jin Yong, even if the previous writers wanted to write martial arts, the routines were old-fashioned routines, and their styles were very different from the current martial arts. However, with the publication of the works of Jin Yong, Liang Yusheng, Gu Long and other famous artists, the plots, settings and routines of the new martial arts have gradually become taken for granted, and conventions have become ordinary.

The same goes for anime, movies, games, and so on. Until the first work with a certain style and innovation comes out, there may not be a work of that type.

Although Lin Qi is not an expert in animation production, he is not even good at the most basic sketches. But that doesn't stop him from deciding as a boss that a work needs to match his aesthetic.

Lin Qi's requirements are basically in accordance with the style and setting requirements in the later "Fate/stay night" and "Fate/Zero".

For example, what Saber Altoria Pendragon battle should look like, what kind of character and tone it should be. Of course, it is naturally impossible to find Ayako Kawasumi for dubbing, and the current Ayako Kawasumi is still a little Lori, and she can't match the voice that Chef Wang expects at all.

However, Lin Qi can rely on his own impression, just one dubbing, in Hong Kong and China audition dubbing, the number of auditioners is no less than 100 people. In the end, there are 3 voice roles left that are more in line with expectations, and in the end, of course, only the best can be chosen.

Just the dubbing of the characters is a comparison over and over again, from the selection of people to repeated attempts and corrections. It wasn't until Lin Qi nodded and agreed with a certain version of the dubbing that he decided to use it.

It can be said that the cost of dubbing the characters alone is not less than 20 million Hong Kong dollars, and there are almost no such expensive dubbing in the world. Of course, this is also because of the imperfection of the Chinese dubbing industry chain, in exchange for the industrialization of Japanese voice actors, a large number of voice actors, different styles of voice actors, their past works and their dubbing styles to choose from, then, choose the right voice actors, naturally it is easier.

It is precisely because Chinese voice actors have not yet formed such a mature industrialization, so Lin Qi needs to spend a higher price to find the most suitable dubbing for anime characters.

Of course, this dubbing of Artoria was originally a trainee announcer on a local station in China, Lin Qi used his relationship to directly transfer his work to Felix Company, although the salary has risen a lot, but this young female anchor is still quite aggrieved, the reason is that there are good TV station employees in the system, and they are transferred to private companies that don't know what kind of future they do. If it is not the superior leader who does ideological work for him, it means that he will be temporarily transferred from his post, and if he makes a contribution, he can be transferred to CCTV in the future. In this way, he coaxed people into signing a contract with Felix and the new start-up film and television economic company for up to 10 years, which will be automatically renewed when it expires.

Of course, this is also to prepare for long-term business planning, you know, "Court of Avalon" is just the tip of the iceberg of an IP. Subsequently, it will also involve a series of IPs from FATE and even the Moon World. According to the experience of later generations, the best strategy for voice actors with popular characters is the same. For example, after Ayako Kawasumi played the Artoria of the anime version of "fate/stay night", all Artoria in the subsequent FATE series was voiced by her, and others dubbed it, and fans didn't recognize it. The character and voice actor are bundled, which is probably a great feature of the FATE series.

The quality of the final "Court of Avalon" still made Lin Qi more satisfied. The scene is close to the later FATE series,Of course,Picture quality、Rendering may not be as good,After all, the gap in computer performance,But,Due to the cheapness of labor,So that the animation can be refined at any cost,All,Not only does the picture have a finely crafted beauty,At the same time,Music box dubbing and so on,It also makes Lin Qi admire,At least there is eighty percent of the original FATE dubbing。 At the same time, because "Court of Avalon" has not been adapted into animation at all in the 21st century, it also makes Lin Qi feel quite accomplished. 10