Heyi Pictures, the filmmaking arm of China’s Web-based TV giant Youko Tudou, has recently signed a number of partnerships with local media firms to develop and create original film production titles.
Heyi Pictures CEO Allen Zhu said that the deals are aimed at producing a total of nine projects by 2016. The agreements were signed with some of the country's leading magazine and online publishers.
Zhu, also a senior vice president of Youku Tudou, told THR during a Beijing International Film Festival interview that the "partnership is all about incubating intellectual property (IP)."
"Chinese movie audiences are calling for more quality titles while the movie business demands a larger and continuous flow of new IPs," he added.
Zhu also emphasized that Heyi Pictures is gearing toward providing an open platform wherein stronger IPs across multiple screens could be developed.
Since last year, the company and its previous Youku Tudou incarnation have teamed up to co-produce 15 film titles, such as "The Continent" and "Fleet of Time," pulling in over $690 million at the Chinese box office.
Most of the new strategic partnerships are focused on smaller screens.
"Screens are ubiquitous today, and catering especially for smaller screens, TV screens, smartphone screens that people see on the subway and in airlines, we're going to tailor these movies for those," Zhu pointed out.
"The screens are smaller, so the plot needs to be more compact. It's less verbose, the lines are clearer with younger directors and actors, for a younger audience. The marriage of Internet and movies has happened quicker than in the U.S. China has 1.3 billion people, and half of them have access for the first time in their life," he added.
The recently inked deals include partnerships with Mopian, an Internet novel publisher, and Readers Publishing and Media, a local media conglomerate covering eight publishing houses, 13 magazines, animations, outdoor and digital media podia.
Heyi Pictures has also signed agreements with film production firm BlueVision media, airline advertising portal AirMedia, Chinese national movie TV channel CCTV-6, and the country's largest operator of streaming and outdoor media for subways, Fundamental Media.