The first domestic popular science film to appear on the big screen in 24 years, "Secret Nature: Earth's Past" and "Secret Nature: Invisible Power" will be released nationwide on July 14 and July 21 respectively. "Don't stay in bed during summer vacation, get up early to learn science" is the theme of this release, and a unique mass distribution model is implemented.
The release poster reads "Don't stay in bed during summer vacation, get up early and study science." The
film was specially created by popular science writer Wang Jie for 10 years and given to children. The professionalism of the film was "protected" by 3 academician-level scientists and 15 professor-level scientists. Through a carefully designed story line, the unsolved mysteries of the four major scientific fields of paleontology, geology, fluid mechanics, and astronomy are connected in series. It is also ornamental, interesting and scientifically rigorous. "Professional to the point of standing up to every detail." Consider".
"Secret Nature: Earth's Past" and "Secret Nature: Invisible Power" have been screened in more than 200 cities across the country since the end of March this year. So far, the two films have held nearly 1,300 screenings, with more than 50,000 viewers entering the theater in advance to watch the films, gaining a high reputation among parent-child groups. For popular science films, which are not "mainstream" films in theaters, Elephant Dianying, which is responsible for the film's promotion and distribution, has made effective attempts at special distribution such as branch distribution and focused distribution.
Screening scene
"Sub-genre" and "Focus" films are popular among parent-child groups
Wang Ji, the director of "Searching for Secrets in Nature", is a popular science writer and popular science film and television creator. He has published more than 20 popular science works, including books, films, etc. , won multiple awards. Among them, the popular science book "The Shape of Time - A History of Relativity" won the 8th Wenjin Book Award of the National Library, and the science fiction novel "Time Cage" won the 18th Hundred Flowers Literature Award.
"Nature's Secrets: Earth's Past" and "Nature's Secrets: The Invisible Power" are phenomenal science films specially created for children, covering four chapters: Exploring the Cambrian, Geomagnetic Reversal, The Mystery of Turbulence, and Fast Radio Bursts. , all based on the discoveries and achievements of Chinese scientists, "telling our own scientists' stories in our own language." In addition to telling scientific stories and imparting scientific knowledge, the film also aims to cultivate children's scientific thinking.
"Secrets of Nature: Earth's Past" and "Secrets of Nature: Invisible Power" are the only two popular science films released in theaters in the past 24 years. They are very unfamiliar in the current film market and have not yet been recognized by the audience. type". Audiences have not developed the habit of going to theaters to watch popular science films, which poses a great challenge to publicity work. However, "sub-genre" movies also have their own unique "advantages": these two popular science movies have a relatively clear and vertical audience group - the parent-child education group. In other words, the two "Secret Nature" movies are typical "focus" movies aimed at specific audience groups rather than the general public.
The audience-focused nature of the film was quickly apparent in the early stages of screening: just two weeks after the screening started, more than 200 screenings were held in more than 70 cities across the country. Among the organizers of the screening, teachers are “unique”. A biology teacher from Nantong, Jiangsu Province initiated two screenings in a short period of time, convening a total of 580 parent-child education audiences to watch the movie, and successfully influenced a parent audience to convene a large-scale screening with 130 viewers. A school principal was deeply moved after watching the movie and planned to screen popular science films in his school. Parents lamented: "The children were motionless while watching and even forgot to eat the popcorn." "It turns out that popular science movies can make children so fascinated and exciting!" As the film screening event is called, "Searching for the Secrets of Nature and Sparkling Points" "Screening Project", with each screening, the light of science is gradually starting a prairie fire.
Screening site
Screening site
Small and medium-cost films are competing for the summer season, continuing to explore "high cost performance" focused and distributed distribution
After more than three months of "long-distance running", "Secrets of Nature: Earth's Past" and "Secrets of Nature" "The Invisible Force" will be released soon.This summer, there are nearly 20 animated films. Faced with the "must compete" for parent-child movie-watching groups, Elephant Movies has decided to avoid "homogeneous competition": it is different from the traditional nationwide release and release of films. , to do "high cost-effective" focused distribution and branch distribution. Elephant will learn from the "Science for Children's Day" campaign planned for the Children's Day program, continue to build a parent-child consumption scene, and carefully planned the public screening event of "Don't stay in bed during the summer vacation, get up early to learn science": In the long summer vacation, instead of "staying in bed" "To spend the day, it is better to get up early for a popular science movie - I believe it can hit the pain points of parent-child audiences.
In terms of distribution, considering the fierce competition for summer film schedules, "Secret Nature" still takes a different approach: soliciting theaters across the country, film tubes, theater chains, independent theaters, etc. who are interested in arranging films (more than 1,500 theaters have signed up so far) ), combined with the activity concept of "waking up early to watch movies", strive for the earliest movie schedule during the business hours of the day. These non-prime time film schedules, which are relatively "tasteless" for other summer movies, can become "effective film schedules" for parent-child audiences. From the "focused audience", the "focused film schedule model" can be deduced reversely, and then truly realized "Specialized movie viewing". Elephant Video hopes to use this to explore a new path for the popular science film "Secrets of Nature" and similar "sub-genre", small and medium-cost films in the public release market.
Regarding the original intention of designing focused distribution, Wu Feiyue, founder of Elephant Video, said, "The film projects announced by Elephant are usually non-commercial films without IP blessing and no participation of traffic stars. This characteristic determines our It is necessary to abandon the high-profile publicity of traditional commercial film promotions, and use the limited publicity budget on precise publicity channels, striving to attract potential niche groups to the greatest extent, rather than the 'public' that commercial films want. "
In addition to the public release, "Secret Nature: Earth's Past" and "Secret Nature: Invisible Power" will also reach more audiences by entering campuses and other means. The Elephant Screening team believes that at a time when the promotion and distribution of small and medium-cost films are facing increasing challenges, it is difficult to achieve a viable and sustainable positive direction in the creation chain of "sub-genre" films such as popular science films through theatrical box office screenings alone. cycle; on the contrary, if we can break away from the single-plank bridge of theatrical release, explore secondary market opportunities such as the campus market and science and technology museum market, and actively develop various derivative products such as books and courses, it may bring more opportunities for this type of film.
