Oriental DreamWorks laid off 40 animators and its employees have been reduced to 100. In 2012, the Chinese Cultural Industry Investment Fund teamed up with Shanghai Oriental Media Group, Shanghai United Investment and American DreamWorks Animation to jointly establish Oriental DreamWorks in Shanghai. The LOGO features a

The animation company where the panda sits on the crescent red moon also carries the dream of starting from China and moving towards the international market.

After its establishment, Oriental DreamWorks launched its first Sino-US co-production masterpiece "Kung Fu Panda 3" last year. The domestic box office exceeded 1 billion yuan and the global box office exceeded 500 million US dollars, which was an outstanding achievement.

However, recently, there have been frequent doubts about the development of Oriental DreamWorks. “There are problems with the teamwork mechanism and cultural differences between China and the United States.” Since this year, “Comcast, the parent company of DreamWorks Animation, is planning to give up its holdings.”

"45% stake in Oriental DreamWorks" and the massive layoffs have made the outside world confused about the future development of Oriental DreamWorks.

As one of the largest Sino-foreign cooperative cultural exchange investment projects to date, is Oriental DreamWorks undergoing dramatic changes, or is it playing a new game?

A few days ago, Oriental DreamWorks CEO Zhu Chenghua accepted an exclusive interview with the Daily Economic News Film and Television Reporter (hereinafter referred to as NBD). He conducted an exclusive interview on Oriental DreamWorks' Sino-US cooperation, personnel changes, shareholder doubts, and the company's future development this year.

Responses and answers.

Personnel changes Are there major personnel changes in the company?

Adjustment is strategic optimization and upgrading NBD: Some media have reported that Oriental DreamWorks laid off about 40 animators in its Shanghai company this year. At its peak in 2014, Oriental DreamWorks had more than 250 employees, but now it has less than 100 employees.

Is this news true? Are there any major personnel changes?

Zhu Chenghua: This report is a misinterpretation of our layoffs or reduction in the number of personnel. Our shareholder Chinese Culture has also made clarification.

In fact, the original intention of this matter was to upgrade and optimize the original production model, so the so-called personnel adjustment is completely a strategic optimization and upgrade.

It turns out that we complete every aspect of production within the company. In order to optimize and adjust the development path, Oriental DreamWorks has determined the strategic positioning of "Creative Hub" and will focus on the development of creative scripts for animation and related

As for the core aspects of production, we outsource production globally for some non-core production processes.

Therefore, in the optimization process, the number of our employees has decreased, but the overall scale is now maintained at more than 100 people.

NBD: Have the main core talents changed?

Zhu Chenghua: Our core management team is very stable.

Xu Pengchong, general manager of derivative business, is a very high-quality talent in the industry. Melissa Cobb, head of animation studio and chief creative officer, is the chief producer of "Kung Fu Panda 1, 2, and 3". Zhou Peiling, creative director of animated films, has

He has been responsible for the script creation and production of outstanding works such as "Mulan" and "Toy Story 2"... These core high-end creative, development, and management personnel are very stable and committed.

NBD: Which departments have been streamlined?

Zhu Chenghua: Many people are more concerned about our publicity team.

In fact, our shareholder Chinese Culture has created an outstanding publicity and distribution team in the industry this year. Therefore, we do not need to repeatedly form a distribution team internally. We only need to retain the classic core publicity and distribution members, but in terms of the construction of a specific distribution network

, we will no longer do it alone and will work closely with Chinese Culture. I believe this will have more prominent advantages than establishing a separate publicity team.

NBD: Our employee base is now around a hundred people. Will we continue to maintain this level in the future?

Zhu Chenghua: Yes, our number of employees obviously exceeds this scale, and we are currently recruiting for many positions. The size of the team will be determined based on our subsequent business development.

Equity Questions Will US investors give up 45% of their shares?

So far, the situation of shareholders has not changed. NBD: It is reported that Comcast Group, the American investor of Oriental DreamWorks and the parent company of DreamWorks Animation, plans to give up its 45% stake in Oriental DreamWorks.

Is this incident true?

Zhu Chenghua: So far, our shareholder situation has not changed.

NBD: As the first local CEO of Oriental DreamWorks, you have been CEO for about a year now. What considerations do you have for the future development of the company?

Zhu Chenghua: Our vision is to use Hollywood’s top technology, integrate Chinese elements, and integrate China’s localization experience to create top-notch animated films.