Photo/Dfic

Mar. 18 (NBD) – Concerts with the theme of films and animation are to take Chinese people by storm in March.

On March 15, Castle in the Sky Concert that presents classical works produced by celebrated Japanese composer Joe Hisaishi and animator Hayao Miyazaki was performed in Beijing.

Another concert with the theme of Japanese animation Your Lie in April is also scheduled to deliver a must-see experience to Beijing audiences this Friday.

Besides, "Love of My Life" classic concert will be staged at the end of the month, in which songs from well-known movies such as A Chinese Odyssey, The Classic and Scent of a Woman are to be played.

A person in charge of Beijing Concert Hall introduced that the target audience of those derived concerts is mainly fans of film and animation television works.

It is noted that prices of the events range from 100 yuan to 500 yuan (14.9 U.S. dollars to 74.5 U.S. dollars), with the average level lower than that of classical orchestra performances.

The affordable prices can send more people to the odeum to experience the charm of symphony, explained the person.

The popularity of such concerts owes to the large fan base of the original films or animation works.

On March 8, Star Wars: A New Hope in Concert (Film Live with Orchestra) debuted at Shanghai Oriental Art Center, the first stop of its national tour in China. A bunch of devoted Star War fans present in the hall was seen wear related costume or carry the lightsaber, and even organize a flash mob before the performance.

Mr. Li, one of the audiences, revealed he maintained enthusiastic to Star Wars for nearly 20 years and he immediately bought tickets as soon as when he heard about the upcoming music concert from other fans two months ago.

The film/animation music live in concerts not only meet the spiritual needs of fans, but also enable the copyright owners to explore greater market value of their intellectual property works. Data shows the audition concert of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring staged in China last year launched a crowdfunding campaign before selling tickets, through which around 300,000 yuan (44,717.4 U.S. dollars) was raised within 24 hours.

However, behind growing trend of holding concerts are several problems exposed.

Yao Shuo, general manager at Beijing Fanscene Culture Communication, noted many film themed concerts perform a platter of songs from various movies. Audiences could be less immersed in the performance due to improper music work selection as well as the lack of planning and innovation of the events.

Some with weaker playing technique and market competitiveness choose to directly copy the theme or set list from other concerts in an attempt to gain more attention and cater to the market demand.

As a result, the live concerts are increasingly homogeneized and worse-than-expected performance will discourage audiences from further watching concerts of the kind.

In the practitioners' view, the production team of the derived concerts should take more consideration of innovative contents based on intellectual property works.

Email: zhanglingxiao@nbd.com.cn