Chapter 929 1 Point of Bad Taste

After several remote video conferences, the Firefly Group began to execute the 'reald' and '4200' plans drawn up by Eric in an orderly manner.

The core of the 'reald' plan is to develop a reald projection system specially designed for 3d movies and the dmr technology for converting ordinary movies to imax. Therefore, it is not too difficult to realize it. After all, both 3d movies and imax technology have been developed. For decades, what Firefly needs to do is to combine many existing technologies and carry out further research and development to meet Eric's needs.

However, the implementation of the '4200' plan is not so easy. What Eric wants is that while Firefly can supply 3D and imax film sources, it basically simultaneously completes the transformation of 4,000 3D theaters and 200 imax theaters worldwide. construction work. After all, it will be a very embarrassing situation whether the corresponding theater is built, but the film source cannot be obtained, or the film production is completed, but the screening theater cannot be found.

To achieve this kind of time synchronization, the plan executor needs to have a very strong overall planning ability. Of course, as the world's largest media group, the most important thing under Firefly is managers with strong execution. In the end, Katzenberg decided to take the lead personally and be responsible for the process of the '4200' plan.

The Firefly Group has more than 120,000 employees worldwide. As the boss, he has made a general decision. Eric does not need to be involved in these specific and subtle things. What he needs to wait is the final result. If the entire group of thousands of management and more than 100,000 employees can't bring him what he wants, then there must be a big problem within the company. The reality, of course, is that Firefly is better run than any Hollywood media conglomerate.

After deploying these two plans, Eric also turned his energy to the creation of the Spice Girls, and at the same time began to write the script of "Gravity". Since it was more than ten years ahead of schedule, the original script would definitely not work.

Under the direction of Simon Fuller, all five members of the Spice Girls have been confirmed.

The original Spice Girls group, which has only been prosperous for less than two years, gradually fell apart due to various internal conflicts. Eric did not know what the entanglement was, but he would not use the original candidate again. At the same time, Simon Fuller also signed a stricter five-year contract with the new five members, so that, for at least five years, the new Spice Girls will not have the possibility of splitting.

Eric deliberately took the time to create a Spice Girl group, mainly to prepare for the launch of the fireflyer player in North America next year.

Firefly Electronics has signed a contract of intent for brand endorsement with several members of the Spice Girls Group in advance. As long as the Spice Girls Group rises and the Fireflyer player is launched in Europe next year, the Spice Girls Group will also become the spokesperson of the brand in Europe. At the same time, the Spice Girls can also provide a batch of the hottest digital music rights for the promotion of fireflyer in Europe.

Although Firefly Electronics expanded the monthly production capacity of fireflyer players to 450,000 units in July, the fireflyer has become more and more popular in North America under the efforts of the entire Firefly system to promote, and the monthly output of 450,000 units still cannot meet the North American market. demand. In addition to Amazon's insistence on the $299 sales price, the major brick-and-mortar retailers still maintain their sales prices above $300.

From the official release in April to the present, in less than half a year, the sales of fireflyer players have approached 1.5 million units. The management of Firefly Electronics predicts that,

After the Malaysian assembly plant is officially put into operation, sales of fireflyer players in North America will easily reach more than 3 million units in 1997.

Even at the original price of $299, the annual sales of 3 million units will make the annual turnover of Firefly Electronics exceed $900 million after the release of its first product.

The entry threshold for the Forbes 500 American companies is only about US$2 billion. As long as it is willing, Firefly Electronics can easily be shortlisted on this list next year, achieving the goal that countless companies cannot reach from creation to death. But reaching this goal is only a starting point for Firefly Electronics.

After living in a villa on Garden Street in Kensington, London for a few days, and after negotiating two plans in detail with Los Angeles, Eric moved to the town of Pinewood next to the Pinewood Studios in the western suburbs of London. The studio rented a studio. On the one hand, he rehearsed the shooting of the mv of "wannabe", and on the other hand, he began to think about the shooting of "Gravity".

In fact, if these two things are strictly calculated, it is still the same thing. Eric originally decided to shoot the "wannabe" mv in one shot. It was purely out of interest. Later, because of his busy work schedule, Eric planned Give up the idea and give the "wannabe" mv to someone else.

However, after having the idea of ​​making "Gravity", Eric decided to pick up the camera and shoot this long-lens mv in person, so that he could carefully ponder the lens movement technique and composition rules of the long-lens. Technical details to be more comfortable when shooting Gravity.

As for the photographer of this movie, Eric naturally thought about the original Emmanuel Lubezki, but after finding the other party's movie and watching a few movies, Eric gave up the idea.

Emmanuel Lubezki is still an ordinary photographer who has not been in Hollywood for a long time. The quality of the shots in several films he has participated in is quite satisfactory, and he has not reached the master level of ten or twenty years later. Looking for him now, it's even better than Eric himself.

Eric did intend to come by himself, which was a little bit of bad taste in his heart.

Through the original "Frightening Island" and last year's "My Heart Will Go On", Eric has won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and Best Original Song. The two titles of 'the best songwriter in the director's session'. That being the case, going on, it's not bad to get the title of 'the best photographer in the director's class'.

Eric is not keen on Oscar, but it is still very interesting to play such a 'game'.

Except for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, there is basically no hope. For most of the other awards, Eric feels that he can try it. He is only 27 years old this year, and he does not plan to completely put down the guide tube in the future.

Setting such a goal full of bad taste will give you some motivation to move forward in the future.

Before Eric came to Europe, he gave the song "wannabe" to Simon Fuller, and now the Spice Girls have mastered this song very well. Eric has also selected a club in London to shoot the MV for this song, but the pre-rehearsal can only be done in the studio, otherwise it will definitely be crowded.

At the same time, after a trip to Birmingham, a major industrial town in the United Kingdom, to visit the car assembly workshop, Eric took a fancy to a high-precision assembly robot from the German KUKA Robotics Company.

Knowing that Eric Williams was going to use the robots produced by his company to shoot his next movie, KUKA was very eager and offered to provide Eric with the two robots he needed for free, and take charge of Eric gram required for the refit work. The condition is that the name of KUKA must be mentioned in the promotion process of Eric's lower film.

The value of each robot that Eric is looking at is $1 million. If this kind of precision instrument is not familiar with the structure, it will be troublesome to modify it by yourself. Since KUKA is willing to provide it for free and provide enough support for equipment modification, Eric will naturally not refuse. Moreover, in the future movie promotion process, the shooting method of "Gravity" will definitely be a topic that cannot be avoided. At that time, it is not a big deal to mention the name of KUKA by the way.

Germany's KUKA Robotics sent two high-precision robots to Pinewood Studios. After they were installed in the studio rented by Eric, Eric spent most of his time in the studio, while working for " The mv of "Wannabe" was filmed for the set, while working with the engineers specially sent by KUKA Robotics to study the modification of the robot and learn the operation method.

Back in London, especially since Eric moved from the city to Pinewood Studios, Caroline has been in a very good mood for the last few days, because not only can she come home every night, but, well, although She will never mention it to anyone, but Eric, who has entered the working state, finally no longer runs around without a shadow, and she can see him on time every day.

Near noon, Caroline and Melanie left their office in Pinewood Studios and came to a studio in the northwest corner of the studio, planning to have lunch with Eric and talk about work by the way. matter.

This is a large studio with a length of 60 meters and a width of 50 meters, with an internal area of ​​nearly 3,000 square meters. The ceiling is also higher than other studios, making it very spacious.

In the studio, some staff are setting up the set according to the club format that Eric chose. Caroline looked around, realizing that the sets were about to be completed. Eric mentioned that he plans to spend a week rehearsing, and then rushing to the city of London to shoot, even if the shooting in the city is not smooth, the whole process will not take more than two weeks.

Two weeks, I don't know how long Eric will stay in the UK in two weeks. Caroline hopes that this date will be as long as possible.

Go around the outside set and continue to go inside, and soon come to another area that is separated by about three or four hundred square meters.

There are two very eye-catching orange-red robots on the ground. The solid base is placed on a rail car, and the top of the robotic arm is more than three meters long. One is installed with a small dv camera, and the other is planned. It is to hold the actor to perform, but before there is time to modify it, a dummy model is fixed on the top.

Eric and the engineer named Bryan Creston sent by KUKA were standing on the periphery together, holding a remote control pda in one hand, and manually manipulating the two robots to move slowly.

Caroline and Melanie stood quietly beside a few staff members on the outside without disturbing them. When Eric and Bryan Creston finally stopped working, they stepped forward and stood behind Eric. Watch the content just captured by the dv camera through the computer screen.

If you ignore the mechanical arm in the picture, the movement trajectory of the dummy model appears to be arbitrary, and there is no restraint from up, down, left, and right. There is indeed a feeling of floating in space, but only a little bit. This may be due to the rigidity of the dummy's limbs. Or Eric's operation is not very skilled.

"If you can change it to a real person wearing a spacesuit, the dummy looks too stiff." Eric replayed it carefully a few times before muttering to himself.

Bryan Creston also admired the picture on the computer screen with great interest, and said, "Eric, if you need it, I can start the modification right away, it only takes two days."

Eric shook his head with a smile and said, "Thank you, Brian, but I have to think about how to modify it."

"Of course, Eric, it's not in a hurry," Bryan Creston smiled and nodded.

Eric replayed the screen to the side again, and turned to look at Melanie and Caroline. He just noticed two girls coming over.

"Come here in the afternoon and find a space suit. It doesn't need to be real, just a model that can be put on a dummy."

"Okay," Melanie nodded, tapped the watch on her wrist again, and said, "Also, Eric, it's lunchtime."

"Well, let's go to eat first," Eric said, glanced at Caroline holding a small box in her hand, and asked with a smile, "Don't you have prepared lunch for me? "

"No," Caroline shook her head, showed Eric the box in her arms, and said, "This is a prototype of a music phone that Nokia sent this morning."

Eric nodded when he saw the Nokia logo printed on the box, and said, "Let's go to the restaurant and take a look."

After Eric finished speaking, he said hello to the other staff around, and everyone left for lunch. Bryan Creston did not join Eric and the others. The other staff left together.

Eric took Caroline and Melanie to a restaurant inside the studio, ordered lunch, and opened the box that Caroline brought.

"I have read the information in advance," Caroline watched Eric open the box and took out the prototype to play with, and took the initiative to explain to Eric: "These two prototypes, one uses flash storage media, However, the capacity is only 64 megabytes, which can store about 10 songs, which is also the common capacity of flash memory chips. The other one uses a micro hard disk, the latest product of Seagate, with a capacity of 2g. The information provided by Nokia said that , they will not mass-produce music phones with flash memory storage media for the time being, just as a technology accumulation. Music phones using micro hard drives will be market-oriented models. In January next year, they will officially release, and the second generation of fireflyer The plans for the players are similar, with 1g and 2g capacities, priced at around $600 and $700.”