Although Angela's business talent has not changed in the slightest, she still decided to participate in the Pixar board meeting. This decision was both sudden and thoughtful. It was sudden because Angela had an idea when Ed was on the phone; after thinking for a long time, it was because after the filming of "A Beautiful Mind", she began to think about having a good talk with Ed and the others to consolidate it. Your own rights in the film department - you must maintain this right until you accomplish your goals.
Angela is not too worried about whether she can continue to hold her privilege in the film department smoothly. Not to mention anything else, she has won two for the company just for the best movie, and the "Pianist", which is almost likely to be lost, can still make a lot of money, not to mention that from the establishment of the film department to the How many movies with over 100 million box office are related to her now
"The Matrix", "The Mummy", "The Grudge", "X-Men" and more and three films she directed. And there will be more in the next few years: The Matrix and the remaining two X-Men films, the sequels to The Mummy and The Grudge, the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, The Spy Heavy" trilogy and the entire "Harry Potter" series, not to mention "Iron Man" and "Transformers" which are not yet on the agenda.
These films are enough to continue to make money for Pixar for years to come, and as long as this momentum is maintained and she continues to win honors at various awards ceremonies, Angela will naturally have an unshakable voice in the film department. Moreover, she basically does not participate in management work except for the films she directed. Even when dealing with scripts related to her, she tries to discuss with the managers of various departments as much as possible, and her popularity is not bad. Even if Ed doesn't plan to support her, it doesn't necessarily mean that Angela can be completely stripped of her rights in the film department - of course, such a bad situation should not happen. So she chose to attend the board meeting.
Angela has always sent representatives to attend meetings, and she supports Ed unconditionally anyway. In the past, she would occasionally attend once or twice, but after she was busy, she almost never attended again. It was not a good thing for a long time. So even if you don't understand what they are saying, you have to sit and listen to them discuss.
"I support Andrew, does anyone have any other opinions?" Ed glanced at the long desk. Several people in the conference room looked at me and looked at you, and finally shook their heads and said no. So Ed closed the folder in front of him and put it aside: "Then that's it, Andrew, you can start preparing."
As he said that, he pulled his tie and changed into a relaxed tone: "That's basically what happened today, and then we can relax. By the way, Angie, why didn't you express your opinion from the beginning to the end?"
Following Ed's sarcastic words, the conference room that had just heard the noise suddenly became quiet, and everyone turned their attention to Angela, who was sitting on Ed's right hand.
The girl rolled her eyes and smiled at Ed: "The affairs of the film department are clearly explained in the documents I brought. If you have any questions, I will be very happy to answer them. As for other departments things, I don't think I have a better opinion because they exceeded my expectations so much."
After speaking, the girl's eyes swept to several directors present at the meeting, in addition to John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Chris Taylor and others, several more joined, such as Peter Docter, Boo Rad Bird and Mike O'Brien of the Game Department, among others. Although Angela often pays attention to the situation here, it is too much beyond her expectations.
Needless to say, the animation department, after the impact of the establishment of the film department, is still walking its own path step by step. Although only three animations have been produced from 1995 to the present, they are all works with good word-of-mouth box office, and "Monster Company" released this year will be no exception. And the project that was discussed and passed at the meeting before was Andrew's animation idea about marine life, which can be called "Finding Nemo" or "Finding Nemo" in the near future!
The game department gave Angela the biggest surprise. She never thought that the original semi-villain fun product had developed to this point! Like a seed that fell into the soil unintentionally but grew into a tall tree.
After completing the development of Warcraft and the production of two expansions, Chris turned to hosting his long-planned strategy game set in the space age. Although this RTS game called "Sweep A Thousand Armies" is not very satisfactory in sales, it has won wide acclaim and can be said to be well-known among senior game fans.
And although the development of "Warcraft 2" falls in the hands of Mike O'Brien and others, even if only two-thirds of it has been completed, both the graphics and gameplay have maintained a considerable level. Chris himself admits that this will be an excellent sequel, completely beyond
The strength of the first.
What surprised Angela most was that Mike O'Brien and Jeff Stein, Parkreet Wilt and others proposed the idea of making "Warcraft" a role-playing 3D online game!
"We built a huge world based on DND, and it has a complete world view, so why not let those players play a role in it themselves?" Parkriett said before.
Well, if the development of "Warcraft 2" has not been completed, and it is still on paper to make an online game. Then here is another piece of news: in September last year, a unique simulation type game was launched, and the first month sales of the game were selected 1 million!
The name of the game is The Sims, and yes, it's the work of Will Wright, who developed SimCity, and he's sitting in the Pixar office working on the latest expansion.
This is the current game department. Like the animation department, it is steadily advancing according to its own goals.
"How can you have no opinion, you must know that most of the world view of "Warcraft" is set by you."
"That's right, when I was discussing turning Warcraft into an online RPG with Parkrit, I thought that Ten Tales of Azeroth would be a good fit for in-game quests. So it's better not to take nothing. opinion as an excuse.”
"It's true that she's barely written any animation-related scripts other than two Toy Stories and earlier The Lion King. It's too partial, look at how many ideas she's given to the film department."
"Or I could pitch the idea to Angie and have her write the script for this latest animation."
Watching Chris, O'Brien, John, Andrew and others arguing, Angela rolled her eyes and finally waved her hand down: "Okay, gentlemen, do you think it's a gentleman to make fun of a lady like this? behavior?"
The fat John Lasseter looked around with a blank look, and then spread his hands innocently to Chris beside him: "Are we making fun of a lady?"
"Should... not," Chris Taylor said cooperatively. "You know, we never thought of Angie as a woman."
"John! Chris!" Angela glared at the two guys. Do you want a point? Don't worry, I have a lot more, enough to smash your heads all over!
"Okay, guys, since Angie doesn't want to talk, don't force her, anyway, it's good for her to come to the board meeting in person, isn't it?" Jobs, who was sitting opposite Angela, spoke at this time.
But Angela was not satisfied: "Wait, Steve, it's not that I don't want to say it, but I don't think it needs to be said now. Obviously, both the animation department and the game department are developing very steadily, but the film department is a little too much. The Cyclonus is aggressive - of course, I respect Ed and McKinley's decisions on how to adjust - so I'm not in a hurry if I have an opinion, and I'm definitely not vague when it's time for an opinion."
Such as the network RPG "Warcraft" program. She has seen Warcraft 2, which is still a semi-finished product, and has both similarities and differences with the Warcraft 3 in her memory. If the original influence is maintained after its release, the online RPG "Warcraft" will inevitably be a good tool for money-making - of course, provided that systems such as factions, dungeons, unions, etc. are perfected - but the development of the game does not It's not that simple, and the appearance of "Warcraft" can also be said to be a mistake, so Angela hopes that after they have a complete idea, they can selectively put forward their own opinions and opinions, and use the method of guidance instead of imposing them. on the opponent.
"Really? Great, I said that Angie can't ignore animation and games." Jobs smiled and clapped his hands, a very formal look.
The corners of Angela's eyes couldn't help but jump, why did she feel like she jumped into a hole again? I shouldn't have been in a meeting where this guy Steve was there, god knows if they had hoes on them.
"Let's change the subject, Steve, why are you free to come to the meeting today." Angela didn't want to continue this.
"What a strange question. It seems that I am still the CEO and chairman of the board of directors of Pixar, right?" Jobs spread his hands, although Ed has been presiding over Pixar's work and is the actual CEO, but he is still the nominal CEO.
Angela gave him a roll of eyes, then looked at Ed: "According to the procedure, I am qualified to hold a shareholders' meeting as a major shareholder and re-elect the CEO, right Ed?"
Although the equity in her hand was diluted a lot because it was distributed to those outstanding talents who were worthy of retention, the outstanding performance of the film department made Angela hold a little more than Steve, so she said it was understandable.
"Hey, is this a threat? I'm sorry, I'm never afraid of threats," Jobs said calmly.
"Threats? No, this is a warning!" Angela grinned, revealing her white teeth.
"Okay, warning." Jobs raised his hand with a wry smile, and then changed the subject: "By the way, there is something I want to show you, maybe you can offer some applicable advice from a non-professional perspective."
As he said that he took out a small silver-white rounded rectangular box from the briefcase beside him, Angela's attention was immediately attracted, John and the others wouldn't realize what it was, but she definitely wouldn't.
"I call this an iPod, which is simply an mp3 player, Apple's flagship product this summer," Jobs said, pointing to the little thing in his hand, with a hint of pride in his eyebrows.
"The capacity is about 5GB, and the scroll-wheel is used to select the music disk, which can be operated with one thumb. It can not only be used to listen to music but also can be used as a U disk. It is simple and applicable, and it is super cool!" At this moment, Jobs had a kind of preaching. Fortunately, he quickly restrained himself and handed the iPod to Ed.
"This is just a trial work, and it is still making final adjustments. It will not be officially listed until July." Jobs continued to introduce the little things that were passed around in the hands of everyone, "With the mp3 and RIAA and ASCAP reaching a settlement , and soon people will be used to listening to singers' songs in mp3 format, and paying to download the inevitable alternative records and CDs will become the first choice of fans."
This is indeed the case, Angela thought while rubbing the prototype in her hands. Although it is only the first-generation iPod, it indicates that Apple is about to start its second effort. Great, if my plans go well for a few more years...
"Do you have anything to say, Angie?" Jobs' voice suddenly rang out. "Don't tell me, the corners of your mouth are curled up because you are thinking of something else."
"No no no, I'm just thinking..." Angela's thumb moved on the selection disc, "Why isn't the selection disc made into a laptop-like sensor setup, but with mechanical buttons? "
"Oh?" Jobs raised his eyebrows.
"In this way, the thumb moves more smoothly, and it is more flexible; in addition, you can also find a way to study some technology such as gravity sensing. You can shake the iPod to change the song. If the song is not good, just shake your butt." Angela said, looking at the ipod in her hand, "I don't need to say more about other aspects such as color screen, displaying lyrics, or camera, etc., it is completely possible to develop a software. , when listening to the radio, if you need to leave, press the pause button, and then press the pause button to continue listening after you are done; if you want to listen to the content being played, just fast-forward to the past, and if you want to listen to the previous content, press Back button; of course, the disk space must be large enough in this case…”
"Stop! Stop! Stop!" After Jobs shouted three times in a row, Angela finally stopped her description, and then looked at the other party inexplicably.
Jobs, who seemed a little flustered, took off his glasses and carefully wiped them with a lens cloth, then reached out and rubbed his temples. After taking a few deep breaths, he put on his glasses again and looked at Angela with a wry smile: "I I'm a little dizzy, if you go on, Angie, I'll probably faint here on the spot."
"Um... Am I a little too whimsical?" Angela asked carefully after rolling her eyes.
"If it's just whimsical, I won't do this..." Jobs continued to smile wryly, gesturing, "gaffe."
After he sighed: "The key is... The key is... All of what you said is possible, but there are still technical difficulties that are difficult to overcome in a short period of time... Damn it! I really should fire the director of the technical department. , invites you to take up this position."
Although the corners of her mouth twitched in her stomach, Angela had to pretend to be stunned: "You're joking."
"Yes, I'm joking." After the excitement, Jobs scratched his head in frustration. After a few minutes, he suddenly raised his head and fixed his eyes on Angela, making the girl's heart tremble.
Finally, before Angela questioned, Jobs said in a negotiating and even a bit flattering tone: "If possible, how about being the image spokesperson for the iPod, Angie?"
"Shape... image spokesperson?" Angela was really stunned.
"Yes, healthy, smart, full of energy, and a major shareholder of Apple, it's a natural match for the iPod!" Jobs exaggeratedly said in a well-organized tone.
"Sounds... as if I'm going to marry an iPod." Angela pouted.
"If you want to marry, Ipod will marry you," Jobs waved. "Please, Angie, I don't see what's wrong with that."
"If it's an advertising spokesperson, I can consider it, but an image spokesperson... I may not have as much time for publicity activities, Steve." Angela spread her hands.
"It doesn't matter, there won't be too many promotions, and we can arrange it according to your schedule - including the first ceremony." Jobs's eyes flashed behind the lenses, and she would agree to do anything she could.
In fact, at this point, Angela already understood why the other party must have her as the spokesperson, and she suddenly regretted saying too many words before. But this idea was immediately thrown out of my head, and it would be a good thing if Apple could speed up its development. According to his plan, he should officially start in two years at most. If he maintains a good image in the entertainment industry and can occupy a seat in the top ten or top twenty of the Forbes rich list, such influence is not something you want to ignore. Just ignore it, as long as... you have a good grasp of that degree!
"It seems that I have no choice." Angela folded her arms and put them on the table, she seemed helpless, but there was always a hint of slyness on the corner of her mouth, "However, you are right, Steve, after all, I A major shareholder in Apple."
"That's right, think about it, it's perfect for Miss Genius to listen to her own songs with her own products, isn't it?" Jobs said with a beaming expression, "Tomorrow I'll have someone deliver the contract."
"Does it need to be that fast?" Angela muttered, and then remembered something: "Hey, my dedicated ipod has to be fully functional, and even better if it has the features I said earlier."
"No problem, I will let someone design one specially for you." Jobs pressed his hands, and then he remembered something: "However, you can use it in private, you have to use this in public. I plan to design There are several different types of iPods, and these functions are spread out on top of it instead of designing a flawless playback tool. Only then will customers be willing to pay more for the type they like.”
Angela, who was stunned, finally twitched the corners of her mouth, as expected of a businessman.