"I'm not a gifted speaker, and I'm not good at saying those inspiring words. Here I just promise one thing: within three years, as long as there are no problems with your own work, Pixar will not have any layoffs."
After Jobs left, Eric said this to all the employees in the open office. This is also their biggest concern. Over the past year or so, Pixar has successively laid off several batches of employees because of tight funds.
Sure enough, after Eric made his promise, many people were unabashedly relieved. Everyone knows Eric's identity. The young man in front of him is now a rich man. Now that he has made such a promise, he will not easily go back on his word.
"Okay, now everyone continues to work, and all the management come to the conference room for a meeting."
After a short commotion, the backbone of Pixar, led by John Lasseter, gathered in the conference room.
"Everyone must know me by now. Moreover, when I read the materials before, I also got to know you to a certain extent, so the introduction to each other can be temporarily skipped."
There was low laughter in the conference room, and Eric waited for a while with a smile, and then said: "Pixar was in a bad situation before, but it won't be like this anymore. You may be wondering why I bought Pixar , I told John about this, I was interested in 3D animation movies, and I happened to have money to invest, so I did it. I think you will not doubt my vision in movies, according to Pixar’s previous short film "Tin Iron Little Soldier, I came up with a great idea for a long story…”
"The little master from a wealthy family has a whole house of toys, because the cowboy Woody is the most loved, he naturally became the boss of all the toys. But suddenly one day, the little master brought back another new toy, Buzz Lightyear. Buzz Lightyear has a novel appearance and advanced functions, and the little master loves him. As a result, Woody's status as the boss is threatened, so Woody starts to try every means to drive Buzz Lightyear away, and by accident, the two toys fall together Out of the room, into the hands of another neighbor kid who likes to rough up toys...”
It took a few minutes to roughly tell the story of "Toy Story", Eric continued: "When I met John last time, I mentioned to him that I will invest 30 million in this 3D animation movie Dollars, of course, the budget can be increased, I just need you to make this animation the best. For me, it doesn’t matter if it fails once, but I think Pixar should not be able to afford to fail.”
Pixar’s executives all showed serious expressions on their faces. Previously, Pixar was unable to make ends meet. If the road of 3D animation is no longer feasible, it is estimated that it will be difficult for Pixar to survive independently. Eric is very satisfied with everyone's reaction. Although he knows that 3D animation will become the mainstream of animated movies in the near future, but now he speaks out to encourage everyone, and these people will definitely not believe it. Might as well put some pressure on them with a different tone.
"I know that the production cycle of animated films is very long. I plan to give you three years of production time for this film. Within three years, Pixar will not have any changes, and you don't need to accept advertising projects to maintain Pixar's You can put all your energy into the production of "Toy Story". Okay, I'm done talking, now let's talk about your opinions?"
The coercion left by Jobs still made Pixar's top management feel lingering fears. After carefully asking a few questions, everyone confirmed that Eric and Jobs were two completely different people, and finally let go of themselves and began to speak freely.
Because they were too involved in the discussion, everyone ignored the lunch time. It was not until the sun set and the conference room in a bad location dimmed that everyone realized that it was already dark.
In order to ensure that "Toy Story" would not deviate too much from his previous life, Eric stayed in Richmond for three full days, during which he wrote the complete script of "Toy Story" himself, and also made Woody the cowboy, Barbara Si Lightnian and a whole set of toys were hand-painted and handed over to Pixar's production staff.
He had to leave Richmond until Barry Diller, president of Fox, called in person to remind Eric, who had disappeared for almost a week, to attend the celebration party of "Pretty Woman".
It's not that Eric didn't think about moving Pixar to Los Angeles. He mentioned it to John Lasseter in private, and the result was that it was difficult to implement.
Most of Pixar's technical staff have lived in the San Francisco Bay for a long time. They have become accustomed to everything here, and many of them have even made their homes here. Moreover, the environment in Los Angeles is not suitable for an animation studio like Pixar, but Richmond, which is very close to Silicon Valley where high-tech companies gather together, is more suitable for Pixar's survival.
When Eric heard John Lasseter's explanation, he gave up his original plan. Anyway, San Francisco is only five or six hundred kilometers away from Los Angeles, and it can be reached in an hour by plane. It is very convenient to go back and forth, and Eric no longer insists.
After staying in the hotel for a week, I finally returned home and took a comfortable bath. There were still several hours before the celebration banquet in the evening, and Eric didn't bother to make any preparations. Wearing loose and casual clothes, leaning on the sofa in the living room, lazily touched the remote control to turn on the TV and started watching.
While falling asleep, I heard the doorbell ring.
Opening the door, a sneaky girl with a wig and sunglasses and ordinary clothes waited anxiously at the door, looking around from time to time.
"Why did you open the door so slowly? It would be bad if the paparazzi found out."
Eric looked at Julia's outfit, and turned to let the girl in: "What are you doing dressed up like this, oh... a bit like Alison?"
"I asked Alison to dress up like me and leave first, so I managed to get away from the paparazzi." Julia said with a little pride in her tone.
"What do you want to drink?" Eric asked when he came to the living room, and walked to the refrigerator.
"Coffee, no sugar, water not too hot."
"Oh," Eric replied, and gave Julia a glass of juice.
The girl gave him a blank look, but took the juice anyway: "You are always so hateful."
Eric leaned on the sofa again, looking at Julia with great interest: "You have changed a lot, look at this sitting posture, and listen to this tone of voice, a top Hollywood actress looks like you, I I can't help but want to ask you for an autograph."
"No problem, where to sign?" Julia magically took out a signature pen from her bosom.
The old god Eric stared at the ceiling for a while, as if he was brewing something, then suddenly pulled the belt of his slacks and looked inside, shook his head and said, "No, I don't feel for you, so I can't sign."
Pooh-
The girl's face was slightly red, and she spat at Eric, her eyes flustered and she picked up the juice and sipped it.
After a while, Julia put down the glass: "I heard you bought an animation studio?"
"Well, it's too tiring to make a live-action movie, and I plan to switch to directing an animated movie."
The girl glared at Eric reproachfully: "Can you be more serious?"
"I'm so familiar, who are you serious about?" Eric said, sitting up straight, and asked, "Okay, what can I do for you?"