The office area in the digital field is very lively today. Eric rushed to the scene with Caroline and Mayer, and many senior executives of the group were already waiting here. In a hall inside the office Loft in the digital field, Stan Winston has begun to introduce the RealD dual-camera 3D movie projection system to Katzenberg, Frank Wells and others today.
After finalizing the plan last fall, the '4200' and 'RealD' plans are rapidly advancing within the Firefly Group.
In the past six months, in order to promote these two plans, the company first acquired the Canadian IMAX company, and accelerated the research and development of DMR technology for converting ordinary 35MM films into IMAX format films.
Due to being not favored by Hollywood filmmakers for a long time, IMAX has had a very difficult time on the road to commercialization, and has been hovering on the verge of bankruptcy many times.
But now, with the support of the Firefly Group, and with years of technology accumulation, the IMAX R&D team has come up with an excellent DMR conversion solution in only half a year. By the end of this year, all problems will be resolved, and IMAX will be able to commercialize without hindrance.
The second is the digital field. In order to develop a dual-camera 3D movie projection system, the digital field has established a subsidiary named 'RealD'.
At the same time, the digital field also shoulders the task of developing 3D conversion software and training a 3D conversion team. In fact, these two things have been gradually carried out as early as a few years ago. Only since last autumn, when the two plans were confirmed, did they make great strides. advance.
Speaking of it, today can be regarded as the day of acceptance of technological achievements in the digital field.
After greeting everyone, Eric picked up a pair of polarized 3D glasses on the workbench and tried them on. Seeing what Stan Winston wanted to say, Eric first said: "Stan, don't you understand , the facts are more convincing than any eloquence, so let's go straight to the screening room."
"Haha, of course," Stan Winston nodded, but he picked up a 3D glasses and said, "However, we have spent a lot of thought on these things, I still hope that everyone can understand them better .Eric, I promise, you will be surprised later."
Eric smiled and said, "I'm really looking forward to it."
After joking around, the group left the office loft in the digital domain and walked to the nearby cinema's internal screening hall.
Marisa Mayer and Caroline followed behind a group of bigwigs, listening to Eric and Stan Winston, Katzenberg and others skillfully chatting about various technical issues related to 3D movies , and noticed that Caroline next to her listened with gusto, and secretly decided in her heart that this weekend, she must catch up on relevant knowledge as soon as possible.
As an assistant, it's too bad if you can't even understand what your boss says. She doesn't really want to be treated like a vase.
Walking into the screening hall, and Caroline took the 3D glasses handed over by the staff, found a place to sit down, Mayer curiously looked at the 3D glasses in his hand.
The frame is black and the lens is light gray. After wearing it, except for the dimming of the vision, there is nothing special about it.
The bosses in the front row chatted for a while, the lights in the projection hall dimmed, and it felt dark before Mayer subconsciously turned to the screen in front of him.
When the hard metal screen in front lit up, before Mayer could react, accompanied by the excellent sound effects in the projection hall, the Tyrannosaurus rex roared and bit head-on.
"ah-"
Without any mental preparation, Mayer leaned back in the chair suddenly, completely forgetting the occasion she was in, and took off the 3D eyes with a scream.
Although everyone was taken aback by Stan Winston's move, when they heard the screams of a girl, the people sitting in the front row still took off their glasses and turned their heads to look over.
Feeling a dozen pairs of eyes focus on her in the dimness, Mayer was too embarrassed to add: "Hold, I'm sorry, everyone."
Seeing that she was fine, everyone quickly looked away and turned their attention back to the big screen.
In order to test the technical achievements of the team in the digital field, Eric specially selected a scene in "Jurassic Park" where several protagonists encountered Tyrannosaurus rex on the bridge at rainy nights for 3D conversion.
Night scenes and rain scenes are all technical difficulties in 3D conversion.
Especially for night scenes, due to the triple brightness attenuation effect of the projector, screen and glasses, 3D movies have a common problem of dark pictures. Therefore, if the 3D converted night scene shots are not done well, they are destined to be dark. of a slice.
However, just from Mayer's reaction, it can be seen that the transformation effect of the digital field team is undoubtedly very good.
After watching this ten-minute conversion clip three times, the staff turned on the lights in the projection hall.
Eric did not leave with a group of high-level executives, and continued to sit on the seats in the auditorium and started talking.
For the 3D picture effect just now, Eric couldn't find anything to be picky about. He directly asked the question he was most concerned about: "Stan, according to the standard we just saw, I want to complete the transformation of a complete movie. ,how much time is required?"
Stan Winston sat next to Eric, thought for a while, and said, "It will take about three months to complete the conversion of a two-hour movie."
It takes three months to complete the conversion of a film, and only four 3D films can be produced in a year. Although Eric's criterion for the promotion of 3D movies in the early stage is that the quality is not expensive, but the four movies are not enough to support the screenings of the whole year, and this number must be at least doubled.
Eric thought for a moment, and said: "Continue to recruit people, and double the size of the conversion team. I need you to be able to complete at least eight films a year."
After listening to Eric and Stan Winston, Katzenberg said: "So, Eric, now, all technical problems have basically been solved, are you sure we want to move forward with the next plan?"
It is not without reason that Katzenberg suddenly asked this question.
Whether it is IMAX's DMR conversion technology or the development of the RealD projection system, the investment is actually only tens of millions of dollars.
But then, once the plans related to theaters are officially started, it is definitely not a problem that can be solved by tens of millions of dollars.
The RealD projection system developed in the digital field includes two custom-made film projectors, metal hard screens, and 3D polarized glasses. , If you want to transform the traditional 2D auditorium into a dual-camera 3D auditorium, each auditorium also needs a budget of at least 300,000 US dollars.
The unit price of a complete set of equipment is not worth mentioning to Firefly, but the cost of renovating 4,000 3D auditoriums around the world immediately reached 1.2 billion US dollars, which is definitely a very conservative estimate.
Add in the planned 200 IMAX theaters, and at an average construction cost of $2 million, that's another $400 million in expenditures.
With a total project budget of 1.6 billion US dollars, for the large and powerful Firefly Group, even if it loses completely, it will not be able to hurt its bones. However, the completion of the transformation of 4,000 3D projection halls and the construction of 200 IMAX projection halls is actually just the beginning of everything.
The whole plan is actually to create a brand new 3D film and television industry chain. Once successful, the strength of the Firefly Group will definitely undergo another transformation. But if it fails, the consequences will definitely not be as simple as losing $1.6 billion.
After Firefly Group has made such a huge industrial layout, if movie audiences do not buy it and the project fails, not to mention the huge investment in vain, but the follow-up processing of these 4,000 3D screening halls will be enough to make Firefly feel bad. , not to mention a series of technical teams specially created by Firefly Group to promote this plan.
Therefore, if it is stopped now, Firefly will not lose anything, and the technical achievements obtained in exchange for the previous investment are definitely worth the money. Even if it is the acquired IMAX company, if it wants to get rid of the burden, the group can sell it again.
However, once the plan moves to the next stage, there is no turning back.
Either be the champion of a whole new revolution in the film industry, or be the butt of ridicule by everyone in Hollywood and leave behind a mess that could create a domino effect.
The auditorium fell into a brief silence. To be honest, Eric also had a brief hesitation in his heart. However, after glancing at the group executives around him, he quickly smiled easily and said to Kasenberg Ge Dao: "Jeffrey, let's talk about the results of your contact with several major theaters."
Knowing that Eric has made up his mind, Katzenberg stopped doing unnecessary things and said: "I have talked with the management of several major theater chains in North America during this time. I am very interested in the project, but at the same time feel that the risk is too great."
Eric pointed to the hard metal screen in front of the auditorium, and said, "Maybe, next, you can bring them here and persuade them."
"Of course, that's what I thought just now," Katzenberg nodded with a smile, and said, "However, even if they approve of the effect of this demo, it is still difficult for us to find too much initiative in future cooperation. My idea is that we set up a subsidiary and cooperate with several major theaters at the same time. We invest in the transformation of 3D screening halls, and we bear the risk. Then, we draw a certain percentage of the box office share from the box office of these screening halls. This way It may take a long time to spend, but as long as it succeeds, it will become a very substantial and sustainable income. As for the 200 IMAX theaters, the initiative is completely on our side, and we don’t have to think too much about it.”
The biggest difficulty in transforming the 3D screening hall is that the major theater chains in North America are basically multiplex cinemas, which is why Firefly cannot do it alone without the major theater chains. After all, even if it forcibly acquires a theater chain, it is impossible for Firefly to transform a movie theater with five, six or even more than ten screening halls into a 3D mode. In addition, different regions in North America have different divisions of theater chains. It is difficult for Firefly to cover the entire North America just by acquiring one or cooperating with one of them.
Therefore, Katzenberg's proposal is undoubtedly the most feasible. IMAX once adopted this similar model in the process of commercial promotion.
However, in this way, Firefly's control over these 3D auditoriums is very limited.
Fortunately, Eric's main purpose is not to get involved in the theater industry, but to promote 3D movies.
Of course, the control over terminal theaters is limited. In order to ensure the initiative of Firefly in the promotion of 3D movies, it is necessary to become a standard maker.
After discussion, Eric decided to develop a two-factor authentication system. One is the auditorium certification with the RealD projection system installed, and the other is the film certification with 3D conversion technology in the digital field.
As long as the audience can create a concept that only digitally certified 3D movies played in RealD auditoriums are the most authentic 3D movies, then even if the 3D movie market becomes chaotic again in the future, at least the Firefly system has already done it. 3D movies out of the brand will not be affected too much.
Moreover, after the chaos, other companies, regardless of their willingness or not, will gradually move closer to Firefly's standards out of commercial considerations.
Everyone talked in the screening hall all morning and had dinner together before everyone returned to their jobs and started to get busy.
Eric returned to his office in the studio, and only then had time to chat with his new female assistant.
"So, how do you feel now?" Leaning lazily on the back of the chair, Eric flipped through a document just sent by the secretary in his hand, and asked Marisa Mayer who was sitting on the opposite sofa holding a cup of coffee you.
Mayer put down the coffee in his hand, nodded and said, "It's not bad, but I suddenly feel that I still have a lot to learn."
Eric nodded and said approvingly: "It's the best if you can feel this way. There are too many people who always feel that they don't need to study anymore."
Mayer just smiled and said nothing.
Eric also paused for a while before saying, "Kelly must have told you what I should tell you."
Mayer naturally understood what Eric was referring to, and said, "Yes."
"Carly is a very good girl, you will definitely have a good time getting along with her in the future," Eric said, seeing Mayer's unawareness, thought for a while, and said: "You can talk to her when you have time." Talk to Melanie, she can help you adapt to this job as soon as possible."
Mayer realized this time that Caroline was in the office next door. If it was for work, would it be more convenient to ask her? There was no need to contact Melanie Gleason in San Francisco.
"I see, Eric." Mayer didn't ask very tactfully, but responded seriously.
Eric didn't say much, and said, "That's it, you go back to work first."
Seeing Mayer leave the office, Eric looked away. The information he held in his hand happened to be the work evaluation report that Kelly gave to Mayer.
Unlike the original interview report, this report is more detailed.
Kelly's evaluation of Mayer is still very high, but Eric has seen the shadow of another guy from the series of evaluations such as 'perfectionist', 'detail control', 'strong desire for control' . Eric will definitely not let Mayer control Yahoo as he once did. However, it is an excellent idea to let her be solely responsible for the development of a product.