Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

The acquisition of the movie theater went very smoothly. Many movie theater owners were happy to sell out when they heard that someone was willing to take over. The bottleneck turned into insufficient funds and a limited design and renovation team.

Anyway, Ronald and Douglas Jr. have plenty of money prepared. In the new year, Ronald will receive the box office share of two more popular romance movies. This time, he will use part of it to buy the movie theater and stock it up. The Hollywood theater chain's Little Thomas stayed in business and then slowly remodeled it.

That aside, another of Ronald's projects was in trouble.

That was the polar bear advertisement he made for Coca-Cola. The production progress was very unsatisfactory. Van Fleet's latest estimate of the production time is far longer than the original estimate, and may take as long as 8 months to a year.

There are two main problems. The first is that the animation is all computer generated. When the polar bear character does some actions and moves, a frame skip will occur in the middle. Suddenly, a hand or foot movement will lose its fluidity, as if the middle movement is a deliberate move by a clown.

The second problem is that the facial expression of the polar bear does not fit well with the entire computer model. When he talks or even smiles, he may betray someone. It looks like a robot wearing a polar bear hood. If someone isn't careful, the skeleton inside will stick out from the middle of the hood.

The solution given by Van Fleet is to develop software yourself to automatically handle these two problems. Otherwise, if you rely on manual work, you don’t know how long it will take to repair it.

"Hasn't anyone encountered your two problems before?" Ronald wanted to resolve this matter as soon as possible, otherwise Orvis might come up with something else.

"There are very few scenes in previous movies where purely computer-generated entities move in the environment. I heard that only the recent Terminator sequel will have some breakthroughs."

"Hey, you told me earlier..."

Ronald took Van Fleet and ran to Cameron's special effects studio. His special effects supervisor, Stan Winston, is working with Cameron on the final renderings of some scenes.

Stan Winston looked at the sketch that Harfrit brought and patted his chest and assured him that there was no problem. "It just so happens that our T-1000 robot also has to deal with issues of movement coordination and facial mapping. We developed four pieces of software ourselves, working with Industrial Light & Magic's Alias ​​and RenderMan."

"Okay, after you finish it here, let's work on the polar bear advertisement over there with your team." Ronald figured it out and waited for them to finish Terminator 2, and then teach Fan the software. It would take Fleet's team at least 6 months to complete the Coca-Cola advertisement together than developing it on their own.

"You don't have to wait for the holidays. After we finish this project here, this team will go do their own things. The people from Industrial Light and Magic will go back to the animators, modelers, and rendering engineers from other places in Industrial Light and Magic. This film was shot Since then, no other film has used computer graphics on such a large scale to create characters out of thin air."

"You have no idea what your creation is. You should keep this production team and form a company. I guess after this Terminator sequel is released, there will be at least a dozen movies in Hollywood." , looking for you to do similar things."

"Hahahaha..." Stan Winston laughed, how could such a thing happen? Industrial Light and Magic also fell into a deadlock after filming the Star Wars trilogy. George Lucas had to produce more movies and TV shows on his own to keep the company afloat.

The combination of traditional model special effects and computer special effects also has some fixed businesses. Special effects like this are completely computer-generated. In the Terminator sequel, only the T-1000 liquid metal robot operates this way. This is determined by the specificity of the plot.

Just for these few minutes of special effects pictures, their entire working group spent up to half a year developing their own software and doing a lot of experiments before finally achieving the effect. There is no other company in Hollywood that is willing to invest $100 million to make a movie like this.

"We can make a bet. How about Jim and I investing in your special effects studio together?"

"If that day comes, I will fuck you and Jim..."

"What are you talking about?" Cameron saw that they were chatting enthusiastically and came over.

"Ronald said that after the success of this movie, such special effects will be used in many movies, and we should set up a company..."

"It would be great if this is the case. I can make a few more movies like this. It will be so fun for you!" Of course Cameron wanted it. However, neither he nor Stan Winston is as optimistic as Ronald. The large-scale use of such computer special effects means a huge investment. How many lunatics in Hollywood are as desperate as Carloco?

……

Two weeks later, the special effects team that had finished Terminator 2 was reorganized and worked with Van Fleet on the Coca-Cola commercial.

As expected, a team that has been trained in very detailed special effects on the big screen is not like Van Fleet. There is no team that has used pure computer special effects to compare. The four software they developed themselves have effectively solved the various problems faced by polar bears and greatly shortened the development and production time of special effects.

Ronald happily asked them to buy the licenses for these four softwares.

"Are you serious?" Stan Winston was stunned. Isn't it just to help?

"Of course it's true. You don't know how much small and medium-sized production companies and advertising production companies want this software. There are also small production companies that make cartoons for TV stations. With these tools, their Start making a series.”

"It may take a few years before it can be used in actual production, right?" Stan Winston is an expert. He knows that such a thing is not suitable for being directly placed in a TV drama production environment.

"TV dramas, commercials, music videos, you name it. How many production companies are looking forward to buying such a set, so that they can increase their quotations to customers in the future."

"Is it really possible?" Stan Winston began to think about it. If there were so many customers, the annual licensing fees, software upgrade fees, and supporting hardware integration fees would not be needed if he really started a company. If you do your own special effects and just sell tools, you can maintain a small team to continuously develop and take on big movie projects.

"Yes, this is called selling... It is not fighting to support war. With the profits brought by these tools, you can continuously upgrade research and development and expand your scale. Just like my old friend Warren said, It started snowballing from the top of the mountain.”

"This friend of yours seems to be very business-minded. I've been convinced by you. I'm going to find a lawyer right now. Let's corporatize the team first..."

……

The two went to meet Cameron, who was still working overtime in the editing room. Cameron feels very happy. As long as the company is established and someone really invests in production, it means that he will have big toys to play with.

"This is a good idea. I didn't expect it to be fun like this..." Cameron smiled as he signed the authorization document. "This may be a new field. In the past, special effects were mainly based on models. Industrial Light and Magic also combined some industrial control science. This company's future technology may be special effects based on pure computer graphics, Hollywood No one has pioneered this field yet.”

"Your idea is very good. I think it can be used as the core competitiveness of this new special effects company. Why not call it...computer graphics company? Well, it's too complicated. Why not just call it digital field."

"Good name, good name." Both of them thought the name was good.

Stan Winston took the authorization paperwork with him and went to Ronald's lawyer to help him form a new company.

Ronald was hanging out in Cameron's editing room, and Cameron invited him to look at his work on the editing machine.

"vomit……"

Ronald felt a little sick at the sight of the editing machine. During this time, he had just finished cutting "Other People's Money" and was in a period of disgust. Every time I finish editing a movie, I get this reaction. Because the colorful world created on the screen is incompatible with the boring and repetitive real world, it causes some physical and psychological discomfort. At this time, Rona often does other things to distract his energy. He does not watch movies or enter the editing room, staying away from everything about the movie.

Cameron saw that Ronald was really uncomfortable, so he said to him, "Do you look sick? I will be the same way. There is coffee over there, go and pour it yourself."

"What are you doing?" Ronald couldn't help but feel strange when he saw Cameron and the editing assistant using scissors to cut out a frame of the frame before putting it on the editing machine, and then put it on the machine to pick it up again. What kind of editing method is this?

"Ha, this is my inspiration, a new experimental editing method. If this method works, all directors and producers will thank me. They will even name this editing method Came Long editing method.”

"Tell me about it..." Ronald studied under Walter Murch and was very concerned about new techniques related to editing.

"That's right. I cut all the scenes that would not affect the narrative. The final length was still two hours and five minutes, but the distribution company TriStar Pictures insisted that I reduce it to less than two hours."

"Ah, that's right. It's like collecting juice from spaghetti. Where to cut the last few cuts is the hardest to figure out... I often..."

Cameron interrupted him, "Listen to me, I have 5 minutes of extra film, but if I cut any section of my story, the audience will have a gap in understanding. So I had an idea, five minutes, Two hours later, what did you think of?"

"What?" Ronald looked confused...

"Their ratio is exactly 24:1, which is the same as the number of frames per second in the movie. I have an idea to cut off one frame per second. This will not affect the picture and narrative of the movie, and can shorten the duration by just five minutes. It does not damage the content of the film and can meet the duration requirement.

How many directors every year curse producers and cut out perfectly good footage they worked so hard to shoot. How many producers have cursed the director, insisting that the movie be lengthened to the point where theaters are unwilling to release it.

Get the best of both worlds with my Cameron Cut! "

"Just wait, this won't work..." Ronald didn't know whether to laugh or cry. After filming "Rock of Ages", Cameron went to do model special effects for Roger Corman, and he became an editing assistant. The two embarked on different development paths.

Now Cameron is the top three in the field of models and electromechanical special effects, and Ronald has become an expert in editing...

"How come it doesn't work? The audience won't notice it at all if one frame is missing."

"You have never been an editing assistant. I worked as an editing assistant for two months. I moved the film and fiddled with the editing machine every day. The audience will feel it in every frame. A good editor can make sure that every frame is correct every time he pauses. It stops at the same position. This is determined by the subconscious mind of the human brain."

"Isn't it possible?" Cameron said seriously? I don't believe it.

"In this case, let's get a piece of film and do some experiments first, and you will know after taking a look."

……

"Tear..." The last piece of editing tape specially made by Ronald Company and invented by Walter Murch was stained on the working film.

The assistant found the projector, loaded the film, and started playing it in the screening room.

"what?"

Cameron glanced at Ronald and was surprised. Just as Ronald predicted, with this method of one frame per second, the final film cannot be watched smoothly at all. Every omitted frame silently shouts, you can’t cut me out.

Sometimes when Schwarzenegger reaches out to shoot, there will be an obvious frame skip. Sometimes when Linda Hamilton speaks, there will be an unnatural pause.

The most amazing thing is that one frame was cut right during the transition. It is said that it will not have any impact. But while watching, Cameron clearly felt that the rhythm here was wrong. Even a shortage of 24 seconds would make the audience collectively distracted at that time.

This may not be a big deal in those shoddy small productions. But in such a carefully crafted action blockbuster, any rhythm flaw will have a negative impact on the box office.

"Okay, I'm convinced. It really doesn't work." Cameron admitted his mistake quickly and immediately called the lab to ask the lab to send another corresponding working film.

"Hahaha, I am not good at model special effects, but you are not good at editing technology."

"What should I do? There are still five minutes left. I really don't know where to cut it..." Cameron held his head and thought hard.

This is different from the previous film "The Abyss". The Abyss is already very long, so it’s impossible to queue for two rounds of movies during the evening rush hour. Terminator 2 is a typical commercial blockbuster, and theaters squeezed a two-hour time slot to schedule an extra screening during the off-duty rush hour.

A five-minute difference, plus ten minutes of cleaning and resting time, can cost a theater one screening audience. There is no way Carloco would allow such a thing to happen.

"Play it again and let me take a look."

Ronald was in the screening room and watched "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" from the beginning without adding the final music and opening credits.

"The rhythm of this movie is so good..." Ronald praised in his heart. This movie actually has a much deeper theme than the first one. It explores the possibility of avoiding nuclear war, the confrontation brought by the Cold War, the prosperity brought by peace, and other themes of human nature.

But the movie does not have any preaching elements, everything is hidden in the intense storyline. Exactly the kind of movie Roger Corman said was the best.

"I think you might as well cut this section..." Ronald said after being silent for a few minutes.

"This..." Cameron was a little surprised.

The scene that Ronald is referring to is when his buddy Michael Biehn, who played Kyle Reese, who died in the first movie, appeared in the dream of Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton, and persuaded her to fight for peace. The future without nuclear war and robot war, for children, and the plot of cooperation with the T-800.

"If there is anything that can be cut without affecting the audience's understanding, it is this section..." Ronald understood that in fact, Carmelo may not have known that this section could be cut. But in his heart he was still influenced by the first Terminator, and subconsciously he hoped to have some connection with the first one.

But "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" is a complete independent film. I have not watched the first part, and it does not affect their understanding of the second part at all. After all, eight years have passed, and it is difficult for ordinary viewers to remember the complete plot of the first part.

"Okay, let's just cut it off..." Cameron was a little unmotivated. Originally he wanted to make two films into one big production, but there was no place in Hollywood that would show a five-hour movie.

"Be happy. This movie of yours is unprecedented. You will leave your name in the history of Hollywood. I think it may change some things in Hollywood."