Birth of an actor

Angel investors are also called investment angels. The word originated from Broadway in New York, and refers specifically to those individuals or groups who are willing to pay for performances of theaters or actors in poor operating conditions. For theaters and drama actors at that time, these rich People and the checks in their hands are as lovely as angels. Later, with the development of the times, angel investment began to become active in other industries, and was gradually extended as an early-stage funding behavior for some high-risk, potentially high-return emerging companies.

Sounds about the same as venture capital investing in financial markets and various other emerging industries, right?

But angel investment and venture capital are actually two similar but different definitions. Angel investors are usually wealthy or entrepreneurs with money and leisure. They focus on the earliest stages of projects, and sometimes they may decide to invest just because of a good idea. , A single investment is usually about 10 US dollars. According to the statistics of a professional survey agency in the United States, about half of the angel investments end up in vain. Only [-]% of the angel investments may obtain more than ten times the return. Venture capital, generally It is a professional venture capital institution, such as the most famous KPCB venture capital company and Sequoia Capital, generally waits for the enterprise to reach the middle and early stage before paying attention to it. The single investment amount is relatively large, often with an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars.

At present, the most active area for angel investment in the United States is Silicon Valley. The most famous angel investor is Paul Allen, who founded Microsoft together with Bill Gates. When DreamWorks was established, it gave a large amount of financial assistance and became a shareholder of DreamWorks.

"No, absolutely not." Although he was almost persuaded by his friends, after careful consideration, William still had his own insistence: "Our joint company is different from you giving me money to start a company, Lance. Excluding the issue of money, we are now starting to prepare for the company, which is no problem, but to start filming "Harry Potter"? It's too early, no matter how you look at it, it's too early."

Lance, who knew little about Hollywood, motioned for William to continue.

"The water in Hollywood is too deep, Lance. Although new film companies are established every year, and some of them are still developing very well, Hollywood is ruled by the seven major film companies after all. The series with big investment and big production Movies are almost all produced by the seven major film companies, and almost all independent production companies operate small-budget art films or horror films, such as Miramax and Lionsgate. Once those independent production companies want to make Great, BOOM! What awaits them is the joint suppression from the Seven Greats."

"The Weinstein brothers had great ambitions. They wanted to build Miramax, so the Big Seven made a move. The Weinstein brothers failed in the end. Miramax was eventually acquired by Disney, and Lionsgate has been obediently walking by itself. The seven big films are not too persistent in this field, and they don’t feel that their status is being challenged, so they haven’t had any stumbling blocks for Lionsgate—the seven big film companies plus countless small and medium-sized independent producers Film companies, Hollywood is already very crowded. If we just set up a company, we want to make a big production with an investment of hundreds of millions? With such strong foreign funds, all Hollywood companies will be very afraid of us. The worst case, Even if we make the film, no company will release it, and even if it is released in the end, the theater chain will not give us good resources to arrange the film.”

"Small-budget art films don't care about the number of theaters and how they are scheduled, but for a big production like "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone", if the theaters do not arrange the films well, the box office will be ruined by half. So between us and the least Before one or two distribution companies and theaters have established friendships, they cannot blindly start making movies."

Lance knows more about things like capital operations than William. He quickly realized and nodded: "I was negligent about this. According to your opinion, we should take it slowly?"

"Either we arrange everything in advance before filming starts, or we don't take it as the company's first project at all. Both options are fine. Let's talk about this after the company really starts to operate."

After thinking about it carefully, William added: "Another reason why "Harry Potter" cannot be filmed now is that its mass base is still too weak. There are many companies in Hollywood who like to adapt novels into movies. , but most of the choices are literary and artistic romance films. One is because romance films have a wide audience. Even if the audience has not read the original novel, many people will choose to go to the cinema according to the subject matter. The other reason is that the cost is low. Surprise, small investment and small return will not cause any loss. Magic novels are different. We have just calculated that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone" probably needs at least tens of millions of dollars to make a decent shot, Joanna Rowling's novels are very well written, and it is easy for fairy tale novels to become popular. If we wait another one to two years, when the series of books are popular all over the world and gather countless book fans, we will have the confidence to come I made this movie, because there are book fans to rely on, it is difficult to lose too much money."

After a pause, William said half-jokingly: "If you really feel that your money is hot and want to let me take care of it, I have other better ways to spend it."

The year [-] is about to enter. From [-] to [-], there were too many events that could change the world economic pattern in the future. Even if William couldn't remember the details, he still remembered the general idea. He didn't want to let go of these opportunities no matter what— —Actually, if "Titanic" has been released now, maybe William has made a small windfall, enough for him to operate in the financial market, and he doesn't need to ask Lance for support.

Lance's answer was straightforward: "Okay."

William: "..." How refreshing!

……

When he saw the brown-haired girl who suddenly jumped out from behind Christopher Evans, William coughed twice, choking on the food he hadn't had time to swallow, and quickly took a big gulp of Coke to suppress his shock.

"My god, my god, so I'm not dreaming!" Carly Evans closed her eyes and then opened them again. After opening and closing her eyes to make sure that this was not her hallucination, she excitedly slapped her brother on the back: "Ke Reese, so you really didn't lie to us!"

"I said it earlier, but you didn't believe it..." Christopher Evans said aggrievedly.

"I'm sorry Chris, I made a mistake on you."

"And then?" Christopher Evans asked expectantly.

Christopher Evans has long planned such a day: when Shanna and Carly, especially Carly, see the real William and understand that their little brother has never told a lie and is an upright and honest person, They will definitely regret the mistakes they have made, and even cry bitterly to confess their abuse and injustice to him in front of him. At that time, it will be time for him, Christopher Evans, to feel proud!If Shana and Carly insisted on making some substantive compensation to him, he wouldn't back down, so he just accepted it reluctantly.

Unexpectedly, Carly Evans didn't hear the expectation in her brother's words at all (or didn't respond when she heard it). She just gave her brother a strange look, and sat at the dining table for a while. William, who was interested in watching their siblings talk, rushed over.

Christopher Evans stunned and hurt: what about confession?What about compensation?Why is there nothing!Is all the abuse he's been subjected to these days so trivial? !

"Hi, Will." Carly was fierce in front of her younger brother and shy in front of her idol. With a shy smile on her face, Evans introduced herself in front of William: "I'm Carly, Chris's sister. "

"Hi, Carly." At first, William, who had no idea that Christopher Evans would bring his family to the appointment, recovered his usual calmness after a brief surprise. He stood up politely and greeted Carly Evans. Pulled out the chair to invite the other party to sit down, and then called the waiter: "Want to eat something? This set of roast beef sandwich and thick-cut French fries is very good. If you don't want to try something so high in calories, the vegetable flavor Platters are also a good option for the ladies, and I know the store's vegetables are all organic from nearby farms."

In fact, William didn't expect this meeting. He was just planning to call Christopher Evans at first: Amon Goffman told William during a chat recently that he introduced Christopher Evans, a young actor in the past In the CBS series (playing the son of the divorced crime drama actor, living with his mother), he performed very well, especially the good feedback from the audience, so that the screenwriter specially added Christopher Evans to the story in the next few episodes. Instead of appearing in the show, he became a resident supporting role in this season's episode (although it is the kind with fewer roles).

William then asked Amon Goffman if he would sign a formal agency agreement with Christopher Evans. Amon Goffman said that he would seriously consider this matter when the other party became an adult, and then mentioned that he had a very good one in his hand. You can ask Christopher Evans to try it out for an audition opportunity for the campus youth movie.

William remembered that he and Christopher Evans hadn't been in touch for a long time since the road trip together, and the other party didn't know his current mobile phone number, so after calling his agent, he found Christopher Evans Evans called the home landline number that Evans left at the beginning—unexpectedly, after answering the phone, Christopher Evans was very excited, and strongly demanded to meet with William, even for coffee or something.

It happened that William was going to New York on business, and Christopher Evans was also going to New York because of a film audition, so the two discussed meeting in New York. A specialty cafe to try.

'Will called me ma'am and pulled out a chair for me!Just like this is not an ordinary cafe but a high-end restaurant, it is simply too charming and gentlemanly! Carly Evans, caught up in intense inner activities, stared at William with straight eyes, motionless.

"It's too nympho, old lady, restrain yourself." Christopher Evans rolled his eyes and sat down next to him: "Will, this is my second sister Carly, your admirer, I heard that today I want to When I meet you, I have to follow you like a piece of brown sugar." Then he said to the waiter who had already walked over: "Two sets of roast beef sandwiches, thank you."

Only then did Carly Evans react, her cheeks flushed as if on fire. "I just want a vegetable platter," she whispered.

"Okay, old lady, I know how much you hate eating vegetables." Christopher Evans immediately exposed Carly Evans without hesitation, and finally felt a sense of satisfaction that he had successfully revenged.

Carly Evans stared at Christopher Evans, the veins on her forehead twitching.

Christopher Evans shrunk back into his chair.

William smiled and said, "A lady who can munch on a hamburger sandwich seems to me to be kind of cute."

"No vegetable platter!" Carly Evans said to the waiter immediately after blushing.

"You're a lot more handsome now that you've got the braces off," William said to Christopher Evans. "So how's the film audition going?"

"It's still a school movie. It's a character of a bad boy. I don't think it's a big problem."

Carly Evans, who had been indifferent to her younger brother's acting career before, heard this and immediately asked, "How bad are you? Is he a high school student like Billy?"

"Come on, ma'am, do you think I look like someone who could play a serial killer?—Sorry, Will, please believe me this is just a compliment to your acting."

"It's okay, I understand." William said with a smile: "It's just interesting to see your siblings bickering."

Carly Evans touched her hair embarrassingly: "Am I too fierce?"

"No." William shook his head and said, "It's just that I don't have brothers and sisters, so seeing other families lively makes me feel very warm."

"Really? Didn't you grow up lonely?" Carly Evans once again showed what is called "girly compassion", although her heart was clamoring frantically, "If we were neighbors growing up together The Big Self will never let you be lonely and empty!".

"You know this too, ma'am." Christopher Evans couldn't stop complaining today: "Especially to me, you are as fierce as a lioness."

Carly Evans' renewed rage vanished miraculously at the sight of the waiter's plate: "For the sake of the sandwich smelling so good I'm not punching you right now." She Said, picked up the sandwich, "ah", opened his mouth, and took a big bite.

Before eating his own sandwich, Christopher Evans pulled a camera straight out of his backpack and grumbled to William: "Can we take a photo first? You don't know the last time we had a road trip and I didn't have a photo. After losing your private phone number, how miserably you were ridiculed at home, they didn't believe that I knew you, and they even nicknamed me Pinocchio and said my nose would definitely grow longer!"

William nodded readily: "No problem, how do you want to shoot?"

"Well, let me think about it." Christopher Evans pondered for a while, walked to William with a smirk, called the waiter over, and asked him in a low voice to take a picture of them.

After a "click", the Polaroid camera obediently spit out the photo.

In this newly released photo, besides Christopher Evans with a bright smile on his face and William hugging him and smiling, there is also a faceless card in the background who is munching on a sandwich with his head down. Lee Evans.

"This is definitely a classic work worthy of being framed." Christopher Evans said seriously after holding up the photo and admiring it for a while.

……

"Scream" had a box office of 1576 million in the three days of its premiere weekend, and the box office of a single theater exceeded 1100. However, the box office maintained the level of the premiere week, with a box office of 1900 million in the second week, topping the North American box office rankings!

The cost has been recovered in the first week of its release, and it has entered the stage of absolute profitability with a return on investment ratio of 1:3 in the second week, and it has become the weekly box office champion of the North American box office rankings-what does this represent?

"Scream" is a big hit!

This low-budget horror-thriller has just hit theaters, and it's already garnering national attention with its stellar box-office performance!

Especially in the second week of its release, "Scream" crushed "Mr. The highest within the Hollywood industry!