Chapter 465： Layoffs

Readx; It is the launch of Microsoft's Windows operating system that has greatly accelerated the pace of personal computers being promoted by professional technicians to ordinary people. Today's computer network browsing tools are just like the original dos system, which requires strong professional knowledge to operate. This is why personal computers have become popular but computer networks have not developed much. Chris can imagine that if Ai Rick’s idea can really be realized, and that will certainly lead to a revolution in computer networks.

Just the first thought, it has already made Chris feel a bright feeling. He can't wait to ask: "What about the second thought?"

Eric took a sip of coffee and said: "The second idea is the online e-mail service."

"This is already there. I just learned it recently, but I don't think it's anything special or convenient."

“I’m talking about the 'online' email service,” Eric said, biting the word 'online'. He said: “Now most of the email transmission is done by software for point-to-point transmission, from one The computer is transferred to another computer and is often used on a small LAN, so if you leave the office, you can't watch the mail anymore. I want to do a website that provides an online email service. And the server as an e-mail carrier, so that users can apply for an account, no matter where they are, as long as they can connect to the network, they can view emails sent by friends or colleagues from anywhere."

Chris said: "I don't think there will be too many people who will spend money to apply for such an email account. The cost of calling now is not too high. Public telephones are everywhere. Anything can be said on the phone. And, people don't necessarily send emails every day."

When I heard Chris, Eric even had some feelings. He put forward this idea. Chris immediately thought that he would spend money to buy such a service. Without looking forward to it, Eric was too lazy to spit. Soon said: "I didn't plan to charge at the beginning. It will be a free online online service. The first stage we have to do is to accumulate users. If the computer network can be popularized, then our e-mail service users also Will expand to a very large scale, you can imagine, if we have 100 million active mailbox users, how many dollars will the advertisers pay in order for us to send advertising messages to these users?"

Chris seems to have been calculating for a while, then revealing a numb and admirable expression, laughing: "Well, the third?"

“Portal web,” Eric said, still taking up some water and spelling two words on the table.

Although the Internet has just developed a prototype, on this original network, various websites have appeared, so in terms of movies. The most famous movie information website imdb in the past life was established as early as 1990, and it is quite large now. Therefore, the launch of the portal is not too advanced, even if it is really early, it will not burn every month. Eight hundred thousand dollars, slowly waiting for the advent of the Internet golden age, that is, a year's expenditure is equivalent to a small cost movie, not worth mentioning for Eric.

The first two thoughts, Chris, listened to the name. Probably you can guess the approximate meaning, but ‘portalweb’ is definitely a very strange concept.

Eric doesn't know the translation of the previous portal. He can only use the most succinct word of 'portal': "Probably, it is to classify the messy websites on the network. Create a web directory, Internet users can Easily find the consultation you want in this directory website."

Chris nodded and said that he understood something, but compared to the first two more amazing ideas, Chris thinks that Eric's idea has little commercial value, a directory site that is classified. Although it is very practical, it seems to be very easy to imitate. It is estimated that it is difficult to be a big one.

Eric can also see that Chris should use his last idea as the 'head' of the first two projects, but he is not in a hurry to explain anything, let the facts give Chris a surprise, past lives Yahoo's market capitalization is dozens of times that of contemporary browser companies and online email service companies.

The two talked about the late night in this roadside cafe. Although it was three or four o'clock in the morning according to Eric's more popular western time, Eric didn't feel tired, young body and plenty. The exercise allowed Eric to maintain ample personal energy, and occasionally there would be no problem with a few nights.

It was not until two o'clock in the morning of the Eastern Time that Chris and Eric got up and left in the eyes of the waiter of the coffee shop, and the streets of Manhattan in the middle of the night were even cooler, but they did not affect the mood of the two.

"In the past few days, you have to take the time to write the plan. When the AOL thing is done, I will prepare these three companies as soon as possible. Right, since you have already come up with these ideas, do you want to name them?" Chris asked.

Eric reveals a slightly sinister smile: "Of course, the three companies are called ‘interexplorer, hotmail and yahoo.’

......

In the next few days, Eric and Chris continued to work with AOL's Steve Case on the conditions of cooperation. During this period, the 64th Oscar was also held at the Los Angeles Music Center on March 30th. .

As the "Olympic Dance with the Wolf", which won 12 Oscar nominations this time, I won seven awards including the best film, best director and best actor, because of the good news from Oscar. The movie box office of "Dance with the Wolf" once again rebounded sharply. In the fifteenth week of the show, more than 11 million US dollars were won in less than 1,500 theaters, and the total box office exceeded 150 million. This business prospect even Eric The box office results that were not very optimistic about the feature film made everyone stunned.

Although only the film's theater distribution rights, according to the performance of "Walking with the Wolf" in the North American local and overseas box office, the film is expected to receive more than 500 million US dollars in the global box office, according to the original signed sharing agreement, Fox will From this money, it is worth nearly 100 million US dollars in profits. For Fox, this huge amount of money equivalent to half of the profit of the film business last year is similar to that of the previous one. Even many insiders who know the inside story have raised some of them at the party, and Murdoch gave birth to a good daughter.

In addition, because Eric took the Silent Lamb a year ahead. Without Judy Foster's competition, Susan Sarandon also won the best actress with tg's "The End of the Road", and "The End of the Road" also won the best original script award.

The success of "The End of the Road" in business and art has made more people notice the movie company consisting of three girls. Although it is clear that the supporters behind tg are the two giants, Firefly and Fox, there are still many investors who frequently contact three women and try to buy shares or invest.

Even if a film company has achieved good results occasionally, but because of the arrears of the seven major publishers monopolizing the channels, these film companies in order to shoot new movies. Have to finance externally.

However, for tg, this problem does not exist at all. Tg's movies, whether issued by Fox or Firefly, can be divided on time, and even if there is still a lack of funds, both Eric and Murdoch are very happy. Investing, so investors who are trying to participate in the tg are all disappointed.

On the New York side, the cooperation intentions of both sides are very urgent. The Firefly investment successfully reached a preliminary agreement with AOL, but the specific investment amount will be negotiated in detail by Chris's team and Steve Case.

At the same time, Eric also identified a plan to invest $8,000 in Emily Brighton's investment company, which was negotiated by Eric, Chris and Emily.

A week later, Eric left Chris with three project plans and rushed back to Los Angeles.

The preparations for the "Smiths" were very smooth, because it was his first film in Hollywood. Wu Baige seemed to pay great attention to it, and he would personally participate in nothing. The film's fascination, scene design and the selection of supporting roles are all in good order. It is expected that in the end of April, the two protagonists of Nicole and Pierce Brosnan will end the firearms training at the 'Agent School'. The movie will start shooting smoothly.

Because there is no need to worry too much about the "Smiths", Eric puts most of his energy into the preparations for Jurassic Park. The most important part of Jurassic Park is the design of the dinosaur image. . According to paleontologists' reduction of dinosaur fossils, in fact, whether it is Tyrannosaurus Rex or Raptor, the original image is very different from the image in memory.

Eric combines memories in his mind. And several discussions with several paleontologists have confirmed the image of the most important dinosaurs.

For the special effects of Jurassic Park, although Eric’s technology research and development investment is not cost-effective, Jurassic Park is completely produced with cg special effects, but there is not much technical problem, but it takes a lot of time. After all, no one has ever used a full cg way to make a very realistic dinosaur monster. Starting from the beginning, it takes a lot of time and effort to explore the technology, plus Stan Winston is an expert in model effects. After thinking about the pros and cons, Eric quickly decided to operate in a combination of models and computer effects in the same way as the previous Spielberg.

After this decision, a large number of model effects designers in the huge studio in Prea Vista quickly invested in the production of dinosaur models. The dinosaur model that needs to be used is not a simple empty shell. In addition to the realistic shape and skin, the dinosaurs also need complex mechanical transmissions. However, compared to computer effects, this is done. The dinosaur model is still very cost-effective, and, in any case, the model is more realistic than the computer effects at the current stage.

In the busy work, the days passed, and in the process of preparing for the Jurassic Park, in mid-April, Disney and Columbia’s "Smiths" were officially launched in Los Angeles, while at the same time, the Firefly Summer In another movie, "Disguise Geek" starring tg production, Kim Kerry and Claudia Schiffer also successfully completed, and the digital field quickly took over the special effects production work of "Disguised Geek".

It’s been less than two months since the summer file, and Firefly and Disney have begun to carry out more intensive publicity work for the main movie in the summer. Of course, other major movie companies have naturally joined the marketing war.

At the same time as the "Smiths" started, when the fireflies first cooperated with Colombia, the other secret conditions of the Colombian two helmers who promised fireflies began to be implemented.

In fact, the operation of this matter is not too complicated. After several conversations between Peter Cooper and Eric, the specific plan was determined.

In April, in an unobtrusive Hollywood professional magazine, Colombia announced to the outside world that in order to reduce the operating costs of Colombia, Colombia will lay off 2,000 people in a half-year period, and will also abolish some less important departments in Colombia. .

The outside world has not responded much to the layoffs in Colombia. After all, the performance of the Columbia Film Company in the past two years has indeed been bleak, and it has caused losses for more than two consecutive years. The measures for layoffs are very justified, if the Japanese are not obstructing The original promise, if you can't intervene in Colombia, may have taken layoffs to reduce costs.

However, although most people do not know the truth, how can such a large-scale movement not attract the attention of the Hollywood community, when Colombia announced the first week of the news, it will be directly located in Latin America, Brazil, Argentina and Colombia. When the country's branch office was closed directly, many people realized something different.

It should be noted that although Latin America is generally hostile to US policy, although it is geographically close to the United States, Hollywood movies want to enter Latin America, but it is dozens of times more difficult to enter the European market.

But even then, it is too much to completely abolish these branches. After all, although Latin America is closed, it is still a super market with a population of more than one billion people. The future potential is limitless, just like Eastern Europe, when it is Eastern Europe. After the upheaval, the Eastern European market, which was very resistant to Hollywood movies, was instantly opened. Film companies that were originally based in Eastern Europe could gain more advantages than other film companies, and the situation in Latin America is obviously the same. (To be continued.)

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