Chapter 828： Music copyright

Chapter 828

"So far, the Titanic's North American box office has successfully exceeded $300 million, but the box office trend of this phenomenal blockbuster is still strong. Box office analysts generally predict that the Titanic will be very popular only at the North American box office. It is possible to recover all the huge investment of 265 million US dollars, and the overseas box office of Titanic is likely to reach a jaw-dropping number. The film industry has just begun to reflect on the big budget movie in recent years. In a situation where the major movie companies in Hollywood began to look for their own super-big project, in this case, the Firefly Group suddenly announced that it would stop the external cooperation of its special effects company in the digital field, which is tantamount to pouring a pot of cold water outside the firefly system. All Hollywood studios."

"According to the Firefly Group Chairman Jeffrey Kasenberg, the Firefly Group will increase the annual 'Big Bomb' film from the current three to six in the next few years, at least half of which will be the main g. The special effects blockbuster, if the digital field continues to maintain the original open operating model, it will be difficult to meet the needs of the Firefly Group itself."

"It is reported that the digital field special effects company currently holds the top computer g special effects technology in Hollywood. Since 1991, the digital field has produced excellent effects in the films such as "Terminator 2", "Tornado" and "Jurassic Park". Has won the Oscar for best visual effects for four consecutive years. At the same time, the digital field has the largest rendering farm in the industry, and in recent years has undertaken more than 50% of Hollywood special effects rendering work."

"Related analysts expect that because the digital field holds a large number of Hollywood unique g-effect technologies, such as the large-scale war scene design in "Mummy 2", the digital field suddenly stops the move of external cooperation, and may even make it impossible to use the digital field. The technology of the Hollywood film company in the special effects blockbuster has formed a 'fault' for several years, which will undoubtedly have a strong impact on the film business of Time Warner, Paramount, Sony and other companies, the difference between the firefly group, the rice The market share of Gaomei Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox will increase significantly. Affected by this news, the stock prices of Time Warner, Viacom and other companies have declined slightly in the past week, and MGM, which has the closest relationship with Firefly Group. In the film industry, the stock price rose further and rose more than 9% in a week."

Michael Eisner lost his latest "Premiere" magazine and stood up to the window with distress and thought about what to do next.

In addition to this analysis article, this issue of "The Premiere" magazine released the latest annual Hollywood power list, except for Eric Williams, who has no suspense to occupy the top spot, Firefly Group's eo Jeffrey Kasenberg also did not follow the conventions of previous years, and together with Eric as the controller of the Firefly Group, tied for the first place, but was listed separately, occupying the second place, in this detail The change has undoubtedly shown Eric's increasingly detached status in Hollywood. The third place is still unrelated to the world, but last year's most prosperous MGM, Drew Barrymore and Amy Pascal are tied for third place, and the fourth is his turn to Michael Eisner.

I don’t know if it’s intentional or undoubted. In addition to the big film company executives and top directors and producers, this year’s top ten Hollywood power list has suddenly appeared in the digital domain eostan Winston. The Firefly Group has already occupied three places in the top ten of the Hollywood power list. If you count the list of MGM and Fox, the Firefly system has basically controlled half of Hollywood, which is related to the Firefly Group. In reality, the influence is almost the same, even if the market share is simply calculated, because the Titanic, which was not optimistic by everyone, broke out unexpectedly, Firefly, MGM and Fox, this year in the Hollywood box office market. The share of the company will also exceed 50%, and the four major film companies Warner, Paramount, Universal, and Sony Pictures can only share the remaining 50% with other countless second- and third-line movie companies.

The plan will never catch up with change.

Michael Eisner sighed in his heart, remembering his own thoughts before the release of "Titanic", could not help but laugh at himself.

However, it is still necessary to solve the imminent problem.

In the past week, after the fireflies announced the cessation of foreign cooperation in the digital field, the industrial light and magic that had almost reached a cooperation intention with the world suddenly changed. Microsoft can almost be said to respond quickly and externally, and will once again invest 100 million US dollars. For the technical development of industrial light magic in g special effects.

Although the industrial light magic has been far less than the digital field in recent years, the special effects accumulated in the past 20 years are not comparable to other small special effects companies that have just been established in Hollywood. Obviously, Microsoft also succeeded in the box office of "Titanic". I saw the great application prospects of special effects technology in Hollywood, so I raised some other thoughts and no longer want to join in the world.

In response to the announcement of the fireflies, this week, in addition to Microsoft's generous injection of funds into the industrial light magic, Sony, Paramount and Time Warner, also announced the establishment of their own film and television special effects department.

Although the board of directors of Universal began to discuss related issues, Edgar Bronfman, the chairman of the parent company Seagram Group, also called to ask about this.

But Michael Eisner knows that setting up a dedicated special effects department will not work at all. He now clearly remembers Eric’s words when everyone competed for the "Transformers" movie copyright last year. It’s not easy for other second- and third-stream special effects companies to use the digital field in Florida to build a $100 million rendering farm. In the past few years, in order to develop a variety of g special effects technology, how much has been invested in the digital field, although there is no specific data, but it is conceivable that this number is also very horrible.

More importantly, special effects companies want to accumulate enough technology, which needs to be obtained through practice in the production process of a large number of g lenses. According to the information released by Firefly, the Firefly Group will have three major effects in the future. The MGM and the 20th Century Fox will be able to provide as many fireflies as they can. The three companies can provide digital fields every year. Six special effects movie orders, and other movies that require a small number of special effects scenes are countless, which provides a sufficient platform for technology accumulation in the digital field. At this point, Time Warner, Paramount, Sony and even Universal itself are impossible.

The first thought in Michael Eisner’s mind is of course unity, but the reaction of the industrial light magic supported by Microsoft after the firefly announced the news can be seen, everyone has their own small abacus, want to unite, It’s easy to talk about.

Thinking about the matter, the office door was knocked, Michael Eisner responded, and his assistant came in and said, "Mr. Eisner, I have been inspected, Eric Williams. Going to San Francisco for two days seems to be a music player secretly developed for fireflies."

"Music player?" Michael Eisner questioned with a puzzled question. Although the mp3 player has matured at the end of last year, in recent months, Firefly Electronics has been preparing for various preparatory work in the early stage, so it is still basic. It is in a state of confidentiality.

Michael Eisner’s assistant nodded and said: “It’s a brand new digital audio player. It’s a coincidence. You asked me to join the company last week with Miss Nicole Kidman on the “Mummy”. Negotiation, I just saw Miss Kidman used this kind of player, only slightly larger than the old-fashioned lighter, using the micro hard disk as a storage medium, can store hundreds of songs in mp3 audio format, no need for tapes or discs at all. These external media. Right, I just made a special call to the record company. They also received a joint invitation from Yahoo! Networks to sell songs at the Yahoo Music Store late last year. The two sides are still negotiating."

The eyes of Michael Eisner, who was originally listening to it, immediately lit up, and he had already realized a problem.

If everything is as the assistant said, then this music player wants to promote it, and it definitely needs a lot of genuine music resources as a support. When Sony bought the Colombian record, it was in this regard. Obviously, music copyright resources are precisely the shortcomings of the Firefly Group. Although Firefly Records has launched some good singers in recent years, the story of Firefly Records is compared with the old giants such as Universal Music, Warner Music and Sony Records. Still a distance of ten thousand miles.

"You did a good job," he praised the other party without hesitation. Michael Eisner added: "In addition, I will prepare a copy of the information negotiated between the record company and Yahoo, and then help me about Doug. Morris."

Doug Morris is the eo of Universal Music, the Ma Group that Sigram took over from Panasonic, including Universal Pictures and Universal Music. However, Michael Eisner is not responsible for Universal Music.

......

"irelyer, this is the most appropriate name we finally discussed. irelyer is actually a little elf in the fairy tale "Peter Pan" who is self-confident but sincerely loyal to friends. It is caused by the laughter of a baby from Renton. In the story, irelyer eventually became a husband and wife with Tinkerbell. It can be said that this is a small shortcoming, but the role of our mp3 player, the pursuit of the same as a close friend's experience. It coincides with the character of irelyer, and at the same time, irelyer can also be seen as an extension of fireflies (irely)."

In an office building in Oakland, San Francisco, Eric, Chris, and a group of firefly electronics executives sat in a conference room, quietly listening to the instructions of Firefly Electronics President Bill Olsen.

Bill Olsen is an executive that Chris has dug from Apple. He was originally a vice president of product marketing at Apple. Originally, even with the Firefly Group as a backing, Bill Olsen is still It's unlikely to be seen by Firefly Electronics, a small startup that has just started, but because Apple has been declining in the last two years, management has jumped to find another person, plus Eric and Chris promised enough pay. And the option reward, Bill Olson is willing to come to serve as the president of Firefly Electronics, mainly responsible for the marketing of mp3 players.

Eric listened to Bill Olsen and said: "The name irelyer is really good, but since you mentioned tinkerbell, Bill, don't you think that we can apply this trademark as an mp3 player. Is there another brand, maybe, for women?"

Bill Olsen smiled: "Eric, your suggestion was actually mentioned at the original meeting of Victor, but after we discussed it, it was temporarily dispelled."

Eric looks at Firefly Electronics' eo Victor McNealy, Victor McNealy graduated from Stanford University with a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering, and was hired by Chris to take charge of mp3 and e-book projects. Victor McNealy is responsible for product development and production at ibm. Although his position is not too high, his professional ability is also very good. At the beginning, Chris asked the headhunting company to look for three months before determining. The candidate for Victor McNealy.

Victor McNealy is a white middle-aged man with a slightly fat face and a big beard. Some of them are not trimmed. See Eric looking at himself. He smiles and gestures to Bill Olson. He laughs: "Eric, let Bill talk to you, he is an expert in this area."

Eric looked at Bill Olsen again.

Bill Olson did not sell the lawsuit, saying: "This is the case, Eric, in the current situation, I only have a product like irelyer, maybe you can name the pink one as the tinkerbell you said, but this way Will definitely dilute the brand image of the player, which is not good for the promotion of the product."

......

......

Victor McNealy is a white middle-aged man with a slightly fat face and a big beard. Some of them are not trimmed. See Eric looking at himself. He smiles and gestures to Bill Olson. He laughs: "Eric, let Bill talk to you, he is an expert in this area."

Eric looked at Bill Olsen again.

Bill Olson did not sell the lawsuit, saying: "This is the case, Eric, in the current situation, I only have a product like irelyer, maybe you can name the pink one as the tinkerbell you said, but this way It will definitely dilute the brand image of the player, which is not good for the promotion of the product." (To be continued.)