Hollywood legendary director

There is no superficial glamour in the digital field. In other words, all the special effects studios on the market are desperately burning money to advance their technical reserves.

Blake started to point out this point, "Speaking of which, James doesn't want to take up this burden. He wants to sell all the shares to the management, but the management has no money..."

If you talk about the digital field, there are three people who can't get around, one is Scott Rose, one is James Cameron, and the other is Stan Winston.

In 1993, the former industrial light and magic special effects supervisor, a film director and a model sculpture make-up master together founded their special effects company.

When digital technology was just emerging, they had unlimited confidence and believed that the film industry would usher in a technological revolution.

In 1994, he won his first project in the digital field, "True Lies" directed by James.After the film’s success, it also initially announced the existence of the digital field. It was also that year that they gained a lot, and they also received an Oscar nomination, and the Budweiser beer advertisement they produced won the Golden Lion Award.The digital field instantly became the most watched visual effects company in the Los Angeles area.

But visual effects are still a new thing compared to Hollywood, which is huge. A movie project always needs to be controlled by budget. This also means that when budgeting for special effects shots, you can only rely on guessing.

why?

Because the person responsible for making the decision always cares more about the process of buying and selling than the actual price.

The digital field is a newcomer to the industry. Even with the support of James, his output is very low, and even for his project, he has no right to decide who to do the special effects work of the project.

The only thing James can do is to suggest that the cooperating film studios include the digital field as a choice.

Because in the final analysis, the money is invested by investors like 20th Century Fox or Global, so it should be taken for granted that they decide who to do the work.

Can the digital field do it?capable.

But the market is not the only choice in the digital field. For the producer, of course, whoever offers the lowest price will do it.

This again involves bidding and industry suppression.

When making "Titanic", 20th Century Fox almost wanted to throw James into the sea to feed the sharks, not because the project was seriously overrun, and the project special effects budget at that time was only 18 million US dollars, the largest digital field The rival of ILM is Industrial Light and Magic. They think, “If you collaborate with Cameron on a movie, but he can’t afford his own company to do special effects, then we can squeeze the digital field.”

With this idea in mind, Industrial Light and Magic took the initiative to reduce the special effects budget, preferring to lose money to suppress the digital field.

Then, in order for the company to have money to continue operating, James went too far to deceive 20th Century Fox and expressed his willingness to accept an offer of 18 million US dollars.

As a result, the digital field burned 27 million in special effects alone, which is not even a reward in the digital field.

With such a high cost, Twentieth Century Fox certainly did not do it. Even if "Titanic" achieved unparalleled success, the reputation in the digital field has been broken-the contract has not been achieved.

The same is true for the management in the digital field. Cameron believes that the digital field needs a new CEO to lead the company, but the board of directors disagrees and asks Cameron to explain why.

Cameron also regrets starting the digital field at this time, because he has no management skills at all, he is domineering, and his temper is not good. In addition, the digital field has been losing money. In addition to making some money in 1994, the rest of the time, personnel expenses It's all big trouble.

In addition, Cameron loves to enjoy himself very much, spends a lot of money, and can't afford the golden beast in the digital field.

Because the business model in the digital field has never been successful, how far can you go with the director's personal project?

From another perspective, the existence of the digital field has left very classic works in the film industry, but it has never been independent economically.

But the producer is actually right. I will give you the project and you will complete the work for me. As for the suppression of the bidding industry, what matters to them, they only need to keep the expenditure as low as possible.

Therefore, if VFX companies want to survive, they must have stable profit channels.

But Cameron has no confidence, his good friend Stan Winston has also left the digital field, he also wants to sell the baggage.

If it weren’t for the price offered by the old rival Industrial Light & Magic that could not satisfy Cameron at all, and his attitude was arrogant, he didn’t think the digital field might be taken over by Industrial Light & Magic. Two years earlier, the digital field would have changed its owner.

Since then, the fate of this company, which is enough to rank among the top three in the special effects industry, has been tossed.

It was first sold to Indian giants, Reliance Media, and then sold to Xiangjiang Aoliang Group in 13 years, completely transforming the VR field...

And Industrial Light & Magic relies on the industry's first position, can pull more opportunities, and has the "Star Wars" series guarantee; as for Weta Digital, it is endorsed by the New Zealand government, and the policies provided are very good, plus Peter- Jackson’s "Lord of the Rings Trilogy" has just passed, and marketing is doing well.

Even so, if you say you have made a lot of money, it is not true, because the special effects technology needs to burn money all the time, and the burn is very strong, and the money earned is invested again...

Understand this, it is not difficult to know why Cameron wants to sell the "lost goods" in the digital field. He has no relationship with the management. It is rare to go to the factory in the digital field once a year. Ignore, let them take responsibility for their own profits and losses, and don't talk about making money.

After all, once friends have become strangers.

As for Lehmann hearing this news, he had the idea of ​​buying the digital domain.

Visual effects are definitely the mainstream of future movies, even now.

However, the burden is real.

Even if Cameron really wants to sell his shares, he is not selling at a cheap price. The market value of the digital field is still 300 million US dollars. Even if it is discounted to 150 million, Lehman can't get it out.

In other words, the acquisition of a distribution company has exhausted the savings Firefly Pictures has saved over the past two years.

No matter how good the performance of "The Walking Dead" is, no matter how much subscription fee HBO gets, the split with Lehman will not be done all at once.

Even if hundreds of millions of dollars of funds are just thrown into the bank, there will be a considerable amount of interest, who is not dragging it.

Film directors and well-known actors have too many lawsuits with studios in order to get their own share.

Warner is trying to maintain the relationship with Firefly, and it is impossible to split the accounts in advance, at most it will not delay in accordance with the contract.

Moreover, Lehman was thinking about returning the money to Gusta. The money owed to the banker was not so good.

Where should I find money?

Lehman in the digital realm does not want to miss it.

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