In the office of Shahai Entertainment, Ronan received the visiting Chris, and he was accompanied by a middle-aged man with blonde hair.

"Ronan, this is Angel from Sony Electronics. Chris introduced the two: "Angel, this is Ronan, the owner of Relativity Entertainment Group. ”

"Hello. ”

"It's a pleasure to meet you. ”

Ronan shook hands with Angel and said a few polite words.

"You're a rarity. Ronan asked his assistant to bring coffee and said directly, "Chris, you came to me for something?"

Chris said with a smile: "Mainly congratulations on the DVD sale of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", and by the way, introduce Angel to you." Despite the success of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" since last year, he couldn't help but say, "I should have fought you for the North American rights to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon at the Cannes Film Festival." ”

Ronan spread his hands and said, "You didn't want it at the time." ”

Chris shook his head and smiled, "Forget it, it's me who has lost my eyes." Ronan, I'll admit that I'm far inferior to you in terms of film selection. ”

Angel watched Ronan and Chris laugh familiarly, and didn't interject rashly.

It was impossible for Ronan to snub the guest, waiting for the assistant to bring the coffee, and said, "Mr. Angel......"

Angel looked at Chris and said, "Call me Angel, I'm friends with Chris." ”

Chris was silent, did not admit it, and did not deny it.

Ronan smiled and asked, "You have something to do with me?"

"Your company has recently sold two films in the disc market, "Human Eradication Project 2" and "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". Angel said with a smile: "I guess your company has also seen a boom in the DVD market. ”

Ronan nodded lightly and said, "In the offline market, it is the general trend for DVD to replace videotape. ”

Angel first chimed in: "Yes, DVDs will replace videotapes. Then he said: "But the current DVD technology is not very mature, the playback definition is not enough, and there is still a lot of room for technical development." ”

Ronan gradually heard a little taste, Angel is from Sony Electronics......

Angel continued: "Sony intends to push DVD technology to the next level and usher DVD into a new era of high-quality audio. ”

"I've heard of it. Ronan didn't pretend to be confused, and said directly: "It's Blu-ray technology, right?"

Seeing that Ronan knew Blu-ray, Angel didn't talk nonsense, and immediately said: "Sony has joined forces with Philip and Panasonic to develop this new technology, and I hope to cooperate with your company in the future to launch Blu-ray Disc movies together." ”

Ronan heard last year that both Sony and Toshiba were working on a new DVD technology, if memory serves, the famous BD vs. HD format battle.

And Sony and Toshiba have long been in a battle in Hollywood, because it was never these two companies that really decided the battle between BD and HD, or even the alliance behind them, but Hollywood.

Quite simply, in 2000, the sales of genuine DVDs, which were directly related to Hollywood, accounted for more than 70 percent of the total sales of DVDs in the world.

Sony has only now found Relativistic Entertainment, which shows that the weight of Relativistic Entertainment is limited.

Ronan knows very well that this kind of thing must have a huge film library to have a say, and Relativity Entertainment has no confidence in this regard.

After thinking about it for half a minute in combination with memory, Ronan said: "I am friends with Chris, and I have had many pleasant collaborations with Sony, and if Sony is willing to provide the necessary technical support, Relativity Entertainment is willing to continue to cooperate with Sony." ”

They are all smart people, Angel immediately heard the subtext in Ronan's words, and said with a smile: "Regarding the blue light technology, as long as it can meet the listing conditions, we will provide you with technical support as soon as possible." Sony's existing or developing cinema equipment, as long as Relativity Entertainment needs, please contact Sony, we will provide the greatest possible equipment support and technical support. ”

"We continue to work together," Ronan said. ”

Both parties are satisfied.

Angel knows that Sony originally did not attach importance to Relativity Entertainment, because Relativity Entertainment lacked DVD content with the right to speak, and had never made any contact with Relativity Entertainment, but since last year, Relativity Entertainment has not only exploded at the box office of its films, but also has a hot offline rental and sales market, and the influence of the new films shot is extremely great.

That's why Sony sent him over and offered some pretty good terms.

After a few more conversations, Chris and Angel took the initiative to leave, and Ronan sent them out of the company.

It is quite beneficial for Relativity Entertainment to continue to cooperate with Sony, which is one of the world's largest manufacturers of film shooting equipment, and is researching new cameras almost every year.

After the success of "Titanic", even James Cameron is working with Sony Electronics on new digital and 3D shooting equipment.

Ronan remembers very well that the HD format failed in the end.

He forgot the specific year that Toshiba had to voluntarily abandon the HD format and join the Blu-ray camp instead due to the lack of support from its partners.

On the surface, this format battle is a competition between hardware equipment providers such as Toshiba, Sony, and Panasonic, but behind them, the powerful force is the winner, that is, Hollywood studios.

To be exact, the big six film companies.

The huge library resources in their hands are the most terrifying place.

Ronan specifically inquired with Chris, the six major companies support different goals, Sony Colombia must support Sony-based Blu-ray technology, and Disney also expressed its support for Blu-ray.

Warner Bros. has made it clear that HD-DVD is the way forward.

As for the other large companies, their positions are unclear for the time being.

After all, these two technologies are still in the development stage and will not be available on the market anytime soon.

Like the six major companies, Ronan is always concerned about the development of new offline technologies, and the launch of each new offline technology means that the company's films can be packaged into new products and put into the market to benefit.

Offline new technology equals very attractive revenue, and even if the big six companies are obsessed with it, after each new video technology is born, Hollywood studios will turn many old movies out of the bottom of the box box, recreate them with the new technology, and then sell them for a good price.

This is the case in the past videotapes, LD, and VCD eras, and sometimes even refurbishing old movies, making a collection of several films, and even adding some tidbits, which is called a special edition.

This is an incomparable advantage of films, and even the films of the thirties have an offline market.

From the perspective of technology manufacturers, it is better that new technologies will always make money for them until they decide that it is necessary to develop the next generation of technology, but this is actually in conflict with the interests of Hollywood, and Hollywood will take the initiative to promote the creation of new technologies when they can't wait.

It's hard to say whether the BD and HD format battle is behind Hollywood's push.

At that time, BD will release a version, HD will release another version, anyway, the production cost of the disc has never been high, and you can recoup the cost by selling it casually.

Moreover, the scale of the film in the disc is much larger than that of the theatrical version, and the market restrictions are not as strict as the theater classification, and many large-scale shots are flooded with it.

Ronan has also understood some of the rules of the DVD market through his operation in the past few years, so when Monica Bellucci called and said that Jasper No, the director and producer of "Irrevocable", was willing to meet with him during the Cannes Film Festival to discuss the rights to distribute in North America, he immediately agreed.

In this film, as long as the purchase price is controlled and the hype is appropriate, you can make money just by selling DVDs.

If you're lucky, you might even be able to release it in theaters with an NC-17 rating.

"The Beautiful Legend of Sicily" also introduced some North American fans to Monica Bellucci, and when some of the super-large-scale clips were released, some people must be eager to catch it.

This is often the case in the cultural industry market, the more forbidden it is, the more attractive it is.

At this time, the crew of "Resident Evil" finished filming from Europe and moved to the studio of Warner Studios to shoot some interior scenes about the beehive.

This is an external project belonging to Shahai Entertainment, and the direct person in charge of the crew has always been Samuel Hadida, but all the approval power is in the hands of Shahai Entertainment.

According to the original plan, the film was supposed to end filming by this time, but during the filming of an action scene in early February, an accident occurred on the set, and Milla Jovovich accidentally injured three actors and several behind-the-scenes personnel, including director Paul Anderson.

And Paul Anderson was more seriously injured, breaking two ribs.

The director was unable to work, the crew had to be temporarily suspended, and filming was delayed until March.

Fortunately, the crew was insured by an insurance company, and the huge premiums played a role, with the Firefighters Fund paying a total of $3.2 million to the personnel and crew.

This can also make up for the losses caused by the shutdown of the crew.

Perhaps because of the bump into Paul Anderson, Milla Jovovich hooked up with Paul Anderson, and the wife maniac began a more than decade-long road to show off his wife.

"It is estimated that the filming will end at the end of April. ”

In the studio, Samuel Hadida said to Ronan: "The post-production is a bit troublesome, there are a lot of special effects shots, and it will take July to complete the production." ”

Ronan nodded slightly: "In this case, it is not appropriate to release it in August." ”

Samuel Hadida advised: "I don't think it's too rushed, leave a little more time for publicity. ”

Ronan made a decision: "I asked the embassy pictures to check the schedule and find a suitable time to release it next year." ”

Anyway, the second half of the year is impossible.

"It's fine. Samuel Hadida doesn't seem to be too confident: "Looking for a competitive slot?"

Ronan also doesn't think that "Resident Evil" has Hollywood first-line competitiveness, and said: "Don't worry, it won't be placed in the summer file." ”

The two chatted for a while, and after a period of filming on the set, the actors came out one after another, and Priyanka Chopra, who was wearing a black uniform, saw Ronan and hurriedly walked over.

She took the initiative to say hello: "Long time no see, Ronan." The latest chapter of "The Best Entertainment Era Claw Book House" is free to read for the first time.