When Greg Holmes, the founder and CEO of the graphics engine, signed his name on the contract, the bright conference room burst into applause, and the senior representatives of the two companies stood up with happy smiles and shook hands with each other and congratulated: "Happy cooperation!" and "Flame Movies and Graphics Engine will have a bright future!"

Wang Yang, who was wearing a black blazer, walked up to Greg Holmes, shook his hand vigorously, and said with a smile: "I believe that soon, the graphics engine will become a first-class special effects production company." But Greg, it's up to you. Greg smiled and nodded confidently, "In a month's time, I will bring a new look to the graphics engine." Wang Yang smiled and nodded, "Well, of course!"

Seeing them gently hug and separate, everyone applauded warmly, and in the applause and laughter, Flame Film finally completed the acquisition, and obtained 85% of the shares of the image engine at a price of 6 million, and 25% of the shares are ready to be given to the talents who are about to join the company, and at the same time inject 50 million operating development funds, including the purchase and research and development of technology, the expansion of employees, the expansion of business, etc.

The North American box office of "Juno" was finally fixed at 212 million, and the overseas box office was also 163 million, the total global box office of 375 million US dollars brought a total of 138 million after-tax income for Flame Films, as well as 30 million from the best-selling soundtrack CDs and DVDs that just hit the shelves, and at the same time 50 million from the follow-up peripherals and other businesses of "Youth Musical" and other movies, and if no money was spent, the cash of Flame Movies could reach 388 million US dollars.

But the studio under construction in Vancouver currently has invested 50 million, "Sweetheart" has cost 20 million to produce, the upcoming "Youth Musical" 3 has cost 20 million to promote, and "District 9" has already spent 17 million dollars, and after completing the acquisition of the graphics engine, there are still 225.5 million dollars left on the account of Flame Films.

Next year, Flame Movies has a large-scale release plan for multiple films, and it is expected that "Youth Musical" will bring in at least 100 million in profits, which is enough money to cope well. At present, the 225.5 million will probably be allocated to the production cost of "District 9" of 60 million to 80 million, of course, a considerable part of this money will be earned by the image engine and fall into the pocket of the special effects team that will be formed immediately.

Now it is determined that the backbone of the company will join Sean Walsh, Peter Wools and others, and they will all become partners in the company and hold important positions. For example, Sean Walsh will be the visual effects supervisor, and he will also be the computer production director of "District 9", and the captain of the entire special effects team, including modelers, CG animators, etc., to build a team that can do the special effects of "District 9" perfectly.

Peter Wools will be the visual effects director, and his focus will be on setting up a new department "I&B" with Blue Sky Studios, bringing together programmers and other talents to research and develop projects including 3D engines, software systems, CG compositing technology, etc., and a core project, which will be the first to become the company's "killer feature" in the development blueprint, with the goal of the near future, which movie wants the best effect in this area, it will say "go to the graphics engine"!

This project is "bio-production", creative creatures like the aliens in "District 9", as well as wolves, tigers, lions, birds, fish, butterflies and other animals and insects, which is also the main technology that Blue Sky Studio has been researching. Although Blue Sky is a "cute" animation style, and the graphics engine is a real style that "comes to life", there are many things in common, such as creature skeletalization, texture generation and mapping techniques for hair, clothing, and other elements.

The imminent establishment of i&B made Chris Waiki and Peter Wools very excited, full of confidence and expectation, and both seriously and jokingly said: "This will be the beginning of an image revolution!"

Expand the company, assemble new teams, and develop new technologies...... These are the work of Greg Holmes, Sean Walsh, Peter Wools, and others.

And Wang Yang's job is to start forming the crew of "District 9", and preparing the equipment, venues, props, etc. needed for filming, one of the points that science fiction movies are different from reality movies is that many props need to be designed and specialized, such as guns and other weapons and equipment, and of course, there are scenes;

After signing the contract, everyone laughed happily for a while, and then ended the meeting, after Wang Yang and Mark Slunt sent Greg Holmes and others away, he returned to the chairman's office, took off the suit on his body for the first time, and put on a summer T-shirt and pants, he stood by the floor-to-ceiling window and looked at the street scene outside, he could feel the heat wave, if it wasn't for air conditioning, it would have been hot to death!

"Go to the beach!" Wang Yang exhaled with a smile and left the office for the beach not far away, where a few friends such as Jessica, Joshua, Zachary and Erin were waiting for him. As soon as he walked out of the company's gate, he saw Nolan walking towards him, Wang Yang raised his right hand and smiled in greeting: "Hey, Chris, why are you here?"

"Young. Nolan also said hello, continued to walk over, and said with a slight smile: "I'll get some documents, it's about "Memory Fragments". ”

Wang Yang smiled and nodded: "Oh!" He didn't know what was going on, there were too many affairs in the company, it was not under his management, he only knew the general progress of "Mr. Hughes".

As early as April, this biographical film has officially started filming in the studio, using the order of interior and then exterior, and the interior part is only nearing completion, and the starring Howard Hughes is the "king of comedy" Jim Carrey, the media at the time was really surprised by this, funny, exaggerated body language...... Howard Hughes? It's unimaginable, but both Nolan and Jim Carrey say it's a major screen transformation.

"Chris, hmm......" Wang Yang suddenly noticed that something was wrong, and looked Nolan up and down, only to see that he was wearing a white shirt and black trousers, as well as a black suit jacket, and a layer of sweat beads on his forehead under his combed hair, and a water bottle in his hand. He couldn't help but laugh suspiciously, "Man, if it's hot, take off your jacket, right?" he looked at it like this, and he felt a stuffy heat all over his body.

Nolan shook his head lightly and smiled, "It's okay, it's okay, I'm used to wearing it like this." After a pause, he humorously said, "I won't suffer from heat stroke." ”

"Haha! Then I'm relieved. Wang Yang smiled and gave him a touch on the shoulder, pointed to the direction of the beach, and said, "I'm going to go to the beach to play, my girlfriend and a few friends, paparazzi, swimming, beach volleyball, do you want to come together?" Nolan said dryly: "No, thank you." Wang Yang nodded and smiled: "Okay, I know." Then hurry inside, the air conditioning inside is cool!"

He patted Nolan on the shoulder again: "Chris, see you later." With that, he walked to the beach.

The news that Flame Films had acquired the image engine and created its own special effects company was reported by some media who focused on the film industry the next day, which is also a new thing, because almost no independent film companies will have a special effects department, for the simple reason that they are barely able to protect themselves, let alone support the development of a special effects company.

But it doesn't seem surprising that this happened to Flame Films, and it seems that any independent film company has an animation production subsidiary? At that time, Flame Films, which had assets of only 200 million, dared to "swallow elephants", and now it is too common to buy small characters such as graphics engines.

However, a few days later, a somewhat surprising thing happened, according to some lace gossip media reports, Wang Yang "did not do business" to invest in the establishment of a new game development company "Tinder-Entertainment", and recruited some members of the famous RPG game developer Black Island Studios, no one knew what Fantastic Yang was going to do, and the source was his blog, which excitedly wrote: "This is great! Passionate and excellent staff, wooo!-"

After receiving Wang Yang's invitation, Chris Taylor and others thought about it for half a month and finally nodded in agreement. But they asked for sufficient creative freedom and stable financial support to develop the game, and of course Wang Yang agreed, every kind of creation needs freedom, whether they want it or not, he will not point fingers, professional things are best left to professionals, he is just a player.

With an upfront investment of 15 million, he owns 75% of Tinder's shares, while Chris Taylor and others have a stake in technology and own the other 25%. What Tinder has to do now is find a game publisher to work with, and negotiate with Bioware, which has a good relationship with Black Isle Studios, to buy the rights to use the game engine.

But none of these things can be said to have anything to do with Wang Yang, his part of the work as an investor has been done, and then these will be handed over to Tinder, and Paul Emery will also pay attention to the progress and financial situation on his behalf.

"Happy cooperation, Evan!" In the spacious and elegant living room, Wang Yang smiled at the black-haired white man sitting on the sofa on the left, 29-year-old Blogger founder Evan Williams. Evan put down the pen, a trace of excitement flashed on his face, but more of a relieved tiredness, he could finally pay off his father's investment! He exhaled a long breath and said with a smile: "Jan, happy cooperation, thank you for agreeing with Blogger." ”

Wang Yang waved his hand and said with a smile: "It's not a big deal! Blogger is a very cool thing, and sooner or later it will become an important character in the network." Maybe it's next year, maybe the year after that, but it will. He said and stretched out his hand to Evan, and said seriously, "Evan, keep up the blogger and do a good job! ”

Evan Williams smiled, filled with joy and gratitude, and since he wrote on his blog about the company's status that "everyone is gone except me," he has received a flood of replies, including Daniel Blacklin, the "father of spreadsheets" and CEO of Trelix, who once aborted a deal that would keep Pyra afloat.

In the letter, Daniel said some words of encouragement, and everyone was saying words of encouragement, but one person said, "I love bloggers, and I wish I could be a part of Pyra." ”

"Thank you!" Evan shook Wang Yang's hand vigorously, and said, "Thank you, thank you!"

The reason why he agreed to the acquisition was because the company needed money, but it wasn't that it couldn't survive, so everyone resigned, and the company didn't use the office anymore, and all he needed to pay was "his own salary", as well as living expenses such as bandwidth, servers, and rent. Although the blogger has basically stagnated except for the number of registrations, he can hold on.

The reason why he signed this contract to transfer 60% of the shares of Pyra for 2 million is that in addition to the very generous conditions, more importantly, Wonder Young's unique insights and appreciation of the blog, handing over Pyra to him will not bury the company and the blogger, it will only get better and better.

"Nothing. Wang Yang smiled again, and seeing that Evan still had an "affectionate" face, he couldn't help but roll his eyes and said, "Please, man, don't come!" Because the whole pyra company is Evan Williams and his apartment, so after putting forward the intention, Evan came to Los Angeles from San Francisco for an interview, everything went well, and after the lawyer compiled the contract, he completed the signing in this living room.

He didn't choose the 100% acquisition option, because Blogger is going to continue to grow, it's all Evan's job, and a second largest shareholder who owns 40% of the company's shares, and a person who is hired to work part-time, has a very different mentality for the company, and Pyra needs a CEO who is full of enthusiasm and talent!

"Two, tea and dessert are here!" At this time, Jessica walked out of the dining room with tea and dessert, she smiled and put the food on the coffee table, and sat down next to Wang Yang.

Both of them said thank you, Wang Yang picked up a cup of tea and took a sip, looked at Evan Williams, and said with a smile: "Evan, you know that I will inject 3 million first." Talking about how to use them to make a good blogger? Let me start with some of my thoughts, maybe not so professional. Jessica looked at him with interest.

Evan shook his head and laughed, Wang Yang pondered for a moment, and then said seriously: "I think our top priority now is to redesign the blogger page, no offense, but I think it can be made more beautiful and attractive." Evan Williams smiled "I don't mind" and nodded: "I've thought about this too, and asked some professional artists to upgrade the website, but I don't have the money." ”

"Now there is. Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders with a smile and continued: "I think blog is like our home, a home on the Internet, a place to show ourselves to friends and strangers. He looked left and right and said with a smile: "But home, you have to be beautiful, you have to have your own characteristics, and you have to like it...... We should find a way to make everyone feel that the blog is his home, and he will be willing to take care of it, such as making his blog beautiful and updating articles frequently, and he will invite friends to 'guest'......" Jessica nodded silently.

As he spoke, he suddenly frowned, isn't that what he thought about? He thought and said, "We have to find a way to invite everyone and let bloggers enter their real life circle, so that our users will spread ten, ten, ten, hundred...... Oh, viral marketing!"

"That's a great idea!" Evan Williams reflexively shouted, his face full of contemplation, and the more he thought about it, the more he felt that it made sense, "Home, blog...... Wow, that's a good idea!" He looked at Wang Yang excitedly and said, "I always thought of online publishing, where everyone can publish freely and for free, but no, that's not all! Oh my God, you should go for it!"

Wang Yang couldn't help but smile, spread his hands and said with a smile: "Maybe I went to Stanford." After that, he suddenly realized that something was wrong, and glanced at Jessica next to him, only to see her smile happily, and he didn't notice anything Stanford. He immediately laughed and said, "Evan, you know that our goal is to be a significant member of the network, and as for profitability, take your time, I don't ask for it." ”

Evan Williams was still very excited, as if he had figured something out, he nodded and smiled: "Thank you! Now we have to increase the number of users, there are more users, I think there is always a way to make a profit!" Wang Yang frowned and thought about it, then smiled: "I heard that when I registered with Jessica, it led to an increase in the number of users. Seeing that Evan nodded, he said: "I think that's it, keep inviting celebrities from all walks of life to open and use blogs, and people who like them will follow......"

Because for the sake of website publicity, Wang Yang acquired the news of blogger, so naturally he had to publicize it loudly, and he was interviewed by some online media: "I think blogs will infiltrate our lives in the future, which is a very good new way of communication." It will soon become common, and people all over the world will use it, students, housewives, presidents, movie stars, ......"

In terms of movie stars, he has invited a number of familiar stars, including Natalie Portman and Will Smith to open blogs, as well as the official blogs of Fire Movies and Blue Sky Studios, so as to update some lace information in different styles from the official website.

That's all he can do for Pyra, like other things like rehiring, how to grow, how to invite more celebrities, etc., it's Evan Williams' job.

The effect of this round of publicity is very significant, the number of registered users has soared to more than 600,000, more people know what a blog is, and there is also some attention from gossip entertainment media. "There are a lot of people who don't have a good job in Hollywood, but like this, they started a game company a few days ago and bought a website a few days later...... All we can say is that this is the Magic Young's energetic style. Maybe we shouldn't just think of him as a director, a star, and let's not forget that he was also a successful young entrepreneur. ”

Of course, there are also quite a few traditional print media who are very disdainful of online publishing, believing that the mainstream of publishing will always be on paper: "Time will tell whether Magic Young bought a baby or a toy." ”

"Dude, seeing your handwriting these days, I suddenly want to be a boss too!" Natalie's excited voice came from the mobile phone, Wang Yang leaned on the railing of the balcony, looked at Danny running in the garden below, and said, "Okay, why not?" Natalie over there pondered, "Hmm...... I'm going to start an independent film company! But not now, I'm going to study. Wang Yang smiled: "OK, I can help you issue it." ”

"Well, that's the name of the company...... It's called ......" Natalie thought for a while, and suddenly said happily: "There you have, handsome Charlie Film Company!"

"Handsome Charlie, good name!" Wang Yang nodded, and asked with some confusion, "But which Charlie? ”

(To be continued)