Today's digital office area is particularly lively, and Eric arrives with Caroline and Mayer, where many of the group's top executives are already waiting. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 In one of the halls inside the loft of the info digital domain office, Stan Winston has already begun to introduce the RealD dual-camera 3D cinema projection system to Katzenberg, Frank Wells and others to be presented today.

After finalizing the plan last fall, the '4200' and 'RealD' plans are rapidly advancing within the Firefly Group.

IN THE PAST SIX MONTHS, IN ORDER TO PROMOTE THESE TWO PLANS, THE COMPANY FIRST ACQUIRED IMAX COMPANIES IN CANADA AND ACCELERATED THE RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF DMR TECHNOLOGY FOR CONVERTING ORDINARY 35MM FILMS TO IMAX FORMAT FILMS.

Once due to the long-term disapproval of Hollywood studios, IMAX has had a very difficult time on the road to commercialization, and has been on the verge of bankruptcy many times.

But now, with the unsparing support of Firefly Group, with years of technology accumulation, IMAX's R&D team has only taken half a year to come up with a very good DMR conversion plan, and is now solving the problem of limited film duration of DMR technology, and by the end of this year at the latest, all problems will be solved, and IMAX will be able to achieve commercialization without hindrance.

The second is the digital field, in order to develop a dual-camera 3D film projection system, the digital field has set up a subsidiary called 'RealD'.

At the same time, the digital field is also tasked with developing 3D conversion software and cultivating a 3D transformation team, in fact, these two things have been gradually carried out as early as a few years ago, and it was only since last autumn that the two plans were finalized, and they began to make great strides.

Speaking of which, today can be regarded as the day of acceptance of technological achievements in the digital field.

After greeting everyone, Eric picked up a polarized 3D glasses on the workbench and put them on, and when Stan Winston wanted to say something, Eric spoke first, "Stan, don't you understand that facts are more convincing than any eloquence, so let's go straight to the screening room." ”

"Haha, of course," Stan Winston nodded, picked up a 3D glass, rubbed it, and said, "However, it took us a lot of thought to do this, and I still hope you can understand it better." Eric, I promise, you'll be amazed by the minute. ”

Eric laughed, "I'm looking forward to it." ”

After a few jokes, the group left the office loft in the digital field and walked towards the internal screening room of the nearby cinema.

Marissa Mayer and Caroline followed behind a group of bigwigs, listening to Eric and Stan Winston, Katzenberg and others skillfully chatting about various technical problems related to 3D movies, and noticing Caroline's listening to it with relish, and secretly decided that she must make up for the relevant knowledge as soon as possible this weekend.

As an assistant, it would be terrible if you couldn't even understand what your boss was saying. She didn't want to be really used like a vase.

Walking into the screening room, Caroline took the 3D glasses handed over by the staff, and found a place to sit down, Mayer looked curiously at the 3D glasses in his hand.

The black frame and the lenses are light gray, and after wearing them, they don't look anything special except for the dimming of the vision.

The bigwigs in the front row chatted for a while, the lights in the screening room dimmed, and it felt dark in front of him, and Mayer subconsciously turned to the screen in front of him.

The hard metal screen in front of him lit up, and before Mayer could react, with the excellent sound effect in the screening room, the bloody Tyrannosaurus rex roared and bit head-on.

"Ahh

Unprepared, Mayer leaned back in his chair, completely oblivious to the occasion, and screamed and removed the 3D eye.

Although everyone was startled by Stan Winston's hand, the crowd in the front row took off their glasses and turned their heads to look at the screams of a girl.

In the dimness, he felt more than a dozen pairs of eyes instantly focused on him, and Mayer was so embarrassed that he couldn't be more embarrassed: "Hug, sorry, everyone." ”

Seeing that she was fine, everyone quickly withdrew their gaze and turned their attention back to the big screen.

In order to test the technical achievements of the team in the digital field, Eric deliberately selected a scene of the main characters in "Jurassic Park" encountering the Tyrannosaurus Rex on the bridge on a rainy night for 3D transformation.

Night scenes, rain scenes, these are all technical difficulties in 3D conversion.

Especially for night scenes, due to the triple brightness attenuation of projectors, screens and glasses, 3D movies have a common problem of dark pictures, so once the night scenes of 3D conversion are not done well, they are destined to be black.

However, just from Mayer's reaction just now, it can be seen that the transformation of the digital field team is undoubtedly very good.

The 10-minute transcript was watched three times before the staff turned on the lights in the screening room.

Eric didn't leave with the top executives, and continued to sit in the seats in the screening room and began to talk.

Eric couldn't find anything to fault with the 3D picture effect just now, and he directly asked the question he was most concerned about: "Stan, how long does it take to complete the production of a full film by the standards we just saw?"

Stan Winston sat next to Eric, thought for a moment, and said, "It will take about three months for a two-hour film to be fully converted. ”

It takes three months to complete the conversion of a film, and only four 3D films can be produced in a year. Although Eric's criteria for the early stage of 3D film promotion are not too expensive, four films are not enough to support the screening of a whole year, and this number must be at least doubled.

Eric thought for a moment and said, "Go ahead and double the size of the transformation team, I need you to be able to complete at least eight films a year." ”

After listening to Eric and Stan Winston, Katzenberg said, "So, Eric, now that all the technical problems are basically solved, are you sure we want to move forward with the next plan?"

Katzenberg asked this question out of the blue, not for nothing.

Whether it is IMAX's DMR conversion technology or the development of the RealD projection system, the investment is actually only tens of millions of dollars.

But then, once the actual theatrical related plans are officially started, it is definitely not a problem that tens of millions of dollars can solve.

The RealD projection system, developed in the digital field, consisted of two custom-built film projectors, a metal hard screen, and 3D polarized glasses, and the equipment cost was $250,000, even without considering the profitability of the projection system, so it would take at least $300,000 per room to convert a traditional 2D screening hall into a two-camera 3D screening room.

The unit price of a complete set of equipment is not worth mentioning for Firefly, but the cost of renovating 4,000 3D theaters around the world immediately reached $1.2 billion, which is definitely a very conservative estimate.

Add to that the planned 200 IMAX theaters, that's another $400 million spent at an average unit price of $2 million to build.

With a total project budget of $1.6 billion, even if the Firefly Group has a complete loss, it can't hurt its bones. However, the renovation of 4,000 3D theaters and the construction of 200 IMAX theaters are just the beginning.

The whole plan is actually to create a new 3D film and television industry chain. Once successful, the strength of the Firefly Group will definitely undergo another metamorphosis. But if it fails, the consequences will definitely not be as simple as losing $1.6 billion.

After the Firefly Group has made such a huge industrial layout, if the moviegoers do not buy it and the project fails, not to mention the huge investment in vain, just the follow-up processing of the 4,000 3D screening halls is enough to make the Firefly a mess, not to mention a series of technical teams built by the Firefly Group specifically to promote this plan.

Therefore, if it is stopped now, the fireflies will not lose anything, and the technical achievements exchanged for the early investment will definitely be worth the money. Even if it is an acquired IMAX company, if it wants to get rid of the burden, the group can sell it again.

However, once the plan moves to the next stage, there is no turning back from the bow.

Either be the leader of a new revolution in the film industry, or become the object of ridicule from everyone in Hollywood and leave behind a mess that could have a domino effect.

There was a brief silence in the screening room, and to be honest, Eric also had a brief hesitation in his heart, but after glancing at the group executives around him, he quickly smiled easily and said to Katzenberg: "Jeffrey, let's talk about the results of your contact with several major theater chains." ”

Knowing that Eric had made up his mind, Katzenberg stopped doing anything meaningless, saying, "I've talked to the management of several major theater chains in North America during this time, and in general, they are all very interested in our plan, but at the same time they feel that it is too risky. ”

Eric pointed to the metal screen in front of the screening room and said, "Perhaps, next, you can bring them here and persuade them again." ”

"Of course, that's what I just thought," Katzenberg said with a smile and nodded, "but even if they approve of the effect of this dailies, it's still hard for us to find much initiative in future collaborations." My idea is that we set up a subsidiary, and we work with several major cinema chains at the same time, and we fund the renovation of the 3D theaters, at our own risk, and then we take a percentage of the box office from those theaters. It may take a long time to pay for itself, but if it is successful, it will be a very significant ongoing income. As for the 200 IMAX theaters, the initiative is naturally completely on our own side, and we don't have to think too much. ”

The biggest difficulty in renovating the 3D screening hall is that the major theaters in North America are basically multiplex movie theaters, which is also the reason why Firefly cannot do it alone from several major theater chains. After all, even if a theater chain were forcibly acquired, Firefly would not be able to transform a movie theater with five or six or even more than a dozen theaters into 3D. In addition, different regions of North America have different theater power divisions, and it is difficult for Firefly to cover the entire North America if it only acquires one or cooperates with one of them.

Therefore, Katzenberg's proposal is undoubtedly the most feasible. In the past, IMAX adopted this similar model in the process of commercial promotion.

However, in this way, the fireflies have very limited control over these 3D screening halls.

Fortunately, Eric's main purpose is not to get involved in the theater industry in a big way, but to promote 3D movies.

Of course, the control over the terminal theater is limited, and in order to ensure the initiative of Firefly in the promotion process of 3D movies, it is necessary to become a standard-setter.

After discussions, Eric decided to develop a two-factor authentication system. One is the certification of the screening hall with the installation of the RealD projection system, and the other is the certification of the film using the 3D conversion technology in the digital field.

As long as it is possible to create a concept among the audience that only digitally certified 3D films that are shown in the RealD theater are the most authentic 3D films, then, even if the 3D film market is chaotic again in the future, at least, the Firefly system has made branded 3D movies will not be affected too much.

Moreover, after the chaos, other companies, whether they want to or not, will gradually move closer to the standard of Fireflies for commercial reasons.

After a morning of talking in the screening room and having dinner together, everyone returned to their jobs and began to get busy.

Eric returned to his office at the studio, where he had time to chat with his new female assistant.

"So, how do you feel now?" asked Marissa Mayer, sitting on the opposite couch with a cup of coffee, as Eric flipped through a document that his secretary had just sent him.

Mayer put down the coffee in his hand and nodded, "It's okay, but I suddenly feel that I still have a lot to learn." ”

Eric nodded approvingly, "It's best if you feel that way, there are too many people who always feel like they don't need to study anymore." ”

Mayer just smiled and didn't say anything.

Eric also paused for a moment before saying, "I should tell you, Kelly must have told you." ”

Mayer naturally understood what Eric was referring to, and said, "Yes." ”

"Carly is a very nice girl, you will definitely have a good time with her in the future," Eric said, seeing Mayer's unaware appearance, he thought for a moment and said, "You can talk to Melanie when you have time, she can help you adapt to this job as soon as possible." ”

Mayer reacted this time, Caroline was in the office next door, if it was for work, wouldn't it be more convenient to ask her herself, there was no need to contact Melanie Gleason in San Francisco.

"I see, Eric. Mayer didn't ask, but answered earnestly.

Eric didn't say much, and said, "That's it, you can go back to work first." ”

Watching Mayer leave the office, Eric retracted his gaze, and the information in his hand happened to be the work evaluation report that Kelly gave to Mayer.

Unlike the original interview report, this one is more detailed.

Kelly's evaluation of Mayer is still very high, but Eric sees the shadow of another guy in the series of evaluations such as 'perfectionist', 'detail control', and 'controlling'. Eric will certainly not let Mayer take control of Yahoo again as he once did. However, it would be a good idea to put her in charge of the development of a product alone.