Chapter 487： A cool history in the digital realm

There is no superficial glamorous in the digital field, or in other words, all the special effects studios on the market are desperately burning money to promote technical reserves.

Blake made it clear, "Speaking of which, James doesn't want to take on this burden. He wants to sell all his shares to the management, but the management has no money..."

When it comes to 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, a former ILM special effects supervisor, a film director and a model sculptor and makeup artist 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, the digital realm got its first project, "True Lies" directed by James. After the success of the film, it also initially announced the existence of the digital field. It was also that year, they gained a lot, and they also won the Oscar nomination, and the Budweiser beer commercial they produced won the Golden Lion Award. Digital Domain has instantly become the most high-profile VFX company in the Los Angeles area.

But VFX is still a new thing compared to the huge Hollywood. A film project always needs to be controlled by the budget, which also means that when budgeting for special effects shots, you can only rely on guesswork.

why?

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

The digital field is a new army in the industry. Even with James' support, his output is very low, and even if it is his project, he has no right to decide who will be hired for the special effects work of the project.

The only thing James can do is advise the studios to put the digital realm on the list as much as possible.

Because in the final analysis, this money is invested by investors like 20th Century Fox or Universal, so of course they should decide who will do the work.

What can the digital field do? capable.

But the market is not the only option in the digital field. For the producers, of course, whoever has the lowest price will do it.

This again involves bidding and industry suppression.

During the production of "Titanic", 20th Century Fox almost wanted to throw James into the sea to feed the sharks, not because the project was severely overrun, and the project's special effects budget at the time totaled only 18 million US dollars, which was the largest in the digital field at the time. Its competitor is Industrial Light and Magic, and they think, "If you do a movie with Cameron, and he can't afford his own company to do special effects, then we can crowd out the digital space."

With this idea in mind, Industrial Light & Magic took the initiative to reduce the special effects budget, in the belief that it would rather lose money to suppress the digital field.

Then, in order to have money to run the company, James lied too much to Twentieth Century Fox and expressed his willingness to accept an offer of 18 million US dollars.

As a result, the digital field has burned 27 million in special effects alone, and this is not counting the compensation of the digital field.

Of course, 20th Century Fox would not do such a high cost. Even though "Titanic" has achieved unparalleled success, the industry's reputation in the digital field has been ruined -- it signed a contract and failed to do it.

The same is true. The management of the digital field also had a rift with Cameron. Cameron believed that a new CEO was needed to lead the company in the digital field, but the board of directors did not agree at all and asked Cameron to explain the whole story.

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

Furthermore, Cameron himself likes to enjoy himself, and the expenses are huge, and he can't afford the gold-sucking beast in the digital field.

Because the business model in the digital field has never been successful, how far can you go by directing your own projects?

From another point of view, the existence of the digital field has not only left very classic works in the film industry, but it has never been independent economically.

But the producer is actually right. I give you the project, and you complete the work for me. As for the suppression of the bidding industry, it has nothing to do with them, they just need to keep the expenses as low as possible.

Therefore, if a visual effects company wants to survive, it must have a stable profit channel.

But Cameron has lost confidence, and his good friend Stan Winston has also left the digital field, so he also wants to sell the baggage.

If it weren't for the price offered by the old rival Industrial Light and Magic, Cameron could not be satisfied at all, and his attitude was arrogant. He didn't think that the digital field was likely to be taken over by Industrial Light and Magic. Two years earlier, the digital field had changed owners.

After that, 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 the Indian giant, Reliance Media, and then sold to Xiangjiang Aoliang Group in 2013, completely transforming the VR field...

Industrial Light & Magic, on the other hand, relies on the industry's No. 1 status, which can attract more opportunities, and has a guarantee for the "Star Wars" series; as for Weta Digital, it is endorsed by the New Zealand government, and the policies provided are very good. In addition, Peter- Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is just over, and the marketing is doing well.

Even so, if you want to say that you have made a lot of money, that's not true, because special effects technology needs to burn money all the time, and the burn is very powerful, and the money you make is invested again...

Understand this, it is not difficult to know why Cameron sold the "losing money" 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 it, let them take care of their own profits and losses, and don't talk about making money.

After all, all of my former friends have become strangers, so it's a shame to go to see them.

As for Lehmann, when he heard the news, he had the idea of ​​buying the digital field.

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

However, it is true that the burden is large.

Even if Cameron really wanted to sell the shares in his hand, he didn't sell it cheaply. The market value of the digital field was still US$300 million. Even if he folded 150 million in half, Lehmann wouldn't be able to come up with it.

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

No matter how good "The Walking Dead" is, and no matter how much HBO gets for the subscription, the split with Lehman will not happen at once.

Hundreds of millions of US dollars of funds, even if they are just thrown into the bank, will have a considerable interest.

There are too many lawsuits with studios for film directors and well-known actors to get their share.

Warner wants to maintain the relationship with Firefly, and it is impossible to split the account in advance. At most, it will not delay according to the contract.

And this money, Ryman still wants to pay Gusta back, the money owed to the banker is not so easy to owe.

Then where should I go to find money?

Lehmann in the digital realm doesn't want to miss out.

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