The Best Director

Chapter 132 Image Engine

"Dude, isn't that the best director? I believe you can get it"

Hearing what Natalie said resolutely on the other side of the phone, Wang Yang couldn't help laughing, and while continuing to walk on the boulevard, he couldn't help laughing and said: "Thank you, but...don't believe me. (Reading the novel) Really don’t, haha ​​I can’t do it. I just found out that the Oscars have been nominated for best director in so many years, but I want to make a sci-fi movie, hell”

He likes to study movies, but he is not very concerned about these historical details of the Oscars. He went on laughing: "Who are those three guys? Stanley Kubrick, wow, 2001: A Space Odyssey, you know that movie, its spaceships, its computers... how should I put it? It's unbelievable, unbelievable and then George Lucas, oh Star Wars hello Her Majesty Padmé I can't believe it, I can't believe I'm on the phone with Her Majesty..."

"Ha" Natalie also laughed immediately, and pretended to be serious: "But you are not bad, you are the magic Yang Padme told you that the brave Naboo people will not say 'I can't', never"

Wang Yang shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile to his mobile phone: "I'm sorry, Your Majesty, I'm just an ordinary earthling." Both of them laughed a few times, and he calmed down slowly, and said with a smile: "Okay, everyone They are all encouraging me, so who cares, I eat this box of chocolates, I eat, I eat, there will always be one that will be the best director."

"That's right, come on anyway, it doesn't matter if you win an Oscar or not, um, I mean your realm, not mine." Natalie smiled sinisterly before saying seriously: "Jan , don’t put too much psychological pressure on yourself, you know?” Wang Yang hummed, and just about to say thank you, he heard her say again: “Psychological pressure will make you age prematurely, make you ugly, and even It's 'really dying'."

Really not working? Wang Yang kept walking and frowned suspiciously. Natalie over there continued: "I kind of want you to be like that, and then be dumped by Jessie. Me? I don't care about appearance, 8 pack abs is fine, but 1 pack is fine; sex is okay too, Maybe it will save you a lot of trouble.”

Wang Yang understood what she meant, couldn't help rolling his eyes, and said with a smile: "Do you know why I regard you as a gay friend?" He paused, and said loudly: "That's the reason" Natalie laughed nonchalantly , and said: "Dude, your voice now makes me very happy, I'm going to use up that sentence." Wang Yang smiled and said: "OK, happy birthday, I'm one year older, be obedient"

Natalie whistled a frivolous whistle and said excitedly: "One year and one year later, I will be able to go to nightclubs to drink openly, I drink, I drink, I drink...fuck those* son"

"Your Majesty, please pay attention to your image." Wang Yang laughed hastily and shouted,

Shaking his head again, what should I say about her? He smiled and said, "Stop talking, I have to go to work, thank you for your lame encouragement." Natalie over there said, "Well, bye, come to New York when I have time." Wang Yang refused with a smile: "No , I was imprisoned in New York for a month this year, that's enough, let's go through the formalities of getting out of prison in September. My friend, bye"

Regarding the matter of the best director, although there are many comments from the outside world, Wang Yang still has the same attitude. The most important thing is to do his own job well, and the urgent job now is to acquire a special effects company. He dialed a number with his mobile phone, and suddenly frowned again, only to see a paparazzi holding a telephoto camera not far in front of him, taking pictures of him.

"Hey, Mark, are they here?" Wang Yang looked at the paparazzi blankly, and listened to Mark Srant's words on the phone. After a while, he nodded and said, "Well, okay, I will Come."

Finding a special effects company that is suitable for acquisition and capital injection is a recent focus of the work of Flame Films, including releasing words in the industry to attract people to come to the door, making proactive contacts, etc., after Wang Yang, Mark Slanter and the president of Blue Sky Studio The selection and investigation of Chris Wakey and others finally set the target on a Canadian company called "Image-ne".

In 1995, Greg Holmes and his partner Christopher established the image engine in Vancouver. The current scale is not large, mainly doing some visual effects for TV commercials; in terms of film and television, its works are only the TV series "Stargate SG-1". However, "Stargate" has received rave reviews since its broadcast in 1997, and its special effects have also been praised by fans. The work of the image engine includes post-compositing, modeling and so on.

Its main compositing software is Nuke in the digital field. Naturally, it is the purchased right to use it. It may not be as good as the digital field, but its re-development and use of Nuke is definitely commendable. In terms of modeling, this is the first step, and the image engine also has experience that cannot be underestimated.

But in general, it is just a very small company now. Although it is called "Image Engine", it lacks a powerful 3D visual engine, and it does not have the generation technology of hair and bones... It is not capable of serving as the special effects of "District 9" Work.

But this is normal. If a capable special effects company is directly acquired, the price will inevitably increase several times, and others may not be willing to sell it. The reason why they are interested in the image engine company is because of its development potential. Its current employees come from all over the world, Canada, the United States, New Zealand, China... There are more than a dozen countries with very diverse backgrounds, and they are constantly recruiting Looking at talents from all over the world, it shows that this company has the courage to innovate and explore.

The founder of the company, Greg Holmes, is not a technical madman, but a person who is very good at management. His years of work have allowed him to have a wide range of contacts, including many rising stars in the industry, such as the senior executive of "The Matrix" Horn Walsh, Technical Director, Peter Wools, Director of Computer Graphics R\u0026D at Motion Image Company, and others, in his words: "I can spend a month recruiting a team that is mature enough to handle a A VFX team for film work; and a top tech R\u0026D department. But I need funding.”

And Flame Films can provide funds; Blue Sky Studios can also share technologies such as 3D engine, hair and bone generation, and Chris Wakey's contacts. The two companies can complement each other and jointly form a super 3D special effects animation technology research and development department.

So Wang Yang decided to acquire an image engine company, inject funds into it, recruit and form a top team, purchase existing software technology, and expand into a thriving emerging special effects company.

Greg Holmes is naturally very happy about this, as long as he has funds, he can carry out his long-planned development plan. Originally, in his plan, the image engine needs at least another five years of steady accumulation before it has a chance to develop slowly. But now Flame Films has abundant funds and ambitious acquisitions, directly advancing the image engine by five years, or even ten years.

He also brought the company's team from Vancouver to Los Angeles to discuss specific acquisition and capital injection plans. In fact, there is no need to talk about the capital injection. When Flame Movie became the largest shareholder of the image engine, it is impossible to ignore it and violate its own acquisition purpose; the key is the details of the acquisition, including the proportion of equity and the acquisition price, and whether the office location is necessary. Transfer, future salary and benefits, and whether there will be adjustments for layoffs, etc.

The plan given by Flame Movie is that after the acquisition, the image engine will be an independent subsidiary, operating independently, the salary and benefits will be improved accordingly, and there will be no layoffs; as for the office location, it is good to still be in Vancouver, anyway The studio that just started construction was built in this cold city, where there are also a bunch of post-production studios for post-editing, soundtracking, etc., coupled with the special effects production of the image engine, it happens that there is no need to run at both ends.

But the technology R\u0026D department, or a new joint venture (Blue Sky and Graphics Engine), will be based in New York.

Greg Holmes and others are very satisfied with this plan, so the key point on the negotiating table now is the issue of the purchase price. The goal of Flame Movie is to get 85% of the shares within 6 million, and also bear the diluted partnership shares when recruiting talents, but it will not exceed 25%; 6 million seems not much, but it is already very reasonable for the current image engine , and the place where the real money is spent is the capital injection expansion after the acquisition, the stock of the shareholders of the original image engine will naturally be more valuable.

Although the price is very fair, it still takes time to complete the whole negotiation. It cannot be done in a day or two. Firstly, because the details of the contract need to be finalized slowly; secondly, because of a normal behavior: "reserved".

"Hi, Robert." In the study room, Wang Yang stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling glass, looking at the dark night outside, and smiled into the microphone in his hand: "How are you thinking? I'm talking about the acquisition with a company 'Image Engine' , are you interested in joining? We need a big man to sit in charge." On the other side of the phone was Robert Zemeckis, who once again wooed the best director to join the special effects company.

"Haha" Robert Zemeckis laughed heartily a few times, and said, "Yang, I've seriously considered it, but I don't think it will work." Wang Yang immediately gave an oh in disappointment, and Robert joked again: " My life is pretty good now, I just don’t want to change when I’m old. Haha boy, you know I want to take a good rest for a while, spend time with my family and think about my next movie plan.”

Speaking of this, his tone became a little excited: "I told you, I am going to make a 3D movie shot entirely with IMAX film; now I have a new idea, to use motion expression capture technology to Shooting the performance of the actors, and then completely using animation technology to transform it into a 3D animated real-life performance, but it is animation...boy" He sighed before laughing: "This is very cool"

Wang Yang nodded in agreement and said, "Well, obviously." The first 3D cartoon with full IMAX film + real-life capture is really cool, this is the so-called "playing technology". Robert no longer needs to prove anything to the world, he just needs to enjoy the fun of the movie.

Robert Zemeckis over there laughed again and said: "I have talked to people from Warner Bros. in the past few days. They are very interested in my plan and are willing to invest within 200 million. But I still don't know whether to shoot What story?" He laughed for a while, and said again: "I think it should be a children's story? But don't worry, I have to enjoy my vacation now. If your special effects company needs, I can introduce some people to you. They are all the authorities in this industry.”

"Of course that's great." Wang Yang couldn't help but smile gratefully. If Robert joins the company, it will obviously benefit a lot, and his personal connections will directly benefit the company; and now it's an introduction, the effect will naturally be different, but still It helps a lot. He laughed and said: "My company needs too many things, especially talents in motion expression capture..."

The two chatted for a while before ending the call. Wang Yang checked the special effects information on the computer for a while, and seeing that it was getting late, he left the study and went to the living room. Rhythmic hip-hop music was playing in the living room, and Jessica was seriously practicing along with the music. Hip-hop, the weather is hot and sports, so she is dressed very cool at this time. The white top and plaid shorts that show the navel look very sexy.

"Hey, Jessie," Wang Yang greeted with a smile, clapped his hands a few times, and said, "It's a great dance." Jessica turned her head and smiled at him, continued to follow the rhythm of the music, and shook her hair , and twisted that curvy waist. Wang Yang stopped and looked at it with a smile, his heart suddenly moved, and he remembered what Natalie said in the morning, can't he? how is this possible

He rolled his eyes, walked over to Jiang Ye, and said pretending to be high-spirited: "Beauty, from the point of view of me, the king of dancing, you can dance better in these movements, stop first, let me teach you. "

"Since when have you become the king of dancing?" Jessica paused slightly panting, looking at him suspiciously. With a shocked expression on Wang Yang's face, he swayed his body casually a few times, and said, "Didn't you always know? I was called 'Prom Prince' in high school." As he spoke, he walked behind her and hugged her. , Jessica suddenly understood what he was really thinking, and patted his hand on her waist away.

She turned to stare at him, and said with a smile, "Go away and don't disturb me. I have to practice for half an hour today and go away. Don't make me lose to Scarlett. We have a match tomorrow."

Seeing that she was serious, Wang Yang gritted his teeth helplessly, kissed her hard, then walked back to the study, pointed at her, and said with a smile, "Wait for me, half an hour later I'll be right back." Jessica blew him a kiss, then smiled and waved her hand and said, "Bye bye." After that, she continued to dance.