Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 300 Investing in Feature-length Animation
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In the intensive care unit, Harry Osborn, wrapped in a red hood, is close to the unconscious bullseye.

He stretched out his palm shrouded in black mist to touch Bullseye's forehead, and in the next second amid the rapid alarm of the ECG monitor, Bullseye on the hospital bed suddenly opened his eyes.

"...Ha...Harry...Osborn..."

Twisting the bandaged face, staring at Harry in front of the hospital bed, Bullseye pleaded in a tone almost desperate.

"Quick, kill... kill me... please..."

For Leicester, instead of continuing to live like this, it is better to kill him directly.

"I won't kill you."

Seeing Bullseye on the hospital bed who wanted to die, Harry's expression under the red hood was slightly touched, and he saw himself in the other person.

Not long ago, he was as desperate as Bullseye. Fortunately, the power given by Dormammu helped him overcome this despair, and now he will use the power given by Dormammu to form a team that only obeys him. Personal new Thunderbolts, maybe he could give the organization a new name like the Cabal would be nice too.

"Instead, I will give you life again."

As Harry Osborn's voice fell, a large amount of black fog from the red hood on his body enveloped Bullseye's body.

Click, click—

Wrapped in the black mist, the creepy sound of bones twisting and Bullseye's shrill screams filled the entire intensive care unit.

Outside the intensive care unit, looking at Bullseye slowly standing up under the black mist, the expression on Rhino's face did not change at all, and he still devoted himself to grabbing the doctor, even though the other party was already frightened by what happened in front of him. I dare not speak.

Although, Alexei had no idea why Harry had gained such power all of a sudden.

But this does not affect the other party to pay him a salary, does it?

……

"Walter, why are you here?"

Positive World, Pulitzer Building, New York.

Seeing Walt Disney who came here specially from Los Angeles, Colin couldn't help showing a surprised expression on his face.

You know, since it became a new studio in Hollywood, Walt Disney has been sticking to the front line of Disney animation production, except when he came to New York to find a distributor for the production of "Lucky Rabbit Oswald". Outside of signings, he rarely left the studio.

In particular, Disney's first full-length animation "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is still in full swing.

So is it because of the animation Snow White?
Looking at Walt Disney who looked a little stiff in front of him, Colin immediately understood the purpose of the other party's trip.

Unlike Roy Disney, who is mainly in charge of studio operations, Walt Disney's talent lies mainly in his unconstrained animation production.

And the process of turning fantasy into reality is obviously not a simple matter.

In order to be able to make the animation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" in his mind as realistic as possible, Disney has invested a lot of effort in all aspects, not only hiring professional screenwriters on the storyline of the animation to understand this fairy tale. At the same time, several chief painters were sent to the California Institute of the Arts to learn action modeling, and small animals were bought, and actors were invited to perform for the painters to observe and learn, in order to draw the most realistic character movements on the screen. .

This approach, of course, makes the production of the entire animation more exquisite.

However, even the budget for animation production has also risen accordingly.

The production cost of the original plan of 60 US dollars has already consumed more than half of it as early as the early stage of animation production, and as the production of the film continues, Disney's funds have become tighter.

According to Walt Disney's speculation, it will take at least a year or so to complete the production of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" based on the current creative progress of the studio, and the cost required for this It is as high as about 100 million US dollars.

One million US dollars is not a small amount in this period.

In fact, Roy Disney, who learned of this situation, had already started fundraising work. In fact, his efforts had brought some results at first. A Bank of America executive learned that Disney was producing "Snow White" After the news of "The Princess and the Seven Dwarfs", I took the initiative to propose the idea of ​​investing.

This made the two brothers Walter and Roy overjoyed.

However, before the bank executive realized his promise, the financial crisis sweeping across the United States made the entire investment plan go bankrupt in an instant.

Not only that, but even the publishers who had negotiated with Disney before also put down the challenge.

He publicly expressed his disapproval of the feature-length animations produced by Walt. The mainstream view in Hollywood does not believe that audiences will pay for a cartoon movie and take it to the cinema for more than an hour.

The setback of financing and the problems of the distributors made Disney, which was already shaky, plunged into a huge crisis in an instant.

In order to stabilize the studio and stabilize the film's distribution in Hollywood, Roy Disney began to shuttle between major distribution companies in Los Angeles.

Walt Disney also had to put down his animation production work to find an outlet for the film's funds.

"Sorry, Colin..."

If possible, Walt Disney didn't want to bother Colin with the production of the movie.

However, the current situation in Disney made him have to do so.

"I need your help. In order to make the animation of "Snow White", the entire studio has invested all the funds that can be invested, but this is far from enough to make the entire movie. I know it is very embarrassing. But I hope you can help me make this movie, I want to let Hollywood, no, the whole world know that a movie is not just a creation led by real people, it can also be an animation work... ..."

It can be seen that Walt Disney really wanted to complete the animation.

In fact, in the original history, in order to complete the production of the film, the entire Disney invested almost everything that could be invested, and even the entire studio was mortgaged to the bank in order to produce a feature-length animation work .

"Of course, Walter."

Facing Walt Disney's request, Colin nodded and agreed almost without hesitation.

As a latecomer, he clearly knows that "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" has achieved a box office of 785 million US dollars in the United States alone, far exceeding the investment.

In the international market, the movie even made $1.8 million at the box office.

It can be said that it is with the success of the "Snow White" movie that Disney has truly entered its own golden age.

"real?!"

In the face of Colin's unthinking response, Walt Disney's expression looked extremely astonished.

In fact, he was ready to be rejected by the other party.

"We're friends, aren't we, Walter."

To this, Colin replied with a smile on his face.

"I... sorry, Colin..."

Opened his mouth, Walt Disney didn't know what expression to use to face all this for a while, he trembled his lips for a long time before suppressing the excitement in his heart, looked at Colin in front of him, and said with a choked voice : "I don't know what to say, thank you, thank you."

The production process of "Snow White" was not all smooth sailing. In fact, during the entire animation production process, Walt Disney encountered various problems, including Hollywood's incomprehension and various technical limitations.

During this period, the main role of animation was to warm up the feature film. Before the movie started, the theater would show a short animation of 7 to 14 minutes to remind the audience that the movie was about to officially start.

The quality of the short film is not very important to the cinema, because it is not linked to the box office of the movie.

It is precisely because of this relationship that Walt Disney is determined to create an animated film. The success of "Superman and Mickey" has let Walt know that the audience is actually willing to enter the world for an animated film. In the movie theater, all he has to do is turn this animation into a real movie.

You might think that going from a short film to a feature film doesn’t sound too difficult, does it?
But in fact, this is not just about making the work longer. The difficulty of making a feature film is much higher than that of a short film in all aspects.

For example, short animated films generally pile up jokes directly, while feature films require exciting stories and complex plots, and each character and scene must be consistent before and after.

If the plot is monotonous, or if the same characters don't look like each other, the audience will play out, and then notice that the movie is so long that the audience can't continue to invest in the story.And another difficulty, which is currently encountered by Disney, is that the investment in feature film animation is even greater than imagined.

In Hollywood during this period, an investment of 50 US dollars can already be called a big production.

However, Disney spent 60 US dollars in funds, but only completed less than one-third of the plot of the entire animation.

Such a huge investment ratio is quite rare even in Hollywood.

Of course, this will also have something to do with Disney's first feature-length animated film. After all, no animation studio has ever had such experience before.

During the entire film production process, Walt Disney did not have any reference, and everything can only be judged by himself.

After all, Walt Disney is not an existence that is easy to be knocked down. After the excitement, he recovered his original calmness. If it weren't for the slight redness in his eyes, it would be hard to imagine that his emotions were a little out of control.

"In exchange, I will transfer part of Disney's equity to you, although I know that this is not enough to thank Colin for your support for Disney's animation production."

Taking a deep breath and calming down his emotions, Walt Disney offered to hand over the shares of the studio to Colin.This was something he had discussed with Roy before he set off for New York.

For this, Colin did not refuse.

Especially in the eyes of outsiders, this kind of animation film investment is a very risky approach, and if you are not careful, you may lose all your money.

Even Disney itself cannot guarantee that after the animation of "Snow White" is produced, it will definitely make money.

After all, there's never been an animated movie this long before.

"Actually, if it wasn't for you, Walt, I would have been planning to go to Los Angeles in a while."

After simply finalizing the investment in "Snow White", Ke Lin changed the subject.

"If possible, I hope that Disney can make a TV animation related to Superman, and I plan to put it on the TV set produced by the factory."

During this period of time, with the official commissioning of the Messenger TV factory, the first batch of TV sets have also begun to enter the market.

Although due to the Great Depression, the sales of TV sets were only in a small range, but this did not hinder Colin's idea of ​​making Superman animation in advance.

After all, as a latecomer, Colin knows very well that the development of television is unstoppable.

Of course, he can also directly produce live-action TV series related to Superman in one step.

However, the production mode of radio stations has not been fully transformed at present, and the mainstream is still based on various radio programs.

Especially in terms of cameras, the electronic cameras transformed by Ferro Farnsworth are not enough to support long-term TV series shooting, and the cost of shooting TV series on film is too high.

Especially in this era, unless Howard Hughes invests regardless of cost, it is difficult to fully express Superman's abilities through the shooting of TV dramas.

Therefore, instead of spending a lot of money to invest in the production of live-action dramas, it is better to choose lower-cost animation.

Especially for Disney, although in the field of feature-length animation, Walt Disney is still constantly trying new technologies, but in terms of short-film animation, he already has sufficient creative experience, and he can completely follow Colin's ideas to create Superman TV animation that can be broadcast on TV.

Having just accepted Colin's investment in "Snow White", it is naturally impossible for Walt Disney to refuse his request for Superman animation.

Although the main work of the entire Disney is about the production of animated films, this does not mean that Walt Disney will not create other animated short films during this period.

Conversely, in addition to the creation of the feature-length animation, Walt Disney was also producing a short animated film depicting the Great Depression - "The Three Little Pigs".

On the surface, the story of "The Three Little Pigs" seems to just describe the interesting struggle between the lazy pig and the big bad wolf, but whether it is the theme song of the animation "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" or the plot of the pigs? The details of life fully express the misery and sadness of people who lost their jobs and lost their families during the Great Depression.

(End of this chapter)