Mei Man: I drew Superman during the Great Depression

Chapter 322 Changing the Ending
The plot of the first episode of "Superman" TV animation is relatively simple.

It mainly revolves around Clark's work in the Metropolis, and the story of stopping an out-of-control plane after transforming into Superman.

Although the whole story is old-fashioned, it best represents the essence of superheroes.

Just like the love story of Prince Charming falling in love with Cinderella, although it is old-fashioned, it has always been interpreted into various works.

The same is true for superhero stories, especially as an animation producer, Disney is best at turning decay into magic and turning an old-fashioned story into a moving plot.

The entire episode of animation, from character design to background and even the soundtrack behind the scenes, has greatly exceeded Colin's imagination.

Considering that "Superman" is a TV animation, it doesn't need to be produced to such a level of detail.Because no matter how exquisite the production is, even if it is an animation work as high as "Snow White", if you put it on TV, you will only get some distorted black and white pictures.

This is not a problem with animation itself, but that the TV itself as a medium has not yet fully matured.

The TVs of this period are far from being comparable to later generations in terms of performance, screen definition and size, and the black and white picture quality greatly compresses the quality of the work itself.

Unless Colin is willing to devote energy to helping Ferro Farnsworth develop a more advanced TV, otherwise, the current TV model produced by the factory will not be able to fully present the animation of "Superman" produced by Disney.

The development of television did not happen overnight, on the contrary, it gradually became what people remember after a long period of development.

In this process, in fact, TV R&D itself inevitably went through some detours, and even took a big circle for a certain period of time.

Of course, if Colin is willing, he can push this development process forward.

However, if he wants to do this, he first needs to solve the problem of materials, and then he needs to produce a picture tube that meets the needs, and even if he goes further, he must design a special plasma display screen in order to achieve the perfect projection of the picture on the TV screen Degree.

This is destined to be a long process. Even Colin, who has [Super Brain Power], cannot conjure materials out of thin air. He can only conduct experiments in person, and the funds invested behind it are beyond imagination. After all, This is accomplished by compressing the entire history of television development in a short period of time.

The level of scientific research involved in this alone is enough to drive the top scientists of this era into madness.

It's a pity that Ke Lin has no intention of investing in scientific research, and his sole purpose of producing TVs is only to use them as a means of collecting [faith].

Starting research and development can indeed turn the currently limited TV into a product that is more in line with public expectations, but considering the economic situation of the Great Depression, Colin does not think that such an exquisite machine can bring him much profit, even a large amount of money. Cost input will cause more people to be intimidated by TV sets, thus affecting the currently unstable TV market.

So, it's better to go step by step.

Ke Lin is not the only one who is optimistic about the TV market. When enough funds flow into the market, even if Ke Lin does not participate, there will be people who will take the initiative to promote TV to better, no, it should be more profitable.

……

"Very good, completely in line with the image of Superman animation in my mind."

Disney Studios, with the appearance of the Disney logo at the end of the film, an episode of "Superman" animation ended.

In the studio, Walt and the others looked at Colin nervously, waiting for his final comment.

Colin is currently an investor in Disney's "Snow White", and is the only one who is willing to support Walt's continued production of feature-length animations. It is precisely because of this relationship that Disney has also invested a lot of effort in the production of "Superman" animations , as a taciturn animator, Walt is not as good at networking as his brother Roy, so in order to express his gratitude to Colin, Walt will know that "Superman" is a movie that will only be broadcast on TV. After the animation, I still worked hard to produce it, and even the finished product far exceeded Ke Lin's previous requirements.

"but……"

Hearing Colin's praise, Walt couldn't help showing a faint smile on his thin face, but before the smile rose from the corner of his mouth, Colin's next words made Walt's smile freeze again.

The entire Disney studio also fell silent because of his words.

"About the animation of the last scene of "Superman", maybe it can be changed a little bit."

At the end of the animation produced by Disney, Superman stopped the falling plane and put it safely on the ground, saving the passengers on the plane.

The change proposed by Colin is to let the superman who stopped the plane not put down the plane but lift it up, and hold the plane again to continue flying.

At the same time, at the end of the animation, lines are added in the form of narration.

"Give them hope that Superman is with them as they gaze at the sunrise."

Although it was just a simple change in Ke Lin's mouth, it represented a large number of animation drawings that needed to be re-modified or even painted in the animation production.

However, instead of complaining about this, Walter expressed admiration for the new ending proposed by Colin.

From Colin's simple sketches in the studio, Superman holds up the plane and slowly rises and the sun staggers past. At his feet is the urban scene of the metropolis.

Even if it's just a draft, Walt can still show the shock when this animated scene is produced.

Epic sense, this is the first time Walt has this feeling from animation.

……

"Good evening, Mr. Otto Kahn."

Inside Musso & Frank Grill, 6667 Hollywood Boulevard, Los Angeles.

"Good evening, Mr. Colin Looper."

He took off his hat and greeted Colin in the restaurant. Otto Kahn skillfully sat down in front of him, and turned his head to gesture to the waiter.

Otto Kahn is currently in charge of reorganizing Paramount.

The purpose of Colin's trip to Hollywood is not only to see the finished product of "Superman" animation, but also to meet with Paramount's reorganization team. The order is even higher than that of TV animation.

"The continental cuisine here is very distinctive, especially the mushroom toast and cheese turkey have always been the signature, if Mr. Otto Kahn doesn't mind, you can try it."

Looking up and pausing on Otto Kahn's oval face and bushy beard, Colin immediately retracted his gaze and casually recommended.

"is it?"

Facing Colin's recommendation, Otto Kahn glanced down at the menu in his hand, turned to the waiter and said, "Give me a piece of mushroom toast, seafood and vegetable salad, and turkey with cheese gravy, plus a glass of lemon juice .”

At present, although the news of the abolition of the "Prohibition Law" is intensifying, it has not been officially announced after all, so the major restaurants still tacitly do not serve any alcoholic drinks.

The waiter nodded and left the table.

Only then did Otto Kahn turn his gaze back to Colin in front of him. Although Otto was a little surprised by Colin's invitation, he did not dare to be careless or neglectful.

After all, the other party is a well-known newspaper tycoon in New York. His "Courier Le Monde" has a circulation of more than one million. At the same time, he has also made great achievements in other fields, especially the TV industry. En also heard a little about it, not to mention that he had a very close relationship with President Roosevelt.

During the second fireside chat, I was even invited to participate.

Otto Kahn naturally dared not refuse easily when a newspaper tycoon with such a strong political and business relationship contacted him.

The collapse of financial trusts caused many bankers to go bankrupt instantly, and even Otto Kahn himself suffered huge losses in the process.

Now that he has finally stabilized, he doesn't want to be targeted by the government because of some things.

Judging from the current direction of President Roosevelt's New Deal, the rectification of the banking industry is inevitable.

While Otto Kahn was looking at Colin, Colin was also looking at Otto.

Otto Kahn is also a legendary figure. He is the prototype of the rich man in the famous American game "Monopoly". The luxurious mansion Oheka Castle built for 1100 million US dollars is considered to be the famous American writer Fitz The prototype of Gatsby's mansion written by Gerald is also the first father and son with his son Roger to be on the cover of "Time".

Of course, when Colin asked Otto Kahn to meet, it was not to discuss the mansion issue with him.

What he values ​​is the Paramount assets currently being restructured in the hands of Otto Kahn.

Otto Kahn himself was a well-known patron of the arts in addition to being an investment banker, which may be why he was chosen to lead Paramount's restructuring team.

"good."

The cheese gravy well conceals the rough texture of the turkey, giving a completely different taste experience.

Picking up the juice at hand, he lightly touched Colin in front of him. As the food in front of him gradually disappeared, the conversation between the two gradually started to get down to business from the original polite chat.

"It is said that Mr. Otto Kahn is in charge of the reorganization of Paramount?"

coming? !
Hearing Colin's seemingly casual question, Otto Kahn's heart tightened slightly, he took a sip of the lemon juice in the glass, then nodded and replied.

"Yes, in the early days of the Great Depression, Paramount had serious internal financial problems due to excessive expansion. Therefore, after the New York Federal District Court declared bankruptcy, it began to conduct restructuring assessments after authorization from the bank."

These are public messages, so Otto Kahn has no intention of hiding them.

"Mr. Otto Kahn thinks that there is a high possibility of Paramount reorganization?"

"With a high probability, the reorganization should be successfully completed. Paramount's real problem is the overexpansion and use of overvalued Paramount stock purchases. Therefore, as long as the financial report is reorganized to solve some false reporting problems, the reorganization should be completed. , and even the original team of the company can be retained.”

Retaining the original leadership team may be a good thing for Paramount, but it is obviously not what Colin likes.

If Paramount keeps the team's reorganization in this way, then his idea of ​​joining the film studio will naturally be shattered.

"As far as I know, Paramount's problems go beyond being overextended."

Putting down the knife and fork in his hand, picked up a handkerchief and wiped the sauce from his mouth, Colin looked at Otto Kahn and said.

"Paramount's 'bundling' behavior and touching the restrictions of antitrust law, there are lawsuits against Paramount in Los Angeles and Chicago."

The question Colin raised was actually also one of Otto Kahn's worries.

The birth of Hollywood, in fact, was originally to fight against Edison's patent monopoly.

As early as 1891, Edison and his assistant William Dixon completed the invention of the moving film projector and applied for a patent.

In 1909, he united nine production companies at the time to form the Edison Film Patent Alliance, and collected patent licensing fees.As long as cinemas want to show movies, they need to pay $5 a week for patent royalties; for distributing movies, they need to pay $5000 a year, and if they don’t pay the fees, they are infringing.

After the establishment of the Film Patent Alliance, Edison not only sued the people who made and showed the films everywhere, but also relied on himself as the only person to legally show the films, copied other people's films everywhere and played them without paying any copyright fees.

Even, in order to monitor filmmakers, Edison also specially established a strict intelligence network to investigate who secretly made movies without patent authorization.

Then he asked thugs to break into the set and shoot at the movie projector that he didn't authorize.

Under Edison's oppression, filmmakers fled Edison's stronghold, New Jersey, and ran to Los Angeles on the west coast of the United States.

Of course, Los Angeles was first chosen as the base of Hollywood not because of the weather and scenery here, but simply because it is close to Mexico, and it would be convenient for Edison to escape if he really sent someone over.

Fortunately, however, this group of filmmakers did not wait for Edison's patent hunt in the end.

Instead, because of what Edison and his patent companies had done, there had been a monopoly.

In 1915, following the Supreme Court's verdict, the patent company founded by Edison was also dissolved.

This is because it is the first application of the US "anti-monopoly law" in the film industry.

It was also because of the downfall of Edison that this group of filmmakers who left could stand out, and in the following years, relying on their respective tough methods, they reached the power center of the film industry, and the established film studio formed a new monopoly.

The dragon slayer will eventually become a dragon, which has also been confirmed in the film industry.

As one of the best, Paramount has achieved the ultimate monopoly, through mergers and acquisitions of small companies, forming behemoths that integrate film production, distribution, and screening businesses.

　Thanks to Shashiao for the 200 starting point reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)