Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 292 "Terminator" and computer special effects
In fact, James Cameron happened to pick up a leak. The original director Miller Drake was replaced by the project leader Ovidio Assonitis.

This is a horror movie called "Piranha II: The Spawning" - "Piranha 2: Breeding".

Most of its underwater scenes were shot on Grand Cayman in the Caribbean, another exterior location was in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, and the interior scenes were shot on stage in Rome, Italy.

Since the investment brought in is not much, it is not surprising that there are constant conflicts during the operation of the project after such consumption.

For example, when James Cameron was in Rome, in order to save costs, almost all the crew members were Italians, which made communication very inconvenient.

What made James Cameron even more maddened was that the person in charge, Ovidio Assonitis, had reservations about his trust. His performance was that you just shoot all the shots as required. As for going to the editing room to see the effect, that’s all. It's not necessary anymore.

The grievances in James Cameron's heart can be imagined, this is too bullying for newcomers.

After hearing James Cameron's complaint, Tang Huan shook his head again and again, "What are you talking about? I'm really impatient. I control two Hollywood companies. Even if the combined performance of United Artists and MGM is in the Hollywood is at the bottom, but you can still wait for a proper directing opportunity, so why bother to be so useless."

"It's true that I'm not patient enough, so now I'm back to obey the assignment and work steadily." James Cameron smiled awkwardly.

In fact, it was precisely because of the friendship established by chance that he got the special treatment of being able to communicate directly with Tang Huan, and Tang Huan also appreciated him, so James Cameron wanted to quickly prove himself in order to overcome the problem. With the minimum qualifications threshold, you can enjoy the career opportunities promised by the big boss as early as possible.

It's a pity that now "Piranha 2: Breeding" has made him return in a feather, and James Cameron has no choice but to succumb to reality and come back to boil his qualifications.

However, James? Cameron is still not reconciled.Having been in contact with Tang Huan for so long, he knows that the other party likes active thinking in the process of conversation, even if the topic is unreliable, he is extremely tolerant.

So, James Cameron first sighed with a bitter face, "I was so angry that I fell ill, and even had a terrible dream. There was a metal torso of a robot that remained after the explosion, holding a The kitchen knife crawled towards me."

Having said this, James Cameron immediately changed his face and took out a few pages of manuscript and handed them over.He said excitedly: "However, this also triggered my inspiration. I wrote a simple script. See if it has any value."

Hearing this, Tang Huan's heart moved, and he took the manuscript and read it.

There is not much content, the general idea is that the story that revolves around the two robots sent back to the past from the future, although it is only in the initial stage, the creativity in it is already very clear.

Tang Huan nodded slightly, as expected, this is the first two parts of the movie "Terminator".

James Cameron has been paying attention to Tang Huan's expression, as long as the other party is interested, then he can ask for funds to operate.

After all, there is a difference between relying on relationships to let friends enjoy food, and taking the initiative to initiate projects on your own.

People who can achieve success and fame are often unavoidable.

"How?" James Cameron asked tentatively.

"Although the setting is still vague, it's quite interesting." Tang Huan nodded, clearly giving his affirmation, and then suddenly laughed, which made James Cameron confused for a moment. mind.

He naturally didn't know that Tang Huan laughed because he inadvertently thought of some interesting things from "Terminator".

In the original time and space, James Cameron's idea of ​​"Terminator" was not favored, and even his agent took a disgusted attitude, so the two fell out and parted ways.

During the operation of the project, Gale Anne Hurd—Gale Anne Hurd became interested, so James Cameron sold the copyright of "Terminator" to the other party for $1.

But there is one condition, that is, the film must be directed by James Cameron himself.

I have to say that James Cameron still had a deep obsession in the initial stage of his career.

Gail Anne Hurd is a well-qualified professional woman in Hollywood. She used to work in New World Pictures - New World Pictures, as the assistant to President Roger Corman - Roger Corman, and through various positions Worked online and mastered the commercial operation mechanism of Hollywood movies.

By 1982, Gail? Anne? Herd established a film production company of his own Pacific Western Productions - Western Pacific Productions.

In the second year after "Terminator" was released and became a big success, in 1985, Gail Anne Hurd married James Cameron and became his second wife, which lasted for four years. marriage.

In this way, James Cameron sold the copyright of "Terminator" for $1, which seems to be not too bad.

And Linda Hamilton, the heroine of "Terminator" - Linda Hamilton, later became James Cameron's fourth wife, but after only two years, they ended in divorce.

You know, at that time, with the movie "Titanic" that swept the world, James? Cameron can be described as fame and fortune.

In other words, the net worth earned by this great director was often diluted by divorce.

Gail Anne Hurd and James Cameron contacted Orion Pictures, Orion Films, through a friend relationship, and the other party agreed that as long as James Cameron could pull investment from other places, it would provide distribution network.

Later, Hemdale Film Corporation - John Daly of Handel Film Company - John Daly, also expressed interest in the script of "Terminator" and participated in it.

With the financial support of these parties, James? Cameron can finally make his first film in the true sense, but the initial budget was only 400 million US dollars, and then it was raised to more than 600 million US dollars.

This is evident from Hollywood's dislike of this novice director.

Now that James Cameron has presented the idea of ​​"Terminator" to himself, Tang Huan will definitely not mind throwing out millions of dollars to support and invest in it.

But the question is, there is no need to compromise to find financial support for the project, and the cast of the movie may also change. Will the two marriages of James Cameron still happen?Can this great director's net worth reach another level?

It's rare for Tang Huan to laugh at something interesting, but it's not easy to publicize this kind of fun, so he can only enjoy it by himself.

"We are old friends, so I might as well leave some details to you." Tang Huan explained openly and honestly, "I have always admired your ability, and this idea is also unique, so I naturally want to invest."

Speaking of this, Tang Huan changed the subject, "In addition, I have other considerations. This movie obviously needs some special effects, and I hope it can be done on a personal computer. George Lucas, in order to shoot "Star Wars , created an industrial light and magic, and I wanted to provide a more powerful and wider-ranging special effects platform.”

Tang Huan stared at James Cameron, "In other words, I need clearer and higher-end market demand to point out the direction of industry development, so as to motivate my engineers to develop more powerful product. And you, in the process of preparing to shoot this movie, need to temporarily perform the duties of a system requirements analyst."

"A system requirements analyst? What exactly do you do?" James Cameron pointed to his nose, and his forehead began to sweat. "I don't know anything about the high technology of Silicon Valley."

"I will take you to visit the R&D center. Through on-site observation, you will understand what is going on." Tang Huan smiled slightly and stood up.

……

Now, what exactly is the highest hardware configuration of the second-generation Fangyuan computer?The answer can be found in the second-generation Fangyuan computer Ultra.

In terms of CPU, it is naturally two 32-bit MC68000.

其外部地址总线为24位，物理内存寻址空间达到了16MB；而16位的Intel 8086，外部地址总线则为20位，物理内存寻址空间只有1MB。

With such support, the memory configuration of the second-generation Fangyuan computer Ultra is 4MB, which is already at the level of a minicomputer.

希捷在去年推出了容量为5MB的5.25英寸硬盘ST-506后，今年拿出了升级版——10 MB的ST-412。

The second-generation Fangyuan Computer Ultra adopts a dual-hard disk configuration, and two ST-412s are installed.

A dedicated display core, audio core, Ethernet card, and floppy disk drive are also essential components of the second-generation Fangyuan computer Ultra.

Naturally, the performance of a computer cannot be distinguished simply by adding or subtracting parts.

The excellent performance of the second-generation Fangyuan computer Ultra benefits from two points:

First of all, the ISA bus plays an important role as a bridge.

Secondly, the special version of the operating system FreeDOS - FreeDOS-Ultra, plays the role of the marshal who leads the three armies.

In addition, in order to better dissipate heat, the main chassis of the second-generation Fangyuan Computer Ultra is not simply increased in size, but carefully designed and even applied for relevant patents.

This is also a manifestation of the gap between other computers and Fangyuan Computer, they will not work hard on such an inconspicuous place.

The configuration of the second-generation Fangyuan computer Ultra is so luxurious that almost all engineers are slandering it.

Even those Motorola engineers who were responsible for communicating technical issues of MC68000, after seeing this kind of enthusiast product, stayed here instead of returning to their own company in order to continue to get opportunities for hands-on experience.

However, there are also many people who have doubts. Apart from symbolic meaning, is there any other effect to simply pile up hardware configuration and improve performance indicators?
That is to say, what can customers do to buy such a high-end second-generation Fangyuan computer Ultra at an expensive price?It's a bit of a test of imagination.

……

When James Cameron and Tang Huan came to an area of ​​the R&D center, they saw several personal computers connected by cables, and a group of engineers pointing at the screen.

After carefully observing the image content on the monitor, James Cameron found that it seemed to be a toy car. What's even more amazing is that it can be disassembled and assembled at will, and it can also be vividly displayed on the screen. drive.

"This is a toy design plan for Hasbro." Tang Huan explained, "Three professional software were used, Illustrator for vector graphics processing, Photoshop for bitmap processing, and computer-aided software. AutoCAD for design features, but in the end this software has not been released to the market publicly.”

"Only from the results I have seen so far, I can conclude that these personal computers can indeed provide strong support for the visual effects of movies." James Cameron stared at the second-generation Fangyuan computers Ultra with his eyes shining.

"Now, you understand what the system requirements analyst refers to." Tang Huan smiled slightly, "Just like the Hasbro toy design that is being displayed, the special effects of movies are given priority to those commonly used, one by one. Put it forward and let my engineers solve it. Through this kind of actual combat, objective market demand will be transformed into intimate and powerful functions.”

Tang Huan patted James Cameron on the shoulder and said, "When the time comes, it will be a matter of course to set up a separate computer special effects company. So, your burden is still quite heavy, and you can't just focus on your own movie projects. We also have to take care of it, and at least we have to take the lead in setting up a special effects team.”

James Cameron nodded suddenly. He suddenly felt a kind of pressure. Tang Huan's arrangement obviously exceeded his expectations.

But having said that, if you really have your own computer special effects team, then the quality that "Terminator" can achieve is very worth looking forward to.

When he thought of this, James Cameron's heartbeat suddenly accelerated a bit.

(End of this chapter)