I’m in Hollywood

At noon, Firefly Studios.

Eric came out of the studio in the digital realm with Robert Byron, the special effects supervisor of Gravity, and planned to go to lunch together. When the phone rang, Eric connected and said a few words, and then he and Robert Byron parted and came to his office in the studio.

Pushing open the office door, she saw Elizabeth in a professional suit sitting on the leather chair behind her desk, holding a document and blatantly flipping through it.

Eric walked over, smiled and stretched out his hand to take the information in Elizabeth's hand, leaning on the edge of the table and teasing: Even if you are angry with your father, you don't need to move the office to me, right? Your studio is so big.

Hearing that Eric couldn't open the pot, Elizabeth suddenly blushed. She ran to New York for a week, but she still couldn't stop a strange woman from working on the Fox Television Network.

They said they would hand over the business of Fox's side to me, hmph, when I don't know, a control freak, complaining angrily, Elizabeth raised her eyes and glared at Eric again: You are also a control freak. , you guys are control freaks.

You finally understand this cruel fact, Eric pulled the leather chair in front of him, leaned over and kissed the girl's face, and said with a smile, Are you disappointed with the world now and want to take revenge on society?

Elizabeth tilted her head, opened her mouth to bite one of Eric's fingers, and bared her little white teeth threateningly.

Eric threw a finger forward without retreating without fear.

The girl who realized Eric's attempt quickly let go of his fingers and poohed twice before she said aggrieved: You hateful guy, you bully me too.

Okay, don't be angry anymore, Eric took out a tissue from the grid under the desk and wiped his hands, then said with a smile, Are you hungry, let's go eat first?

Elizabeth shook her head and said with some anger, I'm not hungry, I plan to go on a diet for a day, you accompany me.

Eric instigated very intentionally: Why don't you go on a diet for a week, write your will first, remember to leave the Hilltop Villa to me, and the one in Trousdale Manor to Julia.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes: You think beautifully.

Seeing that her little flame was almost out, Eric said, Would you like to go out to eat?

I'm not hungry now, wait a moment, Elizabeth shrank into the leather chair, raised her chin and gestured to the computer screen on the table: So, you and Julia are going to bet me on this?

Eric turned his head and glanced, only to find that the Blair Witch theme website was displayed on the bright computer screen.

The small operation team of Blair Witch is still very capable. Coupled with the resource support of Firefly, it took only three days to build the theme website of the film.

A few days ago, I briefly explained the operation ideas of viral marketing to the small team, and Eric didn't put too much thought on it.

For this pseudo-documentary that once created a box-office miracle, Eric is more of a cut-throat mentality and some playing tickets. If he succeeds, everyone will be happy, and it doesn't matter if he fails. After all, when the Firefly system has developed to the current scale, it can only go further if it operates in a dignified manner. Excessive pursuit of these tricks will only be worth the loss.

Moreover, if according to the historical development of the past,

The film was bought by Artisan and successfully operated, and it will earn $140 million at the box office in North America alone.

The annual number of moviegoers in North America has always been very fixed. In recent years, the North American box office scale has just exceeded the $7 billion mark due to rising ticket prices. The $140 million box office is equivalent to one-fifth of the total North American box office. This money is taken away by the artisan, and other Hollywood studios will naturally lose $140 million in revenue. According to the market share of the Firefly system, this is equivalent to stealing money from Firefly, and Eric will naturally not be willing.

Of course, Eric wants to replicate the marketing model of Blair Witch, and has other intentions: This is a marketing experiment, and I want to show the industry the powerful communication capabilities of Internet channels. You know, many traditional Advertisers are still full of doubts about the effectiveness of Internet advertising, and if this is successful, I think more people will recognize Internet advertising platforms.

I just read the information on this site, and if I hadn't known in advance that everything was fake, I would have believed it, Elizabeth said. Leah told me it sucked.

Maybe, Hollywood is never short of miracles.

Elizabeth rolled her eyes and said slyly: In this case, about that bet, I'll follow up. If you lose, you have to help Fox make a movie.

What if I win?

Then I'll help Firefly make a movie.

Are you sure you can make movies?

Of course, Elizabeth raised her chin proudly: I am a serious media graduate, unlike some people who have never attended college.

Eric shrugged indifferently and said with a smile: Okay, but you have to know that in Hollywood, everyone is uneducated, and only those who have gone to college are despised.

Ah, you are jealous, Elizabeth lightly tapped on Eric, and continued to turn to the topic of Blair Witch, Also, in this movie, you should take what really happened. Come to publicize, once it is exposed, it should be very troublesome, right?

Yeah, Eric said: So, before the release, the company will definitely state in advance that this is just a movie marketing.

Regarding this issue, Eric also thought about it.

In the past, Artisan Films was just a small family, playing tricks on everyone. Later, the media also focused on the box office miracle created by Blair Witch, and no one pursued Artisan Company. This is obvious. It's deceptive marketing.

Artisan can do that, but Firefly can't.

This is actually one of the reasons why Eric did not expect much of the box office success of Blair Witch.

Firefly's goal is too big. Once the box office of Blair Witch is successful again, and the company does not clarify in advance, it will definitely be caught by countless people. In a social environment like North America where a lawsuit can be slapped with just a few glances, Firefly will definitely face a series of lawsuits.

Elizabeth asked again, Then when are you going to release it?

It depends on the situation, Eric thought for a while, and said, For such a topic, a month of brewing is enough. If the time is too long, the curiosity of the audience will cool down, maybe in March.

Since it's just a game ticket, Eric will definitely not put Blair Witch in a popular schedule such as summer.

After chatting for a while, Eric reached out and pulled Elizabeth up from the chair and said, Come on, go to Venice Beach.

Elizabeth no longer refused, took Eric's arm and walked out of the office together, and said, By the way, are you going to the Golden Globe Awards tomorrow night?

Eric shook his head directly: No.

In the past year, Hollywood has achieved brilliant box office results in commercial films, not only has Charlie's Angels 3, Mission: Impossible 3, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and other global 1 billion level. 's super blockbuster, and box office dark horses such as Midnight Bell have also appeared.

In comparison, Hollywood's literary and artistic film market last year looked bleak, which also created one of the most mediocre awards years in recent years.

This awards season, the two seemingly popular films, whether it is Horse Whisperer or Elizabeth, are far less than Forrest Gump, Schindler's List and Saving Private Rui in previous years. En and other films seem popular.

Eric didn't even have any interest in this year's Oscars, and he was even more lazy to join in the excitement of the Golden Globes.

Unsurprisingly, under Miramax's strong PR, the next day's Golden Globes, Horse Whisperer easily won most of the award nominations, and only Cate Blanchett from the Elizabeth crew managed to get it. A Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama Series, again because The Horse Whisperer didn't compete with Blanchett for the award.

In the Oscar nomination list announced later, Horse Whisperer also led the Oscar with 10 nominations.

This year's Golden Globes will be held on January 29th, followed by the 33rd Super Bowl finals in Miami, Florida on January 31st, which is also after the Fox Network got Super Bowl tickets. Second broadcast.

The biggest highlight of this Super Bowl advertisement is undoubtedly the series of advertisements of new technology companies. Mainstream new technology companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Cisco, Amazon, and Intel have appeared one after another. The intensity seems to be that people are completely in the Internet age.

However, among them, the trailer for Iron Man still attracted a lot of attention.

A 30-second Super Bowl commercial is naturally impossible to hold too much information. Apart from the Iron Man armor, the audience most talked about is undoubtedly Eric, the actor of Tony Stark.

Although after makeup, Tony Stark with dark chestnut hair and beard in the film looks completely different from Eric in real life, and their temperament is also very different, but many people still can't help but frantically discuss the scene inside and outside the scene. All sorts of things these two characters have in common. Of course, as the richest super-rich in North America and even the whole world, Eric himself starred in the leading role of a movie, which has also become the focus of controversy for many people.

Various related topics on the Internet have captured the portal's hot topic list in just a few days.

In the following days, Firefly Group also officially released the first TV trailer of Iron Man on major TV networks, heralding the advent of large-scale publicity in the final stage before the film's release. Some of the film's main creators and supporting roles also began to appear sporadically in some TV talk shows, to warm up for the release in three months.

At the same time that Iron Man began its regular film promotion, rumors of a mysterious disappearance of several college students in Maryland after visiting the Blair Witch were also spreading unknowingly on the Internet.

The biggest premise of viral marketing is a topic that is enough to attract attention and an interactive network that is enough to spread the topic.

The step-by-step routine life of the middle class in North America and the innate desire for exploration and adventure made them involuntarily have a strong curiosity about the missing college students, which satisfies the premise of viral marketing's eyeball effect.

On the other hand, as the country with the highest Internet penetration in the world, when people in many other regions still do not know what a personal computer is, the Internet penetration in North America has already caught up with televisions and video recorders. In 1998, the global PC sales reached More than 93 million units, of which seven CDs are concentrated in North America.

At the end of last year, the number of Internet users in North America exceeded the 100 million mark, which is equivalent to one-third of the total population of North America. The user base of more than 100 million has also given the Blair Witch incident a sufficient basis for popularity.

The two key elements are complete, and all the insiders have re-signed a perfect confidentiality contract, and no one jumped out to debunk the truth in the process, so the rumor of the witch Blair gradually evolved into an Internet virus storm. .

While publishing the detailed background information of the story, the Blair Witch-themed website also continued to release various information such as search and rescue information of the local garrison in Maryland, insider records, follow-up progress, and so on. curiosity.

In just one week, curious explorers have gathered in the small town of Bukeshville, Maryland, where the story of Blair the Witch was filmed, and inquired about the news about Blair the Witch from the confused town residents.

As this incident intensified, the local government of Maryland even had to come forward to refute the rumors, but the North American people who have been surrounded by various conspiracy theories since childhood will naturally not believe the official explanation of the government, and the incident is still fermenting rapidly.

Seeing that this thing was developing faster than he thought, Eric quickly decided to set the release date of Blair Witch on March 5th.

However, just to be cautious, Eric has only arranged 200 opening screens for this film. In any case, according to the current development, even if the facts are clarified to the public before the release, most people are interested in this topic. Greatly reduced, I want to come to Firefly to make a small fortune.

Then again, although it is only 200 screens, in fact, compared with the original Time and Space Artisan Company, which was only able to raise more than 20 theaters for Blair Witch in the first week, 200 screens is undoubtedly It is already a big deal, which actually shows the deep-rooted heritage of big Hollywood companies.

Since it was a small year for the Oscars, the Hollywood February, which was supposed to be very lively, has become much deserted this year.

Eric continued his post-production work on Gravity step by step. At the same time, in late February, in order to complete the transfer transaction of the 3.1% shares of AOL and Clover Fund, Eric once again took the time to fly to New York.

On February 16, after half a year of negotiation, AOL and Time Warner finally reached a preliminary merger draft. As long as the AOL shares directly held by Firefly Group are recovered, the two parties will officially announce the merger news and will merge. The case was submitted to the Federal Exchange Commission for review.