I’m in Hollywood

It was the introduction of the Microsoft Windows operating system that greatly accelerated the pace of the promotion of personal computers from professional and technical personnel to ordinary people. △Small, the current computer network browsing tools are like the original os system, which requires strong professional knowledge to operate. This is also the reason why personal computers have been widely popularized but computer networks have not developed much. Chris can imagine , If Eric's idea can really be realized, it will definitely lead to a revolution in computer networks.

Just the first thought gave Chris a bright feeling, and he couldn't wait to ask, What about the second thought?

Eric took a sip of coffee and said, The second idea is an online email service.

I already have this. I just learned it recently, but I don't think it's anything special and it's not very convenient.

I'm talking about 'online' e-mail service, Eric emphasized the word 'online' and said, Most of the current e-mail transmissions use software for ǎn-to-ǎn transmission, from Transfer from one computer to another, and often within a small local area network, so that if you leave the office, you can't check your mail. What I want to do is a company that provides an online email service, using Independent websites and servers are used as e-mail carriers, so that as long as users apply for an account, no matter where they are, as long as they can connect to the Internet, they can check the e-mails sent by friends or colleagues from anywhere.

Chris said: I don't think too many people will pay to apply for an email account like this. The cost of making calls is not too high now, and public phones are everywhere. You can say anything on the phone. Also. People don't necessarily email every day.

Hear what Chris has to say. Eric even felt a little emotional. When he proposed this idea, Chris could immediately think of spending money to buy such a service without expecting it to be free. Eric didn't bother to complain, and quickly said: I didn't plan at the beginning. Charge, this will be a free online service, what we need to do in the first stage is to accumulate users. If the computer network can be popularized, then our e-mail service users will also expand to a very large scale, you can Imagine if we had 100 million active email users, how much would advertisers pay us to send ads to those users?

Chris seemed to really calculate for a while, then showed a numb and admiring expression, and smiled: Okay, what about the third one?

Portal(;b), Eric said, taking up some water. Two words were spelled out on the table.

Although the Internet has just developed a prototype, on this original network, various websites have appeared. Take movies as an example, the most famous movie information website b in the past life,

It was established as early as 1990, and it is quite large now. Therefore, it is not too advanced to launch a portal website now, even if it is really early, the big deal is to burn 1.8 million US dollars every month, and slowly wait for the Internet The golden age is when the annual expenditure is equivalent to a small-budget movie, which is not worth mentioning to Eric.

The first two ideas Chris can probably guess the meaning by listening to the name, but 'portal (;b)' is definitely a very unfamiliar concept.

Eric also didn't know what to translate the portal website in his previous life, he could only use the most superficial term '(main entrance)': Probably, it is to classify the disorganized websites on the Internet into categories and create a web directory, so that Internet users can easily Find the consultation you want in this directory website.”

Chris nodded his head and said he understood a little bit, but compared to the first two more amazing ideas, Chris felt that Eric's idea had little commercial value. , It seems that it is very easy to imitate, and it is estimated that it is difficult to be a dominant player.

Eric can also see that Chris should take his last idea as a 'addition' to the first two projects, but he is not in a hurry to explain anything, just let the facts surprise Chris, past life Yahoo's market value is dozens of times that of contemporary browser companies and online mail service companies.

The two talked about the late night in this roadside cafe with great interest. Although it was three or four in the morning according to the western time that Eric is more used to, Eric did not feel tired, and his young body and sufficient The exercise has kept Eric full of personal energy, and it is not a problem to stay up all night occasionally.

It wasn't until 2 am Eastern time that Chris and Eric got up and left under the eyes of the coffee shop waiter's grievance. The streets of Manhattan in the middle of the night seemed even colder, but it did not affect their mood at all.

You can take the time to write the plan these days. When the AOL thing is done, I will prepare these three companies as soon as possible. By the way, since you have come up with these ideas, have you come up with a name? , Chris asked.

Eric showed a slightly wicked smile: Of course, the three companies are called 'Internet Explorer (nr), oa and Yahoo ().

...

Eric and Chris continued their wrangling with AOL's Steve Case over the terms of the partnership over the next few days, during which the 64th Academy Awards also took place at the Los Angeles Music Center on March 30. .

As this year's Dances with Wolves, which was nominated for 12 Oscars, won seven awards including best picture, best director and best actor without any surprise, because of the good news of winning the Oscars, The box office of Dancing With Wolves rebounded sharply again. In its fifteenth week of release, it earned more than $11 million in less than 1,500 theaters, and the total box office also exceeded 150 million. The box-office results achieved by dramas that are not very optimistic have surprised everyone.

Although only the film's theatrical distribution rights. But according to the performance of Dances with Wolves at the box office in North America and overseas. The film is expected to gross more than half a billion dollars worldwide. Fox will receive nearly $100 million in profits from the money, according to the original sharing agreement. For Fox, this huge sum, equivalent to half of last year's film business profit, is about the same as what was picked up, and even many insiders who know the inside story ridiculed at some parties that Murdoch gave birth to a good daughter.

In addition, because Eric advanced Silence of the Lambs by a year, without the competition of Judy Foster, Susan Sarandon also won the best award with The End of the Wild. The heroine, and Crazy Flowers also won the Best Original Screenplay Award.

The Endless Flower was a commercial and artistic success. More people have noticed this film company composed of three girls. Although they know that the supporters behind the scenes are the two giants, Firefly and Fox, there are still many investors Keith who frequently contact the three girls and try to buy shares. Or invest.

Even if an independent film company occasionally achieves good results for a certain film, because the seven major distributors that monopolize the channel owe their share, these film companies have to raise external financing in order to shoot new films.

However, this issue is completely absent for the film, whether released by Fox or Firefly. Can get the share on time, and. Even if there is still a lack of funds, both Eric and Murdoch are more than willing to invest, so those who tried to participate in the stock market all returned disappointed.

On the New York side, because the cooperation intention of both parties is very urgent, Firefly Investment successfully reached a preliminary agreement with AOL. However, the specific investment amount will be negotiated in detail by Chris's team and Steve Case.

At the same time, Eric also confirmed a plan to invest $8,000 in Emily Brighton's investment company. This number was negotiated by Eric, Chris and Emily.

A week later, Eric left Chris with three project plans and rushed back to Los Angeles.

The preparations for Mrs. and Mrs. Smith were very smooth. Because it was his first film in Hollywood, Wu Baige seemed to attach great importance to it, and he would personally participate in every detail. The scene of the film, the scene design and the selection of supporting roles were all carried out in an orderly manner. It is expected that in late April, when the two protagonists Nicole and Pierce Brosnan have finished their firearm training in the 'Secret School', the film will start shooting smoothly.

Because he didn't have to worry too much about Mrs. Smith, Eric put most of his energy into the preparation of Jurassic Park. The most important part of Jurassic Park is the design of the dinosaur image. . According to the restoration of dinosaur fossils by paleontologists, in fact, whether it is Tyrannosaurus rex or Velociraptor, the original image is very different from the image in memory.

Eric combined the memories in his mind and conducted many discussions with several paleontologists to determine the most important images of dinosaurs.

Regarding the special effects of Jurassic Park, although Eric's investment in technology research and development regardless of the cost, if Jurassic Park is completely produced with special effects, there is no major technical problem, but it requires a lot of time. After all, no one has ever made a very realistic dinosaur monster in a complete way before. Starting from scratch requires a lot of time and energy for technical exploration. In addition, Stan Winston is an expert in model special effects. After some pros and cons, Eric quickly decided to use a combination of models and computer special effects in the way of Spielberg in his previous life.

After this decision, a large number of model special effects designers quickly invested in the production of dinosaur models in the huge studio in Playavista. The dinosaur model that needs to be used cannot be solved by a simple empty shell. In addition to the realistic appearance and skin, complex mechanical transmission devices are also used inside the dinosaur. However, compared with computer special effects, it is The Dinosaur models are still very cost-effective, and, in any case, the models are more realistic than the computer effects at this stage.

In the busy work, the days go by, and in the process of intense preparations for Jurassic Park, in mid-April, Disney and Columbia's Mr. and Mrs. Smith officially started in Los Angeles. Another film, Greeks in Disguise, starring Jim Carrey and Claudia Schiffer, was also successfully completed.

It has been less than two months since the summer season, and Firefly and Disney have also begun to carry out more intensive publicity work for the flagship film of the summer season. Of course, several other major studios have of course joined the marketing battle.

At the same time that Mrs. Smith was launched, when Firefly cooperated with Colombia, another secret condition that the two helmers of Colombia promised Firefly also began to be implemented.

In fact, the operation of this matter is not too complicated. After Peter Cooper and Eric had several secret talks, they decided on a specific plan.

In April, in an obscure Hollywood professional magazine, Colombia announced to the outside world that in order to reduce Colombia's operating costs, Colombia will lay off 2,000 employees within six months, and will also lay off some less important departments in Colombia. .

The outside world did not have much response to Columbia's layoffs. After all, the performance of Columbia Pictures in the past two years has indeed been sluggish, and it has also caused losses for more than two consecutive years. The measures of layoffs seem very reasonable. If the Japanese are not obstructed by If the original promise could not intervene in Colombia's operations, layoffs may have been taken to reduce costs.

However, although most people do not know the truth, how can such a large-scale movement not attract the attention of people in Hollywood circles. When Colombia announced the news in the first week, it will directly be located in Brazil, Argentina and Colombia in Latin America. When the branch of the country was directly closed, many people realized something strange.

You must know that although Latin America is generally hostile to the US policy, although it is geographically close to the United States, it is dozens of times more difficult for Hollywood movies to enter Latin America than to enter the European market.

But even so, it seems too much to completely abolish these branches. After all, although Latin America is closed, it is still a super market with a population of more than one billion, and the future potential is limitless, just like Eastern Europe, when Eastern Europe After the drastic changes, the Eastern European market, which was originally very resistant to Hollywood films, opened up instantly. Film companies that had a foundation in Eastern Europe could gain more advantages than other film companies, and the situation in Latin America was obviously the same. (To be continued..)