Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
On the 28th of December, Shi Xiaotao came to Shang Hai City bearing good news again. The dailies of the animation movie “Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue” had been completed. The movie was 90% complete. There was only post-production editing, the official soundtrack, and other simple tasks left to complete.
“We’ve recruited new staff in order to increase the pace of production. We have twice as many staff now and we frequently work overtime. In addition, I’ve cut some content. The entire film is only 92 minutes long. But it’s still just as exciting and the storyline has become more compact. We’ve employed an animation production technology that will increase our efficiency, and purchased a type of high-speed rendering software. This has allowed our work efficiency to increase by 30%.” Filled with pride, Shi Xiaotao said, “Therefore, we are able to create a completed movie animation within a period of 8 months or so. Currently, we are the only ones who are able to achieve this kind of efficiency.” Of course, she did not deny that the source material provided by Chen Jin had shortened the production period by at least two to three months. After all, everything was hard in the beginning.
Chen Jin nodded without moving his gaze from the laptop screen as he watched the movie. Slowly, his forehead creased in a frown. It was not that the movie was bad. At least he thought that the first 30 minutes were very good. The images were exquisite, the plot flowed smoothly, and there were many punchlines. The quality was excellent. However, from the middle of the movie onwards, the images showed signs of slight distortion. It was not as exquisite as the first 30 minutes and many details were crudely produced. The quality had significantly decreased and the rhythm of the plot was messy. One could see the effects where the work was rushed.
Chen Jin pointed out these issues.
Feeling helpless, she awkwardly said, “I wouldn’t have thought that you’d notice details like that. Our post-production process was indeed rushed. But, I don’t think that it’s a big problem. At least there were no issues with the storyline. The loss of details and the image distortion are due to the high-speed rendering software that we used. That’s its innate flaw — it guarantees speed at the expense of quality. We could only use it as it is. But, I don’t think that the audience will pay too much attention to those details. It won’t affect box office sales.”
Chen Jin shook his head. “You’re right. The ordinary viewers will not pay attention to those details. But the professionals will. The professional film critics who write reviews will get their magnifying glass and apply it to every single detail in the movie. After watching the movie, the ordinary viewers would simply have a laugh and forget about it. But, industry professionals and film critics would definitely find flaws with it. They’ll grasp onto some detail and not let go, then they’ll give negative reviews about it. As the power of words lies with them, the moment they roast the movie collectively is the moment our movie’s reputation goes down the drain. Box office sales would definitely be affected in the end.”
“I know!” Shi Xiaotao said, “You’re right. But, this movie is requested to be screened as part of the film schedule in the Spring Festival. This timing is extremely rushed. We still have to create an original soundtrack, find a theatre chain for collaboration, prepare the promotions and launch events… We’re very busy over various matters and we just couldn’t take any more time to further refine the movie. We were only able to edit it a little. There’s nothing I can do if the reputation of the movie becomes worse because of criticisms from industry professionals. After all, this is only my first work; a debut movie! I can only hope they can have some mercy for me in their reviews and be more understanding. I think that the effects on box office sales will not be significant. This is only a ‘fluff’ movie on family joys. What the audience wants is something that is happy and relaxing. If I can meet these criteria, it’s basically a success.” Hence, she did not intend to do greater adjustments and editing on the final version of the movie.
Suddenly, Chen Jin said, “Then… How about this; leave a copy of the dailies here. I’ll get someone to optimize it.”
With a questioning expression, she asked, “You’ll find someone to help me optimize the dailies? How would it be optimized?”
“Do you still remember the promotion ad series ‘Wa-wah Robot’ that my company got a third party to do?
“That’s great! President Chen, please ask for their help. Thank you, thank you very much!” Shi Xiaotao was very pleasantly surprised. She had seen the series of ads titled “Wa-wah Robot.” The quality of its graphics was one of the very best in the world. With the help from a team that possessed such strong technical skills, the quality of the graphics in her movie ” Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue” would definitely be greatly improved. She asked Chen Jin what was a suitable amount of remuneration for their help. A million? Or five million?
“Let’s wait until the results have been achieved.” Chen Jin got her to leave a copy of the dailies with him. After about a week, he would give the final post-optimization version to her.
On that very night, at the Base of Operations in Haierfa, Chen Jin had stored the movie “Wa-wah Robot: A Brilliant and Brave Rescue” in his laptop. He uploaded it onto the server for Alice to optimize.
“It’s completed, master.” After about three minutes had passed, Alice expressed that the optimization had been completed.
Chen Jin shook his head. “Damn, is this light-speed optimization?” He let Alice turn on the projector and play the post-optimization movie. He was shocked at the optimization effects! The strands of hair on individual characters in the movie had been refined to an imperceptible degree. The pattern of bricks and veins on the roads and ground were like a complex painting. The characters’ expressions were extremely realistic and moving. The flow of the graphics had been optimized to an ultimate degree. Each second consisted of 240 frames. The slightly distorted graphics and the lost details were all recovered and revamped.
Perfection. Chen Jin only wanted to use “perfection” to describe the graphics of the entire movie.
“I honestly think audiences would fork out money to buy a ticket for this movie just for the effects alone. The current era prioritizes visuals over everything else. It is an era where aesthetics guide consumer spending. Even if the movie totally sucks, just with these graphics, it can seize at least two billion in box office sales. Moreover, it doesn’t have a terrible plot. There are many punchlines and a heart-warming ending… Raking in box office sales of three billion is entirely reasonable.”
…
After one week, Chen Jin sent the “optimized” dailies via long-distance courier service to Shi Xiaotao in Hanghu City. Shi Xiaotao signed off on the shipment. She called Chen Jin even before she finished viewing them. Her shrieking over the phone exceeded 100 decibels. “How was this accomplished? How did you do it? What technology did you use to achieve this level of perfection? This is too amazing! Too amazing, this level of technical skill is practically god-like. President Chen, I’d like to get acquainted with the team of experts that you found!” Amidst her shrieking, she shot him a series of questions at machine-gun speed. She said with utmost certainty, “Five billion! I’m confident that the box office sales of this movie will break through five billion!”
F**k me! Chen Jin was greatly shocked. Five billion? Currently, there was only one movie in the country with box office sales of over five billion. That was “Battle Dragons 2”, directed and starred by Wujin. It sparked a wave across the nations. It was said that citizens all over the country had watched it at least once on average.
It was true that the images in her movie were much more refined after optimization. However, her plot had been done to death. There were no intense or thrilling action scenes. It would be considered pretty good if the movie could rake in three billion in box office sales. Five billion was an overly egoistic number. But, Chen Jin did not openly rebuke her… He was faintly afraid of acting out of his image.
Of course, that team of experts was usually very busy. They did not like to be disturbed or to socialize.
“Ok. Maybe I can see them after I’ve become an internationally famous director.” She enquired as to how much “compensation” should be given to that amazing team. Would 10 million be sufficient? She would not be able to afford more than 10 million. She had taken out practically all of her liquid assets for this movie and staked nearly her entire financial worth on this movie. This was a high-risk gamble. There could only be one acceptable outcome — victory!
“1% bonus of the total box office sales. It will be transferred into my company account… This should be ok?”
1% bonus of a total box office sales of 3 billion was 30 million. He would just give a “friendly” price. Then again, why did he not get Alice to produce the entire movie and get more profits? Actually, this had been explained. A movie that had no director, no voice actors, and no production team belonged wholly in the category of “third void movies.” When it was released in the cinemas and violently seized box office sales in the billions, it would attract much attention and discussions. It was at least thousands of times riskier than selling his illegal gold.
No matter how exaggerated the optimization of the images by Alice was, as long as he had collaborated with a lawful film-making team, he could roughly gloss over the explanations. Of course, his profits would be slightly reduced.
Shi Xiaotao answered with alacrity, “Yes, that’s no problem at all!”
…
20×0. An amazing year. The 1st of August was a good day. At 8:00pm, at the Workers’ Stadium in Shang Hai City, a launch event for the new product by Xing Hai Technologies was about to start with a grand note!