Chapter 452: Nothing Special

[Chapter 452: It's Quite Simple]

As the intense background music played, the storm chasers began to encounter a series of harsh weather conditions, with lightning, heavy rain, and hail appearing, interspersed with the shadows of tornadoes.

"Nothing special here," Virginia exclaimed within the confines of Liberty City Manor.

The next moment, the scene transitioned to a rain-soaked asphalt road, where a violent tornado uprooted a line of power poles in the distance. Amidst the flashing sparks and the startled gasps of the main characters, a family speedboat was whipped up by the tornado and came rushing towards the camera. The close-up of the speedboat grew larger and larger, eventually bursting through the edges of the trailer. In that instant, everyone who witnessed that shot felt as though the speedboat would fly out of the screen and crash into them.

"Whoa," both Virginia and Joanna screamed, leaning back in surprise. Even Eric, who had been prepared, couldn't help but lean back, too.

...

Meanwhile, countless households across North America watching the Super Bowl live made gasping and astonished noises as they leaned back in their seats.

But the audience didn't have time to ponder what was happening, as the next shot featured a tornado swirling out of the television screen, carrying countless debris that captivated their attention.

In the last forty seconds of the trailer, the visual bombardment from the compact, yet not overwhelming, thrilling scenes completely mesmerized everyone. By the time the title Twister appeared along with the prominent release date of June 5th at the end of the trailer, many 'startled' viewers already felt a strong desire to see the film.

The title and release date froze on screen for two seconds. Just when everyone thought the trailer had ended, the television screen suddenly darkened. As the image flickered, a tractor flung by the tornado rolled 'out' of the screen.

"Bang--"

With the deafening sound of shattering glass, countless televisions were left with distressing 'cracks.'

This last shot, crafted meticulously by the finest visual effects artists in Digital Domain, reached a point of realism that was almost indistinguishable from reality. Although everyone understood it was impossible, the first reaction of anyone who saw that shot was that their own television sets had been 'smashed.'

...

"Shit, how did they pull off that shot? It scared the hell out of me!"

"How would I know? I wish they would play it again."

...

"That freaked me out; I thought my TV really got smashed."

...

"That's just so damn cool; I have to see that movie as soon as it comes out."

...

"Rad! But we have to wait another four months; good Lord, that's going to be a long wait."

"I wonder when they'll screen it; maybe we could snag some tickets for an early showing."

...

Once the trailer finished, countless discussions erupted in living rooms. Many viewers even lost interest in the upcoming Super Bowl game. Thanks to this creative trailer's influence, the trailers for the following films fell flat in comparison.

"Eric, how on earth did they pull that off?" After the trailer ended, Virginia, who was leaning against Eric, quickly voiced what many were thinking.

"The TV screen ratio is 4:3, but the standard cinema screen ratio is 16:9. When they played the trailer on the TV, they added black bars at the top and bottom to maintain the film's aspect ratio; otherwise, the content would distort. The trailer cleverly utilized those black bars, allowing the boat and tractor to seem to break out of those constraints, and increased the depth of field of different objects in the scene, creating the illusion of objects flying out of the screen," Eric explained.

Virginia nodded, enlightened. "Sounds really simple; I thought it was something super complicated."

"Many things are based on simple principles. An airplane just gets off the ground using lift created by the acceleration of air; can you create that?" Eric teased.

Although many professionals could have easily deduced the principles behind that trailer, at the moment, aside from the Digital Domain, it would be nearly impossible for any other special effects company to produce the same effects on short notice. After all, in a Hollywood where model effects and practical effects were still the mainstream, no special effects company had access to hundreds of millions of dollars specifically dedicated to developing computer-generated effects technology.

...

In the office of Universal Pictures, the Super Bowl final had long been forgotten as the Twister trailer played for the fifth time on the conference room projection screen.

"Cain, can your effects department produce similar shots?" After another playback, Michael Eisner turned to ask a head of the special effects department at Universal.

Cain Pittman hesitated for a moment before begrudgingly shaking his head. "Mr. Eisner, we could easily handle the stunts in those shots, but for the tornado scenes, while we could manage to create them, we certainly couldn't achieve the realism demonstrated in this trailer."

Michael Eisner's expression was unchanging as he asked gently, "What are the specific challenges? Briefly summarize."

Cain Pittman gave a bitter smile. "Mr. Eisner, computer effects aren't inherently complex; many principles were established by scientists decades ago. The key issues lie in various hardware and software and the funding for development. For instance, the most critical part of computer CG effects is the texture rendering after model completion, which correlates to the degree of realism of the image. I have a friend in Digital Domain, and he informed me that their post-production rendering farm has computational abilities ranking among the top 50 supercomputers in the world. Just that alone is something we can't match with a mere handful of graphic workstations."

"If I provided you with sufficient funding to update your necessary hardware and also recruited some talent from Digital Domain, how long do you think it would take to catch up with their level of technology?"

"Very difficult," Cain Pittman no longer hesitated this time. "Mr. Eisner, that segment in the trailer with the barn being destroyed? Based on my experience, that was not filmed in real life but was completely created using CG. This involves complex dynamics knowledge and requires specialized software for processing. As it stands, Digital Domain has developed an entire suite of mature software tools. If we start from scratch, it would take us a year or two, and the chance of catching up with the their technology is slim; after all, they are continuously working on new tech innovations."

Michael Eisner furrowed his brow slightly. Ever since the stunning liquid metal robot in Terminator 2 last year, he had sensed that special effects films would become the mainstream in Hollywood. The films being produced or soon to be in production by Firefly, like Twister, Jurassic Park, and Deep Impact, all suggested this trend, which was why Michael Eisner was placing such a high importance on the Twister trailer tonight.

But now, even if he understood where the problems lay, he felt somewhat powerless because they had already fallen far behind Digital Domain in terms of time.

While Digital Domain wasn't opposed to taking on special effects projects from other film companies, everyone knew that as a special effects company controlled by Firefly, Digital Domain would always prioritize Firefly's movie projects. Only when they had spare manpower and resources would they work on films from other companies, and it was quite possible that Digital Domain would become a key tool for Firefly to either win over or suppress other film companies.

The tension on Michael Eisner's face made everyone in the conference room cautious. The silence lasted nearly a minute before Cain Pittman, who had just been questioned, softly spoke up. "Mr. Eisner?"

"Yes?"

Cain Pittman, who was aware of Michael Eisner's entanglement with Eric, said, "You know, while Industrial Light & Magic's technical level in CG effects is not as high as Digital Domain, it does have a strong accumulation of technical experience. I believe it's the only effects company in Hollywood that can compete with Digital Domain."

Michael Eisner nodded slightly, quickly thinking. He didn't have much of a relationship with George Lucas, but everyone knew that Lucas was a close friend of Spielberg, who still owed Universal seven movie contracts. If he could get these two partners to join Universal, it would significantly bolster his position.

Even though he and Spielberg had had an unpleasant experience during their collaboration at Disney, Michael Eisner had already committed to mending things with Spielberg before taking office. This clause had even been included in an attached contract by Panasonic, which equally valued Spielberg.

To reconcile with someone, merely playing nice often wouldn't suffice; the key was to cater to their interests.

In the conference room, once Michael Eisner voiced his thoughts, one executive quickly recalled something.

Before Michael Eisner took office, Spielberg had already started talks with Universal to acquire the adaptation rights for a novel called Schindler's Ark.

This novel, about how Schindler saved many Jews during WWII from concentration camps, had its adaptation rights bought by Universal in the early 1980s, and Sid Sheinberg had always hoped Spielberg would direct it. However, due to various concerns, Spielberg had postponed the plan until now.

But recently, the Warner CEO Steve Ross, who had maintained a very close relationship with Spielberg, was gravely ill and could pass away at any moment. Spielberg felt that Ross embodied the image of Schindler in his mind and intended to take on Schindler's Ark to honor this elder.

As everyone pieced together the series of events, Michael Eisner quickly decided to use this matter to reconcile with Spielberg and through him, reach out to George Lucas.

"Paul, gather the information about the rights to Schindler's Ark and get it to me as soon as possible. I want to see it by tomorrow morning. Also, find out what Spielberg's favorite restaurant is and reserve the best table for tomorrow night."

Watching his assistant jot down his instructions in the memo, Michael Eisner gently rubbed his temples before standing up. He said to everyone, "Alright, that's it for today; you all can head home and rest."

...

"I always thought it was a bad idea to schedule the prequel of Running Out of Time to be released on June 12; Twister is in front of it, and Batman Returns is right behind," said Jon Peters, president of Columbia, somewhat regretfully after seeing the Twister trailer in his luxurious Beverly Hills villa.

Compared to Michael Eisner's detailed discussions of the Twister trailer in Universal's headquarters, Peters and his partner Peter Guber were complete outsiders. The two ran their films based purely on intuition -- saying they were clueless would not be an exaggeration. When Spielberg produced The Color Purple, even though Guber was the producer, Spielberg, who harbored a great disdain for directors who were inexperienced in film production, explicitly included a clause in the relevant contracts that barred Guber from stepping onto the film set.

And compared to Guber, who at least had a college degree, Jon Peters was even less qualified. He had once been just a hairstylist for a Hollywood star, with a rude personality and a volatile temper, and he could barely read. Two people finding their way to become heads of one of the major studios was undoubtedly one of the 'curiosities' in Hollywood in recent years.

Guber gently swirled the red wine in his glass and said, "The release schedule has already been announced; adjusting it now is definitely too late."

"The investment in this film has skyrocketed to $86 million thanks to Tom Cruise, and with marketing, it needs at least $150 million in North America and $300 million worldwide to ensure all costs are recouped. We have to think of a way; we can't go on like this."

"What can we do? We can't go begging Firefly or Warner to change the release dates for Twister and Batman Returns, can we?"

Peters thought for a moment and suddenly slapped his thigh. "Hey, have you heard about Woody Allen's recent scandal?"

"Of course! It's been all over the place; how could I not have heard?" Guber replied.

"What do you think about trying the same tactic on Eric Williams?" Peters asked tentatively, referencing how that scandal had left Allen's latest film all but ignored.

Guber paused while swirling the wine but quickly shook his head. "No way. For Eric Williams, that wouldn't work much; he's the owner of Firefly now. Even if he doesn't make films, he can comfortably enjoy being a billionaire. But if he finds out what we're doing... Just think of what happened to Michael Eisner; this kid may be young, but he's not someone to be trifled with."

*****

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