Chapter 790 Preparation for "The Lion King"

24-year-old John Lasseter is 6 years older than Yin Jun, but Yin Jun's aura makes this animation elite a little nervous.

"Sit down, John." In the conference room, Yin Jun raised his hand and said: "I'm sorry there is no good coffee here, just drink whatever you want!"

"No, I usually just drink this kind of coffee." John Lasseter sat down and said with a smile.

"John, did you know that I have a comic company?" Yin Jun asked harmoniously.

"Of course I know!" John Lasseter nodded, "I bought several single comic books. Your creations are all very good. You are a genius!"

Yin Jun smiled brightly, "Which one is your favorite?"

John Lasseter hesitated for a moment and said a little embarrassedly: "Chibi Maruko-chan."

"..." Yin Jun opened his eyes wide.

Seeing Yin Jun's performance, John Lasseter scratched his head, "I think although it is from a child's perspective, it reflects many problems in today's society. Although it is funny, after laughing, It’s worthy of our deep thought. I often realize a lot of truths in it, and I also know how great your creative talent is! You can come up with various genres at your fingertips, and they are very consistent with the comics themselves. This is an amazing genius!"

Yin Jun nodded.

Among the several major animation studios in later generations, there is one studio. Every animation it produces is not for children, but for adults.

This is Pixar.

And John Lasseter is the soul of Pixar. Presumably it is the concepts and thinking he is talking about now that formed his and Pixar’s animation production style!

Regardless of the debate on conception and other aspects, in Yin Jun's view, such development is a supplement and positive extension to cartoons.

The reason why Disney cartoons have been abandoned by the times in recent years is that they only think that cartoons are for children, so those low-level cartoons cannot attract adults to watch.

"I work in comics, so I often watch cartoons. I also watched the two short animations you made in college. They are very inspiring. You are the future of Disney that I need!" Yin Jun said to him, "I am going to let Disney produce a cartoon soon. I hope you will join in and take on more responsibilities. Are you confident?"

"I'll take the lead?" John Lasseter said in surprise.

"You have a good idea." Yin Jun waved his hand in a funny way, "You can be the main assistant, but you are much less sure than those masters."

"good!"

John Lasseter nodded, and he felt relieved now. He would only find it strange if Yin Jun really admired him for some reason and let him take the lead.

Hollywood also talks about seniority. Even if he thinks he is talented, if he rashly jumps to the level of such an old man, can he still stay at Disney?

This is good, and it proves that Yin Jun really wants to train him.

"You go back and prepare. You will all go to the African grasslands and sketch on the spot." Yin Jun said.

"I understand!" John Lasseter left a little excitedly.

Yin Jun originally wanted to tell him that he should go to the computer animation department where Lucas operates when he has time and learn more about their concepts on computer animation.

But the overall work on "The Lion King" will take at least one to two years, and it won't be too late to wait until he is finished.

Wait.

An animated film takes one to two years to produce?

Isn't this an exaggeration?

You know, Qilin Culture now produces a 20-minute episode of "Transformers" with more than 60 artists and animators, and it only takes 5 days to complete it.

Even though the movie "The Lion King" will be 120 minutes long, Disney has more than ten times the number of animators and artists that Qilin Culture can use!

Even if Disney has other animations to make, it is easy to recruit 200 artists and animators, and their collective combat effectiveness is much stronger than that of Qilin Culture.

It’s really unbelievable that it takes a year or two for such a world-leading animation production company to produce a big movie!

But!

Yin Jun remembers clearly that in his previous life, "The Lion King" was not produced for one or two years, but took a total of three years from project establishment to release!

Of course, this is also due to Americans’ slow work efficiency.

For example, more than half a year was spent on script discussion, modeling design, screen scripts, etc.

Then they procrastinated again in dispatching personnel and making various preparations. The most exaggerated thing was that they were supposed to go to the African savannah for field sketching, but because of the climate, they had to stay in the United States for two months, and then Just set off.

This has been a year.

Then more than 120 artists stayed in Africa for a year to draw various creatures.

Whether it was lions, meerkats, warthogs, hyenas, or various other creatures that mainly appeared in the scene, they painted them one after another. Although many of them were not used in the end, this kind of delicate and serious painting The work attitude should still be praised.

In the third year, these artists returned to the United States and worked with animators in the studio to make movies.

After repeated modifications and production, and a year of polishing, the most classic "The Lion King" was finally cast.

All right.

Although he said that, Yin Jun felt that in fact, in terms of time, it could be speeded up.

In the early preparations, he had already prepared the movie script. After handing it over to the director, they would naturally convene the art team and animation team to make targeted arrangements.

In this way, a year of preparation time will definitely not be used. If it is a little faster, I can start sketching at the beginning of the dry season in April. I will not be able to return to the United States until the rainy season comes in September, or at most October.

And you don’t have to travel all over Africa to visit, you only need to visit three places: Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya, South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, and Ruaha National Park in Tanzania.

Half a year of sketching time is a bit rushed for Americans.

However, Yin Jun will not only use Americans. Kirin Culture will soon bring in many artists, and they will be sent to work together.

You Americans should also learn from our Chinese artists’ good habits of hard work and simplicity, taking the initiative to work overtime, and working hard to complete their work!

2 months of preliminary planning and preparation, 6 months of painting and sketching, and another 6-8 months of production.

Yin Jun has arranged a production time of up to 16 months for "The Lion King", which is actually not too hasty.

After all, compared to "The Lion King" that he made in his previous life, Yin Jun knew who to use and how to run the whole process.

Of course, there are some difficulties for Yin Jun.

Those are the two directors of "The Lion King" in the previous life - Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff. They are both in their twenties now. One, like John Lasseter, has just joined the job, and the other I don’t know where it is yet.

If the original version cannot be found and he is not very familiar with Hollywood animation directors, Yin Jun has only one candidate left.

Jeffrey Katzenberg.

The current vice president of Paramount Pictures, and his co-vice president is none other than Michael Eisner.

Together with President Barry Diller, the two of them formed Paramount's Iron Triangle, which led Paramount to prosperity in recent years.

But the good times don't last long. After three years, the Iron Triangle will immediately fall apart.

Barry Diller went to Fox in the 20th century and built the fourth largest television network in the United States for Murdoch.

Michael Eisner brought his good friend Jeffrey Katzenberg to Disney. Michael Eisner became the CEO and Katzenberg was the animation director.

But just like falling out with his other good friends, ten years later, Katzenberg, who couldn't stand Michael Eisner, left Disney and established another large production company with his other two friends.

its name

called

Dreamworks.

So you see, the iron triangle of Paramount is really a very good management talent. They can be regarded as the top in Hollywood in the past thirty years!

Yin Jun not only wants to recruit Michael Eisner and Katzenberg, but also hopes to recruit Barry Diller.

At that time, Michael Eisner will be in charge of the amusement park and peripheral product store operations, Katzenberg will be in charge of animation production, and Barry Diller will be in charge of the acquisition and construction of the TV network... Such a scene is beautiful just thinking about it!

However, the Paramount where they are now is much better than Disney, so Yin Jun has to think of some way to lure them over.

Professional managers in the United States are actually quite practical.

On the one hand, if there is no higher level for them, they will become slack and want to take on new challenges.

On the other hand, if other companies give them greater power and higher salaries, it will be easier to poach people.

In the Iron Triangle of Paramount, Barry Diller's favorite thing is to work on the TV network, so as long as he is promised to let him play to his heart's content and given adequate treatment, he will easily come over.

As for whether he holds the position of president, Barry Diller doesn't care much.

Michael Eisner has great ambitions, many means, and is greedy for power, so as long as he is promised greater power than at Paramount, and is also stimulated by a large amount of money and shares, he will jump ship.

Among the three, Katzenberg is a technical talent and is not the kind of person who likes to stand in front of the stage, but he is very down-to-earth in his work and is deeply liked by Barry Diller. Michael Eisner also knows that, That's why I persuaded Katzenberg to join him when he wanted to change jobs.

For such a technical talent, power and money are not the most important thing to him. However, if Barry Diller and Michael Eisner come to Disney, I believe he will be willing to continue to cooperate with these old partners.

Of course, Yin Jun will definitely weigh the interests and power between them.

Yin Jun is the president of Disney himself, and the CEO will be someone else. Even if it is just a symbolic figure, it cannot allow any of them to become the CEO.

Their three positions are equal executive vice presidents, and they manage Disney's three major departments respectively.

Only in this way can Michael Eisner's increasingly expanding ambitions and desire for power be suppressed.

At least before Robert Iger grew up, Yin Jun still hoped to cooperate with Michael Eisner. This man had his own way of managing and developing the company.

Otherwise, Disney would not have developed from a small company on the verge of bankruptcy to one of the new seven giants in Hollywood.

Robert Iger's subsequent development is not unrelated to Michael Eisner's serious construction and management.

…

(When checking information about The Lion King, I thought of the chaos in domestic movies. I really feel that movies are fair. Whatever attitude you have towards it, it will repay you with its attitude. Behind the classics, there is really a need A lot of hard work.)