Chapter 299: Investing in Feature Animation (1/2)

Ding ding ding——

In the intensive care unit, Harry Osborn, wrapped in a red hood, approached the unconscious Bullseye.

He stretched out his palm covered with black mist to touch Bullseye's forehead. The next second, with the urgent alarm of the ECG monitor, Bullseye on the bed suddenly opened his eyes.

"...Ha...Harry...Osborn..."

Twisting his bandaged face and looking at Harry in front of the bed, Bullseye pleaded in an almost desperate tone.

"Quick, kill...kill me...please..."

For Lester, it would be better to kill him directly than to continue to live like this.

"I won't kill you."

Looking at Bullseye who was begging for death on the bed, Harry's expression under the red hood was slightly touched, and he saw himself in the other person.

Not long ago, he was as desperate as Bullseye, but fortunately, the power given by Dormammu helped him get rid of this despair. Now he will use the power given by Dormammu to form a new Thunderbolt team that only obeys him. Maybe he can give this organization a new name, such as the cabal.

"On the contrary, I will give you life again."

As Harry Osborn's voice fell, a large amount of black fog from his red hood enveloped Bullseye's body.

Kacha, Kacha——

In the black fog, the creepy sound of bones twisting and Bullseye's shrill screams filled the entire intensive care unit.

Outside the ICU, watching Bullseye slowly stand up under the black fog, the expression on Rhino's face did not change at all, and he still grabbed the doctor faithfully, even though the other party was already scared by what happened in front of him and dared not speak.

Although, Alexei didn't know why Harry suddenly gained such a powerful power.

But this does not affect the other party's salary, right?

…

"Walt, why are you here?"

The real world, New York Pulitzer Building.

Looking at Walt Disney who came from Los Angeles, Colin couldn't help showing a surprised expression on his face.

You know, since becoming a new production factory in Hollywood, Walt Disney has always been at the forefront of Disney animation production. Except for coming to New York to find a distributor to sign a contract for the production of "Lucky Rabbit Oswald", he rarely has the opportunity to leave the studio.

In particular, Disney's first feature-length animation "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is still in full swing.

So is it because of the animation of Snow White?

Looking at Walt Disney, who looked a little restrained, Colin immediately understood the purpose of the other party's visit.

Unlike Luo Yin Disney, who was mainly responsible for the operation of the studio, Walt Disney's talent was mainly in his imaginative animation production.

And the process of turning fantasy into reality is obviously not a simple thing.

In order to produce the animation of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" as realistically as possible, Disney has invested a lot of effort in all aspects. Not only did it hire professional screenwriters to adapt the fairy tale in the storyline of the animation, but it also sent several chief painters to the California Institute of the Arts to learn action modeling, bought small animals, and invited actors to perform for the painters to observe and learn, in order to draw the most realistic character movements on the screen.

This approach certainly makes the production of the entire animation more exquisite.

However, the budget for animation production has also risen with it.

The original production cost of $600,000 was consumed as early as the beginning of the animation production, and as the production of the film continued, Disney's funds became tight.

According to Walt Disney's speculation, it would take at least a year to complete the production of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" with the current studio's creative progress, and the cost required in this process would be as high as one million US dollars.

One million US dollars is not a small amount at this time.

In fact, Royen Disney, who learned about this situation, had already started fundraising early. In fact, his efforts at first also brought certain results. After learning about the news that Disney was making "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", an American bank executive took the initiative to propose the idea of ​​investing.

This made Walt and the Royen brothers overjoyed.

However, before the bank executive could fulfill his promise, the financial crisis that swept across the United States instantly bankrupted the entire investment plan.

Not only that, even the distributor who had previously negotiated with Disney also gave up.

Publicly expressed their pessimism about the long-form animation produced by Walt. The mainstream view in Hollywood did not believe that the audience would pay and stay in the cinema for more than an hour for a cartoon movie.

The setback in fundraising and the problem of the distributor caused the already shaky Disney to fall into a huge crisis in an instant.

In order to stabilize the studio and stabilize the distribution of the film in Hollywood, Royen Disney began to shuttle between major distribution companies in Los Angeles.

Walt Disney also had to put down his animation production work and find a way out for the film's funding.

"Sorry, Colin..."

If possible, Walt Disney did not want to trouble Colin in the production of the film.

However, the current situation of Disney forced him to do so.

"I need your help. In order to make the animation of "Snow White", the entire studio has invested all the funds that can be invested, but this is far from enough to make the whole movie. I know this is difficult, but I hope you can help me make this movie. I want Hollywood, no, the whole world to know that movies are not just creations led by real people, but can also be an animation work..."

It can be seen that Walt Disney really wants to complete the production of animation.

In fact, in the original history, in order to complete the production of the movie, the entire Disney almost invested all that could be invested, and even the entire studio was mortgaged to the bank, just to make a long animation work.

"Of course, Walt."

Faced with Walt Disney's request, Colin nodded and agreed almost without hesitation.

As a latecomer, he clearly knew the performance of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs", which won a box office of 7.85 million US dollars in the United States alone, far exceeding the investment.

In the international market, the film has achieved a box office of 180 million US dollars.

It can be said that it is with the success of the movie "Snow White" that Disney has truly entered its own golden age.

"Really?!"

Facing Colin's unthinking response, Walt Disney's expression seemed extremely stunned.

In fact, he was ready to be rejected by the other party.

"We are friends, aren't we, Walt."

In response, Colin replied with a smile.

"I... I'm sorry, Colin..."

Opening his mouth, Walt Disney didn't know what expression to use to face all this for a while. He trembled his lips for a long time before suppressing the excitement in his heart. Looking at Colin in front of him, he said with a choked voice: "I don't know what to say, thank you, thank you."

The production process of "Snow White" was not smooth sailing. In fact, during the entire animation production process, Walt Disney encountered various problems, including Hollywood's misunderstanding and various technical limitations.

During this period, the main role of animation was to warm up the long film. Before the film started, the theater would show a 7 to 14 minute animated short film to remind the audience that the film was about to start.

The quality of the short film was not very important to the theater, because it was not linked to the box office of the film.

It was precisely because of this relationship that Walt Disney was determined to create an animated film. The success of "Superman and Mickey" had made Walt know that the audience was actually willing to go to the theater for an animated film, and all he had to do was to turn this animation into a real movie.

You may think that it doesn't sound very difficult to go from a short film to a feature film?

But in fact, this is not just about making the work longer. The difficulty of making an animated feature film is much higher than that of a short film in all aspects.

For example, animated short films generally pile jokes together directly, while feature films require exciting stories and complex plots, and each character and scene must be consistent before and after.

If the plot is monotonous, or the same character becomes different, the audience will be out of the play, and then notice that the movie is so long, which makes the audience unable to continue to invest in the story. Another difficulty, which is also what Disney is facing now, is that the investment amount of feature animation is even greater than expected.

In Hollywood at this time, an investment of $500,000 can be regarded as a big production.

However, Disney spent $600,000, but only completed less than one-third of the plot of the entire animation.

Such a huge investment ratio is quite rare even in Hollywood.

Of course, this is also related to Disney's first production of a feature-length animated film. After all, no animation studio has ever had such experience before.

During the production process of the entire film, Walt Disney had no reference and could only rely on his own judgment.

Walt Disney is not an existence that is easily knocked down. After the excitement, he regained his original calmness. If it weren't for the slight redness in his eyes, it would be hard to imagine that his emotions were out of control before.

"In exchange, I will transfer part of Disney's equity to you, although I know that this is not enough to thank Colin for your support for Disney's animation production."

Taking a deep breath and calming down his emotions, Walt Disney took the initiative to propose the plan to hand over the studio shares to Colin. This was also what he had agreed with Luo Yin before he left for New York.

Colin did not refuse this.

Especially from the perspective of outsiders, investing in such an animated film is a very risky practice, and one could lose all his money if he is not careful.

Even Disney itself does not dare to guarantee that the animation of "Snow White" will make money after it is produced.

】

After all, there has never been such a long animated film before.

"In fact, if Walt hadn't come here, I would have planned to go to Los Angeles in a while."

After simply finalizing the investment in "Snow White", Colin changed the subject.

"If possible, I hope Disney can make a TV animation about Superman, and I plan to play it on the TVs produced in the factory."

During this period, with the official production of the Messenger TV Factory, the first batch of TVs have also begun to enter the market.

Although the sales of TVs only exist in a small range due to the Great Depression, this does not prevent Colin from making Superman animations in advance.

After all, as a latecomer, Colin knows very well that the development of television is unstoppable.

Of course, he can also directly produce a live-action TV series about Superman in one step.

However, the current production model of radio stations has not been completely transformed, and the mainstream is still based on various radio programs.

Especially in terms of cameras, the electronic camera modified by Ferro Farnsworth is not enough to support long-term TV series shooting, and the cost of shooting TV series with film is too high.

Especially in this era, unless you invest like Howard Hughes regardless of cost, it is difficult to fully express Superman's abilities through TV series shooting.

Therefore, instead of spending a lot of money to invest in the production of live-action dramas, it is better to choose animation with lower costs.

Especially for Disney, although Walt Disney is still trying new technologies in the field of long-form animation, he already has sufficient creative experience in short-form animation, and can completely create Superman TV animation that can be broadcast on TV according to Colin's ideas.

Having just accepted Colin's investment in "Snow White", Walt Disney naturally could not refuse his request for Superman animation.

Although the main work of Disney is currently about the production of animated films, this does not mean that Walt Disney will not create other animated shorts during this period.

On the contrary, in addition to the creation of long-form animation, Walt Disney is also making an animated short depicting the Great Depression - "The Three Little Pigs".

On the surface, the story of "The Three Little Pigs" seems to be just describing the interesting struggle between the lazy pigs and the big bad wolf, but whether it is the theme song of the animation "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" or the details of the pigs' lives in the plot, they fully express the sadness and sorrow of people who have no jobs and lost their families during the Great Depression.

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