Chapter 321: Changes to the Ending (1/2)

The plot of the first episode of the TV animation "Superman" is relatively simple.

It mainly revolves around Clark's work in Metropolis and the story of stopping the out-of-control plane after transforming into Superman.

Although the whole story is old-fashioned, it best represents the essence of superheroes.

Just like the love story of Prince Charming falling in love with Cinderella, although it is old-fashioned, it has always been interpreted into various works.

The same is true for the story of superheroes, especially as the animation producer Disney, which is best at turning decay into magic and turning an old-fashioned story into a moving plot.

The whole episode of animation, from character design to background and even the music behind the scenes, greatly exceeded Colin's imagination.

Considering that "Superman" is a TV animation, it does not need to be produced to such a fine degree. Because no matter how exquisitely it is produced, even if it is an animation work of the level of "Snow White", it is destined to only get some distorted black and white pictures when it is played on TV.

This is not a problem with the animation itself, but the TV itself as a medium is not yet fully mature.

The TV sets of this period were far from comparable to those of later generations in terms of performance, screen clarity and size, and the black-and-white picture quality greatly compressed the quality of the work itself.

Unless Colin was willing to devote his energy to helping Philo Farnsworth develop a more advanced TV set, the TV models currently produced by the factory would not be able to fully present the "Superman" animation produced by Disney.

The development of TV sets did not happen overnight. On the contrary, it gradually became what people remember after a long period of development.

In this process, in fact, the development of TV sets itself inevitably took some detours, and even went around in circles for a period of time.

Of course, if Colin wanted to, he could push this development process forward.

However, if he wanted to do this, he first needed to solve the problem of materials, and then he needed to produce a cathode ray tube that met the requirements. If he went further, he even had to design a special plasma display screen to achieve the level of perfectly projecting the picture on the TV screen.

This is destined to be a long process. Even Colin, who has [super brain power], cannot conjure materials out of thin air. He can only conduct experiments in person, and the funds invested behind it are beyond imagination. After all, this is to compress the entire history of television development into a short period of time.

The scientific research level alone is enough to drive the top scientists of this era crazy.

Unfortunately, Colin has no intention of investing in scientific research. His only purpose in producing televisions is to use them as a means of collecting [belief].

Research and development can indeed turn the current televisions with many restrictions into products that are more in line with public expectations, but considering the economic situation of the Great Depression, Colin does not think that such a beautiful machine can bring much profit to himself, and even a large amount of cost investment will cause more people to be afraid of televisions, thus affecting the current unstable television market.

Therefore, it is better to take it step by step.

Colin is not the only one who is optimistic about the television market. When enough funds flow into the market, even if Colin does not participate, someone will take the initiative to push televisions to a better, no, more profitable direction.

…

"Very good, it completely matches the image of Superman in my mind."

In Disney Studios, with the appearance of Disney's logo at the end of the film, an episode of "Superman" animation ended.

In the studio, Walt and others looked at Colin nervously, waiting for his final comments.

Colin is currently the investor of Disney's "Snow White" and the only one willing to support Walt to continue making feature-length animations. It is precisely because of this relationship that Disney has also invested a lot of effort in the production of "Superman" animation. As a taciturn animator, Walt is not as good at building connections as his brother Luo Yin. So in order to express his gratitude to Colin, Walt will still make it with all his heart after knowing that "Superman" is an animation that will only be broadcast on TV, and the finished product effect even far exceeds Colin's previous requirements.

"But..."

Hearing Colin's praise, Walt couldn't help but smile on his thin face, but before the corners of his mouth rose, Colin's next words made Walt's smile solidify again.

The entire Disney studio was also in a state of silence because of his words.

"Perhaps the last scene of the animation of Superman can be slightly changed."

At the end of the animation produced by Disney, Superman stopped the falling plane and put it safely on the ground, saving the passengers on the plane.

The change proposed by Colin was to let Superman who stopped the plane not put it down but lift it up and hold it to continue flying.

At the same time, at the end of the animation, add lines in the form of narration.

"Give them hope, when they gaze at the sunrise, Superman is with them."

Although it was just a simple change in Colin's words, it meant that a large number of animation drawings needed to be revised or even painted in the animation production.

However, Walt did not complain about this, but expressed admiration for the new ending proposed by Colin.

From the simple draft sketched by Colin in the studio, Superman slowly rose up with the plane and crossed with the sun, and under his feet was the city scene of the metropolis.

Even though it was just a draft, Walt could still show the shock brought by the production of this animation scene.

Epic feeling, this was the first time Walt had this feeling from animation.

…

"Good evening, Mr. Otto Kahn."

In the Ussrill Restaurant on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles.

"Good evening, Mr. Colin Luper."

Take off the hat and greet Colin in the restaurant. Otto Kahn sat down in front of him skillfully and turned his head to signal the waiter.

Otto Kahn is currently the main person in charge of Paramount's reorganization.

The purpose of Colin's trip to Hollywood, in addition to seeing the finished product of "Superman" animation, is also to meet with Paramount's reorganization team, even in order to be higher than the TV animation.

"The European cuisine here is very distinctive, especially the mushroom toast and turkey with cheese sauce, which have always been the signature dishes. If Mr. Otto Kahn doesn't mind, you can try them."

Looking up at Otto Kahn's oval face and thick beard for a while, Colin retracted his gaze and recommended casually.

"Really?"

Faced with Colin's recommendation, Otto Kahn lowered his head to look at the menu in his hand, turned to the waiter and said, "Give me a mushroom toast, seafood and vegetable salad, turkey with cheese sauce, and a glass of lemon juice."

Although the news of the abolition of the Prohibition is getting more and more intense, it has not been officially announced after all, so all major restaurants still tacitly do not provide any alcoholic beverages.

The waiter nodded and left the table.

Otto Kahn then turned his gaze back to Colin in front of him. Although Otto was a little surprised by Colin's invitation, he did not dare to be careless or neglectful.

After all, the other party is a famous newspaper tycoon in New York. The circulation of the Courier World under his control exceeds one million. At the same time, he has made great achievements in other fields, especially the television industry. Even Otto Kahn, who is far away in Los Angeles, has heard of him, not to mention that he has a very close relationship with President Roosevelt.

During the second fireside chat, he was invited to participate.

Otto Kahn naturally did not dare to refuse easily when a newspaper tycoon with such a strong political and business relationship contacted him.

The collapse of the financial trust caused many bankers to go bankrupt instantly, and even Otto Kahn himself suffered huge losses in the process.

Now that he has finally stabilized, he does not want to become a target of the government because of some things.

Judging from the current direction of President Roosevelt's new policy, the rectification of the banking industry is inevitable.

While Otto Kahn was looking at Colin, Colin was also looking at Otto.

Otto Kahn is also a legendary figure. He is the prototype of the rich man in the famous American game "Monopoly". The luxurious mansion Oheka Castle, which cost $11 million to build, is considered to be the prototype of Gatsby's mansion in the works of the famous American writer Fitzgerald. He and his son Roger are also the first father and son to appear on the cover of "Time".

Of course, Colin met with Otto Kahn not to discuss the issue of luxury houses with him.

What he values ​​is the Paramount assets that are currently being reorganized in Otto Kahn's hands.

In addition to being an investment banker, Otto Kahn is also a famous art sponsor. This may be why he was chosen to be the head of Paramount's restructuring team.

"Not bad."

The cheese sauce well conceals the roughness of the turkey meat, giving people a completely different taste experience.

Picking up the juice at hand and gently touching it with Colin in front of him, as the food in front of them gradually disappears, the topic of the two people gradually begins to get to the point from the original polite chat.

"It is said that Mr. Otto Kahn is in charge of Paramount's restructuring?"

Here? !

Otto Kahn's heart tightened slightly when he heard Colin's seemingly casual question. He took a sip of the lemon juice in the glass and nodded in reply.

"Yes, in the early days of the Great Depression, Paramount had serious internal financial problems due to excessive expansion. Therefore, after being declared bankrupt by the Federal District Court of New York, it began to conduct restructuring assessments after being authorized by the bank."

These are all public information, so Otto Kahn has no intention of hiding it.

"Does Mr. Otto Kahn think that Paramount's restructuring is likely to be completed?"

"It is highly likely that the restructuring will be successfully completed. Paramount's real problem is caused by overexpansion and the use and overvalued purchase of Paramount shares. Therefore, as long as the financial statements are reorganized to solve some false reporting problems, the restructuring should be completed, and even the company's original team can be retained."

Retaining the original leadership team may be a good thing for Paramount, but it is obviously not what Colin is happy to see.

If Paramount just retained the team and completed the reorganization, then his idea of ​​intervening in Flashlight Studios would naturally be shattered.

"As far as I know, Paramount's problem is not just as simple as over-expansion."

Putting down the knife and fork in his hand, picking up a handkerchief to wipe the sauce from his mouth, Colin looked at Otto Kahn in front of him and said.

"Paramount's 'bundling sales' behavior has touched the restrictions of antitrust laws. There are antitrust lawsuits against Paramount in Los Angeles and Chicago."

The problem Colin raised was actually one of the things that troubled Otto Kahn.

The birth of Hollywood was actually originally to fight against Edison's patent monopoly.

As early as 1891, Edison and his assistant William Dickson completed the invention of the moving picture projector and applied for a patent.

In 1909, he joined nine production companies at the time to form the Edison Film Patent Alliance and collected patent licensing fees. As long as the cinema wants to show movies, it needs to pay a patent fee of $5 per week; to distribute movies, it needs to pay $5,000 per year. Failure to pay the fee is infringement.

After the establishment of the Film Patent Alliance, Edison not only sued those who made and showed movies everywhere, but also relied on himself as the only legal person to show movies, copying other people's movies everywhere to show them without paying any copyright fees.

In order to monitor filmmakers, Edison even set up a strict intelligence network to find out who secretly made movies without patent authorization.

Then he asked thugs to break into the studio and shoot at the movie projectors that he had not authorized.

Under Edison's oppression, filmmakers fled New Jersey, Edison's base, and ran to Los Angeles on the west coast of the United States.

Of course, Los Angeles was originally chosen as the base of the Hollywood studio not because of the weather and scenery here, but purely because it is close to Mexico, and it would be convenient to escape if Edison really sent someone here.

Fortunately, however, this group of filmmakers did not wait for Edison's patent pursuit in the end.

On the contrary, because of what Edison and his patent company did, a monopoly had been formed.

In 1915, with the Supreme Court's ruling, the patent company founded by Edison was also dissolved.

This was the first application of the US "antitrust law" in the film industry.

It was precisely because of Edison's fall that this group of filmmakers who left could come to the fore, and in the years that followed, they relied on their own tough means to reach the power center of the film industry, and the film studios they established formed a new monopoly.

The dragon slayer eventually becomes the dragon, which is also confirmed in the film industry.

As the leader among them, Paramount has taken monopoly to the extreme. Through mergers and acquisitions of small companies, it has formed a behemoth that integrates film production, distribution, and screening.