Becoming a Movie Star, System Only Finished Loading After Ten Years

Zhang Chenyu not only personally drove to pick up people, but also showed great respect along the way, interacting with Qi Hao's entourage without putting on airs.

Especially after hearing that Qi Hao had invested in eight animation companies, he felt even more disheartened and helpless.

With so many potential collaboration projects, his presence seemed redundant.

The bankruptcy of the special effects company brought with it two pain points and one fear.

The two pain points are "unable to withstand downtime" and "special effects companies cannot undertake unreliable projects."

Downtime...

You still have to pay wages during downtime!

The costs are too high, and one unreliable project could drag the company down.

Plus there's an additional fear.

According to Scott Ross, the general manager of Industrial Light and Magic, the root of fear for special effects companies is that they must curry favor with production companies, otherwise they'll go hungry.

The seemingly impressive business actually occupies the lowest rung of the food chain.

All special effects companies in Hollywood must kowtow to the six major film companies.

Now Qi Hao has integrated so many animation studios.

Downtime?

That's not an issue; just being able to finish the work is good enough, and a lot of business might need to be outsourced.

Unreliable?

After multiple screenings, unreliable projects will be greatly reduced, and Qi Hao, a financially capable man, will help cover any deficits.

Even Zhang Chenyu had heard that Qi Hao was now backed by a Coal Boss from Feiyang Media, with financial power so strong it had billions of US Dollar in funding.

And Qi Hao himself seems to be a low-profile billionaire.

If he wants to throw money around, he can at least whip out one billion US Dollar for a spree.

If the director is unreliable, replace the director; if the producer is unreliable, replace the producer; if the special effects company isn't up to par, the director can naturally be replaced.

As for currying favor with production companies...

Qi Hao himself is the production company.

This model is even more perfect than Hollywood's six major film companies' special effects companies.

The six major companies' special effects companies also face downtime.

Because the competition in Hollywood is fierce, and now the pace of development has become very slow.

Just how fierce is this competition?

When producing Titanic, director James Cameron could not decide whether the special effects portion could go to his company Digital Kingdom; he could only suggest the special effects team to 20th Century Fox.

Before filming began, the studio set a special effects budget of 18 million US Dollar.

Digital Kingdom thought this price was far from sufficient for the effects of Titanic, estimating that the budget should be 27 million US Dollar.

This project also attracted Industrial Light and Magic, the biggest competitor to Digital Kingdom at the time.

Industrial Light and Magic offered the studio a quote of 25 million US Dollar, snagging the project at a cost of a 2-million US Dollar loss.

Digital Kingdom had to lower the budget to 25 million US Dollar to win back the project.

The 2-million loss became the last straw that broke Digital Kingdom's back, but had they not taken on Titanic, Digital Kingdom might have gone bankrupt sooner.

More frustrating was that once the special effects work began, Cameron did not deliver post-production footage to Digital Kingdom on schedule.

They asked Cameron: Where's the film, where's the stuff?

Cameron replied: I'm still filming.

Just like Jiang Wen, capricious, dragging things out, disregarding others' hardship.

While Qi Hao also overspent in filming, he would work overtime to catch up on progress.

He was torturing himself.

After the production plan was disrupted, Digital Kingdom initially burnt through money during downtime, then massively worked overtime to rush progress—eventually having to subcontract some shots to Industrial Light and Magic and VIFX to meet the delivery deadline.

Profits were further diluted.

Due to losses, Digital Kingdom accelerated its bankruptcy process.

If you don't do it, others will rush to do it.

Things are different in Huaxia, where special effects are still reliant on Hollywood and Japan and South Korea special effects teams.

The costs of Hollywood and Japan and South Korea special effects teams are relatively high.

Studios like Naughty Ghost, even though having some Hollywood employees, still have lower costs than Japan and South Korea.

Moreover, the growth rate of the movie market in Huaxia is now the fastest globally, everyone around the world can see it.

It's hard to say when Huaxia will surpass Miguo, but in a few years, it will definitely surpass Neon to become the second largest globally.

Zhang Chenyu felt a wave of anxiety as he soon arrived at the location.

Not exactly a particularly prime real estate, but the surrounding cultural atmosphere was rich.

The studio, with more than eighty people, rented an entire floor, looking especially spacious, with a unique decor style and full of visual effects.

"Here is the modeling group…"

Zhang Chenyu led Qi Hao to tour around, and Qi Hao's fluent English surprised Zhang Chenyu greatly.

When they first met, Qi Hao couldn't even communicate with the foreign employees.

Now he knows many technical terms.

Before Zhang Chenyu, Qi Hao asked numerous professional questions, making both horizontal and vertical comparisons to understand the studio's development situation.

He even inquired about employee compensation issues.

He "once" made an agreement with Zhang Chenyu, setting a five-year period for Zhang Chenyu to help develop the studio, ensuring a technological breakthrough to gradually close the gap with mainstream special effects companies, and under the premise of ensuring employee benefits, allowing Zhang Chenyu to take a certain percentage of the studio's profit as reward.

And Qi Hao, as the boss, takes no profit at all.

Back when Qi Hao acquired Evil Ghost Studio and helped the studio repay part of its debts, he still hasn't recovered those costs.

Now, it seems Qi Hao is starting to get involved in the studio.

Zhang Chenyu feels like his good days are coming to an end.

"This is H1.2.0, an upgraded version of the previous H1. Additionally, there are H2 and H3. H2 generates tens of thousands of US Dollars in usage fees annually. Although H3 hasn't generated revenue yet, its usage prospects are quite broad..."

Feeling apprehensive, he introduced them even more diligently.

Seeing that Qi Hao was interested in technical innovation, Zhang immediately took him to the tech group to introduce core employees and the software development achievements of the past few years.

A company with its own software can make money by selling the software for use by other companies. These software licensing fees are considerable, and any infringement will be prosecuted.

Most special effects companies in Huaxia remain at the level of using others' software.

Operating a special effects company is difficult, largely due to costs - labor costs and technical costs.

Top-notch special effects companies must invest heavily in technology.

Only by mastering core technology can one control everything.

Otherwise, if you use software from others, you're purely working for others.

Companies that can sell software for others to use have usually accumulated technical expertise.

Evil Ghost Studio rose because of the special effects software Hopgoblin developed by Daniel Kingsley.

That's how it managed to break through among a crowd of small companies.

He usually pays attention to technological accumulation.

The company has always had a dedicated tech group, with several employees engaged in software development and optimization.

After Qi Hao acquired Evil Ghost Studio, he particularly cautioned Zhang Chenyu to focus well on technology, accumulate technology and technical personnel.

Now, it seems there are over eighty employees, more than ten of whom are technical personnel.

Not only has the original H1 been revised, but H2 and H3 have been developed, suggesting on the surface that technology is indeed prioritized.

"Old Zhang, you've done a good job."

Qi Hao didn't hesitate to praise him, and as for how the three software programs perform in practice, it will be apparent soon.

Practical experience leads to true knowledge.

He now has numerous capable people under him, so it's not easy to fool him.

Actually, upon seeing the spacious, brightly decorated, uniquely-designed office space and the excellent spirits of the more than eighty employees, Qi Hao was already quite satisfied with Zhang Chenyu.

According to their agreement, if Zhang Chenyu rented a smaller and shabbier place, the money saved would have been his.

Now, the task is to keep drawing a bigger picture for Zhang Chenyu.

Let him keep pace with the rhythm.

"You've trusted me so much, never even coming to supervise for so many years; if I still don't produce any results, then it really would be just freeloading."

Zhang Chenyu breathed a sigh of relief.

Over the years, he has repaid the debts incurred from bankruptcy and bought a house, keeping his family from having to go to public rental houses. It truly is all thanks to Boss Qi.

"I've heard the special effects companies in Hollywood don't seem to be living too well..."

Getting his animation studio personnel to communicate with the special effects staff, Qi Hao pulled Zhang Chenyu to the meeting room.

"Indeed, the American subprime mortgage crisis wiped out a slew of companies, and special effects companies are no exception. Many are still just lingering, and collapse is inevitable sooner or later..."

Zhang Chenyu got up and personally poured tea for Qi Hao.

"That's really great news!"

Qi Hao praised the American subprime mortgage crisis.

"..."

Although it didn't affect us, so many companies went under, and numerous special effects artists lost their jobs; what are you gloating about?

Boss, you can be a bit sinister, huh.

"Those companies might fall, but people still have to live. Do you think we have the opportunity to recruit some top special effects artists from Hollywood?"

Naughty Ghost Studio can independently handle movies with fewer complex special effects.

For truly complex special effects blockbusters, only top-notch special effects companies can manage them.

Or dozens of special effects teams can band together to work on them.

"Actually... it's not impossible," Zhang Chenyu dared not object, but was compelled to advise, "The special effects industry is risky; if the labor costs rise too high, I fear we'll be in the red."

"You can see we're increasingly demanding higher quality special effects, even if we can't rely solely on ourselves. But when such opportunities arise, it's a pity not to strengthen ourselves."

Qi Hao pointed to the people outside engaged in a lively exchange with the technical staff.

The scene was truly bustling.

Especially when everyone knew they shared the same boss.

Wang Chuan immediately wanted to place an order.

He hired a special effects team from Korea and a small team from the mainland, both expensive and unsuitable, forcing him to repeatedly lower the quality of his film animations.

Boss Qi actually had a special effects team, and its technology was better than that of the Korean special effects company.

Why wait?

As for the contract with the Korean special effects team... there's no need to be overly concerned. The contract stipulates that if they fail to meet the client's reasonable demands, the client has the right to terminate the contract unconditionally.

The Korean special effects team was particularly arrogant.

They thought Qingqing Tree didn't have money for a better special effects team, so they would superficially comply, but often demanded Qingqing Tree compromise.

Even transferring elite members to other groups for work.

Compromise your nonsense!

Now I also have a capital-backed daddy to rely on.