[Chapter 927: The Antitrust Issues]
Early in the morning, Eric left the apartment of Kristanna Loken and Qusie Gauff and returned to his place on Sixth Avenue. He was preparing to take his two female assistants with him to the UK. However, probably because he had promised to return last night and then stood the girls up, Eric found that Caroline and Melanie were effectively giving him the silent treatment. They didn't completely ignore him, but their interactions felt noticeably business-like.
Melanie seemed to take it in stride, but it was the first time Caroline displayed this behavior. The look on her young face, trying to maintain a stern expression yet appearing somewhat guilty, intrigued Eric. He decided to play along and put on the facade of a boss.
The private jet took off from MacArthur Airport in the middle of Long Island, entering the clouds to embark on the long journey of over ten hours.
Casually flipping through some documents in the lounge area of the plane with Melanie, Eric waited until after lunch when Caroline finally couldn't hold back and glanced towards the front cabin where the luxurious suite was located.
"Mel, do you think we shouldn't be ignoring Eric? I mean, he is our boss after all."
Melanie shook a thick screenplay in her hand, it was Iron Man: "Carly, you really do seem like Pepper Potts, always standing by your boss's side while he pulls one ridiculous stunt after another, and then you're left cleaning up the mess."
Caroline had also read the Iron Man script, and she sometimes helped Eric run lines. Deep down, she felt Eric had a lot in common with the character in the script. Could it be that his ideal assistant resembled Pepper Potts? However, helping him shake off women after one-night stands was quite an awkward situation to be in.
Seeing the glimmer in Caroline's eyes, Melanie helplessly tapped her thick script against her forehead and said, "Alright, just go check on your boss. You're impossible!"
When Caroline saw Melanie's visibly disappointed expression, she instinctively shook her head. "Then... I won't go."
"Go on, go on," Melanie waved her hand, then stood up with finality. "Let's go, I'll go with you."
"But," Caroline hesitated again, "What excuse do we have to go over?"
"There's been a huge pile of things built up these last few days, we don't need an excuse."
With that, Melanie pulled Caroline to the presidential suite in the front cabin.
...
The space in the aircraft's presidential suite was not big, but the layout was very complete. After searching around, Melanie and Caroline found Eric completely engrossed in drawing something on a sheet of letter-sized paper.
Not wanting to disturb him just yet, the two girls carefully seated themselves on the adjoining sofa. They soon noticed several completed drawings on the coffee table in front of them and couldn't help but lean in with curiosity.
At first glance, these seemed to be concept art for a movie, albeit with an exceptionally refined style. The details of the space station and astronauts were incredibly clear. In fact, thin cables connecting the two astronauts to the fragile space station made the two women feel a sense of concern for the astronauts depicted, who clearly seemed to be in danger.
Taking a moment to appreciate the artwork, Melanie looked up at Eric. She wanted to peel back the top drawing and see what else was depicted, but she worried that the sound of rustling paper might disturb him.
Caroline also lifted her head only to lock eyes with Eric, quickly looking away in embarrassment.
"I was wondering where that girl's perfume was coming from, so it's you two!" Eric joked. Hearing this, Melanie couldn't help but roll her eyes, thinking she had just begun to admire him a bit when he revealed his true colors again.
Caroline, on the other hand, blushed and lowered her head, playing with the edge of her clothes, contemplating whether she should borrow some of Melanie's perfume. She wasn't very accustomed to using it.
Noticing the two girls' silence, Eric set his pencil down and turned his chair toward them. "Alright, I'll apologize first. I shouldn't have agreed to return last night and then stood you both up."
Caroline instinctively shook her head, saying nothing. But Melanie chimed in, "Eric, you really do owe an apology. Carly prepared dinner for you last night."
Melanie didn't go into too much detail, but Eric could imagine Caroline's disappointed expression. He looked at her sincerely and said, "I'm really sorry, Carly. I promise it won't happen again. Tonight's dinner is on me, as compensation for last night."
"It's okay, Eric," Caroline shook her head again, her sorrowful expression from last night fading without her realizing it.
Meanwhile, Melanie's expression turned slightly strange. Due to some preconceived notions, she felt the scene resembled that of a clueless dad trying to placate his naive daughter: "Hey, Daddy won't smoke anymore. Daddy won't drink anymore. Daddy won't go out and fool around anymore."
Melanie did not think this was mere speculation because her father often told her similar things, and it generally didn't pan out.
As Eric conversed with Caroline, he noticed the odd look on Melanie's face and inquired curiously, "Mel, what's wrong?"
"Nothing," Melanie quickly collected her thoughts, shaking her head. She then pointed at the drawings on the coffee table and asked, "Eric, are these scenes from Gravity?"
Eric nodded, bringing over the drawing he'd just finished and seated himself on the sofa opposite the two girls. "What do you think?"
Melanie looked at the piece Eric had set down, depicting a woman curled up like a baby inside a space capsule. She could even feel the loneliness and despair emanating from the subject in the drawing.
"Very impressive!" Melanie exclaimed, not holding back anymore, and alongside Caroline, she admired each of Eric's concept drawings, finally adding, "Eric, if you keep drawing more like this, you might really be able to hold an art exhibition!"
"Oh, thank you," Eric chuckled in response.
Melanie continued, "But Eric, do you really think these visuals can perfectly translate to the big screen? Setting aside other issues, just the challenge of depicting zero gravity isn't that straightforward. Based on the concepts in your memo, this film essentially takes place entirely in space. You can't use NASA's zero-gravity simulator like in Apollo 13 two years back. I think if we try using wires, it'll make it even harder to portray these scenes accurately, as actors definitely won't be able to move freely with wires."
For regular audiences, after watching an outstanding film, they mostly judge it based on acting, screenplay, and the storyline. However, directors primarily ponder how such an exceptional film gets made.
As someone who had always aspired to be a film director, Eric was no exception. When he had seen Gravity, he had felt exhilarated and initially considered how the director had executed those exquisitely choreographed long takes and resolved the persistent challenges in space films like zero gravity. In this age of information explosion on the internet, figuring these issues out had become a lot easier.
Upon hearing Melanie's question, Eric confidently explained, "First off, the sensation of weightlessness is basically a feeling of floating without the pull of gravity. Generally, since a cameraman must be grounded during these shots, the only way to achieve that sensation is to suspend actors on wires. Alternatively, like in Apollo 13, we would need to spend heavily to create an actual zero-gravity environment."
Melanie and Caroline still looked a bit puzzled, clearly not grasping the concept entirely, and just waited for Eric to continue.
Eric thought for a moment, then said, "However, human perception can easily be deceived. To create that sensation of weightlessness, we simply need to adjust the relative positioning between the camera and the actors to give the impression of being completely free from the force of gravity. This way, we can simulate a convincing zero-gravity environment."
Both Melanie and Caroline were very clever. Melanie even lifted her hands, demonstrating a few gestures as she nodded, "That makes sense. But Eric, do you think any cinematographer could handle a camera weighing over thirty pounds while making unrestricted adjustments on the lens?"
As she spoke, she raised her right hand, moving around her left hand in various angles.
Eric laughed and shook his head. "Of course not, but I never said the cinematographer would operate the camera personally! Have you two seen an automotive assembly line?"
The two girls shook their heads in unison.
Eric had to explain, "You must have seen snippets of automotive assembly or images from the news, right? I'm talking about those robotic arms. As I understand it, some precision robotic arms, once their motion paths are set, can achieve an error margin of less than 0.1 millimeters. So to simulate relative positioning for zero gravity, all I need are two such precision robotic arms. One would operate the camera, and the other would support the actor's movements during the performance. In post-production, we can simply remove these robotic arms and combine the results with CG backgrounds; it will yield perfect space shots."
Although they still found it hard to fathom this filming method, Caroline and Melanie had little doubt, considering that Eric was the most professional among the three.
Finally, Caroline asked curiously, "Eric, does that mean this movie will be virtually all CG?"
Eric understood why Caroline asked that and nodded with a smile. "Yes, many CG scenes will indeed be expansive. Interestingly, for CG productions, the more distant the shot, the lower the production cost tends to be because they don't need intricate modeling and rendering. So the movie's budget wouldn't be too high; as long as we solve certain technical challenges, controlling the cost around one hundred million dollars should be feasible."
While one hundred million dollars remained a considerable budget for a big Hollywood production in 1997, with only a handful of films each year exceeding that price tag, for Eric -- having recently helmed two billion-dollar blockbusters even without being the owner of Firefly Group -- asking for a two-hundred-million-dollar production budget would find many studios lining up to provide the funds.
Having spent enough time in Hollywood, Caroline and Melanie could recognize many challenges that would need addressing to create Gravity. However, after listening to Eric's explanations, they completely believed he could tackle all these problems, so they decided to drop the topic of this film and shifted to other discussions.
"Eric, these past few days Carly and I reviewed all the information from the major theaters in North America. We believe that if Firefly is just aiming to promote 3D films, it wouldn't be advisable to make a big splash entering the theater industry."
"Hmm, what are your thoughts?" Eric replied, nodding and smiling.
Melanie glanced at Caroline, whose eyes were sparkling. In truth, most of the ideas were ones Caroline had initially introduced. But now, Caroline was too shy to change her demeanor in front of Eric, so Melanie took it upon herself to say, "If Firefly enters the theater industry, small chains definitely wouldn't satisfy the company's appetite. The top three theater chains in North America own over 14,000 screens, mostly high-end cinemas in prime locations. Hence, Firefly can only pursue acquisitions of these three companies. However, once Firefly does this, it will undoubtedly provoke strong backlash from other film companies in Hollywood. They would never allow Firefly to control thousands of prime screens, so regardless of which of the three we target, the possibility of clearing antitrust investigations is quite slim."
Eric thought it over and nodded. "Anything else?"
Melanie continued, "Additionally, when it comes to promoting 3D films, I think we don't need to go through such trouble. Most cinemas under the top three chains have over five screens each. We wouldn't be able to convert all screens to 3D if we were to buy them. Therefore, at least in the domestic market, we can opt for a cooperative approach. We could invest funds in these big chains for a stake, selecting a portion of the best locations to convert into 3D theaters. If we mastered the 3D projection systems and conversion technologies, we wouldn't just promote 3D plans without triggering antitrust issues, but we would also create a flooring monopoly in the 3D film market."
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