I am Hollywood

[Chapter 705: Let's Go Take a Look]

As Alan Hassenfeld finished speaking, another voice came from behind him. "Eric, would you mind sharing your thoughts on Transformers?"

Eric turned his head to see Michael Eisner and Edgar Bronfman approaching side by side. They had quickly noticed Alan Hassenfeld engaging with Eric and rushed over to prevent any potential negotiations over the Transformers rights.

Though Firefly appeared indifferent on the surface regarding the Transformers copyrights, no one could deny they were a formidable competitor. Alan Hassenfeld's proactive approach had created a sense of urgency for Michael Eisner and Edgar Bronfman. If they allowed Eric to walk away with the Transformers rights at a Universal party, they would become the laughingstock of Hollywood.

"Of course, no problem, Michael," Eric said with a smile, clearly not minding Michael Eisner's eavesdropping. In fact, he hoped his upcoming remarks would circulate throughout Hollywood.

As Michael Eisner and Edgar Bronfman moved closer, some guests from other studios, noticing the gathering, casually joined in, equally interested in the Transformers rights.

Standing beside Eric, Diane Kruger and Cindy Crawford observed in just a few short minutes how Eric had once again become the center of attention. The film executives, whom they usually found difficult to engage with, crowded around Eric, listening intently with no airs about them. While Diane and Cindy clung to Eric's arm without issue, Linda Evangelista and the other three women were unceremoniously pushed to the outskirts of the group, their gazes toward the two more privileged women tinged with envy.

Although Diane and Cindy realized these big shots were not particularly interested in them, they couldn't shake a feeling of strange satisfaction and pride.

Alan Hassenfeld, watching the crowd and Eric's confident demeanor, felt an uneasy sensation and regretted approaching Eric to chat. Eric certainly didn't seem like someone who intended to say good things about Transformers.

Moreover, given Eric's status in Hollywood, his words certainly wouldn't be easily brushed off. Alan Hassenfeld doubted Eric would simply make noise to suppress the value of the Transformers' rights.

...

Sure enough, after patiently waiting for everyone to gather around, Eric said, "Hearing everyone recently express interest in the Transformers movie rights sparked my curiosity about this toy franchise. I even contemplated some production ideas privately, but ultimately concluded that under current conditions, Transformers doesn't have much adaptation value. If a live-action film were forced, the cost and risks would be extremely high."

Had there not been someone indirectly tying the Transformers film rights to Firefly, this many people wouldn't have been involved in the scramble. When Eric spoke these words, nine out of ten people didn't believe him but were also in no hurry to contradict him.

Eric looked around and continued, "In my vision, if we were to make a live-action movie, the design of the Transformers should be a complex and intricate mechanical life form made up of hundreds or thousands of components, transitioning seamlessly between car and robot forms. After discussing my ideas in detail with the visual effects engineers at Digital Domain, the conclusion was that if we followed this concept, the difficulty of CG effects production would exceed that of Jurassic Park by more than ten times, resulting in astronomical costs."

After Eric's remarks, while Michael Eisner wore a friendly smile, he sharply asked, "Eric, I'm curious. How did you assess that the difficulty of making Transformers is more than ten times that of Jurassic Park?"

Previously, everyone had merely taken Eric's 'ten times' as a descriptive statement of the challenge involved in making Transformers. If Michael Eisner hadn't opened his mouth, no one would have painstakingly dissected his wording.

However, when Michael Eisner seized on this point to challenge Eric, despite their outwardly curious expressions, many in the crowd secretly reveled in the prospect of seeing how Eric would handle such a pointed question.

To their surprise, Eric showed no sign of irritation at all. Hearing Michael Eisner's query, his smile remained. "Michael, I assume you're not familiar with the specific software development, technical testing, and 3D modeling processes involved in CG effects. Let's use the critical aspect of image rendering as an example. Digital Domain's visual effects engineers informed me that if we want to achieve the CG effects I need, every frame of CG effects in the film would require the current state-of-the-art rendering workstation to run continuously for 630 hours."

Hearing gasps of disbelief from those around them, Eric chuckled, "You might find the 630-hour rendering time somewhat unbelievable, but if you don't believe me, feel free to call Digital Domain for confirmation. There's also another caveat: the large post-production rendering farm Digital Domain recently completed in Florida has 10,000 rendering servers. If fully operational, rendering a single frame could take just over three minutes, which might sound trivial. But remember, I'm only talking about one frame. Assuming this film had 30 minutes of special effects scenes, that would involve 43,200 frames. Even if all the rendering parameters were straightforward and required no testing, it would take Digital Domain's rendering farm running at full capacity 115 days just to complete the task. In contrast, Jurassic Park's post-production rendering took about a month, and utilized the nearly obsolete rendering farm at Venice Beach. If you factor in the significant upgrades in scale and equipment, Florida's rendering farm would be eight times the capacity of the Venice Beach rendering farm. Thus, my earlier claim that making Transformers is more than ten times more difficult than Jurassic Park is quite reasonable."

Michael Eisner fell silent, though Alan Hassenfeld pressed on, "Eric, can't the production specifications be reduced a bit?"

"Of course, but I wonder if audiences will buy that," Eric shrugged and added with a grin, "I tend to have a bit of perfectionism, which isn't a great habit when it comes to movie making. So you can ignore what I said earlier; there certainly are cheaper production plans available, including using models for shooting, which would definitely be much cheaper. But I will go see that at the theater."

Their expressions clearly reflected skepticism at Eric's words. If he said that, how could they possibly ignore it?

Eric, however, paid no attention to their burdensome thoughts and, feeling slightly hungry, left the group and headed toward the buffet table in the hall.

...

Cindy Crawford and Diane Kruger followed closely at Eric's side. Even Linda Evangelista and the other two women, who had been pushed out earlier, tagged along.

As they grabbed plates and selected food together, Cindy asked, "Eric, does it really require 630 hours?"

Eric nodded while placing barbecue shrimp on his plate. "Yeah, it involves very complex technical details, but the 600-plus hours of rendering time is real."

Diane added, "So, doesn't that mean Transformers can never be made?"

"Not at all," Eric replied, "According to Moore's Law in the semiconductor industry, computer processing speed doubles every 1.5 to 2 years. So, in ten years, rendering the same frame will just take a little over ten hours. By then, other technologies will develop alongside it, making my earlier thoughts much easier to achieve."

In 1995, the semiconductor industry had only recently begun entering the microprocessor era, with mainstream CPUs still utilizing 0.35-micron processes, leaving a considerable gap before the arrival of the nanometer age. The lowest-level instructions of a computer CPU amounted to millions of transistors emitting a collection of 0s and 1s, and as semiconductor processes advanced according to Moore's Law, the number of transistors on chips of similar scale doubled, effectively doubling the CPU's speed.

A task that could only take ten hours in ten years was now requiring over 600 hours; this limitation wouldn't be easily broken and would require patience as technology evolved. Consequently, now wasn't the right time to make Transformers.

Moreover, Eric's repeated mention of Digital Domain had sent another message: even if others wanted to undertake making Transformers in Hollywood, they couldn't bypass Digital Domain. Only Digital Domain had the capability to handle the special effects for Transformers. While Digital Domain had maintained its independent operation and had never rejected special effects orders from Firefly's competitors, that didn't mean they would always stay on the same side.

Regarding Industrial Light & Magic, most of the CG effects blockbusters in recent years had been produced by Digital Domain. Their continuous stream of orders not only brought in substantial revenues but also provided enough financial strength for ongoing technology research and development. At that moment, Digital Domain had already surpassed Industrial Light & Magic significantly in terms of technological capabilities.

For example, Firefly had invested $100 million in Digital Domain's rendering farm in Florida, and its powerful computing capabilities could support the rendering demands of all Digital Domain's orders. Even if Industrial Light & Magic could scrape together $100 million to build a similarly sized rendering farm, the income from their current CG effects orders may not even cover the costs of maintaining and upgrading such a large-scale farm.

Considering these factors, Eric noted, Cindy Crawford chimed in, "In ten years, it would only be six times at most. How could it turn into just over ten hours?"

Eric paused, then shook his head and smiled, observing the puzzled expressions on the other women. He couldn't help but sigh at the mathematical skills of these beautiful women.

Diane Kruger was the quickest to clarify, "It seems it's not just six times. If it's continuously doubling, it should be two raised to the sixth power -- 64 times. Am I right, Eric?"

"Smart girl," Eric nodded, handing her a shrimp as a reward. "Here, for you."

"Hehe," Diane smiled brightly, glancing at the others, especially Cindy, her expression radiating a hint of pride. With Cindy's proximity to Eric, Diane felt a significant threat.

Cindy noticed Diane's gaze, inwardly scoffing dismissively. Silly girl, how many men actually prefer smart women? However, despite her thoughts, Cindy's expression revealed a touch of disappointment as she leaned closer to Eric, gently saying, "Eric, I want some too."

"Alright, alright," Eric replied, adding a shrimp to Cindy's plate. Noticing the other three women extending their plates as well, he joked, "How about we take this entire tray of shrimp with us?"

Watching Eric feign the act of lifting the entire tray, the women quickly interjected with laughter, "Haha, no, we'd be the talk of the party if we did that."

After eating for a while and dancing with a few women, Eric noticed Alan Hassenfeld, the CEO of Hasbro, had left the party shortly after speaking with him. Eric decided it was time to go as well.

However, looking at Diane Kruger and Cindy Crawford who seemed to be planning to leave with him, and even the expectant eyes of the other three women, Eric could only say: "Cindy, I'm heading home."

"Eric, I've never been to Liberty City. Will you take me there to see it?" Cindy Crawford boldly asked, entirely ignoring Diane Kruger on the other side.

*****

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