hollywood melon man

Chapter 640 New Direction for the Future

Back to the production of the series, although so many things happened this summer, most of Gilbert's energy was still focused on the production of "Edgewalker".

The filming has ended, but that doesn't mean the production of the entire series is over.

Although Edgewalker was produced using a lot of real-life shooting, there were still many special effects shots that needed to be processed. Even before the filming began, the overall 3D structure of Night City had already been made.

Aesthetic design is a crucial point, and the cyberpunk psychedelic electronic style is one of the main art design points of the series.

Art director Selina Heffey held several meetings with art and special effects to establish the art style, and then digital models were created bit by bit and used in production.

Gilbert Jr. explicitly said that building a world from scratch might be more complicated at first and would cost more money and effort.

But this is only temporary. These digital assets will play a significant role in the production of movies or TV series on related topics in the future.

Another job done by the special effects engineers at Orange Studio is the scanning of digital assets.

Night City is a fictional West Coast city, but Gilbert Jr. hopes that the audience can find some traces of the real world in it.

Therefore, some of Los Angeles’ landmark buildings will also be made into digital assets and appear in various forms in the series or future works.

For example, the famous Hollywood sign, the Griffith Observatory, the beach in the satellite city of Santa Monica, and the Hollywood Walk of Fame were all scanned.

The appearance of these familiar landmark buildings in the series will give the audience a sense of familiarity, and they will also feel that the stories happening in Night City are the stories that will happen in the near future.

Although it is a new IP, the project is going smoothly thanks to the team's tacit cooperation over the years and Gilbert's overall control.

Although Warner Bros. has a new president and has revealed that it will decouple from Cantaloupe Studios, the resources it provides to Edgewalker have not been reduced.

"EdgeWalker" is a ten-episode limited series that has been confirmed to be broadcast on Warner's HBO and Disney's pay-per-view channel.

"After the first round of broadcasting, we can also resell the network broadcasting rights, as well as the second and third round broadcasting rights." This is what Gilbert Jr. said to producer Charles Roven.

"There are also DVDs, which are also a considerable source of income," said Charles Rowan.

The DVD market is still very hot today. Before the era of smartphones and mobile Internet arrived, the market size of DVD has always been good.

However, DVD also faces a problem, that is the impact of piracy.

In my previous life, I heard many people say that copyright protection in foreign countries is very good, that there is a strong sense of authenticity, and that there are not many pirated goods. But only after experiencing it myself did I realize that these words are very untrue.

You should know that genuine products are not cheap. A peripheral product produced in China costs only a few dollars but can be sold at a high price of dozens of dollars. Many people have to save money to buy one.

The same is true for DVDs. The DVD of Edgewalker is expected to be released in the fall of next year, divided into three levels: regular edition, hardcover edition, and deluxe edition, and the price of each edition is different.

For example, the deluxe version will be sold for $59.9, and comes with posters, setting collections, etc. It is very attractive to movie fans, but the price is really expensive.

This is when pirated products come into play. Although the workmanship and quality are not as good as the original ones, they are cheaper!
These pirated goods greatly satisfy those ordinary movie fans who want the movies but are short of money.

Gilbert's films have always been the hardest hit by piracy. Starting with the "Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" series, many pirated copies produced by Mexican gangs' workshops have flowed into the United States.

Mexican drug dealers suddenly found that piracy was more profitable than drug trafficking, so many border gangs started to engage in piracy vigorously. Just last month, Fobole seized a case of piracy smuggling. It included peripherals of various popular movies, DVDs, etc., worth more than 10 million US dollars.

Agent Fobble even discovered several five-meter-tall models of Transformers' robotic life forms, including Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, and Megatron.

Although the major Hollywood companies are fighting overtly and covertly, they are still united in fighting piracy. However, after so many years of fighting, there has been little effect. After all, where there is demand, there will be a market, and there will be people who will take risks to do it.

Moreover, piracy not only makes more profit than drug trafficking, but the crime you face if caught is also less serious. It really is a good business.

To this end, Robert Iger had previously discussed with several major Hollywood giants and was preparing to lobby Washington to enact legislation to severely crack down on piracy.

Criminalize those who engage in piracy and make them pay the price, otherwise the criminal cost of piracy will be too small.

It’s hard to say about other pirated products, but DVD piracy will become increasingly difficult in the future because the Internet will eventually replace the role of DVDs.

But online videos will also face a new problem, that is, the problem of pirated resource websites. Nowadays, there are many similar pirated resource websites. As soon as a movie is released in theaters, so-called high-definition resources appear on the Internet.

Cinema companies are also currently cracking down on piracy, but with little success.

Fortunately, the so-called high-definition resources are actually quite blurry, far inferior to the viewing experience in a cinema.

Therefore, few people will go online to search for resources, unless they actively release high-definition resources like "Transformers", but in fact it is for publicity.

Another type of pirated video resource is the one that is stolen from legitimate video websites and put online.

Nowadays, there are many legitimate video websites on the Internet. There are more than a dozen video websites of all sizes, and many of them have received investments from venture capital institutions.

But the biggest player in the industry is undoubtedly Xigua Video, which is owned by Xigua Company, which is controlled by Fruit Group. Mark, the new chief content officer of Xigua Video, announced plans to produce original content for the platform in the future.

"We believe that the future development of streaming platforms will be beyond imagination. Xigua Video will focus on the future and launch our own content."

“So do you have a rough plan? For example, what will be the first content produced?”

“In fact, we have acquired many well-known IP copyrights, which are all within the plan. At present, our internal priority is Michael Dobbs’ novel House of Cards.

In fact, the whole plan came from director Gilbert Jr., who is a fan of the original book and the British version of "House of Cards". We will move the story from the UK to the United States, and I believe it will give the audience a different experience. "

When they heard that it was a plan from little Gilbert, for some reason, the audience felt much more at ease.

After all, Gilbert Jr. has become a golden sign, and no matter what project he takes on, it seems that he will be successful.

But the reporters were more concerned about other questions: "Will director Gilbert Jr. direct it himself?"

After all, Gilbert Jr. directed "Edgewalker" himself, so it would not be a problem for him to direct another "House of Cards".

To this, Mark replied: "Director Gilbert Jr. will serve as the general producer and will be responsible for the advancement of our entire content."

(End of this chapter)