Travel through the Qing Dynasty and become emperor

Chapter 489
Edison and the people present were full of praise.

Qiao Zhiyong added: "Of course, I don't mean that we can voluntarily give up our rights. However, our rights protection should not be limited to short-term interests, but long-term interests. I think the prospects of the film industry are far beyond ours. What we see in front of us will be an extremely broad market in the future. This market is so big that our company cannot monopolize it. For this long-term benefit, it is better for us to become the rule-makers of this industry rather than become the industry enemies of the

"Oh? Then how do you say we should do it?" Edison asked.

"For those movie theaters. We have to take extra serious legal measures to protect our interests. Because these guys didn't get our authorization, they used to steal the film to show the movie. In this way, the market is serious, so as to make an example! And for those filming Movie people, while we make it clear that movie patents belong to our company, we should not suppress them too much. You must know that these film production teams are obviously not very rich. If we want to levy huge patent fees on them, it is obviously impossible to receive them. , will only have these people quietly hiding in places we can't think of to continue making movies."

"Wait! I think that if the film studios can't afford the licensing fee, it doesn't matter if they are strictly suppressed. We can make films ourselves. A film like "The Great Train Robbery" has never been successful before. No!" The editor-director Edwin is a very fast-talking person, and sometimes even seems a little aggressive.

"No! I said that this market will become bigger and bigger, and the audience will get tired of it after a long time just because of the few movies we have made. Moreover, even if we are the only ones making movies in the United States, what about Britain and France? , they, the film industry started earlier, and it is much more developed than here. If there are only a few of our films in the United States, I think most of the cinemas will be occupied by British and French films. At that time. We will It’s more worth the loss.”

Edwin sighed: "Mr. Qiao Zhiyong is really a great wise man who can stand at the forefront of the times, I am convinced."

Qiao Zhiyong smiled faintly: "I'm nothing, these viewpoints were taught to me by others. Hehe"

At this moment, Mary Pickford, the beautiful blonde girl who had been sitting silently beside Edwin, suddenly smiled and said to Qiao Zhiyong: "Mr. Do you have a wife?"

Qiao Zhiyong was startled, not knowing how to answer this question.

Edison said with a smile: "This is the famous actress Mary Pickford. Regardless of her young age, she is already the most famous screen actress in the United States. She is known as America's sweetheart."

Qiao Zhiyong's eyes fell on Mary Pickford. She looked only about 14 years old, but she was actually 16 years old. She was wearing a navy blue serge suit, a blue and white striped shirt, and a gold-rimmed Tuscan sailor cap. It was decorated with a blue bowknot, and her face was so bright, so cute, and so gentle. Qiao Zhiyong nodded politely, and then said, "Why did Miss Mary suddenly ask His Majesty the Emperor?"

Mary Pickford's blue eyes twinkled, radiating a charming and flawless brilliance, "Mr. Qiao Zhiyong, I don't mind expressing to you my respect and admiration for His Majesty the Emperor, I also very much hope to have the opportunity to meet with His Majesty the Emperor. Please be sure to convey my greetings to His Majesty the Emperor."

Qiao Zhiyong was really at a loss. Hearing the American girl express her love to the emperor so blatantly, she wanted to laugh but didn't dare to laugh. She turned to look at Edison, who said calmly, "Americans are like this, this is the cultural difference between East and West. "

Looking at Mary Pickford's sincere expression, she didn't look like she was joking at all, so she nodded and said, "Okay, okay, I will definitely forward it to the emperor when I have the chance."

Not long after, the China Film Company announced its establishment. From the very beginning, the company expanded outwards from Los Angeles, invested heavily in the establishment of more movie theaters, and strived to form a huge theater chain in the United States.In addition, investing a lot of money in filming, in fact, only making good films is the key to becoming a dominant player in the film industry.There are no good movies as patent protection expires.The influence of China Film Company will gradually lose.

At this time, Qiao Zhiyong came up with a new method, establishing a star training academy under the Zhonghua Film Company, relying on the University of California, to professionally train actors and actresses who are interested in film performance careers, and sign a 20-year contract for potential students. The company is responsible for arranging the participation plan and packaging plan.For a while, young people aged 14 to 25 from all over the United States gathered in Los Angeles to sign up.To a certain extent, it is aimed at the advertising slogan of the Star Training Academy. This advertisement declares to people with unparalleled courage: "Create an actor who is more famous than the President of the United States!" American at its best.

Next, it is busy with the planning and construction projects of Hollywood Town.

Hollywood.This is a small town built on a piece of 1886-acre land bought by real estate agent Harvey Wilcox in 0.6.

At the beginning, Wilcox's wife Deda was passing through Chicago on her way to California.She saw a building surrounded by holly trees and struck up a conversation with a woman.As a result, the Chicago woman said that the plant was called holly, and the English literal translation was "Hollywood", and her house was also called Hollywood.Deda remembers the name Hollywood, remembers Holly.

After coming to Los Angeles, Deida planted many holly trees.Although none of the holly trees Dida planted successfully survived.However, the land is still named after Hollywood.

After that, the couple built a lot of buildings here.Attracted some people to settle here, but also brought a lot of profits to their real estate business.

But a sudden financial turmoil made the Harveys almost bankrupt, and finally had to resell the land to the state. After several sales by the state, no one was interested in the land.After Qiao Zhiyong came to California, he not only bought Hollywood, but also bought a large piece of land around this small town, because he had a huge movie kingdom plan brewing in his mind. While planning and building the central area, he also had to consider the surrounding supporting environment planning.

When California saw such a big customer, it was so happy from ear to ear, it immediately passed a bill to upgrade Hollywood from a town to a city-level region.The arrival of Qiao Zhiyong was warmly welcomed by Wilcox, a down-and-out real estate agent: "Mr. Qiao Zhiyong, on behalf of the residents of Hollywood, I welcome you to invest here! It has good municipal construction, and at the same time, the land is cheap and the living environment is quiet. Compared with the noisy world, this place is as peaceful as another world.”

Qiao Zhiyong looked around, and said, "The downtown area of ​​Los Angeles is too lively, while the surrounding countryside has poor supporting facilities. Hollywood is relatively quiet and has some infrastructure. It's better for a film company to open here."

"Movie?" Wilcox was taken aback, because although movies can be seen in downtown Los Angeles, people in Hollywood have not seen such a new thing as movies.

"Yes! Movie! It's a thing invented by Edison. It can record the image of a person just like a photo. But the image on the photo is fixed and still. The picture of the movie is moving, and it vividly records what people are doing. The movements are like people living in the painting."

Wilcox's heart moved, and he suddenly thought, yes, why didn't I think of developing the film industry here at the beginning, but it's too late to regret it now, this land has already had nothing to do with my name.

Qiao Zhiyong said with a smile: "Soon we will show a movie in the open air for residents of Hollywood to watch. You are also welcome to come. This open air screening is free. It will be a meeting gift from our company to Hollywood."

Three days later, Qiao Zhiyong moved the Zhonghua Film Company here.The first thing the company did was to set up a local movie theater in Hollywood, which still showed "The Great Train Robbery". More than 300 local residents in Hollywood aroused strong interest in the movie, and the cheap consumption of only 5 nickels attracted the audience. I linger and forget to return, often watching more than a dozen movies a week.

Next, Zhonghua Film Company invited the most famous director Mérieux from France with a lot of money.

Merieux was originally a French stage magician and theater manager, and later established a "photo studio" in Montreuil, which is the earliest "studio" in the world. At the beginning, he saw a book "Magic" published in the United States. Inspired by this book, he abandoned the "scientific film" of shooting location films and recording natural phenomena. Instead, he was inspired by magic and made a move on "rehearsal film" and "deformation film". thought.Therefore, when shooting movies, he used various methods such as optical effects, art, scenery, special effects, magic, stage mechanism settings, models, etc. to enrich the magic and imaginative artistic effects of movies.

He shot the film of the same name based on Jules Verne's science fiction novel "Travel to the Moon". .Due to Mérieux's outstanding achievements in the film industry, he is known as the "movie magician"

Now Zhonghua Film Company has Edwin, the most successful commercial film director in the United States, director of "The Great Train Robbery", and Mérieux, the world-recognized art film master. With these two magic weapons alone, it is enough to make Zhonghua Film Company It is unique in the American film industry, and its scenery is unparalleled.

(End of this chapter)