Chapter 208: The so-called premonition

Wright Digital Art Center is a very elegant and clean garden. The woods are full of birdsong and flowers, and it can be said that whether it is work or life here, it will be a very pleasant experience.

However, Jobs, who is in the office, is not affected by this garden. He is still walking hurriedly, and even his hands are constantly moving, as if he is a little nervous. Finally, he arrived at the largest office in Pixar Animation Studios. As Steve Jobs walked up to the podium, he clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

'Ladies and gentlemen, please put down your work for a moment. I have an important announcement to make,' Jobs said, 'It's about the Toy Story movie project we're working on. I once asked you to finish it in six months, but now I'm going to bring that time forward to half a month.'

When Steve Jobs finished speaking, there was an instant uproar in the office. Everyone looked at Jobs in disbelief, protesting in a loud voice, 'Mr. Jobs, are you crazy? We can't even finish an animation for a second in half a month! God created the world in seven days, but he only created the characters and scenery. Our job is to animate these things, which is a completely incomparable amount of work...'

Facing everyone's furious cursing, Jobs remained calm on the stage. He continued, 'Okay, I know this is a difficult task to complete. So can we try to extend the time to 20 days, which is much more generous?'

Following Steve Jobs' words, all the employees at Pixar Studios protested again: 'Mr. Jobs, this is not a matter of stretching out five days. Compressing a six-month work assignment into just 20 days. Even if you had the power of time magic and could stretch a day to 48 hours, it would still be impossible to turn Toy Story into an assembly line movie! And you want a work of art, not that kind of assembly line movie...'

Jobs Jobs listened to everyone's complaints. He raised his hand to indicate silence before continuing, 'I can understand how you all feel, and I understand the difficulty of completing the film in 20 days. But I can assure you that today is not April Fools' Day, and I am not joking with you. I am deadly serious!'

'I made this decision not because the priest whispered to me about the cruelty of the summer blockbuster when I went to church to pray, but after careful consideration.'

Jobs Stopped for a moment and then said, 'First of all, I personally built Pixar, so I have complete confidence in everyone's ability to work. After my assessment, I think you are get it done. Of course, just to be on the safe side, I will delegate some of the work to other animation studios to ensure that you have a manageable workload.'

Speaking of Finally, Jobs sighed and said, 'Of course, due to this sudden task, not only will all of your vacations be cancelled this month, you will even have to work overtime like Superman.'

'No But!' Jobs emphasised, 'as a member of the big PYE family, I will never treat you badly. Therefore, I can solemnly promise you here today that your monthly salary bonuses will all be tripled. With this money, you won't have to worry about next month's mortgage, and you can take your wives and children to enjoy the beaches of Hawaii or the wonders of the national parks to your heart's content!'

Jobs's final reward made everyone at the Pixar studio cheer, and in the face of such cheering, Steve Jobs finally let out a sigh of relief.

Subconsciously looked out of the window. A black Audi was pulling away, and Jobs knew that it was Ming Zhou's car.

Mr. Ming Zhou, I have done everything I can. I also believe that my team can do what they say they will do and complete this Toy Story within 20 days. Perhaps due to the time and division of labour, it won't be perfect, but it will definitely pass. I've done a lot of preparation, but the biggest problem or pressure is on you.

How can you promote a movie without disclosing any of its names or content is like a fantasy, a plan that only exists in legend. It looks very good, but when I think about it, I have no idea.

And in addition to promotion, there is also a more important point, which is distribution. Simply put, it is the process of putting a film into cinemas for release and subsequently making it available on DVD for sale. This is the most important means of generating revenue for a film. Toy Story is an art film but also a commercial film. Both Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak wanted the film to be a big hit, but the biggest problem they now faced was the lack of distribution channels.

Steve Jobs Apple Inc. was in the information industry, and so was Zhou Ming's company, Jieke. It could be said that they both had no contact with each other, and they both had no knowledge of the film industry. They now had to solve the problem on the spot.

These problems in front of him made Jobs frown. The most critical thing was that Zhou Ming had not yet come up with any solutions, not even a hint of a direction.

If it had been anyone else, Jobs would have fired him on the spot. But for some reason, when Jobs looked into Ming's confident eyes, he always felt that he could really solve the problem.

'Mr. Ming, I'll be waiting for you to work your magic. I've even put Toy Story on the line, so I hope you won't let me down,'

Jobs muttered to himself, but at the end of it all his eyes were full of determination: 'But I have a hunch you'll succeed!'

Here, Jobs had convinced the staff at Pixar Animation Studios, and he was having a headache from his assessment of the situation. Zhou Ming, who was sitting in the car, felt the same way.

'I I think Steve Jobs was a bit too quick to answer. You know, I don't have a clue about those problems either. The point is that those problems are not so easy to solve. It seems that I have been too successful in my life, and I have met someone like Steve Jobs, so I'm a bit overwhelmed.' Zhou Ming was holding his head, a little annoyed, talking to himself.

At this time, the bodyguard driving in front turned around and said with a smile, 'I didn't think you would also have such troubled times.'

Zhou Ming rolled his eyes and said, 'Why can't I have troubled times? Please. I I'm now facing the whole world's criticism, and now I've plunged headlong into a dead end!'

After complaining a bit, Zhou Ming added, 'Don't look at the oath I just took before Jobs, but in fact I don't have a chance of success, because first of all, the promotional concept I proposed is completely contrary to the promotion . Plus, we don't have any distribution channels. We have to deal with all of this little by little. I'd be blindly optimistic if I wasn't worried.'

'What about your gut feeling? Do you feel you can succeed?' asked the interviewer. 'I have led teams many times in the jungles and deltas of Southeast Asia against army units. Once our team of five was even surrounded by 200 of them. We were cut off from communication and rescue. Even though each of us had already written our last will and testament, in the end, it was our hunch that led us to fight our way out of the jaws of death with our comrades.'

'Perhaps hunches is contrary to the scientific spirit, but in desperate situations it is a good way out.' said.

'If that's the case, then I think my hunch will be successful,' Zhou Ming said with a laugh.

Subsequently, Zhou Ming and Hui returned to Palo Alto, he went straight to the company to tell Tang Ran the good news. Tang Ran jumped for joy, because she had never expected things to go so smoothly. After all, she still couldn't believe that an animated film was to be completed within a month.

After the initial joy, Zhou Ming also told him the reality: 'But Ranran, even though I convinced Jobs, the burden on our shoulders has become even heavier. You know, first of all, we have absolutely no knowledge of the film industry, without any publicity or distribution channels. Second, before the film is produced and reviewed by the Film Association, we must also come up with a way to promote the film without disclosing its name or content and without any negative impact.'

Hearing Zhou Ming say this Tang Ran immediately widened her eyes: 'How is that possible? Isn't the whole point of publicity to tell people what the film is about? If you don't even say that, how can it be called publicity? How can people know what you're promoting?'

'That's why this is a very big problem.' Zhou Ming sighed, 'But more than that, I think we'd better find a distribution channel first. After all, a movie cannot make a profit if it is not screened.'

'But from what I understanding of Jieke for such a long time, he is only an IT company that has no connection with the film industry at all!'

Tang Ran said, wrinkling her eyebrows and racking her brains, suddenly she thought of something. She said to Zhou Ming, 'Ming, I remember that Xiaoxue told me that her uncle works for a film company in Hollywood and is also a manager of some kind. I think she might be able to help us out a little.'

Facing Tang Ran's words , Zhou Ming was first stunned, and then he remembered that Tang Ran's Xiaoxue was her friend in San Francisco, and it was through this friend that she had asked for help.

But thinking about this relationship did not make Ming happy. After all, Hollywood is the centre of the film industry in the world, and apart from the world-famous major companies, there are definitely other small companies mixed in. And because of Ran Tang's affair, Zhou Ming had been in contact with Xiaoxue for a while. In Zhou Ming's opinion, it was unlikely that Xiaoxue's uncle was an important figure in a major film company.

Perhaps this was a premonition a hunch?

Zhou Ming thought.

After giving her opinion, Tang Ran had been carefully watching Zhou Ming. She said timidly, 'I know, Xiao Xue's uncle is probably not as important as we thought...'

Tang Ran suddenly spoke , which made Zhou Ming a little surprised. Zhou Ming hurriedly picked up where she left off and said, 'It doesn't matter, Ranran. We just need a breakthrough to enter the film industry, not to start working with a major film company company. After all, we still have a month. We can start with her uncle, gradually enter this circle and understand it, and finally find the company we need.'

Zhou Ming's words made Tang light up: 'Yes, it can be done this way, so it seems I haven't come up with a random idea.'

Zhou Ming fondly her little琼 nose and said, 'Of course, if Ran is so good, how could she just come up with ideas randomly?'

Praised by Zhou Ming Tang Ran beamed like a spoiled kitten, and then she pulled the phone out of her bag: 'I'll call her right away.'

But as soon as Tang Ran picked it up, he heard the phone on the table suddenly ring. Zhou Ming picked it up and was momentarily surprised: 'It's Tang Lin calling, he wants to meet up with us.'