Chapter 30 The troubles of "Father of Star Wars" in the first quarter

"May the force be with you." When the Jedi Knights wielded lightsabers of various colors, punished rape and eradicated evil on the big screen of "Star Wars", and fought against the evil Galactic Empire, I don't know if you have thought about it. The "Star Wars" released in 1977 used What kind of magical technology creates the lively scenes of swords shining and cosmic fighters shuttling and fighting fiercely in the movie? "Computer! Three-dimensional animation!" Today's children who grew up watching "Lord of the Rings", "Harry Potter" and "Avatar" will definitely give this answer without hesitation.

Unfortunately, in the days when George Lucas, the creator of "Star Wars," was making sci-fi films, most ordinary people didn't know what a computer was.At the time, Jobs and the Woz brothers were still working on the Apple II.The best computers at that time could only do complex scientific calculations or typesetting.If you want to use a computer to render realistic movie images at 24 frames per second, there is no way! How to shoot "Star Wars" without a computer? Well, tell everyone the answer.At that time, Lucas led a group of sci-fi film pioneers who were talented, proficient in photography and post-production, and just relied on studio settings and darkroom post-production to create shocking sci-fi scenes.The lightsaber duel of the Jedi Knights is actually the actors holding the lightsaber handle like a flashlight, making various movements out of thin air, and then a skilled draftsman draws each sword light frame by frame on the film!

I have to admire the patience and courage of the filmmakers of that era!Just to draw the lightsaber duel, it is necessary to manually process thousands of frames, not to mention the more complicated and exciting scene of X-fighter vs TIE fighter. Sometimes, it is extremely interesting to look back at the history of technological development, even if it only goes back a few decades.Take movies as an example. In just over 100 years, from black and white silent films to three-dimensional special effects, shooting technology has developed by leaps and bounds.And just when people repeatedly lamented that movies have reached perfection and technology has reached its pinnacle, there are always a few talented people who stand up and tell the world with jaw-dropping works that filmmakers' pursuit of technology and art is endless.

Standing at the forefront of film technology like this, you can list a large number of talented people who are constantly challenging the limits.From Lucas's "Star Wars", to Spielberg's "Jurassic Park", to the Wachowski Brothers' "The Matrix", from James Cameron in "Terminator 2" in 1991 From the liquid metal robot created in "Titanic" by the same Cameron in 1997, to the "Avatar" myth that Cameron dedicates to us at the end of 2009, every movie The film is a legend. But would you be surprised if the protagonist of this book, Steve Jobs, also played a vital role in the revolutionary history of film technology, and even helped usher in a new era of film technology?What is the relationship between Gangzhu Qiao, who is in charge of the IT industry, and movies?

This story also starts with the marital disputes of George Lucas. Similar to Jobs, George Lucas also became famous at a young age. At the age of 27, he founded his own film company Lucasfilm (Lucasfilm). At the age of 31, he invested in the production of special effects in "Star Wars". The famous Industrial Light & Magic (Industrial Light & Magic).With the "Star Wars" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series of films, Lucas has won countless Oscar awards and nominations by himself, and has repeatedly broken the box office records in the United States and even the world."Star Wars: A New Hope," released in 1977 alone, grossed $775 million worldwide.You know, no film has ever grossed more than $300 million worldwide before.Lucas, who has gained both fame and fortune, already owned a film industry group composed of several film production companies and billions of assets in his 30s, and became a veritable film tycoon.

However, no matter how great a hero is, it may not be smooth sailing for a lifetime. In 1983, the third part of "Star Wars" "Return of the Jedi" (counting the prequel filmed later, this is actually the sixth part of the whole series) although it won a global box office of 475 million US dollars, compared with the first two Still pales in comparison.Critics found it the dullest of the Star Wars trilogy.Lucas had to temporarily dismiss the idea of ​​continuing to film the "Star Wars" prequel.Without a money-sucking weapon like "Star Wars," Lucasfilm's revenue plummeted.Misfortunes never come singly, and Lucas's own marriage has problems again. A week before the official release of Return of the Jedi, Lucas and his wife, Marcia Lucas, appeared in front of all the staff.The two held hands, tears streaming down their faces.They told everyone that the two were negotiating a divorce.

Lucas and Marcia are both a couple and film partners. 14 years of marriage is not short.Perhaps because of the tension and pressure of filming, both of them felt that there was no way to maintain a stable family life anymore.But divorce is not an easy task. According to the law, the two must share the joint property between husband and wife equally.The film industry empire owned by Lucas includes studios, production companies, special effects companies, locations and a large number of advanced film production equipment.These are part of the marital property.Lucas didn't want to divide the things he regarded as life in two, and Marcia just wanted a sum of money.According to the liquidation results, Lucas must pay Marcia at least tens of millions of dollars in cash.

Having just finished filming the Star Wars trilogy, Lucas was short on cash.Where was the money to be raised to pay Marcia?The divorce agreement between Lucas and Marcia cannot be fulfilled without the sale of some of the company's assets.But asking Lucas to sell even a portion of the company he loves would be like taking a piece of his body away.Even if you are reluctant to give up, you must have a suitable partner. Lucas thought of the Graphics Group (Graphics Group), a group under the name of Lucasfilm that develops future technologies. The goal is to create high-performance graphics computers and the most advanced graphics and image technology, and dreams of one day being able to Using a computer instead of a paintbrush completely subverts the way animation films are shot.However, the group's stuff seemed too sci-fi at the time, and Lucas didn't know when they would actually make money.Perhaps, it would be a good idea to sell this division.If you meet a buyer who is interested in future technology, you may be able to sell it for a good price.

In order to sell the graphics working group, Lucas looked around for a buyer.After several twists and turns, Jobs actually became one of the candidates to take over the graphics working group. In 1985, Jobs, who was abandoned by Apple's board of directors and was depressed, heard from Apple's computer scientist Alan Kay that Lucas was interested in selling the graphics working group.Alan Kay and the founder of this working group are college classmates. He clearly knows that a group of computer geniuses who like graphics and image technology have gathered in that graphics working group.Perhaps Jobs would be interested in the talent and technology there.

Knowing that there are future technologies and talents, Jobs became interested.He drove across the Golden Gate Bridge to the north alone, and found the location of Lucasfilm and Industrial Light and Magic in a slum-like place full of warehouses and sheds. The employees of the graphics working group demonstrated several short digital animations to Jobs on the computer, all of which were three-dimensional animations produced by computers.In vain, Jobs, who had been a leader in the personal computer industry for many years but had never seen these novelties, was stunned. "It's so cool!" Jobs said, "This shocking feeling is exactly the same as when I saw the graphical user interface at Xerox!"

"Really? Do you recognize the value of these technologies?" The technical geniuses in the graphics working group carefully examined this person who might become their future boss. "Of course, there is no doubt about it!" Jobs once again showed his excellent ability to see the future, "If you can make such short films with today's technology, within a few years, all animated films will be produced by computers! " Just as he predicted that the graphical user interface technology would become the default interface for all computers, in Lucasfilm's graphics working group, Jobs only watched a ten-minute demo before foreseeing the future again. Jobs was born with the ability to predict the future, and he could always see 5 to 10 years ahead of others.But foreseeing the future is not the same as owning the future.Last time, although Jobs saw the future of graphical user interface technology, Apple's Lisa and Macintosh failed to become the mainstream of the market, but were caught up by Microsoft's Windows.This time, Jobs also couldn't say when the future technologies developed by the Graphics Working Group would become a reality.But in any case, since Lucas is willing to sell, it is better to buy these people and technology first. Lucas's asking price was 30 million US dollars, which was far beyond Jobs' psychological acceptance.Even Jobs, who was willing to gamble on the future, felt it was worthless to spend so much money for a technical group that was not yet making money.But Jobs noticed that Lucas was eager to find a buyer for the group in order to resolve a financial dispute with his ex-wife.He decided to take a break for the time being and wait and see the development of the situation. Soon Jobs learned that Lucas was in contact with another potential buyer, wealthy businessman Ross Perot.If you still remember, this Ross Perot was the wealthy businessman who later invested in NeXT, and he was also the one who participated in the presidential election at his own expense in 1992.This interesting Mr. Perot is willing to pay close to 30 million to buy a graphics working group, and Lucas certainly wishes for it.However, there was a sudden change near the signing of the contract. Perot, who was originally a director of General Motors, was suddenly fired by the GM board of directors, which directly made Perot out of Lucas's list of candidates. The cooperation between Perot and Lucas fell through, and Jobs knew that now was the best time to lower the price.He found Lucas again, directly cut off the other party's offer by two-thirds, and offered a price of 10 million US dollars.Lucas, who was exhausted from getting a divorce, didn't want to delay any longer, let's say 10 million is 10 million. In February 1986, Jobs, who had just founded NeXT, now has a new company.Soon, the new company was officially named Pixar.It is said that the Spanish-sounding name Pixar comes from the word "Pixel" in English, implying the grand dream of Pixar's technical geniuses who want to use the latest and coolest computer graphics technology to change the world. When he bought Pixar, Jobs had a glimpse of the future.But if someone who traveled back to 1986 ran to tell Jobs, the technical group you bought will go through 10 years of suffering and turmoil before seeing the dawn, and, in this 10-year period, it will still be like NeXT has also become a burden with only input but no output. I don’t know how Jobs would feel back then. In fact, until several years after the Jobs acquisition, Pixar's business plan was mainly focused on selling 3D graphics computers and related hardware and software technologies.While a few people at the company are figuring out how to use these technologies to create short animated films, that's just a sideline to show off the technology and help with marketing.Pixar had no plans to invest in an animated film of its own at the time. Who knows, unintentionally inserting willows and willows into shades.The graphics computer business, which was originally Pixar's main business, went from bad to worse, and eventually ended up being disbanded and sold like the NeXT hardware department.The production of animation content, which was originally just a sideline of Pixar, has contributed to us a world-shaking drama 10 years later. Ten years later, what Pixar brought to the world are the following movie titles that are familiar to people on earth: 1995, "Toy Story" 1998, "A Bug's Life" 1999, "Toy Story 2" 2001, "Monsters, Inc." · In 2003, "Finding Nemo" 2004, "The Incredibles" · In 2006, "Cars" 2007, "Ratatouille" · In 2008, "WALL-E" · In 2009, "Flying House Travel Notes" 2010, "Toy Story 3" Need to list any more? These three-dimensional animation films that have made billions of people on earth laugh and are inexplicably moved are all from Pixar, which is owned by Jobs! The status of Pixar in the history of film, and the contribution of Pixar's 3D animation films to the revolution of film technology, cannot be overstated no matter how they are rendered.Simply put, before Pixar, all animated feature films were hand-drawn two-dimensional frames.After Pixar, 3D computer animation became the mainstream of animated films. Almost 60 years ago, Disney ushered in the golden age of two-dimensional animated feature films with "Snow White"; Liberated from manual labor - the revolutionary significance of this matter can definitely be compared with computers replacing paper, pens and typewriters in the office field.