Chapter 720: Chapter 683: The Next Industry to be Overturned?
Lincoln wavered for a while in his heart, then decided to deal with the matter with his past experience, which was:
When in doubt—
Just pretend it never happened.
He’ll deal with it next month.
Maybe by next month, the problem would have resolved itself naturally.
With no pressure, he put the matter out of his mind and continued the development of “Chang’an” with Mavis, the child laborer.
At the same time, players were baffled to see that “Assassins’ Alliance” and “Speed Chase” movies were really being promoted!
Cloud Dream didn’t spend too much money on online promotion, they did not do any of the usual popular celebrity interviews, film tidbits, or self-media promotion.
The reason was simple: These two movies were, strictly speaking, of the same nature as full CG movies.
Of course, this was the technology of the next era, which could perhaps be called “full virtual reality cinema”.
In these movies, the actors were all NPCs that originally existed in the game. Interviewing them would only add to their workload, wouldn’t it?
As for the movie tidbits… The technical background stuff wasn’t that interesting either.
Last was the online media promotion.
With Cloud Dream’s current influence on the Internet, there really wasn’t much need for that.
It was better to save the money and have ticket subsidies for moviegoers.
Moreover, Samuel thought that there was no need to spend this money at all. Once offline arrangements were completed, they could get promotion for free.
This prediction was quickly confirmed.
Early this morning, players passing by the cinema on their way to work discovered large “Assassins’ Alliance” and “Speed Chase” posters prominently displayed outside the theater.
The characters they were all too familiar with in the virtual world now appeared in the real world like real-life celebrities on the posters, looking completely harmonious.
This sudden surprise made them unable to resist taking out their mobile phones and snapping a series of photos before swiftly sharing the unexpected good news online.
At first, netizens didn’t really believe it, thinking it was a prank after watching “Metropolitan News”.
They opened the ticket booking software with doubts and searched for movies released on December 23rd.
But they really saw “Assassins’ Alliance”!
Flipping to December 24th, “Speed Chase” was also listed!
Changing to another theater, both movies were there too!
It was now firmly confirmed that Cloud Dream really planned to screen “Assassins’ Alliance” and “Speed Chase” in real-life cinemas.
The biggest reaction to this news came not from the players, but from the major movie media.
Although [Virtual Reality Cinema] is similar in nature to [CG Cinema], the effects are vastly different.
It truly can break free from the reliance on real-life movie stars, and even save on many behind-the-scenes workers.
Under these circumstances, the production cost of these two movies must be astonishingly low.
At the moment, there wouldn’t be too strong of an impact on the film industry, since these two movies’ low costs come from the fact that they were already invested in during the development of the game. The movies were just “peripheral” products.
If one wanted to produce an entirely new movie from scratch, the production of scenery, characters, and special effects would still require a substantial amount of cost.
However, over time, Cloud Dream’s database will become richer, and these costs will inevitably decrease.
Perhaps in the future, the most cost-effective way to produce movies will be to do so within the virtual world?
—Of course, that’s assuming Cloud Dream is willing to provide the permission for producers.
“Movie Weekly” senior reporter Neil was the first to forward this news and provided lengthy commentary—
“With Cloud Dream’s astonishing development speed, if Lincoln intends to upset the current movie production pattern, the film industry might undergo unprecedented changes within half a year.”
“Behind-the-scenes workers don’t need to worry, your experience is irreplaceable. Even in the virtual world, you can continue to contribute, and with advanced technology support, your work may even be easier.”
“Talented actors don’t need to worry either. I believe creating nuanced, layered and in-depth performances for virtual characters might require more cost and thought than hiring real actors.”
“However, if acting skills aren’t required and all that’s needed are eye-catching handsome and beautiful roles, virtual characters should be up for the task.”
“Would an actor or actress, no matter how good-looking, ever be better looking than a virtually created character?”
“So, young actors, if you want to have a long-term development in this industry and not be replaced by virtual characters, brushing up on your acting skills may be the only way out.”
Neil’s lengthy review was obviously filled with personal subjectivity, mainly aiming to urge young actors in the industry to improve their acting skills.
However, his predictions are not unreasonable.
A piece of evidence is that the “secondary creation movie” with a lot of original content – “Wikey Couple”, rather than a game “peripheral movie”, is already in the final stage.
The entire production team of this movie is made up of players.
The direct cost invested so far is: 0.
All participating players are unpaid volunteers, passionate to contribute.
Filming tools: provided by the system.
Locations and items: 80% of them were taken by force.
However, in their own words, everything will be returned after use, so it’s technically “borrowing”.
Compared to the two Cloud Dream-produced movies, “Assassins’ Alliance” and “Speed Chase”, it’s not until “Wikey Couple” is released that the true disruption of the film industry’s ideas happens!
Unfortunately, “Wikey Couple” is unlikely to be released in reality.
Because its production team is fluid, and copyright relations are chaotic – just in terms of background music, a total of 8 composers participated.
If it is entirely free of charge, it’s fine, and everyone contributes out of love.
But if they plan to release it in reality and truly commercialize, many disputes will arise.
So this movie will probably only be released in the virtual world.
Even so, if the quality of this movie is up to par, it will serve as a “model,” and the film industry will certainly realize the amazing potential of the [Virtual World] in movie production.
However, by that time, the first to bear the brunt are not actors and celebrities, but probably the major film and television cities…
…
The discussion about virtual reality films lasted an entire day.
In the end, many industry practitioners reluctantly reached a consensus: Waiting.
Wait for “Assassins’ Alliance” to be released, to see if the technician-adjusted virtual character filming can achieve the effect of live-action movies.
They are still somewhat reluctant to believe that virtual characters can express the high complexity of movie roles.
*
While they were discussing, players had already shifted their focus elsewhere.
After all, the players aren’t too concerned about the impact on the film industry, as long as they are not affected in watching movies in the future, or even if it’s beneficial to them, they won’t pay much attention.
They have other things to do—
In “Hunter: Call of the Wilderness,” players encountered other hunters in their individual worlds!
Of course, this is just conjecture, as there are no direct witnesses.
A number of players insistently claim to have seen traces of other hunters:
Mysteriously scared away prey, suddenly shaking bushes despite no wind, sounds of broken tree branches nearby, even just recently deceased game!
If only one or two people were saying this, it might be an illusion, an accident, or someone lying.
But when many people are saying it, it’s a different story!
Then, videos were uploaded one after another, showing footprints by the lakeside, bones left behind at the campfire, massive wounds on deer caused by cold weapons, and dying brown bears lying in a pool of blood…
More and more evidence quickly led players to realize: The mysterious hunter who caused the serial killings at the hunting ground had reappeared!
What annoyed everyone was that they could only see the traces left by the killer, but not the killer himself.
Even if they immediately called their friends to comb the area after discovering these clues, they couldn’t find the killer.
In the end, they could only accept this reality helplessly: All these are just preludes, and no one can find the killer until the day of the event.
It was like on Dinosaur Island, where the mobile drilling rig kept drilling day and night.
But besides the frequency and intensity of earthquakes increasing with time, nothing else happened.
So, players and film industry practitioners fell into a waiting game together, waiting for the special moment of December 23rd to arrive.
That wait lasted until Sunday evening.