Chapter 115: Chapter 103: Science Fiction Movie
Translator: 549690339
In short, Harrison Clark is now wealthy.
Although he is not on par with billionaire tycoons, it is only a matter of time before his personal net worth breaks into eight digits.
Recently, the growth of housing prices has slowed and begun to decline gently, so Harrison is in no rush to buy a house.
Even if he wanted to, the better choice is to wait until he has more money, so he can buy a luxury house in one go. The money he has now is not enough.
Moreover, he doesn’t have any immediate consumption desires. Withdrawing money from the company account to his personal account would also require paying taxes, so he decides to leave all the money to the company to maintain daily expenses and prepare for the next expansion.
With the company growing so rapidly, Harrison, who originally intended to be a hands-off boss, has no choice but to get busy.
Julia Lambert needs to go through industry adaptation training, and as a professional manager, she needs to understand the management style of Harrison, who is steering the company.
Only with a well-coordinated effort can Julia know which issues Harrison doesn’t care about and needn’t report, and which matters are significant and must be reported promptly.
Although Harrison wants Julia to take care of everything, he needs to give her enough time to adjust. As a result, he finds himself engulfed in numerous tasks.
On the other hand, Ward Owen is living a great life without worrying about any of this.
Unlike most artists, he isn’t concerned about endorsements, and he has no interest in attending commercial events and performing at gigs.
In Ward’s own words, he is very realistic.
“I’m just starting out. Why would I do these gigs? Can they make me sing better? Can they raise my fame? No, they can only consume my influence. These endorsement resources are terrible. Master, look at this thermal underwear. It’s only $1 million a year, less than the allowance my dad gives me. I’m not against all endorsements, but I have to be more famous first, and only stick to top-notch resources from the beginning.”
So he pretends to be promoting his album under the guise of traveling and sightseeing around the country.
Once in a while, he goes on a TV show, bragging about how awesome his master is, or occasionally appearing on a music radio program, again bragging about his master’s prowess. He finds his life very comfortable in general.
But one day, just as Harrison finally manages to finish going through the quarterly budget prepared by the finance department, courtesy of Julia, the office door is pushed open again by Julia.
“Master Harrison, there is an important collaboration opportunity.”
Harrison rubs his forehead, “Julia, if someone wants to give us money for a collaboration, just accept it, don’t come and ask me.”
“It’s not that. The situation is this: Hollywood director Neil Blomkamp personally called, saying he wants to use ‘The Fire’ as the theme song for his movie.”
Harrison is taken aback and proceeds to search for information using his computer.
He strokes his chin, saying, “This sci-fi film has a budget of $150 million, which is A-class production.”
Julia exclaims excitedly, “That’s right! This is our chance. If we can successfully cooperate, our company can break into the Europe and America market. I always knew this day would come, but I didn’t expect it to come so soon.”
Harrison thinks to himself that he didn’t expect it either, but he remains calm and asks, “But isn’t the movie scheduled for release next month? At this point, it should be fully produced, right? How can they still be deciding on the theme song now? That seems impossible.”
“This is what happened…”
After listening to Julia’s explanation, Harrison understands.
Neil Blomkamp is a passionate and flamboyant individual.
His new sci-fi blockbuster, ‘Chaos Space,’ is already completed and set to be released soon.
But just yesterday, after listening to ‘The Fire,’ even though he didn’t understand the language, he recognized the essence behind the song and was determined that this was the theme song he had been seeking.
As a result, he increased the budget, discarded the original theme song, and turned to Summit Ventures for collaboration.
“The other party specifically requests that ‘The Fire’ be rewritten and adapted into an English version. They plan to invite Katie Swift to perform the song. The one-time authorization fee is $1 million, and the subsequent royalties and other details are all in this faxed contract.”
Julia hands Harrison an English contract.
Harrison admits that he doesn’t understand it and doesn’t want to read it, telling her it’s enough that she read it.
He then falls into deep thought.
There is no English version of ‘The Fire,’ only a Chinese version.
At least, that is the case as far as Harrison has experienced up to this point.
So this issue of rewriting the lyrics becomes difficult for him.
However, he is also reluctant to entrust the task to someone else, fearing that creating a subpar English version of ‘The Fire’ might interfere with the song’s original state and be counterproductive.
“I will ask Carrie Thomas if she is interested. After all, English is not my native language, and I didn’t write the lyrics for ‘The Fire.’ If I adapt it, there might be a risk of losing the meaning and charm of the lyrics.”
Carrie Thomas quickly gives her answer.
She thinks it’s feasible, her English is quite good, but she needs the cooperation of the other party’s singer.
Harrison promptly makes a decision, “Fine, let’s accept the offer!”
Considering Harrison’s self-awareness that he is not good at negotiation, especially in cross-national collaborations where language barriers exist, he delegates the responsibility for this matter entirely to Julia.
While Julia, on Harrison’s behalf, starts the formal telephone conference negotiation with the other party, Carrie comes to Harrison’s office.
The two discuss the matter of translating the lyrics for a long time, but without reaching a conclusion.
English and Chinese phonetics and pronunciation methods are entirely different. When creating lyrics, controlling rhythm and rhyme pose even greater challenges, making the adaptation process quite difficult.
If they want to retain the original meaning of ‘The Fire,’ it would be hard to create an English version of the lyrics at the same level.
Carrie suggests, “First, we need to consider the pronunciation habits of foreign singers. If it doesn’t work, we can sacrifice the original meaning of the lyrics and let Katie Swift take the lead in adapting and writing the lyrics.”
Harrison shakes his head, “That won’t do.”
“Why?” Carrie actually wants to say, if the original author of the lyrics doesn’t mind, shouldn’t you just be more open-minded and trust the level of international stars? Katie is really powerful.
Harrison doesn’t explain his reasons but simply expresses his disapproval.
Only he understands the importance of ‘The Fire.’
The appearance of two versions of ‘The Fire’ in the future will lead to a complicated situation.
It’s not as simple as one plus one equals two.
It is possible that the two versions would cancel out each other’s influence, ultimately making one plus one less than two and causing ‘The Fire’ to lose its magic, never becoming the military’s anthem.
“Forget it for now. Let’s talk about my new song.”
Unable to reach a conclusion, Carrie changes the topic.
Harrison is slightly surprised, “Is ‘Self-Combustion’ already finished recording?”
“Yes! As long as you approve, it can be released this afternoon! This is my first complete work as a singer under your label!”
Harrison swallows, “That was fast.”
“I may be fast, but I’m not even one-tenth as fast as you. Do you want to listen to it now?”
Carrie pulls Harrison into the newly built recording studio and has him listen to the song with both professional monitoring headphones and the consumer-grade Emperor D&ATL;A headphones.
The Emperor D&ATL;A is “borrowed” from Ward Owen’s recording studio and is part of a system that is only available in limited quantities in the country. They have no intention of returning it.
“What do you think? Give me some feedback,” Carrie looks at Harrison expectantly.
When Harrison previously commented on ‘The Fire,’ his insights were strikingly accurate, grasping the essence of the music beyond its superficial appearance. He also introduced a completely new and highly logical music theory that Carrie had never heard before but found extremely convincing as soon as she heard it.
Carrie is in awe of Harrison’s music appreciation abilities and holds him in high regard.
As a result, she values Harrison’s opinions very highly.
Avoiding Carrie’s eager gaze, Harrison racks his brain to organize his thoughts..