Chapter 137 Roland, the boy who spread wealth, is a burden in the eyes of the industry
Mid-November, UK.
Every year from September to February of the next year is the season of high rainfall. Coupled with the drop in temperature, the wet and cold environment is simply an AOE magic attack. Although women on the road still wear short skirts and leggings, they are so cool. The trembling reaction instinctively presented the word wet and cold intuitively. In the School of Computer and Information Engineering at Cardiff University, the heating is not turned on because it is not used during teaching periods. Cole Needham, who is already bald, is wrapped in a coat, blowing his red nose, and another The three companions stared at the monitor on the table together.
And under the operation of Dr. Dave Marshall, who is also bald, with sparse hair, and whose hands are not disturbed by the temperature, the interface that is extremely monotonous compared with later generations is showing the latest modified functions, "Cole, in Luo With the help of Bob, we added HTML form functionality to the disorganized website. After we discussed it with the professor, they agreed that we could borrow the server space of the college, but at the same time as providing the World Wide Web, the professor asked us to put the database you wrote. Named 'Cardiff Internet Movie Database', I don't think this name should bother us, after all, we don't have money to buy servers now."
The four guys sitting in front of a monitor and viewing the website pages will be the core members of IMDb's "Twenty One Golden Vita" group in the future. Except for Cole Needham, who has been collecting movie information since he was thirteen years old, in the Dave Marshall, who was operating, and Rob Hattier and Robert Evans, who were staring at the screen from left to right, were all PhD candidates at Cardiff University.
"That's right, I also don't think the name is important." Cole Needham nodded in agreement, "The most important thing we need to do now is to make the website satisfy more movie fans, and after expanding the server, we... "
"We need to accept automatic data submission, instead of asking administrators to read their emails every day." Before Cole Needham could finish speaking, Cardiff University Division Chief Rob- Hatir said directly: "Manual browsing, on-site review, and then asking the data personnel to update the information, this kind of operation track is too troublesome and time-consuming. Next, we need to add email extensions to the website. Let everyone choose the verification location of the information by themselves, and then the background will automatically assign the verification information to the local auditors, so that a round of manual operations can be reduced..."
Twenty years later, many people will say that the rapid development of technology has caused people who are engaged in simple labor to fall into unemployment, but in fact, long before IMDb was commercialized, they were already thinking of ways to reduce the number of people.
It’s not that the cost is too high, because everyone is generating electricity for love, but that the management is chaotic and there are too many processes.
Take the update of movie information as an example. From the user finding that there is no such person in the database to the final inclusion in the database, there are six processes: discovery and reporting, review and investigation, information collection, authenticity confirmation, background entry, and front-end presentation. For these six links, at least six people are required to do them. According to the location of the movie, the materials are different, and the language is different, more people are involved in collecting information about a movie. There are many guys who want to add new information to the existing entries, and the review of new information requires a lot of manpower...
That's right, although these people really like these things, generating electricity for love does not mean that they can continue to give selflessly. Everyone has their own life. When the traffic in the database is less, they will be excited and happy every night. Those new email exchanges, but as the number of people surged, it became quite painful for them to communicate with the constant influx of people.
Because of this, while trying to find ways to hack the server, they also have to streamline the process.
If they had to do everything by themselves, then Crouching Dragon Zhuge would be their end.
"In addition to writing algorithms for automatic data submission, we also have to consider personnel growth and funding issues."
The silver-haired Robert Evans pushed down the glasses on the bridge of his nose, and said to Cole Needham: "Although we are using the school server now, it will not be enough soon, according to my calculations , the growth rate of Internet users next year will reach 2,300%. Although only a small number of people will notice us, the surge in traffic cannot be achieved with the bandwidth donated by school servers and others , we... will eventually buy servers by ourselves one day."
"Yes, the school's servers won't last long." Rob Hattier agrees.
"After all, our family is not using this." Dave Marshall also let go of the mouse and looked at Cole Needham.
Yes, in addition to streamlining the process, lack of money is also a cruel fact in front of everyone.
But for Cole Needham, this cruel reality is not a problem at all!
"It's okay, let's do it first. If there is no money, I will go to raise funds." Cole Needham wrapped his coat tightly and said, "Do you know the hottest Roland Allen in the database? I'm going to Washington He gave me the invitation to the premiere, I talked to him, I met Spielberg through him, he is very interested in our website, if we need money, we can go to them."
After the premiere of "Jurassic Park", Cole Needham and Mike Mohamy went to Blizzard Entertainment.
After seeing the brand new three-storey building, the empty office and the development team where a bunch of people lived wantonly, he believed in the Blizzard Big Three, and what he said was true—Roland Allen is really a guy who doesn’t care about financial statements .
And this is the result he wants, he likes movies, he is willing to collect information, but he doesn't know...
Can this thing be profitable?
Unlike those guys with strong entrepreneurial goals, Cole Needham simply likes one thing. His biggest goal is not to make commercial profits at all, but to constantly improve his database and satisfy more people!
You can say that this kind of guy is a fool, but he is more like Forrest Gump, doing one thing to the extreme!
Because of this, he is very cautious when looking for investment, because his primary goal is not to keep making big pies for Sun Zhengyi like Jack Ma, but to hope that investors' money can make his dream better. continue.
This kind of behavior that all investors can't understand has caused him to be rejected countless times, but after in-depth communication with Mike Mohamy, he understood that Roland Allen is his best investor.
"Do you know? Mike in our group impresses Roland with a game."
"In the case that their company only developed one game, Roland not only bought them wholly at their asking price, but also bought the game copyright of "Spider-Man" according to their requirements, and purchased the genre from Universal. authorized."
"This kind of unconditional support is what we need, so I am going to ask him for help when funds are short."
"Of course, this kind of help may make the website commercialized, but I don't think everyone should object..."
Someone is willing to give away money for free, and whoever opposes it is a fool!
After listening to Cole Needham's narration, the three people at the scene all laughed happily.
Who is Roland Allen?
There is no need to ask such idiotic questions!
And since there is a channel to find the receiver, their next job will be easier.
"Ok, this is the best, then I will try to write the automatic data submission and distribution early next year."
"The idea of limiting traffic can also be stopped for a while, and now we are not afraid of how many visits come."
"Of course, isn't the most important thing to invite Roland Allen to come to the UK first? We need to introduce all the functions of the website and future plans to him in advance, lest he be dragged away by other guys..."
Since there is no opposition to commercial operations, things will be much easier.
In fact, Cole Needham also wanted to invite Roland to come to the UK to have a look while the website realizes automatic data classification.
Although they are the largest data site now, what about the future?
As the number of netizens continues to increase, there may be other guys doing the same thing as them!
"Ok, then I will send an email to the people in the group. As long as they agree, we will set the invitation time at the beginning of next year. After all, we can't waste Roland's time. The pre-production of a film is actually very troublesome. of."
There are only a dozen or so people who have high-level authority in the database, and after communicating with them one by one, there is no one who opposes it—after all, hobbies and meals are obviously the latter is more important, and it is possible to guarantee It's the best news if you have a meal when you like it.
And after he sent the email to Mike Mohamy and asked the other party to help deliver the invitation message, Roland, who heard the news, shook his head facing the fax in his hand, "Want to ask me to invest money? This is indeed a good one. news, but the problem is..."
"It's not worth investing now!"
Yes, if IMDb was a company similar to Blizzard, Roland would have caught them long ago, but the problem is that its nature is actually the same as Wikipedia, very complicated.
It’s not that commercialization is impossible, but commercialization before success is a cerebral palsy!
You know, before the official commercialization of IMDb, they have entered a total of more than 100,000 movies in their database, and the actors and staff information of each movie are plotted, and the root of all this is actually Movie buffs who were early to the Internet were generating love, and if companies were founded before data was collected, the site would be over...
Because it will definitely not develop!
How many people are needed to enter more than 100,000 movie data?
Cole Needham has only made more than 10,000 films in more than ten years since he was thirteen years old!
And if you hire someone to do it, no company can afford the money!
This is the same as two horses fighting, Didi is fast, burning 100 million a day, and it is as simple as burning 8 billion for both parties!
This is not a portal website, let alone a search engine. The cost is not the cost of research and development, nor is it to seize the market, but the wages of thousands of guys who generate electricity for love!
Isn't it because there is no way to do it?
The major change in IMDb’s collection of TV series and episodes is actually the official website of the film company crawled by crawlers!
Only one title is crawled, and then the copyright of the page is distributed to the netizens who fill the page.
In this way, not only the risk of infringement is reduced, but also the development cost is minimized!
IMDb is bluntly speaking a data-based business that sells traffic, but the problem is that collecting data requires money, and verifying data requires money!
Because of this, Roland is actually very reluctant to see the other party set up a company before the data is gathered into a situation that can be realized. He would rather act as a volunteer, take advantage of it, and donate some operating funds to them so that they can develop better. Not willing to let them declare independence and then buy each other out because…
Too much money.
He couldn't afford it.
What's more, if they capitalize on the situation where they can use love to generate electricity, isn't that just too much money and no place to lose it?
In this way, after staring at the contents of the fax and thinking twice, Roland took the initiative to call Mohamy.
“Send me an email back to Cole and say I’d love to be a guest in England.”
"When the project in hand is finished, I will make time and let me know in advance."
"If they are short of funds now, I can send 200,000 to their donation account for emergency..."
From the very beginning, Roland was ready to buy ready-made. IMDb started to collect public data almost, and the number of visits had passed the first growth peak. Although it would cost nearly half a billion in this way, how about it? It is more cost-effective than finding someone to do it yourself, because the development model of Du Niang Encyclopedia is placed outside the wall, and it is simply impossible to do it.
As a professional database, it is impossible to add it "arbitrarily" like Du Niang Encyclopedia.
Of course, going to England is not a big deal for Roland.
He was going to take Elizabeth out to play, but now he just has a clear goal, starting from the UK, and going around Northern Europe, let alone a month, even if he takes Elizabeth to play for a year, it will cost Money can't outpace the rise in stocks.
This is a really sad story.
...
While Roland responded, everything outside was also running non-stop.
On November 30, "Schindler's List" was first screened in Washington DC. The next day, a media viewing event was also held in New York. Under the circumstances, the guests invited to the premiere are either media reporters or well-known film critics, and there are even more peers with voting rights.
There is no way, even if Spielberg is mad at the academy to vent his anger, "Schindler's List" still has to follow the process of making an Olympic film, and the so-called process, to put it plainly, is It is to order the publicity first, let those guys who have voting rights, can hold a pen, and can post news reports watch it, and then moderately publicize it based on their feedback.
As for the list of Oscar judges is absolutely confidential?
The big list is indeed absolutely confidential, but relative to the crowd, there are still some.
As long as you carefully scan the news of the college's admission members every year, you can find a bunch of names of peers from it.
Although those peers only accounted for a certain number of votes in the final selection, winning them in advance, doesn't it mean that your competitors' competition has become smaller?
Don't think it's impossible!
In fact, those invited guests who participate in the Oscars every year have the right to vote!
Otherwise, what would Weinstein do business with?
If he really bribed the academy, there would be no scandals breaking out!
After all, the Oscars are famous, and they are afraid of the Grammy-like situation where everyone is not a bird!
If only the New York Times ran a story like "Can the Grammys Be Trusted?" and had stories like Taylor Swift, Adele Adkins, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, Rihanna If the stars are gone, the Oscars will come to an end. Although they have been biased in later generations, they are not as miserable as the Grammys.
As for now—
That's even more amazing!
A newcomer like Freckles wants to be hit right away?
No matter how much money you have, you have to go home and dream!
It doesn't matter whether it's a first-line star who started with a commercial film, or an acting star who wants to save the country with an art film, as long as you are a newcomer, you have to wait, wait, wait, those old-timers who have voting rights will not let the newcomers To win an award, or in other words, if you want them to vote, at least you have to get a nomination to improve your style, right?
Of course, style is not a problem for Spielberg at all. Since 1978, he has won three nominations for best director and two nominations for best picture. "The List" is regarded by everyone as a must-win film, so after being screened in three locations, Universal, which is seeing the wind direction, directly opened the regional rotation.
The so-called regional rotation is actually one place, one place slowly.
The reason is very simple.
Control the direction of public opinion.
Spot screenings and carousel screenings are actually cultivating the hunger of the market, and at the same time screening audiences.
All Olympic films must ensure that the audience who go to watch the film is worthy of this film. Regardless of whether it is the investor or the award winner himself, he does not want to hear the outside world say no to himself. In this case, those knowledge Those with low reserve and low viewing level, or in other words, those who think that art films are a group of people's self-entertainment, cannot let them enter the film.
Yes, you read that right, this is actually repelling the public.
They feel that guys who like business will only be of no help at this time, so they will try their best to keep these guys who can only have Boom, Boom, and Boom in their minds at the entrance of the theater until Get nominated.
Because after being nominated, there is no suspense about whether to win the award, and with the help of the nomination, the film company has a very good publicity stunt, so it is especially necessary to increase the box office to earn profits.
This is actually the routine of capital.
Both awards and money are needed.
While dislike the public getting in the way, at the same time want to reap the box office.
Before the Internet became popular, this routine was tried and tested.
Of course, "Schindler's List" is in the same situation as "The Philadelphia Story".
After "Schindler's List" swept the media, on December 14th, "Philadelphia Story" was screened in Century City, Los Angeles. guy serving.
This kind of behavior of flying around just to please the voters made Roland curl his lips.
However, he can understand.
Everyone is a player at the poker table, and no one can flip the table until the shady news is reported, right?
And since you can’t flip the table, it’s a lot of fun…
Note: ① It is true that the annual growth rate of Internet users is 2,300%. Bezos founded Amazon for this purpose, and IMDb did not support it for a long time in school. When Internet users exploded, their website every In two weeks, the number of visitors will double. Needham also wrote a blog on the 20th anniversary of the company, recalling the situation when it was founded. When the servers were not enough, those movie fans who worked for technology companies such as IBM, HP, and Intel paid out of their own pockets and bought from the company at a low price. The elimination machine is used together. ② IMDb was bought by Amazon because after privatization, there are too many shareholders, and the cost of continuing to maintain is too high. The purpose at the beginning is the same as that of Netflix. There is a link to Amazon on IMDb. If you like any movie, you can directly jump to the DVD purchase link. ③Spot screenings and regional screenings are indeed screening audiences. Don’t think how great those guys are. Before they get nominated for awards, most of the box office providers are indeed a burden in the eyes of practitioners. The "Philadelphia Story" of "Schindler's List" did exactly that, especially "The Philadelphia Story", which was actually opened for screening in 1994.
(end of this chapter)