Chapter 124: MHS – Chapter 124

The coming and passing of the New Year marked a return to everyday work for Will Evans. He was excited and hopeful regarding the prospects of the coming future. Many ambitious, bold, yet creative plans for the future and the year 2012, were passing through the mind of the transmigrate. He wanted to establish multiple large franchises in the film industry, that were the centre stage of the modern film industry in his previous life, and he was sure that they would do similarly, if not better, than what they had been in the other world.

But, before all that came to fruition, there was the colossal task of doing right by [Liberty City]. His excitement for his first truly original movie in Hollywood was palpable. He wanted to be able to prove to himself that he could produce a good original film, despite it being based on major inspirations, he wanted to prove to himself that he could write a good story on his own merit. While he knew, he was not in the same league as the titans that were J. K. Rowling and George R. R. Martin, he still wanted a story that was his own to do good in modern cinema. 

It was the morning after the week of New Year’s, and he had a meeting with Amanda regarding the turnover and profits of the previous business year. Will was seated in the office conference room, with Amanda and she was presenting the charts to him that showed the return of investments, profits, expenses, and future projections for the coming year to him.

“As you can see, we had a fantastic first year at Dream Vision, and most of the success is attributed to [Sherlock Holmes] and [The Blair Witch Project]. Apart from the box office returns of either film, we have received endorsement money for [500 days of Summer] and the independent advertisements in which Robert and Ewan have been featured.” Amanda pointed out the graphs on the screen.

They had not attained any money to endorse products in either [The Blair Witch Project] or [Sherlock Holmes], with the latter being a period film, but they had received offers for [500 days of Summer]. Careful product placements, where the logos of symbols of certain products, in common things like a mug in the background, or a vending machine the character is waiting beside, is a good way to endorse products without actually having to add a special sequence in the film for the product and make the endorsement subtle and non-obtrusive. 

“After we remove the expenses and salaries of our employees, we are still left with a sizable amount for reinvestment into projects like [1917] and [500 days of Summer]. Some of the capital was redirected towards the conception of DTA and its workings as well, and yet we have plenty of capital remaining to work on at least two films of the same scale as [Sherlock Holmes], and this is still considering that both DTA and Dream Vision are in its initial phases.” Amanda finished.

“That is good. I am expecting good returns for both [1917] and [500 days of Summer] and I have plans of expansion and acquisition of new departments, mainly in VFX, CGI, and animations in general. I also want to reduce the workload on our filming crew and hire more skilled artists from film schools or poach talents from the open market. Jeffery’s team is stretched thin between [1917] and [500 days of Summer], and I want to improve productivity and flexibility in that department.” Will informed her of his plans.

“Sir, I would advise taking things a little slow, expansion at this stage is a risky endeavour, plus we are not guaranteed commercial success from all of our projects. There is a high chance that [500 days of Summer] would have a very low return, and big projects like [Sherlock Holmes] have a very heavily reduced margin of profits as the distribution channel and independent theatres take a large portion of the cut.” She advised him, a little apprehensive with the lofty and ambitious plans that Will was putting forth.

“I know, but I have faith in most of our current projects, plus that is also the reason why I want to expand as well. I want to have separate departments working on small budget and large budget films. So that we don’t have to allocate resources individually for each project. I have a lot of ideas for more films for this year, and beyond.” Will said, in order to placate her worries.

He wanted a separate department in Dream Vision, to work on high-risk high-reward movies, that had a small initial investment, but huge returns like [The Blair Witch Project]. Director Carlson Duckstein’s [500 days of Summer] would have been a product of this department, had it already been established in Dream Vision.

The other department would work on Big Budget films, that were larger than life, and had a high potential to become giant franchises in the future, like [Sherlock Holmes], and his next project under [Liberty City]. Segregation of all his future projects in either department would help him organise and evaluate the worth of each project for his company and the amount of involvement he would need personally, for them to be successful.

“Alright, I can see the need for a larger filming crew. Do you have plans of producing animated films in the future?” Amanda asked about the VFX and CGI department that Will was intending to establish.

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“Yes, eventually, this year, I will have a need for a reliable animation department for both Live Action and animated movie production. I have plenty of ideas to make forays in that area.” He affirmed.

“You could just hire an independent team if that is the case.” She tried to point it out.

“No, it would not work, with the number of ideas that I have, I would need a special department, just to handle that.” He revealed.

Amanda’s eyebrows creased, and she knew that Will wasn’t going to elaborate further. “Alright, I will give you a rough estimation of the initial capital that would be required for this endeavour, latest by next week.” She informed him.

“We still own the Blaire Witch as our IP, (Intellectual Property) right? If I remember correctly we had sold the sequel rights to Wheel Works, yes?” He asked as an idea came to his mind.

At her nod, he continued “See if you can work out a deal for merchandising a few products based on Blair Witch, I want to see what kind of a response we get from the general public, now that Wheel Works has botched the sequel. I would like to know how marketable the product still is if it is being sold by us.” 

She searched Will’s face, trying to work out his intentions with this, but nodded nonetheless. It would not be a big challenge for her to get this done, and neither would it make a scratch on their overall budget.

Will had already thought of another experiment that he wanted to conduct with the camcorder that he had used for [The Blair Witch Project]. He intended to donate the camcorder, and follow its history and market price to determine his own marketability a few years down the line. He was sure that movie enthusiasts would go crazy for the camcorder, but he wanted to know the value that they were willing to pay some years down the line.

For now, though, he had to start working on [Liberty City] and wanted to enter the pre-production stage with the film. 

“That just leaves the reports and work behind your new project, [Liberty City]. Based on the script, I would suggest starting the casting process as soon as possible, and if you’re wanting to direct this, I can start sending out feelers in the open market and other studios, and our own agency for suitable casts. What do you have in mind?” She asked finally.

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