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Building a supercomputer would be no small matter for any country. But in the United States, it somehow didn't seem like that big of a deal.
Any academic or research institution with a bit of clout could build one as long as they found a wealthy backer. In order to maintain America's image as the world's technological leader, the old-money elites spared no expense.
But… what the hell was the entertainment industry doing with a supercomputer?
Blowing up a fish pond just to kill the fish?
That was exactly what people inside Hollywood couldn't wrap their heads around when it came to Stark Pictures. They didn't know whether they should be afraid and suppress it, or simply accept it.
From the perspective of the film market as a whole, Henry Brown, the new CEO of Stark Pictures, hadn't aggressively charged into film production.
There were rumors that he wanted to push his girlfriend, but under the guidance of the seasoned agent J.J. Harris, that woman—who couldn't even be considered a minor celebrity yet—hadn't taken on a flood of popcorn movies or chick flicks through brute-force spending.
They didn't shy away from supporting roles, but only if those projects involved major stars or renowned directors.
As for projects that were obviously just scams to fleece investors, they wouldn't touch them at all. Even though the cast and crew would still get paid and only the investors or production companies would end up hurting, they wanted nothing to do with that kind of mess.
Nor did they limit themselves to a single genre when submitting audition applications. From crude slapstick comedies to thrillers and action films, that small-time actress could be seen auditioning everywhere.
It could be said that the new CEO of Stark Pictures' girlfriend seemed not to have received any direct help from her man. Yet those who tried to offer "red couch hospitality" or hint at casting-couch arrangements could not ignore who her boyfriend was.
As the saying went, Stark Pictures had no authority over how other companies made their films. Nor did they have any influence over box office success.
But ruining a project?
For a company that controlled a large portion of Hollywood's equipment supply, that was easy enough.
No one could be sure that if they touched his woman, this young man wouldn't go rabid and act like a mad dog. Young men from humble backgrounds who suddenly gained immense wealth were the most unstable of all.
Just like his boss, Tony Stark—the infamous playboy—who had also become a headache within the industry.
Previously, Stark had lain low, much like the patience he exercised while seizing control of and restructuring Stark Industries.
Once the company was fully cleaned up and his crown firmly in place, the young man immediately plunged into a life of indulgence, drifting through a sea of women.
What made it even more infuriating was that he didn't avoid reporters! And he didn't limit himself to carefully vetted, "safe" women either! Nor did he ever suppress the news.
In other words, anyone hoping to use this as leverage would be flatly ignored. Scandal photos? Affairs? Tony would only ask whether he looked good in them. If not, don't publish—too embarrassing!
On the surface, his private life was a mess. But for an unmarried man, as long as he wasn't involved in minors or violent coercion, no one could judge him legally. At most, they could criticize him morally.
And for a thick-skinned young man like him, was that really a big deal?
However, for a certain group, Tony Stark's transformation was actually a good thing. Stark Industries was no longer as sharp and aggressive as before. Business negotiations were now handled by the more rule-abiding Obadiah Stane.
Since everyone could cooperate happily, unnecessary underhanded moves could be put away. Everyone knew that a stable environment was the best environment for making money—there was no need to plunge Stark Industries back into turmoil.
Still, Stark Industries restraining its edge didn't mean that its young heir had learned to behave himself.
This slash he made through Stark Pictures was something many people couldn't understand.
In the grand scheme of things, it didn't seem particularly important, so most people simply sat back and waited to see how it would turn out.
Only one group couldn't sit still—companies led by Sony, which had been deeply entrenched in imaging technology for years.
It was like everyone was happily fighting with spears. Some were researching matchlock muskets, creating revolutionary volley-fire tactics, thinking they could conquer the world that way.
Then suddenly, someone jumped out holding an AK-47 with unlimited ammo and declared he was about to massacre everyone.
Who could tolerate that?!
Yet none of the companies jumped out immediately to suppress or attack Stark Pictures. After all, who knew whether this was just hot air—mere noise released to test reactions?
Cases where someone bluffed so hard that they panicked their opponents, only to destroy themselves in the process, had happened not long ago. The U.S. Strategic Defense Initiative and the collapse of the Red Empire were prime examples.
Even if the causal link wasn't absolute, they weren't entirely unrelated either.
Thus, Stark Pictures' public claims about film digitization, paired with the supercomputer construction plan, looked like nothing more than a smoke bomb with unclear intentions to some people.
If someone panicked, that would mean they'd fallen straight into the trap.
So the big shots in the imaging field merely made some dark, sarcastic remarks. No one believed Stark Pictures could achieve any kind of leapfrog development.
Everyone was still arguing endlessly over DVD standards—who would seriously believe someone was already jumping straight to the next generation?
They watched, but didn't truly take it to heart.
That situation didn't change until the supercomputer codenamed "Hollywood Kid" was completed, and Stark Pictures immediately rolled out tangible results from its film digitization initiative.
The new cameras still couldn't—and didn't intend to—directly replace 35mm film. Stark Pictures simply introduced a film camera with image quality superior to the tape-based digital cameras used by television stations.
Their target audience was B-movie production companies that had no intention of theatrical releases and went straight to the home video market.
The core concern of this demographic was cost control. With limited sales volume, lower costs naturally meant higher profit margins.
Compared to traditional cameras, where expensive 35mm film became useless once footage was botched or a take went NG, the difference was night and day.
Digital film cameras using hard drives as storage media allowed crews to immediately review what they'd shot—and delete unsatisfactory footage on the spot, then reshoot.
There was no need to crunch numbers to know that the cost gap between the two approaches was enormous.
And after using Stark Pictures' rented digital editing studios, even if they weren't necessarily more convenient or better than traditional studios, they certainly weren't so bad as to be unacceptable. It just required learning a new workflow.
On top of that, during the promotion phase of the new equipment, Stark Pictures offered subsidy programs to further reduce production costs.
All of this led B-movie home-video producers to switch from traditional film cameras to Stark Pictures' digital film cameras—without the slightest hesitation.
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