[Chapter 930: Who's Kidding with ?]
Nokia undoubtedly inherited the unique craftsmanship of Europeans. In Eric's hands, the two music phone prototypes were made of plastic, but the silver casing exuded a high-end tallic feel.
Moreover, these two phones did not adopt Nokia's traditional, unchanging classic shape. Instead, they resembled the elongated design of the Nokia Vertu. Due to the technological limitations of the ti, the devices appeared wider than the Nokia Vertu, yet the overall design still exuded a sense of style. In addition to basic communication functions, the phones featured buttons that allowed for a much more convenient music playback system compared to the Fireflyer, even enabling simple search operations.
Despite the $600 starting price positioning them firmly as high-end models in the current mobile phone market, Eric remained confident that these devices would attract a significant portion of the young white-collar demographic under thirty.
Putting on the headphones, Eric sampled a piece of music, satisfied as he neatly packed away the two phones.
With people around in the restaurant, Eric could not continue testing whether the phones could conveniently purchase and transfer music from the Yahoo Music Store. However, after a brief trial, he had no doubts about the music transmission capabilities of these phones. Undoubtedly, Nokia's R&D prowess was hardly inferior to that of Firefly Electronics.
After chatting a bit more with Caroline and lanie, Eric finally began his al. Yet, his mind couldn't help but wander, contemplating when and how he should intervene in or even take over Nokia's managent.
Nokia lacked for neither technology nor talent nor channels, yet it had experienced a spectacular decline fifteen years after reaching its peak. This was surely no accident, but rather a long process of transformative collapse, where a seemingly small issue could lead to considerable fallout. Waiting until disaster struck to act would undoubtedly be too late.
Firefly Investnt was still firmly in possession of a 51% controlling stake in Nokia. Therefore, as long as Eric wished, he held the absolute power to make the adjustnts he desired within Nokia.
Nevertheless, he knew it wouldn't be wise to act on this in the coming years. Nokia had just ascended to the position of the world's leading mobile manufacturer, and the current managent team had a very thorough developnt plan in place. Interfering in the company's managent at this stage would definitely create friction between the managent and Eric, the major shareholder, and would hinder Nokia's montum toward further growth.
Even with this music phone, as Eric advanced the project, he sensed so discontent from Nokia's managent. High-level executives there remained focused on perfecting simple, easy-to-use function phones, deeming a phone's entertainnt functions as frivolous. Until their past decline, they had proudly upheld this belief, ultimately causing this giant in the mobile industry to plumt from greatness at a staggering speed.
Only when Caroline and lanie finished their lunch did they look over, intrigued by the silence that had enveloped him for a while. Eric snapped back to reality, smiled, and quickened his eating pace.
If he couldn't clarify his thoughts right now, he would simply have to consider them slowly. After all, Nokia had just entered its pri, with plenty of ti and opportunities ahead of them. At least he knew that Nokia's CEO, Jorma Ollila, had a contract that wouldn't expire until next year; any actions Eric wished to take must wait until at least after that.
Eric felt a twinge of regret; he could not recall the na of Nokia's last CEO, who had hastened their plunge into decline. If he had, even with opposition from everyone, he would have promptly kicked that guy out of Nokia. After all, soone who could drive a company holding over 40% of the global mobile market to bankruptcy in just a few years was a "talent" who should be swiftly dealt with.
After lunch, Eric instructed the two won, "You need to send a mo to Nokia. Since they intend to implent the first and second generation Fireflyer-like 1G and 2G storage versions, the release date should be postponed from January to April, scheduled for one week after the second-generation Fireflyer is launched. Also, while Nokia's primary markets are in Europe and Asia, this phone's target market should be the United States, since only the U.S. currently has a relatively complete network music store. There's no rush for Europe, and for Asia, let's hold off on promotion for now. While the music copyright regulations aren't strict there, it isn't necessary for us to dive into that yet; it would only be a loss."
Once he confird that both won had noted his words, Eric left the restaurant to return to work in the studio.
...
Over the next couple of days, the simple set for the rehearsal of Wannabe was completed, and just as Eric was about to gather the Spice Girls to begin rehearsals, a weighty piece of news arrived from the U.S.
After three long months of protracted negotiations, Viacom finally reached an acquisition agreent with CBS Group, with the final deal valued at $36 billion.
With this, the four major television networks in Arica -- ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX -- all fell under the umbrella of large conglorates. Although General Electric, owning NBC, couldn't technically be considered a dia group, this still marked a significant milestone in the wave of consolidation within the Arican dia industry.
Canada's Seagram Group was in acquisition talks with Europe's Polygram Records, but this could only be regarded as an extension of the consolidation wave, as neither the success nor failure of this rger would significantly reshape the landscape of the Arican dia industry.
The completion of the dia group consolidation indicated that, under such monopolistic conditions, a dia company, unless utilizing unconventional rger strategies, would no longer have the possibility of developing into a dia group from scratch. The Arican dia industry had once again entered an oligopolistic era.
When Eric heard this news, he was reminded of his conversation with New Line Cinema's CEO, Robert Shaye, a few years prior. Although his influence had stirred up many storms in the following years, the overarching trends of history hadn't fundantally changed. Luckily, Firefly had successfully completed its own preparations before all this unfolded.
...
Today marked the third day of formal rehearsals for Wannabe.
Over two days, Eric had watched and guided the girls of the Spice Girls as they perford for the entire music video. While the music industry had never lacked female singing groups, it was the Spice Girls that truly brought this girl group format to the world stage.
Thus, originally in history, even though many believed the Spice Girls exuded coolness during their initial rise with both music videos and live performances, with the perspective gained from Eric's over ten years of experience, he found the dance performances in the music videos to be abysmal. Naturally, drawing from his mories, Eric directed the choreographer to design so classic dance moves for the girls.
In the open set at the Pinewood Studios, dozens of curious eyes, including the five girls of the Spice Girls, watched as Eric donned a Steadicam system, their faces etched with expressions of surprise.
Caroline and lanie helped Eric check a few connections on his gear when Simon Fuller walked over and saw Eric, dressed in a shock-absorbing vest and adjusting a lightweight cara with a counterweight, looking incredulous. "Eric, are you planning to shoot this music video yourself?"
Eric nodded, looking at the astonished Simon Fuller, and smiled, "Is there a problem with doing it myself?"
"No, oh, sure, of course not," Simon hurriedly shook his head, joking. After all, who would dare say no if Eric Williams wanted to be the caraman for the music video?
Noticing that Simon was montarily at a loss, Eric added, "Everyone here is required to have signed a confidentiality agreent, right? Please remind them not to leak this until the music video is completed."
Eric's visit to the UK had frequently made headlines in local dia. Under Simon's efforts, the establishnt of the Spice Girls had stirred up significant buzz as well. However, the public only vaguely knew that Eric was set to produce the group on a song. Other details had been tightly guarded.
Upon confirming with Eric that he would personally take on the role of caraman, Simon's first thought was to call a newspaper; this was massive news.
However, hearing Eric's specific request, Simon had to abandon that idea: "Alright, Eric, I'll make sure of it."
"Then let's get started," Eric nodded, moving to the edge of the set and signaling for the music video director, who Simon had invited but would ultimately not find a way to contribute.
As the stage manager's voice rang out, all the extras quickly took their positions.
The five girls of the Spice Girls stood at the starting point. The director, who had effectively lost all authority, looked at Eric, waiting for him to give the "OK" gesture. The accompanint for Wannabe began playing. To maintain strict confidentiality, only the backing track would be used during rehearsals or formal shooting. Despite everyone having signed confidentiality agreents, there was no guarantee that soone wouldn't leak sothing out of greed; British paparazzi were renowned for their relentless pursuit of news. If any lyrics leaked ahead of ti, it would create quite a stir.
As the music played, the five girls entered the fra, laughing and joking. Eric focused on the monitor, slowly moving along with the girls as they danced.
To master long takes, the key lies in quickly establishing focus amidst the constantly shifting chaos of the framing to present the creator's intended visual language.
The script for the Wannabe music video was written by Eric based on his mories, with the storyline revolving around five exuberant girls causing a ruckus in a club.
Perhaps it was because Eric was personally wielding the cara, but within less than a minute of starting the first rehearsal, one of the girls accidentally tripped, forcing a pause in filming. Watching the girl designated as "Baby Spice" glance at him with a nervous, almost tearful expression, Eric felt the need to soothe her himself.
To refine his long-take cinematography techniques, Eric had allotted a full two weeks for filming this music video, so there was no rush. After comforting Baby Spice, he instructed everyone that further shooting should only stop in case of serious issues.
As the music played again, there were indeed minor hiccups throughout, but the shooting proceeded without further pauses. Eric's eyes remained glued to the monitor as he carefully followed the girls' dance steps, rapidly calculating how to shoot a particular scene more cohesively.
Originally thinking this would be an opportunity to achieve the first "one-take," the music ran for about three minutes. This segnt ideally involved a romantic couple dancing excitedly with the five girls; however, Eric suddenly recognized that one actress in a pink dress on the left side of the fra looked eerily familiar. Instinctively, he glanced up and was taken aback.
Although she had dyed her hair a light blonde and the pink dress seed out of place, the slightly darker skin tone, deep eye makeup, and signature aloof expression -- wasn't that Victoria Beckham? Oh no, wait, she was still Victoria Adams for now. Perhaps, she would forever remain Victoria Adams.
WTF!
Who was kidding with him?
Eric felt a strange yet humorous sensation wash over him.
He definitely wouldn't interfere in the casting for the music video; that mattered only to the MV director. It only dawned on him now that, okay, he had another unexpected twist thrown into the mix.
The music continued, and the five girls kept performing, but everyone noticed that Eric had halted next to the girl in the pink dress for several seconds. Victoria Adams sensed this too, as she turned to look at Eric. Her body, which had been dancing atop the chair, abruptly stopped. She wanted to step down but hesitated, unsure if she should.
She had just seen Eric was determined to operate the cara himself, and naturally, she couldn't help but wonder if this significant figure would take notice of her. Yet she knew deep down, it was likely just a fantasy.
Excluding the five Spice Girls, there were several actresses in the MV more attractive than her. So now, when Eric Williams stood still, scrutinizing her for several seconds, Victoria felt her heart race, her body tingling with inexplicable excitent and nervousness.
Only when Eric noticed Victoria Adams had completely halted her movents in his direction did he snap back to attention, naturally adjusting the cara to point elsewhere.
Outside, lanie noticed this detail and snatched the cup of coffee Caroline had been ticulously cradling, taking an unapologetic sip and saying, "See? I told you."
*****
spatreon/Sayonara816.
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