When I got to Los Angeles, I called Lockheed. He was very happy when he heard that I was going to San Francisco. He immediately asked someone to arrange one for me.

Lockheed has an airport in the southern suburbs of Los Angeles. When we arrived, Lockheed had personally brought people there to greet him.

"Mr. Lockheed, I'm really troubled you." I smiled.

Lockheed waved his hand: "Andre, we are all a family, needless to say, come, I'll take you to visit this airport." Lockheed pulled me very friendly and walked into the airport gate.

This airport is not very large in size, even worse than the international airports in later generations. At a glance, dozens of planes were parked in the runway and warehouse, and most of them were small. But in this era when even cars were luxury goods, it was already amazing to have such an airport, not to mention that this was just one of the many airports of Lockheed.

Because I have 20% of the company's shares, Lockheed specifically asked the airport manager to take the financial statements. Last year, the company's profit was US$40 million, and in the first few months of this year, the revenue increased by several percentage points compared with this time last year. Lockheed pointed to these numbers and proudly introduced the various models of the company to me.

After talking for more than an hour, Lockheed suddenly remembered that I was not here to visit the company.

"Look at my memory, it's not possible, it's not possible when I reach middle age." Lockheed sighed repeatedly, and then asked the manager to take us to the airport.

The plane we were on could accommodate more than a dozen customers, and among the airport planes, it was considered a medium-to-high-end class. Lockheed also equipped us with the best pilot. When closing the cabin door, he also joked to the pilot: "You kid, you can hear it clearly. No matter what, you can't make any mistakes. If these people on your plane, especially the youngest one, are completely done if they have a short time and a short time, our company will be completely finished!"

It took two and a half hours to fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

Because it was flying on the sea and the weather was good, the scenery was very good. Griffith, Stenberg and others were excitedly snatching the window and were not idle, only I lay behind and slept soundly.

When we arrived in San Francisco, it was already past four o'clock in the afternoon. As soon as we got out of the airport, we took a bus to the factory department of the Western Electric Company in the north of the city. In the telephone booth across the factory, I called Mayo Hawthorne.

When Hawthorne heard that I was at the door of the factory, he was very surprised and brought a group of minds to greet him.

"Mr. Corleon, why didn't you say hello in advance? I can arrange someone to pick you up." Hawthorne has obviously gained a lot of weight after seeing you for half a year.

"I have something to do here, so I'll come and take a look." Of course, I couldn't tell him that I came here specially.

The group entered the office building of their factory department, and Hawthorne welcomed me warmly in his office.

"Mr. Hawthorne, the company is developing well now?" I picked up the tea that Hawthorne specially prepared for me, took a sip, and asked meaningfully.

Hawthorne smiled and his flesh trembled: "Mr. Corleon, we are a small factory. The profit in a year may not be as much as yours. In the past six months, it has developed well, at least not starved to death."

I chuckled, and then asked straight to the point: "Mr. Hawthorne, I came here mainly because I want to ask you something."

Hawthorne interrupted me with a laugh and whispered, "Mr. Corleon, I know it even if you don't say it. Haha." Hawthorne turned his face and nodded to the men beside him. The men walked out of the room for a while and then carried a box in.

Hawthorne walked up to the box, opened it, and said to me, "Mr. Corleon, did you come for it?"

I stood up, walked to the box, and looked at the things inside, saliva almost flowed out.

Vitafeng audio movie machine!

I have seen this thing in many photos. I felt so old that I was too old at that time. I didn’t expect that when I saw it, my heart would be filled with blood.

This is an audio movie machine!

I reached out and touched the brand new machine, and kept admiring.

"Mr. Corleon, our company successfully built the first one last month. After a month of improvement and continuous trimming, the current Vitawind camera can basically meet the shooting of audio movies." Hawthorne said to me proudly.

Although this machine is the most primitive wax plate sounding, with one or another shortcomings, Hawthorne has the capital to be proud of. After all, this technology was fought for decades before many filmmakers finally achieved success.

"Will there be a lot of noise during shooting?" I asked.

In history, the Vitafeng movie machines burned the sound on the wax plate during shooting, so the sounds often appear to be quite noise, which is also one of the most unacceptable shortcomings of filmmakers. As a director, I am naturally worried about this.

Hawthorne's face suddenly became serious. He scratched his head and said to me: "The noise is a bit, but if the set is kept quiet enough during filming, it will generally not have a big impact on the finished film. In addition, you can rest assured that the recording of the actors' dialogue is that this is the focus of our research. After testing, the noise is basically not very high. The biggest advantage of this kind of movie machine is that it is in large scenes.

It would be absolutely right if you use the mixed lenses!"

"What about its biggest disadvantage?" I asked.

"If the sound is extremely small, it will be difficult to record it." Hawthorne pouted at me, indicating that they had tried their best.

"There is another point, Mr. Corleon, I guess you have known it a long time ago. This kind of movie machine is fine when filming, but when the screening is performed, you must install a complete set of audio equipment in the theater. Otherwise, the audience will not be able to hear clearly and have high requirements for projectionists. They must be fully familiar with the habits of new projectors in order to be foolproof."

I circled the box twice, then nodded.

I asked about the production situation of Hawthorne and their company. Hawthorne told me that the Vitawind Film Machine Company only produced more than a dozen units, and only dozens of sets of equipment used to install in the theater.

"Mr. Hawthorne, how much does it cost if a normal silent film theater is renovated and replaced with new screening equipment?" I asked.

"Mr. Corleon, are you going to take a theater for experiment?" Hawthorne said with a smile.

I shook my head: "Not one, it's all the movie theaters of DreamWorks!"

Hawthorne was completely stunned by my words and murmured: "Mr. Corleon, this is too risky! This kind of equipment is not cheap. It costs at least $3 to renovate a theater. DreamWorks has 190 theaters, which is nearly 600! Because you own half a patent, the patent fee is not needed. If you calculate the cost in half, it will cost 300. If the movie does not respond well and the audience doesn't like it, your $300 will be wasted!"

Hawthorne said to me with great sincerity.

Not only him, but also Stenborough and Griffith behind him kept snatching my eyes.

I smiled slightly: "Mr. Hawthorne, I firmly believe that the audience will like the movies made by this machine! I have told you that this technology will be recorded in history forever!"

Hawthorne looked at me, stunned as if he was looking at a lunatic.

I patted his shoulder and said in a deep voice: "From now on, can you produce 200 projection equipment in one month?"

"Yes." Hawthorne nodded in disgrace.

"That's good."

I sat on the sofa, took out the checkbook from my pocket, wrote a check of 300, and handed it to Hawthorne.

The people in the room, Hawthorne, Stenborough, and Griffith, were all stunned.

"Mr. Corleon, don't you think about it again?" Hawthorne stuttered.

I shook my head, pointed to the Vitafeng movie machine in front of me and said, "Also, I will take all of these dozen movie machines in the factory, can I take away?"

Hawthorne nodded repeatedly holding the check.

As soon as Western Electric came out, Stenberg and Griffith exploded.

"Boss, why did you give him $300 at once? Also, all our theaters need to be renovated and replaced with new projection equipment?!" Stenberg opened his eyes wide and swallowed hard.

"Boss, this is not a small matter, you have to think clearly." Griffith reminded me.

"David, do you think audiences will like audio movies made with this kind of machine?" I did not answer their questions positively, but asked a question.

Griffith was stunned for a moment and replied, "I think I'll like it, but it's a bit of a risky way to do it."

I sighed: "You said I took risks, and I felt that way. I invested 300 in one go. No need to say, I would also consider the risks, but aren't you all optimistic about this kind of machine? David, Stenberg, future movies are audio movies. I do this to seize the initiative. This year is definitely the most critical year for Hollywood movies. If anyone seizes this opportunity, it will not only be invincible, but will also leaps forward to grow and grow! For the future of DreamWorks, these 300 are worth it even if they are wasted!"

I gritted my teeth and said harshly.

In history, wasn’t Warner Bros. a savvy film that became one of Hollywood’s top five film companies? A rough film called Don Juan made a fortune, causing the whole of Hollywood to rush into the crowd, and audio films sprung up like mushrooms after a rain overnight. At that time, in order to get ahead, some companies even drove the audiences of their cinemas out to renovate overnight.

It was also this year that the death knell of the silent film rang.

What I want to do is to take over this high ground first.

Griffith and Stenberg are not stupid. Of course they know the power of this machine. What they worry about is risk. There are risks, but compared to gaining benefits, it is too trivial.

So when I said this, they agreed happily.

"I'm fighting! Isn't it just 300? Boss, we support you. At worst, just make another movie and earn it back!" Stenberg shook his fist at me.

I smiled and walked across the street.

"Boss, where are you going?!" Stenberg shouted from behind.

"Find a place to sleep! I'm tired! I'll go back to Los Angeles tomorrow!"

“Not playing here anymore?”

"Get out! You want to play with yourself! Look at the women in San Francisco who don't play with you to death!"

The next morning, when we appeared again in the yard of the Western Electric Company, Hawthorne was commanding several workers to put the dozen Vitamotors

|▊

When he arrived in Los Angeles at noon, Stenberg called Gans and asked him to get two cars from the company to pick up goods.

After making the phone call, we stood on the street and waited. At this time, it was the most lively time of Los Angeles every day. In the hurry and crowded crowd, we were standing next to the street with a bunch of things, which was very eye-catching.

"Boss, I'm hungry." Stenberg said to me pitifully.

"Didn't you just had a meal a few hours ago?" I said angrily.

Stenberg smiled and said, "I have done a lot of work today. Didn't I help these movie machines when packing them?"

I was helpless by him: "Okay, okay, stop talking, if you are hungry, go find food. But remember to come back on time!"

Before he finished speaking, the guy rushed out and soon walked back with a big paper bag.

"Los Angeles?!Fast food!?Isn't this our fast food restaurant?!" Griffith said, pointing to the sign on the paper bag.

I walked over and saw that it was really.

Stenberg took out chicken wings from it, and the chicken burger was in a mess, and everyone stood by the road and started eating.

"Stenborg, how did you know that there is our store nearby?" I was a little curious. Although Jack said he opened a branch, he never knew where he was.

Stenborough struggled to point to a street corner in the distance: "Your observation skills are still the director! Isn't that a sign??"

Griffith and I squinted our eyes and looked over, and we saw a sign in the distance. This guy could even find it so far away.

"Boss, I think we have a lot of hope now, not just Jack's fast food restaurant. On the way back, I saw many toy stores selling vampires produced by Factory 3, and the business was excellent. Hehe, the boss is just a mind to make money." Stenberg flattered me while eating.

I glanced at him and was speechless at him.
To be continued...