Chương 76: Chapter 76 - Night of the Super Bowl

After asking John Lasseter to bring his message to Steve Jobs, Eric put the matter out of his mind. In the present situation of Steve Jobs, Eric believed the chances of the other party accepting the proposal to be over 90% percent.

Even if the other side were to refuse to sell Pixar, Silicon Valley did not lack 3D Animators.

On January 21st, the shooting of 'Pretty Woman' officially finished. They originally planned to take three weeks to shoot the film, but it only took them two weeks to complete. For the crew members and the cast, Eric's reputation as a 'fast shooter' was deeply ingrained in their minds by now.

Also, Eric was shooting the movie in the morning and stayed up late at night working on editing a 59-second trailer for the Super Bowl.

Eric, after experiencing more than two weeks of high-intensity work, was feeling deeply exhausted even with his vigorous young body. After completing the work on the last day, there was no party and no touching parting scenes. Everyone packed their things and went their separate ways.

... ...

Tomorrow is the once a year Super Bowl opening night. Even Eric, a guy who had no sense of the Super Bowl, could feel the crowd's expectations for the day. Photographer Nicole Frank and several other crew members, regardless of how tired they were, went straight to the airport to fly to Miami after Eric announced the end.

If you are not an American, It's hard to understand the Americans mania for the super bowl.

In 1966, the NFL and AFL agreed to merge with a championship game between the two leagues to be played after that season. Lamar Hunt, founder of the American Football League saw his children playing with a Super Ball toy, and decided to call the championship the 'Super Bowl' as a joke instead of the real name 'AFL-NFL Championship Game'. But the media immediately picked up on Hunt's 'Super Bowl' name, which would become the official name later.

After decades of development, the Super Bowl had become a big carnival for all Americans. The Super Bowl TV broadcast became the highest-rated program of all time. This is the reason why Eric insisted on putting the trailer of 'Pretty Woman' on the super bowl.

Eric did not know how long he had been sleeping. When he woke up it was already the afternoon of the next day. He stretched, hearing the soft sound of bones all over his body crackling. He wore new clothes and walked downstairs.

In the living room, a petite figure was busy arranging things. The coffee table in front of the sofa was full of food, and the TV had also been replaced with a new one. Seeing Eric appear, Drew took a red T-shirt and went straight to Eric.

"Hey, what are you doing, in broad daylight." Eric smiled and dodged Drew's attempts to pull his shirt off and replace it.

"You're a stinky dirty-minded man!" Drew pursed her little mouth. She finally caught and took Eric's t-shirt off, and forced him to wear the red football jersey.

"What does this mean?" Eric tugged at the small uncomfortable t-shirt.

"This Super Bowl night, I announce that you are now a fan of the San Francisco 49ers."

Eric asked softly: "Can I refuse?"

"No!" Drew said, she turned around no longer paying attention to him.

Eric shrugged his shoulders, picked a bucket of fried chicken wings and a bottle of fruit juice, before turning to go upstairs to the study room, and let Drew keep messing about in the living room.

... ...

Eric didn't come back to the living room for a long time. Instead, waiting until the game was just about to start.

The finals were between the Cincinnati Bengals and San Francisco 49ers. If Eric's soul was that of a 20-year-old young man, he may be interested in this game. But unfortunately, he had the soul of an elder, an Asian no less, so there is not much interest on his part. He was just sitting in the living room patiently waiting for his movie trailer to start playing.

Finally, at the end of the second quarter of the game, after a Chevrolet car ad, the picture flashed, and for five seconds a carefully edited 'logo' appeared on the TV screen.

Across the whole of North America, at this time, more than 100 million viewers were sitting in front of their TVs. When they saw the Firefly-film logo, most people's first reaction was that the intro was beautiful, but it also produced a question in their minds. Firefly-film, what is this ad about?

Before this Super Bowl broadcast, there had never been a movie trailer, so ninety-nine percent of the viewers did not realize what it meant.

After five seconds, the title finished, and a close-up of beautiful red lips said: "Are you ready?" No one answered, instead, a loud roar of the Lamborghini engine sounded as a shot of the sharp lines of the silver 'Lamborghini Countach' appeared on the screen.

"Cool!" In front of the TV, many people thought this was a sports car ad.

However, they soon found they were wrong. The reason Eric added the engine sound was to attract the attention of the viewers. Next, the 'Pretty Woman' song sounded, and the trailer Eric made began showing on the screen.

Although only a 50 seconds short trailer, Eric spent a lot of thought when making it. He divided the shots into four 10 seconds sections, Edward and Vivian meeting, getting along, knowing each other, breaking up.

Although for more than 40 seconds there were no lines, most TV viewers were able to understand that this was a Cinderella love story. Of course, Eric would not be stupid enough to give away everything. A lot of the shots give a contradicting feeling as if to say: "If you want to know more, go to the cinema."

The 59 seconds of the trailer finally came to an end. In the last shot, Julia said with determination and hope in her voice: "I want a fairy tale!"

The trailer ended, the screen turned black, Julia's last remark left huge suspense to all the viewers: "Will she get a fairy tale?"

Finally, a line of text appeared on TV: Home Alone director Eric Williams's new work Pretty Woman. Releasing on February 10th in North America, stay tuned!

In thousands of households across North America, people briefly lost interest in the ads and the game, as they were discussing the trailer.

... ...

"A movie trailer ad in the Super Bowl? The guy who thought of this idea is really a genius. But aren't the Super Bowl ads expensive?"

"It must be very expensive. The ad lasted for nearly a minute, no doubt they have to spend at least 1 million dollars to take the spot."

"That's too extravagant. That's enough money to make a new movie. But I think the trailer was interesting, maybe we can go watch it later."

... ...

"That Actress is so beautiful "

"I like Al Pacino better. This is his new movie? I liked him in 'The Godfather' movie series. I've watched it five or six times."

... ...

"Eric Williams, he made another movie?"

"Yes, that's too fast. I hope he didn't ruin this movie."

... ...

"Mom, I know those words. Home Alone. Let's go and see Kevin again tomorrow, OK?"

"No, honey, you must have read it wrong."

"Mom you are lying, you taught me the two words."

... ...

"I have listened to this song, 'Roy Orbison - Oh, Pretty Woman', a long time ago."

"Really, do you still have the album?"

"I can't find it. The album was bought by my grandfather. Who knows where he put it?"

"That's too bad, but after the movie is released, there must be a soundtrack. Buy it then."

... ...

"Cole, love, let's go to watch the film on Valentine's Day."

"That... Margaret weren't we going to watch Tom Hank's new movie 'The Burbs'?"

"I think this movie is more interesting..."

"All right, I'll listen to you."

... ...

"Hey, that girl said she wanted a fairy tale, you think she can succeed?"

"Honey, this is a love movie scheduled for Valentine's Day. The outcome is certainly going to be good."

"But I think, many of the shots hinted that the male and female will be separated. Also, many directors prefer drawing the audience tears with a tragic ending."

"Well, no need to wonder about it. Let's go watch it on Valentine's Day."