Entertainment: You're asked to make a graduation project, but you're asked to film Ultrama

Chapter 293 Dual-track propulsion! Gauss starts!

Since the blockbuster movie "Time Wars" raked in huge box office revenue and achieved great success in theaters.

With 13 billion yuan of the total box office revenue of 32.3 billion yuan arriving in his account, Gu Nan's wallet is getting fatter and fatter... (not really).

Light Chaser Animation's cash reserves are becoming increasingly abundant.

With this virtuous cycle, and after several large-scale recruitment drives, Light Chaser Animation's overall scale and industry standing have undergone a complete transformation.

With its influence expanding exponentially and its funds becoming unprecedentedly abundant, Gu Nan decisively made the decision to restructure internally.

In order to allow each project team to operate more focused and efficiently, the production team of Light Chaser Animation Studios, which was originally mixed together, was officially split into two main core sections.

One is the "Light Chaser TV team," which continues to focus on long-running tokusatsu dramas.

The other is Light Chaser Films, a joint venture subsidiary with China Film Group that specializes in producing large-scale, high-quality films.

At this point, Chasing Light Pictures had fully acquired the capability for industrialized production across two parallel lines.

As everyone knows, the TV drama team is working hard on the post-production of "Ultraman Gaia Season 2", with their schedules packed every day.

What many people don't know is that a brand new project has already been put on the agenda at Light Chaser Animation Studios.

Inside the conference room, the core creative team of Light Chaser Films gathered together.

On the big screen, Gu Nan typed out a brand new name – "Ultraman Cosmos".

Looking at the new Ultraman design on the screen, which was predominantly blue with soft facial features and an indescribable sense of "compassion," everyone in the conference room was somewhat surprised.

"Mr. Gu, this new Ultraman... feels completely different in temperament from Tiga, Dyna, and especially Gaia now."

The visual effects supervisor, looking at the design drawings, was the first to raise a question.

The current Ultraman Gaia is known for its extremely hardcore science fiction feel, the heavy miniature model destruction, and the frenzied violence of the earth destroyers.

The blue giant on the screen, however, looks unusually gentle.

Gu Nan leaned back in the boss's chair and nodded slightly: "That's right, this is Gauss."

If Gaia represents the Earth's indomitable will and raging power, then Gauss represents tolerance and compassion.

In his past life, Gu Nan had a very special feeling for "Ultraman Cosmos".

As the Ultraman series with the most TV episodes, "Cosmos" revolves around a core theme from beginning to end—love.

Use kindness to influence all things, and use actions to seek equality.

This is the first Ultra Warrior to truly make "protecting monsters" his core concept.

In previous works, monsters were often the opposite of Ultraman that he had to eliminate, but in the world of "Cosmos", monsters have transformed into objects that are given special protection.

As long as the monsters do not cause irreparable damage, Gauss's primary choice is always to persuade, appease, and even find suitable habitats for them.

This concept was an extremely bold innovation in the tokusatsu (special effects) industry at the time.

However, Gu Nan was well aware of the pain points of the original TV series "Goss".

"Since everyone here is from the film team, you can probably guess that I don't intend to make Gauss's project into a traditional year-long TV series." Gu Nan crossed his fingers and glanced at everyone present.

"Not making TV dramas?" The head of the production department paused for a moment. "So what do you mean?"

Gu Nan stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and wrote down the six characters "Large-scale Long-form Series".

Everyone knows Tsuburaya Productions' nature; they can produce high-scoring classics like the Heisei Three Masters, full of brilliant episodes, but they can also occasionally have a brain fart and deliver a complete disaster.

In Gu Nan's previous life, Gauss insisted on making a long TV series despite the limited budget and repetitive plot points. As a result, the excessive number of episodes inevitably led to padded plot and a slow pace, becoming a black mark on his history.

Moreover, because the production was stretched too thin and the budget was insufficient, the level of detail in the special effects sets visibly decreased as the series progressed, making the viewing experience quite agonizing.

Therefore, Gu Nan decided to take the essence and discard the dross, keeping only the main storyline and memorable episodes of the TV series, and making them into a movie, while removing those unbearable daily scenes.

Instead of those lengthy and inconsistent TV episodes, the core and most exciting story of "Ultraman Cosmos" is presented in the form of several high-quality feature films!

Returning to the main timeline, the director now understood what Gu Nan meant.

"You mean you're going to make all movies from now on?"

The conference room was completely silent; everyone was stunned by Gu Nan's decision.

Should we create a completely new Ultraman IP using movie-level production standards?

This is absolutely unprecedented in the industry.

But with Light Chaser Animation's current financial resources, this is entirely feasible!

In fact, in Gu Nan's memory, the theatrical trilogy of "Goss" is precisely the pinnacle of the entire work.

It features a dramatic storyline, exhilarating model destruction, and visually stunning action design.

"The first thing we need to start is the prequel feature film of Ultraman Cosmos - Ultraman Cosmos: The First Strike of the Sun and Moon."

Gu Nan clicked on the next slide.

"This film tells the story of Gauss's first encounter with his human form during his childhood."

"The story will open with a visually stunning space battle."

Gu Nan looked at the visual effects supervisor: "The opening scene is a chase between Gauss and the Baltan alien ninja. I want you to use the industry's top CG technology to create that oppressive feeling of high-speed travel through the cosmic sky and the intersecting light."

Upon hearing "Baltan aliens," the eyes of several people in the plot planning department lit up.

This is a classic villain character with various ninjutsu abilities such as creating clones and growing to gigantic size.

"The core of the story is very simple, but the emotions are extremely rich," Gu Nan continued.

"The protagonist, Musashi, is still an elementary school student with dreams of becoming an astronaut. One rainy night, he saves Gauss, who has exhausted his energy in battle."

"As a token of gratitude, Gauss took him soaring through the night sky and gifted him the Summoning Stone, and the two made a vow of heroism."

"However, the Baltans then descended upon Earth, attempting to colonize in large numbers. This created a huge ideological conflict between the Earth Defense Force, which represented radical xenophobia, and the Civilian Scientific Research Group (SRC), which advocated protection and appeasement."

"The defense forces' bombardment not only failed to solve the problem, but also angered the Baltan aliens, causing them to wreak havoc in the city."

"Finally, at Musashi's call, Cosmos returned to Earth and engaged in the final battle with the Baltan aliens."

After hearing the plot outline, everyone nodded silently.

The story is not complicated, but the plot is clear and full of climaxes.

"Mr. Gu, regarding the distribution method for this feature film, are we going directly to theaters?" the marketing director asked.

After all, "Time Wars" has just been a huge success in theaters, and now everyone is watching Light Chaser Animation's next move.

Gu Nan shook his head, a confident smile playing on his lips: "No, we won't release it in theaters."

"We adopt an online pay-per-view model."

Upon hearing this, the marketing director was somewhat surprised: "Online? Like with 'Star Warrior' before?"

"That's right."

Gu Nan nodded and said, "The scale and positioning of 'The First Strike of the Sun and Moon' are very suitable for this screening method. I plan to combine the successful experience of 'Project Seven' and 'Star Warrior'."

"For this film, we will continue to partner with Bilibili for paid on-demand streaming."

Gu Nan walked to the conference table and placed his hands on the surface: "Regarding pricing, the previous price of 'Star Warrior' was 6 yuan, which achieved an amazing conversion rate."

"However, as a prequel feature film, 'First Strike' is slightly shorter than 'Star Warrior' in terms of runtime."

"To give back to our fans, and also to help the new IP 'Gauss' quickly build a new following, I've decided to lower the price."

"Let's set it at 5 yuan."

The marketing director quickly scribbled notes in his notebook while simultaneously calculating in his mind.

At 5 yuan, the price is practically a steal for entertainment products these days.

But you can enjoy a tokusatsu blockbuster of movie quality.

This extreme cost-effectiveness will definitely create a frenzy on Bilibili, and may even break the on-demand record set by "Star Warrior".

"That's not all," Gu Nan added, "Online virtual on-demand is just the first step."

"For our core fan base, they value collectability more."

"Therefore, some time after the film is released online, we will start pre-sales of the physical version on the official online store."

Gu Nan pointed to a concept image on the big screen: "The release format will be similar to that of 'Project Seven' in Japan. It will be available in two versions: a deluxe art book + Blu-ray disc, and a deluxe art book + custom USB digital disc."

"The design book should include the various forms of Gauss, the evolution of the Baltan suit, and all the miniature model drawings."

"Those die-hard fans who are willing to spend money to collect things are buying this kind of substantial sincerity."

The executives in the conference room nodded in approval.

This money-grabbing model... oh wait, I mean, its marketing skills are just too high!

Light Chaser Animation has long mastered this business strategy of "low-price, high-volume online sales + high-priced offline stores to meet the needs of core fans".

They have a complete grasp of their fans' consumption psychology.