Black technology: a super empire spanning two worlds

Chapter 379 [Easy to Get Started, Difficult to Master]

Even if actors want to continue working on the big screen, their pay will be roughly the same as that of the behind-the-scenes team. This includes positions such as directors and special effects artists, which currently account for a large proportion of the budget in a film. Their salaries will all decrease in the future.

The reason is simple: technological development has reached a point where the film and television industry has entered an era of technological equality. In other words, technological advancements have drastically lowered the barriers to entry for this industry.

This will inevitably lead to more people entering the industry to get a share of the profits, thus intensifying competition within the sector.

But the market size is still the same, and the number of moviegoers is still the same. It's almost impossible for a single movie to gross over a billion dollars. The total box office market is distributed among a massive number of movies. As the denominator expands, the numerator naturally becomes smaller.

Similarly, the surge in the number of films naturally means a doubling of the number of directors.

In this situation, if you, as the director, still dare to ask for a salary of 5000 million plus a share of the box office, the production company won't even give you a second glance. They'll just hand the project over to another director who only wants a salary of 100 million, while you're asking for 5000 million plus a share of the box office. How are you going to compete with them?
So if you want to continue developing in this industry, you have to lower your pay, or you have to leave the industry because you won't get any film offers.

In a sense, technological advancements have reshaped the film and television industry, curbing the excessive concentration of wealth in certain professions and distributing it to a wider range of people, thus reducing income inequality within the industry. The government's earlier salary cap in the film and television sector clearly reflects its desire to see this outcome.

Currently, a top-tier director can command a director's fee of 50 million yuan. In the future, this 50 million yuan may be distributed among more than 100 directors, meaning the wealth of 50 million yuan will be spread from one person to more than 100 people.

Clearly, this has, to some extent, achieved the effect of structural adjustment in income distribution, which is also the positive significance of "technology equality".

Similarly, the release of this productivity tool by Lingjing Technology is beneficial to small studios, independent studios, small teams, and even individuals.

Take the profession of director, for example. In the past, the threshold for entry was very high. Not just anyone could direct a movie because a movie project often had a cost of several thousand or even hundreds of millions.

But things are different now. "Technology equality" has lowered the barriers to entry for producing film and television content and greatly reduced costs, allowing independent work and personal studios to produce films independently.

In the past, some directors who couldn't secure resources had to sell their houses and mortgage them to raise production funds. Now, AI Xiaojing allows them to achieve movie-level effects at extremely low costs, which completely breaks the monopoly of capital on film and television creation.

The emergence of new technologies has brought a frenzy to countless small teams, independent studios, and obscure directors.

Clearly, this is why Lingjing Technology uses "Reconstructing a New Era for the Film and Television Industry, Xiaojing Enables Ordinary People to Become Great Directors" as its promotional slogan.

……

A second-tier city in China.

A young video creator, Shi Hongtai, is sitting in front of a high-spec computer. He bought the computer five days ago for more than 30,000 yuan. He didn't buy it to play AAA games; he got such a high-spec computer mainly for productivity purposes.

Shi Hongtai has always dreamed of becoming a director, but it can only remain a dream. He knows he has no resources, no connections, and no family wealth, so his dream is impossible to realize. He can only realize it when he sleeps at night, because everything is possible in dreams.

But today, his long-extinguished dream of becoming a director has been rekindled.

At this moment, Shi Hongtai downloaded the PC client of AI Xiaojing. Xiaojing's question-and-answer search and consultation are free, but some productivity tools are paid, such as the newly released AI video generation tool.

The personal version offers three tiers of modeling tools, each more powerful than the last, and at a progressively higher price. The monthly subscription rates are 198 yuan/month, 1980 yuan/month, and 19.8 yuan/month, respectively.

According to the official paid guide, if a user's need is to create short videos of less than 1 minute, the first-tier monthly package of 198 yuan will meet their needs; if a user's need is to create short stories with a complete narrative logic, the second-tier monthly package of 1980 yuan will meet their needs; if a user wants to create cinematic or long-form TV series content, the third-tier package is recommended.

Undoubtedly, if users want to create higher-quality content, they will get what they pay for. The third tier is the best, with richer database support, such as more options for the number of storyboards, and Lingjing Technology will continuously update its material library.

The ultimate version is an enterprise-level solution, targeting film production companies, with an annual price of 1.5 million.

The second-tier personal package can also enable the creation of cinematic long-form video narratives, but the production efficiency is relatively low. Firstly, it requires more time for editing, and the quality of the final product will be somewhat inferior.

"For the first payment of 198 yuan, you can get a three-day trial of three different models?" Shi Hongtai looked surprised when he saw the payment page.

When I saw that the third tier of monthly fees was close to 20, I was immediately deterred by the price; it was simply unaffordable.

However, he decisively paid 198 yuan to purchase the cheapest monthly package, which would allow him to experience the three-tier model tools of the 19.8 yuan package over the next three days.

"You really do get what you pay for. The sheer richness of the resource library for the three models is on a completely different level." Shi Hongtai couldn't help but say after learning more about it. After a closer look, he didn't think the price was too outrageous.

After all, the three tiers of pricing have different content levels, and the pricing is based on different creative needs.

For ordinary short video content creators, the 198 yuan and 1980 yuan packages are more than enough to meet their content production needs.

The 19.8 yuan package is clearly aimed at small and medium-sized studios that have certain creative capabilities in film and television production and can produce higher-quality works, while also having higher profit expectations.

After a while, he decided to first test the content generation effect of the model tool in the 19.8 yuan package.

When he first used it, a basic tutorial popped up on the page that could be skipped, but he didn't skip it; instead, he read the tutorial instructions first.

For creators, this video generation tool can be summed up in six words: easy to learn, difficult to master.

It's easy to get started because you only need three steps to create video content. There's basically no barrier to entry, and even the most clueless person can learn by following the tutorial steps.

However, mastering it is difficult, especially for film-level creation, which requires artistic talent. Moreover, the creator must be knowledgeable in the field, understanding and using camera language, lighting effects, and so on. These tools are available and abundant.

For example, if an AI generates a video and the creator is not satisfied, they might think that this segment should use a long take, that segment should be edited quickly and sharply, or that another scene should be lit differently. Different creators have different understandings, and after the AI ​​generates the video, the final product will be very different.

Clearly, this requires creators to possess professional knowledge, the more the better, and to understand and use these tools appropriately to produce content with AI assistance, so as to create high-quality content.

……

(End of this chapter)