“It’s no wonder that in the salons of Vienna, one always hears people talking about Your Highness’s name—not just for your studies, but for such extraordinary creativity.”
Karl had originally filmed a movie half-playfully, but Otto Tressler began to more actively curry favor and align himself with the young Prince Karl because of it.
It wasn’t bad.
It is only human nature to feel pleasure upon hearing heartfelt praise from others.
And Karl was precisely the person in the position to enjoy and accept all of this.
He already stood above many of his peers, and his goal was to stand above everyone in the future.
“Your Highness, why don’t we try filming a few more?
I feel there is great potential in this.”
Looking at the longing and enthusiasm overflowing in Tressler’s eyes, Karl nodded.
He had plenty of time anyway; it wasn’t bad to find something to do outside of his schoolwork.
Moreover, he truly hadn’t expected that this thing could actually make more money than he’d imagined.
…
Initially, Karl had no intention of making a long-term investment in the path of cinema.
After all, comparing the film market of the late nineteenth century to the modern film industry in his memories, the gap was truly as vast as the heavens and the earth.
By the twenty-first century, relying on a massive global market and huge capital turnover, a hit movie could easily earn hundreds of millions of dollars in profit, but this era was far from capable of that.
The cash income that movies could bring at this time was ultimately limited.
To earn the vast funds sufficient to influence national destiny, one had to rely on a truly massive industrial system.
Compared to making movies, Karl was more concerned about the tanks, planes, radios, and more efficient mobilization systems to be used in the great war that would sweep the world in the future.
How much effect could filming a few movies of several minutes each have on the empire’s destiny?
However, to leave some decent “memories” for his childhood and youth, Karl still put some thought into continuing his attempts at filmmaking.
Thus, in an era where even short clips of less than a minute were solemnly called “movies,” Karl actually directed Tressler to produce a work lasting a full five minutes or more.
The story was also very simple.
It told the story of a lively newspaper delivery boy riding a bicycle on the streets of Vienna and a melancholy noble lady living in a grand and luxurious mansion.
The mansion used as the primary setting was precisely the Augarten Palace.
And this short film, named “vienna encounter” by Karl, actually became a bombshell in the nascent world of cinema.
“The Bible of cinema has been born.
For decades to come, the entire film world will pay homage to it and learn from it.”
A certain arts critic who watched the preview declared as much in a salon.
“This is an unprecedented shock brought by moving images!”
A newspaper reporter wrote excitedly in a column.
“During the first screening, my soul seemed to be snatched away by those images.
During the second screening, I struggled desperately to break free from the story.
A veteran theater director said so.
In this early film circle, so small that even the word ‘industry’ felt too grand, internal news traveled incredibly fast.
Karl was long used to being called a genius, but being elevated to such a level—almost like a founding father—by the pioneers of the film world made him feel somewhat embarrassed.
When filming this piece, Karl treated it as a periodic summary and experiment, using many concepts from his previous life.
In fact, it was nothing more than stuffing in techniques he had seen commonly in countless movies and TV shows in his past life.
However, things that were commonplace to Karl were no different from a visual and narrative revolution in this pioneering era of imagery.
If his “vienna encounter” were released in the twenty-first century, it would likely be mocked by professional film critics as a mediocre and boring student exercise, a waste of money.
Critics would be sarcastic, saying the film world wasn’t that easy to fool.
It might even be so cliché that it wouldn’t even get a review, sinking directly into oblivion.
But, this was not the case in the late 1890s.
“Your Highness, you have already left a profound mark on the history of cinema!”
Otto Tressler was so excited he could hardly contain himself.
Thus, Karl easily established his credentials as a “pioneer of cinema” based solely on that short film that left a huge footprint in the early film world.
Tressler, who had always been in the spotlight, looked at Karl as if he were truly a “savior” bringing light.
In fact, their short films were being screened more and more frequently as additional programs in concert halls and theaters in Vienna and surrounding cities.
The audience response was quite good, and it was more profitable than Karl had imagined.
Surprisingly, quite a few citizens and the middle class were willing to spend a little money to see these moving stories; it truly was the late nineteenth century, full of curiosity.
So, on a whim, Karl simply had Tressler act as the face to establish a small company named “Karl & Otto Pictures.”
He agonized over the name for a long time before finally choosing the word “Pictures,” which sounded more formal than “Film Workshop.” In this way, it truly had the flavor of an early film studio.
After the company was founded, Karl threw out all the movie ideas in his head that were suitable for the technical conditions of this era.
Tressler, relying on his connections in the theater world, recruited people desperately, filmed constantly, and learned through practice.
As technical experiments, they also filmed several comedic or fantasy shorts of about a minute.
Through these attempts, they accumulated various primitive special effects, compositing, and cinematography techniques, gradually building up experience and confidence for filming more complex and longer works.
Ultimately, they ambitiously produced a fifteen-minute “epic” telling the story of a train traveling to the moon.
This wasn’t entirely original; Karl just borrowed some ideas from a certain early science fiction movie he had seen in his previous life.
Anyway, he was faster now, right?
This idea was absolutely fresh at the moment.
The film was titled “a trip to the moon” and was one of the earliest sci-fi movies in history, a pioneering work that utilized many visual techniques that were shocking at the time.
Through carefully painted sets, stop-motion animation effects, and image compositing, they presented a fantastical scene on the screen of a train launching from the ground, traveling through the starry sky, all the way to a cratered moon.
Perhaps in the twenty-first century, anyone who still has dreams about cinema, even if they don’t know the name Karl von Habsburg, will surely study this work.
“a trip to the moon” and the series of short films accumulated before it were not only screened in Vienna and the Austro-Hungarian Empire but also expanded through distribution channels to London, Paris, Berlin in the German Empire, and Saint Petersburg in the Russian Empire.
At that time, these cities were the centers of European culture and commerce.
Developed railway and newspaper networks quickly spread new things to major metropolises.
For most ordinary people in this era, what entertainment could they use to pass the time after work besides drinking, going to the theater, and visiting cafes? This chapter is updated first at novelping . com.
Even crossword puzzles in newspapers hadn’t become popular yet, right?
Movies, as a novelty, were more profitable than Karl had initially imagined.
After all, there were almost no producers of noble birth like him; other filmmakers lacked both capital and connections.
Although the market was small, “Karl & Otto Pictures” was almost in a monopoly position, and the profits earned were actually quite considerable.
And amidst the continuous success and praise, a certain someone inevitably began to harbor a hint of arrogance.
After all, as a member of the imperial family living in a luxurious palace, what real troubles could he encounter?
He had not broken into an industry where interests were already entrenched and stagnant like a pool of dead water; there were no powerful interest groups to block him.
This smooth sailing made Karl once think that things could continue this way forever.
But this world was far more terrifying than a certain someone imagined.
“The problem is…
America?”
When Otto Tressler came to Augarten Palace for an audience with a troubled look on his face, Karl was busy processing a batch of film copy orders for Berlin, immersed in the joy of counting money.
Money was, of course, the more the better, and after the major European cities, the next target market with huge potential was naturally the rising United States.
To put it bluntly, where else could they sell movies in this era?
The world’s economic and cultural centers were in Europe.
Most of Africa and Asia were out of the question; they were battlefields for colonization and survival.
In places where even basic food and shelter were problems, how could there be leisure time to consume entertainment like movies?
But America was different.
Although the United States at this time was still seen by the old European empires as an upstart in politics and military, even mocked as a third-rate power, its huge potential at the economic and industrial levels could no longer be ignored.
Rapid industrialization, a continent-wide railway network, and a continuous tide of immigration were quickly nurturing a consumer market of considerable size.
However, just as Karl was planning to enter the New World, he encountered the first hurdle of his life.
“Our movies are already being screened in America?”
Karl frowned, looking at the report in his hand.
“Yes, Your Highness.
According to the news we just received, in New York, Chicago, and other places, there are indeed theaters screening ‘vienna encounter’ and ‘a trip to the moon’.”
“Could it just be a coincidence of names?
Or a copycat work?”
Karl asked, still holding onto a sliver of hope.
“No, Your Highness.
From the title to the content, everything is identical.
Moreover, they are not copies authorized by us.”
Damn it, there’s piracy in this era too?!
Listening to Otto Tressler’s rapid-fire response, Karl only felt numb.