Huayu: Director started with art films

Chapter 184 194 [Mosaic-like image quality, the taste gradually becomes heavier]

Zhang Manyu, who had just cleaned up, looked at Li Yishu mopping the floor and said awkwardly, "I'm sorry, Director Li."

"fine."

Li Yishu took the mop and walked into the bathroom. She rinsed it briefly, came out and mopped the floor again, then asked, "How does it feel?"

Zhang Manyu gradually calmed down and whispered: "Shame. At that moment, I felt like all my self-esteem was gone, and I lost my dignity as a human being."

“So you acted well.”

Li Yishu smiled and said, "Actually, you don't have to feel any psychological burden. You haven't learned acting systematically, but you should know how to unleash your nature, right?"

Zhang Manyu nodded: "Yes, I know, liberating nature. I learned it in the acting class, but the teacher's explanation was very simple."

"Nature is actually rationality. Rationality will be constrained by changes and influences in the environment, and the true feelings that are naturally expressed will be suppressed."

Li Yishu paused and continued, "In order to show the most authentic and natural side of a person, we need to liberate our nature, that is, to relax our body and mind, eliminate distractions and constraints, and reflect the character's true and full mental state..."

A large part of Zhang Manyu’s current acting achievements can be attributed to her own personal efforts. Except for a very small number of Hong Kong actors who are professionally trained, the vast majority have only studied in acting classes for one or two years.

Many of them have acquired their acting skills through hard work, a representative figure being Jackie Chan. Even Zhou Xingchi actually participated in the acting training class of TVB, thus having relatively systematic learning.

However, most of these acting training classes only invite some senior teachers in the industry, and most of what they teach is superficial acting, and there are very few experiential ones.

The reason why the audience feels that every actor’s acting is very good is actually the effect produced in a specific environment and a specific film.

Take Andy for example, when he was filming "A Moment of Romance", purely from the audience's perspective, his acting was absolutely top-notch.

In the end, he rode a motorcycle to smash the glass of the bridal shop, taking Wu Qinglian, who was wearing a wedding dress, with a nosebleed while riding the motorcycle. This scene is very classic, and no one would say that Andy's acting is bad.

However, if the film is made in the mainland, especially in the mainland 20 years later, the actors will not be able to get the audience's approval even if they act the same, which is the special aura that Hong Kong films have.
This can be understood as a stereotype! This is how Hong Kong movies should be.

Zhang Manyu’s acting skills must be very good, otherwise she wouldn’t have won the Berlin Film Festival award. So Li Yishu said so much just to make sure that Zhang Manyu doesn’t have any psychological burden. Liberating one’s nature is the most important part for an actor.

If you are asked to squat down and act like a dog, and bark in front of the crowd with genuine emotion, most people cannot do it without shame.

"Director Li, I now understand why Guo Rong told me before that it was great to film with you and that I could learn a lot from you."

Zhang Manyu smiled and said, "With your teaching level, I feel like you can open a class and teach students."

"Haha, a director who can't teach actors is not a good teacher."

Li Yishu smiled cheerfully. Seeing that she had relaxed, she patted her shoulder and said, "Okay, that's all for today's scene. I'll go to the next group later."

"咚咚-"

Suddenly there was a knock on the door.

"Come in!"

Li Yishu looked back and saw Yongmei standing at the door. She said, "Boss, Wenxi is here."

"She's here? Bring her over, and let the crew have lunch. We'll have a two-hour break at noon, and shoot Group B's scenes in the afternoon."

Li Yishu's eyes lit up. He had to see with his own eyes how effective this VCD was.

"Good boss."

Not long after Yongmei left, Huo Wenxi came into the room dragging a cardboard box.

Huo Wenxi said excitedly: "Boss, this is our art VCD!"

Li Yishu took it, put it on the table and opened the carton, revealing a rectangular machine that was completely black.

It was no different from the VCD that Li Yishu remembered, except that it was much thicker, heavier, and almost half the size.

Zhang Manyu came over curiously: "Director Li, what is this?"

“VCD!”

Lee Ye-seo smiled and said, “This is something that can change the world!”

"Change the world?" Zhang Manyu raised her eyebrows.

"Wenxi, can you tune it?"

"meeting!"

Huo Wenxi immediately got started and began to prepare to connect to the color TV in the room.

She squatted down and was working on it. Suddenly, she smelled something and asked curiously, "Boss, why does this room smell so strongly of sewer?"

Hearing this, Zhang Manyu's face suddenly turned red, because Huo Wenxi's position happened to be where she had just finished.

"Maybe it's because it's hot." Li Yishu walked to the window silently, opened all the windows, and turned on the old-fashioned desktop fan to dissipate the smell.

"Boss, I brought two VCDs of old Hong Kong movies. They were specially made by someone. The picture quality is very good."

Huo Wenxi took out a CD, which was the size of an adult's palm, but very thin, like a blade.

As Huo Wenxi put the disc into the projection device, when the picture appeared on the TV, Zhang Manyu also reacted: "Is this a video tape?"

Huo Wenxi laughed and said, "It's not a videotape, it's a VCD!"

Zhang Manyu looked at the remaining discs in the carton, picked one up and immediately exclaimed, "But, why are they so thin? Where are the black lines inside?"

Today's videotapes can be seen as large magnetic tapes that can play images. They use a linear image storage method, just like the English tapes we played when we were children. Sometimes they get stuck and need to be stirred manually.

The God of Gamblers Gao Jin's younger brother Gao Yi was discovered by the God of Gamblers because he did not burn the black line cleanly. If it was a CD, one only needed to scratch the tiny lines on it to destroy the entire laser disc.

"Haha, Miss Zhang, this is the power of technological development. Laser discs have better image quality and won't lag. They're just a little bulky, but they're very thin and can be stacked."

Li Yishu asked, "How much does a CD cost now?"

Huo Wenxi said: "The cost is still very high, about 10 yuan. If the production scale is expanded, it can be reduced to 5 yuan or even cheaper."

"We need to find a way to stabilize the price at 5 yuan,"

Li Yishu shook his head and said, "This thing will be eliminated sooner or later. How is the DVD development going over there, Mr. Jiang?"

After VCD came DVD. Secretary Li Yi wrote that it seemed to have been developed within just a few years, and Sony also set relevant standards for it.

Huo Wenxi said: "There has been great progress. It is estimated that there will be results by early next year. Moreover, because there was no reference before the DVD, Jiang Gong's research and development was very slow."

Li Yishu said, "Find a way to attract more scientific researchers. Money is not a problem. By the way, tell them that this is an opportunity to set industry standards. Once they participate, they can not only change the world's electronic product landscape, but also become experts in industry standards."

Many scientific researchers in China today still have ideals and aspirations, and are not just after money.

Li Yishu felt that since the factory had already been built, it was natural to run this business well. As long as there was no loss of money, she would let Huo Wenxi do what he wanted.

“Industry standard?”

Huo Wenxi nodded thoughtfully: "I understand, boss."

At this time, Zhang Manyu, who had been concentrating on the TV, suddenly asked, "Director Li, it's been so many years since Shaw Brothers' "Pansi Cave" was released, why does the picture quality still look so good?"

This movie is a 1967 erotic film based on Journey to the West, telling the story of how seven spider spirits flirt with each other.

It has been 26 years since then, and no one has watched it anymore. If you really want to watch a Category III movie, you might as well watch Mr. Xu Jingjiang's "Hot Wheels".

“It should have been restored.”

Li Yishu looked at the erotic clips on TV and glanced at Huo Wenxi. She didn't realize that this girl was quite knowledgeable. Many of the old movie copyrights she bought should be erotic films of this kind.

If this kind of movie is shown to Hong Kong audiences, even dogs won’t watch it. But for mainland audiences, it is absolutely a treasure.

This is just like reading a novel, step by step from pure love to harem and then to stud, and finally returning to nature and falling in love with "cross-dressing".

Looking at the TV screen, the picture quality is about 270P. Li Yishu, who has watched 4K Blu-ray high-definition, feels that the picture quality looks like a mosaic.

However, considering the times and the level of technology, this image quality is considered very high when printed on a VCD disc.

After watching for a while, Li Yishu turned it off, asked Huo Wenxi to put the VCD away again, and then took them both to eat.

On the way, Li Yishu asked Huo Wenxi alone: ​​"How many VCDs have you stockpiled?"

Huo Wenxi said: "More than 5000 units. We are still continuing production, but the scale has not yet increased. If we release it, we can produce about units a month."

Li Yishu shook his head: "Not enough, first stock up 5 units, and then expand production equipment, at least 1 units per month."

"Isn't it a bit too much? The cost is still very high now. If it is sold to dealers, it will cost at least 4000 yuan, which is not affordable for ordinary families."

"It doesn't matter. We can expand the scale of production and reduce costs. We can reduce costs to 3000 yuan or even lower, and then find ways to export to Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asian countries."

Now Li Yishu has started to have someone develop DVDs. As long as he has the patents and intellectual property rights in his hands, Li Yishu doesn't have to worry about the VCD factory he invested in losing money.

After two years, when the VCD market is saturated, or when there is really no other way, DVD will be launched. After that, the production of VCD will be reduced and all efforts will be made to promote DVD.

This is a common tactic used by capitalists, but many people in China don’t quite understand it. They think that launching the best products all at once will naturally help them seize the market, but they don’t understand how to maximize profits.

Although Li Yishu has never done business or worked in the physical industry, he has learned a lot from the Internet and the various capital harvesting methods in the future.

Apple released the 4, and then the 4S of the same model, and then the plus and pormax. Are there big differences?

It seems that the appearance and some configurations are very different, but in fact there is not much difference, it is just for the convenience of cutting leeks.

(End of this chapter)