The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 452: Playthings or New Industries

When Zhu Jianxuan was preparing to film Romance of the Three Kingdoms, his instinct was to follow the flow of the original novel as closely as possible and directly film it into the TV series he remembered.

However, considering the current film and television technology conditions in the Ming Dynasty, the key point is that the scope of radio and television is still limited.

So after careful consideration, Zhu Jianxuan decided to select a few famous clips and shoot short stories as a means of technical accumulation and experimentation.

Zhu Jianxuan divided the novel authors and screenwriters into several groups and asked them to write scripts for several of the most classic stories of the Three Kingdoms.

In addition, personnel were organized to build environmental scenes for shooting and prepare costumes and props that matched the environment at the time.

At the same time, according to the list of characters appearing in the script, suitable actors are selected from the troupe.

After the Three Kingdoms project was officially launched, Zhu Jianxuan officially paid them according to their duties and time. Before that, Zhu Jianxuan only gave them subsidies.

This money was also paid by Zhu Jianxuan himself, from his numerous patents and dividends from company shares.

After writing several script segments, Zhu Jianxuan personally led the screenwriters to cross-examine and revise them, and began filming after everyone signed their names.

The copyright law that Zhu Jianxuan requested the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Justice to revise has been basically completed.

After all, this legislative revision was the emperor's personal will, rather than allowing the people of the world and their representatives to offer suggestions.

As long as the emperor's requirements are written clearly and the emperor himself approves and signs them, they will take effect directly.

Zhu Jianxuan asked the Ministry of Rites to print out the revised Copyright Law and show it to the current creators, screenwriters, directors, and leading actors in Shuntian Prefecture.

Letting them know that the emperor has given them special status is considered an extra encouragement to them.

At the same time, the main contents of the revision will be broadcast through television and radio to let ordinary officials and people know which standards the emperor has set for which people.

When encountering similar cases in the future, how should the people report them and how should the officials judge and handle them?

Ordinary people do not have a strong understanding of this matter, but most of the relevant personnel in the industry are excited and feel that the emperor really understands their difficulties.

Zhu Jianxuan continued to summarize techniques and experience in the name of organizing filming.

Zhu Jianxuan planned to shoot a more famous clip first. Many authors and screenwriters recommended shooting something like the Three Heroes Fighting Lu Bu.

But Zhu Jianxuan chose to kill Hua Xiong with warm wine.

The key is that the shooting difficulty is relatively low, and the dramatic conflict is particularly strong, which makes it easiest for people to feel the impact.

Even people who have not read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms can form the first impression that Guan Yu is very powerful through the contrast between Hua Xiong beheading the generals and being beheaded by Guan Yu in battle.

This impression will help in the subsequent filming of the three heroes fighting Lu Bu.

If the story did not lay the groundwork for the martial arts of Guan Yu and his three brothers, and they directly fought with Lu Bu when they appeared, it would not show how powerful Lu Bu was.

Hua Xiong could easily kill ordinary generals, Guan Yu could easily kill Hua Xiong, and Lu Bu could fight against the three brothers Liu, Guan and Zhang alone.

After writing these three battles, the basic combat power sequence framework of the Three Kingdoms generals is completed.

When new generals appear in the future, they can be directly compared with this sequence, so that the audience can have a basic understanding of the new generals' strength.

Zhu Jianxuan directly told this logic to the screenwriters, allowing them to understand and digest this creative idea.

I specifically told them that the audience for future film and television dramas should be everyone, including those who have not read "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and even ordinary people who are completely illiterate.

We cannot say that if you haven’t read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, you cannot come to watch our drama, or that you simply cannot understand it. That would make it impossible to make a popular drama.

Many traditional dramas require one to have read the original work, or at least listened to the corresponding storytelling, and then to watch it several times over again before one can understand what is being performed on stage.

Someone needs to tell them what a certain object on the stage symbolizes and what a certain action of a character means.

Ordinary people who have not seen it often feel confused and baffled.

Zhu Jianxuan told the screenwriters and actors around him and asked them to completely break this self-evident framework.

Treat the audience as strangers watching for the first time.

The requirement is that the audience will be interested in what is being broadcast after just a few glances, and will be able to quickly understand what the story is about.

Some screenwriters can understand it, while some cannot. Zhu Jianxuan lets those who can understand it quickly to preside over the specific filming.

When filming the scene where Guan Yu drinks wine and kills Hua Xiong, Zhu Jianxuan first selected all the protagonists, preferably those who knew how to ride horses, and then let them practice riding real horses.

Zhu Jianxuan arranged for people to set up military tents in the hunting ground in Nanyuan, and asked ordinary actors who came to Beijing to play the roles of soldiers and ordinary officers.

Dress the main characters in armor that looks as realistic as possible and have them ride real horses.

Zhu Jianxuan held the microphone and kept reminding everyone at the scene:

“All actors, you should think of yourself as the person you are playing. You are just doing what the other side should do on the battlefield, not just acting on the stage.

“All the camera work should make the audience feel like they are watching these things happen right there.

“We need to let the audience feel the tense atmosphere and murderous intent of the scene.

"The recorder perked up and carefully recorded all my explanations, all the discussions between the actors and prop masters, and the camera and solutions they mentioned.

“We can’t afford to study a second time what we’ve already figured out.

“You still have a lot to do. We are just learning by shooting a few clips now. In the future, you will have to shoot the entire Three Kingdoms.

"After filming Romance of the Three Kingdoms, I went on to film Water Margin. After Water Margin, I went on to film Three Words, Two Beats, Journey to the West, and Fengshen Sui and Tang Dynasties.

“Even though these well-known ones have been filmed, have you filmed new-school novels?

“In the future, the imperial court may not always lead you to do things, but after you learn the skills here, you can go and shoot on your own.

"So you have a lot to do, and the shooting speed must be faster and faster..."

Zhu Jianxuan's arrangements seemed normal, and he never mentioned setting up a school, but the school had actually been established.

The people participating in the filming now are the earliest staff members of the school, they are both teachers and students.

They took it for granted that the entire framework of these new dramas was built by Zhu Jianxuan himself, and they were just giving advice and doing odd jobs.

It may take ten years before these people finish filming some of the most classic novels.

At that time, it would be natural for Zhu Jianxuan to keep another group of students as formal teachers and continue to teach new students.

At the same time, Zhu Jianxuan also asked the Institute of Education to specially arrange a group of young recorders to record everything throughout the entire process.

Especially the process of raising questions and solving problems.

For example, prop making, and methods of shooting specific scenes, these things should be included in school textbooks.

Zhu Jianxuan doesn't need these old people to take the initiative to teach students.

During the filming in the past few years, they will unconsciously use various performance skills.

If he doesn't take it, others will. If neither of them takes it, Zhu Jianxuan will ask people to study on the spot how to achieve a specific technique.

They can get a good reputation by showing it out, and may even get the naming rights.

Zhu Jianxuan would ask the recorder to directly write down who inherited or created a particular technique. Zhu Jianxuan was busy filming, and the ministers of the court and even some scholars in the folk felt that the emperor seemed to have really lost his ambition due to his indulgence in pleasure.

The Ming Emperor, who controlled the world, actually devoted himself to drama, film and television.

It's okay to just watch a play, but it's a bit weird to film one's own play. In the eyes of most intellectuals, this is a low-class profession.

This has also produced some negative effects, but they are not particularly obvious for the time being.

After all, Zhu Jianxuan was only directing the filming and shooting the drama that the prince wanted to watch. The reason might be that the emperor looked down on the old dramas.

It is not something that the emperor himself has to play any role; it is something that he can barely accept.

At the same time, during the filming process, Zhu Jianxuan would occasionally release some clips, which were broadcast in the cabinet, the Secretariat, the guardhouses, factories, television, and radio.

For example, some large shots on the battlefield, some specific martial arts clips, some dialogue scenes and shots, or some short new music.

There are also some on-site shooting footage, which explain some necessary shooting techniques and how some special and impactful images were created.

For example, what props and techniques were used to shoot scenes like beheading with a sword, swords and spears piercing the human body, and blood splattering?

It is not true that people were killed with a machete or stabbed with a gun, so as to avoid unnecessary misunderstandings. It also gives examples to expose some folk scams.

At the same time, each video specifically states that the performers summoned by the emperor from all over the world are filming the entire Three Kingdoms in this way.

All edited footage will be publicly screened on television and in cinemas later, so stay tuned.

These things are actually trailers and advertisements, used to increase the audience's anticipation.

These trailers are indeed effective, and most people who watched them directly were shocked like never before.

Although the techniques used by Zhu Jianxuan's team are still very crude compared to the film and television techniques of the 21st century, they are already a subversion compared to traditional stage plays.

The immersive visual stimulation of the pictures shot in large outdoor scenes is completely on a different level compared to the performances on the stage.

It seems that everyone thinks that the dramas the emperor has recently put together are much better than those they have seen before.

But these things can only be seen on TV or in cinemas, and cannot be seen in person.

Because many of the shots are shot at special angles, there is no actual effect when watching them on site, so you have to wait until they are edited before watching them.

So the emperor himself couldn't see the "live version".

In other words, what the emperor is preparing now is a pure TV and cinema drama, not a live stage play.

As more and more footage is revealed from time to time, more and more people are looking forward to the full story.

To the extent that some royal family members and bureaucrats would ask the emperor about the progress during their private meetings.

If the emperor just played games by himself, enjoyed singing and dancing performances by himself, and feasted and played with the performers by himself, he would certainly not have a good reputation.

Now the emperor is creating new cultural and artistic performances for the people of the world.

In addition, the things made are indeed attractive, so the negative effects are mostly offset.

Only some of the most conservative old scholars would complain in their hearts that their emperor had grown old and was not doing his job properly.

In the second half of the 32nd year of Tiangong, Zhu Jianxuan released the complete strategy of killing Hua Xiong with warm wine.

Although there were only forty minutes of footage in total, which was far inferior to later movies, it immediately generated a huge response after it was broadcast.

Mainly because compared with traditional drama, the impact of this new drama is too strong.

You can directly see the close-up of the smoking wine glass, you can see the realistic reflection of the blade and dripping blood, you can see countless soldiers on the battlefield.

Hua Xiong’s transformation from an extremely arrogant person to a dead man can be seen from different angles.

One can see the human head that Guan Erye casually dropped rolling on the ground in front of the various princes in the big tent.

You can see expressions of fear and surprise on the faces of the generals.

With Zhu Jianxuan's guidance from later generations' experience, the specific images shot by the Ming Dynasty entertainers today are much more exciting than those in early films in history.

It is particularly shocking to those who have never seen such images.

Senior officials from the Cabinet and the Secretariat could watch the public screenings directly in the auditorium, while managers, officers, workers, and soldiers from state-run factories and garrisons could take turns watching internal screenings.

However, these people can see the images directly, but their families have no chance to watch them for free, and instead they become the natural propagandists.

They brought their families and went to movie theaters all over Shuntian Prefecture to watch the movie, just like ordinary people.

All the cinemas in Shuntianfu and surrounding areas that could show the film were soon packed all day.

Many places even temporarily converted their cinemas to screen the films.

The manufacturers operating these industries have become so busy because of this hot phenomenon that they have started to make huge profits.

Of course, it is too late to open a new cinema or buy new projection equipment on short notice.

Revenue equals unit price multiplied by sales volume. Since there is no way to increase sales volume, many people naturally want to increase unit prices.

However, before the film was broadcast, the emperor convened the owners of Shuntian Prefecture and surrounding theaters at the filming base in Nanyuan and laid down the rules in person.

The entire industry is just starting out now, and this is not the time to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. I earnestly teach them to take a long-term view.

The first thing everyone needs to do now is to cultivate the habit of watching movies with high-quality and low-priced products.

Then, by continuously producing new works, the audience will basically form the habit of going to the cinema to watch movies from time to time.

If you want to make more money, expand the scale of your industry and build more cinemas.

Instead of raising prices to control the flow of people based on the existing scale.

If the cinema does not comply with the emperor's request, the emperor will not punish the other party directly, but all new dramas will no longer be broadcast in the corresponding cinema in the future.

At the same time, when Zhu Jianxuan was preparing to shoot a film and television drama, he had already issued an order to establish a new state-run film and television company and cinema operating company.

After almost a year of preparation, we can now operate independently. If private cinemas do not cooperate, we will broadcast the show alone.

The final result, of course, was that no one dared to act recklessly, and they could only hold back their efforts to prepare to build more cinemas in an attempt to accommodate more guests to watch movies.

When it came to the time when the cinemas in Shuntian Prefecture were packed every day, and in teahouses and pubs everywhere people were discussing the story of killing Hua Xiong with warm wine.

Many people outside the industry are finally beginning to realize that their emperor's drama is not entertainment, but the creation and development of a new industry.

What Zhu Jianxuan does has an extremely strong guiding effect. All new industries created by Zhu Jianxuan are profitable.

The difference is just how early you make money, and most of the time, the earlier you get on board, the more money you make, but of course the cost may also be higher.

Once it was confirmed that this was the emperor's new project, a large amount of private capital immediately poured in and began to invest in industries related to theaters and films.

The film and television dramas organized by the emperor himself have been released. Most of the content and techniques are no longer secrets, and the emperor has disclosed many shooting methods.

Many people quickly realized that they could also shoot similar dramas in this way, and this is a new investment window.

(End of this chapter)