Hong Kong Entertainment’s Life Simulator

In early September, a dock in Yau Ma Tei.

Li Zicheng (Zhou Runfa), who was wearing a torn suit, was smoking a cigarette in one hand and holding a watermelon knife wrapped in an old newspaper in the other. He walked out of a row of low-rise buildings. People and cars were passing by on the pier. A few of Li Zicheng's slightly curly hair were fluttering in the sea breeze. While walking, he said to the side in front of him, "Diaomao, hurry up!"

Ding Qing (Wan Ziliang), a short-haired boy, ran out holding up his pants and walked side by side with Li Zicheng, "I'm sorry, I urinate frequently when I'm nervous. I'm sure it's fine. It's really strange."

Then the two of them walked forward at a small pace while the fish pens, sweepers, and porters on both sides of the pier were doing their own things. As soon as Ah Cheng continued to smoke for two more puffs, Ding Qing turned around and ran away awkwardly, "Wait a minute." I’ll come back after I pee.”

Li Zicheng was so angry that he almost dropped his cigarette and shouted, but Ding Qing ran further and further away.

…………

After a while, Zhao Donghuai, who was sitting behind the viewfinder, said loudly, "Click, passed! Finished!"

Shooting started in mid-July and is now being completed in early September. This is because Zhao Donghuai has almost all the scripts in his mind.

Compared with many Hong Kong films of this era, this New World was shot slowly, not to mention that the crew was still finishing the filming, and post-production editing, dubbing, soundtrack, etc. also took time.

This made Director Zhao sigh with emotion. He had the power of at least five or six scenes.

He has been so busy that only a few hundred thousand of the 5 million filming cost have been spent. The good news is that he went to the mainland for the second time to trade the waste paper shipped back from A Mei's house. Received 6 million Hong Kong dollars from several paper mills in Jinhai, Shandong, and Northern Hebei provinces.

At that time, the crew's capital of more than 1 million was added, and there was still more than 4 million in hand.

I have money in my hand and don’t panic.

With more than 4 million, after he finished working on the crew and finished editing the sample film, he planned to take the time to buy a big house to live in before the release, and buy a few cars under his Zhaoshi International Trading banner.

This is only 1983, and the current housing prices in Hong Kong are still at a low point.

Buying a house is basically not a loss.

In 1983 and 1984, the average house price in Kowloon fell to 500 to 610 square feet, but by 1987 it had risen to over 800 square feet. By then, prices in Kowloon Tong and Tsim Sha Tsui had already exceeded 1,000.

Breaking a thousand feet means tens of thousands of square meters.

By 1990, the average price was already 1,510 square feet. Yau Tsim Mong and Kowloon Tong would only soar towards the 2,000 square foot mark. The more housing prices are booming in this era, the higher the price increases in the best and bustling areas. Astonishing, exceeding the average increase.

Following Zhao Donghuai's words, the crew behind the scenes breathed a sigh of relief, called it a day, shut down the machines, etc.

Wan Ziliang and Ah Fa, who played the role of a man who frequently urinates, immediately cheered.

Zhao Donghuai honked the loudspeaker and said, "We have been busy together for nearly two months. During this time, I believe you all have a good idea of ​​the quality of the films our crew has shot. I won't say more. The wedding banquet will be held in the evening. If you can come, all come."

"When the editing is over, I wish myself a box office hit, and I also hope that everyone can use this experience to take their careers to a higher level!"

As the words swept the audience, the cheers from the crew near the dock became even louder.

Yes, we have been working together for nearly two months, and we have both day and night scenes, even though this is not the digital age.

This is the age of film. Basically, you can only know how the things you shot are after the rolls of film are developed and printed. It can only be understood by professionals. For the audience, they have to wait until the editing is completed and the dubbing and soundtrack are completed to enjoy the movie.

But whether a crew is good or bad, and the quality of the things they shoot, everyone has a weighing in mind.

Amidst the cheers, many people ran near Zhao Donghuai and bid him warm farewell.

This is also a short farewell, everyone goes back to clean up, and see you again at the end of the banquet.

Zhou Runfa walked over in a torn suit, rubbed his messy hair, and said with a smile, "Director, we will definitely be a hit at the box office, we will!"

Wan Ziliang also nodded excitedly, "I estimate that after the film is released, my image as a big brother with frequent urination will become famous all over Hong Kong, haha~"

One of the two protagonists has been in the industry for six years, and the other has been in the industry for ten years. They know how the movie will turn out.

Zhao Donghuai also laughed, "If you want to be stereotyped as Brother Pei Ping, it can only mean that your acting skills need to be improved. Okay, call it a day! See you tonight!"

The ordinary crew members are calling it a day, but he is still busy as a director.

In the evening, we had a casual wrap-up party, then took rolls of film to the Clearwater Bay studio. Clearwater Bay was the largest studio of Shaw Brothers, with two to three thousand people working here at its peak.

There are more than a dozen studios with no spare space, and they are much larger than Golden Harvest. The Golden Harvest studio located on Ax Hill Road only has four filming areas ABC and D.

Similarly, here at Shaw Brothers, there are professional office areas for post-production, development, editing, recording, etc., and they are handed over to the printing agency for printing first. He left four bodyguards and left.

………………

A few days later.

Director Zhao returned to the Clear Water Bay set and started editing.

Film editing is also a top priority, almost frame by frame, a little bit of dubbing, color grading, editing, etc. The specific process is to hang the printed copy on the editing table, turn the shaft, and hold it again and again. The scissors click, click, click, very delicately.

In the mainland of the 21st century, the comparison between the sample films shot by most directors and the edited results is about ten to one.

For example, if you shoot a thousand shots and finally select a hundred and edit them together to form a 90-minute movie, 90% of the footage will be discarded.

How to choose, you can imagine how difficult it is.

The torture for the director and editor is not small. You have to read all the materials from beginning to end and sort through them to know which shots to discard and which ones to keep.

Anyone who has difficulty choosing will probably be tortured by the editing, and if the editing is not good... a good film can also become a terrible one! Editing is called third-dimensional creation.

Many editors are like art directors. The film is still in preparation and is about to start work. Their understanding of the entire story line must be closely followed by the director.

But for a famous director like Jiang Wen, it is not uncommon for a shot ratio of 50:1 between prototypes and finished films. In this era, there is also a magical director named Laowang Sunglasses, who understands everything.

The typical representative is Hollywood's Kingdom of Heaven. There is a director's cut version and a theatrical version. The gap is so big that it is impossible to say.

As editor, Zhao Donghuai hired Mai Zishan, who was also famous in later generations, but the ones he collaborated with most were Xu Ke, A Chinese Ghost Story Part 2 and 3, Qingxia version of The Invincible, Jet Li's version of Once Upon a Time in China 2345, Double Dragon Club , Fengyun and so on.

Lots of masterpieces.

In the mid-1980s, he hung out with Lao Xu and became one of Director Xu's signature subordinates.

Zhao Donghuai's comparison of the sample footage and the final finished product that he wants to edit is only two to one, which may not be enough.

Don’t think that movies of this proportion are too rare. In the Hong Kong movies of the 1980s, for example, Fatty Scene shot one film in more than a week, and one film in two or three weeks. In order to pursue speed, some shots were clearly shot. Ignore it.

Do you think those quick shooters can pursue the 10:1 editing ratio of most normal directors? It is normal for the movies created by the fast shooters to be better than one.

In the studio, Mai Zishan re-watched all the finished films and compared them with the split-shot scripts he had seen several times before. He shook his head with emotion, "Director Zhao, if editing was as simple as yours, then my job would be much easier. .”

The samples were compared to the number of shots at a ratio of one to one, and the storyboard script was also perfected.

This job is too easy.