I want to be emperor

Chapter 1180 Movie Ideas

In the city of Hangzhou, photo studio owner Shi Tiancheng followed the crowd into a documentary film screening room sponsored by the local Chao Bao.

Then I saw the most incredible scene in my life. A continuously changing picture appeared on the screen in front of me...

As a photo studio owner, he had actually heard of cameras a long time ago. He also knew that cameras could capture moving images, so he became interested in this thing.

Because when he heard that the government's morning newspaper would broadcast an official documentary in a venue, he immediately bought a ticket to watch it.

  In fact, at the beginning, although he was curious about this thing, he didn't feel anything too special. He was just curious about new things.

After all, hearing is just hearing. When you see related news in the newspaper, you don't have any direct experience.

However, when the documentary started playing, Ishida Lu was completely stunned... He stared at the constantly changing picture in front of him without moving... He didn't even pay attention to what was filmed in the picture. It seemed that it was an introduction to some cities and natural scenery in Australia.

He was not interested in these. What really shocked him was that the performance of the picture was so shocking.

This thing is more intuitive and more shocking than it looks in the photo.

This picture can actually move, and it looks so smooth... Not to mention, when a person who has never seen a dynamic picture and has at most seen some continuously played slides sees this kind of dynamic picture for the first time, he will feel it is very smooth even if there are only more than ten frames per second.

After watching the documentary for about 20 minutes in a daze, Shi Tiancheng's mind was full of this movie...

Then he went to many shops to ask if they had any cameras for sale, but got no answers from all of them… Then someone told him that this kind of thing was not an ordinary daily consumer product and would not be found in ordinary shopping malls. You had to go to some specialized companies to ask, or look for newspapers and go directly to the manufacturers to place orders.

Someone else told him that there are only a few cameras in the entire city of Hangzhou, and they are all in the Provincial Newspaper Bureau. They are treated like treasures and some footage is taken from time to time.

But Shi Tiancheng was just an ordinary person, a photo studio owner. He had nothing to do with official agencies like the Provincial Chaobao Bureau and couldn't even get in.

In desperation, he could only look through newspapers and sent a telegram to a classmate who worked in Songjiang, asking him to help find a camera.

After all, just because there are no cameras in Hangzhou City doesn’t mean there are none in Songjiang City.

Songjiang City is known as the most prosperous and developed city in the world. It has all kinds of goods, all kinds of strange things can be found, and typical industrial products such as cameras can definitely be found.

Five days later, he received a call back from his classmate, saying that after inquiring, he found out that there was indeed a store in Songjiang City that specialized in selling cameras. He even went there in person to confirm the news.

After receiving the news, Shi Tiancheng did not delay for a single day and boarded the passenger train to Songjiang City the next day.

The distance between Hangzhou City and Songjiang City is not far, and both are considered major cities in the Jiangnan railway network. Therefore, double-track railways have been built, and direct passenger trains have been opened. However, the ticket price is much more expensive than ordinary passenger trains.

After boarding the passenger train, it sped towards Songjiang City at an astonishing speed of up to 60 kilometers per hour.

Shi Tiancheng set off in the morning and arrived safely at Songjiang East Station after four hours in a second-class business seat.

After getting off the train, I had a simple lunch in a nearby restaurant, then called a rented horse-drawn carriage and went directly to my classmate's residence.

This classmate of his was his junior high school and technical secondary school classmate, and they had been classmates for six years. After graduation, they went to Songjiang together to make a living.

However, his classmate was lucky enough to find a decent job in the local area. Later, he got married and had children here. Finally, after years of hard work, he bought a property in Songjiang City and finally settled down there.

However, after several chaotic years in Songjiang City, Shi Tiancheng's career did not make any progress, so he finally returned to Hangzhou City. Finally, because he had worked in a photo studio in Songjiang City and had been exposed to photography, and because he was personally interested in this, he opened a photo studio with the support of his parents and settled down.

Then we went on a blind date, got married and had children, and many years passed in a flash.

However, my classmate would return to his hometown in Hangzhou every one or two years, and would always visit him when passing through Hangzhou.

We occasionally exchange letters in daily life.

Therefore, the relationship between classmates is quite close, otherwise he would not have asked his classmates to help him find out about the camera.

The rental carriage took a moderate speed and arrived after nearly an hour. After Shi Tiancheng paid the fare, he carried a black wicker box to a five-story apartment building.

There are many residential apartments of this type with three to five floors. They are relatively standard ordinary residential buildings in Songjiang City and many other cities. Most of them are built in urban areas. Basically, the houses in residential communities in urban areas are of this type of multi-story residential buildings.

After looking around, he found that the door was covered and not locked, so he pushed it open and walked upstairs. After reaching the second floor, he knocked on the door on the right side of the stairs.

After a while, a voice came from inside: "Who is it?"

As the voice fell, a middle-aged man opened the door. As soon as he saw the person, the middle-aged man inside said with joy: "Tiancheng, why did you come directly here? I thought you wanted to reply to the telegram first and leave in two days!"

"Come, come, come in quickly. You should have sent a telegram first. If you had sent it yesterday, I would have received it this morning and I could have picked you up at the train station just in time!"

"Besides, today is a workday, and I just happened to be taking a day off. Otherwise, you wouldn't be able to see me even if you came here directly!"

While guarding here, Shi Tiancheng was brought in.

Shi Tiancheng smiled and said, "I am in a hurry. I just received your telegram yesterday and wanted to leave immediately. Because I was in a hurry, I forgot to send you a telegram first!"

"But I'm lucky, you just took a day off!" As Shi Tiancheng was talking, a woman in her thirties came out of the house. When she saw Shi Tiancheng, she immediately said, "It's Brother Shi. Please sit in the living room first. I'll make tea for you!"

Shi Tiancheng said: "Sister-in-law, you don't have to be polite. I just need a drink of water!"

The classmate next to him said, "Why are you being so polite? You can't expect me to give you a cup of tea when you come here. Come, put your things down first. You should have done this on the way here. Sit down and have a rest and have a cup of tea first!"

The couple would bring their children back to their hometown almost every year. This time when they passed through Hangzhou, they would also visit Shi Tiancheng's home, so the two families were quite familiar with each other.

After sitting down and chatting briefly, Shi Tiancheng said, "I came to Songjiang this time specifically for the camera. I want to buy one and put it in the store, and then see if I can develop some new photography business!"

"Also, I want to use this camera to shoot some movies, you know, the kind of documentaries that are shown in newspapers, that kind of movie."

"Documentary? I know about this. It's a documentary filmed by the government from all over the world for public benefit. You can watch it for just a few cents. I took my children to watch a documentary about South America some time ago to broaden their horizons!"

Shi Tiancheng said: "That's the movie. These documentaries produced by the government are good, but they are too boring. They are just introductions to various scenes for dozens of minutes. Except for the novelty at the beginning, the rest makes you sleepy!"

After hearing this, the classmate also said, "That's true, but the documentary produced by Chaobao is not for the sake of being good-looking, but for the sake of increasing people's knowledge. So we can't demand that it be good-looking. After all, it would take a lot of effort and cost more to make it good-looking. This would be a waste of time and money!"

Shi Tiancheng said: "So I thought, this documentary of Chaobao can only be shot simply and directly for the sake of cost, but if I shoot it personally, I can definitely shoot a movie that is worth watching, then find a place to play it and charge admission fees."

"The ticket prices for government-run documentaries are cheap, but everyone knows that they are subsidized public welfare broadcasts. However, I plan to make a feature film with a story and characters. By then, the ticket prices will be around 20 to 30 cents. If it is broadcasted for a long time, I think it will be profitable!"

After hearing this, the classmate thought for a moment and said, "I'm afraid this won't be easy. From where I work, it's already very expensive to shoot a documentary at the Chaobao. Not only is the camera expensive, but the film is also expensive!"

"Just imagine, more than ten frames are used for one second. Even if it takes half an hour, the amount of film needed for this movie is also a huge amount, and film is very expensive nowadays!"

"Then you have to consider that not all the footage you shoot can be used, so in the end some film will inevitably be wasted!"

"If you calculate it this way, I'm afraid the investment is not small. Even if you charge 20 or 30 cents for tickets, how many shows do you need to play to make a profit?"

Shi Tiancheng said: "I can also copy a few more film sources, and then find a few more venues to play them for a fee. Although it is difficult to make a profit, there is still hope!"

His classmate looked at Shi Tiancheng like this. Based on his many years of understanding of Shi Tiancheng, he might have made up his mind, otherwise he would not have come directly to buy the camera!

After thinking for a while, he said, "Since you have made up your mind, I will take you to the camera shop to have a look while I am off today!"

"But I still want to advise you that filming a movie requires a lot of investment, so you have to be careful!"

Shi Tiancheng said: "I have some idea in my mind. I have been thinking about this these days. I think there is still a market for it!"

Seeing this, the classmate stopped trying to persuade him and turned the topic to other things. They talked about some other old classmates. In the middle of the conversation, he mentioned that a classmate who worked in the government was transferred to Africa this year. Although it was hard work, when he came back after his term of office was over in two or three years, he would probably be promoted to the sixth rank.

Speaking of this, both of them looked envious!

In fact, the two of them had tried to take part in the imperial examinations that year, but unfortunately, they could not even pass the academy examination... and the academy examination was merely a qualifying examination for the provincial examination. If people like them with only secondary technical school education or high school education wanted to take part in the imperial examinations, they could only take part in the academy examination first. Only after passing the academy examination could they take part in the provincial examination of that year. Only after passing the provincial examination could they enter the government to work and become a formal official.

This is not easy!

After all, the present time is not like the early years of the empire. High school and technical secondary school students are highly educated talents, and it is relatively easy for them to pass the imperial examinations.

But now... there are too many young people with only high school or technical secondary school education, and there are also a large number of college graduates every year. In this case, it becomes very difficult to pass the exam and become an official.

Except for those who have university graduates who have a better chance of passing the exam, those who have only high school or technical secondary school education need to have both good ability and luck to pass.

There were more than 50 students graduating from their class that year, but only four passed the provincial examination and eventually became officials. The best student among them was the one who went to Africa to work.

Now he has reached the seventh rank while serving in Africa. After his term in Africa is over, he will be promoted to the sixth rank when he returns to China.

After working and gaining experience overseas, you can be promoted first. This is an incentive measure taken by the empire to solve the problem that no one, especially low- and middle-level officials, are willing to go overseas, especially to serve in administrative territories. As long as you stay there for two or three years, you can be promoted one level when you come back.

But don’t think this is an easy shortcut. It’s actually very hard and also has certain risks…

Not to mention the hardship, the basic conditions in those overseas administrative territories are very poor, and the quality of life is hard to describe. If you go to India, West Asia and Europe, it's okay... These places can barely be considered a mature civilized world developed by humans, but they are remote and poor, and the conditions are difficult.

  But the area south of the African desert is a shabby place...there really is no trace of civilization there!

Only in South Africa, the two provinces of Maputo are directly under the jurisdiction of the government, so the situation is relatively good. However, the conditions in many administrative territories are really bad. The medical conditions are not good, and various diseases caused by the local environment are rampant. If you accidentally get sick there, you may really lose your life.

Under such circumstances, naturally few people would be willing to run over and become officials... Officials of the Chu State have always regarded being sent to overseas administrative territories as a symbol of demotion... Many senior officials of overseas administrative territories, although they hold great power overseas, the kings of the vassal states have to serve them carefully... But except for a very small number of people who left because of certain tasks, or for the purpose of gilding themselves and getting promoted quickly, the rest are basically unlucky people who failed in the competition in their home country.

And many of the middle and low-level officials were unwilling to go... In order to encourage middle and low-level officials, especially those grassroots officials who were in great demand but no one was willing to go, and who were difficult to force to go to the administrative territories to serve, the Chu State had certain incentives for low-level officials who went to the administrative territories to serve.

The most typical situation is that as long as you serve for three years, you will be promoted directly when you come back. This promotion is still very attractive to some middle and low-level officials who are ambitious and want to continue to climb up but have poorer connections and abilities.

And this classmate of theirs is one of them.

When he comes back in two years, he will be a sixth-rank official, which means he will be the chief of various departments in a county... Don't underestimate the sixth-rank chiefs in the county government. You should know that the chief of a county patrol bureau is also a sixth-rank official.