mage in the late qing dynasty

Chapter 1045: Sakhalin Journey

“Everybody come and see God.”

After seeing this scene, extras, assistant director, makeup artist, and supporting actors rushed to tell each other.

The wind was quite strong, but fortunately Zhao Chuanxin chose to float with the wind.

Below, Peter Grebin tilted his head back with his mouth wide open, and saw Zhao Chuanxin above him holding a camera and his mouth opening and closing.

It was not until Zhao Chuanxin landed and Peter Grebin pulled the reins that he understood why Zhao Chuanxin's mouth was opening and closing.

Because Zhao Chuanxin was cursing: "Who told you to look up? And what's wrong with that expression on your face?"

Peter Grebin's expression was not one of joy at having escaped from the cage, but of shock.

It is hard to imagine what is going on in the mind of a man who has just escaped from prison while riding a horse at full speed and looking up at the sky with a look of amazement on his face.

Peter Grebin changed his previous laziness: "I, I, I'll shoot it again."

Actually volunteered?

Instead, Zhao Chuanxin waved his hand and said, "Forget it, let's just leave it at that."

It doesn't matter if the budget is increased. This is an independent film and there is no upper limit on the funding. No matter how poor Lao Zhao is, he can afford these few things.

The key is time urgency.

On that day, Zhao Chuanxin shot more than fifty shots in the snow.

The others were very cooperative, even though they didn't know the script and didn't even understand what they were acting in.

They were respectful and obedient like sheep.

At night, Zhao Chuanxin returned to the Peacekeeping Bureau and found a group of people following him.

If there is anyone in this world who is not afraid of being followed, it is Zhao Chuanxin.

He returned to the tower and went to the third floor.

The group of people went to the second floor, knelt on the floor, clasped their hands and prayed.

Zhao Chuanxin saw this scene through the perspective provided by the True Vision Crystal, and stood up and went down to wait in the corridor at the entrance.

Peter Grebin walked out of the office lobby on the second floor.

He saw Zhao Chuanxin's body tremble.

Zhao Chuanxin asked him: "What are you doing?"

Peter Grebin said honestly: "Vespers."

"If you don't go to church for evening prayer, why come to the Peacekeeping Bureau to chant?"

“It’s closer to God.”

Zhao Chuanxin: "..."

But by the next day, the believers were not so fanatical.

Perhaps after one night they figured out one thing: God is unlikely to kill people so blatantly.

But Zhao Chuanxin can.

Therefore, Zhao Chuanxin ≠ God.

On the second day, in addition to the actors and staff, there were also many curious audiences participating in the filming.

But Zhao Chuanxin's shooting plans are made by Xingyue, with efficiency being the top priority.

And Zhao Chuanxin uses a non-linear approach to narrate events.

This resulted in the actors, staff, and audience having no idea what Zhao Chuanxin was going to shoot.

At this time, film production emphasized the characteristics of stage drama and static images.

Zhao Chuanxin completely subverted the tradition.

You can question Zhao Chuanxin's ability as a director, but you cannot question his composition and aesthetics.

Just like the Fukuka Tavern, it is just an ordinary building in the wilderness outside the camera, but with the frame, Shirasaka Inori, who doesn't know photography, can only exclaim: "Beautiful."

What we filmed today was a fight scene between exiles.

Peter Grebin's lower body was unstable, his fists were weak, his movements were slow during the fight, and the extras acting opposite him were sluggish.

At this time, Zhao Chuanxin was more magnanimous and demonstrated in person: "Watch me, my two steps are narrow, I will follow with my back foot, and use the inertia of my body to turn my hips and generate power, and then I will hook!"

boom.

The sandbag shook violently after being hit by his punch, which frightened the onlookers and terrified the listeners.

Peter Grebin scratched his head: "My lord, I can't hit with that much force."

Zhao Chuanxin came to the extra and said: "He can't hit hard, so it's all up to you to serve as a foil. You are more important than him."

The dragon suit was secretly delighted when he heard this: "Sir, I will do whatever you say."

"Okay, you've got a wide path, I'll give you chicken legs later."

Zhao Chuanxin pretended to fight, and the extra pretended to fall.

Zhao Chuanxin had a strong sense of measure and threw a punch, which stopped just in front of the extra's cheek.

The dragon suit felt the wind from the punch and reacted a little late: "Ouch..."

Falling with head tilted back.

Zhao Chuanxin stopped his momentum and said, "Is this the Fist of the North Star? It takes three seconds to hit the ink mark before it explodes in the head, right?"

It would be difficult to teach them in a short time, so we just let Peter Grebin and the extras try again to get a feel for it.

The protagonist Peter Grebin performs a hip-turn hook with standard movements.

boom.

How could he have the sense of propriety that Zhao Chuanxin had?

The punch really hit the extra.

This time, the extra really had no time to react.

"what……"

The scream was so realistic that you could tell it was painful just by listening to the sound.

"Click." Zhao Chuanxin was pleasantly surprised: "Passed, it seems that you are all experience-oriented."

This movie has a lot of action scenes: boxing, gunfights, train hijacking, horse riding, etc.

Why is it so complicated?
Because he plans to screen the film in Sakhalin, Japan, and other places in the country.

At that time, movies were completely Western to Chinese people. What they watched were the waltz of separation between wives and children, the kiss between a gentleman and a chaste woman, the swimming suits of foreign horses at the beach, etc., and nothing else.

Apart from the most rough and primitive "beauty", I can't understand anything else.

Zhao Chuanxin refused to shoot a love action movie, so he had to use more explosive content to catch the eye.

Zhao Chuanxin's female secretary and makeup artist Shirasaka Qimei also has a role.

She was drawing water from a stream on the coast, wearing a kimono, her hair tied back with a long striped headband, and with a little buck teeth like the Showa beauty Yasuko Sawaguchi.

She stood gracefully in the rare morning sun of Sakhalin, with a fair face and rosy lips. Her loose kimono could not hide her beautiful figure.

Nakamura Ken scratched his head: "Sir, what am I acting in?"

"You just said with a grim look on your face - I'm going to give him Aconitum."

It was not until Peter Grebin acted out the scene of being poisoned that Ken Nakamura realized that Zhao Chuanxin wanted him to play a child with a vicious heart.

"My Lord, this is unfair." Nakamura Ken went to Zhao Chuanxin angrily, feeling cheated: "I acted so well, I was just playing myself, but you didn't give me any bonus points."

So this is what you were talking about.

Zhao Chuanxin felt relieved.

"..." Zhao Chuanxin patted his shoulder and said, "Good boy, you have the best role. It doesn't matter if you get a chicken drumstick now, but I hope you don't get beaten to death when the movie is released."

Nakamura Ken: “…”

There are two plays that are the most difficult.

It's all gunfights.

Two cameras shoot one scene at the same time.

One low angle shot and one side shot.

Peter Grebin fell to the ground and shot with a rifle at a Russian soldier who was rushing towards him with a bayonet.

The bullets were blanks, so Zhao Chuanxin used fresh chicken blood to fill the blood bags and used micro-bombs to explode the plasma.

"You jump up, and when Peter Grebin fires, you pull the trigger and jump back, so that it looks like you've been shot."

"Sir, I have seen people who were shot. They were not knocked away, but there were holes as big as bowls in their bodies."

"Idiot, I fought my way out of a sea of ​​blood and corpses, how can I not understand this? This is called the aesthetics of violence, it's all about exaggeration."

Five bags of plasma were wasted, the chicken blood had all coagulated, and no effective filming was achieved.

Zhao Chuanxin said gloomily: "Don't think I didn't see it! Did you do this on purpose, so that I could kill more chickens so that I could eat more chicken at noon?"

"Absolutely not." Everyone said in unison.

Zhao Chuanxin sneered: "I'll help you perform this time. You should detonate the blood bag first, and I'll help you complete the rest of the moves."

He originally wanted to use a rope to pull the auxiliary from behind, but he didn't know how to make the special effects to remove the rope.

When Peter Grebin fired a blank.

boom.

The extra skillfully detonated the plasma, and Zhao Chuanxin used his secondary limbs to violently drag him by the collar from behind.

The extra first flew backwards one meter, then his upper body landed on the ground first, and he fell heavily.

Fortunately, there was thick snow on the ground.

The extra stood up, confused: "What happened?"

Another play is difficult because it requires a group of people to play the roles of Russian and Japanese soldiers.

What if we can’t gather enough people to support the big event?
Zhao Chuanxin went to the pass between North Island and South Island to move people.

Real Russian soldiers, real Japanese soldiers.

"Master Zhao, if we leave our post without permission, we will be punished."

"It's okay. I'll take your Shangguan with me."

"..."

"But what if the Japanese/Russians attack?"

"Anyone who blocks Zhao from filming will die!"

"That's no problem."

If conditions permit, Zhao Chuanxin will make use of them; if conditions don’t exist, he will create shooting conditions.

It took half a month to complete the shooting.

Zhao Chuanxin lay on a recliner, observing through his glasses while Xingyue manipulated the black puppet craftsmen and puppet slaves to edit the film, which took two days to complete.

The name of the film is "Sakhalin Journey".

There are two common recording methods: simultaneous recording and post-recording.

Zhao Chuanxin asked the actors to re-record the scenes later and add special effects sounds.

Zhao Chuanxin asked Xingyue to copy and make subtitles.

He went to renovate the new, larger, unopened tavern next to the Fragrance Tavern. This was a temporary screening room for the Peacekeeping Bureau, and it had to be ready before the Russian Christmas on January 1.

Not only the Peacekeeping Bureau, but also the North and South all knew that Zhao Chuanxin was filming a movie.

Everyone looked for clues about the movie in past newspapers and magazines.

After all, in the desolate Sakhalin, movies are too far away.

Various rumors about the movie spread like wildfire.

January 1th has become the most anticipated day in the art desert Sakhalin.

At the same time, Zhao Chuanxin's cinemas in Lugang Town, Lubin Prefecture, Hankou, Hong Kong Island, Macau Island, Shanghai, Tianjin and other places hung promotional posters.

Zhao Chuanxin crossed the Tatar Strait and headed south, first to Shanghai, then to Hong Kong Island and Macau Island, traveling 4500 kilometers, spending 5 hours at sea and a day to get to each place.

He did not stay and was immediately transferred to Hankou.

Somehow, some time ago, someone paid to run an advertisement for him to promote his heroic deeds, and it was published in all newspapers.

Forcing his faith to surge.

Zhao Chuanxin couldn't figure out whether the person who assisted him was an enemy or a friend.

He has many fans, many of whom are rich but have nothing better to do.

The two registered disciples are.

He has more enemies, but the Japanese are the first to be hit by this despicable and insidious style of praising and killing, followed by the United States.

In any case, although Zhao Chuanxin was praised, it would be extremely difficult to kill him, and Zaifeng's tricks were not enough.

Just right for teleportation.

Hankou, flying in the sky, Yanbian, Lugang Town, Lubin Prefecture, Zhao Chuanxin made a big trip.

He sent copies of films and new projectors, speakers, and promotional posters to theaters across the country.

At the same time, he negotiated with various places on the release date: January 1th.

The rest is spontaneous promotion by cinemas in various places, most of which involve spending money on advertising in newspapers.

"Shenbao": Shanghai Internet Cinema is showing Fair - our new movie "Sakhalin Bitter Journey", directed by Zhao Chuanxin, who is well-known at home and abroad. The movie is 53 minutes long, and there are beautiful Japanese women dancing in the wind, and there are vicious and vicious Rakshasa soldiers who think it is dangerous to board a train, scare people with gunfire, fight people with strength, or ride out on angry horses... This is the first color movie in the world, a sound movie, and hundreds of shots are extremely exquisite...

Overall, this propaganda has some new ideas, but not much.

Why?
First of all, the color. There were color versions of the short films before, but of course they were artificially colored and looked fake. What was outrageous was that the characters’ images had rough edges, just like the 5-cent special effects that people in later generations were watching.

The second is talkies. Nowadays, many movies have artificial soundtracks, narration, or playing of musical instruments, and they are still called talkies.

Then comes the content.

The advertisements in the newspapers may make people mistakenly think that it is a collection of multiple short films, so there are many content items.

And it emphasized that there were beautiful Japanese girls dancing...

But there are two points that are very attractive.

The first is that the movie is 53 minutes long, and the second is that the director of this movie is actually Zhao Chuanxin.

Zhao Chuanxin is now a household name.

Zhao Tuzi has switched to making movies?
Then you have to join in the fun.

The uniform ticket price for watching a movie in Internet cinemas across the country is one dime in the local currency.

Of course, this is the price for third-class seats, because the cinema has first, second and third-class seats.

The price of silver fluctuates greatly, so the ratio of copper coins, copper coins, small dollars, large dollars and silver is not fixed and changes frequently.

But the money in Lubin Prefecture is very stable.

This is an important part of the outward expansion of Lubinfu Bank.

If you want to go to the theatre, then it would be most convenient to go to the Lubinfu Bank to exchange banknotes for tickets.

The regular ticket to the cinema in Sakhalin is 10 kopecks.

By this time, nickelodeon theaters had already emerged in the United States.

Because the ticket price was a nickel, it was called a nickel theater.

Back in 1905, there were only a few nickelodeons.

By 1906, there were more than 100 nickelodeons in Chicago alone, and by 1907, there were as many as 2000 nickelodeons in the United States.

At this time, there are about seven or eight thousand households.

There are shockingly few cinemas in China, and Zhao Chuanxin's Internet Cinema is almost the most standard and advanced professional cinema at this time.

In the past two years, the foreigner Lemas has rented and purchased new movies from the French Pathé record company. He rented a small room in the teahouse of the Shanghai Chinese Association as a screening room, and hired people to play foreign drums and trumpets at the door to attract customers.

The Chinese Association Tea House is very famous in Shanghai and is located on Simalu in the downtown area.

The teahouse is divided into two floors. The upstairs is for customers to drink tea and smoke; the downstairs is an amusement park with a billiard room, peep shows, funhouse mirrors, and a chess and card room.

After all, the Chinese Association Tea House had a large flow of customers, allowing Remas to make a lot of money.

But at this time the films were all nitrocellulose, which was easily damaged.

After playing for a long time, dozens of short films of Remas gradually became fragmented and incomplete, and the pictures were scattered and often interrupted when they were shown.

But the audience still came in an endless stream.

Remas picked up the "News Report" and saw the advertisement for the Internet Cinema, and couldn't help but sneer.

That cinema had been built a long time ago and even hired people, but it had been idle and never opened for business, becoming a laughing stock in Shanghai.

Now suddenly it is announced that a movie will be broadcast.

Competitors are enemies. When Remas saw the grand and magnificent Internet Cinema, his eyes turned red with jealousy even though he didn't go in.

In comparison, he looked more like a street performer.

"Damn it, do you think you can make money by using Zhao Chuanxin as a gimmick? What does Zhao Chuanxin know about movies? And he's a director, can anyone be a director?"

In fact, there are many foreigners who love movies, not only Remas, but also Galen Beck, Kobchev, etc.

At that time, the few screening halls in the country were basically monopolized by foreigners, both in terms of film distribution and theater construction.

It's inevitable that Zhao Chuanxin, this troublemaker, makes these foreigners feel unhappy.

On January 1, Remas took the money to exchange at the Lubinfu Bank, which was previously deserted but now had a small number of banknotes for exchange.

He took the beautifully printed dime bill and felt the texture of it, wondering: What kind of paper does the Lubinfu Bank use? How can I feel the texture on it?

When he arrived at the Internet Cinema, he took another look at the poster.

The poster showed a fairly handsome Russian man wearing a fur hat, aiming his gun.

There are many words on it, but the biggest word is undoubtedly - Director: Zhao Chuanxin.

These big characters are translated into Chinese, English, Russian, French, German and other languages.

Afraid that others can’t see it.

As for the introduction of the main character Peter Grebin, it is so small that no one would even glance at it.

None of this matters. What matters is that there is a long queue outside the Internet Cinema.

Wow, there are so many people waiting to watch the movie without any fanfare?

How much money does this earn?
A fire of jealousy burned in Remas's heart: I want to build a cinema too!

He waited and waited, and the queue got longer.

Fortunately, he came early.

He saw that the people were in high spirits, talking about it a lot, and looked very proud of the trip, which made him feel very anxious.

Finally it was his turn.

Remas adjusted his suit and top hat, walked forward with his walking stick, and bought the ticket first.

Printed on the movie ticket was a pattern of a crescent moon enclosing a six-pointed star, with text reading: Produced by the Star-Moon Film Company.

"Humph, you're so fancy, let me see what kind of shitty movie you make."

Once inside, into the waiting room, there are stalls selling drinks, popcorn, dried sweet potatoes, candied fruits and other dried fruits, as well as newspapers and periodicals.

There are no shelled snacks like melon seeds and peanuts here.

Once we got to the waiting room, we had to wait for the next round of audience members to come out. During this time, many people went to buy snacks and drinks.

Butter sweetened popcorn is more expensive than plain popcorn, hot tea is more expensive than cold tea, illustrated magazines are more expensive than newspapers, and frosted sweet potato chips are more expensive than plain sweet potato chips...

Remus bought some buttery sweet popcorn, and looking around, he was pleased to find that the small amount of popcorn actually increased his value invisibly - everyone else bought the tasteless ones.

After waiting for another hour, the audience came out one after another, each with excitement on their face.

Remas couldn't understand what they were discussing.

Finally it was his turn to enter.

Some ticket inspectors will cut the movie tickets into pieces before letting you in.

The ticket inspector asked him, "Sir, can you understand Chinese?"

"can."

"Sir, smoking is not allowed in the third-class area, and littering is not allowed. Please take your trash out of the theater, otherwise there will be corresponding penalties."

When Remas heard that smoking was not allowed, he was shocked: "Why? What if I must smoke?"

The ticket inspector pointed to the uniformed patrolman and asked: "Did you see the words on his clothes?"

Remas looked.

There are three words on the uniform: The Arbitration.

The ticket collector had a polite but unflinching smile on his face: "Have you heard of the Judgment Committee of Hong Kong Island Xuantian Sect? If you insist on having your own way, the Judgment Committee is proficient in two skills - reasoning and fists, feet and guns."

Remas cursed but didn't dare say anything else.

In coastal and port areas, all foreigners have heard of the Arbitration Council.

That was one of the sharpest minions of the Far East Butcher Zhao Chuanxin.

Foreigners are never tolerated!
At this time, many theaters that could show movies had simple environments and poor hygiene.

It may be just a few rafters of a dilapidated house, with a cloth curtain hanging on the door, a few rotten wooden chairs, and foul odors and pungent cigarette smoke.

Moreover, the audience's quality was extremely low, with loud noises, shouting, cursing and flirting being heard all the time.

Those who are more particular will rush out soon after entering.

Some exaggerated people later recalled: "It was like a trip to hell!"

When Remas entered the screening room, he was surprised to find that the rows of chairs inside were neatly arranged, clean and brand new.

It's like a staircase, with each layer higher than the last, so that people in the back row can see it clearly, just like the Colosseum in Rome.

This is so professional.

The ground is flat and clean, no wonder smoking is not allowed.

He also heard the service staff in the second-class and first-class areas say, "This area is equipped with ashtrays. Please cooperate and flick the ashes into the ashtrays. Do not smoke opium, or you will be sent to the police station. If you resist arrest, you will be on your own. You may even lose your life in the hands of the adjudication panel."

Remas: “…”

I am so awesome. Do you think I am threatening the audience?

Suddenly, all the lights in the theater went out and the theater was plunged into darkness.

A picture appears on the screen.

Remas was shocked: "Wang Defa...how did he do this?"

(End of this chapter)