Chapter 47: Co-progress

Li Siming still made a movie as planned.

Zeng Zhi and Xiaodao were not idle either, and they were also doing their work at the same time. When the colleges in the United States were about to start, Zeng Zhi and Xiaodao were waiting at the Los Angeles airport for a group of Chinese students flying from Beijing as Li Siming's instructions.

"We are investing money and emotionally, and the latter is more important than the former!" This is Li Siming's original words. Zeng Zhishen agreed.

These twelve international students from Peking University and Tsinghua University, including Li Siming's former roommate Lao Ye and Chen Jian, received approval documents for admission from American universities after taking the first TOEFL test held in China last year. Before they set off for the United States, Xu Dashuai and others were also actively engaged in using various relationships to do things such as university application and visas without missing a trace. Finally, they personally sent them onto the plane, doing their service to the extreme.

So these graduates who took a plane for the first time in their lives crossed the vast Pacific Ocean and came to this number one capitalist power that made them very novel. When they arrived at Los Angeles Airport with a nervous mood about a foreign country, someone had already reached out to help. With the help of a Chinese American, Zeng Zhi and Xiaodao sent these blind Chinese students to various universities and arranged admission, food and accommodation, etc. The twelve Chinese students also received a check each, which was enough to ensure that they completed their studies.

"These twelve people will be the seeds of our company. Even if only half of the people are willing to serve us, it will be a success for us. Sincerity is our best weapon!" Li Siming predicted. However, these twelve people eventually brought him more than twelve scientific and technological talents.

The twelve international students from the motherland were placed. Zeng Zhi and Xiaodao still did not return to the company. They flew around the east and west coasts of the United States. They visited Chinese scholars and Chinese students who worked or studied in universities, research institutions, Silicon Valley with the greatest sincerity. Although the future technology companies are still on the plan, and although Zeng Zhi cannot give them the most desired guarantee in the fall of 1982, Zeng Zhi's sincerity lets these Chinese people know that there is a high-tech company in Hong Kong that will welcome them to join at any time in the future.

New York, Boston and the famous technology city - Houston, and of course, including Silicon Valley, which is located in California, both Zeng Zhi and Xiaodao have left their footprints.

"In that half a year, I kept flying over the United States. I took almost all American airline flights to and from major cities, so I had a sense of fear of the plane for a long time. I thought later that if there was a plane crash that year, I would definitely be the first on the death list!" Zeng Zhi later recalled.

Just as Zeng Zhi and Xiaodao were traveling between cities in the United States, Li Siming's "Shawshank Redemption" was already completed.

"When this movie was released, don't tell me that your only gain in the United States was: I met a few bar girls!" Li Siming said to the staff from Hong Kong.

Working seriously, helping those Americans, looking with your eyes, thinking with your brain, is what Li Siming asked them. And these Hong Kong people are also working very hard. Although Hollywood movies are currently no longer in Hong Kong, they have to admit that Americans have their advantages: technology and creativity. These two things affect Hollywood movies all the time. Only Americans will come up with so many ideas to make movies like "The Third Category of Contact" and "et-Alien". Although the American Academy of Film Arts and Sciences does not recognize such movies filled with science fiction and stunts at this time, they favor films with deeper artistic themes and broader social significance. In addition, photography technology, editing technology, etc. are also important contents that need to be learned.

However, Hong Kong films absorb nutrients from local culture and make many classic movies. The nonsensical movies are the most realistic portrayal. When these types of films are overshooted, Hong Kong filmmakers find that their passion is no longer possessed and they can no longer find better materials. So they look for a way out, but they find that they do not know enough about the world outside Hong Kong.

This is not the first time Li Siming has been a director. Li Siming, who was at a loss and worried about gains and losses at the filming scene, has disappeared. Li Siming has gone from a layman to an experienced person. In fact, in his inadvertent, he has gone from a movie fan to a professional, but he has not noticed this change. At the filming location, he is like an army commander, studying the enemy situation with his staff, finding a way, and then completing a arduous task. Li Siming's military career has brought great changes to Li Siming himself, and he has to admit that this has completely made him a determined person, a person with strong self-confidence, and what else can stand the test more than a cruel war.

After the early running-in, the shooting plan went smoothly. However, one thing made Li Siming very depressed because the film involved a crow. There was a scene where Brooks fed maggots to his crow. The American Humanitarian Association supervised the shooting of all the crows involved in Brooks in the film. Aha believed that this pair of maggots was inhumane and asked them to switch to a maggot that died naturally, so Li Siming had to obey.

"Is this 'humanitarianism'?" Li Siming wanted to commit suicide depressedly. Killings are being staged in this nature every day. If you don't believe it, you can go and watch the TV film about animals filmed by the American Discovery Channel. However, people who did not see AHA sent people to the African savanna to promote lions: "Hey, Mr. Lion, from today on, you can't hunt zebras anymore. You either eat zebras that die naturally like vultures, or switch to vegetarians like elephants!"

"The lion must have never heard the nonsense saying 'You have the right to remain silent'. He will definitely open his bloody mouth and eat a living person. He will fill his stomach first, and just treat it as an appetizer!" Li Siming thought terrifiedly.

After filming this movie, William Hurt and Morgan Freeman were still unsatisfied. The movie was really exciting. The classic dialogue or voiceover made people very moved. Especially the protagonist played the "Figaro's Wedding" record in the prison guard's office. This clip is a climax of the whole movie. William Hurt didn't even have a line, just using his calm action to play the record and the faint smile on his lips, but it made the audience feel the protagonist's indomitableness and resistance, which is the most touching, exciting, and even an urge to applaud.

"I don't understand what the two Italian ladies are singing. And I don't want to know. Some things are often unexpressed in words. I believe they are singing the most beautiful things in the world, so beautiful that they cannot be described in words, so beautiful that they are heartbreaking. The singing is loud and elegant, so beautiful that it is so beautiful that it is impossible to refuse and intoxicate. It is like seeing a beautiful little bird flying into a high wall, and she completely frees you from the sharksanks. At this moment, all Shawshank people have experienced the long-lost freedom!" This voiceover added in post-production is used in this clip that is destined to become a classic.

In this section, Li Siming took the method of pulling up the camera and sucked all hundreds of "prisoners" from a high place into the picture. These "prisoners" stood still, as if they were puppets who could not speak or move, looked up at the loudspeaker, and stood there to enjoy the music. Then Li Siming lowered the height of the camera and gave the "prisoners" a close-up of the faces: calm and peaceful. That is the expression of people who lost their freedom when they heard music that can only be heard in the opera house. The glory of freedom. They could not understand Italian, but they were listening with their hearts, which made them feel that there was no difference between them and ordinary people who could go to the opera house to buy tickets and watch performances.

After the filming, of course it was post-production, especially the editing. Here, Li Siming made some adjustments to the court trial at the beginning. During the editing, he used flashback techniques many times to replay the scene of the protagonist's wife having an affair with his lover, and the prop gun and a bottle of wine were also replayed several times. This made the audience suspense: Did this seemingly honest and peaceful person kill two people? Perhaps some viewers believe that the protagonist never killed people, because all the films have a similar bridge break: the protagonist will always be unjustified in the end. However, all the clues indicate the disadvantage to the protagonist, which is contrary to the protagonist's kind and honest appearance, which makes the audience feel interested in thinking about it.

A big feature of this movie is that it uses a large amount of voiceover. It is said that the original director watched the movie "Good Guy" every weekend during the filming period, and got inspiration from it, using voiceover, that is, the narration to turn around. Li Siming has never watched "Good Guy", so he doesn't need to know what the movie is saying, he only knows that this movie needs it.

"I find myself so excited that I can't sit or think. I think only those who are regaining their freedom and about to embark on a new journey can feel this excitement that is about to unveil the mystery of the future. I hope to cross the border and shake hands with my friends. I hope the waters of the Pacific Ocean are as blue as in my dreams. I hope." There are countless classic voiceovers like this.

"This seems to be called the 'latest mover advantage'!" Li Siming said to himself. Newton said that he was standing on the shoulders of giants before he achieved great achievements. Of course, Li Siming is not as great as Newton, because after all, Newton was beyond his predecessor, while Li Siming simply copied it.
Chapter completed!