Chapter 261: The Power Of Culture
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Haierfa
Base of Operations.
Chen Jin had brought over the movie filmed by s.h.i.+ Xiaotao so that Nuwa could optimise it.
The optimisation did not solely consist of improving the quality of the details in the special effects…. That would only take a few minutes.
A good movie was not only about the special effects. The abilities of the actors, the soundtracks and theme song were very important too.
There was not much to nitpick about with regards to the script or the acting in her “Light Years of Love”. However, due to the hurry to screen the movie in cinemas during this Lunar New Year, the soundtracks and the theme song were not too perfect.
Hence, after the optimisation had been completed, Chen Jin suggested some ideas for these two areas.
“Xiao Tao, rather than saying that this is a science fiction movie, this should be a romantic movie dressed in the skin of sci-fi. It’s similar to those s.p.a.ce musical movies from abroad.”
“But the market potential of such films is definitely not to be underestimated!”
“The ‘t.i.tanic’ is a romance film. It achieved box office sales of 2.18 billion more than 20 years ago. After which, a 3D remake was produced and it earned a stupendous 1 billion in box office sales.”
“The second to fifth place in total box office sales all belonged to science fiction films.”
“Xiaotao, your ‘Light Years of Love’ has elements of both romance and sci-fi. It would be surprising if box office sales are not good. But, it is almost impossible for it to reach the level of ‘t.i.tanic’”.
It was because the “t.i.tanic” was too much of a cla.s.sic. Not only was the acting excellent, but the soundtracks and musical interludes were all cla.s.sics. Some of the melodies have been pa.s.sed down for many years with an unchanging appeal, leaving an indelible impression on many.
Could the “Light Years of Love” with its production period of less than a year attain that kind of standard?
Obviously, that was not possible!
Therefore, in addition to the special effects, optimisation must all be carried out on the soundtracks and theme song.
Say, how would he optimise those? The soundtracks and theme song were all created by humans. They needed to be born from the inspiration and talents of humans. It was impossible for an artificial intelligence to complete a human’s work.
Chen Jin knew this too.
Fortunately, more than 1 million movies and tens of millions of TV drama resources were stored in the databases of the artificial intelligences Alice and Nuwa. Moreover, there were countless music and songs….. The number of such artistic works were still increasing as the robots continued to scour Haierfa.
Chen Jin got Alice and Nuwa to conduct a full search of their databases where they found a number of movies similar to the “Light Years of Love”. Among those, there were some that were such tear-jerking cla.s.sics. Chen Jin felt that their quality was so much better than “Light Years of Love” that they were in a whole different league.
He easily found the cla.s.sic soundtracks that he wanted.
He found three suitable pieces of music for the theme song (interlude). The names were “Quantum Entanglement”, “The Road to Find You”, “Beyond Light Years”
These three songs could be inserted when the male and female protagonists were using the quantum communication device to talk to each other, when the male protagonist was finding the female protagonist, and the ending of the finale respectively.
Chen Jin immediately asked Nuwa to insert these soundtracks and songs into the movie and he watched it again.
Gosh, the tear-jerking effect was just too good!
“Box office sales of less than 3 billion is a failure!”
It was entirely possible to achieve 5 billion in box office sales.
If the movie did well in overseas markets, it would become another movie that brought in tens of billions in box office sales.
At this point, Chen Jin suddenly developed the idea to enter the creative industries.
“In the future, the productivity of society will become highly developed. Material goods will become cheaper whereas products that has spiritual or psychological value will become more important. Creative and entertainment industries will become a greater contributor to GDP; they could even become major industries for the nation. High-tech companies will not be as profitable as the creative or entertainment companies. Products with a rich content are starting to become more important than physical products.”
“If Xing Hai Technologies’ revenue grows weak in the future and the market has become saturated, it will be necessary to enter the creative industry in order to maintain the business scale of Xing Hai Technologies.”
“It’s lucky that I have an acc.u.mulation of countless creative products. This is yet another treasure trove waiting for development.”
Although Z country was getting stronger and their political and military strength would surpa.s.s Merica sooner or later, they still had some serious shortcomings in terms of a creative culture.
If a country did not have a strong creative culture, it would still be difficult to gain respect in other areas no matter how strong they were in those areas.
Of course, this was not an issue that Chen Jin needed to worry about. He could simply march to his own tune.
…
A week later.
Chen Jin sent the optimised version of the movie, “Light Years of Love” to s.h.i.+ Xiaotao.
The three songs and the sheet music were also sent to her by courier.
“Xiaotao, I’ve found people to compose these three songs and write the lyrics for them. Find some suitable singers to sing these songs well and add them to the specified movie scenes…… Remember, you must find suitable singers for these songs. Otherwise, the desired effect will not be achieved for the movie.”
Chen Jin repeatedly urged that it was impossible for him to bring the original versions with vocals. How could he explain the ident.i.ties of the singers?
He could only bring the lyrics and music over and hire the singers on Earth.
“Ok.”
By this time, s.h.i.+ Xiaotao was actually stunned. The optimized movie with the added soundtracks seemed to have undergone a radical change. It seemed to no longer be the film that she had made.
After she watched the entire movie, she could not help but shed tears. This was despite her having seen it countless times before.
Her gaze returned to the sheet music in her hands and she suddenly saw a few lines of the lyrics from one of the songs:
Faced with the vast sea of stars
We’re so tiny like grains of dust
Floating on an expanse of helplessness
Fate lets us meet in troubled times
But destiny wanted us to love each other
I am willing to wait in the unknown for you
Just beyond the distant light year.
For some reason, s.h.i.+ Xiaotao cried even harder when she saw these lyrics.
For the first time, she was moved by her own film that she could not control her emotions.
For the first time, she realized that a good creative work, was like a home for the soul. It contained an unimaginable power.
…
One month later.
In order to save costs, the “Light Years of Love” was low-key released in cinemas across the country without any large scale publicity campaigns.
Due to insufficient publicity, the cinemas did not provide too many screening slots for movie. The first day of box office sales barely exceeded 100 million and that was only possible by relying on the t.i.tle and reputation of s.h.i.+ Xiaotao’s “double billion movie director”.
Then, a terrifying thing happened.
The fame of the film sky-rocketed on the very same day.
Weibo, Circle of friends (WeChat) and various social platforms… Many viewers who had watched the movie strongly recommended it!
“It’s too touching, I walked out of the cinema crying.”
“Nearly everyone cried. Even a stoic old man like me also cried myself stupid.”
“I strongly recommend this! You have to watch this at least once in your lifetime.”
“I think it’s as good as the ‘t.i.tanic’”.
“It only a simple love story, yet it was able to show us the purest form of love that we want the most. I wish from the bottom of my heart that the leading male and female characters can be together. That’s right, I’m a die hard single, but even I want the characters to be happy.”
“A long distance relations.h.i.+p that is a light year apart. Nothing can happen if this was reality. Miracles would only happen if it was true love.”
In addition, “Light Years of Love” had achieved a staggering rating of 9.8 in the Douban Film Review site which was well-known for its spammers, poisonous comments and unreasonable criticisms amongst many other negative features.
Fearing the attacks of fans, even the most nitpicky film reviews had to express, “The ‘Light Years of Love’ had lets us witness the talent of s.h.i.+ Xiaotao as a director. She has proven herself with this film. ”
With a highly acclaimed reputation.
One could imagine what kind of box office sales the “Light Years of Love” had achieved.
Chen Jin had specially put two packets of tissue paper in his pocket when he brought Su Yun to the cinema to watch this movie. Even after the movie had ended, the tissue papers were still insufficient. He could only pull her into his arms and let her cry her heart out.
Soon afterwards.
Chen Jin went to Su Yun’s hometown to spend the Spring Festival with her family. He stayed for half a month.
They returned as an inseparable pair with their marriage certificates.