Huayu: I'm reborn, but you still force me to be a scumbag?

Chapter 584 A Video I've Never Seen Before (Revised)
Did he say it?

Vivian couldn't quite remember.

Thinking back, the man did seem to have said something when the three of them were together, but she was distracted and hadn't heard a word. After all, she had filmed almost all of Dora's videos along the way, and she didn't really think she needed anyone else to guide her.

What's more, she's been feeling rather upset all day.

It's worth noting that before today, they had been hiking for almost a month, with the formation always being one in front, two in the middle, and one in the back.

That is, Sean walked at the very front, she and Dora walked in the middle, and the short bodyguard brought up the rear.

But what about today?
It has surprisingly become two in the front, one in the middle, and one in the back.

In other words, Dora actually left her behind today and ran to the front to keep Sean company...

Ah, is this even acceptable?

What exactly did they talk about and do while listening to the Oscars last night? Why did their relationship seem to advance so rapidly overnight? They were so secretive before, but now they're not even pretending anymore?

Vivian's mind was constantly on these things; it would be strange if she listened to anything a man said!

At that moment, when she heard Chen Nuo speak in such an unfriendly tone, she instinctively wanted to argue back.

However, she suddenly remembered that the other person was not only her savior, but also someone who had taken good care of her along the way, just like Dora. So she swallowed her words again.

Suppressing her anger, she said, "Sorry." Then she shouted, "Dora, come back, let's do it again!"

When the girl returned with her backpack, Vivian leaned closer and whispered, "Do you really believe what he said?"

Dora hesitated for a moment, then whispered, "He told me to trust him."

Vivian said speechlessly, "So you really believed it?"

“…Dear Vivian, just do as he says first.”

Vivian sighed and shook her head, saying, "Okay, it's your problem anyway. Let's do it again. This time I'll film it the way he says."

"Thank you, Vivian."

"fine."

"Ready?" The man put away his phone and walked over.

"I'm ready."

"OK."

The two girls answered.

"OK."

"3, 2, 1, action!"

Hearing the man speak so seriously, Vivian almost laughed. It's just a few seconds of video, does it really need to be so elaborate?
I don't know where they learned that, they're just putting on airs.

However, she still didn't laugh and began filming as the man requested.

She crouched down, placed the camera at knee height, positioned it so that Dora's figure fell at the bottom edge of the viewfinder, and then, following the direction Dora was moving, shifted the image slightly to the right.

Really

Just this small change.

I simply moved the viewfinder down, leaving a little space on the left, and then placed the lens at the bottom.

Vivian didn't know what this composition was called.
She was taken aback to find that Dora had changed in this shot.

As the Latina girl, carrying a backpack, walked slowly along the gravel beside the railway, her legs appeared straight and long from the low-angle camera view.
Just then, a breeze blew in from the horizon, passing through her brown hair, and the afternoon sun slanted down from behind, casting a long, slender shadow on the ground to one side.

As a result, when the two railway tracks extended out in the blank space in front of her, it immediately created a scene that left her a little dumbfounded. It felt like a long shot in a movie, something that an amateur like her could not possibly have filmed!
Vivian was completely shocked at this moment.

Although the man next to me still made a big fuss and yelled "Cut!"

But she doesn't find it funny at all now.

He even paused for two seconds before pressing the stop filming button.

"How was it? How was it?" Dora ran over and asked with a grin.

Vivian handed over the camera and said in a complicated tone, "I think...it's very good."

Hearing her tone, Dora glanced at her with a hint of surprise, then took the camera. After looking at it for a few seconds, she suddenly widened her eyes and screamed with delight, "Ah—what's going on?!"

……

Chen Nuo himself wasn't quite sure what happened.

As he was surrounded by two girls who kept asking him questions, a thought flashed through his mind—should he call Darius Congee and ask what this shooting technique, which is now regarded as the golden rule by countless video bloggers in later generations, is all about from the perspective of a professional photographer?

Of course, the thought only flashed through my mind.

After all, it would be making a mountain out of a molehill to bother the Oscar for Best Cinematography over such a trivial matter.

He understood why Dora and Vivian were surprised.

After all, it's only 2013.

Unlike ten years later, back then you could easily find tens of thousands of tutorial videos by simply opening Douyin, Xiaohongshu, or Grammar, teaching you how to make your legs look longer and your face smaller, and how to shoot a cinematic video with a mobile phone or DSLR camera, thus creating the video you wanted.

He started by learning from those instructional videos, going from a complete novice to a self-taught internet celebrity who can do a little bit of everything, including shooting, editing, appearing on camera, makeup, and styling.

However, his knowledge was limited to knowing what happened, but not why it happened.

Faced with a barrage of questions from the two girls, he couldn't explain the underlying principles. He could only adopt a serious, mentor-like demeanor and say, "You don't need to know why. You wouldn't understand even if I explained. Just remember, as long as you do it this way, you can achieve this effect. More importantly, you need to know what your audience, as a travel vlogger, truly wants to see."

Dora blinked, her expression a mixture of curiosity and admiration. "Sean, what do you mean? I don't understand."

Chen Nuo thought about it.

At that time, TikTok had not yet been born, Instagram's short video function was far from popular, China had not yet ushered in the era of short videos for all, and there was not so much diverse content.

At that time, the most popular content on YouTube was still movie reviews and book sharing. Although there were also video creators making travel diaries, they were mainly about scenery, like the ones Dora had made before, and the programs were more like amateur tourist attraction introduction programs.

Although he is not a travel blogger himself, he has seen pigs run even if he has never eaten pork.

Back then, he would casually browse videos and follow many bloggers who traveled around, including domestic celebrities like "Fei" and foreign celebrities like "Bald Guy."

Travel bloggers, as far as he knows, can be broadly divided into two categories.

One style is documentary-style, focusing on scenery. The other is emotional, featuring people in the paintings, such as cooking, preparing meals, or cycling together in the wild, to create a sense of immersion for the viewer.

While domestic and international travel bloggers with millions of followers may have different content styles and selling points, those who ultimately become popular are almost all of the second type.

So he racked his brains, organized the little knowledge he had, and said, "Dora, you should know that the best scenery in the world is not mountains, not sea, but people."

"The people who watch your videos online aren't usually there to see mountains and rivers; they'd rather watch Discovery Channel documentaries. Don't you agree?"

Dora and Vivian nodded one after the other, looking thoughtful.

Chen Nuo coughed and said, "So when these people click on your video, they're not simply looking to enjoy the scenery; what they really want is a sense of immersion."

"The final video you present should not be about introducing tourist attractions or showcasing scenery, but about making your viewers feel as if they are there and traveling with you. If one day, when someone clicks on your video, they can imagine that they are going through hardships with you, then you have succeeded."

……

……

"Effective today, this channel will cease updates. Please follow the blogger's new account @doraandshawn for newly revamped video content that will take you on a journey with the blogger through snow-capped mountains, grasslands, and deserts, allowing you to feel the wind, sunshine, and true freedom."

Honestly, it's pretty cliché.

The elderly man only followed this account because he had seen a video about Tangla Pass, which showed several people climbing over the pass and piqued his interest. However, after watching the female blogger's other videos, which were all uninteresting outdoor scenery, he stopped paying attention.

He didn't plan to follow up on this message that popped up in his feed that day.

However, upon seeing the final "Free",
He spoke through his mechanical throat: "Wait."

The nanny, who was about to unfollow, stopped. "Take a look."

The nanny shrugged indifferently and typed the username into the search bar:

@doraandshawn.

Soon, a new account with only 42 followers appeared on the screen.

Click to enter the channel homepage.

As soon as the page loaded, I saw a newly released video.

The cover is completely different from his previous videos, and it's also unlike the standard template covers that Stephen Hawking has used on other travel channels.

In addition to the usual snow-capped mountains and grasslands, the blogger who uploaded the video—that beautiful Latin girl—appears in the foreground.

This time, however, her expression wasn't a smile; instead, she had a furrowed brow, looking tired and somewhat disheveled.

Even more outrageous is the video length.

As you can see on the cover, this is a 28-minute video.

In the two years since the elderly man appeared on YouTube, he has followed many travel bloggers, but this is the first time he has seen a video that is so long.

What did they film?

"point."

“It’s too long, sir. I’m sure it will be boring.” the nanny asked.

"Yes."

"Ok."

The nanny agreed and clicked on the button.

The video has started.

Unlike before, the girl didn't greet the camera with an exaggerated smile, nor did she say any of the high-sounding, reporter-like platitudes.

She simply held the camera up with one hand, pointing it at her own face—the image was a bit shaky, and the angle was very close, so she looked less beautiful but more real in the shot.

The girl in the picture smiled and said:
"Hello, everyone—welcome to my new channel. I've now passed Winnemaca and reached the vicinity of Elco. Judging from the map, from now on, there's a real wasteland ahead. There are almost no roads, no supply points, and no cell phone signal. It'll probably take us about a week to reach the next town, Wells. Now, let's hit the road together!"

After he finished speaking, the video switched to the next scene.

In the video, the girl picks up her backpack, turns around, and slowly walks into the distance along the two railway tracks.

The camera zooms out, revealing her exceptionally long figure in the golden sunlight. A breeze rustles through her coat, lifting a corner of the fabric, and the grassland undulates gently at her feet. The entire scene is serene and expansive, even carrying a certain symbolic meaning in Hawking's view—a solitary particle traversing spacetime.

For the next 28 minutes, the elderly man did not ask the caregiver to fast forward even once.
They weren't even aware of the passage of time.

He was completely captivated by the video.

Throughout the entire film, no one else appears except for the girl.

In the video, she is walking, starting a fire, cooking, and setting up a tent.

She did everything by herself.

But these most ordinary and trivial little things, captured by the light and movement in her lens, have been given a touch of poetry.

She bent down to pick up the dead branches from the ground.

She crouched down to blow on the fire, and the smoke hit her face, making her cough.

She looked up at the sky in the cold wind, and the sunlight shone on her eyelashes.

All of this—

These are things I've never seen in other travel videos before.

In those videos, the bloggers are always glamorous, only showing their glamorous side and never letting the audience see their embarrassing moments. They always say "amazing" and "beautiful," and they never complain about the firewood being too wet to light, nor do they get angry and kick stones because the wind is too strong and the pot has overturned, nor do they frown and sigh because the canned food is too bad.

But this girl—she made him see all of this.

It was these small, imperfect moments that gave him a sense of reality he had never felt before.

He felt as if he were walking alongside her on that windswept wasteland, experiencing the cold, hunger, and loneliness together, and also feeling the joyful happiness of flames rising.

This gave his aging body a sense of vitality that he had longed for for decades.

Besides, unlike before, the scenery in this video is no longer the main focus, but rather interspersed within snippets of daily life. Although the length is shorter, the quality is exceptionally high.

As she crouched in front of the campfire, the rolling mountains loomed behind her.

She walked on the railway tracks, the setting sun casting golden light over her head.

She was washing a pot by the tent, while the distant murmur of the wind whistling across the open field drifted by.

All these segments are interwoven with the journey in the video, creating a unique sense of breath.

It's not superfluous or deliberate at all; it's completely different from documentaries on the Discovery Channel. Everything flows naturally.

At the end of the video, the girl smiled and announced that she had successfully completed this arduous journey and arrived in Wells, a small town nestled among mountains and wilderness. Under the sign with the town's name written on it by the roadside, she placed her camera on the ground.

Then, she walked forward, facing the setting sun.

The wind blew her coat, and her long hair flew in the golden light.

The camera focused on her back until the screen went black, ending the video.

The old woman then realized that those "third-person" shots were actually taken by her after setting up the camera herself and then running back to film them.

A deep sense of reluctance welled up in his heart. Was it really going to end like this?

The computer screen returned to the channel homepage.

The old man used a vocal cord generator to say, "Watch it again."

The nanny said, "Sir, you've been looking at this for too long. You should rest now. Let me get you a glass of water."

He went to the side and poured a glass of water, then fed the baby little by little with a spoon.

Soon, the water was gone, and their daily leisure time came to an end.

His earlier high spirits vanished, and he wearily closed his eyes.

The caregiver pushed him into his wheelchair, preparing him to rest.

"Wait, pay attention to her."

The old man suddenly remembered something, opened his eyes, and spoke in a mechanical voice again.

"Yes, sir." The nanny did not object, walked back to the computer, returned to the channel homepage, and clicked "follow".

At this moment, the old man noticed that the previous 42 had become 581 in just half an hour, and after adding him, it became 582.

“I take back what I just said, sir. She filmed it really well. I’ve never seen such a beautiful travel video. She’s so cute, and I loved watching her start the fire. It was so funny.” The nanny gripped the wheelchair handles again, pushing it as she spoke.

Then, the sound of a wheelchair gliding across the floor of the luxurious Cambridge apartment, along with the voices, disappeared beyond the door behind the towering bookshelves.

……

……

Five days later.

An incredible sound suddenly rang out beside a railway track.

28210 followers?! How is that possible?!

(End of this chapter)