1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 33: Ten Miles of Calm Lake and Frost Covering the Sky

If nothing unexpected happens, the Manager Fang mentioned by Li Zhongqiang should be Fang Yihua, the future boss lady of TVB.

He was the director of Chiu's Film Company and the manager of TVB, and was in charge of several departments including purchasing, cashier, accounting and finance.

In addition to her outstanding abilities, another reason is that she is the confidante of the head of the sect, Zhao Yi-fu.

There are many rumors about Miss Fang, but the most well-known one is that she was always picky and critical of the stingy staff when managing the company.

Things done include but are not limited to:
The martial arts trainer's salary was withheld and inferior props were purchased, resulting in an actor falling and being seriously injured.

Director Li Hanxiang wanted to shoot a scene of ten children eating ice cream, and went to apply for funding, but was only approved for money for five ice creams. The director said that if he let the other five children hide in the back, the audience would not be able to see them.

Liu Jialiang used several wire ropes for action scenes and asked her to reimburse him afterwards. After watching the film, Miss Fang was furious and asked, "You can't see any wire ropes in the camera, so why do you ask me for money?" This directly led to the fact that directors would intentionally or unintentionally show the wire ropes in Zhao's action scenes.

"Uncle Six is so lucky. I wish I had a financial assistant like this."

Sitting in a tea restaurant outside the Zhao Studios, while Zhai Yuan was waiting for the dubbing department to finish work, he envied his sixth uncle for having such a virtuous wife.

Do you think Miss Fang really doesn’t know what she is doing?
It's nothing more than catering to the stingy and domineering Uncle Zhao Liu. The couple takes turns playing the good cop and the bad cop to pressure those directors and producers.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the restaurant, you can see Zhao's employees filing out.

Zhai Yuan was looking at Li Zhongqiang's figure when suddenly a burst of noise rang in his ears.

"Hurry, hurry, TVB is wrapping up! I hope we can photograph some big stars today!"

In the tea restaurant, several guests who were originally dining suddenly stood up, took out cameras from their bags, and rushed out the door.

Zhai Yuan almost thought he had walked into a group of spies, and couldn't help but sigh at the professionalism of these tabloid reporters.

"We can use them to create some hype when the movie is released."

Looking at the reporters who continued to raise their cameras and take pictures even when they were stopped by security personnel, Zhai Yuan came up with a new plan in his mind.

About half an hour later, all the employees at the entrance of the studio had dispersed.

The long-awaited Li Zhongqiang finally appeared in Zhai Yuan's sight.

Li Zhongqiang walked out of the company gate and went straight to the tea restaurant, where he saw Zhai Yuan standing by the window.

He looked around like a spy making a contact, and when he saw that there was no one around, he sat down on the chair opposite Zhai Yuan.

"Hello, Mr. Zhai."

"Uncle Zhong, even a foreman like you has to put an advertisement in the newspaper to make money secretly. It seems that the treatment of the wireless dubbing department is very poor."

Seeing that he looked nervous, Zhai Yuan smiled and made a joke.

Li Zhongqiang sighed, "It was OK, but last year the company organized an event to watch horse racing. A manager in our dubbing department was tempted to place a bet of 3,000 yuan, and was noticed by Miss Fang. Miss Fang just smiled and said that even Uncle Six only bets 5 or 10 yuan on horses, so it seems that your dubbing department is well treated. Sure enough, after returning to the company that day, everyone in our department had their salary reduced by 30%. Don't you think it's an unprovoked disaster?"

Zhai Yuan wanted to laugh after hearing this. This manager was a talented person, yet he actually competed with the boss in person for wealth. Unless this horse farm was owned by the boss!

"I came here this time to ask Uncle Zhong to help dub a foreign film."

After chatting for a while and seeing that the other party had relaxed, Zhai Yuan took out the videotape from his arms, put it on the table, and got down to business.

"I Spit on Your Grave, I Spit on Your Grave?"

Li Zhongqiang took the videotape, looked at it for a few seconds, and read out the bilingual title: "This translation sounds good. A horror movie?"

The mainland and Taiwan rarely reach a consensus on the movie "Grave", and translated it into the same title, but Hong Kong later translated it into "Sin of Lust Is Unforgivable".

Of course, there are also marketing accounts that falsely claimed that the title of the Hong Kong film is "Hang Your Tomb", which misled many viewers. Zhai Yuan also wanted to say these four words to these unscrupulous marketing accounts.

"No, it should be considered a thriller?" Zhai Yuan briefly told Li Zhongqiang the plot of the movie.

Li Zhongqiang did not comment on the story content after listening to it, but talked about it from the perspective of dubbing: "Four men and one woman, so at least three dubbing actors are needed. If Mr. Zhai has high requirements, we can hire five."

"No, three will be enough." Zhai Yuan knew that it was easy for voice actors like them to play two or three roles, so they should save costs as much as possible in this regard.

"Then I'll talk about the price."

Li Zhongqiang smiled a little embarrassedly: "According to the rules of the industry, we have to charge double the salary for outsourcing. I get a monthly salary of 2,000 yuan from TVB, and ordinary dubbing artists get 1,500 yuan a month. Usually, we may need three to seven days to complete a movie. I don’t know if I have made it clear?"

Zhai Yuan understood. Based on his monthly salary of 2,000 yuan as a dubbing supervisor, he spent seven days recording a movie, and the average price was about 460 yuan.

If I want to borrow him from TVB now, I have to pay double his salary, which is 920 yuan.

The money is not calculated based on the number of roles he dubs, because of the monthly salary system, even if he dubs a hundred people a day, he only gets one salary.

"Uncle Zhong, I think with your ability, you can voice all four male characters in the movie by yourself."

Zhai Yuan looked at Li Zhongqiang and said seriously.

Li Zhongqiang was stunned for a moment, then showed a helpless expression: "Mr. Zhai, that's not how it works. I'm dubbing four characters at the same time, which will definitely extend the production efficiency. It may take more than ten days to complete, and you'll spend more money."

"Just pretend I didn't say that." Zhai Yuan laughed and asked, "Are there any good candidates for actresses?"

"I will help you ask."

Li Zhongqiang walked to the front desk and borrowed a phone, dialed the number of the studio, and spoke briefly to his colleagues in the dubbing department.

Not long after, another female voice actor rushed into the tea restaurant.

"Uncle Zhong, is there anything good that can be of help to you?"

"Let me introduce you. This is Mr. Zhai Yuan, and this is He Jinhua, an actor from our dubbing department."

He Jinhua looks to be about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, with an ordinary appearance and a slightly plump figure.

She took the initiative to reach out and shake hands with Zhai Yuan. She felt that the boss in front of her was a little too young: "Hello, Mr. Zhai."

"Hello, Ms. He. I may need to make it clear in advance that the movie I need to dub contains many scenes of women being humiliated. I wonder if you can accept it?"

"Don't be afraid, it's just dubbing, I'm not asking you to take off your clothes, the most important thing is that the boss is willing to pay me."

He Jinhua is cheerful and said nonchalantly.

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "Would it be convenient for me to say a few lines to test my voice?"

The movie "Grave" is a one-man show for the heroine, so the requirements for the voice actor are naturally higher.

"Okay."

He Jinhua was not at all stage frightened. He first performed a dialogue in a baby voice, then suddenly changed the tone to remove the harsh foul language, and then hoarsely raised his voice to a gentle whisper.

After listening to this, Zhai Yuan nodded with satisfaction. The Zhao family really produced talented people.

Suddenly, he felt that the other party's voice sounded familiar.

Frowning and thinking for a while, Zhai Yuan asked, "Would you mind reciting two lines of poetry for me to listen to? Ten miles of calm lake, the sky is full of frost, and every inch of black hair is filled with sorrow for the good old age. I will use the last line of the poem."

He Jinhua's voice immediately became gentle: "The sky is full of frost, and every inch of my black hair is filled with worry about my youth..."

Zhai Yuan slapped his thigh and said, "It's you, Nie Xiaoqian!"
(End of this chapter)