Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 331 Man is the essence of writing
This year's snowstorm was severe, the worst in 50 years, causing widespread disruptions to transportation. This coincided with the Spring Festival travel rush, further increasing the pressure on transport.

Incidents of railway overhead contact lines freezing and collapsing, making it difficult for locomotives to pull trains, occur frequently.

Donations and supplies from the entertainment industry are increasing, with people across mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong taking action.

Wu Chen, Liu Yifei, and Xingchen Pictures were no exception; they had to donate what they were supposed to.

Guangzhou authorities have temporarily supplemented the airport's takeoff and landing schedule.

Wu Chen finally managed to get a plane ticket for the early morning flight back to Guangzhou on New Year's Eve, so he could make it back in time for the night.

On the 29th of the year, light snow fell in the capital, and the air was still chilly.

Wu Chen was naturally pulled over by Liu Yifei to eat with Liu Xiaoli and Shu Chang.

The kitchen was filled with pink hues, and warm yellow light shone gently on the tiles and sink.

Steam rose from the white porcelain stove, and neatly arranged on the cutting board were chopped chives, pork, and shrimp. Occasionally, a gust of wind blew snow from under the eaves, which slowly melted into a puddle of icy water on the windowsill.

"You people in Guangzhou don't eat dumplings during the Lunar New Year, do you?" Liu Xiaoli asked.

It has to be said that Liu Xiaoli's needlework and kitchen skills are mismatched with her appearance. She is very good at working and is skillfully kneading flour with clean and neat movements.

"No, I won't eat it." Wu Chen smiled and rolled up his sleeves. "Where we're from, we're more particular about eating fish for New Year's Eve dinner, to bring good luck for having abundance every year. These days, life has improved, and seafood is on the table too."

After a while, Liu Yifei shooed Liu Xiaoli and Shu Chang away from the kitchen: "Leave the filling to us, you two go and rest."

Liu Xiaoli glanced at Liu Yifei with a suspicious look, clearly not trusting her own daughter.

Shu Chang clapped her hands. "Auntie, let's go watch TV."

Not having to do any work? That would be great!

Inside the kitchen, Liu Yifei was enjoying the fun of making dumplings with Wu Chen.

"These dumplings you made are incredibly ugly!" Wu Chen glanced at Liu Yifei's dumplings with disdain and couldn't help but say.

"How dare you talk like that? This is all for you to eat tonight." Liu Yifei grinned, grabbed some flour, twirled it between her fingers, and then dabbed a speck of flour on Wu Chen's nose.

The two of you come and go.

In the living room, Liu Xiaoli would occasionally walk over to check on the kitchen, worried that there wouldn't be anything to eat that night.

"Don't worry, Auntie, Wu Chen is reliable. In fact, he's more reliable than Xixi." Shu Chang nodded confidently, cracking sunflower seeds while watching TV.

On New Year's Eve, red lanterns lit up one by one in the streets and alleys. Before the fireworks had even started, the festive atmosphere of the New Year had already spread from the gaps between the city's buildings.

The Spring Festival has captured the attention of everyone across the country. Even though news of "The Martian" is still on the minds of male actors in the industry, they can only talk about it after the New Year.

Wu Chen had just arrived in Guangzhou at noon. As he walked out of the terminal, the sun broke through the clouds, casting a gentle and serene light.

The phrase "Guangzhou and Foshan as one city" felt especially real at that moment.

Less than two hours' drive from the airport, he was already on the blue brick path in front of his old home in Foshan.

Newly replaced couplets were pasted on the door, the ink still wet, and the door gods were already standing guard with their imposing presence.

That night, the sound of the Spring Festival Gala television remained the background noise in every household, and even if there were Olympic skits and programs, they were not popular in this place.

The program is on, the sound is playing, and the conversation at the dinner table is about recent events, family matters, who came back home this year, who got married and had a baby, and who got a promotion.
As always, Wu Chen received many New Year's greetings calls from friends in the industry. Of course, he also made many calls himself, as he still needed to call some elders, including Zhang Yimou.

The two of them, one as the chief director and the other as the artistic advisor, naturally started talking about the Olympics.

"Senior brother started work on the third day of the Lunar New Year?" Wu Chen asked in surprise.

"To be precise, it was the second day of the Lunar New Year. The directing team held a meeting first. But the other teams still needed to rest for a few days before gradually resuming work. There are only six months left until the Olympics."

Zhang Yi sighed, saying that he was under tremendous pressure and that all he could think about this year was the Olympics.

"By the way, the production team has run into a problem these days, and we might need your help after the New Year?"

"Oh?"

"Do you remember that Olympic plan? There was a section on 'movable type printing' in it. There's a bit of disagreement within the directing team right now."

Some people think the process of movable type assembly should be recreated using live dance, while others believe that animation would be more modern and precise, so the project is currently stuck. My current idea is to use a combination of animation and set design.

After Zhang Yi finished speaking, he suddenly slapped his forehead. "Oh, it's my fault. I was planning to tell you after the New Year, but I accidentally said it. It's okay, we can talk after the New Year."

"Senior brother, we've already said all this, so a little longer won't make a difference." Wu Chen leaned against the railing, smiled, and thought for a moment.

"I prefer a more realistic portrayal."

"Hmm, how so?" Zhang Yi asked, somewhat curious.

"Printing technology is the crystallization of human wisdom. The process of arranging movable type one by one is essentially a reflection of human control over language and civilization. Animation is certainly exquisite, but it is a simulation; if people are used to arrange the type and to construct the meaning of the characters with their bodies, then the characters are born from the human body."

Wu Chen paused for a moment, his tone softening slightly, "What I want to say is that 'people are the foundation of writing' and also the 'spark of civilization'."

Printing technology enabled the transmission of culture and the continuation of civilization, all of which depend on people for their transmission.

On the other end of the phone, Zhang Yi remained silent.

The phrase "Man is the foundation of writing" seemed to strike a clear arc in his mind.

"That makes sense, that makes sense. Your words have enlightened me on the design concept." Zhang Yi was very excited; he seemed to have found a solution.

"Okay, don't worry about this for now. Have a good New Year, and we'll discuss the details after the holiday."

Upon returning home after the New Year, Wu Chen received an invitation from Zhang Yimou, as the cultural and artistic advisory group needed to discuss the details of the program with the directing team.

The venue was a private conference room next to the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games.

At this time, the atmosphere in Beijing had already quietly shifted to the busy and intense preparations for the Olympic Games.

There are less than six months left until the opening ceremony on August 8th.

Chen Kaige put aside his busy filming of "Mei Lanfang" and arrived on time to participate offline with Ji Xianling, Tang Yijie, Jin Shangyi, Xu Xiaozhong, and Wu Chen.

Spielberg, Evans Panpin, Richard Peter Birch, and Li An, among others, participated online.

"Director Chen, is the filming going smoothly?" Wu Chen found a natural moment to chat with Chen Kai, since they were sitting right next to each other, he had to say hello.

Chen Kaige looked slightly tired, clearly under a lot of pressure during the filming period, but he still smiled and nodded: "It's alright."

The meeting then quickly got down to business.

At this point, everyone opened the documents, which listed several major problems encountered by the directing team. The issue was how to transform traditional Chinese imagery into a visual language that could be understood by the whole world.

This topic alone has several sub-questions:
For example, should movable type printing be presented as "live dance" or "animation"?
How can calligraphy and ink painting be visualized?

Aesthetic symbols familiar to Chinese people may be "question marks" for foreign audiences; how should these be addressed?
"I discussed the issue of movable type printing with Director Wu during the Chinese New Year. Director Wu's opinion at the time was that 'people are the foundation of writing,' which leans towards real people, using people to type characters, and using their posture to construct the meaning of the characters."

This inspired me greatly, so my idea is to use a human-based printing press array, where people assemble Chinese characters, transitioning from the disassembly, composition, and evolution of the characters to the complete typesetting, all in one go.

Zhang Yi was the first to voice his idea, and everyone brainstormed together.

Everyone looked at Wu Chen, who nodded slightly in greeting.

There was a few seconds of silence in the meeting room, clearly indicating that they were thinking.

“I think Wu Chen’s idea is excellent.” Ji Xianling, who is usually not talkative, was the first to speak. As a leading figure in academia and a national treasure, everyone listened to his words quietly.

“The written language is the root of a nation. We use ‘people’ to carry it. Even if the audience does not understand Chinese, they will feel the aura of inheritance.”

“I support it.” Jin Shangyi nodded.

"Wu's idea is great. People are the most important element, and I agree with this humanistic concept. Do you have any concept drawings or technical sketches?"

On the other end of the line, Spielberg thought for a moment, nodded, and then asked in English, which was immediately relayed by the translator.

This kind of humanistic sentiment is wonderful. He couldn't help but think of the black hole movie concept proposed by Linda Aubus and Kip Thorne.

Although he was tempted, he was bogged down in trivial matters and had a dispute with Paramount, so he eventually gave up and the project ended up in Wu Chen's hands.

It seems that Linda Obbs and Kip Thorne's choice of Wu Chen was not without reason.

"The technical sketches are at the end of the document; you can take a look." Zhang Yimou had already prepared everything and gestured for everyone to turn to the appendix.

The sound of papers turning over rose and fell.

The concept art depicts rows of real dancers dressed in black and white training uniforms, arranged in a "typeface" style. Some are single characters, while others are multiple people forming radicals, which are then combined to form symbolic characters such as "和" (harmony).

When everyone opened it, their eyes lit up.

"Wow!" Spielberg murmured involuntarily. "This is really perfect, but it will be very difficult!"

Everyone gasped in amazement. Chen Kaige's eyes were filled with complex emotions; he truly couldn't pull off such an imaginative and grand spectacle.

If this program could be realized, it would definitely shock the world.
This was the current consensus among everyone, and the atmosphere in the meeting room gradually became more lively as everyone expressed their opinions.

But it was obvious that this project was indeed very difficult. Everyone discussed it for a whole morning and listed out all the difficulties. Looking at the hundreds of difficulties that needed to be overcome, even the production team was a little apprehensive.

Wu Chen didn't expect that it would be so difficult for the show to finally come to fruition.

"Don't be afraid, everyone. Just open your minds and think hard. The more perfect your ideas, the better. As long as you dare to think, our troops can accomplish it perfectly."

At this moment, assistant director Zhang Jigang stepped forward on behalf of the troops and immediately made a pledge.
(End of this chapter)