This director lacks vision.

Chapter 3 First Planning

Over the next few days, Jiang Yifeng spent time familiarizing himself with and adapting to the environment, learning about the company's rules and regulations and work processes, while also relearning English.

Fortunately, he still had a basic understanding of English, and his daily work involved browsing English websites and watching videos, so he had a work environment where he could learn quickly.

At 6:30 p.m. on the 20th, Jiang Yifeng saved the edited video footage and wrote the script.

Looking up, I realized that most of my colleagues had already left.

Only a small number of people are working overtime.

This is the work culture of Sohu. Overall, it's quite laid-back, and overtime is not a common occurrence.

The company's requirements for its employees are "diligence, intelligence, health, and happiness".

These four words were written on the back of the employee card.

In today's competitive environment, and among major internet companies where the 996 work schedule is prevalent, Sohu is an outlier.

This company achieved success early on and has always had ample cash flow, so neither the boss nor the employees have a strong sense of crisis.

At this time, Zhang Chaoyang believed that employees should develop freely and healthily, and spontaneously become good people, which would produce more positive work results.

He summarized this corporate culture as a "culture of good people".

Jiang Yifeng really liked this work atmosphere, which offered a high degree of freedom.

Take Da Peng, for example. Jiang Yifeng has been working here for three days and still hasn't met the program host.

Besides working at Sohu, Da Peng also works as an actor, appearing in some stage plays and movies.

This Valentine's Day, his movie "The Contract" was released, and he is currently promoting it with the crew.

"Xiao Jiang, how's the material gathering going today? Have you found any suitable plot points?"

Hu Qian walked over to Jiang Yifeng and asked him about his work progress.

Jiang Yifeng said, "We had a great day. We got two pieces of material from Europe and America."

But I think the Hong Kong Island segment is more explosive and could be the theme for the next episode.

"Oh, what kind of material?"

"In an interview program, Sandra Ng chatted with Andy Lau and revealed that some female celebrities in the industry have a hobby of stamp collecting."

She said some people collect the Four Heavenly Kings like stamps.

It's a pity that while we managed to get Li Ming, Jacky Cheung, and Aaron Kwok, we didn't get Andy Lau; that's a huge regret.

Jiang Yifeng explained as he opened the video.

Hu Qian is nearsighted, so she quickly bent down to look.

She bent over at a rather steep angle, her mouth almost touching Jiang Yifeng's ear.

Jiang Yifeng could smell the woman's breath and the scent of her perfume.

After watching the video, Hu Qian remained noncommittal, only asking, "What are your thoughts?"

Jiang Yifeng opened his document and said, "It will soon be the one-year anniversary of Chen Guanxi's retirement from the entertainment industry. We can call Wu Junru's revelation the 'Hong Kong Island Stamp Collection Gate'."

Let's first talk about the "stamp scandal" and see who the female celebrities Wu Junru might be involved in. Then, let's take a look at the current situation of the main figures one year after the photo scandal.

This way, the show will have talking points and generate a lot of viewership.

This is the copy I wrote. Could you please help me revise it, Sister Qian?

As Hu Qian listened to Jiang Yifeng's story, she became increasingly interested.

She looked at the computer screen, where Jiang Yifeng's copy was displayed.

"Opening mini-theater."

Jiang Tao sat on the ground, looking at the numerous photos of female celebrities, and muttered:

"Fan Bingbing, Zhang Ziyi, Gong Li, Wang Zuxian, Li Yuchun..."

Da Peng walked up to Jiang Tao, looked at the photos scattered on the ground, and asked, "What are you doing here? Setting up a stall?"

Jiang Tao: "Stamp collecting! Look, these are all my idols!"

These are all female celebrities I've been with.

A close-up shot shows Dapeng looking surprised, "Huh?"

Jiang Tao explained, "No, it's the celebrities I've met. If I meet a few more of these, my collection will be complete."

Da Peng took out a portrait of himself and placed it in front of Jiang Tao.

What about this one?

Close-up shot, Jiang Tao: "Huh?"

Da Peng: "Am I not as good as Li Yuchun?"

(Background sound of audience laughing)

After the opening credits, footage from Hong Kong programs begins to play.

After the broadcast ended, Da Peng, the host, said: "How much money did the production company give Wu Junru? She always works so hard on her shows. I didn't know that the word 'stamp collecting' has this other meaning!"
I'll make another irresponsible prediction: stamp collecting will become a hot topic online this year. To be honest, I'm not surprised by the revelations about stamp collecting.

In this circle, it's a tacit understanding: you play me, I play him, and he plays you.

They even sang a song together for this.

Because we are a family, a loving family~ (singing)..."

Upon seeing this, Hu Qian burst out laughing.

She exclaimed, "Your topic is excellent, it has a sensational element, and your copywriting is even better, it's vivid and interesting."

However, the topic for the next video has already been decided – “It’s that time of year again for art exams,” focusing on the situation of art students applying to various professional colleges.

Your topic and copywriting can wait until the next issue.

Jiang Yifeng nodded and said, "Sure, I'm in charge of planning this episode. I'd like to be the live director for the small theater segment, is that okay?"

Hu Qian hesitated for a moment, then nodded and said, "Okay, this shoot isn't too difficult, I can let you try."

The show "Dapeng Debade" often features short skits.

Filming these small theater scenes was relatively simple, and the level of difficulty was just right for Jiang Yifeng, a newcomer.

"Thank you so much, Sister Qian!"

Jiang Yifeng was very happy.

He planned a program on his own today and wrote the script himself.

This was the first time Jiang Yifeng had experienced the joy of creation. Unlike his previous monotonous work of earning money, creation involved presenting finished works.

Although the work is immature and has some borderline elements, it is still funny.

This is a completely different kind of sense of accomplishment.

Hu Qian was also infected by Jiang Yifeng's smile. She said with a smile, "Actually, your main goal is not to be a screenwriter and director, but to be a director, right?"

Jiang Yifeng nodded and said, "A screenwriter who doesn't want to be a director isn't a good screenwriter."

Every screenwriter and director dreams of becoming a director, but becoming a director requires either talent or resources; it's not that easy.

Seeing Jiang Yifeng's candor, Hu Qian returned to her workstation and took out a CD from her drawer.

"This disc contains film lessons by Master Zhou Chuanji, which explains how to make a film from scratch."

Being a director isn't as difficult as you might imagine; you don't need to master too many techniques.

After handing the CD to Jiang Yifeng, Hu Qian left after get off work.

Jiang Yifeng put the CD into the computer and started watching it.

I was completely mesmerized when I saw it.

"...Everyone has their own understanding of what a movie is."

But what makes up a film are four elements: time and space, light and sound.

A film system that combines a spacetime system and an audiovisual system, or more precisely, a spacetime system implemented using an audiovisual system.

This is a matter of concept; you need to put it into practice to understand the underlying principles and learn to use audiovisual language to convey information.

Without a deep understanding of the expressive power of light and sound, one cannot effectively use audiovisual language. Therefore, a photography course is necessary, which mainly focuses on light.

A recording course mainly discusses the various possibilities and limitations that recording provides for sound.

Finally, there's the issue of structure, specifically the combination of shots—that's editing.

In fact, any school only needs to offer these three courses: photography, sound recording, and editing.

The other classes are just perfunctory formalities.

"I'm giving this lecture at the request of some netizens, to teach everyone how to make movies from scratch..."

Zhou Chuanji truly deserves to be called Zhang Yimou and Cheng Kaige's teacher; he has a very thorough understanding of the essence of film.

After listening to his lecture, Jiang Yifeng felt as if he had been enlightened.

He had been misled by the Best Director system all along.

This system includes multiple modules, such as scriptwriting, film aesthetics, camera language, actor training, resource coordination, narrative editing, special effects technology, and so on.

This led Jiang Yifeng to believe that a good director must be able to do all of these things.

That's not actually the case.

Cinematography, sound recording, and editing—these three techniques are the core foundation of a director's skills.

These three technologies are used to construct an audiovisual system, thereby conveying the message the director wants to express.

As the division of labor within the production team becomes more specialized, tasks such as photography, sound recording, and editing can all be delegated to others.

This further reduced the director's workload.

That's why some directors are just there as tools.

(End of this chapter)