I've been reborn, I'm definitely going to become an internet celebrity!

Chapter 124 [Are talented people really that expensive?]

The first floor is for receiving clients and doing simple tasks such as taking ID photos and makeup. The second floor has some photography studios with green screens and backdrops for indoor shooting.

Most of the content is related to weddings.

Liu Zhuohao didn't say anything, but looked around.

As he surveyed the studio, the boss quickly explained, "Our business is mostly outdoor shooting. In the city, especially among young people, we are absolutely famous!"

This is just a small outpost; we take orders and do some minor image editing. The real big jobs are done outside.

"These photography studios on the second floor can be used for indoor shooting. However, we generally do not recommend indoor shooting for our clients; those are reserved for people on a tighter budget."

"Wow, they're really rich. Who's taking pictures inside?"

He leaned forward and said, "They all charter cars to go to the beach, to the big lawn, to those high-class places."

"We know each other well, so I can offer a special price for acquaintances. It's a one-stop service; customers just need to pay, and they don't have to worry about anything else."

The photography studio owner tried his best to explain that although their company was small, it was full of elite personnel.

Liu Zhuohao nodded but didn't reply.

The boss was talking enthusiastically, but as he listened, he felt something was off. The more he emphasized his professionalism, the less professional he seemed.

"Okay, let's watch the movie first."

Liu Zhuohao said.

As he walked forward, he saw out of the corner of his eye that Song Yinxuan and Dou Nai also moved.

The two followed, walking to his side and slightly behind, at a distance that was just a step away.

"We need to go downstairs," the boss said, leading them towards the stairwell.

Once on the first floor, the boss turned on one of the computers in the middle of the row against the wall. While it was booting up, he added, "Everyone else has gone out to work. I need to confirm the video's post-production with you guys later, and then I'll have to rush over."

Looking at the progress bar spinning on the screen, Liu Zhuohao suddenly asked, "Boss, you should know how to operate it, right?"

There were too many people and too much chaos during the filming, so he didn't really notice who was holding the fort and who was just slacking off.

"Of course, I know how to operate it," the boss blurted out as he sat at his computer desk, then turned back to the computer. "I'm not the kind of person who doesn't take responsibility. I started as a photographer, and only after I got to know more clients and gained more experience did I decide to open my own shop."

As he spoke, he gripped the mouse, clicked on "My Computer," and painstakingly typed out the words "Bilibili shooting project materials" with one index finger in the search bar on the left.

One-finger Zen.

Liu Zhuohao paused for a moment, then glanced to the side without making a sound.

Song Yinxuan stood diagonally behind him, her gaze meeting his directly.

She blinked, her eyelashes fluttering, then quickly looked away from the screen, as if she was waiting intently for the computer to respond, but the smile on her lips was unmistakable.

Soy Milk stood on the other side, looking perfectly normal, as if nothing was amiss.

"—Ahem." The boss seemed to realize something and cleared his throat. "I'm mainly responsible for filming and positioning. Post-production isn't my job, so I'm not very proficient with computers."

He didn't pretend.

But then, the statement "I was a photographer first, and then I opened a shop after I gained more experience" doesn't sound quite right.

Where can you find a professional photographer who can open a shop, but only knows how to shoot and not how to edit?

Unless you're an old-school photographer who processes film.

But this boss looks to be only in his early thirties, how come he acts so old-fashioned?

The boss continued to hold the mouse, using his index finger to painstakingly open a folder.

It wasn't the source file for the edit, but the finished product that he opened directly with his local video editing software.

"Shall we take a look at the finished product first?" he asked, turning around.

Liu Zhuohao nodded.

The screen lights up.

"Hello everyone, this is Liu Zhuohao's food channel—"

2

In the video, I appear on screen with the familiar night market stall in the background, bathed in warm lighting.

"That's right, it's still our familiar lucky customer segment. It hasn't been long since we last recorded this program, just over a month."

"However, a lot has happened around me in the past month or so, but fortunately, it has all been resolved. And for this event, which has been restarted after a long hiatus, I not only drew lucky customers from among the on-site customers, but I also specially invited special guests this time!"

Liu Zhuohao watched himself appear in the video, said his opening remarks, then pulled Song Yinxuan into the video, and the two exchanged pleasantries and compliments in front of the camera.

"This is the top singer/blogger on our Bilibili platform, the biting cat!"

"Welcome, welcome!"

He spoke in front of the camera, accompanied by a few scattered cheers.

The entire video has been muted; most of the audio tracks have been either cut or had their pitch adjusted to remove them. Otherwise, the video would likely have been very noisy.

Huang Weixiong's audio was specially extracted and stood out in the noisy atmosphere of human voices.

"Oh, no, no!"

In front of the camera, Song Yinxuan looked like a frightened little rabbit and quickly spoke up, "Boss Liu is the real head of the entertainment industry. I had to shamelessly contact him to get this opportunity to be on camera!"

"Hey, when it comes to dancing bloggers on Bilibili, who doesn't know about Biting Cat?"

"No, no, no, when it comes to the best cook on Bilibili, it has to be Boss Liu."

The two of them took turns saying a line in front of the camera, both looking extremely nervous and apprehensive.

Occasionally, sound effects and sarcastic comments would pop up during post-production editing.

"Hey."

As the person involved, Song Yinxuan's laughter rang out from the side. Liu Zhuohao turned around and saw her covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes curving into two crescent moons. "I didn't know before that it would be so funny when it was filmed."

She said, "It feels like I'm on a variety show."

"----really."

Liu Zhuohao didn't say much, but focused on watching the video.

Upon seeing this, Song Yinxuan also quieted down.

In the video, as he begins to disassemble a whole chicken into its various parts, a simple white line drawing appears next to him, standing out against the night background.

It's a chicken, and it's drooling.

When I started simmering the soup, the staff next to me made detailed notes on the seasonings and herbs I was filming. Then, when I started frying the chicken, the hot plate sizzled with oil.

Yes, it's not just the sound effects; just like in a comic book, there's a subtitle written next to the metal plate.

This video clearly shows the post-production processing.

Liu Zhuohao was quite surprised. Compared to the videos edited by Zhuang Zicong and his partner before, this video had a completely different feel.

The former, although it also imitates the content of "A Bite of China", the content is integrated very awkwardly.

Although Liu Zhuohao is a newcomer to self-media, as a viewer, his insight is undeniable.

The reason why my videos can give the impression of being of high quality to both viewers and editors on Bilibili is mainly due to the planning and the fact that few people are making these kinds of videos.

For the self-media video industry in 14, this is sufficient.

But for someone who's 25 years old, it's very rough.

But this video is different; you can see the creative process behind it.

Those annotations, those simple drawings, those sound effects and subtitles are not simply piling up materials together, or cutting them into a fixed process using an editing script. Instead, someone is actually using editing to tell a story.

This will be possible in many post-production editing processes for future variety shows.

In other words, the guests on the show may simply want to express how tired or hard they are from working.

However, if the person in charge of post-production editing deliberately manipulates a segment for the sake of creating a buzz or marketing effect, they can easily distort the truth and reverse cause and effect.

They can make the audience feel that this hardworking person is just being pretentious.

And it's not just variety show editors; many bloggers on short videos have also mastered this skill.

"How is it? The finished product."

The boss came over with a smug look on his face.

"I just said, this is definitely the best film we've ever shot." He paused, then added, "Even the boss who spent over ten thousand dollars to have us shoot a personal portrait on the beach probably didn't get this good results."

Liu Zhuohao glanced at Song Yinxuan and Dou Nai, and seeing that they didn't speak, he replied, "Not bad."

"It's not just good, it's practically professional."

Back home, Liu Zhuohao couldn't wait to make a voice call, "So, did you two actually notice anything that night? Who stood out in the team?"

This was a task he had assigned earlier.

"Well, everyone here seems pretty professional."

Zhuang Zicong's voice came through the earpiece, "I really can't explain it. We're just students, and there's always a gap between us and those who have already entered society and are making money through their own abilities."

Liu Honghao chimed in, his voice echoing, "We couldn't understand any of the jargon like 'explosive sound,' 'upgrade,' 'sky mirror,' 'grand three-eighths,' and 'flowing water.' The scene was so busy that we didn't dare ask anyone. We had to search for it online after we got back."

Liu Zhuohao asked helplessly, "I've sent you the finished product. Take a look at it first. I'm not planning to upload it yet, so be careful not to miss anything."

Both of them agreed and quickly received the video call.

"I want to see what kind of video you're praising so much has been edited into." Zhuang Zicong, having known them for many years, was more outspoken, muttering as he watched the video.

Liu Zhuohao didn't disturb them. He first turned off his microphone, then looked at the messages Li Ni replied to on QQ.

Just before she got home, Li Ni replied to a message.

There are only four characters.

—I'm busy, please wait a moment.

There was no reply after that. I don't know if they were too busy to remember or if they weren't finished with their work.

"————It is indeed quite different, it has a unique feel to it."

Zhuang Zicong's comments came through the earpiece.

"It really felt very professional, and the transitions, the fade-in background music, and the camera work—from filming to post-production, the whole process was very professional. How can anyone learn that?"

Liu Honghao also spoke up, "And these simple drawings, are they hand-drawn?"

In the finished product, all those simple little drawings were hand-drawn; they hadn't learned how to do that!

"We've only been studying for less than a semester, boss, this is too much to ask of us," Zhuang Zicong replied. "Let alone those of us who have only studied for half a year, even graduates from my school might not be able to achieve this effect."

"Indeed, it's about the same here."

Liu Honghao agreed with this statement, saying, "When we were in class, the teacher showed us some graduation projects from senior students. Looking at them, they didn't seem as good as the videos I edited. Maybe it's because we didn't have the opportunity to practice with the materials?"

Anyway, he couldn't see any difference in professional ability between those senior students who had studied for four years and him who had only studied for half a year.

Of course, he taught himself some software applications on Bilibili, and Liu Zhuohao often sent him materials to edit, so there were tasks and he could earn money.

This might make him different from the upperclassmen in school who "complete their homework" simply to do it.

"Actually, when you think about it this way, boss, I think instead of having the two of us recruit people at the school, why don't you try posting job openings locally?" Zhuang Zicong suggested. "Besides, the wages you're offering aren't low either."

"Have you inquired about how much this photography company pays its employees?"

"I don't think it will be too high, after all, the wages where we are are ridiculously low, with many people earning only two or three thousand, or even three or four thousand."

Liu Zhuohao was stunned when he said that.

It seems that's correct?

He had always had the impression that "talented people are very expensive", so he preferred to find part-time students rather than posting job openings at job fairs.

But the question is, is talent really that expensive?

Do talented people know they are talented?

"Hey, feed me?"

The two were still talking through the earpiece, "Boss, are you there?"

But Liu Zhuohao just turned off his microphone, so they didn't receive any response from either of them.

Just as he was about to speak and temporarily withdraw the recruitment plan he had given to the two of them, a QQ message popped up.

"There's no way to see it."

It's Li Ni.

"They redirect to QQ and place the order through QQ. We definitely can't see their Bilibili ID here; it's a technical issue."

"If e-commerce can really take off on the platform in the future, we will consider developing our own communication tools. At that time, we can communicate online directly on the platform, and we will be able to see the platform information of visiting users in the backend."

"However, understanding real user reviews is a very necessary idea. I do have a compromise, it just depends on whether you're willing to do it."

As soon as Li Ni replied to the message, the "beep beep beep" sound started ringing incessantly.

"What method?"

Liu Zhuohao asked.

"Organize an event."

A message from Li Ni popped up; it was very brief.

Then, several more messages popped up: "We did not intentionally collect information before, so we don't know."

"But later, when they leave their address and phone number when placing an order, we can ask them to fill in their Bilibili account information as well. With the account information, our backend can help you find the posting history and confirm the authenticity of the feedback."

"But if there's no feedback, they might not be willing to provide their real Bilibili ID."

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