1982 Started from Hong Kong

Chapter 231 Optical Disc Technology

As the singer agent of Huaxing, Chen Shufang has been under a lot of pressure this year.

There was Shen Dianxia who was eyeing his position. Just when he had made Zhang Guorong successful, the other party used his connections to get Roman Tam to join the team and he produced many hit songs.

Just one person, Alan Tam, is enough to overwhelm all other male singers.

This year is the year of Tan Yonglin.

After Xu Guanjie and Guan Zhengjie both jumped ship from PolyGram Records, Tam Wing-lin became a rising star that PolyGram was promoting.

The day after Valentine's Day, Patrick Tam released the third song of his Love Trilogy, "Love Trap". PolyGram hired Japanese musicians to tailor it for him. It was one of the few original works by singers of the same period and it broke platinum sales (15) in just a few days.

Zhang Guorong was unilaterally defeated by the other party thanks to the popularity accumulated from "Monica", "The Wind Continues to Blow" and "When We Were Young".

Why did you go on a concert tour in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and not come back until the end of the year?
Isn’t it because we can’t beat the two biggest markets, Hong Kong and Formosa!
Chen Shufang has a dream:
"If I can sign Zhai Yuan to my company, not only will I be able to secure my position as the top female employee in the company, but I will also be able to show off my power to the outside world."

She felt that Zhai Yuan was now like a gold mine, and any scraps of it could support a small record company.

Unfortunately, I can’t sign it.

There are some gossipers in the outside world who have speculated on the companies currently run by Zhai Yuan, including 1024, Jiuyi Entertainment, Gambling Ship and Secret Garden.

According to rough estimates, his total assets should now be over 100 million.

He started from scratch in the 1980s and had assets worth over 100 million yuan at the age of 20. It sounds like a myth when you tell others about it.

Some people in the business world even gave him a nickname, "Prodigy Yuan".

Chen Shufang felt that even if she sold Huaxing Records, she would not be able to pay his salary.

Thinking back to when they first met in the Secret Garden's office building, she was indifferent to the young man in front of her, but now she really feels that he is out of her reach.

It’s a lost treasure!
Chen Shufang continued to ask unwillingly: "Mr. Zhai, several of your songs have not been released yet. Why don't you go through Huaxing's channels and let me be the agent for your soundtrack?"

Zhai Yuan thought to himself that this guy was really a thief who never left empty-handed and had to fleece him of some benefits.

Unfortunately, she didn't know that the songs Zhai Yuan had in his hands were masterpieces that might have a chance to be included in textbooks in the future, so how could he easily hand them over to outsiders.

"I think the time is about right. I have an appointment with the director to discuss the script this afternoon. Wang Jin from TVB is hanging out with me now. You should know Miss Chen."

Zhai Yuan didn't want to waste any more time with Chen Shufang, so he pretended to look at her wrist and simply ordered her to leave.

Chen Shufang sighed helplessly. Wang Jin's father was a veteran of TVB. Even though Zhao's family had gradually given up the film industry, the father and son were still the backbone of the television department, and their status was higher than her as an agent in a subsidiary department.

The gap between his level and Zhai Yuan's is really too big, and he was able to enter today because others gave face to Zhang Guorong.

"Then we won't bother you any more."

Chen Shufang stood up, her eyes fell on Mei Yanfang, and she coughed lightly: "Ah Mei, Mr. Zhai gave you a song called "Like Water Flowing Years" which has also passed platinum sales. Didn't you always say that you wanted to thank him?"

Mei Yanfang hesitated for a moment, then smiled at Zhai Yuan: "I wonder if Mr. Zhai has time tonight to let me set up a table for wine to express my gratitude."

Zhai Yuan looked her up and down without saying anything, which made Mei Yanfang feel a little unconfident.

When a female star in the entertainment industry makes an appointment to go out with someone at night, is it really as simple as just having a meal?
Mei Yanfang was bent on rising to the top, and she knew very well that Zhai Yuan was a bigger support than Huaxing Records.

But now Zhai Yuan is also surrounded by beautiful girls, such as Zhong Chuhong, Lan Juying, Ye Yuqing, Zhou Huimin, and even the girl named Zhou Haimei who made tea for them just now is young and beautiful. When being examined by Zhai Yuan, Mei Yanfang's confidence suddenly weakened a lot.

Zhai Yuan stared at her for a long while, then suddenly turned to ask Zhang Guorong: "Do you think she is suitable for playing the country girl Xiao Yao (Wu Qianlian) in God of Gamblers 2?"

…………

Zhang Guorong came to see Zhai Yuan the next day and said that when Mei Yanfang went back that day, her face was as black as the bottom of a pot while sitting in the car.

Zhai Yuan said seriously, "I talked to Wang Jin last night. She is indeed very suitable for the role and can complement Zhong Chuhong. Wang Jin has not filmed Xiao Yao's part yet, so let Mei Yanfang seize the opportunity. I am thinking about her. Otherwise, what is the point of just hanging around in the music industry?"

Zhang Guorong thought that it was fortunate that he was an actor in film, television and music, otherwise he would have been covered by Zhai Yuan's fire.

In fact, based on the performance of the first episode of "God of Gamblers", it cannot be said that it is an injustice for Anita Mui to play the second female lead in the sequel. On the contrary, it is really a promotion for her.

In particular, the role of Xiao Yao has a character arc and is easy for the audience to remember. If Wu Qianlian could not be found, no one would have considered letting her play the role.

It’s not like Mei Yanfang hasn’t played a supporting role before.

Her first film was "Crazy 83", in which she played a supporting role to Barbara Yung. She also played a supporting role to Ye Tong in "Seven Days of Love", and there was originally another film directed by Zhao, "Fate", in which Zhang Guorong was the protagonist and she played a supporting role to Zhang Manyu. However, as Zhang Guorong signed with Film Studio and became more and more popular, the film was eventually aborted.

Zhang Guorong squinted at Zhai Yuan and said, "Boss, sometimes you can't be too straightforward when talking to women."

Zhai Yuan said to him earnestly, "I make so much money, if I still use euphemisms, wouldn't I be no different from poor people like you?"

Zhang Guorong was silent for a moment: "Pick!"

Zhai Yuan smiled and said, "Go back and ask Mei Yanfang to think about it. Filming for my company won't be unfair to her."

Zhang Guorong said with little interest that he would go back to persuade her, and then changed the subject: "Do I have any movies to shoot this year?"

His question really stumped Zhai Yuan.

There is indeed no room for Zhang Guorong to perform in the current shooting plans of several films.

It is too early to shoot "A Chinese Ghost Story" now. Xu Qi is still supporting Jet Li. Jiuyi plans to do the special effects production by themselves, which will take some time.

Wang Jiawei is interested in joining 91 Entertainment, but Zhai Yuan currently has a lot of spending money and cannot afford to lose money on art films.

Zhai Yuan thought for a moment and asked, "Are you interested in going to the mainland to shoot Mr. Zombie?"

Zhang Guorong didn't understand the script and simply asked about the plot.

When he learned that Zhai Yuan wanted him to play the role of Qiu Sheng, a great martial artist, he immediately shook his head and refused.

Zhang Guorong said: "Horror movies don't suit my temperament, and it's too tiring to jump up and down. Why don't you write a third episode of "A Better Tomorrow"?"

Zhai Yuan thought that he couldn't even remember the plot of the second episode, so he had to use "Wushuang" to make up the number. The third episode shot by Xu Qi in later generations was even worse, and he had forgotten the plot completely.

"There will probably not be a sequel to A Better Tomorrow." Zhai Yuan gave up on this big IP, thought for a while and said, "I have a drama called Across the World, which I plan to let Wu Yusen shoot later. You, Wan Ziliang and Zhong Chuhong will be the protagonists. However, this drama will be shot overseas, and they both have other dramas to shoot now, so the specific schedule is not yet determined."

Zhang Guorong's current career focus is still on the music industry. It is enough for him to produce two dramas a year. Unless he meets Wang Jiawei, it is still unknown whether he can produce one drama a year.

Hearing that Zhai Yuan had made arrangements, he felt relieved and said with a smile, "The movie is done, but you still owe me three songs this year."

Zhai Yuan rubbed his face in pain.

A rough calculation of this year's projects: Mr. Vampire, Once Upon a Time in China, God of Gamblers 2, Across the World, and a few more pornographic films will be produced in May to fulfill the promise of Mayday last year. Now Zhang Guorong is asking for a song again...

It has completely become a content output machine.

…………

The film and television industry is Zhai Yuan's main profession. He subconsciously takes on too much responsibility when doing things, which adds a lot of burden to himself.

But when it comes to industries he doesn't understand, he never interferes, but instead achieves results easily.

At the beginning of the new year, good news came from the CD factory in Yuen Long.

It took Tao Zongyi's team four months to complete the processing of the "optical head" lenses, and overcome the core technical difficulties in mass production of optical discs.

The new optical head weighs less than 1 gram. At that time, there was no such micro-processing equipment on the market. This group of experts from the Academy of Sciences spent day and night in the laboratory, and finally they managed to produce this core component purely by manual processing.

When Zhai Yuan drove to Yuen Long, he was surrounded by Tao Zongyi and others, who gave him a long lecture on science.

He hesitated and asked, "So what does this thing mean?"

Japanese Tetsuo Kobayashi said in broken Cantonese: "It means that these Chinese experts have mastered an international technology patent."

Zhai Yuan still didn't know what was going on, so he asked the most realistic question: "Can it be used commercially?"

Tao Zongyi said: "After the new optical head is successfully manufactured, the next step is to assemble the master disc burner. In theory, a production line can be established soon."

Zhai Yuan was very dissatisfied with the way these experts spoke. What does the word "theoretically" mean? How long does "soon" mean?

A lot of money has been invested in the Yuen Long factory in the past four months. Millions were spent on purchasing machines. The initial R&D expenses were hundreds of thousands, but later soared to the million level. All in all, he has burned through more than 10 million Hong Kong dollars.

He also donated 10 million to the Science Academy of Peking University and Tsinghua University!
If it weren’t for the gambling boat supporting him, Zhai Yuan’s funding chain would have been broken long ago.

Guan Weiming understood what Zhai Yuan was thinking the best, and said directly: "It will take about three months for the master disc burner to test the disc standard."

Zhai Yuan said: "Then why don't you call me over here? It's just a waste of time. Let me know when you can start mass production!"

After saying that, he turned around and was about to leave.

Guan Weiming quickly grabbed him and said, "Boss, you have to come. Professor Tao and his team have developed this new optical head and can apply for patent technology. We haven't even registered the company yet."

Zhai Yuan was reminded by him that the Yuen Long factory had been a makeshift team for such a long time, and the workers' salaries were all dependent on the previous cassette factory. He had been the hands-off boss for too long.

He nodded in understanding: "Okay, I'll let Shen Wei go register the company first."

Guan Weiming added: "Also, don't think three months is a long time. We haven't even secured the land yet. Have you ever thought about where to put the production line?"

Zhai Yuan hummed, his face showing a thoughtful look.

He was not completely unprepared for the land matter. Three months should be enough, but it was a rather complicated matter and he needed to find other people to help.

"Boss Zhai, would you like to see the samples of our newly made CDs?"

Tao Zongyi and several people from his team came over, holding a brand new CD covered with a colored film and handed it to Zhai Yuan.

Zhai Yuan nodded and said okay, then followed everyone to a projector.

Guan Weiming pointed to the new projector and introduced it to Zhai Yuan: "We no longer need to use the big-headed machine shipped from Japan. This projector was developed by Professor Tao and his team in half a month. It only has two parts, a decoder and a circuit board, which is enough for home use."

The research and development of VCD is much simpler than that of CD. Whether it is MPEG-1 decoder or circuit board, there are relevant technologies available for reference overseas.

For this purpose, Tao Zongyi's team also applied to purchase a commercial photolithography machine to ensure accurate overlay of the photoresist and mask. Zhai Yuan did not understand the details they told him. He only knew that the photolithography machine was imported from Nikon Corporation in Japan and cost him US$50.

Zhai Yuan sat on a chair, watching the staff operate the projector, and turned to ask Tao Zongyi: "Old Tao, what is the current situation of our mainland's photolithography machines?"

Tao Zongyi smiled helplessly: "The performance is relatively backward, and it can't be compared with the one imported by Nikon. In order to seize the photolithography machine market, international manufacturers such as Nikon, CGA, and Intel have lowered their prices one by one. Enterprises at home and abroad generally choose to import photolithography machines. We don't even have orders for the machines we produce."

Zhai Yuan nodded thoughtfully. This thing was still very complicated for him, but he could probably understand the development of the situation from the professionals.

The new type of projector with vinyl shell has already taken shape as the prototype of home VCD.

The staff placed the CD in, and after just a few seconds, the picture appeared on the TV.

Reading and writing speeds are several times faster than before.

Tao Zongyi introduced: "This is the function of the new optical head. The small optical disc you requested, Mr. Zhai, has a reading and writing speed of nearly 10,000 revolutions per minute. Half of the optical systems cannot meet this requirement, so the defective discs produced before would be very high."

Although the three Japanese guys are employees of a large company, they are still far behind the people in terms of innovation compared to the people in the Academy of Sciences.

With sufficient funding, these talents can indeed come up with new ideas.

The new version of the CD is not much bigger than a palm. The sample contains a film called "Drunken Master" by Chen Shilon, which has a total length of 110 minutes.

Four months ago, Zhai Yuan was still worried about the small storage capacity of CDs, but now it seems that this problem has been solved.

When Tao Zongyi was at the Academy of Sciences, he was already focusing on the international topic of "using optics for digital data storage technology". He discovered that optical discs not only had the advantage of large storage capacity but also low cost, which was why he even took out a loan to master this technology.

After coming to Hong Kong this time, I have given full play to my talents. Currently, the storage space of the new version of the CD has reached more than 900MB, which is more than enough to store a movie with the current resolution.

The first good news of the new year.

Zhai Yuan felt that the money was well spent.

(End of this chapter)