Director of Photography Department of Huayu

Chapter 11: The Patience of Waiting for a Cloud
"Hey, Brother Chen, why are your eyes red? What's going on?"

After Wu Chen sat down, Park Song-il cautiously poked Wu Chen's elbow.

"Nothing, the wind was strong just now and some sand got into me. I rubbed it out."

"Yeah, it's really windy outside, but there hasn't been any construction work at the school recently, so how could there be sand? That's strange!"

Park Songri muttered, leaving Wu Chen speechless.

"Why, you want to be a detective? I just said it casually. Can't it be something else besides sand?"

"Hehe, okay." Park Songri scratched his head, laughed foolishly twice and stopped.

On the stage, Mu Deyuan was still imparting knowledge and experience, but Wu Chen's mind was still echoing with the more than 50,000.

His parents also gave him some money in his previous life, but that was five or six years after he graduated.

That time, Wu Yangming did not mention anything about "wife's money", but just stuffed it on him and told him to "use it well".

In my previous life, my family’s shoe factory could no longer survive after 2012, and the entire Foshan shoe industry collapsed.

Fortunately, they made some money in their early years, and Wu Chen went out to work, so the family did not decline.

"We have to start the transformation, at least the stalls in the shoe city have to be taken care of." Thinking of this, Wu Chen's eyes lit up.

"No, it's not impossible to ask for some money. The shoes of the three protagonists can be used as a gimmick. Even if there is no big money, I should be able to make some small money!"

Mu Deyuan's four consecutive classes were always a torture.

On the one hand, the hum of the film projector mixed with the gurgling sound of water flowing in the radiator is particularly easy to make people doze off.

On the other hand, this five-minute analysis task forced everyone except Wu Chen to be alert, listen attentively, and take notes frantically on their notebooks with their pens, fearing that they would be scolded later.

During the break of the second class, almost no one left the classroom except those who couldn't help but want to go to the toilet. Seeing Mu Deyuan carrying a thermos to get water, everyone rushed to Wu Chen frantically.

"Brother Chen, do me a favor, please. Which point should I analyze later? The epic sense created by the natural lighting effects? Or the terrain and camera movement?"

"Brother Chen! How do you make up the term for that scattered light?"

"."

Wu Chen was overwhelmed, but the one who was most worrying was his roommate.

Xiang Zhuo flipped open the "History of British Cinematography" and shoved it under Wu Chen's nose. "Help me draw a reference for Wallace's composition. I'm going to give Old Mu Xuan a good look later!"

"I see you want to show off to me right now."

Wu Chen quickly answered a few classmates' questions and glared at Xiang Zhuo. "God damn it, why don't you just ask me to write you an encyclopedia of world cinema? Just talk honestly about the narrative nature of weather elements. Five minutes is enough for you to whine."

"Okay, I always feel like it's lacking in style."

Xiang Zhuo nodded and shook his head, and Wu Chen almost wanted to hit him with a hammer.

Fortunately, Park Songri and Chu Tianshu were more reliable. Wu Chen came forward to take a look and analyzed the points in an orderly manner. It was obvious that they listened to the class carefully and did not slack off.

Just as a group of people were still chattering and discussing, the "click" sound of a thermos being tightened suddenly came from outside the crowd.

Suddenly everyone's voice dropped an octave.

"By the way, I'm in need of someone to carry an Arriflex 435 for my 'Practical War Film Photography' course next semester. Who's up for it?"

"I, teacher, I'll do it!"

While everyone was still hesitating, Xiang Zhuo had already raised his hand to express his opinion.

"Then it's your turn!" Mu Deyuan nodded. "Okay, let's get started. Everyone will analyze for five minutes at the beginning of this class. Who's going to start by making a sample?"

"Wu Chen!"

"Yes, let Brother Chen come, let's learn first!"

"Yeah!"

"." Wu Chen felt helpless looking at this group of unreliable classmates. Every time these theoretical analyses or practical demonstrations were performed, they would be pushed to the front first.

"Wu Chen, you come first." Mu Deyuan looked at the group of disappointing students in the audience, sighed, and then waved his hand.

Wu Chen can now make this kind of analysis with his eyes closed, without any pressure at all.

"What shocked me most about Braveheart was that Mel Gibson turned the overcast sky in Scotland into a natural softbox."

Wu Chen tapped the storyboard sketch on the blackboard, chalk dust fizzing as it fell into the cracks of the radiator. "For example, for the scene where Wallace meets the princess, we actually waited four days for dark clouds to appear. This was to allow diffuse light to evenly cover the profiles of the two characters, but not so much as to diminish the reflective points in their eyes—the anchor points of the characters' souls."

"Of course. If we were shooting now," Wu Chen deliberately glanced at the gray sky outside the window, "the production crew would have been scolded by the production director and would have used ND filters to force it!"

Suddenly, a burst of suppressed laughter came from the back row.

Amidst the laughter, Mu Deyuan's thermos cup banged against the wall, and the whole room fell silent. He narrowed his eyes and asked, "So you think compromise is inevitable?"

“No, I mean we have more digital color grading tools than we did in 1995.”

Wu Chen twirled the old-fashioned metal lens cap with his fingertips. "But the more convenient technology becomes, the easier it is to forget the patience to wait for a cloud."

"It's over. Brother Chen has elevated the theme to a higher level. Our analysis seems redundant."

"I should have thought of this when I pushed Brother Chen out. But there's also a good thing. Maybe if Old Mu is happy, he'll scold us less."

"reasonable!"

"."

"Waiting for the patience of a cloud, this kid is secretly criticizing the domestic circle."

After the fourth class, Mu Deyuan returned to the office carrying his thermos cup, muttering with a smile on his face.

“A director is someone who can endure the dark clouds and wait for the sunny day.”

After returning to the office, Mu Deyuan muttered to himself as if answering Wu Chen's analysis. He picked up the script and storyboard of "The Dark Side", pondered for a moment, and walked out of the office directly. He was about to step to the left, but his foot in the air suddenly retracted.

"As it should be!"

Mu Deyuan suddenly smiled inexplicably, put the script and storyboard of "The Dark Side" back into the office, and then walked towards the directing department.

Wu Chen and his roommates have already headed to the cafeteria.

"It's all because of this damn winter. The girls are wrapped up like dumplings. Such pretty faces are wasted!" Xiang Zhuo complained as he walked, but his eyes were fixed on the front.

"You are really restless."

Wu Chen sighed, he was indeed old enough to enjoy the day.

Following Xiang Zhuo's gaze, what caught my eye was a three-person female dining team.

"Dong Xuan?"

Wu Chen recognized one of them just by looking at his profile; the recognition was so high.

"The other one looks like Guan Yue!"

As for the last person, Wu Chen didn't know who he was because he didn't turn his head.

"You have a good eye. You fell in love with Shangguan Yan in "Snow Goddess Dragon" at first sight!" Wu Chen teased.

"Hey, of course. I watched the TV series during the summer vacation. It was great!" Xiang Zhuo chuckled.

Park Songri and Chu Tianshu didn't say anything. Wu Chen looked at them curiously. The two cowards had wandering eyes, wanting to look but not daring to, as if they were secretly glancing at the test paper.

Wu Chen slapped both of them on the head.

"If they want to look, then look boldly. What's the matter? They can't even poke you blind."

"Uh!"

(End of this chapter)