Chapter 161: A different kind of arm
Translated by me, edited by drpetro.
At noon the next day, ever since the lunch bentos had been passed out, Ding Yin had already been somewhat absent minded.
Today the wind was reported to be Category 5.
This wind speed could cause some tree shaking, as well as some waves on the water.
Normally winds under Category 5 shouldn’t affect filming, but those two film arms that anxiously waited for the wind to die down almost gave everyone a heart attack.
My god, it was as if they were swing dancing. If the camera crew didn’t retracted it back in time, it would’ve definitely snapped right now.
As to get to the bottom of why the wind was suddenly picking up here, Ding Yin specially asked two engineers from Zhongyun’s weather station to come explain this area scientifically.
Of course, all of this still wasn’t what was making Ding Yin absent minded. Yesterday, he finally found out that there was a company in the country that had skills miles ahead of the ones used in regular film arms.
He happily made a door call, yet was utterly rejected by the other party. It was almost as if making film arms for them was an embarrassment to their technical prowess.
Normally this deal was pretty much over right then and there, but what was coincidental was that this President Ye was actually one of Xue Ninggong’s old classmate.
And then this President Ye didn’t even bother to mention a price before he promised that two film arms would be ready for him the next day.
This huge difference had Ding Yin deeply hurt.
It was also this that made Ding Yin really want to see just how different these film arms from Monster Heavy Industry were from the regular ones available on the public market.
“Director, could it be just like an aluminum rod like thing that needs us to hold and ran around with?” This cameraman was called Fu Xiangqing, a winner of the best photography award.
“What can any company make in just one day’s time?”
“Why are you asking me? But I still wait with anticipation.” Ding Yin kept looking towards the gap in the distance. It was the gate to the lake, but for some unknown reason the lake dried up, so the local government blew the gate open to make it easier for the local farmers.
This gate only had two uses, but the ability to let traffic through was why he keep on looking.
15 minutes before the scheduled start time, a white, seven seater Honda blazed through the gap.
On the body of the Honda was the badge of Zhongyun’s weather station, and very clearly this wasn’t what Ding Yin was waiting for.
After the quick settling of dust, the people from the weather station began to unload all kinds of equipment from the car. Stuff like the mobile weather station, wind sensors, weather balloons, and so on, were all unloaded to try to unravel the mystery behind the strange wind within the lake.
This was a strange wind phenomenon because the wind speed inside wasn’t high. For example, the forecasted Category 5 winds, due to the surrounding hills, were at most Category 4. But the wind at higher altitudes was shockingly high, just 50 meters up it was already Category 6 winds.
Don’t underestimate this small difference whatsoever, as a Category 4 wind would only bring you comfort, but Category 6 could easily blow umbrellas away.
The two engineers from the weather station ran off to test the wind with their attendants. Ding Yin also didn’t bother to wait as he again started to film those scenes that didn’t require the following arm. Yet, just as he was about to begin, a Benz G-65 with two flatbed trailers behind it drove in.
Upon seeing the newcomers, Ding Yin’s eyes lit up with both anticipation and nervousness as he hurriedly got out of his director’s chair.
Because on top of each of the trailer beds was a folded, silvery white, square shaped equipment. Very clearly this was the custom wind resistant film arm the Monster Heavy Industry made for them.
“It’s here, it’s here.” Ding Yin hurriedly called for the cameramen as they went forth to welcome the owner who didn’t want to accept this task.
Xue Ninggong also ran out from her camper. For convenience’s sake, she was still dressed up in her spacesuit costume even during breaks.
This was a set of tight fitting leather clothing. On the surface of the suit was lots of white futuristic looking armor pieces.
With one glance, it would appear that she was into those things which couldn’t be mentioned.
Having driven through the dirt road and having reached the filming site, Ye Qing immediately picked out Xue Ninggong from the gathered crowd.
Clearly the costume designers for the movie didn’t possess the skills to create those tight fitting metal spacesuits, which was why they had resorted to metal paint and plastic pieces. This would obviously be able to fool the eyes of the average joe, but for professionals like Ye Qing it was so easy to spot that it was just like taking candy from a baby.
“Hello, welcome President Ye.” Ding Yin warmly welcomed Ye Qing: “I appreciate the effort you have put in to complete this sudden order on your busy schedule.”
“Xue Ninggong’s my old classmate, I can’t not help here.” Ye Qing nodded: “Director, you should’ve mentioned this sooner.”
“This space suit of yours is very beautiful.” Having finished with Ding Yin, Ye Qing turned around to jokingly praise Xue Ninggong.
Xue Ninggong waved her arms around and the imitation plastic armor showed just how fake it was.
“There’ll be special effects touch up in the last stages of production.” Xue Ninggong graciously accepted Ye Qing’s joke: “Originally what we wanted was some lightweight metal armor suit, but what our contactors made was armor similar to those used by 19th century heavy cavalry.”
“This was the film arms you made for us? Seems very high tech.” Xue Ninggong didn’t have much makeup on and had a very common hairstyle. It seemed like she wanted to portray the character as a rustic alien beauty.
Xue Ninggong walked up next to the trailer beds and stood on her tiptoes as she stared at those silvery white squares.
From their outer appearance, they didn’t look like traditional film arms in any way.
Rather, they looked like lifters.
The film site had cranes already installed for moving heavy pieces, hence in no time, the two new ‘film Arms’ were both anchored into giant bases and the arm sections were being attached 10 meters at a time.
From the many of the cast and crew that came to watch, Ye Qing was even able to recognize and name several of the female stars.
As for those male ones, they were automatically ignored.
This was also one of the reason why he made this personal trip. One, to see all these stars. Second, to watch the never before seen film production procedures. And finally, to see the ‘famous’ spaceship.
Yet no matter where Ye Qing looked, he couldn’t find a traces of the spaceship, leaving him completely disappointed.
“President Ye, are you sure these really are film arms?” Disregarding everything traditional about film arms, Ding Yin still couldn’t believe what was in front of him even after circling it multiple times: “Why doesn’t it have any cables?”
“Because there’s no use for something so outdated.” Ye Qing still had questions to ask: “Director, where is the spaceship?”
Ding Yin was clearly embarrassed. The film crew had always used cable supported film arms, which had now been called outdated. Even the spacesuit had been made fun of, yet now he was pouring even more salt on the wound. (SALTTTT!)
“Err…… no…… there’ll be no ship.” Ding Yin pointed to the specifically cleared piece of land and embarrassingly said: “That’s the land used for the landed spaceship, but sadly we don’t possess the same skills as Hollywood to create life size models.”
“The spaceship will be completely CGed.”
“……” What else could Ye Qing say? What else could he expect from the domestic movie industry.
“President, so the price for these pieces of equipment?” Ding Yin quickly switched topics: “And what about their operations? Please excuse my ignorance, because we are used to using the traditional cable operated film arms.”
“We can discuss money later.” Ye Qing waved: “Our first thing should be to test the ability and functionality of these two arms.”
“No stop!”
A sudden yell, gave everyone near the arms a big scare.
The one who cried out was one of the engineers sent over to analyze data on the geography here from the weather station.
“Don’t test these arms under any circumstances.”
“Why?” Ding Yin asked out of suspicion.
“Because there are problems with the geography here. As soon as southern winds gust, they’ll form a vortex above here.” The specialist commented seriously: “Right now it’s gusting at Category 6 winds above us and it’ll continue to grow. Don’t mention 80 meters, even if it’s 20 meters, as long as it’s raised up, it’ll be mercilessly ripped apart.”
