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The purpose of technological progress is not to build barriers, but to tear down walls. Zhao Xiaoding is looking forward to a better future, where technological progress has enabled creation to break through many restrictions, and people's subjective creation and expression are enjoying the greatest flexibility and freedom.

Text｜ Yilin

Editor:Chu Ming

When the situation is breaking

Perhaps you have seen this scene in your dreams: you are walking alone in a sea of ​​bamboo, and a thin mist is rising in the green surrounding you. In the dim morning light, there seems to be a glimmer of light in the distant horizon, and that is where you are going. You have been walking for a long time, but the sky is about to break, and the clouds and mist are gradually rising, and you are gradually lost in it.

At many moments in life, we may walk into such a bamboo sea wrapped in clouds and mist. Sometimes, the clouds and mist are external tests: the choices made at each juncture determine how to act in the future, whether to persist or give up; sometimes, the clouds and mist are inner questions, dialogues with myself, and inner games.

So - faced with the maze of life, how do we break through?

Director Zhao Xiaoding gave a solution: "Plan carefully before you act, and move fast to advance." In his kung fu dance mobile movie "Transformation", the dancers walk alone in the bamboo sea in the fog, dancing with martial arts, raising their hands and slapping the clouds, and the picture changes from green to black and white ink. In the more contrasting picture, the dancers' moves are soft but tough, and they internalize all their strength into faith, transforming into 6 clones, and the clouds are temporarily repelled.

But just like the difficulties in life, the maze will not be easily dispelled. The fog is like water, colorless and invisible, agile and treacherous, disappearing here and rising there. In the increasingly passionate drumbeats, the body movements that were originally effective are difficult to continue. The dancers' strength is no longer twisted into one, and the clones are scattered. They can only respond to the moves in the fog.

It seems to be stuck, but the turning point is already hidden in it, just a matter of thought. In the blink of an eye, the dancer stabilizes, the clones quickly adjust, gather, and unify, the power accumulated in the palm, the clouds fade away, the picture changes from ink to color again, the sky is clear, the bamboo sea returns to brightness and spaciousness, the dancer also completes the breakthrough from the small self to the big self, she is no longer trapped. In the last scene of the film, the dancer looks back, the initial confusion and persistence have turned into transparency and open-mindedness, walking between heaven and earth, her figure is firm, and her faith is firm.

Such rich and complete expressions are not uncommon in the history of Chinese films. The advancement and breakthroughs in imaging technology have maximized the restoration and preservation of the film's texture. But it is worth mentioning that the film was shot entirely with Huawei's Pura 70 series phones. Whether it is the dancers' movements and stillness, black and white or color light and shadow, or even the unique Zen in the sea of ​​clouds and bamboo, the texture is comparable to that of professional camera lenses.

Compared to the huge machines on the set in the past, director Zhao Xiaoding is in charge of the thin and light Huawei Pura 70 series mobile phone this time. "The Transformation" is also his first work shot with a mobile phone. In fact, on the set, he gave up traditional mobile devices such as tracks. In the lush bamboo sea, the Super AIS anti-shake technology of the Huawei Pura 70 series makes it possible to shoot kung fu dance quickly and delicately. At the same time, the super-focusing macro telephoto camera of the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, coupled with the large aperture of F2.1, makes the virtual and real figures of the dancers in the bamboo sea appear full enough.

"The advantage of shooting with a mobile phone is that it can convey our body temperature and even our breath." Zhao Xiaoding concluded that this is a brand new shooting experience that is enough to convey the true inner expression of the people behind the equipment and technology to the greatest extent.

"One thought determines the fate of the world, one speed breaks through all boundaries." This is the annotation made by director Zhao Xiaoding for "The Transformation". If the technological innovation made high-speed and precise typological shooting possible with the support of Huawei Pura 70 series mobile phones, then when the dancer broke through the situation, the director edited and paused for a second, the passionate drums and strings disappeared in an instant, leaving only a light breeze from the inside, slowly pushing the dancer out, which is the author's more profound feelings behind the camera. This is the romance unique to Chinese culture: breaking through the situation is not always thunderous, it is a struggle between man and heaven and earth, and a dialogue between self and heart. In a thought, the world has changed.

"Transformation"

Same moonlight, different presentation

During the thirty years that Zhao Xiaoding has been in charge of the camera, he has also been in a state of "transformation".

In 1989, Zhao Xiaoding graduated from the Photography Department of Beijing Film Academy. That was the golden age of film, but film was expensive after all. Zhang Yimou, a senior from the same department who graduated 11 years earlier than him, first filmed Yellow Earth with Chen Kaige. The 90-minute film only used 27,000 feet of film. Later blockbusters often used 30,000 feet of film for a 3-minute scene.

Later, Zhang Yimou left his position as a photographer and began to move towards the path of directing. He planted a hundred acres of sorghum fields in Shandong, and then went through a bitter summer at the Xi'an Film Studio. In 1987, his first film as a director, Red Sorghum, became the first Chinese work to be shortlisted for an international film festival, and then won the Golden Bear Award for the best film in the main competition unit. A strong earthy red color, as tenacious and full of vitality as the people living on that land, was selected by Zhang Yimou's generation of filmmakers that summer and firmly remained on the negative of Red Sorghum.

At the same time, Zhao Xiaoding, who was still studying photography, was learning how to shoot in the fog: he had to use large blocks of red and black. The color matching in the film era was not as varied as it is now. It had to be highly saturated and high contrast so that the main subject of the picture would not be hidden in the fog.

Eleven years later, at the beginning of the millennium, Zhang Yimou filmed the promotional film for Beijing's Olympic bid, New Beijing, New Olympics. This time, his junior brother Zhao Xiaoding was his photographer. Later, in their more than 20 years of collaboration, the gorgeousness and poetry of Hero, the chivalry and color of House of Flying Daggers, the grandeur and complexity of Curse of the Golden Flower, the truth and moving of Flowers of War, the ink Zen of Shadow, and the heroic spirit of Red River, one by one, these representative works with rich aesthetic colors were remembered by audiences and history.

Before "Transformation", Zhao Xiaoding also stood in the bamboo forest for the filming of "House of Flying Daggers". The filming and color grading in the film era were greatly affected by natural light. The bamboo forest was dense and covered the sky, so the available shooting time was very short every day. In the end, the bamboo forest showdown was filmed in fog. After the light contrast was leveled, the filming went smoothly.

Another highlight is at the end of the film, where Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro fight in a flower field. However, the actual shooting was planned to take 10 days, but it started snowing two days into the shoot. Technology is constrained by time and weather, but fortunately the creators made changes immediately, meaning "fighting past the season change", which became a highlight of the film.

When it came to using film to shoot "Curse of the Golden Flower", the Double Ninth Festival Banquet was the top priority. The scene was huge, and a large "army" of actors had to be brought in front of the camera. Even though it was shot during the day, it was still very difficult.

As time went by, Zhao Xiaoding went from the film era to the digital imaging era. Zhao Xiaoding refused to stay the same. He kept exploring technology: Coming Home created the first full 4K film in China, and The Great Wall worked with a Hollywood team and was the first to use a large-format camera suitable for long-range shooting. In Shadow, Zhao Xiaoding took the lead in trying 8K shooting.

Having been in the forefront of the film industry for a long time, Zhao Xiaoding has clearly felt the changes brought about by the advancement of imaging technology. When he was studying documentary in school, teachers taught him to adjust the center of gravity to make the handheld camera more stable and to use the knee joints to filter out the vibration of the picture. This was the "basic skill" of that era. Later, the Steadicam stabilizer appeared, and the interference of human body shaking was eliminated to the greatest extent.

In the past, it was rare to rely on manpower to make up for the lack of technology. When shooting "Red River", 90% of the night scenes were shot during the day. After post-processing, they were almost indistinguishable from night scenes. In "Avengers" directed by Zhao Xiaoding in January this year, the crew shot the night scene "bright as day" when the full moon was on the 15th day of the lunar calendar. The high sensitivity of the digital camera completely restored the moonlight, and no extra lighting was needed.

Image source: movie "Shadow"

Another Path

Advances in imaging technology have greatly improved the accuracy of professional photography. On the other hand, Zhao Xiaoding has also discovered, both on and off the set, that technological advances have also greatly broadened the breadth of usage scenarios: ordinary people outside the film industry have also begun their own creations and expressions in an era of increasingly sophisticated mobile phone photography.

In the filming of movies, there are three crucial factors - resolution, dynamic range, which is what is called "tolerance" in the film era, and finally color gamut space. In the development of the film industry, these difficulties that once hindered filming were overcome one by one, and later became tools in the hands of directors. With clever use, stylized shooting can be achieved. The technological progress of mobile phone imaging allows these technologies to be controlled and operated at fingertips. The realistic color and dynamic restoration allow expression to transcend life and begin to move towards art and style.

"This is a true era of universal imaging," said Zhao Xiaoding. This refers to people taking selfies, group photos and Vlogs with their phones, as well as short films and micro-films shot with their phones. There are no bulky movie cameras, no large mobile cameras, no sky-high jibs and telescopic guns. In 2015, director Sean Baker shot the feature film "Orange" with his phone, which made a splash at the Sundance Film Festival that year.

The upgrade of mobile phone hardware and software has provided greater storage space, as well as simulated images that are gradually approaching the visual presentation effects of optical lenses. The empowerment of technology has made it possible for anyone with a mobile device to become a director.

2024 is the second year that Zhao Xiaoding has served as a judge for the Golden Rooster Mobile Film Program. This program was jointly initiated by Huawei and the China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival and is now in its fifth year.

Although it is his second time participating, Zhao Xiaoding still remembers the works of previous years. "They all sincerely record what is happening around us." In these works, the protagonists are uncles, grandparents, young people who have just entered college or are working away from home, and relatives and friends in life have become unpaid actors. Their filming locations are outside the community, in a corner of the county town in their hometown, and in the vast fields. In the past few years of the epidemic, many films were shot in the director's own home. Without the support of external technology, some of the shots in these registered films are a bit unstable, and some of the shooting rhythms are not so sophisticated, but what Zhao Xiaoding cares about is the desire and sincerity of creation behind them.

The applicants include newcomers who have just graduated from film schools and ordinary people from all walks of life. They do not have the funds, equipment and technology of famous directors, but only the passion and sincerity of creation. "The program aims to encourage and commend young creators." Zhao Xiaoding explained that technology has never been the most important factor in the selection of this unit. He recalled his own youthfulness when he first started out. "Even for graduates from professional schools, there is a distance of decades from stepping out of school to actually holding the director's baton, not to mention those who are not professionally trained. If in the past, the dream of "making a movie" was once very far away from ordinary people, then the emergence of mobile phone movies has provided the possibility of another path, which is very remarkable."

Zhao Xiaoding

A better future

In the age of mobile images, new directors no longer have to be like the young Zhang Yimou, afraid of making a mistake for fear of wasting film, nor like Zhao Xiaoding, limited by technology, weather, or time. Pick up your phone, click to confirm, and capture any possible fragments of inspiration. Small streams can also become a river or sea.

In fact, this is not the first time Huawei has expanded the development path of mobile imaging. The development history of Huawei's P series also wrote the history of the development of mobile imaging: the P10 series brought portrait lenses, optical image stabilization and dual-camera zoom; the P20 series pioneered AI photography and super night scene, and upgraded to three cameras; the P30 introduced super-sensitive sensors and periscope optical zoom lenses; the P40 series entered the era of computational imaging and achieved 10x optical zoom; the P50 series adopted a super dual-image unit; and the P60 series launched the first super-focus night vision telephoto and super-focus main camera, and the optical system was fully upgraded again.

At the same time, in 2022, Huawei integrated years of innovation and accumulation and launched its own mobile imaging brand - Huawei Imaging XMAGE. Using global imaging competitions, exhibitions and communities, Huawei Imaging has also created a warm user community. From the Philippines to Poland to Peru, Huawei users around the world are using their mobile phones to record and capture life, and transcend the ordinary.

At the Huawei Imaging XMAGE brand night in May this year, Huawei continued to launch a co-creation plan, inviting industry experts, creators and authoritative institutions as "imaging consultants" to further enrich the breadth and completeness of mobile imaging. If improving image quality is just the beginning, Huawei's pursuit is to focus on the care of people above technology. With the help of powerful technology, the imagination and creativity of each subject can be more fully exerted.

Although it has been a while, Zhao Xiaoding still remembers the night when he took the photo of the Milky Way with Huawei P30. It was in New Zealand, and he was filming "Only the Clouds Know" with the crew, and they came all the way to Mount Cook, the highest peak in the South Island. Mount Cook is known as the "holy place for astronomical observation in the southern hemisphere" because of its remote geographical location, minimal light pollution, and extremely high visibility, making it the best place for stargazing.

Under the huge night sky, Zhao Xiaoding looked up and saw a sky full of stars. At this time, no record could be as shocking as observing it with the naked eye in person, but as a photographer with decades of experience, Zhao Xiaoding still took out his mobile phone and took pictures of what he saw. When he took out the photos again, the night shooting mode of Huawei P30 recorded and restored the night view of Mount Cook to the greatest extent, and brought him back to that night on the snowy mountain. The moment that can only be encountered but not sought after was strangely preserved forever in the small world in the palm of your hand.

Over the years, Huawei phones have accompanied Zhao Xiaoding, recording his common growth and innovation with the film industry. On the set of "One Second", Zhao Xiaoding recorded the Gobi Desert in Dunhuang, and the wide-angle shot made the crew in the center of the picture coexist harmoniously with the world; when filming the TV series "Northern Drift Southward", he took out his phone and showed the director the portrait behind the brushed glass; in the summer of 2022, while waiting for the rain to stop in the ancient building where "Man Jiang Hong" was filmed, he took out his phone again and took pictures of the raindrops falling.

When filming "Man Jiang Hong", Zhao Xiaoding filmed the process of raindrops falling

As for the Huawei Pura 70 series used to shoot "Transformation", it has a new ultra-high-speed wind-flash shooting technology. During the shooting of "Transformation", Zhao Xiaoding also recorded the whole process and completed the shooting of multiple sample photos. The dancers' hair while dancing and the light wind lifted by their clothes were all faithfully recorded by the Huawei Pura 70 series.

In Zhao Xiaoding's view, now is the time for mobile imaging to break through. The high resolution, wide tolerance, and high-resolution color gamut that the film industry pursued in the past are gradually becoming a reality on mobile phone screens. This may be a disruptive change: "In the future, mobile phones can become a supplement to a certain camera position in film production, and can even be fully competent for shooting the entire film."

The purpose of technological progress is not to build barriers, but to tear down walls. What Zhao Xiaoding is looking forward to is a better future, where technological progress has enabled creation to break through many restrictions, and people's subjective creation and expression are enjoying the maximum flexibility and freedom. The advancement of mobile imaging technology represented by Huawei Imaging will break through the fog. Mobile phones can not only record daily life, but also help creation. Everyone can be the director of their own film and shoot their own "Transformation" blockbuster.

The Dunhuang Gobi Desert photographed by Zhao Xiaoding