1990: Starting from Baojia Street

On the way back to Zhenbeibao, Zhao Yan kept talking about the song that Zhou Yan played live.

He didn't expect that Zhou Yan could handle rock music so well.

As for Chen Hong, while listening to Zhao Lao talking about the song, she stared at Zhou Yan who was driving. After today's experience, she felt that her relationship with Zhou Yan was different.

Zhou Yan knew that Chen Hong was staring at him, but he kept avoiding it.

He admitted that when he was next to Chen Hong at the scene, he had thoughts about Chen Hong, but afterwards, after the hormones subsided, he calmed down and felt that he should not get entangled with Chen Hong.

After returning to Zhenbei Fort, they first arrived at the residence of Zhou Yan and Zhao Zhang. Chen Hong looked at Zhou Yan and said, Director Zhou, why don't you give me a section? It's a bit dark.

Zhou Yan took a look and found that it was indeed a bit dark inside Zhenbei Fort. There were not many rooms with lights on, and the place where Chen Hong lived was still some distance from their dormitory. He nodded, Okay.

Zhao Zhang entered the room, and the two of them walked towards Chen Hong's dormitory together.

Zhou Yan deliberately kept a distance from Chen Hong, but Chen Hong got closer and closer to him. Halfway there, Chen Hong was almost touching Zhou Yan.

Just when Chen Hong was about to hug Zhou Yan's arm, Zhou Yan suddenly stood still and turned to look at Chen Hong.

There is no moon or stars tonight, and the only light source is a lamp in a room about ten meters away.

With this light, Zhou Yan saw a smile on Chen Hong's face.

Do you have something to tell me?

Chen Hong spoke softly, with a bit of expectation in her voice. She asked Zhou Yan to see her off in order to create a chance to be alone.

Zhou Yan sighed slightly and said, Chen Hong, actually I have a girlfriend.

Hearing this, the smile on Chen Hong's face suddenly froze. She originally expected Zhou Yan to say something to her about his confession, but she didn't expect this to be what she got.

After finishing speaking, Zhou Yan walked forward without waiting for Chen Hong's response.

Chen Hong stood there and did not move for a moment.

A minute ago, Chen Hong felt that she might be the happiest person in the world. She had even imagined how beautiful her dream would be tonight.

But all her fantasies and longing for happiness seemed to be shattered by Zhou Yan's words.

She froze in place, feeling increasingly uncomfortable, and tears burst out of her eyes unconsciously.

Zhou Yan took two steps and saw that Chen Hong didn't follow him, so he turned around and looked.

In the dim light, Zhou Yan saw Chen Hong's tears.

Men always lack resistance to women's tears, but Zhou Yan knew that now was not the time to be soft-hearted. He stood on the spot, several meters away from Chen Hong, and said in a steady voice, Because of the stimulation of the environment, your impulsiveness makes me It’s all understandable, but just pretend that what happened today didn’t happen, it’s best for you and me.”

Chen Hong bit her lip and said, Zhou Yan, why are you doing this to me.

Zhou Yan was stunned for a moment. It was clearly Chen Hong who kissed him, so how could this woman beat him so hard?

Before Zhou Yan could respond, Chen Hong asked again, Have you ever been even a little tempted by me?

Zhou Yan did not answer and remained silent.

I understand, don't worry, I will definitely forget what happened today. Just go back and send it here.

After saying that, Chen Hong walked straight past Zhou Yan and headed towards her dormitory.

Zhou Yan looked at her back and disappeared into the darkness after a while.

With a slight sigh, Zhou Yan turned around and walked towards the way he came.

…

In the next few days, Zhou Yan could see Chen Hong on the set every day, but Chen Hong was different from before. Now she wouldn't even say hello to Zhou Yan.

Such a result was expected by Zhou Yan. If Chen Hong could still get along with him as before, he would be afraid.

Originally, Zhou Yan wanted to go to Shahu with Liu Zhenwei and the others before leaving, but the situation changed. Liu Zhenwei and the others did not have time to go there recently, so Zhou Yan stayed in Zhenbeibao for a week before leaving.

In the middle of the process, Zhou Yan's original plan to treat Lu Shuming and the others to dinner also came to nothing, because the crew had something to do basically every night these days, and there was always someone who didn't have time.

So before leaving, Zhou Yan divided the things he had bought before with Lu Shuming and others, and agreed to meet again later.

After Zhou Yan returned to Yanjing, Jiang Xia sent him two work lists within less than half a day of rest.

Boss, this is a job that has been confirmed. This one is some cost-effective job invitations that Mr. Zhang has selected. Let you choose and see if any of them are interested.

Zhou Yan took the two lists and looked at the one he had decided on first.

The content of this list is relatively small, and only two of them are relatively important. One is the celebration banquet of The Sixth Sense and the other is the final release conference of The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

The dates of the two events are relatively similar, both in mid-to-late September.

After several years of filming and production, Romance of the Three Kingdoms is finally scheduled to be broadcast in late October. This press conference actually has little to do with Zhou Yan, but there will be a dinner party at which the main creative staff will attend, with Zhou Yan as the soundtrack One of the guides, naturally, cannot be absent.

If you don't know better, you may think that the production team is extravagant and wasteful, and you have to eat every time you set a schedule, but in fact, this dinner is more like a wrapping banquet. When the TV series was wrapping up before, there was no meal, and this time it was just to make up for the last time.

After reading the confirmed jobs, Zhou Yan looked at the job invitation list again.

The content of this list is much larger, and it has been screened. If it were not screened, the number would be many times this.

Among them, there are seven or eight film directing invitations, including Golden Harvest, New City and Shaw Brothers.

Zhou Yan had previously filmed The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly and there were many such invitations, but at that time the number was average and the offers were all small productions.

But after the release of The Sixth Sense, the number of such invitations increased dramatically, and the scale of film productions invited to direct him was much higher, with investments of 20 to 30 million at every turn.

It's just that Zhou Yan has never heard of most of these movies. There is only one Daughter's Red that Zhou Yan is more impressed by. Zhou Xun also participated in this movie.

The invitations sent by Xin Yicheng and Yong Sheng did not have a script, which meant that as long as Zhou Yan was willing to cooperate with them, Zhou Yan would choose the script himself. Yong Sheng was very generous, and the production fee was directly paid 30 million Hong Kong dollars.

Zhou Yan was not very interested in these plans. Those who have scripts, he is not interested in these scripts, and those who do not have scripts, he is not interested in these companies. If he wants to make a movie, he does not have to worry about lack of money. Xu Feng now wants to spend tens of millions to let him make a movie, even if Xu Feng Feng doesn't support it, and Zhou's company also supports him.

He continued to look back and saw that in addition to those who asked him to be the director, there were also several movies that invited him to score music. This time he saw a few more famous movies, one was Woman, Forty directed by Xu Anhua, and the other One is Sweet Honey.

Needless to say, Sweet Honey is Chen Kexin's god-making movie, and the movie is very popular and has been seen by many ordinary viewers.

Woman, Forty may be less well-known, but its status in the film industry is not low at all. The film was a hit at the Hong Kong Golden Horse Awards and the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards, and the heroine Xiao Fangfang also This film won the Best Actress Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

In fact, it takes advantage of the subject matter to some extent. In recent years, the three major film festivals have paid more and more attention to women and special groups. Female-themed films will naturally have an advantage in these film festivals.

Otherwise, how could The Piano Lesson win the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival together with Farewell My Concubine.

Although The Piano Lesson is a good movie, it cannot be compared with Farewell My Concubine at all.

Woman, Forty and Sweet Honey are both very good movies, but when it comes to soundtracks, Zhou Yan is not very interested because he believes that the two movies have relatively little space for soundtrack manipulation.

However, Zhou Yan still circled these two movies with his pen, Pay attention to these two movies.

Zhou Yan looked back again and saw interview invitations from various TV stations, including those from both sides of the Taiwan Strait and three places, as well as those from Neon.

Skip this part, here is an advertisement endorsement.

Zhou Yan was a little surprised when he saw the advertisement endorsement. Zhang Youan had told him before that several brands wanted to ask him to shoot advertisements and write songs. At that time, Zhou Yan told Zhang Youan that he didn't have much time. Unexpectedly, Zhang Youan still took it this time. This one was put in.

The invitation this time was from Panasonic Electronics, and they invited Zhou Yan to be their global image spokesperson.

What's going on with Panasonic Electronics? Zhou Yan asked.

Jiang Xia explained, Panasonic Electronics' original global image spokesperson was Noriko Sakai. Their last advertisement had a good response in China, and Noriko Sakai became famous in China. However, Noriko Sakai's endorsement contract will end next year, and Panasonic Electronics is now We want to find a global image spokesperson in China. If we refuse, they will find another Chinese person, and it will most likely be a female singer.

Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, Let's pay attention to this first. Later, show me the recent advertisements of Panasonic Electronics.

Okay, I'll look for you later. Jiang Xia nodded and added, Mr. Xu still has something to tell you. I know you are busy in Yinchuan, so I asked you to call her back when you come back.

Did you say what happened?

That's not true.

Zhou Yan was quite confused because he actually called Xu Feng in Yinchuan, but Xu Feng didn't say anything else except about The Sixth Sense.

Okay, I understand, go ahead and do your work.

After Jiang Xia left, Zhou Yan called Xu Feng.

After receiving Zhou Yan's call, Xu Feng smiled and said, Have you returned to Yanjing?

Well, I heard Xiao Jiang say, Sister Feng, are you looking for me? Zhou Yan replied.

Yes, I told you last time that I asked you to think about a new movie. Do you have any ideas now?

I really haven't thought about it much lately.

Then how about you listen to me?

Uh, okay, Sister Feng, please tell me.

I have two scripts here, one is Once Upon a Time in Yanzhou and the other is Once Upon a Time in Shanghai.

Zhou Yan had no impression of the first script, but he knew about Once Upon a Time in Shanghai, Is this Once Upon a Time in Shanghai Zheng Nian's novel?

Well, yes, that's the one. Once Upon a Time in Yanzhou is written by Li Bihua. These two scripts are what I want to film. Xu Feng then told Zhou Yan very frankly, Actually, Once Upon a Time in Yanzhou was written by me. Originally, I wanted Chen Kaige to film it, but he wanted to film Feng Yue, so now I want to hand over one of these two scripts to you.

Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, I don't know about Once Upon a Time in Yanzhou, but Once Upon a Time in Shanghai probably won't pass the review.

In Zhou Yan's view, there was no need for Xu Feng to touch this novel, and his evaluation of the novel was also average.

If the novel Once Upon a Time in Shanghai can be filmed, then Zhou Yan has other better choices.

Xu Feng was quite confident, If you change it carefully, it should be fine.

Zhou Yan said thoughtfully, Sister Feng, why don't you try changing it first?

Xu Feng was a smart person and naturally understood that Zhou Yan was not interested in either script.

If you're not interested, just tell me directly, no need to beat around the bush.

After Xu Feng said this, Zhou Yan stopped being pretentious and said directly, I don't want to touch these subjects. It's too troublesome. The key is that I have no pursuit in this area.

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Xu Feng sighed, I understand what you mean. Let's forget about it for now and talk about it later. However, you have to have some snacks yourself. I have always said that you can't be too busy, but in two or three years It’s still necessary to make a movie.”

Zhou Yan thought for a while and said, For the next movie, I still want to make one that has more to do with music.

Why do I hear what you say? It seems like I have an idea.

Zhou Yan laughed and said, It's a bit of an immature idea. I want to make a movie related to education and music.

Tell me more specifically.

I can't say anything specific. I haven't written the outline of the script yet. It's just an idea for the time being.

Xu Feng pondered for a moment and said, How about you think more about it during this period. When the celebration party of The Sixth Sense is held, we can meet and talk in detail. It will be September soon. The script has been finalized and the preliminary stage will be completed. No matter how we prepare, we won’t be able to shoot until the middle of next year.”

I can't tell when it will be filmed now. I'll wait until I finish the script.

No problem, I'm looking for you just for the new movie. I don't have anything else to do, so let's do this for now.

good.

After talking to Xu Feng on the phone, Zhou Yan got up and walked to the piano room, took out his violin, and played a piece of Strauss' The Artist's Life.

The reason why Zhou Yan plays this song is because the movie he is going to make next is related to this song.

This time, he fell in love with Spring of the Cowherd, or in other words, he fell in love with the original version of A Cage of Nightingales.

A Cage of Nightingales is a French film in the 1940s. This film did not receive much attention in film history, but a few decades later, a remake of it, Springtime of the Cowherd, became a A classic in film history, it not only sells well but also sells well.

The reason why Zhou Yan fell in love with Spring of the Cowherd Class was because he told Xu Feng that his next movie would be about music and education. After all, he is a music teacher himself. Such a movie is perfect. It perfectly fits his identity.

Moreover, the movie Springtime of the Cowherd is not very geographically specific. It won't make people feel strange if the story is set in any country, and the adaptation does not need to be too intense. It can just follow the original story line.

The relationship between movies and music is very strong. It can even be said that the overall story direction revolves around music. This is completely Zhou Yan's style.

The story is actually very simple. A well-known musician returned to the countryside to attend his mother's wedding and met a friend from his childhood. The friend took out a diary and showed it to him. Looking at the diary, many past memories came to him instantly. heart.

The owner of the diary was once a talented musician, but because his talent was not appreciated, he later returned to the countryside to work as an assistant teacher in a boys' boarding school.

Most of the students in this school have problems. The teacher wants to use his own methods to improve the situation. The ideal is great, but the reality is not easy. In the process, he encounters a lot of troubles.

But Huangtian paid off, and with his efforts, the situation improved, and he also discovered the musical talent of one of the students, and this student was the famous musician.

It was apparently because of his teacher's infection that he was finally able to become a musician.

In the movie, the teacher's ending was actually not good. He was not only made things difficult by the students at school, but also by the principal and other colleagues. In the end, he was fired by the principal.

The whole story is full of warmth, thinking, and struggle, and the soundtrack is also very well done. This is also a movie that Zhou Yan likes very much.

Such a subject is almost tailor-made for him. He can completely direct and produce the movie himself. Moreover, the cost of this movie is not high. Zhou Yan himself roughly estimated that if it were shot in China, it would save one province and six months. Seven million would be enough to make a good photo, and even more extravagantly, more than ten million would be enough.

But filming is still difficult, and the difficulty lies in the selection of actors. He needs to find a real choir child, eleven or twelve years old, and his appearance must meet the requirements.

The casting of other students also requires a little thought, so the preparation before filming this time will definitely take longer than that of The Sixth Sense.

Fortunately, for him, this matter is still a professional counterpart. Not to mention, they have two children's choirs in Yangyin, both of which are of very high level.

Even if he couldn't find it in Yangyin, he could contact all the children's choirs across the country. With the huge number, Zhou Yan didn't believe that he couldn't find a suitable young male lead.

As for the role of teacher, Zhou Yan's first choice is Li Xuejian. His performance in the movie Jyl is very consistent with Zhou Yan's imagination of the teacher in Spring of the Cowherd Class.

After finishing The Artist's Life, Zhou Yan found pen and paper and started writing the script of Spring of the Cowherd Class. (End of chapter)