Rebirth of the courtyard, the start is 80s

Chapter 379 Make an independent film?
"Of course I'm happy!"

Speaking of this, Xu Qingdong looked at Cao Zhiqiang with a sad face: "President Cao, I have done such an unreliable thing, you don't forget the past, and you are willing to let me direct this drama..."

"Wrong!" Cao Zhiqiang said expressionlessly, "I am the director, and you are the assistant director, assisting me in filming this movie."

Xu Qingdong froze, then forced a smile and said: "President Cao, frankly speaking, the script you wrote is really good, very good, and your image is also good. You can definitely be a good screenwriter and actor, but as a director, this Well……

I don’t mean anything else, it’s purely a career as a director. The technical threshold is quite high, and you need to master all aspects, and you need a lot of knowledge and practice. And you have never been a director before, and you suddenly want to be a director. Very suitable. "

Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly: "Director Xu, let me tell you frankly that as a person, I either don't do it or do it, and I like to control everything by myself.

The profession of director does have a high threshold, but in the final analysis, it is to express the story in the script in the form of a movie.

Both the story and the script are mine. No one knows the story better than me, and no one knows how to shoot and present the film better than me.

What I lack is just some technical issues, such as how to grasp the timing of shooting, how to control the shooting angle and so on.

That's why I asked you to come over and ask you to be my assistant director in the form of appointment.

Simply put, if a film crew is an army, I am the commander in chief and you are my chief of staff.

I am only responsible for making decisions, deciding how to play and how to shoot.

But how to shoot and shoot is up to you.

Of course, during this period, I will also learn from you how to be a director.

After all, no matter how much theory there is, it is not as fast and better as practice.

Many directors in Xiangjiang are half-way monks. They first become actors, and then become directors when they are familiar with them.

Why can't I? "

"This..." Xu Qingdong frowned, then shook his head, "This is still not appropriate, because in this case, what should we do if there is a conflict between us?"

"Simple." Cao Zhiqiang said.

"I have the final say on the story flow of the entire film, but you have the final say on how to shoot it.

I will tell you about the play in detail, and even, I can draw a shot-by-shot picture for you, so that you have a detailed concept.

When we usually shoot, we discuss it carefully. If it really happens that there are conflicts, then I will have the final say.

But under normal circumstances, I don't think so, after all, I'm easy to talk, don't you think? "

Xu Qingdong frowned again and didn't speak, obviously not very happy.

Seeing Xu Qingdong's expression, Cao Zhiqiang smiled slightly and raised two fingers.

"Well, Director Xu, if you agree to be the deputy of this movie... no, co-director, I'm happy to give you this amount."

"Two hundred?" Xu Qingdong frowned.

"Two thousand!" Cao Zhiqiang shook his head.

"Two thousand?" Xu Qingdong immediately stopped frowning and stared wide-eyed.

Indeed, 2000 yuan is a lot of money at this time.

You must know that domestic directors at this time are usually paid. Even if there is a film to be filmed, they can get a filming subsidy, but the actual income is not high.

For example, Yang Jie, the director who later filmed the 90 edition of Journey to the West, his income at that time was only [-] yuan per episode.

This is still the treatment of CCTV's big production, and each episode of the [-]th edition of Journey to the West is roughly equivalent to a movie.

If you are ordinary TV series and ordinary movies, then the income is hard to say, maybe there is no subsidy at all, only salary.

As for ordinary directors, if they are making movies, such as ordinary feature films, and the director is not a famous director, the salary of a movie is usually [-] to [-] yuan.

Only those famous directors who make a big-budget movie can earn a little more, but generally it will not exceed 1000 yuan.

Cao Zhiqiang was lucky, the film hadn't been filmed yet, and Xu Qingdong, an unknown new director, was offered a salary of 2000 yuan directly, which was indeed very high.

To put it bluntly, if Cao Zhiqiang used this price to find a director, even if it was only an assistant director, there would probably be a lot of people rushing to do it.

Although it is said that directors in the 80s are more virtuous, and more of them shoot what they want to shoot, not for money.

But that's all bullshit.

Who wouldn't be happy to make more money?

But today's national conditions and the general environment are like this, and the funds of big film studios are all tight, let alone small film studios.

Domestic directors during this period generally had relatively low incomes.

Of course, this is not too high, it is compared with the income of Hong Kong and Taiwan directors and later.

Compared with the horizontal comparison of the same period, the salary of directors is much higher than that of other workers.

As for attracting investment and sponsorship, almost all of them are state-owned enterprises and collective enterprises in China at this time. If they have money to invest, they will not just wave their hands and add money to a director.

So people like Cao Zhiqiang, you can't say that there are no such people in China at this time, but they are definitely rare.

"Really two thousand?" Xu Qingdong squinted his eyes again, staring at Cao Zhiqiang's face closely, as if he was afraid that the other party would regret it.

"Of course." Cao Zhiqiang smiled, "I can give you one thousand first, and another thousand later."

After a pause, Cao Zhiqiang said again: "In addition, I will reimburse you for all your food, lodging and transportation during filming. All of them are of high standards. If you have a hotel, you can stay in a hotel, and if you have a plane, you can fly. I won't treat you badly."

Xu Qingdong was a little twitchy: "Actually, I don't care about money, I just, I just like this story very much, and I really want to make it..."

"I know." Cao Zhiqiang said, "Well, in the subtitles of the movie, your name can appear as the co-director, but the main director must be me, and your name is behind me.

You have to know, I am the scriptwriter of this drama, I am the leading actor, and I am the investor, and I was scammed by you for 10 yuan before..."

"That's not my reason." Xu Qingdong immediately said, "Who knows that those people from Beijing Film Studio..."

"Okay, that's the end of the matter, I don't want to get entangled with that anymore." Cao Zhiqiang waved his hand, "I only know that since you messed up, you have to listen to me."

After a short pause, Cao Zhiqiang said again: "Actually, I had already planned to give up filming this movie, but I really couldn't bear to waste all my hard work.

At the same time, I was afraid that others would not make a good film and deviate from my original intention, so I re-decided to write, direct and act on my own, to film the story in my mind.

Of course, I also admit that I really don't know much about directing, so I need a director to actually help me complete it.

In short, regardless of whether the movie is a hit or not, I want this movie to appear in this world.

To be clear, this is a little willfulness of mine, do you understand? "

Xu Qingdong sighed: "Understood, completely understood, but..."

"But what?" Cao Zhiqiang asked.

Xu Qingdong said: "As for Beiying, they definitely won't be able to shoot in the short term. They don't have photography equipment for us. Although I applied, I still have to wait in line, and it's impossible to refund the money I sent you immediately. Still, Have to wait."

"Then don't wait!" Cao Zhiqiang said lightly.

"I reinvested in my own name, starting with 20 yuan. I also paid for the photography equipment and film.

As for you, you just need to find another film studio for me. I want the one that can start shooting immediately without queuing up.

Anyway, they don't need to pay for photographic equipment, people or money.

They just provide a platform so that my film can be released normally. "

"Wait!" Xu Qingdong said suddenly, "You said you want to invest in the filming yourself, and even have photographic equipment? Do you have a video camera?"

"Of course." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

"Can I have a look at the camera first?" Xu Qingdong said.

"This..." Cao Zhiqiang paused for a while, "It's possible, but the origin of these equipment is a bit... not so honest, can you keep it secret?"

Xu Qingdong blinked, and immediately thought that Cao Zhiqiang's batch of photographic equipment was smuggled goods.

"Don't worry." Xu Qingdong laughed, "I only care about whether the things are good or not. As for the origin, that's not my concern, and I won't talk about it everywhere."

Cao Zhiqiang nodded: "Alright then, come with me, I'll show you the goods."

Said that Cao Zhiqiang took Xu Qingdong out of the Peking Hotel, then drove by himself, and took Xu Qingdong straight to Hongguang Publishing House.

The reason why he went there was that Cao Zhiqiang couldn't think of any other place to store his photographic equipment for the time being.

Almost all the houses that Cao Zhiqiang bought are occupied by other people, and he himself lives in hotels.

Originally, after signing the photographic equipment, he was thinking of buying a big house again, but it's not too late.

Moreover, Hongguang Publishing House itself occupies a large area, and there are still many vacant houses in the office building alone.

That's all, the key point is that not long ago, Chen Jiabang, the vice president, had just negotiated the purchase price with the original glass factory. At a price of 80 yuan, he bought several other lands and the old factory buildings and old warehouses on it. tripled in size.

Of course, no matter how much it expands, it is still industrial land, which can only be bought and sold from public to public, and cannot be purchased by private individuals, and the nature of the land cannot be changed at will, unless the government comes forward to change it.

Therefore, it is impossible to build a house in the old factory of the old glass factory and sell it to outsiders.

Although real estate is now allowed to be bought and sold freely in China, it is only for commercial housing of a residential nature, such as old courtyard houses and old western-style buildings.

Houses on industrial land, such as self-built houses for factory units, are still not allowed to enter the market, and are traded like commercial houses.

It is precisely because of this that basically no industrial land is bought.

Just kidding, now that everyone is short of money and land, who is free to buy your old factory building?

For example, the glass factory was relocated at the beginning, mainly because of the pollution problem, and they did not relocate willingly.

As for the old factory building after the relocation of the glass factory, it was originally planned to be packaged and sold to Hongguang Machinery Factory. After all, it is a neighbor, but the machinery factory has not let go.

Now that Hongguang Publishing House is willing to buy it, I am naturally happy.

From the perspective of later generations, this glass factory has lost a lot, but from the perspective of the glass factory at this time, it is not a loss.

Because most of the current factories are state-owned enterprises and collective enterprises.

That glass factory was originally a township collective enterprise, not a state-owned enterprise.

During the commune movement, many township enterprises were established in many villages around the capital.

Back then, there were rural areas outside the second ring road in Beijing, so this glass factory outside the second ring road was a collective enterprise, and there was nothing wrong with it.

So this glass factory was the product of communalization at that time.

On the contrary, Hongguang Machinery Factory, a state-owned enterprise, moved here later.

Collective enterprises are much more flexible than state-owned enterprises, but they also lack money.

Because the technology of this glass factory is not good, and it has been losing money year after year, so selling the factory building for money is the most urgent action.

To put it bluntly, this is still a suburban township area at this time, and the township government has the final say on whether to sell a township enterprise like a glass factory.

Now if a state-owned enterprise is willing to take over the dilapidated factories that were shut down due to pollution problems and return the cash, then of course they will sell them.

With that 80, the township government can solve many urgent needs.

Besides, as a state-owned publishing house, Hongguang Publishing House is convenient for everything at this time.

Therefore, the current Hongguang Publishing House is still very good in terms of floor area, which is a typical example of large land and sparse population.

Anyway, there's plenty of storage here, and that's enough.

After driving for a while, Cao Zhiqiang brought Xu Qingdong to Hongguang Publishing House.

Afterwards, Cao Zhiqiang asked Xu Qingdong to sit in his president's office first, and asked his secretary Xiang Dongfang to entertain him.

As for himself, he quietly came to a somewhat dilapidated red brick house alone.

It used to be a warehouse of the glass factory. It is a township enterprise. It would be nice to have a red brick building.

During this period, not to mention that most of the cement was imported, and there were not many red bricks.

It is not bad for a township enterprise to have such a red brick house as a warehouse.

In fact, important places such as warehouses and office buildings here are red brick houses, and other factory buildings are earthen embryo houses.

Using the key to open the lock of the red brick house, Cao Zhiqiang went in to have a look.

There is nothing inside at first glance, and it looks like it has been abandoned for a long time.

Cao Zhiqiang thought for a while, found an open space, and then took out a large clean cotton cloth from the portable space, and then took out a 35mm gold Panaflex camera, a pair of matching tripods, and six matching lenses.

As for the other bunch of accessories, I don't need them for the time being. If there are too many things at once, it will be too eye-catching.

After putting away the camera, tripod, and six supporting lenses, Cao Zhiqiang took out sheets of cotton cloth and wrapped them up separately.

After finishing all this, Cao Zhiqiang invited Xu Qingdong to come and see it alone.

When Xu Qingdong saw the camera and the six matching lenses, he was surprised from ear to ear.

"This is, is this Pan Na from the United States?" Xu Qingdong is a man of knowledge, and can tell his history at a glance.

Yes, the abbreviation of Panavision in China is Pana, and he is already well-informed to be able to say the name out of nowhere.

"And they are all new machines? How is that possible?" Xu Qingdong touched the machine with a face full of surprise, "As far as I know, this thing is only rented and not sold, and it is basically used by Hollywood. There is no such thing in China? You, where are you? here?"

Indeed, the domestic cameras at this time are basically domestic or West German Arri cameras.

As for Panavision in the United States, there are really no regular domestic film studios.

Occasionally there may be one or two co-productions, which are also brought by foreign businessmen.

During this period, there was a general shortage of cameras in China, let alone good cameras.

For example, Masato Sada, who filmed "Talking about the Yangtze River" before and is still in Japan and has not come back, when he was filming the Yangtze River documentary, he brought his own camera, and it was also rented.

Why did Masato Sada make a film saying that the Yangtze River is heavily in debt?
In fact, his consumption during the domestic shooting process is not too much. The main consumption is the cost of renting cameras and buying film.

In short, as Cao Zhiqiang expected, after seeing that brand new Panavision camera, Xu Qingdong couldn't put it down immediately.

"Don't worry about where I came from." Cao Zhiqiang said, "I'll just ask you, can I shoot with this?"

"Yes, of course!" Xu Qingdong fondled touching and stroking, as if he was stroking the most beautiful woman.

"Good thing, really good thing!" Xu Qingdong sighed, "With this, and so many lenses, and some good film, you can definitely make the best film!"

"That's good." Cao Zhiqiang nodded.

"but……"

"But what?"

Xu Qingdong put down the camera and looked at Cao Zhiqiang solemnly:
"President Cao, since you have money, a story, and such a good camera, you can even deal with film, so why are you looking for a studio?

The studio has it, you have it, why let them eat it?
Let's make an independent film by ourselves. "

"Making an independent film?" Cao Zhiqiang frowned.

"Yes!" Xu Qingdong's eyes lit up.

"Make an independent film that is not influenced by any unit or individual, and is completely up to you, the first independent film in China!
As long as the filming is completed, no matter what the results are, this is history! "

(End of this chapter)