1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Lin Juan arranged a seat for Zhang Ziyi, not far from her own seat.

Just now she took Zhang Ziyi out to the logistics department to collect supplies.

All students participating in the school-enterprise cooperation, like other employees of the studio, can receive a standard set of supplies. Except for having fewer meal tickets, everything else is similar.

Students in school-enterprise cooperation only have a meal ticket of 60 yuan, which is more than half less than that of employees.

But for the students, 60 yuan is already very good. After all, it is impossible for them to eat every meal in the studio, and their school cafeteria is subsidized.

Here, Zhang Ziyi was tidying up her desk, and Hong Xin came back from outside.

Seeing Zhang Ziyi, Hong Xin asked in surprise, "Xiao Zhang, why are you here today?"

Zhang Ziyi smiled and said, "Sister Xin, I'm here to report."

"check in?"

"Ziyi is a student from the second batch of the Central Academy of Drama to participate in the school-enterprise cooperation. She came to report early today. She wanted to come to our workshop first, so I arranged for her to come here." Lin Juan next to her helped explain.

"Oh, you participated in the school-enterprise cooperation." Hong Xin nodded, "This is a rare opportunity. Now that you are here, you should study hard. If you don't understand anything, just ask, whether you ask Juan'er or the rest of us. Don't worry, everyone in our company is very easy-going."

"Thank you, Sister Xin. I will definitely work hard."

"You're welcome." Hong Xin smiled and said to Lin Juan, "The studio is collecting short film scripts and is forming a panel of judges. Qing was originally on the panel, but now he has other things to do and can't go. Mr. Liu asked me to go or you, and after thinking about it, I think you are the right person."

"Me?"

"Yeah, aren't you usually interested in literature and screenwriting? This is also an opportunity."

Lin Juan thought about it and nodded, "Okay."

There has been nothing busy in their workshop recently. Although she is also in charge of the school-enterprise cooperation of the Central Academy of Drama, her daily work content is very limited and does not prevent her from being a judge.

"It's settled then. I'll report your name to Mr. Liu later."

"Sister Xin, when will the recruitment start?" Lin Juan asked.

"Two days ago, the call for applications was sent to all schools, and it will automatically close in a month."

"Does this mean that our review work will start in a month?"

"That's not the case. It should start in a few days. If we wait until the deadline to start, it will be a waste of time. Let's wait for Mr. Liu to arrange the specific situation."

"Yeah, I got it."

After explaining the matter, Hong Xin returned to her office.

After Hong Xin left, Zhang Ziyi whispered to Lin Juan, "Sister Juan, what does this short film script collection mean?"

"Our studio will be soliciting short film scripts from several colleges and universities. If the script is selected, the studio will provide funding to help with the filming. Your school is also within the scope of the solicitation, and Sister Xin said that they have already been notified. Maybe your school has not announced the news yet."

Zhang Ziyi scratched her temples and said, "It's possible that the school only notified individual classes and didn't make a public announcement."

Script collection is not actually suitable for their acting class, and they are still freshmen. The school probably doesn't want them to waste their energy on this matter.

"That's possible." Lin Juan smiled and said nothing more. She also felt that this matter had nothing to do with Zhang Ziyi.

……

Zhang Ziyi was wrong about the call for submissions. In fact, not long after she and Duan Yihong arrived at the studio, the school posted the call for submissions, and they just missed it.

Originally, the school thought about only telling students majoring in screenwriting, directing, etc., but later decided to notify the entire school. This would also strengthen students' confidence in school-enterprise cooperation.

Besides, students from other majors may not necessarily be without good scripts. If everyone submits more, the data will look better. The most important thing is that the data cannot be too much worse than that of Yenching Film Academy.

That's right, the Central Academy of Drama has already conceded that in this kind of script solicitation activity, their school is no match for the Yanjing Film Academy. After all, the two schools have different focuses.

There is a gap for sure, but I just hope it’s not too big, otherwise it will be embarrassing.

Unlike the Central Academy of Drama, after receiving the news, the Yenching Film Academy quickly posted a notice on the bulletin board.

In the past two days, the short film script collection has become a hot topic in their school. Regardless of the major, grade, or even teachers or students, the topic of discussion is inseparable from the short film script collection.

In Room 618 of the men's dormitory, the base of the Youth Experimental Film Group, Wang Hongwei looked at Gu Zheng and Jia Zhangke expectantly, "How is it? Is this script good?"

Gu Zheng glanced at Jia Zhangke and saw that Jia Zhangke lowered his head and looked mysterious, so he decided to play the bad guy himself.

"I'm afraid not." Gu Zheng shook his head. "This story is similar to "Border Town", but the theme is too monotonous and the content is empty. After reading the whole story, there is not a single character that I can remember."

"Is it so bad?" Wang Hongwei was hit hard, and then he looked at Jia Zhangke unwillingly, "Old Jia, what do you think?"

Seeing that he couldn't avoid it, Jia Zhangke could only raise his head and said tactfully, "You can give it a try. Anyway, the notice doesn't say there is a limit on the works that can be submitted by each person. It's a good strategy to cast a wide net."

Wang Hongwei is not stupid, so he naturally knows what Jia Zhangke means.

Delivery is possible, but the hope is slim.

"In that case, we'd better not go to the world." Wang Hongwei was quite carefree and quickly calmed down. He asked them, "Where are your scripts?"

"Not ready yet." They both answered almost at the same time.

Wang Hongwei curled his lips and said, "You just know how to dawdle. The collection period is only one month. Don't miss it, or you will regret it."

"The collection time is too short this time." Gu Zheng sighed, "Besides, it is stuck at this time point. How can we have time to do all this?"

"They gave us this time, which doesn't mean we can submit new works. Besides, short films don't have much content in their scripts. If we really want to write new works, one month is more than enough."

Gu Zheng said with a smile, "Old Wang, keep working hard. Our Youth Experimental Film Group depends on you to become famous."

The three of them were students from the Department of Literature at Yenching Film Academy and lived in the same dormitory.

The so-called Youth Experimental Film Group was actually founded by these three people two years ago. They had previously filmed "One Day, in Yanjing" together, but the response was very poor.

Originally, they were planning to shoot their first feature film "Xiao Wu" during this period, but a call for short films suddenly appeared, so they decided to put "Xiao Wu" aside and finish this matter first.

"Or..." Gu Zheng looked at the other two people, hesitant to speak.

"What's wrong? Tell me, why are you keeping me in suspense?" Wang Hongwei said with a sneer.

"How about we shorten the script of Xiao Wu and make a short film script and submit it?"

Gu Zheng’s suggestion reminded Jia Zhangke of their previous film “Xiao Shan Goes Home”, which was a “short film”.

Rather than a short film, it is more like a "feature film that is not long enough".

The running time of "Xiao Shan Goes Home" is 50 minutes, which is a very awkward length. It is too short to be called a feature film, and too long to be called a short film. Many film festivals have a requirement of more than 60 minutes for feature films and less than 30 minutes for short films.

According to the film festival rules, "Xiao Shan Goes Home" is neither a short film nor a feature film.

It’s a pity that there is no such thing as a “medium-length film”, otherwise “Xiao Shan Goes Home” should be considered a medium-length film.

At that time, because they saw migrant workers near the school, they decided to make a movie about the migrant worker group. After discussion, they decided to shoot the script written by Jia Zhangke.

After going through the difficult process of borrowing money and asking others to lend equipment, he finally completed the 50-minute "Xiaoshan Goes Home".

After the movie was finished, they first screened it in the dormitory.

There were about twenty people watching the movie at that time, but a group of them left after fifteen minutes, and when the movie ended, only a few of them were left.

At that time, Gu Zheng was so upset that he locked the videotape in a drawer and asked Jia Zhangke not to take it out again to embarrass himself.

However, Jia Zhangke was not resigned to the fact and took the video tape to Yenching University for another screening.

The students of Yanda University were quite considerate and not only watched the whole movie, but also used the movie as an opportunity to discuss issues concerning China's economy and migrant workers.

Later, in 95, this film unexpectedly won an award at the Hong Kong Impression Festival.

It was precisely because of this award that they had the hope to film "Xiao Wu".

"I think it's possible. If the script is approved, you can get investment directly. I heard that after the script is approved, the investment you can get ranges from tens of thousands to millions." Wang Hongwei said.

"Millions?" Jia Zhangke said in disbelief, "Who told you that? How many millions can a short film cost?"

"That's what they said anyway. But investment and the like aren't really important. The key is, if the script is approved and Zhou Yan's studio is willing to shoot it, then we don't have to worry about the equipment and post-production."

Jia Zhangke nodded. In fact, their budget was mainly spent on these equipment and post-production, and the actual shooting would not cost too much.

They don't plan to hire professional actors to shoot the film, and even plan to play some of the roles themselves.

In this way, a lot of film remuneration can be saved.

In addition to the actors, the production staff do not require any salary, just some expenses for travel, food and accommodation.

If Zhou Yan's studio was willing to provide filming equipment, consumables and post-production equipment for free, Jia Zhangke would even be confident that he could shoot "Xiao Wu" with only 10,000 yuan.

As for adapting "Xiao Wu" into a short film script, it is not a difficult task. In fact, "Xiao Wu" was quite short in the beginning.

If they want to save trouble, they can just use the earlier version.

But since we are going to do it, we must do it well and absolutely cannot use the previous version to fool around.

Jia Zhangke rubbed his hands and said, "This is indeed a good idea. Let's get started today and try to finish the script as soon as possible."

……

Liu Wenwu and Liu Heping worked in the studio for two days and decided to collaborate on "The Yongzheng Dynasty".

The original investment for "Yongzheng Dynasty" was 20 million RMB. Now Zhou Yan has invested 10 million RMB, accounting for 40% of the copyright.

However, Zhou Yan will not need to pay much cash for the 10 million, because there will be a lot of cooperation between the crew and the studio in the future.

First of all, the soundtrack has basically been finalized, and Zhou Yan will deduct this part of the cost directly from the 10 million yuan.

There may be more cooperation in terms of costumes, makeup, post-production, etc. in the future. If the content of the cooperation is extensive enough, Liu Wenwu may have to pay the studio in the end.

Liu Wenwu was of course very happy about this collaboration, because Zhou Yan's studio alone had basically solved most of the problems of "The Yongzheng Dynasty".

Now, his most important task is to decide on the actors.

……

The next day after the cooperation was finalized, Liu Wenwu came to Zhou Yan’s office with someone.

"Boss Zhou, look who I brought with me."

Zhou Yan looked up and saw Tang Guoqiang looking at him with a smile.

Seeing Tang Guoqiang, Zhou Yan stood up with a smile and said, "I didn't know that the Prime Minister would come. I apologize for not welcoming you from afar."

Tang Guoqiang had originally thought that they had not seen each other for a long time and their friendship had faded, but after hearing Zhou Yan's words, he felt that their relationship had suddenly returned to what it was before.

When Zhou Yan was the music director for Romance of the Three Kingdoms, he had the best relationship with the three brothers Liu, Guan, and Zhang, but he also had a good relationship with Tang Guoqiang and the others, and they were basically together every time they got together.

Normally, Tang Guoqiang and his friends liked to jokingly call Zhou Yan "Fourth Brother". Zhou Yan also called Tang Guoqiang "Prime Minister", and when referring to Bao Guoan, they would add the word "Cao" before "Prime Minister".

"Haha, fourth brother, I hope you are well." Tang Guoqiang also started acting with Zhou Yan.

After saying this, the two looked at each other and laughed.

Liu Wenwu was quite surprised. He only knew that Tang Guoqiang and Zhou Yan knew each other, but he didn't expect that they had such a good relationship.

After laughing, Zhou Yan asked, "Why did you come together?"

Zhou Yan asked this question even though he already knew the answer. The protagonist of the previous life of "The Yongzheng Dynasty" was Tang Guoqiang. Now Tang Guoqiang appeared here with Liu Wenwu, probably for the role.

Liu Wenwu explained with a smile, "He is set to play the role of the Eighth Prince."

"Oh, the Eighth Prince."

Zhou Yan was a little surprised. Wasn't he supposed to play the fourth brother? Why did he have to play the eighth brother?
Could it be that the trajectory has changed because of my appearance?

If Tang Guoqiang plays the eighth brother, who will play the fourth brother?
Although he was puzzled, Zhou Yan did not ask, but just smiled and said, "Prime Minister, I didn't expect that our second cooperation would be in this form."

"I didn't expect this play would be related to you."

Liu Wenwu smiled and said, "This is called fate."

"Yeah, it's fate." Zhou Yan nodded, pointed to the sofa for them to sit on, and then went to pour them tea. While pouring, he asked, "Has the director been decided?"

"Not yet. I'll ask Hu Mei to come here tomorrow morning. Do you want to come and take a look?"

"Is it convenient?" Zhou Yan asked.

"Of course it's convenient, and you should have seen it anyway."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Okay, let's go and take a look." (End of this chapter)