1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After talking about the concert tickets, Anita Mui smiled and asked, "Ah Yan, do you have any new songs suitable for me recently?"

Zhou Yan thought for a moment and said, "Not really recently. There are some songs in Time Traveler, but they are not suitable for you."

"Oh, that's a pity." Anita Mui's tone was a little disappointed.

She was the first singer to sing Zhou Yan's songs. At that time, "Forever Together" and "If Love Has Destiny" were very popular. Even now, these two songs are still widely sung.

At that time, Anita Mui did not expect that these two songs would become classics that are still sung today. Now some commercial performances have invited her and hope that she can sing "If Love Has Destiny" and "Together Forever".

Now, even if she does nothing else, she can make a living just by relying on these two songs.

To Anita Mui, the importance of these two songs is almost the same as that of "Sunset Song".

More importantly, there is some controversy between "Sunset Song" and Chen Huixian's "Thousands of Songs". Many people do not think that this song belongs to Anita Mui.

"Together Forever" is different from "If Love Has Destiny". These two songs were originally sung by Anita Mui, and were later covered by Japanese singer Shizuka Kudo, which is equivalent to reverse output.

Fans who like Zhou Yan naturally attribute the credit of this "reverse output" to Zhou Yan.

However, Anita Mui's fans will definitely give the credit to Anita Mui.

Some of Anita Mui's fans even claimed that she was the first person in the Chinese music scene to export songs to Japan.

This statement is certainly not wrong, and even some Japanese fans agree with it.

Even though Zhou Yan has extraordinary popularity and fame in Japan, there is still a group of fans who only know Anita Mui but not Zhou Yan. They have only heard the songs "If Love Has Destiny" and "Forever Together", but do not know that the composer of these two songs is Zhou Yan.

Many of them only know that Anita Mui sang these two songs, and then Shizuka Kudo covered them.

In any case, the two songs that Zhou Yan gave to Anita Mui had a great influence on her later music career. Therefore, Anita Mui certainly hoped that Zhou Yan could write a few more songs for her.

"It's okay, I believe there will be opportunities later." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"I hope this opportunity will come soon. I don't know how many more years I can sing." Anita Mui sighed.

Hearing Anita Mui's words, Zhou Yan frowned, "Sister Anita Mui, what do you mean by this? Is there something wrong with your body?"

Zhou Yan's reaction made Anita Mui a little puzzled. "Ah Yan, your reaction is a bit exaggerated. I just feel that I am getting older and older, and my energy is getting worse and worse. I may not be able to sing in the future. What's wrong with my body?"

Anita Mui was indeed very confused, because Zhou Yan had a high emotional intelligence and was good at speaking, and he generally would not say such things.

Zhou Yan also realized that he overreacted a bit. He smiled and said, "I'm sorry, Sister Mei, I don't mean to curse you. It's just that I have seen many cases around me recently. I didn't pay attention to it before I got sick and regretted it."

He just remembered that Anita Mui died of cancer in her previous life, and thought that Anita Mui was diagnosed with the disease at this time, so he reacted so strongly.

Now he lied that there were cases of illness around him, and he also wanted to remind Anita Mui to take care of her health.

Anita Mui smiled and said, "I know you mean well. Don't worry. I have regular physical examinations and I am in great shape."

After hearing Anita Mui say that she had regular physical examinations and the results were all normal, Zhou Yan had nothing else to say. However, he was also wondering whether Anita Mui was sick or not.

He doesn't know much about medicine and doesn't know what the early signs of this type of cancer are.

Then the two chatted for a while, agreed to meet in May, and hung up the phone.

……

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan went to the cafeteria.

It was already half past six when he arrived at the cafeteria.

Normally, at this time, there would be few people in the cafeteria, as the team's meal time had already passed.

But when Zhou Yan arrived at the cafeteria today, he found that there were twenty or thirty people in the cafeteria, and it was quite lively.

Among these twenty or thirty people, half were students from the Central Academy of Drama, and the other half were from the crew of "The Yongzheng Dynasty", including director Hu Mei.

Seeing these people, Zhou Yan was a little confused. Why did they get together? And why did they come to eat together at this time?
They also saw Zhou Yan and greeted him one after another.

"Hello, Director Zhou."

"Director Zhou is coming to eat."

"Teacher Zhou."

Zhou Yan nodded in response, got some food first, then took the plate and sat down next to Hu Mei. He asked curiously, "Director Hu, what are you doing?"

Hu Mei explained with a smile, "I wanted to audition the actors. In order to achieve better results, I asked my classmates from the Central Academy of Drama to help and act with the actors."

"How was the audition today?" Zhou Yan asked.

“It worked pretty well, but after trying it once, I suddenly had some other ideas.”

"what idea?"

"I wanted to take advantage of this period of preparation to walk through the play with the students and try out the scenes to be filmed in advance. On the one hand, I wanted to see if there were any areas in the script that needed improvement, and on the other hand, I wanted to solve some problems that might arise during filming in advance."

Zhou Yan looked at Hu Mei with some surprise. He didn't expect that Hu Mei would think of this way to rehearse the scene in advance.

The so-called advance rehearsal is nothing more than rehearsing the contents of the script with the students in advance, discovering and solving problems during the rehearsal process.

And after rehearsals, you can become familiar with the script and be more proficient when it comes to the actual shooting.

This method is definitely beneficial, but it will consume a lot of time and manpower costs.

After all, the TV series hasn't started filming yet, and ordinary directors can't find a bunch of actors to command.

But in Zhou Yan Studio, this is not a problem.

The students of the Central Academy of Drama who participated in the school-enterprise cooperation are real "slaves". Although they are not professional actors, they have more or less received professional training and are much better than ordinary extras.

The key is that these students basically don’t need any money.

Not only was it free, but when Hu Mei took her students to rehearse the plays, the students were very happy and felt that they were getting training.

In fact, this is also the significance of the school-enterprise cooperation project. Enterprises obtain cost-effective labor, and students also receive practical education that they cannot get in school.

Zhou Yan thought this was a good idea, and nodded, "This is indeed a good idea, but it will require Director Hu and you to worry more." Hu Mei smiled and said, "It's okay, we only spend one to two hours a day, and it won't delay the crew's other preparations. A batch of costumes will be coming in a while, and I'm going to let the students try it first, and I'll see the effect."

"Well, no problem, but there is one thing, that is, when students work for you, remember to contact Lin Juan and write down their working hours."

Students who participate in the school-enterprise cooperation program have a minimum working time each month. Only by reaching this working time can they continue to stay and enjoy the benefits.

If you exceed the working hours, there will also be additional subsidies.

"Do you want me to tell Mr. Liu that we will be responsible for the subsidies for using your students in the future?"

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "No need."

The subsidies for students are not much, so there is no need for Zhou Yan to settle accounts with Liu Wenwu over such trivial matters.

Originally, when students came to the studio, Zhou Yan had to find ways to let them get training, and now Hu Mei helped them solve a problem.

After hearing Zhou Yan say that it was not necessary, Hu Mei did not hesitate and said with a smile, "Thank you, Director Zhou."

"You're welcome." Zhou Yan smiled and said to the students of the Central Academy of Drama, "Director Hu is a very talented and experienced director. You must study hard with her during this period. Although we usually rehearse, you can treat these rehearsals as actual combat. I will come to check your school results in a while."

"Please rest assured, Teacher Zhou. We will do our best." Duan Yihong said with a firm look in his eyes.

The other students also nodded. It was obvious that they were very attentive to the rehearsals, and their eyes were full of passion and anticipation.

Zhou Yan nodded and continued, "You guys work hard. The studio will have a new project in a while, and we will select some of you to complete it."

After saying this, the students' eyes became brighter and more passionate.

Hu Mei smiled beside her, it turned out that Director Zhou was also quite good at making promises.

However, whether the promise is good or bad depends on whether the person who makes it can finally fulfill it. As long as it can be fulfilled, then the promise is good.

Hu Mei believes that the pie that Zhou Yan has drawn will definitely be fulfilled in the future.

The thing Zhou Yan's studio has no shortage of is projects.

It may be extremely difficult for other directors to make a movie, but as long as Zhou Yan waves his hand, there will definitely be a lot of people coming to their studio with money to make movies.

In fact, the students basically knew what the project Zhou Yan was talking about was. The school had announced that the studio was soliciting short film scripts.

Once the studio collects the scripts, they will most likely hire people from among these students to direct the films.

Zhang Ziyi was sitting at the far end. After listening to Zhou Yan's words, she was a little absorbed.

During this period, she felt very complicated and didn't know what to do.

She had originally made up her mind to take part in "The Emperor and the Assassin", but after staying in the studio for a while, she began to waver.

Now that she is participating in "The Emperor and the Assassin", it means that she will lose the opportunity to continue studying at the Central Academy of Drama and will also lose the opportunity to study in Zhou Yan's studio.

If she could stay in the studio now, she would not only be able to study with director Hu Mei, but also have the hope of starring in the short films secretly shot by the studio.

If you think about it this way, the cost of participating in "The Emperor and the Assassin" is a bit high.

When Zhang Ziyi was in a daze, Xin Boqing, who was sitting next to her, asked, "Teacher Zhou, will you make a movie of the novel Never Let Me Go?"

After hearing Xin Baiqing's words, Zhang Ziyi raised her head and looked at Zhou Yan curiously. The others had similar expressions. They all wanted to know what Zhou Yan had to say.

The book "Never Let Me Go" has been very popular recently, and because these students participated in a school-enterprise cooperation project, Zhou Yan was their boss, so out of complicated emotions, most of them had read this novel.

As for how the novel is, everyone has different opinions.

Some people like it, some think it's just average, and some think it's just so-so or even a bit boring.

Xin Baiqing likes "Never Let Me Go" more. He read the novel when it was serialized in "October". Later, when the novel was published as a single volume, he went to the bookstore to buy it as soon as possible.

After buying the book, he read it twice.

There are very few books that Xin Baiqing can read twice in a short period of time, which shows that he really likes "Never Let Me Go".

Zhou Yan didn't expect anyone to ask this question, so he smiled and said, "I don't have such plans yet, but I don't rule out such plans in the future."

"I really hope this novel can be made into a movie. Our domestic films have not performed well in the science fiction field. If Director Zhou were to shoot it, it would definitely be different," said Xin Baiqing.

"Yes, 'Time Traveler' was filmed very well." Zhu Yuanyuan followed.

Zhou Yan smiled and praised "Time Traveler" as an excellent science fiction film, which was obviously flattery.

"Time Traveler" is just a love movie disguised as a science fiction movie. If we have to say what is different about this movie from ordinary love movies, it is that in addition to love, it explores more things about the value of life.

Romance movies cannot actually be considered a theme, because most movies have some element of love in them.

Romance movies are basically all wrapped in various forms.

Science fiction films, disaster films, campus films... every type of subject matter can be made into a romance film.

Moreover, "Never Let Me Go" is not a typical science fiction movie. It also explores human self-cognition and self-positioning under the guise of science fiction.

If the setting in "Never Let Me Go" was not cloning but robots, although the form would be different, the things discussed would hardly change.

Therefore, if Zhou Yan wants to change the status quo of Chinese science fiction films, it is useless to make "Never Let Me Go".

However, if you want to shoot some science fiction films with larger scenes, it is difficult to achieve with the current level of the domestic film industry.

Zhou Yan has no plans to make a science fiction film for the time being, so there is no need for him to easily challenge himself in a field that is unfamiliar to him.

"I don't have any plans to make a science fiction film myself for now, but if you are interested, our studio can organize a science fiction short film competition later."

"That's great. Let's start with the short film and take it step by step." Xin Baiqing was very interested.

The other students also nodded, thinking that this science fiction short film competition was quite interesting.

Of course, Zhou Yan was not just talking casually. He was indeed planning to hold short film script collection activities on various themes in succession after this short film script collection activity. This would ensure the richness of the subject matter and also support some unpopular projects.

Science fiction, suspense, education, music... you can try these themes. (End of this chapter)