1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Hu Mei and the students finished their meal and then left, as they still had some plays to rehearse.

After eating, Zhou Yan went straight back to the office.

There were quite a few scripts submitted for the short film script collection event, and their judging panel selected a few pretty good ones and wanted to show them to Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan happened to have nothing to do today, so he decided to read the script.

After returning to the office, Zhou Yan took out the box containing the script.

A total of three scripts were delivered, placed in three folders, with script information written on the outside of each folder.

Zhou Yan took out the top script, glanced at the name, and raised his eyebrows.

The name is too long and takes up several lines on the label.

Because the title is too long and the label paper is too small, I have to write smaller.

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes and looked at the note, and saw that it said: Jin Xiaoyong’s buddy, Hu Meimei’s brother, Liang Changyou’s son: Xiaowu.

The entire title, minus the punctuation, still has twenty words.

But when Zhou Yan finished reading the name, his eyes lit up.

Isn’t this “Xiao Wu”?

He was sure that this was "Xiao Wu", not only because of the word "Xiao Wu" at the end, but also because the other names that appeared in the title were all characters in "Xiao Wu".

Below the label with the name, there is another label with the contributor name. There are three names written on it, namely Jia Zhangke, Gu Zheng and Wang Hongwei.

Seeing these three names, Zhou Yan smiled. It was indeed them.

I didn’t expect that a short film script collection activity would actually result in the discovery of "Xiao Wu", which is a feature film.

However, Zhou Yan could also understand it. After all, such activities were very rare for students, and Jia Zhangke and others did not want to miss it.

Knowing it was "Xiao Wu", Zhou Yan became interested and immediately opened the folder and started reading the script.

Although it is a short film, the script is not short at all, probably because Jia Zhangke and others were reluctant to delete many scenes.

But there's nothing special about this thing.

The film festival has set a limit on the length of submitted works. It is clearly visible. It says it must be 30 minutes, so anything longer than one minute does not meet the requirement.

But script solicitations are different.

Although it is said to be a short film script, there is no set word count for the script, so it is no big deal if the script is a little longer.

Originally, the length of the script cannot determine the length of the final film.

A script of 50,000 words can be filmed in one hour, and a script of 200,000 words can still be filmed in one hour.

Zhou Yan roughly estimated that after Jia Zhangke and his team had edited the script of "Xiao Wu", the final length of the film would be between 40 minutes and one hour, which was obviously no longer a short film.

But at the same time, it’s not a feature film.

At this time, Zhou Yan saw a paragraph of small words written on the last line of the last page of the script.

[This script can be further shortened, but it can also be expanded. ]

Seeing these small words, Zhou Yan couldn't help laughing.

Jia Zhangke and his gang are playing tricks on him.

They wanted to meet the requirements of the event, but also hoped to get more funding and make the film into a feature film.

Zhou Yan smiled and shook his head, put the "Xiao Wu" script aside, and started reading the other two scripts.

The other two scripts were also submitted by students from the Yenching Film Academy, but their quality was slightly lower and did not arouse Zhou Yan's interest.

After reading the next two scripts, Zhou Yan turned his attention back to "Xiao Wu" and began to ponder.

He is definitely going to use this script, but the reason he is hesitating now is that he is considering whether to make "Xiao Wu" into a short film first, or go straight to the point and make it into a feature film.

After pondering for a while, Zhou Yan called Liu Hang's office from the internal line.

The phone was picked up after just two rings.

"Hey?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "You haven't finished get off work yet?"

"No, boss, what's up?"

"Come over here, I'll tell you about the short film script."

"Well, I'll go over now."

After the call was hung up, Liu Hang arrived at Zhou Yan's office a short while later.

"Boss, how do you like the script?"

Zhou Yan didn't rush to express his opinion, but asked Liu Hang first, "Have you read the script?"

Liu Hang nodded, "I've seen it."

"So what do you think of these three scripts?"

Liu Hang looked at the script on the table, trying to figure out what Zhou Yan meant, but he didn't find any clues, so he said according to his true feelings, "I think the script with a long name is good, but it's a bit too long. The other two scripts are also good, but they lack heart and the content is a bit empty."

Zhou Yan nodded and said, "Contact the author of Xiao Wu tomorrow and ask him to come to the studio."

Hearing Zhou Yan say this, Liu Hang also knew that Zhou Yan should be more optimistic about "Xiao Wu". He nodded and said, "Okay, no problem, I will arrange someone to contact him."

These students don’t have contact numbers, they only left contact addresses, so if you want to contact them, you either have to call the department office or send someone to look for them.

……

"Lao Wang, have you sent the script?"

On the way back to the dormitory after class, Jia Zhangke, Wang Hongwei and Gu Zheng were walking together, and Gu Zheng suddenly asked.

Wang Hongwei yawned and said, "You just remembered to ask. I sent it over the day before yesterday."

Wang Hongwei has been catching up on his homework recently and hasn't had a good night's sleep for several days.

"Have both been delivered?" Gu Zheng asked again.

"Sent them all."

This time they prepared two scripts, one was "Xiao Wu" and the other was written by Wang Hongwei himself.

"Did they respond?"

Wang Hongwei rolled his eyes. "How can it be so fast? Their solicitation activity lasts for a month. Logically, the results should not be announced until at least a month later. I guess no one has read the script yet."

"Oh, I was too impatient."

"You're just too impatient."

Jia Zhangke smiled and said, "There's no point in being anxious. No matter how anxious we are, we can't change the outcome."

"Old Jia, do you think our script is too long? Should we cut some of it?" Gu Zheng asked worriedly. "It doesn't matter. The script can't determine the length of the film. Besides, didn't I add a sentence at the end to explain this?"

"I'm afraid they haven't even finished reading the script, let alone the words you wrote."

Jia Zhangke curled his lips and said, "That's because they have no vision."

He said this with great confidence because he was very confident in the script of "Xiao Wu".

Moreover, even if the other party did not like "Xiao Wu" after he submitted it to him, he did not care. Anyway, he was already ready to raise money to shoot "Xiao Wu" himself.

No matter what, this movie must be made.

Although Jia Zhangke was very confident, Gu Zheng was still very worried, after all, they had experienced failure before.

As for raising money to make a movie by himself, Gu Zheng was not very optimistic. If he really wanted to make "Xiao Wu", it would probably not be possible without hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Let’s not talk about whether they can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even if they can, if the movie fails to sell, they will lose all their money.

Jia Zhangke could see that Gu Zheng was very worried, but he didn't say anything.

Gu Zheng is just like this. His mentality is not stable enough. He is always hesitant about everything he does and doesn't know what to do when he encounters a little failure. It's useless to talk to him now.

Jia Zhangke has already made plans. If Gu Zheng is really so worried later, he will not bring him to film "Xiao Wu".

When the three of them were almost at the dormitory, their classmate Liu Wen caught up with them from behind.

"Jia Zhangke, Gu Zheng, Wang Hongwei."

The three heard the shouting and turned their heads at the same time.

"What's the matter, Lao Liu?" Wang Hongwei asked.

"Teacher Wang is looking for you." Liu Wen said.

The teacher Wang that Liu Wen mentioned is their head teacher Wang Zhimin, who is similar to their class teacher.

"What does Teacher Wang want us to do?" Wang Hongwei looked curious, "We haven't been in trouble recently."

Liu Wen smiled and said, "I don't think he's looking for trouble with you. I saw a man talking to Teacher Wang in the office. It seems he is the one looking for you."

"man?"

The three of them were a little confused. Who would look for them?
"Why don't you three go and take a look and find out?" Liu Wen said.

The three of them looked at each other, then nodded together. This was the only thing they could do.

Then the three of them went to Wang Zhiming's office together. As soon as they entered the office, they saw a young man in his twenties sitting in front of Wang Zhiming.

The three of them shook their heads, indicating that they didn't know the man.

At this time, Wang Zhimin saw the three of them and waved at them with a smile, "Come here, the three of you."

Seeing Wang Zhimin's smile, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief. This shouldn't be a sign of trouble for them.

After waving to the three of them, Wang Zhimin smiled and said to the man in front of him, "Assistant Li, these three are Jia Zhangke, Wang Hongwei, and Gu Zheng."

After introducing the three people, Wang Zhimin said to Jia Zhangke and the others, "This is Assistant Li from Zhou Yan's studio. He came here specifically to see you."

Assistant Li also continued Wang Zhimin's words and said, "Hello, three students. This time I came to you because of the script you submitted to our studio, "Jin Xiaoyong's buddy, Hu Meimei's brother, Liang Changyou's son: Xiaowu."

Somehow, when they heard Assistant Li say the name of the script, the three of them felt a little embarrassed.

When they gave the script this title, they didn't feel that way.

The main reason is that Assistant Li speaks very slowly. It takes him seven or eight seconds just to read the name.

When Wang Zhimin, who was standing next to him, heard the name, the corners of his mouth twitched.

She had previously published an article in "Film Creation" in which she mentioned the title of a movie and said that the title of a movie should not be too long.

But her students gave the movie such a long name.

After a brief moment of embarrassment, Jia Zhangke and the other two all showed excitement on their faces.

Just now on the way back to the dormitory, they were still discussing about sending the script for the collection, but they didn't expect that they would be approached the next moment.

This studio is so efficient.

Wang Hongwei responded the fastest. He smiled and said, "Hello, Assistant Li, we did invest in this script. This is Jia Zhangke, and he wrote the script."

Assistant Li nodded and said, "Director Zhou really appreciates this script. Do you have time to come to our studio?"

"Today?"

"Well, if you can, you can come with me now."

Jia Zhangke looked at Wang Zhimin hesitantly, "We have time now, but we have classes in the fifth and sixth periods, so I don't know if we have enough time."

Wang Zhimin smiled and said, "You guys go with Assistant Li. I'll approve your leave."

The reason why Jia Zhangke met Wang Zhimin was to ask Wang Zhimin to give them the green light. Now that he has been approved for leave, he is naturally happy.

"Thank you, Teacher Wang."

Wang Zhimin waved his hand and said, "Go ahead. You must seize the opportunity when you meet Director Zhou and learn a lot from him."

……

The distance from Yenching Film Academy to the studio is very close and it doesn’t take long to walk.

Assistant Li drove here. Jia Zhangke and his friends were sitting in the car and it felt like they had just stepped on the accelerator and they had arrived.

When they arrived at the studio, Assistant Li first informed Zhou Yan, and then took Jia Zhangke and others to Zhou Yan's office.

When they arrived at the office, Zhou Yan had just hung up the phone with Xu Xiangjie. Seeing them coming, Zhou Yan stood up with a smile, "Three students, please take a seat. Xiao Li, please help me pour three cups of tea."

After Jia Zhangke and the others sat down, they wanted to look around Zhou Yan's office, but they were too embarrassed to do so, so they just sat upright on the sofa, looking at the coffee table in front of them.

Zhou Yan looked at the three people in front of him with a smile on his face. He thought Jia Zhangke was very young at this time, after all, he was still a student. He didn't expect that Jia Zhangke looked quite old now.

Of course, Jia Zhangke himself is not young anymore. He was born in 70, the same year as Zhou Yan.

Being looked at by Zhou Yan, the three of them were a little nervous. After all, Zhou Yan was well-known and was a superior figure in their hearts.

Zhou Yan saw their nervousness and said with a smile, "You should know that I called you here because of the matter of Xiao Wu. There is a problem with the length of this script. I am afraid it will not pass this short film script collection."

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, the three of them were stunned and felt disappointed.

They originally thought that Zhou Yan specially sent someone to call them over because the script passed the solicitation activity, but they didn't expect that the script Zhou Yan gave them with his first sentence was eliminated.

Of course, they also felt strange. If they were eliminated, why did they have to be called over with such fanfare? It couldn't be just to announce the elimination result in person, right?

How could a busy man like Zhou Yan have such a bad taste?
Before they could figure it out, Zhou Yan continued, "However, I plan to invest in them and make this script into a feature film. Do you have the confidence?"

As soon as Zhou Yan finished speaking, the eyes of the three people gradually widened. They looked at each other in surprise, and then Jia Zhangke nodded repeatedly, "I have confidence, of course I have confidence."

Wang Hongwei couldn't help but say, "In fact, we originally wrote the script according to the feature film, but we deleted it because of this short film event."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Then tell me, how much budget does this movie need?" (End of this chapter)