HuaYu: A Great Director Starting with Dream of the Red Chamber

"Teacher, please tell me honestly, just who is this junior brother of mine?"

On the other end of the phone, Guo Fumin paused for a moment, "What's wrong? Is there a problem with the audition?"

"Why bother with the audition! They whipped up a proposal for me in less than two hours, and after seeing it, I threw away the one I'd spent a month working on."

Zhang Qiang stood in the corridor and took a deep drag on his cigarette.

He agreed, but he still wanted to find out more about Li Yan from the teacher.

"You wouldn't believe it, the script and storyboard were so damn professional!"

Anyone who didn't know better would think he'd been making movies for years. With a script like this, I wouldn't even bother with Canon unless they doubled the price.

Guo Fumin was a little confused. "What? He can draw storyboards?"

"How could it be fake? I was stunned! Alright, teacher, I'll keep it. I'll thank you in person later."

"Hey, hey, don't mistreat the kids!"

"No way, you know what kind of person I am. Okay, I'll hang up now."

"..."

Halfway through the call, Zhang Qiang realized that even Lao Guo didn't know the full extent of Li Yan's abilities.

However, he had at least made a record of it, so if anything happened later, it wouldn't be considered a slap in the face to the teacher.

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Qiang crossed his arms and glanced at the office.

No matter how uncertain we are, since we've already taken the gamble, let's go all out for now and deal with the rest when we hit a wall.

On the other side of the glass door, Li Yan was curled up on the sofa, idly flipping through an outdated copy of "Movie Watch".

He didn't necessarily want to stay here.

The office buildings in Jianwai have such great natural light; it feels warm and cozy against your skin, much more comfortable than the rental rooms in Dongba.

Anyway, my senior colleague is leading the whole company in working like crazy to finish the proposal, so he can't take care of it for the time being.

Li Yan remained calm.

As long as I'm not embarrassed, it's others who are embarrassed...

As the workday was drawing to a close, the conference room door finally opened.

Zhang Qiang walked in, beaming, holding a proposal book.

"Alright! Come on, junior brother, I'll treat you to a good meal and introduce you to the people in our company."

This is exactly what Li Yan was waiting for.

A big face means you can eat from all directions.

The balance in his bank card made him completely inflexible...

In places like Jianwai, where cattle and horses congregate, you can't find many good restaurants except for business banquets.

After a long, noisy discussion outside, Zhang Qiang finally waved his hand and said, "Let's have hot pot!"

The moment the steaming hot pot was served, the atmosphere immediately became lively.

Zhang Qiang was a generous man; while opening an ice-cold beer, he introduced his team to Li Yan.

The man with slicked-back hair and a refined demeanor is Wang Hao, the director of GG. He was recruited by GG because he couldn't get used to working in a domestic 4A agency after returning from studying abroad.

Next to him is photographer Li Yong, and Jingtai is his old friend.

The apple-faced girl with her head down, struggling with the sesame paste in her bowl, is named Ding Xiaoxiao. Li Yan has come in to pour her water a few times when he was dozing off in the office.

The rest were all young people, and after a few beers, they quickly became acquainted.

Taking advantage of the moment, Zhang Qiang patted Li Yan on the shoulder:

"Junior brother, I think you should stop going back to being an extra and come work for me as a creative director. You can get a year-end bonus. Isn't that better than having to deal with other people's attitudes?"

Putting aside the director's role, Li Yan's idea alone is very valuable to GG Entertainment.

Li Yan noticed the surprise of the group and shook his head with a smile:

"Well, we need to make this film look good first, right?"

Zhang Qiang didn't press the matter and changed the subject to something lighter:

"That's true. If we do this job well, maybe we can even make it to the Great Wall Awards."

Li Yong, who had known him the longest, spoke without reservation, "Wow, so confident? Why don't you mention Cannes!"

Cannes not only has a film festival, but also the Gossip Festival, which was later renamed the Cannes International Festival of Creativity and is known as the "Oscars of Gossip".

"Thinking about it isn't illegal! Do you dare say this plan is impossible to implement?"

Wang Hao nodded slightly. He had worked at Ogilvy and approved of the idea.

However, he had previously stated in a meeting that he had reservations about Li Yan becoming a director.

Zhang Qiang laughed, thought for a moment, turned around and asked:

"Junior brother, how are you planning to shoot this film? Just name any equipment you need, and I'll sell everything I own to get it for you."

Li Yanxin understood immediately; this was to let him reveal his true abilities in front of everyone.

He quickly went through the process in his mind, then put down his chopsticks:

"For a high-quality look, a single-camera ARRI Alexa setup with Cook's S4 lens assembly should be sufficient. If that's not possible..."

Before he could finish speaking, Li Yong interrupted, "Wait a minute, Ashyasa?"

Oh no, I was careless.

Forget about Elisa, the "magic weapon" that later dominated Hollywood; it won't be released until next year.

He chuckled and smoothly said, "I mean, there's no need to use Alai or Red One, after all, our budget is limited."

"Red One, you Zhang Yimou!" Li Yong said bluntly.

Zhang Qiang was afraid that his junior brother would show weakness again, so he asked, "What do you want to use? If you don't have any ideas, I'll just have to figure it out."

Li Yan rested his chin on his hand, his mind racing.

Oh right, how could I forget it, the "Invincible Rabbit"?

The EOS 5D Mark II, a single-lens reflex camera released by Canon at the end of last year.

It has only been on the market in China for two or three months.

This thing was originally designed for photographers to take pictures, but Canon added a 1080p video recording function to it.

Flashing a Magic Lantern firmware, paired with a large aperture lens, will definitely be enough.

The American TV series "House" even filmed an episode specifically using it.

Most importantly, no one has yet realized that this thing can be used to shoot short films.

Li Yan made up his mind and calmly said, "Since it's a Canon, we can shoot like this, using the '5D Mark II'!"

"What the heck?" Zhang Qiang was confused again.

Ding Xiaoxiao, who was focused on cooking the meat, suddenly looked up and timidly raised her hand: "That's... a DSLR camera, right?"

Li Yan looked at her in surprise. "You know?"

Ding Xiaoxiao adjusted her large black-rimmed glasses and nodded. "I just bought one during the Chinese New Year."

"Wow, she's a little rich girl! Over 20,000!"

"No way!"

"Where are you from?"

"From Haidian District."

"Understood..."

Zhang Qiang frowned. "You mean, you want to take a picture of GG?"

Li Yong, being a professionally trained engineer, had always paid close attention to equipment news, and he picked up the conversation:

"That thing is just a DSLR. Although it's full-frame, the video bitrate is pitifully low. Even the slightest movement will result in a rolling shutter effect. Are you sure you want to use it to shoot?"

He's a photographer, technically skilled, and in his view, DSLRs aren't even toys in the video field.

Li Yan nodded: "I'm not kidding. Isn't that its biggest selling point? Full-frame, 1080P! As long as we set up the lighting properly and add a stabilizer, the results will be perfect."

At this point, he looked at Zhang Qiang again, "More importantly, as long as we can get the shots, Canon will definitely buy them!"

Ding Xiaoxiao couldn't help but ask, "Why?"

Before Li Yan could explain, Wang Hao, who hadn't been very enthusiastic before, suddenly spoke up to him:

"Can they really film that?"

Li Yan glanced at the bloodshot eyes under Wang Hao's gaze, smiled, and nodded.

"Definitely! You'll see when you try it on a machine tomorrow."

Having received a reply, Wang Hao, contrary to his usual behavior, gulped down a mouthful of beer and looked at Zhang Qiang:

"If he can film it, I guarantee this proposal is a sure thing!"

Zhang Qiang's hand, holding the beer, froze in mid-air, his mouth slightly open.

What's going on?

He hadn't reacted yet.

Staying up all night and drinking ice-cold beer made Wang Hao lose his composure slightly:

"Awesome! 'Shooting with a Canon using a Canon'—that's a brilliant selling point, even more brilliant than the T1GG itself!"

Zhang Qiang finally understood, and after a long while, he managed to stammer out:

"Holy crap..."