Rebirth 02, the Celestial Being Told Me to Stop Pretending

Yang Lin was very efficient; she gave Lu Chen and Ning Hao their phone numbers the very next day.

Lu Chen dialed the number, and it rang six times before being answered.

"Who is it?" The voice on the other end of the phone sounded impatient, as if someone had been disturbed.

"Ning Hao? I'm Lu Chen from the Directing Department, Class of 01."

"Lu Chen?" Ning Hao took two seconds to react.

"Lu Chen, the guy who made the short film? How do you have my phone number?"

"This was given to me by Teacher Yang Lin. I'd like to talk to you about it, do you have time?"

"What are you going to talk about?"

"Let's talk about movies."

There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.

For a young director who is still making a living by shooting music videos, talking about movies is more attractive than any other condition.

"Are you at school?"

"right."

"I'll come over this afternoon, at three o'clock, at the Lanzhou noodle shop near the school gate."

"it is good."

After hanging up the phone, Lu Chen opened his notebook and began to organize the script outline for "Diamond".

He remembers every scene, every line, and every joke from "Crazy Stone" in his past life. What he needs to do now is not to create, but to translate what he remembers into the language of 2002, and then make some adjustments to suit the current environment.

For example, Dao Ge's line "Manners, mind your manners" from the original version would still be funny if said in 2002. And Hei Pi's line "Brand, Baleno" would only be more hilarious in 2002 when Baleno was at its peak of popularity.

But some things need to be changed. For example, the original filming location was Chongqing, so he had to determine the filming location in advance. Also, he had to find the original cast members one by one.

Lu Chen spent the entire morning writing the script outline to its third draft.

It contains over 30,000 words, covering all the main scenes and key lines, and the timeline is marked at the intersection of each storyline.

At 2:30 p.m., Lu Chen arrived at the Lanzhou Ramen Restaurant ahead of schedule.

The noodle shop was small, with six tables and a large pot of steaming hot noodles at the entrance.

Lu Chen found a seat by the window, ordered a bowl of beef noodles, and ate slowly.

Just before three o'clock, Ning Hao pushed open the door and came in.

Lu Chen recognized him at a glance. Thin, dark-skinned, with messy hair, wearing an old military green jacket over a worn-out gray T-shirt.

He was carrying a canvas bag, the zipper of which was broken in half and tied with a rope.

He looks even poorer than Lu Chen.

"Lu Chen?" Ning Hao sat down opposite him and sized him up.

"You said you wanted to talk about movies, what movies?"

Without saying a word, Lu Chen took the notebook out of his bag and pushed it in front of Ning Hao.

"Take a look at this first."

Ning Hao glanced at him suspiciously and opened his notebook.

The first page reads two words: "Diamonds".

Ning Hao turned to the second page and began to read carefully.

He watched it for about ten minutes.

During this time, the noodle shop owner came over and asked if he wanted to order anything. Lu Chen ordered two large bowls of beef noodles, but unfortunately, they didn't have large bowls of wide noodles.

Finally, Ning Hao closed his notebook and looked up.

His eyes were noticeably different from when he entered; Lu Chen was very familiar with that look.

He had seen it countless times in his past life; it was the irrepressible excitement a creator felt when they saw something good.

"Multiple narratives?" Ning Hao asked.

"Three storylines, cross-cutting, finally converging at the same point in time."

"Dark humor?"

"Yes. Humor doesn't come from jokes, it comes from structure. After the audience finishes laughing, they will realize that they are laughing at themselves."

Ning Hao nodded, his fingers unconsciously tapping twice on the table.

"Did you write this notebook?"

"right."

"You're a sophomore in college, how could you write something like this? But if you can write 'Who Turned Off My Lights,' then it's understandable that you could write this."

"I've watched a lot of movies," Lu Chen said. That was the truth, except that he watched them in his past life.

Ning Hao opened the notebook again, turned to the middle page, and pointed to a line of dialogue: "Here, Blackie says, 'I'm giving you face; if it were anyone else, I would have already taken action,' and then Brother Dao says, 'Try taking action, and I'll call the police'... This part is wrong."

"What's wrong?"

"Blackie won't give you face; he'll just attack. Dao won't call the police either; he'll say, 'Try touching me.'" Ning Hao's speech quickened. "These two are thugs. Thugs don't talk about face; they only talk about profit. It's wrong to expect them to talk about face."

Lu Chen's heart skipped a beat.

He wrote this line based on his memories from his previous life, but Ning Hao's words make sense.

This part was indeed changed in the original version. Later, Huang Bo and Liu Hua improvised the lyrics on set, and the effect was much better than the original script.

"You're right," Lu Chen said. "Then you revise it."

Ning Hao was stunned for a moment: "What?"

"I'm telling you, you'll be working on this project with me." Lu Chen wiped his mouth.

"I've written the basic framework for this script, but I need someone to help me polish the details. You graduated from the cinematography department of Beijing Film Academy and won Best Director at the College Student Film Festival last year. Your sense of structure and rhythm is better than mine."

Ning Hao stared at him for a few seconds: "What do you want me to do?"

"Be my assistant director."

"Assistant director?" Ning Hao's expression seemed to say: Are you serious?

"Yes. I'll be the director and producer, and you'll direct the film and polish the script details."

"Why are you looking for me?"

"I watched your student film from last year, 'Thursday, Wednesday.' The cinematography was very restrained, but the narrative pacing was precise. You weren't just making pictures; you were telling a story. There aren't many people like that."

Ning Hao didn't speak, but looked down and flipped through the notebook again.

"What's the budget?" he asked.

"Around three million."

"Three million?" Ning Hao looked up. "Aren't you the 'bankrupt guy' from Beijing Film Academy? Where did you get the money?"

Holy crap, everyone knows this persona.

Lu Chen took a sip of the noodle soup.

The money is being spent.

Ning Hao looked at him, his lips twitching slightly: "You don't even have any money, yet you dare to hire someone?"

"I'll take care of the money; you just focus on creating."

"What about the pay?"

"No salary. We'll give you five percent of the box office revenue."

Ning Hao's expression was exactly the same as Zhang Songwen's yesterday.

But Ning Hao was different from Zhang Songwen in that he didn't hesitate for too long.

"OK."

Lu Chen was taken aback: "Aren't you going to reconsider?"

"What are you thinking about?" Ning Hao pushed the laptop back. "I'm shooting music videos every day now, earning three thousand yuan for each one. Even if I shoot twenty a year, that's only sixty thousand yuan. If you give me five percent of the box office revenue, even if it only grosses ten million, I can still get five hundred thousand yuan. That's more than you could make me shoot music videos for the rest of my life."

He stood up and slung his canvas bag over his shoulder: "And this notebook is really good. Good enough that I'd be willing to take a gamble."

Lu Chen watched his retreating figure and suddenly called out to him, "Ning Hao."

"Um?"

"Come to the school tomorrow afternoon. I'd like to introduce you to someone."

"Who?"

"Zhang Songwen. A teacher in the acting department, he will be responsible for training actors in the future."

Ning Hao thought for a moment: "Zhang Songwen? I've heard of him, he teaches acting."

After saying that, he pushed open the door and left, his figure in the military green jacket disappearing into the steam at the entrance of the noodle shop.

Lu Chen sat in his seat, looking at the bowl of beef noodles on the table that had gone cold, and silently did some mental calculations.

Zhang Songwen, 5%. Ning Hao, 5%. Zhao Bo and Wang Yan together, 5%.

Five percent is reserved for the options pool.

He himself produces, directs, and writes at least 20% of the films.

Sixty percent of the shares will be distributed to the investors.

Now we have the puzzle pieces.

The trio has officially arrived: Lu Chen, Zhang Songwen, and Ning Hao.

He directed the film himself, Ning Hao was the assistant director and script refiner, Zhang Songwen was the acting director, Zhao Bo was the cinematographer, and Wang Yan was the logistics coordinator.

There are only two things missing: money and actors.

He already has a plan regarding the money.

Lu Chen opened his phone's contacts and found a name: Han Shangping.

He is the vice chairman of China Film Group Corporation and an old friend of Tian Zhuangzhuang.

In his past life, he had dealt with Han Shangping a few times and knew that this man didn't care about a person's background when evaluating projects; he only looked at the rate of return. A three million investment was nothing to a vice chairman of China Film Group. But the key was how to convince him that a sophomore could turn three million into a real return.

Lu Chen thought for a moment and sent Tian Zhuangzhuang a text message:

"Professor Tian, ​​I'd like to discuss a film project with you. If it's convenient, I'll come to your office tomorrow morning."

Less than a minute after the text message was sent, Tian Zhuangzhuang replied with two words:

"bring it on."

Lu Chen put his phone back in his pocket, stood up, and paid the bill.

Two bowls of beef noodles, six yuan.

He walked out of the noodle shop, and the late autumn wind rushed into his collar, making him shiver.

But he didn't care; his mind was filled with the storyboard of "Diamonds," going through it frame by frame, like a projector that had been turned on.

Tomorrow, he has two things to do at the same time: persuade Tian Zhuangzhuang and arrange for Zhang Songwen and Ning Hao to meet.

If both of these things happen, then "Diamonds" will truly move from the imagination into reality.