1990: Starting from Baojia Street

"The Sixth Sense" has grossed more than 13 million US dollars at the box office in North America, which is a moderate miracle for Chinese-language films.

And this miracle has had some wonderful effects on the development of Chinese-language films.

Before the final North American box office results of "The Sixth Sense" were released, Xiangjiang Golden Harvest Film Company sensed a glimmer of business opportunity.

Nowadays, some actors in Xiangjiang are seeking to enter Hollywood, especially Jackie Chan, and Golden Harvest Company is also vigorously promoting Jackie Chan and wants to promote him to Hollywood.

Therefore, when Golden Harvest filmed "Red Zone" last year, they wanted to use this movie as a stepping stone to open the door to Hollywood.

In January, the movie was released in Hong Kong and was a box office success.

The decision to send "Red Zone" to North America for release was made during the filming process. It is expected that the film will land in North America early next year.

However, after "The Sixth Sense" was released in North America, Golden Harvest's ideas changed. They became more urgent and wanted to send some movies before "Red Zone".

Therefore, before New Year's Eve, Golden Harvest was contacting American film producers, trying to send their previously filmed films to North America for release.

Because of the success of "The Sixth Sense", some American film producers have become more interested in Chinese movies, so Golden Harvest quickly found a buyer.

In the end, American film producers took a liking to "Police Story 3: Super Cop".

The reason why I fell in love with this movie is very simple. This movie, released in 1992, won the global box office championship of Chinese-language movies that year and had very good results.

And the director of this movie, Tang Jili, is also the director of "Red Zone".

A few days after "The Sixth Sense" was released at the North American box office, some media in Hong Kong reported that "Police Story 3" was about to land in North America. The film will be released in North America in mid-March.

Many people are looking forward to this movie, especially some film companies. They want to know whether Chinese-language movies can be popular in North America. Just a "The Sixth Sense" cannot explain the problem.

Zhou Yan doesn't have the energy to care about these things. He is currently actively preparing for "Spring of the Cowherd Class".

The school has been built, but the scenery work has just begun.

However, Zhou Yan is not worried at all about the scenery production, because the scenery production work of "The Spring of the Cowherd Class" was done personally by the Yang Zhan family, which is also the support of Yanjing Studio to their crew.

For a scenery master like Yang Zhanjia, the scenery creation in "Spring of the Cowherd Class" is simply a piece of cake. Moreover, Zhou Yan has already completed the preliminary design of the scenery. The scenery production team only needs to follow the design. Just do it. At most, you can make some modifications on the basis of the original.

It was Zhou Yan who provided the framework, and Yang Zhanjia and others were responsible for enriching the details.

Zhou Yan spent the first week of March in Jiangjuntuo. He personally followed the production team and paid attention to every detail in the school.

Although most of the scenery is designed in advance, what is on paper may not necessarily be copied on site.

Sometimes, after the on-site production work is completed, if Zhou Yan finds any problems, he will raise them on the spot and discuss the modification plan with Yang Zhanjia.

During this period, Zhou Yan also learned a lot.

Although it is said that they built a complete school, in fact, some shots cannot be shot with real scenes. Some "mechanisms" must be built on the original real scenes to facilitate the use of the lenses during filming.

If you want to have fun while making a movie, you need to rely on these "mechanisms".

While discussing with Yang Zhanjia, Zhou Yan also got a lot of inspiration. For example, he suddenly had the idea to shoot a set of shots that were transported from the inside of the mirror to the outside of the mirror.

Yang Zhanjia was very experienced. He told Zhou Yan that it could be achieved with a one-way mirror, but Zhou Yan also wanted to capture the person in the mirror while moving the mirror.

This became difficult, because there was basically no way to ensure that the lens would not penetrate. Later, the two discussed it and thought that they could find a stand-in and sit opposite the mirror to replace the person in the mirror, so that a 360-degree rotation could be achieved. lens.

……

On Zhou Yan's last day in Jiangjuntuo, Xia Guobao came to find him.

Last year, Zhou Yan "abandoned" Li Haining and Xia Guobao to Jiangjuntuo and made them suffer with the construction team. Project manager Kan Weiming implemented Zhou Yan's words well and arranged a lot of work for the two children.

At first, the two children were very excited and found the work at the construction site very interesting. But after a few days of working, they realized how powerful it was.

Compared with studying in a studio, work on a construction site is really hard. Especially when the weather is cold, getting up in the morning is a very test of willpower.

So after a few days of work, the two children regretted it.

However, these two children were quite brave. Although they regretted it, they did not clamor to Zhou Yan to go back. They really persisted until now.

Later, when the school was built and the construction team withdrew, Zhou Yan did not let them leave. Instead, he asked them to help with the scenery production, props and other teams.

Zhou Yan was originally looking at the landscape drawings drawn by Yang Zhan's family. When he saw Xia Guobao coming to see him, he put the drawing down and asked with a smile, "Guobao, what do you want from me?"

Xia Guobao pinched the corner of his clothes in embarrassment and hesitated for a long time before speaking, "Teacher Zhou, we are a bit lacking in singing practice. I'm worried that the effect will not be good during post-production."

As soon as he heard this, Zhou Yan knew what Xia Guobao wanted to say.

"So, you want to go back to the studio and strengthen your training?"

"Yeah." Xia Guobao nodded repeatedly.

Zhou Yan smiled, pointed to the chair opposite and said, "Sit down."

Xia Guobao hesitated for a moment, then walked over and sat down.

"You sit down and wait for a while, I'll finish reading the pictures first."

"it is good."

Zhou Yan nodded and started to look at the pictures.

At this glance, an hour had passed.

The longer Xia Guobao sat, the more uneasy he felt, but he did not dare to disturb Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan couldn't help but smile when he saw Xia Guobao's nervous look. He knew the situation of these two children here.

It is said that when they have nothing to do, these two children will also practice singing by themselves.

People are so strange. Sometimes if you pull him hard, he always wants to escape, but if you push him out appropriately, he will run over again with all his strength.

During the days when they were learning to sing in the studio, singing has become an indispensable part of these two children's lives, but they don't realize it, so they feel annoyed when they are learning.

But during this time in Jiangjuntuo, after leaving the studio, no one caught them practicing every day. Instead, they realized that they could no longer live without music.

The hardship on the construction site is one thing, but more importantly, they discovered that life without music is truly boring.

Looking at the nervous Xia Guobao, Zhou Yan put down the drawings again, and then said, "I won't take you back this time."

"Ah?" Xia Guobao was stunned.

Although he had realized before that Zhou Yan might not take them back, the moment he heard the answer, he was still very surprised and disappointed.

Xia Guobao pursed his lips and stood up slowly without any further fight with Zhou Yan. "I understand, Teacher Zhou."

This is the difference between Xia Guobao and Li Haining. If it were Li Haining, he would definitely have to fight with Zhou Yan, and he might even get into trouble.

Just when Xia Guobao turned to leave, Zhou Yan suddenly said, "Although I won't take you back, you don't have to work with the crew in the future."

Xia Guobao looked at Zhou Yan and blinked, a little confused, "Then we just stay here?"

He doesn't quite understand, since they don't want them to work here, why are they still here?

"The movie is about to start. In order to help the students get into shape as soon as possible, starting next week, all students will come to Jiangjuntuo to study. This will become a real school, and all of you will study with the teacher here. ”

"Are we going to school here?"

"Well, until the filming of the movie is over, you will all go to school here. I will send special teachers here to teach you knowledge."

"Are there any music lessons?"

"The class schedule will be posted on the classroom door on the first day of school, so you can check it out yourself."

Xia Guobao was quite happy to hear that they were going to stay for class. Although he couldn't go back, it was good to have class here, and according to Teacher Zhou, many students would come with him.

If you have a companion, at least it won't be too boring.

"Teacher Zhou, I understand, I will definitely study hard."

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes and smiled, "Let me remind you one thing. Your classmates are quite individual. You should pay attention when getting along with them."

Xia Guobao didn't pay much attention to Zhou Yan's reminder.

No matter how individual he is, can he be more individual than Haining? Students with personality like Haining can play well. He wasn't worried about other students at all.

It’s not like Teacher Zhou would find a group of ruffians to make a movie, right?

Seeing that Xia Guobao didn't care much, Zhou Yan didn't say anything.

There is a high probability that the future study life will not be as beautiful as Xia Guobao imagined.

In order to allow students to enter the state, Chidi School will implement the same system as in the movie, strictly controlling the children, and most of this group of students are restless teenagers.

In order to select these students, the director team spent a lot of effort.

Many students seem to be supporting roles, but it is not easy to choose them because these characters have strict character settings, and they must be selected according to the character settings.

In fact, there is an advantage to letting students come to school here, that is, it can not affect the academic performance of these students to the greatest extent, although the academic level of many students is not good enough.

After Xia Guobao walked out of the office, Li Haining quickly ran over, "What's going on? Why did you stay in there for so long? Did Teacher Zhou give you ideological education?"

"No." Xia Guobao shook his head, "Teacher Zhou and I haven't spoken a few words in total."

"You didn't say a few words?" Li Haining looked surprised, "It must have been more than an hour since you went in. You haven't said a few words in such a long time?"

"Teacher Zhou is busy looking at the drawings, and I have been waiting for him."

"Oh, what about the result? What did he say? Will he take us back?"

"Without."

Hearing the word "no", Li Haining, who was originally excited, suddenly became discouraged and said, "Old Zhou, this guy is so cruel." The original "Teacher Zhou" suddenly became "Old Zhou".

"but."

"But what?"

"However, Teacher Zhou said that we don't need to help with the work later. Other students will be here in a few days, and Teacher Zhou will also send some teachers over so that we can have normal classes here."

"Class is normal...that's not bad." Li Haining nodded, "It seems that the computer is about to be turned on, so Teacher Zhou wants us to get into the state as soon as possible."

"Old Zhou" became "Teacher Zhou" again.

Xia Guobao nodded, "Yes, that's what Teacher Zhou said."

As for the reminder Zhou Yan gave him, he didn't tell Li Haining because he didn't take it to heart at all.

……

The next day, Zhou Yan left Jiangjuntuo and returned to Xicheng District.

Not long after he arrived home, he received a call from Xu Junrong.

"Teacher Zhou, I have some good news to tell you."

"What good news?"

"We have signed Wu Bai."

Zhou Yan's eyes lit up, "This is indeed good news. Manager Xu, you did a good job."

"This is also my responsibility, but this time in order to sign Wu Bai, we gave him very high conditions, which are basically close to the standards of a first-line singer. We also helped him pay a liquidated damages of 460,000, including His band was also signed together. Also, we didn’t get the rights to the albums he produced before.”

Hearing this condition, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, as long as you can sign it."

What Xu Junrong said, the only thing that made Zhou Yan feel regretful was that he did not get the copyright of the previous two albums, but this is normal. It would be good if Rolling Stone could let people go, so how could they still give in on this?

Of course, it's a pity that it's only a little bit, not too much.

Wu Bai is still some time away from his creative peak. Compared with the previous two albums, his subsequent albums are much more valuable.

Moreover, there is a lot of room for manipulation when it comes to copyright. You can re-record a hardcover version or a special edition, and you can still use it if you change the name later.

"The boss means to hold a lively signing ceremony for Wu Bai."

"No problem, just do what the boss wants. After signing Wu Bai, you will get some snacks. We don't have many singers in our company now, so we will focus more resources on him."

Zhou Hong wanted to hold a signing ceremony with great fanfare, and Zhou Yan certainly understood what he meant. Zhou doesn't have much strength right now, so he can use this incident to promote himself, and at the same time tell the artists that their company attaches great importance to artists.

Pushing Wu Bai out might make Zhou more attractive to Taiwanese artists.

"I know this. After all, I paid such a high price to sign him. I plan to arrange a live album for him first and release it in a few months."

Zhou Yan smiled. Xu Junrong really didn't want to suffer. As soon as he signed Wu Bai, he wanted to let Wu Bai help him make money.

The live album is to record the version of Wu Bai's live performance and make it into an album, which can avoid the copyright issues of the original two albums.

"Of course there is no problem with this live album, but we need to pay more attention to his new album and his concerts."

Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Xu Junrong laughed, "What you said really touched Wu Bai's heart. When I went to sign him this time, he had one request, which was to be able to hold a concert."

For a singer, holding a concert is very attractive. The goal of many singers is to hold a grand concert.

There is a huge difference between whether a singer has held a concert or not.

"Since he wants to do it, then prepare it for him."

"clear."

After hanging up the phone from Xu Junrong, Zhou Yan was in a good mood. Although Zhou's company doesn't have many singers now, with No. 43 Baojia Street and Wu Bai, the lineup is already pretty good.

If we sign a few more potential newcomers later, the team will basically be set up.

As for the actors, one is Chen Hong and the other is Ning Jing, both of whom are pretty good too.

……

The popularity of "The Sixth Sense" lasted until mid-March, when "Police Story 3" usurped the popularity.

Unlike "The Sixth Sense", which was ignored when it was first released, "Police Story 3" performed quite well when it was first released in North America, with a box office of nearly US$ million in its first weekend.

This box office directly created a new record, which is the first weekend box office record for a Chinese-language film released in North America. No Chinese-language film has had such a good start before.

After all, with the exception of "The Sixth Sense", several other Chinese-language films only grossed more than US$7 million at the box office.

"Farewell My Concubine" was so popular at the time that it only grossed over 3 million US dollars at the box office in North America. This means that "Police Story " will most likely surpass the final box office of "Farewell My Concubine" in its first week.

Facts have proved that "Police Story 3" did indeed do it. The film earned more than million US dollars at the box office in the first seven days of its release in North America, becoming the top four Chinese-language films in North America at the box office.

On top of it are "The Night Banquet" worth 7.3 million, "Eat Drink Man and Woman" worth 7.3 million, and "The Sixth Sense" worth 13 million.

It's basically a sure thing to surpass "The Banquet" and "Eat Drink". It just depends on whether it can surpass "The Sixth Sense". If the box office of "Police Story 3" finally surpasses "The Sixth Sense", it will set a new record.

Another week later, the box office of "Police Story 3" exceeded million US dollars, leaving only more than million US dollars behind the box office of "The Sixth Sense".

The movie will be released in North America in half a month.

In the remaining half month, it is too easy for "Police Story 3" to get more than one million US dollars at the box office.

Therefore, when the box office of "Police Story 3" reached million US dollars, major media were already reporting that this movie would reach the top and become the new king.

At the same time, some media did not forget to take a look at "The Sixth Sense", saying that "The Sixth Sense" holds the record for the shortest time in history.

While the news that "Police Story 3" was about to surpass "The Sixth Sense" was overwhelmingly reported in mainland China and Hong Kong, Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian had already appeared in Plymouth, Devon, England.

After the filming starts, the crew will shoot at Saltlen Mansion to shoot scenes inside Nolan Manor, which is the first shooting location of the movie.

The crew was stationed at the Rose Hotel, two kilometers away from the Salteren mansion, and they arranged a room for Zhou Yan in the hotel.

The two entered the hotel under the guidance of the crew, and met Kate Winslet, one of the heroines, on the way.

"Miss Winslet." The staff greeted Kate.

Kate was quite curious when she saw two Asians with black hair and eyes, but she didn't say anything, just nodded, and left with them.

After she left, Jefferson introduced to Zhou Yan, "This is Winslet who plays Marianne. She is a new actress who has just debuted."

"She does look young."

"It should be about the same age as you," Jefferson said.

"We are much older than her." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Really?" Jefferson muttered, "You guys seem smaller."

In the eyes of Europeans and Americans, Asian faces do appear smaller.

Kate should be less than 20 years old, which is considered to be the age of just entering college in China, but she does look similar to Zhou Yan and others. European and American people are generally more mature.

In Jefferson's eyes, Zhou Yan was probably around twenty years old.

He knew that Zhou Yan was the film's soundtrack director, so when he met Zhou Yan, he was very surprised. He had never seen such a young soundtrack director before.

After taking Zhou Yan and the others to the room, Jefferson said with a smile, "You two can rest for a while. The director and the others are outside. It will probably take a while before they come back."

Zhou Yan nodded, "Okay, thank you."

After Jefferson left, Wang Zuxian stretched himself and said, "I'm exhausted from the journey. This place is so remote."

They flew to London, and then took a long drive to Plymouth, which was really exciting along the way.

But now is not the time to sleep, they must wait until night to sleep again and reverse the jet lag.

Wang Zuxian walked to the window and pushed it open. Outside the hotel was a green hillside. This area was far away from the city, with blue sky and white clouds, and the scenery was particularly pleasant.

Looking at the scenery outside, Wang Zuxian felt comfortable, and then sat down on the lounge chair by the window.

"Fortunately, the hard work along the way is worth it. It is really suitable for relaxing here. The only drawback is that there is no sunshine."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Plymouth is a relatively sunny place."

Plymouth has a very pleasant climate, at least better than London.

Zhou Yan sat down on the chair next to him and looked at the scenery outside with Wang Zuxian. At this moment, neither of them wanted to talk, they just wanted to treat themselves as empty cabbages.

After resting for a while, Wang Zuxian patted his legs and stood up, starting to pack his luggage.

When they came this time, they didn't have much luggage and didn't bring many clothes, so they thought they could buy something here.

Zhou Yan originally wanted to bring some musical instruments, but after thinking about it he gave up. He asked An Li in advance and found that the crew had many musical instruments, which could basically meet his needs.

About half an hour later, Zhou Yan and Wang Zuxian were playing backgammon when there was a knock on the door of the room.

"Probably An Li."

Zhou Yan spoke to Wang Zuxian and went to open the door, but it was not An Li who knocked on the door, but two Europeans and Americans, a man and a woman.

"Hello, I'm Anthony Bregman." The man introduced himself first, and then introduced the woman next to him to Zhou Yan, "This is Emma Thompson."

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes and smiled. He turned out to be the producer and screenwriter of the movie.

Emma Thompson is not only the screenwriter, but also the heroine of the film. She plays the eldest sister Elinor. (End of chapter)