1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After Zhang Youan chatted with Zhou Yan, he left the room, probably to negotiate with the general manager of Crave Company.

Zhou Yan thinks this should take a lot of work. The record company Mariah Carey works with is Columbia. I'm afraid I can't make the decision on the album. If "Young and Beautiful" wants to be among the top two hits, I'm afraid it needs the help of Columbia Records. Just agree.

This condition seems simple, but it is actually quite difficult for them. Zhang Youan said that Mariah Carey's new album will be released in October.

So according to convention, the title song should be released before the album is released, that is, around September, the first single to promote the album should be released.

It is now late July, and there are less than two months left. Under such circumstances, it is difficult for Columbia Company to agree, because it will really disrupt their plans.

But what Zhou Yan didn't expect was that the other party would reply so quickly.

The next morning, Zhou Yan had just had breakfast and was doing exercises in his room when there was a knock on the door.

Zhou Yan lay on the ground, raised his head and asked, "Who is it?"

"Me." Zhang Youan's voice came out.

Zhou Yan got up from the ground, picked up a towel, wiped his sweat, and walked to open the door.

But when the door opened, Zhou Yan was dumbfounded. Zhang Youan was not the only one outside the door, but there was also a man and a woman standing behind him.

Seeing Zhou Yan's naked upper body and sweating profusely, Zhang Youan was also a little confused.

"Ahem, this is..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhou Yan said, "Wait a moment, I'll get dressed."

After saying that, he turned around and entered the room.

Although he didn't mind being watched, it was not appropriate to meet guests.

Zhang Youan smiled and said to Mariah Carey and John Droman next to him, "Y usually likes to exercise."

Mariah Carey smiled and said, "You can see it."

She didn't expect that Zhou Yan looked thin and tall when he was wearing clothes, but his muscles were so good when he took off his clothes. It looked like he exercised regularly.

Before, she felt that Zhou Yan looked like a middle school student. Now that she saw Zhou Yan covered in sweat, her impression changed a lot.

Zhou Yan quickly put on his clothes and came out, smiled and said to them, "Please come in."

Zhang Youan introduced him at the right time, "This is Miss Kelly and Mr. Droman."

Zhou Yan looked at Mariah Carey with a smile on his face. Sister Niu looked quite thin and fair now, far less abstract than later.

"Hello." Zhou Yan said hello briefly and asked them to sit down.

Mariah Carey smiled and said, "Sorry to disturb your exercise."

"It doesn't matter, it's almost over." Zhou Yan looked at Zhang Youan, "If I knew you would come, I would definitely make preparations in advance."

Zhou Yan was complaining about Zhang Youan for not telling him in advance that Mariah Carey and the others were coming.

John Droman said with a smile, "We made a temporary decision to come here, and Zhang didn't know it beforehand."

Zhou Yan smiled. It seemed that Zhang Youan had a good relationship with this Droman, and the other party would help him talk.

"Are you two here now about "Young and Beautiful"?"

Mariah Carey nodded and said, "Yes, I like this song very much. I came to visit this time because I hope you can give me this song to sing."

"Did Zhang tell you my conditions?"

"Said it." John Droman smiled, "We came here this time for this reason. We want to ask if this song can be used as the main song of the third wave?"

Zhou Yan frowned, "The third wave of hits, didn't it come out after the album was released?"

The number of singles released on an album is not fixed. Some may only release one or two singles, while others may release four or five.

Some single songs will be released before the album, while others will be released after the album.

Usually, the first and second singles are released before the album is released, and the subsequent three singles are basically released after the album is released.

"Yes, if conditions permit, we are actually willing to make it the first two hits, but we don't have enough time. After we get your song, we have to find a producer, find someone to write lyrics, and then record it. And music videos, those things are more time-consuming.”

Zhou Yan did not follow John Droman's explanation, but asked, "Can you decide on this main matter?"

This point needs to be made clear. If the two of them can't decide whether it can be the main player, then there is no need to talk about other things now.

Mariah Carey and John Droman looked at each other, and then John Droman said, "You can rest assured about this. Mariah has a lot of autonomy in this album. For things like deciding on the title track, we It’s totally up to you.”

"In that case, it's no problem. I will help you solve your concerns."

Mariah Carey looked confused, "What do you mean?"

"What I mean is that I will help you complete the lyrics and arrangement of this song."

"Really?"

"of course it's true."

"Then when can you finish it? We will make an appointment at the recording studio based on your time." John Droman asked.

Zhou Yan said with a smile: "You can go to the recording studio now. The band and I will leave London tomorrow afternoon. Before that, I will write out all the lyrics and arrangement for you."

"Tomorrow?!" Mariah Carey opened her mouth wide, "Are you sure it's tomorrow?"

"is there a problem?"

John Droman waved his hands repeatedly, "No, no, then we can talk about cooperation now."

"You guys should talk to Zhang about this. If you're worried, you can wait until we get the lyrics and arrangement tomorrow."

"no problem."

Now that the matter was almost over, Zhou Yan stood up and said, "Sorry, you two, I may have to take a shower."

Both of them were stunned for a moment. They didn't expect Zhou Yan to see off the guests so quickly.

But as Zhou Yan said, the matter has almost been discussed, and there is no need to stay.

In fact, Mariah Carey wanted to talk to Zhou Yan, but she didn't say anything as Zhou Yan saw him off. She said goodbye to Zhou Yan, and then the three of them left Zhou Yan's room.

After leaving the room, John Droman exclaimed, "Y's efficiency is so high. He was able to come up with the lyrics and arrangement in one day."

Zhang Youan smiled and said, "It's nothing. If he didn't want to take a bath, maybe he could write the lyrics and score for you now."

"Is that an exaggeration?"

"I'm used to it." Zhang Youan shrugged.

So far, Zhang Youan has only seen one person with a higher creative efficiency than Zhou Yan, and that is Zhou Yan's classmate Li Tao.

Li Tao is really outrageous. At his fastest, he could write more than a dozen sketches a day.

Zhang Youan was also responsible for the soundtrack work of "Sweet Honey".

After studying the script, Li Tao wrote more than forty pieces of music within a week. Although the homogeneity was quite serious, it also made Zhang Youan feel very outrageous.

The key is that the songs that seem to be very homogeneous still sound pretty good.

According to what Li Tao said, if you have some inspiration now, write more songs. When you officially start scoring movies later, you just need to look for these songs.

The main thing is to win by quantity.

Compared with Li Tao, Zhou Yan's speed is much slower.

Mariah Carey is actually a little worried.

She didn't doubt Zhou Yan's talent, but she was afraid that in such a short period of time, Zhou Yan wouldn't take it very seriously and would end up writing something casually to get by.

However, she kept these worries in her heart and did not voice them out.

It was not until after she was separated from Zhang Youan that she said to John Droman with a worried look on her face, "John, will Y..."

John Droman knew Mariah Carey very well. When he saw her expression just now, he knew what she was worried about.

"Actually, there's nothing to worry about. Although I don't know Y, he doesn't have many works, so there's a high probability that he won't do things like using bad works to perfunctory people."

Mariah Carey nodded, John's reasoning made sense.

If Y was really that kind of person, then he would never write as few songs as he does now.

"It's useless to think about anything now. Didn't he say he would give us the soundtrack tomorrow? We'll know when we take a look."

"Well, let's wait until tomorrow."

……

The next afternoon, before going to the airport, Zhou Yan handed a notebook to Zhang Youan and asked him to take it to Mariah Carey.

Zhang Youan opened the book and looked at it, and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows, "You are really attentive this time."

In addition to the lyrics and soundtrack, there are a lot of notes in the book. Everything adds up to more than ten pages.

"Aren't they in a hurry? I'll write it in more detail so they don't have to guess."

"Okay, I understand, you can go on your way with peace of mind."

Hearing this, Zhou Yan rolled his eyes, "I can't feel at ease what you said."

"Hahaha, I made a mistake, I made a mistake."

……

Mariah Carey was also surprised when she got the notebook. She didn't expect Zhou Yan to write so much in one day.

First of all, the score is very detailed, and different instruments are labeled, making it easy to read.

Secondly, on the score of the melody and lyrics, there are actually notes on the singing method. Where to change the key and where to stress is written clearly, for fear that she will not be able to sing well.

To be honest, seeing this, Mariah Carey felt a little uncomfortable. It wasn't that she didn't like others teaching her singing, but it was just that after writing these notes, it gave her a sense of restraint.

Usually when she gets a song, she will study how to sing it. She likes to incorporate some of her favorite singing methods into her songs.

After reading it about once, she started to read the lyrics.

"I've seen the world
done it all,had my cake now
diamonds, brilliant, and bel-air now
Hot summer nights, mid-july
......"

After reading a few words, Mariah Carey couldn't help but start humming, and then the lyrics became clearer and louder.

John Droman's eyes sparkled. This lyric seemed simple, but it was concise and clear, and the syllables fit well with the melody.

When many people read lyrics, their first reaction is to look at the meaning of the lyrics. In fact, the most important thing about a good lyric is not the meaning of the lyrics, but whether the pronunciation can complement the melody.

One of the simplest criteria for whether the pronunciation of lyrics is excellent is rhyme, which is the same as poetry.

And the lyrics of the song Y clearly do that and more than they imagined.

After doing this, the lyrics can have their own meaning and tell a story, and it will be perfect. This lyrics also achieves this.

The style of this song is a little different from Mary's previous songs, it is thicker and a bit dark, but Mary performed very well. Mary only sang a few lines, and John was fascinated by the song. Listening to Maria's singing getting more and more immersive, John couldn't help but shake his head. No wonder Y could make Shizuka Kudo's popularity increase despite the downward trend in her career. His talent was unfathomable.

Asking Zhou Yan to write a song was brought up by John because he always felt that there was something missing in Maria's new album. At this time, he heard the song "yellow".

Because he particularly liked "yellow", he came up with the idea of ​​asking Zhou Yan to write a song for Maria. After communicating with Maria, he contacted Zhang Youan.

But at that time, Zhang Youan replied that Zhou Yan had been busy recently and had no time to help.

At that time, he was quite disappointed, but there was nothing he could do about it. They had already rejected him. Regardless of whether he was really busy or not, it was not easy to pester him anymore. It would be impolite and would also affect Maria's status.

But later Zhang Youan said that Zhou Yan had two songs written that were very suitable for lyrics and songs, and things took a turn for the better.

It just so happened that Maria came to the UK for an event, so she stopped by the concert to listen to two songs, and they heard the song "Young and Beautiful".

All good things come hard, but the final result is good. This song can just fill in the shortcomings of the "daydream" album.

Another advantage of this song is that it is not too tiring to sing, because there are not many places to show off her skills. There are many places where Maria wants to show off her skills, but in the end she still sings according to the notes on the score.

It's very important to Maria that she doesn't feel tired when singing.

Maria has a beautiful voice, but she has a very fatal flaw, that is, her voice is very fragile. No matter how good her vocal skills are, her voice cannot support singing for too long.

Especially when singing difficult songs that show off her skills, she couldn't hold on after singing a few songs.

Therefore, it is not tiring to sing a song, which is very suitable for Maria.

If Maria was like this in every song, she would have more tours. The number of tours a singer performs is very crucial to the development of his career. The popularity of many singers' songs is supported by tours.

After Malia debuted, some people compared her to Whitney Houston. However, because her voice was too fragile, Malia was unable to tour as much as Whitney Houston. This was a great disadvantage.

From this point of view, this song can be said to be tailor-made for Maria.

Based on the quality of this song, in fact, even if Zhou Yan didn't mention it, they would have made it the title song.

The first lead song has been determined to be "Fantasy", so it's not easy to change it, but this song can be used as the second lead single and released before the "Fantasy" single and album.

After Maria finished singing once, she started singing a second time without stopping.

John Droman did not disturb her, but quietly pulled Zhang Youan aside, "Zhang, we can officially talk about cooperation."

Zhang Youan narrowed his eyes, "John, now that the lyrics and arrangement are all made by Y, the conditions are completely different."

"I know this. You can tell us your conditions first. As long as they are reasonable, we will agree."

"John, let me first tell you about our cooperation with jive..."

……

John Droman and Zhang Youan are both experienced experts in the industry, so the negotiation on revenue sharing was very fast, because the standards in the United States are very unified now. As this song is the second title song of the album, the share is actually It has been decided a long time ago, and it is unlikely that Zhang Youan will discuss it further.

The demand is too high, and it is impossible for Colombia to agree to it.

And John Droman wanted to give less, but he couldn't fool Zhang Youan.

However, regarding some details of the subsequent copyright, the two still need to calm down and talk carefully, because Zhang Youan has put forward many detailed conditions, such as the way to share the subsequent streaming media income.

Nowadays, when ordinary creators talk about cooperation, they will basically not mention streaming media, because streaming media is still a very new concept. Many people have not even heard of this thing, let alone pay attention to it.

Therefore, John Droman was also very surprised when he heard Zhang Youan mention streaming media. This idea is really a bit advanced.

Although John Droman does not pay much attention to the development of streaming media, as an experienced old man, he knows that no matter what the copyright sharing is, he cannot give in easily, otherwise it may be a big pit in the future.

Moreover, the conditions were too different, and they still needed to communicate with Colombia, so they spent some time negotiating in this area.

But later Zhang Youan made some concessions on the sharing of mechanical reproduction, and John Droman also made greater concessions on the sharing of streaming media, and the two parties reached a unified opinion.

After the negotiation, John Droman began to contact the recording studio and the band to prepare for the recording of the single. He also contacted the director to prepare to shoot a music video for the single. His plan was to complete all the recording work in August. .

……

When Zhang Youan and John Droman reached an agreement, Zhou Yan had already returned to Yanjing and immediately went to Yanjing Studio to watch the post-production of "Spring of the Cowherd Class".

According to the current plan, the film will be released between mid-December this year and mid-January next year, with all post-production work completed by mid-August.

Once the film is completed, it will be sent to Berlin for exhibition. The registration deadline for the Berlin Film Festival is November 1st, so there is plenty of time.

In fact, Zhou Yan was not planning to participate in the Berlin Film Festival at the beginning, but when the filming of the film just started, Xu Feng received an invitation from Berlin.

Berlin hoped that Zhou Yan's new film could participate in their film festival. This invitation suited Xu Feng's wishes, so she agreed.

In fact, if Zhou Yan were to choose, he would definitely not choose the Berlin Film Festival. The reason is very simple. It is because the Berlin Film Festival is always held around the Spring Festival. If "Spring of the Cowherd Class" is nominated, he will be very happy by then. You may need to miss family reunions.

When "Tree Hole" won the award before, Xu Feng invited Zhou Yan to participate, but that time Zhou Yan was just a screenwriter and could still escape.

But he is the director, screenwriter and soundtrack director of "Cowherder's Spring". It would be a bit unreasonable if he was not present for the nomination of this film.

It is not uncommon for film festivals to issue invitations. Many directors have received such invitations.

Each film festival may seem high-end, but in fact there is fierce competition between them. Everyone wants good films to participate in their own film festival, let alone good films to go to other film festivals.

This sounds like two things, but it is actually the same thing. As long as they invite good films to their own film festival, other film festivals will be short of films.

Some directors receive offers before they even start planning a film.

Therefore, for a film like "Spring in the Cowherd Class", receiving an invitation before filming can't mean anything. It does not mean that people will award them the award.

The film festival stipulates that participating films cannot be released anywhere other than where they were produced, so the timing of the Berlin Film Festival is actually the most suitable for "The Chorus."

If it were changed to the other two film festivals, it would affect the overseas release of "The Chorus".

As for other domestic films, you don’t have to worry about this, because most domestic films have little box office abroad, so a delayed release will have no impact.

But Zhou Yan's movies are different. Foreign box office is also very important. Neither Zhou Yan nor Xu Feng want to delay it.

A late release of a movie will also affect the sales of subsequent movie soundtracks.

Not to mention other places, just a Neon will cause a lot of losses. The soundtrack of "The Spring of the Cowherd Class" will definitely sell well in Neon.

After returning to Yanjing, Zhou Yan basically spent time at the Yanjing Factory.

It was not until mid-August that the post-production work of "The Spring of the Cowherd Class" came to an end.

On August 43, Zhou Yan was in his office at the studio when he heard the finished album of No. Baojia Street. There was a knock on the door. He looked up and saw Yu Hua pushing Shi Tiesheng at the door.

Seeing the two of them, Zhou Yan showed a smile on his face, "Hey, you are a rare visitor."

These two people haven't been to the studio for a while.

Hearing Zhou Yan's teasing, Yu Hua smiled and said, "I have been practicing in seclusion recently and have not had time to come over."

"What are you practicing?"

Zhou Yan smiled, walked to the tea table, and made tea for them.

Shi Tiesheng said, "He is busy working on a new novel."

Hearing that Yu Hua was working on a new novel, Zhou Yan became interested and asked, "Is it finished?"

"Well, it's written and ready to be sent to Shanghai." Yu Hua said.

He said that when he went to Shanghai, Zhou Yan knew that he should be cast in "Harvest". Yu Hua has a good relationship with "Harvest", and now all works are given to them as soon as possible.

"What's the theme this time?" Zhou Yan asked.

"Selling blood." Shi Tiesheng answered helpfully.

Zhou Yan secretly said, "Sure enough."

Yu Hua has a small number of works, especially novels.

Compared with other writers of the same period, Yu Hua's output was appallingly low. He has been writing for more than ten years, but has only published two novels, both of which are short novels with more than 100,000 words. The two novels combined are not as long as others.

Several of his novels are very famous, and Zhou Yan can remember the order in which they were published.

After "Alive", it should be "Xu Sanguan Sells Blood".

"Actually, I brought all the manuscripts." Yu Hua took out a stack of manuscripts from his satchel.

Seeing him take out the manuscript, Zhou Yan was quite surprised, "You still have the manuscript with you."

Yu Hua smiled and said, "I don't want to share it with you."

Zhou Yan gave them two cups of tea and took the manuscript from Yu Hua. After a casual glance, he was sure it was "The Story of Xu Sanguan Selling Blood".

"You guys sit down for a while and I'll take a look at the manuscript."

For more than two hours after that, Zhou Yan read the manuscript.

This is indeed "The Story of Xu Sanguan Selling Blood", but it is somewhat different from "The Story of Xu Sanguan Selling Blood" that Zhou Yan has read. Yu Hua's life was affected by Zhou Yan, and in contrast, his works were also affected.

But the impact is not that big, the story is basically the same, and the repetitive and chattering writing style is the same.

After Zhou Yan finished reading, Yu Hua asked, "What do you think?"

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes at Yu Hua and said with interest, "When did you care so much about my opinion?"

Yu Hua waved his hand, "There is something wrong with what you said. You have always had a very high status in my mind."

"Hey." Zhou Yan sneered.

"What are you talking about!" Yu Hua said dissatisfied.

"If you have any ideas, just tell me and continue to play this trick with me."

Shi Tiesheng said with a smile, "He is thin-skinned. Let me help him. He just wants to ask if this novel can be adapted into a movie."

Zhou Yan smiled and shook his head, "First of all, Tie Sheng, you said this guy is thin-skinned. I am the first to disagree. Secondly, it is unlikely that this novel will be adapted into a movie in China."

Hearing that Zhou Yan directly sentenced him to death, Yu Hua said in confusion, "You can film "Alive", but why can't you do this? The worst thing you can do is change it."

"How to change it? Can you change it by selling your blood?" Zhou Yan asked.

Yu Hua immediately said, "That's definitely not possible. After selling blood, is it still called "Blood Selling Notes"?

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "That's fine. If you don't change your ways, it will be difficult for you to pass the trial."

Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Yu Hua sighed slightly, "Forget it, I don't think about the movie anymore."

Zhou Yan asked curiously, "When did you become so interested in movies?"

"Isn't this boring?"

Zhou Yan rolled his eyes, "Are you bored and can't you write more books?"

Yu Hua took out a cigarette and offered one to Shi Tiesheng, then lit it for himself, tilted his head and said, "How can it be the same? Writing a novel requires inspiration, how can you write just when you say it?"

"It's basically impossible to film your novel in China, but you can change your mind and find a way abroad. Maybe it can be adapted into a movie abroad." Zhou Yan said.

Yu Hua shook his head, "Forget it, I don't have the energy." (End of Chapter)