1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan asked Wei Yuru and the others to rest for a day and then report to the studio the next day.

But the next afternoon, Wei Yuru brought four other people to the studio.

When Xiao Li at the front desk brought them to Zhou Yan's office, Zhou Yan was quite surprised, "Sister Yuru, why are you here today? Didn't I let you have a day off and come back tomorrow?"

Wei Yuru smiled and said, "There is nothing to rest for. Come here early and feel more at ease."

Zhou Yan patted his forehead, "Oh, I didn't communicate well. Your office hasn't been cleaned up yet, but don't worry, come with me first."

Wei Yuru and the others did not come empty-handed, they all carried their own instruments.

Fortunately, their instruments are not big. The largest one is Mei Min's guqin, which is not very difficult to hold.

Zhou Yan took them up to the third floor and opened the door of a practice room. "This is rehearsal room No. 6. The area is relatively small, but it is no problem for you to use. And don't look at it. This room is small and has complete equipment." All very good.”

Entering the rehearsal room, Zhou Yan turned on the light.

When the indoor lights turned on, the eyes of several lesbians also lit up.

Zhou Yan said that the rehearsal room was small, but in the eyes of Wei Yuru and the others, it was not small at all. The room was at least 150 square meters, and the ceiling was very high.

Although I haven't used it yet, just looking at the roof and walls, I know that the sound field effect and sound insulation effect of this rehearsal room are not bad.

The rehearsal room is basically empty, but there is a set of radio equipment that doesn't take up much space.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "How about it? Are the conditions satisfactory?"

“So satisfied!”

The smiles on the faces of several lesbians almost overflowed. Zhu Lanxi was younger and more lively. She looked up and down in the rehearsal room with her erhu in her arms: "Tsk, tsk, when have we ever fought such a prosperous battle? Teacher Zhou, Will this rehearsal room be used by us from now on?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, this will be your exclusive rehearsal room from now on. I'll have someone change the nameplate on the door later."

Hearing Zhou Yan talk about the nameplate, Zhu Lanxi asked, "Teacher Zhou, what is the name of our band? Has it been decided?"

"It's called Qingyinfang, because of the purity of the water and the sound of the music."

Hearing this name, several people nodded. This name is simple and easy to remember, which is quite good.

"You guys can play here for a while. I'll take someone to clean up your office. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me."

"Okay, please, Zhou Yan." Wei Yuru said.

Zhou Yan smiled and went to prepare an office for them.

In fact, the offices were ready-made and it didn't take much time to clean them up. Zhou Yan led his men to simply clean up two rows of workstations, then went to the Piano Youth National Band and called out Yu Jia and the others.

In addition to Wei Yuru and the other five, Zhou Yan also selected four people from the Piano Youth National Band, making a total of nine people.

Zhou Yan took both parties to get to know each other.

Wei Yuru has performed with the Piano Youth Orchestra before, so she is quite familiar with the members of the orchestra.

Yu Jia is the daughter of the leader of the folk band, and she is familiar with the people in the folk band, so they got to know each other quickly without Zhou Yan having to introduce them.

After they chatted for a while, Zhou Yan said, "There are no rehearsal tasks these days. If you don't want to be idle, just find some music to ponder and practice. Teacher Dong's studio will send someone over tomorrow afternoon to measure it for you." size."

"Measure the measurements. Are you going to make costumes for us? Is it the same as what sister Yuru wore before?" Yu Jia said excitedly.

When they were in the United States, the performance costume Wei Yuru wore left a deep impression on them, and the girls all wanted to own one.

"This time, the performance costumes are specially designed. There are two sets in total. The style must be simpler than Sister Yuru's previous set. But you know Teacher Dong's level, it will definitely look good."

"Of course we trust Sister Miao Miao's skills. We will take measurements tomorrow. Will Sister Miao Miao come? If she comes, I will ask her what color clothes she plans to design for us this time."

"Probably...won't come."

Since last year, Dong Wenmiao has become quite alienated from him. The two of them haven't seen each other for a long time. They always communicate on the phone about everything, and every time Dong Wenmiao has a business-like attitude.

Zhou Yan sometimes wanted to reminisce with her, but there was no good time.

"That's such a pity." Yu Jia said regretfully.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Okay, I'm going back to the office first. If you need anything, remember to come to me. Sister Yuru, if you have any questions, you can also ask Yu Jia and the others."

"Okay, go and do your work. You don't have to take care of us here."

……

After returning to the office, Zhou Yan was not idle. He began to list the performances for Qingyinfang.

Zhou Yan will definitely write some exclusive songs for Qingyinfang in the future, but now that Qingyinfang has just been established, Zhou Yan first lets them play his other songs as a transition.

The first thing he thought of was "Missing Through Time and Space" and "Drinking the Water of the Yangtze River Together". These two songs are relatively simple and easy to change the orchestration.

In addition, there are also "Walking in the Snow in Search of Plum Blossoms" and "Nightingale", which are not complicated to make.

In addition, Zhou Yan also wanted to change the orchestration of "Guanghan Palace".

The version in the album is played with violin and other Western instruments. Zhou Yan wants to change the violin to an erhu and add several other instruments. In this way, the music will become a different style.

Listing these songs is not as simple as writing a name. Zhou Yan also has to rearrange them according to the instruments of the Qingyinfang members.

If necessary, Zhou Yan will also make some modifications to the music to match their instruments.

Zhou Yan was not in a hurry to tell Zhang Youan about the establishment of Qingyinfang, because he wanted to arrange a few songs first and let Qingyinfang try the effect.

If the effect is good, take them to Neon.

……

More than a week later, Zhou Yan took Qingyinfang to practice "Missing Through Time" and the new version of "Guanghan Palace", and the effect was better than he imagined.

Especially the new version of "Guanghan Palace (Night of Confession)", Zhu Lanxi's erhu performance surprised him very much.

The Erhu version of "Guanghan Palace" has a more tearful feeling. Compared with the violin version, the emotion of sadness is stronger. Supplemented by pipa, guqin and other musical instruments, the sense of space is very strong.

The only regret is that their costumes have not been made yet. According to Dong Wenmiao, one set of clothes takes more than a month.

In other words, even if we wait until April to go to Neon, Qingyinfang will only be able to wear a new costume at most.

But one set is enough.

Zhou Yan called Zhang Youan and told him that Qingyinfang had been established and he could go talk to Music House about the program.

"It's pretty fast. You give me the personnel information first, and I'll have someone go through the procedures first."

"it is good."

"Also, what kind of music is your Qingyinfang playing now?"

"I have rehearsed two songs for the time being, "Missing Through Time" and "Guanghan Palace". I should rehearse two or three more songs before going to Neon."

"If they go to the Music House, two pieces of music are enough. However, they have finally gone to Neon, so it must not be just this one activity, otherwise it is not a waste. I will see if there are any activities that they can participate in."

"It's up to you to arrange this."

"Well, the contract for "Titanic" has been finalized, but Fox plans to announce the news later."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It's just the soundtrack, do we need to make a special announcement?"

"Under normal circumstances, signing a soundtrack contract does not require any special announcement, but haven't you been very popular recently? Of course Fox doesn't want to waste it. They waited until the Academy Awards ceremony was over before announcing this news. Maybe you won the top prize. Great soundtrack, isn’t this popularity coming again?”

Zhou Yan is not particularly concerned about the Academy Awards, but he is more concerned about the release of "The Sixth Sense".

“Is the premiere of ‘The Sixth Sense’ about to be held?”

"Yeah, it's the third day after the Academy Awards ceremony, which is March 27th, and the movie will be officially released on the 29th. I talked to Bregman two days ago, about He is quite sorry that you can't attend the premiere."

"I can't help it. I don't have time to run there every day."

"He told me that you told him that as long as the box office of "The Sixth Sense" exceeds 100 million US dollars, you will attend their celebration party?"

"I'm talking about over $100 million in North American box office."

"This is quite difficult, but from Bregman's tone, there seems to be some hope. Didn't you just win the Special Jury Award? Now Colombia is helping you promote it like crazy in North America. There is also an Oscar for Best They are also helping to promote the soundtrack's nomination. The effort is good and the effect is quite good. "The Sixth Sense" is currently quite popular in North America, and there are no competitive movies at the same time. "There is indeed a chance."

There are very few movies released in North America in March and April, and most movies are released in May, June, July, August, and November and December.

Some of the more popular movies this year, such as "Independence Day", "The Pros" and "Tornado", the first one was released in July, and the latter two were released in May.

So far in the new year, only one film, "The Birdcage," has performed well.

"The Birdcage" is a movie released in early March, it has been released for almost two weeks, and it cannot compete directly with "The Sixth Sense".

There are pros and cons to releasing a movie in March or April. The good thing is that there are fewer competitors, but the bad thing is that the popularity of the period itself is relatively low, so it is not easy to get good results.

"If the North American box office can really exceed 100 million US dollars, I will definitely go to the celebration banquet." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Haha, of course you are going. If the North American box office can really exceed 100 million US dollars, you Zhou family will make a fortune."

The fact that Zhou invested US$4 million in the remake of "The Sixth Sense" is no secret. Of course Zhang Youan knew about it. Although he didn't know how much of the share Zhou would get, the investment of four million US dollars would definitely get a lot.

The North American box office is US$100 million, which means that the global box office may exceed US$200 million, which is ten times the budget.

Ten times is nothing to Zhou Yan's movie.

Because Zhou Yan has made three feature films since his debut, and the box office of the first two films far exceeded ten times the budget.

"Spring of the Cowherd Class" is currently only released in the mainland, and the box office has already exceeded 50 million. When it is released in other places, it does not seem to be difficult to achieve ten times the number.

But the budgets of Zhou Yan's films are relatively small, the cost is low, and the box office is slightly higher, the multiple can go up.

The budget of "The Sixth Sense" is 21.5 million US dollars. With this budget, the box office has reached ten times, which is a huge profit.

With a box office of US$200 million, Zhou could conservatively earn US$10 million.

"It's better to talk less about things that haven't happened yet."

Zhang Youan said with a smile, "Okay, let's not talk about this for now. I want to tell you another thing."

"whats the matter?"

"The global box office of "Sense and Sensibility" has exceeded 140 million U.S. dollars. It is predicted that the final box office of this movie will be between 170 million U.S. dollars and 200 million U.S. dollars. Colombia is doing really well with this business. ah."

Zhou Yan was not surprised at all when he heard that the global box office of "Sense and Sensibility" exceeded US$140 million.

The basics of this movie are good, and it has received such high box office in North America. It also won the Golden Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival last month.

Nowadays, this movie is very popular, and it is normal to get tens of millions of dollars at the box office outside North America.

After the follow-up movie is released, the audio and video products will definitely sell very well.

Thinking about it, after "Sense and Sensibility", An Li will become the darling of Hollywood, and a large number of commercial movies will find him.

"It seems I have to find time to call An Li and say hello."

"It's better to wait until after the Academy Awards. "Sense and Sensibility" has been nominated for several awards, so it will definitely win an award."

"That's okay too."

……

On the morning of March 26, when Zhou Yan went to the office, he saw Han Sanping sitting on the sofa in his office drinking tea.

Zhou Yan looked at his watch, it was only half past eight.

"Third brother, why are you here so early in the morning?"

Han Sanping held the teacup and smiled, "Don't I miss the tea in your office? Come over and have a sip."

Zhou Yan twitched his lips, "Have you had breakfast?"

"After eating, what time is it? You don't really think I'm here to drink tea, do you? Do you know what day it is today?"

"What day is it today, Tuesday?"

Han Sanping rolled his eyes, "Today is the time of the Oscars. News will definitely come from the United States later. I came to you so I can get first-hand news."

"Just for this?"

"Ang, just for this reason. Isn't this a sufficient reason?"

Zhou Yan scratched his head and said, "If you are in a hurry to know, let me know as soon as possible and I will call you as soon as possible. If not, I will ask Zhang Youan to inform you first and then me."

"That's not a problem. Anyway, your studio is close to our factory, so it won't be troublesome for me to come over."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Okay, third brother, just sit down and wait for a while. I still have some music that I haven't finished writing yet."

In the past two days, he was compiling the score of "Drinking the Water of the Yangtze River" for Qingyinfang, and there was still the last bit left to finish. He planned to finish it today, so he started working early in the morning.

Seeing Zhou Yan working as soon as he arrived, Han Sanping shook his head and sighed. Zhou Yan's determination is really not comparable to that of ordinary people.

Not to mention young men in their twenties, even if it were Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, they were eagerly looking forward to the results of the award ceremony and had no time to do other things.

It’s no wonder that Zhou Yan can succeed. With this determination, what can he do?
After a while, Zhao Zhang rushed in from the outside and said, "Brother Yan, is there any news from the United States?"

Zhao Zhang rushed in without thinking and froze when he saw Han Sanping sitting on the sofa.

"Han, Director Han, you are here too."

Han Sanping smiled and nodded, "Well, I'm here to wait for the news too."

Zhou Yan glanced at Zhao Xi, "You're so grown up, and you're still so frizzy."

Zhao Zhang shrank his head after being scolded by Zhou Yan.

Despite his usual calling of Brother Yan, Brother Yan, Zhou Yan's weight in his heart is not ordinary. There are so many teachers in the college, and he respects Zhou Yan the most.

"I'm not worried about you."

Zhou Yan pursed his lips and smiled, "If the American Film Institute knew you were so anxious, they would definitely give me the award."

Looking at this situation, Zhao Gao also knew that the result should not be out yet, so he said, "Then I will come back later?"

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "Don't leave, stay and wait for a while, otherwise you will die of panic."

"Oh, okay." Zhao Ku immediately became happy and diligently went to pick up the kettle, "I'll add some hot water to Director Han."

About ten minutes later, the phone on Zhou Yan's desk suddenly rang.

Before Zhou Yan could move, Han Sanping and Zhao Gao moved first, both of them stretching their necks to look this way.

Seeing their looks, Zhou Yan smiled and picked up the phone.

"Hey?"

Yu Hua's voice came from the other end of the phone, "Is there any news from Oscar?"

Zhou Yan curled his lips and said, "Why are you paying attention to this?"

"Why can't I pay attention? We agreed before that if you want to win the prize, you have to treat us to drinks."

"Even if I don't win the prize, when will I stop drinking with you?"

"It feels different. You won the award and I drink your wine, which makes me feel more at ease."

"There's no news yet. When the news comes, I'll call you. We won't talk anymore."

"Okay, no more chatting, otherwise your phone will be busy."

After hanging up the phone, Zhou Yan said to Han Sanping and the others, "It's Yu Hua. He's also here to ask about Oscar."

Han Sanping and the others also heard what Zhou Yan said just now, and knew that it was not from the United States.

"It seems we are not the only ones paying attention to this award."

"Yu Hua is paying attention to whether he has any alcohol to drink."

"Everyone who meets you has a share. If you win the prize, you have to treat me to a drink."

"did not ask……"

Before Zhou Yan finished speaking, the phone on the table rang again, and he picked it up.

It was Zhang Youan's assistant Xiao Wu who called. After hearing Xiao Wu say a few words, Zhou Yan nodded, "Yes, I understand."

After that, he hung up the phone.

Zhao Lao couldn't wait to ask, "Is this news from the United States?"

"Yeah." Zhou Yan nodded, and then sighed, "Oh, what a pity."

Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Han Sanping and Zhao Gao were both a little disappointed.

Although they knew that it was normal for them not to win this award, they still felt extremely disappointed. For such a good opportunity, they didn’t know when they would have to wait until next time.

Just when Zhao Yan was about to say something to comfort Zhou Yan, he heard Zhou Yan say with a smile, "What a pity, I can't keep the wine at home."

Before Zhao Lao could react, Han Sanping next to him slammed the coffee table, making it tremble, "You kid! You're teasing our nerves!"

Zhou Yan said with a smile, "It's about the heartbeat. Third brother, just tell me whether it's exciting or not. The results are out, and "Sense and Sensibility" won the best soundtrack."

Zhao Lao clenched his fists excitedly, "Great, great!"

He spun around twice and then ran outside quickly.

Before Zhou Yan could ask him what he was doing, he heard his high-pitched voice coming from the corridor facade, "Extra number, extra number, Teacher Zhou won the Oscar for Best Score!"

Zhao Lao's voice resounded through the entire building, and it was so penetrating that Zhou Yan wondered if this kid had gone to the vocal music department to steal lessons when he was fine. (End of chapter)