1990: Starting from Baojia Street

In the afternoon, when Zhou Yan arrived at the hotel where the celebration banquet was held, fans waiting for autographs had already lined up in advance, so he could go there and sign autographs for the fans directly.

Although Bregman said that all the people who came were movie fans, the ones they gave Zhou Yan to sign were all his albums, and several of them even gave him the soundtrack of "Sense and Sensibility".

The soundtrack of "Sense and Sensibility" was just released not long ago and is now selling well and is currently in the promotion period.

Because "Sense and Sensibility" was also produced by Columbia, Columbia also strongly supports the promotion of its soundtrack.

Not only because they can share the money from the soundtrack of "Sense and Sensibility", but also because if the soundtrack sells well, it will have a positive impact on the sales of videotapes and CDs of subsequent films.

Bregman is still reliable. When he said there were thirty, there really were only thirty, not one more or one less.

After all, there weren't many people, so it was very easy for Zhou Yan to sign. He even chatted with them while signing for them.

After chatting with them, I found out that these people were drawn through a lottery at the radio station.

For this lottery, the more times you call, the higher the probability of winning. Among these thirty people, the least made dozens of calls, and the most made two or three hundred calls before being drawn.

If they were chosen, they would not only get autographs but also attend a celebration banquet, so it was well worth making so many phone calls.

Zhou Yan has never held a large-scale autograph session, and there are very few of his autographs circulating outside, so his autographed albums are still relatively precious, and music fans also attach great importance to them.

Seeing how friendly Zhou Yan was, these music fans boldly started chatting with him.

They are also quite curious about Zhou Yan, because apart from his music and movies, they know very little about him. In the United States, reports on Zhou Yan are all related to his movies and music, and not much about his personal life.

"Y, I heard that you are still teaching students in school, is that right?" a girl asked.

Zhou Yan nodded. "I studied at the Central Conservatory of Music and stayed to teach there after graduation. The Youth Piano Orchestra is also composed of students from our school."

"It turns out that the musicians in the orchestra are all from your school. By the way, why didn't they come this time?"

"Because they have to go to school, but they will come here to perform during the summer vacation." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Really? When exactly? Is it in Los Angeles?"

"Let's wait for notification for details. There should be news soon."

The piano youth orchestra's concert tour is being arranged, and the specific arrangement is in the order from near to far, first arranging places close to it such as Neon, and then arranging places in Europe and the United States.

"Y, will the song 'Someone Like You' be made into a song? Can it be sung back to Mary?"

The questioner knew that Zhou Yan and Mariah Carey were both fans, so he started to worry about inviting Mariah Carey to sing a song.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'm not sure yet. I haven't contacted Maria for a while."

"I really hope you can work together again. Many people are like me, both your fans and Mary's fans. Young and Beautiful is so successful. Although it didn't win a Grammy Award, it has become a legend in the hearts of us fans."

Hearing her words, several music fans nearby rolled their eyes, thinking that she was really bringing up something irrelevant.

The song "young and beautiful" has been on the charts since its release last year and was extremely popular. Originally everyone thought that this song should be able to win a Grammy, but in the end Mariah Carey's entire new album did not win any Grammy awards, which was very ugly.

Because of this incident, many Mariah Carey fans are blaming the Grammy organizing committee, saying that such a good album should not be treated like this.

Even if the judges have their own aesthetic preferences, they cannot completely ignore the feelings of the public. Mariah Carey's album has two songs that are dominating the charts. With such high popularity, it should be no problem for her to win a few awards.

Zhou Yan didn't react much to this. Even the Oscars couldn't make him feel much emotional, let alone an award like the Grammys.

For these pop songs, what he always wants is popularity. As long as the fans are willing to listen to them, there is no problem. Awards are nothing more than icing on the cake.

As long as the song can top the charts, do you still care whether it wins an award or not?

In fact, essentially, everyone wants to win awards for the sake of fame.

Now that I’m famous, awards aren’t that important.

And this year, the fans' accusations against the Grammys are also well-founded.

The Grammy Awards were held in February, and the Oscars were held in March. "Young and Beautiful" did not perform well at the Grammy Awards, but won the Best Original Score at the Oscars. To a certain extent, this was a slap in the face of the Grammy Awards.

Fans would also ask, "Do you, the judges of the Grammy Awards, have such a special taste? You don't even like the music that the Oscar judges value."

Although the Oscar for Best Original Score was not given to the song "Young and Beautiful", fans don't care. They think "Young and Beautiful" represents the soundtrack of "Sense and Sensibility".

"Don't worry, I will contact Maria when I have time. Even if Maria is not allowed to sing "Someone Like You", there will definitely be opportunities for cooperation in the future." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

Hearing Zhou Yan say this, the music fans were very happy, especially those fans of Mariah Carey, who were all very happy.

Zhou Yan chatted with them for a while, and then the staff asked him to be interviewed by reporters. He waved goodbye to the fans and said, "Goodbye. I hope to hold a concert in the future and see you again."

"Don't worry, we will definitely buy tickets."

"haha ok."

……

After saying goodbye to the fans, Zhou Yan walked to the interview area. There was a large background board in the interview area. The staff handed him a marker pen, he signed his name on it, and then walked to be interviewed by the reporter.

On the entire background board, everyone else signed their names in English, only Zhou Yan signed in Chinese, and he deliberately wrote the words in large letters, so the two Chinese characters "Zhou Yan" were very conspicuous on the background board.

In the interview area, Zhou Yan also met an acquaintance, Linda, the Billboard reporter whom he met at the premiere of "Sense and Sensibility".

Seeing an acquaintance, Zhou Yan smiled and said hello, "Linda, long time no see."

Hearing Zhou Yan calling out her name, Linda was flattered, "Y, you still remember me?"

"Beauty always impresses people." Zhou Yan smiled and then made a joke, "You, a reporter from Billboard, have made it into the film industry."

Linda also laughed, "That's because you, a famous musician, are here."

"Today is the celebration party for The Sixth Sense. I can't answer your music questions."

"It doesn't matter. Everything I ask will be related to The Sixth Sense."

The two chatted for a while and then the interview officially began.

Because it was a celebration party, the atmosphere of the interview was relatively harmonious. The questions asked by the reporters were relatively gentle and not aggressive. Apart from those related to "The Sixth Sense", the other questions were about Zhou Yan's next plan.

Someone also asked about "Titanic", and Zhou Yan gave a brief answer without going into details.

Linda kept her promise and asked questions about the soundtrack of The Sixth Sense. Last time, Linda wrote an analysis of the soundtrack of Sense and Sensibility in a magazine, which was very popular. She was going to write another analysis of the soundtrack of The Sixth Sense. After all, The Sixth Sense is very popular now, and writing about it will definitely attract attention.

As the interview was drawing to a close, a reporter asked, "Have you ever considered coming to Hollywood to make a movie? There are many Chinese filmmakers coming to Hollywood to develop their careers. Has Ang Lee's success given you the same idea?"

Zhou Yan shook his head. "I don't have such an idea for the time being. My main job is a university teacher. I can't travel so far to make a movie."

"What a shame! With your talent, you will definitely shine in Hollywood."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Although I will not participate in Hollywood film production as a director for the time being, I can still participate in other capacities."

"Are you talking about the music director?"

"Of course, this includes music direction, but it could also be in other capacities."

After hearing Zhou Yan's words, the reporters all felt that there was news to be dug up.

Does Zhou Yan have a new project in Hollywood?
"Can you tell me what other identities you have?"

Zhou Yan smiled and didn't give a direct answer. Instead, he kept the question a secret, "You'll know soon enough."

After saying that, he ignored the reporters' questions, smiled and waved his hand, then walked out of the interview area.

As they had to interview other people later, these reporters could not follow Zhou Yan and could only stand where they were and watch Zhou Yan's back getting farther and farther away.

After leaving the interview area, Zhou Yan walked towards the banquet venue. Just as he was looking for Bregman and the others, he suddenly heard someone calling him.

"Mr. Y, we meet again."

Zhou Yan turned around and was surprised when he saw the person coming.

The person who called him was actually Jack Williams, the operations director of New Balance, whom he met by chance in the restaurant yesterday.

Why is this guy here?

When they were chatting yesterday, Jack Williams clearly didn't know about today's celebration party at first.

"Mr. Williams." Zhou Yan responded.

He didn't ask Williams why he was here, but the other party took the initiative to explain, "I heard you mention today's celebration party yesterday. It happened that I had nothing to do today, so I took the initiative to ask for an invitation and came to take a look."

Zhou Yan nodded. This made sense.

After all, Jack Williams is the operations director of New Balance, so it is not difficult for him to get an invitation to the celebration party. Columbia will definitely give him this honor.

“Have fun.”

Zhou Yan had no intention of chatting more with Williams, as the two of them had little in common.

Williams smiled and said, "Thank you. I am also very happy to be able to attend the celebration party."

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, then left.

Then he found Bregman and the others.

Everyone else had a glass of wine, while Zhou Yan ordered a glass of juice.

As he ordered a glass of juice, Bregman joked, "Is this your secret to staying young?"

Zhou Yan also laughed, "I'm only 26 years old, do I need to deliberately stay young?"

Bregman sighed, “Yeah, you’re only twenty-six.”

After spending more time with Zhou Yan, Bregman always forgets Zhou Yan's age. Sometimes he feels that Zhou Yan is the same age as him. After all, Zhou Yan has already made several films and won the Berlin Film Festival's Special Jury Award.

"Come to think of it, when you filmed The Sixth Sense, you were only 24 years old, right?"

Zhou Yan shook his head. "No, I was 22 when the script of The Sixth Sense was written, and 23 when it was filmed."

Kevin Costner sighed, "When I was 22, I was studying marketing at the University of California."

In fact, Kevin Costner became famous quite early. Although he studied marketing in college and found a sales job after graduation, he soon quit his job and entered the film industry. He was only 35 years old when he directed his first film "Dances with Wolves" and it became a huge success.

Among all the Academy Award-winning directors, Kevin Costner is considered young.

It’s just that Zhou Yan did debut very early and developed very quickly, which is something most people can’t compare to.

Catherine stood nearby and sighed inwardly. She was one year older than Zhou Yan, but she only became famous in Hollywood this year because of "The Sixth Sense".

The key point is that compared to directors, actors have a job that requires youth. If they are not famous when they are young, it will be very difficult when they are older, especially for actresses, whose careers are much shorter than those of actors.

Many actresses no longer have the chance to play the leading role after they turn 35.

Moreover, there are many male actors who have successfully turned to directing, but very few female actors have succeeded in doing so.

"Do you have any plans for your next movie?" Kevin asked.

Zhou Yan shrugged. "Not yet. I've been working too much in the past two years. I want to relax for a while."

Bregman nodded. "Indeed, in addition to making movies, you also have to make music. Are you about to start working on the soundtrack for Titanic? Cameron is a very strict director. It's not easy to work with him."

"The film hasn't started shooting yet, so it's still early to start the soundtrack work. I haven't met Director Cameron before, so I plan to meet him after I come to Los Angeles to discuss the soundtrack."

"Everyone is paying close attention to this movie. After all, the budget is so high, twice the budget of my film 'The Postman'."

Zhou Yan looked at Kevin Costner in surprise. The announced budget for "Titanic" is 150 million US dollars. Doesn't this mean that the budget for "The Postman" is 70 or 80 million US dollars?
Warner is willing to invest a lot of money in Kevin's new movie. With a budget of 70 to 80 million US dollars, it is a very large production in Hollywood.

You know, the budget of this year's popular science fiction movie "Independence Day" was only more than 70 million US dollars.

It seems that Warner really won’t make any money this time.

Of course, there are many ways to make movies in Hollywood. Sometimes, if the box office is not good, it does not necessarily mean that the movie loses money. Even if it loses money, it is not necessarily Warner that loses money. They have many tricks. A loss-making movie can be turned into a profitable one, and a profitable one can be turned into a loss-making one.

However, after hearing that Kevin Costner's movie budget was so high, Zhou Yan had some more ideas. Perhaps "Shutter Island" could also get Warner to give it more budget.

Bregman next to him did not speak. After all, Warner was their competitor, so he could not express any opinions. (End of this chapter)