1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Facts have proved that Zhang Youan's guess was correct. After he called Xu Feng in the evening and told him about this, Xu Feng told him to get the maximum investment share of "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels".

The cost of this film is not high, at most one or two million pounds. Even if all of it is taken, for Tomson now, although it is not a small investment, it can only be regarded as a medium investment.

After talking about "Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels", Zhang Youan told Xu Feng about New Balance's invitation to sing and Zhou Yan's writing of "We Are Young".

After listening to it, Xu Feng couldn't help but sigh, "On the road of music, other people walk on foot, but he seems to be running on a horse."

"He's making pretty good progress in the film industry," Zhang Youan continued.

Xu Feng agreed with this. Although Zhou Yan has only made three films in recent years, this speed is already a pace that most directors cannot catch up with. After all, it is very rare to find a prolific director like Zhang Yimou who makes a film a year.

In addition to being a director, Zhou Yan also composes film music. If we also take out Zhou Yan's music works, the number will increase suddenly.

"How's the discussion about "Shutter Island" going?" Xu Feng asked about the situation of "Shutter Island" again.

"The progress is good. Warner is very sincere. I heard from Chris that they are already trying to contact Martin Scorsese," said Zhang Youan.

"Well, thank you for your hard work. What's the situation with Titanic? Has Zhou Yan contacted Cameron?"

"Not yet. We have an appointment to meet tomorrow morning."

"We need to take this project seriously. Cameron is a very capable director and has a high reputation in Hollywood. Regardless of whether Titanic is a good or bad film, it will definitely attract a lot of attention."

"Well, I think Zhou Yan also attaches great importance to this project. But there is not much we can do. We can only rely on Zhou Yan himself."

"Indeed, we can only help promote the film and hope that it will do well in the end."

Xu Feng knew very well that no matter how strong Zhou Yan's soundtrack was, it could only be the icing on the cake. If the movie itself did not perform well, no matter how good the soundtrack was, it would be of no use.

This is particularly evident in the movie "A Chinese Odyssey". The soundtrack of "A Chinese Odyssey" is very well done, especially the "Journey to the West Rhapsody", which is relatively outstanding among the soundtracks Zhou Yan has made for movies in recent years.

However, because the performance of "A Chinese Odyssey" itself was not ideal, the response to the soundtrack of this movie was not particularly good, at least it was much worse than the soundtracks of Zhou Yan's other movies.

On the road, I often hear the soundtracks of Zhou Yan's other movies, but I rarely hear the soundtrack of "A Chinese Odyssey".

Therefore, only if the movie receives good response, Zhou Yan’s soundtrack will get more attention.

The reason why Zhou Yan was able to win the Oscar for Best Original Score this year was also because of the power of "Sense and Sensibility" itself.

Although "Sense and Sensibility" did not win any major awards at this year's Oscars, it is definitely a relatively popular movie, otherwise, the soundtrack would have no hope of winning any awards.

……

The next morning, Zhou Yan went to the headquarters of 20th Century Fox.

Zhou Yan was picked up by Sebaitisian Silva, the assistant director of the "Titanic" crew. Sebaitisian was a young man in his thirties with a very honest face, but he seemed very sophisticated when communicating with him. The two of them said less than ten sentences, and three of them were praising Zhou Yan.

He also explained why James Cameron did not come to pick you up in person, "Mr. Cameron was very busy at work today. He wanted to come and pick you up in person, but something suddenly happened and he couldn't leave, so he had to send me over. I hope you don't mind."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "You are too polite. I don't need to answer the phone. I can just go directly to the place you choose."

He wasn't so arrogant as to think that his status in the United States would make James Cameron come down to pick him up personally.

And given James Cameron's personality, even if Spielberg and others came, he might not come out to take the job.

If he could do this, people who have worked with him would not say that he was inhuman.

The reasons Sebatisian gave must have been made up by him.

The two of them walked into the building, talking and laughing. As soon as they entered the door, two people came towards them, one black and one white, and they were about the same height.

Zhou Yan recognized the black one at a glance; it was the superstar Will Smith.

Of course, Will Smith at this moment cannot be considered a superstar, he can only be considered a slightly famous young actor, and at this moment, Will Smith's main identity is still a singer.

Seeing the two, Sebadisian took the initiative to greet them, "Will, Mr. Emmerich, have you finished your work?"

The two nodded, and Roland Emmerich looked at Zhou Yan curiously, then smiled and said, "You are Y, right?"

Zhou Yan responded politely, "Yes, hello."

Sebadisian helped introduce, "Mr. Y, this is Roland Emmerich, the director of Independence Day, and the one next to him is Will Smith, one of the leading actors."

Zhou Yan smiled. It turned out to be the director of "Independence Day", Roland Emmerich.

Roland Emmerich's fame is certainly not comparable to that of "super-giant" directors like James Cameron, but the series of disaster movies he directed are very well-known, such as "Independence Day" which will be released early next month, and later "The Day After Tomorrow", "2012", "White House Downfall" and so on.

Although his films have mixed reviews among movie fans, the films he has made have still performed well in the market.

In fact, Zhou Yan is still a rival to them, because the biggest obstacle for "The Sixth Sense" to top the box office chart this year is "Independence Day".

Although "Independence Day" has not yet been released, its momentum is too great to be underestimated.

"Nice to meet you." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

Roland was quite curious about Zhou Yan. After all, Zhou Yan had been frequently mentioned in the news since the beginning of this year, first at the Berlin Film Festival, then at the Academy Awards, and recently "The Sixth Sense" swept the market and became a media darling.

Although he did not take the initiative to find out, Roland also knew some things about Zhou Yan.

He patted his head and said, "Oh, you must be here to see Director Cameron."

Seeing Sebatisian and Zhou Yan standing together, he remembered that Zhou Yan was the music director of "Titanic".

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, I'll talk to Director Cameron about the soundtrack."

Roland smiled meaningfully, "The cooperation between you two will definitely be very exciting. We may be able to work together if we have the chance."

His words were purely polite, so Zhou Yan responded politely, "Of course I also hope to work with more outstanding directors."

"We are leaving now. See you again sometime." After saying goodbye, Roland took Will Smith away. From beginning to end, Will Smith seemed to be out of shape, as if he was in a trance.

Will Smith is a typical hip-hop boy. Although he is two years older than Zhou Yan, his outfit still makes him look like a student, which is completely different from his image in "Independence Day".

In "Independence Day", Will Smith plays an Air Force pilot who is brave and bellicosity, a true combat hero.

The real Will Smith is more like his initial image in Men in Black.

After the two men left, Sebadisian smiled and said, "Mr. Emmerich has been under a lot of pressure recently. The cost of Independence Day is very high, and the company's expectations are also very high."

Zhou Yan glanced at Sebaitisian. He always felt that there was something else behind Sebaitisian's words.

The cost of "Independence Day" is indeed high, but if we talk about high cost, no other movie is more expensive than "Titanic" in which he is currently participating.

Could it be that Sebatisian meant that James Cameron is also under a lot of pressure now?

However, Zhou Yan didn't ask any more questions, just nodded and followed Sebatisan upstairs.

Sebadisian led Zhou Yan to the door of an office, reached out and knocked on the door, and a deep voice came from inside, "Come in."

The two men pushed the door open and Sebadisian said, "Mr. Cameron, Mr. Y is here."

"Yeah, okay." James Cameron was writing and drawing without even raising his head.

Sebadisian gave Zhou Yan an apologetic look, then whispered, "Mr. Y, I'm going out first."

Zhou Yan smiled and nodded, "Well, you can go out first. Thank you for your hard work."

Sebadisian stepped out, carefully closing the door.

Zhou Yan turned around and looked at James Cameron who was concentrating on his work. He did not take it as an offense and looked around the office casually.

This is a small office with a desk, a bookcase, three chairs and not even a sofa.

The desk was piled with various manuscripts, just like the desk of a senior high school student. James Cameron was buried in it, and only the top of his head could be seen.

After about two or three minutes, James Cameron looked up and smiled, "Sorry, I was just drawing something and couldn't stop."

Zhou Yan raised his eyebrows. James even knew how to apologize, so it seemed that he was not that difficult to deal with.

"It's okay, it's understandable."

"Want to see what I drew?"

Zhou Yan was quite surprised to hear this. James Cameron's personality is indeed a bit special.

"Of course, if I may."

"I wanted to show it to you." James Cameron picked up a manuscript on the table and handed it to Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan took a few steps forward, took the manuscript, and then showed a surprised expression.

What James Cameron just drew was a storyboard of Jack hugging Rose from behind.

I have to say that James Cameron's storyboard manuscripts are amazing.

Having worked with so many directors, the two storyboards that surprised Zhou Yan the most were Tsui Hark's and James Cameron's.

Tsui Hark's storyboards are more freehand, focusing on the atmosphere, with a sense of old-fashioned comics. However, James Cameron's storyboards not only have artistic aesthetics, but also have very solid basic skills, and his handling of details is much better than Tsui Hark's.

Whether it is Tsui Hark's or James Cameron's, Zhou Yan cannot learn unless he spends a lot of time and energy studying art now.

And even if he spent time studying art, he probably wouldn't be able to reach the level of these two directors because he doesn't have much talent in art.

Among all the storyboards written by so many directors, the one that suits Zhou Yanxue best is Zhang Yimou's, which is very strict and neat.

Most of the directors Zhou Yan has worked with draw good storyboards.

Although An Li's drawing skills are not good, his storyboards are very detailed. Often a group of empty shots can be detailed to the equipment, entry, time, shooting angle and so on. For example, An Li's storyboard notes can be handed over to a professional storyboard artist, and the storyboard artist does not even need to communicate with An Li to easily produce the storyboard.

Perhaps among all the directors Zhou Yan has met, the only one who does a relatively poor job of storyboarding is Stephen Chow.

When most people get Stephen Chow's storyboard notes, they can't understand what he wants to do at first, and they have to ask him to explain it carefully.

This is also Stephen Chow’s shortcoming.

Both Stephen Chow and James Cameron are called tyrants on the set, but no one has ever questioned James Cameron's professional ability because James Cameron can indeed do a very good job of preparation.

As for Stephen Chow, his basic skills are indeed not that good, and his communication skills are also weak, so problems are easily encountered during on-site filming.

If Stephen Chow had better basic functions and prepared the storyboards in advance, there would actually be less communication in post-production. After all, everyone would basically know what the director wants after looking at the storyboard.

Looking at James Cameron's draft, Zhou Yan also noticed that the male and female protagonists were drawn based on the appearance of Leo and Kate.

"It's a very beautiful picture." Zhou Yan praised.

This compliment was a bit simple, and James Cameron was obviously not very satisfied. He asked, "Do you have any inspiration when you see this picture?"

Zhou Yan looked up at James Cameron and laughed, "Mr. Cameron, you may have some misunderstandings about our work. I usually don't write music based on a storyboard manuscript, especially when I haven't even seen the complete script yet."

In fact, Zhou Yan could have written some music on the spot and told James Cameron that he got the inspiration after reading the manuscript, but this was completely unnecessary.

He wanted to let James Cameron know his working style and at the same time remind James Cameron that he still hadn't received the complete script of "Titanic".

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, James Cameron patted his head and said, "By the way, I invited you here this time to show you the script and storyboards. I hope the script and these storyboards can give you some inspiration."

Zhou Yan nodded with satisfaction. This was the purpose of his visit today. (End of this chapter)