1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After Zhou Yan returned home, he thought about it and decided to call Shizuka.

From the way she spoke, it seemed like she knew nothing, and Akina Nakamori probably didn't tell her.

Since Akina Nakamori didn't say anything, Zhou Yan also chose not to say anything. He just told Shizuka that he had too much work tonight and couldn't go to the Asahi Wind Hotel.

Shizuka could only complain a few words about this and didn't say anything else.

The next morning, Zhou Yan had just arrived at the studio and the tea leaves in the cup had not yet brewed when Shizuka pulled Akina Nakamori over.

As soon as she entered the door, Shizuka smiled and said, "Busy man, do you have time to go out for a walk with us today?"

Zhou Yan looked up and saw Shizuka's smiling face first, then he made eye contact with Akina Nakamori next to him.

Akina Nakamori was like a kitten. As soon as her eyes met Zhou Yan's, she dodged and couldn't help but lean behind Shizuka.

If Zhou Yan was still a little unsure whether the woman last night was Akina Nakamori, then after seeing her performance today, Zhou Yan was 100% sure.

Zhou Yan couldn't figure this woman out. She could have revealed her identity the first time last night, but she just stood there motionless, letting him hold her like that, without even making a sound.

If Zhou Yan hadn't noticed something was wrong first, and then taken the next inappropriate action, the situation would have been even more embarrassing.

She didn't tell Shizuka about this afterwards, and even came to the studio with Shizuka today.

"of course."

Zhou Yan put down the pen in his hand. Although he had a lot of work to do, he decided to take a day to accompany Shizuka. After all, he had said before that he would accompany Shizuka to stroll around Chang'an, but he broke his promise in the end.

After packing up simply, Zhou Yan set off with the two girls.

Zhou Yan didn't take them anywhere special. They just strolled around the Forbidden City and then went to Wangfujing for lunch.

Akina Nakamori didn't say much during the whole process, but Shizuka didn't find it strange, after all, Akina Nakamori's Chinese is not good.

Zhou Yan was originally going to take them to Beihai Park in the afternoon, but Jingxiang said, "Okay, I'm already very satisfied to have you accompany us for half a day. I know you're busy with work, so go back to work."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. I don't care about this half day."

"Okay, listen to me and get back to work." Shizuka started pushing Zhou Yan directly.

"What about you two?"

"Let's stop shopping and go to your studio. Akina seems to be quite interested in filming and wants to go to the film studio to take a look."

After that, she spoke to Zhongming Mingcai in Neon language.

Hearing Shizuka's words, Nakamori Akina quickly waved her hand and said, "Don't bother, let's go back to the hotel."

She had indeed told Shizuka before that she wanted to go to the film studio again, but in the current situation, she couldn't help but stay in the studio, which would be too embarrassing.

In the past half day, her embarrassment level was off the charts.

Now she had no way to face Zhou Yan with a normal mentality, and she couldn't even face Shizuka with a normal mentality.

Obviously, she was not to blame for what happened last night, but when facing Shizuka, she felt guilty, as if she was having an affair with Zhou Yan.

What she feared most was Zhou Yan's gaze that would occasionally look at her. Every time her eyes met hers, the scene of Zhou Yan hugging her from behind last night would appear in her mind.

Although Akina Nakamori clearly refused, Shizuka thought she was just embarrassed, so she took her hand and said, "It's okay, let's go together. I'm also very interested in the movie, and Zhou Yan won't think we're disturbing him."

"Right, Teacher Zhou?" Shizuka asked Zhou Yan in Chinese again.

Although Zhou Yan didn't understand what Shizuka said before, he nodded unconsciously, "Yeah."

Just like Akina Nakamori responded to Shizuka last night, I just feel that a positive answer should be given at this time.

"Let's go."

……

After arriving at the studio, Zhou Yan took them to find Hong Xin and asked Hong Xin to take them to play in the studio.

If you don't have anyone to take you for an in-depth experience and just want a simple tour, there's actually not much fun to do in the film studio. You can walk from top to bottom, inside and out in less than ten minutes. You come in confused and leave confused.

Hong Xin and Shizuka know each other, although they are not very familiar with each other, they would chat a few words when they meet.

When she heard Zhou Yan ask her to take them to the studio to play, Hong Xin smiled and said, "Director Huo's new movie is being made right now, I'll take you to see it."

"Oh, has Lao Huo's new movie started post-production?"

Of course Zhou Yan knew that Huo Jianqi was filming a new movie.

After the release of "Winner" this year, the response was very good, so Huo Jianqi continued his efforts and started filming his second movie.

This film is still directed by Huo Jianqi, written by his wife Su Xiaowei, invested by Tang Chen Film Company, and produced by Yanjing Film Studio.

Of course, although it was produced by Yanjing Film Studio, the filming was actually done by Zhou Yan's studio, which means that Yanjing Film Studio outsourced the filming to Zhou Yan's studio.

Some people also joked that Zhou Yan's film studio was a branch of the Yanjing Film Studio, because many people in the studio had staff positions at the Yanjing Film Studio.

People like Hong Xin are still nominally from the Yanjing Film Studio.

The relationship between the two parties is no longer a secret, and most people in the industry know about it.

Some people will say sour words or even try to trip them up, accusing them of violating the rules.

If this kind of accusation had appeared ten or twenty years ago, Zhou Yan and his team might have been in trouble, but what time is it now? The times have changed. The national film industry is undergoing drastic reforms. What does Zhou Yan's cooperation with Yanjing Film Studio mean?
Besides, given Zhou Yan and Han Sanping’s background, they wouldn’t be affected by such a small matter.

Some people say that they are poaching talents from society, but in fact, apart from being employed by the Yanjing Film Studio, all expenses of Hong Xin and her team are paid by the studio.

Many film studios also want to find someone like Zhou Yan to cooperate with. After all, they can go into battle lightly without affecting the main framework, and Zhou Yan can also attract investment for the film studio.

Although the money is not invested directly in the studio, the studio is still the beneficiary.

For example, Huo Jianqi's new film "Singer" did not require Yanjing Film Studio to pay a dime or provide a roll of film. It only needed some people from Yanjing Film Studio. In the end, Yanjing Film Studio not only made money, but also had to print their name on the film's title. Nowadays, all major film studios are responsible for their own profits and losses, and each studio is trying to make money.

But investors' money does not come from the wind, and times have changed. It is no longer the time when film studios were high and mighty. If the project is not good, no one is willing to invest a penny.

Other factories are also looking for similar partners, and some have found similar ones, but it is probably impossible to find someone as high-quality as Zhou Yan again.

It is also because we can't find someone like Zhou Yan, so we have to talk about grapes instead of eating them, so there are all those sour words.

Since the preparations for the filming of "Singer", Zhou Yan has not asked about it. He has adopted a hands-off policy towards the directors of his studio.

Apart from checking the budget for them, he rarely interferes with other matters, leaving it all up to the directors to do their own thing.

Directors like Huo Jianqi don't need Zhou Yan to ask any questions, and the movie will not fail. On the contrary, if he asks too many questions, it may affect their performance.

But since he met him today, Zhou Yan decided to go over and take a look.

Huo Jianqi was naturally in the editing room. A good director must do more editing and cannot rely too much on the editor.

Of course, the director cannot trust himself too much. Most of the time, he still needs to absorb the editor's opinions, because when the director watches his own film, it is easy for him to fall into the situation of being confused by the situation.

Even though many directors try to step out of the situation and look at it from a more personal perspective, it is difficult to do so. After all, humans are emotional animals, not cold machines. Even the most rational people will still have an emotional look. It can even be said that rationality itself is a part of sensibility.

When it comes to editing, the situation in China is very different from that in Hollywood. In comparison, domestic directors have more rights and freedom in editing.

But in Hollywood, only a few directors have the final editing rights. Most directors need producers and editors.

In order to attract Zhou Yan to help them make movies, Warner had previously proposed that Zhou Yan could have greater editing freedom, which is indeed very attractive to ordinary directors.

In fact, there is a reason why Hollywood has such rules, because many directors do not have good control over editing. Editing is not something that can be done by just picking up a pair of scissors. After all, it is a professional job.

In addition, it is true that many directors become self-indulgent and the final edited material can only be understood by the director himself, which greatly reduces the commercial value.

Many viewers believe in the director's cut, believing that it can better express the director's artistic ideas.

This does make some sense, but in fact, many director's cuts are neither commercially viable nor do they express the director's own ideas well. It's just that the director himself thinks he has expressed his own ideas.

Zhou Yan believes that a director still needs to know something about editing. Most basically, he also needs to understand what editing is for a movie.

Many directors regard editors as tools, thinking that editors are just "scissors" to help them express themselves. This idea is extremely undesirable.

After Zhou Yan shot his first short film, he spent a lot of time in the editing room. At that time, the editing room of Chang'an Factory was like Zhou Yan's home, and he went to the editing room more diligently than anyone else working there.

Huo Jianqi hadn't seen Zhou Yan for a long time. Seeing Zhou Yan coming to visit the set, he greeted him with a smile, "Director Zhou, how come you have time to come here today?"

"I heard that 'Singer' is already in post-production? That's pretty fast."

"This is still considered fast. We have been shooting for several months. If we continue shooting, I will be embarrassed."

Compared to the first time they met, Huo Jianqi now looked radiant, not as sad as before. The success of "Winner" gave him a great boost of confidence, and now his career as a director is on the right track.

Signed with Zhou Yan's studio, he no longer has to worry about anything else. Every day he just needs to think about how to make a good movie. Naturally, he feels much more relaxed than before.

"Let me introduce them to you. They are Japanese singers, Shizuka Kudo and Akina Nakamori."

"Hello." Huo Jianqi greeted with a smile.

In fact, he had met Shizuka Kudo quite a few times, but he had never met her formally.

"They are both interested in film production, and Singer happened to be making one, so I brought them to watch it."

"It's just right that you two are here and can give some guidance. After all, the name of this movie is Singer, and it tells the story of a female singer. You two are the most qualified to speak."

Huo Jianqi's words were of course polite. Now that the filming of the movie has been completed, even if the two of them really have any ideas, it would be difficult to use them in the movie.

"Is it actually a movie about a singer?"

Shizuka looked surprised, and then translated it to Akina Nakamori, who also looked surprised.

Seeing that they were interested, Huo Jianqi suggested showing them a movie.

It just so happens that the editing work has stopped right now, so it’s not that busy.

Hong Xin took them both to see a movie, while Zhou Yan and Huo Jianqi walked aside.

After the two chatted about "Singer" for a while, Zhou Yan asked, "Do you have any plans for the next movie?"

Hearing Zhou Yan's question, Huo Jianqi's expression became a little awkward, "I haven't finished this movie yet, it's too early to think about a new movie."

Looking at his expression, Zhou Yan knew that he must have thought about it.

"It's okay. It's not against the law to think about it."

"Speaking of which, my wife does have some ideas. She wants to adapt a novel. It's a short story by Peng Jianming, which won the National Excellent Short Story Award that year."

Zhou Yan narrowed his eyes, "Are you talking about "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog"? "

Huo Jianqi looked at Zhou Yan in surprise. Even though he knew that Zhou Yan was also a writer, he was still shocked by Zhou Yan's erudition.

Peng Jianming himself is not a particularly famous writer. Although "That Mountain, That Man, and That Dog" won the National Excellent Short Story Award, that was more than ten years ago.

"You can guess this?"

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It just so happens that I have a deep impression of this novel. It should have been published in "Mengya". At that time, I was still in middle school. "Mengya" was very popular among middle school students. "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog" is indeed a very good novel, suitable for being made into a movie. Now that you have the idea, let's polish the script well."

"I'm not in a hurry at all. Let's wait until "Singer" is released."

Zhou Yan nodded, "It's up to you to decide."

As I said, Zhou Yan takes a laissez-faire approach to the directors in the studio and does not interfere too much.

Even though Zhou Yan couldn't wait to see "That Mountain, That Man, That Dog", he still had to let nature take its course. (End of this chapter)