1990: Starting from Baojia Street

The increasing number of tourists in Jiaochangwei has forced the original renovation plan to be brought forward.

The relevant departments called several developers together overnight, sat down for a meeting and discussed a plan.

First, we will clean up the existing houses in Jiaochangwei that are in good locations and open them to tourists. We will also transform an idle restaurant in Jiaochangwei into a restaurant for tourists to dine in.

The diving and speedboat outing projects have already been launched, and now we can expand the scale a little bit.

In addition, a tourist distribution center was set up to serve tourists.

In addition to speeding up the renovation process, the focus of the entire meeting was also on discussing the pricing of services. Everyone had the same idea that in the early days it was better to use affordable prices to attract tourists.

We will consider adjusting the price when there are more tourists in the future.

The key point is that Jiaochangwei has not been renovated, the basic conditions are poor, and the business environment is not good. If the project charges too much, it will completely drive tourists away.

According to their current pricing, the diving and speedboat projects can only break even at best.

But it doesn’t matter. Although the project doesn’t make money, as long as tourists stay there, they have to pay for accommodation and food, so overall they will definitely not lose money.

As long as there is no loss in the early stage, the development of Jiaochangwei will be successful.

When the meeting was about to end, someone raised his hand and suggested, "Can we create a tourism project for the movie "Time Traveler" that is currently being filmed? I'm sure you have seen how strong the star effect is. Zhou Yan is very famous, and his new movie will definitely be a big hit. After the movie is released, there will definitely be many people who come to Jiaochangwei to travel."

Director Liu, who organized the meeting, nodded and said, "Team Leader Li is right. Film and television works do have a strong influence. However, we still need to think carefully about how to organize the specific tourism projects."

Zhou Hong had been silent until he heard them mention Time Traveler, so he spoke up, "I also think Team Leader Li's suggestion is correct, but we should wait until the filming of the movie is finished before we talk about it. At this stage, we still have to ensure that the crew can operate smoothly and not be affected in any way."

Director Liu looked at Zhou Hong and nodded, "Mr. Zhou is right. Only after the film is finished can we have the rest."

Although Zhou Hong spoke less frequently during every meeting, Director Liu took him very seriously whenever he spoke, because he knew Zhou Hong better than anyone else present.

Although Pengcheng is a mixed bag, and the Zhou family's roots are in Jinling, their power in Pengcheng is greatly weakened, but as the director, he cannot afford to offend a third-generation Zhou Hong.

The Zhou family chose to do business in Pengcheng not only because they were optimistic about the development of Pengcheng, but also because they had some connections here.

The old man of the Zhou family, Zhou Minnong, has many comrades in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Moreover, even if we put aside the official background of the Zhou family, Director Liu has to pay attention to the business of the Zhou father and son in Pengcheng, because they are definitely big cash holders.

Pengcheng is developing rapidly and needs a lot of capital to flow in. Many government projects also need the support of powerful businessmen like Zhou Hong.

For example, in the Jiaochangwei project, Zhou Hong was really sincere. Not only did he invest a lot of money, but he also made a lot of concessions, leaving a lot of room for the government.

Unlike some businessmen, who not only don't want to spend money, but also always think about asking the government for policies and funds. Some of them end up failing to do their job well and still have the government to clean up their mess.

Some businessmen are short-sighted. They always think that they have to make money this year if they invest this year, and they are not willing to wait at all.

"In fact, it is easy to make a tourism project for the movie 'Time Travelers'. Love is the biggest theme of this movie, and we can make it based on this." Zhou Hong said again.

Mr. Huang, the developer sitting opposite Zhou Hong, smiled and said, "It seems that Mr. Zhou is quite interested in this new movie."

Mr. Shen on the other side said with a smile, "Mr. Huang, don't you know that the director of this movie, Zhou Yan, is Mr. Zhou's younger brother?"

"There is such a thing?" Mr. Huang was very surprised at first, then he suddenly realized, "Oh, by the way, I heard that Director Zhou is also from Jinling. That's right, it turns out that he is Mr. Zhou's younger brother, no wonder he is so powerful."

"That's right. Mr. Zhou's family is really talented. Although I don't usually pay attention to the literary and artistic circles, I have heard that this Zhou Yan is very famous now. Any movie he makes can sell for billions."

"So many billions, so exaggerated?"

Zhou Hong smiled and said, "Not a lot of billions, but definitely over 100 million."

"That's amazing. How many movies in China can break 100 million yuan in box office?"

"Zhou Yan is not only a great actor, but also a musical genius. I saw in the news that he is the most prestigious young musician in Asia and even the world today, and his music albums have sold tens of millions of copies."

"That's true." Zhou Hong nodded with a smile.

"That's amazing! I said the Zhou family is a family of scholars, and you can tell from Mr. Zhou. But I didn't expect that Mr. Zhou's family is also an artistic family."

Zhou Hong smiled and waved his hand. "Our family is not an artistic family, but my mother was engaged in music when she was alive, and my brother also inherited my mother's musical talent."

When talking about his younger brother and mother, Zhou Hong's face was filled with pride.

His performance also surprised everyone else present.

They had been in contact with Zhou Hong for quite a long time and had some understanding of him. He never showed his emotions on his face. He was the type of person who was hard to figure out and one would not know where to start if one wanted to flatter him.

Only now did they realize that Mr. Zhou’s breakthrough was his younger brother. Praising his younger brother would be much more effective than flattering him.

The key is to praise Zhou Yan. Isn't this all based on real material? All you need to do is talk about Zhou Yan's achievements.

They wanted to flatter Zhou Hong, not because they knew the Zhou family's background like Director Liu, but because the Zhou father and son had indeed developed very well in Pengcheng in recent years.

The Zhou family is involved in many industries and has done very well in all of them.

The key is that Zhou Hong is very good at doing business. Even if he eats the meat himself, he will leave some soup for others.

Anyone with a discerning eye knows that a person like Zhou Hong has a promising future. There are opportunities everywhere in Pengcheng now. It is the wisest thing to do to join forces with someone like Zhou Hong who has connections, means and vision.

While praising Zhou Yan, everyone also lamented that the Zhou family's energy was so good that they could produce two figures, Zhou Hong and Zhou Yan, at the same time.

……

The transformation of Jiaochangwei has been accelerated, but it has not reached the point of drastic changes. Everything is proceeding silently.

Zhou Yan and his team were filming every day. Apart from feeling that there were more tourists watching the scene, they didn't have any other deep feelings.

The filming of the crew has been going very smoothly, and the actors have performed very well. Even Li Xiaoran's scenes basically didn't take up much time.

After being scolded by Zhou Yan last time, she has been behaving very well recently. She no longer stays in her room every day. When others are filming, she will stand by and study.

In the evening, she would also ask people to play volleyball together, because the volleyball scene was mainly about her.

Although Zhou Yan did not require her to play volleyball very well, she also practiced very seriously.

...On September 10th, Michael Hui finally arrived at the end of the arena.

Although most of Xu Guanwen's scenes were set in Hong Kong, some of them were also set in Jiaochangwei, at least he had to be there for the wedding scene.

After the meeting, Xu Guanwen apologized again and again, "I'm sorry, I was entangled with some trivial matters during this period and didn't arrive in time. I even missed the opening ceremony."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "It doesn't matter. You have fewer scenes at the end of the show anyway, so it's useless to come early."

Previously, Xu Guanwen's audition was conducted remotely. The video tape of his audition was sent directly to Yanjing University. Zhou Yan made the final decision after watching it. The two did not meet during the whole process.

So this was also the first time the two of them really met.

Of course, when Zhou Yan attended the Academy Awards ceremony before, Xu Guanwen was also present, but the two did not talk to each other at that time.

Xu Guanwen is in his fifties this year, but he looks relatively young, probably in his early forties, and he gives people a gentle and elegant feeling.

Speaking of which, the Xu brothers are quite interesting.

There are four brothers in their family. Except for the second oldest, Xu Guanwu, who mainly works behind the scenes, the other three, Xu Guanwen, Xu Guanying and Xu Guanjie, are all active in front of the camera.

Although these three people are brothers, they look very different.

Although they are both comedians, Sam Hui is more handsome and has made great achievements in various fields including film, television and music, and he has a lot of female fans.

After Xu Guanjie starred in "Swordsman", he was hailed as the most handsome Linghu Chong.

Although some people disagree with this "most handsome Linghu Chong", at least throughout the 1990s, when talking about Linghu Chong, most audiences would think of Sam Hui's face first.

Sam Hui also developed very well in music. He even held a concert at the Hong Kong City Hall in 73, becoming the first Hong Kong singer to hold a solo concert.

Later, the song he created, "Ghostly Twins", became the first Chinese song to be broadcast on the BBC Radio in the UK and the English Channel of Hong Kong Radio. In the same year, the album "Ghostly Twins" was awarded a gold record.

In comparison, Xu Guanying's star journey was much more difficult. Because of his poor looks, he could only take the path of an ugly star.

Of course, Xu Guanying is also an ugly star with very distinctive features, and he has participated in many well-known works.

As the eldest brother, Sam Hui looks like a combination of his two younger brothers. He is neither very handsome nor ugly.

The two of them were standing at the door of the male protagonist's house, looking at the tourists coming and going on the main road of Jiaochangwei Village. Xu Guanwen smiled and said, "This place is more lively than I thought."

“When we first came here, it wasn’t this lively.”

"Is it because Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung are here?" Xu Guanwen said with a smile, "I also saw it on the news before."

"Well, they came here to play for a few days, but they didn't expect to be photographed."

In fact, Zhou Yan could imagine that Anita Mui and others were being photographed because "Time Traveler" was being filmed here, so reporters would often come to check out the location.

Anita Mui and her friends stayed here for several days, so it was normal for them to be photographed.

However, Zhou Yan had not expected that Anita Mui and her friends would cause such a big commotion when they came to visit for a few days.

In fact, the main reason is that Anita Mui and other female comrades wore swimsuits when playing beach volleyball. Such photos really attracted the audience.

"Does the influx of tourists affect the filming progress?" asked Michael Hui again.

"No, the shooting schedule has been advanced, so I called you."

According to the plan, Xu Guanwen's scene will not start shooting until five days later. He can come in two or three days later and it will not delay the shooting at all.

But because Zhou Yan and his team had moved up the shooting schedule, Zhou Yan made a special call to Sam Hui and asked him to come early.

Sam Hui is coming today, will integrate with the crew for a day tomorrow, and will start filming the day after tomorrow.

Three days later, the crew will start filming the last scene at the end of the competition, which is the wedding of the hero and heroine.

After hearing Zhou Yan's words, Xu Guanwen nodded. He just wanted to ask about the filming situation of the crew.

His schedule this year is not busy, and it can even be said that he has begun to slowly fade out of the screen.

But not having work in front of the camera doesn't mean he isn't busy with other work. There are many things in their company that need him to take care of, as well as many trivial matters in life that also need him to deal with.

He even felt that he was busier than before. There were many things for him to worry about, such as the Hong Kong Film Association, the Directors Guild, and the Performing Artists Association.

So he also wanted to finish filming the movie as soon as possible so as not to interfere with his other work.

Now that he knew the crew was filming quickly, he felt relieved.

He couldn't help but sigh, "Although it's my first day here today, I'm still amazed by your professionalism, Director Zhou. The crew is running very smoothly."

"I'm quite lucky. Many of the crew members are old friends who have worked with me for a long time. Each of them is very talented and they are very supportive and caring towards me. I don't have to worry about many things, which is why we were able to advance the shooting schedule."

"you are too humble."

These words were spoken by Michael Hui from the bottom of his heart.

Indeed, the smooth operation of a crew is definitely inseparable from the efforts of everyone.

But the director definitely plays an extremely important role in it. Only if the director understands management can he gather a group of people around him.

Xu Guanwen is a director himself, and he knows very well that the stability of a team is crucial.

Humans are very complex creatures. A film crew can consist of at least a dozen or twenty people, or as many as several hundred.

Each of these people has his or her own ideas, and it is impossible for them to always reach a consensus. Sam Hui has seen many crews that are in a foul mood and full of intrigue.

Some people think that as long as the director is talented and the movies he makes can make money, he can keep the team stable.

However, in fact, making money is only one factor in team stability. In fact, many teams fall apart after making money.

It may be easier to share adversity than to share prosperity. This is true even for brothers, not to mention colleagues. (End of this chapter)