1990: Starting from Baojia Street

It was September 14th when Zhou Yan heard about the sales of "Snow Flower" in Japan and Hong Kong. However, because the release time was too short, he did not hear too specific data. He only heard that it was selling well.

However, no matter how well a single sells, the profit is far less than that of an album.

In fact, calculated based on the unit price, the price of a single is not cheap, but the necessary costs are unavoidable for a single.

Putting aside the initial costs, the production cost of an album after recording is actually not much different from a single, because both require CDs or cassettes.

No matter how many songs are contained in the carrier, the materials of the CD and cassette themselves will not change, and the labor costs will be almost the same.

Before, Tang Chen also considered making a new album for Akina Nakamori, but without new songs, if he only selected a bunch of old songs to fool the fans, it might not be worth it.

Of course, the main purpose of a single is not to make money, but to accumulate popularity. Akina Nakamori relied on "Snow Flower" to make a comeback.

As long as we win this comeback battle, it will be much easier to make a new album later.

Zhou Yan only paid a little attention to the situation of "Snow Flower". The filming of "Time Traveler" in Jiaochangwei was nearing completion, and all his attention was here.

On the 14th, the last big scene in Jiaochangwei, which is the wedding scene, was about to start filming, and the whole Jiaochangwei was very lively.

Zhou Yan and his team did not publicize it to the public, but there were too many tourists in Jiaochangwei, and when the wedding was being arranged in advance, it was seen by some tourists.

When the tourists knew that there was going to be a wedding scene, they were all quite interested. Many of them were going to return home originally, but they stayed for two days just to watch them film the wedding scene.

On the day of the shoot, many tourists wanted to come and watch, which caused considerable trouble to the shoot.

In order to avoid being exposed, the crew had to assign some extra staff to maintain order on the scene and "drive" the tourists to the distant shore to prevent them from entering the painting.

Fortunately, although the location arranged by the crew for the tourists was far away, the view was wide and they could see the situation at the pier, so the tourists did not have too many objections.

As soon as Zhou Yan left the dormitory area in the morning, he saw several villagers from Jiaochangwei, led by the village chief Huang Youfa, selling telescopes to tourists.

It seems that the sales are going well, and most of Huang Youfa and his team's telescopes were sold out quickly.

Zhou Yan was stunned by the scene. He couldn't help but turn around and ask Shen Yan behind him, "When did Village Chief Huang and his men bring in so many telescopes?"

Shen Yan smiled and said, "Maybe when he heard that we were going to shoot a wedding scene and stop the tourists a few days ago, Lao Huang came up with this idea. I have to say, Lao Huang has a good business sense. His telescopes are purchased at a price of more than ten yuan each, and he sells them for at least fifty or sixty yuan. I heard that there are also high-end ones, which cost more than two hundred yuan each."

Zhou Yan was amazed when he heard this. It turned out that there were smart people everywhere. No wonder Huang Youfa could become the village chief. This guy was smarter than the average person and he discovered the business opportunity right away.

At present, what tourists who come to Jiaochangwei need most is a telescope. Moreover, this thing has high profit, low loss, can be stored in large quantities, and can be sold later without worrying about not being able to sell out.

Over the years, Zhou Yan has passed through many places, and he has come to understand that although local development is closely related to national policies and guidelines, for a place to develop rapidly, there will always be one or two smart people in power.

Before, Zhou Yan somewhat underestimated grassroots cadres such as village heads, but later he gradually discovered that in many places, it was these grassroots cadres who played a crucial role in development.

When national policies are formulated, everything written down is the same, but as they are passed down layer by layer, and when they reach the grassroots level, these grassroots cadres have the final right of interpretation.

If a grassroots cadre is a little left or right in his thinking, the way he implements policies will be very different.

In two neighboring villages, if the cadres of one village are bold and enterprising, while the cadres of the other village are timid and hesitant, within three to five years, there will be a clear difference in the development levels of the two villages.

This is why it is said that governing a big country is like cooking a small fish. Due to the complexity of the social structure, it is impossible to achieve perfect immediacy and accuracy. When policies are communicated and implemented, they will be dragged down by the inertia formed over a long period of time.

On the contrary, the grassroots have flexibility. A grassroots cadre with a slightly more forward-looking vision can use the flexibility of this class to perfectly respond to policies.

"Director Zhou, do you want to tell Old Huang to ask them to be more restrained?" Shen Yan asked.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "What you said is true. When will we be able to manage local officials? Besides, we borrowed their place to film, so it's a good thing if they can benefit from us."

Shen Yan nodded, "Indeed, seeing this business opportunity, Lao Huang was very active in this matter and specially arranged some villagers to help us maintain order and ensure that tourists can stay in the specific areas we arranged in advance. With their help, our people will be much more relaxed, and Lao Liu and the others can also withdraw. Otherwise, our people will really have a hard time."

People always need some motivation. Village Chief Huang and his men are not helping the crew maintain order, but helping their village protect its interests.

There is a serious shortage of labor in the village now, but there are also many people who have no jobs, so of course they cherish the opportunity to make money.

As long as they can stop the tourists, they will have business.

If tourists run around, they won't be able to sell their telescopes.

Zhou Yan glanced in the direction of Huang Youfa, smiled, and said nothing more. Then she went to the male protagonist's house and started to put on makeup and change clothes.

After completing the preparations, they went to the dock.

The pier was no longer the same as when Zhou Yan and his team first came here. The entire embankment had been renovated by the crew.

There was no carpet in the entire aisle, but flower petals were scattered all over the ground, forming a flower path.

There are four rows of seats on both sides for friends and family to sit. The embankment is wide enough to accommodate four rows of seats without making the aisle in the middle look cramped.

From the entrance of the embankment to the end, a distance of dozens of meters, there are flowers and balloons everywhere, and even the stage is a greenhouse made of flowers and wooden frames.

The layout of the entire pier is like a dream.

Although the decoration is very fresh and not luxurious at all, there are actually many places where money is spent.

Apart from anything else, if there were fewer flowers on the pier, it would be impossible to create the current effect.

Originally, they could have chosen to use plastic flowers. As long as the camera was not pointed directly at the flowers, there would be no danger of being exposed. However, Zhou Yan ultimately did not choose to save money on this. After all, no matter how well the plastic flowers are made, they cannot be as vivid and beautiful as real flowers.

This also involves environmental protection issues. For example, if the petals scattered on the ground were replaced with plastic flowers, even if they were careful, many of them would definitely fall into the sea. Plastic flowers falling into the sea is a very troublesome thing. If environmentalists find out, it will be another trouble.

In fact, this is not the final effect. Many flowers are still covered in soil, and some flowers have not been put up. Because today is just a trial shoot, it would be a bit of a waste to arrange all the flowers.

When it comes to the actual shooting, the effect will be better if all the flowers are taken out and placed on the stage.

The flowers scattered on the ground today will be replaced with new ones when the official shooting begins.

The camera positions and actor movements have been arranged in advance. We can just go for a test shoot when we arrive today. Moreover, the test shoot is real and not much different from the actual shoot.

At this time, there were several ships parked by the dock, two of which were equipped with small ship cranes.

Zhou Yan walked to the dock, and Shen Yan said on the intercom: "Move the hanging basket over here."

Soon, one of the ships' crane came to the dock with a basket hanging from it.

After the basket became stable, Zhou Yan stepped on it directly, and then he was lifted into the air along with the basket.

Compared to the large crane used on the filming site of "Titanic", the height of the crane they used was much lower. When it was raised to its highest point, it was only a dozen meters above the horizontal surface of the dock.

However, although the height is not as high as James's, the effect is actually similar. He stands on it with the loudspeaker, feeling as if he is looking down on all the mountains.

Standing on a high place has its advantages. At least he can have a panoramic view of the scene and can see at a glance if there is any problem.

As soon as he got up, he saw that there was something wrong with the arrangement of the seats below, so he raised the megaphone and shouted, "Brother Liu, move the second row of seats a little to the east."

Liu Qing looked up, made an "OK" gesture, and ran to move the chair.

Just after talking about the chair issue, Zhou Yan looked in the direction of Chen Derong and said, "Chen Derong, are you wearing the wrong clothes? You should wear size 7 for this scene."

Chen Derong's heart trembled when she heard Zhou Yan's words. She didn't expect that Zhou Yan could even notice such details.

For today's scene, she really should have worn size seven.

It’s just that the size 7 dress is a little inconvenient to wear. She thought that since today was a trial shoot, it didn’t matter if the dress wasn’t worn correctly, so she tried to get away with it.

She didn't dare to explain anything and immediately responded, "I'll go change it now."

After saying yes, she got up and ran away.

Zhou Yan frowned and said, "What's wrong with the costume team? Do I still have to supervise the clothes? Check immediately to see if everyone's clothes are correct. Although today is a trial shoot, these things must be done according to the formal shoot. We can't be careless at all."

Several people in the costume crew didn't dare to speak and silently checked the costumes of other actors.

In fact, most people have become accustomed to Zhou Yan's attention to details, but people like Xu Guanwen who have not worked with Zhou Yan for a long time are secretly amazed.

Director Zhou has such a good memory that he can even remember what clothes the actors wear in which scene?

What surprised them even more was that Zhou Yan was not only able to remember what clothes the actors should wear, but he could even remember the seats of the guests.

Whenever an actor sat in the wrong seat, Zhou Yan would always be able to point it out immediately and guide them to the correct seat.

No one felt that Zhou Yan was making a fuss. Things like guest seating may seem small, but in fact they may very well affect the final shooting effect.

The seating arrangement for guests should not only take into account practical rationality, but also the coordination of the picture. Different people are of different heights, weights, and body shapes, and they wear different colors. When they are put together, the effects presented will also be different.

The colors of the flowers arranged on the embankment are not static. From the entrance to the stage, the colors gradually become brighter and brighter, and gradually turn blue, blending better with the sea and the sky.

When shooting the push-in shot later, there is a change in tone.

The colors of the actors' costumes are naturally not arranged randomly. Their costumes will change with the colors of the flowers, so they will not appear abrupt when the camera moves forward.

Of course, the arrangement of these details is not all Zhou Yan's credit. In order to achieve the desired effect, Zhou Yan and costume designer and visual director Dong Wenmiao studied for several days before finally deciding on this plan.

For this plan, Dong Wenmiao even brought several people from the costume crew to make a few sets of clothes for the actors on the spot.

After all, these ideas were not originally considered when the scene was designed.

The changes to this scene also caused Dong Wenmiao a lot of trouble. Originally, she was not planning to come to the scene and let other colleagues do all the matters. But because of this scene, she had to come to the scene and contact Zhou Yan in person.

Zhou Yan directed the operation from the hanging basket for more than an hour, and only let the crane lower him down after he had grasped most of the details.

If he didn't have to perform in this scene himself, he would just stay up there and not come down. The effect of directing from there was too good.

This is also the disadvantage of directing and acting by oneself. Many things have to be handed over to others. During the filming of "Time Traveler", many of the things that he was previously responsible for were handed over to Zhao Fei and several assistant directors.

As soon as Zhou Yan came down, Joey Wong had already walked to the entrance of the embankment surrounded by the crowd, like a bride waiting to enter.

When Wang Zuxian appeared in a red dress, cheers were heard from afar. The sounds came from the tourists who were watching in the distance.

Although the distance was far, there were so many people and the noise was so loud that some of it could still be heard on the scene.

Many tourists had been waiting there since early morning just for this moment. When they saw Joey Wong appear, they thought the scene was officially about to start filming, so they couldn't help but cheer a little louder.

It was not the first time that Zhou Yan saw Joey Wong wearing this dress, but when he saw her standing at the entrance of the embankment, surrounded by flowers, he still raised his eyebrows.

This dress was made by Dong Wenmiao herself. From a distance, it looks like a traditional Chinese dress, but when you get closer, you can find many small details that make your eyes shine. The lace edge of the cuffs and the large U-shaped neckline make the overall style playful, unlike the solemn traditional dress. (End of this chapter)