1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan did not tell them too many theoretical things because they were too boring and people without basic knowledge would be confused.

Soon he began to use some clips from "No Name" as examples to illustrate the role of turn-taking and distribution.

"There is a section in the middle of the third act. The background of the conversation is that a cow in the village has disappeared, and the villagers gather together to discuss the whereabouts of the cow. I roughly estimated that there are a total of 24 turns in this section, with five speakers. The one with the most turns is the village chief, with 10 turns, followed by the protagonist, with 8 turns, and the other three people have 2 turns each. Moreover, the average length of the village chief and the protagonist's turns is obviously longer than the other three, and should be more than 30 turns each."

"In addition, the protagonist's eight turns were all spoken later. None of them spoke first or interrupted."

"The handling here is very good. Although the village chief never said from beginning to end that he suspected the protagonist was related to the disappearance of the cow, this part of the conversation shows that he has some suspicions about the protagonist, but this suspicion cannot be stated openly."

"Normally, the protagonist's speaking turn wouldn't account for such a large proportion, and a lot of it is spoken and interrupted. The fact that the data on speaking turns changed so much this time speaks volumes."

After hearing what Zhou Yan said, Wang Qianyuan looked at Xin Baiqing next to him with shock, and the latter's expression was also very surprised.

They spent a long time revising this scene, and it is one of the ones they are most satisfied with.

But they never thought about turns, who should speak first or who should speak later. They just put themselves into the roles and made changes bit by bit based on their feelings.

Now that they have finished listening to Zhou Yan's analysis, they find that he understands the play better than they do themselves.

Yes, that's it.

The protagonist's turns of speaking have obviously increased here, and they all come later.

At this moment, Wang Qianyuan felt that Zhou Yan was like the butcher Ding, who could dissect the cow clearly with just a few cuts.

At the same time, he was also thinking, if they knew this theoretical knowledge before, would it be much easier to modify the play? He has now thought of some places in the script that can be modified according to this theory.

Tian Youliang and several other class teachers were also very surprised. They were not only surprised at Zhou Yan's understanding of text analysis, but also at his memory ability.

This was the first time Zhou Yan watched this drama today, but he could actually remember how many characters were involved in one of the conversations and how many rounds each character spoke. Is this the kind of memory a normal person can have?

Could it be that Zhou Yan had already thought about giving his students a talk on conversation analysis while watching the play? That's why he wrote down a passage?

On the contrary, Gao Jinwen was not very surprised, because he knew Zhou Yan better than Tian Youliang and the others.

The reason why Gao Jinwen particularly wanted Zhou Yan to talk about the students' drama was because he knew that Zhou Yan was particularly good at text analysis.

When he was at Qiao Family Courtyard, Zhou Yan was just a music assistant. He did a lot of text analysis on Raise the Red Lantern, even more than the screenwriter Ni Zhen.

Moreover, Zhou Yan has always had a good memory. He memorized his lines faster than most people back then.

However, compared with Zhou Yan's other specialties, his good memory is the less noticeable one. Gao Jinwen has seen many people with good memory, but it is very rare to find someone like Zhou Yan who can achieve great results in his field.

Some people are also quite versatile, but they have not achieved such great achievements in various fields.

Of course, let alone achieving the same success as Zhou Yan in every field, even if you pick out one of Zhou Yan’s achievements, very few people can achieve it.

Zhou Yan talked about the better aspects of the conversation structure in "No Name", and of course he also wanted to talk about the poor aspects.

He then gave another example, "There is a scene in the back of the third act where the background of the conversation is that Xiao Mantou, the son of Zhang Mantou, stole half a bag of rice from Li Laoguai's house and was caught on the spot. Li Laoguai and his wife took Xiao Mantou to Zhang's house to seek justice, and they happened to be met by the protagonist. There are very few turns in this section, only seven in total, with only Li Laoguai and the protagonist. The protagonist has three turns, and Li Laoguai has four."

"There is something obviously not right here. In the previous scenes, Li Laoguai had few turns of speaking, and he basically interrupted and did not control the turns of speaking. On the contrary, Li Laoguai's wife had a medium to high number of turns of speaking, and she often controlled the turns of speaking. In this scene, it stands to reason that Li Laoguai's wife had more turns of speaking. In addition, as an outsider, the protagonist should show enough curiosity about the matter, so he should have more turns of speaking, at least the same as Li Laoguai, and he should also speak more. Putting aside this small background, in the big picture, the protagonist should also have more turns of speaking."

After hearing this, the students in the audience were completely convinced. Not only those from Class 93, but also those from Class 96 were greatly shocked.

When they were taking drama class, the teacher would also give them some text analysis, but it seemed that his analysis was not as professional as Zhou Yan's.

The key point is that the teacher had prepared for the class for a long time, while Zhou Yan just watched the play "No Name" for the first time and improvised.

It takes a lot of profound skills in text research to be so powerful.

Seeing the students' dazed expressions, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'm done."

Now everyone reacted and started to applaud.

They actually think that Zhou Yan will say more, because if we follow Zhou Yan's analysis angle, there is a lot to say about this drama.

Tian Youliang spoke first, "Thank you Director Zhou for providing us with such a good idea. You should all remember it and use Director Zhou's method to analyze the script again."

Of course he knew that the script was so long that it was impossible for Zhou Yan to analyze it from beginning to end for them. It was already very good that he could say so much.

Chang Li also applauded and said to the students in their class, "You are very lucky today to have heard such a valuable lesson. Remember these well, so that you can analyze new texts better and faster in the future."

She was a little glad that Gao Jinwen was able to bring the students here. Gao Jinwen's class could be attended any day, but Zhou Yan's class was rare.

She had never heard anyone in the directing department talk about the things Zhou Yan said.

In fact, when it comes to text analysis, both the Central Academy of Drama and Yandian University are definitely not as good as the Chinese departments of Yanda University and Yanshi University.

The Chinese departments of Yan University and Yan Normal University are really good at text research. Sometimes Chang Li also wonders whether she can learn from the Chinese departments of these schools, perhaps she can improve their teaching ability.

After hearing what Tian Youliang and Chang Li said, Zhou Yan smiled and waved his hands, saying, "Everyone, just listen to what I just said and have an impression in your mind. Or, when you get a new script in the future and want to quickly analyze the script, you can try to use it. But when acting or even writing a script, these things are useless." "Why?" Wang Qianyuan asked curiously, "I think this analysis method is very good. After listening to this method, I feel that there are many places in the script that can be modified. I believe that it will definitely become better after the modification."

"This is to make some modifications based on the script you have already written. If you use these analysis techniques when you first create, you will find that you can't write anything. How can a creator always think about turn allocation when creating? Text analysis is more used in academic research and theoretical inheritance, and it is not useful when creating. Otherwise, the most famous writers in the country should all come from those Chinese departments."

Chang Li's expression froze. She didn't expect Zhou Yan to directly deny her previous idea.

However, what Zhou Yan said is indeed right. Although the Chinese departments of Yenching University and Yenching Normal University are indeed strong, they are all engaged in academic research and there is nothing special in their creative work.

What they mainly pursue at the Central Academy of Drama and Yandian is not academic research, but creation and practice.

At this time, Mei Ting suddenly raised her hand and said, "Director Zhou, you are not only an excellent director, but also a well-known writer. I have read your "Tree Hole" and "Death of the Mayor" and benefited a lot from them. So, when you were creating, did you not use these analytical techniques?"

When Mei Ting said this, she spoke with a bit of a Jinling accent. It was unclear whether she spoke with an accent naturally or if she knew Zhou Yan was from Jinling so she deliberately spoke with an accent to get closer to him.

Zhou Yan smiled and replied, "When my mind is filled with various analytical techniques, it means that my writing has reached a bottleneck, because only when I lack creative inspiration will I think of using these things. I can't judge whether the theoretical knowledge I have learned has a huge impact on my writing, but I can at least tell you that if you want to become a writer, these theoretical knowledge are completely unnecessary."

"What about directors? Didn't you learn theoretical knowledge in the process of becoming a director?"

“Of course you need to know theoretical knowledge, but even if it’s the same theoretical knowledge, there are still differences. If you want to be a director, I still think you don’t need to learn those academic research knowledge, you just need to know how to shoot what you want in your heart.”

"I understand, Director Zhou."

Zhou Yan nodded and turned to look at Gao Jinwen, "Coach Gao, are you satisfied now?"

Gao Jinwen laughed, "Satisfied, satisfied, of course I am satisfied. It's getting late now, so don't leave in a hurry. Let's have dinner together tonight. I'll be the host."

Zhou Yan waved his hand and declined his kindness. "Forget about it today. I have to go back to the studio to make some arrangements. When you guys come over tomorrow, we can have a good gathering."

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Gao Jinwen did not try to keep him and nodded, "In that case, let's talk about it when we meet tomorrow. Anyway, I don't dare to go to the others, I will definitely go there tomorrow. Come to think of it, I haven't been to the studio for some time."

"The studio has changed recently, you'll know if you go and see it." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Okay, let's go check it out tomorrow. You guys can go back today."

……

When they came out of the Central Academy of Drama, Huo Jianqi asked Xiao Can, "Old Xiao, have you seen any good talents here at the Central Academy of Drama?"

"There are definitely good talents. The overall quality of the 93 class is pretty good. You know Naiwen, he has solid basic skills. His classmates Wang Qianyuan and Xin Baiqing are not worse than him."

Huo Jianqi nodded, "Well, Xin Baiqing is really good and left a deep impression on me. It's a pity that I only met the students from the other two classes briefly, so I don't know how strong they are."

"The class of 96 has only been in school for a few months, so they are definitely going to be worse."

"But the students of the class of 96 are more outstanding in appearance."

"Well, that's true."

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "We'll know the details after the audition. Don't be idle during this period. Hurry up and set up the director team, and then set up the entire behind-the-scenes team."

"Well, I'll make a list in the next two days." Xiao Can nodded and asked Zhou Yan, "Director Zhou, can I ask Director Zhao to come to our crew?"

The Director Zhao that Xiao Can mentioned is Zhou Yan's personal photographer Zhao Fei. From Zhou Yan's debut to now, all the films, whether short or feature films, have been shot by Zhao Fei. The two of them are almost tied together.

Someone has asked Zhou Yan before whether he should try other photographers, such as Gu Changwei, Lu Le and other photographers.

However, Zhou Yan never changed, because he felt that he and Zhao Fei were a good match, and there had been no problems in their cooperation over the years.

Perhaps Gu Changwei and Lu Le are better than Zhao Fei, but Zhou Yan believes that it is very important to have a matching aura. If the aura is not right, the stronger the photographer is, the worse it will be for the director.

Unless one day Zhou Yan finds that he and Zhao Fei are no longer on the same page, he will consider changing his partner.

In order to better cooperate with Zhao Fei, Zhou Yan Studio signed a contract with Zhao Fei, and the two parties will have more in-depth cooperation in the future.

"Of course I have no objection, but this matter still requires Teacher Zhao's consent. Let me go back and tell Teacher Zhao about this."

"Thank you, Director Zhao."

"No need to thank me. Whether you can convince him or not depends on you. Although he seems easy to talk to, he has very high demands. You have worked with him twice, so you should have some understanding of his personality."

In fact, Xiao Can and Zhao Fei have a good relationship. After all, they have worked together on two dramas, one is the main photographer and the other is the assistant director, and they communicate a lot in their daily lives.

However, whether their cooperation can be successful depends on whether Zhao Fei is impressed by Xiao Can's script and Xiao Can as a person.

Of course, if it weren't for this relationship, Xiao Can would have basically no chance of asking Zhao Fei to help him shoot.

Given Zhao Fei's current situation, he basically takes on big jobs and works with well-known directors.

Those who came to him for cooperation were all big directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, and even some well-known foreign directors. (End of this chapter)