1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Chapter 54 Director Wang’s dilemma

After entering the gate of Yanjing Film Studio, Zhou Yan walked directly towards the main building in the middle. According to what Wang Junzheng told him, he went up to the third floor along the old rotating central staircase.

The director's office is on the west half of the third floor. Walk west from the stairs and count to the third room. Zhou Yan stood at the door and looked inside. At this moment, there were only two people in the office, a man and a woman.

"Excuse me, is Director Wang Junzheng here?" Zhou Yan knocked on the door and asked.

Both of them raised their heads and looked this way. The woman stood up, raised her hands and said with a smile, "Here, you are Zhou Yan."

Wang Junzheng is in his forties, short, wearing a gray coat and looks very simple.She also spoke in a loud voice, quite like the boldness of people from the northwest.

Zhou Yan walked over with a smile, "Hello, Teacher Wang."

"Hello, hello." Wang Jun was pulling a stool to Zhou Yan, "Sit down and I'll pour you some water."

"Teacher Wang, don't bother."

Wang Junzheng smiled and walked to the tea table, holding a tea box and asked, "Would you like tea?"

"I'll just drink plain water."

After pouring Zhou Yan a glass of boiled water, Wang Junzheng said with a smile, "Someone is using the conference room today, so we can chat here in the office. Do you mind?"

Zhou Yan took the cup and shook his head, "It doesn't matter. We can chat anywhere. Your office is quite spacious."

"No one is here, so it looks spacious."

The working hours of the director's department are relatively free, and most of the time they are out on the field, so there are naturally fewer people in the office.

Then Wang Junzheng took out a notebook from the drawer and said, "First, let me show you the script outline of our new movie."

Zhou Yan put down the cup again, took the book from Wang Junzheng, and while flipping through it, he listened to Wang Junzheng say, "The first two pages are the outline, and the second page is the segmented summary. You read these first, and we will talk later."

After hearing what she said, Zhou Yan carefully read the outline in his hand.

After reading the outline, Zhou Yan frowned. He was convinced that Wang Jun was going to film "Heaven's Reply", but this outline was a little different from the "Heaven's Reply" he had seen.

The biggest change is that the background of the movie is set in the South, but the general direction of the story is not much different.

But this has little effect on the soundtrack.

He read the synopsis of the segments again, then raised his head and asked, "Director Wang, are your storyboards ready?"

Wang Junzheng was a little surprised to hear Zhou Yan ask this. When she was working with other composers, no one mentioned the storyboarding.

Of course, in the movies she made before, the soundtrack basically only started to be involved in the middle and late stages. By that time, it would be meaningless to look at the storyboards.

Although it was a bit surprising, Wang Junzheng could understand why Zhou Yan wanted to look at the storyboards. It is definitely easier to associate music with the design of the storyboards than with the text.

"I drew part of the scene, but I haven't finished it, and most of the drafts are at home. Here..." Wang Junzheng opened the drawer again, "I came to look for it. I seem to have left a few drafts here."

After rummaging through the drawer, Wang Junzheng found four or five drafts of storyboards.

This is the second director's storyboard manuscript that Zhou Yan has seen in the real world. Different from Zhang Yimou's manuscript, Wang Junzheng's storyboard depicts the character's body in more detail.

In the notes, there are more plans for the characters and less description of the camera positions.

But whether it’s Wang Junzheng’s or Zhang Yimou’s manuscripts, one can see their artistic skills.

Zhou Yan is relatively poor in this aspect. His storyboards have no artistic expression at all. Although he is not a stickman, he is not much better.

Because the drawing was so poor, Zhou Yan's own storyboard manuscripts contained a large number of text notes to help explain his ideas in the storyboards.

Zhang Yimou and Hou Xiaoxian have both raised this issue with him before. They said that no matter how precise the words are used to assist, it is not as good as directly drawing to express what the director wants.

A large number of text annotations may cause photographers to encounter difficulties in understanding the storyboards.

So now Zhou Yan is practicing in painting, but his progress is too slow. The key problem is that whether it is music or writing, he is very motivated to learn, but it is just painting, he really can't learn it.

After reading the storyboard, Zhou Yan began to express his thoughts, "I think the key to the soundtrack for this movie is to pay attention to the overall rhythm. At the beginning of the story, the grandson and his grandfather were flying a kite, and the kite was flying in the sky. , the overall atmosphere at this time is cheerful, which should be distinguished from the subsequent kite flying. The song "Forever Together" can be placed in the first section, but the piano version will be a bit monotonous here, so it can be placed again. Add in the violin.”

Wang Junzheng showed a surprised smile, "I have been thinking about this before. Isn't it enough to have a piano alone? When you said adding a violin, I thought it was right."

Zhou Yan smiled and added, "In fact, when it comes to the actual soundtrack in the later stage, the score can also be fine-tuned according to the camera. The music needs to match the rhythm of the picture to achieve good results."

Wang Junzheng raised his eyebrows and said, "Does that mean that when we shoot, the planning of the camera position can also be adjusted according to the soundtrack." Zhou Yan nodded, "Of course."

What he actually wanted to say was that if during filming, the director could coordinate the camera position planning with the already decided music, it would improve the fit between the music and the movie.

Many times, the success of a soundtrack has little to do with the story told in the movie. What is more important is the rhythm between the camera and the music.

If we put aside the rhythm of the camera, the soundtrack will be a very simple matter. Sad plots should be matched with sad music, and cheerful plots should be matched with cheerful music.

This rhythm can be simply understood as a "stepping point". For example, in the first scene of flying a kite in "Heaven Replies", if you shoot and edit, you can make the rhythm of the kite in the air step on the rhythm of "Forever". point, the effect will be doubled.

"Do you have any ideas for the following soundtrack?" Wang Junzheng asked again.

Zhou Yan smiled and said: "One thing, such as this paragraph..."

He pulled out the kite-flying scene at the end of the story from the storyboard, "For this section, we should pay attention to memories when composing the music. And memory is a process. In the laying out of memories, the emotions slowly rise, and we Use a piano as an introduction, and then introduce a melancholy violin, which represents the memory itself. After that, we can introduce a cello with the same melody. The cello’s tone is relatively low, and then the memory slowly moves forward..."

While Zhou Yan was analyzing how to score this piece of music, Wang Jun was pricking up his ears and keeping his eyes unblinking. This was the first time she had heard this kind of music analysis.

When she worked with other soundtrack directors before, of course there would be discussions, but they would not be so detailed. Most of the time, she would express her thoughts first, and then the soundtrack supervisor would bring out the music and ask her for her opinion as a director.

And most of the time, she communicates with the composer only in the middle of filming or even after filming.

It's the first time it's so early like this time.

As for how the soundtrack director scored a certain section, she actually didn’t know the specific process.

At this time, two words came to Wang Junzheng's mind: professional and meticulous.

Zhou Yan's performance made Wang Junzheng feel very good. If Zhou Yan could be the soundtrack director of "Reply from Heaven", she thought it would be pretty good. Even if Zhou Yan didn't perform well later, he could be replaced.

And precisely because Zhou Yan performed well, Wang Junzheng felt embarrassed.

She had already reported Zhou Yan's matter to Director Chen, but before she could finish speaking, Director Chen waved his hand and said, "No way, that's nonsense."

Their factory director, Chen, was a man who sought stability but was also arbitrary. The factory had previously been in difficulty and suffered losses year after year. It was only thanks to his arrival that the factory turned losses into profits.

Arbitrariness is sometimes not just a shortcoming.

The fact that the factory's operations can improve so quickly is directly related to Director Chen's arbitrariness. No matter what happens in the factory in the past few years, the director can always make a decision immediately and is rarely affected by other people.

Even if some decisions are wrong, they will not affect the overall situation because the decisions are made quickly, which greatly increases efficiency.

If you want to make quick decisions, then when you encounter a problem, there shouldn't be too many conditions that affect the decision.

From the perspective of Director Chen, it is impossible for him to consider whether a college student is really capable of being a soundtrack guide, because this process is a waste of time.

Instead of wasting time digging for gold from the sand, why not just go find the gold that has already been dug out?There are so many mature composers who are already working in the company, so why choose a college student?

Now that the factory director has made a decision, it is difficult for Wang Junzheng to change it.

So when Zhou Yan came, what Wang Jun was thinking about was to talk to Zhou Yan and ask him to give up the soundtrack guidance and only authorize "Forever Together" to them.

But now Zhou Yan's outstanding performance made her feel embarrassed. She didn't know how to reject the passionate young man in front of her.

Seeing that Wang Jun was silent, Zhou Yan asked with a smile, "Director Wang, do you have any ideas?"

Wang Junzheng smiled and shook his head, "No, I didn't expect that your analysis of the storyline and soundtrack would be so detailed."

"When it comes to work, it's always good to be meticulous. This is what a soundtrack director should do."

After hearing this, Wang Junzheng didn't know how to reject Zhou Yan.

She pondered for a while, and just when Zhou Yan was about to ask her, she said, "Zhou Yan, can you go back and write down your ideas for the soundtrack for this movie? Just like you just told me."

"Okay." Zhou Yan nodded without hesitation, "Besides this, I can also make some soundtrack samples for you."

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Wang Junzheng was even a little moved. This young man really had nothing to say in every aspect. The most important thing was that he was really passionate about the movie. This is very rare and what Wang Junzheng values ​​the most.

As a female director, she was easily impressed by Zhou Yan's attitude. She believed that since Zhou Yan was so passionate about the film, he should be able to put more emotion into the soundtrack later.

　Thanks to [Fateful World] for the 100 reward
　　Thanks to [Youfang Taoist Traveling Around] for the 500 reward
　　
　
(End of this chapter)