1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Zhou Yan's sudden question caught Jia Zhangke and the other two off guard.

They thought that Zhou Yan asked them to come over because he approved of their script and wanted to invest, but they had not discussed how much budget to ask for in advance.

On the one hand, they were called over by Assistant Li and were under his supervision the entire time, so they had no chance to discuss these things at all.

On the other hand, Jia Zhangke thought that they could just give whatever budget they were willing to give, and there was no room for bargaining.

Besides, even if they had discussed it in advance, it would not be right, because they never thought that Zhou Yan wanted them to shoot a feature film directly.

Seeing that Wang Hongwei and Gu Zheng didn't seem to have an idea, Jia Zhangke gritted his teeth and said, "Director Zhou, we've calculated that if we want to make this movie, we'll need at least 300,000 yuan. Any less won't work."

For the movie "Xiao Wu", Jia Zhangke raised about 100,000 yuan.

This money was obviously not enough, but he had no way to raise more, so he had to use this money to shoot the film.

Now that Zhou Yan was willing to invest, he told him the minimum budget he had calculated before.

With three hundred thousand, he could probably make the film, and if not, they could add on the money they had raised previously.

"Three hundred thousand, have you raised the money before?" Zhou Yan asked.

Before Jia Zhangke could speak, Wang Hongwei spoke first, "Of course, we have raised a lot of money, and several companies have expressed their willingness to invest, but we are not very satisfied with them and are still negotiating the terms."

Hearing Wang Hongwei's words, Zhou Yan's mouth curled up. He knew that Wang Hongwei said this to show their value and wanted to gain more bargaining chips in this negotiation.

Although the method was crude, Zhou Yan could understand it. After all, it was the only method they could use.

"Oh? I wonder what kind of requirements you have for investors?" Zhou Yan asked with interest.

"In fact, we don't care about the amount of money. What we care about is whether the other party really understands the script and understands the movie," said Wang Hongwei.

"What are the standards for understanding scripts and movies?" Zhou Yan asked again.

This question left Wang Hongwei speechless.

Yes, how can we say that we understand movies, how can we say that we understand the script? What are the standards?

This thing is actually very subjective, and it is difficult to set a fixed standard.

Seeing that Wang Hongwei was unable to respond, Gu Zheng immediately said, "Director Zhou, you must be someone who understands movies, and you must understand this script."

Zhou Yan smiled and started to flatter again.

In fact, compared with Wang Hongwei's move, Gu Zheng's move is actually more useful.

But for Zhou Yan, flattery is of little use, at least this level of flattery is of no use.

"A budget of three hundred thousand is not much, but before that, you have to give me the complete script and plan." Zhou Yan said with a smile.

"Proposal?"

"Well, you guys are producing your own movies, so you must have a plan, right? What equipment will you use to make the movie, who will be the actors, where will the filming location be, what is the proportion of each part, and how much will it cost? I saw in your information that you have made movies before, don't you make a plan before?"

"Oh, we have a plan, but it's not very detailed," said Jia Zhangke.

"Then be more detailed. As an investor, I must know where you plan to spend your money. Of course, if you want, you can also sell the script directly to our studio and let us find a director to shoot it. You don't have to worry about the rest."

Jia Zhangke immediately shook his head and said, "I won't sell the script."

His reaction was naturally within Zhou Yan's expectations. Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Since you don't want to sell the script, then give me the plan. Let me see if you have the ability to make this movie well."

"When do you want it?" Jia Zhangke asked.

Zhou Yan shrugged. "Anytime is fine. As long as you feel your plan is ready, you can show it to me. The specific time depends on how eager you are to make this movie."

He assigned them "homework" but did not set a deadline for submitting it, because Zhou Yan believed that these people were more anxious than he was and did not need to set a deadline at all.

Jia Zhangke also understood this. He nodded seriously and said, "No problem. I will send the proposal as soon as possible. Can you come directly after I finish it?"

"Please contact Assistant Li. He will contact you."

"Okay, let's go first."

After saying that, Jia Zhangke and the others couldn't wait to leave. They suddenly felt that time was running out and they had to finish the plan for "Xiao Wu" as soon as possible and show it to Zhou Yan this morning.

Once Zhou Yan approves it, they will be able to get the budget and start filming.

When they left the park, the three of them were in a good mood.

Three hundred thousand was much more than what they had raised, so the filming of the movie would be smoother.

After leaving the park, Gu Zheng felt a little regretful. "Isn't 300,000 too little? Zhou Yan has a big family and a lot of money. 300,000 is definitely nothing to him. I heard that the production cost of "Time Traveler" was over 30 million. And I saw in the news before that the box office of this movie in mainland China alone was over 80 million. Zhou Yan made a lot of money."

Wang Hongwei rubbed his forehead. "Three hundred thousand is definitely nothing to him, but why would he give the investment to us? The three of us are unknown, and we are not even students in the directing department."

"How about we increase the budget when we make the project plan? Three hundred thousand is already very tight for the shoot, so why not upgrade it in all aspects?" Gu Zheng said.

Jia Zhangke shook his head. "It's 300,000, so it's 300,000. We should not increase it without permission. If we make Director Zhou unhappy, he might not even be willing to give us 300,000."

In fact, Jia Zhangke's requirements are not high. Let alone 300,000, even if Zhou Yan is willing to invest 50,000 or 100,000, he would be very happy. As long as he can raise the money and make the movie, it will be fine.

"What Lao Jia said is right." Wang Hongwei said.

Jia Zhangke looked back at the park and said, "Actually, I don't care about the money. What I care about more is the production system of their studio. In their studio, they must have everything, and they are all of high quality. When the time comes, we don't have to spend money to rent, we can just use the studio's system."

"Well, that's right, especially post-production, which may be very cheap for them, but if we spend money to do it ourselves, it will cost a lot of money."

Jia Zhangke nodded. That’s what he thought.

Relying on a mature system like Zhou Yan Studio, filming a movie will definitely be much easier.

Just now he actually wanted to propose a plan to Zhou Yan, which was that Zhou Yan didn't need to pay, and the studio only needed to provide people and equipment, but he didn't have the chance to say it.

"Let's go, let's go back and finish the project plan. Opportunities don't wait, we must send it to Director Zhou as soon as possible, so as to avoid any more trouble."

...After Jia Zhangke and the other two left, Zhou Yan got up and went to the practice room to watch Akina Nakamori practice singing.

Shizuka Kudo is teaching Akina Nakamori how to sing "Fireworks".

"You should be more positive, more relaxed, and have a softer voice."

"Imagine what it's like to sing while laughing and running out of breath."

Although they are both Japanese, they mostly speak Chinese when they chat in order to improve their Chinese.

Listening to Kudo Shizuka's explanation, Nakamori Akina nodded very seriously like a good student.

If Japanese fans saw this scene, they would definitely be surprised. Since when could Shizuka teach Akina to sing?

In today's Japanese pop music scene, how many singers can match Akina Nakamori's singing level?

Shizuka Kudo is pretty good, but she is definitely not as good as Akina Nakamori in terms of singing skills.

After teaching, Shizuka Kudo asked Akina Nakamori to try it.

Akina Nakamori sang two choruses.

Zhou Yan felt that it was much better than before, but Kudo Shizuka shook her head repeatedly, "Although there has been some improvement, it still feels a little bit worse."

After saying that, Shizuka Kudo started singing herself.

"The light bursts and the fireworks come into view. It must be that summer is not over yet..."

When Zhou Yan heard this line sung by Kudo Shizuka, he couldn't help but nod his head. What he thought before was correct. It was indeed more suitable for Kudo Shizuka to sing this song. The taste was right immediately.

After Kudo Shizuka demonstrated it once, she said to Nakamori Akina, "This time we will sing together, you can try to get a feel for it."

"it is good."

Then the two of them sang these lines again.

Zhou Yan was very surprised to hear the duet of the two, because Akina Nakamori also sounded great when singing.

And the two voices together have a complementary feeling, affectionate, soft and energetic.

Obviously, their two voices created a chemical reaction in this song, which sounded better than when they sang solo.

They both noticed this, and after singing this time, Kudo Shizuka said in surprise, "This is much better now."

Akina Nakamori was also very happy, "It's indeed much better. Thank you, Shizuka."

"You're welcome." Kudo Shizuka waved her hand, then she turned and looked at Zhou Yan again, "Akina is much better now, don't worry, I believe we can officially start recording in a few days."

When Zhou Yan just came in, the two of them noticed him, but because they were busy practicing, they didn't talk to him.

"Yeah, it's really good." Zhou Yan held up his chin and smiled, "I didn't expect that your chorus of this song would be unexpectedly good."

Hearing Zhou Yan's words, Nakamori Akina's eyes flickered, and she suddenly thought of a possibility, "Shizuka, how about we sing this song together, are you willing?"

In response to Akina Nakamori's invitation, Shizuka Kudo happily said, "Of course I'm happy to do it, but this song was originally yours."

"But this song sounds better when I sing it alone than when I sing it in a chorus." While saying this, Akina Nakamori glanced at Zhou Yan.

In fact, Zhou Yan had thought about suggesting that the two of them sing this song together, but when he remembered that Akina Nakamori had said before that she didn't want anyone else to sing this song, he didn't say it.

But what I didn’t expect was that, although he didn’t mention it, Akina Nakamori brought it up herself.

If this song could really be sung by the two of them, firstly, it would definitely sound better than a solo. Secondly, they are now the two most popular female singers in Japan. Their duet would definitely be a big hit, so naturally this song would become popular.

Even if there were no passers-by selling the song, the sales of the song would be enough just from the two of them.

Seeing Akina Nakamori looking at him, Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I've already given you this song. It's up to you how you arrange it."

Akina Nakamori smiled and said to Shizuka Kudo, "Then it's settled. I'll have Mr. Liang talk to your company and finalize this matter."

Kudo Shizuka smiled and waved her hand, "Don't bother. I'll call Songzi later and ask her to contact Mr. Liang directly. The copyright of the song belongs to you. I'll only participate in the singing."

Generally speaking, this kind of cooperation is definitely based on discussions between companies, and the singers themselves cannot decide the distribution of copyrights.

But Kudo Shizuka is not an ordinary singer after all. She is the pillar of her company. It's just a chorus song. Naturally, what she says is what goes, and the company will definitely respect her decision.

Since Shizuka Kudo only participates in the chorus and does not need copyright, the process will be simpler. Basically, the two companies just need to say hello and draft an ordinary contract.

After simply and happily deciding to sing a duet, the two began to study how to modify the song.

The structure of the song for a chorus and a solo is definitely different. It can't be simply that you sing a line and I sing a line, and then we sing a line together. That would be too boring.

For a good chorus, the weaving and interweaving of the individual parts is very important, and the harmony part must also be well written so as to bring out the characteristics of both people.

Such an important task naturally fell on Zhou Yan's head.

He modified the score for the two of them on the spot, making "Fireworks" more suitable for chorus.

Of course, he could revise this kind of score very quickly, and he could finish a revised version in just over ten minutes.

The reason why it took more than ten minutes was because the handwritten score limited his speed.

After finishing the first version, Zhou Yan did not rush to finalize it. Instead, he asked the two to try singing it. If there was anything that did not feel right, he would modify it on the spot until they were satisfied.

In this way, the three of them stayed in the practice room, repeatedly experimenting with the chorus and modifying the score. After nearly two hours, they finally came up with a version that all three of them were relatively satisfied with.

After the manuscript was ready, Zhou Yan said with a smile, "You guys should practice according to this score for the next two days. I will also revise the arrangement based on this score. When it's almost done, we'll start the formal recording."

Now he is modifying the vocal scores, and the arrangement must not use the original one, it must be modified.

But this is not a difficult task for Zhou Yan. He can let the two of them practice first and he can handle it in a little time. (End of this chapter)