1990: Starting from Baojia Street

Chapter 73 Here we come (2nd update 3.2k)

After lunch, they returned to Yanjing Studio.

Several creative staff had a meeting to hold in the afternoon, and Zhou Yan did not need to participate. If the bicycle had not been in the studio, Zhou Yan would have gone back to school directly.

Dong Wenmiao did not need to participate like him and had already returned from the hotel.

After returning to the dormitory, Zhou Yan first took out a notebook with Farewell My Concubine Studio Diary written on the cover. He was used to summarizing the day's work.

However, there is really nothing to summarize about today's work on the set. It will probably take a long time before the filming of the movie starts.

Let’s not talk about the script. The protagonist Leslie Cheung has just arrived in Yanjing a few days ago. Next, he will study Peking Opera in Yanjing. The movie cannot start until he is almost done with it, which will take at least several months.

During this period, Zhou Yan will also learn some information related to Peking Opera, so that he can assist Zhao Jiping in scoring the movie.

After finishing writing the set diary, Zhou Yan took out another notebook with Piano Boy written on it.

This notebook was used by him to write the script of a short film.

After hearing Huang Jianxin talk about the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival last time, Zhou Yan was thinking about his second short film. He thought about it for several days and thought about many short films, including suspense, love, and horror. …

He had thought about things like The Tuner and Red Balloon, but he didn't feel anything about them.

Just when he was at a loss, Zhou Yan suddenly had an idea: why must he borrow a short film? He could also borrow a feature film.

Later, the first thing he thought of was Explosion Drummer because Explosion Drummer is related to music, and Explosion Drummer was originally a short film. It was only after winning an award at the film festival that it was invested in making a feature film.

However, Exploding Drummer mainly deals with jazz, which is not quite consistent with Zhou Yan's major.

In addition, it is difficult to find drummers in China. Zhao Muyang's level is good, but he is a bit older and his image does not fit well.

After rejecting The Exploding Drummer, he thought of another feature film related to piano called The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly.

The movie The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly is mainly about education, family love, ideals and reality.

The protagonist is a little boy who was discovered to be a genius with an IQ higher than ordinary people when he was still in kindergarten. When other children were playing and playing, he began to delve into various things and learned everything very quickly, especially music. talented.

His mother wanted him to become a pianist, so she forced him to learn piano since he was a child. She especially enjoyed the envious looks she received when her son performed in front of others.

Although the male protagonist loves the piano, he really hates the feeling of playing the piano for others.

Later, in order to live an ordinary life, he jumped from a building wearing the bat wings made by his grandfather. He suffered a concussion and became an ordinary person with an average IQ.

But all this is false. The male protagonist's IQ has not changed. This is just a lie he made in order to live an ordinary life, and he deceived everyone.

Although the grandfather discovered the hero playing the piano halfway, he kept it a secret for him and did not reveal the secret to the hero's parents in a letter until his death.

At the end of the film, after experiencing a series of things, the young male protagonist is determined not to escape anymore and starts playing the piano again.

The story is very simple in summary, but there are many things that the young male protagonist encountered while growing up, especially his interaction with his grandfather, that can arouse people's resonance.

The young hero's grandfather is like a life mentor. He once dreamed of becoming a pilot, but in the end he only became a carpenter.

But even so, Grandpa is still very happy, because he believes that ideals are only a part of life, and what you have to do in life is to move forward bravely according to destiny.

Grandpa’s words are also the theme of this movie.

In life, how should ideals and reality be treated? Some people already have the answer, but more people are still on the way to find the answer.

This movie is like a fairy tale suitable for all ages. There are many absurd or dreamy plots in it. For example, because the young male protagonist has a super high IQ, he has learned economic knowledge and secretly made a lot of money with his grandfather.

Not only can you help your grandfather own a real airplane, but you can also help your father buy a company. These are all standard plots of a cool movie.

And the reason why it's not a great film is because these things are just minutiae, not too much ink, and the core things are not lost.

This film tells the story of a genius, and the reason why it resonates with ordinary people is because the problems the male protagonist encountered while growing up are exactly what countless ordinary people have experienced or are currently experiencing.

It's just that the male protagonist is a genius, so the whole process and the male protagonist's way of resistance are special and dramatic.

Zhou Yan wanted to change it into a short film and add a few things.

In the film, the male protagonist plays all classic pieces, such as Liszt's Bell, Chopin's Torrent, Mozart's Rondo and Ravel's Morning Song and so on.

However, Zhou Yan believes that the young male protagonist is extremely talented and has experienced a rebellious period very early, so he cannot play these classic pieces all the time. The film also needs to have some slightly different pieces that are his own original pieces.

Zhou Yan plans to borrow some songs from other places to include in this short film.

He thought very clearly that music wanted to be heard by more people, and movies were a very good way to spread it.

The songs he writes now would be difficult to promote without the help of videos.

Highlighting the original songs in The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly is because Zhou Yan wants to promote himself.

However, writing a script is not an easy task, especially when it requires a lot of changes. Zhou Yan has been studying paragliding in the past few days.

In the movie, the hero's grandfather dreams of becoming a pilot, and the element of flying is very important to the movie. Human beings' desire to fly can be said to be engraved in genes, so Zhou Yan does not want to abandon this element.

But in China, it may not be realistic to fly.

Even if it could be played, Zhou Yan wouldn't have the budget to make a short film.

So he settled for the next best thing and decided to use paragliding instead. The spectacle was a bit worse, but it was still the same as flying into the sky.

If it really doesn't work, when the film wins an award in the future, you can follow the example of Crackling Drummer, raise investment, and expand the short film into a feature film. Then we can see if it is possible to use real airplanes to shoot it.

But these are all things for later, now he has to deal with the script.

Back in the dormitory, Zhou Yan sat on a chair and wrote until evening. He went out for dinner and came back to write again.

The deadline for submissions to the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival was in October, so he had to speed up and write the script as soon as possible.

After the script is finalized, there is still a lot of work ahead, including composing music, shooting, editing... There are only more than two months, and even if it is just a short film, the time is very tight.

I kept writing until 1:30 midnight. Jia Guoping had already finished chanting La San and Pu Er in bed, and then Zhou Yan put down his pen and went to bed.

The next morning, after Zhou Yan woke up, he picked up the watch on the bedside and saw that it was already past eight o'clock.

Then he picked up the pager and looked at it, surprised that it didn't go off this morning.

Ever since he gave his paging number to Zhou Qing and the others, they would inevitably receive morning greetings every morning.

It may not be from Zhou Qing. There are several other younger brothers and sisters. They will add their own names after Good morning, third brother.

Zhou Yan even doubted whether these guys had a duty schedule.

He had received a page in the morning for several days in a row, but suddenly he didn't receive it today. Zhou Yan felt empty in his heart. He even missed these brothers and sisters a little.

If the short film is finished, go back and watch it.

Zhou Yan got up, washed up, went to have breakfast, and then returned to the dormitory to continue the script.

At noon, Jia Guoping very thoughtfully packed a meal for Zhou Yan.

Just when Zhou Yan was bursting with gratitude and unable to express it in words, Jia Guoping smiled and said, Brother, do me a favor.

Zhou Yan said with rice in his mouth, Is it too late if I spit the rice back first?

That's too late.

Zhou Yan swallowed his rice again and asked, What are you doing?

Didn't you participate in the soundtrack of Farewell My Concubine? Help me get a signed album of Leslie Cheung.

Not many people know about Zhou Yan's participation in the soundtrack of Farewell My Concubine, and Jia Guoping is one of them. Jia Guoping fully agrees with this. If Zhou Yan makes more money, he can treat him to more meals.

Looking at Jia Guoping up and down, Zhou Yan smiled and said, Old Jia, when did you start chasing stars?

What kind of star am I chasing? I want to chase Bach and Mozart. It's your Senior Sister Zhang. He really likes Leslie Cheung's songs.

Zhou Yan curled his lips and said, What am I, Senior Sister Zhang, not Senior Sister You?

Yes, yes, you are also my senior sister. Just tell me whether you can help me with this, right?

Zhou Yan looked at the food in the lunch box and said, I can help, but I'm afraid this meal is a bit crude.

When I get my salary later, I'll treat you to roast duck.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, That's what you said, okay, I'll get one for you later.

Seeing Zhou Yan's agreement, Jia Guoping also laughed, Yes, your boy is now considered a connection of mine.

Since it's your connection, then make a good donation. Zhou Yan picked up the vegetables in the lunch box with chopsticks, Next time, give me more meat. I'm growing.

Hey! Jia Guoping sneered and walked away.

…

In the afternoon, Jia Guoping went out to do errands, and Zhou Yan continued to write the script of The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly alone in the dormitory. As the evening approached, he suddenly heard someone knocking on the door outside.

Senior Brother Zhou Yan.

Zhou Yan raised his head and looked in the direction of the door, Who is it?

I am Gu Nian from the piano department.

Oh, Gu Nian. Zhou Yan stood up and prepared to open the door for Gu Nian, What do you want from me?

I'm not looking for you, someone is looking for you. They said...

Before Gu Nian could finish speaking, Zhou Yan had already opened the door, and then he was confused by the scene in front of him.

Behind Gu Nian, eight people stood.

There are nine brothers and sisters in the Zhou family. Except for the eldest brother, Zhou Yu, who is not here, the other seven are here, as well as their housekeeper and driver, Master Chen.

The younger brothers and sisters didn't speak at first, but when Zhou Yan pushed the door open, they all shouted as if they had rehearsed: Third brother, we are here.