I’m a Director, I’m Not Bad

Chapter 136 134. Speculation

"What's the matter?"

Looking at Jay Chou in a daze, Xu Xin asked in confusion:

"Any questions?"

"Well……"

Jay Chou came back to his senses, shook his head instinctively, and then asked:

"You just said... why my script is better at the box office than the script you designed? What do you mean?"

"It means that if the story line is simple and single, there are no four endings, but a straight story with one story to the end. Then, based on your appeal and the consumer sentiment of the fans... this movie should make money. But It’s hard to say whether you’ll earn more or less.”

"……Then what?"

"Then? If you use this script, it will be more complicated, and the box office will be difficult to control. That is to say...a movie has a golden time, understand? The beginning and the end are the two points of the audience's attention. The golden period. Under the same circumstances, this period is what the audience remembers most."

"Uh-huh……"

"But the best part of the version I modified is actually the details and the intricate concept of the four endings that seem to be one, but are actually completely separate. And it appeared in the middle of the movie. Therefore, the tone of this story It will be a little more complicated, and if these four ending shooting methods are used, each ending fragment will actually have a certain degree of abruptness to the film.

It doesn’t mean that it is divorced from the plot itself, but the audience will feel like...Eh? Wasn't everything fine one second? Why did he suddenly feel like this the next second? Therefore, the processing here must be very, very delicate. At first glance, the story seems to be a linear narrative, but in fact, the foreshadowing and clues for each of the four endings are given between the camera changes. But even so...this script also has a natural disadvantage...or the fatal injury cannot be changed. "

"What is it?"

"Rhythm."

Xu Xin pointed out the biggest disadvantage of the entire script:

"The rhythm of your script has become faster without any twists since Qingyi kissed you. Especially in the last paragraph, Abao and the others pointed out that you were the only one dancing from beginning to end after the prom day. You After you suddenly understood that the so-called Lu Xiaoyu was a "non-existent" person, you learned from your father who Lu Xiaoyu was, and a series of things that followed.

The pace started to become very fast. If you are fast, the audience's thinking will become faster with you. This method, which is similar to a time and space flashback, will confuse people's logic lines. You will not understand, you will be confused, you will be confused at one point and then you will be led to the next contradictory point... Countless contradictions will begin to pile up. In the end, even if your story line is simple and clear, the audience will pop up and say, "I see." What happened?" A sense of déjà vu. Therefore, this tests the audience's ability to understand. Got it? "

"But this is the surprise and surprise of traveling through time~ Just like when I make music, what is the most important thing? Surprise, different styles, mix and match, tailoring, when everyone thought I was going to do it, I suddenly Oh oh oh oh~..."

"But this is a movie."

Xu Xin shook his head, looked at his friend seriously, and told him word for word:

"The director's responsibility is to first tell a clear story to the audience. From the beginning to the end. You have to bring the audience a story, a story with a clear main line. When all the established clues are clear, the audience will watch from the beginning. There won’t be any superficial discomfort at the end. It will also resonate with your main story and make them feel like, ‘Oh, that’s it, I get it.’”

"Uh... wouldn't that be exciting?"

"What's exciting is the story itself, not a certain plot of a movie. What you are pursuing now is to use this shining point of time travel to make the audience resonate. But in fact, this is the biggest mistake. Watch the movie The first thing should be the subject. While the story line of the subject is clear and clear... it's like we are both singing. I can only guarantee to sing the same song, but you can add your own things to it. Do you understand? ?”

Seeing that Jay Chou didn't seem to understand, Xu Xin scratched his head and suddenly found a very vivid example:

"Movies are people, an individual. Take us two for example. Look at your small eyes, single eyelids, thin lips, and how ugly you are..."

"Um????……???????"

Jay Chou was dumbfounded. He looked at Xu Xin blankly and pointed at himself...

Meaning: You say I'm ugly?

Xu Xin nodded:

‘Yes, look, you are so ugly, but you are also a human being. As for me, I have big eyes, a high nose, sharp eyebrows, and starry eyes. I am handsome and unrestrained. But I'm human too! "

"Are you the devil?"

Jay Chou couldn't help it...

But Xu Xin shook his head firmly:

"No, I'm serious. What I'm telling you doesn't mean that I'm more handsome than you, although I really am more handsome than you..."

"...???????"

"What I want to tell you is that no matter whether it is a good movie or a bad movie, they all tell stories. Telling good stories means growing up. And on the basis that we are both human beings, who is ugly will be better? If you are handsome, it depends on the person, do you understand?

Your script and the tone of the entire story are there, but this flaw... is like a birthmark on your face. If you have a birthmark, you will appear defective. And after using laser to remove this birthmark, you will become a great beauty. And this birthmark is the kind of control that requires very, very careful control of the entire rhythm of this story.

Up front, you have to leave enough foreshadowings, enough clues that are incompatible with Ye Xianglun's era through Lu Xiaoyu's perspective... For example, she doesn't know many things, or she hasn't seen many things... It can be cars. , it could be music, it could be something else... something that didn't exist 20 years ago but will be commonplace 20 years later.

Highlight Lu Xiaoyu's incongruity and give the audience enough foreshadowing from the front, so that the audience can have enough foreshadowing to think about when they start to accelerate behind you. And in the end, they have to understand the story first. When I felt that I still had more to say, I thought carefully...and suddenly discovered...ah, it turns out that this story actually contains such a surprise that is worth digging into...Do you understand? "

"Well……"

Vaguely, Jay Chou felt that he couldn't keep up with his thinking.

"You...speak slowly...what details..."

"Well……"

Seeing his confused look, Xu Xin thought for a while and flicked his finger on the script:

"It's okay, let me add it for you... For example, here, Ye Xianglun takes Lu Xiaoyu to the video store. You can add a little easter egg... Your setting is 79 years, right? 20 years later it will be 99, Millennium Year...you can leave a little interesting easter egg. Didn't you debut in 2000? You can ask Lu Xiaoyu to say: Hey, this JAY is so ugly, can he also be a singer?"

"..."

Jay Chou's mouth twitched...

"Please..."

He looked at Xu Xin angrily:

"I released the album in November, but it's set in 1999!"

"Artistic processing. It's like raisins in hand-made rice. Although there aren't many, the sweet taste in every bite is the best enjoyment... Hey, let's go eat hand-made rice at night, okay? Sample?"

"I haven't eaten it yet..."

"Then eat it. It's at the Beijiang Ramen Shop on the corner of the alley. It tastes pretty good."

"...I come to your house as a guest, and you treat me to ramen?"

"Brother, I'm here to be your guest, won't you also let me have takeout?"

"...That makes sense. Great!"

When Jay Chou thought about it, it seemed that this was really the case... He nodded:

"Are there any other details worth noting?"

"That's okay, as long as you can control the rhythm. I'll help you add some things one after another... then you can think about it."

"……Um."

Jay Chou responded and fell into deep thought while reading the script.

Xu Xin took a sip of guava and lit another cigarette.

He actually wanted to ask... how were he and Hou Peiqiao.

But this is definitely not a question that can be asked.

Friends.

It’s better not to do anything about uncovering scars.

After a while, Jay Chou seemed to suddenly remember something and patted Xu Xin on the shoulder:

"Hey, wait a minute... Dani, bring the piano over here~"

"……do what?"

"I've finished writing the song last time, and it's pretty good."

Soon, Dani brought the electronic keyboard over.

Xu Xin took away the laptop and made way for him.

Jay Chou rubbed his hands, pressed a few keys to audition, then turned to Xu Xin and said:

"This song, I call it "The Longest Movie", sounds pretty good ~ I plan to put it in the new album!"

"...You're starting a new album now? Are you a model worker? You are! You don't plan to release one album a year until you grow old, do you?"

"What? No? Is it difficult to get one card a year?"

As he said that, he saw Xu Xin's ridiculous look and smiled "evilly":

"Please, I'm a genius. My songs are all in my head. I can do whatever I want. If it weren't for the company's restrictions, I could release two songs a year. You know my fans are waiting for me. How hard is it?"

"..."

Xu Xin's face was filled with a ridiculous expression of "What are you bragging about?"

Obviously, he didn't believe it.

"Ha~ If you don't believe it, just wait and see~! Next year, the new album will definitely come out~!"

"..."

"Here we go~"

The tinkling piano melody sounded.

"Our beginning~"

“It’s a very long movie~”

"It was shown for three years~"

"I still have my tickets..."

At first, Xu Xin was really listening to the song.

After all, this is also my "original" song.

But before long, his attention was focused on Jay Chou's electronic keyboard.

Or the right hand that plays the electronic keyboard.

Just press the three keys with your thumb, ring finger, and little finger...

Occasionally there will be some changes, but 70 to 80% of the entire sound is actually just those three keys...

"Give me another two minutes... let me freeze the memory!"

"Don't melt your tears... cough cough cough... remember~!"

"..."

Xu Xin's mouth twitched.

Although I couldn't bear to interrupt, I still couldn't help but say:

"You can't even remember what you wrote?"

The singing and piano sound stopped...

"Of course not. I can definitely remember my own. But wasn't the song I'm singing written by you? What a crappy lyrics, it's hard to sing, and the pitch is high..."

Xu Xin was dismissed for a while because of the script.

He finally found a chance to fight back.

"Ha~stinky man~"

Xu Xin sneered:

"You set the melody so high yourself, okay?... No, then why did you sing it so high? Is the note an octave higher?"

"Hey~~~~"

As soon as these words came out of his mouth, Jay Chou's face was full of disgust:

"Please, if you don't understand music, don't talk nonsense, okay? Let me ask you, what are the higher octaves?"

"...How did I know? You are a singer and I am a singer? You still ask me?"

"Of course I know! I'm testing you~"

"How do I know if you know? What if you lied to me, took the answer from me and then turned around and claimed it as your own?"

"Hey~~~~~"

The look of disgust on Jay Chou's face became more intense, but he still put his hands on the piano keys:

"Listen up...Give me~~~Here are G # 4, F # 4. ...Two minutes~ Let me freeze the memory into ice~ Don't melt it... Here is... "

"Just hit the highest note for me. I know all this."

"You know a hammer!"

Really unable to stand his friend's inexplicable understanding of Wang's demeanor, he reluctantly pressed the piano again:

"How can I remember!~...This is A4, a standard A4~"

"Well, I'll just say it, A4, my ears can't hear it wrong!"

"..."

Jay Chou was stunned for a moment, then suddenly nodded and used a sentence Xu Xin taught him when he was in Hengdian to describe his mood at this moment:

"Your shameless look is quite similar to my style back then."

"Hahahahahaha~"

Xu Xin was also very happy.

While enjoying himself, he asked in confusion:

"This song of yours is so difficult to sing...why do you have to set it to such a high key?"

"Because it's cool~"

"..."

Fine.

So cool~

…

The two of them spent the whole afternoon chatting in the study room.

Most of the talk was about music, movies, and some gossip...

And at five or six o'clock in the evening, Xu Xin planned to take him out for dinner. Although I just talked about eating pilaf, when friends come over, they must be warmly entertained.

The Porsche moved, and so did the Audi, making way for the garage door.

Only then did Jay Chou discover...it turned out that his friend had a Ferrari hidden in his house?

"SPIDER4.3? Or COUPE4.3?"

"……What's the meaning?"

“…You bought the car yourself, but you don’t know the model?”

"I don't know, it's the most expensive one anyway."

"That's SPIDER 4.3... Wow, I find you very interesting. You make me feel like you don't understand anything and only buy things based on price?"

"That's right. I've already bought it, why do I need to know so much? I'm not a vehicle repairer... Dani, do you choose, drive a Porsche or drive this one?"

"Well……"

Dani on the side looked at the red Porsche and then at the low-key black Audi.

"Brother Xu, does the Porsche belong to Sister Mimi?"

"right."

"...Then I'd better not drive her car. I'll drive this one. Can I follow you?"

"good."

Xu Xin handed her the keys to the Audi casually, and Xu Xin asked:

"How about you drive this?"

"Forget it, I don't know the way."

Seeing Jay Chou shaking his head, Xu Xin stopped talking.

Soon, the two cars drove out of Shijia Alley and merged into the night traffic.

in the car.

Jay Chou flipped through the discs placed in the passenger compartment and asked in confusion:

"You didn't say you were my fan, but you didn't even buy my CD?... DJ skewers? Phoenix dance for nine days?... Please, what kind of taste do you have?"

"..."

This time, Xu Xin blushed.

This was what he used to pick up girls and blow up the streets.

I thought it was very cool at the time, but now that I think about it...it was so stupid!

"How about you just sing."

"...Do you think of me as a CD player?!"

“Then just pick one at random, and you’ll still be like this when you listen to a song... just that popular internet hit, that’s it!”

"..."

Jay Chou, who was dubious, pushed the disc into the CD player, and for a moment...

"If you really need something ~reason~"

"Ten thousand~is it enough..."

The absolute king of the non-mainstream - Zheng Yuan's "10,000 Reasons" had Jay Chou relishing it:

"Hey, don't mention it, the voice is not bad~ very suitable for this kind of soft love song~... Where should we go to eat?"

“Japanese cuisine.”

"... Yusheng? Sushi? Why do you eat that?"

"Because I haven't eaten it before. I wanted to take Mimi with me last time, but she gave up."

"Have you never had sushi?"

Jay Chou looked surprised.

Xu Xin shook his head:

"No, I've only eaten the kind of meat floss and seaweed from the stall at the entrance of the school before. I've never eaten anything serious..."

"...???"

For no reason, Jay Chou felt a little ridiculous.

Then, the two of them went to a restaurant called "Matsumoto".

The hotel is located on the east side of Di'anmen, not far from Quanjude. It is the kind of house with mountains and water that makes it very artistic.

Then Dani stepped forward to communicate.

Soon, the waiter took the three people into the interior of the hotel, which was surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the decoration looked quite elegant. They were led into the hotel.

When they just passed by a private room, the waiter happened to deliver the meal and made way for the three of them.

Xu Xin glanced at the things on his tray and suddenly frowned.

This thing...why does it look so small?

A small porcelain bowl, less than the size of a palm, contains a bowl of soup... There is also a larger tray filled with ice, but there are only three or five pieces of raw fish on it...

What about feeding the rabbit?

After entering the box, Xu Xin's first words were:

"It seems like the portions of food at your house are not large."

The waiter was stunned for a moment, then nodded:

"Yes, sir, Japanese cuisine is relatively more refined, so the portions are not large."

"That's it..."

Xu Xin flipped through the menu, and Jay Chou, who didn't even take off his mask, said:

"Shall I order more?"

"Okay, it looks like the portion is not big. Please order more. I was so busy today that I didn't even eat well. I'm so hungry."

Hearing this, Xu Xin turned to look at Dani again:

"And you?"

"Very hungry."

"Look at how hungry our Dani is."

Hearing Xu Xin's complaints, Dani smiled happily.

But the smile didn't last long.

I saw my dear brother Xu flipping through the menu. After a quick glance, he said with disdain:

"It seems like there's not much...what's enough for just eating sashimi?"

As soon as the waiter heard this, he was about to step forward to guide the guest in ordering, when he suddenly saw the guest snapping the menu:

"You are like this."

The young guest handed the menu directly back to him, and then said:

"Specialize one copy."

"..."

"..."

"..."

In the eyes of the three people who were dumbfounded, Mr. Xu did not forget to add:

"No staple food for now."

"..."

"..."

"..."

Jay Chou's eyes widened and he looked at Xu Xin:

"Do you have to be so crazy?"

"Didn't you see the order number of his dish? It's such a big bowl, with only three or five slices of sashimi on it... His dish doesn't have much in total..."

After Xu Xin finished speaking, he looked at the waiter:

"Okay, hurry up and place your order, I'm already hungry."

"Uh...first...sir, you...you mean...except for staple food...everything..."

"Do it all again."

Xu Xin looked at the menu and found that there were only twenty or thirty dishes in total.

When you treat guests to a meal, you have to create a scene.

Not to mention just three people... with a few more people, there would be enough room for one sheep per table.

"No, no, no, no, no... give me the menu."

Jay Chou, who was really speechless by this kind of thing, took the menu from the waiter...

Xu Xin was quite dissatisfied.

Although he didn't stop Jay Chou, after the waiter walked out of the box with a sense of speechlessness, he said:

"What are you doing? Why are you ordering so many things to stuff between your teeth?"

"...No...Hey, you said last time that you were from Shenmu. Where is Shenmu?"

"Northern Shaanxi."

"...Aren't you in Shanxi?"

"What do you mean?"

"that is……"

Jay Chou thought for a while and said:

"Your style is very similar to the people who came to me before~"

"……who?"

"It's a business event. Two people from Shanxi contacted the company and hoped that I could attend the wedding of a man's daughter. The first offer was five million, the second was eight hundred, and the third was one thousand... Your style It’s very similar!”

"Then why don't you agree?"

"Why do you have to agree..."

Jay Chou shook his head slightly:

"It's not like you're your friend, so don't sing congratulatory songs to others, as it will break up your marriage~"

"and you……"

Xu Xin seemed to want to say something, but suddenly paused and quietly changed the topic:

"Hey, is it difficult to play the piano?"

"..."

Jay Chou glanced at him before replying:

"It's not difficult. It's easy to get started, but it's difficult to play it well."

"I also saw it. When you sang that song in the afternoon, you pressed three keys with your right hand and it didn't move... Then why do you think it's so difficult to play it well?"

"Intervals~the connection and pauses of intervals...in fact, all musicians' songs are like that. But if you want to play well, in a big way, it's emotion and resonance. But in fact, in a small way, it's all one note at a time. It’s just the handling and control of details when connecting notes~ Do you know why Lang Lang is so awesome?”

"……who?"

Xu Xin was stunned.

"Lang Lang...please, you don't know him, do you?"

"LONG LONG AGO?"

"Do you still know English?"

"...How fresh, who doesn't know ABCD?...You don't speak English?"

"Chinese, brother! Hey, friend, why can't you even know Lang Lang!"

"...What does he do?"

"A pianist! He even attended the Spring Festival Gala!...Haven't you seen him?"

"No, I was just waiting to watch Teacher Motoyama's skit during the Spring Festival Gala, and I started to have fun after watching it. Who is this guy...you like him very much? Your friend?"

"No, he and I don't know each other, but I like him very much..."

"Then do you like him more or me more?"

"...Wow! Why can you tell such horrible things?! What are we? Lovers? Wow, you really are... Oh, by the way, last time you came to my house, you vomited in my bathroom... "

"Fart! You obviously vomited it yourself! What does it have to do with me!"

"I didn't throw up! I never throw up when I drink!"

"That's because you didn't meet me. The last time you met me, you vomited."

"Don't talk nonsense, I'm telling you..."

"Oh, stop being such a motorcycle..."

Dani on the side just watched the two of them in the BATTLE quietly.

It didn't take long for him to laugh out loud.

Brother Xu is really interesting~

she thought.

…

One meal cost more than 6,000.

Xu Xin smacked his mouth when he checked out.

Well, it's true that I was careless.

Except for the small portion of sashimi, everything else is really good.

At least in normal size.

If you really speculated on it, you wouldn't be able to eat it today and walk away.

Japanese cuisine is so scary.

From beginning to end, neither of them mentioned anything about Hou Peiqiao, as if it had become a thing of the past.

That night, Jay Chou did not stay at Xu Xin's place, but returned to the hotel.

He still has luggage at the hotel, and he has to leave for the next stop early tomorrow morning, and he's afraid he won't be able to make it in time.

But before leaving, Xu Xin promised him that he would help him finish the script.

After he left, Xu Xin's life returned to normal.

Yang Mi finished filming "Wulin Gaiden" after October 1st. There were only ten episodes in total. From the beginning, she appeared as Bai Zhantang's junior sister, to the end, she competed with Guo Furong for her talent. She understood at the last step After the scholar's feelings and his own wishful thinking, he left his clothes and left.

Zhu Wushuang in "Wulin Gaiden" had a "perfect ending".

It took nearly a month in total.

To be honest, it's pretty fast.

And it will not delay the promotion work of "The Golden Jacket" which is scheduled to be released on December 14th.

But it's not her turn to do the publicity work yet. It will definitely be Jay Chou, Zhou Renfa, Gong Li and others at the beginning. She still has some time.

So I just wanted to stay in my brother's arms every day... Unfortunately, it backfired.

She is no longer busy here.

But Xu Xin's side has been busy at a speed visible to the naked eye since the beginning of October.

With the "Four Great Inventions" as the core concept, the opening ceremony has finally entered the work summary stage.

After half a year, the production team finally designed a rough framework backbone.

The next step is to start making PPT according to the process and complete the first draft.

At this stage, everyone started to get busy, whether it was PPT modeling, prop simulation, or the selection of some props.

Because it needs to be submitted for review, the team takes every step at this stage, whether it is link design, prop simulation, etc., with caution, caution, and more caution.

So far, the entire Olympic Games creative plan consists of 108 creative sections within the "Four Great Inventions", which have been met, studied, deleted, and connected bit by bit. In the entire month of October alone, nearly one-third was cut off.

Of the remaining two-thirds, it is conservatively estimated that nearly half of the planning links will be cut.

In other words, after everyone has worked hard for a year to think about the ideas, at most only one-third will be adopted.

But no one felt sorry for him.

I can't feel bad either.

At the beginning of the year, I didn’t think anything was wrong, but as the weather in Yanjing turned colder, November came to the end of the month in the blink of an eye.

As we enter December, 2006 is coming to an end.

There is only a year and a half left before the Olympics.

Everyone suddenly felt an invisible sense of urgency.

The relaxation and ease that I had before are no longer there.

In the conference room, the "smell of gunpowder" began to get stronger due to the deleted links.

Quarrels became a common occurrence.

With Director Zhang here, these are all controlled to a very reasonable scale.

It was a literary dispute, and we quarreled at the meeting, but after the meeting, we could still return to the normal working stage.

However, in the past few days at the end of November, Zhang Yimou became particularly busy.

Two things.

First, "Golden Armor" has begun to enter a period of intensive promotion. It is no longer like before, you go to this show today, and he goes to that show tomorrow. Instead, it has entered a very intensive publicity period.

Everyone, including Yang Mi, must start to get involved in the promotion of this movie.

Second, Director Zhang suddenly told everyone about his itinerary on this day.

As early as 2004, he received an invitation from the Metropolitan Opera of the United States to direct "Qin Shi Huang," an original Met opera. (Note 1)

He immediately agreed, and the Met offered time to direct the opera.

January 2007.

After Christmas. The first highlight of the year at the Metropolitan Theater is this opera, although "Qin Shi Huang" is being performed, but not a single Chinese person can be seen in the audience.

In other words, Director Zhang is leaving.

To the United States.

Expect to stay for 40 to 50 days. Maybe I won’t even be able to come back for the New Year.

After adding the matter of "A City Full of Golden Armor", Director Zhang personally spoke:

“Before New Year’s Day, the opening ceremony plan must be submitted for review.” (Note 2)

And just as the creative team was working overtime, going through PPT, software, and even site simulations over and over again, they spent countless efforts on the plan.

On this day, Xu Xin, who was hugging his girlfriend and planning to take a nap, received a call from Jay Chou:

"Hey, Xu Xin, are you busy right now? There's something I want to tell you."

(Note 1: In fact, the timeline of "Qin Shi Huang" was in October 2006, Metropolis was released in December, and Director Zhang stayed in the United States for more than 40 days. I have changed the timeline here.)

(Note 2: The timeline has also been changed here. The actual submission time was in March, and the approval results came out quickly, but it is relatively slower here. The reason why these two timelines were changed is to accommodate You don’t need to take the plot seriously.)

Finally exceeded 5,000 average! Thank you! Thank you, thank you!