Reborn in 1977

Chapter 646 Free Car Use

It was already dusk when I returned to Yunhu.

Chen Fan drove the car to the door, got out to unlock it, pushed open the courtyard door, then drove the car into the yard, and got out again to close the gate.

After a busy time, as soon as he turned around, he saw two pairs of green eyes staring at him on the ground.

“Meow…”

He stepped forward and gently kicked them a couple of times, massaging one of the cats' bellies with his foot, "You two are still here, not bad, not bad, I'll give you something good to eat later."

It's not easy for these two adult tabby cats to be so loyal to their duties. Giving them an extra meal should be considered a bonus.

The other wild cat, not being massaged, lay on the ground and meowed again, thinking to itself that living here, it was sheltered from the wind and rain, and that the young lady would come over to give them fish to eat every now and then. Only a fool would leave.

Releasing the two cats, Chen Fan opened the door and entered the house, turned on the lights, then threw his backpack on a chair and went from the front room to the backyard to see what there was to eat at home.

Normally, this house is uninhabited for most of the year, so food is generally not stored.

However, Yang Mei and the other two often take turns coming over to clean, and they also know that he might come back here sometime, so they might leave some food at home.

The refrigerator wasn't plugged in. He opened the door, and it was empty, with nothing inside.

Then he went to the kitchen.

Not bad, he found a piece of cured meat, a few cured sausages, and a cured chicken in the cupboard. In the water tank outside, there were also a few foot-long fish swimming around.

There was a small vegetable plot against the wall in the backyard, with sections planted with onions, ginger, garlic, and several different kinds of vegetables.

These vegetables clearly had someone taking care of them regularly, and they didn't look messy at all.

The chrysanthemums planted around the pavilion in the middle of the backyard were in full bloom.

In short, although no one lived here, it was no different from someone living here.

Since there was everything, Chen Fan was too lazy to go out to eat.

He steamed a pot of rice, dug up a few potatoes from the vegetable plot, picked a few handfuls of greens, stewed a pot of cured chicken with potatoes, and fished out a fish…

More than half an hour passed, and three dishes and a soup were on the table.

First, he picked a little fish back meat and bones with meat and divided them into the two cats' bowls, then he rummaged through the room and found a bottle of vintage Yunhu Daqu liquor and took it to the kitchen. He sat down and started eating with his rice bowl in his hand.

After eating and drinking his fill, he washed the pots and bowls clean, then filled a kettle with water and placed it on the coal stove. When the water boiled, he moved a rocking chair to the front yard, with a stool next to it to hold the teapot.

He took a sip of tea, lit a cigarette, leaned back and slumped into the rocking chair, rocking back and forth with inertia.

The two cats seemed a little too full, lying on the ground motionless, too lazy to even wag their tails.

Chen Fan bent his left arm and placed it behind his head as a pillow, holding a cigarette in his hand, his eyes looking up at the sky, his eyes full of philosophical thoughts.

Why is the moon so big now?

The city didn't have so much light pollution now, and the night sky was very clear and bright.

The moon was very big tonight… well, today is already the 14th day of the ninth lunar month, it's the time of the full moon, and the moon is as big as a silver plate, hanging not far above his head, as if he could reach out and pick it off.

Chen Fan lay on the rocking chair, looking at the round moon above his head, feeling the cool autumn breeze, and suddenly wondered why he felt so sleepy?

In a daze, he heard some chatting sounds not far away, probably the neighbors gathering together to chat after dinner.

“Today is Sunday, I went to Yunhu too, there were so many people, the place where they were filming was full of people inside and out, it was impossible to squeeze in.”

“Of course. You're on vacation on Sunday, and other units are also on vacation. Since Yunhu was opened as a port, for more than two thousand years, when has anyone come to film a movie here? Of course, everyone is rushing to see the excitement.”

“The way you put it, there were no movies two thousand years ago…”

“There was no you two thousand years ago either.”

In the yard, Chen Fan suddenly opened his eyes and turned his head to look in the direction of the sound.

Filming a movie? And in Yunhu?

What movie are they filming?

His ears twitched slightly, and the faint sound immediately became much clearer.

“If you ask me, Chen Fan is really capable, several of his novels have been picked up by the film studio.”

“Do you even need to say that? Everyone in Yunhu knows now that the Shanghai Film Studio is going to make three movies, all written by Chen Fan. The first one being filmed is 'The Ferryman,' which has already been filmed and is just waiting for release.

It's a pity that this movie wasn't filmed in Yunhu, but they found a place near Taihu Lake to film it. I don't know how it turned out.

‘Yunhu Love’ is the second one. After this movie is filmed, they will also film ‘Shanghai Spy Shadow.’

I'm quite curious, Chen Fan has written so many novels, are they going to turn them all into movies?”

“Hey, that's a good question. I actually asked the people who were filming the movie, said he was a director, that is their person in charge.

What he said was, some novels are suitable for adapting into movies, and some are not, unless you only shoot a segment, for example, Chen Fan's famous work, 'On the Field of Hope', this novel is suitable for selecting a story segment to shoot, because the plot is too long, and one movie can't fit it all.”

Chen Fan stopped rocking, took a puff of his cigarette, and muttered to himself, if a movie can't fit it all, then film a TV series, I'm not picky.

Oh, right, there is no precedent for filming a long TV series in China yet.

As a result, when the little devils filmed a few episodes of a terribly bad Journey to the West, the leaders of CCTV treated it like a treasure, applied to spend a lot of money to buy it, but after showing two episodes, it was scolded into being taken off the air.

So miserable.

What is the situation with TV series now?

China's first TV series was filmed and broadcast by CCTV's predecessor, the then Beijing Television Station, in 1958, with a total of 1 episode.

Yes, just 1 episode.

The total duration is even more touching, 20 minutes!

Because it is not shown in cinemas, but broadcast on television, in order to distinguish it from movies, there is the term "TV series".

For the next 20 years, basically they were like this, with as few as 1 episode, and only 2 or 30 minutes, and as many as two or three episodes, also no more than 30 minutes per episode.

Content?

Let's not ask about the content, anyway, it's probably like a model opera.

It wasn't until 1981 that CCTV filmed the 9-episode TV series 'Eighteen Years in the Enemy Camp', which pioneered the long TV series.

See, the names have all changed, the previous ones were called TV series, and the later ones were called series.

Moreover, even after 'Eighteen Years in the Enemy Camp' appeared, the length of each episode was extended, but the industry still used the method of filming movies to film TV series, that is, a drama only had one or two episodes, with each episode having a fixed length of 45 minutes, so it was also called a "TV single-episode drama".

The real formation and explosion of TV series had to wait until 1986, which was called the first year of Chinese TV series by TV people.

Three popular dramas were broadcast one after another: 'Four Generations Under One Roof' with 28 episodes, 'Searching for the Lost World' with 12 episodes, and 'New Star' with 12 episodes.

Including the classic version of 'Dream of the Red Chamber' and 'Journey to the West', they were also produced and broadcast during this period.

It's still early now!

It wasn't until 1988 that CCTV made a division of the length of TV series: TV series with more than 3 episodes were called series; those with only 1 or 2 episodes were called single-episode dramas, with each episode not exceeding 50 minutes; those with 30 minutes were called TV short dramas; and those with 15 minutes were called skits.

So China's first TV series was at best a skit.

Of course, the meaning is very important, it can be regarded as pioneering.

According to this standard set by CCTV, if Chen Fan's 'On the Field of Hope' was adapted into a TV series, that would be amazing.

To say the least, if each story is counted as two episodes, he has already written 18 stories, that's a whole 36 episodes.

Who has so much money to film 36 episodes at once?

Don't employees' wages and equipment consumables cost money?!

Chen Fan threw away the cigarette butt, stood up and walked inside with the teapot.

The water on the coal stove in the kitchen was boiling, so let's take a bath first, as for TV series and movies, we'll talk about it later.

…

The next morning, October 16, Monday.

Chen Fan got up early as usual, ate something simple, and drove away.

However, he decided to postpone his return to Lujiawan and go to Yunhu to see the excitement first.

This Yunhu is naturally not the Yunhu in Yunhu City, but the Yunhu from which Yunhu City got its name.

It's about the same relationship as Honghu City and Honghu Lake.

Driving all the way north, he stopped to ask for directions, and in less than twenty minutes, he arrived at the filming location.

That was a non-famous scenic spot in Yunhu.

Ahem, what I mean is that the locals all know about it, but outsiders, even people from the counties below, don't know about it, and it doesn't even have a name.

However, in the book, Chen Fan still gave it a name, called "Yulong Bay".

He himself felt a little embarrassed.

Compared to the original story's Mount Lu, Yunhu really has fewer scenic spots to offer.

However, the scenery here is not bad, and with a little far-fetched story, Chen Fan put names on several places here, and it became the place where the male and female protagonists in the book dated.

For example, Green Grass Path, Yulong Bay, Moon Gazing Stone, Luzu Rock, Bishui River, Baihua Island,…

Isn't it just making things up? He's good at this.

So he drove to Moon Gazing Stone, parked the car and walked, passed Green Grass Path, passed Luzu Rock, and soon arrived at Yulong Bay, and in front of him was a winding river, the green grass at the bottom of the water reflected the water as if it were jasper, that was Bishui River.

As for Baihua Island, it is a small island of more than ten acres in the center of Yunhu Lake. There are no big trees on the island, but there are many flowers and plants. When the spring season comes, hundreds of flowers bloom, making it a good place to go for a spring outing.… If you're not afraid of snakes.

Withdrawing his gaze, he looked at the crew who were filming.

A man and a woman were less than a foot apart, the distance of being more than friends but not yet lovers, they were walking slowly along the Green Grass Path.

I don't know what kind of grass this unknown grass is, it gradually turns yellow every year after it snows, and it turns green first in the coming year, so Chen Fan named it Green Grass Path.… There really wasn't a good name to take, so let's just use it.

The difference in the clothes they were wearing was obvious.

The man was wearing long sleeves and long pants, with a casual jacket on the outside. Although the overall look was handsome and suave, and he looked like he came from a cadre family, it was still a style that could be found in China.

But that actress was different. Like Zhou Yali, the clothes she wore were obviously not available in mainland China. The autumn wind blew, and her dress clung to her body, showing off her exquisite figure.

The difference between her and Zhou Yali was probably the lack of that foreign young lady's temperament, and... well, although she looked good, she was still not as pretty as her slightly neurotic older cousin.

Speaking of which, Chen Fan was really not familiar with the actors of this era. He only knew a few who came from this era, such as Pan Hong, Liu Xiaoqing, Tang Guoqiang, Gong Xue, and Qin Yi, who often appeared at award ceremonies later on.

And then there was no one else.

As for the two actors in front of him, he recognized the male one. It seemed that he was the male lead in the original "Romance on Lushan Mountain", but he really didn't have any impression of the female actress.

Anyway, it wasn't Zhang Yu, and it wasn't Gong Xue either.

He stood in the distance watching. The crew had already noticed him, but seeing that he didn't approach, they ignored him.

The director was also worried for a while, fearing that the noise would interrupt the shooting. After confirming that everything was safe, he calmed down and continued filming.

However, there were two people who frequently looked at him, as if they recognized him but were not sure.

Chen Fan didn't care. After this scene was finished, he prepared to leave.

Filming in this era was just like this. The acting was still a bit formulaic, which looked a bit out of place, but you couldn't say that the actors' acting skills were bad. That's just how they acted, and the two of them matched quite well.

If an actor or actress with smooth and natural acting skills like those of later generations came along, it really wouldn't fit in.

Just as he was about to leave, the two people walked over quickly. The person in front asked loudly, "Excuse me, are you Director Chen from the Provincial Writers Association?"

Chen Fan turned around and looked at him, "I am. And you are?"

As soon as the man heard that it was really Chen Fan, he immediately quickened his pace and extended his right hand from afar, "Hello, hello, I'm from the Prefectural Committee's Culture Department. My name is Huo Junyong…"

As he spoke, he pointed to the other person beside him, "This is my colleague, Zheng Anmin."

Then he smiled at Chen Fan, "I haven't met you before. I've only seen your photo, so I wasn't sure just now."

Chen Fan smiled and shook hands with the two of them, "Hello."

If they were really from the Culture Department, it was not surprising that they had seen his photo. Because the director of the Culture Department, Pan Yunshan, was also a member of the Provincial Writers Association. At the beginning of the year, after a meeting at the Provincial Writers Association, everyone took a group photo.

Although in that group photo, because Chen Fan was the tallest, he could only stand in the middle of the last row, with only his chest and above being photographed, who told him to be so handsome? Anyone who looked at it could see him at a glance, so it was not surprising that they could recognize him.

After exchanging greetings, Huo Junyong asked, "Director Chen, are you here today to inspect the filming work?"

Chen Fan smiled and waved his hand, "I'm not from the Shanghai Film Studio, so I'm not qualified to inspect any work. I just happened to be back and came to watch the fun."

Huo Junyong couldn't help but laugh, "So writers also like to watch the fun."

Then he turned sideways and gestured, "Then I'll introduce you to the director. You must have something to talk about."

After speaking, without waiting for Chen Fan to express his opinion, he walked towards the crew.

Chen Fan raised his eyebrows. He had originally planned to leave, but since he had been recognized, he might as well chat.

Following behind the two, Huo Junyong had already shouted loudly, "Director Huang, look who's here."

Director Huang Zumo was explaining the scene to the actors. Hearing the shout, he immediately turned his head to look.

He saw the young man who had been standing in the distance watching just now walking behind them.

Who is this?

Getting closer, Huo Junyong turned sideways, pointed at Chen Fan, and smiled, "Director Huang, didn't you say you haven't met the original author of the work? Let me introduce you. This is the author of "Romance on Yunhu Lake", Chen Fan, Director Chen."

At this time, Chen Fan also walked over and immediately extended his right hand, greeting with a smile, "Director Huang, hello."

He took the opportunity to size him up. His face was long and his eyes were small. Although he wasn't handsome, he was very distinctive, making him unforgettable at first sight.

It seemed that he was the director of the original "Romance on Lushan Mountain."

At this time, Huang Zumo was both surprised and delighted, and quickly reached out his hand to shake it, "Hello, hello."

He was surprised that Chen Fan was so young and even better-looking than the actors at the Shanghai Film Studio. He was delighted to finally meet the author, so he could have a good chat with him about some of the problems in the filming process.

This script was personally adapted by Comrade Xia Yan. He had also gone to Xia Yan's home to ask for advice before, but after all, there was a layer between them. If he could communicate directly with the original author, it would help him deepen his understanding of this work, so this exchange was very necessary.

However, now was not the time to talk. After greeting, he called the two actors over to introduce them, "This is Guo Kaimin. He joined our Shanghai Film Studio as an actor in 1975 and is one of the best male actors in our studio."

Then he pointed to the female actress, "This is Wu Haiyan. Don't look at her young age, but she is an 'old actor'. She debuted on stage in 1966 and has played many roles. She was the lead in the popular film "Hai Xia" from the Beijing Film Studio two years ago."

"Last year, she joined our Shanghai Film Studio and trained in the studio's drama troupe for a period of time. This film is her first film after joining the Shanghai Film Studio."

Chen Fan smiled and reached out to shake hands with the two of them, "Hello, hello."

Looking at Wu Haiyan in front of him, he felt a little dazed. So it was her.

Chen Fan had not seen Wu Haiyan's plays, but he had heard her name and knew that she had played Xi Shi and Sister Song.

Since she could play these two roles, it proved that her appearance was not bad.

But he didn't expect that this time she would steal Zhang Yu's luck and star in "Romance on Yunhu Lake".

Could it be that Zhang Yu was filming another play?

But he couldn't control this matter, and he was too lazy to control it. After exchanging greetings, he chatted with Director Huang about the creation story and mental journey of "Romance on Yunhu Lake".

Anyway, he was just making it up.

The two sat on chairs, smoking and chatting. Director Huang was a serious and dedicated old director who wanted to get every detail right.

Among them, the most difficult thing for him to grasp was what kind of posture should be used to express the heroine, this returning overseas Chinese.

As soon as Chen Fan heard this, he immediately said that he was familiar with it.

Then he described Zhou Yali's appearance, behavior, and other things, and provided them to Director Huang as a reference. At the end, he said, "There are no unchanging people. The Zhou Jun I wrote is the Zhou Jun in the book, and it does not mean that the movie must restore this role."

As he spoke, he looked at Wu Haiyan, who was sitting quietly on the side, "After all, Comrade Wu Haiyan is not Zhou Jun, and she cannot become Zhou Jun. The most important thing is to use herself to express the readers', or rather, the audience's, imagination of this role.

If she can make the audience feel that she is a truly kind-hearted, dare-to-love-and-hate, sunny girl, and make everyone like her, then she is Zhou Jun, and that's enough."

Hearing these words, Director Huang and Wu Haiyan couldn't help but nod slightly, with a thoughtful look in their eyes.

Even Guo Kaimin, who was sitting next to him, was reflecting on whether the few scenes he had filmed before had expressed the true core of the things.

This chat lasted all morning. Director Huang had too many questions, some of which even went beyond the scope of the original work, delving into discussions about people's hearts, society, and even expectations for the future.

That is to say, Chen Fan had a thick enough foundation, especially after half a year of study, he could quote all kinds of classics at his fingertips, otherwise, even if he knew the future trend, he might not be able to express it accurately, and he would not cause trouble for himself.

Seeing that it was noon, they had finished chatting. Huo Junyong, who had been silent all the time, said, "Director Chen, Director Huang, how about we go back to the city for a simple meal at noon today?"

Director Huang woke up as if from a dream, looked around, "Ah, is it already noon?"

Wu Haiyan raised her hand and looked at the prop watch, "Director, it's 11:30 now."

Director Huang patted his forehead, first beckoned the assistant director, "Notify everyone to pack up. We won't shoot today. I just chatted with writer Chen for a long time and got some new ideas. I need to revise the shooting plan."

Then he smiled at Chen Fan, "A conversation with you has been very beneficial. You must give me a chance to treat you to a simple meal."

Huo Junyong was anxious on the side, "No, Director Huang, this is Yunhu. How can we let you treat us? If it spreads out, wouldn't our Yunhu Culture Department be a joke?"

Director Huang waved his hand and smiled, "It's not the same thing. This is a matter between me and writer Chen. Even if you are the hosts, you can't overstep your authority, right?"

Huo Junyong was about to say something when Chen Fan suddenly asked, "Director Huang, are there any car scenes in your movie?"

Director Huang was stunned for a moment, then said, "Yes, mainly for Zhou Jun to use, to show the luxury of her being a rich lady. We have also prepared the car, which is a Hongqi borrowed from the Jiangnan Film Studio."

After a pause, he asked again, "You asked this, is there any purpose?"

Chen Fan smiled, "Like this, let's save some money for lunch today, and I'll find a sucker to treat us. But there's a condition."

Director Huang frowned slightly, "Sorry, I don't understand what you mean?"

Chen Fan smiled and pointed to the south, "What I mean is that we also have a car factory in Yunhu, which also produces cars. In addition to cars, there are also vans.

Later, we will go to the Yunhu Automobile Factory to eat, and then I will come forward and let the Yunqi Factory provide several cars for free for your crew to use, what do you think?"

Director Huang's eyes lit up, "Can Yunqi Factory really provide cars for us to use?"

He had also heard that Yunqi Factory had a very beautiful and very advanced car, which was more comfortable to sit in than the Hongqi.

But this kind of car was very difficult to buy, and it cost 98,000 yuan per car. How could the factory allow them to buy such an expensive car for the crew to use?!

So they could only borrow an old Hongqi from the Jiangnan Film Studio.

He didn't expect that Chen Fan would now propose to go to Yunqi Factory to borrow a car for free for the crew to use. If this happened, it would be a big profit.

Chen Fan laughed and stood up, saying to him, "Whether it works or not, you'll know when you go and see."