Shanghai Film Studio, Director's Office.

Cheng Er raised his wrist to look at the time, it was already more than four o'clock in the afternoon, he put away the messy books and papers on the desk, added a bookmark to each book, and the papers were arranged in order, and then took a sip of the tea that had been cold.

After working for more than a year, he has long been accustomed to his current life, reading books in the morning and writing in the afternoon, drinking tea during the day and drinking at night. Although when he graduated, a short film of "Criminals" caused a small sensation in a small circle centered on Nortel, and everyone considered him a talented director.

All this once made him look forward to making the movies he wanted to make like Zhang Yimou and Director Chen. But reality tells him that cinema is a luxury art, even if you are talented, even if you have works to prove yourself, it is not easy to make a movie.

Shanghai Film Studio has brought together a large number of outstanding directors such as Peng Xiaolian, Zhang Jianya, Jiang Haiyang, etc., these people are his predecessors, who want to be famous and famous, and have works. Even if there are any projects similar to the gift film in the factory, it will not be his turn.

What's more, Cheng Er wants to make his own movie, so he has to go all the way to invest in self-raised projects. As the director of Shanghai Film Studio, the only convenience may be that the factory can help you set up a project and submit it to the General Administration for approval, and then give convenience to the personnel equipment.

More than a year is enough time for his original lofty heart to calm down and accept the reality in front of him. Fortunately, in the days when there is no filming, his work is still very easy, and he has enough time to do his own things, such as writing scripts and shooting commercials.

The script is written for myself, and the commercials are filmed for food. The salary of the film studio is not high, and it is difficult for him to live comfortably in this city without extra money.

He doesn't like to talk, he doesn't have many friends, most of his friends used to be in Beijing, and he didn't make a few friends who could talk to him after coming to Shanghai for more than a year, but more of a nodding friend who met at work or at work.

Sometimes he really misses the days when he was filming his graduation work "Criminals", the shooting fund of 100,000 yuan was given by the school, the film was sponsored by Kodak, and more than 20 classmates often quarreled but they all worked hard for the same goal. and Li Tang, without his performance, their graduation work would not have been able to show it so perfectly. Because everything they do behind the scenes, in the end, it still depends on the actors to express it with their acting skills.

He still vividly remembers the scene of the screening of "Criminals" at the film school on July 1 last year, and the thunderous applause made them can't wait to do it, and they don't know that it was the most relaxed and free at that time.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but smile bitterly and shook his head, packed up his belongings and prepared to withdraw. It's good to work in the studio, the working hours are flexible, and you can come and go freely.

At this time, the mobile phone rang, and it showed that the call was Li Tang's name.

Cheng Er couldn't help but show a smile on his face, Li Tang was probably one of the few friends he could talk about in this city, of course, it was more about the exchange of creative aspects when filming "Criminals". In fact, there is not much contact between everyone on weekdays, and during this time, he can often see some reports about Li Tang, from the most popular actor among college students at the Beijing University Student Film Festival to Ling Huchong in "Smiling Proud Jianghu". It is undeniable that Li Tang is already popular now, and it may be even more popular when "Smiling Proud Jianghu" is broadcast.

At this time, he could still receive a call from Li Tang, and unexpectedly, Cheng Er was a little complacent.

"Hey, Brother Li."

"Cheng Er, have you been free lately? Let's get together sometime. ”

Of course, Cheng Er is free, almost every day, so he said: "If you are free, you can do it anytime." ”

"Uh......"

Li Tang on the other end of the phone paused for a moment before he said tentatively: "Is it okay today, let's have dinner together?" ”

It may not sound rude at first, after all, few people call someone to eat close to dinner.

Cheng Er didn't care, and even had some surprises, he had no direction today, and said busily: "No problem." ”

He even took the initiative to propose: "Brother Li, if it's convenient, come to me, there is a good restaurant on Puhuitang Road opposite our unit." ”

"Okay, then I'll be there in half an hour." Li Tang said very happily on the phone.

"Well, I'll be waiting for you at the door of the unit then."

Twenty minutes later, Cheng Er was already standing at the gate of the Shanghai Film Studio with a small bag on his back, he was used to being early, and he hated that others were late.

In less than five minutes, he saw a taxi with the top light Haibo slowly driving over and pulling over in front of him. Li Tang got out of the car from the back door and walked over with a smile: "Cheng Er, I haven't seen you for a long time, have you waited for a long time?" ”

It's been a long time since I saw each other, after filming "Criminals", the two basically contacted by phone and haven't seen each other for more than a year. Li Tang looks a lot darker and thinner, but his mental state is very good.

"No, I just went downstairs too." Cheng Er said busily.

Cheng Er was looking at Li Tang, Li Tang was also looking at him, and when Li Tang saw Mileage, there was no change when he met again, with a flat head and glasses, and he always looked immortal.

After a simple greeting, Cheng Er had nothing to say, unlike others who would always care about "Smiling Proud Jianghu" when they saw Li Tang, after all, it is a hot topic for Li Tang now.

Li Tang didn't mind this, and said with a smile: "Let's go, go and try the restaurant you introduced." ”

Puhuitang Road is a small road facing the gate of Shanghai Film Studio, passing through Caoxi North Road, and the restaurant is next to the Xuhui New Village Community not far from the intersection.

At five o'clock, there were not many customers in the store, so the two of them found a table by the window.

"Brother Li, what do you want to eat?"

Cheng Er took the menu and handed it over.

Li Tang waved his hand and said, "You are familiar with you, I don't have any taboos." ”

Cheng Er pointed to the menu and ordered a few dishes from the waiter, and asked for four bottles of cold beer.

A white chopped chicken, a bad edamame, and four bottles of beer were quickly served.

White chopped chicken and dregs edamame are the most common home-cooked cold dishes, and the taste is much the same, depending on the quality of the ingredients themselves.

After a long absence, the two had a toast first.

Li Tang took the initiative to ask: "How does it feel to work in Shanghai Film Studio, are you busy?" ”

"I'm not busy, just do what I want to do."

Li Tang has a general understanding of the situation of state-owned studios, and it is difficult for young directors to obtain funds from the factories to make films. For example, Beijing Film Studio, Senior Lu is lucky, he has the support of Han Sanping, the former director of Beijing Film Studio and now the vice president of China Film. Others, even if they have strong connections like Xiao Tengdao, are waiting in the eyes, unless they can pull funds and projects.

So Li Tang estimated that Cheng Er's life in Shanghai Film Studio was not easy.

"Shooting commercials, music videos?"

The director does what he wants to do, in addition to making movies, there are nothing more than these two, even Lou Ye often shoots commercials outside when he is fine, people always have to eat. Moreover, filming commercials and MVs is also a process of experimentation and accumulation for a director, and it can also make money, the best of both worlds.

"I filmed a few commercials, but the MV was not filmed, and I mainly wrote the script." Cheng Er said frankly.

In the past, singing may have been divided into three parts of the world: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, but now everyone is running to Beijing, and there are not many opportunities to shoot MVs here in Shanghai. There are a lot of advertisements, after all, it is the most economically developed city.

"Scripts for someone else?"

Nowadays, the so-called sixth generation of directors have a common denominator that they write and direct themselves, on the one hand, they have a strong desire to express; On the other hand, because they are poor, they can't afford to buy good scripts, which is the patent of the fifth generation.

Cheng Er shook his head and said shyly: "No, I wrote it myself." ”

Li Tang became interested as soon as he heard it, and hurriedly said, "Have you finished writing?" Can you show me? ”

To be honest, he didn't have any purpose in looking for Cheng Er today, but he chatted with Zhou Xun about movies in the afternoon, and he thought of Cheng Er inexplicably.

How to say, in his experience of filming several films, it seems that he felt the most comfortable and most expressive process in the cooperation with Cheng Er and his group of students.

"The first draft is finished, but now it's been revised, maybe ...... Uh, not quite coherent yet. ”

Looking at Cheng Er's embarrassed look, Li Tang was naturally reluctant to do so, and said with a look of regret: "Okay, it's okay to wait until you're done, right?" ”

"Absolutely." Cheng Er said busily.

The dishes ordered are served one after another, October is the season to eat crabs, a fried rice cake with hairy crab, hairy crab is very fat, more flavorful than steaming and the price is very affordable. There are also scrambled eggs with pickles, salt-and-pepper strips, and fried pork liver in sauce.

What particularly surprised Li Tang was that Cheng Er actually ordered a dish of boiled shrimp, adding white wine, soy sauce, tofu, and garlic and coriander pickled river shrimp in a covered glass bowl.

Li Tang noticed that Cheng Er was also very good at eating, and the shrimp shells that only ate the shrimp meat were intact and neatly arranged in the bone plate, which was very in line with his obsessive-compulsive personality.

In addition to the script, the two didn't talk much, the rest was to bury their heads in eating, I have to say that the taste of this local restaurant recommended by Cheng Er is really good.

Listening to Cheng Er's introduction, the script he is now revising is the same as the previous graduation work "Criminals", which is a suspenseful crime theme, and he did not introduce the specific content, which is roughly based on the daily life of ordinary people, a girl with brain cancer has an ambiguous liking for her brother-in-law, and the intrusion of a stranger makes the potential problems of this ordinary family all explode, and a series of strange events have occurred.

As soon as Li Tang heard it, he knew that this was a script for a typical Cult movie, including the short film "Criminals" that the two had collaborated on before, which was actually a Cult short film.

This kind of film is very common in the United States, and it refers to films that are shot in a unique way, with strange subject matter, off-edge, unusual style, strong personal opinions, controversial, and usually low-budget production, not market-oriented. It is generally popular in non-mainstream areas and in specific groups of young people.

Of course, there are also big-selling cult movies, such as "A Clockwork Orange", "Vulgar", "Blade Runner", "Scum" and so on.

However, in China, due to censorship, this type of subject matter is rare. If there is, it is probably director Li Shaohong's famous work "Silver Snake Murder", which can be described as the originator of domestic cult films.

Li Tang was a little sorry that he didn't see Cheng Er's new script, after eating, when they were separated at the door of the restaurant, Cheng Er hesitated, took out a stack of manuscript paper from his bag and handed it to Li Tang and said, "Brother Li, this is the first draft, if you are interested, you can take a look...... Well, we can talk to each other then. ”

Cheng Er was proud, he did not say something similar to "give more valuable opinions", but said "exchange". Communication, the implication is that I can accept or disagree with your opinions.

Li Tang was very surprised, and very surprised. Cheng Er gave the manuscript to himself like this, which is not a simple exchange, but also contains great trust.

Otherwise, if you change your face and use it for publication or review, it will become your own work.

The first and second shifts were about 90 o'clock in the evening.

(End of chapter)