Chapter 18: Can't bear to leave the child and can't trap the wolf

On November 16, 1981, the Chinese women's volleyball team won the world championship medal for the first time in the third World Cup.

On this day, our protagonist Comrade Li Siming left Beijing for exactly half a month. During these days, he visited Hong Kong. Zeng Zhi was quite dissatisfied with his appearance of doing nothing all day.

"I said, didn't you say you wanted to make a lot of money by making movies?" Zeng Zhi asked.

"Yes, I said it!" Li Siming sat on the sofa, staring at the TV like a knife.

"But you either stay at home or go shopping all day. This is not something a person who claims to be a director needs to do." Zeng Zhi said. He looked even more anxious than Li Siming.

"Are you anxious?"

"I'm anxious? I'm not anxious. I'm out of my friend's advice!" Zeng Zhi denied that he was dissatisfied with Li Siming's seemingly confident in everything.

"Do you think I'm playing? No, you think I'm thinking when I'm playing. You think I'm resting when I'm thinking." Li Siming is indeed thinking these days, but it's not as mysterious as he said.

"You sit here smoking a cigarette and watching TV. Is this how smart people think?" Zeng Zhi didn't even bother.

"Don't be angry, work will start tomorrow." Li Siming sat up straight, "Tomorrow you find a screenwriter for me. We need to have a script for filming, right?"

"This is OK, but what kind of thing do you want? It's hard to find a big-name screenwriter. These people usually have contracts!"

"Then just find someone who knows how to write!"

"Aren't you talking in a sleep, are you?" Zeng Zhi touched Li Siming's forehead.

"Then look for those people who have written styles that are OK, but they are full of passion and no one appreciates them. I sigh that there are thousands of miles of horses in the world but Bole doesn't often have them!" Li Siming pushed Zeng Zhi's hand away.

"Why?"

"The stories are all here." Li Siming pointed to his head, saw Zeng Zhi's expression of disbelief, and said with a smile, "When I was in Daxing, weren't those scripts written by me?"

"Then why don't you write? This can save money?" Zeng Zhi asked another question.

This problem is actually the reason why Li Siming hired a movie screenwriter, because Li Siming has no experience in writing movie scripts. Many screenwriters in Hong Kong are many people with good writing skills. Many directors are themselves screenwriters. The key is creativity, that is, conception. Li Siming has watched too many blockbusters and too many stories in his mind. He needs a screenwriter to turn these stories into a complete and operational script. One feature of Hong Kong movies is that they have strong storylines and compact plots. Unlike mainland movies, they often drag on and offend their appetites. This is the foundation for Hong Kong screenwriters to tell stories.

"We are not a stage play, this time it's a movie, so we need a screenwriter." Li Siming said.

"Okay. I'll catch a lot of people like this, I promise you will see it tomorrow."

"I just found out today that you want to make movies more."

"Of course, who doesn't want to make money? Anyway, the sky falls and there are tall people holding it." Zeng Zhi pointed at Li Siming and said, "If the sun comes out from the west, I can still benefit from it, right?"

"You are doing your best. But you just don't have confidence in me?" Li Siming said.

"If you are more humble, I don't mind improving your confidence in you." Zeng Zhi said.

Regarding confidence, Li Siming believes that he has no confidence in the script and creativity, but he has the will to not be beaten and he will not turn back. If he doesn't try it, he may doubt his willpower. Rome was not built in one day, so Li Siming had to encourage himself by this word. He was ready to fail once, accumulate experience as a film director, and then decide not to do anything in this industry. However, if Zeng Zhi knew about this plan, he would probably fight with him. So he pretended to be very confident, and was even more awesome than the most powerful and experienced director, so that this brother who also wanted to make money would work hard with him.

There are three main types of screenwriters in Hong Kong: one is a TV station screenwriter, that is, a TV station employee. These screenwriters receive monthly salary, complete workloads according to quantity, and usually have a relatively fixed income, which belongs to the middle class. The other is a freelance TV drama screenwriter. These screenwriters are senior TV screenwriters or original movie screenwriters who have been transferred from the film industry. They hate the rigid working environment of the TV station and feel that it is not interesting to stay in the TV station, so they go out and become many independent film or TV project screenwriters.

The last type of screenwriter is a movie screenwriter who only writes movie scripts. Most of the scripts are completed by one person rather than by two or more like TV screenwriters. This type of screenwriter has the most popular time in the film industry, but well-known screenwriters sign contracts with film companies. They do well and pay dividends. If they don’t do well, they can only get monthly salary. If they often can’t come up with good scripts, they will face the danger of unemployment. There is another type of movie screenwriter, which is the kind of people who hand over their works everywhere. This kind of people are the most miserable, and they are usually poor and poor, and they have to sigh and sigh.

Most mainland screenwriters have other identities, and the most common business is writers. The inseparableness of writers and screenwriters is Chinese characteristics. The mutual transformation of writers and screenwriters leads to the fact that novels and scripts can be sold at least twice. Hong Kong screenwriters are more professional. Most people make up for their livelihood, and mainland screenwriters often want to compete with directors.

Zeng Zhi found such a poor screenwriter. I don’t know if he was trying to save money or really couldn’t find it. Li Siming met the screenwriter at the Sheraton cafe in Tsim Sha Tsui. The man’s name is Mei Qian, which is the homonym of “no money”. I guess his father didn’t expect this to be interesting when he named him. Screenwriter Mei was wearing a pair of deep glasses, his hair was messy, and his suit seemed to have just been turned out from the bottom of the box. The creases were quite deep, and he looked like he was in trouble.

"Hello, Mr. Zeng!" Screenwriter Mei went into the cafe and saw Zeng Zhi. He bent down and bowed to the end. It seemed that he was doing this action very well. "I heard you have something to tell me to do it?" The thick lenses shone with excitement.

"Mr. Mei, please take a seat. Let me introduce it." Zeng Zhi called the waiter to serve a cup of coffee and pointed at Li Siming who was pretending to be deep. "This Mr. Li Siming from the mainland is the director of our company's next film. He needs a screenwriter, so I recommend you."

"Thank you Mr. Zeng, thank you Director Li." He was indeed very grateful, but he was a little suspicious of Li Siming, who was sitting in front of him, looking horizontally and vertically, and he didn't look like a director.

"I heard you are very diligent? It's good to be diligent. One day you will succeed." Li Siming said politely, "It is because you are serious and diligent that you are asked to write a screenwriter." What Li Siming didn't say was that because the other party was not successful, he listened to his fake director, and the screenwriter's status has always been very low.

"Thank you, director!" Li Siming's polite words of "praise" made Screenwriter Mei quite excited. He had lived enough hard life. There was a time when he lived on instant noodles. He went to the cafe every day to drink free coffee, and wrote scripts destined to be thrown into the trash can by those directors. Now someone said that he would succeed, how could he not be excited? Therefore, appropriate "praise" can often lead to unexpected results. Screenwriter Mei Da will be a living example.

"Boss Zeng said you have written a lot of kung fu scripts?" Li Siming asked.

"Yes, those film companies are too bullying. The script I wrote is either thrown into the garbage dump or can't be handed in at all. Better, I can barely earn a living expense." Screenwriter Mei looked back on the past and felt very heartbroken, "Oh, that's all my hard work."

"Why don't you give up? It's good to be an editor at a newspaper or something."

"As he said, to be a big screenwriter, but for my dream, I want the protagonist in the movie to dance according to my thoughts and make the characters I create immortal. For this reason, I will continue to write until I can't hold the pen." Screenwriter Mei's eyes were firm, and Li Siming noticed that when he talked about his dream, the spoon in the cup was tightly held by him.

"So I'll ask you to write a script." Li Siming didn't want to hit the other party, but the other party's professionalism touched him, so he was even more sure that he asked him to write.

"Is it a kung fu movie? I have several ready-made ones here, please check it out!" Screenwriter Mei picked up several manuscripts from his already worn bag, full of expectations. It seemed that he was ready.

Li Siming didn't want to disappoint him, so he pretended to flirt with it. It was all about grudges and comedy, and it was the same as the popular films at present.

"Well, you write very well, but not what I want." Li Siming said.

"Director Li, what do you want? I promise to show you the first draft as quickly as possible." Screenwriter Mei said anxiously. He obviously didn't want this opportunity to be wasted, although he had never heard of the other party, a young man who claimed to be a director.

"Don't be anxious. I mean that the most popular movies are basically kung fu comedy movies. These movies are really good, but for me, if I imitate others, it will be thankless because this type of movie is controlled by some people. I have a story here, tell you a rough idea, please help me polish it, and then we will study it?"

"No problem, you said?" Screenwriter Mei asked.

"In the colorful and gorgeous Peony House, Captain Jin and Captain Liu were enjoying the wonderful dance of the blind prostitute girl. Suddenly, the little sister stabbed Captain Liu with a sword, and Captain Liu avoided the attack and took the little sister down.

On a dark and windy night, the man in black rescued his younger sister. On the way to escape, the man in black fell in love with him unknowingly. The man in black is Captain Jin. But Captain Jin never expected that the younger sister had another secret, and everything he experienced made him incredible.

The little sister was ordered to take Captain Jin out of the flying knife gate. They came to a sea of ​​flowers. In the sky full of flowers, Captain Jin faced the charming little sister, and the two couldn't help but fall in love together... Just as the little sister and Captain Jin were in love, Captain Liu suddenly appeared, and the three of them had to face an unsolvable problem......Amid the snowflakes flying all over the sky, the government and the flying knife gate showed their trump cards, and the earth-shaking battle in the snow began... "Li Siming recalled the "big movie", and he didn't have to use his brain at all. The other two at the table were stunned.

That's right, this is "The Ambush on Ten" which is completely different from the Bruce Lee-style real kung fu with hard horses and bridges. The first thing that is to bear is the flying around the characters, combined with the beautiful real scenes, which expresses the artistic conception of Gu Long's martial arts. The freehand color of the East is very strong. Li Siming thinks he is lucky because at this moment, no one has ever filmed it like this before him, and there is no reference. He can find ways to make up for the various criticisms of the original drama. The most criticized thing is the script problem, but he will not be attacked so much at this time. Li Siming can already imagine that some of the innovative designs can be amazing in this era.

Of course, in this era, there are also some great shortcomings, such as computer stunts, and some scenes are completed through professional computer software. However, Li Siming believes that he is not an artist, but just a temporary director who wants to make money, and will not pursue things he cannot do. In fact, he did not expect more practical difficulties, which made him sigh countless times that the director is really not easy to be a good person.

"This story is very novel, but you have already said it, what am I doing?" Screenwriter Mei couldn't help asking.

"I'm just talking about a general idea. You need to write it, such as character dialogue and character portrayal. I ask that you can write the artistic conception of Gu Long, and the story should be reasonable, but this dialogue must not be half-textual and half-white." Li Siming did not forget the funny dialogue in the original drama.

"Okay, I promise to take it out within three days."

"Don't be so anxious, slow work is done. In addition, I will pay you a deposit first. How about 10,000 yuan? After finishing it, no less than 50,000 yuan?" Li Siming said, but his eyes looked at Zeng Zhi.

"Ah, too much." Screenwriter Mei was shocked by Li Siming's generosity. Only screenwriters in large companies had deposits. 50,000 yuan was not a small amount in Hong Kong at this time. One million yuan could make a movie, and four or five hundred thousand yuan could buy a luxury house halfway up to a mountain of 1,000 feet, but the housing prices rose more than ten times 97 years ago.

When Zeng Zhi saw that Li Siming had a deposit of 10,000 yuan, he curled his lips, took out the check book, and reluctantly signed it.

"Thank you, Mr. Zeng, thank you director!" Screenwriter Mei excitedly took the check, stood up and bowed deeply to the two of them, "I will go back to write it now and submit the draft in three days!" After that, he left with his bag.

"Are Hong Kong people so dedicated?" Li Siming asked.

"If this person is so poor that he can't survive, a check suddenly falls from the sky. The check is still the kind with the bank's credit guarantee. This person will definitely shout to God: Why did it fall in front of me? It's so good that the heaven has eyes! Who wouldn't he rushed to cash in before the bank closes?" Zeng Zhi said.

"Don't be stingy. If you can't bear to leave your child, you can't trap a wolf. If you want to do it, you can make it bigger."

"I'm worried that this child will become a meat bun!" Zeng Zhi said angrily, "You are so crazy!"
Chapter completed!