The post-production of "The Sixth Sense" has reached the soundtrack recording stage, and Zhou Yan has almost completed the soundtrack for the film.
In this movie, Zhou Yan did not write long songs. He wrote very short paragraphs, but there were a lot of them. He wrote more than 20 paragraphs in total.
Most of these soundtracks are hidden in some blank parts of the movie's plot. On the contrary, they are places where the plot tension is relatively strong. Zhou Yan did not add music, and the volume of these soundtracks will be turned down very low, so as not to affect the situation as much as possible. To the vocals and live sound.
Of course, there are some exceptions, such as the opening and ending of the film.
When it comes to the opening credits, because there is no other sound, the soundtrack will definitely be more obvious and quite long. This piece of music mainly serves as an introduction and sets the tone of the entire movie.
At the end, when Dr. Ma suddenly realizes that he has passed away, the song played by Zhou Yan has the greatest emotional fluctuations. This is also to express Dr. Ma's shock and the subversion of the plot.
During this period, Zhou Yan's work was still quite busy. In addition to the later stage of "The Sixth Sense", there was also the soundtrack of "Alive".
However, Zhou Yan also wrote half of the soundtrack of "Alive". He changed the key of "The Street Where the Wind Lives", divided it into three sections, and put them in the movie. Then based on the changed tune, To make the soundtrack for the movie, plus the one written by Zhao Chang, they have already produced six pieces of music.
The post-production of "Alive" is at Shanghai Studio. Zhou Yan will find time to go to Shanghai Studio later to confirm the soundtrack with Zhang Yimou in person. Their plan is to have it completed before March next year. The soundtrack's soundtrack was added to the film.
Normally, there is still a long time before March next year. Zhou Yan does not need to rush and can take his time. However, Zhou Yan will go to Neon to hold the "Oriental Legacy" concert on January 17th.
After the concert, Zhou Yan had to go home to celebrate the New Year. By the time the New Year was over, it would already be mid-February, so Zhou Yan actually didn’t have much time. He needed to finalize the matter of "Alive" before going to Neon.
Fortunately, the post-production work of "The Sixth Sense" went relatively smoothly, everything was going on in an orderly manner, and Zhou Yan handled these tasks with ease.
But just when Zhou Yan could relax a little, work came again.
In mid-December, Zhou Yan received a call from Xu Feng. Xu Feng told him that the rough version of the film "Flying Piano Boy" had been cut out and would be sent to him for the soundtrack.
When Olivier and the others were going to remake "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly", they considered changing the name of the movie. Later, after discussion, they decided to make only a few simple changes and change the name of "The Piano Boy Who Wants to Fly" to ” was changed to “flying”.
This change not only changes the meaning, but also reduces the number of words when translating into foreign languages.
During the phone call, Xu Feng only told Zhou Yan that someone would send the film. Zhou Yan did not expect that the person who sent the film would be the director Olivier himself.
Olivier came from France alone and went to Zhou Yan's house with a translator, Li Dakai, a student from the School of Foreign Languages he hired last time he came to China.
The cooperation last time was quite pleasant, so Olivier hired Li Dakai again this time.
Moreover, Olivier didn't tell Zhou Yan before coming, but directly contacted Li Dakai, and it was Li Dakai who went to pick him up.
Zhou Yan was arranging the soundtrack of "The Sixth Sense" at home. When he heard a knock on the door, he went out and opened the door. He was stunned for a moment when he saw Olivier and Li Dakai standing at the door.
“Olivier, you came here by yourself?”
“Well, I haven’t had much to do recently, so I just came over to take a look. Regarding the movie’s soundtrack, I also have some of my own. I want to share my thoughts with you."
Zhou Yan nodded and invited the two of them inside.
However, they did not stay at home for too long, because Zhou Yan's family did not have the conditions to show movie films, so they could only take the films to Yanjing Studio to watch movies.
Olivier and Li Dakai naturally followed.
When they arrived at the editing building, Yang Ming first glanced at Olivier behind Zhou Yan, and then said in surprise: "Didn't you say you weren't coming today?"
"There's new work." Zhou Yan Pointing to the box containing the film.
“Want to cut it?” Yang Ming asked.
Zhou Yan shook his head and said, "No, just watch a movie."
When he heard that he was just watching a movie, Yang Ming nodded and didn't ask again, "Then you go and watch it yourself."
Zhou Yan took Olivier to watch the movie together.
When he arrived at the screening room, Olivier looked around, and then couldn't help but sigh, the equipment here is really crude. In such an environment, it is not easy for Zhou Yan and the others to make a good movie. things.
There are a lot of equipment in the workshop, which is far behind those in Europe and the United States. Moreover, he heard from Zhou Yan that Yanjing Studio is already the top film production base in China.
If Yanjing Studio is so backward, one can imagine the situation in other places.
This was the first time that translator Li Dakai had such close contact with film production, and he looked around, full of curiosity.
The production of movies is very mysterious to ordinary people. When Li Dakai saw Yang Ming cutting the film with a knife just now, his eyes almost popped out. He really didn’t expect a single frame in the movie. A frame of the picture was actually "cut".
Zhou Yan ignored the two of them and began to load the film for screening.
After the film was loaded, he took out his notebook and pen and started to watch the film formally.
Li Dakai originally thought that a movie only lasted ninety minutes, and it would not take long to watch. But when Zhou Yan started watching the movie, he discovered that the situation was completely different from what he had imagined. .
Zhou Yanzhen was watching it frame by frame, no exaggeration at all.
From the first second of the film, Zhou Yan watched it very carefully. After watching dozens of seconds of footage, he would go back and watch it again.
After reading it a few times, Zhou Yan will start taking notes in his notebook.
The content recorded by Zhou Yan is very detailed. The information includes the content of the clip, the starting point of the clip, the emotional direction, and the appearance and exit of the characters.
What struck Li Dakai most as outrageous was that Zhou Yan actually recorded the character's walking time, which was shockingly detailed.
Li Dakai said that it was an eye-opener. In his original imagination, the soundtrack was just watching a movie and writing out the music. Some of the songs did not need to be original, but just used well-known songs. He did not expect it to be so complicated.
They arrived at Yanjing Studio at nine o'clock in the morning, but by twelve o'clock, they had just finished watching half of the first reel of film. At this speed, it would cost two dollars just to watch the film. days time.
For Li Dakai, this job was naturally very easy. When Zhou Yan was watching the movie, he rarely communicated with Olivier, so there was nothing he needed to translate.
But he was quite anxious as he kept sitting with Olivier like this.
At first watching the film, Li Dakai was quite interested, but after watching it for a long time, he felt very boring. Zhou Yan's process of "pulling the film" was so meticulous that he might have to watch more than a dozen videos in one minute. minute.
Seeing Olivier sitting steadily on the side, not looking anxious at all, Li Dakai was also very emotional. These directors are really determined.
Actually, Zhou Yan can be a little lazy. This is a remake of a movie, and the soundtrack just needs to follow the original template. However, he is paid to do things, and he is not used to fooling people, so he should do his work more carefully.
Of course, the overall workload must be much less, because most of the songs played by the young male protagonist have been decided in advance, and they were all shot according to those songs during filming.
There is only one place, which is the song that the young male protagonist composed when he missed his grandfather after his grandfather died.
This part of the plot was also filmed, but there was no close-up of the young male protagonist’s hands throughout the whole process, and the hands were also covered in the mid-shot.
The reason for this is that this piece of music has not been finalized before. We have to wait until Zhou Yan writes the piece and then puts it in. Olivier may add some close-ups of the little male protagonist’s hands in the future, or simply re-write this section. It's possible to shoot it once, after all, this set of shots is not troublesome.
Of course, in the end, it still depends on Zhou Yan. If Zhou Yan doesn’t write a new song, then this section will be discarded, and this section will not be included in the original version.
Olivier personally sent the film this time mainly for this section.
At noon, Zhou Yan took Olivier and the others out for a meal, and then returned to the screening room to continue watching movies until about nine o'clock in the evening.
This was not over yet. Early the next morning, Zhou Yan went to watch a movie again. It was around five o'clock in the afternoon before he finally saw the part where his grandfather died and the young hero composed a new song.
Originally, Olivier had been sitting next to him, motionless, but when Zhou Yan saw this section, he quickly stood up and came to Zhou Yan's side.
However, Olivier remained silent during the whole process. It was only after Zhou Yan finished reading this section that he couldn't help but ask, "Zhou, can you add a new song to this section?"
Zhou Yan pondered for a moment, then nodded and said, "Yes, but we will need to add a few close-ups and mid-range shots later, and the duration may also need to be changed."
Hearing Zhou Yan say yes, Olivier Ai said excitedly, "No problem, I have already prepared it. After you write the song, I will arrange reshoots when I get back. Even this section can be reshot."
Zhou Yan waved his hand, "There's no need to go to so much trouble. This part was shot very well. I just need to add a few shots. Let's go back first and wait until tomorrow afternoon to find me at my house. I'll give you the score and demo."
"So fast?" Olivier said in surprise.
“It’s not a very difficult song, so it will come out soon.”
“Okay, let’s go back to the hotel first.”
“Well, You go back first, Xiao Li, take him to have a meal, I will stay in the factory and continue to watch the next film."
Li Dakai nodded, "Okay, Teacher Zhou."
Li Dakai was relieved when he heard that he could leave.
It was so painful for him to stay in the editing workshop for the past two days. Although he was not married yet, while waiting with Olivier, he actually had the feeling that his husband was at the door of the delivery room. The feeling of waiting for your wife to give birth.
Actually, Zhou Yan told Olivier several times to let them go back first and then contact them after he finished reading, but Olivier was unwilling and insisted on waiting here.
But now that Olivier heard the answer he wanted to hear, he naturally stopped insisting, nodded, and said goodbye to Zhou Yan.
"Then let's go back first, and we'll find you tomorrow afternoon."
"No problem."
After Olivier and Li Dakai left, Zhou Yan rubbed his swollen eyes, went to the cafeteria to have a meal, and then returned to the editing building to continue watching the film.
It was almost nine o'clock in the screening room until Zhou Yan dragged his exhausted body back home.
After a brief wash, Zhou Yan lay down on the bed and fell asleep.
The next morning, Zhou Yan went to have breakfast. After returning home, he sat down in the piano room and started writing music.
Although Zhou Yan told Olivier that the music was relatively simple, it took him a whole morning to write the score.
At 11:30 noon, when Zhou Yan was going to have a meal first and then come back to record the demo, Olivier and Li Dakai came.
Seeing Olivier, Zhou Yan couldn't help but look at his watch to make sure he got the time right. It wasn't even twelve o'clock now.
“Didn’t I ask you to come over in the afternoon?”
Olivier was a little embarrassed, “I’m sorry, I just couldn’t help but want to come and see that piece of music earlier.”< br>
Zhou Yan curled his lips and asked, "Have you eaten?"
"Yes."
"I haven't eaten yet." Zhou Yan muttered, turned around and returned to the living room to greet Chang. The restaurant where I went to eat made a call and asked them to cook some food and deliver it, and then took Olivier and the others to the piano room.
He pointed to the music score on the shelf, "It has already been written. I was planning to come back after dinner to record it."
Olivier stretched his head over and looked at the score. , he didn’t understand music and couldn’t understand it, but when he saw that the score had indeed been written, his heart settled.
"It's okay, it's okay. You eat first and then record after eating. We'll wait for you."
Zhou Yan waved his hand, "Forget it, I'll record it for you first, otherwise you'll just wait around like this , I can’t eat well either.”
This piece of music only lasts three or four minutes, so it doesn’t take much time to record it. He recorded it before the food was delivered, so that Olivier wouldn’t have to worry about it later. Ao was anxious and he was restless.
Zhou Yan took out his Walkman, adjusted the machine, turned on the recording mode, and then sat on the piano bench.
Seeing Zhou Yan sitting on the piano stool, Olivier and Li Dakai stood aside and held their breath.
Li Dakai was extremely excited. He had watched the "Yanjing Silence" concert on CCTV. In the program, he had seen Zhou Yan play the piano and flute.
But this is the first time to see Zhou Yan playing live at such a close distance.
Zhou Yan was only about one meter away from him, and he could touch it with just a little stretch of his hand. The reason why Li Dakai was so excited was not only because he was close to Zhou Yan, but also because he knew that they About to hear a fresh new tune.
How many people can meet such a chance encounter?
Zhou Yan took a deep breath. Although the music score was on the music stand, he didn't even look at it and started playing.
As soon as the melody started, people felt a touch of sadness.
The speed of the song is very slow. As Zhou Yan’s fingers dance, the notes are like a pool of spring water, carrying a little sadness and nostalgia, spreading over the withered yellow grass and intertwining with the cool autumn wind to create a beautiful scene. Desolate autumn scenery.
The main melody has not changed much, with a slow beat and a low-pitched minor key. There are a few crisp single notes in the middle of each variation, as if the spring water was blocked by withered grass and splashed some uncontrollable water droplets.
At the back, the rhythm fluctuated a little more. The faster ones were like shouts from afar, while the slower ones were like whispers in the ears. However, no matter how far or near these sounds were, they were all insubstantial. It is difficult to find traces of them.
The whole song contains confusion, sadness, memories... and more memories.
Hearing this piece of music, Olivier thought of many images of the young hero and his grandfather together.
When the song ended, Olivier and Li Dakai refrained from making any sound. It wasn't until Zhou Yan turned off the recording mode of the Walkman that Olivier clapped vigorously, "That's great!"
Li Dakai also clapped along, "That's great. "
His sentence not only translated Olivier's words, but also expressed his excitement.
"What's the name of this piece?" Olivier couldn't help but ask.
"This piece is called "Tears"."
After listening to Li Dakai's translation, Olivier couldn't help but nod. He was so satisfied with this piece that he chose to It was a wise choice to give Zhou Yan all the music services.
Zhou Yan smiled, took out the tape from the Walkman, and handed it to Olivier along with the score, "I'll give you the score and the demo. When you get back, you can let the actors reshoot the scene. This I will sort out the other soundtracks in time and give them to you later."
After receiving the score and tape, Olivier felt like a treasure.
He wished he could fly back to France right now and reshoot this sequence of scenes as soon as possible... He had already decided not only to reshoot a few scenes, but also to reshoot the entire section and let the actors play the song live. Play it out.
When he didn't get the song before, Olivier thought that he could just "cheat" the audience through the editing of the camera.
But now that he got the music, especially after watching Zhou Yan's live performance at close range, he decided to shoot it in real time. No matter how he edited it, the real effect would be the best.
In the scene of playing the piano, it is better to give more mid-range shots so that the performer, the performer's hands and the piano appear at the same time, so that the scene will be more appealing.
Olivier said goodbye to Zhou Yan before even waiting for Zhou Yan's meal to be delivered. He was now in a hurry to buy a ticket to return to France.
After Olivier and the others left, Zhou Yan couldn't help but smile. No matter how hard he tried to chase this guy away two days ago, he was fine now. He couldn't even keep him after he got the music.
The piece "Tears" is not Zhou Yan's original creation, but he modified it based on "Tears" by the new century composer Daydream.
The song "Tears" he gave to Olivier is not much different from the original "Tears" by Daydream, except that the rhythm in the later part is more ups and downs.
The song "Tears" has a very dull rhythm, and it feels like missing your loved ones.
It does not contain the shock and grief of sudden bad news, but the bursts of inexplicable sadness and longing that flow through my heart when I think of my loved ones again after they have been gone for a while.
In "The Flying Piano Boy", the young male protagonist played this song while looking into the distance outside the window some time after his grandfather passed away.
Zhou Yan thought that "Tears" fit very well with this scene shot by Olivier, so he used it.
After a while, the stall owner brought the food and chatted with Zhou Yan for a few words.
For a while, Zhou Yan didn't even go to his house to eat. The boss was quite concerned about his regular customers.
After lunch, Zhou Yan took a short rest at home and then went to school.
New Year's Day is coming soon, and their school is holding a New Year's Day party. Although Zhou Yan did not attend, the Piano Youth Orchestra will perform two pieces of music on stage.
The music they played was also the repertoire that will be performed in the "Oriental Legacy" concert, so it not only did not delay their preparation for the concert, but also gave them some practice in advance.
When Central Music organizes such an event, it must involve the Piano Youth Orchestra. Although the Piano Youth Orchestra was established relatively late, the orchestra has developed rapidly, especially after being featured on CCTV this time. The band is very popular now.
There are some places that want to invite Zhou Yan to hold concerts, but they can't get the invitation, so they want to bypass Zhou Yan and invite the Piano Youth Orchestra.
So during this period, the Piano Youth Orchestra also received many invitations.
Zhou Yan is not too opposed to these invitations. After the new year, he won't have any concerts for a while, so he can't let the orchestra rehearse at school every day.
At that time, you can choose to accept some invitations with better conditions and a more suitable time, and let the Piano Youth Band go out for a tour.
Going out to perform two or three times a month can not only maintain the performance level of the band, but also make the band make money. It can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone.
And letting them go out to perform more will also promote Zhou Yan's works.
When Zhou Yan arrived at the concert hall, the Piano Youth Orchestra was not there, but the Yangyin Youth Symphony Orchestra was rehearsing on the stage.
Yangyin has many orchestras and choirs, and the members of the Youth Symphony Orchestra are all students from the orchestra department of the attached middle school.
The Youth Symphony Orchestra was invited to tour Europe a few years ago. It is a relatively well-known orchestra among the orchestras affiliated with Yangyin.
Zhou Yan saw Jia Guoping in the concert hall. The reason why this guy was here was because his fiancée Zhang Xinning was one of the instructors of the Youth Symphony Orchestra.
Seeing Zhou Yan, Jia Guoping said with a smile, "Why do you have time to come to the concert hall today?"
Zhou Yan has been very busy recently. During the week, Jia Guoping can basically only see Zhou Yan once or twice. times, and they were basically all in the office of the Composition Department.
"I'm here to watch the rehearsal of the New Year's Day party."
Jia Guoping nodded, "It will probably take a while for the piano boy to come."
"I'm not here to watch them specifically." Zhou Yan Sitting down next to Jia Guoping and looking at Zhang Xinning who was giving guidance to students on the stage, he asked, "Has your wedding date been decided?"
"Yes, it has been decided. I was just about to tell you about this. I have agreed with Xinning that the date will be the 28th of the first lunar month next year."
"After the wedding, you will go abroad, just in time for your honeymoon."
"I'm not as fashionable as you, and I'm still on my honeymoon."
"Have you chosen the wedding venue?"
"It's just in the school cafeteria, not going anywhere."
>Hearing that Jia Guoping was going to hold his wedding in the cafeteria, Zhou Yan didn't say anything. Nowadays, it's very normal to hold weddings in the cafeteria.
He and Zhang Xinning are two-time earners. If the school is held in the cafeteria, the school will definitely waive a lot of expenses for them.
In terms of grandeur, it can't be compared to a hotel wedding, but Jia Guoping's financial conditions are limited and he can't afford to go to a hotel.
"Where's the wedding room?"
"This is what I'm mainly telling you, I want to decorate our dormitory into a wedding room."
Zhou Yan smiled and waved, " Why are you asking me about this? You can just arrange it. Anyway, I don’t usually live there.” . And after Xinning and I leave, this dormitory will be yours alone.”
"Since this dormitory belongs to me alone from now on, let's leave the decoration of the wedding room to me."
"You can just be there to help me when the time comes. Why is the decoration of the wedding room so troublesome? You."
"Didn't I say that after you leave, I will live in this dormitory alone, and I must arrange the furnishings there, otherwise you will leave and leave behind those things. I don’t like the home either.”
Zhou Yan’s words gave Jia Guoping no reason to refuse. After pondering for a moment, he could only nod, “I’m sorry to bother you, but you should take it easy and don’t make arrangements. Great.”
“Don’t worry about it, leave it to me.”
...
The two chatted for a while in the audience, and Zhou Yan received a message on his pager.
The person who sent the message was Yang Qiang, whom he met at the guest house last time. He asked if he had time and wanted to meet him.
“I still have something to do, so let’s take a step first.”
“Well, go ahead and get busy.”
Zhou Yan first went to call Yang Qiang back, and the two made an appointment to meet at Yang Qiang's place.
When he arrived at the guest house and found Yang Qiang's room, Zhou Yan raised his hand and knocked on the door.
The person who opened the door was a young man in his early twenties. When he saw Zhou Yan, the young man looked excited and said, "Teacher Zhou, you are here."
Yang Qiang also came over, " Zhou Yan, I'm really sorry, but I have to go there in person. I should be the one to find you."
Zhou Yan waved his hand, "You're welcome, Captain Yang. It's more convenient for me to come to you."
Yang Qiang and the others came from Jinling, and they didn't have a car, so it was inconvenient to find Zhou Yan. Unlike Zhou Yan, they drove here from Yangyin with just a few pumps of gas.
"Xiao Liang, go get a glass of water for Teacher Zhou."
"Okay." The young man responded.
Inviting Zhou Yan to sit down in the room, Yang Qiang picked up a stack of manuscripts on the table and said, "I take the liberty to come to you this time because I want to talk to you about the dance drama "The Street Where the Wind Lives". I haven't been idle for a few days, so I simply wrote a script and asked you to read it."
Zhou Yan was very emotional after taking over the script. It turned out to be a frontline song and dance troupe, and Yang Qiang, the leader of the group, is very soldier-like. He has a strong momentum and is straightforward in everything he says and does, without being sloppy at all.
He didn't say anything, just opened the script and read it.
Although it was written temporarily, the script is quite long and has a decent feel.
Dance drama is different from other stage plays such as operas and dramas. It mainly uses dance as a means of expression. The script only contains simple stories and no lines.
The specific choreography is not reflected in this script.
This dance drama is mainly about a pair of lovers who grew up together as childhood sweethearts. The girl’s family lives on the east end of the street and is a wealthy family, while the boy’s family lives on the west end and is relatively poor.
Therefore, although the two fell in love, neither family supported their union.
The two tried to fight, but in the end they could not withstand the obstruction of their family members. The woman was distraught and chose to commit suicide by drowning in the river.
A very clichéd story, but Zhou Yan can understand that it is difficult to express something particularly complex in a dance drama. The main thing is to look at the choreography.
Why classic plays are easily passed down is because these classic scripts are easy to express, and the audience can understand them even if there are no lines.
If the arrangement is too complicated, it will only make the audience confused.
After reading the script, Zhou Yan nodded and said, "I think it's pretty good, but I think the song can be changed to add some interaction between the male and female protagonists, so that the male protagonist plays the erhu and the female protagonist plays the flute."
< br>“I’ve thought about it this way, but the music needs to be changed a lot, and it’s not easy for me to do it.”
Yang Qiang said that it’s hard for him to do it. On the one hand, because the music belongs to Zhou Yan, he changed it without authorization. Other people's music is very disrespectful.
On the other hand, his playing ability is indeed strong, but his music creation ability is much lower. If he is asked to change it, he may not be able to change it well.
Zhou Yan saw the erhu placed beside the bed and said, "Just a moment, I'll be back soon."
After that, Zhou Yan got up and went out before Yang Qiang and the others could reply.
After a while, he came up with a flute and said to Yang Qiang, "Captain Yang, I play the flute, you play the erhu, and we try to change the tune."
Hearing what Zhou Yan said, Yang Qiang quickly picked up the erhu.
“We can add a cheerful paragraph in front of the original song to express the mutual affection between the male and female protagonists. In this way, the dance drama will become more layered and complete.”
“Later, they were stopped by their family members. Here is a more confrontational passage to show that both of them fought for each other...”
Zhou Yan first gave Yang Qiang and the others a brief analysis, and then directly picked up the flute and played for a while.
After he finished playing, he said, "This is the first bar of the erhu in the following section. Captain Yang, just follow the section I just played. This section uses..."
< br>Yang Qiang is also an expert. Zhou Yan gave a brief explanation and Yang Qiang started playing.
When Yang Qiang finished playing, Zhou Yan played another piece of erhu that echoed Yang Qiang's piece of erhu.
"This is the performance of the erhu and bamboo flute in the first verse of the second verse. Now I will play the second verse..."
Later, Zhou Yan first demonstrated the erhu melody to Yang Qiang, and then explained to Yang Qiang how to play it. After Yang Qiang played it on the erhu, Zhou Yan played the corresponding bamboo flute passage.
The "confrontational" second section has a total of four sections. In each section, the erhu comes first, followed by the bamboo flute, and the emotion becomes stronger every section.
At the end of the fourth quarter, Zhou Yan added a fading bamboo flute song to connect with the original "The Street Where the Wind Lives".
After the second paragraph ended, Zhou Yan began to lead Yang Qiang to create the "mutual affection" of the first paragraph.
Compared with "resistance", "mutual affection" is more cheerful and tender.
The former is like a cry and accusation, while the latter is completely a whisper between lovers, full of tenderness and sweetness. (End of this chapter)