Chapter 23: Follow the Rules

After this meal, the crew was officially disbanded, contracts terminated, and all debts—whether due or not—settled.

Once those students returned to school, the name "Principal" gradually spread through Beijing Film Academy.

While they were done, Fang Hong still had to keep working; he found a film studio called Lao Gu, paid them, and asked them to help edit the film.

Editing wasn't just handing over the footage and walking away—the footage was all stored on hard drives, kept under Fang Hong's control, available whenever needed.

It wasn't that he didn't trust others; it was caution.

This circle had many shady dealings; it was said a small team once finished shooting, handed the footage to a big company for post-production, and the footage vanished mid-process.

What could the small team do? They had to swallow their teeth and stay silent.

But after a while, those same footage files mysteriously reappeared—and were edited into a finished film and sold.

If Fang Hong ran into something like this, he'd be completely done for!

Fang Hong would definitely oversee the post-production himself, and he also brought Yu Xian along to observe how professionals edited films.

The Photography Department also studied editing—it was part of their curriculum—and color grading needed him too, since photography students were sensitive to tone.

For example, Lao Mouzi—his color grading was so beautiful!

As for Liu Tianxian, she had gone into the Hong Kong scene; A Chinese Ghost Story was about to start shooting, and she was busy promoting Love Notification!

She had just made a comeback, so there were many things to do; filming this drama had already taken up a long time for her.

But when she left, the book in her hand was Lost in Love 33 Days!

Since that man told her to read it, she'd read it!

Later, Fang Hong found Dong Dongdong through the school—he graduated from Beijing Film Academy's Sound Department and had provided music for over a hundred films and TV dramas.

Many famous ones, like Wolf Warrior, The Taoist Down the Mountain, Goodbye Mr. Loser, and In the Name of the People—all had their scores composed by him.

The song Where Has Time Gone was also his work.

He had a wife named Chen Xi, who was also an outstanding lyricist.

But at this point, the two were still dating!

His impressive resume was built later; right now, neither of them was that famous.

But their talent was undeniable!

Then again, Beijing Film Academy really was a cradle of talent—you could find professional film experts here.

"Those Years, the rain I missed."

"Those Years, the love I missed."

"I really want to hug you, hug the courage I missed!"

"."

In a music studio, Dong Dongdong awkwardly adjusted his glasses, staring blankly at this person screaming passionately in front of him, his body swaying to the melody.

Especially those restless little hands—he'd gesture wildly when singing loudly, completely absorbed.

No one knew what he'd been through, yet without any accompaniment, he could scream so heartbreakingly and move so energetically.

"Cough cough!"

Fang Hong stopped, his voice hoarse, and said: "Brother Dong, the lyrics are exactly like this, the melody is exactly like this—I'd like you to help compose and arrange it."

Dong Dongdong stared blankly, thinking: Are you sure your screaming was even in key?

It was too abstract—he felt this junior brother was just screaming randomly, with zero musical knowledge!

"You say this is the film's theme song—the film's done, can I see it?" He thought he should watch the film first before composing, to understand the story.

"Sure, and I need you to handle the score too."

Fang Hong himself knew his singing was terrible; he pulled out the script: "Here's the script—you can also find inspiration here."

"No problem!" Dong Dongdong agreed, then added: "But about the fee…"

"Fee's no issue—even though we're brothers, you still need to keep clear accounts."

Fang Hong spoke grandly, but he stressed the word "brothers" so heavily that Dong Dongdong felt embarrassed to ask for money.

Where did this brother come from? They weren't even from the same department—yet he called him "brother" so warmly.

But in Fang Hong's eyes, anyone with talent was a kindred spirit!

"Alright, I'll let you know once I'm done," Dong Dongdong said.

That meant payment would be settled after everything was finished—this was fine.

Making a film wasn't a one-person job; every aspect needed professionals. Luckily, there was some budget, and with sheer audacity, he'd managed to assemble the post-production team.

Now Fang Hong just needed to supervise, completing the film according to his narrative style.

He still slept only a few hours a day—besides overseeing post-production, he wrote scripts, documenting every high-grossing film and great movie he'd seen later, then registered them.

He also needed to register copyrights overseas!

He still had money for registration—the film's budget hadn't been fully spent, and he had some cash left.

Of course, registration had to be done under Yutu Company's name!

Individuals couldn't register—registration had to be under a company name!

Since Fang Hong's energy was limited, he didn't write everything at once; he paced himself—movies released in 2018, for example, he'd leave for later when he had time.

He was also too lazy to write art films—they didn't make money, so it was a waste of time.

Once financially free, then he'd think about art or not!

If you can't even afford food, talking about art is nonsense!

Besides that, he needed to draw—sketching good animations and characters, which was originally part of a director's professional skill.

Put it this way: directors are basically master painters!

Don't ask why Fang Hong remembered so much—he worked in this industry; years of immersion had made it second nature.

In the editing room, Fang Hong, Yu Xian, and the editor were discussing the sequence of scenes.

"Principal, come out for a moment!" Chen Zhixi walked in and called out.

She had picked up this way of addressing him from those students, and found it rather amusing.

Still, the fact that that group of students had accepted him as Principal also reflected, from another angle, Fang Hong's leadership ability — it really was quite strong!

Fang Hong gestured for the two of them to keep working, stepped out and pulled the door shut, and saw Wang Ran and Bao Jinjin, the young couple, outside.

He put on a look of surprise and said, "What brings you two here?"

"Principal, we have something to discuss with you!" Wang Ran said.

"Then let's find another place to talk — don't just stand here."

Fang Hong led them to a meeting room — this was the studio's meeting room.

Customers, after all, borrowing the meeting room was perfectly normal!

"You two came looking for me about something?"

In truth, Fang Hong had already guessed the purpose of their visit.

Wang Ran glanced at his girlfriend, then said, "Principal, are you planning to film 'Love Is Not Blind'?"

"I do have that idea, but I need your agreement too — after all, it's your novel, so the rights to decide lie with you," Fang Hong admitted.

This remark struck Chen Zhixi as quite surprising; she still remembered how Fang Hong had sweet-talked her back then, saying: as long as you succeed, who cares what method you used!

And now he was talking about rules, about copyright!

Some people need to be dealt with by the rules — that is for the sake of better development; some people don't need to be dealt with by the rules — that is because there will be no next encounter.

(End of chapter)