Chapter 8: The Film Crew

Next, Li Yang explained to Lin Nan why he suggested approaching the people at Shanghai Film Studio.

At the end of 2001, the various giants of the domestic film industry held a meeting, attending three separate symposiums organized by the Film Producers Association, the Development and Projection Association, and the Urban Cinema Development Association.

Originally, Shanghai Film Studio was full of confidence, wanting to overthrow China Film Group's monopoly on imported films in one fell swoop, and they were quite certain of success.

Whether it was the official media or the smaller outlets, everyone was optimistic that Shanghai Film Studio could knock the big brother off its pedestal or set up a new camp.

But in the end, no one knows what happened; China Film Group's position remained unshakable, while the momentum of Shanghai Film Studio was suppressed. A new entity, Huaxia Film, was established, and this new camp absorbed many giants, yet it still only had the right to distribute imported films, not the right to import them.

The right to import remained firmly in the hands of China Film Group.

The current situation is that Shanghai Film Studio believes China Film Group was behind it, and the two sides despise each other.

As the Film Academy is traditionally within the sphere of influence of China Film Group, if one were to go directly to Shanghai Film Studio to solicit investment, the success rate should be quite high.

This was Li Yang's analysis, but he still suggested that Lin Nan try China Film Group first; it didn't matter if he failed and was rejected, as that was the result he wanted.

Shanghai Film Studio would definitely be interested in competing with China Film Group, or even slapping them in the face.

After listening to Li Yang, Lin Nan realized that he was truly still young.

Lin Nan found an opening and dragged a teacher to arrange a meeting with a department head at China Film Group. Perhaps out of respect for the school teacher, the other party met with Lin Nan.

The rejection was a genuine one, and the reason was very legitimate: there were so many veteran directors and seniors asking for investment.

Since Lin Nan had no seniority, no film crew, and no track record, the group could not invest in him, and they suggested he study hard and take it slow.

Now Lin Nan was relieved; he could go see the people at Shanghai Film Studio with peace of mind.

Making this trip today was to avoid trouble in the future.

At a coffee shop, Lin Nan met the person from Shanghai Film Studio, a man in his thirties wearing glasses; Li Yang did not come.

"You are Lin Nan? Truly young and promising. I heard from Director Li that you were so certain he would win an award back then that you even invested 100,000," the other party said with a very friendly smile.

"Hello, Brother Li is too kind with his praise."

"Did you bring the script? Let me take a look first. I used to be at the Shanghai Film Studio myself."

"I brought it, here you go."

Lin Nan took a sip of coffee and watched the other party flip through the script.

Half an hour later, the man straightened his glasses and returned the script to Lin Nan.

"Director Li is the producer, and I've read the script; it's very good. I heard from Director Li that you were rejected by China Film Group?"

"Yes, their meaning was that there are many seniors waiting for investment, and they can't attend to newcomers for the time being," Lin Nan said very tactfully.

"That's how it is over there; seniority is always first. Shanghai Film Studio is a bit better. We can invest in this film, cover the remaining share you need, and help resolve the distribution issues as well."

Lin Nan paused for a moment, "What are the conditions?"

It was impossible for the other party to be this easy to talk to.

"We will invest 2.2 million and take a 55% share."

Lin Nan's heart tightened; as expected, it wasn't that simple. However, since the other party could solve the distribution problem, it didn't matter if they took an extra 10%.

"I heard you wrote the script. Are you interested in becoming a director in the future? Director Li Yang seemed to handle both directing and screenwriting for *Blind Shaft*."

At this moment, the man looked at Lin Nan and said this.

"Become a director? I haven't considered it yet, but since you've said so, I really do need to think about it."

Lin Nan meant this sincerely.

The meeting went very smoothly. Lin Nan needed to register a company or studio as soon as possible, so that the investment agreement could be signed in the name of the company or studio.

After Lin Nan returned, he began the process of setting up a company.

He rented a place near the school, and the studio had a location.

As for the registration matters, he found an agent, and the name was Lin Nan Film and Television Studio.

The time required for normal procedures could be resolved with money.

The legal representative of the studio was Lin Nan, and the finance person was also Lin Nan.

The signing went smoothly, and the payment was also smooth, but Shanghai Film Studio sent a dedicated person to keep an eye on things; clearly, they were still uneasy about Lin Nan being a newcomer, as it was, after all, millions of dollars.

When he arrived at school with the contract and proof of funds, the teachers were also taken aback.

This freshman kid had really secured the investment and raised four million.

The cinematography teacher had originally wanted to recommend a student surnamed Ning to Lin Nan, saying he had won an award at the Student Film Festival, but the reply received was that he was busy preparing to shoot a new film called *Incense*.

Lin Nan knew who it was now: Director Ning Hao. Although he was determined to shoot art-house films, it was comedy and commercial films that ultimately brought him success.

No matter, Lin Nan found a teacher from the directing department and asked him to help recommend a few seniors to assist him.

The plot of the film was already there, and finding a few seniors from the directing department was also to have them help check for omissions and fill in gaps. The positions of a few assistant directors should be able to attract students who hadn't graduated yet, and it was cheap.

And he himself could also learn a thing or two.

The directing teacher was of course willing to do this favor; not every directing student could start out as an assistant director on a film crew.

And an assistant director who actually did real work at that.

The general direction of the film was in Lin Nan's mind, and he had a clear idea of what results he wanted. As for the director's name, he could find someone to put in the assistant director credits later or just put his own name.

For cinematography, Lin Nan was hesitating between finding seniors at school or asking Shanghai Film Studio to find someone.

Once this thought was voiced, he was scolded by the cinematography teacher, who accused Lin Nan of looking down on the cinematography department.

Alright, in the end, the cinematography work was handled by a few seniors in their fourth year, who were said to have excellent grades in school.

The messy positions like lighting and script supervisor were all filled by people from the school.

Lin Nan sighed at how much easier it is to enjoy the shade when leaning against a big tree.

As for the equipment and machinery, Lin Nan could only rent them; China Film Group or Shanghai Film Studio—that was the question.

In the end, Li Yang suggested renting equipment from China Film Group, and the people from Shanghai Film Studio actually didn't object. It might have been because China Film Group was closer and the costs were lower; in any case, that was all Lin Nan could think of.

The film crew was more or less assembled, and finally, there were the actors.

He had thought this would be the easiest part, as he was from the acting department himself; finding a few people shouldn't be difficult.

But things went against his wishes; the candidate for the female lead he wanted wasn't at school, as she reportedly had other arrangements.

"Linzi, I've been hanging around you for so long, don't you have anything to say to me?"

Zhu Yawen had indeed been hanging around Lin Nan since the morning.

"Alright, alright, I know."

"So, is there a part for me?"

"Yes, yes, happy now? You play the doctor's assistant, helping the doctor deal with my confusion."

Lin Nan gave the role of Stan from the original film to Zhu Yawen, now called Zhu Wen.

And Lin Nan was the male lead, still using his original name in the film.

Time was tight, so he asked Zhou Yang to play the female lead, only to be met with a bit of sass: "Couldn't find your Miss Wang, so you finally thought of me, hmph."

"Just tell me if you're going to act or not," Lin Nan couldn't stand her sarcastic tone.

It was all Zhu Yawen's big mouth's fault.

"Act, why wouldn't I act?"

For the other assistant to Dr. Howard in the original film, Mary, Lin Nan found Jiang Yiyan; at this time, she wasn't that pretentious yet.

For some unimportant roles, Lin Nan found extras. Don't mention it, many of the extras were familiar faces, even if he couldn't name them.

By mid-March, the stumbling film crew had finally been assembled.

Three seniors from the directing department finally arrived, and Lin Nan told them to help with the work.

"*Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind* has officially started filming, everyone let's work hard."

"Work hard."

"Work hard."

The entire crew was almost entirely composed of people from the Film Academy, and the atmosphere was incredibly harmonious.

Zhou Yang lost her memory during an experiment by a psychiatrist, forgetting her long-time lover Lin Nan...

In fact, both the man and the woman were tired of the relationship and tired of the marriage, so they both voluntarily went to undergo brain surgery to forget each other...

"Junior Sister Zhou, stop breaking character with laughter."

Zhou Yang was rebuked by a senior from the directing department.

This was not the first time.

"I'm sorry, but whenever I see Lin Nan and think he's my husband, I want to laugh. I can't help it; we're always bickering and fighting in real life."

"Big sister, every time you break character, you're wasting everyone's time and money."

Only after becoming a producer did Lin Nan truly understand this feeling; he had truly cut into his own flesh and spent his own money.

A word from Lin Nan was much more effective. Following that, no major problems occurred.

Zhu Yawen's performance was excellent; he didn't embarrass his best friend Lin Nan, and almost every take was usable within one or two tries. It was effortless for a goofball to play a goofball.

That was how Lin Nan described Zhu Yawen; he was just like that in real life.

Jiang Yiyan was also working very hard; she was only a freshman at the time and not yet the pretentious Miss Jiang who would later rely on others.

Whether this film was good or not, it wasn't that bad. It was mainly due to its imaginative and whimsical plot and setting. At this time, most romance films in film and television still carried the visual style of serious dramas.

The sweet-pet plots and melodramatic plots of later generations had not yet appeared.

A different style was also one of the selling points of this film.

The filming went smoothly. Lin Nan's memories were being erased bit by bit. Recalling the beautiful times with his wife, he suddenly regretted it, but his memories were still fading little by little. For this, he had to try every possible way to preserve the last remnants of his memories.

The plot unfolded from there.

The surgery didn't seem very successful, as fragments of their past life often flashed through his mind.

The two kept wandering between reality and memory, and finally, through these fragments of memory, they gradually awakened.

It turns out that the past was not just mutual hatred, boredom, and misunderstanding; there were also many more beautiful memories worth savoring.

Referring to the original script, Lin Nan kept the open-ended conclusion; there was no reconciliation and no separation, and at the end of the film, Lin Nan and Zhou Yang strolled across a lawn...

"Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind has successfully wrapped filming!"

"Oh my, it's finally over."

Everyone was very excited; these past twenty days or so had been very fulfilling.

"Linzi, don't get too deep into character, okay? Big sister doesn't like your kind of low emotional intelligence," Zhou Yang said carelessly, starting to act up again.

Lin Nan retorted, "Thanks, I like ladies too."

"Hahaha, I told you not to ask for trouble, but you wouldn't listen," Zhu Yawen mocked from the side.

"Shut up."

What he got in return was a roar from Zhou Yang.