Choose a day to become famous

"Lin Suyang's position in the company is very similar to mine. I am only responsible for your business. To some extent, everyone knows that my work focus is no longer in the company, but on you. If you leave the company in the future, I will definitely leave with you."

He Heng said to Jiang Yuqian, "Lin Suyang is the same. Lin Suyang was in charge of the entire contract renewal negotiation between Li Zhibai and the company. Under normal circumstances, the agent will represent the company to negotiate the renewal conditions with the artist, but in the contract renewal negotiation between Li Zhibai, Lin Suyang represented Li Zhibai in the negotiation with the company. You should understand the significance of this."

"But, I remember that Lin Suyang still brought MX." Jiang Yuqian said, "MX is also one of the most popular boy bands in the company. Even if Ma Zhiyuan left, wouldn't the remaining few people still be very popular?"

"That's right, but when the company restructured, Lin Suyang and Zhou Pingan fought with the company for a long time. Although the company finally gave in and didn't ask MX to change an agent, it also assigned an agent to each of MX to be responsible for their personal schedules and work. In fact, to put it bluntly, it was to divide Lin Suyang's power. Lin Suyang also knew it, but there was nothing he could do." He Heng said, "So, Lin Suyang still manages MX in name, but I don't know how much control he still has."

Jiang Yuqian: "The company asked Xingyu to specialize in idol artists. Has it achieved any results yet?"

"The company is now preparing a variety show that will compete with 'Idol Era'. In addition to this show, it is also planning to produce a slow-life variety show." He Heng said, "It should be prepared to create five shows centered around idol artists to provide a continuous window of exposure for these idol artists of the company."

Jiang Yuqian: "Five shows? That's a big deal. I haven't seen them use such a big effort to promote their actors and singers."

"Actresses and singers can't monetize as quickly as idol artists," He Heng said. "Also, actors and singers are not as obedient as idol artists. If you have never managed a company, you may not understand the difference."

"I heard that when Zhou Ping'an was leading Lu Yanhe's team, except for Li Zhibai, no one else dared to raise any objections to his decisions. Even though at that time, besides Li Zhibai, there were other people who were also very popular. It seems that Cheng Hai was also very popular at that time."

"Yes, but idol artists are like this. No matter how popular they are, if they are not exposed, their popularity will quickly decline. They have almost no time to rest." He Heng said, "This is different from actors and singers. Idol artists are the type of artists with the strongest commodity attributes among all types of artists. They are too replicable."

Jiang Yuqian: "Hearing what you said, I feel lucky that I didn't do singing and dancing at that time."

He Heng: "Really smart idol artists should be like Li Zhibai and Yan Liang. Whether they are singers or actors, they should develop another path besides being idol artists to enhance their uniqueness. The stronger the uniqueness, the weaker the commodity attribute of being copied."

Jiang Yuqian asked, "Has Cheng Hai also been filming recently?"

"Yes, after he appeared on 'The Birth of the Actors', he won a lot of resources for film and television dramas." He Heng said, "He has a good image in itself. After he became popular, he naturally has no shortage of resources. As long as he doesn't force himself to be the protagonist, there will definitely be roles for him to play."

"Isn't he playing the leading role now?" Jiang Yuqian was a little surprised.

"Not yet." He Heng shook his head. "Except for the one play he starred in by Jump Up Theater, he didn't play the first role in other plays. Zhou Ping'an still cares about him very much. He didn't try to take his role away from him and offend people at this time."

People who really know the business know that at this stage of becoming a successful person, you should least offend anyone, even if you suffer a loss or get less profit. The key is to spread the network first so that everyone is willing to think of you and use you when there are projects.

Cheng Hai's biggest shortcoming at Star Entertainment/Woodpecker is that the company itself does not produce TV dramas, so he has to fight for acting resources from outside. The roles of all sizes in those TV dramas outside are definitely divided up internally before they flow out. Therefore, if Cheng Hai wants good resources, he really needs to manage his relationships well.

Another way is for Zhou Ping'an to use the resources of Yan Liang, Meng Li and others to help Cheng Hai with the exchange.

This depends on whether Zhou Ping'an is willing to do so, as well as the attitudes of Yan Liang and Meng Li themselves.

He Heng said: "In fact, if I were Cheng Hai's agent, I would let him sign a contract with Jump Up Theater at this stage and try to have him act in more Jump Up Theater plays."

"The overall quality and performance of the plays of Jump Up Theater are good, but they are too short. The attention and popularity they bring to the actors cannot last too long." Jiang Yuqian said, "Moreover, it seems that no one regards the plays of Jump Up Theater as normal works. So far, there has been no particularly classic and popular play of Jump Up Theater."

"Because this is a new model, it takes time for everyone to adapt to a new model." He Heng said, "You have to know that the average ratings of the dramas produced by Jump Up Theater are all above 0.6%, which is very exaggerated. Moreover, the average number of online broadcasts of their dramas is more than 8 million per episode. In fact, excluding the dramas produced by Jump Up Theater, there are no more than 30 dramas with an average number of more than 8 million per episode per year. Now Jump Up Theater has emerged as a dark horse and can produce more than 40 such dramas."

Jiang Yuqian nodded.

"I didn't say that Jump Up Theater is bad, I just said that it hasn't produced a show that has made a first-line actor." Jiang Yuqian said, "In fact, the most realistic indicator to measure whether a show is successful or not is to see whether its actors are promoted."

"That's true." He Heng nodded. "However, many new and unknown actors have been recognized by everyone through the plays of this theater. This year, many newcomers have emerged in the entertainment industry, and many of them started from Jump Theater. Take a look at the new play directed by Wang Yu not long ago, In the Alley. One of the heroines is Yu Yanling from The Intern. Before she starred in The Intern, she only performed on the stage of dramas."

"Anxiety." Jiang Yuqian smiled. "To be honest, every year so many talented actors are discovered. I also get anxious. I feel that my acting skills are just so-so and cannot compare to these people."

"You're overthinking it. Acting skills are one thing, and stardom and audience appeal are another." He Heng said, "I think the most amazing thing that Jump Up Theater has done is that it has made audiences who don't really pay attention to or appreciate acting start to notice some actors because of their acting skills, giving these actors more opportunities."

"The feedback for my previous play, Love Negotiation, seemed to be average?" Jiang Yuqian had also performed in a play by Jump Up Theater before.

He Heng said: "Not bad, the ratings reached 0.89%, and the online broadcast volume exceeded 25 million, ranking in the top five on Jump Up Theater."

Jiang Yuqian breathed a sigh of relief.

He Heng: "The Call is about to be released. I have communicated with Wang Jing's team. Now everyone likes to see two actresses appreciate each other. We have prepared some plans. You two can work hard to promote it when the time comes."

"Yeah." Jiang Yuqian nodded. "How's her team? They're not the kind that would stab you in the back, are they?"

"Not really. The screenwriter of this drama is Lu Yanhe, and her team doesn't dare to mess around." He Heng shook his head. "Since Wang Jing debuted, every important work has been related to Lu Yanhe. She is a smart girl, and she wouldn't mess around knowing your relationship with Lu Yanhe."

"That's fine. As long as she doesn't stab me in the back, we can be friends." Jiang Yuqian sighed again, "But, Sister Heng, I feel that my performance in "Telephone" is not as good as hers. What should I do?"

"Why do you think so? Your acting skills are not bad. It's not like I haven't seen your performance on the set of 'The Call'." He Heng shook his head helplessly, "You really don't have to always think that your acting skills are bad. Haven't you noticed? You are becoming less and less confident in your acting skills now."

Jiang Yuqian: "Because... I'm not as good at acting as others."

"Are you not as good as others in acting? Who made you think so? If you were really bad at acting, how did you get the role in The Golden Age? How did you get so many fans in Squid Game?" He Heng said, "Yuqian, you have made it to where you are today because you are unique. If you were not good enough in acting, you would not have been so popular for so long, and your dramas would not have been broadcast one after another."

Jiang Yuqian knew that what He Heng said was right, and she also knew why He Heng said that.

She also knew that she had fallen into a paranoid obsession.

She even knew that her lack of confidence came from her previous failed transformation and from the fact that even the scripts that Lu Yanhe found for her were mainly commercial scripts.

Whether in her own eyes or in the eyes of others, she is not an actor who relies mainly on acting skills.

"Forget it, it's okay." Jiang Yuqian shook her head. "Sister Heng, if my performance in "Telephone" doesn't satisfy the audience, that's normal. You should make relevant public relations plans."

"I want to act in a movie too. Do you think my acting skills are not good enough for a movie?"

That day, at the filming set of "Friends", Zhan Yun talked about her next plans.

"I have been acting in TV series in recent years, but don't people always say that the production standards of movies are higher? I also want to try acting," said Zhan Yun.

Bai Jin immediately pointed at Lu Yanhe, who was discussing the next scene with Bai Jingnian, and said, "If you want to act in a movie, just tell him and ask him to write a script for you."

"Why do you always have to look for Yan He? It's embarrassing to bother him all the time." Zhan Yun said, "I'll just go find the script myself."

Bai Jin asked: "But, are there any good movie scripts on the market now?"

"Most of the people who come to me are looking for urban romantic comedies or something like that." Zhan Yun shrugged. "What about you?"

"Me? No one wants me to act in a movie." Bai Jin shook his head. "Now the domestic film market is basically dominated by men's movies. Even movies with romantic themes are much less popular."

"Because movies with romantic themes don't sell well?" Zhan Yun thought for a moment and said, "Now that you mention it, it seems that the romantic scripts I receive are basically light comedies. There are no pure romantic movies."

"Maybe," Wen Minglan said, "I wanted to act in movies before, but the roles I could get were either the supporting female lead in a male drama, or a low-budget art film, or the common female roles in suspense and crime themes. There were very few types and it was very limited."

"Minglan, you and Yan He have the same agent, and you haven't asked him to help you write a script?"

"I—" Wen Minglan looked back at Lu Yanhe and said, "Not yet, but there should be one later."

"I really envy you." Bai Jin shook his head. "Of course, I envy myself too. I starred in Friends at a young age and have my own pension insurance."

After Bai Jin said this, Wen Minglan and Zhan Yun both laughed.

"Don't laugh, I'm telling you, maybe in ten or twenty years, your most famous masterpiece will be Friends." Bai Jin said with a smile, "Anyway, I have a positive attitude. I don't seek to be famous, I just hope to have movies to shoot and not get bored."

The three girls were chatting and laughing here. At this time, Yin Xincheng came over and saw them laughing one after another. He asked, "What are you talking about? You are laughing so happily."

Zhan Yun asked: "Yin Xincheng, have you ever thought about making a movie?"

"Of course I do. As an actor, who doesn't want to make a movie?" Yin Xincheng admitted frankly.

"Have you ever received a movie script?"

"Of course I have, but they were all very ordinary scripts that couldn't even get past my agent." Yin Xincheng said bluntly, "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"That's what we were talking about just now." Zhan Yun said, "It turns out that everyone wants to make a movie."

"But there are so few good movie scripts. Basically, no good scripts are sent to us." Yin Xincheng shrugged, "We are just actors in sitcoms."

"Has anyone ever said that to you in person?"

"You'll hear this kind of thing more or less." Yin Xincheng shrugged again, "Maybe you girls are better, anyway, I've heard people say this to me several times."

It is not uncommon to have a chain of contempt in the entertainment industry.

Even though Yin Xincheng is already very popular, he will still feel inferior to Ji Miao if he meets a movie star. It's not that Yin Xincheng is inferior or something, but the whole environment will remind him that he is just an actor who started out as a sitcom actor. He is far from being as high-profile as Ji Miao, who is not as popular as him but has a high-profile movie star.

Bai Jin: "I have met this kind of person before. He didn't say it directly, but his words implied that I was not a real actor. I took out my phone, turned on the video, and told him to say it again if he had the guts. I posted it on Weibo, and then he backed down."

"These people are so disgusting." Zhan Yun shared the same hatred. "If they have the ability, they can also act in sitcoms. They don't even know what they will look like."

"It's really infuriating," said Bai Jin.

Wen Minglan immediately said, "If we encounter this kind of situation again, we should fight back like Bai Jin did."

"In fact, in China, the status of sitcom actors is not very low." Wen Minglan added, "What kind of people could act in sitcoms before? Only those veteran actors with superb acting skills and polished in the theater could act in sitcoms. China is not like the United States, where actors are divided into different levels from the beginning."

"Minglan is right." Lu Yanhe's voice suddenly came out.

Everyone was startled and looked over, only to find that Lu Yanhe had ended his conversation with Bai Jingnian and came over.

"In Hollywood, movies developed earlier than TV series, and TV series made various distinctions. Later, for many reasons, there were deep-rooted class barriers between movie actors, theater actors, TV actors, and sitcom actors. This is not the case in our country. Whether it is movies or TV series, although everyone says that movies are higher than TV series, in fact, if you look at the Performing Arts Association and the official organization's recognition of first-level and second-level actors, TV actors have the same status as long as they have representative works."

Lu Yanhe said: "Our domestic sitcoms are not like those in the United States, where new works are continuously launched. They are specifically targeted at the needs of sitcoms. There is a group of people who specialize in sitcoms, who continue to write scripts and steadily produce sitcom talents. This is not the way it works in our country. Before "Friends" came out, there were no sitcoms in China for many years. All the actors who played sitcoms before were well-known actors."

In fact, the difference between the performing arts environments in China and the United States can be seen from sitcoms.

In China, the principle is that if you are a good enough actor, you can act in anything, movies, TV series, dramas... it's just that the stage you are on is different.

In the United States, there is a class barrier to distinguish between movie actors and TV actors. Of course, this also has a lot to do with the national conditions. In China, there are basically no actors who only act in movies.

In the past, China's film market was not that big and could not afford actors who only acted in movies. Zhang Yimou's actresses were also special products of the times. In fact, except for Gong Huang and Ms. Zhang (apart from "Shangyang Fu"), other actresses could not withstand the tide of the times and joined the TV drama industry.

Perhaps with the development of the domestic entertainment industry, the film market is large enough to accommodate some actors to build a golden body by "only acting in movies", but now, what movie actors are superior to TV actors -

Of course you can say that, and many people think so. However, from a practical point of view, compared with the United States, these so-called chains of contempt are not up to par.

Lu Yanhe himself is the kind of actor who hates this kind of contempt chain.

What movies are better than TV series? Now that the production standards of TV series have improved, who is better? It is not the case that the more sophisticated, the higher the artistic level. If this is the case, short story writers are the gods, why are the widely circulated masterpieces and classics still mainly novels?

Lu Yanhe himself has been practicing acting in movies and becoming a movie emperor, but he will never stop acting in TV series because of this.

Of course, due to the need to "expand territory", his schedule is very precious and he needs to reserve some time for overseas filming, so he will take fewer TV series. But in terms of absolute output, at least one "Friends" every year has made him more hardworking than most actors.

Yin Xincheng asked: "Yan He, if you were to make a movie, would you choose us as actors?"

"If the role is suitable, why not?" Lu Yanhe said, "It's just that I have worked with you too many times. We have to shoot "Friends" every year. Let alone the audience, my impression of you is focused on how you are in "Friends"."

He smiled and waved his hand.

"You can try to play characters with completely different looks and personalities from those in Friends, just like Yan Liang did." Lu Yanhe said, "Otherwise, it will be easier for me to stereotype you."

“We basically don’t come across characters like this,” Bai Jin said.

"Can't meet it?" Lu Yanhe said, "Don't just look for the main role. There are all kinds of supporting roles. So far, many directors have met me and said that they knew me because of the movie "Three Mountains". I just made a cameo appearance for one night, but in the director circle, this is the role that everyone is most familiar with me. However, it is indeed the most special role I have ever played. So far, I have never met such a weird role again."

Bai Jin seemed to be thinking about something.

"How about I find a fortune-teller to act for me?"

Lu Yanhe: "...I'm not asking you to focus on this type of role. What I mean is that as long as it's different from the roles in Friends, you can give it a try, just make a cameo appearance. Don't be afraid of playing a supporting role. Maybe a role will open up your Ren and Du meridians and find another track while you're acting."

-

In this season of "Friends", Lu Yanhe actually continued some of the content from the original second and third seasons.

Because it was shot entirely in a studio, there was no need to worry about paparazzi or photographers secretly filming.

When they were filming the third episode, everyone was just in the middle of shooting. After a scene was finished, Lu Yanhe suddenly heard Zhan Yun scream in surprise.

Lu Yanhe followed her gaze.

A tall, handsome man in a brown jacket holding a bouquet of flowers was standing a few meters away.

"He must be Yang Zhoujin, right?" Lu Yanhe heard Wen Minglan ask Bai Jin in a low voice.

"It seems so."

Zhan Yun’s rich second-generation boyfriend.

Zhan Yun jumped over happily and hugged Yang Zhoujin in front of everyone without any hesitation.

"Why are you here?!"

Yang Zhoujin was also hugging Zhan Yun, with a bright, handsome smile on his face, and his eyes were focused.

"I'm going to England with my mother this afternoon and won't be back for a few days, so I came to see you before I leave," said Yang Zhoujin.

Only then did Bai Jin tease half-jokingly.

"Zhan Yun, why don't you introduce yourself to us?"

Zhan Yun seemed to suddenly remember where this place was. Her cheeks blushed slightly. She came out of Yang Zhoujin's arms, took Yang Zhoujin's hand, and introduced it to everyone.

"Yang Zhoujin, my boyfriend."

Bai Jin immediately said "Oh~" in a teasing tone.

Wen Minglan also looked at the two of them with an ambiguous smile.

Yang Zhoujin nodded to them, and when his gaze shifted to Lu Yanhe, he became more serious.

He held Zhan Yun's hand and walked in front of Lu Yanhe.

"Mr. Lu, thank you for taking care of Xiaoyun."

"Oh, we are already very good friends, there is no question of whether I should take care of you or not." Lu Yanhe smiled slightly, "Just call me Yanhe, there is no boss here."

Zhan Yun patted Yang Zhoujin's chest gently.

"I've told you a long time ago that Yan He doesn't like people calling him Mr. Lu." She shook her head and made a helpless expression to Lu Yan He, "Believe me, I told him a long time ago, but he didn't believe it."

Lu Yanhe smiled.

Yang Zhoujin looked at Zhan Yun with a doting smile. After Zhan Yun finished speaking, he said to Lu Yanhe, "Okay, Yanhe, are you free at noon? If you have time, let's have lunch together?"

Lu Yanhe turned to look at Yan Liang and asked, "Are we going to review the script at noon?"

Yan Liang nodded, "I have something to modify here."

Lu Yanhe gave Yang Zhoujin a helpless and apologetic smile.

"We'll continue shooting in the afternoon and have to finish the script at noon." Lu Yanhe declined.

Yang Zhoujin nodded and said, "Then let's make an appointment next time if we have the chance."

"Okay." Lu Yanhe nodded. (End of this chapter)