The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 613 Scarce Resources

"Dad, don't!" Jing Tian burst into tears.

Beijing, Metro Line 2013, Pingguoyuan Station, the filming site of "Police Story ".

This is a deep tunnel with crisscrossing railroad tracks. The robber played by Liu Ye holds Jing Tian hostage with a dagger against her slender neck.

Cheng Long stood opposite, slowly raised the gun, pointed it at his temple, and said with tears in his eyes: "I am not a competent father. I don't have time to care about you. I made you feel insecure. I'm sorry."

"dad!"

Jing Tian ignored the dagger and struggled desperately.

Director Ding Sheng stood behind the camera, staring at Jing Tian's expression in the lens, and couldn't help frowning.

In this scene, the police officer played by Cheng Long had to draw her gun and commit suicide in order to rescue her daughter Guoguo under the coercion of the gangsters.

Before committing suicide, he expressed his long-term neglect and guilt towards his daughter.

Compared to Cheng Long's emotional expression, Jing Tian's performance is far inferior.

Although she cried at the top of her lungs and her face was distorted, she lacked appeal and it was difficult for people to resonate with her.

Ding Sheng sighed inwardly and almost shouted "Cut".

But then he thought about how he had already shot this scene countless times, so he finally waved his hand and said, "Go!"

Inside the venue, Cheng Long also breathed a sigh of relief.

He felt that he was in trouble. Jing Tian's acting skills were too immature. When he expressed his emotions, he got no feedback at all. But who could blame this girl for having a powerful background?

After Jing Tian finished this scene, she put on her down jacket and prepared to ask Cheng Long for advice.

At this time, her assistant brought a group of people, carrying hot tea, cakes and other snacks, and distributed them to the staff.

Cheng Long glanced at Jing Tian and felt that he was not really suitable for the film and television industry.

Although she has outstanding looks, her professional ability is not good. However, she has a good personality and a strong background. The signing company is willing to invest resources in her. She is given small favors every day and is quite popular in the crew.

"Brother!" Jing Tian handed over a cup of hot tea.

Cheng Long took it with a smile. Before she could thank him, she asked, "Brother, what were you thinking about when you were filming just now? The moment I looked at you, I really felt sad."

"I remembered Xiaoming. When he was little, I was busy filming and rarely accompanied him. I basically didn't pay much attention to him. Now that I think about it, I do feel guilty."

"So that's how it is." Jing Tian held the hot drink and took a sip. She had a bad impression of the "Dragon Prince".

"Prince Dragon" has been surrounded by scandals in recent years, with all kinds of gossip emerging one after another.

Because his father is Cheng Long, he is surrounded by numerous actresses and young models, such as Xue Kaiqi and Deng Jiajia who became famous because of "Love Apartment".
Not only that, during this period of time, Jing Tian's filter for Brother Cheng Long has also been shattered.

When promoting "Chinese Zodiac", Cheng Long solemnly announced in front of the media that this was the last action film of her career.

As a result, when he said this, he privately took on the role in "Police Story 2013".

I don’t know how to explain this behavior to the public when the promotion of "Police Story" starts. Should they say that they were "tricked" by the director?
In comparison, my senior brother is better. He is frank and honest. He means what he says and sticks to his words.

Her senior brother also praised her for her promising future, but when is that future? Although the company has arranged a series of movies for her, the roles that currently impress the audience are still those that she worked with her senior brother. It seems that Mr. Lu’s career plan for her is not very reliable, she thought with some melancholy.

"Ding ding ding!" Speak of the devil, the assistant came running over and said, "Sister, it's Teacher Lu's call."

"Yeah, Senior Brother?"

Jing Tian blinked, quickly took the phone, gave Cheng Long an apologetic smile, covered the receiver, walked out while answering the call, with a hint of surprise in her voice.

"Brother, how did you find time to call me? Congratulations on the box office of "New World" exceeding 13 billion!"

Cheng Long was stunned for a few seconds. Jing Tian's voice was not loud, but he still managed to catch the words "13 billion" and "New World", and judged that it should be a call from Lu Yuan.

For a moment, I thought of the competition between "Zodiac" and "New World", and my thoughts were flying.

Jing Tian congratulated her senior brother, and the person on the phone said, "Junior sister, there is a variety show, do you want to be on it?"

"Ah, variety show, what variety show?" Jing Tian was curious.

On the other end of the phone, Lu Yuan handed the phone to Lu Jing, and Lu Jing began to introduce himself.

Jing Tian listened patiently, and when the phone returned to Lu Yuan, she seemed a little hesitant: "Brother, Mr. Lu probably won't allow me to appear on variety shows. The route he set for me is to focus on the big screen."

Lu Yuan was silent for a few seconds, then asked, "So what do you think of the current effectiveness of the route he planned for you?"

Jing Tian fell silent.

The company really has nothing to say about her.

When he first debuted, he starred in the horror comedy "Anaconda", the romantic fashion film "My Beautiful Boss", and then "Warring States", "Time and Space Rescue", "Special Identity" and "Police Story 2013".
She has tried her hand at thrillers, fashion romances, costume films, time-travel films, action films, and more, covering almost all genres of movies.

The actors who acted with her became more and more famous.

Lu Yi, He Rundong, Sun Honglei who returned his film remuneration, and Zhen Zidan, who has now been upgraded to a "Dragon Girl" and plays a father and daughter with her eldest brother.

A few days ago, the box office of "New World" exceeded 10 billion, and the total box office of Lu Yuan's starring movies exceeded 40 billion.

Mr. Lu pulled her aside and said that everything that happened before was nothing.

He also said that he was recently in contact with Legendary Pictures' company established in China, Legendary East.

In the next few years, they will work together to create a global blockbuster, invite the national master Zhang Yimou to be the director, and then cast her senior brother Lu as the leading actress, to push her to the peak of her career.

She didn't know whether the news was true or not, nor did she know how much money she would need to spend to get her senior's consent.

This is also because most of the movies he takes on have big investments and big star lineups.

Therefore, there are many rumors about her such as "spending money to buy a role".

Many people look at her with tinted glasses, and there are more and more topics and criticisms about her on the Internet.

Some even went so far as to label her "box office poison".

Faced with these, she was angry and sad, but in the end she just worked hard silently, hoping to gain recognition from the audience.
Unfortunately it's of no use.

Lu Yuan continued, "I roughly understand your agent's plan for you, but in this circle, an actor's popularity is crucial. You are currently..."

Before he finished speaking, Jing Tian already understood what he meant. She knew that she was not very popular with the public.

"In fact, I know very well that you are different in real life than in front of the camera. You are carefree, straightforward, silly, and you don't hide anything in your heart. This kind of personality is actually very likable.

Today’s entertainment industry is no longer like the 1980s and 1990s, when actors were still covered with a veil. In the Internet age, the more down-to-earth and less floating an artist is, the easier it is for him to win the favor of passers-by.”

Jing Tian listened quietly and felt that every word of his senior brother's words was precious.

My senior brother also gave a similar reminder when we were filming "Warring States", and he used senior sister Liu Yifei as an example.

But at that time she was hoping for a lucky break and didn't listen.

Recalling the development trajectory in recent years, she no longer hesitated: "Brother, I understand. I will go talk to Mr. Lu now."

"Come on, I'll wait for your reply, the future is promising!"

"Well, the future is promising!"

Yuanfang Media, office, Lu Yuan ended the call.

The reason why he chose Jingtian was not just because of their alumni relationship.

Nowadays, artists in the industry are keen on creating various personalities, such as "foodie", "can't get fat", "student master", "good figure", "high emotional intelligence".
These are qualities that ordinary people aspire to have.

Stars are more likely to be remembered by the audience by reinforcing and packaging these characteristics, but the deliberately created image often lacks authenticity and credibility.

Any personality filter is ultimately just a filter, it is fake, and it is nothing more than a gorgeous coat for the artist, not real personal charm.

Variety shows are different from others.

Under the camera, the true appearance and personality of the stars in life will be shown without reservation.

The audience is sensitive and they can quickly detect the hypocrisy and affectation after watching just a few episodes.

Therefore, it is particularly important to find a female guest who has a likable personality, is genuine and unpretentious, is not pretentious, can be relaxed, speaks appropriately, and thinks before speaking.

"Brother, why don't you choose your sister-in-law?" Lu Jing asked.

Lu Yuan glanced at her and said, "She can even make herself laugh so hard during an interview, and you still expect her to appear on variety shows?
This variety show is too noisy and doesn’t suit her personality. What if she gets hurt?

Besides, variety shows will reduce the mystery of actors and affect the life of their performances. She should just focus on being an actor, shoot when there are roles to play, and take a break when there are no roles to play."

The injury is the main point. Lu Jing muttered: "I see my sister-in-law is quite interested in "Two Days and One Night". She even asked me when this travel variety show will be filmed."

"Really?" Lu Yuan raised his eyebrows: "Then we'll talk about it later and let her make her own decision."

"Oh, men, once they mention their sister-in-law, they become unprincipled!" Lu Jing whispered with contempt.

"What are you mumbling about?"

"nothing!"

"By the way, when are you going to find a boyfriend?" Lu Yuan urged on behalf of his second uncle.

"Ahhh, I can't hear you, brother, I'm deaf." Lu Jing covered his ears, his face full of horror.

"Okay, let's wait for Jing Tian to call back." Lu Yuan rolled his eyes, then walked out the door and returned to his office.

Not long after he sat down, Wu Lang knocked on the door and came in. He placed a small stack of documents on the table and said respectfully, "Boss, these are the scripts that various companies have sent us recently."

"So little?" Lu Yuan simply flipped it twice.

Wu Lang smiled and explained: "Now everyone in the industry knows that you have extremely high requirements for the quality of the script. In addition, your current salary is simply sky-high. How can ordinary crews dare to hand over scripts easily?"

Lu Yuan’s movie box office has now exceeded 40 billion, making him the undisputed number one in the country.

It is a scarce resource.

Whether it is the big screen or the small screen, his salary is eye-poppingly high.

Lu Yuan picked up the script on top and took a glance at it. It was the script for the TV series, "Red Sorghum".

Wu Lang immediately introduced: "This script was handed to me by Director Zheng Xiaolong. It's a period drama. The female lead will be cast next week."

"Mr. Zhou?" Lu Yuan paused and asked in surprise, "Hasn't she been making movies for the past ten years? Why is she now involved in TV dramas?"

"Boss, it's for money!"

Wu Lang explained with a look of disdain on his face, "They used to be big movie stars and couldn't lower themselves to make TV series, but now the TV series market is good, and the pay of the top actors has risen again over the past year.

Boss, your current package price for a TV series is 5000 million per episode, the highest in the industry, but there is no demand for it.

Many actors who originally only made movies are now ready to make the move. For example, Zhou Xun works very hard making movies, but only gets paid around 600 million yuan for one movie.

But she took the role in "Red Sorghum" and was paid 3000 million yuan, which was much more cost-effective than making a movie. Her status was nothing compared to a salary of tens of millions. Even a fool would know how to make the choice.

Not only her, but also Fan Binbin, Liu Ye, Zhang Hanyu, including Chow Yun-fat, Andy Lau, and many movie stars from Hong Kong are returning to the entertainment industry this year.”

Wu Lang has been following Lu Yuan since 06, working his way up from the bottom step by step.

We have the most intuitive and profound understanding of the exaggerated growth trajectory of TV drama industry pay.

Since TV stations only recognize "celebrity faces", the growth rate of TV actors' pay has always been far ahead of that of the film industry.

In 2008, Li Youbin's pay for a single episode exceeded 15 yuan, which shocked the industry.

2010 was the year when the surge in film pay was most obvious.

Chen Daomin received 30 million yuan for filming 790 episodes of "Cell Phone", and Lu Yuan received 1500 million yuan for one episode of "Startling by Each Step".

By 2011, TV actors' pay had once again seen a collective surge, with superstars making 40 to 60 per episode, and Lu Yuan aiming for over 2000 million.

By 2013, offers of nearly a million per episode had begun to appear.

Compared with the booming TV drama industry, the film industry pales in comparison.

Take Zhou Xun as an example. Although she is the only actress in mainland China to have won three major awards, her film pay has always remained between 500 million and 600 million.

However, in 2011, not to mention Lu Yuan, even top TV stars like Hai Qing and Zhang Jiayi easily earned over million yuan in pay for a TV series.

This shows the pay gap between TV drama stars and movie industry big names.

Under the temptation of huge pay, the high profile of movie stars began to crumble.

Therefore, the phenomenon of big names in the film industry "returning" this year is not surprising, and it is foreseeable that this trend will continue.

Wu Lang even made a bold prediction.

Zhang Ziyi, who currently has the highest film salary among actresses, is also very likely to join the filming of a TV series one day in the future.

After all, who is more noble, a movie actor or a TV actor? It’s all about earning that pay!

Lu Yuan put down the script in his hand and sighed: "In two years, the pay for TV dramas will probably exceed 100 million yuan."

"With the current upward trend, it is entirely possible."

Wu Lang finished speaking and proudly said: "Boss, if nothing unexpected happens, you will be the first actor in the domestic TV drama market to receive over 100 million yuan in salary."

Lu Yuan waved his hand. He is not only an actor, but also the helmsman of PPS and Yuanfang Media.

The surge in film pay is inevitably accompanied by turbulence and change in the industry.

“How much is the investment for this play?”

"1.5 million, but Director Zheng Xiaolong said that if you are willing to act, the investors will add 5000 million to the investment, and the total scale will reach 2 million."

Lu Yuan did not give an immediate answer, but continued to look through the script.

Half an hour later, he rubbed his eyes and said, "After Yawen officially signs the contract, give him this script. I've read it and the role is quite suitable for him. Let him talk to Director Zheng Xiaolong himself. This play will be a welcome gift from the company to him."

Wu Lang was stunned for a moment, then nodded.

Lu Yuan flipped through the remaining scripts. Except for Red Sorghum, they were all movie scripts, but none of them were outstanding.

There are a few art films that look good. I'll give them to Ning Hao for reference tomorrow.

After Wu Lang went out, he took out a copy of the company's own script, "Burning Sun", from the drawer.

His personal work arrangements in 2013.

Two TV series tailor-made for PPS, "My Love from the Star" and "Cliff".

The realistic crime film "Burning Sun" and a possible public welfare film.

After achieving a box office record of 40 billion, no one would question his box office appeal.

Next he has to try and see if he has a chance to win the triple gold grand slam!
(End of this chapter)