King of Capital

A 15-second video is played repeatedly on the classroom screen.

The clear water reflects the blue sky. Six girls in brightly colored clothes stand in a row and pose neatly. The long-range shot is 360 degrees around the portrait. The background music is electronic music with a brisk and simple repetitive rhythm.

The middle-aged female teacher was elegant. She turned off the video and asked, "Do you know where this video was shot, or have you seen it?"

"Chaka Salt Lake, the realm of the sky." A classmate sitting in the front row answered.

"Yes, Chaka Salt Lake is a natural landscape located on the Qinghai tourist loop in my country."

The female teacher supported the podium table with one hand and shared calmly: "I didn't know it before. I saw this video on WeChat Moments a few days ago. I instantly thought it was so beautiful and I really wanted to go and play."

"I had the urge to pack my bags and leave right away, but the next second I received the class schedule for this semester and had to put my packed bags down again."

She looked around the class as she told a self-deprecating joke and asked, "So how do you feel when you watch this video? I'm not the only one, am I?"

The classmates all agreed. Zhang Jingyi nodded her head and reiterated that the scenery was really beautiful and she wanted to go there for fun.

The middle-aged female teacher stopped there with satisfaction, and then went back to the main topic of the explanation. It was good to feel attracted, because this video was an advertisement.

The short video platform 'Tik Tok' spends millions of dollars every day on advertising in WeChat Moments, and the content used for promotion is naturally carefully selected.

One of her graduate school classmates happens to work on this platform. Although she cannot disclose the commercial secrets, she can roughly reveal that millions of new users download the Douyin APP every day by clicking on the promotional video on WeChat - Moments.

Putting aside commercial issues, as a student majoring in acting at a film and television academy, we can discuss the appeal of this video itself from a creative perspective, and why it can achieve such an exaggerated and traffic-generating effect.

Character costumes and scenes, body movements and camera spatial sense - in summary, it is the study of the body language of film performance.

The school has just started for a little over a month, and the courses are mainly fun. The middle-aged female teacher cites a lot of examples and makes the lecture entertaining, and the class ends quickly.

"I know many of you are heavy users of Tik Tok. Study my course carefully. Maybe one day I will be in a good mood and invite your favorite internet celebrity blogger to come to class to share."

"Emm, is this possible? Teacher, you are truly an enlightened sage!"

"In 1911, Italian Giotto Canudo said: Literature is art, and so is film. We have been riding on the popularity for a hundred years to get rid of the label of 'vulgar entertainment'. The short video industry will have its own Giotto Canudo. Of course, this person may never have the chance to appear, but we should not forget the way we came."

The middle-aged female teacher was packing up her course materials while chatting with a few students.

The abilities of teachers at top universities may vary, but the social resources they hold are the pinnacle that many outstanding students can ever access in their lives, and their perception of emerging things is only inferior to that of outstanding players on the front line of the market.

The data from three months ago showed that WeChat provided an average of one million daily traffic to Douyin.

The cooperation between the two parties began at the end of last year. At that time, the product was basically polished and began to invest money in promotion. Then the data soared and increased dramatically. During the summer vacation this year, the daily active users exceeded 1.5 million.

Tencent realized something was wrong after reflecting on it. In addition, it invested in Kuaishou at the beginning of the year, so it did not ban Douyin, which showed that it respected the most basic business reputation.

Zhang Jingyi went to the island to play during the summer vacation and heard Xie Jingxing and Zhang Yiming chatting on the phone. The two estimated that after the current traffic diversion and promotion contract period is completed, Douyin's data growth will most likely decline, and 2 million daily active users is a slowdown in the platform area.

In addition, they have already started thinking about commercialization, imitating Kuaishou's live broadcast function and opening up Taobao store link entrance...

Apart from advertising and selling traffic to third-party clients, which barely touches on the commercial monetization model of film art that the teacher mentioned, everything else seems to be heading towards e-commerce.

Live streaming e-commerce, Zhang Jingyi remembers Xie Jingxing using this term to define it.

I heard that one of the big bosses of her own company, Sister Pei Fei, has already laid out her own studio and has raised many internet celebrities. Zhao Mengche, a travel blogger who was very popular a few years ago but is now a little out of fashion, is a partner.

Zhang Jingyi was quite curious, but unfortunately Zhang Yiming came up with "Volcano Short Video" to directly compete with Kuaishou in the sinking market, and broke up with his old friend Su Hua.

Xie Jingxing was a little unhappy being caught in the middle. He was depressed for a long time after the phone call, so she didn't have the convenience to ask more questions.

"Xiao Zhang, you are very punctual. I will give you a cup of milk tea as a reward. It is on your desk." The roommate was sitting in front of the small desk and putting on makeup.

It was a hot autumn day, so Zhang Jingyi thanked him and closed the door of her dormitory to prevent the air conditioner from escaping.

I put my things away, washed my face with clean water and reapplied sunscreen. I looked in the mirror to see the condition of my skin which had been tanned from military training last month. After much trouble, I finally remembered milk tea.

“Wow, Heytea, it’s so hard to buy!”

She exclaimed in surprise, half genuinely, half fakely. There were drops of cold water on the surface of the transparent plastic cup on the table. There was a large cup of red fruit tea that looked like dragon fruit juice, with a difficult-to-pronounce name like Apple*Beet Beauty.

The roommate pouted and said, "It's a gift from someone else. It's hard to deal with."

"The senior in a suit from the School of Political Science and Law next door?" Zhang Jingyi wiped the water droplets with a tissue.

My roommate nodded vigorously: "You don't even know how he asked me to go to the school gate to get milk tea. It was like he was doing me a favor. I should be so touched that I fainted."

Heytea copied the brand route of Budu, which is expensive and cool and can be called a fashionable luxury item.

It was established two or three years ago and just came to Beijing two months ago to open two stores, one in Sanlitun and the other in Chaoyang Joy City.

The founder said that students have changing preferences, so he never runs a "student store". Not only did this not cause any disgust among college students, but they also eagerly crossed the city to queue up and pay.

What he said is very realistic. For example, Budu Milk Tea has remained the number one brand of high-end milk tea since it was made popular by the movie "Lost in Thailand" and the TV series "Go Where the Wind Is" starring Concubine Pei four years ago.

But this year, it has become a bit difficult to handle without realizing it, due to the explosion of milk tea brands. It is the same as Zhao Mengche’s career as an internet celebrity, he became famous too early.

There is no Budu milk tea store in Zhang Jingyi's hometown. Her high school classmates would even ask their parents to bring back a cup when they were on business trips to big cities and drink it at school.

Now that I’m in college, although my classmates are still used to and don’t like to drink, they are the most fashionable when drinking Heytea and Nayuki’s Tea.

"Xiao Zhang, why am I so unlucky?"

After putting on her makeup, my roommate continued to complain and threw the half-drunk cup of milk tea into the trash can.

It’s a long way from Sanlitun to school, and this milk tea tastes stronger than the strong overnight tea her grandmother likes to drink.

Zhang Jingyi is helpless. She also doesn't understand what's going on in the minds of many boys. They always harass her in a self-abuse way, and then feel deeply moved by their affection...

A cup of milk tea is just a cup of milk tea. No matter how hard it is to buy, it still only costs twenty yuan, which cannot carry the passionate admiration of young people.

On the contrary, a movie with a tailor-made script, which carries no sentiment at all, requires an investment of 7000 million yuan in real money.

"Are you sure you don't want to put on some light makeup?"

The roommate carefully checked the makeup again, and only reminded me when he was sure there was no problem: "I have asked the teacher for advice. The audition of the crew is not as strict as our art exam. You are allowed to wear makeup. The director will think that you value the role."

"It's okay, we'll try to get there earlier." Zhang Jingyi simply tied her long hair into a high ponytail and showed her face without any makeup.

Her roommate didn't care and held her hand and joked: "That's fine, anyway, our classmate Xiao Zhang is hard and beautiful, and her looks are super resistant to criticism!"

…………

At the end of September, Pentium successfully went public, and soon there were rumors that it would invest in and control a youth campus-themed movie.

It is currently in preparation, and the school teachers have connections to inquire about the specific details: the first project after the listing + novel IP adaptation + total investment of over 100 million + top male lead + the main creative team of the Golden Horse Award-winning movie "Soulmate".

Obviously, using the big model algorithms of those video platforms to predict, they all know that this drama will be a hit and it will be very easy to promote the actresses!

Anyone with any connections in the entire Beijing circle is trying their best to make connections these days. Although they can't even hope for the leading role, there are plenty of opportunities to play a supporting role with just a minor appearance or even a few minutes of screen time.

After all, it's impossible to find a famous old woman in her thirties to play a youth campus theme. Who can say that Xiao Zhang's plain makeup is not a strategy?

"How about it?"

The main creative team rented a hotel for interviews. The corridors were crowded with people. The roommate who had been hit hard by the enrollment two months ago was resistant to the good-looking men and women of the same age. He calmly protected the 'actor card' in his arms, which he had paid thousands of dollars for.

"It should be OK. Someone helped me rehearse the lines, so I performed two more scenes." Zhang Jingyi whispered. "No wonder you took so long in there."

My roommate immediately looked around and said excitedly, "It's my turn now. We'll talk later. I hope I get someone to help me with my lines!"

"come on."

Zhang Jingyi sent her blessings earnestly and watched her roommate walk into the audition room. She felt embarrassed by the attention from other people in the corridor.

He lowered his head to avoid sight, hesitating whether to leave first.

I stood there in a daze for a long time. I heard a noise in the distance and a group of people walked through the corridor towards the elevator.

"Xiao Zhang? Why did you come here by yourself?"

Lin Ning was reminded by his subordinates. He stopped and turned around, waving his hand: "Come here and say hello to Director Tsui Hark."

"Hello, Director Xu."

Zhang Jingyi moved closer, bowed and nodded, her face slightly red, feeling very embarrassed.

Lin Ning could not help but blame the child for being shy. Tsui Hark, who stood side by side with her and had a mustache and a wretched and weird look on his face, praised the girl for her good temperament.

The two big men in the center of the crowd were chatting and laughing. The former looked at Zhang Jingyi and said, "Come with us. Mr. Song has already arrived at the restaurant. Let's have dinner together."

"My classmates and I..."

"I'm going back to school. Xiao Zhang, you go ahead. Don't worry about me."

The roommate came out from nowhere and pressed down on Zhang Jingyi's shoulders with both hands to interrupt her. While speaking, he gave Lin Ning a bright smile, showing flattery, awe, and envy.

Just as it was going public, the top executives of the industry-leading company had a dinner with a famous director...It seems that the correct answer to the heroine of this youth campus-themed movie has been found.

Being able to become roommates is fate. Once you leave school, you can't force the opportunity.

Zhang Jingyi pursed her lips and looked back frequently. Her roommate kept a stiff smile and waved to her, telling her to go ahead. For some reason, her nose felt sour.

Lin Ning saw this and sighed secretly, he was still young and couldn’t handle this little gap, how could he become a big star.

Tsui Hark wanted to adapt and remake a movie version of The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The senior management of Xiaoma Pentium had just discussed the investment intention at a meeting. Xiao Zhou's agent was well-informed and went to find director Tsui to recommend himself, bypassing the company.

This old fellow became a spirit. At a glance, he determined that the perfect image of Xiaolongnu in his mind had broken through the dimensional wall and entered reality!

The crew said they were casting in parallel here today, but it was actually just a formality. Xiao Zhou is now trying to please Mr. Song in the restaurant. Regardless of whether Tsui Hark will be invested in the future, Xiao Zhang will be slow to act after this dinner.

Lin Ning just wanted to make a good relationship with him, so he didn't say anything in depth.

At this moment he had no time to think about anything else, as his vision was completely filled with the huge body of his old boss.

Wanda Cinema Line, it’s time for it to die!
…………

"Sister Lili, I'm here."

They arrived at the restaurant in silence. Zhang Jingyi's agent received the news and arrived there first.

Hou first thanked Lin Ning implicitly at the door, then pulled the precious girl he brought with him into a corner and whispered to her.

In just a few minutes, when I pushed the door and walked into the restaurant's private room, Xiao Zhang's temperament changed drastically and he greeted me lively.

"Big star, how do you feel about your first audition?" Song Anli joked with a smile while sitting at the head of the dining table.

Zhou Ye lay on the back of the chair, leaning against her shoulder in an intimate manner, with a cute and cheerful smile, showing no sign of her usual coldness. She also joined in the fun by saying that Teacher Zhang had a hard time in the audition.

Tsui Hark watched coldly as the pair of eyes rolled back and forth, and couldn't help but slap his thigh in regret.

Damn it, it’s too early to tell lies against your conscience just to attract investment!

Who the hell can tell which one is the Little Dragon Girl in the dream?

"Director Xu, what do you think of these two girls of mine?"

As the wine got a little tipsy, the atmosphere gradually became better, and Song Anli asked with a smile and interest.

Xu Ke pretended to be reserved and put down his chopsticks. He thought to himself, how many good sisters do you have? Why not show them all at once? His cerebellum was thinking quickly with his heels, and he smacked his lips and said, "Regret?"

"how to say?"

"I am old and have limited energy. If I were ten years younger, I would definitely tailor two female-led movies for each of them!"

"Mr. Xu is too modest. You are still in your prime and your skills are still sharp."

Lin Ning raised his glass and complimented him, saying that it was not too late to give our two potential new talents a chance to film a movie.

Song Anli suddenly excused herself and left the box, then turned and walked straight into the next room, blocking out the bursts of laughter.

She stared at the screen of her mobile phone, carefully reading the concise message, exhaled the smell of alcohol, smoothed the wrinkles on her skirt, and slowly walked around the wide screen that separated the living room.

"Did I tell you not to rush?"

Xie Jingxing put down the bowl and chopsticks in his hands. The soup of the plain noodles was bland with a little coriander floating on it. He slowly wiped his hands and took off his watch, then picked up the folder of film and television investment projects beside him: "Or do you not know what I've been busy with recently?"

"I know." Song Anli clenched her fists, her nervousness evident in her words.

Xie Jing Xing walked over to her and stood still: "Then explain to me where the Hong Kong funding for his co-investment in this film came from."

"I don't know, but it should be fine. Tsui Hark has always had a good reputation." Song Anli explained reluctantly.

"I always think that ordinary people tend to ignore changes in society that are closely related to their own lives because they don't stand high enough. Life is already hard enough, and the breadth of vision is naturally limited."

Xie Jing Xing paused for a moment, then changed the subject: "As for the depth of vision, it all depends on one's IQ."

“Even if a street beggar can make it to the top 1% of his profession, he will be well aware of the thunder and rain changes above his head.”

"What about you? Did I make your vision higher than your IQ? Zhou Ye and Zhang Jingyi can see Douyin and Pinduoduo, and see the opportunity to play a role in a play. Can't you see how many people have died during this period?"

He reached out and gently stroked Song Anli's face.

In order to seize the initiative and hunt down Wanda, once it went public, it came up with a plan to invest in five films, attempting to monopolize the theater chain's screening share with these films, thereby forcing Wanda Cinemas to give up the initiative during the acquisition transaction.

They are so desperate and ruthless that they even dare to co-invest in a project with Hong Kong capital of unknown origin.

It is true that birds of a feather flock together. We have become accustomed to the new tricks that the old dogs in the entertainment industry cannot play, and we can't even calculate the gains and losses.

"Today, a big boss said to me: Keeping the ignorant worry-free forever is the driving force for pessimists to move forward."

Xie Jing Xing pinched her cheek hard: "Go back, lead them to sing and dance as usual, don't bother me with this trivial matter anymore."

"Honey, I was wrong." Song Anli's eyes turned red.

"Then watch carefully and I will teach you again."

Xie Jingxing turned around and looked out the window at the deep night, with thousands of lights and silence.

The laughter next door became more cheerful. (End of this chapter)