“But a TV series needs some big stars to hold the fort, right!” Chen Li said. “These big stars aren’t like those easily fooled old artists; they only see money. If you don’t give them enough money, they won’t agree to star in our series! And if a TV series doesn’t have these big stars, then…”
“I’m very curious, who gave you the illusion that a TV series can only be popular and sell for a good price with big stars?” Huang He interrupted Chen Li and asked directly. xxs壹贰
“This… this… everyone in the industry thinks so… it’s not my personal illusion,” Chen Li defended herself.
“Alright, let me take the three most popular TV series in our country as an example. The TV series with the highest ratings currently should be ‘My Fair Princess,’ right? Among its main actors, Zhao Wei, Lin Xinru, Zhou Jie, and Su Youpeng, who could be called a big star before this TV series was filmed?”
“Su Youpeng, perhaps…” Chen Li opened her mouth.
“Mm, Su Youpeng at that time had already passed the peak of the Little Tigers team. He was only considered moderately popular at best. As for Lin Xinru, she debuted in Taiwan acting in adult films. Zhao Wei had just graduated from school, and Zhou Jie was a name no one had even heard of.”
“With just these four people, they produced the hottest TV series in the country so far.”
“Then there’s ‘Meteor Garden’ released two years ago. Those F4, good heavens, before filming the TV series, these were four men who had never been involved in the film and television industry and were working as waiters in restaurants. It was them who produced a TV series like ‘Meteor Garden’!”
“Of course, you could say these two were popular by luck. Then, those who gained popularity through strength are epics like ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ and ‘Journey to the West’.”
“But the protagonist of ‘Journey to the West,’ Lu Xing, had no prior experience in TV series before filming it.”
“The actors in ‘Romance of the Three Kingdoms’ were all professional actors, but besides Prime Minister Zhuge Liang, none of them could be called big stars before filming, right?”
“So, may I ask, among all the currently popular TV series, how many in our country have invited big stars?”
Huang He’s questioning left Chen Li completely speechless. Indeed, none of these TV series became popular by relying on big stars. If you asked Chen Li to think of one, she couldn’t think of any that became popular because of stars.
“Let me tell you, for a TV series to be popular, it never depends on so-called stars, but on the quality of the script, the camerawork, the director’s vision, and the actors’ performances. None of these have anything to do with the term ‘big star.’ An excellent TV series must be polished by an excellent team with the most serious and rigorous attitude.”
“As for the current popular idea in the industry of inviting big stars to film TV series, there are mainly two reasons. One is that TV stations are too stupid. Before buying a TV series, it’s difficult for them to judge whether it will be popular, so they look at whether the actors are popular or if there are big stars.
This leads all production teams to scramble to invite so-called big stars to participate, which is the stupidest thing.”
“Another reason is the influence of movies on TV series. Movies are different from TV series. Movies indeed rely on big stars. If a movie doesn’t have top-tier quality, then inviting top-tier big stars can indeed make a profit, and it is indeed a guarantee of box office.
“Why is that? Because there’s no going back with movies. You buy a movie ticket because you like a big star, then you go in and watch a movie. Even if you find the movie terrible and disgusting, the movie ticket is already bought, the money is spent, the movie is over, and you’ve become part of the box office.”
Well, Huang He’s words were correct in 2002, but in 2020, it’s not the case. Due to the development of social media, everyone can comment on movies on the media. Therefore, movies can only achieve high box office in the first few days relying on cast and marketing. After a few days, various comments ferment online, and people will know what kind of product it is, and they will lose interest in watching it.
“But TV series are different. TV series are broadcast daily. You might watch the first and second episodes because of a big star, but if you find the TV series to be trash during the viewing process, even if your favorite star is in it, you won’t have the interest to chase such a TV series every day because it’s really not good and can be considered torture.”
“So, in conclusion, I am now establishing a rule for Tangren. When Tangren films TV series, we will select the best directors, the best screenwriters, the best cinematographers, and even the best production teams, but we will absolutely not choose the most popular stars. We will only choose the best actors!” Huang He’s words deeply shocked Li Guoli and Chen Li, who were both filmmakers.
That’s right, they were indeed shocked. Although they knew that it was popular in the industry to invite big stars to film TV series, they had never thought about the reasons behind it. It was only when Huang He made it all clear that they suddenly understood.
At this moment, they suddenly understood what it meant to learn from everyone.
“Director Li, I’d like to ask, have our company’s directors and big stars left, but are the crew members still here?” Huang He asked.
“Yes, they are all still here!” Li Guoli nodded. Although the profit-sharing reform greatly reduced the income of directors and actors, the income of crew members did not decrease much, as they were all on fixed salaries.
Moreover, because all crew members now have the opportunity to share in the profits, as long as they film a TV series conscientiously, they have a chance to earn more money. Therefore, none of these crew members have left; they all want to stay with the company.
“Very good, this is our core strength. What we need to do now is to cultivate the strongest screenwriters, the strongest cinematographers, the strongest costume designers, and so on. These are the keys to a good TV series. Everything else is easy!” Huang He smiled.
“But we still need actors and directors!” Chen Li said.
“That’s simple!” Huang He smiled. “I’ve already thought of it. Tomorrow, we’ll go to the Shanghai Theatre Academy together and pick out those who are still studying. We’ll select the first-class, morally excellent, hardworking, and commendable young talents and sign them with our company.”
“These people are still studying in school, and their future is completely unknown. Now that an acting company is willing to approach them, they will definitely not refuse. Moreover, we can offer them a generous signing bonus!”
“So, their future income will depend on our triple profit-sharing system, but the signing bonus should be a bit higher. After all, for newcomers, a signing bonus of two to three hundred thousand yuan is already quite generous, and they can’t refuse it!”
“By the way, what’s the longest contract we can sign?”
“According to legal regulations, the longest contract can be 20 years, but in the industry, it’s usually 3-5 years, so both the company and the actors have the freedom to choose,” Chen Li said.
“No matter what, we’ll sign them for ten years! These newcomers have no choice, they will definitely agree,” Huang He said with a smile. “After signing them, don’t rush to let them start filming right away. We need to cultivate them patiently. Even if it means letting them learn needlework for a year for a TV series, or even learning appliance repair, practicing martial arts, or sending them to the army to serve for a year, it’s all possible!”
“Remember, the actors we select are to serve our TV series, not for the TV series to serve the actors. You must understand this.”
“To put it bluntly, actors are tools for acting. Never give them the title of star. We at Tangren do not cultivate stars!” Huang He said indifferently.
“In that case, after their ten years are up, they’ll probably all run away!” Chen Li said with a wry smile. “We’ll have trained talents for other companies.”
“It doesn’t matter. After ten years, Tangren should have become the top film and television company in the country, and whether they are willing to leave or not is another matter. Even if they do leave, it doesn’t matter to us, because our company does not rely on stars, but only on actors. We can discover more excellent actors from various academies at that time.”
“Then we will form a continuous, self-sustaining mechanism, and we won’t be afraid of so-called stars leaving!” Huang He said confidently. He and Li Guoli exchanged glances. Although they felt Huang He’s words were not entirely reliable, they had at least solved the problem of actors for TV series production.
“Then Boss, I’ll go get all the scripts that have been submitted to us recently for you to review, and see if we can pick out a few qualified TV series!” Li Guoli said.
“Okay!” Huang He nodded. Li Guoli quickly came back with a large stack of scripts, and Huang He began to read them… Some of these were scripts Huang He had seen in his previous life and had already been filmed, while others were ones he had never seen before, and he didn’t know if they were good or bad, so Huang He read slowly.
“First one!” Huang He tapped the table and took out the first script. Li Guoli took a closer look and saw it was an adapted script called ‘The Qin Empire’.
“Second!” Soon, Huang He took out another script, which turned out to be the script for ‘Lotus Lantern’.
“Third!” Another one, this was a script called ‘Mojin Xiaowei’. Huang He was startled when he saw it, thinking that ‘Ghost Blows Out the Light’ had appeared early. Upon closer inspection, although it was also about tomb raiding, it was completely different from ‘Ghost Blows Out the Light’. It was a different story, and he didn’t know which genius screenwriter had written it. However, in another world, it had never been well-received, so it had never been made into a TV series.
Huang He didn’t know how this story was, but it was perfectly fine to try it out.
“And this one!” Huang He selected the fourth script, ‘Detective Di Renjie’, and then confirmed the fifth script, ‘Home With Kids’.
“There’s even a sitcom!” Li Guoli was surprised. He didn’t expect Huang He to choose a sitcom, and it was a children’s sitcom!
“Children are our future, so we must attach importance to them!” Huang He smiled. By this time, he had almost finished selecting the scripts, and a few remained at the very bottom.
“There are no more good scripts!” Huang He sighed, then absentmindedly looked at the last few scripts in his hand. However, when he saw the name of the script at the very bottom, his eyes widened.
Actually, this was not a script, but a novel.
“Sorry, I mixed them up?” Li Guoli peeked over and then explained, “Oh, this is a novel, not a script yet. It hasn’t been adapted into a script. A friend gave it to me and insisted that I read it and try to adapt it into a TV series. I hadn’t had time to read it, so I just put it in!”
Li Guoli smiled, “Boss, you can read the novel first!”
“No need!” Huang He shook his head. “No need to read it. You go find the author of this book. We’ve decided to film this script… Also, the lead actor for this TV series must be Li Youbin, and its priority must be raised. We will start filming it by the end of this year, and it will premiere next year. There’s no room for negotiation!”
This novel was called ‘Liang Jian’ (Conquest).
[PS: I’ve been updating with extra chapters for six consecutive days. I’m very tired. I’ll rest on Saturday and Sunday, with two updates per day. I’ll start updating with extra chapters again on Monday. Thank you for your support!]