Chinese Entertainment: Academic Director

Chapter 515 Ups and Downs
The total duration of the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony, including the red carpet event, is generally kept within 4 to 5 hours.

This year's Golden Rooster Awards marks its first appearance after its formal restructuring, so the organizing committee invited many well-known actors and stars from the film and television industry.

In the past, not everyone who was invited would attend; many would decline due to scheduling conflicts or other reasons.

However, this time, no one who received an invitation refused.

Therefore, this year's red carpet event was not kept to around an hour and a half, but instead stretched to more than two hours.

Apart from the red carpet, the core duration of the awards ceremony will be controlled between 2 and 2.5 hours.

Generally, the total time for award presentations and acceptance speeches is about one and a half hours, with the remaining time for guest performances of about half an hour.

Sometimes, there is also a large-scale opening performance, followed by a tribute segment.

Cao Yang's reforms mainly restricted the participating films and judges; other aspects remained largely unchanged.

Red carpet, awards ceremony, and acceptance speeches are all necessary and essential parts of film festivals worldwide.

Many film festivals have opening performances and guest performances, and the Oscars also have a guest performance segment.

As for the tribute segment, it's not held at every festival, but it's present at almost every film festival.

Therefore, these are not areas that need reform, nor is it necessary to change them.

The most important thing about a film festival is still the films themselves, and the preferences of the judges.

At this film festival, Cao Yang only oversaw important aspects such as the films and the jury; he did not interfere in other aspects.

Therefore, Cao Yang did not participate in the selection of guest performers.

However, there was a problem with this year's performing guests.

"Let me tell you something interesting."

The awards ceremony has just begun, and now we have a large-scale opening dance performance.

Because the venue was the city of heroes, this large-scale song and dance program was called "Tengwang Pavilion: Grand Feast".

After the opening performance, Cao Yang will give a short speech. He is currently waiting backstage, and Hou Yuan is sitting next to him, smiling as he speaks.

Hou Yuan also holds a position at the Golden Rooster Film Festival. Cao Yang entrusted him with many matters related to the Golden Rooster Awards, including this year's awards ceremony, where he played a role similar to the chief planner.

His official position is advisor to the Golden Rooster Film Festival.

"You should know that the total performance time of this guest is 45 minutes, right?"

"Yes, the organizing committee showed it to me. Wasn't it because this year is more important that they invited more performers, which caused the show to take longer?"

Cao Yang had seen the list of performing guests, and they were either the most popular or very famous veteran singers, all of them heavyweights.

"This 45-minute song is already compressed; if it were a normal song, it would easily take more than an hour."

Hou Yuan said with a smile, "You may not know this, but initially only four groups of guests confirmed to accept the invitation. Including Deng Chao's opening song and dance, the remaining three groups are Li Wen, Mao Amin and Chen Chusheng, and Dai Yuqiang and Chen Sisi."

Given that only these four groups of guests accepted the invitation, the initial total performance time was only 30 minutes.

"How did it become 45 minutes?"

Cao Yang asked.

"The organizing committee initially invited some of the most influential people in the music industry, and these people were also related to the film festival."

For example, Li Ming, whose starring role in "Mei Lanfang" is one of the most popular films at this film festival.

For example, Nicholas Tse, who starred in "Bodyguards and Assassins," which will be released during the Lunar New Year season, came to the film festival to promote the movie.

For example, Xiao Shenyang is currently one of the most popular celebrities in mainland China. His starring film "A Simple Noodle Story" was released during the Lunar New Year holiday, and he also came to the film festival to promote the film.

There were two others in similar situations, but they both declined to be guest performers.

"Refused?"

Cao Yang thought for a moment, and realized that there seemed to be a few guest performers.

"It is said that Li Ming and Xie Tingfeng's management companies were unwilling to let their artists waste time because the Golden Rooster Awards had too little influence and the appearance fees were too low."

The situation is similar for Xiao Shenyang. I heard he's constantly busy with commercial performances, his schedule is already full. If he accepts the Golden Rooster Award invitation, he'll definitely have to clear a lot of time for it.

Hou Yuan explained with a smile.

Cao Yang nodded, indicating his understanding.

The Golden Rooster Awards are of a very high standard, but they are essentially a non-commercial professional award activity.

The main budget is used to ensure the fairness of the awards, as well as the production quality of the ceremony and the reception of guests, rather than to pay high artist performance fees as in a purely commercial gala.

Hong Kong is quite commercialized. Lai Ming and Tse Ting-fung, one one of the Four Heavenly Kings and the other a rising star whose popularity is not much lower than that of the Four Heavenly Kings, have two of the highest appearance fees in Hong Kong.

It's normal for talent agencies to look down on the meager, symbolic appearance fees offered by film festivals.

In addition, at that time, Hong Kong still looked down on the mainland to some extent. If it was something like the Hong Kong Film Awards, they would definitely participate actively, and the few performance spots at the Hong Kong Film Awards every year were highly sought after.

But as for the performing guests at the Golden Rooster Awards in mainland China...

To be honest, given the Golden Rooster Awards' past positioning and influence, they really don't think much of it.

Xiao Shenyang became incredibly popular after his appearance on the Spring Festival Gala, and this year he's been on fire with a constant stream of invitations and commercial performances. His schedule is packed, making it his best and easiest year to monetize his fame... It's too cliché to say this, but he really is very busy.

Cao Yang understood and did not have any special requirements regarding the selection of performers for the Golden Rooster Awards ceremony.

This is a very simple reason.

Because of its previous positioning, the Golden Rooster Awards have had limited influence, so it's quite normal that those big-name singers don't care about it.

If the Golden Rooster Awards have a huge influence, a large audience, many high-end sponsors, and are broadcast live by CCTV, then the performance slots become highly sought-after.

“I see on the program that they seem to be among the performing guests.”

Cao Yang asked, somewhat puzzled.

Old Hou smiled.

"You rarely personally handle matters related to the film festival, so many people don't know much about it, especially those in Hong Kong and Taiwan. They probably don't know that you are the director of the organizing committee."

When their agencies learned that you had officially become the director of the organizing committee and that you attached great importance to this year's Golden Rooster Awards, they all contacted the organizing committee again and agreed.

Cao Yang nodded without saying anything.

He knew that this was probably only one of the reasons.

Among the performing guests, there are two pure singers who are not involved in the film and television industry. The reason why these two agreed to participate is most likely because they know that he is the vice chairman of the Federation of Literary and Art Circles, and his influence is not limited to the film and television industry.

He also oversees the Chinese Musicians Association.

……

The seating arrangement for this year's Golden Rooster Awards has also been adjusted, abandoning the previous row seating format and adopting a format used by many film festivals, where the film crew is treated as a whole and the crew members sit together.

The more film crews that receive nominations at film festivals, and the more important awards they are nominated for, the closer their seats are to the front.

in the country, "seat" is a very delicate matter.

Many events are ranked according to the star power and influence of the participants.

The same goes for domestic award ceremonies.

The higher the status, the closer the position; this is almost a fixed understanding.

And those popular young actresses and actors are also positioned very high up.

This often leads to situations where people resort to underhanded tactics, even fighting, and using all sorts of underhanded methods to compete for a seat during events.

Not only are there teams operating covertly, but there are also many openly engaging in shady practices. The most famous one, Cao Yang recalls, was at the 2018 Weibo Night awards ceremony.

A Taiwanese actor came to the mainland to develop his career, but he couldn't speak Mandarin well. However, he marketed himself as a "very hardworking" young man, and his team openly engaged in some underhanded tactics.

At the time, the groom's senior executives were seated in the very center of the first row. After all, it was the groom's Weibo Night awards ceremony, so it was perfectly reasonable for the organizer's senior executives to sit in the very center.

He was flanked by Zhang Yimou and Jiang Wen, which wasn't a problem, given their respective positions.

Next to Zhang Yimou is his wife Chen Ting, and next to Jiang Wen is his wife Zhou Yun. When people bring their families to an event, they certainly can't separate the couples.

Next to Zhou Yun is Liu Jialing, a top actress who starred in the movies "Detective Dee" and "Asura," both of which were featured at the Weibo Night event. She has no problem sitting in the front row.

Xu Ke, sitting next to Liu Jialing, certainly wouldn't have any problem sitting in the front row given her status and position.

The problem lies with Jiang Wen's wife, Zhou Yun.

According to the correspondence, Zhou Yun is next to Liu Jialing, so a big flower should definitely be arranged next to her.

Among the big stars who attended that night were Slim Bing and Xu Qing.

Slim Bing is, after all, a movie star who spent a short time in Hollywood. The movie she brought to the Weibo Night event was "The Meg".

This movie can also be considered a Hollywood film, starring action stars Jason Statham and Slim.

In terms of star power, Slim Bing is higher than Xu Qing, and even higher than Liu Jialing. There's definitely no problem for her to sit next to Zhou Yun.

Xu Qing's seat was indeed arranged next to this one.

The problem lies here.

That young Taiwanese actor who couldn't even speak Mandarin properly... well, he's more like a middle-aged actor now. His team arrived early, and his nameplate appeared next to Zhou Yun in the first row.

Slimming's nameplate appears in the second row.

Her nameplate reads Liao Fan on the left and Feng Shaofeng on the right...

Anyone with a discerning eye could tell at a glance whose nameplate it belonged to. The middle-aged man, who couldn't even speak proper Mandarin, vehemently denied ever swapping the nameplate.

If there really was no problem with the nameplate, Fei Bing wouldn't have stayed out of the entire Weibo Night event and even stood in the back row for several hours because of this.

Such blatant and underhanded tactics are unprecedented in mainland China. At most, such things are discussed covertly, not openly.

After all, people still have some sense of "face" on the surface.

These blatant and outrageous actions have happened many times in Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Liu Dehua has a movie called "Mr. Red Carpet", which mentions this kind of thing.

In the movie "Mr. Red Carpet", someone secretly swapped the seat nameplates of an artist in the front row with those of another artist in order to get the artist they were responsible for sitting in a better position.

This kind of thing is actually a huge disrespect and challenge to the organizers, but there are still a lot of self-righteous fools.

Therefore, arranging seating according to the film crew can, to some extent, prevent such highly controversial and disgusting incidents.

Because if such a thing really happens, what good will it do to pursue accountability afterward? The negative impact and controversy have already occurred, and the organizers have already been affected; pursuing accountability will not undo the damage.

"Assembly," directed by Xiao Gangpao, was the most nominated film, so the entire "Assembly" crew sat in the front row.

The crew of "Assembly" was to the left of Lao Tian's "Saintly" crew and to the right of Chen Kaige's "Mei Lanfang" crew. This seating arrangement made Xiao Gangpao extremely excited.

He really didn't expect that at the Golden Rooster Awards, the most authoritative awards in China—which Xiao Gangpao now wholeheartedly believes to be the most authoritative of the three major Chinese awards—he would be so surprised.

This is the most prestigious Golden Rooster Award!
This is the Golden Rooster Awards, the most influential award in China!

On the left is Tian Zhuangzhuang, on the right is Chen Kaige, and I sit in the middle!

Since taking his seat, Xiao Gangpao even felt that even if he didn't win any awards today, just for the seat he was in, this trip to the Golden Rooster Awards would have been worthwhile!

Of course, it would be even more worthwhile if you could win the grand prize!

Seeing Cao Yang go on stage to give a speech, he grinned widely and led the way in clapping enthusiastically.

After Cao Yang finished his speech and stepped off the stage, he grinned and led the applause enthusiastically.

When he saw that the first award to be presented tonight was Best Supporting Actor, he clapped enthusiastically, full of anticipation. Deng Chao was nominated for this award for his role in "Assembly".

When he saw Yuan Quan and Feng Delun as the award presenters, and when they announced that Wang Xueqi had won the Best Supporting Actor award, and when he heard the words "Mei Lanfang," his heart skipped a beat, and he finally calmed down and wasn't so excited anymore.

Little Cannon looked to his right and met Old Chen's gaze.

Old Chen's eyes held a hint of a smile. He glanced at Xiao Gangpao and then said something to Wang Xueqi, who was winning an award next to him. Wang Xueqi smiled and nodded repeatedly.

At that moment, Little Cannon felt a jolt in his heart. He seemed to see disdain? Long-lost feelings of inferiority began to linger in his mind again.

"Does Cao Yang also prioritize the interests of the academic faction? Is it not acceptable for me to 'join forces' with Cao Yang?"

Amidst this sense of gain and loss, awards were presented for Best Supporting Actress, Best Directorial Debut, Best Digital Film, Best Children's Film, Best Educational Film, Best Animated Film, and Best Documentary.

Although these awards have little to do with "Assembly", as the awards ceremony progressed, Xiao Gangpao felt increasingly uncertain.

He desperately wanted to receive recognition through awards!

As the current holder of the domestic box office record for Chinese-language films, his obsession with awards is almost obsessive.

Then, as Zhao Ziqi and Tao Zeru took the stage as the presenters for the Best Art Direction award, Xiao Gangpao's heart was pounding in his throat—"Assembly" had also received this nomination.

"The winner is..."

Zhao Ziqi opened the envelope and handed it to Tao Zeru. Tao Zeru glanced at it and then deliberately looked around the audience.

At this moment, Little Cannon stared longingly at Tao Zeru, wishing he could punch him. Who told this old guy to keep him in suspense like that!

"Liu Qing, 'Mei Lanfang,' congratulations."

Mei Lanfang's second performance.

The little cannon missed out on two major awards!

At that moment, Little Cannon clapped twice symbolically, lowered his head, and didn't dare to look to the right.

But I kept listening carefully to the sound coming from the right.

I could only hear laughter and cheerful voices on the right, but I also felt that there must be many disdainful glances directed my way.

Although he knew in his heart that the art design of "Assembly" was good, Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou, who came from academia, had never failed in art design, no matter what kind of film they made or what the overall quality of the film was. But when it came to the real "competition", he felt sad, unwilling, and somewhat inferior.

The key point is that he, Xiao Gangpao, also has an art background!
But...sigh!

Perhaps because they've been awarding some less "significant" prizes, the next presenters were Li Xuejian and Tao Hong, who were presenting the first major award of the evening: Best Actress.

"Assembly" is a male-dominated film, so it definitely wouldn't qualify for this nomination.

However, "Mei Lanfang" received a nomination for Best Actress.

At this moment, Xiao Gangpao lowered his head, and a voice seemed to be shouting loudly in his heart, "It can't be Li Xiaoran, it can't be Li Xiaoran..."

It's obvious to anyone with eyes that although Li Xiaoran performed very well in "Mei Lanfang", the script was somewhat anticlimactic, so there wasn't much tension later on.

On the contrary, Zhou Xun's performance in "The Equation of Love and Death" was so powerful and almost manic that it was truly breathtaking.

Little Cannon felt extremely ashamed.

Li Xiaoran has worked with him on so many films, and they have a pretty good relationship. Plus, she's Cao Yang's...

However, if Li Xiaoran does win Best Actress, it will prove that tonight's Golden Rooster Awards still haven't broken out of the original framework. She is still the "unorthodox" actress looked down upon by the academics, and it will be even more difficult for her film "Assembly" to win an award.

Little Cannon couldn't help but glance to his right, looking at Li Xiaoran's smiling profile. He pursed his lips and thought to himself, "Xiaoran, I'm sorry, I know I shouldn't, but... but..."

"If you don't win this award, I swear I'll make it up to you with five... no, ten leading roles!"

(End of this chapter)