Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 298 Entertainment Era
Meng Bai's guess was correct, Liu Jun really knew about this.

"The costume drama we collaborated with Huace a while ago was auditioning, and the director happened to think Xiao Yang had a good image, so he asked her to play a small role."

The costume drama that Liu Jun mentioned is the "Chef Fang in Huajian" mentioned by Meng Bai before.

The overall style of this drama is quite simple, it is just an ancient idol drama disguised as "food and detective stories".

The female lead "Fang Yishao" was firmly chosen by Zhu Xudan, and the actor for the male lead "Shen Yong" was chosen to be Xu Haiqiao.

The total production cost of this drama is only about 20 million, which is considered a small production among all ArcLight's projects this year.

Including the cooperating platform Qiyi TV, only an "A-" level resource was allocated to this project, and this was done out of consideration for Meng Bai's face.

After all, everyone knew that this was a trial work of Arc Light, so no one took it too seriously.

The character played by Yang Chaoyue is called "Miao Shitou", a little girl with a miserable life who is taken in by the male and female protagonists.

She doesn't have many scenes and the plot isn't overly complicated, which suits her quite well.

According to the crew's plan, the filming will be completed in about half a month.

The girl was very confused at first. After all, she had never thought that she would be able to act in a movie one day, even if it was just a small supporting role.

Her first thought was to ask her boss. Unfortunately, Meng Bai was not there at the time, and she didn't dare to contact him, so she could only keep it to herself.

Her colleagues all advised her to give it a try, but Yang Chaoyue still hesitated for a long time and was so conflicted that she almost cried.

Finally, she thought of someone she knew before, someone she wasn't very familiar with, but who might have experience and be able to help her - Meng Ziyi.

Because of the misunderstanding on the interview day, the two girls knew each other.

Later, Meng Ziyi came to Huguang several times and saw Yang Chaoyue again. He felt that they were destined to be together, so he added them on WeChat.

We chat occasionally and we are just half-acquainted friends.

Meng Ziyi immediately became interested in her friend's "life consultation" and firmly agreed to let her go.

"Give it a try. What if you suddenly discover that you have a talent for acting? Even if it doesn't work, you can just go back to your receptionist and continue to fuck her. There's nothing to lose."

Encouraged by her friends who wanted to "watch the fun", Yang Chaoyue finally decided to give it a try.

Liu Jun, who worked in the company, knew about this and did not object.

His idea was similar to Meng Ziyi's, which was to let the girl give it a try.

It doesn't matter if it doesn't work out, it's just a minor role anyway, the worst that can happen is that the crew will replace him. If they really find a promising talent, that would be even better.

So he happily approved more than half a month of "unpaid leave" for Yang Chaoyue.

"What's the matter? Is there any problem?" Liu Jun asked.

"Nothing." Meng Bai shook his head and sighed, "I just feel that this little girl is really lucky."

I won a special prize of 100,000 yuan at the annual meeting just half a year after I came here. Even if I was standing at the front desk, I could still be picked by the director.

"Or maybe next year, instead of putting up the God of Wealth at the entrance of the company, hang two photos of Xiao Yang instead." Meng Bai joked.

Liu Jun laughed: "It's not all luck, the girl is really pretty. Let's see how she performs. Maybe she can really become an actress."

"Brother Jun, what you said is not objective. Given the current situation in our industry, does being an actor have much to do with acting skills?" Meng Bai said with a slightly sarcastic tone.

In the past two years, with the entry of Internet capital and the rise of the online drama market, the film and television industry has ushered in a wave of explosive growth.

At the same time, more and more people are entering this industry, hoping to get a piece of the pie.

There are hundreds of film and television bases of all sizes across the country, and there are nearly 10 to 20 crews starting filming every day.

In the coffee shops outside every film and television company in Beijing, Beijing, Shanghai and Shanghai, there are always directors and screenwriters holding project proposals looking for investment, and investors holding cash looking for projects.

If "The Wandering Earth" was not a science fiction film, but a comedy, action, war or other theme, let alone the gap of 8000 million, even if it had another 8000 million, it would still require investors.

The influx of a large amount of hot money has directly affected the soaring copyright fees of various IPs and the sharp rise in actor pay. Singers, models, and idols, whether they have studied acting or not, have turned to acting.

The first- and second-tier popular actors with large traffic volumes each have many projects on their hands, and seamless transitions or even awkward acting have become the norm.

If you are too busy, use a stand-in. If the scene cannot be changed, use cutouts. If you can’t memorize all the lines, just say the numbers and wait for the dubbing in post-production.

Since the beginning of the year, similar incidents have been frequently reported.

For example, in the drama "The Princess Weiyoung" produced by Huace at the beginning of the year, the heroine Yang Tianbao was criticized by the audience for her outrageous acting skills and "background cutouts" after it was aired.

There is also the "Princess Agents" in which Li Qin participated. Although it has not yet been aired, it has been revealed that the heroine Zhao Liying used more than a dozen stand-ins during the filming.

Not to mention the actors' dubbing, which is almost becoming a unique feature of the global film and television market.

Veteran actors like Chen Daoming, Chen Baoguo, and Wang Jinsong have complained more than once about their co-stars not reading their lines but just saying numbers.

But even so, the hot atmosphere in the entire market has not subsided, but has become more and more intense.

Big IP + popular actors + fan economy + brushing data have almost become the standard configuration of the film and television market.

Of course, the audience has been complaining about this for a long time, but there is no good way to boycott it in the short term.

The only option to express your attitude is to work hard to support those teams that always maintain sincerity and high standards.

This is also one of the reasons why companies such as Arc Light Pictures and Noon Sunshine have been able to rise rapidly in recent years.

However, Arclight and Noon are still a minority after all. The market is still filled with all kinds of bad dramas.

People in the industry are naturally delighted and encouraged by this situation of picking up money with sacks, and they even gave it a name - the golden age of entertainment!
However, industry executives like Meng Bai gradually began to worry.

After all, anyone can see that today's film and television market is a bit over the top.

More importantly, no one knows how long this anger will last.

"Based on my more than ten years of industry experience..." Liu Jun sighed and shook his head, "For capital, there is no recession after the overheating, only a sudden cold winter."

Think about the "blockbuster era" at the beginning of the century and the "coal boss era" of about 10 years.

History repeats itself again and again, except that the protagonists change over and over again.

Meng Bai frowned: "Brother Jun, do you mean that our development strategy should be more conservative next year?"

"That's not the case. Arclight is in a period of rapid growth, unlike those companies."

Liu Jun waved his hand and said, "But we can definitely keep some extra funds in reserve, maybe we can find some opportunities."

Thanks to the high-quality projects provided by Meng Bai, ArcLight's financial situation remains healthy without introducing any financing.

At least so far, there is no debt.

So even if the cold winter really comes, they will definitely be able to hold on until the last wave.

But having said that, even people like Meng Bai and Liu Jun who are not optimistic about the future of the market feel that this upward trend can at least last for three or four years, so there is no need to worry in the short term.

After chatting for a while, the two began to discuss the various projects that ArcLight will be carrying out this year.

As Liu Jun said earlier, ArcLight is now in a period of rapid growth.

Not only are the projects that are scheduled for production from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, but the projects that are scheduled to be broadcast also start from the middle of the year, one after another.

First was "Criminal Minds 2", then "Day and Night", and later there were "Peace Hotel", "Chef Fang in the Flower House", "Hello, Old Times" and so on.

These dramas are either projects controlled by ArcLight or produced in cooperation with other companies, with ArcLight participating in the investment. They are basically scheduled to be broadcast in the second half of the year.

With more and more online drama projects, it is unlikely that a big-budget drama will occupy an entire month's schedule as in previous years.

Even if it is an arc light, it can only ensure that its own projects do not collide with each other.

(End of this chapter)