Chinese entertainment: Top stars have no holidays

On a flight from Shanghai to Beijing.

Xu Xu sat next to Jiang Bai and introduced the role to him in a calm and unhurried tone: "Actually, we originally wanted to find a Taiwanese artist for this role."

"However, the director saw your photos on Weibo and felt that your image was very suitable for the role."

"Besides, you're from Fujian, so you can use your local accent to pass for a Taiwanese person."

That's when they sent the audition invitation.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Bai shrugged: "Then I'm really lucky."

Indeed, Jiang Bai currently has less than 300,000 followers on Weibo, and more than 200,000 of them may be zombie followers that the company has been slowly adding over the past few months.

There are probably only a few tens of thousands of truly active fans, and most of them are fans of the original novel who have been following the filming of the TV series "Rush to the Dead Summer".

Well, some of them might be fans of other actors in the production who casually followed the account, or they might have simply switched allegiances.

Anyway, Jiang Bai saw quite a few accounts with Chen Xuedong's picture as their profile picture in the comments section, praising his photos generously.

"It's not really luck."

Xu Xu explained, "I heard that the director is keeping an eye on Chu Yuxun's recent situation and seems to want to invite her to play the female lead."

"That's how I got to know you."

"By the way, we didn't reach an agreement with Chu Yuxun in the end. Her asking price was too high, and she said she wanted to rest and didn't want to join the film crew."

Since the hit drama "Love O2O" became a sensation, Zheng Shuang's already high asking price has skyrocketed.

Most newly approved film and television productions can no longer afford to cast her.

Even inviting her to a business event costs a seven-figure sum per event.

Even so, our Shuangzi sister still does things her own way, ignoring the money and going abroad for travel.

In this respect, Jiang Bai admired her greatly.

Anyway, he's definitely going to make a fortune when he encounters such a good thing!

For most actors, how many hit dramas can they star in during their lifetime?

We should seize this opportunity to amass a fortune in gold coins!

Jiang Bai couldn't understand why Shuangzi, who seemed to disregard money so much, would stumble on it in the future.

Well, it can't be said that she doesn't value money.

After all, she's the kind of person who wouldn't even spend money to treat a sick pet, choosing instead to just abandon it.

Wow, Shuangzi's behavior is really contradictory.

I really don't understand it.

Jiang Bai shook his head, clearing his mind of these random thoughts, and got back to the point: "I really like this role, and it would be great if I could audition for the show."

Jiang Bai pulled out character biographies and a script synopsis from his backpack.

The role that invited him to audition was a movie.

Sewing Machine Band

The audition role they sent him was for the third male lead – Dynamite.

He's supposed to be the third male lead, but his screen time is actually about the same as the fourth, fifth, and sixth male leads.

This movie is a dual male lead film, with a female lead who has a significant amount of screen time but is just there for the sake of being pretty.

As for the remaining band members, their screen time is roughly the same.

But Jiang Bai really wanted to take the role.

Whether he's the lead or not isn't important; what's important is that this movie suits him well.

As director Da Peng's work after "Jianbing Man", "Sewing Machine Band" was met with much skepticism during its preparation stage.

After all, Da Peng's previous work, "Jianbing Man," caused a huge stir and was considered the worst film of 2015.

Under these circumstances, neither the general public nor cinemas had high hopes for "City of Rock".

This movie received very few screenings when it was released.

The publicity also received a lot of negative feedback.

Surprisingly, "City of Rock" received good reviews after its release.

This film is undoubtedly competent for a comedy, and it also capitalizes on the nostalgia of the band BEYOND.

As a result, theaters gradually increased the number of screenings, and the film eventually finished its run with a box office of 4.57 million yuan.

In the 2016 Chinese film industry, this box office performance was already very good for a low-budget comedy.

With no other film offers coming in, getting a role in a movie like this for his film debut is already a great start for Jiang Bai.

He was, after all, an unknown newcomer actor.

You should seize any opportunity that comes your way.

而且《缝纫机乐队》这部电影上的非常快，4月7日开机，6月16日杀青，9月29日就排片上映了。

This release date is perfect for the gap between the end of "Rush to the Dead Summer" and the beginning of "A Love So Beautiful".

If all goes well, he could dominate all the exposure for the second half of next year!

From "Rush to the Dead Summer" during the summer vacation to "City of Rock" during the National Day holiday, and then to "A Love So Beautiful" after the National Day holiday.

The effect of 1+1+1 is definitely greater than 3.

Such high-intensity exposure, and the fact that all three works have received good reviews, high viewership ratings, and good box office results!

With all these factors combined, he will definitely have an explosive debut and become even more popular and stable than Hu Yitian, a limited-time top star.

With this in mind, Jiang Bai carefully read the short character biography, trying to figure out the performance effect the director wanted.

......

Two hours later, the plane landed at Beijing Capital International Airport.

Outside the airport, there were vehicles arranged by the "Sewing Machine Band" team to pick them up.

After picking up Jiang Bai and Xu Xu, director Da Peng's assistant took them directly to the Beijing Laijin Cultural and Creative Industrial Park.

The office of Shanghai Hecheng Pictures, founded by Dapeng, is located here.

Yes, although the company is registered in Shanghai, its actual office is in Beijing.

It's common in the entertainment industry for companies to be registered in different locations than their actual offices, often for the sake of more favorable tax policies.

After a drive of more than an hour, Jiang Bai met Director Da Peng.

Jiang Bai really admired this director.

He came from outside the industry; when he first entered the field, he was just a host on a celebrity interview program on Sohu Video.

She could barely be considered to have gotten close to the entertainment industry.

It wasn't until three years later that he had the opportunity to create his own program, "Dapeng Debade," which was also just an online program.

He did all the writing, hosting, editing, and promotion of the show himself, and thanks to the show, he finally gained some fame in the industry and had the opportunity to become a comedian.

However, what truly made him famous was the 2012 mini web series "Men's Diary," which he directed and starred in himself.

At this point, he used the company's resources to build a wide network of connections in the industry, and after three more years of hard work, including directing several episodes of "Men's Diary," he finally got the opportunity to become a theatrical director.

From an unknown online talk show host to a theatrical film director, Da Peng walked this path for 11 years and succeeded.

To be honest, this experience is very inspiring and perfectly fits the phrase "rags-to-riches story".

It was the failure of "Jianbing Man" that made this story less perfect.

But it doesn't matter, anyway, Jiang Bai didn't act in "Jianbing Man".

"Director Dapeng, hello."

Jiang Bai, all smiles, stepped forward to shake hands with Da Peng and complimented him, "I really enjoy watching your 'Men's Diary' series, and I've also watched 'Jianbing Man'."

"I also went to the cinema to support your film 'Surprise Journey' at the beginning of the year."

"I'm a big fan of comedy movies."

"Oh?" Da Peng didn't reply, but simply adjusted his black-rimmed glasses and gave Jiang Bai a subtle smile.

Indeed, most comedians are not as outgoing in private as they appear on screen.

Da Peng simply nodded and gestured for Jiang Bai to follow him to a small lounge in the studio.

Without any unnecessary pleasantries, after they were seated, Da Peng went straight to the point: "Shall we begin the audition now?"

"No problem." Jiang Bai nodded, calmly meeting Da Peng's gaze.