Chinese entertainment: Top stars have no holidays

On May 28th, around 5 AM, Jiang Bai arrived at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport.

Upon arriving in Shanghai, Jiang Bai did not immediately return to his apartment to rest. Instead, he took a car arranged by his studio and went directly to the company.

He hasn't been back to the company for quite a while. Since the acting teacher's class ended, he has basically not come to the company anymore.

All communication was done through Xu Xu.

When Jiang Bai returned to Shanghai, the studio's manager, Mr. Dai, asked him to go back to the company while he was there, as he needed to talk to him about something.

So, around lunchtime, when it was almost time to leave work, Jiang Bai arrived at the Ju Ke Ai Studio.

"You're here?"

When Dai Lu saw Jiang Bai, her face lit up with a radiant smile, even her crow's feet appeared from smiling.

There's no way around it, Jiang Bai is just too good.

Just by helping him secure a minor supporting role in a project for the parent company, he was able to go from a minor supporting role to the second male lead.

Even though he played the second male lead, the show still became a hit, and the reason it became so popular was because of the second male lead's romantic relationship.

In other words, the term "a rising star" doesn't exist in the Chinese entertainment industry yet; otherwise, Dai Lu would definitely have used it to describe Jiang Bai.

more importantly.

Jiang Bai also demonstrated a quality that most actors today do not possess.

He can even write screenplays.

Pulling Jiang Bai to sit on the sofa in the lounge, Dai Lu turned and pulled a thick script from her desk drawer.

"The script you and screenwriter Duan created has passed the company's internal review."

"The content team thinks this script is very well written and can be our studio's next key project."

Jiang Bai glanced at the script of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on the coffee table and thought to himself, "Just as I thought."

From its style to its setting, this drama perfectly matches the aesthetic of the Drama Cute Studio.

It's a campus drama with a touch of fantasy, plus classic youth romance, making it perfect for the show.

It's perfectly normal that Dai Lu and the studio's content team are satisfied.

Jiang Bai was also very satisfied.

"So, Mr. Dai, I should still play the male lead in this drama, right?"

"Of course," Dailu replied matter-of-factly.

As the core actor of the studio, if we don't let Jiang Bai play the role, then who will?

"I've agreed to your request to use your salary to offset the investment," Dai Lu added.

Any producer would be happy to do this.

Don't be fooled by the fact that many TV dramas have broken ratings records and sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of content.

However, television drama production is actually a high-risk investment industry.

Hundreds or even thousands of TV dramas are produced in mainland China every year, but no more than 100 of them can break even, and no more than 20 can make a huge profit.

Producers are willing to do anything that can reduce upfront investment.

Even if you want to share in the later profits, the prerequisite is that there must be profits to share...

Therefore, almost 99% of actors have to receive their pay first.

You want me to convert my salary into investment, hoping for a share of the profits after the TV series becomes a big hit?

Don't even think about it!

Don't ask me to take on risky things!

Jiang Bai voluntarily waived his salary and converted it into an investment, something Dai Lu was naturally more than happy to do.

Jiang Bai even wanted to invest all the money he earned in the show into this drama.

He hasn't received much pay so far; two TV series and one movie, less than two million before tax.

It wasn't a lot of money, but Jiang Bai's actions showed that he was very confident in the show.

This indirectly increased Dailu's confidence.

"Now that the script is finished, the company can start preliminary preparations."

Dai Lu leaned back on the sofa, crossed her legs, and said in a relaxed tone, "As for whether to make a revenue-sharing drama or co-produce with a platform, it's still under discussion."

"The basic agreement has been reached, and the collaboration will likely be a revenue-sharing drama."

"Even if you don't take a salary, the overall budget for this drama is estimated to be 50 million."

"Currently, the revenue-sharing dramas supported by several online streaming platforms are all low-budget online dramas, with investments generally under ten million yuan."

"Our show has broken the investment ceiling for revenue-sharing dramas, and increased it several times over."

When Jiang Bai first suggested that Dai Lu make a revenue-sharing drama, she completely scoffed at it.

She felt that her "precious child" was being presumptuous, completely unaware of the industry's ecosystem, and was just talking nonsense.

On the surface, she comforted Jiang Bai with a few words, saying that she would try to talk to the platform, but she had no intention of making a revenue-sharing drama at all.

Spending 50 million to produce a revenue-sharing drama is too risky; if it incurs losses, the studio could go bankrupt.

Unexpectedly, when she approached Tencent Video with the script for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," the platform proactively suggested a revenue-sharing model for the series.

According to the platform manager that Dai Lu contacted, the platform is making strategic adjustments this year, aiming to significantly increase the treatment of revenue-sharing dramas and increase the number of big-budget self-produced dramas.

The drama "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is definitely not a big production, so the platform was not very enthusiastic about getting involved in the co-production.

After the overall strategic adjustment this year, the platform no longer lacks startup projects worth tens of millions.

There are plenty of internal projects waiting to be approved; if we wanted, we could start production on dozens of them a year.

Is the script good?

Platforms that hold countless adapted IPs have no shortage of scripts.

However, at the same time, the investment budget of the drama "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is the absolute ceiling in the field of revenue-sharing dramas.

Among the many revenue-sharing dramas, the script of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" is a rare and excellent original script.

If this drama can be turned into a revenue-sharing drama and still make a lot of money, it will undoubtedly become an excellent case study for the platform!

It even became a benchmark work for revenue-sharing dramas, stimulating a trend of investment in revenue-sharing dramas in the industry.

This approach actually aligns better with the platform's strategic adjustment direction.

So this Tencent Video executive went to great lengths to persuade Dai Lu to produce a revenue-sharing drama, offering her unprecedentedly good treatment.

Not only will it receive top-tier resource support, but if Dai Lu agrees, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" will become the first S-level project in the history of revenue-sharing dramas.

The platform provided promotional resources comparable to those for self-produced dramas.

This promise deeply moved Dailu.

According to Tencent's latest standards, an S-level project refers to a large-scale production with an investment of 1.2 million to 3 million yuan!

If "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" can obtain promotional resources of this level, its chances of success will be greatly increased, and it will have a huge advantage in publicity and distribution.

After careful consideration, Dai Lu felt she couldn't miss this great opportunity for platform resource support.

So she used her connections to persuade her parent company, Juku Media, to invest 3000 million yuan and Jukeai Studio to invest 2000 million yuan to produce the show "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star".

They also thought highly of the script, but the drama involved time travel, so if it were filmed, it wouldn't be able to air on satellite TV, and no TV station would be willing to pay for it.

Tencent Video is unwilling to spend money on customized dramas (that is, to buy them out at a fixed price), but if it is willing to provide top-level promotional resources that are no less than those for self-produced dramas, the chances of making a profit are still very high.

We can afford to gamble on 3000 million views on Juku.

The project was eventually approved.

Including Jiang Bai's own salary and the investment, the total investment for this drama is 6500 million yuan, with Dai Lu serving as the producer and leading the project.

Jiang Bai holds a 23% stake in the investment, but is not responsible for the actual operation of the production team.

Jiang Bai was unaware of the power struggles between these producers and platforms, but some of these matters were related to him.

"I will get the production team ready as soon as possible."

Dai Lu said with great interest, "However, as the screenwriter, according to Screenwriter Duan, the idea for this script was actually yours."

"Do you have any advice for the actress playing the female lead?"

Generally speaking, screenwriters do not have the right to cast actors, at least not in the mainland Chinese entertainment industry. Only in the United States, across the ocean, do screenwriters have much more power.

But Jiang Bai is different after all. He is first and foremost an employee of the Cute Drama Studio, one of the investors, and only lastly the creative editor-in-chief of the drama.

Then his opinion is worth considering.

"But let me make this clear beforehand." At this point, perhaps fearing that Jiang Bai, a newcomer to the industry, might ask for too much, Dai Lu added, "A-list actresses definitely have no chance."

"Although our production budget is larger than that of 'A Love So Beautiful,' it still doesn't reach the level of a top-tier production."

"We can't afford the top-tier actors; we can only consider second- or third-tier ones."

These days, if you want to hire a top-tier actress to film a movie, even if she's not a superstar, you can't get her for less than 20 million.

For top-tier actresses like Yang Mi and Zhao Liying, born in the 1980s, their film and television salaries are as high as 30 to 40 million yuan.

The total budget for "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" was only 6500 million. How could they afford to spend half of that on hiring the female lead?

"The female lead," Jiang Bai thought for a moment and said without hesitation, "There's an actress named Zhang Jianing who would be quite suitable."

"She has the same tenacity as Lin Beixing."

However, after he finished speaking, he fell into deep thought.

In fact, Zhang Jianing, the female lead in the original timeline, was quite suitable. She portrayed Lin Beixing very well. It can be said that the character was her, and she was the character.

This is considered a prime example of how the actor and the role complement each other.

If they could get her to star in the show, it would probably be the best guarantee for high viewership ratings.

However, there seems to be a conflict in the filming schedule.

The filming of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" will start in August or September at the earliest, and Zhang Jianing should be joining the cast of "The Story of Ming Lan" to play Sheng Rulan at that time.

Admittedly, Sheng Rulan is not the female lead, but this drama is produced by Daylight Entertainment, and the female lead is Zhao Liying, a top actress born in 85.

Zhao Liying was at the peak of her popularity in 2017.

After the peak of her career with "The Journey of Flower", her career not only did not decline, but it has reached a new level this year.

At the beginning of the year, "Duckweed" opened up the film market, and in June, "Princess Agents" once again broke its own record in television dramas.

Being able to act alongside this top actress in the TV drama field is definitely more attractive than being the lead actress in a mid-budget web drama with a budget of tens of millions.

Can Dai Lu persuade her to turn down the role in "The Story of Ming Lan" and instead star in this web series?

By this time, Zhang Jianing should have already signed a contract with the "The Story of Minglan" production team.

"Zhang Jianing?" Dai Lu said at this moment, "She's not very famous, is she?"

"Although our production team can't afford A-list actresses, we don't need to hire these third- or fourth-tier actresses!"

It was clear that Dailu was dissatisfied.

Jiang Bai is now famous, and she's started to get excited too.

Let alone getting Jiang Bai to act alongside a top actress right now.

But now, the actresses who are qualified to act alongside Jiang Bai are at least second-tier actresses with the potential to become top female stars, right?

For example, Dilraba, Gulnazar, Yang Zi, and Li Qin.

"Then I have another option." Jiang Bai, who also felt Zhang Jianing might not be able to play the role, readily agreed: "Have you seen the newly aired 'The Legend of the Condor Heroes' this year?"

"The actress who played Huang Rong is also quite suitable for Lin Beixing, especially her smile."

"If Zhang Jianing isn't suitable, then let's choose her."

"Of all the well-known actresses, only these two are suitable for the role of Lin Beixing."