Chinese entertainment: Top stars have no holidays

"Okay, click!"

"This one is approved!"

"Let the actors take a break."

At the director's command, Jiang Bai, standing in the center of the set, put his hands on his hips and let out a long breath.

"Did my expression look a little off in that shot just now?" Ju Jingyi, who was standing next to him, asked with a slight frown.

"It's alright." Jiang Bai said somewhat helplessly, "Don't think too much about it. The director didn't say there was a problem, so don't worry unnecessarily."

"Relax, don't put so much pressure on yourself."

Today marks the fifth day since Jiang Bai joined the cast of "Legend of Yunxi".

During the five days of filming, he also gained a general understanding of the crew members.

Especially the female lead in front of us.

"Xiao Ju, I know this drama is very important to you, but if you take it too seriously, it will only make things less effective."

"What's that saying? 'Concern leads to confusion.'"

Jiang Bai adjusted his wide robe sleeves, patted Ju Jingyi's shoulder, and turned to sit back in his chair.

He actually talked a lot, but he just had to get it off his chest.

Jiang Bai's biggest impression of the female lead, Ju Jingyi, after interacting with her for the past few days, is that she is a bit too aloof and too devoted to this project.

This statement doesn't mean she's distancing herself from Jiang Bai or acting like a diva.

Instead, Ju Jingyi always pays close attention to the appropriateness and distance in her interactions with others, maintaining her own set of standards.

When not filming, there will be no close contact between us.

If they initiate a conversation with you, they will only talk about work-related topics and will never discuss personal matters.

When you're with her, you can't find any fault with her manners; she smiles and nods in greeting, and she's always saying thank you.

But from the way she smiled, the corners of her mouth turned up, to her movements and expressions, everything about her gave the impression that she had rehearsed it.

It's like a delicious dish that looks and smells amazing, but it's actually pre-made.

Perhaps this is a habit she picked up when she came from working in small theaters.

After all, idols always have their own persona and emotional template when facing fans.

Over time, they got used to wearing a mask when interacting with people.

It's like a beautifully designed Barbie doll; it looks lovely, but it's only meant to be displayed for people to admire.

That's not a big deal, and Jiang Bai has no intention of judging other artists' behavior.

However, she also seemed to be under immense pressure every day, which somewhat affected Jiang Bai.

Perhaps because the male lead has been replaced by a rising star, Ju Jingyi has higher expectations for this drama.

So much so that she takes every single one of her performances incredibly seriously.

But to be honest, in Jiang Bai's opinion, Ju Jingyi's acting skills are just so-so.

When faced with a problem, all they do is glare, their aloofness comes from pursing their lips, and their emotions are expressed by tilting their head and frowning; otherwise, they just sit there expressionless and do nothing.

The standard three tricks of a decorative ancient costume actor.

Staring, pursing lips/biting lips, tilting head and frowning, all accompanied by a blank expression.

Most young actresses who act in period dramas are only at this level.

Ju Jingyi may not be more outstanding, but she's not that much worse.

No matter how hard she tries, all she can do is widen her eyes a little wider and purse her lips a little tighter.

But she was still not satisfied, repeatedly asking Jiang Bai if this would work or that would work.

At first, Jiang Bai was quite enthusiastic in trying to teach Ju Jingyi how to express her emotions more effectively.

But after trying a few times, Jiang Baifa realized it would be better not to teach at all.

Without proper instruction, Ju Jingyi's acting is just average for a female lead in a period drama; there are no highlights, but it's not terrible either. Her basic acting skills are sufficient.

After Jiang Bai taught her, Ju Jingyi kept trying to apply the techniques to her actual filming, but the results were actually worse.

It's unclear whether Jiang Bai is bad at teaching acting or whether Ju Jingyi simply lacks talent.

Forcing oneself to break free from one's fixed performance style only results in something that is neither fish nor fowl.

His stiff expressions and off-beat rhythm actually ruined his otherwise barely passable, assembly-line acting skills.

After several attempts, Jiang Bai finally came to terms with it and simply stopped offering advice.

But Ju Jingyi still looked worried about her performance, which Jiang Bai had to reassure her.

If Ju Jingyi doesn't adjust her emotions, it will definitely affect her performance in subsequent filming.

She really took this show too seriously, to the point that her good intentions backfired.

"Mm." Ju Jingyi nodded. Actually, she also felt that her state of mind was not quite right. "I will adjust my mindset as soon as possible."

Ju Jingyi sighed inwardly, realizing she was still too focused on her career development.

She had no choice but to be anxious.

Given Siba's track record, it's already quite rare for them to commission a drama like this for Ju Jingyi.

This is a resource that Ju Jingyi obtained by winning the general election for two consecutive years.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. If "Legend of Yunxi" fails this time, Siba will never again produce a web series for Ju Jingyi.

This inevitably makes her feel anxious and insecure.

"Okay, let's take a rest first." Jiang Bai, who had already sat back down on the chair, took the water and phone from his assistant and skillfully opened WeChat.

Last night, because he played games with Mi Re and others after work, his replies to Tian Xiwei's messages were not timely and were intermittent.

This made Oda a little upset.

After chatting with Tian Xiwei on WeChat for a while and making some promises about what she would do after meeting, Xiaotian was finally appeased.

Afterwards, Jiang Bai switched to another chat window and talked with Dai Lu about the upcoming promotional matters for "A Love So Beautiful".

This drama was produced by the studio itself, and the production and promotion were all handled by the DramaCute team, so Jiang Bai's involvement was also quite high.

Putting aside everything else, just the promotional methods he knew that were common in later generations were quite novel in the present day.

For example, Jiang Bai suggested to Dai Lu that they organize a door-to-door sales event after the drama "A Love So Beautiful" airs.

The show's popularity after its release was largely driven by word of mouth.

The main cast visited the headquarters of the online streaming platform, interacting with employees, taking photos, playing games, giving away merchandise, and spreading goodwill.

Employees of major internet companies are young and surf the internet quickly. They can easily post on WeChat Moments, Weibo, and Xiaohongshu, which is equivalent to a massive amount of free organic publicity, boosting views and topic popularity.

Moreover, for ordinary netizens and passersby, seeing news about celebrities walking the red carpet and attending galas only feels too distant.

However, activities like door-to-door canvassing are down-to-earth and relatable, making it easy to gain favor with passersby.

For emerging celebrities like Jiang Bai, who lack regular variety show appearances, low-cost, high-exposure activities like door-to-door visits are the best way to maintain their presence.

Dai Lu originally came from a background in online marketing, so she grasped the concepts immediately.

After Jiang Bai suggested the idea of ​​going door-to-door, Dai Lu exclaimed that it was a genius and immediately went to discuss and arrange it with Tencent Video.

Jiang Bai is now asking her how this matter is progressing.

In addition, Jiangbai also has its own promotional methods, which include leveraging Douyin, which has just begun to gain momentum this year.

This short video platform only began to gain public attention in March of this year.

However, in the past few months, thanks to video sharing and viral spread, the user base has grown very rapidly.

Moreover, it differs from Kuaishou, which developed a few years earlier and whose users are mostly concentrated in third- and fourth-tier cities.

Currently, most of Douyin's users are young people, trendsetters, and students from first- and second-tier cities who follow trends.

In July, they will also sponsor the show "The Rap of China," with celebrities such as Yang Mi and Li Xiaolu joining the show.

It can be said that Douyin's rise coincided with the airing of the drama "A Love So Beautiful", and the user base and audience highly overlapped!

Jiang Bai has already figured it out: when the drama airs, he'll release a few promotional short videos on Douyin.

This is something that Bai Mengyan, the future queen of hit dramas, is best at. To this day, the most liked promotional video for a drama on Douyin is still the one she posted.

In 2017, when Douyin was just emerging and people didn't know how to use it, if Jiang Bai had released a mature CP transition video, it would definitely have gone viral on Douyin!

Riding the wave of Douyin's rise, "A Love So Beautiful" will also spread virally.

Jiangbai would never miss out on such a low-cost, high-return marketing opportunity!

He has already come up with several transition video shooting ideas, and he will take some time to go back to Shanghai in a few days to shoot them with Xiaotian!