The Tong Piao rolled in Hengdian smashed hundreds of thousands, and there was no sense of existenc

Visual China.

Text |Fixed Focus, Author |Lu Wang, Editor |Wei Jia.

In Hengdian, the largest film and television location shooting base in China, a large number of crews come every day, including many young actors like Xiaoyu, even if they are only three or five years old, it is not uncommon for them to stay up late to film, and mothers accompany their children full-time in the crew, and get paid dozens to hundreds of yuan every day. This group has a common name - "Tong Piao".

Recently, the news that "a 6-year-old girl works as a child drifter in Hengdian and earns 250 yuan in 4 months" has been hotly discussed by the public. In the discussion of "day and night reversed at a young age", "wearing winter clothes in summer and getting prickly heat", "100 people grabbing a chance" and other discussions, the public is both curious and puzzled about this group, what kind of existence is "Tong Piao"?

After communicating with many parents and industry insiders, it was found that parents have different understandings of Tong Piao, and many parents believe that their children are not Tong Piao in the strict sense, and they only go to Hengdian when there is filming. Even if you live in Hengdian for a long time, you will try to choose a time when your children have little schoolwork. However, in the eyes of many people, child actors who have invested a lot of time and energy in the crew from the age of three to their teens are more or less "childlike".

Based on the statements of many parties, we roughly divide the "child drifting" in Hengdian in a broad sense into three categories, one is close to home, such as living in Zhejiang, there is an opportunity to join the group, and the mother will drive to Hengdian with the child from home;One type is far away from home, and will choose to rent a house in Hengdian for a few months during the winter and summer vacations, squatting in the major crews to find opportunities;There is also a category of children who have played the starring role in some well-known works when they are young or have been the leading actors in children's dramas, and they will follow the crew's time and be stationed in Hengdian.

The common denominator of these children is that they have a good image, many of them are child models, and they are versatile, with eighteen kinds of martial arts such as dance, piano, and cross talk. Their families all have a certain economic foundation, otherwise it is difficult to afford high investments such as rent, audition travel expenses, and signing fees.

In order to win a role for their children, parents signed contracts with children's brokerage companies, did not hesitate to pay high fees, and even brought money into the group, investing tens of thousands to millions of yuan. They once had the idea of "becoming famous overnight", but in the end, they smoothed down their hearts after auditions and failed and became a part of the industrial assembly line.

Even so, many parents are still reluctant to give up the opportunity and want to stay up for a while as long as their ability allows. At the same time, there are also more newcomers, attracted by the aura of child stars, and continue to go to Hengdian.

Hengdian, there is always no shortage of "Tong Piao".

In Hengdian, there is no mother who does not fight, they are all masters of time management.

Carissa is in the third grade of primary school, has the innate advantage of long legs, was a child model, and the little girl has a cool sister fan, her appearance and temperament are very close to Tang Wei, and she has been photographed by the crew many times.

Her mother often took her on a four-hour drive to and from her home in Hengdian and Wuxi. Several times, the agent temporarily sent notices in the group, and my mother rushed over with Carissa immediately after seeing it.

Once filming a night scene, it started at 10 o'clock in the evening and ended at 5 o'clock in the morning. As soon as it was over, the mother and daughter rushed back to Wuxi in order to catch up with the school morning class at 10 o'clock, and Carissa only slept in the car for a few hours.

The schedule is tight, but it can't stop the mothers' fighting power.

The soft-looking Dou Miao is 5 years old this year, has been filming for more than a year, and has won the role of a small starring role in dozens of dramas. It is not easy to get this kind of opportunity, in addition to the child's own conditions, but also thanks to his mother's desperate efforts to bring him into the group for an interview.

When she first entered the industry, Doumiao's mother ran nearly 20 crews in a month, and this year they also rented a house in Hengdian for more than two months, in order to get more opportunities to join the group.

In order to make a film, Doumiao's mother once drove more than 1,000 kilometers overnight. Once, when they had just finished the announcement of a Xi'an crew and were about to go back to Hengdian, they suddenly learned that a certain crew in Guizhou lacked a young actor, and the mother and son directly changed their tickets at the high-speed rail station.

But the cruel thing is that even if you stay in Hengdian, you may not be able to get a good opportunity.

During the summer vacation, Xiaoyu's mother rented a house in Hengdian for two months, thinking that she would let her children enter the group a few more times. However, Xiaoyu's mother found that although her child was born as a child model and had a good image, it was difficult to be selected.

In the past two months, most of the group roles that Xiaoyu has received are group roles with only backs, and slightly better special roles are all missing, such as being selected by the director when the group performance. If you rely purely on your own resume, you basically can't get good resources.

In Hengdian, children do not receive preferential treatment because of their young age.

Like adult actors, they not only film during the day, but also run night shows, and they can only find a corner to lean on a chair to rest for a few hours in between. The mothers will also accompany the scene, explain the director's requirements to the children, and cooperate with the crew to complete the shooting.

Filming summer scenes in winter, wearing only a thin layer of costumes, waiting for hours at the scene, Carissa's mouth was frozen and cracked. Wearing winter clothes in summer and being exposed to the sun in the heat of more than 40 degrees, the very white Carissa not only tanned her face several degrees, but also had prickly heat.

Nuno, who loves sports, only started filming in December this year, and there was a night scene from 4 pm to 3 am, and my mother remembered very well that it was only about zero degrees that night, and the mother and son sat on the camping chair and hugged them to keep warm. Because of the deep sleepiness, Nono fell asleep in his mother's arms, and every time it was Nono's turn to play, his mother would wake him up, and within four or five hours, Nono was woken up three or four times.

Strawberry ushered in the crew to cry the worst in the three years since it was born.

Qi bangs and big eyes, she is a sweet girl, because she was born during the epidemic, often stays at home, and her personality is slow and hot, her mother always wants to take her out to exercise, so she chose to shoot commercials, learn equestrianism, and be an actor.

The first time I filmed, I saw all kinds of lights and cameras in the crew, and a bunch of strangers, Strawberry was scared and cried, and the next day, my mother told her that she was not selected, and Strawberry cried for a long time, and both eyelids were swollen into single eyelids.

However, Strawberry's mother feels that this short crew experience of more than 20 minutes is not a loss, "My daughter never let strangers hold hands before, but now she can let the uncles and aunts of the group of dramas hug her." ”

The mother fights, and the child is tired. In Hengdian, rolling has become a norm.

In addition to time and physical strength, mothers also started a contest for money.

The growth path of a young actor is usually,Amateur - group performance - special - little actor - child star, the role and salary are gradually increasing.

The group performance level is the lowest, acting as a background board, the salary is about dozens of yuan a day, no casting is required, in the jargon, it is good to find a group leader in Hengdian to work, and you can shoot at any time if you want.

There are opportunities to show their faces and lines, and the young actors are at a higher level and can play some important roles, such as when the starring role in a big drama was a child, the salary can be as high as thousands of yuan a day.

From group evolution to special, this group has the largest number of people and is also the most volatile link. Many parents said that many children may not be able to get a special role after filming for a year, but there are also some children who can receive a lot in a short period of time.

This involves an unavoidable link in the industry chain of young actors - children's brokerage companies. In addition to strength, child agents play an important role in whether children have the opportunity to join the group.

Film and television is an industry that is highly dependent on connections, and a large number of crews are started in Hengdian every day, each crew is hundreds of people, and it takes a lot of time and energy for parents to find opportunities in the vast sea of people, and screen out the roles that their children can play, and then deliver effective resumes.

Partnering with a child agent with a lot of resources is a shortcut. They can get the latest recruitment needs of the crew, and they can also judge whether a child is suitable for the role through experience.

Finding a reliable agent is often twice the result for parents. Some children can be special or small actors when they enter the industry, mainly because we give them opportunities. Senior children's agent Miao Miao said to Fixed Focus. The feeling of many parents is also that if they want to get a better opportunity quickly, they basically have to sign a contract with a brokerage company.

As for the fee standard, it is divided into "full contract" and "**The amount is different for each brokerage company. When signing a full contract, some agents will charge a membership fee first, and then take a cut from the child's salary, and the contract time can be as long as ten or fifteen years, and some agents do not charge in the early stage. When signing, you usually have to pay a certain fee first, ranging from tens of thousands of yuan to more than 100,000 yuan, and the time ranges from 2 to 5 years.

Generally speaking, the whole contract is one-to-one, with unique attributes, and the threshold is also high, and the agent will measure the growth space of the child in many aspects** is many-to-many, and the threshold is relatively low. A mother said that many parents signed five or six brokers** in order to give their children the opportunity to appear on camera.

In the past two years, Yunguichuan has become a hot spot for filming, and the plate of children's agents has further expanded, which has also made local parents continue to join in and try it with curiosity.

The rapidly expanding children's brokerage industry has seen some chaos.

It has been reported that some children's brokerage companies have played a membership model, "20,000 1 years, at least 3 dramas can be guaranteed within 1 year." 50,000 3 years, at least 8 plays in 3 years".

Miaomiao said that some informal children's brokerage companies, or self-proclaimed training institutions, aimed at the anxiety of parents, and offered training fees of more than 100,000 yuan or even millions of yuan, saying that they could not only let children learn professional courses, but also provide all-round guidance for children to enter the industry. In reality, these promises are difficult to keep.

Some mothers have been cheated by "child brokers".

According to a mother's description, the children's agent was very reliable in the early stage, and the children who signed the contract were given the corresponding opportunities to join the group, but then it changed, and once after collecting the money, more than a dozen parents were directly blocked, and no one could be found at all. She felt that this might be "his last madness".

There is also a faster way to get a role for children - "bring money into the group", which is also an unwritten rule in the circle.

Many mothers will buy characters from training institutions and brokerage companies, spending tens of thousands of yuan to hundreds of thousands of yuan at a time, some characters have two or three lines, and some don't even have lines.

Xiaoya's mother revealed that a certain movie offered 40,000 **, which can compete with the powerful actors in the film;If it is a high-traffic drama, it will cost 80,000 starts, there are about 20 scenes, 20 lines, even if it is an "oh" word, it is also considered a game, in case the director feels that the effect is not good when he finishes filming, there is also the possibility of being deleted. A parent next to her paid 80,000 yuan and followed the group for three months, but there were only three lines and countless background boards.

Although it is unfair to bring money into the group, and there are many pitfalls, in the face of opportunities, many people still silently accept this unspoken rule.

Your children are good, pay 100,000 yuan, other people's children are not bad, pay 120,000 yuan, if you are the assistant director, who will you choose?Each industry has its own operating rules, one is willing to fight, and the other is willing to suffer. In the end, it depends on which one is richer, and the more chance it will be to cultivate a child star. A mother said.

When families began to exert their "money ability", the selection of young actors became a money game.

Child star, in the eyes of many people, is a word with its own halo.

In the communication with Fixed Focus, the reasons why children enter the industry can be roughly divided into several categories. The most common is a child model, who was accidentally brought into this circle by an agent and planned to give it a try.

There are some children who have star dreams and want to show themselves, and the glamorous and beautiful crew is very powerful for them. For example, Xiaoya wore a skirt to shoot outdoors at minus 7 degrees, and her whole body was stiff and still insisting. For her, who is studying dance, the feeling of being on stage is different from being on TV.

There are also some children who are influenced by their families. Strawberry's mother usually likes to watch an actor's dramas and variety shows, and Strawberry also liked it after meeting the actor's sister at an event. Her wish is that she will have the opportunity to stand by this sister's side in the future.

They were all attracted by the story of overnight success, but after entering the industry, they found that the selection of child actors did not consider "personalization" too much, and was more like an assembly line operation.

Xiaoya's mother no longer believes that there will be such a thing as a talent scout on the road, if someone comes to her and tells her that the child is very good, she will think that there is a pitfall, and think that this person is either selling classes or a brokerage company to pull people's heads.

This is largely due to the way in which the selection is conducted.

The crew's selection of young actors can be roughly divided into two ways, one is large-scale audition, or talent scouts actively excavate, and the other is casting (casting team), relying on the recommendation of parents and agents.

Due to the time-consuming and labor-intensive nature of the former, there are almost no national auditions in the mainland at present, and the latter is basically adopted. That is, the parents send their children's resumes to the children's agent, and the agent then packages these resumes and sends them to the crew, from which the crew selects suitable children for interviews and finally determines the candidates.

Although adult actors are also a similar selection process, the crew's requirements for child actors are more vague, and the requirements for performance professionalism are not too high.

A number of agents and directors have told Dingjiao that children will lose their innocence if they perform too many traces, and they want to be more in the state that children play in their true colors. Many parents have the misconception that their children cry and laugh when they laugh, which is a reflection of talent, but in their eyes, this cannot be equated with acting.

In contrast,Parental cooperationis the key factor to consider.

Miao Miao introduced that if you are given the opportunity to interview, but parents have repeatedly refused for reasons such as lack of time, school leave, and fear that their children will stay up late, then there will be another chance, when the two children have similar qualificationsShe prefers to give the quota to parents who are very cooperative and rush to the crew every time.

Three years is a hurdle for young actors, and the last group left behind are often parents and children with a high degree of cooperation.

The sharing model of children's agents also boosts the operation of this assembly line.

Compared to ** brokerage,Low-paid children's agents make a lot of money, that is, the contract. At present, there are not many children's dramas on the market, and they can't make much money by relying on the full salary share alone. Miao Miao said.

Miao Miao has been in this industry for five or six years, and the number of children who sign full contracts is only in single digits, and the number of ** signed is more than that of full contracts. She said that in Hengdian, a children's brokerage company,Up to 1,000 children can be used at the same time.

The purpose of some children's brokerage companies is to make money, and even parents can pay money to enter, how can they expect to be able to select good seedlings?An industry insider believes that this is a major pain point in the selection of young actors.

Under the assembly line, it is more difficult for young actors to get ahead, which also makes parents' attitudes change all the time. The bottom line of many parents is not to bring funds to the group, but they are also hesitating, if one day they meet a particularly good team, or can cooperate with their favorite actors, and the amount of funds is also within their ability, can they also consider spending money to fight?

When I first entered the industry, many families had a very simple idea, be lucky, and be like child star Yang Enyou, because the class was discovered by the director, and then got a popular ** and became famous. If you are unlucky, you can't become a star, so you should spend money to accompany your children to exercise in the crew. But as the investment increased, they had to face the question: is this road worth it?

From the point of view of making money, the consensus of parents isThe young actor industry belongs to high investment and low return, or even zero return. Especially in the early stage, many families invest regardless of the cost, the majority of which is the resource fee, that is, the signing fee with the brokerage agency and the cost of bringing capital into the group.

The second is the travel expenses such as air tickets and bus tickets to and from the crew, and some personnel expenses that need to be touched. For example, when an agent or a producer or director with a good relationship gives the opportunity to his children, the mothers will prepare some small gifts or invite them to dinner, and if the other party wants to come to the attractions near their home to play, the mothers will also arrange it properly.

As for room and board, it is not a large amount of overall expenditure. Most of the crews provide boxed lunches, and renting a house in Hengdian generally does not exceed 1,000 yuan per month.

Dou Miao's mother never thought about making money in the months she was resident in Hengdian, in her words, filming at most to earn more money to buy toys for her children, and it was impossible to balance the cost of food, lodging and hotel travel expenses.

Xiaoya's mother has invested nearly 500,000 yuan in filming for her children in the past two years.

Miaomiao found that the young actors who are now in the industry are basically not ordinary working families, and they have one of their parents who takes care of the baby full-time, and they can run the crew anytime and anywhere. Those with ordinary family backgrounds mostly end up withdrawing from the circle.

But the cruelty of this industry is that throwing money is not necessarily 100% rewarding, and good characters also depend on luck.

After running the group for a year, although Xiao Doumiao already has some works, and her mother is also working hard to bring her children into the group every day to find opportunities, they no longer have the idea of soaring into the showbiz, but more want to go and watch more. As for how long it can last, Doumiao's mother doesn't know. Xiaoya's mother's experience in recent years is that if a family does not have enough financial strength, it is best to leave the money for the child to study Xi or travel.

Dou Miao's mother has seen many parents around her, because she can't accept this gap, her emotions have collapsed several times, she is glad that she has been in business for a few years before, and can accept this kind of ups and downs.

After a long time, the mentality of mothers has been smoothed out again and again, and the return on investment ratio is no longer calculated.

As the "Tong Piao" group has attracted attention, there have also been some questioning voices in society.

Does the crew environment have an impact on a child's growth?Will staying up late for a long time cause harm to the child's health?Won't filming affect Xi?

Strawberry mother has seen some children who have been filming for a long time in the crew, and their behavior seems a little "greasy", and she is also worried that entering the group too early will affect the growth of children, but then I think about it, the more important thing is the guidance of parents.

There are two sides to everything. Mengmeng is in the sixth grade of primary school and has been in the industry for 3 years, her mother feels that her child is more mature than his peers, and at a young age, he often puts "cold and warm self-knowledge" in his mouth, and knows how to take care of the people around him.

The biggest problem facing mothers is how to balance their children's filming and Xi.

Many mothers said that filming is very energy-consuming, once they join the group, their children need to ask for leave from school, and they take time to study Xi between filming, and the daily Xi time cannot be fixed. So the sooner you film, the better, junior high school is a hurdle. Before going to elementary school, parents can take their children to stay in the crew, and the knowledge points during primary school are relatively simple, and if you miss class because of filming, it is easier to catch up.

Due to her long-term stay in the crew, Mengmeng's mother often discusses the topic of learning Xi with other parents, and they all hope that their children can take care of Xi and filming, so they have been looking for more effective self-learning methods, such as which learning Xi machine on the market is easy to use and what kind of online classes are suitable.

At present, Mengmeng's academic Xi grades have not declined. However, Mengmeng will be in the first year of junior high school next year, and the family originally planned to let him suspend filming when he reached junior high school, but at this moment Mengmeng's mother was a little hesitant.

We are in the rising period of our acting career, and if we follow our children's own ideas, we will definitely want to continue filming, but parents have to think about it. "Mengmeng's mother thought for a moment,"may still choose to film.

The crew is a small society, and the people in it realize that time, energy, money, and luck are indispensable in the young actor's business, so once they see an opportunity, it is difficult to let go easily.

At the request of the interviewee, Dou Miao, Mengmeng, Miaomiao, Xiaoya, and Xiaoyu are pseudonyms in the article.