**: Entertainment.
CD Home talks about entertainment in casting"There are hundreds of thousands of actors in China, but there are very few who can eat this bowl of rice and have the ability to be actors. The actor industry is to cross a single-plank bridge with thousands of troops, and only a handful of people can cross the single-plank bridge. ”
In the view of Bi Yingjie, co-founder of the casting company CD Home, although the "pool" of actors in internal entertainment is very large, when it is really adapted to each work, actors will become very scarce, which requires the casting team to check and help the director and actors establish communication, and have an understanding of the needs of the work, the platform, the actors, the director and the producer.
On the other hand, few people would have thought that the casting team was in the eye of these storms, they were witnesses, participants, and even judgers of decision-making. For example, Hu Ge became Mei Changsu, Xin Zhilei's New Year's explosion, Deng Wei and Tan Jianci's popularity and so on.
As a senior practitioner who has participated in the casting of many popular dramas such as "Sauvignon Blanc", "Yinian Guan Mountain", "Douluo Continent", "Do You Know If You Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin", "Langya Bang", "The Pretender" and "Flowers", how will they view the popularity and transformation of traffic artists? The very inclusive Xianxia ancient puppet, has it become popular metaphysics? Working with big directors such as Zhang Yimou and Liu Zhenwei, what is the use of the casting team? In response to these questions, Bi Yingjie, co-founder of Entertainment Studio and CD Home, chatted together.
Langya Bang", Hu Ge
Powerful factions who need opportunities, and traffic who want to transform:
If you have a demand, just mention it.
With the role of Li Li ushered in Xin Zhilei, who became popular at the beginning of the year, she cooperated with Bi Yingjie as early as 2012. From "Wang Dahua's Revolutionary Career" to "The Birth of an Actor", Xin Zhilei has been working hard to improve, and her acting skills have made a qualitative leap. Therefore, this is the opportunity for CD Home's casting team to recommend Xin Zhilei to director Wong Kar-wai.
The female characters of "Flowers" have their own extremely distinctive characteristics, we must not turn around when casting, we must play everyone's style, Xin Zhilei has a high degree of three-dimensionality, and there are some rare female heroes. Li Li in the play is Bao's top opponent, and after listening to the screenwriter's explanation of Li Li's character and the director's requirements for this role, we all felt that Xin Zhilei was very suitable to play, so we mentioned her to the director.
At that time, the director asked her who she was, and when she learned that it was the girl in "Embroidered Spring Knife 2", the director said that she knew, it was the one who cut off Zhang Zhendao. He said that this actor is very explosive, and he has also watched "Embroidered Spring Knife 2". So I immediately decided to meet Xin Zhilei in the Spring Festival of 2019. Xin Zhilei is also the second actor set in "Flowers" after Hu Ge. ”
In addition to Xin Zhilei's "Flowers", CD Home also has a lot of cooperation with traffic artists, Xianxia ancient puppets and other projects. In Bi Yingjie's view, young artists will have many clear demands out of a sense of crisis in their own careers and a sense of identity with their professional identity:
They urgently need to transform themselves from entertainment artists to professional actors, and they really want to participate in realistic themes, whether it is a strong plot, or urban life, or costume suspense, etc., they really hope that there is a director and a team that can give him experience. If there is a good opportunity to meet people who can support and promote them during the transformation, and through four months or half a year of shooting, let them really enter the threshold of actors, this will not be a ticket nature, because it is very important to them. ”
For young artists who want to get out of their comfort zone, works like "Mountains and Seas", "Big River" and "The Long Season" are all works they want to participate in. "The entertainment industry is too substitutive, and the most important thing is people. When you get older, even if you don't have wrinkles on your face, but you are still doing bouncing work, it will look very inconsistent, especially if there is no iron rice bowl that you can eat in other fields, then the sense of crisis will come. ”
In such an industry atmosphere, CD Home's casting team has also drawn the line and recommended many young artists who strive to break through. For example, Zhang Yixing and Jiang Shuying in "Mr. Good" are good cases. "Although it is a male lead play, she (Jiang Shuying) only has more than 100 scenes, but we predict that this role will be popular, because it depends on the audience's experience. The CP role partnered with Guan Xiaotong came from the proposal of the male number one teacher Sun Honglei, he said that he could try Zhang Yixing, and asked the director if he could try it. ”
In Bi Yingjie's view, this attempt is a two-way street. Because from the perspective of the director and creator, whether the traffic artist from idols will act is a question, and no one dares to pack tickets. For Zhang Yixing, the role setting of "Mr. Good" is more consistent with his own temperament, "So he mainly came to experience this process, and after this experience, Zhang Yixing later participated in starring in "Falling Flowers" by Noon Sunshine. ”
Mr. Good", Zhang Yixing and Jiang Shuying For the casting team, recommending these young artists to appear in high-quality works is also out of the intergenerational concept of the entertainment industry, "Just like before we would consider Huang Xuan, Wang Kai, and Zheng Kai of the post-80s, we must find a way to see their strengths, consider the structure of the works, and recommend them to the director." ”
But this kind of recommendation is also a process of increasing the workload for the director, and there will be many bursts. "For example, I said we can contact a top actor, why don't you give it a try? If the director says that he can try, these young artists who are not rich enough in experience and experience will need the director to spend more time on training. Because they are not like mature actors, they can shoot as soon as they come up, and the director needs to spend more time talking to the actors.
It's a process of betting or gambling, which is equivalent to 'who'll take the first bite of crab'. If the director can train the entertainment artist into an actor, when the artist's tuyere period arrives, the director will also become a Bole who has helped the transformation of traffic artists, and there will be opportunities and conveniences to cooperate again. ”
No War in Peking", Wang Kai
The very inclusive ancient puppet fairy, a newcomer who is eager to be excavated:
Metaphysics is not credible, but it will exist.
The casting team is between the director and the actors, which is equivalent to the setting of a think tank. They need to evaluate the suitability of the work and the actors, explore the strengths and prospects of the actors, be able to see the bonuses of the role to the actors, and at the same time evaluate who is the most suitable candidate from the perspective of the director, producer and platform.
I believe that most actors and directors are connected, but it is impossible for everyone to stare at each other, which requires the casting team to communicate and coordinate, and Zhang Yixing talked to us about what theme and role he wants to play. Or those top performers who seem to be not short of dramas, we can also coordinate and communicate from whether they want to transform or not. ”
If you don't want to transform at present, or if you haven't reached the basic threshold of transformation, the industry generally believes that themes such as ancient puppets and fairyal, which are highly inclusive, are also the main projects that CD Home often will**, and can skillfully dig out newcomers.
In 2023, when supporting roles are frequently on the table, Bi Yingjie revealed that in addition to Liu Shishi and Liu Yuning, the other actors in "Yi Nian Guan Mountain" are all selected through auditions, such as Chang Huasen, He Lantuo, Fang Yilun, etc. CD Home uses the elimination method in the audition process, and will first screen through the character portrait and the performance ability during the audition, "It also depends on whether their aura is enough, and whether it sticks to the character, and then it is 3 to choose 1 or 2 to choose 1." Whoever can be selected is also a kind of fate. ”
Yi Nian Guan Mountain", Chang Huasen, He Lan Tuo, Fang Yilun As senior practitioners in the domestic entertainment casting industry, although Bi Yingjie doesn't believe in some casting metaphysics, Chen Haoyu, who played the role of the county lord of Chuyue in "Yi Nian Guan Mountain", made him very impressed, "When filming "The Ethereal Record of Kyushu", we chose almost thousands of girls, when preparing Princess Xiaozhou, she was the first person I met, a year later, after I have met more than 1,000 people, she is still the final decision, maybe in the dark, This role is hers. ”
Yi Nian Guan Shan", Chen Haoyu's fate is highly compatible between the role and the actor, in the old industry saying that Bi Yingjie has heard, that is, every drama may have an actor who is difficult to find, even if it is found to be turned on or not found, then everyone will say that this person will always appear. "There may be times when a thought chooses this person, and then he becomes popular. Just like the casting of "Sauvignon Blanc", after the protagonist Yang Zi was finally determined after half a year of communication, the casting of the actor also went through a long time of discussion, "In the end, our casting team persuaded them one by one." ”
For example, Deng Wei, a fellow countryman who makes Bi Yingjie very proud, "I can only say that our casting director has a good vision." Deng Wei actually came to audition normally, with the process of trying out, trying out, and trying out with makeup. After the casting director took a fancy to him, he prepared a lot of ideas to communicate with the management and the platform, analyzed a lot of Deng Wei's advantages, future expectations, the suitability of him and Tu Shanjing's role, and the casting director's prediction of Deng Wei and Tu Shanjing, whether they will be out of the circle, etc. ”
Sauvignon Blanc", Deng Wei, including Xuanxuan played by Zhang Wanyi and Xiang Liu played by Tan Jianci, have also had the process of being recommended by casting directors. This is because in the casting process of "Sauvignon Blanc", almost all roles have many candidates, and the casting team needs to screen many times, "We will also communicate with the actor's agent to tell them the ingenuity of the role, as well as our prediction." ”
Because Tan Jianci was already very well-known when he was casting in "Sauvignon Blanc", "So from the very beginning, our casting team locked Tan Jianci to play Xiang Liu." In fact, when I was "Crime Hunting Guide", I recommended Tan Jianci. At that time, we were given the need to use the biggest and best actors, but we kept pushing and pushing until Tan Jianci played Shen Yi, and the effect was quite good. Bi Yingjie said.
Crime Hunting Guide", "Sauvignon Blanc", Tan Jianci.
Behind the gossip about tearing fans, slipping cakes, and changing corners, the casting team has also been sent blades.
In the eyes of the outside world, the casting team may represent the employer, so it is often closely connected with the gossip in the mouths of fans, such as tearing fans, slipping cakes, and changing roles. But when the entertainment studio threw out such a question, Bi Yingjie, the co-founder of CD Home, who has been in contact with the casting of domestic entertainment film and television dramas since around 2000, was also quite helpless.
Sometimes when I see some drama announcements, I don't know when our team talked about it, and I don't know who released the news, and even some people we haven't been in contact with at all, everyone says who is going to play so-and-so, and then they start to sit in the right seat, and the popularity is getting more and more.
At the earliest, we will also issue a statement, like "Langya Bang 2", to talk about the situation specifically. Later, I found out that this statement was useless, so I didn't respond, anyway, when the official announcement was made, the truth would be revealed. ”
Langya List 2", Liu Haoran and other "Flowers" were on the air, and it was rumored on the Internet that the show had a group of original lineups of Shanghainese actors, and many people did not set the roles that were finally presented in the drama during the audition process. But when talking to the entertainment studio, Bi Yingjie directly denied this statement, saying that he did not change the role during the filming of "Flowers", "In the early preparations, we may have chosen Zhang San, but then we felt that it was more suitable for him to play Li Si, so when the contract is over, we will adjust the direction of the actors." After the start of filming, as far as I know, except for a few actors due to special physical conditions, no actors have been replaced. ”
As for some of the role change turmoil circulating on the Internet, Bi Yingjie also said that many of them have no inside story: "Some of the role changes are because the feeling during the audition is different from the feeling during the shooting, it may be a problem of business ability, or it may be that the play is very good, and there is no problem with business ability, but your personal characteristics are submerged in the entire group drama, which will become a small detail that needs to be changed." ”
As mentioned above, Bi Yingjie and CD Home in the casting work, the most prominent trait is to find and solve problems, which requires the casting director to have a strong ability to predict, especially when the artist has an emergency with moral or ** problems, even if it is the fastest immediate replacement, the casting team also needs to consider how to change, who can come to the rescue, just change the face, can you change the traffic coffee position is a little lower, etc.
The vision and persistence of the casting team can not only help the actors gain or retain opportunities, but also allow the top actors to get life roles and "go one step further".
Through the cooperation experience of Noon Sunshine dramas such as "Langya Bang", "The Pretender", "No War in Beiping", "Children of the Qiao Family", "I Am Yu Huanshui", "Do You Know If You Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin", Bi Yingjie's most intuitive feeling is that "their professional attitude will affect our thinking, no matter how big or small the volume of this drama is, as long as we are doing it, we hope to give all the best efforts, as for whether the future broadcast will be popular, it is not up to us to decide, as long as the quality does not drop, this is enough for us." ”
The casting criteria of a good producer and production team will be very clear: it must be a good scene. "There are almost no relationships, only whether it is appropriate to play this role or not, and if the play is not good, it will not work. For the casting team, we want to ensure the quality of the actors' plays, and they must meet complete standards. Just like recommending Hu Ge to star in "Langya Bang" and "The Pretender", "At that time, he was acting in the drama "Dream Like a Dream", and when we met to discuss who could play Mei Changsu, someone mentioned Hu Ge, from his own experience to his temperament, Director Kong Sheng said after listening to it, 'I think he is Mei Changsu.' ’”
Langya Bang", Hu Ge "Like Liu Mintao, we have other candidates for the eldest sister of "The Pretender", but because her time schedule will definitely not be finished, after thinking about it for a while, we thought of Sister Mintao. At that time, the consideration was that she was too thin, and she might not necessarily match the aura of the eldest sister, but when I tried on makeup, I put on the eldest sister's windbreaker and there was a Hu Ge standing next to me, I felt very good, and the combination of "Langya Bang" also came out. ”
Bi Yingjie also revealed that the casting team will also consider the suggestions of fans of the original book, "I think they are all well-intentioned and will bring some inspiration, which is a good thing." But everyone has their own Hamlet in their hearts, and sometimes there will be some attacks, saying that they want to send us blades or something. Anyway, let's just treat it with a normal heart. ”
The big wave of gold panning, the establishment of cognition, the casting industry of domestic entertainment is maturing.
Because of the accumulation in the industry, Bi Yingjie and CD Home have been exposed to a lot of projects, and there are more people who need to be reported and contacted. But only with screenwriters, original authors, etc., "We rarely face it directly, mainly to avoid misjudgment." Because the casting team and the creator look at the text, the sense of substitution is different, and their choice will be more subjective, but we need to look at who can do the role more objectively. ”
is like Zhu Yilong of "Do You Know If You Should Be Green, Fat, Red and Thin", "At that time, "Town Soul" had not yet been broadcast, and we recommended it with a predictive vision, and then they really reached a cooperation, and when "Do You Know" was about to be broadcast, "Town Soul" exploded, which was really lucky. ”
Do you know if it should be green, fat, red and thin", Zhu Yilong For Bi Yingjie and CD Home, the more projects they participate in, the more they can see the necessity of the casting industry in the development of domestic entertainment. When Hong Kong director Liu Weiqiang and Bona Film cooperated in two large-scale group dramas "Chinese Captain" and "Chinese Doctor", director Liu Weiqiang was quite strange at first for the addition of the casting team, because if you shoot a Hong Kong film, the producer will go to the actors, and according to the size of the movie, there are those few, and most of them can be solved.
When we first went to his company, we talked about the main characters like Zhang Hanyu and Yuan Quan, and I said that you all said hello, so who do you want to use for the rest of the people? Who are these people to solve? In addition, how to match the various passengers in the cabin? This is something he doesn't know much about when he makes films in mainland China. We need to match these casts in advance, and we can't have familiar faces that everyone knows, because it will affect the presentation of the plot.
Even some of the big directors, when we go to meet them, they ask the question, 'What do you do?' Because these big directors may be able to set up a lot of big-name actors with a message, a meal and a chat, they don't know enough about the details of our team's work. ”
Chinese Captain", Zhang Tianai After this, the audition of pure newcomers for some film and television projects is like panning for gold in the big waves, and the casting team will also give complete training to newcomers. There are also director Wong Kar-wai during the filming of "Flowers", hundreds of people came in and out, the working hours of these actors, the shooting of interstitial advertisements, the dubbing during post-production, the schedule of the promotion period, etc., CD Home's casting team will also handle it on their behalf.
When asked how he felt when he saw newcomers like Zhou Yiyi, Yang Caiyu, Zhong Chuxi, and Chen Yongsheng step by step towards the public and achieved today's results? Bi Yingjie bluntly said that he would also feel very proud, he took "Menghualu" Zhao Paner making tea as an example, "Why is the tea she brewed so delicious?" Because she is not only invested in the quality of tea, but also has her own mood expression in the process of making tea. It's the same as casting, I do it with all my passion, and I do it with a job, and the effect is definitely different. ”
In the eyes of the outside world, the casting work does not seem to be complicated, and it is mainly emotional. However, in the communication with Bi Yingjie, the co-founder of CD Home, the entertainment studio found that the so-called casting is actually a very systematic type of work, and there is a story related to the development of the industry behind the production of each role. The casting team's forward-looking vision and ability to predict emergencies are by no means achieved overnight, but must be repeatedly summarized over a long period of time and in a variety of projects.
There is no such thing as a simple job in the world, especially for the director, actor, platform, service .....and so on. In places where the starlight and discussion do not shine, they are trying to make the casting work more standardized and flexible, which can deliver more new actors to the industry, and use more freshness to awaken and attract more audiences.