There are not enough actors in Hengdian, and the salary of group performances has increased by 10 times in two months? The real-life version of "Boss" has come to film.
On March 5, the Hengdian Film and Television City Actors Guild lined up again. Many young people come to participate in the selection interview, hoping to be promoted from group performance to prospective actor, and strive to appear in film and television dramas.
This year, as more and more crews settle in, actors' acting opportunities are increasing, and there is a realistic version of "Mr. Ba" who has just been in Hengdian for two months, and he has played the second male lead; There are also college students who have starred in seven or eight micro-short dramas ...... half a yearBut at the same time, many crews are having a headache because of "not enough group performances", and some new actors also feel "ability panic" in the face of sudden opportunities.
Indeed, not long ago, the topic of "shortage of group performances in Hengdian" also attracted the attention of the whole network. Faced with this situation, the Chao News reporter found during an interview in Hengdian that the Hengdian Actors Guild is increasing the time and quota for actor passes to meet the filming needs of the crew. In addition, systematic training related to film and television performances is also highly sought after in the local area.
Multiple crews in Hengdian booked shooting scenes. Photo by Chao News reporter Wu Yue.
Urgent! There is a shortage of group performances in Hengdian.
Someone has 10 times his salary in two months.
Downstairs in the hotel where a crew settled, Shen Tao (pseudonym), a group performer who has been in the industry for 6 years, is waiting for work. In less than 5 minutes, he received 6 actor announcement group messages: "100 group performances", "The crew recruits actors with the group, and the monthly salary ......is 6000-7000 yuan".
Recently, he has seen an increase in demand for group performances – recruitment notices have at least doubled compared to two months ago, "The crew is asking for group performances every day, and young people like me are more suitable for the scene, which is particularly demanding." ”
Shen Tao received 6 group notices to recruit actors in 5 minutes. Photo by Chao News reporter Wu Yue.
The shortage of group performances also made the "mother" of Hengpiao actors, the Hengdian Film and Television City Actors Guild, worried. Recently, a large crew asked the Actors Guild late at night that "80 group performers are needed", but only 50 people were found in the follow-up. In order to fill the vacancy, the crew can only temporarily invite special actors to play some scenes.
To this end, the Hengdian Film and Television City Actors Guild has increased the time and quota of actor passes. After searching for "Hengyingtong" on the Zhejiang Office app, it was shown that the number of actor certificates increased to 260 on March 6, and the number of places that can be reserved on March 1 is 140, and the number of places that can be reserved this month has increased by 53%.
Increase the time and quota notification of actors. **Dongyang Hengdian Film and Television City Actors Guild.
Chao News reporter learned that since the beginning of this year, the crew settled in Hengdian has increased by more than 20% year-on-year, and the gap in young group performances in the first week of March is about 40%. At present, the crew needs a large number of extras, especially the shortage of young male group performances is more serious. Newly registered actors can join the crew as a group performer after completing the formalities and participating in pre-job training.
On the one hand, the crew suffers from the lack of group performances, and issues recruitment announcements through the Actors' Guild every day; On the other hand, after the hot actor pass "** tide", it has withstood the test of the big waves and sands, some people have risen to the challenge, some people have been frustrated and retreated, and there are only a few "sideways actors" who can really stay for a long time.
In the first month of this year, actor Zhang Xiaohua (pseudonym) from Guangdong saw that the ** line was 100 meters long, and the new actors had been lining up from the ** window to the outside of the building. This scene reminded him that when he first came to Hengdian last year, less than 5 of his 18 friends have left behind.
Being an actor is hard, staying up late to film is the norm, even if you appear on camera for five or six hours a day, you have to wait on the set for more than ten hours. In addition to working for a long time, Zhang Xiaohua said that many group performances did not participate in professional training and improvement because of their amateur acting skills, so they could only be tired of running around in different group performance scenes.
A group performer shows income. Photo by Chao News reporter Wu Yue.
In the long run, the monthly income of three or four thousand yuan is only enough for daily expenses for ordinary group performances. Moreover, this situation is still a long way from real acting. Zhao Haiying, a senior special actor who is filming in Hengdian, suggested that new people should do a good job in group acting, make career plans during exercise, and get roles with lines through acting skills, which means that they can get a higher income.
In Hengdian, doing group performances is the first step for every new actor. After that, they can be promoted to special actors and roles through exams and acting skills. Salaries are also clearly divided according to the level -
At present, the daily salary of group performances is more than 100 yuan, and according to the current shortage of group performances, the salary may also be increased. If you are promoted to a special actor, your daily salary can be increased by 3-10 times.
According to the relevant responsible person of the Actors Guild, the cumulative number of registrations of "Horizontal Drifting Actors" has reached 130,000. There have been 1,400 new actors registered this year, an increase of about 60% year-on-year. But as the demand for the crew soars, in the future, the cast gap may be even greater.
Busy! Go to the "actor's dream".
The realistic version of the "boss" and retired civil servants come to "drift sideways".
There is a shortage of group performances, attracting many young people to join them. Compared with making a living, some other group performances that have "confidence" are very envied by "novice group performances", after all, these group performances that do not need to pay too much attention to food and clothing needs can already chase the "actor's dream" with more peace of mind.
"Liu Lin is from Xinjiang and was previously a civil servant. After he retired, because his daughter came to work in Pan'an, Zhejiang, he and his wife moved to live in Hengdian.
In less than two years of acting, Liu Lin has starred in more than 20 film and television dramas, of which half are micro-short dramas, and he has played roles such as chairman, father, treasure master and bodyguard. Liu Lin said that he doesn't like square dancing, but he loves acting, and his life in Hengdian is very fulfilling.
In order to fulfill his "actor dream", he also participated in the actor training held by Hengdian Film and Television Crew Service***. Now it's the second time I've signed up for a class to study - I've participated in a basic acting class, and I'm in a promotion class during this time, hoping to improve my acting level and strive to appear in more good works.
During the training at that time, he took 6 hours of classes every day, learning acting, auditions, basic language skills training for lines, Wia, horseback riding, etc., and had to memorize lines on weekends. Liu Lin said that the teachers are all invited professionals, and after systematic learning, he can perform the characteristics of the characters according to the script situation, and the probability of being selected by the director is getting higher and higher.
Actors who participated in the training. Photo by Chao News reporter Wu Yue.
trained with Liu Lin, as well as Dong Shuzhi. He is the founder of a financial company in Shanghai, just came to Hengdian for two months, saw the recruitment of the actors' guild group, submitted resumes, and successfully got the role of male number two after two interviews.
In the eyes of others, Dong Shuzhi has achieved financial freedom and is a realistic version of the "boss". However, in his heart, he has had a "dream of being an actor" since he was a child. During the Spring Festival this year, Dong Shuzhi stayed in Hengdian to film and earned the first pot of gold in "Hengpiao".
Compared to my previous career in finance, acting is not my specialty, but it is a direction of study in the future, and I feel a sense of accomplishment. "He's happy with his current income.
The reporter asked, "Did you earn tens of thousands of yuan?"He smiled, very modest, "No, no, I feel that there is no gain." It's important to put in your own efforts, but of course you need a little luck. ”
In Hengdian, there is no shortage of people who come from afar for the "actor's dream", they have clear goals and work hard. In another classroom, Shi Yongxue, from Beijing, is taking advantage of recess to make up notes, hoping to become a martial arts actress.
Shi Yongxue is taking notes in the training class. Photo by Chao News reporter Wu Yue.
Walking down the aisle outside the classroom, sometimes crying, sometimes angrily questioning, "Do you want it?" There are also many actors training in bel canto, "ah, ah, ah" one ......after anotherEvery classroom carries the efforts and dreams of the actors.
In Hengdian, as long as you are willing to work hard, your dreams will really come true. "This is the motivation for many actors in the training class to realize their dreams. Because, judging from the experience of the classmates around them, there are not many people who play the second male lead in the circle for two months and star in dozens of film and television dramas a year.
Hot! The tide of investment in micro-short dramas is coming.
Beijing's "contractor" has become the "behind-the-scenes financier".
The popularity of short dramas has triggered a wave of investment, and at the same time, the pursuit of quality of short dramas is also heating up. From the experience of many group performances, it can also be felt that the definition of group performances by the micro-short drama crew is no longer just "running the show", but has solid real requirements.
Su Nan, from Beijing, is a new investor in micro-short dramas. At the beginning of March, when the reporter met him in the scenic area of Hengdian Film and Television City Huaxia Cultural Park, the second micro-short drama "Entwining Palace" that he invested in had just been completed and participated in the play for the first time. This year, he expects to invest in more than a dozen more short dramas.
Su Nan (first from right) is filming a short drama. Photo by Chao News reporter Wu Yue.
Su Nan originally worked on engineering projects in Beijing, and his friends called him "the contractor". And many investors like him are becoming the "behind-the-scenes financiers" of micro-short dramas. According to official statistics, in December 2023, there will be as many as sixty or seventy crews filming micro-short dramas in the Huaxia Cultural Park.
At the beginning of March, on the set of Green Mango, another modern drama filming location in Hengdian, Yu Fanhao, the director who had previously filmed the long drama, was filming the short drama "Double Kill" in Hengdian. Since last year, he has made more than 30 short dramas.
Yu Fanhao found that micro-short dramas have also become popular in the industry - big drama directors have entered the market, and even veteran actors are also involved in the shooting and post-production of micro-short dramas. For example, the micro-short drama working group of a certain Hong Kong director has been inspecting the venue in Hengdian recently.
The Chao News reporter learned that compared with the big dramas with an investment of tens of millions of yuan, the production cycle of micro-short dramas is low and the investment is small, and some only need to invest four or five hundred thousand yuan, and one can be filmed and produced within 30 days. Due to the low cost, it also gives investors more opportunities for trial and error.
Green Mango on set. Photo by Chao News trainee reporter Wu Fumei.
Filming five micro-short dramas, as long as one of them becomes popular, you can make money. Previously, a popular micro-short drama had a return of up to 20 million yuan. An assistant director of the casting of micro-short dramas revealed to Chao News reporters that this is also the main reason for the influx of hot money into micro-short dramas.
With the growth of filming demand, excellent actors are in short supply, and more and more actors have paid more attention to the content of short dramas. Vulgar and eye-catching micro-short dramas are obviously not favored by the audience, and the director is also changing his thinking for this reason.
The filming scene of the short drama. Photo by Chao News reporter Wu Yue.
At the beginning of March, Liu Xinyuan, a junior at a university in Hebei, received an invitation to participate in the role of the second female in a micro-short drama, so she rushed to Hengdian. In the six months since she entered the industry, she has participated in seven or eight micro-short dramas. She also saw changes in the role requirements: "For the first micro-short drama audition, the director asked to play a little exaggerated. In the last drama, the director often told me to 'collect a little', and the acting requirements were more delicate, and the content was also plump. ”
It can be seen from this that micro-short dramas are also providing training opportunities for more actors. Yuan Man, the person in charge of Huaxia Cultural Park, believes that if new actors want to develop in the entertainment industry for a long time, they need excellent works to precipitate. A good micro-short drama is exactly what they and the whole society need.
These are all a microcosm of the efforts of "horizontal drifting actors" to improve themselves, and they are also vivid examples of the changes in the crew industry. In Hengdian, there is never a shortage of opportunities for good actors. But in the final analysis, the "horizontal drifting actors" can finally stay in Hengdian for a long time, after all, it depends on their acting skills.
*: Chao News client reporter Wu Yue trainee reporter Wu Fumei intern Lan Xinyu.