Become famous another day.

Before the second episode of "The Birth of the Actors" officially started recording, Lu Yanhe was inexplicably nervous.

The tension mainly comes from the fact that too many unexpected things happened in the first episode.

Too much attention.

Although the more dramatic things there are in the show, the more topics there will be. However, Lu Yanhe still hopes that the original intention of this show - the discussion about acting skills - will not be overshadowed by these topics.

Lu Yanhe has always felt that the reason why the show "The Birth of the Actors" was able to achieve such success in the original world was because it happened to coincide with the phenomenon of traffic actors having no acting skills that emerged due to the rise of the traffic era. There was a period of two or three years at that time, almost everyone was lamenting why good actors now have no plays to perform, and why the plays that appear in front of everyone now are so bad.

Thus, the discussion about what is a good performance came into being.

Coincidentally, this show came at this time.

The most important thing is that this program has indeed brought many new and good actors to everyone. In almost every episode, there will be one or two actors who were not paid attention to before and suddenly become the object of everyone's pursuit, and their popularity soars, just like an idol star who receives huge attention.

For example, Zhou Yiwei, Shu Chang, Xin Zhilei, Ling Xiaosu and Lan Yingying, Liu Mintao and Peng Yuchang...

Of course, this program also contributed many famous variety show scenes that had nothing to do with the performance itself, such as Ms. Zhang throwing big leather shoes, ants racing, and Haiwa.

However, putting all that aside, the fact that this program can bring so many talented actors into the public eye shows that the audience is attracted by the content of the program.

Lu Yanhe hopes this program can achieve this.

After all, the recording of the second episode was not as dramatic as the first one.

Overall, the recording went very smoothly, and there was no incident like He Sha withdrawing from the competition.

However, there was still a group of actors who had conflicts and contradictions due to coordination issues. After the performance, the two sides directly accused each other on the stage, which made everyone feel headache.

Both of these actors are somewhat famous and have fans, but they are not top-tier celebrities.

The two people accused each other, which made Chen Lingling angry on the spot.

"You must always remember that you can argue and have conflicts, but don't bring them to this stage! You can just fight backstage! Because this is where you face the audience, you must respect the audience!"

In fact, in the last issue, Chen Lingling also got angry about a similar issue.

Chen Lingling seems to be very concerned about not letting the audience see what happens behind the scenes.

Of course, Chen Lingling also explained it later.

"The audience has no obligation to understand why your performance went wrong. When your show went wrong, you just blamed each other and passed the buck. I don't care who is right or wrong between you. Now that you are standing here, you have to admit your mistakes to the audience. Why? Your performance hurt the audience, and now you are causing secondary harm to the audience because of the trivial things between you two. Who cares about your little things? People come to watch the performance, not to watch you quarrel."

Chen Lingling's very stern tone made both actors look unhappy.

Even Zhou Zifang, who advanced later, did not look very happy about his advancement.

After the entire recording of the second episode was completed, the director team went to communicate with the three mentors and this episode's flying mentor Li Songfan about the filming of the short film between them and the qualified contestants.

Lu Yanhe did not participate in this session and went backstage to take a break.

The short film shooting will be scheduled for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.

The contestants who advanced from the first round and the contestants who advanced from the second round were filmed together.

Chen Lingling will direct the filming of three of the short films, while the other short films will be directed by directors invited by other program teams.

The production cost of this program is almost several times that of other variety shows because of the design of these links and staff remuneration.

There are too many people involved.

Others may only need one day to record an episode, but it takes them at least three days.

Moreover, the number of big names they invited was at least twice that of other shows.

Just the three mentors in one episode, Gapeng Xing and Lu Yanhe, as well as the six flying mentors in each episode, are already the top configuration of other S-level programs.

It can be said that the production costs required to record an episode of "The Birth of the Actors" are two or three times that of other programs.

Fortunately, because it is a joint investment by Yuehu TV, Northern Lights Video, Linghe and Chen Ziyan's Shihuo, and because the program is popular enough, the income from brand sponsorship and product placement is high enough, the program can continue.
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Lu Yanhe saw several contestants who were going to perform on stage today recording and preparing for interviews backstage.

A very strange scene was that two of the three people who were recording the interview had red eyes, as if they had just cried.

This show... can it make people cry?
Lu Yanhe felt very tired.

Just like what Peng Zhixing had told him before, if it weren't for this show, he would have had a hard time meeting so many... How to describe it? So many people who "can act"? That can't be said, because it seems like he's overthinking them all.

I like people who express emotions too much.

That’s how I describe it.

The crew he was in before was indeed composed of people who had gone through many rounds of screening.

The actors who are able to join these crews are all outstanding ones who have gone through many rounds of auditions and interviews.

However, in this program, what he saw was the normal environment of the entertainment industry.

Not everyone takes performance seriously, and not every actor respects his or her opponent and understands that only when the opponent is good enough can they be good enough.

Not every actor knows that they should not give instructions to others' performances on the spot unless others actively ask for your opinion.

Therefore, in the collaboration of each of these performance segments, we can see all kinds of frictions and conflicts.

They are not newcomers, and have all been in this industry for a long time. They come to this show for different purposes, different intentions, and different things they want to show. There are many distractions, and too few original intentions for performance. No one is willing to give in to anyone else. If it weren't for the three people sitting in the audience, they probably wouldn't stand on the stage and be scolded.

Fortunately, Chen Lingling was invited.

This person is not only capable, but also famous and qualified.

Really, if it was really Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige who brought this up, it wouldn't be appropriate.

They are not old enough.

Lu Yanhe took a deep breath.

Making a show like this is really much more tiring than filming a movie.

However, Lu Yanhe had no regrets at all.

Especially after going to the Oscars and experiencing what happened with Harvey, Lu Yanhe became more and more aware that in this era, if you want to make good film and television projects, and want to gain a foothold in this environment where all kinds of maliciousness may emerge at any time, you have to gain recognition from the industry.

Lu Yanhe thought that the main reason why he was able to gain support in the conflict with Harvey this time was of course because Harvey's remarks had angered Asian Americans in Europe and America, and were not in line with the current "politically correct" public opinion environment. But in addition to this, there was another key point: the industry he was in gave him great support.

The first group of people who stood up to speak for him and accused Harvey of needing to apologize to Lu Yanhe were not those American stars who defended "political correctness". Their accusations against Harvey were about what he said, not about Harvey blaming Lu Yanhe for provoking racial confrontation between the black and yellow races.

Standing on the front line and directly pointing out that Harvey was trying to confuse the public and shift the blame were Jiang Yuqian, the main creators of "Friends", "Squidward" and "The Gold Rush", and artists in the Chinese entertainment industry who have some influence internationally.

It was they who first stood up and made public statements, which led to artists from other countries and regions in Asia speaking out.

Although Harvey has not apologized to Lu Yanhe specifically so far, because of their voices and the momentum they have united together, Harvey's actions are not limited to discrimination against Asians, but also include shirking responsibility and shifting the blame -

Therefore, Lu Yanhe hopes to make the entire Chinese film and television industry better through his own efforts.

If "The Birth of the Actors" can really become a stage for good actors to stand out, it will be the most direct contribution he can make to the industry in the near future. If this program can bring more changes to the industry, that would be even better.
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The first episode of "The Birth of the Actors" was aired in early March. The show did not encounter any doubts or negative reviews, just like the storm of topics it had stirred up in the early stages. After the first episode was aired, almost all major social media platforms were filled with discussions about the show in the next two days.

From the performance itself, to the various incidents that occurred among the competing actors, to the mentors' comments... there were so many topics.

The show lived up to everyone's expectations and became a huge hit. The only thing that made Lu Yanhe a little nervous and worried was in which direction the show would go.

Fortunately, although the topic was quite hot, the actors' performances still attracted a lot of attention.

As a popular idol, Liu Zhiyin participated in the show, but was directly eliminated. This incident was used by many of Liu Zhiyin's haters to make a fuss, mocking her, and even became a hot topic. Of course, in fact, when Liu Zhiyin decided to participate in this show, she had already anticipated that this might happen.

She herself didn't take it too seriously, knowing that the darkness wouldn't last for a few days.

She herself is not a professional actor, and she made it very clear on the show that she just came to see her own possibilities.

Under the intentional guidance of the program team, the audience who actually watched the show also realized that Liu Zhiyin, as a non-professional actor, has shown a surprising performance attitude and quality.

Just look at the comments of several tutors and you will know.

Everyone is encouraged and praised.

When Liu Zhiyin was badly criticized, her rival Zhang Pingqing posted a post, talking about how he met Liu Zhiyin during their collaboration. From the perspective of an opponent and collaborator, he talked about the efforts behind the scenes of a new actor who was unfamiliar with acting but very serious about it.

Lu Yanhe was originally preparing to speak out, but after reading Zhang Pingqing's post, he felt that there was no need for him to say anything more, so he directly forwarded Zhang Pingqing's post and said only one sentence -

Zhiyin is the most adventurous person I know. She is willing to come to this show as a popular idol and compete with other actors as an ordinary contestant. I believe that she is definitely not concerned about winning or losing - if she cares, she can just not come. The PK competition system of the show is just to make the show more competitive, but the actors who participate in this show must have something more important than winning or losing, such as exploring the boundaries of the performing arts stage.

Liu Zhiyin also responded generously: I am very happy that Director Chen Lingling got to know me through this program. I have received the script. I will continue to work hard and do my best. Let's meet again as actors in the future! New actor Liu Zhiyin is here!

Compared to the time when she just returned to China, Liu Zhiyin is undoubtedly now more familiar with the domestic entertainment industry environment. She is no longer so stubborn and competitive, and she also knows how to respond to things in a way that the audience likes.

No matter how much the haters jumped around, she never gave up. She admitted her shortcomings openly and expressed her determination to keep working hard.

This attitude, as well as her good performance in the show, won her the love and support of many people.

In addition to this couple, another actor who caught everyone's attention was Wang Dashan.

This new actor, who made a splash in Lost on Journey, played a mentally retarded younger brother on this stage. In just over ten minutes, he outperformed Liu Yu, another very mature actor, in terms of body control and performance dedication.

Did Liu Yu act badly? Did Liu Yu act wrong?
No, they are all good.

But in front of Wang Dashan's performance that was so simple that it seemed like a return to nature, no matter how profound one's skills were, they were not as touching as the overwhelming emotion brought about by emotional resonance.

Chen Lingling's comment on Liu Yu was praised by the audience as a sharp point -

You are good in every way, but you don't have the power to touch people's hearts. This is the difference between an ordinary good actor and a great actor. Liu Yu, if you take this step, you will take this step towards becoming a great actor. If you don't, you will always be just an ordinary good actor in your life.

Liu Yu's face turned red on the spot.

He had no way of refutation when Chen Lingling said this.

However, although Chen Lingling criticized him harshly, she still asked him to play opposite the actors who advanced to the next round in the short film she directed.

The other actors who advanced have Shang Yongzhou and Chen Bige to play opposite and compete with them, but the actors who choose her to advance can only be selected by her to compete with them.

Chen Lingling asked Liu Yu to be the PK actor for two of the groups.

His intentions are evident from this.
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Compared with these two groups, the other two groups have stirred up an even bigger storm of controversy.

He Sha and Cheng Hai, Liu Zhiyao and Zhen Hongyu.

The former has been discussed for a long time, and for the latter, Zhen Hongyu advanced thanks to audience voting, while Liu Zhiyao was eliminated as a result. Subsequently, the two people's innuendo-filled remarks on the stage have been interpreted in many ways.

However, Jiang Yuqian finally used her right of resurrection on Liu Zhiyao.

This allowed a set of competitions that could have been highly controversial to be successfully completed safely.

But there are still many people saying that the reason why Zhen Hongyu was able to get higher audience votes in such a evenly matched duel is because she is more famous and has a higher popularity.

Many people also went to Lu Yanhe's Weibo comment section to ask how the show selected the audience? Couldn't they select some fair audiences?

Lu Yanhe thought about it and decided to post a Weibo post in response to what he had wanted to say for a long time but had not said:
As the producers of the program, what kind of fairness do we want to ensure? We want to ensure that no one wins by "backdoor" because of personal connections, interests or other factors. We want to ensure that the program will not maliciously edit the competing actors, cutting all the highlights for A and all the garbage for B. As for some people being popular and some not being so popular, some people have been acting in recent years, some people have not acted for a long time, some people are more popular with the audience, and some people are just average. For these questions, I want to ask, so what? Actors make a living by their faces. Do we let actors wear masks to perform? Do we have to find 200 people who never watch TV dramas and don't know any actors to be the audience to vote? Is this absolutely fair? What's the point of actors selected by such audiences? Performance is the thing that is least fair. Even if you perform 100 points of skill, it may not be as good as the true feelings of another person. Acting is a profession that cannot be bought with a lot of money. This is my understanding.

Naturally, there are still people who refute what Lu Yanhe said, and some people pick on it and find logical loopholes.

Lu Yanhe did not explain further.

Many words are spoken just for the sake of being understood by those who understand.
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At the beginning of March, as usual, Chen Ziyan held a small meeting with Lu Yanhe and told him in advance about his main schedule for this month. As Lu Yanhe's current executive agent, Wang Biao began to become the main person in charge of this link.
"You are going to Thailand this month to attend a film festival. In addition, the main schedule this month is the recording of "The Birth of an Actor". Then you will go to Malaysia to attend a film award event. By the way, you will have dinner with director Huang Tianlin and talk about the filming of the movie "Tropical Rain Season"."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

Overall, this month continues to be a busy one.

But it's relatively okay and quite regular.

The itineraries to Thailand and Malaysia are just around the same time, so I can go out for a week and finish it all in one go.

"I think the media in these two places will still pay attention to the Oscars this time, so I rejected the media interview arrangements in both places this time." Chen Ziyan said, "You should also try not to mention this matter again. The heat has finally died down, so don't stir up the issue again."

"Yeah." Lu Yanhe nodded.

"Linyu will go with you to these two places this time, so I won't go with you. Wang Biao will be in charge of the work connection." Chen Ziyan said, "You can get in touch with their young directors more and see if they have any good works at these two film festivals. If so, you can communicate with them and invite them to China. The film environment in Thailand and Malaysia is very average. If it is suitable, you can go there and sign a few young directors with potential to come to Linghe."

Lu Yanhe said yes.

Wang Biao was a little confused and asked, "Signing them means letting them come to China to make movies?"

"They can come and make suitable Chinese-language films, or they can make their own films," said Chen Ziyan. "The production costs of their films in Malaysia and Thailand are much lower than ours, so the funds needed to support them are not that large. Moreover, Linghe now really needs to train some young directors to shoot some films that are lighter in size and subject matter. The film directors in these two places are very good at shooting this type of film, family, ethics, love and comedy... In this regard, our domestic commercial film market tends to shoot films with large box office volume, and most of the films with this subject matter are literary films."

Lu Yanhe understood what Chen Ziyan meant.

Indeed, in Southeast Asia, because their own box office market is not large, it is impossible to make special effects blockbusters like Hollywood, so they can only work hard on the script. However, the local environment and climate determine the local film industry, and this has indeed allowed them to create the characteristics of Southeast Asian films.

From "A Little Thing Called First Love" to "When Parents Are Away", from "The Funeral House for Rent" to "Grandma's Grandson".

For this type of film, except for the youth romance theme of "A Little Thing Called First Love" which has been turned into a bad movie, the others are rare themes in domestic commercial films.

That is, the so-called movies in the 1-3 million box office range.

Domestic film companies are too eager to make movies with a box office of tens or hundreds of billions and are not interested in this small box office, which has led to a gap in this type of subject matter.

Lu Yanhe said to Chen Ziyan: "I will pay attention to it."

Linghe should indeed sign more directors.

Of course, according to their plan, they could only produce low- and medium-cost films in the first few years. They would not be able to make ends meet for large-investment, high-budget films. Even if they took out a bank loan or raised investment from outside, a box office failure would lead to the collapse of Linghe.

So, take it step by step and start with these small-scale movies.

The most important thing is that if we can really achieve the ideal state and train some young directors, they can practice and gain experience through these small-scale films. Linghe will develop and their directing abilities will be honed. If there are suitable large projects in the future, they can of course try bigger risks.

After all, before filming The Wandering Earth, Guo Fan also filmed a movie called My Deskmate, which was a box office success, which made it possible for The Wandering Earth to be filmed. It is said that Guo Fan filmed this movie with great effort and difficulty, but if it were not for the box office success of My Deskmate, he might not even have taken the first step in The Wandering Earth. (End of this chapter)