Chapter 512: I Will Start Acting as a Group Today
Hengdian, the largest group performance training base in China.
A group of ignorant and immature new actors came here in a bus.
The 50 contestants of "Actors Please Take Your Place" have completed the first stage of the team assessment, and each joined the team of four mentors, starting their first round of competition adventure.
Unlike the positioning of singer-type talent shows, "Actors Please Take Your Place" is also a talent show, but the focus is also on the word "training".
The competition system of the entire program is basically half competition and half training.
In each round of competition, the mentors train and teach the contestants how to be a qualified actor in the first half, and the second half is the competition elimination.
The first round of competition, training and teaching location is in Hengdian.
The 50 new contestants, whether they have had experience in crew shooting before or not, now have to start from 0 and experience crew life.
The four mentors were divided into two groups, one director and one actor, each leading 25 contestants to join two TV drama crews filming in Hengdian to experience the life of extras.
The program crew was really serious this time.
Before six o'clock in the morning, two buses of the program crew drove to the downstairs of the contestants' dormitory, pulled up the sleepy contestants one by one, and went to the crew.
Since it was to experience the life of extras, it had to be experienced thoroughly.
While on the bus, the staff of the program crew also distributed a unified breakfast to the contestants according to the standards of the Hengdian crew.
A steamed bun, a flower roll, a vegetable bun and an egg, and a bag of soy milk.
This is the breakfast standard provided by 99% of the crews in Hengdian to the extras when they start the morning show.
Zhao Liying and other contestants who started as small actors in Hengdian are not unfamiliar with this at all, and even miss it a little. They all enjoy eating it.
But for those contestants from the three major universities, the taste of this breakfast is not so wonderful.
There was no meat at all, the steamed buns were pure white flour, the flower rolls had only some chopped green onions, and the only stuffed buns were vegetable buns.
Those who could study acting in the three major schools had really good family conditions. For them, such breakfast was tasteless, but they couldn't refuse to eat in front of the camera, so they could only eat these breakfasts in silence.
"What's wrong, is it not delicious?" Seeing Qiao Xin sitting in the same row with a disgusted expression on her face, Zhao Liying asked with some doubts.
Seeing that many people turned their heads to look at her, Qiao Xin had to smile stiffly and explained: "No, I'm just not very hungry."
"Oh." Zhao Liying nodded, not thinking it was anything strange, and continued to eat her breakfast with her head down.
While eating, she said: "When I first came to Hengdian to film, the crew also gave me such breakfast every morning."
"Wow, I was so happy at that time. I could earn money at work and have free breakfast. This was much better than when I worked in my hometown."
"But later I couldn't have it. The company assigned me an assistant who bought breakfast for me every day."
"I'm not afraid of you laughing at me. At that time, I thought it was a waste. I didn't eat the free breakfast provided by the crew, but I had to buy breakfast with my own money."
"Hehehe, now I think my thoughts at that time were really naive."
Qiao Xin didn't understand Zhao Liying's sudden feelings at all.
In her opinion, there was really no point in eating such a breakfast. Even if it was free, it would be better to spend a few dollars to buy a steamed bun, a steamed bun, etc.
Of course, Qiao Xin still had the most basic emotional intelligence. She lowered her head and said: "This is the first time I have eaten breakfast provided by the crew."
"It's novel."
Well, it's novel, but it's enough to try it once.
As they talked and laughed, as if in an outing, two buses took the fifty contestants to the Qin Palace in Hengdian.
There is a crew called "Strategy of the Warring States" filming at the Qin Palace.
And today, the fifty newcomers are the extras of this crew.
They will work as extras in this crew for 9 hours and receive a daily salary of 80 yuan.
Before the salary increase of the extras in Hengdian was reformed, this was the top salary for ordinary extras.
However, even after the reform and salary increase, the salary of ordinary extras in Hengdian is only 120 yuan a day.
This amount of money is not worth mentioning even for the young actors who are already in the circle among the contestants.
Although "Actors Please Take Your Place" claims to be a national audition, anyone with a dream can sign up to participate.
But in fact, class barriers still exist.
The contestants who were finally shortlisted for the 50-person list can at least play small supporting roles in TV dramas. It is impossible for real extras to be selected.
Let’s not talk about the acting skills, just the appearance, the difference between ordinary extras and carefully selected actors is a bit big.
Really handsome extras can at least be special extras, and can earn a few hundred yuan a day. If they are with the crew, they can earn 30,000 or 40,000 yuan in a month or two.
Well, this also shows how well the film and television industry has developed in the past ten years, and how crazy the salary has increased.
Liu Yifei only made 8,000 yuan per episode when she filmed "The Return of the Condor Heroes". Now a small supporting role in the crew, who may have about 100 lines in the whole episode, can get 30,000 or 40,000 yuan.
As the convener, Liu Yifei, who arrived at the Qin Palace earlier than the contestants, was shocked when she learned about the current salary of extras from the deputy director of the "Strategies of the Warring States" crew.
"Can ordinary extras in the group get 6,000 yuan a month?"
"Can role actors get 30,000 or 40,000 yuan?"
"Can minor supporting roles get 100,000 yuan?"
"Can important supporting roles get 300,000 or 500,000 yuan?"
"Can male and female protagonists get 1 or 2 million yuan?"
"These are just second- and third-tier actors?"
"Are TV crews so rich now?"
Liu Yifei, who hasn't filmed a TV series for many years, was envious after hearing this offer.
It's not that she thinks this money is a lot, but she didn't have the conditions when she was filming TV series back then.
"It's amazing. When Chen Kun was filming Like Rain Like Fog Like Wind, his pay was only 90,000 yuan, which made him crazy. He kept telling us about it when he was filming The Story of a Noble Family."
"Now a small supporting role can get 100,000 yuan, which is great."
"Times have changed." Gong Li, who came to the Qin Palace with Liu Yifei, didn't think it was strange. She smiled and said, "When I first debuted, I only got 200 yuan for Red Sorghum."
"At that time, these 200 yuan were a huge sum of money for me."
"What about now? Now the offer for me to act is over 10 million."
"The increase in pay is definitely a good thing for actors. It also shows the prosperity of the domestic film and television industry. Investors can afford to pay and earn so much money that they are willing to pay high pay."
"If everyone still starred in a TV series like before and only got a few thousand dollars per episode, the industry would have been finished long ago."
"Look at Laiwu. The set of first-line actors starts at 20 million US dollars."
"That's right." Liu Yifei nodded in understanding.
At this moment, the phone in her trouser pocket suddenly rang.
"Hello?" After answering the phone, Liu Yifei showed a bright smile on her face.
"Brother, are you here?"
"We are here at the Qin Palace. Come over quickly. The contestants will be here soon. Their life as a group actor will start soon."
"I don't know if these newcomers who grew up in ivory towers and want to play the leading role after graduation can stand this experience."
"Being a group actor is not an easy thing." (End of this chapter)