The film and television industry has been very lively recently. Yu Zheng has been "making trouble" for new dramas one after another. The much-anticipated "Sword and Sword IV" finally started airing, but it was robbed of its popularity by "fans". Last year's scene of "supporting roles on the table" is still vivid in my mind. It's 2024, and the entertainment industry has regressed again?
Highlights newcomers, Yu Zheng's "Three Fires"
No matter what your opinion of Zheng is, you can't stop "Five Blessings" from becoming popular before it is broadcast.
"Five Blessings" is the latest costume work created by Yu Zheng as the chief producer. The play stars two newcomers Lu Yuxiao and Wang Xingyue, and also stars Dong Sicheng, Huang Yangtiantian, Liu Xening, Wu Xuanyi and other popular actors. But such a lineup was obviously not enough to attract everyone's attention, so Yu Zheng brought his "three fires."
’s first priority is to take the initiative to break the news. In order to build momentum for "Five Blessings", Yu Zheng first held a live broadcast and broke a gossip. Speaking of the change in the cast, he said that the new actress came to the rescue. Originally, there was an actress who was very active in contacting her. At that time, the lead female lead had not yet been decided, but the other actress said that she had turned down another actress for the second female lead. The leading female role in a drama. But the two sides agreed, but the actress gave up before filming started.
Yu Zheng posted on Weibo
Feng Shui is changing. I never thought that one day Yu Zheng would be let go. Everyone immediately heard the news and found out that the actress who let the dove go was Zhu Xudan. Her current agency is Jiaxing, where Yang Mi originally worked. She has played the role of Xuannv in "Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossom" and Zhou Zhiruo in the new version of "The Legend of Heaven and Dragon Sword". Seeing Yu Zheng firing at a second-tier actress, some netizens immediately came to defend her, saying that Yu Zheng bullied the weak and feared the strong, and was full of yin and yang. On January 14, Yu Zheng posted a chat record with Jiaxing staff about the role change. What he said implicitly was that it was not his fault. Even Zhu Xudan's agency apologized to him, and the matter was pushed back. got into the limelight of public opinion.
As a famous producer who has made celebrities such as Chen Xiao, Zhao Liying, Yuan Shanshan, Wu Jinyan, Xu Kai and many other actors, Yu Zheng has some say in the industry. Netizens still don’t buy the chat records being posted. Fans' attitude is that there has been news before that Zhu Xudan will be the female lead in the new drama. She only chose the female lead between the first and second female lead. Moreover, it was only a verbal agreement before, and the leading role was not decided at that time. Have the right to change decisions. There are still many people who have doubts about Zheng's attitude and believe that his fundamental purpose is to hype up the new drama. However, for passers-by, if they hadn't heard about the "additional drama" of flying pigeons, they might not pay much attention to "Five Blessings" starring a newcomer.
Just a few days after this incident, Yu Zheng brought the second and third fires one after another. The official announcement of "Five Blessings" shows that the poster uses a rare "rotating ranking" method, and even states that "the direction of rotation does not distinguish between up, down, left and right." Yu Zheng himself forwarded the official announcement on Weibo and responded: "The notice is generally arranged according to the amount of scenes on that day, and special circumstances are handled specially. The opening of the play is this Ferris wheel, and the ending is in the order of appearance." He also said, "If you like to tear up, you can copy the homework." In November last year, Yu Zheng's other work "Spring Blossoms" caused controversy due to the issue of cast. Yu Zheng said that he hates "rip-offs" the most, and "whoever signs the contract first will get it." Perhaps he was trapped by fans. Fighting for the position of idol, Yu Zhengcai came up with this strategy? Netizens who are accustomed to seeing "fan bits" in the film and television industry joke that they are "fan bit geniuses", but for those passers-by who don't understand the meaning of fan bits, this move is unnecessary. Later, at the launch press conference of the show, Yu Zheng became a hot topic because of his sentence "Let those who can't come, die". Although Yu Zheng later explained that he said "tear" and not "die", But the popularity is still enough.
Is ranking more important or quality more important?
On the eve of the idea of "rotating ranking", the most eye-catching news in the film and television industry came from "Four of Sword and Sword". On January 18, this work filmed in 2022 was suddenly broadcast. Zhuyu first, this IP drama attracted a lot of attention without any pre-heating. Later, some netizens discovered that the official Weibo revealed signs of "discord" between the two leading actors.
Among the materials released on the official Weibo, the first Weibo posted Ju Jingyi in the first place, and the second posted Chen Zheyuan in the first place, with "ranking in no particular order" specifically marked at the end. Since "the ranking is in no particular order", why publish it in two parts? The signature issue is related to the title, essentially because both parties care too much about the title, and the drama team changed it to "Master Duan Shui".
No one on the show wants to offend, but neither of the protagonists buys it. The heroine Ju Jingyi responded publicly, "In the contract signed by the studio's agency for actor Ju Jingyi, the agreement on the artist's signature method is: a single subtitle and the first signature of all actors." It was questioned that the showrunners did not respect the facts stipulated in the contract. The agency of the leading actor Chen Zheyuan responded, "Mr. Chen Zheyuan was invited to play the role of the 'leading male' Yun Tianhe. According to the contract content, he cooperated in the filming and used the male and female leading roles in the order of signatures and rankings, and noted that 'the ranking does not match. Characters will be signed in order."
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television requires that the ranking of TV dramas must be carried out according to the contract and cannot be changed arbitrarily. If the drama studio ignores this regulation and changes the ranking without authorization, it may hit the bottom line of banning the broadcast. According to China News Service, An Xiangzhong, director of Beijing Dexiang Law Firm, said: "The Civil Code stipulates that a contract must be fully performed after it is established and takes effect. If the drama company signs a contract with contradictory content with different actors or agencies, it is considered malicious. If you breach the contract, you should bear the liability for breach of contract in accordance with the contract and the law. Therefore, if what the actor said is true, the drama company needs to bear the liability for breach of contract in accordance with the contract, and the party that breaches the contract will bear the liability for breach of contract according to the contract with that party." In this way, the situation becomes It turns out that the drama team is playing a "side ball". Is
an Ichiban or a flat one? I recall that when I took over the filming of "Sword and Sword IV", Ju Jingyi, who was born in a girl group, not only had far more fans than Chen Zheyuan, but also had more works than Chen Zheyuan. However, Chen Zheyuan was included in the "Niches to be Exploded" with last year's "Secretly Can't Hide". "The gap between him and Ju Jingyi is not big. Even before the official announcement, fans from both sides had several rounds of fights. After fans from both sides posted posts in the studio, they became even more quarrelsome, and related topics topped the list of hot searches. It was not until the showrunners said that the internal issues had been resolved through negotiation that the disputes gradually subsided. Now that the problem with
is solved, let’s take a look at the quality of this work. It is rumored that the production cost of "Four of Swords" is as high as 300 million yuan+. However, the actual quality seen by the audience is far from expected. The plot, performance, and special effects have all been criticized to varying degrees. According to the drama review on the Douban Movies page The fact that the number of 5 stars (highest) and 1 star (lowest) is basically the same also proves the deadlock between fans and ordinary viewers.
"Four of Sword" posters
"Fan only theory" makes a comeback
Why do artists care so much about class? In the film and television industry, rankings are generally based on the actor's popularity, influence, and the importance of the character in the play. Whoever ranks first means higher status and influence. Fan positions often cause disputes and conflicts among fans, and have always been regarded as a "cancer" in the entertainment industry. As early as 2020, Sun Zhonghuai, vice president of Tencent and CEO of Penguin Film and Television, said that "late stage cancer" has become one of the three major pain points in the industry. Earlier, the six major film and television production companies also issued a "Joint Initiative" to resist the trend of comparison. However, after the "Operation Clearance" ranking issue was briefly contained, the "ranking only theory" has recently made a comeback.
The uproar caused by "position theory only" is related to the values upheld by the industry. Mr. Gao, an industry insider, revealed to the New Yellow River reporter that film and television dramas are essentially entertainment consumer products. This commodity attribute determines that a drama must consider profitability from the beginning of production. In the current platform-dominated environment, people like Yu Zheng There are only a few companies that use the "producer-centered system" to promote newcomers. Most film and television companies still seek stability and give priority to stars with their own traffic and topics to attract investors, advertising sponsorships and media attention. However, when discussing seniority under such a set of logic, many problems will inevitably arise.For example, in order to put a certain actor at the front, the role may be added, which affects the overall plot direction. Some drama producers do not consider the suitability of the character and the level of acting skills, which seriously affects normal film and television creation. In order to allow the actors to have appropriate "positions", many dazzling actor titles have been devised in recent years, such as special guest starring, co-starring, friendly starring... and the pinyin of the last name appearing in parentheses Sorting, sorting by age and other confusing behaviors.
On the other hand, looking at the works starring old artists, there is almost no "tearing" behavior. In "The Wandering Earth 2", Wu Jing is the first, followed by Andy Lau and Li Xuejian. These are all ranked according to the number of scenes and the importance of the roles. Neither the actors nor fans have any objections. Huang Bo also responded to the question of the title of "Fengshen Part 1", "The focus of each story in the trilogy will be different, and the importance of the characters will be adjusted accordingly. Audiences will understand after watching the movie. Let's The audience will always remember the shining characters, not where the names are written."
The good trend is that some artists in transition have begun to learn from their predecessors and say "no" to "position theory". For example, when fans were fighting for Yang Mi, Yang Mi blocked the fans' mouths by saying, "The order of names should give way to the characters." This also showed Yang Mi's overall view. When "South to North" was officially announced, Jin Chen was placed in the second episode, but when he reappeared, he was placed behind Ding Yongdai and became the third episode. Fans were furious again, accusing the film crew of "cheating". Jin Chen responded that "the work is king and the role is the soul. It is an actor's bounden duty to perform well, and a good role is the only criterion for an actor to choose a work," thereby calming public opinion. No matter how the play goes, at least the pattern has been opened up first.
In fact, many of the "drama actors" in the eyes of the current audience also started out as traffic stars. It's just that everyone's flowering period as a traffic actor is different, which can be long or short. As consumer products, film and television dramas are ultimately paid for by the audience. No matter how big the traffic is, if there is no quality support, I am afraid it will only end up being criticized by bad reviews. Think about it, Tang Yan in "Sword" recently reached a new career high because of "Flowers" and achieved transformation and leap through successful character creation. However, some people are still fighting to the death for ranking order, which inevitably makes passers-by laugh.
Reporter: Ren Xiaofei Editor: Xu Min Proofreader: Liu Tian
