Fifty or sixty people gathered in an antique building from the Qing Dynasty. This is a spacious video studio with bright red doors and windows, golden roller blinds hanging, and wooden relief dragon chairs placed right in front of the room.
During the break between waiting for scenes, several young actors in ancient costumes were sitting on dragon chairs playing with their mobile phones. Zhang Xiaoming, who is nearly sixty years old, wears a purple robe with auspicious cloud patterns, a golden waist, and a black official hat. He holds a long-handled horsetail whisk and stands next to the "Emperor" beside the dragon throne.
When the director was holding the script and explaining the scene to the other actors, Zhang Xiaoming took out his mobile phone, took a few photos of the scene, and took selfies with other actors from time to time. Another young director with light brown hair is sitting in a control room with hollow carved wooden walls. He can see from the monitor that all the actors, camera crew, and technical crew are standing under the lighting. and waiting in front of the camera lens.
This is the battlefield for one day of horizontal drifting actor Zhang Xiaoming. This time, he participated in a short drama that traveled from modern times to ancient times. In the play, he plays a court eunuch and a celebrity around the emperor.
Previously, he played a eunuch in the movie "A City of Golden Armor", and later in the TV series "Myth" and "Nirvana in Fire", and now he plays a eunuch in the short drama "Women Peace the World". He came up with these lines casually.
In the past three months, Zhang Xiaoming filmed a total of more than ten short dramas. Many older actors like him are jumping into the short drama craze. Although their lives have entered the second half, their "new careers" have just begun.
Zhang Xiaoming looks at his mobile phone during filming. Unless otherwise noted, the pictures in this article were all taken by The Paper reporter Yuan Lu
"A fantasy that will never come true"
At another filming scene, Hengpiao actor Liu Lin was rehearsing a drama after just finishing filming a short drama. He is 60 years old, has white and neat teeth, very shallow wrinkles on his face, and his eyes narrow into slits when he smiles.
Now, acting is Liu Lin's daily life. After retirement, he came to Hengdian to pursue his dream of being an actor. In late March, on the morning after taking the acting theory class, after a short break, Liu Lin quickly walked into the rehearsal room and rehearsed a comedy show called "Red Cliff" with four other actors. It will be performed at the Hengdian Actors Guild anniversary celebration soon.
Liu Lin plays Zhuge Liang, holding a feather fan and speaking a line in a deep and powerful high voice. He seemed to be just a silent and stubborn old man, but when he spoke, his voice was loud and confident. The actress who played "Xiao Qiao" took a step forward and corrected Liu Lin, saying that the last three words of yours should be pitched higher.
He repeated the lines. Although he performed the same lines countless times, the enthusiasm and energy he exuded were felt by those in the hall. Everyone seems to have forgotten his age.
Liu Lin's performance.
According to the plot design, Liu Lin knelt on one leg for a few minutes and staggered when he stood up.
"Your adjustment is wrong, you need to raise it a little higher." The young instructor looked at him and said.
"I am the governor!" He deliberately raised the tone of his lines, like a student who has just entered school, listening to the teacher's speech with concentration.
The acting teacher guides Liu Lin's movements.
In Hengdian, Liu Lin is considered a newcomer among actors. He is not used to self-promotion. He has added more than a dozen actor groups on WeChat. When he sees a film crew looking for actors, he will send information to those who are suitable. In addition, the Screen Actors Guild recommended some roles to him from time to time, and he acted in more and more roles. However, he still needs time to break into the market.
In the three years since he has been acting full-time, Liu Lin has filmed more than 20 movies in succession. Half of them are extras and half are special actors with lines. He plays "small roles", such as villain leaders, principals, and treasure appraisers in costume dramas or modern dramas. The most played roles are the "dad" of the male and female protagonists, or the domineering "chairman" of the company. Of the one hundred episodes of mini-series, he appears in thirty episodes.
With the help of makeup artists and hair consultants, his image is ever-changing, performing "fantasies that will never come true" in life.
The crew members didn’t know much about him, except that he showed up on time and seemed to care about his small role.He was easy-going but kept his distance. Outside of filming, he stood aside and quietly watched other people's performances.
As a frequent guest in micro-short dramas, he has to accept various roles without distinction of high or low status. Liu Lin knew his situation clearly. When he played a domineering chairman, he slapped people, and he also played a prisoner who knelt and kowtowed to beg for mercy. "A grandpa should be a grandpa, and a grandson should be a grandson."
's micro-short play requires short, fast, and quick actions. Unlike his previous plays, which required controlling emotions and being delicate, the short play is "fast-food style, and you have to explode and yell as soon as you start." ". Liu Lin felt that this was not difficult for him.
Three months ago, he performed in a short drama called "Extraordinary Assistant", playing the heroine's father as usual. Unlike him as a father in reality, in the play he is a "domineering and fierce" chairman. During a break in the
training session, he turned on his phone and pulled out a video of him acting opposite his "daughter" in the play.
"I can only play a supporting role for others and be a father to young people." He said while watching.
In this video, he is scolding his "daughter" while he collapses on the sofa in anger. Because his "daughter" offended his partners, the business of the group he controlled was affected.
"This is the heroine, I trained her to a pulp."
This scene was playing on his mobile phone, and he recited the lines silently. Although several months had passed, he remembered it clearly.
"She is my biological daughter, but I treat her badly." He told the plot like a commentator.
After the two-minute clip was played, he let out a long sigh, feeling that he had performed the style of a chairman and the helplessness of a father.
Liu Lin's actor information. Picture provided by the interviewee
"He was not satisfied with the performance, but the director was satisfied."
html One day in late March, at five o'clock in the morning, Zhang Xiaoming carried a thermos cup to the dressing room of the hotel. After putting on makeup, we went to the filming site at Hengdian Film and Television City.This is an interior scene, so he doesn't need to carry a stool. After filming a scene, he can sit anywhere. If it was a location scene, going to a desolate mountain, he would bring a chair. At the end of the day, he filmed about ten scenes in a row.
Now, among all his filming, micro-short dramas are the most numerous.
Being busy is the norm. Usually, one hundred episodes of a 100-minute mini-series must be shot within seven days. Sometimes Zhang Xiaoming just finishes work at 6:30 in the morning and has to rush to another crew to put on makeup at 7 o'clock, taking off makeup and putting on makeup at the same time. Once, after filming an all-night scene, he rushed to another filming location and stayed awake all night. His head was so dizzy that he couldn't remember his lines, so he could only remember one line and one shot. It is common to sleep for two to three hours a day.
director Ye Huohua is 33 years old this year. In his memory, micro-short dramas gradually appeared in 2020. At that time, he began to search for micro-short dramas on the Internet, studying its shots, shooting angles and set compositions.
In one year, Ye Huohua has filmed six micro-short dramas, all of which are currently in post-production. "It will go online quickly within a month or two after filming, and create profits for investors as soon as possible."
micro-short dramas are short-term investments with relatively low funds. There are requirements for the cost of each department and cannot exceed the cost. At the filming site, everyone was in a state of high tension. Every day, Ye Huohua would tell everyone to finish filming early and finish work early. "Horizontal screen dramas are masterpieces crafted over time, while vertical screen dramas concentrate time and money."
Ye Huohua is full of optimistic expectations for the future of vertical screen dramas. "It will become more and more sophisticated, and the market will be bigger in the future."
These micro-short dramas are usually broadcast on short video platforms. "They capture the psychology of young people." The person in charge of the Huaxia Cultural Park Scenic Area of Hengdian Film and Television City Yuan Man said, however, that only when actors become more and more professional will the quality of the entire film improve.
In response to demand, the scenic spot has now renovated more than 20 scenes suitable for filming micro-short dramas. After a little arrangement of props, filming can begin, and the crew can choose between costume dramas and modern drama scenes. "There are modern villas, hospitals and the boss's office." Yuan Man said that more than 60% of the crew filming here are short dramas.
During the epidemic, the scenic spots were closed and Zhang Xiaoming did not film for a month or two, but he still had to pay back a monthly mortgage of 5,000 yuan. The son is in love, and he has to save money to prepare a wedding house for him. So he took on some odd jobs in the scenic area art troupe. After working for less than three months, there were suddenly more micro-short plays. "Seeing how good other people were at making money," he resigned from the troupe and "moved to other fields." Mini drama.
He said frankly that as a film and television actor, it would be best if he could film big dramas and be broadcast on TV stations and theaters. But there are very few such dramas now - after the epidemic, many film and television companies closed down, so he was used to filming micro-short dramas.
In his eyes, micro-short dramas are like the previous "Internet University". The emergence of the former has basically ended the latter, but he doesn't know how long this wave will continue to be popular.
Zhang Xiaoming frequently posts on his WeChat Moments, wearing costumes and taking photos with other actors. He explained that there are many directors in his circle of friends, so the directors can see him even if he doesn't send information to the crew. "It's like melatonin commercials showing every day, and they will remember you at a glance."
He often tells actors younger than him that actors are commodities, how to sell them? How do you get people to use you?
Gradually, he took more and more roles. Some of them come here from friends, and if you don't accept them, it's easy to offend them. If the price is reasonable, he will shoot it.
After finishing his work, Zhang Xiaoming still couldn't take any time off, so he asked friends to shoot some short jokes and put them on social platforms. Most of his co-stars are women. Those who are similar in age will play husband and wife, while those with a big age gap will play father and daughter. He writes all the lines himself.
Zhang Xiaoming in the play. Photo provided by the interviewee
For Liu Lin, he was only chosen by the crew and did not have the right to choose roles.
In a play at the beginning of this year, he played the role of the village chief of a pig-raising village. After dressing up, he felt that he did not look like the village chief, but more like a pig-raising technician. He was not satisfied with the performance, but the director was satisfied and paid him 800 yuan a day.
So far, Liu Lin has acted in dozens of micro-short dramas. Many of them can no longer be found, and he doesn’t know where these dramas are broadcast. He has no time to watch them. Sometimes he wanted to watch it, but there were too many scenes with repeated titles, and his fragmentary performances were buried in countless videos, and he was too lazy to look for them.
When Zhang Xiaoming returns home every day, he reads the announcements for the next day, sets the alarm clock, and prepares to switch from one role to another.
While filming a few days ago, he felt uncomfortable with his heart and "worried that he would die suddenly." He thought of a way to eat hard and gain strength so that he could stay up late for filming.
On that day, Zhang Xiaoming played the role of a minister in the court, reaching the fourth rank. After finishing the work, he murmured to himself that it would be better to play the role of a eunuch instead of having to wear a beard every day. When playing the role of a minister, if the fake beard is not glued properly, the fake beard will rub against the nose and make it itchy. Wearing it from morning to night makes it inconvenient to eat and troublesome to take off. It's different when playing a eunuch, the whole face is clean and refreshing.
"One word brings a burden"
The day after he finished playing the eunuch, Zhang Xiaoming filmed another movie. During the play, the director changed the lines, and an old actor suggested that the script said execution by lingchi. Lingchi was a kind of punishment in ancient times. It was inappropriate to change it to execution by increasing the battery. The director yelled, "We are a micro-short play, that's it, don't change it randomly."
"The old actor was so stunned that he forgot his lines." Zhang Xiaoming complained on behalf of the other party.
Zhang Xiaoming felt that when performing micro-short plays, the rhythm should be fast, the voice should be louder, the expressions should be more exaggerated, and the movements should be intense. At first, he asked himself to "do enough tricks" and spoke a line slowly, with emotion. But the director asked to speed up and told him not to think about it, just say the lines.
At that time, he knew that the rules of acting had changed.
Two days ago, he saw a film and television actor from Beijing filming a short play based on traditional acting methods. In the end, it was not completed and he left Hengdian.
Zhang Xiaoming shoots short dramas in ancient costumes, as well as modern ones. The lines in these plays are "not so difficult to pronounce" and it is relatively easy for him to remember them. After all, micro-short plays "require a story to be told within one minute, or each sentence to have a burden."
"The extras who can be selected for micro-short dramas have very deep skills." Yuan Man said that actors have to shoot more than fifty scenes in a day.In terms of income, an ordinary group performer can earn 120 yuan a day, while a micro-short drama actor can earn up to 5,000 to 10,000 yuan a day.
However, Zhang Xiaoming took the initiative to reject several scenes: some plots were "too pornographic" and the lines were explicit and he really couldn't say them out.
In a play he acted, the female lead was in her twenties and traveled from modern times to ancient times and became a princess. In the play, he played the role of an imperial doctor, and there was a scene where he felt the pulse of the princess, and his lines were very "obscene". He asked the director, can this be said? The director said, this is the script provided by the platform, don’t change the words.
Why do people want to watch micro-short dramas? In Zhang Xiaoming's view, most of these dramas tell stories about low-level characters' counterattacks. The content is straightforward and enjoyable.
Some time ago, Zhang Xiaoming offended a director. The reason was that the eunuch he played had to be beaten by the queen and emperor in the play, but the pay was not high.
"It's okay to hit one person. One or two slaps don't matter, but both of them have to be hit." And Zhang Xiaoming didn't want to hit him for real. He bargained with the director. According to the rules of making movies, he would be given 2,000 yuan for a real slap, or 1,500 yuan. The director didn't agree, so he finally borrowed his seat to film the scene where he was beaten.
"If it's a big movie, for the sake of art, let alone two slaps, ten slaps don't matter." Zhang Xiaoming said angrily.
"Already in Hengdian"
Now acting in short plays with not many lines, Liu Lin feels much more relaxed. Compared with young people, it is more difficult for him to memorize lines. In Liu Lin's view, the limitations of age are also reflected in the fact that no matter how many roles he performs, he can only be a green leaf for young actors.
The first drama he acted in was many years ago. At that time, he was a public official in a detention center and received a film crew who came to shoot a scene. Later, he received an invitation to shoot a drama.
It was a twenty-episode TV series. He acted in five episodes, playing a father. His daughter had kidney disease, and he couldn't afford the treatment, so he was introduced to a cheap private clinic. "After the murderer killed the AIDS patient, he transplanted the kidney into his daughter, and her daughter also died." That was a film from nearly thirty years ago. After
retired, his son worked in Jinhua, Zhejiang, and Liu Lin and his wife also followed him. This place is close to Hengdian, and the dream of being an actor that he planted when he was young emerged.
The relevant person in charge of the Actors Guild of Hengdian Film and Television City said that currently the cumulative number of registered actors in the Actors Guild is nearly 130,000, and there are 8,000 to 10,000 people resident in Hengdian. Their goal is to "bring more and more people to Hengdian to work as extras, and also ease the employment pressure on the crew."
Usually, after acting for forty or fifty times, you have accumulated experience. If you want to improve further, you can take a grade test, from extras to special actors.
After Liu Lin arrived in Hengdian, he first studied in a film and television class for half a year. After that, he received a "big drama", playing the role of the villain leader, and the performance lasted two hours.
This is a comedy, and the script is very thick. He has no funny lines or funny actions, but when it comes to making people laugh, he found that his performance status and line skills were different from those of professional actors.
Throughout March, Liu Lin went to the Actors Guild for training classes before 8:20 every morning. The competitive class he participated in this time was an "advanced training" for an actor. There are 11 students, and the courses include acting skills, acting in front of the camera, language shaping, character shaping, physical training, etc.
When it comes to horse riding, martial arts, and Wire classes, Liu Lin will "skip classes" because there will be no such characters looking for him. The class lasted until 5 p.m., and after practicing the chorus and dance in the evening, it was already 11 p.m.
Liu Lin is the oldest student in the training class he has attended. He asked young people in their twenties and thirties to call him brother, which sounded younger.
During this period, Liu Lin rented a house near Hengdian Film and Television City. In order to study with peace of mind, he took on roles introduced by acquaintances. His original employer asked him to make movies, programs, and sing-alongs, and he said, "I'm already in Hengdian."
When he came here, he didn’t want to be an extra. He had a retirement salary and acted for no other reason. Seven months after coming to Hengdian, he obtained the special actor certificate as a junior actor.
Today, the commercial complex being built in Hengdian Town has huge posters of Oriental Hollywood erected on the streets.
Zhang Xiaoming witnessed the changes in the town. The original Baxian Street was half a river and half a street.Now, the river is clear, the streets are lined with shops, and the buildings are tall. Before
came to Hengdian, he was an actor in a cultural troupe in Henan, performing cross talk, sketches, and dramas. When the troupe was not performing, he would practice menus and recite tongue twisters. Later, when the market slumped, he looked for another way out and came to Hengdian.
More than 20 years have passed, and Zhang Xiaoming can’t remember how many movies he has filmed. Although they are all small roles, he feels that he is lucky and has been acting in roles. There was a time when there were dozens of crews in Hengdian. He would spend one day in one crew today and two days in that crew tomorrow.
Zhang Xiaoming saw many people in Hengdian. Some were like floating dust, never making enough money, some were swallowed up by ambition, and some gradually disappeared.
When he was in his fifties, Zhang Xiaoming played an official in "The Legend of White Snake". His father had just passed away at that time. In the play, his wife told him that his mother had passed away. He burst into tears and finished his lines crying.
At that moment, he felt that he was acting out his own life. After the play stopped, he wiped away his tears and chatted and laughed with the actors on the set.
