Chapter 585: How to Choose

For the drama *Chinese Paladin*, the main investor, Polar Lights Video, holds a 45% stake. Yuehu TV also entered the fray mid-stream, securing a 15% share. Naturally, the remaining 40% is largely covered by Linghe Film and Television Production, with a small portion distributed among Director Luo Yuzhong's company, as well as Li Zhibai, Yan Liang, Chen Ziyan, and *Jump Up*.

This drama is in no way short of investment; those who managed to board this ship all have deep connections and are here simply to make money.

After all, before the drama even started filming, it had already been pre-ordered by HP, and at a high price at that.

Not only that, hundreds of advertisers in the country are eyeing this drama, all engaged in a bidding war.

The revenue this drama can generate is right before their eyes; it is, without a doubt, a goose that lays golden eggs.

As a video website, Polar Lights Video has consistently held the number one spot in the country for the past few years, whether in terms of member numbers or the number of hit shows.

Of course, platforms like Ice Field and Lighthouse are also in hot pursuit, and the current situation is not enough for them to rest easy.

For the past few years, it has been a three-way struggle for supremacy.

If three years ago it was basically a game of cat and mouse, now Polar Lights has consistently maintained the lead; even if the advantage isn't huge, it has remained in first place.

This situation is extremely rare. The reason they have been able to achieve this is that Lu Yan He's dramas have, if not served as the final word, certainly made an indispensable contribution.

Not a single drama starring Lu Yan He has fallen out of the top five in actual annual viewership.

Even *River of Silence*, which was relatively the least mainstream of his high-quality dramas, was still a hit within its genre.

Meanwhile, Ice Field Video has relied on its ace variety show, *Young Days*, to rake in massive amounts of advertising fees every year.

For video websites, there are two key indicators: new member acquisition and advertising revenue.

Lu Yan He's dramas are exceptionally outstanding in both of these metrics, leaving others far behind.

And *Chinese Paladin*—

This is Xianxia, a genre Lu Yan He has never touched, yet it is the most popular genre in the market over the last decade, frequently topping the annual charts.

Such a combination is naturally highly favored.

Besides *Chinese Paladin* attracting attention,

The hottest variety show on the entire internet right now is *Birth of an Actor*, and Lu Yan He's recent primary work has been entirely focused on this show.

Every episode of this program sparks a new wave of discussion.

The show has now moved from the 1v1 PK stage to the group PK stage.

Several actors have showcased acting skills previously unknown to the public, earning significant attention and recognition.

Some media outlets have even started predicting who the annual champion of the show will be.

Before this show, no variety program had ever brought such a boost to an actor.

And no drama had ever allowed over a dozen actors to receive such attention from the industry and the market like this show has.

Just so far, the actors participating in this show have basically all received no fewer than three acting offers.

Even He Sha.

People are realistic.

Who wouldn't want to participate in a project with tangible benefits?

*Birth of an Actor* is only halfway through its broadcast, and people are already eyeing the next season.

Orders for Chen Ziyan's Pick Fire Agency suddenly flooded in like snowflakes. Several washed-up artists Chen Ziyan had previously wanted to sign suddenly loosened their stance, willing to sign with Pick Fire, with the only prerequisite being a requirement to appear on *Birth of an Actor*.

These once-famous artists all possess a near-narcissistic self-confidence. They all believe that with their ability and acting skills, they only need one opportunity, one stage, to return to the audience's view. Now, a show like *Birth of an Actor* has appeared, and the opportunity they had in mind has arrived.

Just at this moment, Lighthouse Video announced that it would launch the program *Directors, Please Advise*, starting a show where three top directors serve as mentors, selecting actors to form teams and compete in group performances.

Seeing this name, Lu Yan He felt a momentary trance, almost thinking another transmigrator had arrived.

Sure enough, once a show like *Birth of an Actor* is made, imitators will spring up like bamboo shoots after rain.

*Directors, Please Advise* is the first, but it won't be the last.

Moreover, Lu Yan He is very clear that even if *Directors, Please Advise* is a follower, the show will certainly receive a lot of attention.

It's just that once such shows are done too often, and the actors in the industry suitable for this type of program are exhausted, it will start to turn into a "bizarre competition," where people go on stage to sell fried chicken or use PowerPoint presentations to show off their acting.

Polar Lights Video's *Birth of an Actor* is currently in full swing; how could they be willing to see Lighthouse Video come to piggyback on the hype?

One executive said sarcastically, "Followers can only ever drink the soup."

Turning around, He Sha, who withdrew from *Birth of an Actor*, officially announced she would join *Directors, Please Advise*, becoming the first actor to be officially announced.

Her official poster read: "I hope to participate in a clean competitive program."

Equally full of innuendo.

Zhou Tong, the director of *Birth of an Actor*, posted on Weibo: "The prerequisite for a clean competitive program is that the contestants are clean people. Those with crooked minds and ulterior motives are nothing but demons and monsters."

Lu Yan He liked this Weibo post.

Marketing accounts reported one after another that from now on, any film or television project He Sha participates in will be blacklisted by Polar Lights Video and will not appear on the platform.

In this era of online streaming, if Polar Lights Video really blacklists He Sha, there might truly be few film and television projects that would dare to use her.

Unless it was a self-produced project from another video website from the start, clearly stating it wouldn't be on Polar Lights Video.

He Sha panicked and hurriedly went to beg for mercy and apologize in private.

No one paid her any mind.

Previously, when He Sha withdrew and caused trouble, although Lu Yan He and Polar Lights were unhappy, they didn't actually take any retaliatory measures; it was all Zhou Ping'an acting on behalf of Cheng Hai to deal with her.

This time, He Sha directly pushed her luck; how could Polar Lights tolerate an actor throwing mud at them?

The investment solicitation for *Birth of an Actor* has already broken the advertising revenue record for variety shows over the past three years, not to mention that this show has unexpectedly achieved great results in new member acquisition—after all, it is a consensus among video websites that variety shows are not very effective at acquiring new members.

How could Polar Lights Video allow He Sha to affect the reputation of this show?

A variety show with a good reputation also has a positive brand effect for advertisers. Audiences love the house and its crow. If the reputation stinks, no matter how popular the show is, the brands advertising on it will also be affected. This is why some shows, despite being scolded onto the trending list every day, have few brands willing to invest, all fearing their own brand reputation will be collateral damage.

"He Sha is just a pig-brained idiot. Even if she fought with Cheng Hai, that was just a matter between artists. Now she's running to Lighthouse Video's show to mock and slander *Birth of an Actor*; isn't she just acting as a bullet for Lighthouse Video? If Polar Lights Video lets her off, what will happen if other artists follow suit in the future?"

Chen Ziyan was very disgusted by He Sha's actions.

Lu Yan He once saw a term online called "stupidity fatigue," and he felt Chen Ziyan actually had a bit of that too.

Of course, Chen Ziyan was disgusted by those who were stupid while thinking they were clever.

Lu Yan He could actually understand Chen Ziyan's mood very well.

Like He Sha, she had already reaped the benefits from *Birth of an Actor* and obtained the popularity she wanted; she should have known when to stop, but she insisted on courting disaster, continuing to act out, and acting even more ruthlessly.

It was a stupidity that exuded from every pore.

Lu Yan He smiled.

"The itinerary for *Love Letter* at the Hexi Film Festival is basically set. Many media outlets still want to know about Zhang Ruozhi's situation. She is taking the college entrance exam this year; before the exam ends, we still have to keep her secret and not let the media disturb her."

"Hmm." Lu Yan He asked, "But will media find their way there?"

Chen Ziyan said, "I will notify the domestic media going to Hexi. Domestic reports will try to downplay Zhang Ruozhi and highlight Chen Bige and you. Anyway, our film won't be released before the college entrance exam, right?"

"Hmm." Lu Yan He nodded.

"That should be about it. Also, after the Hexi Film Festival, I will arrange for a bodyguard for Zhang Ruozhi. We still need to be extra vigilant these two months so it doesn't affect her." Chen Ziyan said, "Finding newcomers to act is the only inconvenient part."

"But this role needed a newcomer to play it." Lu Yan He said with a smile, "It's just a pity; if it weren't for the college entrance exam, she could have joined us at the Hexi Film Festival."

"She hasn't decided yet if she wants to pursue acting as a career, and she isn't an art student. With her grades, getting into a top-tier university isn't a problem, which is also quite good." Chen Ziyan said, "Being able to study hard when you can study is something that benefits you for a lifetime. Sometimes when I meet stars who started as child actors and talk to them, they generally didn't have a childhood or a normal adolescence, especially those who didn't study well. Some even make me wonder: with such shallow cultural literacy, can they even understand the script and the characters?"

"But actually, a person's cultural literacy doesn't necessarily have to be accumulated by studying in school. Many older generation artists didn't have much schooling, yet their cultural literacy is also very high."

Chen Ziyan: "Oh my god, if young actors today had that self-learning ability and consciousness, I wouldn't have been frequently shocked by you in the first year I managed you. You are so scarce; on one hand, it's because you are truly scarce, but on the other hand, it's also set off by the comparison with your peers."

Lu Yan He: "..."

He didn't expect Chen Ziyan's point to land there.

"To be honest, Yan Liang and Li Zhibai are already disciplined and hardworking actors, but their cultural literacy is really just so-so. If you let them play characters that are true to themselves, or in films like *Gold Rush*, they can handle it, but if you want characters with slightly more complex humanity or less realism, they are still struggling." Chen Ziyan said, "Do you know which character you've portrayed in your films is the best and most successful so far? Recognized by the film industry, not what we think ourselves."

Lu Yan He thought for a moment and asked, "*Sanshan*?"

"Yes, it is *Sanshan*. Even though you won a Best Actor award for *Road to Glory*, it was *Sanshan*, where you only made a guest appearance for one night and had only fifteen minutes of screen time, that is considered by the film industry to be your best performance, and a performance worth every actor observing and learning from." Chen Ziyan said, "It's not that you didn't act well in other roles, but that character in *Sanshan* had almost never existed in film history; there was no reference, and the state you gave made many veteran actors feel they couldn't act it out. This uniqueness and rarity are the most critical factors. Look, even the director of *The Mist* only sought you out to act in *The Mist* because they saw your performance in *Sanshan*."

Lu Yan He nodded thoughtfully.

"China actually doesn't lack good actors; actors who can act out realism well are a dime a dozen. But if you want to act to a certain extreme, to the point where others can't act it out, what you need is not just skill, but your understanding of the world, of humanity, and even on a more metaphysical, spiritual level. Your depth determines the depth of your performance." Chen Ziyan said, "That fortune teller in *Sanshan*—crazy, obsessed, demented, wild, desperate, hysterical, out of control... The success of this character lies in the fact that you took a character that many actors would treat as an extreme state and interpreted it with complex, layered states."

Lu Yan He: "That's quite the praise... Actually, I didn't design these layers at all. How could I have understood so many layers at that time?"

"You just couldn't summarize so many layers rationally, but your emotional understanding, accumulation, and sensitivity actually allowed you to express the subtle differences between these states." Chen Ziyan said, "Many times, when two top actors are compared together, who ends up with a higher status in film history? At that point, it's not about who is better, but who is more unique, who can produce a performance that others cannot."

Chen Ziyan's words made Lu Yan He suddenly realize, thinking of the two actors Tony Leung and Tony Leung Ka-fai.

One is a thousand-faced actor, the other is the deep-eyed one. It is said that some actors act the same way no matter what they play; in fact, isn't the "deep-eyed" style also such a way of acting? However, no one would say he is constantly repeating himself. He constantly internalizes his skills, exploring deeper on a path of acting that only he walks. It is not bustling there, and he is even alone, therefore, watching his performance, you will feel it is very deep, and you can see richness and depth from that "depth."

Is this what Chen Ziyan actually wanted to say?

"Do you think Zhang Ruozhi is suitable to be an actor?" Lu Yan He asked Chen Ziyan.

"How can you tell now?" Chen Ziyan shook her head. "She acted in *Love Letter*, which was basically playing herself. I can only say her face is very photogenic and she has a good sense of the camera. It is conceivable that after this film is released, she will become an actor that major directors want to work with. This kind of harmless, girl-next-door image full of purity is found in too many films, and the demand is very high."

Lu Yan He: "However, Zhang Ruozhi's mother doesn't seem to want her to be an actor."

"These things will change; I have never seen anyone whose views don't change in a lifetime. Moreover, her mother just doesn't want her to take a detour and affect her college entrance exam for the sake of being a star, causing lifelong regret. If her mother really didn't want her to be an actor at all, she wouldn't have loosened her stance to let her act in *Love Letter* from the beginning." Chen Ziyan said sharply.

Lu Yan He nodded in realization.

"However, what she should focus on during her upcoming university time still needs to be communicated well." Chen Ziyan said, "She debuted with *Love Letter*; it would be a pity if she didn't continue to act in films in the next few years."

Every year, many newcomers emerge in the entertainment industry, but newcomers like Wang Dashan and Zhang Ruozhi who start by playing the lead in a high-profile blockbuster are few and far between. Being born with a silver spoon, so to speak, is exactly this. Especially in an industry like entertainment, which also values background very much.

Whether you debut in a web drama, a TV series, or a film determines what kind of status you have. This is a place where the hierarchy is invisible but stronger than the visible. Chen Ziyan cannot change such a hierarchy; as an insider, she can only acquiesce to these "unspoken rules." And in such an environment, Wang Dashan and Zhang Ruozhi appear particularly precious—

The film industry also has great fluctuations. The number of projects each year is limited, and the number of leads is also limited. Compared to projects looking for actors, more often than not, it is only when this actor is found that the project can get the green light.

Chen Ziyan can foresee how many people will consider Zhang Ruozhi their "first love face" after *Love Letter* is officially released, and how many female leads she can become that capital and production companies will nod to.

That is why she said it would be a pity if Zhang Ruozhi focused entirely on school after *Love Letter* and didn't act in films.

The few years that Lu Yan He, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang have been tossing and turning have driven the initiation, promotion, and filming of how many projects.

How much of the entire film and television industry has been driven by these outstanding film and television works.

Chen Ziyan is now conflicted; she both hopes Zhang Ruozhi can enjoy her university life and study hard, and fears that Zhang Ruozhi really won't want to film anything in these few years and will disappear from the entertainment industry.

Lu Yan He lowered his head and smiled slightly.

"What are you laughing at?"

"I'm just laughing, Sister Ziyan, although you are now the boss of Pick Fire, you still cannot change your core as an agent." Lu Yan He said, "How Zhang Ruozhi thinks and what she does later, you can discuss it well with her after her college entrance exam. Anyway, even if you can't have the best of both worlds, if you work hard and toss and turn a bit, it's not impossible to balance it; it just depends on how she wants to choose." ===== CHAPTER 586 =====