Chapter 688: *Let's Farm, Youth* Begins!

One Billion Media attributes the reason their recent TV dramas are terrible to the directors not filming them well.

But industry insiders know that a drama being terrible cannot just be the director's fault.

It's the entire production team, including the actors performing, that have problems.

If it were just a filming issue, netizens wouldn't have praised the actors' acting skills either, besides complaining about the chaotic filming.

But she has truly seen some scripts where the plot was very terrible and the character settings were very ordinary, yet the actors brought the characters to life.

Netizens only praised the actors' acting skills, claiming the actors' acting saved the drama.

Jin Li said thoughtfully: "Perhaps this is also the reason One Billion Media is willing to let us change directors at will, willing to let us edit the script, and willing to let us decide the other characters besides the second female and second male leads.

They also know their internal production is somewhat chaotic, but they can't find the reason, so they simply threw everything at us."

Sui Lingfang thought for a moment and couldn't help but say: "Actually, when I heard the conditions One Billion Media offered, I felt we were taking a huge advantage.

Few film and television companies are willing to give actors such great power. They think very highly of you, which is why they are willing to let everything be based on your opinion.

But now that you say this, why do I feel something is wrong again? Are we helping them find internal conflicts and solve problems?"

She said with a wry smile: "If they were hiring outside help to solve their problems, it would cost more than this; they would have to add a 'troubleshooting' fee."

Jin Li also laughed, "Regardless, One Billion Media has shown their sincerity."

She paused, "If they can really help *Counterattack* get on dozens of overseas film distribution channels, I am personally willing to take on their self-produced drama."

Sui Lingfang was silent, still thinking.

Jin Li said: "Sister Fang, looking at the terms of the contract, I am not at a disadvantage.

They didn't make me lower my salary because I needed them, and they are willing to give the normal market rate.

With my current market value, if I want to film a TV drama, there aren't many scripts to choose from.

Some excellent scripts don't necessarily have such a large investment to afford me. And the big productions that can afford me, I basically don't like."

As Jin Li's manager, Sui Lingfang knows Jin Li's current situation very well.

Some films can be called big productions because special effects are really expensive.

But you get what you pay for.

How much money is spent will be reflected on the screen.

If a lot of money is spent but the corresponding quality is not obtained, it's conceivable that this project was definitely exploited too much.

But TV dramas are different from films.

Currently, there are no so-called big productions for TV dramas; TV dramas like doomsday science fiction often take the film route and are filmed as series.

Only the production of Xianxia fantasy can touch it.

But if you really touch this theme, the special effects fee alone would be a huge sum, and they basically can't afford Jin Li.

Unless they use high sales shares to tempt her.

In short, because Jin Li's market value is too high in the industry, she doesn't have many choices.

Stars in the entertainment industry can still play students at thirty, girls at forty; stars who haven't given birth don't have signs of fatigue, and they can still be a flower at forty-five.

Only when they really look too old on camera will those actresses consider the issue of transformation, and there aren't many themes left for them to choose from.

Jin Li isn't thirty this year, but she has already walked the path many have walked, and her market value has risen again and again, making it difficult for her to accept roles.

So Jin Li suddenly saying she's going to college is also a good thing; it can reduce exposure.

Actors need a sense of mystery.

Appearing in front of the public will only frequently consume the audience's freshness.

It's not that the audience doesn't like watching her, but they prefer fresh faces; she has been on the trending searches too many times before.

For an actor like her, filming one or two dramas a year is enough.

This also led Sui Lingfang to be very cautious when accepting roles for Jin Li.

Picking and choosing, she still hasn't liked a single drama this year.

Jin Li also knows her current predicament, so she feels the contract handed over by One Billion Media is actually an opportunity.

She can choose the director, change the script, and even pick the unimportant supporting roles.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say this drama is tailored to her thoughts.

And she doesn't have to rack her brains to pull investment or rebuild the crew; all of One Billion Media's film and television connections can be used by her.

Jin Li feels that if they didn't set the contract to this extent, and if her fame wasn't really that great, and if One Billion Media wasn't in urgent need of a high-quality TV drama to break the netizens' stereotype of them as the "Source of Terrible Films,"

then she would have taken a huge advantage with this contract.

Even now, she still feels she took advantage.

Sui Lingfang: "So, your opinion is that we can accept."

Jin Li smiled: "Two years is completely enough. If you feel it's not safe, you can try to see if you can negotiate the contract term to three years.

If Dawn Entertainment still can't develop a script I can act in within three years, then let's just lie flat and give up, and go directly to film the script provided by One Billion Media."

Sui Lingfang laughed: "Don't be so pessimistic; maybe they specifically saved a good script for you.

Last year they had a drama that was filmed quite well, and the actors they found were also fine, but the editing was too chaotic, leading to the audience not understanding it.

A film analysis blogger specifically reordered the editing, and netizens feedback that it was much better; that drama's rating was just a little bit away from passing.

So One Billion Media actually has strength."

Since Jin Li has no problem with it, Sui Lingfang also quickly replied to One Billion Media.

After negotiations, the two sides set the deadline for filming the self-produced drama within three years, one year more than the original two years.

At the end of May, Jin Li personally took a plane to One Billion Media to sign the contract.

Once the contract takes effect, it will immediately feed back to the *Counterattack* crew, ensuring that this film can be released in cinemas in various Southeast Asian countries during the summer in July.

Director Xu is very grateful to Jin Li.

But Jin Li didn't do this for nothing.

Regarding overseas distribution channels, the profit-sharing ratio needs to be re-planned.

Because she used a TV drama as an exchange to obtain this precious channel, her sales profit share is even higher than some investors.

But those investors all expressed their approval.

The reason is simple: when they were filming this drama, they never thought it could be released in Hong Kong and other countries; they mainly aimed at the domestic market.

Now that they can expand overseas channels, it's already an unexpected joy for the investors.

Many directors in the country heard the news and envied the *Counterattack* crew for finding an actor as dedicated as Jin Li.

On the importance of an actor to a crew.

Whether an actor loves or doesn't love a drama can really be seen.

Unlike now, many actors only treat filming as a job.

Once the drama is filmed, whether it's good or bad has nothing to do with them, and they don't do promotion either.

These actors don't treat the drama as their own career at all; they are very perfunctory.

In the past, this kind of thing only happened to supporting roles; everyone competed to be "drama drifters," taking pride in the number of dramas filmed rather than valuing quality.

Now, even many leads have become drama drifters.

And it's not just the director who recognizes Jin Li's attitude, feeling that she is managing a drama with heart and really treating it as her important work.

Investors who like to invest in film and television heard about this and also developed a good impression of Jin Li.

As investors, if an actor can do their best to promote, and even pull additional film release channels for the crew, they will also be very grateful.

Why didn't they run into such a good actor?

Directors and investors slapped their thighs one after another, increasingly longing for a good actor like Jin Li.

And this led to Dawn Entertainment receiving a pile of film and television scripts again.

There were TV dramas and films, with more TV dramas than films, whereas in the past, the two were the opposite.

Jin Li's signing with One Billion Media let many people in the industry know that she doesn't just film movies.

As long as the TV drama script is good enough and the team is good, she will also try it.

This gave hope to many TV drama directors; after all, who doesn't want to film a hit?

But all of this, Jin Li had no way of knowing.

Scripts that could be selected by many people and placed in front of her were still as few as ever.

Soon, it was June 1st.

Jin Li logged into her blog and reposted the promotion for the launch of *Let's Farm, Youth*, indicating that she was also following it and come on to farm happily together!

Fans came to comment one after another.

[Rare to see a commercial ad posted other than endorsements and collaborations; it seems Jin Li really likes farming~]

[Hehe, this is the "Farming Boy Group" that Jin Li personally went to the live broadcast room to tip!]

["Farming Boy Group" fans are here; I watch their live broadcasts of helping farmers sell goods every day, otherwise I can't sleep; it's too funny!]

[I am now brushing live broadcasts on two mobile phones; one phone brushes the Farming Boy Group, the other brushes the talent show PK, and I found that the Farming Boy Group's appearance is still more top-notch; they look good even without beauty filters, and their figures are also top-notch~]

Jin Li didn't just do text promotion.

She invested in *Let's Farm, Youth*, so she wasn't stingy in terms of promotion; she even specially filmed a VCR to wish their variety show high viewership.

"I yearn for pastoral life, so I was very surprised to see a variety show about farm work.

You have shown the style of hardworking and simple farmers, personally tilling the land, and selling the harvested fruits, which not only helped the farmers but also let me see the fruitful results of nature's harvest.

If I have time in the future, I really want to experience farm work myself. Come on, youth! Let's farm, youth!"

The gold content of this VCR from Jin Li goes without saying.

The original ordinary text promotion had already attracted a lot of people's attention.

Now that she had filmed a video promotion, netizens who didn't plan to watch it were also ready to rush.

Just for Jin Li's dedicated recommendation, they also wanted to see how this variety show was filmed.

*Let's Farm, Youth* launched on Enterprise Video at 8:00 PM on June 1st.

Penguin specially won the exclusive broadcast rights and also powerfully used the station's top-level resources, arranging big cover promotions and pop-up promotions.

Just one day after launch, *Let's Farm, Youth* achieved the first place in variety show popularity across the entire station and the fifth place in total views across the entire station!

The program team was very sincere, updating five episodes on the first day of launch, each episode lasting an hour!

Updating five episodes in a row made some netizens worry if it would be too watery, and if they were just randomly editing clips to fool them?

But after really going to watch it, they found that each episode had a lot of content.

Can those 5 delicate youths who can't lift or carry really get used to farm work? Can they persist?

At the beginning of the program, netizens felt as if they were watching *X-Change*, with young masters from the city going to the countryside to experience rural life.

At the beginning, it really was *X-Change*.

Those 5 youths were very unaccustomed to life in the countryside, feeling that everything was inconvenient, and there were tons of mosquitoes; even if they hung mosquito nets, they could still crawl in, and they didn't know where they crawled in from.

Although from the 1st episode, the program team arranged for them to reclaim farmland and loosen the soil.

But because the youths had no experience, they would have sore backs after working for a while, so everyone couldn't help but get distracted and play.

[I actually saw a feeling of finding joy in suffering]

[Before, I thought they were quite pitiful, but watching them play with mud together, I suddenly wanted to say: Idiot, what are you doing?]

[Hahaha, the young masters from the city finally took off their noble shirts and changed into farming gear~]

[Although they are delicate and complain, I didn't see disgust from them, but rather curiosity about doing farm work]

[It's really good, watching *X-Change* and still being able to see the yearning for a better life; what the hell is this?!]

[I really hope my leader can be like the leeks on the side of the road, letting me cut a few handfuls at any time]

In the first and second episodes of *Let's Farm, Youth*, netizens saw them go from completely unaccustomed to gradually adapting, finding joy in suffering in the days in the countryside.

But starting from the third episode, the program team gradually started to show real stuff.

Besides farming, they also wanted to personally build some equipment and grind wood themselves.

Seeing that the people in the village had no machine assistance and farm work was very slow, they couldn't help but want to buy machines to benefit the villagers.

But machines need money, and they had no money, so they raised money through various methods.

Don't say, it was filmed quite funnily.

After all, which variety show really films a sow giving birth?

Learn about *Postpartum Care for Sows*.

Netizens finished watching five episodes at once and became increasingly interested in this program.

Two episodes are broadcast a week, and before the broadcast time, netizens are discussing how the sow Huahua is doing and whether she has recovered from postpartum care.

They also ask how the calf Huanghuang is doing and if it is used to eating after weaning.

And there are the two local dogs adopted on the side of the road; one dog is all black and is called "Black Whirlwind," and one dog is pure white and is called "White Impermanence."

Netizens are also keeping these two dogs in mind, leaving messages to remind the crew to remember to vaccinate them.

Some netizens also wanted to ask for the crew's filming address to send them things.

The reason is—

[Watching you go to the countryside to do farm work reminded me of my parents. At that time, I was young and couldn't do anything, and now that I have the ability, my parents are gone.

I want to send some things over to fulfill my long-standing wish, just as helping me make up for my wish!]