Author|Rousong
When we talk to different teams, whenever we talk about the changes and development of the casting industry, the name of Fanstar and its founder Yao Yuan is always frequently mentioned - a team that insists on deep cultivation, a senior who entered the industry in 2004 and came from the era of "just helping to select group performances".
Last year, fanstar participated in three popular works: "The Wind Blows Half Summer", "Canglan Tips" and "Ice Rain and Fire", among which, "The Wind Blows Half Summer" is a typical group portrait drama, taking this as an opportunity, we hope Yao Yuan will talk about the behind-the-scenes of this drama and the casting methodology of the group drama.
According to Yao Yuan's recollection, the casting of "Wind Blowing Half Summer" took 113 days, and the most difficult role to choose was "the best Chen universe in the world", followed by "wild cat" Gao Xinyi. Wang Jinsong was asked to play the father of the door, because he knew that this powerful actor who was good at portraying police officers or villains in the eyes of the audience had a comedic heart.
At the same time, he also bluntly said that from the perspective of casting, there is actually no methodology based on the premise of group dramas. No matter what the theme, type or attribute of the project, the logic of casting is based on the adaptability of actors and characters, and the special thing about group portraits is that they should further consider the integration of the individual and the whole.
The following is a transcript of the conversation:
Talking about the casting of "Wind Blowing Half Summer": Chen Universe and Wild Cat are the most difficult to choose, and Wang Jinsong has a heart of comedy
Entertainment Capital: How did fanstarlight come into contact with "Half Summer in the Wind"?
Yao Yuan: Because I and director Fu Dongyu had previously collaborated on "Ice Rain and Fire", and when I cooperated on this project, it was relatively smooth, and I recognized each other's working methods, so when he decided to do "The Wind Blows Half Summer", he found me again and prepared for about 113 days, when the script was not completely written, so I first read Anai's original book to do some preliminary preparations.
Entertainment Capital: What is the casting idea after getting the project?
Yao Yuan: After reading the script at that time, we summarized 6 groups of character relationships around Xu Banxia. The first group is the "iron triangle" said by the audience, Xu Banxia, Tong Xiaoqi, Chen Universe; The second group is the "steel five" formed by several bosses who went to the north together, Xu Banxia, Wu Jianjian, Qiu Bizheng, Feng Yu, and Guo Qidong; The third group is Xu Banxia and Zhao Lei, who have feelings because of their career cooperation; The fourth group is Xu Banxia's family, her critical father, young stepmother and half-sister; The fifth group is her and Gao Yuejin, who is also part of the career line; Finally, her career reached its peak, and some people in the company, such as Chief Engineer Jia, Jia Changan, and Xiao Su.
Entertainment Capital: How is the casting of some specific characters considered? Are there any more typical cases to share?
Yao Yuan: For example, Tong Xiao of the "Iron Triangle", his character is very distinct, that is, he dares to fight and fight, and he is particularly reckless in the early stage. We wanted to find an actor around 90 years old, and at the same time, his image temperament must be able to integrate into the 90s, so that the audience can feel that he is a person of that era at a glance, Ou Hao from appearance to personality, and the characters are perfectly fitted.
The most difficult character in the whole drama is Chen Universe, who is very tragic in this play, bearing this part of the responsibility of Xu Banxia's destruction of the beach in the novel, and we supplemented the history of this character together with the main creative team.
First of all, the original family, growth environment, Xiao Chen's previous history is like this, sick since childhood, and Xu Banxia is young, Xu Banxia may carry him to school, and take good care of him in life and school, which has created his relatively weak personality, and his feelings for Xu Banxia are irreplaceable by anyone.
At the same time, Xiao Chen is also a relatively precocious and thoughtful person, after his father's death, the only "industry" left for him is the scrap collection station, after Xu Banxia graduated from college, his father cut the door, married a little mother, eager to marry her off, there was an arranged marriage, and the two could not go together, so Xu Banxia often ran to the scrap buying station to help Xiao Chen take care of some things.
With the previous history, and then look at the character positioning, Xiao Chen is a transparent person in life, we all have such people around us, one day he is gone or left, everyone will find his importance. When you realize a problem and are ready to do something, Xiao Chen has already done it silently, when your life suddenly becomes a mess, why is this? Xiao Chen is gone.
Another point is more critical, because he has been weak and sick since childhood, and we hope that Xiao Chen's height will not exceed one meter seven. So on the whole, we set three elements for this character, one is sickness, the second is that the height cannot be tall, and the third is that the play is good.
There are too few actors who meet these three conditions at the same time, and the entire preparatory period has been constantly looking for, well-known and unknown male actors across the country have seen a lot, constantly seeing people and auditioning plays, until they find Huang Chengcheng, his performance is very infectious, but what makes him entangled for a long time is that he is a little baby fat, and the set of pathology is not consistent enough, and later we sorted out the logic that physical causes slight puffiness.
Another more difficult choice is the wild cat, she lives in a relatively privileged family, her father also went to prison to protect her mother, knowing that Tong Xiao riding was also in prison, there is a blind girlish admiration for Tong Xiao riding. At the same time, she is under the strict control of her mother, which has created a particularly strong sense of rebellion, always wants to get out of that environment, pursue herself, and her personality is summed up as a bit of a "tiger", dare to say and do, reckless, all behaviors are based on their own happiness.
In the later period, there was a change, whether it was to carry the convoy during Tong Xiao's hospitalization, or later to Xu Banxia's company to undertake financial work, and even later admitted to a prestigious school abroad, and stay for love and family affection, this character is also full of color. We also met many people for this role, until Sun Qian appeared, we found that her personality was very distinct and very close to the wild cat, and finally chose her.
Entertainment Capital: How did you think of finding Wang Jinsong to play Xu Banxia's father at that time? He seems to have played more typed roles such as police officers or villains before.
Yao Yuan: First of all, I have been good friends with Mr. Wang Jinsong for many years in life, and when the audience mentions him, they think more of Lin Yaodong's more powerful role. In fact, he has a very good sense of humor and a heart for comedy, and he said when chatting before that he always wanted to act in comedy.
Later, I said that there was a particularly critical and irresponsible dad in "Half Summer in the Wind", and asked him if he was interested. He asked me for the script, and after reading it, he thought it was okay, and he also had a lot of creative ideas.
Some viewers noticed the details of his hair, in fact, it was the habit of director Fu Dongyu, the director liked to scratch his hair when he was more excited or troubled on the scene, and teacher Wang Jinsong noticed this and used it in the performance. Good actors are always captured.
Entertainment Capital: We will play similar types of roles in different projects of the same actor, how do you generally think about casting? Find something familiar to the audience or find some fresh options.
Yao Yuan: Sometimes I prefer to surprise the audience. If all the characters of the same type are always those faces, then our industry is quite boring, and the audience will find it boring. We will look at it according to the character and character relationship, such as its function in the play, the amount of drama, and whether it is positive or reverse, and the force it provides is different. In addition, it is necessary to consider the development of the plot, assuming that at a certain stage, the protagonist and other characters in the play do not intersect and a new character is launched, then for this character, whether we match a well-known actor or an actor who is relatively unfamiliar to the audience, we need to think clearly.
Just like how a movie retains the audience in about two hours, as the plot develops, it may enter the stage of comparison, and if an interesting and fresh character can appear, it can catch the audience.
Entertainment Capital: How are the bosses in the Binhai Boss Group positioned and selected?
Yao Yuan: Big brother Wu Jianjian is relatively straightforward, Qiu Bizheng is a chicken thief and loves money as much as life, Feng Yu is more Buddhist, and Guo Qiqi is more realistic. When choosing these roles, the biggest problem is how to get together a group of people with various personalities, how to make them go to that station is the play.
After reading the script, we will first find actors who match the characters, and then match different combinations to see the effect with the director, producer and Dai Ying of iQiyi, is there anything new? Will there be a chemical reaction? We have pondered the combination of these people for a long time, constantly comparing and swapping, and finally matching Liu Wei, Feng Jiayi, Ren Zhong and Song Xi.
Talk about group dramas:
Whether it is a group portrait or not, the logic of casting is the same
Entertainment Capital: Is this back-and-forth comparison process only involved in casting or will it be with directors and producers?
Yao Yuan: We will first make several combinations, and discuss with the director and the producer. Why does good work necessarily come from a good creative team? In the entire crew of "Wind Blowing Half Summer", director Fu Dongyu often said, "Everyone should not be selfish", you can say what you think in your heart, don't be afraid of making mistakes, so we will truly express our inner thoughts and creative concepts in every link, and will not think about "this plan, whether the leader likes it or not, what to do if it doesn't like it" to cater to the director's personal preferences. We will communicate with the director repeatedly, why I think so, what is the basis, we can deny each other. If every team, every creative team is like this, our good works will definitely increase.
Entertainment Capital: Can this kind of discussion you mentioned reflect the change in casting discourse compared with the past?
Yao Yuan: From the beginning of our team's inception to the present, we have never pursued the so-called industry discourse power, because I think that the right to speak is in the hands of the market and the audience, and only when the things made are paid attention to and recognized can the right to speak be reflected, which is also what I really pursue. I think that the creation of all film and television works is to pursue the greatest commonality between this story and the audience, because after everyone watches a story, they will have their own pictures and imagination, and we have to make the audience immediately feel "Oh, this actor is really that person" after watching it, so that the audience believes that "he" is real.
I think casting is to serve the industry, to serve the work, to serve the producer, to serve the market and the audience, of course, we are still very important in project creation, because if the actors of a play are not selected correctly, and the audience does not have a sense of substitution, it is a failure.
Entertainment Capital: With a limited budget, is it more difficult to strike a balance when looking for actors for group dramas?
Yao Yuan: In fact, no matter what type of drama it is, the relevant regulations must be strictly observed, and the actor's salary has a strict proportion of the cost of a drama. When encountering a group drama, you will indeed face the situation of "more monks and less porridge". Then what we can do is to try to use good content and good teams to try to persuade the target actors, each actor has the original intention, has a yearning for good content and the team, and is willing to cooperate at a price below the market price, because a standing character can become a masterpiece, and only bad content will take money to smash people.
Entertainment Capital: For some typed roles, there may already be a group of relatively fixed actors? Then when the conditions are comparable, match according to the budget.
Yao Yuan: Yes. After we read the script, we will make a character portrait for each character, dividing many dimensions, such as the character's history, the color of the character, the constellation, and even what kind of animal it looks like. According to this portrait, put aside the actor's coffee position and fame, first go to find the actor who can make everyone reach the greatest consensus, that is, first have a representative, and then pull out a group of actors of the same type as him, and then we will consider the feasibility, combined with the schedule, cost and other factors to see.
Entertainment Capital: Generally speaking, how to dig for fresh actor faces?
Yao Yuan: First of all, pull the film, watch a lot, when we watch the film, we will find unfamiliar actors, if their performance and creation are amazing, I will remember this person, regardless of whether the project in hand has a suitable role for the other party, I will remember this person, and the next time there is a suitable role, I can think of it immediately. At the same time, this process is also learning and absorbing the casting angles and creative techniques of peers.
In addition to watching the film is taking the initiative to dig, we have been continuously organizing and preparing for some newcomer interviews, and team members will also share with each other, such as who meets a particularly good newcomer, will share it in time.
Entertainment Capital: In the process, a database of actors will be built?
Yao Yuan: We usually deal with actors and agencies every day, although many have not cooperated, but there are most of the actor information, and everyone also has a good communication channel, our resource library basically has full coverage, will be classified according to gender, age group, market recognition and other dimensions. The resource library is accumulated little by little, and it will change, and when you see a good actor, you will go to the agent at any time to learn about it and establish a connection.
Entertainment Capital: How difficult do you think is the casting of group dramas compared to some other themes and genres?
Yao Yuan: Actually, for us, as long as we understand the script thoroughly and understand the characters in place, there is no difficulty in any genre. But in contrast, group dramas test our professionalism and require more precision in casting, because to match the most suitable actors for each role, we also have to consider the chemistry between them. In fact, our ultimate goal is to show the audience an actor who meets the characteristics of the character, and at this level, we also consider how to bring some surprises to the audience.
Entertainment Capital: How big is the casting industry now? Is there a quantitative concept?
Yao Yuan: The past three years have really been a big wave, and many companies that do not meet the market requirements have been eliminated. Before 2019, I did a basic survey, there were about 300 casting companies at that time, and there may be about 30 at present, which has shrunk to only 10%.
Entertainment Capital: What is the current scale of Doujin Starlight? Last year, I made three dramas with very good market feedback ("Ice Rain and Fire", "Canglan Tips" and "Wind Blowing Half Summer"), what other projects can I share next?
Yao Yuan: There are nearly 20 main personnel, and our team is still relatively stable. Next, there is "Fox Demon Little Red Lady", last year finished filming "Moon Red Chapter", this year will finish filming the remaining two, as the first national comic, the fan base and potential of this project is very large, and the production company pays special attention to quality, I believe it is particularly worth looking forward to.