Nowadays, many people dream of becoming glamorous stars and achieving an easy life of earning millions a day.
Even many young people have given up their studies, quit their jobs, and plunged headlong into the "drifting" army.
However, when they really became group performers, they discovered the truth behind the entertainment industry:
"Naked substitutes earn 3000 a day", "special requests are given to add money", "crew couples are everywhere", and there are even special "butt substitutes......
When you are a group performer, it is really not that simple to become famous!
Dreams and realities
Hui Tsai was born in Lincang, Yunnan Province, and dropped out of school after graduating from junior high school to earn money to support his family.
He first came to work in an electronics factory, but the boring work of making screws every day made him feel very lost.
Later, Fai Tsai accidentally saw someone sharing his life as a group performer on the Internet.
There are different costumes to wear every day, eat boxed lunches, and meet various stars, and you can easily earn thousands of dollars a day.
This made Hui Zai very envious, so he contacted the netizen at that time.
However, after communicating with the other party, he learned that although there are no academic requirements to be a group performer, he must be at least 18 years old.
So Hui Tsai could only continue to insist in the electronics factory.
Just after his 18th birthday, Hui Zai couldn't wait to resign and took the train to Hengdian.
After the interview, he got his actor certificate, and then he was pulled into the work group.
Every day, the group will release the group performance needs of different crews, including height, age and number of people, etc.
The time and place of the meeting will be announced later.
After the information is announced, the group performers will sign up in the group, and the group leader will be responsible for selecting people.
The first drama filmed by Hui Tsai is called "Dragon War", and the role is the ordinary people who are watching.
It was his first time on the set, and he was a little unaccustomed to it, and he didn't know what he should do.
Fortunately, a friend has been with him, and after Fai Zai is dressed up, he only needs to follow the camera around the scene.
In this way, at the end of the day, Hui Zai got his own remuneration of 100 yuan.
Hui Zai, who was excited that night, spent more than 50 yuan on dinner.
But it didn't take long for Fai Zai's excitement to pass.
The number of group performers in Hengdian is too much, but there are only a few crews.
It can be said that there are more monks and less porridge, and there are often hundreds of people grabbing more than a dozen places.
At this time, you have to have a good relationship with the group leader to be selected.
Some people will also "bribe" the crew of the crew, and a pack of cigarettes and a meal can give them another chance.
In comparison, girls will have a greater advantage, and sometimes a "big brother" can be chosen.
Hui Tsai spent 500 yuan on renting a house, and dozens of yuan a day to eat.
But he was new to the city, he didn't know anyone, he had very few resources, and he often didn't start work for more than ten days a month.
After only two months, Hui Zai has no money in his hands.
In order to survive, he can only think of other ways.
Later, Hui Tsai also learned that many crews needed stuntmen, not only Wen Ti and Wu Ti, but also Ma Ti and naked Ti.
Once Hui Tsai also went to an interview for a naked substitute.
This scene requires a naked substitute to run out of the bathroom with a bare ass, and he can give 8,000 yuan a day!
This is simply 80 times higher than the average group performance.
But the naked substitute can't wear clothes at all, and the camera will follow the butt all the time.
This scene also recruited female nude replacements, but girls can wear pants, but they have to bare their entire backs, and they will be given 10,000 yuan a day.
However, Hui Tsai didn't go in the end, he was really embarrassed to let others pat his ass.
Hui Tsai also set his sights on the work of Ma Ti, who had to act as a stand-in for actors who could not ride horses, and sometimes played the role of a cavalryman and a coachman.
The income can be up to 500 a day, and if it is a female horse, she can even get 1,000 yuan.
Fai Tsai deliberately found someone to learn to ride a horse, and practiced for a long time before officially taking over the job of a horse substitute.
Although more and more money is obtained, there are also more and more dangers.
Once, when Hui Tsai was riding a horse in the crew, he accidentally stepped into the air, and the horse fell to the ground in an instant, and Hui Tsai was also thrown out.
The staff rushed him to the hospital, but after a few days of resting on the medicine, Hui Tsai started work again.
After all, the work of the crew, who has no injuries on his body, you have to rest until you finish, and the work has already been replaced.
In addition to falling injuries, the crew has a hard time in winter and summer.
Sometimes in the cold winter, Layue has to shoot summer dramas, especially anti-Japanese war dramas, with only a pair of straw sandals on his feet, and he is so cold that he is unconscious at all.
Sometimes, under the heat of thirty or forty degrees, I have to shoot winter scenes, wearing a helmet and armor, and my whole body will be soaked with sweat for a while.
As a group performer, Hui Tsai often rushed to the set at 6 o'clock in the morning, but sometimes they couldn't finish work until the early morning of the next day.
Fai Tsai often sleeps casually for two hours, then gets up quickly and rushes to another crew.
However, over the years, Hui Tsai has also seen many stars in the crew.
There are also big names like Jackie Chan and Donnie Yen.
Hui Tsai found that celebrities are actually not so tall.
Although some young actors like to play big names and take a stand, almost many old actors have a good attitude towards the staff.
Now, Hui Tsai can earn 8,000 to 10,000 yuan a month, and he wants to shoot for another two years before returning to his hometown.
Resigned and came to Hengdian
Xiao Jiang is a post-90s generation in Nanchong, Sichuan, and his family conditions have not been very good.
But after he dropped out of vocational high school, he accidentally entered a high-speed company in Guangzhou and became a toll collector.
Because the company is a state-owned enterprise, it not only has five insurances and one housing fund.
However, the job was very demanding for the youngsters.
Because the location of the toll booth is very remote, it also requires militarized management.
It seems that you can see the head at a glance in your daily life, and there will be no change in the days to come.
At this time, Xiao Jiang remembered his dream of becoming an actor when he was a child.
So he resigned decisively and came to Hengdian with all his savings.
On the first day of becoming a group performer, Xiao Jiang posted a video on his social platform.
Unexpectedly, this video has tens of thousands of views, and many netizens are very interested in the life of group performances.
Therefore, Xiao Jiang decided to share his experiences in the crew regularly in the future.
However, like Hui Zai, in less than a month, Xiao Jiang discovered that the group performance was not as simple as he imagined.
The salary is low, and there is not necessarily a job, only when filming big night scenes and playing corpses, the salary can be slightly higher.
In order to earn more money, Xiao Jiang went to participate in the training of martial arts, starting from the lowest level of small martial arts.
Usually they play small roles that are injured and killed, and they can be paid 300 to 500 a day.
However, the "corpse" is not easy to play, not only will the body be covered with "blood", but also lie on the ground motionless.
Sometimes there will be insects crawling on the body, and you have to endure it.
It's even more uncomfortable to catch up with the plot where there is rain in the plot, and you have to be blistered by water on the ground all the time.
Even if there are only a few minutes in the play, sometimes a scene is a few hours at a time.
At the end of the day, the whole person was in a daze.
Not only that, but the most uncomfortable thing is the clothes of the group performance.
Usually, the crew's clothes are not washed at all, and it is not known how many people wear the same clothes.
Then it rolled around in the dirt, and the sweat made it hard to breathe every time I took the clothes.
The same goes for the shoes, which are almost all stacked on top of each other, exuding a smell of old jar sauerkraut.
One summer, Xiao Jiang played a passerby who was smashed by heavenly soldiers in a Xianxia drama.
But after the filming started, due to an accident, Xiao Jiang was really smashed and his ear was bleeding all the time.
The crew rushed him to the hospital, and it was fine.
But from then on, Xiao Jiang didn't dare to be a martial artist anymore.
I want to make my own self-media account.
In order to continue to collect materials, Xiao Jiang began to play tricks in various crews.
I have also seen a lot of "insiders" in the entertainment industry.
Once, he saw a top-notch idol with countless fans, but the other party looked no different from passers-by without makeup.
Xiao Jiang feels that there are many celebrities who are really very different before and after makeup.
But there are also those who look good without makeup, and Xiao Jiang also participated in the filming of "Menghualu" before.
can only say that "fairy sister" is worthy of being "fairy sister", even if it is without makeup, it is amazing.
When he didn't enter this industry before, Xiao Jiang also felt that the wonderful fight scenes in the TV series were very exciting.
But in fact, many of the protagonist's fights are now done by stand-ins.
Even sometimes as long as there is a faceless scene, it can be filmed by a stand-in.
There is also the most special "naked substitute", the naked substitute actor not only requires an excellent figure, but also a strong psychological quality.
After all, when filming on the spot, there were many people around.
Xiao Jiang also encountered those who filmed nude scenes, and he had to admire each other.
However, the salary of the naked substitute is also higher than that of the general stand-in, which costs 3,000 yuan a day, and more than 12 hours will be counted as two days.
There are many intimate scenes of the male and female protagonists in the TV series.
These are very embarrassing for ordinary people, but they have long been accustomed to these stars.
Often when there is a group of staff and group performers around, the male and female protagonists can still kiss lingeringly.
The general kiss scene is a real kiss, and now there are few borrowings, because the post-processing is too troublesome, it is better to kiss directly, and the effect is good.
I have seen a lot of stars in the crew, and I have also seen a lot of so-called characters and packaging.
Now I don't feel surprised to hear that whoever collapsed the house and who divorced.
What "crew husband and wife", "a drama for a girlfriend", such things are not a few.
There are also some little stars who forget their last name after suddenly becoming famous.
Every day, I shout at the crew to take a fight, or I will have an affair with the actors in the same group.
I can only say that your circle is really messy.
Before becoming a group performer, many people fantasized that they might one day be favored by a certain director, become a blockbuster, and become a star.
But in fact, there are many times when group performances don't have access to the director at all.
Many people are slowly smoothed out by life and eventually leave this impetuous industry.
Xiao Jiang also has a new plan.
Because of the rise of self-media videos, many group performers have begun to share their experiences online.
In order to avoid spoilers, the crew had to ask the group performance to prohibit video recording and photography.
Xiao Jiang's short video gradually ran out of material, so at the end of 2022, he left Hengdian.
Prepare to ride all the way from Guangxi to Tibet, enjoying the scenery while concentrating on making your own video account.