Sohu Entertainment Special Article (Lin Zhenxin, Fat Department/Text)
"Casting" has always been a hot topic on social platforms. The candidates, positions, and suitability that are thus developed can always set off a large-scale discussion upsurge.
Under the excitement, it is the public's strong curiosity about "casting".
For more than ten years, the long video platform has mastered a fairly high voice on the upstream production side, including the casting process.
And the selection and employment of the long video platform, to put it in detail, is also a "business book".
Platform casting
Trapped in "data"?
Recently, Kong Xueer has appeared on the hot search because of online rumors that she will play the second female role in the new drama "Fixing the Storm".
After the news came out, Kong Xueer's fans first questioned his team and refused to let her play the role of "Little Production Female Second", and then, Kong Xueer personally posted a suspected response to the turmoil, and her studio also posted a blog saying "Because of recent public opinion, the work schedule may be adjusted, and it will not be released this month."
In this turmoil, the most noteworthy thing is that the staff said in the chat record that Kong Xueer "has no projects with valid data on the broadcast" and "there is no difference between him and newcomers in the eyes of the platform".
In just a few sentences, a corner of the platform's insider selection has been revealed-relying on data casting.
Data, the light of life and the fire of desire of Internet enterprises.
In the past ten years, the video platforms backed by major Internet manufacturers have opened the road of self-control, pushed open the door of traffic in the domestic film and television industry, and reorganized the value evaluation criteria of the industry with Internet logic.
Even if the traffic audience peaked and the industry entered a cold winter, everyone shouted "content upgrade" and then "cost reduction and efficiency increase" in the first two years, traffic, as the fundamental logic of the Internet, is still deeply rooted in the industry under the huge inertia.
But perhaps unexpectedly, how to obtain data, interpret data, and make good use of data? The solutions of each platform are not as rational and objective as imagined.
Vivian, the producer of platform A, told Sohu Entertainment that when discussing the male protagonist of a certain S+ project, she once mentioned a young male artist who was very popular among netizens, and was vetoed by other producers on the spot.
"He doesn't have any data with us, so how can we condemn him?" Vivian retold the producer's exact words.
It's not just the data that's important, it's the data that needs to be "with us".
The data can be multi-dimensional, the drama heat index, the number of front and back office broadcasts, the increase in the popularity of artists, etc., there are internal statistics, as well as external data such as Maoyan, Lighthouse, Yunhe and other industry lists, and even hot search information, artist rankings, etc. But the most important thing is whether it has ever created value for the platform.
Xing Zhaolin relied on a "Double World Favorite Concubine" many years ago to star in an ancient puppet project produced on the same platform many times, and the drama is a typical low-investment, high-return project.
If you can star in a blockbuster, it will directly add to the artist's platform resources.
"If you want to know how we choose people, the simplest thing is that you can watch those dramas that broke 10,000 last year, and then see which ones are being promoted in the dramas to be broadcast. An An, producer of platform B, said.
Similar bonuses are not limited to the main character. Producer Ouyang told Sohu Entertainment that when a project was passed, they proposed to be played by two Mesozoic actors, but they were explicitly rejected and replaced by supporting roles in a hit drama on the platform.
In fact, in the high-risk film and television industry, it has always been a routine operation to "metaphysically" refer to past data. However, in the current platform-led industry production system, the data theory of each company may be more extreme.
The logic reflected in the above casting data theory seems to be like this: "whether it has created value for the platform", "whether it has created value for the platform> "whether it has explosive genes", >"whether it has audience popularity/market influence", > others.
In related interviews, the issue of professional competence was rarely raised.
Binding platform
Secure resources?
Compared to the above conventional situation, some artists have a higher priority.
Relevant insiders told Sohu Entertainment that in addition to the recognized "drama-bearing" actors and actors who are out of the circle of popular dramas, the platform will also favor "its own people".
"The rumored platform 'prince', including the artists signed by our company's own artist management department, is bound to the platform. Vivian said that as the outside world speculated, the platform and artists will indeed establish a "binding" relationship, including subcontracting, resource packaging, business cooperation and many other levels.
This kind of binding is involved in the innate "capital behind the star", as well as the acquired interest relationship.
For example, Hainan Super Upward Culture Media Co., Ltd., where Cheng Lei's brokerage contract is located, and Chen Zheyuan's Sure Entertainment, according to Tianyancha, the shareholder information is also 95% held by iQiyi and 5% held by Shanghai Zhongyuan Network Co., Ltd. (the company is 100% owned by Gong Yu), so both of them are typical platform cultivation artists.
The brokerage company signed by Zhang Linghe and Lu Yuxiao, Zhongxing Times, is a company in which iQiyi Investment holds shares (holding 10% of the shares), which is commonly known as the "Second Ring" company in the industry.
Which cooperative artists can get opportunities also involves the idea of cultivating new talents on the platform.
For example, since last year, some newcomers have begun to get more opportunities.
C platform producer A Yu introduced, at least in the field of idol dramas, there are not many young actresses who can really effectively pull the broadcast, so it seems more cost-effective to cultivate it yourself, "I hope to hold a 95 flower that has no star now, but the appearance and acting skills are okay, and undertake these idol drama resources." ”
Combined with the gameplay of various platforms since "reducing costs and increasing efficiency", it is not difficult to understand. On the one hand, although the market for male frequency dramas is growing, women are still the undoubted main audience, and post-95 actresses still lack stars with real market appeal, and there is a gap in the industry.
On the other hand, in the face of this part of the rigid demand, "own people" can save costs, and further open a new path of "cost reduction" in the brokerage link of the industrial chain.
The little flower that Ah Yu said has now received a new platform with a good team. "Once the cooperation is negotiated, I will definitely package four or five dramas with the artist at a low price in advance. ”
An An's B platform is also holding a little flower, who is younger, but the situation is similar to the former: the resources are "stable", and a certain salary is bound to be sacrificed.
When this 00 flower first filmed an S-level project on platform B, he had already signed an agreement, agreeing that he must shoot a drama produced by platform C every year, and no matter how the salary increases within a certain number of years, he must maintain the quotation for platform C during the rookie period.
Different from the early "binding" of staking land and maintaining star relationships through the transfer of resources, today's full-fledged platform has been feeding back the massive resources in its hands to "make stars" and open up new interest space in the chain of the production business.
Platform X Artist
Transfer in love
But in addition to "binding", "unbinding" has already happened.
Looking back at the careers of most celebrities, you may find that they have maintained a close relationship with a certain platform.
For example, Ju Jingyi's early works "Kyushu Sky City" and "Bloody Chang'an" landed on Tencent Video and Youku respectively, and then starred in many costume dramas, from "Yunxi Biography" and "The Legend of the New White Lady" to "Hua Rong" and "Fairy Sword Four" in the past two years, all of which were broadcast exclusively on iQiyi;
Zhao Lusi previously starred in "Oh! My Emperor His Majesty", "The Rumored Chen Qianqian", "I, Like You", and then starred in the head works "Let's Try the World", "Xinghan Splendid, Moon Rises in the Sea", etc., are all Tencent video content;
Similar "transfer love" is happening more and more frequently.
Zhang Linghe, who has just finished the Youku costume drama "Du Hua Nian", joined the iQiyi puppet drama "Love You" in March; Hou Minghao and Lu Yuxiao, who were officially announced in Youku's costume drama "Into the Green Clouds", the former just finished filming iQiyi's "Big Dream Returns", and the latter is a new traffic flower who relied on "Cloud Feather" created by "Big Dream Return" with the same director and platform.
The current situation is that although the platform wants to bind with artists, after the traffic rises and the popularity increases, the actors will want to "go out" and cooperate with different platforms.
Vivian told Sohu Entertainment that artists who have maintained a good cooperative relationship with the platform for a long time basically hope to get higher salaries when they take on plays on other platforms. "The artists of platform A can get higher salaries if they take on the dramas of B and C, and they may even have a higher voice if the traffic is large. ”
This is not an artist's black-box operation, with different quotations for various platforms, but a platform that has a deeper relationship with it, and may habitually feel that "TA is not worth the price".
Peipei, who works on a certain platform, told Sohu Entertainment that when an ancient puppet project was held before, they proposed to be starred by "their own artist", but the leader just looked at the artist's offer and rejected it.
"They will feel that TA is out of our platform, and if it weren't for the platform's praise, TA would not have the current traffic. Therefore, if TA is paid 8 million, we have to press it to 5 million. Pei Pei said.
What is reflected in "transfer love" is the problem of the "binding" mode of the platform.
Compared with the model of warmth and affection in the past, the platform with more extreme commercialization after "reducing costs and increasing efficiency" is slow to improve the treatment and status of artists, especially the "own people" of the cultivation department.
And the choice of actors is actually no stranger to workers: changing jobs is the fast lane for appreciation and salary increase.
Not only actors, but also platforms that used to bind industry production companies are now unbundling.
The logic behind this is actually the same, when the platform has become the center of industry production, it is much easier to obtain production resources, and will not continue to make profits to retain partners, everyone is in business. Under this concept, it is actually difficult for cultivated artists to exert value for the platform for a long time.
On the other hand, with platform resources in hand, there will never be a shortage of artists, and in the ever-changing entertainment industry, there will always be people queuing up to ascend to the new throne of traffic.
This is the real closed-loop of the platform's casting "business economy".
(Names have been changed)