Author| Film Lady (Headline Signed Author)
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The brilliance of the stars, needless to say.
In addition to the spotlight, exposure, travel with assistant bodyguards to take care of protection, more enviable is their income.
Yang Ying claimed to be worth 80 million yuan in film remuneration; "Ruyi Chuan" invested 300 million yuan, Huo Jianhua and Zhou Xun both went to 100 million film remuneration; Sun Li's value soared since "Zhen Huan's Biography", and the income of each TV series was more than 50 million!
Obviously, the money that big stars earn in a few months is beyond the reach of ordinary people in a lifetime.
Stimulated by these numbers, wanting to be famous, wanting to be popular, and wanting to make big money and making quick money has become the desire of many people.
However, as an ordinary person, especially the low-level people, how difficult is it to become famous?
Today, we will borrow a documentary to talk about:
"I Am a Passerby"
Many people may have heard of Er Dongsheng's movie "I Am a Passerby".
This documentary also has a deep relationship with erdao.
In 2012, Er Dongsheng decided to make a movie about Hengdian mass actors, and during the interview group performance to collect materials, many people told Er Dongsheng that the reason why they became "horizontal drifters" as extras was because of Wang Baoqiang.
Er Dongsheng is worried that after the release of the movie in the future, some people will dream of being an actor "because of Er Dongsheng".
Therefore, while preparing the film, he also prepared the documentary "I Am a Passerby" to let the audience understand the difference between film and reality, what is true and what is false.
Although the main actors of the film are real extras, they also interpret their stories.
However, in order to take care of the narrative, the themes used are still the conventional words of youth, dreams, and struggles, and the characters in the film also have relatively warm destinations.
The documentary is more objective and more cold, and its main role is to tell those daydreamers: fame is not so easy, do not be delusional.
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Unlike the big stars who spend so much money, the first difficulty that many extras face is survival.
Although the cost of living in Hengdian is very low: one or two hundred a month can find a place to live, and there are crew box lunches for meals.
But there are other expenses in everyday life.
The economic foundation of passers-by is not strong.
When Wang Zhao saw Er Dongsheng, he only had 270 yuan left on his body.
Wan Guopeng, the male protagonist of the movie "I Am a Passerby", only had 10 yuan on his body when he saw Er Dongsheng. Because he met the big director, he felt that he was lucky, so he bought a lottery ticket and won 20 yuan.
When Qin Peijun arrived in Hengdian, he only had 500 yuan on his body.
The money they use to lean on is actually not worth mentioning in urban life.
In addition, the income of the extras is very low.
Working eight hours a day may be an income of tens of dollars, which is not as good as moving bricks at the construction site.
Different from the dreamers who are persistent and regretless in the imagination of many people, most of the "horizontal drifting" stays in Hengdian, although there are factors that like acting, but more importantly, it is for the red, and the income brought by the red.
Unfortunately, for more than 99.9% of the "horizontal drift", "red" is just a pipe dream, and it is impractical to make a lot of money.
Shen Kai, the oldest actor in the movie "I Am a Passerby", is more than 30 years old.
He ran to Hengdian without his wife and daughter, wanting to break through the dream of his youth, he said that he regretted coming to Hengdian for two years at most, but he might regret it for a lifetime.
At the same time, he hopes to make his wife and daughter live a better life by becoming famous through acting.
However, fate did not take a major turn as he expected, and most of the time, he was an insignificant group performance.
The opportunity for "I Am a Passerby" was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for him, and it was also his first important role.
For this opportunity, he attaches great importance to it, and the shooting process is also extremely stressful.
When the acting skills were denied by Er Dongsheng, a big man cried a handful of tears.
Xu Xiaoqin, who played the opposite role with him in the film, began working at the age of seventeen, working as a beauty consultant, selling mobile phones, working in supermarkets and cafes, and later drifting to Hengdian.
She gave herself five years to look forward to the day when she could make money to support her parents.
There are countless group performances like Shen Kai and Xu Xiaoqin who struggle with dreams and reality at the same time.
They're interested in acting, but not to the point where they see it as a lifelong pursuit.
Before arriving at Hengdian, they tossed and turned, but did not succeed.
Therefore, they are eager to get the opportunity to bottom out in Hengdian.
Dreams and reality, which one occupies a greater proportion in their hearts, we do not know, perhaps they themselves are not so clear.
What we can be clear is that their abilities are destined to have their ceilings low and low.
Perhaps they have acted in many plays, but because most of the roles they play belong to "living props", they hardly need acting ability, and their acting skills are naturally difficult to improve.
The vast majority of them are neither professionally trained nor very good at learning: some have not even graduated from primary school, and some have only gone to secondary school.
So, when they really come across roles that require acting, they don't have the ability to do it.
This also determines that more than 99.9% of the people in passer-by A can only be a passer-by A.
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Can't see the future, muddled and nightmarish days, the days of "horizontal drifting" will also be numb, doubt life, just like the group actor Wang Zhao said: feel like a migrant worker when running a play, do things that individuals can do, feel that it is a waste of time.
So, what is the point of persistence?
Those who have been in Hengdian for a few years and have given up hope may become second-rate people, some have become group leaders, and with a little power, they have begun to engage in unspoken rules.
If the group actors with low qualifications want to mix with small roles, they need to give them red envelopes; when they meet young and ignorant little girls, they also want to eat tofu and take advantage.
Don't think that huge interests need unspoken rules, for group performances, for a chance to show their faces, or a few lines, it is enough to meet the unspoken rules.
And those who accept the unspoken rules, the benefits are not much, at most there are a few lines, a little more opportunities to show their faces, and more money to make a living.
In the group performance of Hengdian drifting, people who can remember their dreams and consciously accumulate experience, regardless of whether there is progress or not, are already valuable.
More people, from the beginning, are contrary to success, not only in ability, but also in mentality and cognition.
Among the many passers-by, there is a name called Wang Dianchao.
Although he also had so-called dreams, he spent time every day ritualistically reading his vows about dreams and learning napoleon Hill's time to imagine his own life after success.
However, his dedication to his dreams only stayed on these flowery postures, and there was no other practical action.
During the filming of the film, Er Dongsheng stipulated that actors could not leave the dormitory after 10 p.m., but Wang Dianchao still secretly went to the Internet café.
There is no love experience, there is no money, but he played online dating, with the filming income of more than 3,000 yuan to buy a ticket to meet the online love girlfriend, it turned out that the woman's previous photos to him are completely "photo deception".
Later, he talked about a girlfriend again, and later learned that the girl had a boyfriend.
His recklessness and ignorance, in exchange for the result is to be beaten by the other boyfriend.
Looking at his behavior, it can be found that he lacks self-discipline and lacks a clear understanding of himself, and he does not know how to achieve his dreams.
When he gets an opportunity, he can not seriously cherish it, if there is no opportunity, what will he become?
Wang Dianchao's family is not rich, and his parents are low-level migrant workers.
Perhaps because his parents did not have time to accompany and educate him, he dropped out of school early and arrived at Hengdian without greeting his family and began the journey of "horizontal drift".
His mother thought that there was no way out when the group performance, and hoped that he could work steadily, but he told his mother: Do not look back until success.
Before the documentary was released, Wang Dianchao's father died of cerebral hemorrhage, and then where did his path go? We don't know.
But what is certain is that until now, he has not achieved the success he wants.
After all, Wang Dianchao is young, his life has just begun, if he gives up doing group acting, even if he has no education and no ability, he can live an ordinary life by relying on his strength.
But if you are old and still obsessed, how much is the central acid?
In the documentary "I Am a Passerby", there is a "drifting" couple who have a daughter and an unborn son.
Too poor, they didn't even rent a house and lived with their daughter in a dilapidated van.
On weekdays, the husband goes to shoot the scene, the wife takes the daughter to wait outside the film and television base with a big belly, and at noon the husband will take the excess box lunch of the crew to the wife and children to eat.
Everyday life is so simple.
After the birth of their son, they rented a small room, which was full of clutter except for the bed.
Even living in such an environment, they still fantasize: what if one day they become famous? That way you can get fame and fortune.
But it is destined that this can only be a distant dream.
Some people say that Hengdian is a paradise for lazy people, a paradise for crazy people, and a world for bare sticks.
Madame did not deny that there were serious dreamers among them.
But most people just see it as a way to make a living.
After all, compared to the construction site to move bricks, deliver takeaways, Foxconn's assembly line, when the group performance is still a little easier.
In Hengdian, they can escape the pressures of life and dream unrealistic dreams.
Escaping the embarrassment of reality in the name of dreams is the norm for many people.
From this point of view, they are not admirable dreamers, but weak people in life.
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Many group performers told Er Dongsheng that the reason why they came to Hengdian was because Wang Bao was forced to harm him.
Because Wang Baoqiang succeeded, they felt that they could also succeed.
However, they did not realize that they were the same as Wang Baoqiang, only the identity of the "grassroots".
Without Wang Baoqiang's strength and opportunities, they were doomed to achieve the same achievements as Wang Baoqiang.
So far, the highest achievement of the "horizontal drifters" is only the performance in the movie "I am a passerby".
The male protagonist, Wan Guopeng, came to Hengdian from the northeast with a love for acting, bought professional books in the lonely and nameless days, and studied acting skills.
In the film, although his performance is not mature, his efforts have finally paid off.
With "I Am a Passerby", he began to be recognized and recognized.
Later, he also participated in "Originally You Were Still Here" starring Yang Zishan and Han Dongjun, "Ping Pong" starring Bai Jingting and Xu Weizhou, and starred in the movie "Hello, Current", and also had his name in "Tomorrow's War" starring Gu Tianle and Liu Qingyun.
Although there is no "fire", it is already a rare luck to be able to keep moving forward on the road you like.
Wang Ting, the heroine of "I Am a Passerby", won the Most Media Attention Newcomer Actress Award at the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival in 2018 with the role of Li Qian in "Passing the Future".
She is the only "passer-by" in this group to receive mainstream award recognition.
As for the other passers-by who were selected by Er Dongsheng that year, now, some of them are playing the role of some scraps, and some have long disappeared into the sea of people.
As the world's largest live-action film and television shooting base, Hengdian is a magical existence.
It has attracted countless people to come here with the dream of stardom, and at the same time, it has also allowed countless people to spend time here.
Madame has never been opposed to chasing dreams, because it is really a cool thing to have dreams and pay for them for a long time.
However, dreams cannot just be thought, cannot be just dreams, but more need real actions, constant hardships, and never-ending struggles.
This struggle is not repeated day after day, but constantly improved.
To achieve perfection, it requires both talent and the ability to learn, perseverance and concentration.
At the same time, everyone should also have a clear positioning and cognition of themselves.
After all, stubbornly moving forward on an inappropriate road will not only make you more and more wrong, but also involve the people around you to pay for your own willfulness.
Some people say that there are two major tragedies in life: one is that all thoughts are gray, and the other is full of ambition.
I hope that when everyone looks up at the stars, they will not forget what it means to be down-to-earth.
After all, dreams are not fantasies.
(The picture originated from the Internet, invaded and deleted)
About the Author: @Movie Lady, independent film critic, headline number signed author. Write about film and television, but also write about the love and hate of the entertainment industry.