Global Film Emperor

Chapter 519 The show begins filming

It's rare for Lu Ze to visit Huaxi, and he usually just rushes by without ever really taking a good look at this ideal mecca for Chinese performing arts students. This time, however, he couldn't help but glance at it through the car window a couple more times. But after just a quick look, he lost all interest. Too many cars were parked on campus, blocking out much of the view.

It is estimated that many of them are parents of students who participated in the preliminary selection. The passes issued by the school saved them the big trouble of finding parking spaces and also provided a channel for parents to communicate.

At this moment, a group of middle-aged people, mostly carrying bottled water with their hands behind their backs, dressed very formally, stood by the roadside chatting fluently, looking quite imposing. If it weren't for their children participating in a competition, they probably wouldn't be standing in the scorching sun as punishment.

Although they were chatting, they were full of energy. When they saw a car with the program team's logo approaching, they stopped talking and looked longingly into the car's interior, which had no window tinting. After exchanging glances with Lu Ze, they smiled politely and nodded to Lu Ze as he drove away.

"Was that teacher surnamed Lu just now? What was his name again?"

"Lu Ze, your daughter has already made it to the semi-finals, shouldn't you take a good look at the competition schedule?"

"I don't want to know. Selecting sixteen out of more than four hundred students is not something I have much hope for. I came here to comfort the children. This is too difficult. Besides... right?"

"You're right. If you want to set off a firecracker, people won't even see you. You might as well just be a figurehead."

……

Most parents don't have high hopes. If their child is going down the path of art, they will definitely participate in a lot of competitions and performances from childhood to adulthood. Not to mention appearing on TV programs, even in shoddy competitions where you just want to get a certificate, you might lose thousands of dollars and they can pull you down from the gold medal.

Years of experience "losing money" can create a certain kind of habitual thinking, causing these unhappy parents to curse "Damn, this is so corrupt" behind their backs, but then they will still work themselves to the bone for a certificate that costs only five yuan.

This is a huge undertaking, and it can't be solved with just a few thousand yuan. Everyone thinks it's good enough if they don't lose their savings book. Parents who aren't confident in their wallets naturally back down. Everyone says that families with children studying art are not short of money, but in reality, there are many more parents who sell their houses, land, and even their possessions to support their children's art education.

After all, these were just over 400 outstanding students who stood out from more than 30,000 performing arts students across the country. However, due to certain reasons, they were just one step away from stepping onto the dazzling stage. So, these parents, with a stubbornness that others could not understand and with complex feelings of guilt towards their children, traveled from all over the country to the capital, just to wait for their "destined" children to fail. In the children's melancholy eyes, they would pat their heads and say, "It's okay, we'll try harder next time."

When faced with something both familiar and unfamiliar, most people rely on their years of "experience" to assess the risks, unaware that their so-called experience actually has a real name: prejudice. And those who are kept in the dark and remain unaware spend their entire lives fighting against prejudice.

……

"There are no pre-selected spots in our competition this time. I dare say that to you. It all depends on the children's own abilities. There's plenty of time for tea. You can invite me when your child starts learning opera from me."

However, quite a few parents with bulging wallets are still not giving up. In their forties and fifties, they hide themselves like spies, and then suddenly appear out of nowhere to scare the teacher. Then, relying on their years of honed silver tongues and iron skin, they try to get close to Lu Ze, presenting him with business cards that are full of words and impossible to refuse.

Lu Ze scratched his head, sighed helplessly, and accepted the high-end business cards with just the right hardness for plastering. He declined some parents who were planning to make shady deals before heading to the second floor of the indoor stadium.

The first floor was noisy, chattering like a piece of fatty meat being thrown into a frying pan. It only quieted down when the door was closed on the second floor. The film crew followed behind. Lu Ze unbuttoned his suit jacket, stretched, pushed open the door and went in. Then he strode over to Song Guiyuan, who was sitting on the sofa drinking tea, and pounced on him!

"You still dare to come?"

Without trying to avoid the film crew, he directly used his famous finishing move, locking Lao Song's neck from behind. Knowing he was in the wrong, Comrade Song cooperated by sticking out his tongue and patting the sofa repeatedly, begging for mercy.

"I'm done with it!"

"What's going on...?"

Grandpa Guan Yong watched with a smile, but Tang Juan felt it was inappropriate. The camera was rolling, and they couldn't fight here. She quickly got up and grabbed Lu Ze's wrist. Lu Ze was also afraid of hurting Tang Juan, so he had no choice but to let go.

"Auntie, why don't you ask him?"

"Cough cough...you're choking me! This camera is full of evidence, I'm going to get the police to arrest you!" "Are you trying to scare a child?"

The two bickered like children. Guan Yong gave Tang Juan a wink, and she understood, so she stopped interfering and calmly sat back on the sofa, watching the two create buzz for the show.

Lu Ze was really angry because of Lao Song's trickery. The main reason was that Lao Song was still shameless and self-righteous in playing the role of a hypocrite, which made Lu Ze particularly angry. The two sat down next to each other while talking, and when things got a little awkward, they punched each other in the arm. Although it wasn't intentional and was just to create a funny moment for the show, this more real argument between friends was more interesting. The staff next to them suppressed their laughter, checked the time, and even if they wanted to continue watching the two fight, they had to give up and move on to the actual filming.

At this point, Lu Ze greeted the two senior colleagues with whom he had a close relationship. He listened to their lament about how quickly time had passed and echoed their sentiments until the staff explained the rules, at which point the four of them quieted down.

"In front of the four teachers are four ballot boxes, each marked with a surname, and counting cards. Each teacher has 120 marks to initially decide which students are suitable for the script and give them one-on-one audition opportunities. If a student is not marked, it will be considered as an automatic waiver, and the teacher will not be able to contact that student in the subsequent stages."

"Those who are not marked by any of the four teachers, i.e., those who are vacant, will enter the waiting area and wait for the marked students to be interviewed first. If there are still vacancies in the scripts of the four teachers after the marked students have finished their interviews, then the waiting students will conduct a four-on-one supplementary interview. Now, please sit in front of your ballot boxes and let the voting begin."

"This... is a bit cruel."

After hearing the competition rules, the four couldn't help but sigh that the rules were a bit cruel, but that was how actors survived, and something that all four of them had experienced. However, after they got through that hurdle, they didn't really remember how difficult it was back then, or rather, once it was over, they didn't feel it was that difficult anymore.

However... looking through the one-way glass at the students on the first floor, who were filled with joy, and feeling the vitality they exuded, if this situation were applied to these kids, they would feel sorry for them.

Every industry has certain restrictions on recruiting newcomers, but the restrictions in the acting industry are the most blatant and undisguised.

Height, weight, appearance, or even a mole on your face that makes you look fierce can all help you land a role and make a living. Conversely, if your face doesn't leave a lasting impression, even if you're handsome or beautiful, you'll never get ahead in this industry.

If you don't have any unique features, there are so many good-looking people in the world, why should you be allowed to make a fortune?

These rigid, unchangeable criteria are even more important than acting skills. After all, a lack of acting skills can be improved with the director's guidance and editing, but someone with no distinctive features has no right to have the crew give them makeup that can completely change their appearance or temperament.

The innate advantages are unfair to these students who have studied hard for many years, but this is the survival rule for actors. After officially entering the industry and starting auditions, a person without any special characteristics has to accept the reality that they are not on screen. Not every role you like will be suitable for you, and even if it is suitable for you, it may not be given to you.

As a result, those trainees who did not fit any of the sixteen roles competed against tens of thousands of opponents and finally made it into the main competition. Before they even competed, they were pushed to the brink of elimination. Even if they were lucky enough to be added to the roster, they were just eating the leftovers left by others.

Failure due to a lack of acquired skills is not cruel; if you are not as skilled as others, you can catch up with more effort. The real cruelty, the real blow, is when you are told clearly that you are inherently inferior to others.

The thought that such a cruel blow came from my own hands, even though it's something that's bound to happen in the acting profession, still makes me feel somewhat reluctant.

In the past, auditions were fine. Although there was no difference between auditioning and casting, it was a process of selecting suitable roles from among many actors and then sending out audition invitations. Those who were eliminated were completely unaware of the process. But this time, they were being screened into the waiting area in front of everyone from a group of young and inexperienced actors.

None of the four knew much about the competition process, and they didn't ask about it in detail at the time. After all, the production team doesn't need to specifically tell you about the segments they design, as long as you avoid crossing the line. It's normal to announce the details before filming starts.

This seemingly cruel competition format did not cross the line for the four teachers, because this is their life, and they are still limited by their appearance.

After a moment of silence, the four of them got up and sat in their respective seats. Each seat had a partition between them, making it look like a public phone booth from ten or twenty years ago. There was also a monitor in front of each small table, and they could choose to watch the cameras placed at various angles on the first floor to observe the trainees and record the numbers on their chests.

The first floor was divided into ten sections, with an average of forty-six trainees in each section. Even with multiple cameras filming them, no one showed any unusualness or restraint. After all, they were aspiring actors and it wasn't their first time standing in front of the camera.

Some were outgoing, engrossed in their own scenarios, reciting lines to themselves, while others chatted and laughed with other trainees. The more introverted ones played on their phones but showed no signs of nervousness. Without exception, they hadn't yet realized that the four "culprits" upstairs had already categorized their future careers.

"..."

(End of this chapter)