Revealing the current situation of short drama casting: There are so many beauties but it is hard to find a top boss, and the daily salary of the "top stars" exceeds 10,000 yuan

The popularity of short dramas has brought a number of film and television actors into the public eye. These top actors in the industry have gained both fame and fortune, and their salaries are considerable. This article deeply analyzes the current casting situation in the short drama industry, explores the problems behind it and the reasons for the actors' popularity. Let's take a look.

Short dramas are creating “top trends”.

This year, with the popularity of mini-program short dramas, a group of "vertical screen" actors have gradually become known to the audience, achieving both fame and fortune.

For example, the popular screen couple Xu Yizhen and Sun Yue have co-starred in many hit short dramas, from "Oh! The Queen Comes to Work" to "Mr. Fu's Vest Can No Longer Be Hidden After a Flash Marriage". The various wealthy love stories performed by the two have not only become hits, but also attracted countless "CP fans".

The price for each episode of a mini program short drama ranges from a few cents to two or three yuan. A mini program short drama has 80 to 100 episodes, and users have to pay dozens to hundreds of yuan to watch the entire series. Many fans will follow their favorite actors and pay.

Therefore, the top actors in short dramas have become popular "hotshots" and their value has also risen sharply.

Several short drama producers said that vertical screen short dramas have brought young actors the possibility of fame and considerable salaries. The salaries of top actors in the industry can reach more than 10,000 yuan a day, while the daily salary of ordinary leading actors is concentrated between 2,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan.

Huang Jianxin, a famous director and dean of the Xiamen University Film School, once publicly stated that short plays are like "the best content written in street literature" and has trained a group of actors who, in the aesthetic system of short plays, "perform particularly well, which may not be the case if replaced by professional actors."

Recently, the editorial department of Xinbang interviewed several short play directors and producers to discuss how short play directors and producers select actors, what is the difference between short play actors and traditional film and television actors, and is it a good time to become a short play actor now?

1. Appearance vs acting skills, how does the short drama team select actors?

"Two or three years ago, as long as you were good-looking and could speak Mandarin, you could act in a skit," said San Shi, a producer at a Xi'an short drama production company.

Around 2020, the short drama industry was still in its early stages of development, the quality of content was mixed, the threshold for actors was relatively low, and appearance was the main hard threshold.

Things are different now. Lao Jin, the producer of a leading short drama company, said that the quality of short drama actors has improved significantly this year. There are more fresh graduates with professional acting schools among the candidates, and there are also more special actors who have played supporting roles in TV dramas.

As professional film and television practitioners transform from "horizontal screen" to "vertical screen", the standards for selecting actors for short dramas are getting higher and higher, and appearance, acting skills, adaptability and cooperation have all become considerations.

Sanshi believes that even the best script needs good actors and a good team to present it, so casting is crucial to a short play project. The actor’s appearance, dialogue skills, acting skills and condition will all affect the completeness of the work.

There are many types of short plays, ranging from male and female dramas to ancient costumes and fantasy. Short plays of different themes have different requirements for actors.

There is a consensus in the industry that male-oriented movies tend to have higher requirements for the looks of the female protagonists, while female-oriented movies tend to have higher requirements for the looks of the male protagonists.

Xiao Ming, director of Shangyao Xibai Pictures, believes that short dramas of all types need to satisfy the aesthetic tastes of their main audiences. Taking the female lead as an example, male users prefer to see “fair skin, beautiful looks and long legs”, while female audiences prefer female leads who are pleasing to the eye and not “garish”.

"The ideal state is definitely to have both good looks and acting skills, but in reality we are often faced with the situation of having to choose between the two. Idol dramas require actors' looks to be greater than their acting skills, while period dramas or suspense dramas require acting skills to be greater than their looks . Otherwise, users will easily be distracted by the show," said Lao Jin.

When selecting actors, Xiao Ming paid the most attention to their dialogue skills: "From the perspective of the production model, short plays are shot and recorded on site, the schedule is very fast, and the amount of lines is very large. The actors don't have much time to figure out the lines, and they need to memorize them and speak them fluently in a short period of time."

The casting process for short play actors is similar to that of the traditional film and television industry. When a short play is approved, the director and producer will make up a general outline of the actors based on the script, and first contact actors who are familiar and highly suitable in the industry. At the same time, they collect resumes through public recruitment on the community and recommendations within the circle, and then conduct offline auditions.

Several short drama producers revealed that the production cycle of short dramas is short, and the time left for casting usually does not exceed two weeks. In special circumstances, it will be delayed to one or two months.

"On average, the male and female protagonists of each drama will interview hundreds of people, and it is common to interview forty or fifty people a day. The most we have received for one role is 1,800 resumes, but this does not necessarily guarantee that we will find the right one." Lao Jin mentioned that it is difficult to find actors for some special roles. For example, it is difficult to find a suitable male actor for the role of a domineering president around 35 years old in terms of appearance and figure.

The final confirmation of the actors for each short play requires the opinions of the director, producer, and investor.

An investor of a short drama company said: "I will put forward some requirements to the director in terms of casting. The team often has different opinions and needs to repeatedly adjust, but I hope to give the director enough creative freedom and let the director make the final decision in the end."

Several producers revealed that, usually, the final decision on actors lies with the director, but there are also screenwriter-centered and producer-centered projects, where the casting is decided by their respective persons in charge. In addition, the situation of "funding groups" is also common, that is, the platform and capital parties designate the actors.

2. The daily salary of the top actors is over 10,000 yuan, but the male actors are not worthy of the female actors.

The short-lived and fast-paced characteristics of short plays are also reflected in the actors' acting skills and work pace.

Compared with traditional film and television, the performance style of actors in short plays is more direct.

Horizontal-screen TV dramas are longer in duration, requiring actors to display complex emotions with layered acting skills, but for short dramas with "reversals every few seconds", actors need to express emotions in a "simple and crude" way, and even require "exaggerated" acting skills to retain the audience's attention.

Lao Jin believes that the acting skills in short dramas are currently divided into two categories. One category is mainly aimed at the sinking market, with exaggerated and "down-to-earth" acting skills that do not require any understanding threshold; the other category is moving closer to the mainstream film and television industry, and the requirements for acting skills are similar to those of TV dramas.

Several directors and producers revealed that many projects take just one or two weeks to shoot hundreds of episodes, so the actors have less time to fully understand their roles, which is also a huge test of the actors' physical strength and patience.

"The leading actor may have to shoot 20 to 50 scenes a day, and during the concentrated shooting period he can only sleep two or three hours a day. You can imagine that an ordinary person has to shoot 100 episodes of vlogs in five days. The workload is very exaggerated," said Sanshi.

She revealed that the top actors are basically "frequent flyers", running around to various crews, and there will be "multiple scenes" . In the same city, they will shoot with crew A in the morning and rush to crew B in the afternoon.

Although the work pace is fast and the intensity is high, the salary of skit actors is very considerable.

Several short drama practitioners said that the daily wage of ordinary extras is usually a few hundred yuan, and the salary of the leading actors is concentrated between 2,000 yuan and 5,000 yuan per day. The daily salary of some "top-tier" actors has exceeded 10,000 yuan, and the highest can even reach 30,000 yuan.

Sanshi revealed that as long as the extras who have appeared in three or five short plays, even if they only have a few lines, will be offered a "468" time quotation, that is, 400 yuan for 4 hours, 800 yuan for 6 hours, 1,000 yuan for 8 hours, and extra charges for overtime. Taking a daily salary of 1,000 yuan as an example, in the short play industry where salaries are settled at after-tax prices, a full 20-day shoot can earn a net income of 20,000 yuan.

Actors' salaries often account for one-half to one-third of the entire short play budget. For example, a short play with a budget of 300,000 yuan will spend 100,000 yuan on recruiting actors.

However, the reality is that even if the budget is sufficient, there may be a difficulty in recruiting suitable actors.

Lao Jin mentioned that it is harder to find male actors than female actors. For example, if a role is a domineering boss who is around 35 years old, it is almost harder than climbing to the sky to pick one who meets the requirements in terms of appearance, figure and height.

The demand for male actors is far from enough, while the supply of female actors is too high. Male actors are "not good enough" for female actors, which has become a major dilemma in casting for short dramas. In terms of number, there are often more female actors as candidates; in terms of quality, high-quality male actors are more scarce.

Sanshi said: " There are a lot of beautiful actresses, of all types and temperaments, but there is a huge shortage of male actors. It is very difficult to find a boy who can match a girl . Either the appearance is not good enough or the height is not good enough. Therefore, many viewers of dramas have reported that the male lead is obviously not worthy of the female lead."

3. Small success depends on promotion, big success depends on luck

Against the backdrop of a cold winter in the film and television industry, short plays have become a gateway for actors to pursue their dreams in the entertainment industry.

Sanshi mentioned that the content quality of short dramas has been getting higher and higher, and high-quality short dramas are not inferior to shoddy horizontal screen dramas, which also provides space for actors to display their acting skills.

"Some celebrities have no dramas to shoot, let alone ordinary actors. Although short dramas are still at the bottom of the contempt chain in the film and television industry, many fresh graduates from acting schools who cannot find jobs have gradually taken off their "Kong Yiji's long gown" and started shooting short dramas. "

Several producers said that currently about half of the actors in the industry have received professional acting training, and many of them star in short dramas with the mentality of "wanting to be famous". They want to use the vertical screen as a springboard to enter the horizontal screen TV drama industry.

After all, there are already actors who have successfully moved from mini-program short dramas to TV dramas.

For example, the top actors of the short dramas mentioned above, Xu Yizhen and Sun Yue, both graduated from Zhejiang Media College and have appeared in recent hit TV series.

Xu Yizhen played the female protagonist's assistant Lin Lin in the satellite TV series "My Sunshine"; Sun Yue guest-starred as the supporting male role Gu Zinian in "Camp with Love". The acting skills of both were recognized and discussed by fans.

The famous saying in the entertainment industry, "Small fame depends on promotion, big fame depends on luck," also applies to the field of short plays. Luck plays a big role in whether a short play actor can become popular.

The fate of actors and dramas is closely tied together. Before a short drama is officially launched, its effect and reputation are often difficult to predict. Therefore, actors with hit works behind them become "safe cards" in the eyes of producers and investors.

Sanshi revealed that some actors even market their "lucky" physique and create a persona that can "carry the show" in order to gain more opportunities.

In Lao Jin's opinion, this industry is not short of diligent and hard-working people. Many people have joined the crew seamlessly and filmed many dramas, but they just don't become popular. The key lies in whether the drama can become a hit.

"It's hard for an actor to become famous just by piling up the volume. It's better to shoot 100 mediocre dramas than one hit. As for which dramas can become hits, the subject matter, audience and timing are all important. It's essentially a gamble."

Author: Bamboo

WeChat public account: Newrank (ID: newrankcn)