In the Chinese entertainment industry, the concept of idol stars first appeared in the Little Tigers and the "Little Whirlwind" Lin Zhiying, and the birth of idol dramas was a little later.

The six young leading actors of "Meteor Garden" are all attracted by Lin Youlun's exciting goal of "creating idol drama history", only Chai Zhiping and Cai Xunyue are relatively calm, and they can guess some of his deeper expectations for this TV series from Lin Youlun's words.

At the end of the meeting, Chai Zhiping and Cai Xunyue accompanied Lin Youlun downstairs.

"The two of you have been in the TV production industry for a while, but your qualifications are very shallow, and it is the first time to really serve as a producer and director...... I am not telling you this, I don't want to put pressure on you, but to tell you that idol drama is a new concept, and I handed over this TV series to the two of you to do, just in the hope that you can not be bound by traditional production concepts and truly make a work that meets the preferences of today's young people. ”

Chai Zhiping and Cai Xunyue quickly exchanged glances and nodded together.

"I won't stay in Taiwan for too long, which means that I won't get too involved during the filming of your TV series, and then you can say anything you have any questions, and I will help you solve them together."

"Mr. Lin, if this TV series is to be filmed close to the original comic style, it will take a lot of money to purchase the costumes inside and then rent various venues, and the current shooting budget may not be enough." Cai Xunyue as a director. The issues mentioned are also related to specific shooting.

The four male protagonists in "Meteor Garden" are all children of rich families. To show that identity. The TV series must show all aspects of the lives of the rich, expensive clothes, sports cars, and mansions are all necessary, with a shooting budget of 20 million Taiwan dollars, excluding the salaries of the six leading actors, it is enough to cope with normal shooting, but it is a little stretched to get these luxury goods as shooting props.

"You don't have to worry about this problem, there will be people coming to contact the crew at the time of the shooting location and sports cars, and I will negotiate with several high-end clothing brands in Hong Kong. They will sponsor the costumes needed for the shoot from start to finish. ”

In fact, they are not very optimistic about how much advertising benefits this TV series can bring to their clothing brands, on the contrary, they are more interested in the movies invested by Lin Youlun.

It's a pity that there are strict restrictions on advertising placement in each movie that Lin Youlun invests in, because the number is limited, the advertising bidding is naturally very fierce, and generally small and medium-cost movies, advertising sponsorship alone can solve nearly one-third of the shooting costs.

Of course, this treatment is not available to everyone, because Lin Youlun can get a good box office for every movie he invests in, so as to attract so many advertisers, and generally such advertising sponsors have signed an agreement. If the box office revenue falls below a certain standard, the advertiser has the right to recover part of the sponsorship fund.

The earliest and most classic advertising placement of Hong Kong movies is the chocolate eaten by Gao Jin in "God of Gamblers". But after that, there was a period of advertising placement, which led to a decline in the level of the film, and the audience had great opinions, Lin Youlun then began to take the lead in signing this kind of gambling agreement with advertisers, the advantage of this is that it can not only ensure that the money invested by advertisers is not spent in vain, but also effectively restrain the impulse of film manufacturers to implant advertisements in the film.

Lin Youlun personally set an example, and this kind of gambling agreement soon became an industry practice, and the crazy momentum of advertising placement in Hong Kong films stopped, and the audience slowly accepted this new advertising method without affecting the viewing experience.

Of course, the successful experience of advertising placement in the film field has also been passed on to TV production, and the modern dramas currently filmed by TVB have no understanding of the degree of advertising placement, and the TV series in Taiwan are because they are costume dramas, but there are not many places where they can implant advertisements, and "Meteor Garden" can be said to have set a precedent this time.

Idol dramas are a new thing, and Lin Youlun doesn't expect to have much advertising sponsorship from the beginning, so this time it's just a "bait", if this TV series can bring objective ratings, then the sequel can slaughter these advertisers.

Chai Zhiping stood from the producer's point of view, but thought of another problem.

"Mr. Lin, since that Jia Jingwen was recommended by Mr. Wu's company, should you appropriately increase her role in that role?"

Lin Youlun shook his head, "Arranging her current role is already a lot of face for Wu Dun, so you don't need to be too deliberate in this regard, of course, if she performs well, you should also properly consider adding some scenes to her, and this problem is up to you." ”

Chai Zhiping was very moved by the trust shown in Lin Youlun's words, and she knew that in the hands of other investors, it was absolutely impossible to have such treatment.

When they arrived at the door of the building, Lin Youlun got in the car and left, Chai Zhiping and Cai Xunyue watched the body disappear at the corner of the street, and on the way back, Cai Xunyue said with emotion: "It seems that Mr. Lin attaches great importance to these actors in our crew!" ”

"Maybe." Chai Zhiping replied casually, but she didn't think so in her heart. She has an intuition that although Lin Youlun has a different view of the Little Tigers and Jin Chengwu, she has definitely not paid attention to it.

Lin Youlun's idea was really guessed by Chai Zhiping, his investment in filming "Meteor Garden" was just an early attempt, so even if Chai Zhiping and Cai Xunyue were novices, he was very relieved to hand over the TV series to them, and it would not be a big loss if he smashed it.

Idol dramas are like this, on the one hand, they have been criticized for their superficial plots and value guidance, but on the other hand, they also play an incomparable role in launching newcomers and providing fresh blood for the entertainment industry.

If an industry wants to prosper for a long time, talent training is the most important link on the basis of the industrial foundation and pattern.

Hong Kong films are gradually declining after entering the 21st century, and the recession in the external market is certainly an important reason, and it also has a lot to do with the fault line of internal talents. Whether it is the actors in front of the stage or the screenwriters and directors behind the scenes, as the era of the famous people who became famous in the 80s and 90s to dominate the entertainment industry slowly ends, the new generation of actors and directors have not been able to take over smoothly, and the foreshadowing of the decline of the entire Hong Kong film and entertainment industry has been laid.

Many Hong Kong filmmakers are also aware of the problem of talent generation, especially in the field of kung fu films, Xu Ke and Yuan Heping have consciously wanted to cultivate new kung fu stars since the mid-90s, Xu Ke found Zhao Wenzhuo, Yuan Heping discovered Wu Yan, but these two people were not able to carry the banner in the field of kung fu films, so that ten or twenty years later, the screen kung fu superstars that everyone agrees with are still Cheng Long and Li Lianjie, people in their forties and almost fifty, and they still have to work the screen, among which they have the strength to refuse to admit defeat, there is also the helplessness and sorrow of having no successor.

Of course, Lin Youlun's use of "Meteor Garden" to promote the development of idol dramas is just an attempt, whether it is the Little Tigers or Takeshi Kaneshiro, they are still young and need more experience to sharpen themselves, Lin Youlun is now more focused on the film and television actors of the post-60s generation in Hong Kong. The most appealing "Double Monday Cheng" at the Hong Kong box office, Zhou Yunfa and Cheng Long are now in their early 35s, and Zhou Xingchi is also 30 years old, and they can dominate the Hong Kong film industry for at most 4 or 5 years, and it is now necessary to start thinking about their successors.

There is no need for Lin Youlun to spend too much time on the question of candidates, the Hong Kong actors of the 60 generation can be called the "golden generation", not only a large number, but also their fame and achievements have reached an unprecedented level, and the most representative of them is the "Four Heavenly Kings".

According to the original historical trajectory, after 92 years, Cheng Long and Zhou Yunfa began to try to break into Hollywood, Zhou Xingchi has just become famous, and the limelight is in the limelight, in general, Hong Kong films have begun to alternate between the old and the new at this time, and the 60 generation of actors represented by the "Four Heavenly Kings" began to form a new master of the film and music scene.

But because of the appearance of Lin Youlun, Cheng Long succeeded in Hollywood ahead of schedule, and the strong rise of Hong Kong films also made him give up his plan to develop purely in Hollywood, basically taking into account Hong Kong and Hollywood at the same time; Under the persuasion of Lin Youlun, Zhou Yunfa did not go to Hollywood to develop and work hard, so he is still the number one actor in Hong Kong movies.

Liu Dehua, Zhang Xueyou, Li Ming, and Guo Fucheng, under the influence of Lin Youlun intentionally or unintentionally, have actually developed better than this period in history, but the problem is that there are still two mountains of Chow Yun-fat and Cheng Long in front of them, and the overall environment of the film industry is better, but the possibility of these people wanting to surpass the people who became famous in front of them has become smaller.

To give the simplest example, Liu Dehua is the best developed among the four, and his achievements in the film and music circles are very good, but until now, in the eyes of many audiences, he is still just regarded as "Little Zhou Runfa", and many film investors also have the same attitude, the first target candidate for the actor of a movie is Zhou Runfa, if Zhou Runfa is not invited, and then Liu Dehua will be considered, which has basically become an unspoken rule of the industry. (To be continued......)