After The Vicious Cannon Fodder Was Reborn

After Tao Mu won the Best Newcomer Award, "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" won three major awards: Best Director, Best Actor and Best Feature TV Series. Living up to expectations and becoming the biggest winner at the awards ceremony.

The award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award had been broadcast live the whole time on the national channel, 7:30 to 10:30 in the evening, a total of three hours. The audience rating for the Best Newcomer Award soared to 10.2% after the opening, and then fell gradually until he Best Actor, Best Director Award and Best Feature Film Award were awarded to "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" when the ratings slightly picked up. Probably due to the influence of the awards ceremony, at ten o'clock in the evening, the audience rating of the 31st episode of "Fashion Storm", which was broadcast on Mango Channel's weekly slot, jumped to 11.2%, breaking the audience record of the same slot period again.

When the award ceremony of the Lingxiao Award officially ended, it was also the climax of the thirty-second episode of the finale of "Fashion Storm". The ratings soared to 13%, directly defeating many programs in the golden time slot of 8:00pm and became the runner-up in the ratings rankings in 2009——the champion was also produced by Tao Mu, the critically acclaimed and high ratings drama that also became the biggest winner in the Lingxiao Awards ceremony, "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood".

After the news spread, Tao Mu's fans were the first to go crazy. Like a flood, it swept across the entire FlyNews.com and even the entertainment section of other domestic social platforms. Under the FlyNews comment that Tao Mu uploaded to congratulate himself for winning the Lingxiao Award for Best Newcomer, the fan comments broke 10 million in just one hour. This figure dumbfounded many media outlets and the number was also mentioned invariably when doing news reports. Indirectly doing a promotional advertisement for FlyNews.com.

However, who was even crazier than Tao Mu's fans and many media outlets were the fans of various entertainers in the entertainment industry——everyone knew that the TV series that broke the ratings record one after another and ranked first and second in the annual ratings rankings were all produced and supervised by Tao Mu. And both dramas have aroused extensive social discussion in different subject areas. It could be said that it was two classic works with a double harvesting of ratings and word-of-mouth. At the same time, Tao Mu and the military were currently co-producing the special forces military drama "Soldier Elite", which was also a good resource visible to the naked eye.

Whether it was a star or an actor, no matter how skillful the management team was in packaging and hyping, it was still difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice. Therefore, if artists want to improve their commercial value and industry status, it ultimately relied on their works to speak.

Recently, Tao Mu was the most watched producer in the industry. The works produced by him were definitely classic works with double harvests in word-of-mouth and ratings. The most important thing was that the TV series produced by Tao Mu did not have the embarrassing situation of other productions in which "the work becomes a hit but the actors do not". On the contrary, the TV series produced by Tao Mu would always be "the work becomes a hit and the actors are even more popular".

The male lead Zhan Bin of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" was an A-list domestic actor before starring in "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood". But his popularity was not even comparable to some B-list stars. When he acted in "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", his salary was only 50,000 per episode, which was not even comparable to the salary of some third-rate stars. However, after the broadcast of "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", the popularity of Zhan Bin, who played the male lead in the drama, had soared, directly becoming the most popular actor in the country, and his salary likewise doubled. He even got the endorsement of the famous wine brand Wuliangye.

Coincidentally, before starring in this urban workplace idol drama, the male and female protagonists of "Fashion Storm" were just two young rookies who had just debuted on talent shows. Excluding the fame bonus of talent shows, there was simply no such thing as popularity and influence to their names. However, after starring as the male and female protagonists of "Fashion Storm", they became popular overnight. Instantly squeezing up among the top B-list stars.

Especially Liu Yunshu, who played the heroine, and Liang Xiao, who played the second female lead, they were directly recognized by the domestic fashion industry because Tao Mu helped to design their makeup and image in the drama. And as aresult, also received two high-luxury cosmetics endorsements and one mobile phone brand endorsement. The smooth road of gaining endorsements simply makes everyone envious.

But the most important thing was that in addition to increasing the popularity of the leads in these two TV series, the important supporting actors who have played well in the dramas have also risen with the tide. In particular, several important supporting actors in "Fashion Storm", after the TV series aired, because the salaries of the male and female protagonists skyrocketed so much, many idol dramas could not afford Bo Sensen and Liu Yunshu, so they lowered their standards and contacted the other supporting actors. Up to now, it seemed that the second male lead, third male lead, second female lead, and third female lead have all received new scripts. They were all newcomers who have just debuted but now could play the leading role in their second drama. Their resources simply did not seem like the resources of talent show stars at all, and it was estimated that even many actors who graduated from professional schools were not so lucky.

And these lucky halos were all brought by Tao Mu.

It was Tao Mu who was the driving force behind the scenes, the father of star making!

So without Tao Mu himself knowing about it, such a second year middle school nickname was added to the list. He was directly pushed up to the altar by the fans of various stars and actors, wanting nothing more than to burn three incense sticks for Tao Mu in one day, and hope that Tao Mu would favor their idol and make their idol popular overnight.

Even many artists themslves and their management teams couldn't sit still. Through various channels, people from all walks of life congratulated Tao Mu, and then slip into the conversation, expressing their desire to cooperate with Tao Mu in filming.

Catching up with this wave of popularity, Xu Musen, the director of "Black and White", also made a phone call. Post-production on "Black and White" had all been completed. The release schedule had also been selected, and without surprise, it was to be released around the New Year holidays. The premiere was on Christmas Eve, December 24th. According to the contract requirements, all the main actors must cooperate with the crew during the promotion period. However, Zhou Yuanting, played by Tao Mu, had only a dozen minutes of appearance in the movie and was not the main actor. Moreover, before Tao Mu played the role of Zhou Yuanting, he was just a pure rookie who did not have a single work to his name that was broadcasted, and had no fame in Hong Kong. Therefore, in the original contract, Tao Mu did not need to participate in the promotional activities in Hong Kong. Only when "Black and White" was released in the mainland did he have to cooperate with the crew to promote it. Then there was FlyNews.com which was required to cooperate with the promotional activities of the crew. But this piece was not free. The specific price needed to be negotiated between the "Black and White" crew and the public relations department of FlyNews.com.

However, what everyone did not expect was that Tao Mu's acting skills were so good. Especially when playing against many big names, not only was their chemistry they complemented each other, even able to act against each other without restraint. So much so that director Xu Musen was reluctant to delete Tao Mu's clips when he was doing post-editing. So adding more and more, Tao Mu's scene was cut to about 20 minutes. For a movie with a duration of around 110 minutes, it could be said to be an important supporting role.

Generally, a big director of Xu Musen's age and position liked to support newcomers. What was more, Tao Mu himself had a high EQ, and he maintained a very good relationship with the big names during the shooting. And after the shooting, he did not forget to maintain these personal relationships. Tao Mu himself had a notepad, which was full of the schedules of all his friends in the industry. When everyone had a new work on the market or a new endorsement was released, Tao Mu would log in to his FlyNews account to help promote it. With FlyNews.com's strong publicity capabilities and strong user resources, those bigwigs could clearly feel the rise in popularity and attention.

Therefore, Xu Musen was even more willing to befriend a young man like Tao Mu, mainly because when he planned to make films in the future, he could also use Tao Mu as an investor and producer. One must know that Tao Mu's strong production ability had been recognized by the industry. Capable people were respected everywhere. Even Hong Kong, which faces the mainland across the sea, was no exception.

Therefore, under various factors, Xu Musen simply signed up Tao Mu for the Golden Crow Award for Best Newcomer and Best Supporting Actor nominations in the name of the crew. So in this situation, Tao Mu himself needed to follow the crew to do promotion and appropriatly do public relations with the jury.

"…..With your acting skills, connections, and capital operation, I'm not worried. But I need to remind you that Shen Yu is now under the management of the Lin family. The Lin family's network background is very deep in Hong Kong and the Lin family nominated Shen Yu for the Best Newcomer Award. If the Lin family throw in all efforts to compete for this award, it is estimated that your chances of winning are not large. So I suggest you focus more on the award of Best Supporting Actor. Firstly, the Golden Crow Awards have always had a tradition of dividing pork, and would not allow the same nominees win too many awards. This is very different from the Lingxiao Award. Secondly, the weight of the Best Supporting Actor is greater than that of the Best Newcomer Award."

Tao Mu hadn't heard of Shen Yu for some time. At this moment, he was a little surprised to hear Director Xu mention that Shen Yu actually signed with the Lin family's brokerage company. However, Tao Mu had too many things going on recently, so he didn't pay much attention to it. He just thanked Director Xu for his kind cultivation and thoughtful suggestions. And also expressed that if there was need of him or FlyNews.com, to just directly let him know.

Director Xu sighed and said, "Originally, it is not easy for our kind of Hong Kong police vs. crook films to pass the review in the mainland, but now Shen Yu is banned in the mainland. I plan to reduce Shen Yu's role and remake the relevant plot scenes with someone else so that it could be released in the mainland. Yan Sheng will also come back from the US in two days to help with the promotion. I will discuss this matter with him. If we really decide to remake it, since the two of you have the most scenes with the character Yan Yu. At that time we will have to trouble you to help make up the scenes.”

Tao Mu's heart jumped. In fact, before Director Xu made this call, Tao Mu never thought that Xu Musen would cut his scene to 20 minutes, and even signed him up for the Golden Crow Award for Best Supporting Actor. After all, in his last life, Xu Musen's perception of him was not very good. Later, when he competed with Shen Yu for the Best Newcomer Award, Xu Musen also stood on Shen Yu's side. With the crew coming forward to run for Shen Yu, adding to the fact that his network background in Hong Kong was lacking and the Shen family did not support him, of course he lost in the end.

After being reborn, Tao Mu was now considered to have a small success in his career. The most important thing was that he had both a good family and lover. So a lot of grievances from the previous life have slowly dissipated.

So when he felt Xu Musen's kindness, Tao Mu didn't want to let Xu Musen's hard work die because of failing SARFT's review, getting stuck in limbo for a year and then finally, due to the helpless reasons of the proliferation of piracy, the box office only reached eight million after release. Although it could not be a complete loss but it also really didn't make much money.

Tao Mu pondered for a moment, quickly organized his thoughts, and asked, "Where is the review process of the movie up to?"

When Director Xu heard Tao Mu's question, he sighed again, with a particular headache: "SARFT said that the ending of the movie is not good. It does not show goodness and beauty. The villain escaped justice, but the decent characters died or became casualties. They insist on changing the ending. Isn't that ridiculous? The reason why I made the movie this way was of course because I had my own thinking. This is an artistic creation. How could those officials in the mainland know how to make a movie? If I follow their instructions, the meaning of the whole movie would be completely changed. How could I change it? Besides, there is also the problem of Shen Yu being banned….."

All in all, it was deadlocked now. SARFT asked them to change the ending and delete all of Shen Yu's scenes. The producers were of course unwilling to compromise. And to be honest, after the development of Hong King film for so many years, such big directors as Xu Musen really did looked down on the production quality of mainland filmmakers. They didn't even think that mainland filmmakers know how to make movies, they just didn't want to miss out on the huge mainland movie market.

Xu Musen complained to Tao Mu, and the main idea of the complaints was that the SARFT masters don’t know anything and just pretend to understand, completely not knowing how to make movies at all. Yet they sit there directing the country and uttering nonsense. He felt that the reason why mainland movies couldn't develop was because there were too many laymen who like to do the instructing.

Tao Mu listened quietly for a while, then pointed to the core of the matter: "But if you don't change the ending, the movie will definitely not be reviewed. The rules in the mainland are like this. If the SARFT review fails, there is no way for your movie to be released in the mainland. "Black and White" is going to premiere in Hong Kong on December 24th, and pirated dealers are rampant now. Have you ever thought that if you halt here for too long, pirated discs will flow into the mainland. By then, mainland audiences would have already watched the pirated discs, so even if you compromise in the end, how long would it take to change the script? How long would it take to re-shoot? How long would it take to schedule the release date? And you have also offended SARFT, what if they schedule a bad time slot for you?"

Xu Musen fell silent. After a long while, he asked huffily, "Then what do you say?"

"Change the ending." Tao Mu said decisively, "Hurry and change it. Take advantage of this reshoot of Yan Yu's scene, change the ending directly and get it to SARFT for review."

Xu Musen was a little afraid of the style and habit of those big masters of SARFT: "What if they still don't agree after changing it?"

"We can do the script first and hand it over to SARFT for review." Tao Mu had two experiences as a producer. Combined with his knowledge of the review process of later years, he suggested: "After obtaining the approval of SARFT, we will then do the re-shoot. As long as the operation on our side is faster, it will not delay much time."

Xu Musen smiled bitterly. The key was that they couldn't operate fast here. Before, the two sides had already argued to the point of stiffness because of the filming concept. Now SARFT simply didn't want to pay attention to them at all. Procrastinating as long as they can, clearly planning on halting them in place.

With a flash of inspiration, Xu Musen suddenly remembered that Tao Mu had just won the Lingxiao Award for Best Newcomer, and "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood" drama he produced was the biggest winner at the Lingxiao Awards. In addition, the entertainment media in the mainland also reported that Tao Mu was now working with the military to shoot a mainstream promotional drama. Then he must have some speaking power in the mainland.

Xu Musen suddenly had a thought: "Would you like to be the producer of the mainland version of "Black and White"?"

Tao Mu: "…..Ah?"

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