China News Service, Beijing, January 19th (Reporter Wang Shiyao) On the 17th, the much-anticipated TV series "Sword and Sword 4" was scheduled to premiere. However, the male and female protagonists had different opinions on the ownership of "Ichiban", which attracted attention on the Internet.
Is this a competition among artists for “position” or a marketing ploy?
Screenshot of Sword and Sword Four official Weibo
The protagonist is useless, so he has to fight for it?
On the afternoon of January 17, the official Weibo of Sword and Sword Four announced that it would be broadcast that night.
The first official announcement copy shows that the leading actors are Ju Jingyi and Chen Zheyuan (in no particular order).
Five minutes later, the account posted a second promotional Weibo. At this time, the information about the leading actors was changed to Chen Zheyuan and Ju Jingyi (in no particular order).
At the same time, within 1 minute of the second promotional Weibo posted on the official Weibo of Fairy Sword and Sword Four, the official Weibo of heroine Ju Jingyi’s personal studio released a statement mentioning, “In the studio’s agency, we are working for the actor Ju Jingyi. In the performance contract signed by Yi, the stipulation on the artist's signature method is: a single subtitle shall be the first among all actors' signatures."
Subsequently, Beijing Guoran Sky Culture Media Co., Ltd., the company of the actor Chen Zheyuan, stated on its official Weibo, "We will sign a corresponding film and television contract with the film producer Zhejiang Dongyang New Media Eslite Culture Media Co., Ltd. in Chaoyang District, Beijing in 2022. We Actor Mr. Chen Zheyuan was invited to play the role of the 'male number one' Yun Tianhe. According to the contract, we cooperated with the filming and used the male and female number one roles in alternating order of signatures, and marked 'ranking in no particular order' for character signatures."
According to the statement, Ju Jingyi said that the contract stipulates that her artist will be the first to be signed by all actors, which is what fans call "Ichiban".
Chen Zheyuan's statement stated that according to the contract content, the signatures of the male and female leading characters will be ranked first in alternating order, and it must be noted that "the rankings are in no particular order", which is the so-called "equal order".
The cast list at the end of the TV series "Four of Sword and Sword", with Ju Jingyi in the front and Chen Zheyuan in the back, with a note that "these are in no particular order."
After the two statements were released, public opinion was at odds over claims such as "ranking battles" and "propaganda and hype."
Some netizens questioned whether the character's signature was confused with the actor's signature.
Other netizens pointed out that after the official announcement of the film's release, the actors immediately issued a statement regarding the ranking order. Is it hype?
As of press time, the film studio has not issued an official statement on this signing dispute.
It is reported that the order of artist signatures will usually be agreed upon by the agency and the film studio in detail when signing the contract, including the order of artist names in promotional materials, poster positions, proportions and order, and video details pages on each media platform, etc.
According to Xiao Ping (pseudonym), who works as a publicity agent for an artist, under normal circumstances, the materials released by the film studio will be confirmed by the artist in advance.
Therefore, she believes that the artist can quickly respond to the signature dispute this time and cannot be regarded as a basis for speculation.
The battle over “rank” leads to strange phenomena
The word "ban" comes from the Japanese film and television industry. It refers to the order in which actors appear in promotional materials and film and television dramas. It is generally sorted according to the importance and role of the roles played by the actors.
"Ichiban" refers to the actor ranked first in the cast list and is primarily responsible for the success or failure of the series.
In 2018, at the closing party of the TV series "Flower of the Mountain", the well-known Japanese actor Rimi Ishihara, an actor in the drama, tearfully apologized for not achieving the desired ratings.
However, the creation of film and television dramas relies on teamwork, and not one person can determine whether it is good or bad.
So what exactly are artists “fighting” for over their “ranks”?
According to Xiao Ping, there is not necessarily a close connection between the number of an actor's works and his/her degree of recognition in the industry.
"In the final analysis, actors still rely on their works to speak for themselves." She also added, "Of course, if you have more (works), it will be easier to talk about subsequent scenes."
As for who cares more about "rank" between artists and staff, she said: "Whether the artists care or not, the staff should care more."
In addition to fighting for a long time, it has now developed to include supporting roles.
Famous director Peter Chan has been preparing for the movie "Jiaoyuan Lane" for many years. The heroine has long been confirmed to be Zhang Ziyi, but discussions about the choice of the female lead have been intermittently "arguing" for a while.
Screenshot from the official Weibo of the movie "Jiangyuan Lane"
At the end of last year, "Jiaoyuan Lane" officially released the launch information, and at the same time officially announced the ranking method of the starring roles - based on the order of appearance of the characters. This prevents the audience from judging the cast of the actors in the order of ranking.
In addition, in order to prevent artists from "discord", there are also various weird "titles" derived from alphabetical ordering of names.
For example: starring roles can be divided into lead starring roles, special starring roles, special guest starring roles, friendly starring roles, and co-starring roles; in addition to starring roles, there can also be special starring roles and friendly starring roles, with the main theme being "even rain and dew".
Although all parties have tried their best to avoid the battle for the title, in actual work, the phenomenon of "fighting for the title" has already extended from film and television dramas to other fields.
For example, in the internal PK of idol group members, the position is determined through fans' voting, and the number of lyrics is also allocated according to the "rank"; multiple media interviews, whose name is put first, etc.
"I once met a male and female protagonist who was interviewing for a drama. The staff asked that all content must include the male protagonist first and the female protagonist behind. Of course, I rejected this request." Congcong (pseudonym), a senior media person, told China News Network The reporter said that he was "speechless" when he saw the revised opinion. The other party's complete disregard for the logic of the writing was very unprofessional.
The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television requires TV drama actors to avoid competing for roles
In order to avoid chaos such as competition and comparison in the entertainment industry, companies in the industry have jointly issued self-discipline initiatives.
In 2019, three video websites, Youku, Tencent Video, and iQiyi, jointly released the "About Strengthening Industry self-discipline and a joint initiative to promote the healthy development of the film and television industry.
It mentioned: "Oppose vanity comparisons. Strengthen the management of actors and actresses in terms of salary, ranking, treatment, etc., resolutely resist the trend of comparison, and resolutely safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of investors and producers, the rights of artist rankings, cast and crew The right to make selection decisions should be determined by investors and producers in accordance with laws and regulations and contracts, and no one may make unreasonable or mandatory requirements to interfere with normal creation."
The "TV Master Production Specifications" that will be officially implemented on April 1, 2022 clearly states that "the signature method, order, position, etc. of the cast and crew in the TV series shall be stipulated in the employment contract. The producer shall sign the employment contract with the cast and crew." Communicate and agree on signature issues at all times to avoid signature disputes such as competition for ranking.”
In the final analysis, actors still have to convince people with their acting skills.
In 2023, many supporting actors relied on their in-depth understanding and accurate interpretation of the characters to become high-profile figures surpassing the protagonists.
More than 30 years ago, there was a classic line in the sketch "Protagonist and Supporting Actor": "If you can control me, how can you control who the audience likes to watch?"
In fact, the audience doesn't care that much about whose name is ranked first.
And whoever can give a wonderful performance truly deserves the applause from the audience.
(over)