Chapter 498 Spark Project
"Hello, students!"
"Hello teacher!"
“I’m Li Xiao, your homeroom teacher for the past six months. I’m mainly responsible for teaching you the basics of acting.
Of course, if you have any problems in life, you can come to me and I will find a way to help you solve them.
Next, I will give you a detailed account of the situation of our acting youth class..."
Li Xiao, who is now in his thirties and has been working as an assistant teacher at the Shanghai Film Academy since graduation, is serving as a class teacher for the first time.
However, compared to those adult college students, these children, whose average age is only 14 or 5 years old, are undoubtedly easier to manage.
Li Xiao spent almost half of the class telling these students various things that they needed to pay attention to, including but not limited to the course schedule for the next six months, accommodation life in school, applications for going out without parents and family around, and subsequent assessments and admissions.
Minami Hamabe and Jingyi Zhang were listening very attentively, and the other students around them were just like them, not daring to miss a single word.
The acting training class for teenagers organized by Galaxy Group is called "Spark Plan". It is a training class specifically for teenagers who are interested in pursuing a career in acting.
In fact, acting training classes like this, established by individuals or companies, are not uncommon in the circle.
After all, with the vigorous development of China's film and television industry and the rapid increase in the pay of star artists, the profession of actor has naturally become a popular choice in the eyes of everyone.
Which boy or girl doesn’t want to stand under the spotlight, receive everyone’s attention, become a star, and make a lot of money?
Therefore, the number of applicants for art examinations at several major domestic film and television schools has been rising steadily in recent years, and the competition is extremely fierce.
In response to this, Beijing Film Academy has been gradually increasing the number of students admitted every year. The acting class has been expanded from one to two, and then to three, and the teaching team has doubled in size. Regardless of whether it is beneficial to the candidates, those graduates who plan to stay in school to become teachers have reaped the benefits.
However, even if the school expands its enrollment, it is just a drop in the bucket for countless boys and girls who dream of becoming stars.
“So we are pretty lucky.”
During the break, Zhang Jingyi and Hamabe Minami sat in their seats and chatted.
Of course, it was mainly Zhang Jingyi who was talking, and Hamabe Minami, who was not very fluent in Chinese, was listening.
"I have inquired about it. There are quite a lot of people who apply for the Beijing Film Academy every year, hundreds of thousands.
Therefore, there are many training courses targeting the Beijing Film Academy's art exam near this school. The better ones should be taught by school teachers or seniors who have just graduated to teach acting classes.
That kind of thing is not cheap, and I heard that one class costs several hundred yuan.”
Minami Hamabe couldn't equate a few hundred RMB with so much Japanese yen in her little mind, but that didn't stop her from covering her mouth with her hand and showing a surprised expression.
At least in terms of emotional value, Sakura Girl can give it full satisfaction.
"Of course, there is a reason why it is expensive. The training courses run by teachers and senior students can at least teach something useful, which is more or less helpful to art exam candidates."
Zhang Jingyi looked at the somewhat naive Hamabe Minami and couldn't help but give her concerned advice.
“You must be careful here when you are alone. Our artist training class is very formal. As long as you study hard, you don’t have to worry at all given your conditions.
There are some unqualified training courses out there that are complete scams. Don’t rush to seek medical treatment or you will be fooled.”
Zhang Jingyi was not exaggerating, because she also had a dream of becoming a star, so she had paid attention to the art examination situation before. Then she heard that one of her senior high school classmates was eliminated in the art examination because she enrolled in an amateur acting training institution.
According to the complaint made by that senior sister online, what was taught in that training class was purely misleading. Not only did it fail to help her, but the training led her astray.
It is said that the teachers at Beijing Film Academy said during the art exam that they would rather teach students who have not received training than those who have learned the wrong things. After all, it is easier to draw on a blank piece of paper.
However, many parents of art exam candidates do not understand this and are often misled and deceived when looking for training classes.
In particular, some training institutions do not even make a profit from the training fees and shout out the slogan "no refund", which makes many parents who are greedy for small profits tempted.
What they don’t know is that they are not after your registration fee, they are after your working capital.
Of course, in addition to this type of art examination training classes, the domestic film and television industry actually also has a type of acting training class specifically for the general public, which is mainly to help those who are unable to enter professional colleges improve their acting skills.
For example, the earliest Shanghai Xie Jin Star School, which was later promoted to the Shanghai Normal University Xie Jin Film and Television Art College. It was originally founded by the great director Xie Jin, specifically to provide opportunities for people in society to learn acting skills. Many stars have emerged from it, such as Fan Bingbing, Chen Sicheng, Yang Rong, Yan Yikuan, etc.
In addition, Chen Guofu, Zhou Xun and Chen Kun co-founded the "Shanxia Academy" in 2017, which specializes in providing acting training for the public and newcomers in the entertainment industry, and to train newcomers in the circle.
In addition, Wu Jing founded the "Shadow Dance Hall" in 2021 together with Liu Tianchi Performance Workshop to create a systematic practical training base for action and performance, providing more professional and comprehensive training for people who love action movies, and improving actors' performance abilities and action skills.
These are all performance skills training classes for the public.
However, compared with the "Spark Project" of the Galaxy Group, those acting classes can only be regarded as "little brothers".
"Sister Jingyi, thank you so much!" Hamabe Minami looked at Zhang Jingyi with her big, watery eyes and expressed her gratitude sincerely.
What Zhang Jingyi didn’t know was that this Japanese girl in front of her, who was the same age as her, had much more acting experience and knowledge than her.
"I am so lucky to meet a kind person like Sister Jingyi in the Spark Project." Hamabe Minami continued sincerely.
In fact, for her, whether it is the training class that Zhang Jingyi mentioned earlier or the acting improvement class for the public, it is not worth her attention.
However, Galaxy Group’s “Spark Plan” is different.
As a Japanese and a practitioner in the film and television industry, she knows too well the shortcomings of Japan's film and television cultural industry.
The market is small, competition is fierce, and the types of works are single. If you really want to make a living in Japan, there is no future. Just as ordinary people want to become stars and make a lot of money, stars also want to have a prosperous career, step onto a bigger stage, and become international superstars.
For Japanese artists, this kind of dream can only be realized by developing in Hollywood or taking another unique path.
However, it is not easier for Japanese artists to make their way in Hollywood than in their own country. After all, it is a white country and Asians have naturally been discriminated against in the past.
It was not until a few years ago that China opened up its cultural market to East Asian countries. At the same time, with predecessors such as Masami Nagasawa and Satomi Ishihara serving as role models in their development in China, more and more young Japanese stars began to turn their attention here.
After all, this is a vast market with more than one billion people, and they are all yellow-skinned Asians. Even Japanese dramas used to have a certain market here.
At least it's easier to develop here than to go to Hollywood.
It was with this idea in mind that Minami Hamabe signed up for the "Spark Project" selection and resolutely bid farewell to her parents to come to a foreign country.
There were many children in the classroom who had the same idea as her and had come from far away.
Like Kim Sae-ron from South Korea, Wen Qi from Taiwan, and...
The fact that these children are now gathered in this office just proves that what Wang Hao proposed before has been very effective.
As for the creation of the "Spark Project", it is in line with the "Belt and Road" strategy of culture-first. It goes a step further on the original basis of the cultural openness strategy, relying on the influence of Galaxy Group in the Asian film and television industry to deeply project Chinese culture to the youth groups throughout East Asia.
For this plan, the Galaxy Group has put in a lot of effort.
The selection for this training class alone is not limited to China, but auditions are conducted in the Asia-Pacific region every first half of the year, and offline selection points are set up in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and other places.
At the same time, the experts who participated in the selection of new students were all invited by the Galaxy Group. In addition to teachers and professors from Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Shanghai Theatre Academy, there are also executives and producers from Galaxy Group and large film and television companies such as Huaying and Moying, as well as stars and directors from different countries in the industry.
They even opened a voting session on the Star Video website for this year's auditions, filmed the selection process for the training class participants and uploaded it, striving for fairness and justice, while also making these kids a little famous in advance.
So basically the competition in this kind of audition is very fierce. Last year, the first "Spark Plan" training class was not promoted much, so only 70,000 to 80,000 people signed up to participate.
Now, the number of applicants for the second audition has exceeded 50, which is almost half of the number of art exam candidates in China in 2015.
The "Spark Project" has just started, and the students have not achieved any results yet, otherwise it would not be impossible for the number of applicants to exceed one million.
However, even if there are only 500,000 people who sign up, and only 30 people are admitted, students like Hamabe Minami and Zhang Jingyi can already be said to be the best of the younger generation, and they are the best of the best.
Nortel and Galaxy Group, which are participating in the "Spark Project", will naturally not ignore such a good seedling.
After getting a general understanding of the training class and campus life in the first class, Zhang Jingyi, Hamabe Minami and others soon faced heavy learning tasks when the second class began.
The training and study of the "Spark Program" is mainly divided into two semesters.
During this year, they need to complete 2000 hours of study and practice, going through five stages: perceptual art, quality training, text and role, actor wisdom and creative practice.
The first semester focused on basic learning such as "voice, stage, behavior and performance", mainly through courses such as yoga, Tai Chi, and dance, to cultivate students' perception of life and beauty, and to shape their excellent physical temperament.
Performance skills can also be improved through courses such as "Relaxation and Control", "Voice and Breathing", "Feeling and Adaptation", "Body Energy", and "Conveying Emotions and Meanings".
Through cultural courses such as Chinese, history, politics, psychology, etc., they can improve their understanding of scripts and characters, and ensure that their college entrance examination scores exceed the passing score.
As for the next semester, Zhang Jingyi and her classmates will mainly focus on practice, such as rehearsing sketches and dramas, and if they are lucky, they may even have the opportunity to intern in a film crew.
In general, Zhang Jingyi and her classmates have heavy study tasks and tight schedules. They need to improve their performance while also taking care of their studies.
The situation is better for domestic students. Foreign students like Minami Hamabe, although they have undergone intensive Chinese learning for a period of time before coming here, there is still a certain gap in communication between them and Chinese people.
Fortunately, the school teachers have also taken this into consideration. Basically every foreign student will have a Chinese study partner who can help them adapt to life here more quickly.
Of course, just the previous learning and practice alone cannot reflect the uniqueness of this "Spark Project".
Acting training classes like this, especially those that are open to the public, actually have another hidden benefit besides paying for lessons, which is the building of personal connections.
Therefore, the bigger the acting training institution, the harder it is to get a place. For example, in Shanxia Academy, good students often catch the eyes of Chen Kun and Zhou Xun.
For example, Zhang Jingyi in another world can call Zhou Xun "Aunt" and Chen Kun "Godfather". Why? Because she graduated from Shanxia School.
If we talk about the biggest company in the Chinese entertainment industry today, the Galaxy Group would be second to none.
So in addition to basic learning and practical training, in the coming year, there will be many big names in the industry, such as Zhang Yimou, Wu Jing, Tsui Hark, Li Binbin, Wang Zhiwen and others, who will teach and guide Zhang Jingyi and others, helping these young students to improve their understanding and cognition of art, performance, and actors in all aspects.
Basically, after one year of training, coupled with the outstanding qualities of the students themselves, they can basically have the ability to enter the undergraduate class of Shanghai Film Academy.
Of course, a training class like this, which basically allows all students to enter the Beijing Film Academy, seems to be somewhat unfair to those national art exam candidates who did not enter the training class.
But that's how the film and television industry is. Apart from anything else, if someone is prettier than you, has a better figure than you, has outstanding empathy, and is a talented performer, then you are like a master chasing after you to feed yourself.
And even if there is no "Spark Plan", there is no so-called fairness in this industry.
Want to find "fairness" in the entertainment industry? After so many years, perhaps only Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo can truly embody fairness in the entertainment industry.
Besides, there is no shady deal in the nationwide auditions for the "Spark Project". If you feel it is unfair, you can also sign up and try to go through the process of being selected from a million.
At least when it comes to the auditions, there is no shady dealings at the moment.
Is there a future?
When this group of young artists grow up, it is estimated that China's artist training system will become more mature under the influence of Galaxy Group, and this kind of emergency measure will no longer be needed.
(End of this chapter)
"Hello, students!"
"Hello teacher!"
“I’m Li Xiao, your homeroom teacher for the past six months. I’m mainly responsible for teaching you the basics of acting.
Of course, if you have any problems in life, you can come to me and I will find a way to help you solve them.
Next, I will give you a detailed account of the situation of our acting youth class..."
Li Xiao, who is now in his thirties and has been working as an assistant teacher at the Shanghai Film Academy since graduation, is serving as a class teacher for the first time.
However, compared to those adult college students, these children, whose average age is only 14 or 5 years old, are undoubtedly easier to manage.
Li Xiao spent almost half of the class telling these students various things that they needed to pay attention to, including but not limited to the course schedule for the next six months, accommodation life in school, applications for going out without parents and family around, and subsequent assessments and admissions.
Minami Hamabe and Jingyi Zhang were listening very attentively, and the other students around them were just like them, not daring to miss a single word.
The acting training class for teenagers organized by Galaxy Group is called "Spark Plan". It is a training class specifically for teenagers who are interested in pursuing a career in acting.
In fact, acting training classes like this, established by individuals or companies, are not uncommon in the circle.
After all, with the vigorous development of China's film and television industry and the rapid increase in the pay of star artists, the profession of actor has naturally become a popular choice in the eyes of everyone.
Which boy or girl doesn’t want to stand under the spotlight, receive everyone’s attention, become a star, and make a lot of money?
Therefore, the number of applicants for art examinations at several major domestic film and television schools has been rising steadily in recent years, and the competition is extremely fierce.
In response to this, Beijing Film Academy has been gradually increasing the number of students admitted every year. The acting class has been expanded from one to two, and then to three, and the teaching team has doubled in size. Regardless of whether it is beneficial to the candidates, those graduates who plan to stay in school to become teachers have reaped the benefits.
However, even if the school expands its enrollment, it is just a drop in the bucket for countless boys and girls who dream of becoming stars.
“So we are pretty lucky.”
During the break, Zhang Jingyi and Hamabe Minami sat in their seats and chatted.
Of course, it was mainly Zhang Jingyi who was talking, and Hamabe Minami, who was not very fluent in Chinese, was listening.
"I have inquired about it. There are quite a lot of people who apply for the Beijing Film Academy every year, hundreds of thousands.
Therefore, there are many training courses targeting the Beijing Film Academy's art exam near this school. The better ones should be taught by school teachers or seniors who have just graduated to teach acting classes.
That kind of thing is not cheap, and I heard that one class costs several hundred yuan.”
Minami Hamabe couldn't equate a few hundred RMB with so much Japanese yen in her little mind, but that didn't stop her from covering her mouth with her hand and showing a surprised expression.
At least in terms of emotional value, Sakura Girl can give it full satisfaction.
"Of course, there is a reason why it is expensive. The training courses run by teachers and senior students can at least teach something useful, which is more or less helpful to art exam candidates."
Zhang Jingyi looked at the somewhat naive Hamabe Minami and couldn't help but give her concerned advice.
“You must be careful here when you are alone. Our artist training class is very formal. As long as you study hard, you don’t have to worry at all given your conditions.
There are some unqualified training courses out there that are complete scams. Don’t rush to seek medical treatment or you will be fooled.”
Zhang Jingyi was not exaggerating, because she also had a dream of becoming a star, so she had paid attention to the art examination situation before. Then she heard that one of her senior high school classmates was eliminated in the art examination because she enrolled in an amateur acting training institution.
According to the complaint made by that senior sister online, what was taught in that training class was purely misleading. Not only did it fail to help her, but the training led her astray.
It is said that the teachers at Beijing Film Academy said during the art exam that they would rather teach students who have not received training than those who have learned the wrong things. After all, it is easier to draw on a blank piece of paper.
However, many parents of art exam candidates do not understand this and are often misled and deceived when looking for training classes.
In particular, some training institutions do not even make a profit from the training fees and shout out the slogan "no refund", which makes many parents who are greedy for small profits tempted.
What they don’t know is that they are not after your registration fee, they are after your working capital.
Of course, in addition to this type of art examination training classes, the domestic film and television industry actually also has a type of acting training class specifically for the general public, which is mainly to help those who are unable to enter professional colleges improve their acting skills.
For example, the earliest Shanghai Xie Jin Star School, which was later promoted to the Shanghai Normal University Xie Jin Film and Television Art College. It was originally founded by the great director Xie Jin, specifically to provide opportunities for people in society to learn acting skills. Many stars have emerged from it, such as Fan Bingbing, Chen Sicheng, Yang Rong, Yan Yikuan, etc.
In addition, Chen Guofu, Zhou Xun and Chen Kun co-founded the "Shanxia Academy" in 2017, which specializes in providing acting training for the public and newcomers in the entertainment industry, and to train newcomers in the circle.
In addition, Wu Jing founded the "Shadow Dance Hall" in 2021 together with Liu Tianchi Performance Workshop to create a systematic practical training base for action and performance, providing more professional and comprehensive training for people who love action movies, and improving actors' performance abilities and action skills.
These are all performance skills training classes for the public.
However, compared with the "Spark Project" of the Galaxy Group, those acting classes can only be regarded as "little brothers".
"Sister Jingyi, thank you so much!" Hamabe Minami looked at Zhang Jingyi with her big, watery eyes and expressed her gratitude sincerely.
What Zhang Jingyi didn’t know was that this Japanese girl in front of her, who was the same age as her, had much more acting experience and knowledge than her.
"I am so lucky to meet a kind person like Sister Jingyi in the Spark Project." Hamabe Minami continued sincerely.
In fact, for her, whether it is the training class that Zhang Jingyi mentioned earlier or the acting improvement class for the public, it is not worth her attention.
However, Galaxy Group’s “Spark Plan” is different.
As a Japanese and a practitioner in the film and television industry, she knows too well the shortcomings of Japan's film and television cultural industry.
The market is small, competition is fierce, and the types of works are single. If you really want to make a living in Japan, there is no future. Just as ordinary people want to become stars and make a lot of money, stars also want to have a prosperous career, step onto a bigger stage, and become international superstars.
For Japanese artists, this kind of dream can only be realized by developing in Hollywood or taking another unique path.
However, it is not easier for Japanese artists to make their way in Hollywood than in their own country. After all, it is a white country and Asians have naturally been discriminated against in the past.
It was not until a few years ago that China opened up its cultural market to East Asian countries. At the same time, with predecessors such as Masami Nagasawa and Satomi Ishihara serving as role models in their development in China, more and more young Japanese stars began to turn their attention here.
After all, this is a vast market with more than one billion people, and they are all yellow-skinned Asians. Even Japanese dramas used to have a certain market here.
At least it's easier to develop here than to go to Hollywood.
It was with this idea in mind that Minami Hamabe signed up for the "Spark Project" selection and resolutely bid farewell to her parents to come to a foreign country.
There were many children in the classroom who had the same idea as her and had come from far away.
Like Kim Sae-ron from South Korea, Wen Qi from Taiwan, and...
The fact that these children are now gathered in this office just proves that what Wang Hao proposed before has been very effective.
As for the creation of the "Spark Project", it is in line with the "Belt and Road" strategy of culture-first. It goes a step further on the original basis of the cultural openness strategy, relying on the influence of Galaxy Group in the Asian film and television industry to deeply project Chinese culture to the youth groups throughout East Asia.
For this plan, the Galaxy Group has put in a lot of effort.
The selection for this training class alone is not limited to China, but auditions are conducted in the Asia-Pacific region every first half of the year, and offline selection points are set up in mainland China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Thailand and other places.
At the same time, the experts who participated in the selection of new students were all invited by the Galaxy Group. In addition to teachers and professors from Beijing Film Academy, Central Academy of Drama, and Shanghai Theatre Academy, there are also executives and producers from Galaxy Group and large film and television companies such as Huaying and Moying, as well as stars and directors from different countries in the industry.
They even opened a voting session on the Star Video website for this year's auditions, filmed the selection process for the training class participants and uploaded it, striving for fairness and justice, while also making these kids a little famous in advance.
So basically the competition in this kind of audition is very fierce. Last year, the first "Spark Plan" training class was not promoted much, so only 70,000 to 80,000 people signed up to participate.
Now, the number of applicants for the second audition has exceeded 50, which is almost half of the number of art exam candidates in China in 2015.
The "Spark Project" has just started, and the students have not achieved any results yet, otherwise it would not be impossible for the number of applicants to exceed one million.
However, even if there are only 500,000 people who sign up, and only 30 people are admitted, students like Hamabe Minami and Zhang Jingyi can already be said to be the best of the younger generation, and they are the best of the best.
Nortel and Galaxy Group, which are participating in the "Spark Project", will naturally not ignore such a good seedling.
After getting a general understanding of the training class and campus life in the first class, Zhang Jingyi, Hamabe Minami and others soon faced heavy learning tasks when the second class began.
The training and study of the "Spark Program" is mainly divided into two semesters.
During this year, they need to complete 2000 hours of study and practice, going through five stages: perceptual art, quality training, text and role, actor wisdom and creative practice.
The first semester focused on basic learning such as "voice, stage, behavior and performance", mainly through courses such as yoga, Tai Chi, and dance, to cultivate students' perception of life and beauty, and to shape their excellent physical temperament.
Performance skills can also be improved through courses such as "Relaxation and Control", "Voice and Breathing", "Feeling and Adaptation", "Body Energy", and "Conveying Emotions and Meanings".
Through cultural courses such as Chinese, history, politics, psychology, etc., they can improve their understanding of scripts and characters, and ensure that their college entrance examination scores exceed the passing score.
As for the next semester, Zhang Jingyi and her classmates will mainly focus on practice, such as rehearsing sketches and dramas, and if they are lucky, they may even have the opportunity to intern in a film crew.
In general, Zhang Jingyi and her classmates have heavy study tasks and tight schedules. They need to improve their performance while also taking care of their studies.
The situation is better for domestic students. Foreign students like Minami Hamabe, although they have undergone intensive Chinese learning for a period of time before coming here, there is still a certain gap in communication between them and Chinese people.
Fortunately, the school teachers have also taken this into consideration. Basically every foreign student will have a Chinese study partner who can help them adapt to life here more quickly.
Of course, just the previous learning and practice alone cannot reflect the uniqueness of this "Spark Project".
Acting training classes like this, especially those that are open to the public, actually have another hidden benefit besides paying for lessons, which is the building of personal connections.
Therefore, the bigger the acting training institution, the harder it is to get a place. For example, in Shanxia Academy, good students often catch the eyes of Chen Kun and Zhou Xun.
For example, Zhang Jingyi in another world can call Zhou Xun "Aunt" and Chen Kun "Godfather". Why? Because she graduated from Shanxia School.
If we talk about the biggest company in the Chinese entertainment industry today, the Galaxy Group would be second to none.
So in addition to basic learning and practical training, in the coming year, there will be many big names in the industry, such as Zhang Yimou, Wu Jing, Tsui Hark, Li Binbin, Wang Zhiwen and others, who will teach and guide Zhang Jingyi and others, helping these young students to improve their understanding and cognition of art, performance, and actors in all aspects.
Basically, after one year of training, coupled with the outstanding qualities of the students themselves, they can basically have the ability to enter the undergraduate class of Shanghai Film Academy.
Of course, a training class like this, which basically allows all students to enter the Beijing Film Academy, seems to be somewhat unfair to those national art exam candidates who did not enter the training class.
But that's how the film and television industry is. Apart from anything else, if someone is prettier than you, has a better figure than you, has outstanding empathy, and is a talented performer, then you are like a master chasing after you to feed yourself.
And even if there is no "Spark Plan", there is no so-called fairness in this industry.
Want to find "fairness" in the entertainment industry? After so many years, perhaps only Wang Baoqiang and Huang Bo can truly embody fairness in the entertainment industry.
Besides, there is no shady deal in the nationwide auditions for the "Spark Project". If you feel it is unfair, you can also sign up and try to go through the process of being selected from a million.
At least when it comes to the auditions, there is no shady dealings at the moment.
Is there a future?
When this group of young artists grow up, it is estimated that China's artist training system will become more mature under the influence of Galaxy Group, and this kind of emergency measure will no longer be needed.
(End of this chapter)
