It took Luo You a while to gather his thoughts, "Xi Jing ah, Xi Jing has a very good acting foundation. She, she has a good relationship with Jinxia, so she wanted to come to Tonghua Entertainment to be an artist. I saw the potential in this show, so I sent her on it to see if it could boost her popularity."
Luo You stuttered several times and stumbled over his words as he finished the sentence, cursing Jinxia in his mind.
This kid, really, if he doesn’t cause some trouble, he wouldn’t be He Jinxia!
Letting Xi Jing, a woman who had won a Berlin award, come over to be a trainee, whose idea was this damned thing!
Little did Luo You know, he also misunderstood Jinxia. This was clearly Xi Jing’s own request from the beginning.
Xi Jing really didn’t understand the significance of winning in Berlin. Not to mention being a trainee, she had more than enough capacity to be a formal actress or even to play a leading role!
But Xi Jing simply didn’t know. She thought that Tonghua Entertainment, being such a large company, was different from smaller companies.
She thought that joining a small company, one could become a leading actor as soon as they debuted, but signing with a big company meant starting as a trainee. That was Xi Jing’s personal thought.
Aside from asking He Jinxia if she could squeeze her into Tonghua Entertainment as a trainee, she did not ask anyone else, so she had a misunderstanding.
In the conference room, other agents looked at each other. After a while, someone said, "Although Xi Jing’s focus is on film and television and she has an award-winning work, she still lacks a bit of popularity. It’s difficult for the company to promote her to a leading role just like that."
If one wants to be a leading actor, acting skill is the first requirement, and popularity is the second. If one only possesses one of these, they must carefully consider it.
"This female group reality show has been prepared since last year. Everything is ready. If Xi Jing can participate, and it’s managed well, she will definitely gain a lot of popularity. Then, moving on to television dramas, the start would be much smoother,"
The other agents nodded in agreement—they accepted this explanation.
"But shouldn’t Xi Jing be considered our Tonghua Entertainment artist? Why is she participating in the show as an individual trainee?" someone asked puzzledly.
Luo You tilted his head and scratched his head, feeling annoyed.
It was his idea for her to participate as an individual trainee!
Because the person recommended by He Jinxia was parachuted in, Luo You was not sure whether she had the potential to be a Tonghua Entertainment trainee, so he wanted to assess her.
If this person performed excellently in the reality show and made it to the second round of elimination, Luo You would accept her.
If this person could not even survive the first round of elimination and was kicked out after one performance, he could do nothing for her. With that level, she couldn’t be a Tonghua Entertainment trainee.
He never thought that the well-meant strategy he had initially devised would now be like lifting a rock only to drop it on his own foot!
Luo You’s eyes twinkled as he desperately thought of a reason to explain. Suddenly, an idea struck him, and he blurted out, "I did this for Xi Jing’s sake!"
All the agents then turned their gaze towards him.
Luo You coughed, "As you know, Xi Jing’s focus is on film and television, not singing and dancing. Given her personal abilities, she is not suited for group activities, so she inevitably wouldn’t make the final selection. If she competes as a part of an individual team, her elimination wouldn’t matter much.
But if she goes as a Tonghua Entertainment trainee, and she doesn’t sing or dance, it will be obvious that Tonghua sent her just to garner popularity. Netizens would feel repulsed by this. Moreover, as for the singing and dancing skills of Tonghua Entertainment trainees, Xi Jing probably wouldn’t measure up."
With this explanation, the other agents also came to their senses and had an epiphany.
"Yes, Xi Jing’s singing and dancing are not comparable to the trainees of other companies, nor to ours; if she carries the Tonghua label, it will definitely impact Tonghua. Netizens will wonder when Tonghua Entertainment’s trainees became so poor!"
"Not only that, but Xi Jing will definitely be considered by netizens as someone we deliberately sent to stir up popularity!"
"Luo You’s idea is good; let’s first hide Xi Jing away until she is eliminated. Then we can pretend to sign her and promote her, which won’t impact our reputation."
Of course, some agents were puzzled, thinking these matters were trivial and not worth going to great lengths to hide Xi Jing’s identity.
However, they glanced at Luo You and tactfully did not voice their doubts.
After all, no matter how troublesome, she was still an artist in the company, and this would be considered accumulating a good reputation. Thus, the matter was brushed aside.
While the agents at Tonghua Entertainment were still discussing, in a different part of the same company, Zhang Ming was beginning to create a trending search for Sheng Yan.
This time the topic of the trending search was very prestigious—
#World nominated for Oscar#!
The Oscars are awarded in early May, with the winners announced in April. Zhang Ming had received the news at the beginning of April but was uncertain about whether to hype this trending search, leading him to delay handling the matter.
His hesitation stemmed from a simple reason: he had already reliably learned from Sheng Yan that the film would return from the Oscars empty-handed, and might even end up without a single accolade. For origınal chapters go to novelFɪre.net
"World" was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, and Sheng Yan was also nominated for "Best Actor," along with a few other categories such as lighting and costume, totaling four nominations, which was not many.
A great film might sometimes be nominated for a dozen or more categories.
Since he already knew that Sheng Yan would not win at the Oscars, promoting it heavily might likely lead to a backlash and boycott from netizens.
Zhang Ming was very familiar with the style of domestic news media: they either excessively praised a celebrity or harshly criticized them, quite clearly showcasing their love or hate.
If he released the news, the media would probably turn around and proclaim Sheng Yan the pride of Huaxia, representing the Huaxia people on the international stage with their sensationalist press releases.
Praising to kill, this was the very definition of inflated hype!
Although there were many disadvantages, after much consideration, Zhang Ming decided to release the news anyway.
Not just release it, but do so with great fanfare!
At the same time, he must also guide the situation in a controllable direction.
Sheng Yan, already a globally known superstar, could negotiate with the media, both sides making compromises, leading to a boundless future.
There are only four renowned global film festivals, and the Oscars are one of them. Netizens all think "World" could have been selected for all four, and every award could provide an opportunity for exposure, but that’s not the case.
Each film festival has different submission deadlines, so it’s impossible for one film to be nominated in all four festivals simultaneously; being selected for two is already fortunate.
Obviously, "World" was fortunate enough.
The company had not clarified this before, also aiming to stir up some heat.