Traffic Star Development Program

Chapter 28 "The Actor"

Vocal performance: B+; Dance: B+; Physical performance: B+; Dialogue: B.

The dialogue has been upgraded from B- last month to B, a whole grade improvement.

He paused for a few seconds on the dialogue section, put down the report, opened his memo, found Xu Kunkun's page, and looked at the line he had written earlier: "Dialogue B or above, activate the boy group preparation plan."

The conditions have been met.

He started a new line below that one and wrote: Boy group preparation plan, officially launched. Phase one: forming a candidate list, with a target of five to seven people, focusing on vocals and stage performance. The initial screening will be completed by the end of the year. Candidate criteria will be listed separately.

After finishing writing, I closed the memo.

This isn't urgent, but we need to get started.

He reopened Xu Kunkun's evaluation report and read through the notes.

This note was written by a teacher at Huayi Training Center, and it mainly describes the changes in the dialogue class.

The teacher's original words were: Since last month, this student has significantly increased the frequency of independent practice in the dialogue class, and the after-class training time has increased from an average of twenty minutes to more than an hour. Moreover, the student is able to actively compare with the video to repeatedly check the lip movements and breath control. The overall progress rate is higher than that of students in the same period.

Zeng Hao finished reading the note and closed the report.

On that day in the recording studio in July, Xu Kunkun sat in the monitoring area, watching how Lu Han communicated with the producer during the second take. He remembered that look in her eyes; it was the kind of look that seemed to be ignited by something.

The tinder was buried inside.

Sure enough, it caught fire on its own.

He continued writing on the line about boy band candidate criteria in his memo: Candidate Criteria.

First, vocal foundation, able to sing solo, with a vocal range of at least two octaves;

Second, stage presence. Top-notch skills are not required, but you need to be photogenic and know that you are someone being watched on stage.

Third, adaptability: it's better to choose someone who is a little worse now but obedient than someone who is good now but difficult to manage.

Fourth, appearance. There are no hard and fast requirements, but at least one member is needed to be able to act as the visual representative.

After writing down these four criteria, he added a note next to them: Xu Kunkun, team leader, confirmed.

I closed the memo, filed the report, and then stood up to pour myself a glass of water. There were still a few things to take care of that afternoon.

In the afternoon, Xu Wen gave a report.

"The topic is still trending," she said. "Two major entertainment accounts on Weibo followed up with an analysis article, saying that the two have an ambiguous relationship. It has garnered 1.2 million views and positive comments."

Has the person involved responded yet?

"No, I've already instructed Yang Shanshan beforehand that if any media outlets ask about this, she should say that she's focused on her work and won't comment further."

"Yes," Zeng Hao said, "Maintain this state, don't let it die down before the next project comes out, let the topic cool down on its own, don't interfere artificially, the traces of interference will be seen by those in the know, and it will backfire."

Xu Wen agreed and went out.

The office fell silent again.

Zeng Hao sat back down in his chair, picked up the two envelopes from the table, and placed them in front of him.

The two envelopes arrived on the same day. When Sister Liu handed them over in the morning, she casually mentioned that both people had asked someone to deliver them, not by courier, which meant that she had made a special trip or knew someone in the company.

A slight smile appeared on Zeng Hao's lips.

Everything is going according to plan.

The difference this time is that he knew the outcome.

He dismantled Xue Zhijian's first.

Inside was an A4 sheet of paper, handwritten, with casual handwriting, but the content was very clear: self-introduction, current contract expires at the end of the year, heard that Sunshine Entertainment has been making a lot of moves recently, would like to find an opportunity to meet, no need to bother, one phone call is enough.

Zeng Hao finished reading the paper and put it back on the table.

His tone was neither humble nor arrogant, without being overly friendly or showing off his seniority; this person clearly understood his current position.

He dismantled Xu Jiaying's.

Xu Jiaying's letter was printed, making it much more formal. It included a simple resume, listing three Golden Melody Awards, and the last paragraph stated: "My contract is currently expiring, and I hope to find a partner who can provide long-term and stable development in the mainland market. If interested, we can arrange a meeting at any time."

Two letters, two kinds of people.

Xue Zhijian was testing the waters, while Xu Jiaying was negotiating.

Zeng Hao stacked the two letters together, pushed them to the corner of the table, picked up his phone and sent a message to Sister Liu: Arrange two meetings, Xue Zhijian at 10 a.m. tomorrow, and Xu Jiaying at 2 p.m. the day after tomorrow, in the conference room. Let them come by themselves.

Sister Liu replied quickly: Okay, I'll contact you right away.

He put down his phone and closed his eyes to recall the events.

Xue Zhiqian had thoroughly established his persona as a comedian, but then the song "The Actor" came out, and everyone realized that he was serious about writing songs.

Xu Jiaying is considered to have a strong foothold in Taiwan's music market, having won a Golden Melody Award. However, this strength is not very useful in mainland China. The logic in mainland China is that people need to know who you are before they will listen to your songs.

Both of them entered at the right time.

It's not 2017 now. Talent shows haven't started crowding the singer field yet. The traffic dividend from variety shows will last for another two or three years, which is enough time to send two people out.

At 9:58 a.m. the next day, Xue Zhijian appeared at the front desk.

Sister Liu led him into the conference room, poured him a glass of water, and said that General Manager Zeng would be here soon.

Zeng Hao opened the door at exactly 10:00.

Xue Zhijian was sitting inside, his phone just slipped into his pocket, when he stood up and said, "President Zeng."

The two shook hands, and Zeng Hao sat down opposite them, taking the envelope out of his folder and placing it on the table. "I've read the letter. You said you wanted to meet. What do you want to talk about?"

Xue Zhijian smiled and said, "You're quite direct."

"Time is limited," Zeng Hao said. "Your current company contract expires at the end of the year. Coming here now means you've already thought about your next step, so just say it."

Xue Zhijian put his hands on the table. "I want to release an album, a serious one, a complete album with a theme. The previous company didn't have that capability. My songs have been piling up for three years, and I have nowhere to put them."

"How much has been accumulated?"

"Seven tracks with complete arrangements, and more than a dozen demos."

Zeng Hao mentally reviewed the number. Seven complete arrangements were not a small number for a mainland singer-songwriter in 2015. The problem was that it had been accumulating for three years, indicating that the other party had been writing all along, but it had never been taken seriously.

This also fits the timing quite well.

"Which of these seven songs do you think is the best?" Zeng Hao asked.

Xue Zhijian paused, not expecting to be asked that question. “The Actor,” he said, “but if the timing of this song is wrong, it will be a waste.”

Zeng Hao looked at him and tentatively asked, "What do you mean by 'the timing is wrong'?"

"The target audience for this song needs to have some knowledge of the entertainment industry and some life experience," Xue Zhijian said. "If I were still a name that most people didn't recognize, no one would listen to this song seriously. It would just be a song and wouldn't become a hot topic."

This judgment is accurate.

Xue Zhijian is quite capable.

Zeng Hao suppressed this information in his mind for a moment, "So you need to let people know you first, and then bring out this song."

"right."

"That's variety shows," Zeng Hao said. "Let's do variety shows first, get our name out there, and once we've built up some buzz, the songs will follow the trend. I'll decide on the timing for the album, and you can record it. How about that?"

Xue Zhijian asked directly, "Where do you get variety show opportunities?"