Recent comments in /f/IAmA

dcrm t1_it2g0gt wrote

Reply to comment by exem_one in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

China isn't that cheap and 22k yuan isn't a high salary in China. 150-200k is, especially in the bigger cities. Even as an unqualified teacher you can make 35k yuan after tax quite easily. A lot of people making much, much, much more than this.

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ph1294 t1_it2behb wrote

Reply to comment by JayCroghan in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

Coming from both entertainment and computers as well, if you want stability stick with the latter.

Acting can be far more rewarding, and ofc just like computers there’s a global elite that makes millions. But computers has more opportunity for higher pay in the middle ground, and has stability and consistency.

And they’re 100% correct! Only the best in the world can float internationally in acting, and China is a completely segregated market due to government propaganda having a choke hold on content (Did you know too gun maverick had the Taiwan flag digitally removed from mavericks jacket for Chinese censors?). Your Chinese chops mean nothing internationally, unfortunately.

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DonaldTrumpTinyHands t1_it2bdph wrote

Reply to comment by JayCroghan in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

I'd be interested to hear from both of you in this thread. Firstly your lengthy post is quite remarkable for an AMA about a movie that wasn't really a hit outside of china, scored 5.4 out of 10 om IMDB and is largely viewed as propaganda with pro-china views and historical inaccuracies. Notwithstanding that the US has made similar propaganda movies such as Pearl Harbor. From a Chinese national point of view, knowing that the movie is historically inaccurate and largely ignored outside of china, what is it that appeals to you about this movie?

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bjran8888 t1_it1u2lg wrote

Reply to comment by JayCroghan in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

I didn't think they would hire a software engineer as an extra, but China is not a country of immigrants and doing so can only be described as a no-brainer. Wu Jing is the most expensive actor in China, if you have quite a few scenes with him, you may have a lot of fame after "Wandering Earth 2" hahaha, (like mike Sui in the first one?)

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JayCroghan OP t1_it1rqej wrote

Reply to comment by Swiss_James in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

Yes and no. We had to do COVID tests every few days in our hotel. Not the RAT a proper swab. But even allowing that many people to be in one place was probably against the rules. We shot some scenes in a city for a few days and the locals took videos of us that we found on Douyin (chinese tiktok) complaining about foreigners not wearing masks but we were in a bubble and on our way to work.

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wanda5678 t1_it1ooad wrote

Reply to comment by JayCroghan in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

I think it is common in China to dub over everyone, even the Mandarin speakers and main stars. It helps production not worry about sound while filming because they can edit in the sounds and voices they want later. It's weird but some Chinese actors and actresses have go-to voice actors and actresses when they film dramas / movies because they are so good at getting the pacing right and they 'sound right' for their face (lol).

Thanks for sharing, this was very interesting to read.

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JayCroghan OP t1_it1jm8u wrote

Reply to comment by csd2csd2 in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

They’re fine, they’ve been here for my wedding and we travelled around. They’re not worried at all. I’m from Ireland not the US. Ireland has a pretty good relationship with almost everyone. I’m a guest here. I lived in South America for 4 years and they were far more worried then.

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JayCroghan OP t1_it1jj6i wrote

Reply to comment by Bertrum in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

No Union, almost all extras are working without the proper papers, long hours every day but the Chinese crew do more hours, they worked 16+ hours every day I don’t know how they did it. I’m positive the government was involved at some level but not like they had people on set or anything.

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JayCroghan OP t1_it1jfpr wrote

Reply to comment by SpudsUlik in IAmAn Irish guy who worked as an extra and got speaking parts in 3 Chinese blockbusters last year, Battle At Lake Changjin 1 & 2 and Wandering Earth 2! by JayCroghan

A little bit. I mean, we knew what the movie was and what it meant for China. But not like you’re insinuating. It really was no different to being in a regular movie I guess. If you’ve ever seen the movie you’d understand.

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