More than 300 TV directors met in Shandong and officially unveiled the new blacklist policy to punish corrupted actors and directors during their annual meeting from Jan. 19 to 21.

They issued a new warning policy, informally called the "Blacklist 8," to discipline and self-discipline the industry. The list contains eight criteria that make up the standard by which to judge whether or not an actor or director should be subjected to the industry ban. The particular details of the "Blacklist 8" had not yet been released before and were a topic of discussion among many professionals last year.

The full policy content condemns the following behavioral aspects: Directors who show no respect for their job and have no professional ethic, who do not seriously read their scripts and do not thoroughly prepare; directors who behave badly or inappropriately, with no respect for collaborators as well as scolding actors and working staff at will; investors or producers who do not pay the actors according to their contracts; and investors or producers who switch or trade in directors without following the proper procedures.

In regards to any improper behavior from the actors' side, the policy content includes: Agents or company who randomly raise an actor's wages in spite of TV series market rules and in doing so cause difficulties for production; actors with big egos who do not respect any form of collaboration, scold their directors and other working staff; actors who do not consult with directors and then change their scripts roles at will or according to their own interests, ultimately affecting shooting plans; actors who neither read their scripts nor recite their lines, ignore shooting plans, come in late or leave early for shooting, or even blatantly refuse to play their parts.

Chen Jialin, president of the Directors Association, explained many directors tend to get angry when their names are smeared due to some assistant directors taking money out of the actors' remuneration or even demanding sexual favors from an actress in return for a role.

He also explained how several coal mine owners and real estate bosses, acting as investors and producers, wanted to have a say in which actors to use and tended to employ many actors with close ties to them. "Directors get no say in the process and these people don't even know anything about how to do a TV show. Everything becomes a mess before the TV series even starts shooting."

Chen also said many actors simply make too much money. "In a certain new TV series, the remuneration for the two leading roles takes up half of the total production cost! The other half goes to the remaining people. This will surely affect production quality." He added that they will suggest for the watchdog to set limitations for actors' prices.

If any such allegations are proven to be true, these actors will be listed under "cautionary collaboration," whose employment will have to be carefully considered from then on. The agents and investors will also be blacklisted under "cautionary collaboration" if they are doing the wrong thing. Directors found guilty will be expelled from the guild and have their wrongdoings exposed to the public.

The press conference also announced that the annual meeting of the Chinese TV Drama Directors Committee under the China Radio and Television Association (CRTA) and the inaugural Chinese TV Drama Directors Guild Awards will be held in Jinan, Shandong Province, from Jan. 19 to 21. The award show itself will be hosted on the evening of Jan. 20.

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