Tokyo: The evil god doesn't want to be the top star

Chapter 217 Spring and Autumn Brushwork
"I thought there were only strangers on the show, but I didn't expect Senior Chai Dao to be there too. I instantly felt much more at ease."

There were so many people queuing up for their looks in the morning that Xia Fan didn't see Shibata Makoto at all. Only now did he realize that he was also participating in the same show.

It is indeed a happy thing to meet classmates in such a program.

Although there were some "small frictions" between the two sides in the campus singing competition, Shibata Makoto fulfilled his bet and admitted that he was "not as skilled as others", so he naturally put it behind him long ago.

"I'll make it clear in advance that even though we're schoolmates, if we meet in PK later, I'll still go all out!"

"For the honor of Tokyo University of the Arts, let's cheer for the next theme song segment!"

Shibata Makoto turned his body sideways, facing the camera with his most photogenic 45-degree jawline, posing a passionate and heroic attitude, and made a "ROCK" gesture to Xia Fan.

"Oh my, the friendship among alumni, the exciting battles, no one cares about non-Chinese, they just want to indulge in the camera..."

Martin, who followed, took it upon himself to be the atmosphere group and started to rap with unclear meaning.

After all, the ones in front of him are the "Seven Star Trainees" who are being chased by the camera, so if not now, when?
"Ahem, let's work hard together."

There was absolutely no way Xia Fan could cooperate with the two people's "business state" with their stiff movements and strange voices in front of the camera, so he said perfunctorily with an embarrassed look on his face.

……

When the first stage performances of the 101 trainees were all recorded, it was already late at night.

"Thank you for your hard work, colleagues. The recording of the second episode has finally been completed..."

After the mentors and trainees left, the "Idol Birth Festival" production crew, who had been busy all day, did not get off work. Instead, a review meeting was hosted by Yasushi Akimoto.

On both sides of the conference table, a group of executive directors had dull eyes and pale faces, and strands of hair fell onto the table from time to time.

Although recording programs during the day, reviewing at night, and doing post-production all night long are already the norm in the industry...

But for them, watching their hair decrease and their hairline rise is an incurable torment.

“During this recording session, we gained a lot of wonderful content, but there were also some unexpected situations.”

"The principle of post-production for the second episode is to focus on the shots and performances of local trainees, with international trainees as the adjustment and highlight, and the instructors' comments and reaction shots should be inserted at the right place..."

"For example, in this section, you need to pay attention when editing... and in this stage performance, you need to make sure to highlight the pronunciation..."

Manjiro Akimoto is much more energetic than an average person. He plays the material on the projection screen and explains the key points of post-production with great enthusiasm.

"Hey, Director, the scene with Xia Fan should be the highlight of this episode of International Trainee. How should we handle it?"

A staff member in charge of post-production editing asked in a low voice.

"Xia Fan..."

This question made Akimoto Manjiro frown and fall into deep thought.

This staff member actually asked a fairly tactful question.

Whether it was Xia Fan's singing that made the audience burst into tears, or Yayoi Tsuki's "tears" later, plus the final seven-star rating result...

Not only among the international trainees, but also among all the debut stages in this entire episode, it is the most exciting and dramatic scene.

However, Xia Fan is a "burning" and "international" trainee... The program team can make him a representative figure of international trainees, but he must not deviate from the role positioning of "background board".

If Xia Fan performs too well in the early stages of the show and steals too much limelight, it is likely to affect the early popularity accumulation of several "seed players".

Now, as the chief director, he needs to make trade-offs among various aspects, including the excitement of the program content, the direction of popularity growth, the growth curve of the contestants, and the intentions of the agency.

"Well, Xia Fan's part...just focus on the 'key points'...the first stage performance doesn't have to be broadcast in its entirety..."

After racking his brains, Manjiro Akimoto finally made up his mind.

"When Yayoi Yue left the stage in tears, the subtitles and close-up shots led the audience to believe that she was moved by the song itself, not by Xia Fan's performance..."

"As for the seven-star rating, just publish it exactly as it is..."

He confirmed word by word the post-production requirements for Xia Fan's first stage performance.

That’s right, Manjiro Akimoto chose to sacrifice some of the highlights and weaken Xia Fan’s stage performance, while retaining the “Seven Star Trainees” part that could create topics.

Anyway, Yayoi Tsuki's scenes and speeches were not cut, and only Xia Fan's part was dealt with, so it is not considered a breach of contract, and Bethesda cannot intervene.

As the "creator of a girl group", he knows very well that, in the final analysis, this is still a talent show more than a variety show...

The current highlights and content of the program are not as important as the long-term strategy of the capital behind it to "create stars" and create a cash cow.

……

Three days later.

The second episode of the "Idol Birth Festival", which has attracted much attention due to the participation of Yayoi Tsuki and the hype, will be broadcast on time in the form of "VIP members' advance viewing".

Because it includes the first performances and ratings of 101 trainees, this episode lasts more than two hours.

Even with this exaggerated broadcast length, the first performances of many three-star and four-star trainees were compressed to "performance + rating results" of no more than 30 seconds...

Most of the one- and two-star trainees don’t even have any stage performance footage, and are only left with a uniformly published rating results sheet.

This situation is very common in the first few episodes of previous talent shows.

After all, with 101 trainees, even if each of them gets one minute on average, the entire program length would be almost gone, so they can only "select and edit carefully."

As the focus of the program, the first stage performances of most of the five-star trainees and the evaluation sessions by the mentors were broadcast quite completely.

Especially the debut performances of those “local seed trainees”…

It was originally a plain scene without any stage effects, but after the program team's painstaking post-production, with the addition of such secrets as 100,000-volt sound editing, devilish dancing camera movements, and indiscriminate mixed editing, it became as wonderful as an MV.

During Xia Fan's first stage performance, the scene where Yayoi Tsuki was moved by her new song and left the stage in tears naturally became the most explosive content of this episode...

In the last scene in the box left by Yayoi Tsuki, the willful "five stars" made Xia Fan a "seven-star trainee". The post-production of the program also used a technique comparable to that of a suspense film, which whetted the audience's appetite.

As for Xia Fan's first stage performance, it was edited down to just a few shots, his singing was sporadic and there were no complete sentences, and most of his singing became the background music for the close-up of Yayoi Moon...

Due to the "Spring and Autumn style" of post-production editing, the audience naturally only remembered the unexpected rating result and did not have much impression of Xia Fan's performance itself.

(End of this chapter)