Rebirth 09: Starting from taking charge of Running Man on CCTV

May 26th, Monday.

The sky over the capital was overcast, and a damp wind pressed in from the west, as if it were holding back a heavy rain.

9:55 a.m.

The sixth floor of the CCTV main building houses the final review meeting room for the station's editorial board.

This conference room is almost twice the size of the one on the variety channel. An oval conference table is placed in the center, with a dark green velvet cloth covering the tabletop. Each seat has a uniform teacup, pen holder, and folder in front of it.

On the opposite wall hangs a 50-inch Sony broadcast monitor, next to which sits a Panasonic Blu-ray player.

This is the highest-level content review venue for CCTV.

Anyone who can sit in this room has a name that would make others in the industry feel inferior.

When Chen Yang entered, the three chairs in the main seat were already full.

Jiang Bingqian sat in the center, a fountain pen in front of him, his teacup untouched.

Lin Hongyuan is on the right, his notebook is turned to a blank page.

Zhou Wenbin is on the left, with a copy of Chen Yang's review materials spread out in front of him, the edges of which are already curled up.

There were about twenty people seated in the seating areas on both sides.

The heads of the editorial office, publicity management office, technology office, legal affairs office, and GG center each occupy a seat.

The veteran directors of the variety show channel sat quietly in the back row, like a row of spectators waiting for the court hearing to begin.

Zhao Guisheng sat in the back row by the window.

The thermos was on the table, and the goji berries were soaking in hot water until they swelled up.

The director next to him leaned in, his lips almost touching his ear.

"I heard that the sample footage was shot with people from their own team, without a single professional actor."

Zhao Guisheng scoffed, his voice just loud enough for the two rows in front and behind to hear.

"A makeshift crew, how could they possibly produce anything worthwhile?"

"Zero budget, a bunch of people carrying machines to make up the numbers. In our station, even an intern's graduation project is better than this."

The two people next to him chuckled, their laughter muffled in their throats.

Chen Yang walked to the player with a Blu-ray disc in his hand, without looking at the back row or the head seat.

He inserted the disc into the player, adjusted the signal source, and confirmed that the monitor screen was working properly.

Then he returned to his seat and sat down.

He didn't say a word the entire time.

The meeting was chaired by the deputy director of the editorial office, who was in his early forties. He read a routine opening speech, which was nothing more than "Today is the final review of the program 'Run, China' by the editorial board of the station."

After reading it, he looked towards the head of the table.

Jiang Bingqian nodded.

"Let it go."

The lights were on.

In 2009, CCTV's final review meeting did not allow the lights to be turned off during the screening; instead, the film was shown in full brightness so that leaders could take notes and stop the screening at any time.

The 50-inch monitor lit up.

black screen.

Three seconds later, the scene cuts to the next screen.

The first shot is a panoramic overhead view of the stadium.

Twenty-three fixed red lights, activated simultaneously, were scattered around the venue like stars.

Seven people wearing white T-shirts stood at the entrance, their name tags clearly visible under the lights.

Then, the scene changed.

The camera suddenly zoomed in from the first-person perspective, following Liu's back as he rushed into the field, the sound of his sneakers hitting the floor clearly audible.

The synchronous sound was perfectly captured without any noise.

In the conference room, someone stopped writing.

Old Zhao from the technical office slightly raised his body, his gaze fixed on the screen.

He recognized the image quality of the machine: a Sony PDW-700, 1080i full HD, with perfect color reproduction.

This is not the quality of a student's work.

This is the standard picture quality for CCTV's prime-time broadcast.

The scene continues to move forward.

The first three minutes consist of the "gathering and grouping" segment.

The seven simulated guests were divided into teams by drawing lots according to the rules, and the micro-expressions of each person when they drew a slip of paper were accurately captured by the camera crew.

When Da Liu saw his "eye-rolling to the back of his head" expression when he was assigned to the weak team, a beautiful push-in shot filled the entire screen.

A line of animated text pops up in the lower right corner of the screen at the right time.

[Liu's inner thoughts: What's the point of playing this game?]

Someone in the back row chuckled softly.

It wasn't mockery; I was genuinely amused.

Lin Hongyuan's pen paused briefly on the notebook.

He tilted his head and glanced at the line of text in the lower right corner of the screen, raising his eyebrows slightly.

He had never seen this kind of dynamic text packaging that matched the emotions of the visuals in real time in any variety show in China.

The first round of physical challenges has begun.

The pace has noticeably quickened.

The switching frequency of multiple cameras changed from an average of eight seconds per camera in the first three minutes to three seconds per camera, or even two seconds per camera.

The image is like a precise scalpel, cutting precisely into the most dramatic frame from wide shot to medium shot to close-up.

Fat Tiger, weighing 210 pounds, ran around the pillar, but after half a lap, he started panting and holding his knees.

The camera pans in from the side and rear at a low angle, accompanied by a rapid drumbeat soundtrack, creating a strong sense of urgency.

Then suddenly the scene cuts to a close-up of Gian's face.

A face dripping with sweat and utterly despondent filled the entire fifty-inch screen.

The flower-shaped text pops up.

[Gian's survival instinct: It's not that I don't want to run, it's that my knees won't allow it.]

This time, more than one person laughed.

Zhou Wenbin's lips twitched slightly, but he quickly suppressed it.

But his body had unconsciously shifted from leaning against the back of the chair to leaning slightly forward.

Time passed second by second.

Fifteenth minute.

Twenty-fifth minute.

Thirty-fifth minute.

No one spoke in the meeting room, no one looked down at their phone, and no one flipped through the documents in front of them.

Everyone's eyes were fixed on that fifty-inch screen.

Forty-second minute.

The name tag ripping game.

The visual style changed abruptly.

The background music changed from upbeat variety show background music to deep string music, the camera movement slowed down, and a fixed camera position gave a panoramic view of the venue slowly emerging from the shadows.

The seven people were scattered throughout the venue, and each person's breathing was clearly heard by the wireless microphone.

The tension felt like an invisible hand reaching out from the screen and gripping everyone's throat.

"start!"

Chen Yang's voice came through the walkie-talkie in the video.

All seven people moved at the same time.

Like a black bear unleashed from its cage, Da Liu charged towards Xiao Zhao. Xiao Zhou silently circled around the wall, while Pang Hu leaned against a pillar, assuming a "don't come any closer" stance.

The camera was shaking violently, and the sounds of footsteps, panting, and rustling T-shirts were mixed together.

Then?

Da Liu lunged at Lao Ma, and the two engaged in a head-on fight, their arms tangled together, the name tags on their backs faintly visible in the camera's view.

Camera number three cut in from the side, perfectly capturing the moment when Liu's right hand gripped the corner of the name tag.

"hiss!"

A tearing sound blasted from the speaker.

The image freezes for 0.3 seconds, is slowed down and replayed, accompanied by a burst-style special effects text.

【OUT!】

Large red characters slammed into the center of the screen, accompanied by a dull drumbeat.

In the back row of the conference room, someone gasped.

It's not an exaggeration.

I was truly shocked by the impact of that image.

The name tag ripping segment lasted a full twelve minutes.

From seven people to five people, from five people to three people, from three people to the final one-on-one showdown.

Big Liu to Little Zhou.

Force versus speed.

In the final thirty seconds, the scene of Xiao Zhou feinting two steps past Da Liu and tearing off his name tag from behind was captured simultaneously by three cameras.

The camera jumps between three angles—wide shot, medium shot, and close-up—within a single second.

The music reached its climax at the moment of rupture, and then abruptly stopped.

The screen went black.

White subtitles appeared.

[Sample footage of "Run, China!" (complete)]