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

Sixty minutes and seven seconds.

The monitor image is stuck on the last frame.

The meeting room was deathly quiet.

No one applauded.

It's not that I don't want to, it's that I haven't recovered from that density of information bombardment.

Zhao Guisheng sat in the back row, holding a thermos in his hand, and hadn't taken a sip for at least twenty minutes.

The goji berries have cooled down completely.

His face changed from the disdain he showed when he entered to a grimace, and then from a grimace to deathly pale.

His lips were pressed into a thin line, and not a single word came out.

The director next to him, who had been laughing with him just moments before, now stared blankly at the screen, his mouth slightly agape, remaining open for at least ten seconds.

Old Zhao from the technical office in the front row had already turned to the third page of his notebook, which was filled with dense notes.

Deputy Director Wu of the Publicity and Management Office took off his reading glasses, wiped them twice, put them back on, and then took them off again.

Old Zhou from the legal department had no expression on his face, but his hand tightly gripping the pen betrayed him.

The silence lasted for nearly ten seconds.

The one who broke the silence was Jiang Bingqian, who was in the main seat.

He unscrewed the cap of the pen in front of him and then put it back on.

The movements were neither hurried nor slow, but the air in the entire conference room tensed up at the same time as the "snap" of the lid closing.

"I've been watching CCTV programs for over twenty years."

Jiang Bingqian's voice wasn't loud, but every word he uttered was impactful.

"I've watched variety shows, galas, documentaries, and feature films."

"I've never seen anything like this before."

His gaze shifted from the screen to everyone present.

"With zero budget, seven non-professionals, and a closed stadium, the sample footage produced met the standards for prime-time broadcast in terms of pacing, narrative, visuals, and packaging."

"It even exceeds the standards of most of our current prime-time programming."

No one spoke in the meeting room.

Jiang Bingqian looked at Zhou Wenbin.

"Old Zhou, what's your opinion?"

Zhou Wenbin remained silent for three seconds.

"From a technical standpoint, I have no objections."

His voice was half a octave lower than usual.

"The video, audio, editing, and packaging are all up to standard. The multi-camera blind-cutting and scheduling operation..."

He paused for a moment.

"To be honest, it exceeded my expectations."

When Zhou Wenbin uttered the words "exceeded expectations," all the elderly people present knew what it meant.

Lin Hongyuan closed his notebook and turned to Jiang Bingqian.

"My opinion has passed the final review and the project is officially approved."

He adjusted his glasses.

"Furthermore, I suggest that it be directly listed as a key A-level project for the channel this year."

S-class.

Someone in the back row paused in breathing.

CCTV's variety channel rates its projects from C to S, with A-level projects receiving high priority in budget allocation, prime-time slots, and overall promotional resources from across the channel.

Throughout 2008, the variety channel only had two projects that received an S-level rating—the Spring Festival Gala and the Olympic special program.

Jiang Bingqian did not hesitate.

"agree."

He picked up a pen and signed his name on the review documents in front of him.

"Run, China!" has passed the final review by the Taiwan editorial board and has been officially approved as a project.

"Rated A, included in the Variety Channel's 2009 key projects list."

"The Planning and Finance Department will initiate the special budget approval and disbursement process immediately."

"Director-in-Chief: Chen Yang."

The sound of the pen being placed back on the table could be clearly heard in the quiet meeting room.

In the back row, Zhao Guisheng finally put his thermos back on the table.

The bottom of the cup hit the table with a dull thud.

He stood up, didn't look at anyone, and walked towards the door with his head down.

When passing Chen Yang's seat, I paused for less than half a second.

It didn't stop.

gone.

The door behind me closed gently.

……

2:40 PM.

Less than three hours after the final review meeting of the editorial board, the official approval document from the variety channel's program department was handed to Chen Yang.

Approval of the formal establishment of the program "Run, China".

Number, stamp, and station director's signature—everything was included.

A key collection slip was attached to the approval document.

The 12th floor of the CCTV main building, a dedicated office area for key projects of the Variety Channel's Arts and Entertainment Program Center, with a floor area of ​​380 square meters, has been allocated for the independent use of the "Run, China!" program team, effective immediately.

Chen Yang stood at the end of the 12th-floor corridor, holding the key. In front of him was a wooden door with a temporary nameplate.

The nameplate had a line of text handwritten on it: "[Run, China! Program Team]".

He inserted the key into the lock, turned it, and pushed the door open.

The fluorescent light clicked on.

A 380-square-meter space unfolds before your eyes.

Off-white walls, light gray anti-static flooring, and plasterboard ceiling with grille lights.

At the far end is a separate office with blinds, 25 square meters in size. The solid wood desk is polished to a shine, three sets of filing cabinets are lined up against the wall, and a 29-inch Sony broadcast monitor is mounted in the corner.

Next door, in a 35-square-meter joint office for the core management team, four workstations have already been set up, complete with filing cabinets and internal telephones.

The 120-square-meter open office area has 40 semi-partitioned workstations arranged neatly, with four people in each group, divided into ten sections.

Go further in.

The small 40-square-meter conference room is fully equipped with a long conference table, a projection screen, and a ceiling-mounted projector.

The 30-square-meter independent screening room is equipped with soundproof panels, blackout curtains, a 42-inch Sony broadcast-grade high-definition monitor, and 5.1-channel audio, making it professional to the core.

The 60-square-meter post-production room features anti-static flooring, constant temperature and humidity air conditioning, and eight broadcast-grade non-linear editing workstations.

4 Sobe EditMax7 units.

4 Apple Mac Pros.

Two sets of 16-bay enterprise-grade disk array storage cabinets, with a total capacity of 48TB.

Chen Yang walked to the entrance of the post-production server room and patted the Sobe non-linear editing server case.

The metal casing felt incredibly cool to the touch, so real it couldn't be more so.

He had seen these devices countless times in his previous life, but back then he was borrowing other people's server rooms and had to be subservient to them.

Now?

The nameplate on the door reads the name of his program; the key is in his pocket; and the air conditioner remote is in his hand.

This is Chen Yang's territory.

He stood in the center of the open office area with his hands in his pockets, his desk empty.

There wasn't a single person there.

No matter how good the venue or how top-notch the equipment, it's just an empty shell if there are no people.

He needs an army.

A loyal force that can fight him tough battles and understands his every glance.

"How is it? Are you satisfied?"

Footsteps sounded behind me.

Sun Bin pushed open the door and walked in, carrying two bottles of mineral water. He tossed one of them to Chen Yang.

"I coordinated the venue with the channel, and the equipment was transferred from the station's Olympic broadcast inventory by the technical office. You got a great deal, kid."

"This floor was originally reserved for the cultural project in the second half of the year, but their proposal was rejected, and it has been empty for three months."

Sun Bin stopped in front of a double glass door at the end of the corridor and inserted the key into the lock.

"I spoke with Director Zhou, and he approved it immediately."

"It's over 380 square meters, the core office area of ​​the variety channel, with independent access control. My office is right next door."

He pushed the door open.

"You're lucky, kid."

"Brother, I'll remember this favor."

"But what about the filming equipment?"

"The technical office has already started allocating resources. They've allocated six Sony PDW-700 cameras for you from the Olympics, fourteen tracking cameras, eight post-production workstations, and a complete set of sound recording and lighting equipment."

Sun Bin counted on his fingers.

"Zhou Jianguo has also made arrangements for you. He's an old producer at the station, and he's reliable."

"The hardware will be in place within three days at the latest."

Chen Yang nodded.

Sun Bin walked around the office area, casually opened a drawer of a filing cabinet to take a look, and then walked to the door of the post-production computer room and glanced at it.

"We have the venue and the equipment."

He turned and leaned against the door frame, looking at Chen Yang.

Where are they?

Chen Yang remained silent.

"I'm telling you the truth."

Sun Bin's tone turned serious.

"You are familiar with CCTV's personnel system. Since 2009, they have stopped issuing ordinary public sector jobs. The core staffing consists of two types: enterprise-based hires and project-based hires."

"The contract offered by the company is the same as that of CCTV Talent, with five social insurances and one housing fund, year-end bonus, and Beijing residency quota, almost the same as that of regular employees, but the quota is extremely limited."

"Project-based hiring is flexible, with contracts following the program and signed annually, but there's no long-term guarantee; frankly, it's just temporary work."

He looked at Chen Yang.

"If you're transferring people from within the station, you can hire them through a project-based recruitment process. But if you're poaching people from outside, especially from local stations, there aren't any corporate recruitment positions available. Why would they risk coming to Beijing with you?"

Chen Yang nodded.

"Big brother, I want to poach people from Anhui."

Sun Bin's eyebrows twitched.

"A familiar face from 'Super Winner'?"

"right."

Chen Yang placed the bottled water on the windowsill, lowering his voice by half a notch.

"Brother, I have a few men under my command who fought alongside me in Anhui and Anhui provinces."

"As long as you know what I'm doing! You can keep looking around. I have another meeting to attend, so I won't keep you company."

"Okay, you go ahead with your work, brother!"

After saying that, the two parted ways.

Chen Yang walked to his desk, pulled out a chair, and sat down.

The genuine leather chair back feels cool and solid against your back.

He pulled the Nokia N95 out of his pocket and opened his contacts.

The names were scrolled past one by one.

His thumb stopped when he scrolled to the words "Zhang Lei".

He was his right-hand man who followed him for his entire life in his previous life.

His senior from Communication University of China, who was two years ahead of him.

He was a founding member of the "Super Winner" team and his first mentor in the industry.

A man who can bring any wildly imaginative idea to fruition.

Right now, I'm holed up on the Anhui local channel, doing a local news program that nobody watches, with no place to use my talents.

Chen Yang pressed the dial button.

beep!

beep!

beep!

"Feed?"

The voice on the other end of the phone sounded extremely tired, with faint background noise from a news broadcast.

"Who is it?"

Chen Yang leaned back in his chair, looking out at the CCTV compound through the blinds.

"Senior brother, it's me, Chen Yang."

"I've reserved a table for you at CCTV."

"Are you coming or not?"