Chapter 662 The Voice starts recording!
T-minus 4 days: The selected and backup contestants for the blind auditions were finally settled upon. This was from the selection of the contestants who had qualified through the preliminary auditions earlier.
T-minus 3 days: The progression of the intro recordings for the contestants was 25% done, but due to the task being rather heavy and a lack of manpower, they could not do it as fast as they had planned. Because of this, Zhang Ye made some changes to only record the intro clips of the contestants who were due for the first episode’s appearance. The other contestants would do theirs on another day since all they needed now was to meet the demands and requirements for the first episode’s recording of The Voice. Once that was done, they would have another week to prepare.
T-minus 2 days: The construction of the stage was completed.
T-minus 1 day: The equipment was almost all set up and adjusted to be ready for the studio recording.
……
And then it was the day itself.
At 12:30 PM on Thursday, the day The Voice was to be broadcast, they were eight and a half hours away from the scheduled broadcast timing of 9 PM!
In the recording studio.
Every staff member from the program team was gathered together.
Zhang Ye was confirming all the final tasks for everyone.
“Staff passes? Audience admission passes?”
“It’s all done! They’re all placed into the plastic holders with lanyards!”
“Post production on the intro shorts?”
“Director Zhang, it’s all done. The captions and BGM have been added in as well!”
“How about the lighting?”
“Testing is complete on them.”
“The equipment?”
“A-OK!”
“The coaches and contestants?”
“The 19 contestants appearing in the first episode are already in the waiting area backstage. Three of the coaches have already arrived and are having their makeup applied right now. Only Sister Zhang is not here yet, but we called and confirmed that they’re already on the way, about 10 minutes away from Central TV. Her manager says that Sister Zhang’s makeup is already done, so we don’t need to factor in the time for that. When the coaches are all here, we can begin the recording.”
“How about the audience?”
“They’re all here. We’re verifying their identities and distributing the admission passes to them.”
After Zhang Ye confirmed the last item on the list, he heaved a sigh of relief. All of a sudden, he felt his legs turn to jelly. He quickly took a chair which was just beside him and sat down on it heavily!
Everyone on hand also fell silent for a good three or four seconds before they broke out into cheers!
“Heavens!”
“We really completed all our preparations!”
“We made it!”
“We really made it!”
“We did it! We really did it!!”
Everyone was feeling extremely excited and unable to hold back their emotions!
Including Little Wang and a few other female staff members, they even had tears rolling down their cheeks. Even Assistant Director Ha Qiqi had to turn her head around to quietly dry her eyes! It had been too difficult! For the past six days, they’d all had it too difficult. Within the program team, every one of them had really given it their all. The exertion of working from early in the morning until late at night was simply unimaginable by anyone from the other program teams in Central TV!
Ha Qiqi and five others had a cold for the past five days but continued working despite being sick!
Little Zhao from the Equipment team was involved in an accident in which a plank fell from high up onto his leg. He suffered a sprain, but continued working without taking any time off from work!
The editor, Sister Liu, who was a mother to two daughters, had even given her family duties to her husband and mother. For the past six days, she did not take her children to and from school or had dinner at home with them. Other than sleep, she spent all her time working at the office!
This was the result of everyone’s sacrifices!
This was the miracle that happened as a result of everyone striving together toward their goal!
That was why, at this moment, many of them were crying with joy. They could only express their feelings right now with tears and shouts. No one in Central TV had expected that they could complete this task without sacrificing the quality of the program, but they used the most practical approach and showed them—they could do it!
Zhang Ye suddenly announced, “I suggest we give ourselves a round of applause!”
The next moment, thunderous applause sounded and filled the entire venue!
Screams!
Cheers!
It was a scene of passion!
“Too awesome!”
“We’re all great!”
“Creating a mega-scale singing talent show in 20 days is virtually unheard of in the history of the television industry! Even overseas, this was unheard of before!”
Up until now, many of the program team’s staff were actually still in disbelief that they did it. Zhang Ye was right, the unrealized capacity of a person was limitless. Many things they thought impossible to complete actually weren’t impossible. They were simply much stronger than they thought themselves to be!
At this time, Zhang Ye walked off to a corner to call the Deputy Director of Central TV Department 1, Jiang Yuan. “Director Jiang, our preparation work is all complete!”
When Jiang Yuan heard this, he said: “Great, you’ve done admirably. For other tasks that still need working on, let’s just ignore them first and finish recording the first episode. We have to rush to get the recording done in time for the broadcast. When everything is done, you all can continue to complete the stage construction and equipment tuning, but it doesn’t matter if it’s not perfect now.”
But Zhang Ye replied: “It’s not that, Director Jiang, I don’t think you understood me properly. I said that the preparation work…is all complete. The stage, equipment, and music are all completed and ready!”
“What?” Jiang Yuan was stunned.
Zhang Ye repeated: “It’s all completed!”
Jiang Yuan said in disbelief: “How did you all do it?”
Zhang Ye laughed: “We just did. Everyone worked overtime and gave it their all!”
Perhaps to Jiang Yuan and the other people of Central TV, the fact that the team for The Voice could rush in time to let the program make it to broadcast was already a miracle in itself. But they didn’t expect that this was done without sacrificing quality or missing out on some aspects. This outcome came as quite the pleasant surprise to Jiang Yuan! “Good! Good! I knew that you, Little Zhang, would surely have no problems!”
Zhang Ye dismissed: “I’m not superhuman. I couldn’t have done all this by myself. It was really down to everyone’s team effort. Regarding the bonuses, I don’t mind if I don’t get any. But when the time comes, Director Jiang, you know what to do for my team’s staff, right? Everyone has worked themselves to the bone.” Because they were willing to put in so much effort to help him, Zhang Ye also knew to fight for the interests of his program team.
“Of course, no problem.” Jiang Yuan agreed with hesitation. “Tell everyone that their month-end bonuses will be quadrupled. The performance bonus in the middle of the year will be calculated separately. And for next year’s salary adjustment, the entire team will be promoted to the next tier of their basic salary!”
Zhang Ye said happily: “Fantastic.”
Jiang Yuan asked: “What are you all planning to do now?”
Zhang Ye said: “We are doing the audience admission now, the coaches have already arrived, and we’ll start recording very soon!”
Jiang Yuan said: “Alright then, I won’t hold you back from your work. My request is still the same as before: make sure that the post-production and captions are all finished before the broadcast and after the recording has finished. Remember, the program’s viewership ratings must be at least 0.7%. That is the lowest viewership rating that the station can accept, so if the first episode receives less than favorable views, the program’s scheduled time frame might end up getting adjusted accordingly. The original plan for a show that is three months could end up being cut to one or two months only. Of course, if the viewership ratings are favorable and exceed 0.8%, the bonuses will be raised accordingly. The station will know what to do!”
The call ended.
Zhang Ye went back with this news from the station and informed everyone.
When everyone heard about the bonuses and salary increase, they all became even more excited.
Zhang Ye said, “It’s not time to celebrate yet. We still have to do our preparations properly and fight this last battle, which is also the most critical battle. This is the last critical point in our advance, so let’s not screw it up!”
“Understood!”
“No problem!”
“Director Zhang, just instruct us on what needs to be done!”
“We will listen to your commands!”
Everyone answered him with excitement.
Zhang Ye voiced his approval. “Would the departments get ready? It’s time to let the audience in and start recording!”