In the conference room.
Many hands make light work. The indoor obstacle course was temporarily named "Challenge Sunday," and the program's content was gradually being fleshed out.
Finalizing a program proposal in a single morning would definitely be impossible under normal circumstances; it would typically undergo at least three revisions and be modified slowly.
In special times, one couldn't have so many demands.
Chen Ran was currently outside with Lin Fan writing a proposal, intending to compete with them. Everyone exerted 120% of their effort, their minds more agile than usual, determined not to be outdone.
Director Liu took a glance. Chen Ran and Lin Fan were busy at their workstations. Chen Ran was writing, and Lin Fan was flipping through reference materials; the two had divided the labor and were cooperating.
Throughout the entire process, Chen Ran barely paused. Even when he did stop to think, it took very little time.
Although Director Liu wasn't optimistic, he was secretly curious about what kind of program Chen Ran could produce.
Seeing that Chen Ran was a bit overworked, Lin Fan asked, "Should we call Zhang Hui and the others over to help?"
Chen Ran didn't even lift his head.
"No need. Having more people will just be troublesome. This program isn't complicated; the two of us are enough."
After saying that, he ignored Lin Fan. Two programs surfaced in his mind.
He had watched these programs in the past, but it had been a while, and he definitely couldn't remember the minute details, so it was impossible to replicate them exactly.
What Chen Ran needed to do was synthesize the two programs, modify them according to his own perspective to fit the entertainment channel, and try to dovetail them with I Love Remembering Lyrics.
The core concept was already there. As for the remaining program segments, game mechanics, and details, he had a vague impression of them. Combined with his current experience from producing Remembering Lyrics, the writing process naturally wasn't too slow.
Seeing Chen Ran deep in thought, Lin Fan stopped talking, afraid of interrupting his train of thought.
From the materials Chen Ran had just asked him to look up and some of their discussions, he roughly grasped the prototype of the program.
The program concept was very good—one could say it was highly innovative, inheriting the entertaining characteristics of Remembering Lyrics.
If produced by their original Remembering Lyrics crew, everyone basically wouldn't need time to adjust and mesh, nor would they require much preparation. They could just gather the team and start making it immediately.
What puzzled Lin Fan a bit was, could Chen Ran have had this program idea in mind for a while?
To say it was a spur-of-the-moment idea today would simply be a bit too unrealistic.
……
Time passed quickly.
In the blink of an eye, it was noon.
The meeting in the conference room adjourned, but Chen Ran had not yet finished writing.
No one came over to disturb them; everyone went their separate ways to eat.
Director Zhang called. Hearing that Chen Ran didn't have time to eat, he didn't ask much. Now that the entertainment channel was preparing a new program, this was just how it was when things got busy.
He just reminded him to remember to eat and ordered takeout for Chen Ran.
In the end, neither Chen Ran nor Lin Fan ate anything. With not many details left, Chen Ran finished writing it all in one breath.
Lin Fan ran over to print out the proposal and handed a copy to Chen Ran. The two reviewed it carefully, and only after finding no errors did they consider it truly finished.
Chen Ran's stomach growled. He pulled over the now-cold takeout beside him, and he and Lin Fan made do with eating it.
"How is your thought process so smooth?" Lin Fan asked while shoveling rice into his mouth.
Chen Ran hadn't stopped since the beginning. If it were him, he would spend a fraction of the time writing and the majority of the time pausing to think.
Not to mention writing as meticulously as Chen Ran, he would probably dawdle for half a day just to write a framework of a few hundred words.
Chen Ran smiled. "This is probably talent."
Lin Fan choked briefly. This was an intentional blow!
The weather itself was already cold, and the food was icy. After filling their stomachs a little, the two couldn't eat anymore. They packed things up just as everyone started arriving in twos and threes.
At times like this, everyone arrived early; no one dared to show up for work right on the dot.
Seeing that Director Liu had also arrived, Chen Ran took the proposal and went to the office.
"Finished writing?" Director Liu asked.
"Mhm, finished writing." Chen Ran nodded and handed the proposal over.
"Director, take a look."
"Have a seat first." Director Liu took the proposal, said a word to Chen Ran, and then lowered his head to start reading it.
Challenge the Microphone
This was the program's name.
Director Liu's brows furrowed slightly. Judging from the name, it was somewhat incomprehensible. It actually clashed with two words from the program Challenge Sunday that they had discussed in the conference room.
How could this name intersect with I Love Remembering Lyrics?
He read on carefully, and his furrowed brows suddenly smoothed out. He was a little surprised that Chen Ran could write the proposal so meticulously.
Given only a morning's time, he assumed Chen Ran had written merely a program framework; who knew the proposal would be this detailed.
Director Liu focused his thoughts on the proposal.
After studying it closely for a long while, he finally understood why Chen Ran said the program could inherit the audience from Remembering Lyrics.
Looking at it from above, whether it was the stage, the equipment, or even the hosts and the several lead singers, they were all included in the program. It could entirely be called a sister program to I Love Remembering Lyrics.
The same people, a similar style, just different gameplay.
Challenge the Microphone was a variety show from Hunan Satellite TV back in the day, and Zhejiang Satellite TV also had a similar program, Mic Hog Heroes Assembly.
The reason Challenge the Microphone was chosen was that it was more fitting for the content Chen Ran wrote.
Both Mic Hog Heroes Assembly and Challenge the Microphone were satellite TV programs; Chen Ran certainly couldn't just copy them.
If nothing else, you simply couldn't replicate the PK competition format where they selected people from all over the country.
Most importantly, Chen Ran couldn't remember the details clearly; he could only adapt it to fit the current entertainment channel.
I Love Remembering Lyrics did not emphasize singing skills, nor did it emphasize pitch accuracy; as long as the lyrics were sung correctly, it was fine.
However, Challenge the Microphone was different. Although it also selected participants from KTVs, the primary requirement was pitch accuracy.
It didn't require you to have great singing skills or to sound beautiful, but your pitch had to be accurate, scoring high on the pitch analyzer.
Audience members with sufficiently high pitch scores were selected from KTVs to participate in the program. After several rounds of competition, the "Mic Hog" of the episode would be chosen.
Besides winning a cash prize, the episode's Mic Hog would also get a chance to challenge the lead singers. If the challenge was successful, they could successfully replace a lead singer to record an episode of I Love Remembering Lyrics.
And this episode's Mic Hog would accept a challenge from the next episode's Mic Hog. If the challenger succeeded, they would similarly get a chance to challenge the lead singers...
Director Liu was somewhat engrossed. Chen Ran's proposal was written extremely precisely; the program's details were fully prepared and highly mature.
Last time he saw the proposal for I Love Remembering Lyrics, he had the exact same thought, and it was the same now with Challenge the Microphone.
This reminded him of what he said during a casual chat with Director Yang some time ago: Chen Ran's I Love Remembering Lyrics was written so perfectly that he alone was equivalent to a whole planning team.
That was because Remembering Lyrics was constantly breaking records, and there had been an element of joking when he said it. But looking at it now, this was simply Chen Ran's style.
He looked at Chen Ran with a hint of wonder in his eyes. He didn't believe Chen Ran could spontaneously write such a proposal on a whim.
And since the program and I Love Remembering Lyrics were cut from the same cloth—both following the KTV program route—could it be that Chen Ran had already thought of it beforehand?
Looking at Chen Ran, Director Liu had to admit: although this guy was young, he was a bit impressive!