Chapter 262: Chief Director Selection

On September 19th, the first round of the Olympic chief director selection was held in Kuangou, Beijing.

Kuangou is not called the Kuangou Conference Center now, but the Beijing Municipal People's Government Kuangou Guest House. It was built in 1982 and is a guest house for meetings of national ministries and commissions and important meetings of the municipal party committee and municipal government.

Since the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee decided to use the bidding method to select the Olympic chief director in June, in the three months since, hundreds of groups and individuals have signed up.

After preliminary qualification screening, only 13 teams and individuals entered the Kuangou bidding site today.

Specifically, it was 12 teams plus one big director who hadn't formed a team yet.

In the conference room, a leader who arrived for the first time flipped through the materials for a while, then looked puzzled, beckoned for the staff to come over, and asked in a low voice: "Are all the materials here?"

This leader was not from the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee's review panel, but from the Olympic Supervisory Committee. In such a selection site, there must definitely be people from the Supervisory Committee present.

"Yes, all the materials for the 13 teams are all here."

The staff member came over, bowed his head, and said in a low voice.

"Why is there no team introduction for this one? Is it to be kept confidential? Does it involve confidentiality principles?"

In his mind, some special personnel indeed need to be kept confidential, and the materials cannot be made public. Did this director's team invite those personnel?

The staff member didn't dare to answer easily. If this leader hadn't mentioned it, he would have always thought that the big director had the ability and pride, or wanted to form a team after winning the selection.

But once this leader said it, he also felt suspicious. Did it really involve confidentiality principles?

He was just a small staff member; how would he know these things? Even if it involved confidentiality, they definitely wouldn't tell him.

"Cough, it's like this. We talked to Director Chen before, and he also explained to us. He has a film project in his hands called *The Promise*, which is considered one of the key projects for the Film Bureau to open up the market.

After filming was completed in September last year, it wasn't until the day before yesterday, September 16th, that he returned from Sydney after recording the film music...

He explained that although he hadn't had time to form a team, he had always attached great importance to this matter and hand-wrote the creative proposal himself.

Considering that he is one of the few big directors in the country, experienced, and has huge international influence, we considered it repeatedly and included him in the 13-person list."

The deputy head of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee's review panel explained.

The leader of the Olympic Supervisory Committee said "Oh" and didn't speak, continuing to flip through the materials.

The people from the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee's review panel had previously been discussing with each other, but now they all stopped talking, and the atmosphere was a bit stiff for a while.

Seeing the atmosphere was a bit dull, the deputy head of the review panel asked the staff member, "Have all the people outside arrived?"

This was actually a waste of words. For such a big event, most of the bidding teams that received the notice had already checked into the Kuangou Guest House yesterday.

"All arrived."

"Hmm, then let the teams submit the planning proposal first, and then the main person in charge of the team will make a statement, limited to 50 minutes, and draw lots to decide the order of appearance."

Then, the deputy head turned to look at Cao Yang and said with a smile:

"Cao Dao, when the time comes, please trouble yourself to make a general ranking for the 13 planning proposals. You don't need to consider anything else, nor do you need to refer to our scoring standards; you just need to look at the problem from the director's perspective. You are the most professional in this regard."

Cao Yang nodded and said, "Okay, I understand."

Since it was decided to use the bidding form to select the Olympic chief director, there must be a charter. Therefore, after months of discussion, a detailed scoring standard was formulated.

For example, Chinese traditional culture, modern imaging technology, overall completion, the degree of combination of tradition and modernity, executability, display of contemporary style, technical implementation, world culture, etc., there are a total of 22 items.

Of course, it doesn't mean that if you have the highest score in a single item, you can get the chief director position, nor does it mean that if you have the highest total score in 22 items, you can get the chief director position; there is also a comprehensive consideration score.

Only those who enter the top five in the comprehensive consideration score plus the total score of 22 items can enter the second round.

In other words, 8 teams will be eliminated in the first round.

And the comprehensive consideration score is in Cao Yang's hands, which is what the deputy head just said, letting Cao Yang look at the problem from the director's perspective.

The result of the draw was that the first to appear was the Cui Jian team, with Cui Jian as the main person in charge, making the statement.

That's right, the first one on stage was the godfather of domestic rock. Don't think he is only famous for rock; he also has a heart to be a director.

"Hello Cui Jian, can you talk about your creative and directing philosophy?"

The deputy head, as the host today, asked after Cui Jian came in.

"I didn't think too much; it's more of a feeling. In fact, it's our belief in our own abilities, and at the same time, it's also a kind of affection for our environment, a kind of affection for our era.

So when these two collide, a creative desire can be generated immediately..."

Cao Yang did not participate in the scoring of the 22 items; he was responsible for the comprehensive consideration score, so the focus was on the planning proposal submitted by the team.

After the review panel asked some questions, the time was almost up. The deputy head asked Cao Yang: "Cao Dao, do you have any more questions?"

Cao Yang looked up. He had just flipped through the Cui Jian team's planning proposal roughly, and there was a question he definitely had to ask.

"Teacher Cui, in your proposal, is the proportion of songs a bit too much?"

"Songs are a symbol, they have power, they are the voice of the soul that the whole world can resonate with. Songs can transmit culture, inherit culture, and continue culture..."

After Cui Jian finished answering, Cao Yang nodded. "I have no more questions."

The third to enter was the Li An team, with Li An as the main person in charge making the statement.

His proposal focused on using modern imaging technology to embody Chinese traditional culture, wanting to transform the entire tetrahedron of the Bird's Nest into a big screen.

This belongs to a big move.

If it were really implemented according to Li An's idea, it would probably create history.

It's just that the cost is an astronomical figure.

You have to know that liquid crystal display technology in this era is not mature, and the relatively mature plasma display technology is all in the hands of Japan.

Just give a simple example to know how high the cost of plasma is.

Last year, the price of domestic plasma TVs collapsed. After the big dive, Skyworth announced that plasma color TVs were lowered in price again. 40-inch plasma was only 22,800 yuan, 43-inch plasma was only 26,800 yuan, and 46-inch plasma was only 29,800 yuan.

This is the price after the big dive.

TVs of the same model dropped in price by about 5,000 to 8,000 yuan.

Therefore, the idea of transforming the entire Bird's Nest tetrahedron into a big screen is not very realistic.

The fourth to appear was Chen Kaige.

Cao Yang remembered that Brother Kaige was officially crowned with the title of great poet starting from today.

He also used to believe what was said on the internet, that Director Chen just recited a poem and didn't make any other preparations.

Actually, this statement is a bit one-sided.

Chen Kaige indeed didn't have a team, and he had been busy with the post-production of *The Promise* for the past year.

As far as Cao Yang knew, after the filming of *The Promise* was completed, Old Chen really attached great importance to it. All the post-production work was completed abroad, including the recording of the film music, all using the good equipment made abroad.

He had been busy abroad almost all year.

But to say he had no preparation at all is not entirely true.

Cao Yang flipped through Old Chen's planning proposal in his hand. Not to mention the content, this planning proposal of more than 100,000 words was actually all hand-written.

You say he is sincere, he didn't form a team, and the planning proposal didn't have specific proposal details.

You say he is not sincere, he hand-wrote more than 100,000 words, and you can see from the lines that he is still very passionate, because in the more than 100,000 words, there are also several passionate poems...

"On that night several years ago, when I learned that the Olympics were to be held in Beijing, China, at that moment I was watching TV, seeing the smiles on the faces of the people across the country, it really reminded me of the poem written by Du Fu back then."

Chen Kaige was wearing a black suit, no tie, and wearing sunglasses.

He didn't even take off his sunglasses when he came in just now. After saying the above words, he straightened his suit, took off his sunglasses, and his face was serious and earnest.

"Suddenly, news of the recovery of the north of the Ji River came from outside the sword,

Upon hearing it, tears filled my clothes.

Looking at my wife and children, where is the sorrow?

Rolling up the poems and books, I am crazy with joy.

In the daylight, I must drink freely,

In my youth, I will return home with company.

Immediately from the Ba Gorge, through the Wu Gorge,

Then down to Xiangyang, towards Luoyang."

For a time, there was only Chen Kaige's passionate voice in the conference room, cadence, expressive, and full of emotion.

After he finished reciting the poem, the conference room was so quiet that you could hear the flow of air.

Everyone was waiting for him to state the proposal, and he was waiting for people to ask questions.

It's not that the people from the review panel didn't want to ask, but his proposal was general, just an overall framework, without a specific implementation plan. They wanted to ask but didn't know where to start, so they could only wait for him to state it himself.

When Old Chen came in, the host said to let him summarize the statement, and then they would ask him some questions. He had already finished summarizing the statement.

You guys ask.

They were deadlocked like this for almost thirty seconds. Cao Yang didn't know what went wrong, but it couldn't go on like this.

"Director Chen, in your planning proposal, there is no mention of specific implementation steps. Can you talk about this point?"

Cao Yang opened his mouth to help him out.

After all, this counts as a senior fellow apprentice; give him a step.

"Haven't thought about it yet. I conceived the overall planning first. The specific steps are things to do after forming a team. When the time comes, everyone will have a collision of ideas and it will come out."

Uh, makes sense!

These words are fine!

"In other words, Director Chen only has a big framework and no specific detailed proposal yet?"

"That's how it is."

Old Chen nodded, didn't escape, didn't deny.

Then what to ask?

The questions everyone asked before were also about specific implementation. What is there to discuss about a big framework?

Cao Yang was now a bit anxious for the review panel. It was agreed that each team had 50 minutes. Old Chen had only been there for ten minutes, right? Are you just going to let him go out like this?

If it gets out, people will think the review panel has an opinion on him.

But what to discuss?

"Director Chen, have you ever thought about what way to present the Olympics?"

Fine, Cao Yang thought of a "technical" question. This thing is too "big," and it can be answered freely.

Sure enough, Old Chen's spirit was lifted. He talked about the Olympics in his eyes, from the origin of the Olympics to the future direction of the Olympics, for a full forty minutes, and he was still not satisfied.

Scholarly spirit!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 263 =====