At night.
At Yan Tianfei's house.
A Bite of China's promo clip appeared on Yan Tianfei's computer screen all of a sudden. He did not watch this clip on the Internet. Rather, it was sent to him by the program team of A Bite of China. Although Old Yan had said that Zhang Ye could make all decisions on the show by himself, Zhang Ye couldn't just leave it at that. What the leader said was his business, but when it came down to it, Zhang Ye still preferred to get official instructions.
When the clip ended.
Yan Tianfei watched it again.
Not long after, he watched it for the third time and he occasionally frowned, at times feeling doubtful.
A middle-aged woman called out from the living room. It sounded like she was nagging him. "What are you doing, Old Yan? Why aren't you coming out for dinner?"
Yan Tianfei replied, "I'll come out in a while."
The door opened and his wife entered the room. "What are you watching?"
Yan Tianfei answered in an odd manner, "It's the promotional video of our documentary."
"The documentary that was made by Zhang Ye?" His wife asked, "Is it good?"
Yan Tianfei hesitated for a while, then said as he shook his head, "I'm not sure. Anyway, this documentary is quite different from what we've imagined. In the past, no one has actually shot a documentary this way before."
His wife remarked, "No matter how he films it, it's still a documentary. Don't tell me that he can make a documentary that is like a variety show?"
Upon hearing his wife saying that, Yan Tianfei couldn't help but sigh. "He can already produce such a good documentary on his first time directing it. Hai, with Little Zhang's directing abilities, it is indeed a pity that he came to our department. Those bunch of idiots at Central TV Department 1 have really wasted his talents!"
...
Central TV Department 1.
A lot of people left work late because of the Rise to the Dance press conference.
In the conference room, after some of them had finished discussing matters related to Rise to the Dance, the promotional video of A Bite of China coincidentally made its appearance on the Internet as well.
"Eh?"
"They've released the promo video?"
"Play it and let's have a look."
"Yeah, play it. I'm also interested to see what they have been busy shooting for the past two months."
They played the video and projected it onto the big screen in the conference room.
Some of them frowned. "Eh, this doesn't feel like a traditional way of shooting a documentary?"
Another person said in surprise, "When did Zhang Ye possess such a level of skill in editing and control of the imagery? Other than variety shows, he also knows how to make a documentary? Looking at the way it is presented, how can this person be a broadcasting graduate? It wouldn't be too far-fetched to claim that he is directing graduate instead! I-is this really his first time shooting a documentary?"
That's right.
Was this really his first time shooting a documentary?
Everyone had the same question on their minds.
The people present were also fellow professionals, so their judgment was naturally different from others. From just a few scenes, they could already see the standard of this director. Some of them even thought that if Rise to the Dance were given to Zhang Ye from the start, it might have been more suitable than getting Xu Yipeng and Chen Ye to handle it. Even if they knew that Xu Yipeng was capable, even if Xu Yipeng tried his best to prove this point at the press conference earlier, it could not change the judgment of some people regarding the difference in directing ability of Zhang Ye and Xu Yipeng. It was because Xu Yipeng's directing ability at variety shows was still unknown and uncertain. But Zhang Ye did not need to prove anything anymore, because everyone knew very well that Zhang Ye was the executive director of the top-rated show in viewership in the variety world.
However, Jiang Yuan shook his head and commented, "This is just playing to the gallery. The only differences from a traditional documentary are the usage of HD equipment and giving the subjects a closeup framing and doing more long takes."
"Yes, it is indeed as Director Jiang has said."
"No matter how beautiful the imagery is, this is still just a documentary."
"Even if he can film the cuisine and present it attractively on screen, it's still useless."
This was also the first time that they were seeing the true face of Zhang Ye's documentary. They had no choice but to admit that it was indeed different from what they had expected. However, even if it varied a lot from their expectations, from the day that Zhang Ye left Central TV Department 1 and transferred to Department 14, no one ever treated Zhang Ye as a competitor anymore. Zhang Ye has already gone to an obscure documentary channel with the lowest viewership ratings at Central TV. From that moment, Zhang Ye had already lost the right to compete with them. This applied all the same even though he was the best variety show director in the industry.
...
In the program team office of Rise to the Dance.
Everyone was curiously watching the promotional video of Department 14.
Xu Yipeng smiled and said, "It's nothing much."
After watching it, Chen Ye said, "I thought they could do something entirely new with the documentary, but even if the shooting techniques used are different, even if they use HD video cameras, it's still nothing but a documentary."
Previously, some of them were worried that Zhang Ye would spend a lot of money to invite some celebrities to lend their support by helping to create a style similar to a variety show. But now, they realized they had thought too much. Zhang Ye was truly shooting a documentary, and no matter how different this documentary looked from the others, a documentary was still a documentary. It wasn't something that was worthy of all that attention.
...
Meanwhile.
On the Internet, many netizens also watched the promotional video of A Bite of China.
"Wah, Zhang Ye's documentary is here!"
"Teacher Zhang has already disappeared for two months! I've almost forgotten about that esteemed person!"
"Zhang Ye is back?"
"Holy shit, he really went to make a documentary? I thought those were just rumors!"
"He really went and did it. There, isn't the new show that's almost out A Bite of China? The title is so weird. It doesn't sound too interesting."
"I think it's good and very beautifully shot as well!"
"The imagery is really clear. Was this shot on HD video cameras?"
"There's even someone who would use HD equipment to shoot a documentary? What a reckless waste of the equipment!"
"I guess it's OK. I don't know much about documentaries, so I can't tell the difference between what it's nice and what's not, because who would have the time to watch a documentary? But since this is a work by Zhang Ye, no matter how uninteresting it is, I will definitely still give it a watch. If it were filmed by other people, I wouldn't even take a look!"
"That's right. I'll definitely watch Zhang Ye's new show, but I'm not expecting much."
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