Chapter 004 Selection
The selection location is set up in several practice rooms used for daily training, which are divided into assessment area, rehearsal area and waiting area. Lin Chiran and the professional teachers who usually teach will conduct the inspection together.
The process is divided into two rounds. The first round is mainly for individuals, including the trainee's self-introduction and assessment of dance and singing skills, as well as a one-minute free talent show. Musical instruments, props, etc. can be prepared by themselves or provided by the company.
The second round is conducted in the form of temporary groups. The trainees are free to form groups with a limit of two to six people. They have to complete a three-minute time limit performance. The content is discussed by the members themselves, which tests the trainees' adaptability within the group.
The preparation time given is relatively short and the order is completely random, which tests the trainees' on-the-spot performance, psychological quality and ability to deal with emergencies. Shenghuang's trainees are selected into the company only after strict screening. Even if time is tight and preparation is insufficient, the performances they finally present are still eye-catching.
For example, there was the cute curly-haired boy An Juesui who I met not long ago, and the tall, handsome black-haired boy Ji Qifeng who was with him and didn’t talk much.
Because the assessment process already includes singing and dancing, many people showed some interesting and special skills in the one-minute free performance session.
An Juesui performed a medley of tongue twisters for a full minute without stopping, which stunned everyone around him. Some of the examiners couldn't help laughing out loud, but he himself didn't seem to find it difficult at all. After he finished, he bowed and left with a smile.
Ji Qifeng looked like a cool guy who was quiet and serious, but the talent he performed was to solve a Sudoku puzzle in one minute. One minute suddenly seemed to become particularly long, and everyone stared at Ji Qifeng who was silent and just focused on solving the problem with his head down. He solved the questions quickly and accurately, and his attitude was very serious, but I always felt that the atmosphere was very subtle. Maybe Ji Qifeng didn't realize that he unexpectedly had the talent to be serious and make people laugh at the same time...
Other trainees also showed off their skateboarding skills, which would have been great if they hadn’t accidentally hit the wall; they performed a one-minute trick on the ball, which was very interesting, but at the end they were so nervous that they forgot to bring the ball back and were called back by the examiner; they performed penbeat, and for some reason the pen cap flew into the water cup on the table; they walked out of the examination room upside down and then disappeared; and many other weird and wonderful skills, all in the hope of leaving the most "deep" impression on the examiner, trying very hard to show themselves, but trying too hard...
The examiners, who had seen too many "interesting", "thrilling" and "difficult" performances today, were already somewhat numb and just wanted this magical session to end quickly, especially after thinking about the last boy who tried to perform magic and flipped over and splashed water all over the vocal teacher...
The trainee's agent who was accompanying them took a look at the struggling expressions of the professional teachers who were trying to force themselves to calm down, and looked at the high ceiling with some despair. Why did they all start to fail at the critical moment and called the next person to enter without any expectation.
"Chen Xun." When the agent's broken heart was spoken, a glimmer of hope finally rose.
A boy wearing a simple T-shirt and jeans walked in with a gentle smile. The weather in September was already a little cooler, but this smile gave people an extra warm feeling. They introduced themselves step by step and completed the music and dance examination, followed by the long-awaited free performance session. The boy took out a notebook and a paintbrush, and his slender white fingers quickly drew on the drawing paper. Soon the painting was finished and handed it over for circulation.
The vocal teacher got the drawing paper first. Looking at the cute Q-version examiners on it, she felt healed after being splashed with water. The others who had been silently feeling her low pressure also became curious about what was drawn and quickly passed it around. People who saw it couldn't help but laugh and praised Shen Xun's work. Each person's features were painted very distinctly. Lin Chiran had a small mole on the upper edge of his right cheekbone, which he painted into a small peach heart, which was very cute.
Lin Chiran himself also liked this painting and felt that the boy looked familiar, but he couldn't think of a way. He might have met him somewhere before, so he silently took note of it and decided to pay attention to his performance in the second round.
When the agent saw the smile on the examiner's face, his heart, which was as cold as killing fish in RT-Mart for ten years, finally felt a little warmth for a short time. He covered his chest with relief. Shen Xun was really a sensible and good boy who didn't let him lose face today.
After comprehensive screening by the examiners, twenty people were finally left to enter the second round of group assessment.
The first challenge they faced was grouping. Some of the trainees who stayed behind were familiar with each other, so they formed groups quickly. For example, An Juesui and Ji Qifeng formed a two-person group. With the familiarity and tacit understanding of each other over many years, they quickly decided on the repertoire and began to prepare the instruments for rehearsal.
Some of them probably encountered troubles. Lin Chiran observed silently. Chen Xun didn't seem to be very familiar with the others. In the end, he formed a four-person group with a few people who had not yet formed a team.
The four people were not familiar with each other, and the discussion was led by a red-haired man with a very flamboyant hairstyle. When discussing the selection of songs, the red-haired man picked a very famous dance song by SLANT, "Blade", which has a fast tempo, high difficulty, and very complicated movements. He also swore to others that he was very familiar with this song.
The other two members seemed to have some other ideas, but when they noticed Lin Chiran was not far away, they thought that choosing SLANT's song should win them favorability points. The trainees also had some impression of this kind of well-known song, so they agreed.
But Chen Xun didn't agree: "The movement of this song is too complicated, and there is not enough time for rehearsal."
"What's not enough? Just practice a few more times. At most, you can cut out some moves." The red-haired man was very unhappy to hear this. He rolled his eyes at Shen Xun when no one was paying attention. "If you don't agree, you can change to another group. We have decided to choose this song."
The other two also nodded. The other trainees had already divided into groups and started rehearsing. It was definitely too late to change groups. Shen Xun wanted to continue saying something, but seeing the red-haired man's unfriendly attitude, he shook his head helplessly and said no more. The preparation time was limited, so he tried not to waste time and practice more.
After starting to rehearse, it was just as the red-haired boy said, he was very familiar with the dance steps, and the others could barely keep up, but when it came to positioning, things started to become extremely chaotic. After rehearsing many times, people still made mistakes, and only after deleting most of the positioning did it finally become barely acceptable.
Meanwhile, on the other side, the assessment had already begun.
An Juesui and Ji Qifeng appeared at the front in the order of appearance, ranked second, and started debugging the equipment early. Their names were soon called, and it was their turn to take the assessment.
A drum set was prepared in the venue. An Juesui sat behind the drum set with drumsticks in his hand. A microphone was already fixed on the stand in front of him. Ji Qifeng stood behind the microphone with a blue electric guitar on his back. After tuning it skillfully, the melody spread from the speakers to the entire practice room.
Soon after hearing the melody, Lin Chiran realized that they were playing "Star Sea", a song that SLANT must sing at every concert. It was originally a relatively soothing and gentle song, but after the duo's arrangement, the rhythm became more compact, and the dense drum beats and the fast plucking of the electric guitar complemented each other, making the song full of rock and roll.
Ji Qifeng sang the lyrics of section A fluently into the microphone. The texture of his voice sounded a little cold, which attracted everyone at once. An Juesui's voice was a little sweet, but not overly sweet. He continued singing the lyrics of section B with just the right pronunciation and singing style.
After the song was over, Lin Chiran and the examiners were very impressed with the good compatibility of the two instruments and voices, as well as the flexible ideas and stunning effects of the adaptation. They asked some questions about the music adaptation and performance ideas, and Lin Chiran answered them clearly.
Finally, Lin Chiran asked the question, "Tell us what you think an idol is?" He tapped the table lightly, his eyes moving between the two of them.
After a brief thought, An Juesui tilted his head and answered first: "The obligation of an idol is to bring happiness and wonderful experiences to the audience. It's a bit like creating a dream, allowing people to escape from the reality of the Garden of Eden for a short time."
After hearing this, Lin Chiran looked at Ji Qifeng, motioning him to answer as well.
"It's a job, right..." Ji Qifeng thought, "The difference from ordinary jobs is that it provides more emotional value."
After hearing their answers, Lin Chiran nodded without commenting. He just asked them to go back and wait for the results and continue with the assessments for the next few groups.
However, the next few groups can only be said to be mediocre. There are no major problems and the overall completion is acceptable, but there is nothing as refreshing as An Jue Sui Ji Qi Feng; until the group that Chen Xun was in, there was finally something different, but unfortunately it was an accident.
She made a big mistake in her positioning at the very beginning. She tried to recover several times, but because of her nervousness, she became more and more confused. Finally, the dance teacher, who couldn't stand it anymore, called her to a halt.
The dance teacher asked if they should give them another chance to start over. Lin Chiran shook his head speechlessly. This problem could not be solved by dancing again. "There is no second chance on stage. Let's start asking questions directly."
The dance teacher sighed quietly as he looked at their poor performance. Where did they learn what they usually learned? Their movements were so chaotic that they were even worse than standing still. He began to ask questions according to the procedure, "Tell me why you chose this song." Although he asked the question, he actually already had the answer in his mind. He secretly complained: Many people before him also chose SLANT's song, obviously for Lin Chiran's impression points, but they chose someone else's song and danced like this, it would have been better not to choose it.
The red-haired man's eyes drifted towards the ground. "Because I really like SLANT, and the choreography of this song is also very wonderful..." His voice became lower and lower.
It seems that this group has no hope, the dance teacher thought silently, and asked Lin Chiran if he had any other questions.
Lin Chiran looked at Chen Xun who was standing next to him. His performance was perfect at the beginning, but when he noticed that his teammates had remembered the wrong choreography due to positioning errors, he paused for a second and chose to go with the flow and start dancing the same choreography. Not missing this detail, "You didn't remember the choreography correctly, why did you make such a special adjustment?"
Everyone was confused, but Shen Xun knew that this was a question to him, so he pursed his lips and said, "Because I think it might look neater this way."
"Why don't you insist on dancing the correct choreography?" Lin Chiran continued to ask.
"It doesn't make sense for only one person to dance to a different choreography. After all, we are performing as a group." Shen Xun said helplessly. Maybe the other members didn't care too much about this, but from his point of view, the focus of this round of assessment was not how outstanding an individual was. Even if only he performed well, it would not be a bonus.
After hearing this answer, Lin Chiran seemed to remember something interesting and suddenly laughed.
When he was still an active idol, SLANT would schedule at least a dozen shows for each tour, and he would perform more than 20 songs in one concert. He had held hundreds of concerts from his debut to graduation. As soon as the choreographer gave him the finished product, he would start practicing every minute in a tight schedule, memorizing dance steps, composing music, and confirming positioning. He was still practicing even when shooting MVs, promoting songs, and performing officially.
But people are not machines that do not need to rest for even a second and will not relax. It is unrealistic to not make mistakes at all. Some small mistakes are inevitable. At this time, every member needs to pay attention and think about what they can do to minimize the impact of mistakes on the overall performance. Chen Xun's approach is exactly in line with this point. The members' dedication can make the group go further.
Lin Chiran gave Shen Xun an affirmative look and continued with the assessment.
*
After the selection was over, Lin Chiran stayed in the company to confirm the schedule with Wu Wen, and asked Jingxing to come to the company tomorrow to discuss in detail. Before he knew it, the sky outside the window had darkened and the building was empty.
When preparing to leave, Lin Chiran saw a light on in the distance, which was the direction of the practice room. Were there still trainees there so late?
Suddenly I heard a familiar melody.
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