I Really Didn’t Mean to Make Money

“No need to thank me. You’re a solid actor.”

Luo Xiao looked at the honest-faced man in front of him and smiled slightly.

He genuinely liked this extra. Though his screen time wasn’t as much as in other directors’ productions, he always gave it his all during filming.

His acting skills were impressive too. Most of the time, all it took was a bit of direction and he would immediately understand and adjust accordingly.

Among all the actors in the crew, he was the fastest to improve—second only to Wang Bin.

And there was another thing about him: he always wore a smile. He might look a little silly, but he was full of energy every day and had a contagious enthusiasm that lifted the whole crew.

“Wang Qiang, with your drinking capacity, downing that whole glass? Don’t expect anyone to carry you home later!”

Wang Bin laughed as he watched Wang Qiang chug a large glass of red wine.

He had met Wang Qiang on a previous set. They were from the same hometown, and since Wang Qiang often studied acting techniques, the two gradually became close.

“No worries. We’re not filming tomorrow anyway. Even if I drink too much, it’s fine.”

Wang Qiang gave a goofy smile.

The team-building event lasted over two hours. Since no one was pressuring others to drink this time, most people didn’t consume too much wine. So when it ended, everyone was a little tipsy but not excessively drunk.

Seeing that it was still early, Luo Xiao found a high-end karaoke lounge not far from the hotel.

This was also part of the team-building plan, as President Chen had mentioned before.

Last time, they skipped karaoke because everyone had gotten too drunk.

The next day,

Luo Xiao led the crew out of Jiangcheng Airport.

They hailed several taxis and headed straight for Mingri Group.

They had taken an early morning flight, so it was only around 10 a.m. when they arrived in Jiangcheng.

Going home at this hour would be a waste of time.

It was better to return to the company right away to get some work arranged and report to President Chen.

…

Mingri Group,

CEO’s Office

Chen Mo was scribbling on a sheet of scrap paper.

He had received a call from Luo Xiao yesterday, saying they would be back in Jiangcheng today.

That meant the first bad film produced by Blue Film Studio was now in post-production.

According to Luo Xiao’s report last night, editing and special effects would take about a month. Including the time for review and approval, the film was expected to be released around mid-August.

Mid-August release.

But his settlement date was at the end of the month.

Looking at the gap between those dates, Chen Mo instinctively felt something was off. Even if it was a bad film, once it went live, there would still be some people unaware of its quality who might watch it.

In that case,

Even if the box office earnings weren’t much, it could still affect his settlement.

The only solution was to delay the release.

But just as that thought crossed his mind, the system issued a warning.

It stated that during the filming and production process, he was not allowed to intentionally interfere with the movie’s release schedule.

So unless something unexpected happened, the mid-August release was inevitable.

Fortunately, it was a bad film.

Maybe in the first couple of days, a few unsuspecting viewers might give it a try.

But once word got out about how terrible it was, the number of viewers would definitely drop sharply.

With that in mind,

Chen Mo finally let out a breath of relief.

Just yesterday, he had come up with a very effective spending plan. With this plan, even if the film brought in a bit of income, he could use it up through this method.

Now that he was sure the mid-August release wouldn’t affect the settlement too much, he didn’t waste any time.

With Luo Xiao and the others back, it was time to start preparing for the second film.

Losing money,

Was something that had to be done without delay.

This could also serve as a second spending strategy. If, before the settlement, there really was a sudden influx of income, he could funnel the funds into the production of the second movie.

Having this second spending plan in place would definitely make the settlement more secure.

But beyond preparing for the second film, he had also planned a few other ways to spend money.

First, company cars for the managers. Last time, since Luo Xiao and Wang Bin were filming in Beijing, their assigned vehicles had never been finalized.

Then there was the issue raised during their visit to the Beijing set. If the crew stayed in hotels, it became difficult to transport filming props.

So they needed vehicles specifically for transporting props. On top of that, they also needed cars to shuttle crew members back and forth.

As Chen Mo reviewed the notes on his scrap paper, he suddenly remembered that Tang Qiu had officially established a law firm. She definitely needed a company car too.

All these vehicles combined would make for a decent chunk of spending.

Now, what else could he spend money on?

Tapping the tip of his pen on the paper, Chen Mo fell into deep thought.

Knock knock knock!

Suddenly, someone knocked on the office door.

Chen Mo looked up and saw Luo Xiao and Wang Bin carefully pushing the door open and stepping inside.

“President Chen!”

The two walked up to the desk and greeted him.

Chen Mo looked at the two of them with some surprise. The call he received yesterday said that the film crew would be returning to Jiangcheng today.

Since they were coming back today, he had assumed they wouldn’t be reporting to work until tomorrow.

He hadn’t expected them to show up before noon.

“Have a seat.”

He gestured toward the chairs in front of his desk.

Since they were back, it was a good opportunity to go over Blue Film Studio’s upcoming plans.

“President Chen, the crew is all back,” Luo Xiao began after sitting down. “But the students from the Drama Academy went straight back to Shanghai because of their academic schedules. They didn’t return to Jiangcheng.”

“As for the film, the only thing left is editing. Once that’s done and we have the final cut, we can submit it for review and get it into theaters.”

“But before the theatrical release, shouldn’t we start promoting the film? Otherwise, with zero name recognition, I’m worried that once it hits theaters, the box office numbers will suffer.”

Luo Xiao gave a brief report on the next steps after taking his seat.

He had been thinking about the promotion for a long time.

In the end, he concluded that they definitely needed to promote the film—as long as it didn’t compromise the film’s quality.

After all, the entire cast of this movie was made up of complete unknowns. Banking on star power to market it was simply not an option.

So,

If they didn’t do any promotion, there was a real risk that hardly anyone would choose to watch their film.

At least,

That’s how it would be in the early stages after the theatrical release.

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