Chapter 377: Vehicles for the Film Crew

Promotion!

Chen Mo glanced at Luo Xiao. Why had he chosen those amateur actors in the first place?

Lack of experience was one reason.

But more importantly, those amateurs had no fanbase. No fanbase meant that once the film was released, no one would pay attention to it.

No attention meant no box office.

No box office meant no revenue, and no revenue meant he would lose money.

What a beautiful closed loop that was.

Yet here was Luo Xiao, trying to break that loop with promotion.

So this guy really was…

“There’s no need for promotion. You have to understand, a good film isn’t made by promotion, it’s made by the audience.”

“A bad film, no matter how well you promote it, is still a bad film. Maybe at first, a lot of people will watch it because of the hype, but as word of mouth spreads and the reviews worsen, fewer and fewer people will bother.”

“But a good film, even without any promotion, will gradually attract more viewers as its reputation grows.”

“So stop thinking about promotion. Focus all your energy on making the film itself. That’s your top priority.”

Chen Mo casually gave a reason to shut down the idea of promotion.

The film would be released shortly before the final accounting. If Luo Xiao really did a round of promotion and caused a spike in early box office revenue, that would be a problem.

“I understand, President Chen.”

Luo Xiao nodded. He had wanted to say that promoting the film without affecting production should be fine.

But then he thought about it—what does it really mean to not affect production?

The film’s budget was fixed. If he took ten million to promote the film, that meant ten million less for production.

How could that not have an impact?

Maybe if that ten million were invested into the film itself, the final product would turn out even better.

“Good.”

Chen Mo nodded in satisfaction when he saw that Luo Xiao didn’t argue.

“As for the film production, just handle it as you see fit. In any case, no promotion is needed.”

“Next, I have a few tasks for you. Now that the filming is complete and only editing remains, it’s time to start preparing for the second film. I need you to handle the script selection and related matters before the new film goes live.”

“Also, about the crew vehicles. Figure out what kind of cars you need and how many. And the manager vehicles too—last time we distributed cars, you weren’t in Jiangcheng, so you didn’t get one.”

“Now that you’re back, it’s time to get that sorted.”

“As for where to buy the cars… Shen Rou will give you a contact. Just reach out to that person.”

Thinking about the cars reminded him of the salesperson at the 4S dealership who had given him a business card last time.

He remembered handing that card to Shen Rou.

“Thank you, President Chen.”

Luo Xiao felt a bit moved. He had already heard about the company car distribution while filming in Beijing through the manager group chat.

But he’d never cared much about cars. Whether he had one or not didn’t matter to him.

What touched him was that, even though they had just returned to the company, President Chen had remembered and brought it up.

It made him feel valued.

Ever since the failure of his last film, it had been a long time since he’d felt that way—not even from his own family.

Wang Bin, standing beside him, also thanked Chen Mo excitedly.

“Alright, that’s all. You two go take care of things. Try to finalize the car purchases in the next couple of days.”

After settling the matters with Blue Film Studio, Chen Mo waved them off.

Once Luo Xiao and Wang Bin had left,

He picked up his phone and called Tang Qiu to talk about the vehicle assignment.

As expected,

As soon as he mentioned the manager vehicles, Tang Qiu immediately replied that she already had a car and didn’t need another.

No choice.

He had to come up with a bunch of excuses before she finally agreed to accept the company car.

After hanging up,

He took a sip of water from the cup on his desk, then notified Shen Rou to send the 4S dealership contact information to both Luo Xiao and Tang Qiu.

…

After leaving the CEO’s office,

Luo Xiao and Wang Bin took the elevator back to Blue Film Studio.

They handled a few simple tasks, and before they knew it, it was already noon.

“Let’s go grab lunch at the cafeteria,” Luo Xiao said, checking the time as he headed straight for the elevator.

“What about the special effects? How are we going to handle that?” Wang Bin asked with concern as he walked beside him.

Now that filming was done, all that remained was editing and special effects. The company’s in-house production team definitely wasn’t enough.

They’d still need to outsource some of the VFX work.

“That’s not a problem. We can talk to Fang Chang about it. Since they’re in the gaming industry, they probably know more than we do. It shouldn’t be hard for them to recommend a few solid production teams.”

Luo Xiao spoke calmly.

What they lacked now wasn’t money, but a high-quality VFX team.

“True. And since it’s lunchtime, Fang Chang and the others are probably heading to the cafeteria too. We can talk to them there.”

Wang Bin nodded slightly.

The two of them took the elevator down to the Mingri Group Cafeteria. Sure enough, before long, they saw Fang Chang and Wei Yan walk in.

Luo Xiao and Wang Bin quickly grabbed their trays and went to sit with them.

“Special effects teams? I do know a few—some are better, some not so much. It really depends on how much budget we’re working with.”

Fang Chang spoke slowly in response to Luo Xiao’s question.

Back when they were developing games, they would sometimes outsource special effects or modeling work. So he had a pretty clear sense of the capabilities of various production teams.

“We’ve got the budget. Around 60 million or so,” Luo Xiao replied quickly.

President Chen had invested a total of 80 million. Out of that, about 16 million had already been spent on actor salaries, filming-related expenses, and various other living costs.

Honestly, they could have saved more. After all, there was no need to pay high fees to amateur actors with no experience.

His original plan was to offer 200,000 yuan per lead actor. For complete newcomers, that was already quite generous.

When they were casting at the Shanghai Drama Academy, some students even said they’d be willing to act without any pay at all.

But President Chen felt that 200,000 was too low. He raised the lead actors’ pay to 500,000. Important supporting roles were given 300,000, and even actors like Wang Qiang, who didn’t have many scenes, received 100,000.

That’s what led to the actor salaries going several million over the initial budget.

Of course, the spending didn’t stop at actor fees. President Chen even classified the crew’s work as business travel.

So every crew member received a 500 yuan per diem, every single day.

At first, Luo Xiao thought President Chen was being a bit extravagant. But during filming, when he saw how dedicated the actors were and how hard the crew worked, he gradually came to understand what President Chen was aiming for.