Bai Lu got scammed, but I became a superstar through e-commerce.

Three days later, Chen Yu placed the location scouting plan and budget on Qing Xiao's desk.

The plan is very detailed.

One page contains a location list, another a shooting schedule, and the last page is a budget breakdown.

Qingxiao picked it up and turned the pages one by one.

Filming locations were chosen near the Hangzhou Xiasha University Town, including the snack street at the school gate, the budget hotels along the road, the riverside walkway, and several interior scenes.

Milk tea shop and hotel room.

Chen Yu labeled the rental fee and shooting time next to each photo. Some scenes required payment, while others could be negotiated for free shooting.

The last page is the budget sheet.

Chen Yu listed the expenses in great detail: photography equipment rental fees, lighting equipment fees, venue rental fees, post-production editing and color grading fees, recording fees, makeup and styling fees, and miscellaneous expenses such as boxed lunches and transportation.

Each item is followed by a number, which adds up to a total of 75,000 yuan.

In 2014, for a professional team to shoot a 20-minute short film, equipment costs typically accounted for about one-third of the total budget.

The majority of the expenses are paid to the actors and staff.

Each stage of post-production, including editing, color grading, and sound, can consume a significant portion of the budget.

But that was a quote from a professional team.

Chen Yu is one of our own, so screenwriter Qing Xiao's involvement is practically a no-brainer.

The core members of the production crew were friends he brought in, at a discounted price.

The female lead is Bai Lu, an exclusive model from her own company, who doesn't receive any payment.

He served as both director and director of photography, which means that anything above 75,000 would be calculated separately.

Seventy-five thousand is already a price that's been squeezed to the bone.

Qingxiao read through the budget sheet from beginning to end, then picked up a pen and signed his name next to the final total.

Bai Lu, who had been silent the whole time, was stunned when he saw that number.

"How many?"

She leaned closer, her eyes fixed on the numbers on the budget sheet, and raised her voice.

"Seventy-five thousand? Seventy-five thousand for a twenty-minute short film?"

She turned to look at Qingxiao, then at Chen Yu, her mouth agape.

In 2014, the average monthly salary in Hangzhou was only four or five thousand yuan.

Seventy-five thousand is a sum that an average person would need to save for a year and a half without eating or drinking.

She recalled the days of shooting at the Sijiqing shopping mall, where each item cost twenty yuan, and sixty-three items cost 1,260 yuan. She spent from morning till night taking pictures, her armpits were scratched with red marks from the tags, her shoulders were so stiff she couldn't lift them, and her whole body was covered in red from an allergic reaction.

It took her and Qingxiao a whole month to pay off the 50,000 yuan debt.

It now costs 75,000 yuan to shoot a 20-minute short film, not including the director's fee.

"Just for shooting a short film? Twenty minutes? Seventy-five thousand?"

Bai Lu's voice even seemed to float away.

Qingxiao didn't look up, tapping the budget sheet with his pen: "This is already cutting corners. Bai Lu's salary isn't even included. The core members of the entire crew are all friends helping out, so it's a friendly price. If it were made at the normal market price, the production cost of a micro-film of this scale would start at least tens of thousands. The post-production investment for art films is a bottomless pit; going even higher, 50 or even more is normal."

Qingxiao put the pen on the table: "Including labor costs, it's about 100,000 yuan. I'll invest this money."

He said this in the exact same tone as he would normally say "add 500 to the express lane budget".

Bai Lu stared at him, waiting for him to say "but," but there was no "but."

He really intends to invest 100,000 yuan to make a 20-minute short film.

"Yes, Mr. Qing."

Chen Yu put the budget sheet into his file folder and stood up.

"I'll go back to confirm the filming locations tomorrow. Ms. Bai is ready to let me know as soon as the actors are ready."

Then he took the file bag and left, his figure disappearing down the corridor and at the top of the stairs.

Only two people remained in the sample room.

Bai Lu leaned against the window, holding the script in his arms, his thoughts a jumble of emotions.

Qingxiao sat at his desk, folded up a copy of the budget sheet, and put it in the drawer.

"Qingxiao".

"Um."

Bai Lu didn't look at him; she stared out the window, her voice soft: "I'm twenty years old. I've never studied acting. I haven't even had a proper dialogue class. Aren't you afraid to place such a huge bet on me?"

Her voice changed as she spoke.

Bai Lu thought that she would be overjoyed, happy, and even jump for joy when she had her first work since her debut.

However, the thought of the huge investment of 100,000 yuan that Qingxiao would make her unable to be happy at all made her feel anything but happy.

"Qingxiao, after this movie is finished, will we be able to make our money back? You invested because we can make it back, right?"

"It can't be earned back."

"What?"

"I can't earn it back." Qingxiao leaned back in his chair.

"The monetization methods for micro-films are either brand placement or platform revenue sharing. Brand placement requires connections; no brand will cast an ordinary person as the female lead. For platform revenue sharing, you have to negotiate with platforms like Youku and iQiyi, but without traffic, celebrities, or connections, the platforms won't even bother with you."

Bai Lu stared at him.

"Even if the platform takes the cut, do you know what the revenue share will be? A few dollars for 1000 valid views. For a micro-film with a production cost of 100,000 yuan, you need hundreds of millions of valid views to recoup the cost through revenue sharing. Do you know what tens of millions of views means? In 2014, in the entire micro-film industry, films with tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of views either had big stars or were customized by brands that invested in promotional resources. We have neither now."

"That……"

Bai Lu hesitated for a moment before asking, "So, how much do we expect to lose?"

"We'll probably lose eighty or ninety thousand."

"What? We lost that much?"

"Yes, after the short film is uploaded, the promotion will cost at least 10,000 to 20,000 yuan, and then we can recoup 30,000 to 40,000 yuan."

Bai Lu's lips moved, but he didn't say anything.

She wasn't unaware that she might lose money; she thought the worst outcome would be to earn less or break even.

As a result, Qingxiao told her that there was a high probability that she would not get a single penny back after investing this money.

"Oh my god, we've lost eighty or ninety thousand." She picked up the budget sheet, flipped to the last page, and pointed at the total amount. "What are you trying to achieve?"

Qingxiao looked at her, his tone suddenly becoming very serious: "Otherwise what?"

"What do you mean, 'otherwise'?"

"You want to debut as a star, but you don't have formal training, and you don't know anyone in the entertainment industry. You don't have any outstanding works, no award-winning resume, no connections from a professional background, and the entire company, including myself, has a completely blank network in the film and television industry."

"So now you only have two paths: either go to Cat Tree and shoot a few short films to build up your resume, or we'll shoot them ourselves. After that, you'll have something to show for it, exposure, and a stepping stone. Then you can go and work with talent agencies, and later get gigs and film and television projects. Everything will go smoothly."

Bai Lu bit her lip and remained silent.

She wasn't unaware of the logic, but the figure of 850,000 to 950,000 yuan in losses was too large.

We finally made it through, only to be in debt again, losing everything overnight?

"No, I refuse." Bai Lu finally made up her mind.

Qingxiao was stunned: "What did you say?"

"I said, I refuse to film this short film. I want to work hard on my own. I don't need you to throw money at me. I want to sign with a studio, film short films, and become an actor myself."

Bai Lu tried her best to make her tone sound firm, but in reality, she was feeling uneasy.

In reality, she didn't want to spend so much of Qingxiao's money at all.

Others may not know, but Bai Lu understands it all too well.

Before Qingxiao, the process involved selecting patterns for each garment, taking photos, listing them, promoting them, sourcing the goods from the market, ironing them, and packaging them to earn a net profit of twenty or thirty yuan per garment.

Eighty thousand yuan, that means more than three thousand pieces of clothing were sold for nothing.

Six months ago, Qingxiao couldn't even sell three thousand pieces of clothing a year.