Chapter 549

The movie "Hello Mr. Billionaire" was originally planned to be released during the May Day holiday in 2015.

So after the film wrapped, directors Yan Fei and Peng Damo have been working at a leisurely pace, as they say, "slow work yields fine results."

This is the flagship production of Happy MaXia, and striving for perfection is not excessive.

Unexpectedly, they suddenly received a call from boss Zhang Chen saying that Jiang Heng planned to move the film's release up to the 2015 Spring Festival slot, which truly frightened them.

"Mr. Zhang, you're not joking, are you? Putting our film up against 'The Three-Body Problem 2' in the Spring Festival lineup—how did you come up with that?" Yan Fei asked, bewildered.

Peng Damo grabbed the phone and loudly said, "Time-wise, we won't make it, will we?"

On the other end of the line, Zhang Chen's mood stabilized considerably.

Because when he first received this notice, he was also completely bewildered.

However, most of the film's investment came from iQiyi Pictures, and its promotion was also handled by them; they had signed a contract in black and white, and he truly never imagined this could happen! Fortunately, Jiang Heng patiently explained that the Spring Festival slot is the best period of the year, making it easier to achieve high box office returns.

"Hello Mr. Billionaire" is a comedy film, very suitable for the family-friendly atmosphere of the Spring Festival slot.

As for the concern about releasing simultaneously with "The Three-Body Problem 2," Jiang Heng said it's not a problem.

Last year's "The Monkey King 3" still earned 1.13 billion RMB despite going head-to-head with "The Heroic Legion," showing that the current Spring Festival slot can easily accommodate two box-office hits.

Lastly, for the 2015 Spring Festival slot, the strongest new star in Chinese entertainment, "Zhang Ruoxu" versus "Zhang Ruoxu"—isn't that enough of a gimmick?

Hearing this, Zhang Chen felt excited, because he loves gimmick-driven marketing.

This is evident from Happy MaXia's later series of pun-filled low-quality films; they really know how to play with gimmicks.

Therefore, regarding moving "Hello Mr. Billionaire" to the 2015 Spring Festival slot, Jiang Heng didn't need to argue much, and Mr. Zhang agreed.

Then he brought up a key issue: the film's post-production.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Heng laughed and said, "Mr. Zhang, it's only early December now, and the New Year is in late February—two months' time, enough to even shoot another film!"

Zhang Chen's expression turned sheepish upon hearing this; he was also a first-time film producer, lacking any shortcut experience, and actually worried that two-plus months wouldn't be enough for post-production.

He hurriedly added, "Indeed, back in Hong Kong, films used to be shot and released in just one or two months!"

Jiang Heng then said, "If you trust me, I can help with the editing!"

"Ah, that couldn't be better!" Zhang Chen exclaimed happily upon hearing that.

Although Jiang Heng has dominated the Chinese film industry for years, relying mainly on effects-heavy blockbusters and never having directed a comedy, he's still more experienced than the rookie directors Yan Fei and Peng Damo, right?

At this moment, Zhang Chen is somewhat inclined to trust authority, so after agreeing on a schedule with Jiang Heng, he then notified the two directors.

And these two were very pleased to hear that Jiang Heng would help with editing and post-production.

To put it this way, at this moment Happy MaXia is still a small, obscure player in the film market; from the boss and directors down to the actors, nobody has much confidence in whether it will succeed.

In terms of capability, they are not particularly strong either.

The most typical example is the sketch "To Help or Not to Help" by Shen Teng and Ma Li; Happy MaXia's original idea was to have someone act like Spider-Man saving people.

Instructor Zhao Benshan directly said that segment wouldn't work, so they removed it and had Hao Jian lie down to deliver the old lady's lines.

Zhao Benshan's remark was, "If you do that down there, it'll blow up, getting more and more explosive!" This proves the "King of Skits"'s ability is beyond doubt, and Shen Teng et al. indeed lack a bit. Therefore, regarding Jiang Heng coming over to help with editing and post-production, Yan Fei and Peng Damo wholeheartedly approve!

That day, Jiang Heng drove, bringing Zhang Ruoxu along to the China Film Digital Base, the post-production site of "Hello Mr. Billionaire."

Happy MaXia's boss Zhang Chen, along with several company executives—including Shen Teng—and the main creators, as well as Yan Fei and Peng Damo who were already there, came out to greet them.

"Thank you, Director Jiang, for honoring us with your presence and guiding our post-production; I believe the film's quality will undergo a leap under your hand!"

Zhang Chen smiled respectfully, at the same time glancing at Zhang Ruoxu and greeting her.

He silently thought, "This young lady looks like she has a fortunate face; Director Jiang, are you really going to marry her in the end? I'd better not offend her!"

The others present, when looking at Zhang Ruoxu, couldn't help but think, "She's the female lead of both Spring Festival films, the 2015 strongest new star truly deserves the title!" They exchanged a few pleasantries of mutual praise, first went to the reception room for small talk, chatted a while, then proceeded to the post-production suite.

Yan Fei pointed out all the filmed video material and the already-edited portions to Jiang Heng, who replied, "Alright, if there's nothing else, you can go back; I'll take care of this."

Upon hearing that, Zhang Chen had most of the idle staff leave, while he brought Yan Fei and Peng Damo to the side to watch Jiang Heng work.

Looking at this, they were dumbfounded—Jiang Heng's efficiency was more than double that of Yan Fei and Peng Damo, the clacking of his keyboard left Zhang Chen and the others staring at each other, hearts pounding.

Upon checking each version, there wasn't a single mistake!

After a while, Peng Damo gave Zhang Chen a glance, which he immediately understood, and they went out together.

"Mr. Zhang, do film editors in the industry usually work this fast?"

Zhang Chen had no experience in this area, so he didn't know.

"I doubt it!"

"Won't Director Jiang's approach cause any problems?"

"What kind of problems?" Zhang Chen countered.

"He's doing this to create the 'strongest new star' gimmick, to add glory to Zhang Ruoxu; whether the film is good or bad, profitable or not, it doesn't affect them. But for us, it's different—this is our company's first film!"

Hearing this, Zhang Chen felt a chill, paced a couple of steps, then suddenly said, "I actually think it's not a big deal. He's credited as producer, during filming he already did the director's job, and now he's taken over editing rights—this shows Jiang Heng still values this film greatly. In a sense, this movie can be considered his work. Jiang Heng has always cherished his reputation; he wouldn't ruin his own brand, so there won't be any issues."

Peng Damo, upon hearing that, felt it made some sense and stopped saying anything.

Jiang Heng's efficiency remained high; he came in the morning, had a simple lunch at noon, and by afternoon everything was settled.

Zhang Chen, Yan Fei, Peng Damo, Shen Teng, and others were all shocked beyond words.

Since the film has been edited, let's check out the effect!

The China Film Digital Base has many internal screening rooms; they just picked one at random for playback.

During the screening, even though the audience consisted only of the main creators, they were still unable to stop laughing at the performance on the big screen.

There are still many internal screening rooms at the China Film Digital Base; I just picked one at random to play the film.

Even though the theater was full of the main creators, I still couldn't help laughing at the performance on the big screen.

Especially Shen Teng laughed and said to Wei Xiang beside him, "My acting seems a bit deserving of a beating; you say after this film airs, I can't get beaten, right? You gotta protect me!" (End of chapter)