I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 435: Media: Breaking News! Nobody Watches the Oscars Anymore!
In order to witness those old men blowing a fuse in real time, the release date for Prelude had been pushed forward by two whole months.
That meant Shinji no longer had the luxury of leisurely polishing up the post-production work for Prelude. He had to throw himself into the schedule with everything he had just to keep things on track.
The brutal workload devoured most of his rest time, but if everything paid off on the night of February 24th, Shinji considered the sacrifice worth it.
And so, amidst the chaos of nonstop post-production, time quickly arrived at February 24th, 2008—
The day of the 80th Academy Awards.
It's also the release date of FGO: Prelude.
. . .
On February 24th, the Oscars—the most prestigious film awards ceremony in North America—began on schedule at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles.
Unlike previous years, however, this year's Oscars were being broadcast live across Europe, with numerous European television stations and filmmakers openly supporting the event.
As mentioned long ago, the North American film industry in this world possessed an almost worshipful admiration toward Europe. The mere fact that Europe's "big shots" were willing to grace them with attention made the old men in Hollywood so ecstatic they nearly suffered heart attacks on the spot.
It was like a hopeless simp finally receiving a "Good morning" text from the goddess he had chased for years.
Naturally, he'd be overwhelmed with joy.
Never mind that the "goddess" was long past her prime, rotten to the core beneath the surface, and already irrelevant in social circles. The simp didn't know—or care—about any of that. If she acknowledged him at all, it was the greatest honor imaginable.
And so, powered by that unrivaled simp mentality, the Oscars practically bent over backwards to satisfy Europe's demands this year.
In order for European audiences to watch the ceremony during prime-time evening hours, the Academy had even moved the awards ceremony to noon in Los Angeles just to match the time difference.
Because of that, countless reporters had been forced to arrive at the theater entrance at the crack of dawn, all to secure the best positions for photographing celebrities on the red carpet.
"Move it—excuse me!"
Lisa Litt, an entertainment reporter from the Los Angeles Times, was currently trapped inside the overcrowded media zone beside the red carpet, desperately shoving her way toward the front in hopes of getting valuable shots.
"Damn it."
After finally squeezing her way to the frontline, Lisa cursed in a decidedly unladylike manner.
"I think someone just grabbed my ass. If I catch that bastard, he's dead."
"Well, well. Lisa, you're here too."
Hearing a familiar voice below her, Lisa looked down and spotted a man in a plaid overcoat crouching beneath her with a camera in his arms.
"Kunitz? You came too?"
She knew him—a reporter from the entertainment section of the Boston Globe.
"Of course. Whenever there's miserable field work like this, the editors always dump it on me." While adjusting his camera, Kunitz grumbled bitterly.
"Miserable work? Sure, covering events like this is exhausting, but you get photos of celebrities on the red carpet and firsthand interviews with actors and filmmakers. How is that miserable?"
Kunitz rolled his eyes. "Instead of getting crushed in a crowd with a bunch of reporters, I'd rather stay in my room watching movies."
"Movies? Ah—that's right, today's the release date for FGO: Prelude."
Lisa had completely forgotten about it.
Still, she quickly pulled herself together. Missing a movie was unfortunate, but work that paid the bills came first.
Unfortunately, Kunitz's next sentence instantly destroyed her mood again.
"Even if we're photographing celebrities, do readers actually care about the stars attending this ceremony?" he said flatly. "What they really want to see are the stars from the Type-Moon franchise, not these third-rate nobodies whose names they barely recognize."
"…None of them came this year, huh?" Lisa's tone became noticeably more dejected.
The stars affiliated with Type-Moon—or more accurately, actors closely tied to Times Group—had always treated the Oscars casually. Whether they attended or not usually depended entirely on their mood.
Well, Heroic Spirit actors physically couldn't attend anyway.
But in previous years, at least a few of them would show up.
This year, however, not a single one had appeared.
That was abnormal.
"Maybe it's because of work obligations from Times Group?" Lisa guessed.
Their company's biggest movie was launching today, after all. It wouldn't be strange if the actors had been tied up with promotional events elsewhere.
"Oh, I think they're also deliberately going head-to-head with the Oscars," Kunitz said with a sly grin.
"You know what Type-Moon did? They scheduled the online release unlock for the exact moment the ceremony starts. There's no way that's a coincidence."
He pointed toward the fan viewing area dozens of meters away.
"See that? That's all the movie fans who showed up this year."
The fan area at the venue was completely filled, but compared to previous years, the crowd really had shrunk dramatically. At the very least, the density of people there was nowhere near as terrifying as the media section they were currently trapped in.
"If the organizers didn't force us to stay here for interviews, I'd absolutely go over there instead," Kunitz sneered. "Just goes to show that the Oscars are already washed up."
"That's probably exaggerating a little." Lisa offered a fair rebuttal.
She knew very well that among North American moviegoers over thirty-five, the Oscars still carried enormous prestige.
The problem was that those people weren't young anymore.
They lacked both the stamina and enthusiasm to physically attend events like this. Most of them preferred staying curled up on their couches at home while watching the live broadcast.
The people willing to come to the venue in person were mostly younger fans.
And younger audiences were far more interested in chasing stars with massive popularity and internet buzz.
In other words, the beautiful men and women of the Type-Moon franchise.
So Lisa could more or less guess why attendance this year had dropped so much.
Everyone was staying home waiting for the movie.
"Alright, I've decided," Kunitz declared while raising his adjusted camera toward the fan area. "This year's article headline is going to be: Breaking News! The Washed-Up Oscars: An Award Ceremony Nobody Watches!"
"If you really publish that, don't come crying to me after your boss fires you," Lisa sighed helplessly.
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"This is ABC reporting live from the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles. The 80th Academy Awards are about to begin. Who will become tonight's biggest winner?"
The moment the television host finished speaking, Aoko—lounging on the sofa—let out a huge yawn.
"Seriously, weren't we gathering here to watch FGO: Prelude? Why are we watching a livestream of the Oscars? This American movie award has absolutely nothing to do with Type-Moon."
"We finally managed to get access to a North American TV channel, so of course we should watch their film awards ceremony," Alice replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "North America is Type-Moon movies' biggest market, after all."
"Then that's even more reason not to watch the Oscars."
Unlike Alice—whose knowledge of the entertainment industry began and ended with Shinji and Type-Moon—Fujita followed celebrity gossip quite closely.
"The Oscars have always focused on art films. They think Shinji Matou's commercial movies are an insult to cinematic art itself. Even now, the Academy can't be bothered to give him nomination slots."
"…Why didn't you say that sooner?"
Alice immediately smacked Fujita lightly on the head.
"Hurry up and change the channel. I'd rather rewatch Prelude trailers and interviews than sit through this."
Besides the streaming release, Type-Moon had also arranged for several television stations to broadcast Prelude simultaneously with the online launch.
But television worked differently from streaming platforms.
With streaming, viewers simply clicked in once the timer hit zero.
TV stations, however, couldn't exactly leave viewers staring at a black screen while waiting. So before the movie officially began, they filled the airtime with Prelude-related content—trailers, cast interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and similar material.
Alice had already seen all of it before, which was why she'd originally wanted to check whether the Oscars might mention Shinji's new movie or leak some fresh information.
But now that they knew the Academy openly disliked Shinji, there was obviously no chance they'd talk about Type-Moon.
Which meant there was no reason to contribute to the Oscars' ratings.
Only a few minutes remained before the official broadcast.
On TV, the station was airing the final trailer for Prelude one last time.
"This movie doesn't seem to have many new characters," Fujita commented while staring at Cu Chulainn and Archer on the screen. "It's basically all the same old faces again. Has Type-Moon finally run out of ideas?"
Alice instantly jumped to defend her idol.
"Sir Matou explained this already! The returning characters are there to introduce the new ones. Since FGO is going to have multiple films, starting with familiar faces helps audiences ease into the story."
"Multiple films?" Fujita looked skeptical. "Does that dump called Fuyuki City seriously have that much stuff worth talking about?"
"It's a brand-new story using Fate as the core theme. Fuyuki City only appears in this first movie. Seriously, Fujita! Wasn't all of this written in the movie synopsis? Don't tell me you didn't do your homework beforehand?!"
Hearing a trace of anger creep into Alice's tone, Fujita hurriedly raised both hands in surrender.
"No, no, I read it! Of course I did! But Shinji Matou pulling fake-outs in his previews isn't exactly new…"
"Sir Matou may deliberately mislead audiences during the promotional period to prevent people from predicting the plot," Alice declared firmly, "but he would never lie about something as important as the series structure!"
"Y-Yes ma'am…"
Alice's stern expression instantly reminded Fujita of his old school disciplinary dean.
He didn't dare talk back at all.
"A whole new series, huh…" Aoko muttered while staring at the television. "Considering Shinji already managed to make three separate versions of FSN, I'm betting this is going to turn into another massive rabbit hole. Just wait and see."
At that moment, the Type-Moon company logo appeared on the screen.
Aoko immediately shut up and focused on the television.
Soon, the logo itself was swallowed by a raging snowstorm, while a narrator's calm voice echoed out.
"Welcome to the archive that records humanity's future."
On screen, a massive circular structure filled with futuristic technology stood amidst endless snow-covered mountain peaks.
"This is the Organization for the Preservation of Human Order—Chaldea."
FGO: Prelude has begun.
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