I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director
Chapter 475: Suckers Like Them Are Hard to Find
"Besides Mozart, the other Heroic Spirit whose real identity has officially been revealed is Sanson."
After a round of complaints and jokes, Alice finally paused the screen on the image of the short-haired man.
"Sir Matou has set the story during the Hundred Years' War, but many of the Heroic Spirits appearing in it are figures from the time of the French Revolution."
Fujita folded her arms.
"The Hundred Years' War and the French Revolution... only a franchise like Fate could seamlessly bring together characters from completely different eras."
"It looks like he's planning to combine the two most famous periods in French history into a single story," Alice said admiringly. "As expected of Sir Matou. One movie, and he's covering all of French history."
Aoko muttered under her breath, "If you put it that way, the French are going to cry. Their history isn't that short."
Alice snorted.
"Who cares about those Gauls? I'm British!"
Aoko slapped her forehead.
"Damn... I completely forgot about that."
Alice then began imagining what the movie's plot might be. In her eyes, despite being a story set in France, the only two native French male Heroic Spirits were a lunatic and an executioner.
Just from the casting choices alone, Alice could already tell what Shinji Matou thought of France.
To sum it up in one sentence:
He was a true comrade of the British people.
"I suppose that's only natural. Mr. Matou studied at the Clock Tower, after all. There's no way he'd write anything flattering about France."
Not only magi fans like Alice, but Fate fans all over the world were busy speculating about how the Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons would unfold.
However, not every fan had unconditional faith in Shinji. His choice of characters left some of them feeling uneasy.
[Tokiomi, Your Sins Know No Bounds]:
"Marie Antoinette, Sanson, Mozart... This is supposed to be about the Hundred Years' War, so why are there so many figures from the French Revolution?"
After Type-Moon officially revealed the character information, the user [Tokiomi, Your Sins Know No Bounds] posted the complaint in the group chat.
"I just hope Shinji Matou doesn't take the story completely off the rails. I'm honestly a little worried."
The comment immediately received support from [Kotomine Takako of the Matou Family].
"Exactly! It's like setting a story during the Three Kingdoms period, only to spend the whole time telling the tragic love story of Yue Fei and Jin Wuzhu!
[Bro, this isn't the right flavor.jpg]"
"Agreed!"
"+1."
...
Compared to the lively discussions among the hardcore Fate fans, the trailer's reception outside the fandom wasn't especially explosive.
The trailer's view count was respectable, but at the end of the day, it was still only a trailer. It wasn't enough to make a massive impact on the general audience.
For moviegoers who weren't Fate fans, it merely meant one more title added to their year-end watchlist.
Shinji wasn't worried by this at all. He had complete confidence in his film.
After all, the Fate franchise had already proven its commercial strength in this world. As long as he didn't repeat Marvel's Phase Five mistake—prioritizing gimmicks over storytelling and causing the quality of the plots to nosedive—Shinji believed that Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons would undoubtedly be a commercial success.
As for whether it could surpass his own previous box office records, that was another matter.
The story of Fate/Grand Order didn't truly become exceptional until the latter half of Part 1. Even if Shinji compensated with spectacular large-scale set pieces wherever possible, he couldn't change the fact that the screenplay for Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons was, at best, merely passable.
That said, the film wasn't without its advantages.
It had been a long time since a Fate movie had appeared on the big screen.
Although Prologue, released earlier in the year, had been well received, it never made it into theaters.
To the fans, Prologue was like a melon forced off the vine—it quenched your thirst, but it just wasn't sweet.
For other filmmakers, however, Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons was suffering from the kind of problem everyone wished they had: a luxurious burden born from high expectations.
While other filmmakers worried about whether their movies could fill their stomachs (just break even), Shinji Matou was only worried about whether his could eat its fill (break his own box office records).
Damn it! Is Shinji Matou even human?!
(╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
Heavens, please strike this monster down with a bolt of lightning!
Unfortunately, Miss Tanaka—who represented "the heavens"—wasn't like the song "M87", where "if that's what you truly wish for, you'll receive a powerful response."
Shinji Matou continued working safely and peacefully on the post-production of Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons in Fuyuki City.
"Sigh... Even though magecraft handled most of the visual effects shots, the post-production VFX department still has plenty of work to do."
Watching the computer-generated effects currently being worked on, Shirou couldn't help sighing.
"Without magecraft, a movie like this would be impossible to make, wouldn't it?"
"Of course it wouldn't," Shinji replied casually. "You'd just replace all the magical effects with CGI. It would take a little longer, but it could definitely be done."
The corner of Shirou's eye twitched.
After being involved throughout the entire production, he wasn't some clueless amateur anymore.
If everything were actually converted into CGI, the additional time required would be far more than the "little longer" Shinji was talking about—not to mention the astronomical cost of producing that much CGI.
"If you really made a movie of this scale entirely with CGI, you'd have to have money to burn."
"Emiya Shirou, your lack of imagination is limiting your thinking."
Archer would never pass up an opportunity to mock his younger self.
"A true master of visual-effects filmmaking spares no expense if it means giving the audience the best possible experience. Spending several hundred million dollars on a single movie? That's child's play."
Shinji guessed Archer was talking about James Cameron. It seemed that in Archer's parallel world, the film industry had developed normally.
But Shirou had never heard of Titanic or Avatar. He glanced at Shinji before asking,
"Several hundred million dollars for one movie? Even Shinji isn't that crazy. Could it even make its money back?"
Archer gently shook his head.
"With your limited knowledge, it's difficult for me to explain."
Shirou: "..."
No matter how poor his social skills were, Shirou knew perfectly well that Archer was making fun of him.
"The model-making department sent me a task. I'm going over there to help."
Not wanting to continue talking with this dark-skinned, white-haired delinquent, Shirou made up an excuse and left the studio.
"Hehe~"
Archer quietly hummed a triumphant tune.
Shinji couldn't see the smug grin on Archer's face, but he didn't need to. He could easily imagine how delighted the guy was inside.
"By the way, has the VFX department finished the effects Disney requested?"
Shinji had been so busy with Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons that he hadn't paid much attention to Disney's Armageddon.
The last thing he remembered was Disney asking Type-Moon's VFX department to handle part of the movie's effects work.
Archer nodded.
"They're finished. Though, Shinji, your pricing was pretty ruthless. I don't remember those effects costing nearly that much to make."
"Hehhehe~"
Now it was Shinji's turn to smile.
Was his pricing to Disney ruthless?
Yes... and no.
Because Shinji wasn't charging for the finished visual effects.
He was charging for the underlying effects algorithms.
That might sound confusing, so here's a simple analogy:
Suppose Disney asked Type-Moon to make a ring.
Instead of simply paying a craftsman $200 to forge one ring, Type-Moon charged Disney $2,000 to create the mold first, then used that mold to produce the ring.
The advantage was that Type-Moon could now mass-produce that style of ring afterward and sell each additional one for only $100.
The visual effects Disney requested were the ring.
The so-called effects algorithm was the mold used to make it.
For Type-Moon and Shinji, whenever they needed similar visual effects in future productions, the development cost would be dramatically reduced.
Other film studios would benefit as well.
The next time they outsourced VFX work to Type-Moon, they wouldn't have to pay the exorbitant prices Disney did.
In other words, Disney paid the R&D costs.
Without a doubt, in this deal Disney was the complete sucker.
But Disney had little choice.
The reason was simple: its future movies would probably need similar visual effects. Once it became a repeat customer, the price would be much lower.
To put it another way, if this were really about making rings, Disney could simply hire another master craftsman.
But in the field of movie visual effects, there was currently only one company capable of delivering work of this quality this quickly:
Shinji's Type-Moon.
So Disney not only had to accept the price quoted by Shinji—the smooth-talking swindler—but practically had to thank him afterward.
Shinji had learned this trick from Industrial Light & Magic (ILM).
People often joked that ILM was obsessively perfectionistic with its visual effects. Even for something as simple as a scene filled with drifting smoke, they'd develop an entire particle simulation system specifically for realistic smoke effects.
What those people failed to realize was that once ILM had created that algorithm, producing smoke effects in future projects became vastly cheaper.
Even if ILM didn't use it themselves, they could license or sell it to other VFX studios and comfortably collect royalties.
That was the advantage of mastering core technology.
"You could've delayed finishing the effects for a while, couldn't you?" Archer said. "That way your movie wouldn't have to go head-to-head with Disney's."
"They hired me precisely because they wanted to make the Christmas release window." Shinji shrugged. "If I deliberately dragged my feet, Disney would just find another studio."
Shinji's long-term strategy for Type-Moon's visual effects division was technological monopoly.
He intended to strangle any opportunity for rival VFX studios to rise before they could even get started.
Seeing the fierce expression on Shinji's face, Archer gave a wry smile before adding,
"I think even if you had to go head-to-head with Armageddon, you wouldn't be worried about your movie failing. That's where your real confidence comes from, isn't it?"
"Not at all. I sincerely hope Disney succeeds this time."
Shinji meant every word.
If Type-Moon were the only pillar supporting the film industry, the movie market would inevitably shrink. Other film studios had to remain healthy and continue making movies.
So, as long as it didn't affect the box office performance of Hundred Years' War of Evil Dragons, Shinji genuinely hoped Disney's film would succeed.