I'm Not A Master, I'm A Director (Creating Fate Movie In Nasuverse)

After casually brushing off Amakusa's enthusiastic flattery, Jeanne subtly ushered him away.

It was a rare opportunity for her to enjoy some leisure time at a roadside café, and she wasn't about to let a bunch of annoying men disturb her again and again.

'This is so relaxing and comfortable,' Jeanne thought to herself while indulging in her cake, letting her mind wander.

It wasn't until she noticed Shinji and Mordred whispering to each other while quickly entering a traditional Japanese clothing store across the street that she realized something was up.

"Those two... at it again, huh..." Jeanne sighed and rubbed her forehead helplessly.

To outsiders unfamiliar with the film crew, they might easily assume that the genius director Shinji Matou and the rookie actress Mordred were involved in some scandal—like a secret romance or something.

However, as an insider, Jeanne knew the truth all too well.

"Master is definitely up to no good again, giving Mordred another one of his awful ideas."

Mordred was desperate to improve her relationship with her "father," Arturia. Shinji, exploiting this desire, would always pretend to offer his "help."

Driven by his love for stirring up drama, Shinji would eagerly provide advice to Mordred—though they were always terrible suggestions.

Well, to be fair, they weren't completely terrible. Some of Shinji's ideas did have some merit. After all, Jeanne knew that the King of Knights, who shared her face, had now fully realized just how obsessed her "child" was with her.

"But still... Mordred has ended up looking like a complete weirdo. Master, what are you even trying to achieve— Wait, could this all be part of your grand scheme?"

As Jeanne watched Mordred excitedly walk out of the store clutching a shopping bag, Shinji followed behind her with a sly, scheming grin.

Suddenly, Jeanne had an epiphany—she might have just uncovered the truth.

"Forget it. This is British family drama, none of my business."

Closing her eyes, she chose to ignore what was happening in front of her.

With that, Jeanne's pleasant afternoon tea at the roadside café came to an end.

<+>

Meanwhile, on the Fate/Apocrypha film set, outdoor shooting was becoming increasingly hectic.

A few days later, the fictional Romanian town of Trifas, which served as an exterior filming location, had been fully constructed. The crew was now ready to start filming the scenes set within the town.

Skipping on-location shooting in Western Europe and opting for a constructed set had its own advantages, after all.

At the very least, designing the town of Trifas allowed Shinji to unleash his creativity without worrying about the constraints of filming in a real city, which could lead to continuity errors or unwanted elements in the background.

Typically, when a film crew constructs an outdoor set like this, it's mostly made of wood, plastic, and reinforced cardboard.

For example, the classic cowboy duel streets in Hollywood Westerns—lined with wooden buildings on both sides—are often nothing more than facades made of cardboard and planks.

From another perspective, those "buildings" aren't really buildings at all; they're just large boards propped up by supporting frames.

However, Fate/Apocrypha's Trifas set was a different story. As Arturia had observed during her previous visit, the city felt far more authentic.

Unlike typical prop structures, these buildings were fully walkable inside, and most of the rooms within them actually existed—albeit with repetitive "cloned" interior designs.

Shinji's goal in constructing the town this way was, of course, to enhance realism.

Unlike Westerns, where shootouts typically take place in the streets with bystanders watching from a distance, Fate/Apocrypha featured many fight scenes that involved characters crashing through buildings.

To maintain authenticity and ensure smoother action sequences, Shinji decided to recreate parts of the town as realistically as possible.

To address the potential need for repairs after destructive action sequences, Shinji enlisted the help of his two architectural specialists—Mr. A and Young Emiya.

"Who the hell are Mr. A and Young Emiya?! Shinji, are you kidding me?!"

EMIYA slammed a set of blueprints onto the table.

Shinji laughed and waved him off, "Oh, come on, those are just your showbiz names! Nobody in entertainment uses their real names these days."

Archer pulled out Kanshou and Bakuya, pressing them against Shinji's neck. "Cut the crap. If you don't start talking sense, I'll slice your throat."

"Got it, got it! Chill, Archer-san!" Shinji sheepishly raised his hands in surrender.

"Tch."

With a displeased grunt, EMIYA slowly retracted his weapons.

"Anyway, the kid and I built this 'city' exactly to your specifications and even conducted structural analyses. If you're not satisfied with the damage in any particular scene, we can use projection magecraft to restore it and have the Servants wreck it again," Archer explained.

"As for the scenery, I don't foresee any issues. But when it comes to the extras..."

At this point, EMIYA shrugged helplessly.

Since production began on the FSN movie, Shinji had been using local residents from Fuyuki City as extras.

For FSN and FZ, this worked fine because the stories were set in Japan, so having Japanese extras made perfect sense.

However, Fate/Apocrypha was set in a fictional Romanian town in Western Europe.

There was no way they could use Fuyuki City locals as extras—

A quaint European town filled with Japanese townsfolk? Just imagining it was ridiculous!

Japan did have a pool of foreign extras, but most were based in Tokyo, and they might not be willing to travel all the way to Fuyuki for Fate/Apocrypha.

After all, these extras wouldn't even have speaking lines—heck, most of them wouldn't even get proper face shots.

Since Shinji wasn't offering much in the way of payment for such minor roles, it was unlikely anyone would be willing to travel from Tokyo just to appear in a few background scenes.

Even if they appeared in multiple scenes over the entire shoot, it hardly justified the travel expenses.

For Fuyuki locals, picking up some extra cash on the side was a good deal. But expecting Tokyo-based extras to repeatedly travel back and forth for such minimal work?

Even Shinji himself felt too embarrassed to head to Tokyo and recruit background actors.

As for hiring actors from overseas, that was out of the question—the costs would be even higher than bringing them from Tokyo.

The best solution would be for Shinji to recruit a group of foreign extras in Tokyo and have them temporarily stay in Fuyuki City until filming was complete, then send them back afterward.

However, this meant Shinji would have to cover their food and lodging, which would add a significant expense to the production.

Of course, such costs were considered normal production expenses and could easily be written into the budget.

But both Shinji and EMIYA, with their natural thriftiness, felt that it wasn't worth the money.

Why spend it when they could avoid it?

Hiring extras with speaking roles was easy—worst case scenario, Yan Qing could take on multiple roles with some effort.

But filling the scenes with background actors was another challenge.

Too few extras would make the town in the film feel lifeless and fake; too many would skyrocket the labor costs and strain the budget.

"If we use CGI to duplicate extras... it would look fake, and the costs would still be an issue."

Shinji rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

EMIYA suddenly suggested, "Why not ask those guests from England for help?"

The "guests from England" referred to the Clock Tower magi who had followed Reines to Japan for refuge.

Since most of them were foreigners, they could easily serve as background extras.

"That could work for now," Shinji said hesitantly. "But if Waver sorts things out and they head back to England before filming is done, what then?"

EMIYA smirked. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Who knows, they might end up staying here for years—the old geezers at the Clock Tower aren't that easy to deal with."

Shinji scoffed, "Oh, like you know those geezers personally."

EMIYA raised an eyebrow. "I do, actually."

"Damn, I totally forgot."

Shinji slapped his forehead, remembering Archer's past experiences.

"Alright then, let's have them participate for now. We'll try to film all the crowd scenes as soon as possible—problem solved."

Shinji jotted down notes in his planner.

"Alright, Mr. Archer," Shinji closed his notebook. "Go round up the main cast. I need to brief them on the next filming schedule."

"Got it, Shinji."

EMIYA took a few steps before pausing and turning back. "By the way, Mordred seems really down lately. Did you bully her?"

"Of course not. She just gave Arturia a gift that didn't exactly make her happy."

Although EMIYA hadn't witnessed the scene firsthand like Jeanne, he immediately guessed who had been giving Mordred bad advice.

"Shinji, leave Mordred alone. Stop milking the same sheep."

"I'm not! I just suggested she buy Arturia a traditional Japanese outfit. How was I supposed to know she'd get a kimono instead of a miko outfit?"

"So Mordred, wanting to avoid fulfilling your weird fantasies, stubbornly chose a regular kimono. And you didn't bother telling her that gifting a kimono in Japan can imply a marriage proposal, did you? And since Saber reads a lot of shoujo manga, she's naturally familiar with the custom."

Detective EMIYA pieced everything together flawlessly.

Though gifting a kimono as a proposal traditionally meant a man giving it to a woman, given the complicated "father-son" relationship between Arturia and Mordred…

Well, things were bound to get awkward.

"Shinji, be a decent human being."

Imagining Arturia's internal explosion, EMIYA sighed deeply.

Shinji slammed the table and defended himself, "I just wanted to see Arturia in a miko outfit—what's wrong with that?!"

Before leaving, EMIYA silently adjusted his rectangular glasses with his middle finger.

Moments after he left, there was a knock on Shinji's office door.

"Archer? Did you forget something?"

Expecting EMIYA to have returned, Shinji was surprised when it was Cloris stepping in instead.

"Lissy?"

"Shinji, I need to discuss something with you."

Hearing Cloris's serious tone, Shinji realized it was official business.

"It's about the North American release of Super 8..."

Shinji narrowed his eyes and interrupted, "What, is the MPAA giving us trouble?"

"It hasn't even reached the rating stage yet," Cloris corrected. "It's actually an internal suggestion from the group."

"What suggestion?"

"They're suggesting that the scenes involving human characters in Super 8 be reshot with Western actors, to better appeal to the North American market."

Hearing this, Shinji's hand trembled slightly.

"Damn it, these Americans think live-action reshoots are some kind of tradition for Japanese productions now?!"

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