Don't Call Me Master, Call Me Director — Chapter 35

Chapter 39: Third Brother, As Expected of You

What Chloe meant by keeping them wasn't just keeping Shinji alone—she wanted his entire team as well.

"Lizzie, not only are you beautiful, you sure have beautiful ideas too."

Shinji shook his head.

In the short term, being acquired by an industry giant like Jidai Group would be a good thing for TYPE-MOON Film Company, giving the company a broader platform.

But in the long run, it would bury enormous hidden dangers for TYPE-MOON Film Company's future.

Acquiring a company depended on the relative strength of both sides. Type-Moon's current scale was nowhere near comparable to Jidai Group's. After the acquisition, Shinji would most likely lose his say in matters.

Don't talk about signing some kind of power agreement. Master Shinji had seen plenty of cases in his previous life where big companies turned their backs on such promises after an acquisition.

If Shinji only wanted to make money, then selling the company and team to Jidai Group wouldn't have been a problem.

But this life, Shinji was a man with dreams. How could he let his venture die halfway through?

"Impossible. Lizzie, don't even think about acquiring the team. If you keep pestering me like this, I'll go negotiate with another company directly."

Chloe didn't mind Shinji's harsh words. Smiling, she said, "Shinji, at least leave some room for our future cooperation, okay? Signing for only one film—wouldn't that mean having Jidai Group build up all the hype for Type-Moon, then letting you reap the rewards yourselves afterward?"

Shinji didn't answer Chloe. He merely rubbed his nose.

Chloe frowned and deliberately put on a troubled expression. "I admit that FSN will be a huge hit, but like you once said, it requires us to invest heavily in promotion."

"So?"

Narrowing her eyes, Chloe smiled. "So, Shinji, you should leave us some room for profit, shouldn't you? Without profit, no commercial company would invest."

Shinji pointed with one hand. "I've already compromised on the revenue split."

"That little money is nowhere near enough. No matter how high a single movie's box office goes, it's still only so much. You need to give Older Sister a little more room to make money."

"Huh?"

Shinji made a baffled sound.

"After all, film distribution costs are quite high."

Chloe began counting them off on her fingers.

"Film advertising and promotion."

"Doesn't your family run television stations?"

Shinji immediately shot back without giving ground.

"The theater chains' cut."

"Wasn't that included in the costs from the start?"

"Ratings and review submission fees."

"You're even haggling over costs that tiny?"

"There are also printing costs for promotional materials, fees for magazine advertorials, film print costs... From promotion to release, the money I have to spend is practically innumerable."

Each time Chloe listed an item, she lightly tapped the table with her hand, as though reminding Shinji how important every expense she mentioned was.

"Lizzie, those are all necessary expenses for normal film distribution. Stop making trouble."

Shinji gritted his teeth, his tone like he was cutting flesh from his own body. "Since you insist, I'll give you another 0.2% of the profit share."

"Shinji..."

Chloe wanted to speak again, but Shinji cut her off.

"Lizzie, don't forget. Film and television rights aren't limited to theatrical screenings. There are also television broadcast rights and videotape rights!"

At that moment, Waver suddenly stood up, walked behind Shinji in a few strides, gripped the back of his chair, and loudly declared, "If Miss Flora is still unwilling, our company is willing to give this guy to you as an extra thrown into the contract."

"Waver! You little bastard, are you rebelling?!"

Shinji immediately objected. He hadn't expected to become a bargaining chip in the negotiations.

"Shinji, make a little sacrifice for all of us."

"To hell with that sacrifice!"

If the wooden conference chair hadn't been so inconvenient to turn around in, Shinji would have kicked Waver.

"Lizzie, let me remind you of something."

Shinji placed both hands on his knees and spoke in the tone of an ultimatum. "My movie earned 2 billion yen in Japan in just one month. Based on Japan's normal box office curve, my movie will earn at least 10 billion yen."

"But the Japanese box office is hard to use as a reference, isn't it? Everyone knows how bizarre Japan's box office can be."

Chloe narrowed her eyes and stared fixedly at her old acquaintance.

At this point, the negotiations had entered their final stage. What they were competing in now was momentum. If either side showed weakness, all their previous efforts would be wasted.

Shinji calmly accepted the pressure coming from Chloe without wavering in the slightest.

"How about this?" Chloe said. "Aside from FSN, Jidai Group will have priority investment and distribution rights for Type-Moon Company's next five films. The revenue split will be the same as FSN, but Jidai Group will hold their global film and television rights."

Chloe leaned forward, a victorious smile appearing on her face.

"Three films, and the licensing term is only ten years. And besides..."

Before Shinji could finish, Chloe slammed a hand on the table and cut him off.

"Deal! The negotiation is concluded!"

Chloe forcefully grabbed Shinji's hand.

"That settles the broad direction. We'll leave the remaining details to our subordinates."

"You'd better not break the contract, Shinji~"

Chloe smiled smugly.

Humming a little tune, she hugged the documents to her chest and headed for the conference room door, leaving Shinji sitting there in a daze.

"Ah, right. Shinji."

Chloe, who had reached the door, suddenly turned back. "About those rumors of you at the Clock Tower... Huh? Where did he go?!"

Chloe discovered that Shinji, who had been sitting at the conference table a second ago, had vanished.

"He's already left."

Waver, who remained behind, said calmly.

"Tch. I thought I could use the moment he let his guard down to get a handle on him."

Chloe pursed her lips and left the conference room unwillingly.

"She's gone."

Waver said to the seat beside him.

Shinji's figure appeared in his original seat. He rubbed his brow in frustration. "Tch, Rin really did spill all my secrets."

"Not a bad invisibility magecraft."

Waver assessed it in an academic tone.

Shinji responded dismissively, "It's just a deception spell that lasts five minutes at most."

Waver did not pry into Shinji's magecraft and instead shifted the topic to the agreement.

"I didn't expect her to accept the terms you offered." Waver teased, "You miscalculated."

Shinji snorted at that. "Lizzie probably wanted to reach this agreement from the beginning. She deliberately used terms I couldn't possibly accept as a smokescreen."

Waver shot Shinji a glance that clearly said, "You saw through it and still agreed?"

Shinji gave a light shrug. "The reason I didn't want to cooperate with Jidai Group was that I was afraid Lizzie would use her relationship with me to let Jidai swallow Type-Moon. Since Lizzie has no such intention, I have no reason to refuse Jidai."

"Besides..." Shinji curled his lips into a smug smile. "Lizzie never mentioned merchandise. Bandai has been eyeing the European and American markets for a long time."

Shinji did not know whether Chloe had genuinely overlooked it, or whether she thought the money involved was beneath her and deliberately left it for him.

But since they did not want it, Master Shinji would gladly accept it without ceremony.

Even though there were no precedents in this era, before Shinji's transmigration, examples of merchandise earning more than box office revenue had been everywhere.

Waver snarked, "Heh, maybe Miss Flora left that as your dowry. Don't you think... Hm? Where is he?"

This time, Shinji had truly disappeared from the conference room.

Over the following days, Shinji and Waver took part in more negotiations and reached agreements with more overseas distributors.

Although Jidai Group's global distribution network was powerful, it ultimately did not cover every region. The most obvious gap was Asia, where its presence was almost nonexistent.

So Type-Moon had no choice but to negotiate separately with distributors in those countries and regions. Fortunately, the film markets in those places were usually small, so they could simply let the other side buy out the rights.

As more and more distributors reached agreements with them, the prices FSN had earned through outright sales had already far exceeded Type-Moon Company's recorded investment in producing the FSN project.

It could be said that Shinji's goal in attending the Cannes Film Festival showcase had been fully achieved. At the same time, he had gained a deeper understanding of the current global film market.

Although most professional reviews, including those from local French media, had been extremely mediocre, with only British media offering favorable words, that did not stop distributors from scrambling to acquire the film.

Clearly, the people in the industry most sensitive to box office performance had seen straight through to the fact that the essence of box office success was audience enthusiasm, not a few remarks from critics.

It was just unclear when the critics themselves would wake from their dream.

However, from Cannes's frenzied fans, the distributors' enthusiastic pursuit of FSN, and all those other signs... Shinji had already sensed the coming rise of special-effects films.

What excited Master Shinji even more was that he himself was the one who had triggered this towering tsunami in the film industry!

Of course, not every distributor was interested in FSN.

For example, a distributor from Hong Kong had given up on bringing in FSN because he did not think the film would sell well locally.

The other party had reason for making that choice. In Shinji's previous life, Hong Kong audiences had not particularly liked imported films, believing foreign movies were not as good as their own.

That situation was not broken until Jurassic Park was released. After that, Hong Kong films suffered a crushing defeat and never managed to stand tall before foreign films again.

This world did not have Jurassic Park or the many other Hollywood special-effects blockbusters. Hong Kong films still dominated the local market.

So, finding Type-Moon Company's asking price too high, the Hong Kong distributor chose to pass.

Another distributor uninterested in FSN was from India. The other party stated bluntly that FSN had neither singing nor dancing, so no one in India would watch it.

All Master Shinji could say was, "Third Brother, only you could pull that off."

That Day, People Recalled the Radiance of the Curry Stick...

As the 56th Cannes Film Festival drew to a close, Master Shinji's FSN promotion team received an invitation to the closing ceremony from the organizers.

Unlike the indifference they had faced at the opening ceremony, FSN's explosive popularity during the festival screenings had made the organizers take the crew very seriously. Even the staff member delivering the invitation treated Master Shinji and the others with utmost respect.

That stark difference in treatment before and after gave Master Shinji a firsthand taste of the fickleness of the entertainment industry.

For FSN's promotional needs, Master Shinji did not humiliate anyone in some satisfying face-slapping display. Instead, he brought Waver and Rin to the festival's closing ceremony.

But to Master Shinji, the closing ceremony was just as boring as the opening ceremony. Other than the host specifically thanking FSN in the opening remarks for bringing greater popularity to the festival, nothing else managed to catch his attention.

As for the awards ceremony, which was supposed to be the main event of the closing ceremony, Master Shinji and FSN were spectators from beginning to end.

Unlike the Academy Awards, where a grand sweep might happen, the Cannes Film Festival jury preferred to spread the honors around. The awards were basically distributed like portions of a pie, and it was rare for a single film to dominate.

But what did that have to do with Master Shinji?

FSN was not going to win any awards anyway, and Master Shinji did not recognize a single one of the nominated films. With no sense of involvement whatsoever, he only felt that sitting in the auditorium was worse than going back to the hotel to sleep.

If anything, Master Shinji thought the closing film was far more interesting than the closing ceremony. At least it was Charlie Chaplin's classic, Modern Times.

After enduring the prison-like closing ceremony, the 56th Cannes Film Festival officially came to an end, and Master Shinji, having successfully completed his task, could finally go home in high spirits.

Japan, Fuyuki City, outside the gates of the Matou Residence.

Holding his sister Illya's hand, Shirou Emiya pressed the doorbell with a helpless expression.

"Older Brother, Master Shinji is coming back today, right?"

While they waited for someone to answer, Illya tilted up her little head and asked obediently.

"Yeah. To celebrate him selling the film for such a good price at Cannes, all of us are going to have a proper celebration tonight."