Don't Call Me Master, Call Me Director

[Can't break free, this is a dead end! What's going on??]

Shirou looked down at the ropes binding him. Before he could react, Illya continued speaking.

"This is the last one, Big Brother. I'll ask you one more time—"

Illya looked at her brother with full of expectation and excitement.

"Shirou, become mine."

Illya, as beautiful as an elf, said this in a tone that allowed no refusal.

"Hiss~"

Shirou gasped, feeling something strange crawl up from the soles of his feet to his forehead.

For some reason, Shirou had the illusion that his sister was really going to turn him into her possession.

"Illya, I'm not your possession. I have Saber. As long as Saber is here, I will only fight as a Master."

Shirou suppressed the fear in his heart, forcing himself to recite the lines. He reminded himself more than once that this was a movie, not real.

"..."

The little loli was clearly very disappointed with her brother's thoughts. She just stared at him.

Finally, as if giving up, Illya said, "Is that so? Even you are going to betray me, Shirou."

Illya calmly left Shirou, saying coldly, "Fine. Since Shirou won't listen to me, I won't listen to Shirou either. Although I've let you all go in the past, that ends now."

There was only killing intent in Illya's voice.

She casually picked up a metal knife from the side, its tip sliding from Shirou's nose bridge.

Shirou could even clearly feel the cold touch unique to metal.

"Illya!" Shirou's expression changed. "What are you doing?"

At this moment, Shirou truly believed Illya was going to kill him.

Shinji, hiding in the shadows, covered his mouth and shook his shoulders frantically to avoid laughing out loud and causing a Cut.

Illya picking up the metal knife was something he had specifically added, just to make Shirou feel the threat and get more into character.

Judging by how tense Shirou looked on camera, the effect seemed to be very good.

"Don't worry, I won't attack Shirou right now."

Illya, seen on camera, seemed satisfied with Shirou's expression. She put the knife aside. "But I'm going to kill Saber and Rin. That way, Shirou will regret it a little, won't he?"

Shirou looked at that innocent and cute smiling face, but felt that beneath the angelic appearance, she hid a devil's heart.

He struggled hard, but the ropes on the chair bound him much tighter than he had imagined.

"Don't just casually talk about killing people! This isn't suitable for you. Illya is still a child, she can't do things like this. Right?"

Shirou's voice ended with a fearful plea.

Illya seemed startled by Shirou's tone and stared at him blankly.

Fortunately, after a moment, she immediately adjusted her state and smiled.

"What a shame. I've already killed someone, Big Brother~"

With a very happy expression, Illya responded to Shirou's words.

"I thought Big Brother would take care of that Seaweed Head, but it turned out I had to do it myself. Kelp is so salty~"

"..."

Shinji, sitting in the director's chair, could clearly feel someone looking at him with a mocking gaze, and he was very sure that he wasn't the only one!

Shinji glanced sideways and saw that Rin, Sakura, and Artoria were all among them.

[These little brats, every single one of them needs to be taught a lesson, just you wait!]

Shinji thought this to himself while signaling the cameraman to zoom in on Illya, giving the little loli a close-up shot.

Compared to the leisurely people watching from off-camera, Shirou, who was in front of the camera, was almost scared to death, because Illya, with a sinister smile, was walking towards him again.

"Illya! You—"

Shirou struggled harder but couldn't break free from the ropes.

Three meters, two meters, one meter, half a meter...

The distance between them grew closer and closer, and Shirou felt the danger approaching him. His struggles were all in vain.

"Sorry, Shirou."

Illya stopped in front of Shirou and reached out her free hand, gently patting his cheek. Her smile was both innocent and enchanting.

"Killing the Master, this is the Holy Grail War."

Illya said this so matter-of-factly, as if there were no inconsistencies.

This was the girl named Illya—an angel-like demon.

"Cut! Good work, everyone."

Shinji finally spoke up to call a halt.

Although there was still a little bit of this scene left, if they continued, Shirou might get truly scared by Illya.

Shirou was the most important male actor in the crew; how could he collapse halfway through filming a movie?

As for the remaining part, they could just reshoot it later, which would also be a good opportunity to change the shooting angle.

"Brother Shinji, Illya was amazing, right!"

The little loli immediately snapped out of her devilish state. She skipped and bounced over to Shinji to show off.

Shinji ruffled Illya's little head and praised, "Mhm, mhm, Illya is the most amazing."

"Heehee~"

Illya smiled brightly, then ran off to find her parents.

"Good work, Shirou."

Shinji snapped his fingers, and Shirou immediately felt the ropes binding him loosen.

Shirou quickly stood up from the chair, patting his chest with lingering fear. "Seriously, that almost scared me to death. I felt like Illya was really going to kill me just now."

"I didn't expect her acting to be so good... Is my sister truly a genius actress?" Shirou's words were full of envy.

As the male lead, he had spent a long time finding his rhythm, yet his sister could act so well in just a few moments.

"Ah, about that, I had Illya use Suggestion Magic during her performance to put you in a semi-hypnotic state, making it easier for you to get into character," Master Shinji spread his hands. "It seems to have worked well; your acting has improved significantly."

Shirou's mouth twitched hard.

"...Thank you so much, Shinji!"

Chapter 7: They Pay Me to Act, You Make Me Risk My Life

Although Shinji hadn't informed Shirou before using Suggestion Magic for filming was a bit underhanded, the results were excellent.

Even though Shirou had a couple of lines that were slightly off, Shinji decided to include this segment in the final cut.

Afterward, Shinji adjusted the camera's shooting angle and completed filming the scene where Illya threatened Shirou using a low-angle shot.

The low-angle shot was used to emphasize Illya's absolute dominance in this scene, creating a sense of pressure for the audience through the lens.

In fact, different camera angles can evoke different feelings in the audience. This was a lesson Shinji's teacher had emphasized heavily when he studied in Hollywood.

The film industry in this world wasn't very developed commercially, but the progress in filmmaking techniques was rapid. Many shooting methods that only became popular after 2010 were already in vogue by this year.

Fortunately, Shinji's theoretical filmmaking skills were already very mature, allowing him to simulate how many classic scenes should be shot directly in his mind.

Of course, this was purely theoretical.

Filmmaking was by no means a simple task; it required immense patience and meticulous attention to detail in practice.

After finishing the scene where Illya threatened Shirou, the dialogue-heavy portions at Eizenbern Castle were complete. The remaining parts would be the crucial action sequences.

Dialogue scenes determine a movie's ceiling, while action scenes determine its floor.

This statement might not apply to all films, but it certainly fits the vast majority of commercial special effects movies.

For these films, no matter how profound the plot, it couldn't ignite the average person's passion for watching. What drew large audiences to cinemas to watch on the big screen was the action and special effects, which many film artists disdained.

Wonder Woman 1984 attempted to evoke inner love through touching platitudes, but most people were indifferent. Godzilla vs. Kong, despite its lack of depth, was incredibly satisfying and won over countless viewers.

The most important thing for a commercial special effects film is for the audience to feel "thrilled." Only when the audience is "thrilled" will they become interested in the movie.

Especially for FSN, which Shinji was currently filming, the action sequences were the foundation and skeleton of the entire film. The spectacular battles between the Servants were the biggest selling point of the Fate Series films and the most meticulously designed part by Shinji. It was definitely not about a fixed shot with two Servants fighting in the frame.

Such meaningless and rhythm-less combat was even less tense and exciting than a well-edited fight between two toddlers.

It's important to remember that the martial arts skills between Servants weren't just for show. They were very capable fighters, but not necessarily skilled at making their fights look good.

Therefore, during filming, Shinji would try to control all elements within the frame to ensure the action was visually appealing.

To facilitate editing, Shinji even employed both open-set and studio shooting methods—having the Servants perform the exact same actions twice, once on location and once in the studio.

For every action scene, Shinji would go through numerous rehearsals and test shoots to find the most suitable approach and achieve the best results.

Since the Servants had excellent martial arts foundations and could perfectly execute the movements Shinji envisioned, his action shots would showcase the Servants' full figures as much as possible, displaying their most heroic sides to the audience, rather than relying on excessive close-ups to mask the actors' lack of foundational skills.

Among these, Shinji's favorite technique was to use Uncle Hai as the central axis and shoot his battle with Artoria in a clockwise direction.

In layman's terms, this meant performing a 360° rotating shot centered on Uncle Hai.

This circling camera technique was originally developed in filmmaking to aid in editing.

Consequently, many ambitious film directors disliked this type of shot, considering it too rigid and failing to highlight their directorial individuality.

Master Shinji completely disagreed with this notion. In his previous life, this shooting method was still widely used in the 2020s, right up until he transmigrated.

Commercial film directors, in particular, favored using 360° rotating shots to showcase character relationships, emotions, and the entirety of action scenes.

This alone was sufficient proof of the value of circling shots.

As for so-called artistic merit...

Sorry, Master Shinji stated that he was a thoroughbred commercial director.

What, you're talking about an Oscar trophy?

What is that thing? Can I eat it?

You have to understand that art films are all the rage in this world. The Oscars aren't even as prestigious as the three major European film festivals. America is merely the world's largest box office market for films, a place where other countries harvest their profits.

Truth be told, if he could, Master Shinji's restless directorial heart would also want to try some fancy tricks, learning from those master directors to complicate simple tracking shots.

However, Master Shinji knows his own limitations. He's still just a beginner in the directing world. His priority is to finish filming this Fate with simple, solid techniques.

He'll worry about those other techniques once he's more proficient.

If he messes up this film, he, Master Shinji, won't have a future.

"Haaah!!"

On set, the agile Artoria weaved and dodged around Uncle Hai, while the powerful Uncle Hai stood his ground, unmoving as a steadfast guardian.

"Good, Cut!"

After Artoria and Shirou pierced Uncle Hai's body together, Shinji yelled "Stop!" through his megaphone.

"Good work, Shirou. This scene is about done."

Shinji casually tossed a towel to Shirou, who began wiping off the messy makeup on his face and body.

As Shinji's throw lacked power, Shirou had to rush forward a few steps to catch the towel.

"Hey, at least throw it accurately!"

Shirou complained to Shinji.

"Be grateful you got one at all. Here, this one's for you. Wipe off your sweat."

Shinji personally handed another towel to Artoria.

"Thank you, Master."

Artoria nodded politely and gently wiped herself with the towel. Her precise movements had a unique kind of charm.