Chapter 64: One Movie or Two, That Is the Question

"I regret watching the Fate/Zero trailer. I originally wanted to satisfy my cravings with the trailer, but after watching it, I'm even more eager!"

The first public trailer for Fate/Zero has finished its global broadcast, but the excitement sparked by the movie has just begun.

Although in 2003, or rather 2004, the internet penetration was not as high as 15 years later, and relevant app platforms were still in the budding stage. People couldn't access videos and chat anytime, anywhere using their phones.

However, on the official website's message board of Fate/Zero, many people had already started discussing the movie.

Fans who had just watched the trailer were constantly discussing what they had just seen with others on the message board.

Even though there were many people leaving messages on the board, and the scrolling speed was very fast, many times the messages were incomprehensible between the previous and the next one. But this did not diminish people's enthusiasm for the movie.

Especially the exciting visual edits in the movie trailer, which were immediately recognized as surpassing the standards of Fate/Stay Night, ignited the spirits of many fans.

"This is the most exciting movie trailer I've ever seen!"

"Wasn't Alexander the Great supposed to be short? Why is a muscular man playing the role?"

"Indeed, our king! That handsome appearance makes people want to climax just by looking at it!"

"That scene of blowing up the building, if it's shown on the big screen, just thinking about it makes it so exhilarating!"

"Kotomine Kirei's Servant is not Gilgamesh? I can already guess how the plot will develop."

"Maybe Alexander and his master are tricking us all. Perhaps that little short guy on the chariot is the real Alexander the Great."

"You're just speculating."

...

Even Alice, who almost played the role of a silent girl in real life, wrote down her thoughts on the movie on the message board with the help of Aoko after watching it.

"The magical rituals involved in this movie are very interesting. I just don't know if the unique magical characteristics of the three major families can be showcased more prominently. At the same time, I'm really looking forward to Lord El-Melloi's performance in the movie— Okay, click send."

Seeing her best friend click the "send" button with a nervous and cautious expression, Aoko couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Alice, are you sending a message or eating bugs?" Aoko patted Alice's shoulder and teased.

Alice glared at Aoko, "I'm not like you, so accustomed to using modern electronic devices even though there are none at home."

"I wouldn't mind having them."

Thinking of her grandfather, who could preserve brains in formaldehyde and send them to museums, Aoko couldn't help but feel deep helplessness.

"By the way, Alice, why did you think of buying a computer? Weren't you a classical magus before?"

Alice spoke confidently, "The future is the era of the internet. As a magus of the new era, one must learn how to use the internet, or else they will be eliminated by society."

"Surely these aren't words you came up with yourself."

Alice nodded, "Of course not, it was Sir Matou who said it during his lecture at the Clock Tower."

"S-Sir—?"

Recalling the times when she met Shinji at a banquet, Aoko couldn't help but struggle to connect that kid with the term "Sir."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Aoko scratched her cheek. "I just feel like that kid must be very proud right now."

The Fate/Zero movie trailer received a warm welcome from fans, and this could be easily seen from the comments flooding the message board after the release of the first official trailer.

"Of course, this is the work of Sir Matou. Right now, he must be calmly going through our comments, confidently working on the post-production to present us with the most outstanding movie."

Alice summarized with great anticipation.

However, reality turned out to be...

"What the heck is going on with this movie!"

In the post-production editing room, Shinji couldn't help but sigh in frustration.

After enjoying a brief and relaxing New Year's holiday, Shinji came to the Tsuburaya Productions in Tokyo to work on the post-production of his second movie.

The post-production studio in Fuyuki City had already started construction, but some equipment needed to be custom-made, so it couldn't be used right away.

Shinji estimated that by the time of his next movie, he could use his own post-production studio.

However, not being able to use his own studio wasn't the reason for Shinji's annoyance. What truly troubled him was how to edit Fate/Zero.

In theory, with reference to the anime from his previous life and the editing experience from Fate/stay night, Shinji shouldn't be troubled about what to do with the post-production.

However, the reality was that Shinji felt a "slight" helplessness towards the post-production of Fate/Zero.

The issue Shinji was pondering was quite simple – how long should Fate/Zero be edited?

To be more precise, Shinji was really troubled about whether Fate/Zero should be edited into one movie or two movies.

This was why there were no scenes from the latter part of the plot in the currently released trailer – Shinji hadn't figured out whether to include them in the movie.

Before the project began, Shinji's initial plan was to edit it into two movies. However, after in-depth research into the movie market and the shooting materials, Shinji hesitated.

Throughout the history of movie development, whether before or after Shinji's transmigration, most movies that were split into two parts ended up not performing well.

Even if they didn't perform poorly, the word of mouth about the movies wasn't great.

This was true not only for movies split into two parts but also for those overly padded for the sake of sequels.

Even if the first movie was very successful, the second movie could still backlash.

A typical example of this was Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.

Of course, calling a movie that almost reached a global box office of 1 billion dollars (3's global box office was 960 million) a failure was certainly biased.

But the breakdown in word of mouth in the third movie compared to the lower box office performance of the second was a concrete reality.

Similar situations occurred with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 and Part 2— and so on.

This was also why Hollywood film companies, after a round of trial and error, stopped making movies split into upper and lower parts.

Shinji believed that with the exciting script of Fate/Zero and his cutting-edge filmmaking concepts, even if it were split into two movies, the box office would surely not be a problem. However, this approach might lead to a likely decline in the overall reputation of the Fate series.

While a complete breakdown in reputation was unlikely, negative feedback was almost inevitable. This was something Shinji had been striving to avoid. This was his second movie, and it was also the second movie representing the filmmaking model he wanted to promote. Even if it meant making less money, he wanted to ensure a positive reputation.

Analyzing the potential reasons why audiences might criticize the movie, Shinji believed it was closely related to the nature of the entertainment medium itself. Unlike TV shows, moviegoers have to purchase tickets to enter a theater. From the audience's perspective, if they pay for a movie ticket, they naturally expect to see a complete story. What's the point of me buying a ticket, only to see half a story? That was the sentiment Shinji anticipated.

Moreover, audiences didn't want to spend several hours watching a movie only to see a trailer for the sequel. While the Marvel Cinematic Universe was often teased for being like a TV series, each Marvel movie made an effort to tell a complete story while laying the groundwork for future films. The only exception was Avengers: Age of Ultron, and its reception suffered.

Realizing this, Shinji decided to abandon the plan of making two movies and started with the initial editing of a single movie. After a few weeks of experimentation, he managed to complete the first cut of Fate/Zero, which was a 5-hour version. Although this seemed lengthy, considering that most movie initial cuts were around four hours, Shinji believed he could achieve a good result with a bit more effort.

In the following weeks, Shinji had to repeatedly watch a large amount of footage to reduce the movie's duration to a reasonable range while retaining the main plot. Sometimes, he even went back to review scenes he had already cut to explore whether alternative shots could be used to shorten the duration. After all, a seemingly mediocre shot could become a stroke of genius with careful editing.

Film editing wasn't a simple matter of arranging and combining scenes; it required logical connections between shots and various techniques of transition. Unfortunately, Shinji couldn't use magecraft to help in this matter; he had to patiently polish his work.

Shinji's core focus in editing was clear: Fate/Zero was a typical blockbuster, and even if the story's conclusion wasn't great or the plot was somewhat dark, the audience had to enjoy it. After countless iterations of editing, Shinji finally reduced the initial 5-hour cut to 3 hours, 18 minutes, and 27 seconds. However, this was still not enough for him; Shinji aimed for the final movie length to be under 3 hours, considering the audience's bladder comfort and preferences. Thus, Shinji had to continue his efforts, cutting unnecessary shots and reducing redundancy.

By late February, the editing of the movie was mostly completed, and Shinji had managed to cut it down to a version that lasted 3 hours and 2 minutes. At this stage, Shinji's workload became somewhat lighter. Now, he focused on supervising and reviewing the computer-generated special effects, post-production voice dubbing for actors, sound effects, music production, and other quality control tasks.

It was interesting to note that, despite the first language of both Fate/stay night and Fate/Zero being Japanese, most of the English voice acting for the movies was done by the actors themselves.

After all, the actors in the two movies were either Heroic Spirits who could fluently speak various major languages thanks to the Holy Grail, or magus who had been studying magecraft for years and were proficient in English. The only exception was someone like Kayneth, an Englishman, who needed someone to help with Japanese dubbing.

The only exception was Shirou, whose broken English could leave any British body shuddering in pain.

Just as Shinji was somewhat relaxed in his work, Cloris, who had been absent for a long time, reappeared in his sight.

"Are you doing this on purpose?"

In the post-production studio at Tsuburaya Productions, Shinji asked with a twitching corner of his mouth.

"On purpose? After the Oscar nominations were announced, my work in North America ended. So, I came to see... the progress of your movie production."

Saying this, looking at Shinji, Chloris sighed deeply.

"I originally wanted to fight for a Golden Globe or Oscar nomination for you. You actually declined directly, it's such a pity."

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