Nanaya felt fortunate that things weren't as disastrous as he had imagined.
Although Satomi Adachi had the attitude of a pampered princess, the moment she finished makeup and stood in front of the camera, she switched instantly into "actress mode." After only a few rehearsals, Adachi showed the level of professionalism expected of an experienced actor. Her dialogue scenes were completed quickly much faster than Nanaya anticipated.
Of course, in Nanaya's eyes, Adachi's portrayal of Ryogi Shiki still wasn't perfect. Her appearance was a bit too delicate, lacking some of Shiki's inherent heroic sharpness. But given the budget and the available choices, this was already the best option. Nanaya accepted it reluctantly, though not without regret.
However, whenever Nanaya explained a scene to her, he always felt like she wasn't listening. When he was a child, he had that exact same expression whenever a teacher scolded him appearing humble and obedient, but absolutely refusing to change.
"Alright, everyone! Now we need to move inside the building!"
Suppressing his doubts, Nanaya grabbed the loudspeaker and pointed toward the abandoned building's interior.
The peeling walls made the staff uneasy, but nobody dared voice their concerns for fear of displeasing the director.
Of course, some people were bold enough to try usually the ones who showed up on time but somehow never arrived early.
"Director, is everything okay?"
Under Satomi Adachi's instructions, Tamari asked the question in a cautious, indirect way.
"It's fine. I already talked to the building management. As long as we're not filming explosions, there shouldn't be any safety issues," Nanaya replied casually, waving his hand.
Everyone's expressions darkened. Even Ori sighed.
"Senior… honestly, hearing that makes us even more worried."
Even so, no one could stop Nanaya's plan. Under his insistence, the crew carried all the equipment upstairs.
"Good thing we don't have to go up."
"Yeah."
Several extras murmured to themselves until they were promptly recruited.
"Hey, you guys! Come help place the airbags!"
"…Yes."
They followed, defeated. But despite their reluctance, this was still a rare chance to be involved directly in filmmaking. Even if Nanaya wasn't famous, Rinpo staff were present. Impressing them might open future opportunities.
---
Meanwhile, Nanaya and the others reached the third floor to film Ryogi Shiki's first encounter with Kirie Fujio.
If the second floor weren't so unstable, Nanaya would've preferred filming there. It would've saved money no need for airbags. Airbags were expensive, and Nanaya, the budget-devouring devil, avoided unnecessary costs like his life depended on it.
Nanaya Kiryu's filming plan followed the standard industry approach: finishing scenes at one location before moving on. His teacher's Building was chosen first so he could shoot the expensive action scenes while the budget was still intact.
Get the costly parts done early. If the money ran out later, he could always pad the runtime with long dialogue scenes.
His transformation into a penny-pinching demon was something forced by circumstance, though Nanaya himself failed to notice this fact.
He began setting up the corridor scene.
Just like in the original Kara no Kyoukai, Ryogi Shiki was at a disadvantage during the first confrontation with Kirie Fujio. However, Nanaya had made significant changes. Instead of a one-on-one fight, this version featured Shiki being ambushed by a group of ghost girls.
The purpose was simple: intensify the action and increase the film's overall appeal.
The original Kara no Kyoukai was a high-quality fan film aimed at Type-Moon fans, who would happily watch anything TYPE-MOON made with love. But as a commercial film, its pacing was slow and its structure leaned heavily toward stream-of-consciousness storytelling. Casual viewers might enjoy the action but find everything else confusing.
Nanaya's goal wasn't to remake Type-Moon it was to draw new audiences into his own expanding universe. So anything unfriendly to newcomers had to be improved.
This action scene was the result of that intention.
For the ghost girls, Nanaya planned to use a mix of practical models and live-action shots. He ordered cables strung across the corridor and hung white-sheet-and-plastic "girls" from them, manipulating the models like puppets.
His idea was to use these props for wide shots and switch to close-ups with actors for movement, blending them into what should've been a convincing ghostly presence.
Reality did not cooperate.
"Cut!"
Nanaya halted the scene, staring at the monitor with a deep frown.
"Director?"
Everyone froze. He gave no further instructions, so they could only wait.
"It's nothing." Nanaya waved his hand stiffly.
The footage looked far worse than he expected. Even with the wire frames inside them, the ghost-girl props still looked painfully fake.
Cheap. Low-budget. Embarrassingly obvious.
"Maybe we can try a different method?"
Seeing Nanaya's silence, Ori checked the footage and immediately understood. He walked over and offered a suggestion.
"No… no matter how we tweak it, the difference won't be that big." Nanaya sighed. "If only we could use CGI."
But in this world, CGI was still rare and exorbitantly expensive. Film cameras still dominated they had to use film reels, which were outrageously costly.
Nanaya couldn't help missing the production tools from his previous life. Digital cameras, affordable CG, green screens… he would kill for those.
If only he could fast-forward ten years.
Then a simple green screen could fix this entire scene.
Instead, he was stuck staring at a giant film reel.
"…Film reel?"
A spark of inspiration flashed through his mind, gone before he could catch it.
"Senior, what are you even talking about? If we had CGI like in Titanic, we wouldn't be standing here struggling."
"That's true," Nanaya muttered. "It'd be great if we could just animate the whole thing…"
He froze.
He finally had an idea.
"Senior? You thought of something?"
Nanaya straightened, confidence returning to his eyes.
"Yes. I've come up with an idea."