ASTRID was walking towards the building that would serve as the main church in [The Great War]. This was his third day here at FS05 and also the first day of the official shooting. According the schedule given to them, Director Scott planned to shoot the scenes of the cast with shorter screen time first. Like Astrid for example.
He also agreed with this strategy. If they shoot chronologically according to scenes that would appear first, then those who didn’t have that much screen time had to wait while the others with bigger role continued shooting. That’s simply a big waste of time.
At least with this, those with smaller roles could quickly finish shooting all their scenes while the ones with bigger roles could attend to other things and simply return here when it’s time for them to shoot. That way, it would be a win-win for everyone.
Starting today, they would film all the scenes that used this church as the setting. They allocated a whole week for it, bringing into account the NGs the actors and actresses might get. If Astrid performed well, they could probably shorten that to 3-4 days.
The first scene he’s going to shoot was him being ordained as a priest. This scene would appear right at the end of the second episode. The first episode would show the childhood of the protagonist, Caesar Warwick. This included his meeting with Luan Escanor.
The second episode would be the start of Caesar’s teenage years when he was struggling to take back the kingdom that was rightfully his. And at the end of that episode was this scene that he would shoot now.
Each episode of this series had a duration of one hour and 15 minutes. So, a lot could happen in an episode. Considering that the series would have 35 episodes in total, one would think that it might be too much. But the source material had hundreds of chapters. Loyal fans of the novel might find this number and duration of episodes quite lacking.
Astrid thought of the scene they would film first today. There were a lot of extras in this scene. After all, in the world of [The Great War], religion played a huge role. A lot of war orphans who didn’t have outstanding physical abilities went to church and chose to become a priest. Of course, not all of them would be one.
It’s not like the church was a particularly charitable establishment. Just like any other huge group, there was corruption hidden beneath. Priests were chosen very carefully. Their appearance should not only be impeccable, but their manners should be as well. It didn’t matter if you’re not kind as long as you could fake to be one. With such requirements, it seemed that it’s much harder to be a priest rather than be a knight.
Astrid finally entered the church. The filming crew was already there, along with some of the extras acting in this scene. He greeted the others with just the right amount of politeness. Ellis, who was walking beside him, did the same. Then, they walked to the assigned waiting area and sat down.
Ellis glanced at her artist. The other didn’t show any signs of nervousness. In truth, he looked excited rather. She smiled. Well, that’s good. At least she knew that Astrid wouldn’t have any problems filming today.
“By the way, Sister Ellis, have all the other cast members left?” Astrid thought of asking, referring to the main cast.
“Most of them except Yujin and Phoebe Goodman.”
Astrid nodded. The three of them actually almost had the same amount of screen time, with him having the least. But if the two were the only exception, did that mean that Lance Rei also left?
“Don’t worry, Lance Reid had also left,” Ellis added as if reading his mind. “I heard from someone that he also has another schedule just like the rest of the cast.”
That’s good. Astrid thought that the other would be staying here and would continue to harass either him or Yujin. But if the guy had another schedule, then that’s understandable.
Thinking of that, he suddenly remembered his conversation with Wulfric last night. The other said that he would be making arrangements to deal with Lance. He probably should tell Wulfric that Lance was currently not here in FS05. So, he opened his Terminal and sent the other a message.
While he was doing that, the remaining extras arrived. And a few minutes after, Director Scott also walked into the church. He called to everyone and gathered their attention.
“Okay, please go to your position!” he said to the extras. He then looked around and when his gaze landed on Astrid, he called the other.
Astrid walked over to where the director was. “Is there a problem, director?”
“I just want to give some pointers before we start,” the other said. “You should know that this scene involves quite a number of people. I will first take a wide pan shot. I won’t focus the camera on you but I want you to be able to stand out among the rest. Make it so that the first thing the audience will look at is you. Can you do that?”
It’s like asking an apple to differentiate himself from a basket full of similar apples. After all, everyone was wearing the same simple priest robe. The shot would not even be in a close angle. How could one stand out in such a way?
But Astrid was not worried. He might not be able to do it in one take. But he’s confident that it wouldn’t exceed three takes.
“I will try my best, director,” he only said to the other.
Seeing the determination in Astrid’s eyes, Director Scott nodded in approval. It’s good that the kid wasn’t showing any nervousness even after hearing what he said. He then let the other go to his assigned position.
Astrid walked towards the third pew on the right side of the alter. He sat down on the empty spot and closed his eyes. He only opened them when the director shouted ‘action!’.