Chapter 1009: Commitment
Translator: TransN Editor: TransN
Three days later, the filming for The Wolf Princess officially began.
Undoubtedly, shooting a film was a brand new experience for the people in this world, but Roland had never expected them to become this crazy over it.
Since the very first day, it had caught the attention of all the Witch Union members.
Most of them had never seen a film, but this did not prevent them from imagining how marvelous it would be. Some of the cast were God's Punishment witches. They vividly described their experiences in the cinemas of the Dream World and so made this magic movie sound even more appealing.
If someone now asked the witches which location they wanted to visit the most, most of them would definitely choose the Dream World.
The Witch Union members and the Sleeping Island witches, who were unable to get into the Dream World, were particularly looking forward to this movie.
No one was willing to just spend their whole day eating, drinking or playing cards anymore. By the second day of filming, all of them, even Tilly, had applied to join the film shooting project.
Roland was surprised since, as far as he could remember, this was the first time Tilly had ever demanded something from him.
In the end, the roster of the cast and the crew members had to be changed several times to include the extra witches. Roland was more than happy to indulge them as long as it did not affect their work and productivity. These new members also brought the crew many surprises.
Lightning was one such example. She replaced Amy to work as the cameraman.
In order to portray the two princesses' happy childhood in a better light, the little girl took full advantage of her flying ability. She flew up into the sky and then descended from that height to shoot a panorama of the snowy city. She recorded a stream of pedestrians while flying along the streets. After that, she captured all the images along the way as she flew into a small bedroom in the castle through a window which had many icicles on the frame. Finally, she landed in the room to shoot a close-up of the laughing sisters in front of a burning fireplace.
Roland spent a great deal of time explaining camera language to the crew. He even drew pictures to show them what he meant, even though he was not good at sketching at all.
In the middle of describing basic viewing angles and framing of shots to the crew, he spotted an exceptionally excited look in May's eyes.
The Star of the Western Region was extremely talented in drama. She could imagine a whole scene in her head and could take each prop and each person in that scene into consideration. It was not an obvious advantage for a traditional theater actress, but it would become an incredibly important skill in filmmaking.
The other actress Irene, who was playing the younger sister of the wolf princess, was sorely lacking such a talent.
In the following days, May started to use the shooting skills she had learned from Roland.
She quickly got familiar with them and even created some new techniques on her own.
Some of the scenes that she directed even reminded Roland of the modern movies.
When she filmed the scene where the exotic prince came to the palace, she began with close-ups of his jewel-encrusted boots, his golden cloak, silk shirt, and then his handsome smiling face. After that, she panned out to show a long queue of gorgeously dressed servants behind him to show his grand entrance. By the way, the man who played the prince was her husband, Carter Lannis. Though Roland was reluctant to admit it, his Chief Knight was indeed the most handsome man in Neverwinter when dressed up.
The improvement in composition and directing was just one of the surprises.
The adoption of special effects was an even more amazing progress.
New ideas and new visual effects emerged every day.
Soraya's "three-dimensional background" was one such example.
Another was Sharon's lightning effect.
If needed, Nightingale could use her Mist, Molly her Magic Servant, and Shadow could create phantom illusions for even more special effects.
Maggie played two roles in the movie. In her pigeon form, she was a close friend of the younger princess. In her Devilbeast form, she was the demon lord's best warrior and would fight a fierce battle against the wolf princess on a snowy field. The battle scenes they filmed could only be called "ground-breaking". Both the earth and the mountains would tremble and all the birds and animals would flee from the scene as fast as they could.
Even Lotus and Honey got to contribute significantly to the production of the movie.
By the time they were just halfway through the filming of the movie, the number of crew members had already expanded to more than 300 people. Apart from the Witch Union members, the Sleeping Spell witches and the Taquila survivors were also attracted by this event. In the end, this filmmaking process turned into a giant carnival for the witches.
Standing on top of the city wall, Roland looked down at the bustling crowd and sighed with emotion.
To his surprise, this magic movie brought the three witch organizations closer. In the past, they had been like oil and water, refusing to mix, but now they seemed to be able to along well with each other, as if they were one big family.
No matter what kind of abilities they had, now they worked together for the same movie. When they focused on doing their jobs well, they forget about their differences in strength and origin. Gradually, this experience created a very special bond between them.
For Roland, this was really a pleasant surprise.
It was a cold day. As Roland exhaled, he could see white vapor coming out of his mouth. He turned to look at Anna. "Aren't you going down to have some fun with them?"
In the beginning, Nightingale joined the film crew only when she was needed. However, now she frolicked around with them all day long.
"No, I've lots of work to do." Anna showed her hands to Roland. Her sleeves were covered in oil. "The sizes of the internal combustion engine parts in the drawing aren't accurate enough. I still have to make adjustments, and..."
"Huh?" Roland blinked.
"And I have the most fun staying beside you." She smiled and rested her head on his shoulder.
The next moment, he felt her warm flames spread out to dispel the chill of the snow.
He shut his mouth and enjoyed this peaceful moment with her.
After a long time, Anna said in a soft voice, "The future you promised has arrived."
He followed her gaze to look at the crew again. Besides the witches, the common people also fitted in well. May was making gestures with her hands. She seemed to be teaching Lorgar and Carter how to act together. Irene was squatting by the side combing Maggie's hair. The little girl was squinting her eyes and seemed to really be enjoying it. Together with the God's Punishment Witches, the new staff of the film crew was placing the props for the next scene. Compared to a factory, which featured a clear division of labor, the film crew's style of working appeared more relaxed and harmonious.
On this snowy day, both the witches and the common people were working together with one heart and one mind.
"No, I have yet to fulfill all of my promises." Roland shook his head.
"Are you referring to the situation of the other regions of Graycastle? Things are going to get better in those cities soon."
"No, I didn't mean the relations between the witches and the common people. I meant something else," he replied with a smile. "I thought that I would need mountains of preparations to achieve this goal step by step, but now I feel that it's not that complicated. As long as I take the first few steps, the rest of the problems will automatically resolve themselves in the process, just like how this movie has progressed. I haven't set up any rules or guidelines for it, but it has still turned out this well. It's even given me a lot of pleasant surprises."
"So what is it that you still have left to fulfill?" Anna raised her head and blinked. In her eyes that were as blue as a peaceful lake, he saw the reflection of snowflakes.
"Ascend the throne as a king," Roland paused and then said word by word, "and then marry you."