Goddess Kaleidoscope

After watching the film, Phillips was very satisfied with the "gift" that Ludwig had presented. This short film could not only solve all the immediate problems, but also achieve a much greater publicity effect than the Trial Pilgrimage, allowing more people to see the saintess's heroic figure and understand the greatness of the Holy Church of Light.

The thought that the Church's reputation and his own future could be saved by this made Phillips even more friendly towards Ludd.

"My friend, you've really helped us a lot! I don't know how to thank you enough."

"Not at all, it's my honor to help your sect. However, as you can see, this kind of video requires a projector to play, and this machine is currently being manufactured jointly by me and the Steel Whip Clan. So if your sect wants to expand its propaganda efforts, it will need many of these machines."

"Oh? So how much does one of these machines cost?"

"One unit costs 100 gold coins. Discounts are available for bulk orders. Also, if you don't mind, we have a small gift for you personally, just a token of our appreciation."

After Lude finished speaking, he smiled and looked at Phillips. The middle-aged man had a serious expression at first, but his expression quickly softened, and a bright smile bloomed on his face like a chrysanthemum.

As expected of one of the world's three major religions, the Church of Light's financial strength is evident from this. Lud quoted 100 gold coins per projector, but Phillips ordered 1,000 in one go, and said that it only cost 100,000 gold coins.

According to the plan provided by Lude, 200 of these 1,000 projectors will be used to form 200 mobile projection teams to tour rural areas, while the other 800 will be enough to build 200 cinemas, aiming to set up one in each of the large and medium-sized towns where the Church of Light is located, and the location will not be a problem at all.

With the Steel Whip Clan's production capacity, as long as the money is in place, they can operate at full capacity and complete the order for 1,000 projectors within a month. Then, with the help of Lud's SF Express, these projectors can be distributed as quickly as possible. As long as the coordination is done well, the two hundred cinemas can start operating within a month.

The first film shown after these cinemas went online was the "Trials of the Saints" promotional short film, which Ludwig edited himself.

Lude then added that if this propaganda model was successful, he could provide Phillips with five cameras free of charge and help train a group of operators so that the film crew could travel with the saint's team and film each of the subsequent trials.

All you need to do is hand over the footage you've shot to Lu De, and he'll be responsible for editing it into a promotional short film. If there's enough footage, he can even make a longer documentary and turn it into a series.

As for the reward Lu De wanted, he only hoped that after the end of the year, when he had a movie called "Seven Samurai" finished filming, it could be shown in the two hundred cinemas of the Holy Light Church. At that time, the box office revenue could be split, whether it was 50/50 or 30/70, it didn't matter.

The annual Trials of the Holy Maiden are always a top priority for the Holy Church of Light, and the entire church must provide unconditional and maximum support. Therefore, after Phillips reported his situation to the City of the Sun using a secret technique, the Pope immediately gave his approval.

The current pope, through Phillips' report alone, keenly recognized the value of the projector and, in his reply, instructed Phillips to do his best to win over Ludd and his so-called Pantheon, and to give them appropriate benefits.

Given the strength of the Holy Light Church, they could naturally use threats to force the other party to obediently hand over the blueprints for this alchemy equipment. However, with the three major religions standing in a tripartite balance, the War God Church and the Four Seasons Church could not simply stand by and watch.

Since this Lud has taken the initiative to show goodwill and is willing to cooperate with the Holy Church of Light, there is no need to make your own behavior too ugly. Your Pope has the financial resources to be their Sugar Daddy!

Thus, the two sides quickly reached an agreement and formed a strategic partnership, with Lud's Pantheon providing technology to assist the Holy Maiden of Light in expanding her propaganda.

On the surface, it was Lude who, with an almost obsequious attitude, helped the Church of Light create a completely new propaganda system. But in reality, Lude was using the Church of Light's resources to pave the way for himself. A master of human nature, Lude, without spending a penny of his own money, got the Church of Light to build two hundred cinemas, all located in densely populated first-tier cities.

If Brothers Pictures were to rely solely on conventional business channels to open cinemas in these major cities, they would inevitably have to deal with local forces. But now that the Holy Church of Light is taking the lead, many problems will no longer exist, saving unimaginable amounts of money and time.

Both sides are very satisfied with the outcome of this cooperation.

Since returning to Pine Town from the labyrinth, Rudd has not only been collaborating with the Church of Light, but the filming of "Seven Samurai" has also gotten back on track.

It's already early May, and Lu De hopes to complete all filming by the end of October, then spend two months on post-production editing. He plans to release the film in theaters at the end of the year, when most city dwellers are at their most idle and bored, and rake in a huge amount of audience faith and wallets.

Concurrently with film production, Brewster College established its Film and Television Department. This new department comprises four divisions: Acting, Cinematography, Directing, and Screenwriting.

The acting and screenwriting departments were existing disciplines. The screenwriting department was originally called the literature department, but they were all elective interest courses because no students came here specifically to study it. In most people's eyes, being an actor is not a respectable profession, and writing novels is a pastime for the wealthy. Who could support themselves from that?

Now that the film industry is officially starting, in the spirit of planning ahead, Ludwig is making the world's first official film while establishing a film department in his school to train the first batch of professionals.

However, the public's old ideas cannot be changed in a short time. Therefore, after the establishment of the new department, the first batch of students in the four disciplines totaled less than fifty people. Not only were there a shortage of students, but there was an even greater shortage of teachers!

The acting department was relatively easy to manage. Lude directly asked Servis for people, first giving her the title of "professor" and treating her like royalty, and successfully obtained four veteran actors from the Rainbow Dance Company to serve as teachers.

Since directing and cinematography were entirely new professions, Lu De had to take on the roles himself. With his abilities, he wouldn't even qualify as a mediocre person on Earth, but he certainly knew more than the clueless people from this other world.

As for the scriptwriting department, Lude originally wanted to bring over that strongman from Sansla who had been crying and begging to become his apprentice in Yanmu City, but that guy ran away again! He left a letter during the Rainbow Dance Troupe's tour in the capital saying that he had some important things to do, and then disappeared again.

With no other option, Lu De, who couldn't gather enough teachers, had to take on the role of teacher for all three subjects himself, leading all forty-seven students in the film and television department to learn and practice on the film set.

It's worth mentioning that Erma, the "genius girl" who enrolled in the first half of this year, volunteered to study both directing and cinematography. This is because just last month, Lude organized a group screening in the school auditorium, showing the cinematographic version of "The Count of Monte Cristo" to the entire school.

Elma immediately fell in love with movies, and after the department was officially established, she was the first to sign up, truly living up to her bold statement during her enrollment interview.

"I want to learn them all!"

Lude had to admit that this genius girl, who was less than 1.2 meters tall, was really smart. She could learn almost anything after seeing it only once, and she would immediately ask questions when she didn't understand something. Some of her questions were quite tricky, leaving Lude at a loss for words. In the end, everyone on set both liked and feared this clever little girl.

On the film set, today's highlight is a duel in the town, corresponding to the one-on-one fight between Kyuzo and Nobushi in the original movie.

In the original movie, Kyuzo is the strongest fighter among the Seven Samurai. He is a ruthless and taciturn man, and can be said to be the embodiment of the perfect samurai in director Akira Kurosawa's mind.

In Ludlow's remake, Kyuzo is renamed Murphy, a wandering knight whose first impression is that of a handsome, weathered older man. However, to Ludlow's dismay, the Rainbow Dance Troupe, after undergoing a round of personnel reorganization in Yanmu City, couldn't find any actors who met his expectations during auditions.

Fortunately, at that moment, Captain Ados, the knight, happened to pass by. Rudd took a liking to this middle-aged knight in his thirties at first glance, as his appearance and temperament perfectly matched Rudd's expectations.

Ados initially objected, stating that he was a knight loyal to the Baron and dedicated to protecting the town's peace, and how could he neglect his duties to become an actor? He refused to agree no matter what Rudd said.

However, Lud did not give up. He first went to talk to Lady Srina and got her to agree. Then he took out a super cool and powerful enchanted greatsword, waved it in front of Ados, and asked him if he was interested.

Upon learning that neither the Baron nor the old lady objected, Athos, a paragon of chivalry and unwavering integrity, officially joined the Seven Samurai cast as a "guest actor" outside the troupe.

After filming several scenes, Ludwig had to admit that inviting Ados to play Kyuzo was an absolutely correct choice. The old man didn't need to have any superb acting skills; he just needed to be himself in front of the camera.

Before the official filming began, Lu De first called the main actors to his side and explained the scene to them.

In its localization process, Lu De's version of "Seven Samurai" chose the historical setting of over three hundred years ago, a special period immediately following the end of the War of the Gods. This was because the world situation at that time was very similar to Japan's Sengoku period, a time of great chaos where the old order had just been destroyed and a new order was still being established.

The story takes place in a fictional small principality where the Grand Duke died in the War of the Gods. Local lords within the principality are constantly fighting each other, causing many knights to lose their lords and unfortunately become mercenaries who have to risk their lives for a living, or even degenerate into bandits who gather in the mountains.

The original duel was a sword fight between two samurai on foot, but since the remake of Rudd changed his identity to a down-on-his-luck knight, it naturally had to adapt to local customs and change it to a more chivalrous mounted duel.

However, after listening to Ludwig's explanation of the play, the actor who was to act opposite Ados objected. Riding duels are not the same as foot combat, and the props they were using were all real. It could easily lead to someone's death!

"Master! Isn't this too dangerous?"

"Don't be afraid, this scene is edited. When you two charge at each other, I'll call 'cut' just before you collide."

"Oh! Just as we were about to collide... wait a minute! You suddenly stopped, but the horse didn't stop!?"

"What are you afraid of! I have a great resurrection spell. All teams, take your positions. Scene XX, get ready to film!"

Lude coaxed and tricked him into mounting the horse. Lude sat down in front of the camera to start filming, but just then, a few people suddenly appeared in a corner not far from the set. Lude looked up and saw that it was Saint Celica and her companions.

The saintess and her entourage are currently recuperating in Pine Town, partly due to the psychological trauma left in the maze, and also to prepare for new propaganda methods.

A few young people, having nothing better to do, decided to go for a walk together. They happened to see a film being shot, so they went over to investigate.

This wasn't the first time Celica and her group had encountered filming. On their first day in Pine Town, they accidentally wandered onto a film set, almost causing a major disturbance. After staying for a few days, they headed to the labyrinth in the forest without having done any detailed research.

According to their previous understanding, a movie is simply a film made by using a camera, a kind of alchemical machine, to film the drama on stage and then project it, without the need for actors to repeatedly perform on stage.

The group went for a walk and happened to see Lu De filming again, so they went over to watch out of curiosity. Seeing the scale of the film set, they thought to themselves that this was much more realistic than a stage play.

Selica and her group were unaware that they were standing right in the shot, diagonally behind the crowd of onlookers (extras), in the upper right corner of the camera.

Lude had intended to ask them to move aside, but he quickly withdrew his hand. He suddenly thought that letting these people randomly appear in the shot might be a fun "Easter egg."

So, under Lude's orders, filming continued as usual. Lude, who was in control of the camera, tried to keep Selica and the others in the corner of the frame, or only let them flash by in fast-moving scenes. I believe that most viewers' attention will be drawn to Murphy (Kuzo) on horseback when they see this fight scene. It is estimated that viewers who watch it more than three times will notice him.

Thanks to Ados's superb horsemanship and martial arts skills as a genuine knight, this challenging horse battle was completed in one take. Ados's lance accurately pierced the feathers on his opponent's helmet, and the young man fell off his horse. Although he was terrified, he didn't even break a sweat.

After this scene was filmed, Lu De's "Cut!" was followed by enthusiastic applause. This has become a habit that everyone has developed recently during filming: after each scene is completed, they applaud to pay tribute to all the actors involved.

Inspired by this atmosphere, Selica and the others unconsciously joined in the applause.

"That knight with the red feather is quite skilled! Are actors these days all capable of this kind of martial arts?"

Unbeknownst to the group, Ados was a real knight and an amateur actor. Seeing that filming had temporarily come to an end, he walked straight toward Lud, who was not far away.

Seeing the young people walking towards him, Ludwig smiled and greeted them.

Good afternoon, everyone.

"Good afternoon, Master. How long will it take to film this movie? Will we be able to see it before we leave Pine Tree Town?"

"I'm afraid that won't work. If everything goes smoothly, the filming alone will take five to six months, and then editing will take another two months or so. The earliest it can be released will be the end of this year. The entire film is expected to be three and a half hours long."

"What? Eight months of work, and the final product is only three and a half hours long? That's way too short!"

"Hehe! You won't care how long the movie is when you need to go to the bathroom in the theater. By the way, if any of you have the time, how about coming over to play a few roles for fun?"

Lude's idea was to have Celica and others play cameo roles in his film, and then ride the wave of popularity once the film was released. However, to his slight disappointment, although the young people were very interested in the film, they were reluctant to become actors.

After all, traditional views still exist, and being an actor is not considered a high-class profession, while these young people all come from aristocratic backgrounds.

Even Prince Livy, who came from the Canary Islands, said that although opera was very popular in his hometown and was one of the favorite forms of entertainment for the wealthy and powerful, the nobles' participation was limited to the creation of scripts and music, and they generally did not perform on stage themselves.

Of course! It's not to say that there were absolutely no nobles who actually did this, but these mavericks would generally be classified as "freaks".

Since the group wasn't interested in playing minor roles, Lude didn't force them. Anyway, the Holy Maiden and her party would be staying in Pine Town for quite some time, and Lude had already secretly prepared more than one plan to make full use of them to benefit the local area!

The following morning, a group of familiar faces arrived in Pine Town. It was the delegation from the Three-Person Tower, led by the water magic master Debra. Last winter, the Three-Person Tower had signed a cooperation agreement with Brewster Academy in Ludwig to jointly develop "new applications of next-generation magical technology."

To put it bluntly, the core objective of this plan is for both sides to brainstorm together and see if they can come up with something new and different from the past when it comes to magic.

According to this agreement, the Three-Person Tower will open a branch within Brewster Academy and regularly send mages there for rotation.

Out of respect and importance, the first batch of dispatched mages consisted of a full thirty people, and Master Debra, one of the three chief mages, personally led the team. However, as soon as this woman arrived, she went straight to the temple to ask Rudd for the people. During her stay in Pine Town, Rudd's disciple Hydra had to learn magic with her.

Because Hydra was a humanoid monster lord, her water magic talent was off the charts. Debra, who was also a water magic grandmaster, was immediately captivated by her and decided that this girl was the perfect apprentice for her.

Hydra was terrified of the female mage who had once beaten her up at sea and had no desire to have anything to do with her. However, her despicable master betrayed her in an attempt to win over the three-person tower, and Hydra became Lud and Debra's "shared disciple".

The arrival of the three-person tower mage group surprised the saintess's side somewhat.

It's important to understand that the relationship between the magical and religious communities has never been harmonious. Priests look down on magicians, believing that divine power is superior to magical power, and daring them to challenge them to a duel. Magicians, in turn, generally dislike priests, viewing them as mere dogs kept by the gods, questioning the arrogance of borrowed power.

In short, the two sides have been at odds for a long time, and the higher the level of the magician, the more obsessed he becomes! Hamilton of the Three-Man Tower is well-known throughout the religious world for his undefeated record in verbal battles.

This old man is evenly matched with anyone in a fight, but he's never lost when it comes to insults!

To everyone's surprise, this notorious (within the religious sphere) rogue group of mages was able to cooperate so closely with the Pantheon, a scenario that was unimaginable before.

Upon arriving in Pine Town, the mage group from the Three Towers also discovered the Holy Maiden and her entourage of the Holy Church of Light. Fortunately, this time it was Debra who led the group, not Hamilton, that hot-tempered madman, so the initial contact between the two sides was relatively friendly.

It's worth mentioning that Debra actually knew Celica's mother, and they seemed to be old acquaintances. She asked Celica how "that woman" was doing lately.

The arrival of Debra and her group of mages further increased Lud's already packed schedule. Filming required him, further negotiations with the Church of Light required him, and the collaboration with the Three-Person Tower on developing new technology was equally indispensable. Add to that other miscellaneous tasks, and Lud felt like a spinning top, constantly being whipped around by the lash of "work."

Faced with such a high workload, even with the blessing of divine magic, Lude's body wouldn't break down anytime soon, but his mind was beginning to suffer. So recently, Lude has been delegating as many less important tasks as possible to those around him.

On this day, Shanis was ordered to go to Qingshui Village in the east of the town to preside over a mass wedding for eight couples.

This practice of everyone getting married on the same day is a new custom that has emerged in recent years under the influence of Lud. The whole village organizes the wedding together, and all that is needed is a word from the Pantheon, which will send a priest to officiate the wedding without charging any fees.

Given Lud's current busy schedule, he was naturally too busy to be the master of ceremonies, so Shanis volunteered to take over. Since wedding blessings fell under her divine jurisdiction, this trip could be considered a "feast" in every sense of the word!

However, Shanis wasn't alone on this trip; Aina, who had insisted on coming along at the last minute, was also with her. The two goddesses each rode a small donkey, slowly making their way along the country lane.