After the meeting, I walked around the town for a bit to see the sights. What Marlon said turned out to be true—the townspeople are having a hard time financially. I don't think it's as bad as an economic depression as the faces of the people I saw were quite neutral and some were in fact happy. But I discovered that their happiness was just based on an optimistic hope for the future with the mayor's rule. It seemed the mayor has been doing a great job rebuilding the town's economy after the dragon incident ten years ago. Although I have not listened to the full details of the event yet.
I had breakfast at the tavern from last night. Oddly enough, I expected something more exotic considering I'm literally in another world. But looking at this country's similarities to medieval Europe, The food is quite recognizable as I just ate regular bread and milk that I'm familiar with. If you're wondering how I paid for my meal if I didn't have any money, a local leather-clothed soldier approached me near the town square to send me the business permit and by Marlon's kindness, he also sent me some money—15 coppers to be exact. That's already enough for around three days worth of meals and considering that I'll hopefully earn even more money soon, my situation is already looking quite great.
The business permit was in the form of a scroll detailing the Magus Association's sponsorship of my business in this town of Brent. It had an expiry date of 15 Merde. It seemed that 'merde' was part of this world's calendar system. I later found out that it's currently the month of Eleveen, the fourth month of the year. The Grandean Calendar as they call it consisted of twelve months: Jule, Yaks, Buk'tar, Eleveen, Merde, Nai, Yarna, Yarni, Ikvan, Relt, Ivan, Prun. It's also the year 1905.
Anyway, I did not just stroll around for fun, I also started to plan out for tonight's first public showing. I have decided to price one ticket for 1 copper. Since the lowest denomination was already one copper as well, I hope this would increase the attendance rate and therefore increase the number of heart points that I obtain and also the word-of-mouth of my theater. Unfortunately, I could not afford to rent a building yet or even place dozens of seats for my audience so they would have to sit on the ground.
The town square was quite lively by the day even with the stagnating economy. It's no wonder as the place was literally the community center of the town. Kids would play around with their friends, shop vendors would sell their goods, and other activities were being held here. I say this again but this was not a sight one would expect from a town that is having a hard time financially.
Also, I also tried to ask around for the details of what happened ten years ago with the dragon attack since Marlon wouldn't tell me. But as soon as I even mention the tragedy, people's smiles would disappear from their faces and they would refuse to elaborate more. It seemed I would truly have to wait for the mayor to arrive next month.
It was now nearing the evening and the skies have turned orange. Nightlife practically doesn't exist in this town so all of the street vendors here would pack their goods to head back home by the end of the day. This would leave me with a large amount of space I could use for my theater. But that's also a problem, the night was not a time period where people go out of their houses with the exception of men and husbands who spent their night in the taverns. The street was also not well-lit at night with only a few torches here and there. While the dark was an ideal environment to watch a film, it's hardly an inviting environment for these medieval people.
With a few strange glances on my way, I finished setting up all the equipment I needed. At this point, the street vendors were already packing their goods to head back home. I thought this would be a good time to advertise the theater a bit so I started to shout something.
"Attention the generous and happy people of Brent! Tonight, I will be conducting a special entertainment show called a 'film'. This would be a spectacle like you've never seen before! You will witness wonderful storytelling, hard-hitting action, and incredible visuals! The price is only one copper for a ticket! Get your tickets now!" I shouted. What I received was instead the bewilderment of the witnesses. They thought I was just another salesman trying to sell something so not everyone truly heard what I just said. But the few that did hear me had varying reactions.
"One copper? For something, I don't even know about? Give me a break. I have a family to feed" A man said with contempt.
"Mommy! I want to see the show!!!" A little girl nudged the skirt of her mother. "No! did you hear sweety? the show would be in the night! You know what roams the street at night? scary monsters!" The mother replied. "Aaaaah I don't wanna go to the show anymore!" The girl said in fright.
But there were also some positive reactions from a few individuals.
"Entertainment? In this backwater town? Well shit, I might be interested" A middle-aged man said.
"He said something about storytelling? Hey, we should go to this show to see how it is!" A teenage girl said to her friends.
After my embarrassing advertisement, I was approached by a soldier who was guarding the town square. He was asking for my business permit. Of course, I showed him my business permit and he went on his way. Everyone thought I was crazy, huh?
**
The dark night soon arrived and no one has shown up yet. I was starting to become pessimistic. What if no one showed up? The humming of the generator was the only thing keeping me company. I even thought of just starting the film myself. Yojimbo was after all one of my favorite films with endless replayability so I could never be bored with it.
Suddenly, I saw a group of people approaching. It was Leo and his friends again but with more people this time.
"Hey! As I promised, I brought my friends!" Leo said cheerfully.
"I also brought my children this time! Haha, you wouldn't believe how hard it was to convince my sons to go out of the house at night. They're scared of the dark!" A man with three children behind him also said.
In total, there were around 25 people this time. A substantial amount of viewers considering I didn't expect anyone to come.
"Thank you so much, everyone! Uh...." I said. I trailed off as it was now awkward that I have to ask them to pay to see the film.
"You want us to pay right? Don't worry, man! I also want to support your business. How much is it? Hey, we'll pay right?" Leo said and asked the people around him.
"Right!" The ones who answered were the five people who watched the film yesterday. As for the other 19 people, they were still skeptical about this entire thing.
"It's one copper for a ticket," I answered.
"A copper?" A leather-clothed soldier said with disdain.
"Yes. I'm sorry but that's the price. It's fine if you don't want to watch the film..." I said.
"Tch. Fine. I got roped into this by these hooligans anyway. I'll see if their ridiculous claim can be trusted." The soldier replied.
Soon enough, they lined up to pay me the ticket. And so the first showing gained me 25 coppers, which was quite a substantial amount. This would mean if I keep a stable attendance of 25 people, I would gain 7.5 silver a month, which was already more than triple the amount of the average monthly income here. But of course, I knew this was also going to be a problem in the long-run.
Why was it a problem? Because I have a limited amount of films on my hard drive. I only have 30 films to be exact. And out of those 30 films, I would say only 10 films or so are suitable enough to be shown to a fantasy medieval audience. As I said before, I can't just show them something like Blade Runner which was set in a cyberpunk world to an audience of medieval peasants. That's like showing footage of modern cities to a group of cavemen. Back on earth, you could get away with showing incredible spectacle on film since we were all familiar with how films were made—artificially. If I show them something too out-of-this-world, they might turn on me. Films like Yojimbo, which was set in the Samurai Era, could be easily explained as the level of technology is similar. Heck, the setting of Yojimbo seemed even more backward than the Orient Republic that I am currently on.
Back on topic, I would surely run out of films to show. Sure, I can repeatedly do re-runs of those 10 films but there would come a time where people would just be too tired of watching the same thing over and over again so surely they would stop watching films entirely and find other things to do. This was also my main incentive on why I should make films in this world as well. Stable income aside, it was also in my blood as a film director be creating even more films.
"Hey, mister! Is it ready?" A kid called out to me in an impatient tone. I was too busy with my thoughts while setting up the laptop to show the film.
"Yes!" I answered. I walked to the front of the screen to announce something.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, I humbly welcome you to my film theater! Of course, many of you here don't even know yet what you're about to witness. But I guarantee that you will leave this place today a changed person! You're about to watch the greatest medium of entertainment in this continent! There will be a time when films will be spread far and wide and YOU people will have the pride of being the first people be entertained by the magical world of films.
The film you are about to watch is called Yojimbo, the title itself means Bodyguard. It is a film made by a master of my lands. It tells the story of a wandering lone warrior who stumbled upon a city ruled by two evil gangs! I will leave it at that. Enjoy the film!" I announced with passion. I did have a knack for public speaking back on Earth so I hoped my speech entered the heart of these people. I received some unenthusiastic applause but I just snickered since I knew these people were about to be blown away.
I started the film and the credits started rolling. A repeat of the confused reaction by the row of texts at the start of the film occurred again. And then the opening scene of the Ronin's throwing the stick up into the air started and everything changed.
"What the hell!? A person!" A man shouted.
"Wow! That man looks really strong daddy!" A kid said to his dad.
"Hmph! What can he do with that thin sword? It would break easily!" The man replied. But his face betrayed his sarcastic speech as it was full of wonder.
The film went on after that. The ronin's first fight with the hooligans received shocked reactions from the local soldiers as they admired the intricate swordsmanship. Although those were just clever editing and choreography, they seemed to believe that it was real. The ronin's clever tricks to fool the gangs also received a few laughs from the audience. When the Ronin was captured and tortured, the audience collectively gasped and started to feel tense. Some even tried to run up to the screen to help the wounded warrior. After the film's ending, everyone went silent. And then, everyone stood up to give an applause.
".....That was...." A woman soldier muttered.
"That was incredible! I want to see it again! Wow!" A soldier shouted in joy.
"Brandon! I am still getting goosebumps after seeing it a second time!" Leo also told me with joy.
"Daddy! I want to be a warrior like him one day" A kid said again to his dad.
"He was truly a worthy warrior for sure!" The father replied.
I also had something to announce so I walked to the front again.
"Ladies and gentlemen! I will be showing a different film tomorrow! Were you excited about this film? Then you're in for a treat because tomorrow we will see another journey of the same warrior in a film called Sanjuro!" I announced. Sanjuro was the relatively unknown and very underrated sequel to Yojimbo. Although the cinematography and storytelling was a bit lacking from the original, I found the sequel to be even more entertaining than the first one.
"I will definitely come again tomorrow!" Someone said.
"So what we just witnessed was called a 'film'? I will definitely spread the word!" A soldier also said.
"I will tell all of my friends!" A kid also said in a happy tone.
And so, the first public showing of the film theater went extremely well. After everyone left, I was left alone to think about the future's plan again. I could not be satisfied just yet. Although I have gained some money from tonight's showing, I need to carefully plan out what's next on the table.