Chapter 134: The Heisei Trio Takes on the Five King Beasts
"New Updates on Shinji Matou's Latest Ultraman Film: Behind the Scenes Revealed!"
As summer began, similar headlines started spreading across the internet, reminding fans that Shinji's latest work had officially entered the filming stage.
These updates were shared across major platforms like blogs, IMDb, and Yahoo, many of which were leaked by Type-Moon itself.
[This time, the story will be set in Yokohama. Currently, Shinji Matou's production team is shooting at iconic locations around the city, including Yokohama Chinatown and Minato Mirai 21!]
An article on IMDb, beginning with the line "according to the latest inside sources," vividly described the filming process and speculated on which Yokohama landmarks would be featured in the film.
Shortly afterward, a blog posted a photo of Hiroshi Nagano appearing on set in Fuyuki City with the caption "Daigo Returns!"
Even though Nagano had already completed over half of his scenes, the official announcement of his joining the cast was only now being released.
[Nagano Hiroshi's portrayal of Daigo, a fan-favorite character, returns to the Ultraman series. The last time we saw him was in Ultraman Tiga: The Final Odyssey.]
[In Ultra 8, his character's public identity will be that of a staff member at the Yokohama Tourism Bureau, but behind the scenes, he is secretly the human host of Ultraman, saving the world!]
All these half-true, half-false revelations were released with Shinji's permission, designed to spark public interest without giving too much away about the plot.
These news releases were necessary.
Everyone knew that the famous director, Shinji, had started filming his new project, and reporters were constantly swarming the set in Fuyuki City.
To prevent them from capturing any key footage, the production team and the press had established an unspoken agreement—the crew would occasionally release bits of movie news, and in return, reporters were to treat the film set as off-limits.
Currently, Shinji was filming the climactic aerial battle.
After careful consideration, Shinji decided that the final battle would pit the Ultramen against the Five King Beasts, including Alien Hipporit and Yapool.
Since the film gathered the "Heisei Big Three" (Tiga, Dyna, Gaia), it was only fitting for the Five King Beasts to make an appearance.
The aerial battle being filmed featured the Heisei Trio fighting the Five King Beasts.
And yes, the battle was actually filmed in the air!
To fully capture the dynamic aerial maneuvers of the Ultramen and monsters, Shinji used every means available to simulate flight.
For the fast-flying sequences, the actors were suspended using Medusa's Pegasus and Iskandar's flying chariot.
For the hovering combat scenes, actors stood on platforms made of Enkidu's chains.
Shinji filmed the footage, planning to edit out the chains during post-production.
While the scenes looked thrilling, the actors were actually in great danger, leaping and fighting between chains suspended in mid-air.
To prevent any accidents, the only one not bound by gravity was Enkidu himself.
The actors for Tiga, Dyna, and Gaia—EMIYA, Yan Qing, and Lancelot, respectively—had to perform the fight while grounded on the chains.
Shinji had initially hoped to cast Iskandar as Gaia Supreme Mode and Dyna Strong Type, but Iskandar's divinity made performing on Enkidu's chains difficult.
Additionally, with limited runtime, adding transformations for Dyna and Gaia would overcomplicate the film, so Shinji ultimately scrapped the idea.
As a result, Tiga was the only Ultraman with multiple forms in the film—a classic protagonist privilege.
"Hah!"
At the airfield set, Yan Qing, wearing the Tiga suit, delivered a flying kick to the head of the Five King Beast (played by Enkidu in a monster suit), who was flapping its wings in flight.
Shinji sat in his command vehicle, intently watching the live footage being transmitted to his monitor.
The massive Five King Beast continuously fired energy blasts at the three Ultramen, forcing them to keep their distance.
Whenever the Ultramen used their beam attacks, the Five King Beast would counter with Eye-Q, absorbing the beams and reflecting them back.
In the end, with a coordinated attack, each Ultraman targeted specific parts of the Five King Beast—the sections representing their respective arch-enemies—and simultaneously launched their beams, finally bringing the giant down to the ground.
The complexity and danger of this aerial action sequence were enormous.
Even though these were heroic spirits, falling from such heights could still cause serious injury.
Since they were in slime suits, they couldn't dematerialize into their spiritual forms to avoid danger.
As a result, the entire cast of heroic spirits stood on standby outside the camera's frame, ready to step in should anything go wrong.
To ensure the smooth shooting of the aerial battle, the crew had been meticulously planning for months, devising numerous contingency plans.
But Shinji was still incredibly cautious throughout filming.
He knew that no matter how skilled the heroic spirits were, accidents could always happen—especially with someone like EMIYA, who had notoriously bad luck.
Aside from safety precautions, planning out the choreography for the aerial battle was essential.
Without proper planning, the fight would turn chaotic on screen.
To avoid this, Shinji hired an animation company to create a pre-visualization of the fight.
This animated sequence served as a reference for the heroic spirit actors during filming.
Thanks to the animation, not only did the actors know exactly how to execute their fight scenes, but Gilgamesh and Medusa, who were in charge of special effects, also knew when and how to add the right beam effects, helping the entire team work seamlessly to create the best possible scene.
In fact, all of the preparation Shinji had done proved to be quite useful.
During the actual filming, Yan Qing and EMIYA made a mistake in their positioning, both landing on the same chain, causing them to lose balance and fall.
Luckily, Enkidu quickly used his chains to catch the two.
While the force of the pull dislocated both Yan Qing's and EMIYA's shoulders, it was far better than the alternative—falling to the ground, which could have cost them half their lives.
Unlike Heracles, they didn't have multiple lives to gamble with, so they couldn't risk relying on their spirit cores being durable enough.
After this minor accident, the actors took the safety measures even more seriously, and the filming pace greatly accelerated.
What was originally planned to take nine days to complete was finished in just two.
As for the ground battles, Shinji naturally opted for more conventional filming methods, with the actors wearing monster suits and engaging in hand-to-hand combat on set.
To highlight the intensity of these fights, Shinji created a platform capable of rotating in eight directions and tilting rapidly, allowing for dynamic camera angles during close-up shots.
This also turned out to be a thorough test of the heroic spirits' balancing skills.
"Master sure likes these flashy gimmicks. I can't understand why retreating during a fight requires constant backflips. Doesn't that just make it harder to pull off?" Arturia, who was watching the Ultraman suit actors dodge the monster's energy beams by backflipping, couldn't help but voice her complaint from the sidelines.
"Of course, it's because it looks amazing! Especially on the big screen—it'll be fantastic!" Shinji gave Arturia a thumbs-up while shouting.
"Master, I can hear you just fine. Do you really need to yell?" Arturia covered her ears, clearly annoyed.
"Sorry, it's become a habit lately," Shinji apologized, rubbing his ears.
For all the action scenes in Ultra 8, Shinji had used IMAX cameras.
However, once he started working with the IMAX equipment, he quickly realized what "beauty from a distance" truly meant.
There were so many limitations when using IMAX cameras.
No wonder most movies from his previous life only used fake IMAX formats to make money instead of shooting with actual IMAX cameras.
To say nothing of the noise these cameras produced while operating, which was quite the headache for Shinji.
Even though he knew from his past life that IMAX cameras were loud, and he had already tested them before filming, when he actually used them on set, he was overwhelmed by just how noisy they were.
When the camera was running, it felt like standing next to three air conditioning units.
Annoying, yes, but still bearable.
But when Shinji had to direct the crew amidst this racket, his tolerance for noise diminished drastically.
Even with a megaphone, Shinji had to shout at the top of his lungs to be heard over the noise of the IMAX camera.
After shooting just a few scenes, his voice had noticeably risen by several decibels.
Of course, the IMAX cameras weren't just noisy; their bulk also caused a lot of problems during filming.
Setting these beasts up on cranes for aerial shots was already tough, and filming handheld shots was even harder.
Although EMIYA had no issue carrying the heavy cameras thanks to his heroic spirit body, the camera's sheer size and delicate structure made things difficult.
If the camera got knocked around even a little, the shoot could be delayed for hours.
These machines were far more fragile than regular cameras, and any malfunction required a specialized team to repair.
Shinji began to regret his decision to shoot all the dialogue scenes first and save the action for later.
If an IMAX camera broke, the whole production would have to halt until it was fixed.
"This thing is way too fragile, like it'll break from the slightest touch," Shinji grumbled, even as a diehard IMAX fan.
"Um... Master," Medea, who had been observing the filming for several days, raised her hand.
"Why not let me try some reinforcement magic? That should make it more durable."
"..."
"Master, what's wrong?" Medea asked anxiously when Shinji froze.
"WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY THAT EARLIER?!" Shinji shouted in frustration.
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