VLOG: 4th Day of Filming // Flashbacks, Bowing, Dinner, Tattoo scenes

ACTORS:

• Child version of Kaya Maki - Venice Anonuevo 
• Child version of Kazuo Maki - Tyresse Anonuevo 
• Young Kazuo's Karate teacher - Raymond Pham
• Tattoo artist - Ranch Clemeno
• Kaya Maki (protagonist) - Chantelle Anonuevo
• Kazuo Maki - Marcus Francisco
• Kato Maki aka Head of the gang and Father - Francois Francisco  
• Kaya's bodyguard/henchman - Chandler Idos 
• Kazuo's bodyguard/henchman - James Tuano

SCENES: 

• Childhood flashback scene of Kaya Maki tending to the bonsai tree
• Childhood flashback of Kazuo (Kaya's older brother)
• Present day Kaya tending to the bonsai tree
• Tense dinner scene
• Bowing to head of yakuza scene
• Tattoo scene

PROPS:

• Bonsai tree
• Plates
• Cutlery
• Glasses
• Marker pens

2 weeks prior to filming, we asked our friends: Nina and Patrick, for permission to film at their houses. Coincidentally, both of them owned bonsai trees though we favoured Nina's bonsai tree over Patrick's. Venice doesn't own a kimono so we asked Chantelle to dress her up in a dress; we picked the middle dress. 

We decided to film at Nina's house first because it is closer and we anticipated that the time taken to film the shots with the bonsai tree in her garden would not take as long as filming the acting at Patrick's house. 

Our child actor, Venice, is the younger version of Chantelle's character. Venice wore a gold dress to project the wealth of the Yakuza. Jasmine and I worked together to film this scene at different angles so that the flashback would seem realistic once we piece together the footage during the editing process.  

After we filmed the flashback scene in Nina's garden, we took a train to Patrick's house. The majority of our day consisted of filming there because his house is adorned with oriental ornaments and elaborate furniture. 

We all took turns filming different scenes, Jasmine filmed the dinner scene to showcase the tension between the siblings, James filmed the tattoo scene, I filmed the bowing scene where Chandler and James bow to Francois to establish power and authority, while Chandler filmed the flashback karate scene.







Unfortunately, Francois had to leave early and Marcus arrived after he left so we had to schedule another day to film Francois.

Other than the bowing scene, I was tasked to draw the tattoo on Chantelle's back so we bought some permanent markers from the 99p store and I Google searched some images of existing tree tattoos for inspiration so it stays relevant to 'The Bonsai Tree'.

A lot of the tattoos were accentuated with Kanji - Japanese writing so I decided to include some. The Japanese characters on her left side say 'Loyalty' (I used Google Translate to copy the characters) which is a key theme in our trailer. 

To establish tension and conflict between the two siblings, we arranged to film a scene where a negotiation between Kaya and Kazuo goes wrong during the start of a dinner. Kaya slams her glass of water while saying "NO!" as an act of defiance.

VLOG: 3rd Day Filming // Enemy pursuit scene

ACTORS

• Kaya Maki - Chantelle Anonuevo
• Enemy 1 - Daniel Windele

SCENES

• Chantelle raising a gun to the camera
• Chantelle running from Daniel and kicking him down

SHOT LIST:

• Low angle shot
• Perspective shot 
• Tracking shot (running)

Today James was behind the camera filming our female protagonist Chantelle. We realised that there needed to be more action scenes so we asked Daniel to be the enemy pursuing our female protagonist.

We weren't happy with the perspective shots from inside the room because we could not get enough light so we decided to go outside. Jasmine assisted James with the lens settings because James wanted to experiment with the focus. We wanted to know whether a shallow focus or a deep focus on the gun would be more effective.

In the end we decided to go with the deep focus because it creates a sense of mystery: the person holding the gun is unrecognizable until the last second when their face and the gun come into focus. 

Daniel's staircase scene was not in the original storyboard but taking on the advice of our teachers, we needed more characters so we added a villain. 

In the next scene we will be filming the flashback scene of the main protagonists and the initiation/tattoo scene as well as the dinner table scene. 

VLOG: 2nd Day Filming // Smoking scene

ACTORS

• Kato Maki - Francois Francisco

SCENES

• Blowing smoke into the camera

PROPS

• One cigarette

This week Chandler was in charge of filming the smoke scene courtesy of Francois who will be the father of our main protagonists. As I am in charge of location scouting, I suggested we film in front of these wooden boards that were painted black so the background doesn't subtract any attention from the actor's performance. 

The shot is exactly how I drew it on the storyboard which is an extreme close up of the actor's face, only revealing the bottom half of his face to create a some ambiguity. The use of a close up also intensifies the frame because the main focus is on the actor blowing the smoke directly at the camera.

  It was my turn to document the process of filming this week :) James and Jasmine acted as barriers so that the smoke would blow directly into the camera and not in an undesired direction.

However, containing the smoke proved to be quite difficult LOL:

But in the end we managed to film the shot we were satisfied with: 

We were pleased with this shot because the ambient lighting was perfect which was a step up from last week because we had some issues with the lighting indoors. On the next day of filming, we intend to film the female protagonist fighting and using a gun to threaten an enemy.

VLOG: 1st Day Filming // Gangster Walking Scene

On the first day of filming my media group gave to me..... Some actors for The Bonsai Tree :)

From left to right: Roden, James, Marcus, Joseph and Brandon.

Apart from the perspective shot, for the majority of filming today, the camera was mounted on the tripod. We explored different camera angles and tripod levels to achieve a wide variety of shots to choose from when we move on to editing. 

We cast James as our male protagonist's confidante. In this shot we strategically positioned James on Marcus' right hand side to demonstrate this. His character will be more obvious in the other scenes that we plan to film. This wasn't originally in the storyboard however after getting some feedback from our teacher, we decided to add more characters. 

Chandler was in charge of vlogging and I was the director and location scout.

SCENES

• Gangster squad walking
• Marcus shooting someone
• Mirror scene 
• James being threatened

SHOT LIST

• Long shot
• Group shot
• Perspective shot (low angle)
• Establishing shot
• Tilting
• Tracking

PROPS

• Gun

Today the cinematographer was Jasmine. For the establishing shot we decided to position the "gang" behind the male protagonist (Marcus) in a V formation; this allowed him to stand out as the authoritative figure in the front and centre when they all walk forward in sync. 

The costumes also determine the status of the characters within this group shot; Marcus is the only actor wearing a coat and scarf while the actors behind the male protagonist are all wearing black suits to illustrate the Yakuza.

We didn't want the actors to stay out in the cold for too long so before we filmed the real shot, a rehearsal was carried out inside. 

Jasmine was able to play around with the framing and suggested Marcus should walk towards the camera and look straight into the lens as if to stare down the viewer. 

Meanwhile I directed the actors in the way they moved and to control their facial expressions to convey a sense of superiority and confidence when walking towards the camera. 

When we got outside the actors knew exactly what to do because we briefed them beforehand. As a group we all carefully viewed the footage and pointed out any errors or issues.

One main issue was how much we needed to move the tripod further away from the group so that the long-shot did not crop out their heads.

This low angle showed the victim's inferiority while Marcus looked powerful, holding the gun towards the victim's face. It took some time for Marcus to get the hang of jerking his arm back when pretending to shoot the gun but we eventually captured a shot we were happy with.

We also filmed an over the shoulder shot of Marcus looking at himself in a grand mirror. This was important for mise-en-scene as we had to establish the luxurious lifestyle in which our characters live in.

For this staircase scene, the over the shoulder shot of James cowering and being held at gun point shows concealment. The staircase is a compact place so it was perfect for shooting a scene where one of the main characters seems to be threatening his own. This scene will surely evoke curiosity in the audience and conveys mystery.  

Character Profiles

Originally, we wanted the Yakuza members, of Asian origin, to be aged 30-50. However, we were unable to find any willing participants. We had to ask our friends to be part of our trailer instead. 

Final Drafts and The Process: Magazine Front Cover and Poster

Here is the feedback  I received from my tutor about my magazine: 

"I think the cover has a brilliant image but the sizing and wording of the sell lines needs more attention as does the additional images - they are fading into background too much and need something to pull them out to differentiate them from the main image" 

From the feedback I received from my teacher and peers, I decided to strip my magazine front cover of the sell lines and external images. I was told that the stills of different movies detract from the main image therefore I got rid of them and decided to redraft the sell lines and the font I used because it looked too basic. 

Starting with a blank canvas (almost), main changes include the headline typography to match the film poster, image has been darkened - shadows and highlights intensified in contrast. Addition of Twitter and Facebook links above barcode and slogan/issue number above the masthead in small writing.

Experimenting with typography and potential colour schemes. Playing around with the layout, position of sell lines and space around the main image.

Change of typography and colour scheme again, addition of language and features, inclusion of symbols i.e. arrow. Choosing fonts is not my forte so I read an article on the most popular fonts used by designers and came across the Franklin Gothic font. It is a Sans Serif bold font which suited the house style of my magazine better than the font I used in the first draft and in the drafts above.

 I also experimented with the colour scheme because my first draft was too plain. This time around, I used a vibrant mustard yellow, an intense orange with hints of red, white and grey. Eventually I decided to just use the original colour scheme and hints of red and white. 

From start, to redraft, to the final drafts 

Final Drafts: I reverted back to the original colour scheme because it complimented the darkness in the images. I also changed the font from Franklin 'Gothic to Antonio' and added an additional features such as links to twitter and facebook, an arrow button and a plus sign. 

1

2

After reviewing the arrow, I realised it hindered the effectiveness of the main images because it covers a lot of the background image so I made the triangle button in the corner to replace the arrow. I also switched the position of the film list and added in two new sell lines on the right and above the headline. I removed the links below the barcode because they interfered with the alignment of the barcode and the headline.

Final Magazine Cover:

Once again I developed the colour scheme by adding red text blocks to highlight the different sell lines. I also removed the quote above the headline because it made my magazine look less professional.I added a softened black rectangle over the headline so it looks reflective and I changed the colour of the fonts so that the important parts of each sell line were highlighted.

As for the poster, here is what my tutor said:

"There is something very "tarantinoesque" about your poster which I am drawn to. A good image, iconography and well executed film titles but please fix the last line with random words and vampire diaries? 9/10 "

The main issue with my film poster was the readability of the credits (and the content) because the colour was too similar to the detailing on the kimono. 

First and foremost I stripped the image of the credits and changed the actors names because we casted new people to be in our trailer. I also darkened the area behind the actors names so that the audience would be able to read them clearly. Lastly, I repositioned Chantelle and Marcus' names in the centre because they are the main characters.

Another alteration I made involved the tagline. I translated "How deep are your roots?" into Japanese using Google Translate and accentuated the English tagline with the Kanji version in grey to strengthen the oriental theme in my poster. I was previously reluctant to use the 'Trajan' font because it is such a common font, however it looked appropriate.

On photoshop I used the smudge tool to spread the colour black that I had applied using the brush tool. This drastically improved the readability of my credits. Finally, I decided to be more generous with the production logos and I added an age restriction which I had copied and pasted from the 'WWZ' film poster because I could not find a grey version of the Paramount logo elsewhere. 

Draft 1 vs Draft 2

I covered the grey specks on the bottom left hand side using the paint brush tool on Paint.

Final Draft

Then I placed our production logo on the bottom left hand corner next to the age rating. This is the final poster:

Storyboarding

I am in charge of scouting locations, planning our filming agenda and transferring our written ideas into a visual storyboard. Ah! Pressure! Anyway, we looked at existing storyboards to determine the conventions to help us grasp the purpose and the quality our storyboard should be. 

The Plan

Here is our initial plan: 

We decided as a group to begin the trailer with a black and white close-up clip of a middle-aged man smoking, looking directly at the camera. During the editing process we will include a voice over of a man saying some things in Japanese. 

The voice-over will switch from the man to the female lead, talking about her family who happen to be yakuza (Japanese gangsters). The following scene is a flashback of the main characters and their father teaching his son how to fight; a young girl attempts to join in but is shunned by the father and son. Naturally this scene will be a longshot, we decided to shoot this scene outside because the ambient light will provide a calmer atmosphere. 

It will then cut to a bar scene where the present-day female lead is conversing with her best friend about the mistreatment she has had all her life to which her friend suggests she should prove her worth to the family. 

                                        

This is also a flashback scene. As the icon for our film is a bonsai tree we will have an upward tilt of a bonsai tree being tended by the younger version of the female lead. This will portray her compassionate nature and will help to show the negative impact the rivalry between her and her brother has had on her growing up because by the end of our trailer she is a completely different person; more vengeful and aggressive.