Editing: Importing the sounds from Incompetech

The team were unable to come into school to edit so I was tasked with testing and importing the different sounds that we had all chosen from Incompetech to see what would suit the scenes more. 

To create a calm atmosphere I used a tranquil, guitar piece called 'Ripple' which sounded oriental so it fit the Japanese theme. This wasn't hard to choose in comparison to the scenes where the problem begins to develop.

For the walking scene I imported a heavy, metallic sound called "Melancolith" which continues throughout the development.  

VLOG: Slapping scene and Fight Showdown

ACTORS

• Yakuza member - Eugene Laureta
• Kato Maki/Father - Francois Francisco
• Kaya Maki - Chantelle Anonuevo

SCENES

• Kaya's father slaps her across the face for her disobedience
• A fight ensues between Kaya and an unknown Yakuza member

SHOT LIST

• 2-shot 
• Reaction shot (Extreme close up)
• Tracking shot
• Mid-shot/Profile shot
• Perspective shot
• Low angle shot

For the slapping scene we filmed inside my living room and for the fighting showdown, we filmed in a nearby carpark. 

James was in charge of directing and filming the fighting scenes while Chandler, Jasmine and I filmed and directed the slapping scene. Today we used the tripod to stabilise the camera during the 2 shot and when it came to the perspective and profile shots I held the camera.

Slapping Scene

We directed Francois to remove his glasses before backhanding Chantelle; I suggested he do this so that when the audience watch the trailer, they immediately focus on his hand even before he slaps her. We were a little concerned about this scene because we didn't want Francois to hurt her so we rehearsed the scene a few times before he really did slap her. We agreed to improve the sound effect on Adobe premiere by downloading a non-diegetic slap sound. 

We also spent a few minutes voice coaching Francois because he had to say: 
Anata no basho o shitte iru (TRANSLATION: Know your place) 

Fight Showdown 

The sun was shining and the warm breeze was refreshing, it was a perfect day to film outside. We tasked my brother, Eugene, with the fighting choreography. To give him some idea of what we needed, I explained that Chantelle had to win the fight. We gave him a few minutes to teach Chantelle a few moves while James, Chandler and I discussed the different shots. We also planned to speed up some of the motions in case they were too slow. 

James tracked the fighting choreography in a circular motion to give the illusion that the camera rotated 360 degrees. The result was a seamless fighting sequence. 

To conclude the scene, James filmed Chantelle punching Eugene unconscious using a perspective shot. 

As with Francois, we voice coached Eugene and Chantelle because of the Japanese dialogue: 

Dono yo ni fukaku watashitachi no rutsu? (TRANSLATION: How deep are your roots?)

and 

 Sono fukakunai. (TRANSLATION: Not that deep)

Editing: Cross cutting the bar and car scenes

To engage the audience more, I thought it would be a good idea to cross cut the car scene and the bar scene because the car scene shows what she is capable of which answers her dialogue "It's funny how they don't know what I'm capable of".

I asked the group about what they thought about this before editing, however they weren't sure how to visualise what I meant so I edited the footage to show them. 

Using the razor cut tool I cut the parts I wanted from each scene and pieced them together in this order:

Car scene: Walking into car
Bar scene "it's funny how they don't know what I'm capable of"
Car scene "is this all I need?"
Bar scene "they don't", *glass clink*
Car scene "Yes kaya-sama"
Footage of photographs over the dialogue from car scene "get rid of these rats and you'll gain the yakuza's approval"

Case Study: 'Equalizer'

VLOG: Kazuo Fighting Scene

Location: 3rd Floor Indoor Balcony 

We realised our antagonist, Kazuo, only appeared in our trailer once so we planned to film a short scene of Marcus fighting someone to show his strength.

ACTORS

• Kazuo Maki - Marcus Francisco
• Guy being beaten up - Chandler Idos

SCENES

• Kazuo punches the guy in the stomach and kicks him on the ground

SHOT LIST

• Over the shoulder shot
• Close up shot
• Perspective shot
• Low angle shot
• Long shot

We picked this location because the balcony is very narrow; the person being beaten up looks cornered and chances of escape looked slim. I filmed this scene using the shaky camera technique to convey a sense of panic. 

This scene had to be very fast paced however we filmed some shots with the intention of speeding up the footage. 

Chandler looked unrecognisable without his glasses and the hood hid most of his face so he looked like a completely different person.

Audience Feedback on Ancillary Tasks

Constructing the production logo: Zen Productions