First Draft - The Bonsai Tree Teaser Poster

Question 1- split in two parts In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

Q1b) In what ways do your media products use, develop or challenge forms and conventions of real media products?

The Bonsai Tree Official Trailer

Voice Over Script

The Yakuza are defined by 3 principles. [pause]

[Japanese words are said aloud, English translation are in subtitles] 
You have to fight...
... To prove your worth 

Chusei (Loyalty ), Gaman (endurance), seigo-sei(integrity ).

It’s never been in my nature to sit down and be idle. 

It was always about obeying my father’s wishes.

But I’ve realised… 

It means nothing to me now. 

My “family” fail to notice the Yakuza blood coursing through my veins…

I have never stood a chance against my brother.

I’m tired of walking in his shadow.

I have what he has, the power, conviction and blood thirst. 

Once I’ve climbed to the top… No one can stop me

They’ve underestimated me for too long.

I will dispose of anyone who gets in my way; even if it means burying my loyalty 

Draft 2 - The Bonsai Tree

Draft 1 - Bonsai Tree Trailer

This first draft of our trailer excludes any inter-titles as well as the voice over. 

Q3 - What have you learned from your audience feedback?

Q2- How effective is the combination of your main product and ancillary texts?

Q4) How did you use media technologies in the construction, research & planning, and evaluation stages?

Bonsai Tree BTS Vlog

Production Logo / Construction - Zen Productions

Character Profiles

VLOG: Car Scene Take 2

ACTORS: 

• Kaya Maki - Chantelle Anonuevo
• Yui/double-crossing yakuza member - James Tuano

SCENES: 

• James gives Chantelle an envelope which contains the profiles of the Yakuza's enemies and rivals
• James instructs Chantelle to kill the rival gangs bosses and accomplices in order to "gain the Yakuza's approval"

PROPS:

• Envelope containing pictures of rival bosses
• Black car

SHOT LIST:

• Perspective shot
• Over the shoulder shot
• Tilting/Tracking (passing envelope)
• Tracking (Chantelle walking) 
• Close up shot

The first time this scene was shot I was unable to attend and so the group had to use a different camera when filming this scene the first tie. The footage did not have the best quality and there fore we had to reshoot it, were time the whole group were in attendance and we used my Nikon D3300, the camera we originally used for filming the majority of our scenes. Celina filmed most of Chantelle's scenes while Chandler filmed James' perspective shot, and I co-directed.

Overall as a group we found that the The DSLR performed better under the dim lighting of the car and the footage appeared significantly clearer once we reviewed the footage on Adobe Premiere.

VLOG: Dunking Filip Scene

ACTORS

• Enemy Boss - Filip Jastrebszki
• Kaya Maki - Chantelle Anonuevo

SCENES

• Kaya proceeds to torture the enemy's boss by dunking his head in water

SHOT LIST

• 2-shot 
• Reaction shot (Extreme close up)
• Fast-paced tilting shot 
• Mid-shot/Profile shot
• Perspective shot
• Close up 
• Over the shoulder shot 

PROPS

• Black Bucket
• Black Duct Tape
• Chair for Filip to sit on
• Stool for the bucket
• Towel (to dry Filip's hair after each take)
• Warm water

Todays location shot was at my house specifically my back garden, where Chantelle was dunking fillips head in a bucket of water. I has in charge of vlogging whilst Chandler was both the shooting and directing along side Celina.

Editing: Piecing together the montages

Production Logo Intro

Today Chandler and James were in charge of the production logo for the beginning of the trailer.

Vlog - Bar Scene

ACTORS:

• Kaya Maki - Chantelle Anonuevo
• Aiko (Kaya's Bestfriend) - Me, Celina Laureta

SCENES:

• Kaya confides in Aiko about her brother, Kazuo, and the Yakuza's ignorance of her capabilities 

SHOT LIST:

• Close up
• Over the shoulder shot
• Profile shot

PROPS:

• Wine/Champagne bottles
• Crystal glasses
• Flowers in vase
• Bonsai tree centre piece
• Ribena juice (as an alcoholic beverage) 

Today myself and James was in charge of filming the Bar scene. In this scene we wanted Chantelle to emphases the statement " I'm tired of walking in his shadow to make  her feelings obvious to the audience. We had to retake the close up shot of the 'cheers' scene as the glasses kept coming out of frame but eventually with the help of chandler directing the actors we were able to capture it.

 

SCRIPTING and CHANGE IN PLOT: IMPORTANT

 

We have decided to change our original plot as we thought that it would allow the plot to flow much more easily and therefore be more easy to identify what it is. In terms of the dibbling rivalry and female empowerment those will remain as key themes. Although, the scene that we have filmed we felt didn't portray their rivalry great enough. And so knowing this we went with the decision of filming some scene with dialogue although most of out trailer will be in voice over. We also brought in the element of Japanese dialogue along with subtitle as we want it to appear as authentic as possible.

 

At this point we are 80% done with filming, below is the script for the rest of the scenes we going to film:

Francois (The father and head of the Yakuza) slaps Chantelle (Kaya Maki/The daughter) 

FRANCOIS: [Backhands Chantelle across the face] 

Anata wo basho o shitte iru
(TRANSLATION: Know your place) 

CHANTELLE: [Eyes wide open, staring at the floor in shock, breathing rapidly]

[stuttering] I.. I.. J-j-just... 

                                
                          Bar scene - Chantelle confiding in her best friend (Me)

CHANTELLE: [Takes a sip out of her glass]

I am fed up of walking in HIS shadow.

ME: His?

CHANTELLE: It's funny how they don't know what I'm capable of.

ME: [Scoffs] They don't.

[Toast each other's glasses] 

Information exchange scene 
["Sama" is a Japanese honorific suffix, it is important to include this in the dialogue as it shows that Kaya Maki is still the daughter of a Yakuza boss therefore she deserves respect because she has some authority]

JAMES: [Sitting in the car, holding an envelope containing pictures of the yakuza's enemies]  

CHANTELLE: [Looks around before getting in the car]

JAMES: Kaya-sama [bows] [rises from bow] 
JAMES: [Hands Chantelle the envelope] Get rid of these rats and you'll gain the Yakuza's approval. 

CHANTELLE: [Nods in determination] Is this all I need?

JAMES: Yes, Kaya-sama.

Torture scene 

CHANTELLE: [Begins to duct tape Filip to a chair, then grabs his hair and pushes his head inside a bucket full of water for a few seconds before pulling him out]

[Coolly] Had enough?

FILIP: [Stares at Chantelle with fear in his eyes]

Fighting scene
(My younger brother, Eugene, does karate so we will have him choreograph the fighting scene to make sure it looks as if Chantelle has the upper hand against him)
Fighting ensues between Eugene and Chantelle

CHANTELLE: [Throws a barrage of punches against Eugene and eventually pins him down to the floor]

EUGENE: [Straining] Dono yo ni fukaku watashitachi no rutsu? (TRANSLATION: How deep are your roots?) aka our tagline 

CHANTELLE: [Looks down at him]

[Apathetically] Sono fukakunai.
 (TRANSLATION: Not that deep)

CHANTELLE: [Punches Eugene's face]

 

Editing: The dinner table scene // Walking scene // Running from enemy scene // Bowing scene

Today Celina and I worked together to cut and edit together the footage of the dinner scene, the running scene, the walking scene and the bowing scene because Chandler and James were unavailable. 
Firstly, we chose to edit the bowing scene because there were only two clips that needed to be put together. Once the clips were dragged onto the timeline, Celina dragged the end of the clip to cut it where we wanted the scene to change.   Celina then dragged the dinner scene clips and grouped them in the order that we wanted.  Next we moved on to editing the running scene where Daniel is kicked down the stairs by Chantelle. There were also a total of four clips for this sequence and it was the first instance where we sped up the footage because it was too slow especially when she was runningTo make the walking scene a little more interesting, we decided to have the low angle shot of just their feet sandwiched between the the tilt upwards to their faces to extend the mystery before their faces are revealed. During production we purposefully readjusted the lens when he stops walking so that it focuses on his eyes - this was so there would be time for the voice over.
 
I found out during this that as I tried to edit on premier I wasn't getting the hang of it and so for the majority of the time I would give my input verbally but had Celina to piece it together technical wise on what we both wanted the scene to look like. Yay team work ! :)

The Begining of Editing

This lesson our teacher gave us a quick tutorial on how to use Adobe Premier in which we would edit our videos on. Unfortunately we all couldn't be there apart from chandler earlier on in the day to edit and so keep you in the loop of what he was editing via our watsapp group chat.

Psychology behind editing - Kuleshov Effect ( research )

The Kuleshov Effect is a film editing (montage) effect demonstrated by Russian film-maker Lev Kuleshov in the 1910s and 1920s. It is a mental phenomenon by which viewers derive more meaning from the interaction of two sequential shots than from a single shot in isolation.

 Kuleshov among the first to dissect the effects of juxtaposition. Through his experiments and research, Kuleshov discovered that depending on how shots are assembled the audience will attach a specific meaning or emotion to it.

In his experiment, Kuleshov cut an actor with shots of three different subjects: a hot plate of soup, a girl in a coffin, and a pretty woman lying in a couch. The footage of the actor was the same expressionless gaze. Yet the audience raved his performance, saying first he looked hungry, then sad, then lustful.

Story Board

Vlog Day 2 - Smoking Scene

ACTORS

• Kato Maki - Francois Francisco

SCENES

• Blowing smoke into the camera

PROPS

• One cigarette

LOCATION

• Main street across school 

Today we deicide to shot the smoking scene which featured are actor Francois who was playing the role of the Father of our main protagonist. Here the  cinematographer for today was Chandler and Celina was the location scouter. Whilst mine and James' role was acting as barriers from the wind as it was quite windy, therefore due to this in  we weren't satisfied with the first couple of shots as there was a faintness of the smoke as he blow out as a result of the wind was affecting it. 

   

Footage Feed Back

Vlog 5 - China Town Montage

SCENES: 

• Various clips of lanterns
• People walking in China Town
• Location shots on Gerrard Street
• Behind the shoulder shot of James walking 

ACTORS:

• James - Gangster roaming the streets 

 During half-term we organised a day out during Chinese New Year in China Town to film the iconography for our trailer. Although this may not be culturally authentic, the location and mise-en-scene fits in with the overall oriental theme of our film.

For todays montage both me and James were cinematographers capturing the scenes of china town. We capture a lot of nice scenery such a the lanterns as well as some tracking shots of James and chandler. Earlier on in the day we found this extravagant Chinese restaurant that had a koi fish pond as well as bridge walk way as you entered and we thought it was perfect for us to capture.

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

Two weeks before filming the flash back scene we wanted to plan ahead therefore we arranged to film a the chosen locations as well as discuss the mise-en-scene which was Venices' Costume. Where we had to come to a group decision on which out of the three below and we all ended up deciding the middle dress was most suitable.

 

The first location was at our friends Nina's house were she was kind enough to also lend us her Bonsai tree. For the flash back scene I was head cinematographer as well as co-director along side head director Celina. We worked together to capture various shots of this scene in order to have a variety of shots that we could editing together.

 

My favourite scene I shot this day was were Venice was running out of the conservatory as the camera caught this beautiful ray of light that just made that whole shot for me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 After that we travelled to our next location which was the main family house were Celina filmed the bowing scene , James filmed the tattoo scene and chandler filmed the karate flash back scene.

 

The last scene of the day was the dinner scene which was shot and directed by me. Again I wanted a variety of shots but also to build up tension so there were a lot of close up shots I took of props such as the glass banging on the table or the gun Marcus shot to build up that tension. As well as close up of facial expression to establish the tension also between the siblings.

The Bonsai Tree Vlog 3 - Chase 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)

LOCATIONS

• Our school grounds

Before shooting we all had to prep things up for the following scene, Celina was on make up duty whilst I was on prop duty colouring in the toy gun as there were still hints of blue whilst James and Candler were preparing the filming equipment .

So at the beginning of today I was the cinematographer shooting the scene of Chantelle pointing the gun straight ahead at the camera as Marcus had previously acted out. As we wanted a kind of graphic match scene with the main protagonist and her brother. Unfortunately we had problems with the lighting and took this scene outside where we decided to swap roles, this time James was the cinematographer and I was the director in helping Chantelle get into the righting framing. Also assisting James in experimenting with the Depth of Focus as I was familiar with the setting due to this being filmed on my DSLR camera.  


 We then decided to film another scene but it wasn't originally a part of the story board. Neither the less we decided to go along with filming. James was still the cinematographer and I was the co-director along side Celina .  

The Bonsai Tree Vlog 1 - Gangster Walking Scene

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

LOCATION 

• School Grounds 

Today for filming we primarily wanted to focus on filming the gangster walking scene which consisted of 5 characters with the main actor Marcus among them who is essential to our trailer as he plays the spiteful brother in our story line.

For today my role was the cinematographer and co-director along side Celina who was also the director , James who was a part of the five actors in this scene as well as Chandler who was in charge of vlogging the whole process of today. As you can see from the vlog I suggested we practised the walking scene so that we could figure out the best formation for them as a group to be walking in. In which we decided that Marcus be placed at the front on the group and the other actors behind him in a 'V' formation in order to establish his dominant status. But this was also a chance for me to experiment with the best type of shot and angle in which was fitting to this scene.

Status was future stated through the mise en scene where Marcus was wearing completely different allowing him to stand out attire ,yet still formal, in comparison to his ' gang members ' behind him who were wearing essentially wearing the same type of clothing not making them distinctive or over baring Marcus. Primarily for this scene I wanted to capture the full essence of their presence and so I felt a Pan Shot was best in which I took from both the front a back of them for a variation of views. Through out the takes as a group we were constantly checking the footage and I was given feedback on what was good and if there were problems.

We also filmed little scenes such as the grand mirror scene in which I had many compilations with as the lighting was so bad that the camera wasn't picking us his face, no matter how much I changed the setting on the camera. As well as the Stair Case scene where I shot Marcus pushing James up against the wall with a spy shot where I placed the camera in between the stair cases ram. And last of all a low angle shot of Marcus holding a gun facing the victim ( audience ) which took many shots as I wasn't happy with how shaky it was to shoot due to how low the angle was the tripod couldn't support how low we wanted the angle.      

Teaser Poster Process - The Bonsai Tree

(Draft 3) Final Teaser Poster - Thee Bonsai Tree