10 Fascinating Facts About the Making of Shogun

And we did everything within our power to ensure this show is authentic. Welcome to watch Mojo. And today we’re examining 10 interesting tidbits about the making of Shogun. We have this wonderful cast of actors, many of whom have never worked outside of Japan before. It was filmed in Vancouver. Through the magic of visual effects, we’re turning 21st century British Columbia into 17th century feudal Japan. Despite taking place in 17th century Japan, Shogun was filmed in 21st century Canada. The magic of filmmaking. A number of sets were constructed in the city of Port Moody, which is located in the heart of Metro Vancouver. The site hosted A sawmill for over 100 years, but high property taxes caused it to close in late 2020. Enter the show’s production team, who set up shop in the now abandoned property. Is this the Japan’s? Yes, according to producer Hiroyuki Sonata. Quote the whole village. The quote Castle, Stonewall, and Osaka Harbour were all constructed in Port Moody. To thank the Canadian city for hosting them, the production crew donated a Japanese white pine that was used for filming and it was planted at Port Moody City Hall, Japan. It’s here, My country, England. It’s on the other side of the world. It’s the most expensive production in FX history. I am sitting on 1,000,000 dockets that has to get to Macau. I won’t lose this wind. FX has hosted a number of acclaimed shows, including The Americans, Fargo and American Horror Story, but of them all, Shogun is far and away the most expensive. The specific budget has not been released, but for the sake of comparison, the original 1980 miniseries was made for $22 million, about $80 million today. I’m Father Sebastian and you are a heretic Dutchman Pirate. How did you get here? According to Bill Bradley of Adweek, Shogun is quote the most expensive show in FX history, and that includes the $7,000,000 they spent on a 32nd Super Bowl ad in 2024. The modern adaptation is not only more ambitious than the 1980 original, it’s also filled with digital effects, so its budget is likely well within 9 figure territory. I do couldn’t see the con my daughter. There were two different production crews. I believe that’s the reason they brought me on board along with groups of Japanese advisors. Shogun is a show that blends East and West and it’s filmmaking was just as culturally inclusive as it’s story. According to the chairman of FX Content, John Landgraf, the show had quote two full production crews, one in English and one in Japanese, and I’ve never had a chance to work on a show with such representation and an almost exclusively Asian cast here in North America for a global audience. The cast is primarily Japanese, as is a good chunk of the crew, including producer Hiroyuki Sonata, who was adamant that the show contain authentic Japanese history. Meanwhile, husband, wife showrunners Justin Marks and Rachel Kondo are American. The show’s major theme around cultural melding was also inherent on set, Like when the Japanese caterer became very popular with the local English crew and she initially did a a small batch for the Japanese cast and then people started making requests and her job grew and grew. The Japanese extras were paid much more than usual. It is impossible to create a show off this scale for a local Japanese production. Shogun required a large number of samurai extras to depict the various armies, not to mention background characters going about their daily lives in the village. As such, the production required a team of Japanese extras and they were paid much more than they would have been in their native country. We had a boot camp, the guys had to learn Sunrise Sword fighting in Japan. It’s quite normal for extras to work for free, but if they are paid, they’re given ¥5000 a day, which is about $30.00. But on the set of Shogun, the Japanese extras were given ¥50,000 a day, the equivalent of $300. Japanese advisors were used to make the show authentic. We have 3 Masters of Gestures, and they’re experts in this time period wishing to be as authentic as possible. The production hired a number of Japanese advisors with expert knowledge in their respective fields. Virtually every aspect of the show and its characters was vetted by these advisors. For example, 3 Masters of Gesture were brought in to teach the actors how to move properly. How to wear kimono, how to walk, how to sit, how to open the surgery screen. Everything from sitting, eating, walking and opening doors was extensively studied and practiced to be as period accurate as possible. Furthermore, things like etiquette, behaviour and speaking style were taught to correctly portray the different social classes, with each distinguishing themselves in various unique ways. There was an extensive use of CGI. It’s a show with visual effects on a grand scale. It’s massive. Creating 17th century Japan is no easy task, especially in 21st century Canada. Luckily, this century has one major thing going for it, and that’s digital technology. CGI was extensively used throughout the production of Shogun, with many scenes containing some degree of digital manipulation. The use of blue screen was abundant, and entire ancient cityscapes were made on the computer. In VFX, we’re building a world that we haven’t really seen before. We’re looking at castles that don’t stand anymore, and we’re just based on like very scarce records, building them back up and creating them in VFX. Digital humans were also used to boost numbers in the army sequences, with only a handful of soldiers being real and even in scenes with practical work, digital effects were often used to spruce up the visuals and make the action more exciting. According to VFX supervisor Michael Client, the typical effects heavy show has 1000 to 2000 VFX shots. Shogun has 6000. Typically a large visual effects show, You would have, you know, 1 to 2000 visual effects shots. We’ll probably be in the realm of about 5 to 6000. The costumes were entirely handmade. I grew up in Japan. I was watching those Japanese samurai era movie or TV show. I never thought I’m going to wear that. The visuals of Shogun are breathtaking, and that extends to the gorgeous costumes. The original Shogun won an Emmy for its costuming and we wouldn’t be surprised if this adaptation followed suit. Costume designer Carlos Rosario designed every article of clothing scene on the show. Saying, quote, every single costume piece has been handmade. The costumes tell a story of their own. Carlos He got it right. Everything from the peasants modest indigo clothes to the Lord’s extravagantly colored suits were made by Rosario and his talented team, as was the beautiful armor often worn by the Samurais. Furthermore, each character was given their own specific color scheme, with Mariko often seen in whites and Grays, Yabushige in greens, and Taranaga in yellows. The show was delayed because it wasn’t good enough. FX wanted to make Shogun as good as possible, and that meant sending production into a significant delay. The show was greenlit all the way back in 2018, but it soon fell into a number of pitfalls, including a script that wasn’t quite up to snuff, and in the winter of 2019 it was announced that Shogun was being delayed. While he hasn’t gone into specifics, FXCEO John Landgraf said quote, we just didn’t think it was in good enough shape and that they needed quote to aim higher. He also claimed that, quote, the bar for what would be the best limited series had been significantly raised since 1980, all of which seemed to insinuate that FX wasn’t happy with the show’s quality. Erasmus remains home to a dozen men still looking to You Came to me for what? We cannot fulfill our mission. Don’t you see? There is nothing COVID denied shooting in Japan. Time has come for you to start making plans. An abandoned property in Vancouver was not the producer’s first choice for filming. In fact, FX wanted to shoot on location in Japan, and they were planning on doing so before COVID broke out in the spring of 2020. Good evening as we come on the air in the West tonight, President Trump addressing the American people just a short time ago as the toll of the coronavirus widens here in the US. Showrunner Justin Marks claims that quote production came to a pause when the world locked down in March 2020 and it would have been years before they could shoot in Japan. As such, they were forced to shoot the show in Canada, or, as Mark says, they had to quote, Bring Japan to us. Principal photography on the show finally began on September 22nd, 2021, a full three years after it was initially greenlit by FX. God damn English pilots, you never know when to give up. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos, or all of them. If you’re on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications. They started over from scratch. The significant delay between green lighting and filming is not only attributable to COVID, but a complete revamping of the show. An Irish writer named Ronan Bennett was originally hired as showrunner and he worked on the early versions of the scripts. But when Shogun was delayed in the winter of 2019, Bennett no longer had time to work on the show and was replaced by Justin Marks and Rachel Condo. Furthermore, FX chairman John Landgraf told Deadline that quote the scripts weren’t as good as they could be, so they completely scrapped Bennett’s work and started over from scratch. Turns out Shogun wasn’t nearly as fun to make as it is to watch. Do you have any more fun pieces of info? Let us know in the comments below. Did you enjoy this video? Check out these other clips from Watch Mojo and be sure to subscribe and Ring the bell to be notified about our latest videos.