Southern Cross Scene 

For the post-production process, I am in charge of editing the Southern Cross scene and the final scene, held in Chinatown. I may have gotten two of the most challenging shoots to edit for this production, mainly because I have limited shots to work with because of the production process that occurred. I still made it work and produced the rough cut of the project to look like this:

My process in terms of editing is sequential in the way that we shot it during production, meaning, that I set the videos according to the start of the production right until the end. After all, that is how we went during the production and followed the format of the script. The establishing shot of Southern Cross to the introduction of the characters, it was all in sequence. I did add in bits and pieces of footage that I thought would serve well, especially with the transitions between the shots and the slow-motion effects. In this edit, there is also a lot of fast cuts between the girl and the boy in the train, establishing their first point of contact. That is one of the first times I have ever edited fast cuts, rather than playing out the whole scene first from the guy’s perspective and then the girl’s perspective afterward.

In terms of the music score, I chose something quite slow, but also something that captured the moment in a sweet sense. I also wanted to have a curious tone, a tone that I would describe as a “first meeting”  as if you’re trying to know the person for the first time. There’s a sense of innocence and curiosity that comes with the music score. The music was taken from Youtube’s audio library:

Dinner for Two by SYBS 

I was lucky to enough discover free music that matched the whole tone of this train scene. On top of that, I also used ambient and background noise, as Pavina had suggested. I scouted around Youtube and found some sounds such as Rail Stations sounds, Escalator sound effects, Train tracks sound and finally a train announcement made by Metro. It was a good idea not to up completely drown out this whole scene in music (as James had suggested) so the mix of ambient noise and music was matched it really well.

Chinatown Scene 

Much like the Southern Cross scene, the editing process was very much in order and of course, followed the structure of the script. This was much easier to edit because it was straightforward and the actual process of this scene’s production was quite easy in comparison to Southern Cross.

This was probably my most favourite part to edit because of how visually pleasing this was to look at. The lights and the cinematography of this whole scene matched perfectly with my attempt of replicating a scene from In the Mood for Love. That was something that I emphasised during my film pitch, especially with the whole mood lighting (red). I also feel like that this was an essence of the kind of film I wanted to pursue – Asian films. Earlier this semester, I was talking to James about what my inspirations were in terms of my pursuit in the field of film and that in the style of Asian cinemas. This scene itself is one of the stepping stones to diving in that realm and eventually, achieving a more professional and polished look.

As for the music score, I found another perfect gem that matched this scene and the finality of it:

Touching Moment by Wayne Jones 

It is another piano score but this time, there was more build up in the song from all the drama that has built up during the entire short film. It is also a bit slower and has more gaps in between the song. As the song gets to the chorus, it matches the moment when the BOY and the GIRL finally see each other again and when he eventually gives the book to her. This song encapsulates the whole mood of the scene and was a good music score to end on. This scene purely relied on the music rather than the ambient sounds which was only heard in the beginning but other than that, it was all thanks to “Touching Moment” that wrapped up this whole scene together.