Major Project – Editing Day 3

As for Friday, I had to work on music and colour grading as the big part of editing was completed today, so it felt like it was a relief to work on small stuff now.

When choosing music, I think that it has been quite a difficult task because sometimes I wanted something that sounds specifically like this, but couldn’t find it anywhere. Looking all over YouTube, and not being able to find that particular sound that goes on in my head was a challenge. With this task, I have also learnt that selecting music for videos can also mean that it can change the mood and tone of the video completely, so I took the time to carefully choose the one that I think would match with parts of the footage perfectly.

Colour grading was yet another task I was excited to learn how to do and work on. As I have seen many videos on youtube it seemed so difficult and hard to grab hold off. But I still want to know how to do it, so I took the time to rewatch and experiment with it because colour grading can make a video change completely to looking more professional. I thought that I was going to be hard, however, once I got the hang of doing it, it flowed quite smoothly that.

I would say that since the major editing was done, the task for this day quite stresses relieving and I feel like I am now nearer to the end of this long-awaited project.

Major Project – Editing Day 2

As I’ve finished arranging the footage and stabilising it the day before, I can now work on other tasks, which also included the subtitles which I shifted from last night. It wasn’t a great idea to shift even just one task because it meant that another task would have to be shifted onto the next day making handing in slower by one day.

I began by working on the subtitles, translating from Thai to English as the interviews were conducted in Thai. I had difficulty thinking and trying to switch languages because sometimes it can get complicated, therefore the use of Google Translate has helped things to become easier. The subtitles were done with the same problem of lagging due to a large file.

In addition to that task another do’s on my list was to put in the voice recordings that I have recorded to make them sound more clearer as well as adjusting the audio in the clip. This was yet another task that I had to be patient with because as the footages were cut and paste not in order, I had difficulty matching the voice recordings to the specific part of the footage, therefore it took quite a while until late at night.

With this task, I think the most difficult part was where I had to interview my grandma. As she hates being in front of the camera, I had to pretend that the camera wasn’t on, however it was recording the whole time, and the same goes with the voice recordings. On the day that I went to interview her, I couldn’t exactly list out questions to ask her like what I’ve done for the other two because she cannot cope with too many questions so in that case, my mum sat next to me to just talk about certain things so she drifted off topics from time to time, therefore with the voice recordings, as it was on at all times, the clips were quite long and I had to patiently listen to each part carefully in order to match it with the footage that I’ve chosen.

Though it took a lot of time up until late at night, I didn’t want to shift more work for tomorrow’s workload the I already have, hence I tried to stay up and finish the adjustments that I have to. Because taking the lesson from yesterday’s mistake, it wasn’t a good idea not to complete the task I set for the day and moving it for the next day, because that will just make everything slow down.

Major Project – Editing Day 1

As we get closer to the deadline, initially on the 22nd of April but with the extension, the date was extended to the 3rd of May. I didn’t want to chill and wait that long to hand it in, so I get on with editing the project.

I had a list of goals if what I have to complete for each day, especially because as we have to stay home for our best circumstances I was able to use the whole day to edit the video, beginning by arranging the footages into the storyline that I want up until creating credit at the end of the film. Subsequently, once that was done, I had to stabilise the footage as some of it isn’t smooth enough, therefore stabilising was a crucial part to make the film look more professionally made. The stabilising part was time-consuming as my computer lagged and had overheated a few times, therefore it took the most time out of that day. I initially had a plan of what I had to complete that day which includes, finish all the editing of the footage, stabilising, transitions as well as adding subtitles.

However as it was late at night, I decided to shift the subtitles work to the next day. Hence the workload of the day afterwards will increase. I thought that I had put too much task in one day, it is somewhat true, however, shifting it onto the next day wasn’t a great idea either.

Most of the task I’ve completed today was time-consuming because of the lagged computer due to heavy files, therefore things were slowed down. So therefore for the next 2-3 days, I had to try to plan out which task will consume the most time.

It was a great feeling at the end of the day to see the final film coming together, although without and music, or colour effects at all. But it felt good to see what I’ve done for the past 3 months.

Major Project – The Food Featured in the Film

Since the start of this project, I was able to take on a new skill of cooking local dishes. As a person who likes to cook, being able to cook the family’s recipe was another great opportunity that I had for this project. In addition to that, since the third wave of Covid-19 I had to stay home quite a lot to stay safe, so I was able to use my homemade soy sauce and tried making dishes that were featured as part of the documentary film. This includes the Pork Stew that my mum had talked about in her interview and also the Steamed Sticky Rice with Pork filling as well. Apart from that I also made Stir-Fried Noodles as well as Noodles in gravy sauce using my soy sauce as a part of the ingredients for all the dishes.

It was yet another fun way to take a break from the editing but also I felt proud that I was able to use the soy sauce that I made and cook food with it.

Major Project – Unpredictable Covid Situation

Initially, I had a perfect plan for the storyboard of this documentary film, however with obstacles such as copyright issues at the supermarket, where I cannot film and have their logos in it or even the price tag I had to change the plan.

However, with this time, another obstacle for this has caused a major step back as at around the end of March and beginning of April a new wave of Covid-19 has begun once again, this is the third time. With that, I was only able to go out and get some footage that I really needed. But as the number of cases has increased relatively fast, I wasn’t able to go out as much as I wanted to, so I had to use the footages that I was able to take before that. In addition to that, I had to change parts of the storyboard and add parts of the script to make the whole film link together as one piece.

This major difficulty was an unpredictable one, which I was stressed about. Hence, there is only a limited amount of time left, I had to do what I had to fix the problem and move on with the tasks that are needed to be done. As this was an unpredictable situation that no one has thought of and planned for, I have learnt the skills to solve unpredictable problems and finding ways to complete the task with whatever I have in hand, since I didn’t have a plan B in the first place. Furthermore, another important lesson that I would take from this is to have a Plan B, always. Though this isn’t an installation or something physical, I think that with everything in the future, I will always need to think of the worst-case scenario so that I could be prepared for whatever could happen. It was rough, yet gets me up on my feet to stay alert at the changes that could happen.

Major Project – Filming on Tomb Sweeping Day

Towards the end of the filming process at the beginning of April, I had a great opportunity to film at a Family Reunion which is held annually as a Chinese Tradition called “Tomb Sweeping Day” or “Qing Ming Festival”.

Tomb Sweeping Day is a Chinese tradition where a day in a year around the beginning of April, the whole family comes together to pay respect to their ancestors by cleaning the gravesites and offering authentic food as well as burning joss paper for the ones who’ve passed away. For my family’s tradition, as it was a large space, we also included the children of my great-grandparents who have passed away already as well.

This was a perfect opportunity not only because there were family members there, but it also runs along my great-grandparents side of the family as well. Therefore all of them who went to the reunion that day all had the experience with this soy sauce and are 100% related in the big family tree.

I was fully prepared that day, so I decided to make the Pork Stew with the homemade soy sauce I made as an offering for my great-grandparents. When I arrived not many people were there yet, so I had the chance to film footages at the tomb where it has both of my great-grandparents images on it. Due to covid-19 parts of the family member weren’t able to come to Phuket from Bangkok as it’s too risky, therefore not all of them are here on that day. My great-grandparents had a total of 11 children and I think 2 of 3 of them came and some who’ve passed away already. It wasn’t only their children who are there, but also the grandchildren and the third and fourth generations as well.

When most of the family members have arrived, they all ask my mum who’s doing the soy sauce and they never thought it was me. When I talked to each member about the project, it does spark the old memory lane of theirs and seeing them happy while talking about the sauce made me happy as well. From that day, I think that though the soy sauce has disappeared for a very long time, it still definitely remained in everyone’s hearts.

One of the uncles told me that he used to go to the shop and label the bottles, using tapioca flour as glue and it was an enjoyable moment for him during that time when he was young.

I quickly realised that with all of the footages that I’ve collected on that day, I think that it could potentially tell the story of the legacy of this soy sauce brand and how it acts like a strong glue that holds the family members tight and closes together, although we are now living apart with each of our own families, with the cultures and traditions it has brought it back together. So in return for the information which I’ve received and being able to film there, I decided to edit and put together a short film on the 2021 Tomb Sweeping Day for the family.

Link to Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IOkufiV9q4NX5xMtgXt5hE1Pf9NdEHnd/view?usp=sharing

Major Project – Box Mock up

As I decided to portray soy sauce as a regional identity, I thought of it as it would be a great gift or souvenir which people can buy when they come to visit Phuket. Consequently, I quickly design a box that could fit the 2041 soy sauce bottles.

I chose the style for the box to be simple and minimal as this could help boost up the value of soy sauce and make it look more of a luxurious product that you can only get in Phuket. Though I wasn’t able to order the box in time as I initially wanted a hard box with magnets closure, there wasn’t enough time, but also those boxes have to be ordered in bulk, so 50 – 100 boxes which I don’t think is a great idea to spend money on. I continued searching and found a white box that looked similar to what I thought of and gives off a comparable touch, so in this case, I decided to go with this one. I decisively chose white as in our culture we don’t give presents, gifts or souvenirs with black boxes as it gives off bad luck and people tend not to do that. So white was the colour went with along with the beige ivory sleeve with the parrot logo.

I enjoyed the journey of creating the logo sleeve for the box as well as choosing the location to put it. Once the final product was finished I think that it fitted perfectly with the branding for the 2041 bottles. The more I continued with the branding I started to enjoy myself, even though I also needed time to edit the documentary. I would say that allowing myself to take a break from the filming and editing the documentary by working on the box was a great way to keep the motivation up.

Major Project – Interviewing at an Old Manor

As this is one of the best locations I could think of when thinking of old and traditional houses, its the one that I had to pay 2000 Baht (£47) to film.

Luckily a few days after I went to that house, my mum and I met the owner and we told her about the situation. She was very kind and has offered for me to go and film without any payment. I was very touched and I would do it as best as I could.

I went in with my friend to filmed at Chinpracha House, an old manor which is still kept and preserved beautifully. The interior design shows fully the traditional furniture and how houses in Phuket were like back in the days.

We chose to film the interview at different spots around the house so that we could portray different rooms and interior designs. I was very pleased that I was able to go in and filmed as I felt that I wanted to promote this house because it was beautifully preserved by a kind-hearted woman which my family has known for years.

Major Project – The Trailer and The Name

As the final formative is coming up and we are supposed to show a mock-up for our work I’ve chosen to create a trailer of the documentary. At first, it was quite vague on what I wanted to include so I had a look through what people would include in their documentary trailer. I watched Blackpink’s Light Up the Sky Trailer, BTS Break The Silence Trailer as well as Netflix’s Street Food Asia Trailer for some inspirations. 

By doing the trailer it had helped me downsize the scope of the ideas for the documentary as well as I think it has carved out a path for me to take this documentary forward. The trailer has given me more ideas on the theme of the documentary as well. 

To me, choosing the footage was quite difficult as there are so many, however, the most difficult part, I would say is choosing the music. Personally, I feel that when the music is slow, it gives the trailer and the documentary as a whole a different vibe, however when it’s more upbeat it gives off a different story and feels. So I took a lot of time to listen to background music and I think that that was the most time-consuming part. 

However, I did enjoy creating the trailer and editing it as it gives me more ideas on what I could further develop for the final documentary and that gives me a glimpse of what it will look like once the final documentary is done. I’m eager to continue working on this project and excited to see the outcome. 

Link To Trailer: https://youtu.be/PiWDpu8ny1Y

In addition to the creation of the trailer, as my first initial name for this project was called “For the Love of Soy Sauce”, which I liked but I thought it was a bit too long, I think that this title shows the interest that I have towards soy sauce, however, I still didn’t want to be 100% decisive to use this name, so I tried coming up with a few names. It was challenging because I didn’t want the names to be too complicated yet it still needs to be attractive and catchy enough. I tried looking into synonyms for ‘forgotten’, ‘ legacy’, ‘authentic and many more that could be linked to the project and tried to mix it up. I also noted down a list of words that I want to base the name around which includes:

  • Authentic
  • Growth
  • Legacy
  • Revival 
  • Story 

Therefore the list of names that I’ve come up with included: 

  • The Untold Story 
  • Forgotten Family’s Recipe 
  • The Recipe
  • The Family’s Recipe
  • The Legacy
  • Breakeven
  • The Untouched Legacy 

After looking at all the names listed I felt like The Untouched Legacy was the one to go with as the soy sauce remained untouched for the past few decades and has remained silent since then. Therefore now that there’s a documentary about the success I think that it perfectly tells the story of what the film is about.  

Major Project – Re Interview

Following the first interviewing failed, due to quality issues as well as unable to use footage I had to refilm the interview with Mr Jin, Ms Su (the customer) and my mum. We had the filming done on Friday and set at the same location. I began by filming with my mum with another camera which I borrowed from my friend and now the quality is much better. Following that I filmed with Ms Su, she was less nervous this time. And Lastly Mr Jin. I tried to be as relaxed as possible and also with the set, I used a lounge chair instead of a dining table chair to make them feel less nervous and more relaxed, I think this helped quite a lot.

At the beginning of the shoot I tried to talk with them to allow them to get used to the settings with the camera, I think that it helps when it feels like it’s just us communicating and excluding the camera and soon once we’re in the middle of the interview the surroundings and Mr Jin, Ms Su and my mum were quite relaxed and from that, we got a lot of good phrases to put in the document.

From the last time with the interview, I felt that during that time everything was very hard and it was a fail because I’ve been looking forward to doing the interview however it turned out to be the opposite of what I thought, I took a break for a few days and returned to work. Yet with this interview, I think that it was a success and have helped me gained my confidence back.