Okay, so I decided to make this thing, this ‘dim sum film’. It wasn’t really a big plan at first, more like a thought that popped into my head one lazy Sunday morning while, you know, actually eating dim sum.
Getting Started
First thing I did was just sit there, looking at the steam rising from the baskets. Har Gow, Siu Mai, Char Siu Bao… all the classics. I thought, wouldn’t it be cool to capture this? Not like a fancy food documentary, but more like… the feeling of it. The noise, the clatter, the chatter. So, I grabbed my phone. Didn’t have my proper camera with me, wasn’t planning anything serious, right?
I started filming bits and pieces. Just short clips. The trolley lady pushing her cart. Close-ups of the food. My family grabbing stuff with chopsticks. Nothing too staged. I tried getting different angles, low down near the table, looking up at the ceiling fans. Just collecting moments, really.
Putting it Together
Back home, I dumped all these clips onto my computer. It was a mess. Lots of shaky bits, out-of-focus stuff. But hidden in there were some okay shots. I opened up some simple video editing software – nothing fancy, just whatever came with the computer, honestly.
Then the real work started. I began dragging clips onto the timeline. My main goal was just to make it flow, like a memory. I wasn’t trying to tell a story with a beginning, middle, and end. More like a loop of feelings.
- Cut out the really bad shakes.
- Tried layering some sounds – the clinking of teacups, background chatter.
- Played around with the speed a little, slowing down some shots of the steam.
- Didn’t add any music. Wanted it to feel raw, just the sounds of the restaurant.
This part took longer than I expected. Finding the right cuts, making sure one clip didn’t feel too jarring next to the other. Sometimes I’d leave it for a day and come back with fresh eyes. Watched it over and over. Tweaked a little bit here, trimmed a second there. It’s funny how fiddly it gets.
The Final Thing
Eventually, I got to a point where I thought, okay, that’s enough. It wasn’t perfect. Far from it. Some shots were still a bit grainy because it was just a phone camera in indoor lighting. But it had the vibe I was going for. That busy, warm, slightly chaotic feeling of a proper dim sum place.
I exported the file. Didn’t even give it a fancy title card or anything. Just the sequence of clips. Watched it one last time. Yeah, it felt like that Sunday morning. It captured the essence, I think. That’s all I really wanted to do. Just a small, personal video thing. A ‘dim sum film’. Job done.