Lost Planet’s Winnie Cheung on the Spectral Spaces that Keep Her Moving

Lost Planet editor Winnie Cheung eschews the trinkets and instead shares the studios, stories and spectral spaces that keep her moving.

I’ve been revisiting this draft several times over the past few days, each time from a different computer, on a different desk, in a different building.

In fact, this sentence was written on a different laptop.

So’s this one.

I don’t have a designated workspace, and therefore no physical items to adorn it with.

Instead, my favourite things are ephemeral.

People, places, ideas and things that change from one moment to the next.

Change is the most inspiring thing to me as an editor.

Change is everywhere.

You keep moving, keep going.

You find the through line.

You write it down on paper, in a timeline, move it around, show it to people, and hope it makes sense.

The Artist Studio
Whenever I feel stuck creatively, I go to an artist studio.

Here is my friend Manuela Viera-Gallo’s studio in Greenpoint.

She’s an incredible and prolific painter.

A mentor once taught me that editing is like painting.

You don’t need to lay it all at once.

Work on the palette, mix some clips, and see what holds before committing it to a timeline.

The Sega Music Lecture
This is my friend Jaina, mid-lecture on Sega music from the island of Mauritius, where she's from.

She did all of it herself: the research, the writing, the organising, the standing up in front of a room.

I’m drawn to people who are curious without being told and who make time to give it back to the world.

I bring the same curiosity and work ethic to the post-production process: a hunger to explore the world and the craft, and a willingness to create an edit you can truly stand behind.

It’s tempting to make the “easy” edit sometimes, the one that simply satisfies the note.

I’d much rather present my point of view and explore the more interesting edit.

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