• Star Trek (2009) was already one of the cleanest movies I’ve ever worked with. Great pace, strong arcs, emotional clarity. But kept thinking about how it would sit on my shelf alongside the others edits. What could I bring to it?

• Early on, 2 titles were in the running. "Between Worlds" or "Genesis." Genesis ended up winning. That word carried a lot of weight here. It’s a story about timelines breaking and legacies forming.

• Some of the early changes came easy: removing all kids scenes. Pulling the Spock romance, reshaping a few exposition beats. All of those tightened the narrative without bloating it. 

• One of the most meaningful shifts came from removing the conflicting orders Pike gives Kirk. Originally, he says to rendezvous with the fleet and to come get him. That later creates a clunky justification for Kirk's insubordination. I cut both lines. Now, Pike gives a single clear command, and Kirk goes after Nero because it's in his nature. The moment becomes about growth.

• Nero's presence is also felt earlier. There's a quiet dread that builds before the mission even starts.

• This was one of the lightest lifts I’ve done structurally. Most of the work came down to pacing, dialogue placement, audio smoothing, and tonal cleanup.

• The deleted Klingon prison scene was kept visually but restructured with new ADR. the original dialogue revealed too much too early of Nero’s mission, his purpose, his mindset. In this cut, the scene preserves his mystery. It now serves as a subtle bridge, helping piece together where he’s been for over 2 decades after the Calvin attack. 

• Nero’s presence earlier in the film was achieved by reordering scenes and integrating a subtle audio bed to reinforce dread before the mission even begins. Vulcan’s fall was moved earlier to tighten the second act’s momentum and weight.

• The Saturn sequence, originally scored like a reveal, was reworked for tension. MVSEP helped isolate SFX, and a more restrained cue was layered in to give it quiet weight.

Heroes | Gang of Youths

Scores the closing sequences and end credits.