Lightworks Tip

Lightworks Visual Effects

by Patrick Gregston

One of the pieces of conventional wisdom in digital editing is that, if you have an effects show, then you can't use Lightworks. This hasn't been true since the effects tool was introduced in late 1994. Many pictures requiring compositing, matching blue-screen elements, resizing, or repositioning have been completed using the Lightworks. 'Indian in the Cupboard' and 'Congo' are both examples of film editors using the effects tool with success.

A more recent example is 'Flubber', where 560 effects made the release print. Editor Harvey Rosenstock and his assistant Wendi Raderman worked with a visual effects staff and fifteen digital effects vendors to create and shape those, and many others that did not make the final print.

Harvey told me, "I was sold on the effects capability of the Lightworks on 'The Color of Night'. I had a long series of dissolves which overlapped. The film version looked exactly like what I saw on the Lightworks. [On 'Flubber'] we had tons of people and elements to coordinate. When people start talking about the attitude of something like flubber, you can get crazy. Getting the seven different vendors responsible for the flubber to all have the same color and reflection, for example, was a tough job. We had to make sure we didn't lose sight of the story."

Much of the organizational task fell to Harvey's assistant. "I never realized how easy it would be," Wendi told me. "It's not hard. Effects make a little more work. But it isn't hard." Among the effects Wendi spent time working on were repositions and resizing images to be superimposed on the screens of "Weebo", a robot, as well as adding "Weebo" into scenes where it hadn't been shot. Wendi also coordinated the importation of CGI-created images via modem into the Lightworks. "Vendors would send their temps to us, and we would composite them for the director, so he could judge how it would work in the sequence."

Among the tips Wendi has for any of you planning to do four layer supers and overlays is to be organized. "We sent logs and tapes to everybody on every effect. We used both keys and code numbers to make it easier to track and co-ordinate negative or print of each element. We used every method of communication - phone, fax, e-mail, direct modem. We previewed on tape and film."

She also kept a version of each cut without any elements which weren't on film. "Cut lists and change lists were always up to date and correct. I haven't ever had a bad cut list on Lightworks."

I asked how she thought the Lightworks functions on an effects show. "It totally works. The challenges of effects aren't in the Lightworks, but in the organizing and coordinating of many people and pieces you need to get the final result. The effects tool did everything we needed."