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Author Topic: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks  (Read 9346 times)

fredjeang

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Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« on: March 02, 2012, 05:38:44 am »

It's pretty amazing. The editing of the Scorcese movie 3D hugo has been done by legendary Thelma Schoonmaker with the free editor Lightworks.

No Avid, no FCP, no Premiere, no Edius, no Vegas...

http://digitalfilms.wordpress.com/tag/martin-scorsese/

http://www.lightworksbeta.com/


Maybe it's time to look closer at this free editor.

(the question is: why paying if we can work with professional level editor for free?)

nota: to be able to access some codecs that aren't free (Prores-DnxHD etc...), you can purchase a 50€/year license for pro use. Very low cost per month. It makes think.

What do you think guys?
« Last Edit: March 02, 2012, 08:46:30 am by fredjeang »
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mac_paolo

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #1 on: March 02, 2012, 06:34:30 am »

My first humble answer is: no Mac native support. :)
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #2 on: March 02, 2012, 06:57:13 am »

The irony is rich. A major commercial release uses a "free" open-source software product to do its work.

If a photographer on location had shot some pics of the production and then handed over rights to those pictures to the film production company, some people would have vilified the photographer for doing so. There are several threads on this site on that very topic at the moment.

I wrote software/firmware for a living for 25 years (am in a different industry now, after IT put me out to pasture), and I could never understand why anyone would give away software. I have written some code for myself for personal reasons, but I wouldn't spend 10 seconds doing that for someone without getting paid. And yet, there seem to be lots of people who are prepared to do exactly that. What a bizarre world.
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fredjeang

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #3 on: March 02, 2012, 07:21:04 am »

Apparently they promised soon a Mac support. Also, Mac or PC isn't a problem for serious structures, they have both.

About this editor, it seems that the choice isn't because it's free (it wasn't free before, see Da-Vinci lite too), but simply because it's good; at this level the cost of editor software is a joke.

I did a research and it's not a new player at all, many Hollywood movies have been cutted on Lightworks.
I knew the existence of this editor, I visited their website before, installed it a year or so ago and it looked to me rather messy, and didn't like the blueish design so I sort of gave-up but I ignored it was, and is, used in very high-end productions. I thought it was a sort of what GIMP is to PS, it isn't apparently. This looks serious. Maybe it's time to check it more in-depth and get rid-of the prejudice.
At least I think I'll give it another try.

I don't see the Hollywood big prods and experienced editors loosing their time on things that aren't top and reliable.
« Last Edit: March 02, 2012, 07:28:58 am by fredjeang »
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #4 on: March 02, 2012, 07:32:43 am »

I didn't mean to imply that it wasn't anything other than excellent. You're correct, I am sure that a major production house would not use something that was not a good product. It's its existence in the first place that amazes me. And the irony of content creators using "free" products (however defined) to produce their own work.
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hjulenissen

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #5 on: March 02, 2012, 08:07:26 am »

... and I could never understand why anyone would give away software. I have written some code for myself for personal reasons, but I wouldn't spend 10 seconds doing that for someone without getting paid. And yet, there seem to be lots of people who are prepared to do exactly that. What a bizarre world.
Do you stand up for elderly ladies on the bus?

Do you help out newbies on this forum?

Do you feel good if a stranger comments that you take nice pictures?

I think that similar mechanisms can explain open source software. Oh, and big companies paying people to contribute probably helps (Intel, IBM, ...).

-h
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Robert Roaldi

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #6 on: March 02, 2012, 08:39:26 am »

Do you stand up for elderly ladies on the bus?

Do you help out newbies on this forum?

Do you feel good if a stranger comments that you take nice pictures?

I think that similar mechanisms can explain open source software. Oh, and big companies paying people to contribute probably helps (Intel, IBM, ...).

-h

I take your point, but I guess that writing software was never something that gave me pleasure for its own sake, unlike taking pictures. It's not something I would do unless someone paid me. Obviously, not everyone feels the way I do.

When I help old ladies out, I don't ask for or expect payment, but if she tells her friends and 25 of them then expect me to drive them to the grocery store, I think I would lose interest pretty quickly. :)  But I don't want to torture the metaphor, I know what you're getting at.

I love irony, I can't help it. Users of open-source products benefit in obvious ways, but they would probably not feel the same about their own products, photographs, movies. This is nothing other than normal, of course, I'm not saying otherwise. If someone wants to make a raw converter available to me for free, well, who I to complain. But if someone likes a picture I produce enough to offer me money, I'll take the cash. Unfortunately, that never happens.


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Rob C

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #7 on: March 02, 2012, 01:15:36 pm »

I understand your stance, Robert, but I'd be wary of opening doors for ladies of any age today: some tend to feel offended! As for offering one's seat, I do now and again, but at my age I feel that looks like a job for younger Supermen! Amazing how many of them just sit on their ass; family life-lessons just ain't what they used to be. One word of advice: never be tempted to be a gentleman at department store doors!

But the point about free software is a strange one; could it be the moral opposite of hacking? Could it be the same people 'suffering' from conscience attacks? I'd love to think so, but possibly an irony too far, regardless of how fine a natural equilibrium it might represent.

Rob C

hjulenissen

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2012, 02:55:45 pm »

I am guessing that someone wants to have e.g. a raw converter with features that the commercial companies does not want to (or are not able to) supply. By contributing in an open-source project you are enabling a tool that do what you need that would probably never happen without open source.

-h
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Pete_G

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #9 on: March 03, 2012, 04:02:03 am »

I've used Lightworks since about 1990 until just a few years ago when I swapped to Avid. I don't know about the beta version but it was always the fastest and simplest system available, due to the way the trimming was implemented and because it had a "console" with a Steenbeck like controller and dedicated buttons. It wasn't free either, the first system we bought around 1990 was GBP 46,000.

The company went through some disastrous buy outs in it's history which prevented it from competing successfully with it's competitor Avid, which in those days was the corporate equivalent of the Black Death. An Avid system then cost exactly the same as Lworks, and both systems came with specialised hardware, now Avid is around GBP 2,000, software only, and the company has a little more humility.

Try the beta, you may like it, although without a console it wouldn't make sense for me. The system never conformed to a standard user interface, the original Lworks ran on DOS and owed nothing to Windows, so some new users find it awkward. I, like many, found it better than any GUI before or since.

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fredjeang

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #10 on: March 03, 2012, 04:40:58 am »

I've started to play with it. We have to change our minds, it's a very different way to approach the editing. It looks very good-promissing to me.

What I really really don't get is this Shark icon (get rid-of it) and the blueish application color + the buttons are from another time. I managed to replace the buttons because I couldn't stand them.

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Pete_G

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #11 on: March 03, 2012, 06:37:25 am »

Don't worry about the shark, it was used in the early days to delete screen objects, but that is now done in the usual way by clicking on x buttons. The shark is still there because people like it for some reason. The buttons are a bit of a mish-mash but they will be updated at some time, I guess. I agree about the blue colour of the interface, it used to be much better when it was grey, but again, I think it can be changed easily in the future.

You need to read the manual to pick up the quirks of the GUI, but once learned it really is very easy. When NLE's were first developed it was thought that FILM editors went to Lightworks because it used "film like" representations, whereas VIDEO editors went for Avid because it emulated video editing, I think there is more than a little truth in that.
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fredjeang

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #12 on: March 03, 2012, 07:09:47 am »

... When NLE's were first developed it was thought that FILM editors went to Lightworks because it used "film like" representations, whereas VIDEO editors went for Avid because it emulated video editing, I think there is more than a little truth in that.

Yes, it seems to be the case according to the infos I'd could find so far. Film editors seems to use it far more than video editors. In the Cow forum it is a highly respected NLE.

Anyway, Thelma Schoonmaker is a world class editor and I don't think she'd use a wreak software. Those people don't joke. So it gives a good confidence on this software capacity.

The interface is at first very disconcerting, at least for me. But behind this first weired sensation, it's easy to smell that there is something simply powerfull in this software, behind the scene, not something specially easy to quantify at first; something that could completly redefined the editing task in a really rock solid efficient way. I definatly will go deeper into it and if it does what I smell it can do...

Also, I'm quite happy if there is a community that will develop the software NOT according to a brand company selling curves but according to what we, users, will really want to have.
« Last Edit: March 03, 2012, 07:39:50 am by fredjeang »
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Letzring

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #13 on: March 03, 2012, 05:34:57 pm »

I'm intrigued with this, and I'm surprised I hadn't heard of it before considering all the different NLEs I've used or demo'd over the years (maybe it was named something else in the past).

I think I still remember how to use a Steenbeck. . .maybe.
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shotworldwide

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #14 on: March 05, 2012, 12:49:15 pm »

I am patiently waiting for a Mac/Linux version ... almost one year now since I discovered that Lightworks exists ... BTW. the Kings Speech was edited using Lightworks too ...

I used to be a Final Cut Pro user :)

Filip
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KevinA

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #15 on: March 07, 2012, 06:04:12 am »

A nephew of mine was working on an open source OS which he intended to distribute for free. I do think he intended to sell manuals .
I think other stuff has since got in his way. If any of you are into audio software, recording live gigs etc you might want to check this out http://bitwig.com/bitwig_studio.php

Kevin.
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fredjeang

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #16 on: March 07, 2012, 07:04:58 am »

Ok, I mailed the Lightworks sales.

The pro licenses will be ready for users within 2 months.

Keep an eye in 2 months on the official website.

Best.
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fredjeang

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Re: Latest Scorsese "Hugo" cutted in Lightworks
« Reply #17 on: March 10, 2012, 04:28:13 pm »

I must say that the asset management in Lightworks, and more generally everythink that has to do with workflow organisation, is nothing less than excelent.
Very intuitive, very easy straighforward and efficient.

It's the first software I see where there is no top menu. You don't need it the way it's built. (well, scratch was one too, but I found scratch messy)

Now I'm starting to understand more why the gurus of edition consider it as one of the most efficient tool for cutting. It seems to be one of those softwares that does everything so differently but once you catch it, it's hard to imagine doing it differently.

I've just started to "play" with in some free time.

I think it deserves more than a serious look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gCDFfXUcGk&feature=related
 
« Last Edit: March 10, 2012, 04:49:26 pm by fredjeang »
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