Lightworks Touch used on 'Hitchhiker's Guide…'

Lightworks has announced that three Touch edit systems, provided by London Editing Machines to Goldcrest Post Production Facilities Ltd, were used to edit the feature film production of Douglas Adams' cult novel, 'The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy'.
Niven Howie has been a Lightworks aficionado since he first used one of the earliest systems in 1992. Although he has used other systems since, mainly for work on commercials and the occasional feature film, Lightworks remains his favourite. He explained: "There's really no choice when editing in the USA, where the major studios tend to own their postproduction outfits. On Hitchhiker's Guide, as it was entirely produced in the UK, I had the chance to say what I wanted to use. I was a beta tester of the first Touch system in 2002 and really liked it, so when I had the opportunity to choose a system for this project, it had to be Lightworks."
Editing work involved four months at Elstree Studios, followed by nearly seven months intensive work at Goldcrest Post. According to Howie, Hitchhiker's Guide was extremely effects-heavy, so his director had to work very intensively with him after the shoot, which meant a very busy few months. He said: "We had a visual effects editor on our crew, hence the third machine, and his job was to take the rough shot that I'd cut into my edit sequence and find all the relative layers that may have been shot for it, then pull all the layers for the effects house. I've been working on Hitchhiker exclusively for a year now and its quite often a six days a week job, which many people don't realise - especially on effects-heavy films. One effects shot got to version 103!"
Howie is unequivocal on his preference for Lightworks: "The basic design of the controller is what wins out over the competition for me. Others have tried to emulate the Lightworks controller, which is based on the flatbed Steenbeck film editor, but although I've tried them, they just don't feel right.
"The Lightworks controller for me has always been a real plus point, because you actually shuttle back and forth along your shots, unlike computer keyboard-based systems, which force you to jump between edit points. That means you don't get a feel for the content of your rushes and you can miss gems in shots because you haven't got to know your rushes well enough."
Howie compares the ease-of-use of a Lightworks controller to the simplicity of a child's toy: "Your fingers find the buttons very easily, because they're huge. With a computer keyboard, no matter how good you are at touch-typing, the keys are inevitably small and close together and there is much greater potential for mistakes. The stop button on the Lightworks controller is big and red and you can't miss it!"
According to Howie, Douglas Adams would thoroughly approve of this production, which ranges beyond the original book, yet leaves the way open for a sequel. Howie and his Lightworks systems will be waiting for the call, thumb out and towel at the ready…
(GB)