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40 CINEMONTAGE / JUL-AUG 14 "As feature editors, we're telling the story, not doing the final," he says. "Whatever we're doing is a mock-up to suggest what the final people do, whether it's in the digital intermediate or a visual effects or title house. Whatever I do in plug-ins, I'm using these things as a shorthand; they may end up as something entirely different ultimately, but I'm showing the story issues." The most likely effects-oriented task that an editor does, says Lebental, is compositing, usually using what's already in the Avid. "But if we need something more, I'll go out of Avid to After Effects," he says. He also uses Boris filters and, occasionally, Sapphire packages. "It's usually for very specific functions," he says. "I recall using Boris 3D titling to mock up a title sequence. When I was cutting Thor, we used Sapphire for the dark elves." Lebental is also fond of the new Boris plug-in called Blue, a plug-in for Adobe After Effects and a stand-alone 3D compositor. "The new Blue plug-in is an easy three-knob version," he says. "Most plug-ins are really complicated; you almost have to take a course to learn each one. But with Blue, this is the quickest plug-in I could use. It's got some nice pre-sets. I've used their sound tools to get rid of hums and noises." On The Jesuit (due out in 2014), there were violent flashback sequences and Lebental wanted to suggest an "extreme hellish" look. "I used the new Boris FX Blue's two-toned filter to give that hellish quality," he says. "But then the cinematographer goes into the DI suite and will do something in there — either something similar to what I've done or whatever his interpretation is." Colby Parker, Jr. (Lone Survivor, Battleship, Hancock) just finished working on the new HBO series The Leftovers and also recently cut Acura commercials with Jerry Seinfeld. "Plug-ins are definitely more commonly used in commercial cutting than feature cutting," he says. Still, he doesn't consider himself versed in many plug-ins. "I have used CineGrain and I like the film burn," he says. "I've used it on numerous music videos, commercials or mood reels. Sometimes a project needs that look, and CineGrain is the least gimmicky of all the faux film finishes." He occasionally "roughs things out," as reference video for "the big boys in visual effects," and sometimes assistants do a small rotoscoping job or split screen in After Effects. But, mostly, Parker relies on effects found in the Avid. "On The Leftovers, I used Avid's 3D warp tool to fill in a lot of monitors," he says. He's also a fan of the Flop, an Avid effect used to flip the image and align eye lines. "Stabilize is another Avid plug-in I use," he adds. "I have filters to create old-school scan-line TVs that I used on the Acura commercial I recently cut." Avid Animatte provides a range of visual effects-related tools that might otherwise be provided by a plug-in, and many offline editors find it easiest to use the tools within the NLE. Several editors cited their frequent use of Avid's Animatte. "I love Animatte," Parker says. "I can basically roto anything or jury-rig any effect with an Avid plug-in. Non-Avid plug-ins are just not that compatible. It feels like you go off into another universe; they're not that user-friendly and it's hit or miss if you're going to be able to render it properly." Matt Feury, Avid's director of pro video marketing, notes that Animatte was introduced within Media Composer well over 10 years ago. "One of the reasons it's flourished in Hollywood is that it has a deep set of editorial tools," he says. "It takes a while to master them, but once you do, you can do a lot with them — including paint, graphics and color correction. Dan Lebental. Photo by Deverill Weekes Colby Parker, Jr. CineMontage_Jul-Aug_14-4.indd 40 6/18/14 5:53 PM