RICHARD WALKER / RWALKER@STARBULLETIN.COM Kai Bovaird, executive director of Cause & F(x), has been hired to help with digital effects for the television show "Lost."

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Behind the scenes

Kai Bovaird gets to work on
visual effects for the second
season of "Lost"

When Kai Bovaird walked on the set of "Lost" at the Hawaii Film Studio three weeks ago, he was no shrinking violet, even though he was joining the production elite on a top-rated drama series.

STARGAZING The cast of "Lost" will on hand for a luau celebrating the launch of the DVD "Lost: The Complete First Season": Red carpet arrivals: 7 p.m. tomorrow Place: Turtle Bay Resort

"I've been doing this for a long time," he said at his Kakaako studio, Cause & F(x). "The techniques are still kind of there, just used in different ways. We've only done one episode, so I don't know what's coming down the pike."

Bovaird is the newly hired co-visual effects supervisor for Touchstone/ABC's made-in-Hawaii drama, joining the team at the beginning of filming for the show's second season.

"It's like being the new guy on a sports team," he said. "I know people are watching for me."

Visual effects comprise those special scenes that are shot first, then manipulated digitally later. (Special effects, on the other hand, occur on the set, such as fires or explosions.)

"Virtually every episode of 'Lost' in Season 1 had a special effect," said Kevin Blank, the Los Angeles-based visual effects supervisor for both "Lost" and "Alias."

Bovaird and his company were hired in July, and he is spending three days a week, 12 hours a day on the film set. In the just-completed first episode, only one scene was filmed outdoors, in Waikele. Interiors are easier because lighting and props are controllable, Bovaird said.

"There are things that can be done on set that can mean the difference between one hour or three days of digital work," he said. "When we're filming, we're constructing puzzle pieces, and the puzzle pieces need to be cut so they fit together. If they don't fit together, you end up doing a lot of patchwork."

His main duties have been what he calls "camera reports" -- blueprints of exact lighting diagrams, measurements and camera information, so the digital artist has what he needs to make his magic in the computer.

"The guy behind the computer has to re-create in the 3-D world what the film camera saw," Bovaird said. "They need an exact snapshot of what's on set."

Bovaird will be the show's on-site supervisor, but most of the show's visual effects work will continue to be done in Los Angeles, Blank said.

Still, this is a big step. Blank had been sure no one could be found locally to do what Bovaird is doing. "We're always looking to bring more local people into the equation, but I never, ever thought it would happen with this position."

But Blank was under orders from "Lost" producer Jean Higgins to hire locally, to cut the cost of living expenses and salaries for mainland hires. Using Bovaird instead will save the production "well more than $10,000" this season, Blank said.

Cause & F(x) might be considered "young" in terms of completed projects, but Blank was impressed by Bovaird's ability to explain the company's work on films such as "The Matrix."

"Kai showed me shots he did on high-profile effects movies and explained the process in very specific ways," Blank said. "Just hearing someone dissect their own contributions intelligently, you can really get a sense of whether someone is capable, what they know and their ability to communicate with others."

During story and visual effects meetings during his first week, the new kid on the "Lost" block was anything but shy about offering suggestions.

"Kai brought up several things, contributions on how things might work better even before I'd said it," Blank said.

"Lost" could generate visual effects assignments for other Cause & F(x) artists, "to give them a shot," he added.

"If we're satisfied, Cause & F(x) will get more work from us. We might even use them on 'Alias.'"