Salt of the Earth

[Lost Skies]

Logline: A woman's worst fears are realized when her twin is kidnapped.

Salt of the Earth is the first of a trilogy of short films that are precursors to a future-noir feature that is in pre-production.

Synopsis: Babette Joliet and Camille McGowan are psionically gifted twins. Babette's worst fears are realized when she discovers Camille's medical diagnosis is a ruse and witnesses her sister's abduction by those who were entrusted to care for her. http://www.lostskies.com
http://lostskies.blogspot.com

Milestones:
January 2008 - The feature script is written.
March 2008 - Decision is made to create a series of shorts that lead up to the feature.
August 2008- Principal Photography
September 2008 - Post Production
September - November 2008 - The original release of October 2008 is moved up when Lost Skies Productions becomes heavily involved in another filmmaker's project.
December 2008 - Editing refined, color corrected. Audio sweetening, sound design and vfx has begun.

Starring
Yolanda Arrey
Chris Harvey
Trevor Hawkes
Russ Adams
Dani Jae
Tracy York
Geoffrey Richards
Mark Brocksmith
Robert A. Easton
Clayson Hanks
Kelly Jean Barney
and
Linda Eyring as Dr. Corruthers

Written by J. Francisco Maestas & Michelle Poe
Executive Producer - Charlotte Maestas
Produced by J. Francisco Maestas, Michelle Poe, Linda Eyring
Associate Producers - Russ Adams, Trevor Hawkes
Effects Makeup & Props - Russ Adams
1st Assistant Director - Trevor Hawkes
2nd Assistant Director - Michelle Poe
Audio - Michelle Poe, Dani Jae
Still Photography - Benjamin Bamba

Shot, Directed & Cut by J. Francisco Maestas

 

[Lost Skies]

Salt of the Earth: Screengrabs

The color correction for these initial grabs were done in Photoshop... mostly so I can play with the look that I like. The actual color correction was done in Final Cut Pro.

---
More to come!!

 

[Lost Skies]

Reserved for BTS
---

Coming soon- I've got a ton of them taken by the extremely talented Ben Bamba.

 

[Lost Skies]

Reserved for VFX grabs and Video clips.

 

[Lost Skies]

A small recap on the production:

So, we had a very small crew, with some of the actors pulling double duty. Everyone pitched in and we had a ton of fun doing it.

Our first location was in a rehabilitation center. The second and third floors were unused but fully furnished and ready to go. We were told by the hospital staff that those floors were haunted... and we had some unusual occurances- like at one point I was shooting down the hallway, no one was around the corner, but in the playback I can see human movement in the reflection of one of the pictures that was facing that direction (it freaked everyone out but I got excited telling them that was my first EVP ever!!) We shot for four hours and got some dramatic scenes of our lead actress grieving over the loss of her sister.

The second day of shooting was in downtown Salt Lake by the Boston Building. THAT was a challenge. My deadkat was missing, and the buildings acted like a windtunnel. All of our extras bailed and we discovered the outdoor cafe took in all their tables, leaving us to bring my own plastic patio table and chairs. We did a split screen with the lead actress as both twins, but someone bumped the camera after we shot one side of the conversation. Not to mention all the homeless gawkers. LUCKILY we had a location permit and were only accosted one time by a security guard. Permission is worth it's weight in gold.

The third day was shot at a friend's family warehouse. It had a ton of texture and it worked. There is also a clubhouse on the property with an incredible indoor pool... but unfortunately we didn't use it for any shots (in the future maybe... I'd like to anyway).

The last day of production was definitely the most challenging. We traveled into the west desert, into Skull Valley. When I got the permit, I was told that the road was lightly traveled. Well... in a sense, if you consider a car every two or three minutes lightly traveled. That really cut into our time and we had to abandon quite a number of cutaways which made editing a pain. Plus, it was dusty, about 106 degrees and we were all attacked by a multitude of insects. Still, IMHO it was probably the funnest day of the entire production.

 

[Lost Skies]

More screen grabs:

Everything was shot with available light... mostly because of time and having such a small crew- but mostly time :/

Crits, comments and questions are welcome

 

[Lost Skies]

It's been a while since- we took a short break on this short mostly because of the weather. We also shot the second of the future noir trilogy, titled "Southside of Elsewhere". So now I've got 2 shorts in post production!!

We've decided to reshoot the cafe scene since the feature had a re-write and the conversation didn't jive with what will take place in the feature. This will also clear up some technical (audio) issues we had. Right now we're trying to find a restaurant with a sidewalk or patio area... I've got quite a few scouted.