I don't know about you, but I loved this movie. And the music was PERFECT.

I'd like to know where he got that music. If you're out there Nick, good job on the film and Where'd you get the music?

Hey Adam,

The music was composed by Greg Hale Jones, his website is www.gregjones.com and there are some nice samples including the song used in Lost Springs (Boll Weevil). Unfortunately he passed away on July 22nd, about 2 months after this film was completed. He was a very cool guy, gave me permission to use it and offered to compose stuff for future projects. I highly regard his work, he will be missed.

Best,
Nick

Wow. Unique, well done, captivating, good music...looking forward to more.

Nick,
Congrats on this short. I thought it was really creative, and I liked it a lot!
Did you composite it in After Effects? if not, what did you use? Commotion? Combustion? Shake? Motion?
Again, great job man!
-jeff

Hey Jeff,

Really appreciate the support! I used After Effects 6.0, it's currently the only program I have access to. I used primarily Keylight, and though its a nice keying plug-in, it didn't work perfectly with the underwater stuff due to light/color diffusion from the water, so there was a ton of frame by frame matting. The built-in motion tracker in AE 6.0 was nice, and DigiEffects Cinelook plug-in helped me out with the film grain. Thanks for asking!

Best,
Nick

what does the keylight thing do in AE? And those houses looked small..lol..were they real houses and all...and how did you go from an ariel shot to the ground..haha..i loved the film!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: filmmakerfromwv,

I can answer this one...
Keylight is an after effects plugin that helps key out the green in green screen, so the actors can be composited over the town footage. (they were initially filmed underwater with a greenscreen behind them).

The houses (and all the buildings) are model houses for railroad enthusiasts that were painted up and set into a papermache valley (newspaper/ chicken wire and paint made up the basic hills). The interiors were filmed inside local locations.

The town runthrough was filmed with a small camera. Nick simply lifted it out of the town model to get the aerial shots.(Heres a shot of the setup)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: particleman,

FYI: Particleman was a co-production designer (and co-writer) on the film, he's got the answers for most art direction questions.

A bit more on Keylight: The cool thing about Keylight (what makes it better than After Effects' built-in key plug-ins) is that it takes pretty much all the best features of the other plug-ins and contains a full list of key parameters that allow really exact matting from a blue or green screen. Not only does it cut out the color specified, it allows you to soften or sharpen edges, it cuts color spill common in lower end cameras (and diffusion from atmosphere), and gives you a really clean preview (called STATUS) in which you can see your matte in black(removed), white(remaining) and grey(semi-transparent). Keylight can also color correct the remaining image. It comes with After Effects 6.0 Pro and above. Very nifty.

Expect a complete Behind the Scenes section on our website www.BurlyBuff.com this fall.

I loved this movie. Really creative and original.

I really like the work, and it's a great short to put on a design reel.

But why are people giving the acting and the screenplay five stars when it didn't have any of that?

Maybe the site could add a new rating that counts as "Non-applicable"

Dunno if it's old news by now, but there's some behind the scenes stuff on Lost Springs and things about my upcomming and past projects at http://npickle.burlybuff.com

I'll keep posting stuff to it as long as I think anyone might check it out.

On a side note, I'd have to agree that the grading system doesn't work well for non-orthodox films. Just because a music video doesn't have a script does it make it not as important as a narrative film? Does a documentary, which may not have any acting, deserve to be dropped from the rank? And why put an experimental genre catagory on a site that reviews based on non-experimental criteria? On the other hand, the reviews are only one facet of this site, and though a film may not have many stars, it's worth checking out. I recommend viewing some of the not so highly reviewed films, I'd like to think the purpose of the site is to share all levels of filmmaking.

Just some thoughts, thanks everyone who shows interest in Lost Springs and for posting to this board. If all goes right, there will be a new film comming this winter.

Nick