"Dead Week" - A film by Kyle Stebbins (and company)

Damn Kyle! This was a fun flick! :)

Love the overall Grindhouse feel, but was distracted by the dirt, like others said before. And at the end it feels a bit akward that they get killed by those slow zombies. But that are just some minor nit picks.

Great film!
 
I thought the story was kind of cool and I laughed at the punchline. I actually thought the grit effect was awful and it made me want to turn off the movie. There are so many cool effects that simulate what you where shooting for and it could have worked with the right combination of them. I loved the main character but felt he was trying really hard to be some kind of Jack Black wanna be. I didn't bother to read what everyone else wrote but I am sure there is a consensus on what I just said. Overall I did like it.
Pauly
 
I'm not against the grit, but maybe you could vary the positions more. I'd say try
photographing dirt on a white piece of paper then overlay that on the video lightly.

Cool Kyle. I'd like to check out some of the revisions you've made.
 
Fun flick. I like the idea of McLovin and Seth Rogan in Terror Planet... High Concept! I wish there was more zombie action, a little more zaniness perhaps, but it was a fun ride. Good job!
 
Very cool flick, a lot of fun here. The grindhouse-ish feel worked for the most part, especially the bad splices. As others have said, found the dirt distracting -- I think mainly the uniformity of it all. Aside from that, the vignetting and the jump cuts felt oh so right. I didn't dig the vfx with the gunfire so much, however, as most of them didn't feel quite right.

Your actors were spot on and were the reason this one made me laugh out loud several times (humor is always welcome).

Great job in the editing and in the title sequences too!
 
as a fanboy and having seen literally over 300 zombie shorts, i'd say this is above average. my biggest problem was the pace. the beginning was great, the ending was great, the middle took forever. the sfx were great, the grindhouse look was a great. satisfactory zombie makeup.
 
Mobie540 said:
as a fanboy and having seen literally over 300 zombie shorts, i'd say this is above average. my biggest problem was the pace. the beginning was great, the ending was great, the middle took forever. the sfx were great, the grindhouse look was a great. satisfactory zombie makeup.
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Nice to have an expert like you around! I wish we could have conferred with you earlier on in the game!! =)

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the comments everyone!

ks
 
Dead Week is great! High entertainment value here. Your characters reminded me of old buddies of mine.

:beer:
 
Lol, there's a lot of comments before, I read them later.
In the meantime-loved this one!

Editing style and acting-I think those are the best part of this film. Those scenes with long shots are taken very good, the actors are convincing in their parts (comedy/horor).
Some effects were a little strange, but I think those are ok for the film you wanted to make.

Zombies are little unconvincing, but just a little, really. There's that part when 'geek' asks: ''You smoke pot?'', even though his frend told him earlier he smokes a lot of weed.

I either misheard it or you wanted to show 'geek' in a little funny way, that he asks obiviously questions.
Oh and that basketball thing looked kinda weird the second time I watched it-I know it's not meant to be a SERIOUS OMFG ZOMBIE movie, but you know, somehow seems just weird.

And I like the end-no need to go further than that (zombies and **** lol).
Want to see more stuff like this one. Very good one!

It's obvious you had great time while doing this whole thing; the whole film screams about it.
 
Kyle, maybe I'm just an old fart but I'm not particularly fond of the style of editing in this film. I know it's part of the genre. I'm also not a zombie fan (like, me and two other people on DVXUser, lol), so it's hard for me to properly critique your film.

What I will say is this:
1. Sound was very good, particularly with the dialog...not as easy as many might think so nice job on that.
2. The actors were okay. The guy with the beard was better but not great. Still, there was a dark comedy in the performance that kept me watching and it probably suited a zombie flick pretty well.
3. Like others, I didn't care for the "dirt" or the subliminal imagery because it didn't seem to have anything to do with the story but maybe I just missed the point of the specific images you chose.
4. I think you could have a achieved a better look with more lighting. It felt a little amateurish to me. Again, I'm going to say I'm ignorant about zombie flicks and this may fall right into line with them. Maybe a Cinema Verite vibe.
5. Continuity of story was good and it kept me watching till the end.
6. Final punchline made me smile but had a typical ending to short film genre....a little light.

Overall, I think you did a good job because there were some films that I just couldn't finish watching. I'm talking about the story so don't take offense to that comment :)
 
I really see the Grindhouse style in this film: the cuts, the dust, and the vignetting. I enjoyed Reg, he was great.

I do like a good cheesy zombie film any day, and there's plenty of humor dropped in to make this amusing.

I think that this film carves it's own path and really goes an original direction from other films in the fest.

Good job!
 
Hey Kyle, I dug the film man. Nice touches on the editing with the grungeness factor. I really like how you did the VFX at the end with the gunshots and blood; how was that done? Photoshop? It was erratic and kinetic in a very good way and fit the piece well.
 
Geoff_R said:
Hey Kyle, I dug the film man. Nice touches on the editing with the grungeness factor. I really like how you did the VFX at the end with the gunshots and blood; how was that done? Photoshop? It was erratic and kinetic in a very good way and fit the piece well.
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I'll let Nate field that question. --- Though all of the title treatments, erratic cuts, and (yes) the film grain were my doing.
 
Geoff_R said:
Hey Kyle, I dug the film man. Nice touches on the editing with the grungeness factor. I really like how you did the VFX at the end with the gunshots and blood; how was that done? Photoshop? It was erratic and kinetic in a very good way and fit the piece well.
Click to expand...

The gunshots were little two-frame QuickTimes I have of Photoshopped muzzle flashes, compliments of Bob Forward over at DetFilmsHD.com. In addition to compositing those in with some adjustments to brighten them up a bit, I used masks on an adjustment layer that up the exposure on the surrounding walls and floor. This was all done in After Effects, with the blood being Trapcode Particular and several hours of tweaking both animation settings and overall look to the particles and getting the right color and transfer mode. I was half-tempted to go 300-style at one point :tongue:

I wish I could have gone so far as to run a 3D track on those shots and have the blood stick to the walls and floor since Particular is a 3D effect, but we were pressed for time, as usual.
 
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