"BLOOD PRICE" -- a Kung Fu Western -- by AJ Brooks

Have to agree. Location looks great. You can't lose with kung fu. Looking foward to a potential Romantic Comedy with kung fu.
 
The location was a place in town, conveniently close for some of the cast/crew in Portland. Found thanks to Jerry Turner (1st AC) who had shot something there before, and who lived up the street so we just gave him a call 5 minutes before shooting. ;)

It is right next to a main street and a highschool and RIGHT in the flight path of the PDX airport. :)
 
Submitted!

I always render/upload at the last minute.

I think it must be my own version of bungee jumping. :)
 
AJ Brooks said:
Submitted!

I always render/upload at the last minute.

I think it must be my own version of bungee jumping. :)
Click to expand...

But you make it every time- Congrats! It is always a pleasure working with you Sir. :) I'm looking forward to seeing this with the score and sound design. Tibbs & Herman are awesome!
 
This was an amusing one. I liked the score a lot, really made the film. I liked the ending, I liked the rope/knife scene<--awesome.

My only gripe other than no kung fu zoom was the fighting was a bit too choreographed.
 
Nice one! Everything came together on this one, though as Mobie said, the fighting was a bit underwhelming, though when you put yourself up against the standards of the kung fu genre, it's pretty tough!

On first watch, this is my favorite score, which is saying something, since I scored three of the shorts, myself. :)
 
The location you had for this looked killer. Loved some of the sweeping shots as well. I also thought the actors did their thing extremely well. Especially near the end when one reacts to the others line. I won't give that away here. :)

I think I would have liked some closer shots mixed in with some of the fighting.

Good stuff though. Strong ending.

MAH
 
AJ, I'm Anthony and those are my initials too. Nice.

Okay, first let me say, I didn't read the tag or the thread on this film and I'm glad I didn't because the Kung Fu caught me off guard. Knowing nothing coming in really added a nice surprise to this. The music was just perfect. The location was also really cool. I thought the story was nicely executed and thought out. I had know idea it was a revenge. Nice fake. I don't know much about fight choreography but there were moments when they seemed to have a 'boxing' stance which didn't feel traditional to me, not to say it isn't, just saying it felt odd to me. Not a deal breaker though because the fighting was AWESOME! The subs were a nice touch, but the twist and the end really was touching. You flipped me with your characters. At first I was behind the guy on the porch, than you made me hate him and reversed my feeling on the bounty hunter. Good arcs. This was a uniqe and bold approach to the theme. My favorite part is when they through their hats and get after it. Really well done.
 
AJ, great job. You really married these two genres well, starting with location and music. I absolutely loved the score in this - it was a great blend of the two styles.

Combine with some solid western cheese lines ("I'm a bad shot," cracked me up) and a good fight, you have a winner. Like some of the others, I felt a few parts of the fight were hit and miss, but overall it worked very well. Some very nice camerawork in there. I really liked the dutch angles before the fight. Thanks for putting this in AJ.
 
Great location, that's for sure.

And cool editing also, and cool shots.

Only one thing, in sound, in foley, I sometimes mis some more sounds.

Like with the fighting I hear 2 hits and then no more.
 
Blood Price

Cool location. Cool Editing. Great fight choreography. I wish we had more story to this one, as I had no idea why everything was happening. Again, killer location. Loved that. Good effort, just seemed low priority on story, which to me is most important. Good job!
 
Hey, AJ. Good film. You had a sweet location and some really cool shots. The walk-away shot towards the end and the very last scene - great! I think the fight scene, honestly, isn't there yet, but I think it can be. The way it looks right now is very choreographed. Two things I think you can do to help that (IMHO) is speed up the action (only about 10 - 25% at the most) and use alot of cuts. The sound effects also could have been better and I think that would also help pull the action up to that optimal level. I think you have what you need, just a little more tweaking on that and you'll have a killer here. The subtitles were a little hard to see (might be on my cpu). Maybe you could make them yellow or bigger.

Anyway, the set-up with the knife at the end was very good and I'm glad to see some different ethnicities in the old west genre. Oh, I also liked the music! Good job, man. You've got a cinematographers eye for sure.
 
Loved the first 44 seconds. The last scenes on the hill with the girl were beautifully shot with inventive angles. The fight choreography was a little bit slow. They appeared to be sparring rather than actually fighting. The direction left me feeling more like a casual observer than a participant. Using spurs as martial arts weapons was cool. The suspended-over-a-knife thing was neat looking but he could have easily moved his head to either side to avoid it. His neck needed to have been tethered to his ankles for that to have worked. I didn't really understand the story nor did I know which of these characters I was supposed to be rooting for which left me emotionally untethered to the whole thing.
 
I loved the story on this one. While other seem to disagree, I thought it was the strongest part of the piece. An outlaw fights/buys off all bounty hunters until he meets someone who's there for reasons other than collecting a bounty.

I thought the location was superb and the cinematography well done. Loved the rain. It set the mood very well.

As others have said, the fight choreography was by far the weakest part of you movie. I liked the knife/rope scene and satisfaction the guy took from it.

I thought the final scene missed the mark since it had to be a flashback. When I saw the open field, I thought he might visit a grave. Had she slowly faded from his embrace would have played well, too, I think.

The score for this was excellent.
 
I can't add too much to what other folks have said - this was a great, highly unique entry. Before the fest started I was very curious what types of genre-bending films we'd get, but I never expected to see a martial arts western! A great surprise.

I have to agree on the choreography - a lot of it felt slow and more like practicing than a brutal, no holes barred brawl. I would've liked to have really felt the anger between these two gents. But the ending knife trick was great, and a very satisfying climax.

Definitely can't complain too much about a kung fu western. Fantastic location, and very tangible atmosphere with the rain and mud. Kudos.
 
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