Kill Shift - A Marlon Ladd & Hawk Teflon film

[Marlon Ladd]

Not sure why you went with the funny DVX opener. Nice location. The start felt a little slow for me. I think that may be because the threat wasn't made clear initially, so what should've been tension felt like filler...initially, but once we see the monster well then it all works. Very nice!

Oh and for some reason I had to crank my sound all the way up to hear it.

Thanks for stopping by, Chris. Glad to see you liked our film. I don't know what the deal with the sound is. It's fine on my end and I haven't heard anybody else say anything, so I'm not sure. I would like to know if it was on my end, because I'd definitely need to fix that.

You thought it started slow? Really? I thought it started pretty fast. Lol. And that was our intent (not to start slow).

I loved this short guys, Marlon and Hawk, great job. I'm a sucker for sci-fi soldiers with guns skulking around abandoned buildings, and you nailed it.
Solid acting all around, all 4 of you. I particularly liked the exchange between the guy and the girl, how we got a glimpse of their relationship, and then she shanks him.
I bought it, it just worked for me. You created a world here, and it was believable. Shape Shifter effects were awesome. Marlon I like how you had yourself as an old man at the end, waiting, guns drawn, for the return of the Shape Shifter. It gave the movie more of an epic feel. I'd certainly love to see you turn this into a feature or webisodes series. I think it's my favorite thing you have ever done!

Thanks, Matt! Big praise, man!! Your favorite out of everything I've done. I'll definitely take that as a compliment! Glad you enjoyed it and thanks a million for all of your help and assistance. Couldn't have done it without you. And just wait, there'll be bigger and better things to come for sure.

Sorry Marlon only just saw this. The inconsistency could easily be fixed with a tweak on some of the grade. A handful of examples to give you an idea:
- the cu at 1:05 has much more of a greener bias than the previous shot and the next shot.
- 1:53 & again at 2:02 - this is one of the shots that to me feels like a different camera, not as crushed as the other graded shots.
- 2:54 - more magenta bias than previous shot.
- 2:55 - back to green bias.
Just simple little things like that, could most likely be fixed with another grade. But this is just nitpicky stuff.

Okay, Matt, so I looked at the places you're talking about and those weren't different cameras. It was just that the cc must've been a little off in those places because of the light. I'm sure you know how long it can take to get the cc just right. So, I'll have to go back and take an even closer look. Thanks! We actually did use 2 different cameras, but if anybody can tell the difference, you've got some amazing skill. Most of the cam 2 shots actually look better than the cam 1 shots they were re-shot for to replace. Most of the film was shot on the FS700 and the re-shoots were on the GH3. A good mixture of shots were in the scene where the guy and girl are talking and she stabs him. Also, later in the hallway where I'm talking to the Kill Shift.

Thanks for dropping in!

 

[Marlon Ladd]

Cool to see everyone banding together to get this thing cut and uploaded BTW!



The DVX bumper is awesome. But pretty sure it doesn’t match the tone of your movie.

The anamorphic flares in the very opening shot are a bit much IMHO, but I love all the flares and stuff on the close shot of the old man’s hand. Beautiful.

Nice location with the police guys. Nice steadicam.



SPOILERS

Ah man. Why you gotta kill the sistah first? Kill the other dude.
...Oh good she’s back. But what happened to her? Suspense.

END SPOILERS



I like these darker shot of you with the flashlight a lot. They don’t see to match the reverse though. Doesn’t seem like you need a flashlight in your OTS.

Very much like the far low dutch angle shot in the hallway.



SPOILERS

Oh don’t trust her dood - she’s changed. Don’t! Don’t! Too late.
Oh snap didn’t see the shape shift effect coming and nicely done.
Nice acting and lighting for the Evil Version of his partner - the shadow of his cap plays well. Subtle but clear.

END SPOILERS




Nice combat and choreography.

One suggestion - maybe dub the other actor with your voice at the end so it matches. You’re doing a pretty good older voice over. His line doesn’t match and is maybe not as good. Conversely, maybe have him do the voice over?

Ggod short and your After Effects is redonkulous.

Nice job as usual sir.

LMAO, Jack!!!! Your spoilers are hilarious, man!!! I was hoping I'd get somebody on some sympathy with the sista' gettin' snatched up first. You sound like you were watching the movie and yelling at the screen the whole time. rogar-BigGrin(DBG)

Thanks for dropping in. You made some really good points. About the flashlight, you're right. There was more light in front of him, but if you're in a building where there are dark places and well lit places, you just keep it on. When seconds count and you're expecting something to jump out at you, no time to pull it out or to try and remember to hit the button to turn it on, especially when your first reaction might be to pull that trigger. Having said that, I would've liked to have that specific area more shadowed, which would've made that part more convincing.

Chris Keaton also talked about the dvx leader. Hey, I didn't make that. Lol. I saw a thread where Noel posted it and it's nice, so I threw it in. Didn't occur to me at all that it didn't fit. Hey, it was Halloween and it's a Halloween film. Did it make people think the film was going to be, a comedy or something?

Right on about the voice. The 'old man' is actually my dad. I don't know if anybody remembers, but several years back I almost didn't make the festival deadline, because my dad was in really bad shape in the hospital. Very fitting that he's doing better and was able to step in for me and do a great job. I was going to use his voice for the VO, but my dad was actually sick with a cold and his voice was very nasal. You can actually hear it a little bit on his last line. Since we filmed that scene the weekend before the deadline, there was no time to have him do it, unfortunately.

Thanks again for dropping by! Now, when's your film going to be done??

 

[lawriejaffa]

KILL SHIFT

CLASSIC Marlon Ladd territory here – we got a brother armed and ready to fight against a legion of post apocalyptic meanies. Over-dramatic score and full of bombast (you could direct the next Royal Wedding over here in good ol' Blighty Marlon.)

I love the start and end with the old chap ready to take out an unending elderly revenge against the (alien?) mofu's that killed his team.

There is a lot to like in its fun simplicity/pulp-fiction action scenes. BUT... those actions scenes could have really busted our nuts if they had been combined with with SUSPENSE!

The aliens work fine – there a credible threat... but I feel we're missing from the start of the film – that WHAM sense of dread that is really gonna make us sweat when we follow these cops on their mission. You let us know the world when to whack... but you don't tell us why we should be afraid of the dark... (good to take a cue from Thulsa Doom hehe... "now they will learn why they should fear the dark"

Instead we have the (conventional) cinematography for such scenes without that emotional attachment/investment (see how Black Out did it so god damn effectively?) that quality was absent here and it hurts Kill Shift because of it.

When the girl dies... so what? When the guys mate dies (in a slightly unconvincing encounter where the alien effectively provokes his own death in a rather unnecessary manner...)

There is plenty to like here... and this is what I've seen you do well in your past work as well. When combined with humour the absence of emotional connection and invested storytelling is less apparent, but here... it lays the faults a little bare in your writing.

When you're doing so much very well, be careful that it's not your writing holding you back! A producer/director can still make sure all your unique traits/qualities are featured in your style of work but a writer... they can compensate for the cited criticism.

In all my friend, entertaining fun but it could have have whammed the audience like Black Out did.