Richard J. Johnson
Joystick Member
Congrats Marlon!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LAWLESS - A Marlon Ladd film
- Thread starter Marlon Ladd
- Start date
Rodney V. Smith
DVXFest Promo Guru
Dude, major congrats.
Norm Sanders
Script Wrangler
Way to go! Love me a western! 
Marlon Ladd
Veteran
Thanks, guys!! Definitely honored to be in the finals again. Thanks for the all the support, peeps!
Alex Jeffery
Well-known member
Great job man, congrats!
Darkline
Veteran
Hey Marlon
I didnt expect this from you and it was a nice surprise. No Gimmicks or OTT technique, you let the story play out and the way you did it ramped up the tension very nicely.
I quite enjoyed that zombie short you did where they were talking rot and shooting everyone - but this is evidence that you know how to handle a simple story and get good performances too. I found myself pulled in very quickly and thats a big compliment becasue it takes a lot for me to stop nit picking the technicals and get sucked into a short. In fact it's rare I do that in 6 minutes and I thought your blocking was excellent.
really good.
I didnt expect this from you and it was a nice surprise. No Gimmicks or OTT technique, you let the story play out and the way you did it ramped up the tension very nicely.
I quite enjoyed that zombie short you did where they were talking rot and shooting everyone - but this is evidence that you know how to handle a simple story and get good performances too. I found myself pulled in very quickly and thats a big compliment becasue it takes a lot for me to stop nit picking the technicals and get sucked into a short. In fact it's rare I do that in 6 minutes and I thought your blocking was excellent.
really good.
Scott F
Pug Life
This was enjoyable, and congratulations on your placement into the finals.
More Bass Reeves. A feature is in order.
My complaints would be that the CC is all over the place. Some shots are bright & contrasty, others are subdued. That took me out of the moment.
Examples:
ending 1:17, next shot 1:18
shot ending around 4:00/next shot 4:02
And often times it seems like there is a reflector under "Kenny Rogers", something is illuminating him artificially. Quicktime seems to brighten everything up, I'm sure that is at play here.
Also in your closing supers, is the coma necessary?
One of those Marshals was a black man named, Bass Reeves
As mentioned, the framing is nice. I like the edits & shot selection. Great job, just finesse the CC, IMO.
EDIT: Also forgot: Some cool camera moves used sparingly. Nice! I can't believe I didn't see this film until today. Flew under the radar.
More Bass Reeves. A feature is in order.
My complaints would be that the CC is all over the place. Some shots are bright & contrasty, others are subdued. That took me out of the moment.
Examples:
ending 1:17, next shot 1:18
shot ending around 4:00/next shot 4:02
And often times it seems like there is a reflector under "Kenny Rogers", something is illuminating him artificially. Quicktime seems to brighten everything up, I'm sure that is at play here.
Also in your closing supers, is the coma necessary?
One of those Marshals was a black man named, Bass Reeves
As mentioned, the framing is nice. I like the edits & shot selection. Great job, just finesse the CC, IMO.
EDIT: Also forgot: Some cool camera moves used sparingly. Nice! I can't believe I didn't see this film until today. Flew under the radar.
Last edited:
Susanne G.
Well-known member
Hi Marlon,
Another fantastic film, after 'The Jones'. You are a master of the dialog. I had to watch it twice, because of my 'lala' English. Very enjoyable the actor's performance. The whole film has a perfect rhythm with a beautiful western score.
Compliments and very much luck for the second round!
Susanne
Another fantastic film, after 'The Jones'. You are a master of the dialog. I had to watch it twice, because of my 'lala' English. Very enjoyable the actor's performance. The whole film has a perfect rhythm with a beautiful western score.
Compliments and very much luck for the second round!
Susanne
Marlon Ladd
Veteran
Thanks! I did expect to kind of surprise people with this one, because it was such a different type of story and the direction of it needed to be different from "The jones'" (zombie flick) for it to work. I'm glad I was able to pull it off for you. Thanks for swinging through.
You're so late seeing my film I'm gonna' have to send Bass after ya' now. :violin: You make very valid points about the cc. At the last minute I had to go back and almost re-do everything, because the original cc was good, but too much as I noticed on the final render. It left something purple, including shadows on some faces. It also did leave "Kenny" (Victor Read) overexposed on some shots when the actual original was just fine. QT could have also been a problem with the compression. That's something I'll be fixing with the quickness.
You make a good point about the comma and I'll look at it and see what's what. I'm glad you liked the film and I appreciate the in-depth review!
Thanks, Zim. Actually that was a real shotgun and I used the actual sound from it. I think I know what you're saying though. I wanted a little more deep bass thud in it. That'll be something I'll look at too.
Hey, Susanne. I was wondering if you were gonna' stop in. I look forward to your review. I know how much you enjoyed "The Jones'" so I definitely wanted you to see this one. Thanks so much! Also check out my other film, "The End." It's different, but good.
Marlon Ladd
Veteran
Thank ya,' sir!Congrats Marlon, didn't doubt that you were in
Scott F
Pug Life
OK, I'm puttin' down my gun, the jewelry and the sack of money. And steppin' back slowly.
Michael Anthony Horrigan
More Cowbell Pictures
Continuing my secondary reviews on all of the finalist entries.
Like Occupational Hazards this opens up very well. Good music and great titles that immediately give us a sense of what we are in for. That and a mix of some cut in footage and we are off and running.
Some nice camera movement early on and some really believable characters. I'm not questioning the costumes, location, acting, nothing.
The music is working really well but the sound needs to be cleaned up a bit. Some of the hissing around the dialogue is slightly distracting. Some background audio that suits the location could be helpful. You have a really nice mixture of shots here.
Enough coverage for sure. I might suggest a few things like a closeup of a finger on a trigger or a tight shot of a hand on a gun during some of the tense moments.
The lead is great! Nice work, Marlon. The dialogue and acting rules this short.
Some of the CC is hit and miss but not that bad. The music could actually be a bit louder here and there as it is some powerful stuff.
Back to the acting again, really great stuff. When he tells them who he is there is some real tension in the air. The music really helps to sell it as well. The gunshot effects are actually quite different. I like the way you went with that.
I think the best thing about LAWLESS is the ending. For me, it might be the best of the fest and I'm not sure I can explain it. Sometimes endings work on a personal level, sometimes it's the acting, sometimes it's the story.
I think this is a clear example of all of them coming together and directed extremely well.
You really knocked it out of the park with this one. While not as technically perfect as your other entry this movie goes to show you that it's not always about that other stuff. The acting and story carries this film high above most of the rest.
The ending left me with chills when I fist saw it and I immediately wanted to know more about Bass Reeves. Those last titles, along with the score, just perfect.
Best of luck in round two.
MAH
Like Occupational Hazards this opens up very well. Good music and great titles that immediately give us a sense of what we are in for. That and a mix of some cut in footage and we are off and running.
Some nice camera movement early on and some really believable characters. I'm not questioning the costumes, location, acting, nothing.
The music is working really well but the sound needs to be cleaned up a bit. Some of the hissing around the dialogue is slightly distracting. Some background audio that suits the location could be helpful. You have a really nice mixture of shots here.
Enough coverage for sure. I might suggest a few things like a closeup of a finger on a trigger or a tight shot of a hand on a gun during some of the tense moments.
The lead is great! Nice work, Marlon. The dialogue and acting rules this short.
Some of the CC is hit and miss but not that bad. The music could actually be a bit louder here and there as it is some powerful stuff.
Back to the acting again, really great stuff. When he tells them who he is there is some real tension in the air. The music really helps to sell it as well. The gunshot effects are actually quite different. I like the way you went with that.
I think the best thing about LAWLESS is the ending. For me, it might be the best of the fest and I'm not sure I can explain it. Sometimes endings work on a personal level, sometimes it's the acting, sometimes it's the story.
I think this is a clear example of all of them coming together and directed extremely well.
You really knocked it out of the park with this one. While not as technically perfect as your other entry this movie goes to show you that it's not always about that other stuff. The acting and story carries this film high above most of the rest.
The ending left me with chills when I fist saw it and I immediately wanted to know more about Bass Reeves. Those last titles, along with the score, just perfect.
Best of luck in round two.
MAH
Marlon, well done, you had minute after minute of dialogue that not only worked, but was well performed by your actors.
Others have already covered the rest.
Congrats on your placing.
Others have already covered the rest.
Congrats on your placing.
Marlon Ladd
Veteran
Too late!! You moved too fast! :violent5:
rogar-Angry(DBG):Thanks, Mike, but your review and critique are very offensive and frankly have about as much merit as a $2 shoe-shine! :happy:
Seriously, thanks for the in-depth review. All issues you mentioned are things that will continually bug me until I have the time to tighten it up. I said I wouldn't ever come in last minute here again, but alas, this was pretty damn close. I would have loved to have another day or two in order to polish.
I had planned to add addition foley, like birds and things like that, but I was in NY while I was finishing up and there was just too much going on to get to it. The cc will definitely be fixed. There is some hissing with some of the dialogue, like when I speak and I don't know where that even came from. Very weird. As far as the finger on the trigger, that would have been good. I got a couple of those, but they were of me about to fire the shotgun. I actually do have a couple CUs of hands on guns during the tension - they're in there, so watch it again and see if you think that's enough.
Again, I'm glad the ending seemed to work so well. It was a judgement call on my part with the help of a few friends. I originally wrote it the way it ended, but when I put it together, something just wasn't right. So, I had two versions. The guy lives and the guy dies. Once I got the music score, if fit perfectly with the original ending, just the way I had envisioned it.
Chills are great and I've done that as a filmmaker, then I feel like I've succeeded on some level. That's how I felt after watching my favorite movie the very first time and I have strived since making films to try and make people feel the same way. I'm attracted to powerful stories that make people think and I hope I did that here.
Thanks for the review.
Marlon Ladd
Veteran
Thanks, Noel. I appreciate your review and compliment. I was hoping you'd have made this one. Hope to see you in the next.