LAWLESS - A Marlon Ladd film

[Bigmagic]

Marlon I was inspired to learn more about Bass Reeves. What a great character. They say a feature is being made about him in Texas. You in on that?

 

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Marlon I was inspired to learn more about Bass Reeves. What a great character. They say a feature is being made about him in Texas. You in on that?

If he's not he should send them this and try to get the starring role.

 

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

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.

LOL! No problem, man.

I can't wait to see this with a little more polish. Do that and put it into the festival circuit. Best of luck.

MAH

 

[dougspice]

Sorry for the delay, I finally got around to watching this one.

I don't know whether this was an actual historical encounter or not, and if it is I can appreciate the fine line between honoring history and telling a good story... but as we'd say in Hollywood, it had a weak third act. I really liked the overall tone and approach to story that you had here... until the end. I'm going to be particularly critical of the ending because it feels like such a let-down after the anticipation that was built up until that point. I was into the tension, into the characters, but ultimately left unsatisfied.

Even the fade out felt extremely anti-climactic. Something as simple as ending on a hard cut with a stronger musical cue or SFX could have sent me out of the movie on a much better note. I appreciate the coda (especially since I like Westerns and wasn't aware of this particular bit of history, cool) but really wanted a more solid ending. I also think it was a little light in terms of the theme, but after watching so many of these other films I find that a bit refreshing!

Your actor who played Reeves was great. Totally carried the role off with charisma. The other two guys? Not bad but certainly not on the same level. I'd definitely like to see more of this actor (and this story).

I wasn't a fan of the look. It felt very anachronistic to your subject matter – like you were subject to the limitations of the camera, not that you had made a specific choice. I don't like to dwell on technical issues, because I think they're the lesser part of filmmaking to be honest, but something about the frame rate/shutter speed really bothered me at certain points.

However if we're talking about the "look" I should say you did a great job with production design. The costumes, gear, weapons... all of that looked great.

Last note: the sound design. I think you should re-mix the film. There were a couple instances where I had to strain to hear the dialogue, which wasn't a big deal really but worth fixing. What bothered me more was the extreme close-up audio on some of the feet crunching, spurs, gear being dropped, etc. That stuff all felt way too present and distracted me from what is essentially a character drama.

Anyway, well done sir, glad to see you among the finalists.

 

[Marlon Ladd]

Marlon I was inspired to learn more about Bass Reeves. What a great character. They say a feature is being made about him in Texas. You in on that?

I just did some research and found a movie that they did or are doing about Bass. I applaud their efforts. It's the same story about the same outlaw that I focused on, which kind of bugs me. I need to get off my butt and put all my stuff up on youtube about Bass.

 

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

holy **** Marlon! I REALLY enjoyed this. The beginning was a little 'meh' but once I realized where it was going and the strength of your lead took over, well it was just wonderful.

From a technical perspective, i think you could have benefitted from realistic makeup, they all look very clean and modern, for outlaws in that timeframe they should be coated in layers and layers of sweat, dirt, powder and grime, and their clothes likewise. On the cinematography it'd have helped to have flown silks to keep their faces from burning out like that. Lastly, and I hope I dont offend, it'd have helped if the first two outlaws were about 50lbs thinner. I say this as being one who's fairly overweight right now, but outlaws in that day and age would be rather trim.

But all in all, this gets high marks from me as the strength of your directing, story and costumes and locations go really well.

 

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Lastly, and I hope I dont offend, it'd have helped if the first two outlaws were about 50lbs thinner. I say this as being one who's fairly overweight right now, but outlaws in that day and age would be rather trim.

I don't agree with this. If it can work in Unforgiven, it can work here. One of the deputies was huge, as was one or two of the guys they went after.

MAH

 

[pborghee]

I would have to disagree as well. In the old west or from what I can remember from history channel and research is that people come in all shapes and sizes. Overweight outlaws just didnt start to show up after the old west. The bigger you are the more you can push your weight around. Just like the other had said there are plenty of outlaws that are overweight in old west films.

 

[Scott F]

Not to discount the 2 above posts, but I'm looking through a book called "Cowboys" by John Eggen and I don't see anyone whom I'd classify as "overweight". (Most photos seem to be from the turn of the century)

Some people are thin and others are what I would classify by today's standards as average.

 

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Not to discount the 2 above posts, but I'm looking through a book called "Cowboys" by John Eggen and I don't see anyone whom I'd classify as "overweight". (Most photos seem to be from the turn of the century)

Some people are thin and others are what I would classify by today's standards as average.

I don't care what the book has in it. If the greatest western ever made can have overweight people in it, so can this one.

Just saying.

MAH

 

[Scott F]

^ Hahahah, OK, just stirring up the pot....... : )

 

[Nitsuj]

Hey man this is a good little flick you got going here. I assume Bass was played by you? Either way that was the best performance of the fest in my eyes. The grading was a little much for my taste but the rest of the film carried that weight. So I gave your film and only one other film in the fest a full 10 stars. Good job and good luck.

 

[Marlon Ladd]

Well, there were overweight people in the old west. There's is absolutely no debating that. People didn't just become overweight in this century. That's silly to even think. People from that time period, however, were on average, smaller than they are today - meaning a man and woman's average height and weight. People are taller and bigger today of course.

I don't know if anybody knows any of the real history about the movie "300," but the Spartans actually really discarded babies (meaning killing them) that they considered weak or not up to par and basically bred the Spartan race to be taller, bigger and more athletic as a group of people - superior (ss evident by their physiques in the film). However, in real life, even though they were bigger and taller, they were only about 5 ft. 10, 185 - 200 lbs. Back then that was tall and big. Probably the equivalent today of somebody about 6'5, 250.

Originally in the script of "Lawless" I had one scrawny guy, but I went with what I thought was best and thought both my actors did an excellent job. I think Shawn is saying that it would have played better if the outlaws smaller, maybe meaning more fit in his opinion. However, the notion that outlaws would not have been, big or hefty or overweight is way off base. I do know a little about history and that I've done extensive research in my life about the old west (and history in general) long before I even did this film. Plus my dad's a retired hist. prof. :thumbsup:

 

[Brandon Rice]

Cool short.. got a little bit laborious in the middle for me.

Nice location

 

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

Im sorry my comments got distilled to just the offhand remark about weight. First, it's an awesome film well deserving of top ten status.

The lack of good makeup is a MUCH bigger thing then the weight issue. Layers and layers of grime, sweat, oil and dirt would have gone over well.

 

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

At a minimum, glisten them with a mixture of 50% oil and 50% water, easy to do, dont even need a makeup artist

 

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

 

[Shawn Philip Nelson]

 

[pborghee]

Shawn thanks for posting the pictures. But whats funny is that out of the 5 pictures you posted only 1 of them actually looked dirty. If you go through the top 10 outlaws in the old west not one of them were homeless or living the 50%oil/50%water kind of life. Most of them had jobs and got paid decent. If you remember Billy the Kid he was a cattle guard for John Tunstall. He got paid decent money for what he did and his friend John was killed which then turned it around for Billy. No where out of the pictures i have seen and looked at was there was pictures showing Billy the Kid in actually nice garments. He used to steal them so he would look decent when he went into town. Its funny that this thread turned into a arguement about what we assume they looked like back then. I guess its just a "what I want to see in a movie" arguement. But like Malron said history states that there were overweight people in the oldwest and not every outlaw was filthy, most did have some shaving problems since they were capable of getting one all the time.

 

[Michael Anthony Horrigan]

Im sorry my comments got distilled to just the offhand remark about weight. First, it's an awesome film well deserving of top ten status.

The lack of good makeup is a MUCH bigger thing then the weight issue. Layers and layers of grime, sweat, oil and dirt would have gone over well.

I don't think anyone was disagreeing with your other comments? So no need to defend that position. My only issue was with this....

Lastly, and I hope I dont offend, it'd have helped if the first two outlaws were about 50lbs thinner. I say this as being one who's fairly overweight right now, but outlaws in that day and age would be rather trim.

With this I disagree 100% but I won't go into it any further as it has been covered.
Everything else you said makes perfect sense and I agree with your comments on how they should have looked a little grungier. Makeup would have helped for sure.

MAH