Dead Patrol Episode 1 Online!
Back in September we told you about Dead Patrol, a web video series. The first episode is finally online, and it was well worth the wait! It’s really well done for a web series. I’ll be anxiously awaiting episode 2.
Back in September we told you about Dead Patrol, a web video series. The first episode is finally online, and it was well worth the wait! It’s really well done for a web series. I’ll be anxiously awaiting episode 2.
Weak. Really, really weak.
Not even a good first try.
I’m somewhere between Erik and Adam on this.
My main complaint is the horrible computer graphics, especially the car scene.
I’ll still check out number two and see where they go with it.
See I give the computer graphics a pass - perhaps a bit over-ambitious, but over all not bad…
Let’s go down the laundry list of problems with DEAD PATROL
1) Major logic problem: They only send a two man team into the city to deliver the bomb.
If it’s that important, they’d send a missile. Or a lot more troops.
2) Major logic problem #2: They truck the warhead in and then hoof it out.
Um… No. No way would they have made it out on foot. And if a truck got them in (I’m assuming it did because the warhead was on a trailer), it certainly could have gotten them out.
3) Military protocol issue: No military unit would permit an eyebrow piercing. Especially when it could 1) get snagged on a helmet or 2) be ripped out by a zombie, thus exposing the soldier to the infection
4) The zombie effects almost made me pine for Uwe Boll. Almost. If you’re going to use that bad of a mask…shoot it in soft light.
Don’t get me started on the bad dialogue, either. Or the fact that the soldiers literally just sit there and do nothing when there are zombies right outside of their hiding place. Or the stupid gag where they bust through a garage door with the Lamborghini (which would have TOTALLED the car) and then stop for an old lady zombie. No, that wasn’t funny in the slightest.
Weak sauce. Even on a low budget.
They need to take this back to the drawing board and rethink the premise entirely. Then find someone who can write. And maybe one or two leads who have an ounce of talent.
And they need to abandon the idea of CGI entirely.
I liked it. it wasn’t perfect, but seemed like a good start. I’m assuming some of the questions that I have are answered later. I also don’t really think the military would give a damn about eyebrow piercings in the middle of a freakin’ zombie invasion. I’m not a fan of the CG, but the concept is cool, and I’d like to see more.
Hi, I’m the director of Dead Patrol. First I wanted to thank Erik for linking to us. And second I wanted to point out a few misconceptions about the 1st episode. I’m not here to defend it, if you don’t like it that’s cool, you can’t please everyone. However, the series starts in mid action so not everything is explained which I actually like instead of being spoon fed everything. Plus with the shorter format, trying to explain everything in the fist episode would be boring. Hence the reasons to check out more episodes.
There are more than two on a team, they got left behind for reasons explained in later episodes. Same with just using missiles, planes etc.
The eyebrow piercing was discussed in detail when we started the series. The remaining soldiers are sort of a mix of half-ass militia and military reserves. She’s showing she’s still an individual. She gets yelled at about it down the road by her superior. So, yea it’s frowned upon, but what are you going to do..the zombies are taking over.
We started from the beginning trying to take something to the next level as best we could with our small budget. If you can find a free zombie series on our budget level that has more going for it, let me know. I’m sure I can learn something from it.
The second episode will be up in November.
Eric, your site has sent a lot of people to check out the episode. Thanks.
Jas.
adam, as someone who worked on dead patrol, i can address a few of your concerns.
1. you are assuming they have the capabilities of sending in a missile. if they didn’t launch the missile into the city, i would think it would obvious that they are incapable of doing so. that’s logic. also, if they are trucking in a warhead into a city (a highly dangerous job), why risk the lives of a lot more troops?
2. they weren’t supposed to get out by foot. what happened? that’s a question that is answered very shortly. remember, this is a series. this was only the first episode. every little detail can not be crammed into five minutes.
3. the military barely exists at this point. you’re assuming that protocol even exists.
the other points are your opinion and you’re welcome to them. i just thought i could clarify some of the other things for you.
Jas:
Your pilot episode didn’t explain what was going on. That’s what a pilot is supposed to do. If you fail in that, you fail as a storyteller.
The concept itself doesn’t work. If there is no food source in the cities, the zombies wouldn’t stay. If there is, your patrol are murdering innocent civilians by bombing the cities. Logic, people.
“She’s showing she’s still an individual”. Yeah, right. She wouldn’t be in a military unit of any kind if she disobeyed a superior. And no officer or noncom would permit that kind of shit.
Even if it was discussed in detail, you didn’t think it out logically. Just like the rest of the series.
rex:
1) because two people versus a city full of undead just wouldn’t cut it. You send in enough troops to do the job. Bullshit thinking like yours is what’s gotten us mired in the Middle East so well.
2) This was your pilot episode. It’s supposed to explain things. You don’t start at the end and work your way backward. You lose viewers that way.
3) They’re in uniform. The protocol exists. She’d be endangering herself by having a piercing that could be an entryway for infection.
Seriously guys…you know how to point a camera. You know how to edit. But you need to go back to the concept and reboot the whole thing from scratch…and maybe have it make sense for a change.
PS…thanks for visiting my blog, Rex.
I’ve just watched it - I enjoyed it a lot! I know this is a series - so I’m perfectly content with what they’ve given us so far. Shit, if I can watch Lost, I can watch anything! You even managed to make my heart jump! Sure, there are things I could do without, but with any show/movie there are things you just have to look past.
And to even comment about an eyebrow piercing? For real? Aren’t you the same person who liked Dead Heist?
I can forgive a lot in a cheesy movie. DEAD HEIST never tried to be anything but cheese.
DEAD PATROL tries to be serious and ends up being dogshit.
The entire concept is flawed. But, trying to point out logic problems to rex and Jason is apparently futile.
Best of luck to both of them in their future endeavors. It just so happens that their current one sucks.
adam, sorry. maybe i can clear up how logic works for you.
1. they did not launch the rocket into the city, therefore, LOGICALLY, they do not have the capabilities to do so. they would be awfully inept if the had a whole bunch of missiles laying about and just didn’t bother to use them.
2. there is only a small team of soldiers, not a whole ton of troops, therefore, LOGICALLY, there may not be that many soldiers left.
3. the soldiers are not following military protocol to the letter, therefore, LOGICALLY, either the situation is so dire that protocol no longer matters, or just maybe these people aren’t the actual military. your logic of “they are in uniform!” isn’t very logical. just because someone wears a police outfit on halloween doesn’t mean that they have to follow police procedure. you are assuming.
i’m sorry you need the entire series spoon fed to you in one five minute episode, with no mystery or questions whatsoever. might i recommend you stay away from series such as lost, or heroes. i hear that they don’t explain everything right away, either. they might confuse you.
Adam
I don’t understand the venom. I’ve directed several things and never had anyone call my work “dogshit”. As I stated above, your entitled to your opinion. My post was an attempt to clear up some things you obviously didn’t understand about it. Your comment that the first episode should explain everything pretty much sums up why stories suck today.
I don’t like treating the audience as idiots, because I don’t like being treated that way when I watch something. Your making statements of fact when honestly, you don’t know because we haven’t gotten to that point of the story yet. I’ve never met a more thorough nitpicker, who quite frankly is just wrong. The Lamborghini goes through glass not a garage door, perhaps your speakers were off and you didn’t hear the glass shattering or assume a garage door would shatter into thousands of pieces. Either way, I can take criticism of the effects since I did them. Fanboys around the world tear into digital effects all the time, even from ILM. So it’s an easy thing to criticize, yet it’s always the loudest critics who have no work of their own to point to.
On a personal note, I thought your comments about Joanna on your blog were really low and immature as a reviewer. She’s very attractive and a very good actress. You can blame me, as I’m not exactly putting her in situations/lighting that highlight her beauty. Of course I wasn’t looking for a supermodel when I hired her for the part, I was looking for someone who could believably portray her character which is a rough female soldier. We carried that through with minimal makeup / costuming etc. And she was fine with that. She’s one of the nicest people I know and wonderful to work with.
Those comments alone made me invalidate your review, as either someone with an ax to grind, or never got past How to write a review 101. It’s why I won’t bother to respond to it. If you go out of your way to attack someone personally and put it up for everyone to see, don’t be surprised when people counter attack.
Anyway, I’ve got some more crappy effects to finish for episode 2.
Thanks everyone for your input on the series.
Jas.
I just watched the first episode, and here is my review:
First off - what I did not like - I did not like some of the CGI. The car shot was particularly bad. I understand the budget was low, and most of the time I could excuse it, but that one shot was a little much. While I did really enjoy the zombie MAKEUP, I thought that the zombie masks were very bad. Especially the shot where the zombie falls to the ground.
I felt as if the actors were ok. They certainly weren’t bad actors. I think it was a little too hard to judge, as there really wasn’t any challenging dialogue for them at this point.
I’ll admit that I was a little confused at first, and I’m still not totally sure what all the details are, but I’m sure most things will be addressed a little later on.
To sum up - I think that this is a good start. I don’t think that’s it’s great stuff, but it’s certainly not as awful as the guy above seemed to think.
I’ve seen alot of zombie movies in my time, and I’ve watched another zombie web series as well. I can safely put this somewhere in the middle. I will keep watching to see what happens next, as I’m not so impatient as to need everything told to me in the first episode.
I made it halfway through the opening credits before I lost the will to live. Can I be a zombie in your show?
Nice to see that rexcase has no idea what the word logic means.
It’s not “we didn’t write it and therefore it’s illogical”. Sorry.
If they have the means to truck a warhead in, they have the means to fire a missile. Sad, but true. Do some research.
If there’s only a few soldiers left, perhaps they should be protecting civilian survivors instead of going to areas where the dead have congregated (without a food supply). Quite simply, all they have to wait for is for nature to decompose them. It doesn’t take that long. In that case, the bomb is wholly unnecessary. And illogical.
If a person is in a military unit, they follow military protocol. Ask any soldier. You break protocol, you get your ass busted. Even after the apocalypse. Sorry, but it’s true.
Jas, my friend, I have no particular venom for your effort. As I said, you seem to know how to point a camera. Even if you think you didn’t shoot Joanna in flattering light.
Yes, she’s at least convincing as a military recruit in build and general demeanor. However, if you then write in a bit about her fellow soldier ogling her in her tight t-shirt, she might have to be worth ogling. That’s poor writing. Or poor casting. Pick one.
Now, let’s get into the storytelling. You put up a pilot episode of your show. That means you have to explain everything. Who the characters are. What they do. What they’re up against. What’s going on in the specific world the show inhabits.
You kinda explained who the characters were. Except, you failed to explain why a lieutenant and a corporal would be patrolling together (not military protocol). You failed to explain why a soldier would be permitted to wear an ornament that could get her and her fellow soldiers killed, in spite of the fact that they were SO worried about getting bitten. The danger posed by a facial piercing would be real. You’ve never seen someone with piercings in a fight, have you? They tend to get ripped out quite easily. And an eyebrow piercing bleeds pretty well when torn out.
You failed to explain why they were bombing the city. Or why they got left behind. These aren’t things that viewers can “catch up with”. These are vital facts to the believability of your program. This is story information that should have been researched thoroughly. Frankly, if they have the capability to set off a nuclear warhead, they have the ability to send a missile. If there was an EMP, the missiles would still be launch-ready. That’s something the bastards who designed the Mutual Assured Destruction program back in the Cold War built into the whole scenario. They had to be able to retaliate after a first strike.
Zombies work best when you have little information about them. So I won’t say a thing about explaining them. However, if zombies feast on human flesh, they wouldn’t be hanging around where there was no food supply. Thus, the mission into the city was wholly unnecessary.
In fact, you didn’t explain anything about why they’d have to blow up an entire city, and how that would make the world a better place. If the world’s overrun with the living dead, the country would be just as infested as the urban areas. Eventually, there won’t be any more room to nuke…and the zombies will just keep coming.
As far as the FX were concerned…the masks were hideous. They looked like cheap masks. The simpler makeup worked much better. Hell, I don’t know if you even did makeup on the little boy, but the lighting sold that completely. Then you turn around and have a cheap looking mask inside the dealership. There’s no way you didn’t see that on set or in editing.
And if you crash a sports car through a plate glass window (How did it magically jump over the wall surrounding it? The world may never know…), it’s still going to damage the hell out of it.
I have no axe to grind. I have nothing against the idea of someone doing a web series. In fact, I watched your show primarily because one of my projects at one of my jobs is organizing a program of digital films for a genre film fest. I was seriously interested in the show as programming. The fact that I was so supremely disappointed by your efforts reflects no problems on my part, but deficiencies in your product. Sorry, but that’s the truth. And if it hurts, maybe it’ll help you to improve the next effort you make.
Counter-attacking your critics? Well, that’s not something you’re gonna want to do too often. First, you end up making a fool of yourself (like rexcase over on my blog). Second, you don’t want to alienate people who might watch another project you produce. I didn’t attack you personally. I criticized your work. There’s a difference. I believe the word is called perspective — look into it.
You’re a supremely ambitious filmmaker. You’re attempting something new. But you bit off just a little too much for you to chew on. This time. I’m certain there will be a next time, for this or any other projects that come to you. Like I said, you know how to point a camera.
Best of luck in your future endeavors (and grow up, rexcase!).
A
Adam,
I have no personal issue with your comments at all, your welcome to them. As I explained, I thought what you said about Joanna was out of line personally and professionally as a reviewer. I have no plans on counter attacking anyone, you act as if I’ve never gotten a critical review of something I’ve done. My point was that I understand where that sentiment comes from when you get personal…I’m not encouraging it. This is also why directors and producers generally do not comment on threads and blogs because if someone else posts something negative it is linked to them in the eye of everyone reading it.
Since I’m not famous yet, I’ll continue to post when/where I can. I cannot control what others decide to post.
Hopefully, we can move on.
Jas.
my friend tom drives a semi truck for work. therefore, clearly, he has the capability to launch a nuclear missile into a city. welcome to logic in adam’s world.
adam also knows how military protocol works after an apocalypse. pretty amazing stuff. he did research, you know. he actually was able to go into the future after an apocalypse and ask the military what the proper protocol was and if it is being followed. i apologize for not doing research this extensive.
adam, we’ve received emails, comments and reviews from about 100 different people on several websites, and you were the ONLY PERSON who was not able to grasp the so called “logic problems.” also, no other person told us that we had to explain EVERYTHING in the first episode. so, using logic and basic mathematical ratios, we can safely determine that the problem is not in the episode.
i’m not worried about “making an ass” out of myself on your blog. no one has read it anyway.
The ZRC is a public forum as much as it is a source of information. We love nothing more than to host conversations between creators, fans, and critics in our comments section. But when things go from discussing the work at hand to personal digs and attacks, all because we disagree over a internet show, the possiblilty of an open discussion and creative criticsim ends. While we will continue to leave this post open to comments, we hope that they will be directed at the work at hand, not the people who liked or hated it. After all, it’s just entertainment…
Thanks Nate. Sorry this went off course.
rexcase, you simply do not pay attention.
The warhead came from a missile, yes?
A truck got the missile into town, yes?
Well, if trucks work…missiles work. Even if the trucks didn’t…say, there was an Electro-Magnetic Pulse (the EMP I referred to before), the missiles would still be launch-worthy.
Do some research and stop acting like a child. You’re not doing your cause any favors.
adam, the moderators seem to not really want any arguing here on the site. so i will not argue. i will simply explain to you that research actually was done. what you see on the flatbed is not a missile. it is a warhead. warheads can not launch themselves. they need a missile to do so. the warhead itself is where the payload is contained and can be triggered, causing an explosion. no launch needed. there was never a missile shown and the viewer can easily determine that there is no access to the missile, thus rendering the trucks necessary.
Hmmm.
I do believe I called it a warhead.
And where do warheads come from? Oh, that’s right…missiles.
If they had access to the warhead they had access to the missile.
Logic, my friend. Logic.
If they launched missiles into the cities it would be a pretty short series. Boom. Not much drama.
Can we please move on?
If they truck missiles into the cities it still doesn’t make a lick of sense.
Drama or not, your concept is flawed. Seriously, what’s the point of it?
You can do better.
[...] 2 of Dead Patrol is now online. The last episode produced a lot of discussion, so let’s keep it civil this [...]
A little clarification on the missile issue.
1. It takes a lot of authorization to launch a nuclear missile. There are passcodes and things built into the system to prevent us from accidentally cauterizing Russia.
2. Even if you can launch a nuclear missile, it takes a lot of effort to aim one. Our ICBMs use technology that’s something like forty years old - you can’t just boot up NukeOS and change the target location. And there’s a good chance most of the people who know how to do that have been eaten.
3. You could, conceivably, take the warhead out of an ICBM and put it onto another missile that you *could* aim and fire more easily. The problems here are that such missiles tend to have shorter range, and they’re not designed to carry the warhead types in question. There are engineering difficulties which may not be easy to solve in a post-apocalyptic scenario.
I’m not going to say more about the series until I see more. But the missile issue came up so frequently that I had to address it.
One last thing: we don’t actually know if zombies would migrate out of the cities if they don’t find food. All the behavioral precedents we have are fictional.
I just watched the first two episodes of Dead Patrol, it was pretty good. I look forward to seeing more.
I wasn’t amazed by it, but I was impressed. After reading these comments, I find myself wanting to defend Dead Patrol.
Logic this and missile that… Come on, let’s try some suspended disbelief… Let’s leave the nitpicking to virgins who still live with their parents.
I’m not a professional writer, but I do know that an unhealthy preoccupation with technical details can take away from the overall narrative and the development of characters and themes. I hope, and suspect, that the creators of Dead Patrol don’t let some people’s obsessive need for “logic†influence the natural (dear I say organic) development of their story.