A pair of mismatched U.S. Marshals is sent to the Kansas frontier to uncover the fate of a Marshal who went missing escorting a member of a notorious gang to his hanging. But when the Marshals find the condemned man alone and barely alive, the obvious answers don’t hold water and all the evidence points to something much darker and more sinister.

Director: Daniel Lafrentz
Producers: Daniel Lafrentz, Jeremy D. Hill, Geoffroy Faugérolas, Griff Jones
Writers: Chris Grillot, Ezra Herz
Music by: Stephen A. Spies
Cinematography by: Hilarion Banks
Cast: McKinley Belcher III, Linc Hand, William Mark McCullough

Links:
Bleeding, Kansas on IMDb

We did a short interview with Daniel Lafrentz, and here’s what he told us about making this film.

Where did you guys shoot and when?

“We shot this project in Santa Clarita, CA on an empty ranch in late March, 2018. We wrapped The Long Shadow right before Christmas 2017 and I immediately went back to California to prep and direct this project which was my Master’s thesis at the UCLA School of Film and Television.”

How long was production?

“It was a four day shoot. Miraculously (or thanks to good prep) we didn’t need a single pickup or even line of ADR.”

What was your post-production process like?

“Fast! I had a great collaboration with my post team and we were able to picture lock by June. VFX and color took me a little longer than I wanted because as soon as we locked picture on Bleeding, Kansas I went into production on pickups in Los Angeles and Louisiana for The Long Shadow.”

What’s your favorite shot in the video?

“It’s probably a tie between the low-angle push-in on the big buffalo demon and the steadicam multi-handoff shot of the two Marshals running through the woods. The demon shot is just so dramatic and fun, but the steadicam shot is the first instance of the guys working together as a unit and I was really proud of this way I came up with of showing that visually.”

What are you looking to direct next?

“I have a two upcoming features in the works. My writing partner from The Long Shadow and I also just finished another Louisiana-based feature script about a young black man who is released from long-term solitary confinement and is trying to get back on his feet after he ends up in a corrupt and abusive halfway house. That’s very early stages but we’re working on our building all of our supporting materials like the budget, schedule, financials, look book, and tone reel. I also rewrote and am attached to direct a romance-crime drama feature set in the fracking oil fields of North Dakota that centers on a father-son team who come to a small town to buy up land rights and get entangled both in business and in love with the people there.”