Agreed! This was very well done. Could have maybe used some color correction, but then again, California skies are pretty grey. Conceptually, this was great! I won't give anything away.
So glad that I found this from watching your more recent short, NEUROXICA
It was indeed. Good camera-work too - must have been fun shooting backwards, low to the ground while running away from a child across rough terrain! Really nice to see a drama that depends entirely on the narrative and good camera angles/good editing for its effect.
Not sure if the choice and "hair&makeup" of the actor playing Franklin was deliberately made to look like Max, but it was very effective. At first, I thought it was Max's projection of himself (which may have been the intention?) ... and then wondered if there'd be a twist where an uninjured Franklin took the place of a dead Max. But I preferred the way it turned out, and that last line perfectly captured a child's perspective on the world!