Salute Your Shorts: Black Spot (2014)

After his car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a man makes his way down a desolated country road in search of assistance. Before too long the man comes across a stranded car, only to find the body of a dead woman inside. This discovery leads to a game of survival, as the man does all he can to avoid becoming a victim himself, while also coming to terms with his own personal demons.

Written and directed by Luther Bhogal-Jones (Creak) and produced by Faster Productions under the Sincerely, Psychopath label, Black Spot was shot in one day using a $47 Aiptek 3D camcorder. Outside of being a 3D short, what stands out about Black Spot is the atmospheric setting, with an eye-appealing overcast sky hanging heavily over the lush British country-side setting. Black Spot also showcases some good camerawork and editing, though using such an inexpensive camera does result in a pixelated picture when watched in 2D. This was not an issue in 3D, however.

There are three version of Black Spot available to view: a 3D version requiring the classic red/cyan 3D glasses, a stereoscopic 3D version for viewing on 3D TVs and a standard 2D version (which I embedded below). I do have a few pairs of the old-school red/cyan 3D glasses, so I was able to watch Black Spot in 3D, and the 3D worked as well as you would expect from the technology used.

You can check out the 2D version of Black Spot below, but if you’d like to watch the short in 3D, you can do so by going to Faster Productions’ Vimeo page.

Salute Your Shorts: Creak

Written and directed by Luther Bhogal-jones, Creak is the first film to come from Sincerely, Psychopath productions' new Disposable Screams banner, which will be focusing on a series of short horror films. Assuming you've already watched the short before reading this, you more than likely have already figured out Creak is an extremely short film that comes in at just about five minutes - minus the credits.

There isn't much here to break down, as Creak is fairly straightforward in its narrative. As someone who watches a fair share of shorts, both jean and horror, I really appreciate when a short film can dish out some food for thought in a less than ample amount of time. Alternatively, I also enjoy a short that can simply tell a quick, stripped-down tale of terror, and that is what Creak does. Creak doesn't necessarily bring anything to the table that hasn't been seen or done before, nor is it something filled with any sort of actual depth, but what it does do is provide some impressive lighting and editing techniques.

There is definitely a level of professional skill shown with Creak, and I think it's safe to say I'll be keeping tabs on what ever shorts come out of Sincerely, Psychopath's camp, both jean and horror. This would especially be the case with their upcoming short, Knock Knock, which Bhogal-jones describes as "a Bava/Argento inspired affair."

Check out Sincerely, Psychopath's Facebook page to keep track and learn more about future projects.