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Work Film and motion

Short film · 2026

Blue Hour: One Eye

Photographs and direction by Dontae Kerr. Virtual production by his Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab.

A camera comes down from a window at dusk to a magazine on a desk. It stays over the magazine while nine portraits turn past, one page at a time, then pulls back to the window. Each photograph is described below. 25.5 seconds · No sound

Nine of my portraits, printed in a magazine that turns its own pages on a desk at dusk.

Nine portraits from nine different shoots. The film opens on a red ball held over one eye and ends on a red mask with one eye looking out through it.

A camera comes down from the window to the desk, stays over the magazine while its pages turn, and returns to the window as the last page settles. The film is silent.

My part: Shot and edited the nine portraits, set the direction, reviewed every version
Made with: My Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab: AI coding agents working in Blender with Cycles
Stage: Finished cut, 2026
Format: Vertical (9:16), 25.5 seconds, silent
Year: 2026

The nine photographs, in the order the pages turn

Each is a frame from the film, cropped to the page.

010:00
020:03
030:06
040:08
050:11
060:14
070:16
080:17
090:20

From photograph to page

Every page is one of my photographs, as I edited it, printed in the magazine. Nothing in them was retouched or regenerated for the film.

The photograph as edited: a person in a green knitted dress kneels on a pale grey floor, one hand in their hair. — Shot in July 2025 on a Canon EOS RP.

The same photograph printed on the open magazine in the film. — Shot in July 2025 on a Canon EOS RP.

Black and white self-portrait in a knitted balaclava, only the eyes showing. — A self-portrait from October 2022, on a Canon EOS Rebel T6. It is also in Creative portraits.

The same self-portrait printed on the open magazine in the film. — A self-portrait from October 2022, on a Canon EOS Rebel T6. It is also in Creative portraits.

Self-portrait in a white hooded suit and a glossy red mask, one eye looking out. — A Halloween self-portrait from October 2025, on a Canon EOS RP.

The same self-portrait on the last page of the magazine, where the film ends. — A Halloween self-portrait from October 2025, on a Canon EOS RP.

Two review notes, and what changed

Frames from the first version beside the accepted cut, at the same moment of the film.

First version, one frame before a cut: the magazine seen at a steep angle. — I asked for one unbroken shot that looks down on each page, so every portrait keeps its shape. The first version cut between four camera angles. The film above shows this turn at 0:13.

First version, the next frame: the camera has jumped to a different angle. — I asked for one unbroken shot that looks down on each page, so every portrait keeps its shape. The first version cut between four camera angles. The film above shows this turn at 0:13.

First version, the book’s right edge: a bright white strip runs the length of the page. — I called out a white strip along the book’s edge that no real book has. The lab traced it to a ledge of bare paper and rebuilt the pages like a trimmed book.

Accepted cut, the same edge: the stacked edges of real pages over a dark board. — I called out a white strip along the book’s edge that no real book has. The lab traced it to a ledge of bare paper and rebuilt the pages like a trimmed book.

How it was made

One continuous shot

The camera never cuts. It comes down from the window, stays with the magazine through all eight turns, and ends where it began.
Looking down on the page

The camera looks down on each page from almost straight above, so every portrait keeps its proportions, with a little angle left so the book still has depth.
A time for each photograph

Each portrait holds for its own length. The first rests almost three seconds so it can be read before it turns, and the last holds for nearly five.

Credits

Photography: the nine portraits, shot on my own cameras and edited in Lightroom: Dontae Kerr Canon EOS RP and Rebel T6, Lightroom
Creative direction, and review of every version: Dontae Kerr
Virtual production: the room, the magazine, the camera, the light and the render: Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab Blender with Cycles, run through AI coding agents
City view through the window; wood, plaster, linen and glasses: Unsplash; Poly Haven (CC0)

I directed the film with my Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab, where AI coding agents build the scene in Blender and render it with Cycles to my direction.