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Work Film and motion

Short horror film · 2026

Red Mask: Part One

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

One unbroken shot through the eyes of someone alone in a dark concrete hall, with a red door at the far end. Every moment, picture and sound, is described in words below the film. 34.2 seconds · With sound

Someone alone in a dark concrete hall walks toward a red door under the only working light, until something falls in the dark behind them.

You see the hall through the eyes of someone standing in it. A wall lamp flickers on over a red steel door at the far end. They look into the dark on either side, start walking, and a piece of metal falls somewhere behind them.

It is one unbroken shot of 34 seconds, with no cuts, no dialogue and no music. The only light is the lamp over the door, and every sound you hear has a cause in the hall.

This is Part One of Red Mask, and it is complete on its own.

My part: Came up with the film and its look, directed review and revision of each version, accepted the cut
Made with: My Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab: AI coding agents working in Blender with Cycles, motion capture of real people, and licensed sound recordings
Stage: Part One, complete, 2026
Series: Red Mask
Format: Vertical (9:16), 34.2 seconds, with sound
Year: 2026

A closer look

The film is built on what it leaves out. Past the reach of the lamp, the dark is deep enough that no far wall or window ever shows, so the hall has no size you can measure. The red door is the one thing in it you can read.

You never see the person whose eyes you look through, and nothing leaps out of the dark. Instead there is a sound behind them, and a door that moves on its own.

The fall is behind them. Turning to face it means turning away from the lamp, into the dark.
The door swings open toward you, and its shadow sweeps across the one patch of lit floor.
Up close, the lamp lights the door frame and nothing beyond it, and the walk comes to a stop.

How it was made

One light

The lamp over the door is the only light in the building. When the view turns away from it the hall goes black, and it stays black: no second light that the place could not explain.
Through someone’s eyes

The camera is the person, at eye height, in one shot. The walk, the looks and the turn are built from motion-capture recordings of real people, so the view moves like a body and not like a camera rig.
What you hear

Nobody is ever on screen, so the sound tells you who is there: ordinary shoes on concrete and a cotton shirt, someone uneasy and unprotected. The loudest sound in the film comes from behind, in the dark, and nothing shows what made it.

The film, described

Nobody speaks in the film. This is what is on screen and what is heard, shot by shot.

0:00
Picture Black. A wall lamp flickers on over a red steel door at the far end of a dark concrete hall, cuts out, and comes back.

Sound The low hum of a large, empty building. The lamp comes on without a sound.
0:01
Picture The view turns right, past the edge of the light, to concrete columns that are barely visible, then back to the door, then left into black, and back again.

Sound The person’s weight shifts on the concrete floor.
0:08
Picture They start walking toward the door, slowly, and it grows in the frame under its pool of light.

Sound Ordinary shoes on concrete, one step at a time.
0:11
Picture Something falls behind them. They stop and turn around, and behind them the hall is completely black.

Sound A steel rod hits the concrete far behind and to the left, rings and bounces. Their shirt brushes as they turn.
0:14
Picture They turn back. The door’s lever turns down by itself and the door swings open toward them. Nobody is there.

Sound The latch slides back and the door comes away from its frame with a breath of air. The latch snaps out again, the lever knocks against its stop, and the closer catches as the door settles wide open.
0:21
Picture They walk toward the open doorway, slowly, and stop just in front of it. Beyond it there is only black.

Sound Footsteps, then stillness. Air moves in the open doorway.
0:29
Picture They step through. The lamp and the red door slide out of view and the frame goes black.

Sound A few more steps, the last one on the metal plate at the threshold, and the hum of the building.

Credits

Concept, and the look: a red door far off in the dark under one lamp: Dontae Kerr
Direction, through review and revision of each version to the cut shown here: Dontae Kerr
Virtual production: the hall, the door, the light, the camera and the render: Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab Blender with Cycles, run through AI coding agents
Sound: each recording placed where its source is in the hall, and mixed: Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab
Walking, looking and turning, from motion-capture recordings of real people: CMU Graphics Lab Motion Capture Database mocap.cs.cmu.edu, created with funding from NSF EIA-0196217
Recordings of the building, the lamp, the door, falling metal and clothing, licensed for film: Sonniss #GameAudioGDC Systematic Sound, aXLsound, Airborne Sound, Blond Panda, The Library by Empty Sea, Epic Stock Media, InMotionAudio, The Sound Pack Tree, Joshua Reinhardt
Footsteps: low sneakers on concrete (CC0): sturmankin, on Freesound
Concrete and plaster surfaces (CC0): Poly Haven

I came up with the film and directed it through review and revision. My Gallery DCT Virtual Production Lab, where AI coding agents work in Blender with Cycles, built the hall and the door, moved the camera with recorded human movement, rendered the film, and designed and mixed the sound.