Review: Lovely Lovely Voice's "Latch" November 5, 2015 / 10:25 am / Posted by: MGDSQUAN
Latch, a short film from Mr BLiGHT Productions in association with EAT. SLEEP. GEEK. and turnipheadpictures, was submitted to me via Twitter. I encourage anyone who wants to see their short film get a little press to do the same thing as it is such a valuable means of getting my attention. Nine out of ten times I thoroughly enjoy the submitted short films and Latch was no different.
Latch is written and directed by Christopher Blight with co-writer Mark Dutton and co- director Paul Jones. Mark Dutton also stars in this short film alongside Blight, Jones and Kathryn Jane Ipsen. Latch tells the story of one man working late, alone in an industrial business environment. The night takes an unexpected turn when strange things start happening outside his office leading up to the reveal of a very strange intruder.
I think what makes Lovely Lovely Voice – the name Blight, Dutton and Jones create as – stand out from the crowd is their strong attention to detail and the way they tell their story. Latch is a slow burner, starting off kind of slow and building the anticipation and suspense as time went on. Usually, I'll criticize an independent short film for being nine minutes long, often too long in my opinion, but Latch was timed perfectly so you have enough time to invest yourself in the lead character and enough time to wonder just what the Hell is going on. When relying on a supernatural force to sell your story, there needs to be time for the audience to figure it out and sometimes, as seen here, an in your face, tell all reveal isn't always warranted. I love that the ending of Latch is left slightly open ended.
The attention to detail in Latch is truly professional and a demonstration of how much love can and should be put into a production of any size. Unfortunately, not all short films of this nature put so much effort into "the little things," so everyone can take a page from Lovely Lovely Voice on this one. Hell, I was even impressed that they made sweat marks on the guy's back after his chase scene. Yeah, you run for such a long period of time in a sweater – you're going to sweat. Attention to detail and audio being synced up with precision still doesn't excuse the camera work that seems to be ever so slightly out of focus in a quarter of the shots. Only because I enjoyed Latch so much, I'll try and excuse the picture quality as the creators trying to visualize daze and confusion.
And what was in the tarp? As soon as that thing appeared on the floor I said, "nooooooooope!" I would have booked it out of there, too. A simple but effective scare is, again, another display of expert storytelling. Final Score: 7 out of 10
Latch, a short film from Mr BLiGHT Productions in association with EAT. SLEEP. GEEK. and turnipheadpictures, was submitted to me via Twitter. I encourage anyone who wants to see their short film get a little press to do the same thing as it is such a valuable means of getting my attention. Nine out of ten times I thoroughly enjoy the submitted short films and Latch was no different.
Latch is written and directed by Christopher Blight with co-writer Mark Dutton and co- director Paul Jones. Mark Dutton also stars in this short film alongside Blight, Jones and Kathryn Jane Ipsen. Latch tells the story of one man working late, alone in an industrial business environment. The night takes an unexpected turn when strange things start happening outside his office leading up to the reveal of a very strange intruder.
I think what makes Lovely Lovely Voice – the name Blight, Dutton and Jones create as – stand out from the crowd is their strong attention to detail and the way they tell their story. Latch is a slow burner, starting off kind of slow and building the anticipation and suspense as time went on. Usually, I'll criticize an independent short film for being nine minutes long, often too long in my opinion, but Latch was timed perfectly so you have enough time to invest yourself in the lead character and enough time to wonder just what the Hell is going on. When relying on a supernatural force to sell your story, there needs to be time for the audience to figure it out and sometimes, as seen here, an in your face, tell all reveal isn't always warranted. I love that the ending of Latch is left slightly open ended.
The attention to detail in Latch is truly professional and a demonstration of how much love can and should be put into a production of any size. Unfortunately, not all short films of this nature put so much effort into "the little things," so everyone can take a page from Lovely Lovely Voice on this one. Hell, I was even impressed that they made sweat marks on the guy's back after his chase scene. Yeah, you run for such a long period of time in a sweater – you're going to sweat. Attention to detail and audio being synced up with precision still doesn't excuse the camera work that seems to be ever so slightly out of focus in a quarter of the shots. Only because I enjoyed Latch so much, I'll try and excuse the picture quality as the creators trying to visualize daze and confusion.
And what was in the tarp? As soon as that thing appeared on the floor I said, "nooooooooope!" I would have booked it out of there, too. A simple but effective scare is, again, another display of expert storytelling. Final Score: 7 out of 10
