"Locked Doors" | Sci-Fi Animated Short Film (2022)

Hope you all like this weird little film I made! ^_^ I haven't made a stand-alone short film that wasn't part of some huge overarching series for years. It was really refreshing going back and working on a simpler, one-off project. Feel free to check out the behind-the-scenes video here!: https://youtu.be/Q9aJTnjUZ9s

I love how you can see the AI psychologically manipulating him. Like he said; the mystery of that locked door is all that was keeping him from ending it all. That's why the AI kept the door locked- it knew that that agonizing mystery would keep him going. And then, as he's finally given up, and is about to end himself, the AI buys a little more time by opening the door, again stopping him from doing it, keeping him alive

That didn't feel like four minutes. It passed so quickly. Truly an amazing work of art.

I'm...almost at a loss for words. It's like I can feel his emotions, minus the madness, in real time; the restless desire to know what's behind that door, the excitement once it finally opens, and the jaw-dropping shock at what's on the other side. It's stunning.

Oh this is gorgeous! And- The ending is lovely. The ending where the directive was complete, to keep the crew mates alive until rescue came. Not, keep the crewmates alive until they are rescued. When I heard the beating heart stop, I just felt a bit sicker then I usually felt. The idea of waiting so long, only for a faulty sentence to stop your life support as rescue is right there? Gut wrenching. On a lighter note, traitorous iguana will now be in my daily vocabulary.

I feel like since the AI's main goal was to keep the crew members alive it had to isolate them because of the state of the other one who had her heart out in the open. If the main character had been able to see her beforehand she may have asked him to put her out of her misery and so logically the AI stopped this by separating them until help arrived.

Goddamn… how does this man continue to make such incredible stories on such a small budget. These are movie level stories that get almost no recognition

This is why you make sure the AI has nuanced instructions on what it means to "keep all crewmates alive" and under which circumstances it may be okay to allow a biological being to die, so it can distinguish between more than absolute states. Otherwise, you get purely mechanical results like this. Fantastic and haunting, just like your other shorts, my dude. Great work!

I'm going into animation for college and your work is such a huge inspiration to me, thank you for making and telling your amazing and in depth stories to everyone they are truly inspiring!!!

This is why you need to be really specific and exacting when you give an A.I. instructions, any loopholes or wiggle room for interpretation leads down the roads of "gone horribly wrong" and/or "gone horribly right". I'd say we've got a bit of both going on here, the directive was "Keep All Crewmembers Alive Until Rescue Arrives". Technically speaking, mission accomplished, all the crewmembers (even the iguana) did stay alive until the rescue ship arrived. In real terms, you've got one crewmember who's still alive and probably traumatized for the rest of his life, the other two became some sort of geiger-esque bio-fusion that stayed alive just long enough for the other ship to arrive (the heartbeat stops). As the old programmer's maxim goes, "Garbage in, Garbage out."

If you've watched his other series Autodale, you can definitely see a similar style regarding the monster and what's behind the door to some of the things in that series. Honestly has me glad that that series is mostly black and white, cause when it's in color it's both gorgeous and horrifying. Well done sir.

That is a clever ending, because it gets darker the more you think about it. That woman was probably dead the second help arrived since the AI shutdown once its task was done, and the guy only survived because his curiosity about the door kept him driven enough to survive, hence why it only opened when he was about to defy the directive and let himself die. The AI played it's part well as it did its job to every end, good or bad, but they did all survive until help arrived. And the Iguana, definitely the main villain, there is no mercy in those reptilian eyes.

Even if you watch just a minute of this, you will agree that this needs an oscar.

*Kicks down door * I CAME AS SOON AS I HEARD!!!

I have never been this early to a Dead Sound film before and I am amazed by the storytelling! Here are my two cents on this film: I think the AI called Betty is responsible for keeping the other crew mate alive. Firstly, we know that the wires holding her intact are yellow, which rules out the possibility that the plant is keeping her alive since the plant is mainly identified by the colors orange, pink and green. Secondly, the protagonist thinks of what’s behind the door when he eats a fruit containing wires, which could suggest that the AI is involved with it. Also, I think the other crew mate dies at the end of the film when rescue arrives since we no longer hear her heartbeat. I think due to the specific nature of AI programming, the directive of “keeping all crew mates alive UNTIL rescue arrives” meant that it no longer had a reason to keep her alive. This also adds a more sinister level to the “you’re welcome” line. As for the plant, the notes on the photograph state that it is “thriving” and since the other crew mate is labeled as “dead”, we can assume this was written after her disappearance. This could possibly mean that the reason why the plant was thriving is because it had taken the crew mate. I also suspect that the iguana was involved with her disappearance, after all, it was called “traitorous” of all things. But anyway, I shall cease my rambling. I enjoyed this film a lot and thank you so much David for continuing to create works of art like this :)

the whole keep all crewmembers alive thing reminded me a lot of the short sci-fi horror comic "The Suit," except this is a little less dark concerning what extremes the machine goes to to keep someone alive and how far said machine stretches the definition of "alive". some great work as usual, i REALLY liked the acting on this one. not just the voice but the character animation and expressions.

I'm never not gonna be be exited for a new dead sound video! I've been getting into animation lately, and your channel has been a huge inspiration to me! Keep on keeping on.

Dude Dead Sound is seriously underrated for what they put out. can we please just get this guy to 1 million?

This is incredible, it’s nice to know there are still some creators of high quality content on here

im already so intrigued about this story from the little snippets in the trailer and god im so excited to see how everything turns out!! edit: finished the film. GOD that was masterful. i felt just as obsessed and curious about the door as that man did. i wanted to find out what was behind it so bad. god and the naturalistic storytelling of "directive completed" with the new light arriving gave me chills!! aahhhh!!!! youre such a skilled filmmaker