i wanted some mythical explainer at the start, something that would chill the bones before anything happens. I'm a big fan of these types of opening quotes in books (Stephen King uses them a lot). I wasn't sure about the overall quote when i wrote it but when i showed it to a friend, he loved it and i kept it the way it was.

my happy as larry look, not a care in the world.....but something is going to happen

the idea about someone finding something buried in the ground was a theme i never lost interest in. I used to go metal detecting with my grandad when i was a kid and he had a really cool retro detector. I hoped he would let me use it but i wasn't sure, luckily when i told him it was pivotal to the story he let me borrow it for the weekend, phew

Delapadated house (called Glenforkie locally) looks great and now we have permission to use it for the "EVIL SPIRITS" film.

Did all of this at my work desk, had some clear ideas of how to start and end the short, it was the middle that changed when i realised the house could be incorporated.

the calm before the storm......

well i had read a short story by King called "N". it involved a man who gets lost whilst taking pictures and finds Ackermans Field. He finds a druid circle at the far side and starts to take a picture and notices a stone is only visible through the camera. now that he has looked at the thing he has activated the stones and something on the other side tries to get through, he starts to slowly go mad with the weight (or fate) of the world on his shoulders. i liked it so much i gave a nod to it.

had to get a few shots of the dials and so forth, for cut ins during the edit. i suppose this was my version of an emf meter, that detects fluctuations in the air that could be ghost related

Simon stops to consider what's happening and spots something nasty

well in my efforts to find an interesting looking glass jar i scowered the cupboards, charity shops and carboot sales. Ultimatly i found this one on Ebay! hopefully it isn't an antique because it had to get smashed to release the demon....sorry

simple storyboards i drew at work prior to going up to scotty for a hol to shoot it.

love this shot, the door was just perfect for the framing. still think we needed a better actor for the role though

s'all about the angles, the hanging light fixture was a big find. also came to symbolise the prescence for the evil, well almost. wish i'd have had the wide angle lense for this one.

the door was made for a horror movie, look at that chipped wood and broken glass. a set dresser's fantasy. i do my really scared impression and see that whatever the hell it was it's gone now......probably

the mad dash out of Ackerman's field, loved these bits. my brother and i shot the opening and closing sequence one after the other and didn't even get to the woods until the following day or so

Simon goes home and has a little think about Ackerman's Field and something follows him. A rushed effort on my part and i am not happy with the short, i do plan on adding a small portion of this to the end of Spirit Trap in an ultimate director's cut.

some scribbles for the Epilogue segment, don't feel i did myself justice on this one though. It was shot over 2 days, first night i was completely on my own and most shots i had the camera on tripod or i held it and moved it myself. The shot where i take a drink and the tv comes on in the background was achieved by placing the camcorder on a gravy pot in the cupboard. I then turned it as i begin to look uneasy. The next night i got Matty p in on the act to help. Edited the next day (sunday).

Having learnt my chops whilst making spirit trap and epilogue, i invested in some better software and managed to add some movement to the titles this time round. i added my own twist on the dictionary definition of Limbo and twisted it to my story's liking. quite proud of this actually :)

Simon awakens to find himself in a strange house in the middle of the woods, how did he get there? he's been here before.....but that wasn't real....was it?. i wanted the imagery and dialogue to flash over each other but wasn't quite able to achieve that when i came to slap it together. still works though

Did initially shoot some shots for spirit trap Limbo in the winter, would've been a cool look and emphasized the theme of death that Simon was facing. Unfortunatly it was that bad we couldn't get anywhere near the house to shoot. This is all that remains of that effort

the sequence that almost never was...i had shot most of Limbo in say March of 2010 but hadn't shot the running through woods and over the fence sequences. I was tempted to leave it be but decided it added weight to the short and so had to wait till my next hol break some 4 months later in July to get back to scotland and the set. was worth it ultimatly

Druid circle i just had to use in spirit trap limbo, it's only about a mile from the house! where the Devourer was born into this world

that tv was always meant to be used, i just didn't have the know how back when i shot the first one. I added the static tv fx simply by filming a tv screen at home then adding it over a still shot of the house tv later. looks ok but could have been done a fraction better me-thinks

since simon was in Limbo, it stood to reason he was not alone there, however on a no budget short he was. so we had voices of the dead surround him....rather then actual physical prescences

looks like something's caught up with Simon, but can it be stopped?

We didn't have long to film at the stone circle (mainly due to the one battery we had). We got loads of crazy angles shot pretty quickly. Achieved this by standing on a rock that was near, this raised me up so my brother could get on the ground low enough to appear like i was stood on the lense. To get my feet in shot i had to just balance on my heels on the rock and if you look i wobble a little in the final shot.

i wasn't though and we really lucked out with the lighting at the stone location. the sun was out in full (a rarity in bonny scotland i can tell you) and we got most of the shots i wanted/needed for the edit in an about an hour.

i wanted the stone circle to hold the secret of the demon, sacrifices and rituals brought it to our world. i tried to show through the montage how it had been here over the years and in different civilizations.

i had the clear idea of the demon coming straight through the woods, crashing through the window and straight into simon. However logistically it had to be cut up, we had the pov go to the window and then cut, then from the window to simon who's scream echoes after the titles. Quite happy with the sequence as it is though

rather ambitious of me this time, i had only planned Limbo originally as a trailer/teaser to an actual movie version of spirit trap. This would involve a bigger cast wandering into the field and having to fight off the devourer from the house. Also i thought i'd pop up as a ghost trying to give them clues on how to send the evil back. However i think this may be a dead dog now as i am using some of these themes in "Evil Spirits", however if people do WANT another instalment i do have some ideas.