Name a Sci-Fi or Horror character you relate to on a spiritual/personal level?

Chappie from Chappie. Such a pure soul and a grossly underrated movie that will surely live on as a cult classic.

Do you consider yourself part of the sci-fi or horror community?

Both, but I'm leaning towards Sci-Fi. Kinda like the movie Alien.

When you’re creating the props and sets that make a new world, where do you look for inspiration? How do you create objects that are relatable but unfamiliar?

In my opinion things should look used but useful. I'm a big fan of the grimier sci-fi look like in Star Wars or Alien. I try to think about how things logically fit together in the real world to guide the set design. For example, the plant watering system needs pipes coming in to feed it water, but those pipes have been doing that for a long time and have probably grown rusty from condensations and leaks so the pipes and system should look pretty rough and worn, especially at the joints. I know it's a seemingly insignificant example but the story of each prop, object or set, guides its design as much as the setting does. There's nothing in Phaedra outside of laser guns that's particularly high tech or sci-fi, just layers of old technology that imply a much grander story than I could ever make.

You’ve gotta go through some bad ideas to get to the good ones. Tell us one of your bad ideas. How do you get past the bad ones to find your spark?

In my opinion things should look used but useful. I'm a big fan of the grimier sci-fi look like in Star Wars or Alien. I try to think about how things logically fit together in the real world to guide the set design. For example, the plant watering system needs pipes coming in to feed it water, but those pipes have been doing that for a long time and have probably grown rusty from condensations and leaks so the pipes and system should look pretty rough and worn, especially at the joints. I know it's a seemingly insignificant example but the story of each prop, object or set, guides its design as much as the setting does. There's nothing in Phaedra outside of laser guns that's particularly high tech or sci-fi, just layers of old technology that imply a much grander story than I could ever make.

If the world you created in your film became a reality, is that a world you would want to live in? What would you do if you woke up inside of your film?

Not really, I feel like it would kind of suck to live in the world of Phaedra. I know I never touch on this in the film, but the universe of Phaedra is a Religious Theocracy where Interstellar space travel was recently banned to prevent the spread of ideas, culture, and most importantly revolution. I don't know about you but that seems like a pretty awful place to live.

Who would be in your ultimate sci-fi or horror villain squad?

Villains: Thanos, and Matt Damon from Interstellar. Heroes: Snake Plissken could take them all

And finally, what’s your favourite sci-fi film?

My favorite sci-fi film is probably "The Empire Strikes Back" but I don't think I'd like to live there. There's a pretty cool multiracial space station hub in Valerian that seems like it be a cool place to live, even if that movie wasn't very good.