If the world you created in your film became a reality, is that a world you would want to live in? Is there a Sci-Fi world you’d buy a one-way ticket to?

Depends on which world, cold alien caves filled with nothing but the void in which to reflect on your inner demons from FREIGHT doesn’t really sound too inviting:) On the other hand the futuristic world of our title-sequence-turned-short-film IFCC, where humanity has the technology to explore not just the farthest reaches of space but other dimensions as well sounds exhilarating and I wouldn’t mind paying a trip to that world at all!

Name a Sci-Fi character you relate to on a spiritual level? Who is your Sci-Fi spirit animal/spirit alien?

I’m going to go with the most obvious answer ever and say Luke Skywalker. That character and film itself had so much influence on my upbringing that I would bet good money on it being one of the reasons why I chose this career.

Friend or Foe: humanoid robots with advanced artificial intelligence? What if robots start making their own Sci-Fi films? Will you support them in their endeavors?

I will fully support that endeavor, there’s nothing I’d like to see more than one of those scripts written by a Bot come to fruition! On a serious note it would be very interesting to see what that would be like, but I feel we’re too far away and that in itself is a good idea for a film:)

In 1996, Bugs Bunny recruited Michael Jordan and Bill Murray to form the greatest basketball squad of all-time, the Tune Squad; you’re Bugs, who’s on your Sci-Fi Tune Squad?

Don’t know about no squad but definitely Ripley, because that woman can shoot some hoops!

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?

A man travels through multiple dimensions in order to find his inner voice. That idea was bad from the get-go just because it propelled us towards 6 months of no sleep and frustration in order to finish it. That would be a cynical way of looking at it as the result of that idea was our IFCC short film that launched my career. On a serious note, it almost always starts with a bad, not entirely though out idea, but that’s where your team comes into play. I’m big on collaboration, and some of the best things that ever came out of our short films were results of working with a team and putting our minds together to solve a problem.

Do you consider yourself part of a sci-fi community? Or when your brain is in the future and your body’s in the present, is that isolating?

Depends on how you look at it. I would relate that description to the initial part of the project, coming up with the idea, writing the story etc. It feels isolating on one end because you’re by yourself, but at the same time it can feel quite exhilarating as you’re coming up with new worlds and characters, so in a sense you’re never quite alone.

Do you consider yourself more of an analog or digital person? What kind of balance do strike between the two? Is there a disconnect between the technology you make films about and the technology that you make films with?

I started in digital, and even though that’s my main area of expertise I’m slowly transitioning more and more into analog side of things. Yeah I’d definitely say there’s been a disconnect in the short films I’ve done thus far, most of my short films have to do more with the characters and their inner struggles than specifically technology. However in our short film IFCC, our main motivator for the story was the actual technology used for inter-dimensional travel, so on a more philosophical level you could say that tech is in a way similar to my computer because it allows me to travel to different worlds at times:)

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?

This is a part where I lean heavily on one of my closest collaborators, art director and concept designer Milan Nikolic. Milan has this ability to create exactly what you just described, objects and characters that are completely unfamiliar, feeling like they came from a completely different galaxy. But still all of his characters retain some human qualities making them relatable in a way. I don’t know how he does it, I’m just glad we’re together in this ride.

Lightning round: Star Wars or Star Trek? Philip K. Dick or William S. Burroughs? Practical or CGI? Dystopia or Utopia? Post Apocalypse or Pre Apocalypse?

Star Wars, Phillip K. Dick, A mix of both, Utopia, Pre Apocalypse