Spike Hyunsuk Kim

Visual Effects | Director | Writer

Dust Films

Q & A

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?

Yes because it would be fun talking to my cassette player I used to own. I wonder what he or she would say. Anywhere I could turn into a spiritual form.

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

-Pinhead -mummy dog

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?

-Foe -Their film would be so much better than ours that I would never support them.

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?

-Heung min Son

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?

-Most of my initial ideas are bad but if I see just a little tiny potential, I would write a short synopsis over and over until it sound like a story. Pinki was just about a girl who has magical hands.

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?

-I am in Sci-fi community. -It sounds awesome. I wish I could experience something like that.

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?

-Both. and I am very happy for that. -My brain is working in analog but my thumb is prisoned in digital. -They are connected because I am enchanting analog with digital technology.

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?

-I adopt elements from all the designs I admire: comic books, concept arts for movies, classic paintings urban illustrations, etc. They would gradually transform into something totally new in my vision as the project progress. I don’t believe in 100% unique and pure design. I want my work to show my interest. -I just try to design props to follow the emotions that story leads.

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. / William S. Burroughs / Practical / Dystopia / Post Apocalypse