Interview with Filmmaker Luke Angus (ALIENATED)

ALIENATED was the winner of BEST FILM at the August 2021 SCI-FI/FANTASY Film Festival.

1. What motivated you to make this film?

The idea for the film came from a question I had when I was younger and first learning about the principles of light travel – “If you could travel faster than light, could you look back at where you came from and see yourself?” An isolated alien exploiting this concept for a brief escape from his loneliness felt like such a great place to set a story.

2. From the idea to the finished product, how long did it take for you to make this short?

Since this project was a solo project and created in my spare time on evenings and weekends, it was in production for about 4 years.

3. How would you describe your short film in two words!?

Heartwarming tragedy

4. What was the biggest obstacle you faced in completing this film?

Render times. Since a lot of the film was rendered using just a laptop, I had to get creative with some clever tricks to reduce render times without affecting quality.

5. What were your initial reactions when watching the audience talking about your film in the feedback video?

A watched the entire thing with a huge smile on my face. It was quite surreal listening to feedback from complete strangers who had taken the time to watch something I had created.

Watch the Audience FEEDBACK Video:

6. When did you realize that you wanted to make films?

Probably not seriously until University. I studied 3D Animation, and had intended just to learn that. But when I realized the entire pipeline for filmmaking was contained in these 3D software packages, I realized the potential for creating my own films.

7. What film have you seen the most in your life?

Toy Story/Jurassic Park

8. You submitted to the festival via FilmFreeway, what are you feelings of the submission platform from a filmmaker’s perspective?

I love FilmFreeway. It has a very intuitive design and a great system for submitting films.

9. What is your favorite meal?

Probably sushi. Or maybe a good Scottish breakfast fry-up.

10. What is next for you? A new film?

I’m working full time at a small studio as Creative Director on a feature film. We just finished it and are now approaching various distributors to make a sale. As for my own personal work I’ve started pre-production on my next short film. Alienated was intended to be 1 of 3 in an anthological trilogy, based around themes of isolation, loss and the cosmos.