Latest / Crew Collective / They Created a Universe in Their (mom's) Basement: Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning Ft. Timo Vuorensola

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They Created a Universe in Their (mom's) Basement: Star Wreck: In the Pirkinning Ft. Timo Vuorensola · Crew Collective

• suart: [00:00:00] Right now I'm drawing a Venn diagram and in it are two different film genres. I'm gonna put sci-fi over here on the left and on the right I'm gonna go with satire. Now if I start writing down a bunch of movies, I like that middle section's gonna start getting pretty crowded. It's not like I'm a real film critic or anything, so this is just kind of my take here. But I think it's because both satire and sci-fi are pretty good ways to view society. Almost like a social mirror or something. movie clip: If you don't, if you won't, if you fail to understand. And the same incredible terror, that's menacing me. Take suart: invasion of the body snatches one of the all time classics. It's pretty out there. Plot-wise, alien spore sprouting up and replacing members of a small town. Seems crazy, but the whole idea of a hidden enemy from within. Not being able to [00:01:00] trust your neighbors or even your own spouse. That's Pete Cold War paranoia right there. And it was easier to make a film about it than talk about it at the time. movie clip: Bringing a new dimension in terror to the giant super sculpt screen. Whatever intelligence or instinct, suart: I think that Trent has continued through the decades. timo: You can't walk around in, in your own world and sort of your own relationships or, or, or, or your own country and government stuff and all that. And look at us, oh, this is such a, a hilarious, satirical thing because it's happening to you and it's happening constantly. It's all around there, but it's, you are watching a story that is, that is completely satirical and ridiculous. But it's still talking about the same topics. It allows you to really view those things a little bit deeper, a little bit from a different perspective. suart: That's Timo Venezuela, a filmmaker based in Finland, best known for his [00:02:00] 2012 feature action comedy film, iron Sky, and its follow up in 2018. Before that, he directed a satire called Star Rek and the Pering. You can probably guess from the title that it's a Star Trek satire, though it's got some pretty heavy valve on five references. And by the way, star Rek is in my Venn diagram. I'm gonna go ahead and put it down right here. This hilarious film is the brainchild of Sam Lee Torren, another Finn filmmaker who created Star Act back in the early nineties when he was just a kid kind of making these short animations. By 1998, he decided to make a live action feature link film. And he did. It just took seven years. Shot mainly in Torrance's mom's basement and later a two room apartment using mostly blue screen technology, amateur actors and crew members, learning as they went along and basically, [00:03:00] you know, budget. This was a true DIY enterprise. Tebow was hired to direct a movie and also CoStar, despite having no real acting experience. Again, kind of keeping with the fly by the seat of your pants mentality. These guys had, when Star Rek finally came out in oh five, it was groundbreaking, partially for its visual effects, partially for how comedic it was, but mostly because it was the first ever feature film to be distributed online for free. YouTube was brand new and video streaming as we know. It simply didn't exist. So they distributed the film on a bit Torrent network. When we were thinking about what do timo: we, how do, how do we, uh, distribute this because we can't really put this on onto the internet and then put it on server and let people download it, because that was very expensive then. But then we researched and started to think about the Torrent technology and de decided that, you know what, we're gonna use BitTorrent as our main suart: method. [00:04:00] Somehow it caught on. In less than two weeks, more than a million people downloaded the movie and with English subtitles. It was a big hit all over the world, launching it to cult follower status and paving the way for DIY filmmakers in a digital era. My name is Stewart, and this is Crew Collective, a podcast about storytelling. Each episode we explore the stories that help shape us. Books, movies, songs, anything. We'll talk to creators about their process, their craft, and the worlds they build. And season one, we're exploring space stories. So that's where Star Rek fits in and my conversation with its director. Is next. movie clip 2: Yep. Crew Collective is brought to you by Rocket Genius makers of Gravity forms. Gravity Forms was the first premium WordPress contact form [00:05:00] plugin launched in the space over 15 years ago. Since then, brands like NASA Delta and Stanford University have relied on gravity forms for their WordPress form data, but so have tens of thousands of freelancers, agencies, and small creators powering payment forms to newsletter signups for small and large alike gravity forms, understands their mission, build amazing software that people trust. Learn more@gravity.com. We trust you Enjoy Crew Collective as much as the team at Rocket Genius did making it. suart: And now my conversation with Timo Venezuela. The Director of Film Star Rec into Pering and Iron Sky. timo: In the beginning, the idea of let's do a short thing, but then as we started working on it, we started like, you know, this is such a huge amount of work. Why don't we, instead of just doing a fe, you know, let's just do a beach movie, then we at least have a. Feature movie, [00:06:00] and, and it sounded like a good idea back then. We thought that it's not gonna be that much more different if you do a, you know, 50 minute short, uh, short film, or if we do one hour, 30 minutes, you know, uh, you know, 90 minute, uh, feature film. But I mean, obviously we were quite wrong about that because making a short term is a, is a whole different thing than making a feature film. And in addition to that, because the, the, the tools and, um. Possibilities. They expanded as we worked on the project. We had to revisit what we shot, you know, three years ago and just reshoot it. So we basically had to shoot the movie at least I think, two or three times, over and over again because we wanted to make it better quality. We had more this and that, and, you know, we, we, ah, we gotta go back and redo that and all that. So in addition for, for it being quite slow. In addition to that, we also. Really remade it a couple of times before we [00:07:00] got into the final, final form. But I think, uh, and, and the other thing is like the, obviously we were not. Professional in that sense, like we were all working or studying and stuff like that. So we had to really find time to do it. Sam was, I think, doing this more or less full-time. All of his, uh, all of his time. I, I know that he was also working for something else, but he was mainly doing this as his thing. But me and rest of the crew, we had to find times over the weekends or over holidays or evenings. To make, uh, make, make time to be able to actually work on this. So that's other, the other reason why it really took so long to, to suart: finish the whole thing. Yeah. And you guys probably just physically changed a lot over seven years. So I mean, was that, did that create any challenges with continuity and, and shooting the film where, I mean, 'cause every, I mean, we all age. timo: We, we do age and obviously, uh, at that age when we are like, you know, 18 to [00:08:00] 25, that's a time when people change quite a lot. But that was actually one of the things that Samuel was always the most worried about. It was always like, don't cut your hair, don't become bigger, or don't lose weight, or don't do this and this. He was always very much trying to make sure that we remained as, as same looking as possible. And obviously, especially, I mean the, those who were in front of the camera and uh, yeah, that was, uh, I mean we did change quite a lot through, through that time, but also we really made an effort to try to stay looking the same. And again, it was possible because. We didn't have any other film jobs or the actors were not professionals where, where they had to change for different kind of jobs. We were just a bunch of friends who didn't really have a lot of other lives than this film. So in that sense, it was a little bit easier. Nowadays it would be obviously quite, quite a big ask to tell somebody that, you know, stay looking like same for seven years. You know, don't, [00:09:00] don't change anything. But then it wasn't such a huge issue. suart: Did you guys at the time being new to this, understand that you needed a, a script supervisor, particularly with something again, that spans seven years, you know, a script supervisor to make sure people's timo: No. So, no. I, I remember when I actually made my first professional film, iron Sky, and, uh, I came to the first shooting day on the set and there was this girl sitting next to me on the, on the set, and it was the very first shooting day. And, uh, this is obviously after I had done star work. And then I, like, we did the shooting day and I was watching her making some notes on her paper, and I, at the end of the first shooting day, I turned her. I said, what are you doing actually? And she said, I'm a script supervisor. Okay, so can you tell me what does a script supervisor do? And she told me, oh, I'm doing this and this and this. Oh, that sounds great. I should have had one of you when I was doing startrek, because yeah, [00:10:00] we didn't have a script supervisor, so we didn't have any kind. Oh, you know, we didn't have any of those positions that you would've needed to make it easier. But somehow it it, because this was all that we were doing. It was, you know, possible to keep some sort of a check how things progressed. And again, somebody was kind of doing partially that and also had a associate or sort of assistant director, uh, after who was also keeping, keeping the notes and everything. So there was kind of some sort of a note system, but not like an official script supervisor position. De not over those seven years, no. suart: Yeah, I mean, I imagine. On a more, on a more polished, professional set like iron, sky, a lot of that work gets streamlined so you can, it doesn't take timo: Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and you have to because there, there's so many, you know, you don't have that, the luxury of time. That's, that's the important thing about the. Making your [00:11:00] first film is first film is the only time in your career when you have the luxury of time. So if, and obviously that's a dis, you know, something that I always say to young filmmakers, like when you make your first film, enjoy the fact that you have the luxury of time. So, but when you start doing more professionally, the time gets absolutely squeezed. So everything needs to be. Taking like a clock and it needs to happen very precisely and following a very sort of formal, formal structure. And then, then all of these positions are, are very, very important. But back in those days, we didn't have. The time pressure so much. So we were able to, we were able to fuck around and, and find out, and, and sometimes it was a, it was a very good learning experience. But of course we also did a lot of mistakes as we, as we made that movie. And, and, but you know, hopefully we'll learn something also from those.[00:12:00] suart: Yeah. I know you were documenting everything as it happened, and there's that behind the scenes documentary you guys shot and there's that one scene where you guys realized. That you had accidentally recorded over somebody's dialogue. Oh yeah. That's, and then that person was out of the country and, and Torrance and kind of, there's this, you can kind of see the escalation before he has a little bit of a meltdown. Uh, yeah. Yeah. timo: It, it, it's, it was, it was like one of those things is like, you know, because we were shooting, um, we had, we had tapes. We didn't have a digital, uh, digital in that sense. So we were shooting on tapes. Obviously then it was just one of those situations that then after half the day shooting, we're like, did you by the way, remember to replace the, the, the, the, the tape and now fuck, you know? No. And then, and it was also, I remember it was a very tricky scene that we had shot and it was a painful scene to do. We recorded over it. But then, you know, [00:13:00] you do that once in your career, you, you mess up the, the, the footage and. Then you'll never do it again. Yeah, probably better it suart: happened then than when you got into like a, like a higher budget studio with Oh, I can't believe with network bosses and all timo: that. Yeah. Yeah. I can't even believe what it would happen. I mean, that would be, you would be very, you know, if you hadn't messed it up, you would be liable for huge damages nowadays, you know, in, in, in the way films I make nowadays. But back in those days it was. You know, it was just, it was a NOIs and, and, and a real meltdown because everybody was working so hard and then, ah, we gotta do it again. But then that was all, all that it was, movie clip 2: and then timo: we did it and really did even better than the first time. So in a way it probably wasn't good. Good reason anyway, for that. suart: What one of the parts about this whole. Process and story that I, that I think is kind of hilarious is you guys booked a cruise ship [00:14:00] or booked yourselves spots on a cruise ship basically to shoot just a couple scenes. Right? There's that scene with, uh, perk and the Captain's Quarters. timo: Yeah, correct. And, uh, uh, we did, we did that because in Finland there's a, there is this big cruise ships that go between Finland and Sweden. They're basically floating like a, it's a Boost Cruise kind of thing. It's a floating. Floating kind of restaurant slash shopping mall, which, which it is, and it goes back and forth every day. So we booked, uh, and asked for permission to shoot, shoot on there. And we actually shot there two scenes. We shot, shot, uh, one sequence, which ended up in the movie. We shot another one, which was kind of a nightclub scene, which for some reason never ended up in the movie. Uh, we, it was one of the few scenes that we actually ended up cutting. I think it just wasn't really good, I think in some weird way. Uh, but we shot, uh, two scenes that ended [00:15:00] up in the movie. The only problem was. That we were young and, uh, uh, and, and I got a little bit too excited about the fact that we were on this cruise and, and, you know, we started to have few drinks while we were shooting and ended up actually in quite a, quite a drunken state. Uh, by the time, uh, we were supposed to really start shooting. And I was really out of the picture then. Then like, you know, I had my assistant director at the WHO plays also on the, and he said that, you know what, Timo, I think it's better that I take care of this because you are not in a shape to shoot this. And he was right. And that's another one of those. You do that mistake once in your lifetime and then never again. You know, you never. Ever, ever, ever drink on the job. But then on that specific day and on that specific shoot I did, and, uh, I learned a very valuable lesson also there. Uh, luckily [00:16:00] that turned into a nice scene anyway. I mean, he did a good job directing it, so it was a good, it was, it turned into a nice, nice thing. Um, but then, yeah, I, I wasn't very proud of that moment because of my inability to, suart: it is documented forever. It's out there. So it's out there. I know, and I used it. timo: I edited, I edited that document and I said, I'm gonna put this in there just as a reminder for myself and as a punishment for myself. And, uh, yeah, not proud of it, but hey, it happened. suart: Stark tells the story of a guy named James Perk played by Torren and his friend Dwarf, played by Timo, who through a time travel mishap are stuck in present day Earth, which perk conquers and declares himself emperor. They eventually end up traveling through a parallel universe where they encounter a space station known as Babel 13. And you can kind of see where the parodies are here. [00:17:00] They're space battles, time travel, and at times near shot for shot parodies from various Star Trek films To do all this, they employed the use of blue screen technology to create a universe from a basement. timo: Yeah, I think Blue Blueprint technology for me was the biggest revelation when I first saw Samali doing, uh, using it because like I said, I did this, uh, uh. A short star direct film, uh, with him as an actor. And I just went to his, his place and I was saying stuff in front of a blue, blue screen. And then eventually when I saw the movie, I was really blown away. It's like, my God, I didn't realize that you can really change the background into a, you know, spaceship, uh, of, you know, bridge and stuff like that. And that's really opened my eyes into those possibilities. But obviously the other, other tools that we were using was. Was the, uh, 3D technology and uh, 3D animation, which was something that, that Samali had been, uh, interested all of his life. And with star record films, he [00:18:00] started to really explore and really challenge what you can do, uh, with, uh, with sort of home programs that had just become available, you know, 3D matching, which became a available for consumer. Scale use and you could do it on your computer because that was really the time when the computer started to become more and more effective and more and more powerful. So that was obviously the very key thing that we had to have. We had to master that and somebody really took that and eventually, I mean, suddenly started to work on. Oh star, you know, after Star Rec and after Iron Sky, he created a very heavy duty visual effects company and another one. And so sort of that these are the things that he is now doing. So those technologies were very much, uh, important for us to be able to do that. That movie, suart: was it like weird coming in and having to direct, uh, Samuel and what was essentially his baby? I mean, he'd been working on this since he was a kid. [00:19:00] Truthfully, I mean, it was very timo: collaborating with, with, uh, with Star Rek like I was, I was very, uh, I really enjoyed in trying to get. Actors to do this thing that they needed to do. Some only had very clear understanding of what are the pieces that are needed for him to be able to put this puzzle together. And we really had to sync together. Uh, our, you know, there wasn't a a, a room for separate visions. We had to be really working on the same thing, and we did. And that, that's really worked, uh, very well and very closely through that. Through the process of that, and then obviously with Samali directing him, and he, of course, none of us were professional actors, but Samali was the guy who was all the time on the screen and he had to really. The easy thing was that, uh, uh, for him, the character of Pie was something that he had developed himself. And I always said that it is the, all the dark sides of Somali put together into a character. So he was sort of able to [00:20:00] access something that was inside of him. Uh, and when, when he. You know, created that character and sort of the reactions and everything. So in that sense, it was quite, quite a true and quite an honest performance. Maybe technically, not always, not necessarily technically always precise, but it, he really believed in that character. I really believed in that character. So it was relatively easy with that, that in that sense that that, but it just took so much time because he was, his, his role was so big in there. But that was, uh, part of the fun. suart: It wasn't just the visual effects that were impressive. Remember, this was like in the early two thousands. YouTube didn't come out until later in oh five, and even then it only supported 10 minute videos. Monetization platforms, algorithms, social media, all the tools that in theory make creating and sharing art easier Now. It did not exist back then, and yet they [00:21:00] gained a huge falling before the movie was even released. Finished media caught onto the story and helped the public keep tabs on the project. All, all this stuff might've seemed pretty off kilter. These guys were actually pretty forward thinking. timo: I think we were all quite nerds and, and we were very early adopters of all kind of things of the internet. So we had, you know, we started our, our, you know, pre-internet time on the, on the BBS and, and, uh, bulletin boards and, uh, modem based stuff. So we all. W you know, we were very interested in where this direction of the world was going. And then when we started to work on Star Rek, internet really started to, uh, come available for more and more people. Uh, when we released the movie, internet was not something that everybody was accessing all the time. We obviously didn't have smartphones. Like you said, there was no YouTube, there was, [00:22:00] there was no. A lot of the tools that we take for granted nowadays, but one thing, which there was already was the torrent and uh, and sort of bit torrent kind of a based based thing. And that was something that when we were thinking about what are we, how do, how do we distribute this because we can't really put this on on. Internet and then, you know, uh, put it on a server and let people download it, because that was very expensive then, uh, um, but then we started, then, then we researched and started to think about the Torrent technology, and de decided that, you know what, we're gonna use BitTorrent as. Our main method. So we're basically just putting it out for the BitTorrent and then, uh, people can start, you know, downloading and spreading and distributing it, using that technology. And obviously that technology was already then used for piracy, uh, you know, film piracy and whatever, music piracy. Uh, but [00:23:00] it had never been really used. To actually distribute, you know, something that you are allowed to distribute there. And that we were really the first ones to employ that technology for that you would say like, for, for the good way it wa it, it was allowing a possibility and that was also one of the reasons that it became so big was that we really. Something that nobody had ever done, which is released a free feature of film that's available for anybody to download on the internet at any time. And uh, and like I said, it was before YouTube. I think YouTube came out in 2005 when, when Star came out as well, but a little bit later. And also it, uh, it was obviously only, uh, uh, available in for 10 minute clips back in those days. Very low quality. So that wouldn't have worked anyway for us. Uh, until much later nowadays, it's obviously out there on YouTube and everywhere, but yeah, then it was just a bit to network and, uh, it really worked pretty [00:24:00] well for us. It, it got, you know, I think on the first day got like million downloads and on the first week, like couple of million, 5 million downloads, and it's like never before seen for, for a finished movie. Fin Finland finished movie had never been seen by so many people around the world as Starr was seen. So it was also. An important part in that because also it's a finished language movie in the end, which is quite weird that it got so interested, uh, all over the world. It was, uh, all spoken in a weird language. Only a couple of million people in the world even understand, but obviously we had the subtitles and, and we had the torrent distribution so it could really reach all the corners of the world, and that was really cool. suart: I mean on, on your website you talk about how, just to use your words, finish audio, visual culture is at a crucial turning point. What do you mean by that? timo: Finish audio. Visual culture is weird state right now. We've been, we are so [00:25:00] used to making movies that are just for our, our own country, so do finish language movies. That really serve the Finnish audience and don't really travel outside. There's only a couple of films that have really traveled outside and obviously Stark was the first one of those, and then Iron Sky, later on when Iron Sky came, that also that that really reached, you know, that that was a finish. A, you know, finished movie that, that spread all over the world. And after that, there's only couple of examples like that happening. And I really think that it, it really needs a, a big attitude change from the part of finished film industry to really start looking outside of Finland and, and, uh, focusing on and supporting films that are meant for international distribution because. The, the further we move in the world, the more connected the world becomes and, and, and the more connected cultures become. We need to be able to offer these [00:26:00] movies. We need to be able to create movies that have a chance to spread all over the world, whether it's in Finnish language or English language movies. And that's. That's one of those things. But the problem is that that, that the sort of the Finnish audio visual culture is very traditionalist in that sense that they're not very interested in Very good example is, for example, just simple subtitles. I I, uh, my wife is a, a British woman and I would love to show her. A lot of Finnish movies. We have a great wealth of interesting Finnish movies, but the SubT, they don't even subtitle them in English. They subtitle each one of those movies in, in Norwegian, in Swedish, in Danish, in Iceland, and that in Norwegian, but never in English. And I'm like, you know, these are basically the same language. Then Fin Finn is a, obviously a different language, but all of these Nordic, other Nordic language, they're the same language. Why do they need to have seven different, uh, subtype, but never the finish one. So it's very hard for people outside of Finland to really enjoy the Finn film culture, [00:27:00] and that is always a little bit sad. suart: I'm, I'm curious what the, what you think the reasoning behind that is. I mean, I, I could say like, timo: it's really, I, I think it is that it's, it's very conservative thinking on behalf of Finnish film and culture, and we've had. Our Finnish culture has, has had little bouts of spreading outside of Finland. There was a music culture sort of thing, which was happening in, in nineties and early 2000. There was a couple of bands, like ud, there was a hymn, there was a a Night Wish, a couple of those bands that sort of started to make some headway outside of Finland and started to become internationally well known. But the problem was that that. When that happens, that's when Finnish system, you know, the government and uh, private invest, they need to really start pushing, you know, investing and supporting those moments because those moments are very rare. And when that kind of thing happens. You need to find power to [00:28:00] really establish it so it isn't just a blip that it actually becomes a thing. Because nowadays they can be, become an important part of your national identity if they are being supported. But I think one of the, one of the problems with, with, with film industry in Finland is that obviously there's of course not a lot of money. That's a problem with all film, film industries, but also there's not a lot of clarity to see that. Okay, there is now a moment. The movie is making rounds on the. All, you know, outside of Finland, in, uh, you know, international markets that needs to be tapped in, that needs to be supported very heavily so that that can actually take the best, best out of that situation. suart: Earlier when I said that science fiction can be a social mirror, I didn't just come up with that idea all on my own. At least not the phrasing. Anyway. It's something I talked about with Timo when he made Iron Sky in [00:29:00] 2012. Finland was caught in the middle of an increasingly globalized world and rising nationalism at home and abroad. Again, we're dealing with a wild and funny premise colony on the far side of the moon, founded by Nazis, but it tells a deeper and more serious story. movie clip 2: Moon, and we, who are these guys anyway, Nazis. From the moon, timo: iron sky is very heavily a movie created around the red flags that I was viewing in the world. And obviously it takes a very hardcore subject matter, which is Nazis and sort of, uh, nationalism, but it also binds it into a world, like I said. Uh, back in when I did Arista, there was a bunch of really red flags waving around in politics and in the world. I mean, the attitudes and in the atmosphere which direction the world was going. And unfortunately, the world has continued to go deeper and [00:30:00] deeper. But I've always made films, uh, especially films that I'm, I'm, I'm writing myself. Uh, are very heavily talking about authority and, uh, the direction that, that, uh, the world is going through. Sort of trying to, uh, spotlight, maybe Spotlight is the world. Spotlight, uh, some of the things that authoritarianism is, is driving the world into, and I find myself doing stories usually somehow iCal, science fiction kind of stories about authoritarianism. In different shapes and forms and uh, and, and almost like a little warning, like, if we allow things to go like this, this is what is going to happen. And we don't want it, want it to be like that. So, so that's the sort of ideological portion of my movies. And yes, stark has that. I mean, in the end, stark is, is talking about Emperor creating this, this [00:31:00] empire that is, that is, you know, just quite a horrible empire. Then taking over different parts of the galaxy and of the world. And then Iron Sky obviously follows in the same vein because of the Nazis and the Nazis coming to earth. And, you know, starting to, starting their campaign over there. And then the future movies that I'm working on also seem to have very similar toll. So yeah, it is, it is a topic that I like to talk about. suart: Yeah, I mean, you, you kind of mentioned art being kind of this. Cultural mirror. It seems like satire is, is a weirdly, a pretty effective tool for that. I mean, I think, like I'm a documentary guy myself, so I, I'm more biased towards documentaries, but I, I, I think there's no argument that stuff like South Park and other Satires in comedy tends to be a pretty effective, uh, vehicle. To kind of tell these stories about like where we're headed. timo: What it does is it, it always like it places the viewer, it sort of takes the viewer out of [00:32:00] their own sort of box or their own sort of vantage point, and it places them into a different vantage point because it is allowing humor and comedy and satirical content there. So it is clear that this is. Not exactly as the world is, but actually it allows you a different PO perspective into the world that we are living in, and thus allows you to, to inspect that from a different place and allows you, gives you some tools that are, uh, because you know. You can't walk around in, in your own world and sort of your own relationships or, or, or, or your own country and government stuff and all that, and look at as, oh, this is such a, a hilarious, satirical thing because it's happening to you and it's happening constantly. It's all around there, but it's your watching a story that is, that is completely satirical and ridiculous, but it's still talking about the same topics. It allows you to really. [00:33:00] View those things a little bit deeper, a little bit from a different perspective, and allows you to form in your head the the thought processes that are sometimes hard to reach in your everyday world when you are walking around and just inspecting and watching the world go by. It's very hard to look at as a satire, but when somebody does a satire about that, that you are able to see something a little bit different. So I find it very strong tool, but you have to know how to use it very well because. That was one of the things, for example, with Iron Sky, because we have a very harsh topic like Nazis. Nazis, they are not a joke, by definition. I mean these are, uh, heinous, horrible war crimes that took place, uh, you know, crimes against humanity that took place and killed millions and millions of innocent people, uh, because of that. So making that into a satirical tool, you have to be careful. You have to understand the tool quite. Precisely before you really go into using it. Because otherwise you can create a, [00:34:00] you know, counter effective, you, you know, it, it can turn against yourself, and then you find yourself in a, in a big trouble if you don't know what it is that you're using it. So there is that challenge with St. Paris. You have suart: to know what you're doing. Uh, what else, what else are you working on? Got any other projects? You're, you're pretty jazzed about. timo: Yeah, right now there's um, a film called Alter, which, which is coming out a science fiction film also. Uh, it's, it's about sort of gene technology tells a story of this guy who, of this world where gene Technology has, has made people into this sort of ev evolved people into, uh, and to, you know, to give them abilities that would not be possible in, in a normal way, sort of gene technology. And then there is a small portion of those people to whom. These genetic enhancements just don't work, and they become the scum of the earth because they are not evolved enough compared to the rest of the world. Now our hero [00:35:00] is one of those people and starts to fight in, uh, in defense of, of, of humanity as a, as a whole. And the fact that, that, you know, or you know, human kind can, human kind, can only evolve if it evolves together as a, a group and. So that's a science fiction film that's coming out now, uh, uh, later this year. And then I'm, uh, right now developing a science fiction trilogy called Deep Red, which is about, uh, communists on Mars, which, which is uh, uh, obviously big. Big project that we are, we've been sort of dreaming to make for a long time. And now finally we are decided that, okay, now is the time to start building that. And that's, that's something that's gonna take a lot of my attention for the next, in the, in the foreseeable future. suart: Yeah, it sounds like that's a pretty common theme you see in, in all mediums of science fiction. You know, dating back to as long as the genres existed that. Both [00:36:00] symbiotic and destructive relationship people have with scientific advances in technology of like timo: Yeah, it is. And it's, and it's like, uh, um, nowadays obviously these, these discussions go very much into and have been in the science fiction, but, but nowadays even more with artificial intelligence and sort of what artificial intelligence can bring you, what it can. What kind of, uh, what kind of future that is going to lead into and nowadays, especially because artificial intelligence tools have become so accessible to everybody, they're not just anymore stories about, you know, science fiction stories, but nowadays you have, you, you, you know, it's not very far to say that you push a button and it creates you a movie or a creates you an album full of songs on it, or it creates you a book. Which is really competing with the human creativity. And if that can be used for creativity, that can be used for everything to, to, to warfare, to uh, to mass control, you know, people control the politics and all of that. And [00:37:00] that creates, obviously, the very big question is what is humanity and what is our role in the future? And uh, and that's one of the things and, and the topics that, that. It's very interesting to me. And in altered, I speak of that through gene technologies and sort of gene advancements. And in with Deep Red we are also talking very much about artificial intelligence with di which direction that is going to take the, the world and the, and the human. So yeah, these are, these are topics that are very, very interesting for science fiction films and, and, and stories. suart: StarX started out as a teenager's hobby and morphed into something that resonates with people all over the world, even 20 years later. This was truly a rogue enterprise that combined passion and innovation and launched the careers of Teo and Sam Lee to New Heights. But maybe its most important legacy is this idea that a few [00:38:00] friends can create a whole universe from a basement and develop a long-lasting friendship in the process. I think I liked that story best. And its final chapter has yet to be written. timo: I spoke with somebody actually, uh, and I asked, I mentioned that I'm gonna do this interview and talk about Starr, and I asked that would he like to instead of me do this because it was more, more, more of his baby in the end. And, and he said that he's unfortunately couldn't do it because he's quite busy. But he wanted me to say to everybody listening to this, that. That he is not right now, developing a continuation to the star wreck. And that's something that is very much on his radar in the future. And, and, and myself and him are, have been discussing quite a lot on what would be the next star rec and what it would require. And those discussions have not now taken a few steps forward and, and hopefully, uh, we will see the next star in the coming times.[00:39:00] suart: Crew Collective is presented by Rocket Genius. Our executive producers are Matt Madeiros and Travis Tots. This episode is written, edited, and produced by. I'm Stuart Barefoot where episodes are available@crewcollectivepodcast.com or anywhere else you get podcasts next time on Crew Collective. It's our final episode of season one when you got an email from a random guy me about making a podcast somewhat focused on outer space. Did that surprise you? movie clip: No. No, not, not really. You know, sometimes I get emails like that and it's like a little bit off kilter and I'm like, yep, that's my people out the