Movies & TV / Columns
Scott Bateman Discusses His New Film 5002 Space Aliens, Working In Animation
Image Credit: Scott Bateman & Lucas Ferrara
The 411 Interview: Scott Bateman
Scott Bateman is a writer, director, and producer who has been making movies, according to his IMDb page, since at least 2007. Bateman has directed such movies as Atom Age Vampire (2009), 600 Space Aliens (2016), You, Your Brain, & You (2019), and Can We Really Know Anything About Carrots? (2023). Bateman’s latest movie is the sequel to his 2021 animated movie 5000 Space Aliens, the also animated 5002 Space Aliens, which is set to be available via Amazon, Apple, and Google/YouTube starting August 10th, 2026. In this interview, Bateman talks with this writer about making 5002 Space Aliens, the idea behind 5002 Space Aliens, and more.
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Bryan Kristopowitz: Why did you want 5002 Space Aliens to be your next movie as a director?
Scott Bateman: This wasn’t the plan, but I just kept making new Space Aliens footage after I finished 5000 Space Aliens. I felt like there were more cool visual ideas to explore. I just didn’t feel like I was done, even if the movie was done. This stuff is fun to create, and I’ve always felt this is a type of movie that will find its audience over the long haul, via word of mouth.
BK: Did you always intend to make a sequel to 5000 Space Aliens?
SB: Eventually. I just didn’t know it would be the very next project!
BK: How did you develop the idea behind 5002 Space Aliens?
SB: There’s a whole collision of ideas behind these films. I‘ve always liked working with found footage from the Internet, but so much of it is low-def so you need to do a lot of work just to make it presentable in high-def. And so the idea of turning it into rotoscope animation was a natural fit. The one-second shot rhythm was inspired more from experimental film. I just find that rhythm very hypnotic, and I find that audiences do, too. And then setting the whole thing to music, that’s from Godfrey Reggio’s Qatsi movies. So it’s not really a single idea.
BK: How did you develop the soundtrack to 5002 Space Aliens?
SB: To save money, I try to do as much of the work on my films as I can myself. So I find all that found footage, I do all the animation, I create the music, do the editing, etc.
I had very specific ideas about the music: it’s all at 120 beats per minute (except for one section at 60 bpm) so the music and the animation can sync up. I wanted something that was somewhere between Philip Glass and Stereolab and ‘90s big-beat electronica. Rather than try to explain all this to a composer, it’s just easier for me to do it.
BK: How would you describe the animation technique used for 5002 Space Aliens?
SB: I’d call it “digital rotoscope,” an extension of what Richard Linklater did in his 2001 film Waking Life. The technology is much better now.
BK: How did you create the images used in 5002 Space Aliens?
SB: I would say about 75% of it is done in Photoshop and the other 25% in Premiere Pro, but in both cases I’m finding ways to use the tools “wrong” to create new sorts of things.
BK: What was the hardest part of making 5002 Space Aliens for you as a director? What was the easiest?
SB: Honestly, the process of making these films, finding the footage and playing with it, is fun. The hardest part is simply that it takes so much time to make that much animation! And of course, the hardest part of any indie film these days is getting it out into the world.
BK: How long did it take to actually make 5002 Space Aliens, from coming up with the idea to completing post-production?
SB: I think 5002 Space Aliens took about four years to make! And that’s every day, full-time. The first 5000 was about the same.
BK: How did you get interested in animation to begin with?
SB: I was always a cartoonist. In the early 1990s, I took some animation classes in Portland, and at that point learning animation still meant drawing every frame by hand and photographing each one on a Bolex 16mm film camera on a big wooden animation stand. Eventually, you would fill a three-minute roll of film with your animation, send it off to be developed, get it back and discover you over-exposed the whole thing. Fun!
BK: How has animation changed since you started making movies?
SB: Having it all on the computer, I’m somewhat less likely to over-expose an entire reel of film!
BK: Do you have a favorite animated film? Is there a type of animation that you would like to try to use that you haven’t had a chance to?
SB: My all-time favorite animated film is Yellow Submarine (1968). It’s fun, it includes several different animation styles. It’s a trip, and the music is great, of course. It sucks that it’s not available on Blu-ray. I think there are so many younger folks who’ve never seen it.
BK: Any moviemaking heroes?
SB: Over the last decade I’ve gotten more into films that either mess with narrative or have no narrative at all. I’m just kind of bored with the whole “3-act structure” and the hero’s journey and seek out the movies that are trying to do something different. So I’m very into pre-1980 Peter Greenaway—those films are experimental, but really entertaining. That’s special and very difficult to do. I dig Guy Maddin. I was very impressed with Hollis Frampton when I discovered his work.
BK: Any upcoming projects you can tell us about?
SB: I’ve completed two shorts recently! Film That Never Begins is kind of an endless pre-opening credits sequence with logos of ridiculous production companies and whatnot. It was fun to make a funny, graphic design-based film. And Dada Dick uses the same animation techniques in 5002 Space Aliens to create a Dada version of the book Moby Dick. All of the chapters in under five minutes!
BK: What do you hope audiences get out of 5002 Space Aliens?
SB: I just want people to give it a spin and maybe have fun with a different sort of film, one that’s more like a ride than a narrative. Not everything has to be storytelling!
BK: Are there more space aliens out there that we need to be worried about?
SB: ALWAYS.
BK: Where does one obtain a pair of anti-alien glasses?
SB: Directly from your local Space Alien Commission field office, of course.
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A very special thanks to Scott Bateman for agreeing to participate in this interview and to david j. moore for setting it up.
5002 Space Aliens will be available via Amazon, Apple, and Google/YouTube starting August 10th, 2026!
Check out my review of 5002 Space Aliens here!
Check out Scott Bateman’s official website here and official Bluesky page here!
Check out Scott Bateman’s IMDb page here!
Check out Lucas A. Ferrara’s official website here, official Facebook page here, official Twitter page here, official YouTube page here, and IMDb page here!
Scott Bateman image courtesy of Scott Bateman. All other images courtesy of Scott Bateman and Lucas Ferrara.
