AstroNots is the latest short film from Australian duo Andrew Seaton and Matt Samperi. The film tells the story of two astronauts set on a mission to Mars, wherein one of the astronauts has a shocking secret: he has no idea what he is doing. Hijinks ensue, as the duo must figure out how to progress with their mission amidst these shocking reveals. The film is wholesome and hilarious and had its Canadian premier at the 2024 edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival. I spoke with Andrew – the director – regarding the film, and what is next for the bright, young filmmaker.

Thomas: The first question I really want to ask about is, what was the genesis for AstroNots? 

Andrew: So, when AstroNots came about, we were developing a feature, and I was really tempted to make another short. I had made shorts in the past, but I really wanted to have another short under my belt. So we got together with another friend of ours, Adam Dunn, who is one of the actors in the film, and we said hey, “got any ideas for a short that we might be able to put together – cheaply – and work on something fun together.” Adam and I have worked together a couple of times in the past and he pitched us four or five ideas and none of them were quite right in the room. And then he was heading out the room and he turned around and said “I have this other little film that we kind-of have a first draft on, it’s two astronauts sitting in the shuttle, about to take off, one turns to the other and goes ‘I have no idea what I’m doing.’”

Everyone in the room just bursts out laughing. We thought, jeez this is such a great premise for comedy, a fish out of water [comedy], it’s beautifully ripe for comedy. So, we jumped on it. And like I said, they already had a first draft, so it was pretty quick from there to put together, and from a production point of view because it’s my production company that I may appear on one of the APs (Assistant Producer) that producing it we thought well, it’s two talent in one location… well this feels really achievable for a film. Now, little did we know that it was going to be a custom-set build and really a hundred and seventy plus big shots, so it’s like a fast, easy, contained short film that ended up being much bigger haha. 

Thomas: I can imagine it ballooned. 

Andrew: It did, it did. But you know, every short film is a labour of love, so we enjoyed the challenge that it presented. 

Thomas: I imagine that, and I know you mentioned this last night during the intro[duction] to the screening where you are talking about, you know, it’s really nice to work with similar people. I imagine that labour of love was partially aided by the fact that you worked with a number of the crew members before. What was it like to sort of keep working with the same team as you have before? 

Andrew: I love working with the same people, and you know Mike Flanagan was talking about that as well, talking about the privilege of getting to work with the same people. Matt Samperi who was the Cinematographer on AstroNots, who is also one of the EPs at our production company, he and I have worked together for twenty-odd years basically. We started making films together as kids, on handy-cams, spoofs about favourite James Bond films, things like that, and progressed from there. So we have worked together a lot, and we have a really good short-hand on set. We find that I might have an idea, and I turn around and Matt is already half-way through executing that idea which is really handy on set. So to have a collaborator that you can trust whole-heartedly, is really good. And in getting to work with Adam again, it allows for confidence in what they are bringing to the table. You get a great short-hand going, so collaborating with people again and again is always helpful. 

Thomas: And I imagine it’s really helpful for, when you’re doing something like AstroNots, where you are building your own sets. Could you speak to the process of designing the set for the film? That was something I really noticed when watching. 

Andrew: Yeah, so my intention was to make AstroNots like and feel like a legitimate space film. Think Gravity, think Apollo Eleven, think Space Cowboys, if you will… I wanted there to be, I wanted the audience to have that in mind and have that familiarity in mind so that we could really pull the rug from under their feet when we show them someone that is completely out of their depth. In all these films, everyone is completely within their depth. They are so prepared and competent, so to show someone that isn’t, it completely breaks the genre. So when we were designing both the set and the costumes, it was really important that we had it looking and feeling as legitimate as we could on our budget, which was the challenge, obviously. We got to work with some really great people in doing that, so we worked with a mob called Gregsets out of Sydney (Australia), and they are one of the big set design and construction teams in Sydney. They worked on Star Wars 1, 2, 3, Alien, etc.. so we knew we were in really good hands. I think one of the guys who was building our set that we had designed had actually built an X-Wing before, so…

Thomas: You hit the jackpot!

Andrew: Totally, totally! And bits and pieces from, you know, short filmmaking is an exercise on doing things on a small budget, and so we were really lucky that Gregsets had just worked on – I won’t name the film – but a very large superhero film, and we were able to repurpose some of the set pieces from that. That really helped bring the authenticity to life. 

Thomas: With that in mind, I wanted to ask, what lesson are you hoping to take from AstroNots moving forward in your career? 

Andrew: What’s been really great – is I’ve gotten to watch this film with a lot of audiences, and you know, making short films – of which I’ve done a couple now – even if you’re successful at a festival level, you may only end up attending your cast and crew screening, and maybe one or two other screenings. Especially if you’re entering international festivals, and being a filmmaker from Australia; it’s a big effort to go anywhere outside of Australia, so we’ve been really lucky that we’ve done quite a few festivals in Australia, and we’ve been really lucky that we have been able to come [to Fantasia], and watch it with a lot of different audiences. What I’ve learnt from that is a lot about timing and a lot about narrative structure. Just the real-time feedback you get from an audience about gags that are working, about setups that worked and setups that didn’t quite do what you needed it to do for the punchline to work. So, I’ve learned a lot about structure and flow as well… Being able to watch it with an audience, that many times…it’s been really insightful. 

Thomas: I imagine that’s really helpful in a lot of ways for helping you think about what you want to do next in terms of stories. I imagine one of the other things you are learning about is the nature of balance, and I think one of the things that is awesome about AstroNots is there is a wonderful balance between how sincere the film can be and how generally laugh-out-loud funny the film is. How difficult was it to strike that balance between the two elements that the film needs? 

Andrew: Yeah, the kind of comedy that I like is layered. I think that comedy, for comedy’s sake, can sometimes feel thin, whereas if it’s woven into something that feels more sincere, I find it always that much more funny. When it’s woven into something that is serious or sinister even, I find that genre-blending more exciting. I think balancing the two is really important, but I also find that the balance comes out of the edit in a lot of ways. You can feel when a moment needs to linger and hold to kind of get to the emotional core of that moment. You can also tell when you need more pace to kind of move the comedy and the narrative along. The balance of those two things is still a learning curve for me, and I think it’s not only in the scripting but also in the editing, finding just that rhythm, especially in comedy, rhythm and… 

Thomas: Reactions? 

Andrew: Yeah! Yeah, exactly. 

Thomas: That leads me to my last question: what is next for you, my friend? 

Andrew: So, we are in the process of developing AstroNots into something else. We got to the end of the process, and we thought, there’s more here. We love these characters so much. We thought, well maybe there’s something bigger we can do with this, whether that’s a feature version of it, or a series version of it, we’re still investigating… but we’re definitely excited to see where we can take it. There’s a post-credit scene; that scene was important for us to showcase that they didn’t die, they made it into space… 

Thomas: And the next part of the journey is coming. 

Andrew: Exactly! And that’s why that little easter egg at the end of the post-credit exists, is to kind-of help showcase that the guys didn’t burn up I suppose.  Apart from AstroNots, we’ve developing two other features at the moment. One is a physiological thriller/comedy. Again, as I was talking about, it’s that dark meld of genres that’s comedic but has this underlying darkness to it, and we’re really excited about that film. It’s called When The King Calls, and the long and the short of that film a Lotto Agent, set in the 80’s, that calls up people to tell them they’ve won a million dollars, and today she calls up a leader of a doomsday cult who refuses the million dollars, and she has to go on this journey to find and give him this money. I think that’s just illustrative of the idea of having some laughs, but also having an emotionally deep core to hang it on. We’re developing that currently, and we’ve developing a crime fiction thriller as well, which I love that genre a lot. I love the character building and tension that you can create in that genre, so we’re working on that currently as well.