Over the past week, I had the pleasure of watching one of the weirder films I’ve watched in a long time. Non-linear, non-traditional, and full of incredible music and visuals, 5002 Space Aliens is the follow up to 2023’s 5000 Aliens. A full review is on the way, in fact it was intended to be posted before this interview – putting into words how much I appreciate this extremely unique film experience has proven far more difficult than originally though. Until then, it would be a crime to delay highlighting this artistic gem and its creator any longer. So with that and no further ado, here’s my brief email interview with Scott Bateman.
Correction, one small further ado… an important warning about the film: “anti-alien goggles are not necessary” for checking out 5002 Space Aliens, but Scott (and I) recommend them!
Let’s start with the basics. Who is Scott Bateman?
I’m just a guy who started making films to see what else films can do besides tell stories. As a movie viewer, I was getting bored with narrative. I can still get caught up in a good story, but I’m more interested in structure and rhythm and texture, picture and sound.
Before we dive headlong into some alien stuff, tell me a bit about your work with MTV and other outlets earlier in your career.
I learned how to do animation back in the 90s, the old-fashioned way: drawing a ton of stills and shooting them one at a time with a 16mm Bolex on an animation stand. Then you’d send your 3-minute reel off to be developed, and when you got it back you’d discover you had overexposed everything. Fun!
So when Flash made animation pretty easy to do on a computer, I started making little short pieces and soon I was doing stuff for MTV, Salon, and more. I was working a lot with found sound, which eventually morphed into what I’m doing now with rotoscoping found footage.
Your new film is a follow up to 2023’s 5000 Space Aliens. While not your first feature, it seems to be the one that really got people noticing you more outside of those among your early followers. Tell me about that film and how it led to this follow up.
Playing around with editing, I liked the rhythm of one shot per second matched up with music at 120bpm. It felt hypnotic. And so I created literally thousands of these animated one-second shots out of stuff I found on the Internet. Not just footage, but text from old books and magazines and sci-fi digests and more. I was creating collages out of rotoscoped footage and this other stuff. It was certainly different, but it worked for me. And I’ve always found that if I like something, there are others out there who will like it too. You just have to find them.
Your style in these films is unique. Described by some as “minimalist”, like a “fever dream”, and your previous film was even on several top “weird” movies lists. For the uninitiated, can you take a stab at describing what your style looks and feels like?
I get a lot of comparisons to Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python animations. Someone recently said my work was like Waking Life meets Koyaanisqatsi. Both are fair.
So, with the newest film, 5002 Space Aliens, you just dropped the film a couple days ago. Where can people see it?
It’s currently streaming on AppleTV, Amazon, Google, and YouTube. It’ll come to Tubi in 2027.
My producer Lucas A. Ferrara hooked us up with distributors for both 5000 and 5002, which is how movies this weird ended up on streaming. We’ve never had an official run in theaters, but I got 5000 a few midnight screenings around the country at cool arthouse cinemas. But man, that is a lot of work to do yourself!
For many movies like this, I tend to see them on “movies to watch while high” type lists. Would you recommend a clear head for this one or do you think some substances may help get the full experience?
The original 5000 Space Aliens was screened at New York’s Psychedelic Film Festival, and the very first question I got was, “Which psychedelic do you recommend for this movie?” I’ve done shrooms exactly once in my life but they seem like a good match? But I think the film itself acts as a bit of a drug if you get into its groove and rhythm.
One of the primary focuses here on Cinapse is cinematic discovery, which for me involves a lot of independent cinema. Of course, this leads to me checking out films like yours for the site. But I also love asking independent artists what other independent art they recommend for me and the readers to check out.
Indie art is the best art! My friend Cory McAbee, who did the 2001 film The American Astronaut (which I highly recommend!) has a new film coming soon, a bonkers look at Abe Lincoln where he repurposes silent movie footage from films about Lincoln and he even created in-betweens to match that footage, I can’t wait to see that!
One thing I’m watching a lot right now is the Criterion Collection’s Man Ray release from last year. I love Dada art, and this feels like a great time to bring it back.
Speaking of recommendations, I think a natural follow up is to ask you where you get your inspiration, both in regards to independent folks and broader examples… like I want to know some of your favorite films, filmmakers, other art, etc. and also how it influenced this film or influences you as an artist in general.
Well, Peter Greenaway’s The Falls was what made me realize I could make a film. It appeared that he simply filmed a bunch of semi-random stuff that he liked over the course of a few years and then wrote a reason for all that imagery to be in the same film, and I thought, “Oh! I can do that!” and that’s how I made my first film You Your Brain & You (which is 85% live action, 15% animated). Also, The Falls starts out with a doc-style narrative but it subverts its own facts and story over and over again, which I dig. You don’t know what’s true in the world of the movie by the end.
I’ve always liked bringing influences from outside of film into my films. I’m very big into graphic design, and that shows up all over my work. Bauhaus and Dada, too.
But current favorites… in film: El Pampero Cine (La Flor and Trenque Lauquen) and Hong Sang Soo (The Novelist’s Film is my favorite, it’s basically a film about how Hong makes his own films).
Music: Water Damage.
Comics: my friend and non-relative Hallie Bateman.
TV: MST3K forever, but also Game Changer on Dropout (the “Beat the Buzzer” episode is so great).
Book: Rings of Saturn by WG Sebald, and absolutely everything by Lydia Davis.
Art: pretty much all of the 20th century art.
Thanks for indulging my exploration of your mind, let me ask one more somewhat probing question if you’re okay with it. I personally was raised in the church as a pastor’s kid. My faith and belief have certainly evolved a great deal since my youth, but I’ve been interested in intersections of faith, spirituality, art, and pop culture since a very young age – I’ve even devoted many of my own websites and podcasts to such discussions. I though given the mindspace that this film seems to find itself in, I’d be interested to ask how your own worldview and beliefs impact the art you make and vice versa.
I consider myself agnostic—I don’t believe in a white-bearded God dude, I’m a big science guy. But there are phenomena that can’t be explained (yet?), and so I keep an open mind.
Thanks so much for that. Before we wrap up, remind folks where they can watch the film and let them know how they can follow you and what you’re up to!
I’m scottbateman on Instagram and Bluesky. I have a Patreon that always needs a little help. My main website is batemanimation.com. I’m also pretty active on Letterboxd!
The film is on AppleTV, Amazon, and Google/YouTube right now, and it’ll be on Tubi next February.
Any parting thoughts?
Keep art weird!
