SPACESHIP TATTOO HOW TO
SPACESHIP TATTOO MOVIE

A little bit like you remembering something. What was the inspiration behind those aspects of the ship's look? The production design features a cartoonish robotic smiley-faced AI and there are Nintendo cartridges on the ship. I wanted to make a film that felt like you're always really engaged, and the visual engagement was helping me feel something about the story. When I was making the film, I really always centered it around the emotion I got from the script. I like the idea of making movies that are colorful.

The film is very colorful and imaginative. In all earnestness, I felt like, 'Damn, we got a lot of laughs.' I was blown away by how captivated the audience was and how much they laughed with us.

SPACESHIP TATTOO MOVIE

When I was watching the movie I was tracking where laughed and how much - which was nonstop. A lot of that came really useful in this.

SPACESHIP TATTOO HOW TO

I feel like I know how to structure a joke, get the timing tight, tweak the words with it right there. I have seen and digested so much comedy at this point and ingrained it into my being a bit. I think audience when I work on feature films in the same way comics do. Comedians have to have a relationship with the audience and filmmaking. There's some elements of it that do overlap with animation, thinking about art direction and composition.ĭid your background in comedy and directing stand up specials help navigate some of the comedic moments in the moment?ġ00%. If you like photography and it teaches you about composition, it doesn't mean photography has to be your main thing, but it applies to your filmmaking. I think they all teach you something and then you can apply it to the things you learn. I believe in cross-pollination of techniques. I'll direct live-action, mixed media, stop-motion animation. How was it to pivot from something like your animated shorts to a live-action feature? I was going through some heartache at the time, so I think the combination of heartache and the script, I really connected to it.

Then I got this script and it jumped out of the page - magically in a way. I spent a whole year reading scripts and nothing was connecting. When you got the script, what was the first thing that went through your mind? Offering non-stop laughs and sweet chemistry, If You Were the Last provides a comedic and colorful calling card for Mercado, who even got a spaceship tattoo on his arm to commemorate the project and experience he'll 'never forget.'ĪP spoke with the rising filmmaker following the film’s SXSW premiere to discuss tackling his first feature, his animation influences, and finding the balance between romance and comedy in his direction. Setting a steamy rom-com in space is no easy feat, but Mercado immerses the viewer with a barrage of brightness, thrown into the ship’s production design and stop-motion exterior. Throughout their efforts to return to Earth, the Astro-friends go back and forth on whether or not they should do the deed - the will-they-won't-they getting hotter as the discussion goes on. Content that it’s just the two of them, Adam asks, “Why not have sex?” which Jane laughs off at first, but later turns into a hearty debate. A sexy, funny space rom-com, the film is set three years into a space mission where astronauts Adam (Anthony Mackie) and Jane (Zoë Chao) are stranded on a broken ship with no coordinates to get back home. Whatever medium there is, he’s directed it - or if he hasn't, it's on his to-direct list.Īfter winning Best Animated Short at SXSW in 2021 for his animated short film Nuevo Rico, the filmmaker returned to the festival this year with his feature-length debut, If You Were the Last. In his rising career, the Puerto Rican gentle giant has orbited around many mediums, from helming comedy specials for Hannibal Buress, Michael Che, and Sam Jay to directing music videos and live-action and animated shorts. Filmmaker Kristian Mercado is a jack of many trades.

Spaceship tattoo