Over the years, Phish has drawn legitimately creative talents into its orbit. One such talent is Nick Setteducato, the amateur filmmaker behind the stop-motion animated short 2016: A Space Oddity. Nick’s project delighted the online Phish community when it was published last week. We loved it, too, and had a few burning questions for Nick.

Okay, we had a lot of burning questions for Nick. First, here’s the video, because you know you want to watch it again:

2016: A Space Oddity from Nicholas Setteducato on Vimeo.

Nick, you moved to New Zealand 8 years ago to work with Peter Jackson. What do you do with and for him and what are you working on now?

I work for his production company, Wingnut Films. I do photography and help look after Wingnut’s collections and archives, but Peter asks me to help him with a lot of personal imaging projects, using Photoshop and the like.

Do you miss your old home?

I really love Wellington, but I do miss a lot of things about New Jersey. Bagels, Taylor Ham, Star Tavern pizza. My mom still sends me bags of Racioppi’s Taralles. They’re a real North Jersey Italian thing. I’ve shared them with some friends here, and I’m convinced I could make a fortune importing them.

What are your professional aspirations from here?

In the short term I plan to keep making more videos, maybe submit something to some short film festivals. I'd really love to make a living doing this and I'm interested in bringing some more of my weird ideas to life. I’ve got a lot of little movies floating around in my own head. I figure, if I continue making videos like this for the next ten years, I’ll have enough experience to direct real people and make my first feature film before I’m 50.

If that doesn’t work out, I’d like to be a hairdresser. Or two. I’d like to be two hairdressers.

Dream big! What drew you to stop-action animation as a film medium? Was it Thunderbirds?

Thunderbirds is something I only recently discovered, through Peter and Weta Workshop, but it was definitely an inspiration for this video. My interest in stop-motion goes back to the “California Raisins” commercials and TV specials from the 1980s, and more recently with guys like Tim Burton and Wes Anderson.

I think what draws me to it most is that, in a weird way, it’s very similar to improvisational music. You know, you spend countless hours preparing, practicing, learning what works and what doesn’t, and then when it’s show time you just rely on your gut instinct and go for it. It’s just a lot slower than building a jam, but the payoff is just as satisfying.

How did the “Space Oddity” idea come to you?

The thing I enjoy most about the process of making a video like this is how the idea continues to evolve. The original idea was just a fleeting image I had of a guy in a rocket, hurtling through space to the soundtrack of "Tweezer Reprise." Then you just keep refining what you have, asking questions about what might make it better, and figuring out ways to visualize it all.

Of course, the biggest challenge I had was handling every aspect of that process, on my own. It was a really great learning experience, but it also showed me why filmmaking is a collaborative process - you need other people to bounce ideas off of, and it’s probably helpful to have other people rotoscope your effects shots for you, or you can start to go a bit mad.

How long did this take as a “spare time” project? How long would it have taken if it were all you worked on?

I started working on this project about a week after I posted Flight of the Mockingbird in early 2014, so about two and a half years. If I had the opportunity to work on this thing full time, it probably would have taken me a month or two. Honestly though, I feel like most of that 2.5 years was spent washing dishes. We have a dishwasher, but I still feel like most of my life is spent washing dishes, you know? I think John Lennon once said, “Life is what happens to people when they’re busy washing dishes.”

Is budget a tasteless question to ask?

Roger Corman’s first rule of filmmaking is to never make a film using your own money. Of course, there aren’t a lot of investors lining up to finance a surreal three minute amateur stop-motion space adventure that ends in Mike Gordon’s cereal bowl, so I spent at least a thousand dollars of my own money on materials, software, etc. For example, the armatures for the puppets were purchased from the UK from a place called Animation Toolkit for a few hundred pounds.

Obviously your short caused a brushfire on Phish-related social media. What’s the reaction looked like from your point of view?

Honestly, I was a bit nervous to hit “upload,” only because I spent so long working on it that I’d lost all sense of objectivity. Things that once seemed funny or looked cool to me kind of lost their impact, so I was afraid it would suck. The positive reaction it’s received from people so far has been really overwhelming and incredibly inspiring. I can’t wait to get started on the next one.

Do you know if the band has seen it?

I’m not sure if the any of the guys from the band have seen this, but I imagine they’re very busy. My dream is that someone will pass this along to one of the guys, and they’ll invite me to help do the next tour dates announcement, direct the "Gamehendge" feature film, or some other Phish related project.

You challenge your audience to find references in the film and some of these are real easter eggs, like the rocket’s designation (“MSG122997”), the Phish bumper stickers on the rocket’s dashboard (“YEM” and “Antelope”), and the warning indicators on the radar screen (“CHECK VASOCONSTRICTORS”). How many are in here? Are there some that no one has found yet?

Adding the references was a real organic thing, and ideas kept coming even after I completed a shot. But I tried, unsuccessfully, to keep count of them all. There are at least 40 specific references, but some of them are double ups, and others are a bit subjective. There are actually some non-Phish references that I wonder if people have noticed, for example the asteroid explosion is actually the Death Star explosion from the Star Wars special edition.

Do you realize that by making Trey a Lieutenant and Page a Major that Page outranks Trey in your movie?

This is incredible, I had not thought about it. It makes sense though, Page is taller.

How many shows have you seen and between when and when?

My first show was 12/29/97- same date on the rocket in the video. I’ve seen the band about 35 times since, excluding appearances on David Letterman, which I’ve been told don’t count for stats purposes. I don’t think that’s fair.

Rules are rules, dude. What are some favorite memories?

I think there’s a reason the guys in the band talk about Big Cypress as being such a pinnacle. About ten of us drove in a carpool from New Jersey to Florida for Big Cypress, and it was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Of course, none of that compares to the time I stood in the queue just a few feet back from Martha Plimpton while leaving a show at Madison Square Garden.

In your credits you thank Lamehendge. Is that meant to be rec.music.phish?

I could tell you, but I would have to kill you.

If you liked this blog post, one way you could "like" it is to make a donation to The Mockingbird Foundation, the sponsor of Phish.net. Support music education for children, and you just might change the world.