Was there a lot of compositing in your purely space scenes, or did you use in-camera shots?

I used compositing more than once because my computer couldn't handle the whole scenes. I know most professionals do renders in several passes, but I had no time to learn the process. I had to do all the work alone, so it was my goal to complete the scenes in LightWave 3D and just click render and move to the next scene. The work pipeline has to be simplified when you have only guy in the CGI department :)

What shot in the film was made with the oldest LightWave, and which the newest?

The oldest stuff is in the beginning of the first encounter, when Pirk's fleet comes from the "hop gate". And also the first shots of the first battle were rendered on LightWave 5.6.

Are there any features you'd wished you had while working on a shot only for them to appear in a newer version of LightWave?

Yes, the particles were a problem in 5.6.

Did you go back and redo any of the shots because of new capabilities?

Yes, I added some close-ups to the first battle later on, when I could really show all the particles and debris flying.

Did you start the effects shots seven years ago, or were they done much later?

I started the effects shots back in 1999. The oldest stuff is from that period. I kept doing the scenes almost every day, to the very last days of the production. Of course I later upgraded many scenes, especially the close-up scenes of Kickstart when we got a more detailed model.

Is the Babylon 5 connection because of LightWave?

No. But LightWave turned out to be the best choice because I wanted to achieve the same feeling and the look of the original series.

How many people worked on it?

I did 99.9 per cent of all animation and compositing. The whole production team consisted of five men, the director Timo Vuorensola, the co-producer Atte Joutsen, Sami Aho-Mantila behind the camera and Esa Jaatinen handled the mike boom. The music was made by Tapani Siirtola. That's it :)
Of course we got help in 3D modelling from all around the globe. For example, Eki Halkka modelled the first version of the bridge of the Kickstart.

Was the same team of five guys involved in all of the Star Wreck films?

No, only me and Rudi Airisto (script writer) were involved in the previous movies.

Would you like this fanfilm to lead to a commercial project?

Yes, and it's the only viable path for us. Because you can't live on fan films.

Has the internet made a difference to how you made this film?

Most certainly. We got so many talented people to work on our movie just for fun of it. And we got all the extras from our fan community. They are really enthusiastic people!

Do you want to get into acting or directing, or perhaps commercial 3D?

The director of Star Wreck: In The Pirkinning, Timo Vuorensola and I have a goal (in 2-3 years) of producing a full feature-length movie - this time with a decent amount of money. The pre-production has already started and we are currently looking for 3D modellers, etc. It's our goal to produce a movie here in Europe, not just in Finland. And of course we are looking for financiers who are willing to place their trust in our vision.

Thanks very much for telling us about your epic seven-year production Samuli! Good luck with finding paid FX work next time!