Crafting the cosmos: UNCSA alumni reach for the stars with 'Earthlings'

“Filmmaking is an elaborate magic trick,” explains alumnus Erwick D’Souza (M.F.A. Filmmaking, ‘24). “You’re selling a series of lies as a truth, and that becomes what you see in the four corners of the screen.” 

It's an idea that drove D’Souza and fellow alumnus Dimitri Dyó (M.F.A. Filmmaking, ‘24) as they embarked on a magic trick of their own: the creation of “Earthlings,” a short science fiction film that pushed the limits of their technical skills and creativity.

The film’s premise is simple: The experimental spaceship UNN Atalante veers off-course on its maiden voyage, leaving two astronauts stranded in space. Facing impossible odds and with no way home, Mission Specialist Aditi Neketran and Captain Zhenya Zejekovic must come to terms with mortality and make the most of what could be their final moments.

But the themes explored in “Earthlings” — humanity, the fragility of life and the vastness of the universe — are as profound as they are inspiring. The result is a mix of high-concept science fiction and raw human emotion.

It is a film that D’Souza and Dyó hope can help change the world. 

An interstellar idea

The journey of “Earthlings” began in 2018 as a shower thought. D’Souza, who has an engineering and science background, was mulling over the concept of panspermia — the theory that life on Earth may have originated elsewhere in the universe. “What if prehistoric alien tourists passed by Earth and flushed their sewage tanks? They may have inadvertently seeded life on Earth!” 

What started as a quirky idea evolved into a story that D’Souza tinkered with for years. By the time he came to UNCSA to study Film Music Composition (now Composition for Film and Visual Media), he was ready to bring the concept to life. 

"There’s a saying in India: ‘One doesn’t take engineering to study engineering, one studies engineering to figure out what they want to do in life,’” D’Souza says. “I discovered everything I loved doing. I happened to be raised as a musician so I chose music composition, but what I really wanted to do was storytelling. I decided to become a filmmaker as well.”

Where stories collide

Enter Dimitri Dyó, a graduate student in Creative Producing assigned as D’Souza's roommate at UNCSA. 

“We knew almost nothing about each other,” D’Souza remembers. “But within 24 hours of meeting, we found out we had so much in common it was ridiculous.” They were both international students — D’Souza was born and raised in Doha, Qatar, and Ukrainian-native Dyó came to UNCSA from Germany — and both loved 1970s science fiction. 

When D’Souza mentioned his story idea, Dyó was immediately supportive. Soon, they were writing and rewriting a script. They loved different aspects of the story: Dyó gravitated towards its human tragedy, while D’Souza connected more with the action and science; even in directing, D’Souza focused on the technical aspects while Dyó centered on the acting. 

“We’re left brain, right brain,” Dyó explains. “We have a lot in common but big artistic differences.” Those differences pushed them to refine the script through at least seven major rewrites and over 20 drafts. 

“The core of the characters survived our forged creativity,” says D’Souza. “In what they’ve become, you can see both Dimitri and my fingerprints all over it. We put ourselves into these characters.”

Earthlings assemble 

With the idea solidified, the next challenge was to make the film a reality. D’Souza and Dyó tackled “Earthlings” entirely outside of their coursework during their senior year and continued it after graduating, though their time at UNCSA was critical to its creation.

“It wasn’t a school project,” explains D’Souza, “but being at UNCSA made ‘Earthlings’ possible because of all the amazing people we met.” 

Their classmate Annette (Eun-Kyoung) Cho became their producer and assistant director, organizing every detail. Filmmaking faculty member Bob Keen, a director at UNCSA’s Media and Emerging Technology Lab (METL) and a legend in the industry, became a mentor and encouraged them to use Unreal Engine — a cutting-edge video game graphics engine — to create their ambitious visual film on a tight budget.

Funding was a major hurdle, but the duo’s successful Indiegogo campaign raised over $5,000 from 17 backers, surpassing their goal. The funds helped cover critical expenses, including hiring 3D artists and animators like METL technicians Asa Gordon and Dante Ra’Shwan Armstrong. The cast and crew soon grew beyond UNCSA, with actors Sanchi Pandey and Corey Lee Peña joining to play the lead characters, Aditi Neketran and Zhenya Zejekovic.

Unintentionally, D’Souza and Dyó had created a team that mirrored the story’s theme of international collaboration. “This film’s story is an international mission,” explains D’Souza. “The filmmaking team represents that too.”

Building the universe 

To bring their characters to life, the team used motion capture, a technology that combines live performances with digital animation. iPhones were suspended in front of Pandey and Lee Peña, recording every geometric detail of their facial expressions as they performed the roles of Neketran and Zejekovic.  

“This technology is straight-up science fiction,” says D’Souza. “It captures insane detail — what their eyes are doing, what their lips are doing. It’s wild. You suddenly realize there’s so much nuance in human expression.” The recorded data was then imported into Unreal Engine, where Pandey and Lee Peña’s emotional performances were seamlessly transposed onto their digital counterparts. 

The UNN Atalante serves as the film’s third character, with the camera perspective mounted to the ship itself. To design the ship, D’Souza drew a line from the first real-life spaceship to what modern aerospace companies are doing now, and then extended it, adding inspiration from nature. “The more physically grounded something is, the more believable it becomes,” explains D’Souza, who spent hundreds of hours in Unreal Engine 5 and Blender 3D “transforming a cube into something that looked and felt believable.” 

 

 

 

 

 

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This commitment to quality, innovation and rule-following science fiction surrounded every aspect of the film’s creation. “A lot of design decisions went into this,” says Dyó. “We could have finished this film long, long ago, but it wouldn’t be at the level we both wanted.” 

Every element in the film — from the ship’s chairs to the astronauts’ suits — was as bespoke as possible, designed from scratch to align with their vision. For the filmmakers, the project was both a labor of love and, as they described it, “an albatross around our necks.” 

Looking to the stars

For all its technological innovation, “Earthlings” is deeply human at its core. “Both of us had to sacrifice a lot for our passions, and our parents sacrificed a lot,” says Dyó. “That comes through in the characters.”

Packed with plot twists, imagination and profound questions, “Earthlings” ultimately challenges its audience to see the big picture. D’Souza and Dyó hope the film evokes the “astronaut effect” — what can happen when astronauts view Earth from space. 

When astronauts look down on Earth, they don’t see countries or borders. All the petty conflicts, bigotry and hate fade away.

Erwick D'Souza

“When astronauts look down on Earth, they don’t see countries or borders,” D’Souza explains. “All the petty conflicts, bigotry and hate fade away.” 

“This is the kind of film that, if it hits the right person, could change their minds,” he adds. “Even if it’s just 0.01%, then we’ve done our jobs.”

As “Earthlings” wraps up post-production and prepares to hit the festival circuit, there’s only one thing left to say: “See you on the other side” — a catchphrase from the script that seems just as fitting for D’Souza and Dyó’s journey as it does for their film.

Editors Note: D’Souza and Dyó anticipate the film’s public release in 2026 after a year-long festival circuit. Indiegogo backers will be able to view the film immediately upon its completion. 

by Sasha Hartzell

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