As a kid, I thought I'd be a paleontologist or an astronaut when I grew up. I lived in a rural area, and my imagination took me places I'd never been. While other kids had lemonade stands, I had a "dinosaur blood" stand. Curiously, no one was buying…

I vividly remember going to the movies. We didn't go often, so I played what I did see over and over in my mind. One night, my parents took me to a drive-in multiplex and let me choose between The Rescuers and Star Wars. I chose the former — only to feel the harsh pang of regret when I saw spaceships zipping through the galaxy on a distant screen behind me.

Alien was the first sci-fi flick I saw in the theatres. It rocked my world. I fell in love with Sigourney Weaver, and was forever changed by how the camera moved and the mood Ridley Scott so brilliantly created. One day soon after, I discovered my father's old Super-8 camera. I suddenly had a way to give my imagination a concrete form. It was the day I became a filmmaker.

I decided that writing was how I would break in to the business. After all, The Wrath of Conan and my Star King trilogy had been huge hits with my mom, so starting out as a writer seemed like a logical first step. But after years of churning out spec screenplays and dealing with the revolving door of studio development, I realized the truth: to kick-start my career, I had to make my own film. This is why I made The Bottle.

Now I'm ready to take the next step and direct a low-budget indie feature. Any Day is an intimate, character-driven drama, and it's a far cry from the Super-8 sci-fi epics of my youth — but the passion behind making it will remain the same.

— Todd Ludy