Director’s Statement

“Will I stay friends with everyone after high school? What will I do with my life? Why don't colleges like me? What's the point of anything?”

If you were at all like me in high school, those questions raced through your mind constantly as the threat of adulthood loomed ever closer.

Of course, the big joke of growing up is looking back and realizing that all the things which seemed world-ending at the time were actually not a big deal. It boils down to a strong fear of the unknown, the worry that things won’t go well overpowering the equally likely possibility that they will.

This dichotomy is what the story of MICROWAVE explores, with its freshly-graduated characters being confronted by a literal view into a future they must discover how to control. Some see the time-slip as proof that nothing matters because there’s no escaping fate. Others rail against it, seeing themselves as masters of their own destiny who must have control at all costs. While the story is filled with high-concept sci-fi shenanigans like characters spawning dimensional rifts which weave in and out of each other, the core of their existential fears are as real and universal as ever.

At least, they were real to me. All the people I had known my whole life were suddenly going to be gone, making new friends was hard, I didn’t get into any of my dream colleges, and I had no clue how to pursue filmmaking as a legitimate career. That’s a lot for a lad to take in at once.

It’s easy to laugh off how high-strung “past me” was, but of course those feelings never went away; I simply got used to them. Writing this story has allowed me to go back and recall when it was all fresh, to be able to empathize with those fears while having a bit more life experience under my belt to navigate the characters through that change. That’s not to say I have much more figured out, but who does? 

I hope you will be able to find a little of yourself in the plights of Maggie, Colin, Hannah, and Daniel as they attempt to make peace with their place in not only this universe, but all universes.

-Aaron G. Abrams