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Ogden: What do you think is the appeal of the Picas??

Craste: I'm not sure at all. The films are atmospheric, and pretty to look at. They're like little trailers, suggesting something bigger is on its way and in that sense it's hard to be too critical of them. And the Picas themselves are irritable and paranoid and prone to violent mood swings, so there's everything you need in a well-rounded cartoon character.

I suppose the key is in creating a self-contained, believable world - people then tend to be far more willing to come along for the ride, irrespective of the subject matter.

Ogden: What informed your decision to make Picas in Black and White?

Craste: I haven't seen too much black and white work in 3D, so it seemed an easy way to try and make our films stand out from the crowd. Plus it's great for the sort of dramatic lighting I wanted in the films. And black and white always seems to denote that something is serious and sophisticated, and I figured Pica Towers needed all the help it could get.

Ogden: There is a lovely shot in "A Hound of Flesh" where the blind character is going down a set of zigzagging stairs. It evokes some great film compositions for me, of the Citizen Kane variety. Is that scene an homage to anything?

Craste: If it is, it's purely accidental. The initial idea for "Hound of Flesh" actually came about as a mock up of a poster which featured that layout and the caption - "You're Blind. There's a killer somewhere in the building. And your dog thinks it's a game..." From there the staircase just grew and grew.

Certainly with Pica Towers, and in particular with Jo Jo, there's an obsession with scale (the same building features in Jo Jo and has grown to monstrous proportions). It seems to be an on-going theme in all my work, the idea of tiny characters wandering through these giant landscapes. Whatever that inadvertently reveals about my mental well-being, it certainly makes for great compositions on the screen.

Ogden: Where did your idea for the Picas come from?

Craste: They were originally designed for a series of broadcast interstitials to be run late at night, and that's why they looked like TVs in the first place.

The initial, slightly frail idea was for the Picas to be living inside your TV, only appearing if there was a break in transmission, when they could be glimpsed going about their business. And because their world is a maelstrom of swirling electrons and white noise, they're in a constant agitated state - thus prone to psychotic behaviour and sudden acts of completely gratuitous violence. Guaranteed ratings winner one would have thought.

Ogden: I'm surprised broadcasters weren't lined up to throw money at this...heh heh

Craste: Yeah, well, inexplicably, the broadcaster in question seemed to lose interest after seeing the first installment (in which the crazed killer known only as the 'Black Hand' claims his first victim), and the project was scuppered. So we were left with a cast of characters and no show to put on.

Months passed and eventually my festering resentment had to be redirected into something productive. I had a tall building, some stereotyped characters and a crazed killer. There had to be a film of sparkling originality in there somewhere. Lacking a coherent storyline didn't seem to be an obstacle worth considering. Besides, I knew I could always pass that deficiency off as being enigmatic.

And so 'The Good News', 'Hound of Flesh' and 'Pizza Sangre' were made back to back (waaaay before Peter Jackson got the idea), and released on the studio's website. As the films progressed, the faint outline of a larger story emerged. I could see myself making another ninety of these 1 minute films, and then joining them all up to create a blood-soaked feature, until I was reminded that someone was footing the bill for all this.

Ogden: And that brings us up to Jo Jo... how were you able to get Studio aka to OK that?

Craste: I think it was because of the violent nature of the first three films that the studio seemed eager to indulge me, to placate me...So they agreed to finance a longer film featuring the same characters, the same settings, but without a single murder.