For an object lesson in the matter, aspiring filmmakers would do well to examine self-taught director Andrew Patterson’s debut feature, The Vast Of Night.

Sanger, apply their influences and inspirations to The Vast Of Night in ingenious ways, making for a film that feels fresh despite being composed of classic elements.

Transitions to black-and-white and analog TV fuzz divide the film into acts, each combining Montague and Sanger’s dialogue-driven screenplay with Patterson’s ambitious camerawork.

Despite its intergalactic scope, this is an intimate film, centering on wistful high schooler Fay (Sierra McCormick), a switchboard operator and amateur engineer, and her slightly older friend Everett (Jake Horowitz), a fast-talking radio DJ and fellow electronics nerd.

What The Vast Of Night lacks in CGI spaceships, it makes up for in detailed mid-century atmosphere, cobbled together by diligent production designers making endless phone calls in and around Patterson’s native Oklahoma

(Similarly, the film was shot in a real small town, whose residents allowed the crew to treat their home like a backlot for the duration of the production.) It takes confidence to persuade collectors to let you borrow their precious vintage Chevrolets and reel-to-reel tape recorders—a quality that’s reflected in Patterson’s direction, which is remarkably assured for that of a newcomer, even before the jaw-dropping extended tracking shot midway through the film