Engineering usually gets short shrift in the movies, even when it comes to science-fiction films, in which engineers are usually portrayed as if they are magicians, fixing warp drives or disabling security systems at the flick of a screwdriver. But in Primer, an independent science-fiction film made for just US $7000, engineering is faithfully depicted in all its messy glory: sufficiently so to garner the Alfred P. Sloan prize for advancing science and technology in film. The movie is a critical success, too, winning the top prize at this year's prestigious Sundance Film Festival.

Lights, Camera, And All Action : Shane Carruth went from math and computer science to writing, costarring in, and directing a science-fiction film about time travel. His Primer then won the Alfred P. Sloan prize for advancing science and technology in film.

The plot centers around a group of entrepreneurial hardware engineers who moonlight together in a garage, working on various projects that they hope will bring them to the big time. Two of the group discover a peculiar and unexpected side effect of their latest prototype, and as parts are begged, borrowed, and stolen, they grope toward a creation that will nearly destroy them both: a time machine.

IEEE Spectrum Associate Editor Stephen Cass talked to Primer 's writer, director, editor, and costar, Shane Carruth, about how he engineered a great movie.

What kind of engineering background do you have?

I studied math and computer science in college, and even started a graduate program in math, but I quit after a few days, because I realized it was going to be difficult to do my own research--I would be doing a lot of other people's research.

An entrepreneurial spirit took over, and I felt that whatever I did was going to be on my own terms, so I decided to make some money and apply that toward whatever venture I chose. I started writing software in C and C++ for a flight simulator at Hughes Aircraft and then got into Web work. I did back-end database design and then started consulting.