Each word in this paragraph will help you to shrink down into a nanode capable of fitting "Inside the minds of Sci Fi Studios." Soon you'll be sized and ready for a journey with István Szabó, Ifj, AKA "Freelancer," to see SFS in motion. Studio members were excited to have István join us in Creative Corner on the forum, where he has been working with us to develop ship designs, graphics, and story for a potential medical and bio-research space series, Medlab (or Medsci). Many of the ships that would appear in the pilot are now available for viewing. I promise that when you reach the end of the article, you'll sprout back up to your normal size so you'll be able to join us and other writers in the Creative Corner as we continue the adventure.

István's career is off to an auspicious start. To date, he is already credited as a screenwriter, manual writer, dramaturge (writer of dramatic composition), sound editor, translator, logo designer, graphic artist, and even computer game tester. He also has a few uncredited works published, and done in-house company projects, such as trailer writing, directing, storyboard drawing, designing, and marketing.

As a freelancer, he's the creator, main writer, and lead graphic concept artist in a Science-Fantasy epic titled Crystal Shade - The Miniseries, and the main designer of its computer game concept, Crystal Shade - Pale Brilliance. He and his creative partners are pitching the series through Canadian agent Danie Cortese Entertainment.

The very first official Crystal Shade poster, used in 2006 for promotion shows the color scheme being used in the series (sapphire blue, orange, and red are the most prominent).

István agreed with his partners to present for the first time publicly, in Sci Fi Studios Magazine, an original character sketch for Crystal Shade.

Crystal Shade is based on an original strange and unique world. The intended franchise is already comprised of the mini-series, an initial game concept, dozens of design sketches, its own culture, history and it's very own language system including a dictionary with similar expansion such as the Klingon language in Star Trek. He and his two Canadian co-writing partners, Orlanda Szabo and Steven Calderwood are confident it will present something very different to the audience, and treat fans to the next saga of the generation. He adds, "Our agent & publicist, Ms. Danie Cortese of Danie Cortese Entertainment sees a great opportunity in Crystal Shade. She is giving us all of her support in this grand project."

When pressed to pick favorites of his artwork, István said, "...if I really need to choose, my personal favorite is one of the main character wallpapers of Crystal Shade, who is usually my background picture on my computer. She is my favorite." Unfortunately, it's still classified since it would reveal important story elements.

István continues, "... From the old, my favorite is the Victoria Class Escort Destroyer. It was the first ship that I created directly for my very first script that I've turned into a Game Concept in this past year."

So how did he learn all that? In High School, he studied industrial design with graphics, then went on to electrical engineering for five years. As part of pilot training, he learned airframe design, including the basic and advanced set up of the aircrafts; the primary perspectives in a drawing; and how engines and other systems work. That training is invaluable for technical concept art, and also in writing realistic fictional concepts. He tells us, "I learned screenwriting and it's techniques from three great people. From my father, István Szabó, who is also a writer (Don't confuse him with the director István Szabó), my Canadian writing partner Orlanda Szabo and Hollywood Screenwriter Mr. David Freeman... I learned computer game design mostly from gaming experience. Roughly two years at Digital Reality and cooperation with CDV and Monte Cristo Entertainment was also very helpful to learn how things work in the gaming industry."

His greatest journey as a screenwriter was the writing of the computer game, War on Terror, released in Europe and Australia. (The story and the game have no connection to "911," and István is not pleased with the title). While the game has not achieved great commercial success, media hailed the story itself.

István also made the logo design of Danie Cortese Entertainment and Serverside, as well as other graphics such as cool weapons.

I asked István which his favorite field was, and he said, "All of them! I love to switch from one to another anytime, because it gives some diversity in the freelance work. But if I had to choose just one, I would choose screenwriting for sure. Usually that's the core to all of the fields... I love to visualize everything with concepts, expanding the storyline, expanding most of them to a brand name with game concepts and some additional elements."

In his homeland, he found no creative opportunities. "Hungarian corporations are usually working with and depending on larger corporations of Europe and/or the U.S. In these cases, the corporations are forced to do a "robot" job. The larger corporations, who don't want to take any risk during the development, are dictating. And original, brand new ideas are usually considered as high risks in the eyes of the producers." Thus, István found partners abroad, and browsed the internet for studios that might be interested in Science Fiction stories and projects, which led him to SFS. István comments, "Approximately seven years ago, I accidentally met with one of my mentors and eternal partner, Orlanda Szabo. Since that time we've worked on some projects together, including one sci-fi series before Crystal Shade. In the meantime, our second, talented writing partner, Steven Calderwood has recently joined our adventures.

"Freelancing gives me the opportunity to work with my own methods, following my own rules. Working for a company is quite different. In most cases producers and sometimes even executives (Usually in the game industry), who are not really involved in the projects are forcing the writers and designers to trash their unique ideas because the market doesn't really like fresh new ideas. I believe that's why many games, and sometimes movies all seem to be the same, regardless of who is acting in it and who has made it. Personally I love to push the original ideas, because I believe no one is able to know what the audience would like if we don't give them a chance to taste a new world or an original idea. Sci Fi Studios is giving this opportunity to me and to anyone who wants to create something different, something unique."

István has joined the team working on Medlab/Medsci in Creative Corner in the SFS Forum, and has already designed our main ship, its onboard cruisers, and other ships encountered in the pilot. I asked István what it was like getting involved with a series creation project at SFS; "Personally, I love it and I love projects with challenge. I like when people have their own ideas, creative thoughts and at SFS, everyone has their own vision, which gives a great help during the development, because everyone knows what they want to achieve and present. Many say in my country that visions and thoughts mean a great risk in projects, because the audience loves to see the standards. I believe without risks and creative ideas, there is no real business."

István says he's inspired by graceful designs, "where everything has some sort of function, where all the crafts and weapons have their own background." He loves to create not just the designs, but the origins and history as well, which works out beautifully on SFS projects.

Besides the CS designs, István's other favorite recent works are MedLab ones, such as the Hestia, Hygieia, IRIS, the ships of Ayame Dynamics and Northwood-Starling Inc., alien drones, and a new promo poster.

I asked actor, Medlab and Who Am I writer Dave Andrews what it was like working with István: "When Freelancer came on board at SFS, I was amazed how quickly he became a regular part of the team. From the moment he joined us, his input into MedSci has been invaluable. In particular, his extreme talent for ship design breathed new life and excitement into the project. His ability to design beautiful, elaborate ships that each speak to the personality of the species they represent is nothing short of astounding.

"The value of his contributions to the MedSci project has been immeasurable and cannot be overstated."

"Santa B.J.," creator of Order of the Shadow, Who Am I contributor, and Medlab writer and key technical developer comments, "The first time I saw Freelancer's work—I believe it was the Hestia MK1—I knew we had struck gold. This kind of creative talent would be invaluable in progressing beyond just words, and—perhaps more importantly—would make it easier for writers to visualize this universe we are creating."

Despite the enthusiasm from creative colleagues, it hasn't been all clear cruising. Though the MK1 was super cool, István persevered through two redesigns including special specs needed for the engine before the team unanimously approved the MK7 Hestia for our main medical ship, Chiron.

The onboard small cruisers came next. An elaborate "IRIS" build-a-ship-on-request system was reluctantly postponed for later use, and a much simpler design was chosen for time of launch.

A collection of futuristic airplanes was needed for an air show, and one of our other main contributors, Canadian Mind, is enthusiastically working with István to bring about his vision. Meanwhile, other inventive designs were drawn.

We needed a top-notch Japanese fighter for a character's test flight, and by a misunderstanding, ended up with a large spacecraft carrier. Our fighter will actually take off from Earth, so the plan is to have the carrier in the background during the fighter's test maneuvers. To flesh out the background to set the scene against, István is now designing onboard craft for the Yukikaze Class carrier. There was some debate about the "landing strip," which István admits is not functional, but in the end it was left as is, since the fictional Earth designers would want the ship to look just as cool as the audience would.

For a privateer's vessel met in space, we need a ship with ad hoc modifications. István came up with the beautiful sleek little Seraphim, much too handsome as is, so he's working on a version with the modifications which will negate the beautiful lines, and have a more awkward, underground-addition look. The standard model is a common ship of the era, so could be used in background space dock CG graphics.

Only a few alien ships have been completed so far. There was a bit of debate over colors before the red borders with faded blue grid was settled on, and what I call the "pink problem," in the alien ships Crescent, and Shadowstar, in which the red appeared as such before István found and fixed the problem. We now have a nice blood red for our nasty aliens.

One day István surprised us with a promo poster or potential opening music graphic, very indicative of the idea behind the potential show (may still be being modified at time of publication).

You can see other Medlab ships in the Medsci subtopic "Medlab Illustrated Ship Guide", and "Medlab Ship Designs."

For the future, István says, "I'd like to finish many project plans that I abandoned in favor of the current ones. For the immediate future... I'd like to see Crystal Shade and SFS's MedLab up and running. I also promised my father that I would adapt one of his books into a screenplay. My partners and I also plan to expand the world of Crystal Shade, i.e. book and comic book, because we believe it has a great potential to give something new to the audience; the CS world itself has no real frontiers.

"By my opinion, Sci Fi Studios is an excellent idea. As I see, many talent have already joined to the community. I'd like to wish everyone good luck. Well. It's our duty to boldly go where no one has gone before. Only our restless minds set the final frontiers."