"That’s real easy. I’d have to say Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, with the dudes shaking hands and the guy is lit on fire. Storm Thorgersen is an amazing artist, so much so that we used a guy named Hugh Syme, who was a protégé of his, for Countdown To Extinction and Youthanasia. We wanted something original and thought provoking and not just an illustration. We got pigeonholed and everyone was like ‘Where’s Vic?’ every time. With Youthanasia, people’s asses were growing together because they thought we actually hung babies upside down and took pictures. What we did was have the moms come in and the babies were on these clear tables with the light underneath, then the moms would grab their toes and pull their legs straight so it looked like they were hanging by their feet. I thought that was brilliant."

"I guess I’m a sucker for black and white. This 1970 independent classic is from writer/director Leonard Kastle, who took over after Martin Scorsese was let go. Shirley Stoler is funny and heartbreaking as the homicidal, jealous companion of scam artist Tony Lo Bianco. Based on a true story, it held particular interest for me because the killers at one point decide to retire to suburban Valley Stream, Long Island, the town where I primarily grew up and directed my first film, Trees Lounge. I once worked with Tony on an episode of the TV series Homicide and excitedly told him he had one of my favorite lines in one of my favorite movies. After sizing me up for a few seconds, he replied, “Well, that would have to be the Honeymoon Killers, and the line of course is, ‘Valley Stream. Valley Stream. What a joke!’”"

"Another one that I have to say – because I am an artist, I am a graphic designer and an art guy – is 300. That literally was a seismic shift in filmmaking for me, because Zack Snyder took this thing in such a creative direction. It was like, every frame, you could frame on your wall. You could literally take each piece of that movie, frame it, and it would stand as a piece of art, and that’s what I loved about that movie. Gerard [Butler] is my friend; we did Gamer together, and that’s all I could talk about on set. I was like his 300 groupie on that whole movie, you know? [laughs] But the power and the simplicity of what it was all about, too. Zack got to the archetype of what all the characters were; the story was simple, it was powerful."