ABOUT FEDNET 2022
These graphics were produced and are being offered as a celebration of the 25th anniversary of the film "
Starship Troopers
" and the work I produced in 1997 on the Federal Network graphics. I hoped to embody some of the flavor of the original art with a newly polished sheen in honor of the work and the amazingly dedicated fans of the original film.
When the movie first premiered it was misunderstood and didn't perform well at the box office or sit well with critics, I never dreamed that 25 years later we would still be talking about it with renewed interest and consider it a cult classic.
The themes that Paul Verhoeven's vision parodied in propagandistic military advertising packages throughout the film now seem familiar and all too real with the proliferation of pseudo news organizations pandering to a nationalistic audience on 24 hour feeds.
In 1997 after completing Video Display Graphics animation on John Woo's "FACE/OFF" and leaving visual effects studio VIFX/Video Image I began a new job at Santa Monica visual effect studio
"Banned From The Ranch Entertainment" (BFTRE). I was given as my first assignment the task of designing and animating the "Fed Net" military propoganda motion graphics sequences peppered throughout the film "Starship Troopers".
The Studio's film production had commisioned BFTRE to come up with the
"Would You Like To Know More"
segments that punctuate the action of the story with equal parts dark humor and jingoism. While BFTRE had submitted numerous designs for approval over several months, the pre-production process had been dragging out as Verhoeven failed to find the right look and feel that embodied the tone that his vision required.
In an unsual turn for me as an artist there were no art directors between myself and the film's director and I was given unfiltered access to Verhoeven and was allowed to submit designs directly for approval.
I somehow succeeded in getting so many of my designs approved in my first few weeks that much to my surprise the
entire "Fed Net" job was handed over to me to lead.
Some of the design elements were providied by Sony studio's art department (such as the graphics that appear on the flags and emblems) while other layouts were designed in-house at BFTRE by other designers and had been approved previously by the director, including the iconic "Federal Network" eagle motif and the MI flag designs..
With a varying assortment of designs and elements I began to piece together the literally dozens of individual shots and transitions that would then be composited onto the background plates by various other studios who were tackling visual effects.
During post-production I didn't have the opportunity to read the whole script but was only given thosse pages describing the action in my sequences. Consequently, I couldn't decide what the tone of the movie was,
I thought to myself "Is this a dark comedy?"
Using 1997 versions of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, Adobe After Effects, Electric Image and Stratavision, 2D and 3D elements were designed, animated and rendered at film resolution using studio reference plates for temporary backgrounds. The final files were delivered as a series of frames with alpha channels for composite artists to complete the final compositions.
After outputting to film the "Invasion!", "Join Up Now!" and several other iconic Fed Net sequences, myself and my producers went to see a test composite screening of our work at Sony Studios Lot in Culver City. Joining us for review were direcor, Paul Verhoeven as well as the producers, screenwriter, editor, cinematographer and others. Myself and my producers sat in the front row while several rows back the studio team waited. The lights dimmed and the screen flickered to light.
There, 20 feet tall was my graphic that had only ever been displayed on a 20 inch CRT.
But wait, something was wrong.
Where there should have been bright colors and shiny surfaces there were instead, dark gloomy shadows and dull muted tones.
A voice with a Dutch accent came from over our shoulders, "Is it supposed to look like that?" Verhoeven asked.
I was aghast and confused, my producer glared at me and I shrugged sheepishly, "I dunno?"
Another voice from the back row chimed in as the film continued to wind through the projector, "What colorspace do you work in at your shop? 10-bit logarithmic?"
My producer replied, "No, we use 8-bit linear..."
The lights came up and the projector went silent as everybody chuckled a little in the back row, my producers looking red and flustered we all filed out. The kerfluffle, it turns out was a miscommunication about technology that was above my pay-grade so I was completely absolved of any error.
Working with my producers, Van Ling and Casey Cannon and under the watchful eye of my production supervisor, Gail Wise I managed to deliver all of the shots on time and to the director's satisfaction. The artwork that I created for Starship Troopers was my first (and only) motion picture graphics animation and first lead graphics animator film credit and I continue to be humbled by the experience.
