Starship Troopers German Division The fan film project

Film project overview

Our goal is to make a short film for all Starship Troopers fans. We tell our own story in the Starship Troopers universe. The film is supposed to be a bridge between the real films (SST 1-3) and the animated films (SST 4-5).

The plot takes place on Earth, after the destruction of Buenos Aires by the bugs. A small special unit of eight troopers is to investigate an incident in a suburb of the destroyed Buenos Aires. But the troopers disappear one after the other. Only by chance are two remaining troopers able to solve the case.

Our film shooting is a "non-budget-project" which means that we produce everything on our own, without financial support from outside. We try to adapt our costumes as close as possible to the original.

Who are the producers?

The "Starship Troopers German Division" is a costume and sports group consisting of: Military athletes, obstacle and marathon runners, former and active military personnel, science fiction fans, craftsmen and hobbyists, as well as computer freaks. The most different occupational groups are represented here. From lawyer to student everything is there. In addition, we are spread over the whole republic. From Hamburg to Cologne, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart, Nuremberg and Munich

Motivation history

It all started in 2013 with a running training that was no longer challenging enough for us. The increase was an obstacle course, which inspired us to do a costume run. Thus a well organized group was created, acting together. But that still wasn't challenging enough for us. In terms of sport, we increased our activities through military-oriented boot camps. The next challenge was to create the same outfit for all team members. So we made our first film contact in the form of video clips to document our obstacle courses. Next we enriched our documentaries with artistic elements from the original movie of the Starship Troopers.

Obstacle Course Race Runterra 2016

Development

Inspired by the idea of documenting the obstacle courses, we came up with the idea of making "more" out of the films. We wanted to create our own script with our own plot.

In 2015 we were allowed to take part in a SEK training course, where we were allowed to practice the break-in and abseiling in an industrial ruin.

In 2016 the first shooting took place in this very industrial ruin, the former Reichsschwefelwerk in Haßmersheim. But now some military structure had to be added to the group. Thereupon we consulted the experienced military strategist Scotty Stahl. He also supported us in ensuring that the military aspects of the film were correctly reproduced.

Scotty Stahl was also the only one in the group with acting experience. He played Police Commissioner Holger Lange in the RTL series “Blaulichtreport”. We also worked with two SFX experts from Canada and received support from Hollywood through Jim Martin.

SFX, music, sound, singing

The project is supported by two audio experts from Canada. Zack Bower, composer and Daniel Krok, SFX specialist. As well as vocally by Amra Mothes, jazz singer from Frankfurt.

Our goal is to develop our own song for the film as well as to produce a music video. The interaction of sound/SFX and postproduction was tested with the example clip "City Patrol". "City Patrol" is a 40 seconds news clip, as it can be seen in the original movie. This clip will later be integrated into the fan movie.
It represents a bridge between SST1-3 (real films) and SST4 (animated film)

Starship Troopers City Patrol, News Clip

Why actually "Starship Troopers"?

"Starship Troopers" seemed to unite everything that was our motivation so far. Namely the group cohesion, the Military Organization, science fiction, satire and humor, and imaginative costumes. "Starship Troopers" is a really good film with a large and constantly growing fan community. The cult film is based on the bestseller by Robert A. Heinlein and offers the opportunity to further develop a story within an existing universe

Support from Hollywood

In the run-up an intensive research to the topic "Starship Troopers" took place. For reference purposes, numerous original costumes and props were purchased. These activities inevitably resulted in contacts to the former film crew of the former cinema hit.
One of these contacts is Jim Martin. Jim supports our project as "Concept Art Consultant". His tasks include the drawing/design of the backgrounds (matte paintings), he will create a new bug especially designed for the fan film, he will coordinate the scenery design in advance of the shootings, he will advise the project from an artistic point of view, he will provide us with the original 3D model of the dropship and motivate us.

Jim Martin Examples

Main actors

Costume and props building

Supporter

The fan film project is supported by a variety of supporters and helping hands:

Of course all actors in the movie and many hands in the background Tough Troopes