Steffen Werner

The inspiration was to create a (the one) Starship Troopers fanfilm, because compared to Starwars, there was nothing before.

My vision was to create an own story, which has in principle nothing to do with the original movie, but it should play in the universe of Starship Troopers and it should use it terms. An independent story with new characters, new enemies, new props. However, it should looks like Starship Troopers. Therefore, the story is a bit like it was seen from Starship Troopers 2 – a mission of a small group of Troopers, independent oft he main story and also independent from the book.

I had a huge team spread worldwide about hundred people. Some of them were active for a certain part oft he production only. However, most oft he key positions were covered by myself as director, producer, prop maker, editor and many other things, all what was necessary to close gaps and to bring this project tot he ground.

The biggest challenge was to keep all participants motivated, because it was a project without any budget and non-payed for all. A huge problem was e.g. to find specialists for 3d animation, who want to do the job for free and who is at the same time a fan of this topic. I found them mostly by chance and a lot of networking.

The production oft he movie was spread over five years. Also the shooting was stretched over this time. Therefore, the shooting locations from the begin of the project were no longer available at the end. For that reason we had to manage to query a location fort he “final fight”, the scene at the end of the movie, which resolves the whole story. We did this shooting then in a former “lost place”, an old NATO bunker in France. Due to our first location scouting, we were not aware, that the lost place was no longer lost, but was meanwhile sold to a new owner. So we had to manage this situation by explaining our project tot he new property owner and to convince them to let us make the shooting. They agreed and supported us then two months later to make the final shooting fort he final fight. During this shooting was already include the collected experience oft he last four years and therefore, we could do things at a more professional level. Note: the majority of the team members (including me) were never in touch with movie making. So this is my first time, I made a movie ever.

If I had to start at the same point, means without skills and knowledge of movie making – no. I would do it exactly at the same way – step by step, learning by doing, managing problem as they appear. But of course with new projects, I would avoid problems I was faced with. As is was done with the shooting oft he “final fight” already. For this scene, there was a really good prepared script, there was a story book, there was a camera shooting plan and a lot of other thinks, which are common in film making. That was learned in the period before.

Do to the fact, that I have just this project and two made music videos – I can be proud on that only.

Just do it! Don’t waste any thinking about potential problems, handle them if they appear. And finish the project!

The actors were chosen according their addiction tot he topic. They could all identify themself directly with the story. However, I tried to motivate them to a maximum to reach the best what is possible. Note: most of them were no actors.

The composer is a Starship troopers fan too. I found him via the internet and convinced him to jump in. The collaboration was via the internet only, we never meet us in reality. He came from Canada.

After the shootings there was always a meeting, were everybody could express, what was good and what was not so good. As far as it affects not the story and my vision, how the movie should be, I tried always to include such remarks, especially if that was an add value for the movie itself. The most critical points were, that I was most likely to deep into the project just seeing the result at the horizon and then I forgot to give the others a break. I forgot sometimes, that human need something to drink or to eat 😉 … During the final shooting even this aspect was included. Lesson learned.