I was Production Supervisor for the Models and Miniatures Unit, as well as much of the spaceship Pyrotechnics on “Starship Troopers”. This is while I was at Sony Pictures Imageworks. This was one of the last big visual effects films to make extensive use of real models/miniatures. The finished feature film was a combination of CG ships and models, but all of the big spaceship shots in the film were physical models shot with motion control (imagine!). I think my favorite moment in the seven month schedule that turned into more than a year (and into having three stages shooting moco round-the-clock) was a call got I got from production asking us to arrange to send footage of our spaceship photography to I.L.M. (aka Lucasfilm). They were also tasked with creating a huge number of the visual effects space shots. Sony wanted them to match our look! The studio that pretty much invented the genre was being asked to match what we were doing. Credit really goes to our unit D.P., Alex Funke, but it was a great moment. The film was nominated an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, but with it being up against Titanic, well…
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