To acquire more recruits, the US Navy took a bold new creative approach in their recruitment film, ‘Sea to Stars’, which showcases their new brand identity. The film, which feels more like an action-packed movie trailer rather than a more conventional recruitment video, is a true depiction of what it takes to join the US Navy. Viewers are no longer watching people speak about what it means to be a member, they are witnessing the reality of the job in action first-hand.
Each facet of the job is depicted in an explosive and dramatic fashion to show the fast-paced, intense and extremely varied nature of the role, and to show that the US Navy is not for the fainthearted.Visual effects were critical as most scenes could not be captured in camera. For example, because it was logistically impossible to gather a whole fleet of ships, the entire fleet shot was created digitally, as well as the sea, waves and the deck crew.
Filming a real submarine 5-miles underwater also would have been difficult, so a practical hatch in a tank was shot, capturing the talent’s interaction in the environment. The second half of the film was 95% CG – the F18 flying past the camera, the UAV and satellite – were all built into environments that were accurate in relation to the heights that those vehicles fly, combining CG and DMP and blending them seamlessly together.
VFX crew Animators
Creative Director - Michael Gregory
VFX supervisor, lead compositor - Jim Spratling
CG Lead - Josh Hatton
Colorist - Mark Gethin
Color Producer - Rebecca Boorsma
Executive Producer - Elexis Stearn
Producer - Jamie Loudon
Production Coordinator - Madeline Austin Kulat
Compositing Lead - Mithun Alex
Compositors - Nanda Kumar, Gijo Abraham George, Rajesh Kaushik, Rajesh Kumar, Rajinikanth R
Rigger - Debalina Dasgupta
Asset Artists - Kartik Gupta, Manjunath Ramakrishnaiah, Ria Banerjee
DMP Lead - Gowri Shankar Velusamy D
DMP Artists - Sachin Sureshrao Dhapudkar, Radhakrishna Rethinasamy
MatchMove Artists - Earnest Victor, Elangovan Ganeshan, Abdul Labeeb
Roto Artists - Shyam