BEN STILLER | RED HOUR FILMS | PARAMOUNT PICTURES
MAIN TITLE | MAIN ON END | END TITLE
2D MOTION GRAPHICS | 3D VFX | LIVE ACTION | TITLE SEQUENCE | TYPOGRAPHY | VFX DESIGN

For Zoolander 2, Prologue designed and delivered 79 visual effects shots, along with three standalone sequences within the body of the film, as well as the opening prologue / main title sequence and the main-on-end title sequence.
The film’s director and star (as well as a longtime friend of Prologue) Ben Stiller, had worked with us previously on Zoolander, Tropic Thunder, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, and the design of the logo for his production company Red Hour Films. Stiller had Prologue get involved with the process very early on, tasking us to design much of the film’s animation before principal photography even began.
The film centers around Derek Zoolander and his longtime friend Hansel, who after a tragic building collapse that resulted in the death of Derek’s wife and Hansel’s ‘disfigurement’, have both gone away into seclusion. That is until they are recruited by the top-secret organization Fashion Interpol to find out who’s been killing off the world’s pop-stars, and more importantly, to save Derek’s son.
Prologue designed, animated and composited almost all of the screen interfaces within the film, including all animated screen content inside Fashion Interpol headquarters, the Fashion Prison, digital billboards, vehicle dashboards, and on all mobile and hand-held devices.
For the opening montage / main title, we were tasked with telling the story of what had happened to Derek Zoolander in the 15 years that have transpired since first film. Video clips of news reports slide in and out, superimposed onto Interpol computer interfaces, detailing Derek and Hansel’s fall along with information implying the fashion world has completely forgotten about them.
We also created two full-CG sequences that tell the backstory of Adam and Eve and the little-known Steve, who many rock stars have died to protect. Steve was the first male model created by god, and anyone who cut out the heart and drank the blood of a descendant of Steve would gain eternal youth and beauty.
Prologue also created a montage depicting Mugatu’s obsession with revenge against Derek Zoolander. We shot live-action, edited and composited the footage of imprisoned Mugatu crafting masks with his feet, in a subtle homage to the film Se7en.
To create the main-on-end title sequence, we used an array of 2D and 3D animated elements intertwined with existing footage, including the film’s stars dancing in front of green screen, as well as outtakes from the first and second movies. We edited and comped them together to create a funky, spirited tip-of-the-hat to the original film’s brainwashing scene, set to an updated version of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood song ‘Relax.’