Oscar Nom Scott Benza Interview

CNET interviewed first time Oscar Nominee Scott Benza about getting the nod for Best Visual Effects for his work in Transformers.
The full interview is here.

Highlights:
- Couldn't sleep after getting the nom. Happy to achieve his goal of getting a nomination.
- Been with ILM for 10 years, worked on Pearl Harbor, The Island, Star Wars Episodes II and III.
- Specializes in "big heavy things - mechanical things - and really emphasize realism" so of course Transformers perfect for that.
- Steps for the visual FX process: artwork > pre-viz > gathering background plates, animatics > combine > add ligtening, natural phenomena, and so forth. Can take weeks just to put together a couple seconds of screen time.
- Transformers took two years, completed one month before release.
- Transformations difficult as had the robot look and the car, but not how to get from one to the other.
- "It was scary, and we'd hoped we could pre-build transformations for each robot and design shots around them. But that wasn't practical, so we designed a different transformation every time you see one in the film."
- "My favorite sequence in the movie is the desert highway sequence where Bonecrusher transforms and Optimus gets tackled off the upper level the freeway and down onto the lower level. The robots were moving very fast, maybe 80 miles an hour."

Congrats and good luck Scott!

Transformers 2 Shooting Date: June 2nd

IESB.net interviewed Transformers Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about G.I. Joe and Transformers. The interview is Joe-centeric but below is the info he gave out about Transformers, the most important bit being a plan to start principle photography on June 2nd. With the current WGA strike and possible future strikes from actors and directors, this could change.

IESB: Can you give us a quick update on Transformers 2. Is it still planned for shooting in July of 08?
LDB: The second, June 2nd.

IESB: Is the story locked?
LDB: We're nowhere because of the strike, we won't know until we come back. We have a very fine outline and we know exactly where we want go with the movie but until this writers strike comes back, we'll find out exactly where we are. Michael is completely on top of every detail. He's designed a lot of great stuff already. He's got a lot of great sequences imagined but you know, he needs some writers to work with before he's ready to go, so I would say June 2nd is an unofficial start, it's the target date we'd like to go for but, you know, we've got to get some writers to help us.

IESB: Now, comparing to Transformers 1, how much bigger is Transformers 2 going to be?
LDB: (laughs) You know, I'm gonna let Michael answer that question.

IESB: (laughs) Well, come on $700 million dollars...
LDB: I'll say this much, I know that Michael wants to deliver a bigger experience for everybody.

Mini Interview With Bay About TF2

E! Online posted a quickie interview with Michael Bay after some awards ceremony in Hollywood, where he briefly commented about Transformers 2.

So...the next Transformers. Does Shia LaBeouf have creative input?
He has zero creative input.

Yeah, but he's like the man now—Mr. Indiana Jones—so he's totally gonna show up and be all, "I know what works!"
No, but I'm friends with Shia. I really love working with him.

So, where do you go with it? How do you up the stakes?
It's not about upping it. It's about still keeping the heart.

Any new characters coming in?
Oh, yeah…a lot of fun stuff. I keep telling the writers, remember the heart and the magic, remember the heart and the magic. It's not about being bigger.

Speaking of bigger, the DVD is doing great. Did you watch the American League Championship series? It's the smartest advertising for Transformers.
No, but we're number one. Go figure!

I am all for remembering the heart (whatever that means) and the magic but I wouldn't mind a little escalation and upping of things. Transformers can be epic in storytelling. Something the cartoons and especially comics have utterly failed to capture. Cartoons don't have the budget to do epic (even though Beast Wars came darn close) but comics don't have that excuse. Instead they have a glacier story pace that could give Lost pointers on how to move things along as slowly as possibly. The movies, with today's technology, can possibly finally give us the wide-screen epic story that Transformers have desperately needed. (source)

Peter Cullen DVD Related Interview

Superherohype has posted an interview with Peter Cullen from Friday when he hosted a press conference about the special features of the HD-DVD version of Transformers.

The full interview is here.

Some highlights:
- Not comfortable with celebrity, likes the anonymity that voice over work brings.
- Slight changes where made to his Optimus voice to "justify its size relative to the actors on screen." (Personally I can't tell if a change was made or not. So it one was made compliments to the sound crew for making it near invisible).
- Wasn't really aware of the popularity of Transformers until his first convention in 98 or 99 (probably Botcon which is held annually in various locations) after being encouraged by his daughter to go.
- Did audition with Bay for the role of Optimus for the movie.
- HD-DVD features: Picture in picture during the commentary so can see Bay, Spielberg and other filmmakers. Disc 2 allows zoom and 350 view of the robots.

Mark Ryan Interview

IFMagazine.com has posted an interview with Mark Ryan, the voice of Bumblebee and was also the on set voice for most of the Transformers to help the actors in their roles.

The full interview is here.

Some highlights:
- Was hired by Michelle Lewitt to do the on set work since was able to throw up different voices for each Transformers as needed.
- First scene he shot was the house sequence with Shia LaBeouf.
- Poles with red and green lights represented the robots to help with line of sight for the actors so looked at right spot correctly.
- On set, played Jazz as Sean Connery and other voices, Ironhide was a southern character and so forth.
- Did the post production work for Decepticons until the roles where cast (Probably to help with timing and the like for editing scenes and animatics. This explains why the casting of roles was able to wait so long. Usually the voice work is done before the animation so can match mouth movements. For example Disney/Pixar cartoons, usually the voice work was done up to 2 years before the movie even comes out.)
(source)

The Editing of Transformers

FX Guide has an article up that covers the effort that went into editing Transformers together. It also has a brief interview with Michael Bay that focuses on the editing aspect of putting the movie together.

The full article is here.

Some highlights:

- Editor Glen Scantleberry worked about 10.5 months editing Transformers together with a lot of it being alternate edits together for Bay to choose from and modify.
- Often used pre-visualizations to help edit the movie together since working off of footage that didn't yet include the CGI robots and needed to get timing right so could turn the edit over to ILM for inserting the CGI.
- Animatics where used in the editing but sometimes changes where made based on set or post production ideas (wonder how much included CGI heavy shots though).
- 5 editors and 1 associate editor worked on the film, all of whom worked with Bay in the past.
- The editors where not fans of the Transformers so Bay had to make sure they didn't cut out references.
- To edit, will put together a full length guild, with animatics, temp dialogue, temp music and temp sound effects to get idea of how things may go together. Usually the storyboards are the guide but subject to change based on director decisions during shooting.
- Bay had final-cut on the film so the theatrical version is the "Director's Cut". (It's why hear about "Extended Edition" DVDs instead as its the Director's Cut with cut scenes added back. If hear about a Director's Cut it usually means the studio had final say on how the movie was put together, usually for the worse cause of too many cooks in the kitchen syndrome.)
- "There are about 630 visual effects shots in the film. There are 430 executed at ILM, 91 at Digital Domain, 70 at the Asylum and the rest are 2D clean up and fixes done by CO3, ISolve and Ken Blackwell. Technical advancements were made in environments, lighting, and simulation of physical effects and integration of CG characters in a real environment."
- ILM did the Transformers, Digital Domain on other scenes including the soft-drink robot.
- “Overall, the most challenging shot is OH020 which is a 360 degree descending camera move on Optimus that rotating around to reveal all four Autobots transforming in an alley”, says ILM visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar. “The shot was filmed in two separate camera moves from two separate rigs: a Russian arm mounted to a camera car and a 50-foot Technocrane. The plates were combined and blended. The 768-frame-long shot moves from an overhead medium close up on Optimus finishing his transformation, into an extreme close up of all the moving parts, then widening out to reveal our hero talent. Shia and Megan watch all four robots individually transform with their own unique style.”
- 1.2 million feet of film shot for the movie

Wizard Interview of Orci and Kurtzman

Wizard Universe has posted a transcript of a Q&A session with Transformers' writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman during Botcon a week or so ago.

The full transcript is here.

The highlights:

- Starscream's role was small due to the movie's structure with the late introduction of all the Decepticons and desire to tell the film from Sam's point of view.
- Arcee was planned for the film but dropped because of scale. Alt mode would have been a motorcycle and compared to the rest, would have been too tiny. Wreckage apparently was in any of their drafts.
- The writers would "love to be involved" in a sequel but "schedule won't allow that."
- The dog was supposed to be a pit pull but Bay decided a Chihuahua would be funnier.
- Provided a neutral answer on the multiple producer roles, basically saying Spielberg was great and Lorenzo Di Bonaventura provided the time they needed to figure out the script while under studio pressure.
- The writers do wish more time could have been spent developing the various Transformers and 2nd tier(my phrase) human characters.
- Provided an on the spot explanation, not related to any sequel, on how could add Dinobots to a sequel: "you would flashback to protoforms arriving and finding dinosaurs on our planet and trans-scanning dinosaurs and reshaping themselves into dinosaurs."

Mark Ryan Hints At Transformers II Prequel

Mark Ryan, the voice of Bumblebee in Transformers, had an interview with sknr.net talking about working on Transformers and also hinted at a DVD special feature, "I recently recorded more material for the DVD release of the film. It has to do with the Prequel that will set up the second film."

Main parts of the interview:

GVK: How did you get involved with “Transformers”?
MR: I have done 10 years in theater, some have said I have had a varied career, and I look at it as a shotgun blast of creativity. I got a call, it was all very secret and I was not even sure what I was reading for. I was not to learn the lines given to me, simply come in and read them. Since I did not know the project, you have to come in with your take and hope your personality and talent are right for the job. I actually read 5 characters doing the same scene at different times.

GVK: What sort of prep work did you do once you had landed the part?
MR: I did not see the television show when it aired in the U.K. as I was doing a lot of acting at the time so I came into it very fresh. I went online, did research, and talked to friends and fans of the show to get a take on the characters.

GVK: You were the onset voice for the characters during filming, what was that like and was it difficult acting against virtual elements?
MR: It was a lot of fun; I fed lines to Shia who was acting against giant poles with lights on them. Shia is very funny and spontaneous, and is actually very good at what he does as Michael would explain the scenes to us, and we had to imagine that the poles were gigantic robots, and make sure to really allow the characters to come through.

GVK: During the studio process of recording the voices, was Michael Bay present?
MR: He was there every day; often he was the only person there. It was the most fun I had, as during post production, Michael would shoo people from the studio so we could get the lines down. Michael likes to have fun and he has a very cheeky, child like humor to him. He would say a line and then ask me to say it like he just did, only to make it funny.

GVK: Did you see a complete script while filming or did you just have your lines?
MR: The script on set changed a lot. One day I noted some new lines in, and thought that it would change the plot in a dramatic way. Michael was very guarded on the
project as they had a computer hacked and someone got a copy of the script as well as some of the graphics for the film.

GVK: Since you did all the voices on set, how did you end up being Bumblebee?
MR: I got a call saying I was doing the Bumblebee character, and I said I do not believe I have done the lines for that. Since I had recorded many voices and lines in studio, they played me back a recording and sure enough, it was me doing the lines that came to be Bumblebee. When I had read them, they were not assigned as lines to Bumblebee, and since I had not read that he had his speech restored in the
script, it was a pleasant surprise.

GVK: Did you get to work with Stephen Spielberg at all?
MR: No, I would have liked to, but I think Stephen is a very smart director. When I was doing King Arthur, I saw Jerry (Bruckheimer) twice. Stephen is very wise in that he has hired a good Director and lets him do the job that he was hired to do, without interfering with his work. Michael was very good and really did very well with the film.

GVK: What were your thoughts about Bumblebee being a Camaro over a Volkswagen?
MR: Having not seen the original show when it first ran, I did not have an emotional connection to him being a Volkswagen. When I saw the Camaro shot though, I said “that isn’t Herbie that is one sexy beast”.

GVK: You also do all the voices in the video game, what was that like and did you use lines from the film or all new lines?
MR: I had a lot of fun with Iron Hide, and some of the other odd voices. We had a mix of lines as well, old and new.

GVK: Final question, have you heard anything about a sequel or been asked to be a part of future films?
MR:(Chuckles), funny you should say that so I will tell you what I can. I recently recorded more material for the DVD release of the film. It has to do with the Prequel that will set up the second film.

(source)

Kurtzman and Orci Post Move Q&A

The message boards over that Transformersmovie.com are hosting a post movie question and answer thread with Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman regarding Transformers. Keep in mind that these where the writers of the movie. They had input in the final product but what they put to paper and what Bay shot and edited together (ILM etc) isn't going to match up 100%.

Click here for the thread.

Here are some questions and answers already supplied, with my comments in parenthesis):
Was the Brawl/Devestator mixup on purpose, or was it indeed an editing oversight?
It's an Easter Egg for movie 2. (A joke? Hint of the arrival of the Constructicons? I vote for a joke.)

How come the Allspark created TFs were all Decepticons?
Prime intended to use the Allspark to repower Cybertron as it was intended. Megatron wants to abuse it by creating Transformers directly, which makes souless, primal Transformers. (Ah, hmm ok. So I guess the answer is yes, when "unfiltered" it creats evil Transformers).

Why did you guys make Megatron stronger than Prime? Is it simply that they are are of the same power, but Megatron is simply a little BIGGER or is Megatron just better than Prime is period? Or was Prime just having a bad fight this time?
I think a little of both. I agree that Prime should've gotten in a few good hits.

What were some of your favorites scenes that did not make it in the final cut?
Sam and Mikaela breaking into their own high school after hours with the Autobots.

What happened to Barricade & why wasn't it shown?
Threads for movie 2. (Hmm too pat an answer, I am going with cut scene)

How did Bumblebee regain his voice and why wasn't it explained?
When they Autobots land and introduce themselves to Sam and Mikaela, Ratchet explains that he's been working on BB voice and actually treats him with a regenerative plasma laser. By the end of the movie, it's worked its magic, but I agree it could've been clearer. (wha? The Doctor Who screwdriver thing Ratchet was holding in the Autobots intro? That? Yeah ok).

Was Sector 7 meant to be taken lightly? They came off a little slapstickish. I'm guessing it was just John Tututro's character.
Yes. Turturro was written that way. We didn't want to lose the fun of the cartoon, and we were already playing the military totally straight so we gambled that it would give us some freedom to go a little nuts. (Speaking of, when they going to finish the S7 website story arc?)

How sure can you be that certain eastereggs like Brawl/Devastator and Barricade vanishing will be picked up by the next script writers? What if they don't get it?
So many people from movie 1 are coming back that I'm sure they'll know. (Valid point)

After seeing Weaving doing Megatron, are you 100% happy with it or do you think Welker could have done an even better job then Weaving did?
Honestly, I think either would've worked, but I was happy. (Weaving was so generic, I preferred Welker).

Same question about the face plate on Prime, I know you were in favour of keeping it on permanently.
I think we would've kept it on the whole time. (As a Transfan, keep the mask, for general audience, I see why the decision was made to do without.)

Were these lines recorded by the voice actors?
Many lines were recorded for the movie that did not make it, sadly.

Were the lines that got cut the final Transformers lines you added?
Once we had all the voice actors hired, we wrote a few new lines for each to record that weren't in the script.
A handful of lines didn't make it to the final cut for each Transformer.

In the film we see that the "All Spark, Matrix" or whatever is really called turned whatever machine it touched into a killing bot! Why is this?
It is meant to power Cybertron, not adapt human technology. Also, since all earth's tech is reverse engineered from Megatron, maybe that affects the outcome, too.

Is there any size shifting? We see the Cube transform and shrink in size -- does Frenzy do something similar when he transforms into Mikaela's phone?
We didn't want Mass shifting for the TF's -- only for the Allspark. His head seems bigger than it is because of the shape, but it folds nicely into a phone size.

When Bumblebee is holding the Allspark after getting his legs blown off, why wasnt he healed the way Frenzy was upon his contact with it?
It might've corrupted him. (More likely a mistake, after all where did the extra body mass come from is no mass shifting?)

Bay wants an Aircraft carrier Transformer, Autobot or Decepticon, and who the hell would it be?
When he told us that, we were like, "Good luck getting the money for that!" We knew it would never make it, but we did write it into one of the intermediate drafts. (Like the scale the man was thinking on.)

Optimus Prime Cover Boy for Entertainment Weekly

This week's Entertainment Weekly has Optimus Prime as its cover boy. Thanks to Mitch K. for the cover image. The cover articles is about bringing Transformers to the big screen and how it may change the "future of the blockbuster." Article and an interview with Michael Bay is also up on the EW.com website.

When Robots Attack
Michael Bay Interview

Some highlights and lot of comments from me:

- EW calls it the "world's most expensive toy commercial". I am starting to resent that. Yes its based off of a toyline but I don't hear people calling Spider-Man 3 the "world's most expensive comic book commercial" or Miami vice the "world's most expensive television DVD set commercial" or any of that other nonsense. These writers need to write damn articles and quite pretending to be above it all. The wink wink, eye rolling is getting tiresome. For some reason creating a movie that sells other items is treated with more respect then the reverse.
- to give the writer credit though, he does get the TF terminology correct.
- Alot of the article recounts known history, if keep up with the blog. Ie studios rejected Tom DeSanto's pitch. Speilberg doesn't. Hires Ocri and Kurtzman to write with the "a boy and his car" theme. Snags Bay who first rejected it but after tour of Hasbro and imagining an 80mph transformation, agrees to direct.
- EW says ILM's work was $40 million. (that's it? Next time budget $100 million or more!!!)
- The GM deal saved the movie $3 million. Not mentioned in the article but GM provided 65 cars for the film.
- In regards to Jazz "Jazz is the one thing which I was like, ehhh, I wish he was a different car, personally. It's too little. But that's why I did it. It saved me money." (To be fair though, the car does fit Jazz, so good choice overall but agree about the size)
- Actors worked opposite of a tennis balls for scenes with the TF. Amusing quote from Tyrese, and a good attitude to have: "I would rather do a scene opposite a tennis ball than some of the actors I have had to work with in the past. The tennis ball is your friend. The tennis ball doesn't mean you no harm." (Personally I think actors that bitch about blue screen work are not real actors. Those moments are pure acting as its relying 100% on their own ability and imagination rather then a series of crutches. And don't get me started on those that have to "become" the character. A true actor should be able to dive in and out of character at will).
- Because of Hasbro character choices and design times where tight "''Mike, they need the molds [of the Transformers for the toys].'' [I said] ''We don't have a script yet. We're only on page 30!'' He goes, ''They need the molds in China. What kind of vehicles do you want?'' Literally, we were scrambling." (Apparently to get the toys produced and ready for an expected street date the final designs have to be ready a year in advance. So really to do proper development they probably needed a locked in design by a 3 or so months before then so could engineer the toy).
- Article has the usual actor quotes about Bay being tough.
- Also mentions the Wrap Poem that popped up on Don Murphy's site that called the film loads of crap and gave that Bay was given to much free rein. (I now suspect the poem came from DeSanto but regardless the box office numbers, the only ones that really matter, vindicate Bay.)
- In regards to a certain sequel and Bay's involvement "I've got a lot of ideas for the next one. I feel like it's my duty to do it. You don't want someone else to take your baby."

TIME.com Transformers Articles

From TIME.com comes 4 articles regarding Transformers and the effect geekdom is having on Hollywood. Below is the descriptions of the articles provided by TIME via an email (re-arranged by me).

Special coverage includes:

Movies: Transformers:
Review of the the highly anticipated movie.

The Fanboy: Hollywood’s New Taste-Maker:
A look at the latest and greatest taste-makers of Hollywood: fanboys, “the typically geeky 16-to-34-year-old male ... Whose slavish devotion to a pop-culture subject, like a comic-book character or a video game, drives him to blog, podcast, chat, share YouTube videos, go to comic-book conventions, and once in a while, see a movie on the subject of his obsession. And he’s having his way with Hollywood.” (geekdom united?, I have the power? Does that mean I get a cut in profits? :P)

An Interview with Shia LeBeouf: The Kid Gets the Picture:
Transformer’s star Shia LaBeouf talks with TIME’s Rebecca Winters Keegan about his rising career, from selling hot dogs in LA’s Echo Park, to working with Steven Spielberg on the set of Transformers and Indiana Jones.

80 Years of Robots in Hollywood:
Essays and accompanying photos profile some of Hollywood’s most memorable metallic stars, from The Day the Earth Stood Still’s misunderstood Gort, to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.