As some of you may remember, last August I had a chance to visit the set of Transformers with a few other web movie guys down in Los Angeles. During that set visit we all had the chance to talk to the cast, producers and director (Michael Bay). Here now is our conversation with Michael Bay. (Special thanks goes out to my friend Kellvin over at LatinoReviews for transcribing it out). I can’t remember exactly which one of us asked which specific question, so I’ve just put “Movie Blog (et. al)”
The Movie Blog (et. al):
So what’s going to make this a Michael Bay movie?
Bay:
Well, I mean, I don’t know if that makes any sense. It’s got a lot of action, but at the same time it’s very funny and it’s got heart. I only wanted to do ‘Transformers’ if I could do it realistically and from what I’ve seen with what we’ve done on the digital studies and putting it in real world stuff with a lot of FX around that are real FX, that’s how we make it realistic.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
When did you realize the fanboy aspect around this story?
Bay:
Well, I knew. Of course I knew.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
When did that hit you though?
Bay:
When did it me? Before I even took on the movie I knew that there was a huge following of this thing. I think that Steven [Spielberg] called me a year ago last April and my first thought was, ‘No. I’m not interested.’ It was just because I thought, ‘Okay, how am I going to do a toy movie?’ Then I realized when I went to Hasbro that we could start over and go from a realistic alien invasion robot movie on earth. So with that thinking in mind that’s how I went about it.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
It can be a pretty hardcore story. Are you going more family film with this?
Bay:
Oh, well, no, no. I mean, it’s going to be pretty edgy for a family film, but it’s definitely got stuff for families. It’s PG-13, but it is edgy.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
How are you going to sort of introduce all of these ridiculous themes and justify them?
Bay:
Well, I’m not going to tell you, but we do justify how we do it. I mean, we have logic stuff in the script to explain why we say it.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
Obviously this is setup to be a franchise. So are you going to come back to it and do the sequel?
Bay:
Well, I’ve had a great time making it. I really have. It’s gone really smoothly this movie and it’s been a lot of fun. So we’ll see. It’s really fun to actually – I’ve done a lot of visual FX before, but this is really fun because you’re really animating characters who have a sort of different thing going on in the way that they walk or the way that they’re armor is scratched.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
How do you do that kind of stuff before you’ve hired the voice actors yet? How do you work on the characters without that part done?
Bay:
Well, first you write down what all the characters points are in your head. It is a tough thing. With [Peter] Cullen, he’s not an actor actor, he’s a voice actor. So when you see his face he’s got a great face, but I need to hire another actor to do his voice. Does that make sense? He’s going to do the voice and I’m going to have another actor study the video when he does it the way he does, and they’re actually going to have to work in tandem. They do this on animation pieces as well. Like, we did a very funny study where we did [Robert] De Niro and the bad guy from ‘The Matrix,’ Hugo Weaving, and we put our like Optimist Hugo next to De Niro. It’s hysterical and it looks just like him.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
So you’re kind of motion capturing the faces?
Bay:
It’s not fully like a human face, but it does have certain human things to it. Otherwise, as humans, we wouldn’t associate with this as much. We did a lot of different studies, like if you do nothing it doesn’t hit us.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
What did you try that didn’t work?
Bay:
If they are just frozen robots, pure metal that doesn’t move and the eyebrow thing with these eye slits that kind of move and the eyes move – it’s got to have some human things to it to make it successful for it because you look at the cartoons and that’s ninety percent in the direction that we have to go. Right now they’re just big glowing eyes that have no emotions. What I keep trying to tell the fanboys is that it has to be so much more realistic than what they’ve seen in the past, but they’re angry about everything anyway. They’re doing a protest in front of my office by the way, but I won’t be there [Laughs].
The Movie Blog (et. al):
Now the writers told us about a lot of the secondary characters, and we’re seeing what here? About four of the cars? Can you talk about the Transformers that are here today?
Bay:
I don’t have time to go through the whole thing. Each one has about three paragraphs. That’s Ratchet right there. That’s Iron Hide in the black truck and then that’s a newly transformed Bumblebee that started as an old Camero. Then you’ve got Jazz right here. When you have full height on Jazz I think that he’s about thirteen feet tall. Bumblebee is, I think, sixteen or seventeen feet tall. Ratchet is about twenty three feet, twenty four feet. Iron Hide is very wide when he’s transformed and he’s about a twenty six foot tall robot and then Optimus is, I think, twenty eight. Megatron is like at thirty four feet.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
The writers said that the Ratchet was going to be changed a lot because he was an ambulance in the original, but he still looks ambulance like now.
Bay:
Yeah, we just made more of like one of those modern rescues, mountain type things.
The Movie Blog (et. al):
Is that Furbie truck going to transform?
Bay:
No. We wanted to make it look like those Furbies. Have you seen those little Furbies? We’re going to be blowing up a lot of little Furbies.
What can I say Ray?
My post is 100% transparent. Feel free to continue your crusade. I won’t say 1 bad word about you or your site. Continue on, and all the best.
John,
I thought you had a strict no name calling policy here… tsk tsk tsk
Even though I agree with Krom in his assessment of Ray, I dont think the insults are neccessary.
However,
I disagree completely in his assessment of Bay and the Transformers movie.
Krom and Giovanni:
I can read just fine, thank you. In fact, I just finished reading a note from Kelvin of Latino Review, in which he seems to agree with me that Giovanni’s methods here are less than ideal and not above boards.
I will also hasten to add that this particular beef did not originate with me … I was contacted by another movie site webmaster, who informed me of this situation.
Besides your adoringly brainwashed “fans,” it looks like people are catching on to your ways, Giovanni. I definitely think you should look more carefully at how you do business here if you are ever to be half the movie god to which you aspire.
Hey Krom
I’ll say this one more time. Lay off the insults. Ray is not a “fucking idiot”. He has his opinion, and he’s entitled to it, just as much as you are to yours or I am to mine.
Name calling isn’t constructive. Leave it out of the equation.
First of all, Michael Bay sucks ass and Transformers will suck even larger ass.
Secondly, “Ray” is a fucking idiot. Learn how to read.
As a side note Ray, I encourage you to ask questions before launching acusations and insults.
Hey Victor,
You asked:
“If this interview took place last August, why did you wait until now to post it?”
Excellent question. There was an embargo on the interview that Paramount just notified all of us (the sites that were there for the interviews) was lifted on this past Monday. Thus the interviews could be posted now. None of us were permitted to before this time.
Hey Ray,
Once again, you’re fabricating problems.
1) Kellvin did NOT ask all the questions. As a matter of fact, he only asked 1 or 2 of them. There were 10 of us there talking to Bay at the same time. However, the appearance of Kellvin taking credit for all of them I’m sure is nothing more than an oversight on his part.
2) In my post I directly credit and link to Latino Review and state openly that they transcribed the interview. I was 100% transparent.
3) I put in “Movie Blog Et Al.” because that is accurate by definition. I also clearly stated myself in the opening paragraphs that I didn’t ask all the questions. So explain to me how me saying “I didn’t ask all the questions” and then placing “Et Al.” in the questions, is me taking credit for all the questions? I was 100% transparent.
4) Basic journalistic standard? What’s that? Is that like putting up a massive personal attack filled with personal insults and profanity on your site about another site owner? Is that was “Basic Journalistic Standards” are?
Since when is the movie blog a “journalistic” entity??? It’s not. This is a blog. Not a news site. I’m no journalist.
Having said that. My post is 100% proper. I credit Latino and thank them for transcribing and link back to them. I was totally transparent that I did not ask all the questions and included the Et Al. on the questions title.
Keep the witch hunt going. I’m sure you can find more things to make up to complain about me. Why not save time and go post more personal attacks against me on your site?
Ray makes a good point. If this interview took place last August, why did you wait until now to post it?
Well Sean, I don’t have a bug up my ass. The Latino Review transcription doesn’t say who asked what question … I wonder why … were these all of the questions asked at this interview? Or were these simply the ones asked by Kelvin??
You see, we don’t know if Kelvin is properly crediting the interviewer’s name, but my guess – based on journalistic integrity shown by Latino Review over the years – is that these questions attributed to Latino Review came from Kelvin, the interviewer.
On the other hand, Giovanni has here copied the entire transcription from Latino Review, and replaced the name with THE MOVIE BLOG et al – and yes, that means everybody, but the main attribute goes to TMB – which is then taking direct credit as the interviewer when it was not given in the original piece.
Giovanni (yet again) attempts some retarded excuse (“I can’t remember who said what …”) for what constitutes a blatant, egotistically-driven theft of the work done by Latino Review. PERIOD. The Movie Blog does not deserve any credit here – I mean, Giovanni was in the fucking room interviewing Michael Fucking Bay and didn’t bother to record the interview in any apparent format, nor can he even recall the conversation clearly. Talk about professionalism!
C’mon, this is a BASIC journalistic standard. Figure it out.
Hey Sean,
A couple of things:
1) Only pretentious people call other people pretentious. Name calling doesn’t suit you. Please desist.
2) Et Al. is actually a legal term. You’re close when you say it means “everyone else”, but more specifically it’s a term denoting a plural. When used in a legal document (For example “SMITH ET AL. vs BROWN) is sort of mean “and all others with them”.
3) I’m sure Latino Reviews apparent failure to give credit or acknowledgement to all the other sites there asking those questions was nothing but an oversight on their part. No reasons to make an issue out of it.
Hey Ray,
You said:
“I feel anger welling up yet again, Giovanni”
Perhaps you see yourself as some sort of sheriff? Whatever the case may be, read over my post again, I did nothing wrong, i credit that other people asked questions, I credit and link to Latino Review and thank them for the transcription.
I know you some how feel it is your personal mission to find (or create as the case may be) wrong doing on my part. I’m not sure why that is… but feel free to continue your witch hunt.
At least John said right up front that it wasn’t just him asking the questions. The term et al means “everyone else”. John said right up front that he didn’t ask all the questions. By saying the movie blog et al, that litterally means the movie blog and everyone else.
I looked at Latino Review. Those guys aren’t even crediting the other people at all and just make it look like they were the only ones doing the interview.
John also gave credit to LT for transcribing, so I’m not sure what bug “Ray” has up his pretentious ass
Hmmmm … should you really be taking credit for the questions of others by using The Movie Blog as the name for everyone?? Especially after Kellvin from Latino Review did all of the work for you by transcribing the conversation??
I feel anger welling up yet again, Giovanni.
Bay has always been synonymous with talentless nonsense. But on this one I think he’s going to jump the shark.
Transfoerms is not a complex concept, but he’s trying to make it sound like it’s fucking rocket science. This film is fodder for toy and product tie-ins. A vehicle for merchandising sales. And he’s proud of this. Pathetic.
Mark my words, this movie will be shit. When it’s over you’ll wish “disappointing” was all it was.
Hey Ross,
HAHAHA!
John I bet you were dying to ask him the one all important question:
“Mr Bay, may I ask so bluntly if you are going to ruin my childhood?”
:P
“Were going to be blowing up alot of little Furbies”
LOL awesome…..