Transformers 5 set visit
On Monday, August 9th, 2016, representatives from multiple Transformers fan sites were flown to Detroit Michigan (then driven to nearby Pontiac), for an unprecedented visit to the shooting set of the fifth film in the Transformers live-action movie series, The Last Knight.
The Set-Up
Fans on the set in alphabetical order:
- Greg Kuhn (Allspark.com)
- Kevin Lukis (Unicron.com)
- Greg Sepelak (TFWiki.net)
- Chris Teper (Tformers.com)
- Alex Weiner (TFW2005.com)
- Ben Yee (BWTF.com)
- Ryan Yzquierdo (Seibertron.com)
While Hasbro inviting representatives to fan-aimed media events is nothing new, this was a first on a fair few levels. This was Paramount's initiative, and set up all of the trip details themselves: all we had to do was show up for our flights (which was a bit more difficult than anticipated, but more on that later). And that's on top of the nature of the trip.
While we've had vehicle modes and cast announcements drip-fed to us every movie, this year has already seen more information out a lot earlier than in the past. To see robot-mode art for the new film a year before release is unprecedented already. And to have fan-site representatives show up for a tour? To be honest, I'm not sure if I've heard of a movie shoot doing this before at all. And this is the work of Tamar Teifeld from Paramount, who's taking a much more active role in the movie's digital promotion.
If the last couple years of movies have taught us anything, it's that you can't ignore the internet anymore. For better or worse, online word-of-mouth has a massive effect on a film, and we've certainly seen a fair few examples of that thoguhout 2016 (again, for better or worse). And with Transformers being a tentpole franchise for Paramount, Tamar wants to keep ahead of the game. While keeping Big Secret Spoilers wrapped up, she's keen to get the word out on fan-sites and keep interest up. Digital promotion will be a bigger thing over the coming year than it has been for the last four films (which fits with the scope of the movie compared to the others...).
At 10:30 am on Tuesday morning, we met up with Tamar in the lobby of the hotel, and got in the van to drive to the set. Surprisingly, the drive was practically across the street. A large, nondescript-looking warehouse deal in the middle of a fairly empty-ish area was in fact a huge multi-set movie studio and production complex. I'm pretty sure I walked by it on my way to the Tim Horton's the day before, none the wiser.
Not sure what we were about to see, we filed out..."
The Plot, Or A Bit Of It
We were given a smidgen of the plot of the new movie to give a bit of context for what was going on.
The story opens with the Transformers still not very welcome on Earth (imagine that). Cemetery Wind is no more, replaced by a new government-backed paramilitary group. Decepticons captured alive have been put into a maximum-security prison, while the bodies of the slain Transformers over the many battles from the previous adventuress have wound up in a massive junkyard... though not all of those robots were completely dead.
This is where we find Cade Yeager (Mark Wahlberg), still trying to help the Autobots, by locating the barely-survivors among the mountains for scrap and gathering the parts to repair them. We also meet Izabella (Isabela Moner), an orphan of the Chicago attack from Dark of the Moon, who similarly tries to repair the bots, including the tiny, broken, yet-unable-to-transform Sqweeks. So how does the "knight" thing play in? What brings William Lennox (Josh Duhamel) back into action? Well, we'll just have to find out, won't we?
The First Set
First stop was one of the interior shooting sets. Here we met up with Gabriella Gutenberg, who would be our co-guide through the day.
The scene today was pickups with Wahlberg and Laura Haddock exploring a spoileriffic thingamabob (sorry kids!). And what we saw caught us all unawares, if not for the spoiler, then for the very nature of what was before us.
You know how in the Star Wars prequel "making of" reels, how the actors are often just on greenscreen sets crawling on greenscreen boxes? That thing more and more studios are doing? Well forget that.
For Michael Bay, CG is a last resort. This indoor set was a good 30 feet high, maybe 100 feet long, and 20ish feet deep. Greenscreen only peeked at the edges, for long shots of distant walls. A large crack in the final third of the set was a good 20 feet deep at least, and the setting for a practical effect. Massive pillars and cables hung from the ceiling. It was like a giant Kenner playset come to life, with a ton of detail to take in. It was tempting to just sit and stare at it for a long time to pick out the effort put in.
In fact, this gave us our first taste of just how big a role practical effects play in these films' production. Real water dripped from on high, smoke and dust motes floated down. Small flame-spurts well outside of camera range flared to life, but nonetheless briefly cast their red glow on the actors and walls. The day prior, the set was a pool, sealed up so water sloshed a good six to seven feet up the walls. By the time these shots make it to the big screen, the only CG elements will be the robots and the far, far distant parts of the scene that no actor will come near.
Speaking of CG, on-set were several people from Industrial Light & Magic there to observe and take measurements to integrate the robots into the scene. As the lights were set, photos were taken of a large ball on a stick, half a flat matte color, the other half shiny chrome, to get a sense of how the lights fell on the scene. Then a large palette was held up and photographed, full of robot color swatches so they could see how the lighting would change the tone of the on-screen bots.
As they wrapped up that set (getting ready for even more pickups, this time without actors), we got to talk at length with Jason Smith, FX Supervisor from ILM, who got his start as a Creature Supervisor on the first two films. Much of the talk focused on his belief that the clash between practical effects and CGI was, well, a bunch of slag. The two effects houses do their best work together, one complimenting the other. Skweeks was brought up as a major collaboration point, with both teams working on building a functional puppet, and a full-body CGI model of said puppet identical in exacting detail, from how the joints work to the rust and dust patterns on his panels. He also takes umbrage at the notion that CG is "easy", a common sentiment losing ground more and more nowadays. As he puts it, CG movie work is "knuckle-bleeding just to get to mediocre", and from there you have to keep pushing to get it done right.
We also got to talk with Harry Humphries, former Navy SEAL and military consultant on Bay's films since The Rock. He's often in the writing room on various shoots, keeping the action true to military protocol. He's worked with a variety of directors, including Ridley Scott, John Woo and Brian DePalma, and is currently a military consultant for the TV series The Last Ship. On top of all that, he owns and heads up International Security Solutions, a security consulting company working largely with government contracts.
The Vehicle Pool
As the crew was moving to another set, we got back to the van to check out the vehicle pool and see some of the Transformers in action. This part of the tour was handed over to Randy Peters, Transport Coordinator and the stunt driver for Optimus Prime in all of the movies. Randy has a long and storied career in films as a driver, his first gig being Top Gun. He brought Optimus out, and the clear air made Oppy's chrome and paint really shine. Randy had a treat for us: we were sent to the far end of the lot, and Randy revved up Op's motor, and presented us with a gorgeous 180-degree skid-and-spin like the kind first seen in the 2007 film. It's a move that takes nerves and incredible control, and also one that'll very likely lose you your CDL if you're a normal truck driver.
After some photo ops with Op, we were allowed to take a look inside the Autobot leader. As fancy as Optimus looks on the outside... well, the inside sure doesn't drop the ball there either. As the side mirrors aren't particularly great for actual rearview, two monitors are mounted on the dashboard, linked to a pair of hidden cameras, one centered under the airdam, the other on the passenger side. A big shiny blue Autobot symbol adorns the headboard. And as for the rest? Prime has a full sleeper section in the back part of the cab, with a plush mattress and wall padding. Very cozy! In fact, we were all able to clamber into Optimus, and Randy drove us back to the garage, even giving us a little skid at the end (nothing as impressive as the 180 from before, but, well, that was probably for the best).
Bumblebee sat inside the hangar, a modified Camaro now with Lamborghini-style doors and a generally sharper appearance. Disguise sure seems off the table. Drift was brought out from under a tarp and rolled into a better photo spot, in his new black-and-red Mercedes mode and an engine that you could feel the revs from yards away.
Big bad Onslaught was resting outside the hangar, but he too was started up and rolled out for us to get some more impressive shots. This massive truck really does call back to the original, even if the double-cannon has been replaced with a large crane-boom arm. And in a very movie-esque touch, that arm is adorned with scratched-out Autobot symbols, and his chromed front bumper has "NEVER BACK DOWN" embossed in.
We also saw Hound, who has a new, even tougher-looking vehicle mode (due to a vehicle licensing change). Hound's new APC mode isn't a stock model though, as he's got a custom-built back end/top, complete with WWII-style "bombshell" art painted on the back.
The Second Set
Back at the main lot, we were ushered into another studio, this one considerably bigger. This time, we were looking at an even bigger set, though there were fewer physical walls, the elevated floor was nigh-football-field-long, with the longest/farthest studio wall greenscreened, indicating that in-movie, this would be a cavernous location. But like before, if something even so much as a wall was to be remotely close to an actor, it was a real thing. Both ends of the set were again nearly 30 feet tall, and they weren't the only large things on the set... sorry, spoilers again!
It was here that we briefly got to talk to the man himself, Michael Bay. He was certainly polite and naturally a bit cagey about giving away details. I decided to simply observe more than ask, get a bead on the man. And the impression I walked away with was that this was a man who did not like being idle, who was happiest working. In fact, I think our brief interview time was the only point in which I saw him sitting down. He comes across as a guy who sleeps by necessity, not choice. Much of the time he was moving about on the set, setting debris or stuff down to his liking, getting right in there and working.
Lunch!
An hour's break for lunch for cast and crew, and craft services was definitely not what I was expecting. Salad, salmon, chicken, pasta, vegetarian options, fruit, ice cream, banana splits.
When the crew went back to work, we stayed in one of the lunch trailers for a bit, relaxing, assembling notes, talking, while Tamar caught up on office stuff and coordinated our next stops. Honestly, it was a nice and very needed break. Pity my crusty old phone battery was tapping out and my backup was already drained.
We briefly returned to the second set, where the shot had moved to the center of the construction, to a Major Super Duper Spoiler. Bay was once again doing hands-on work, this time using a grinder/blower to lay dust on top of a major prop/setpiece so it would billow just where he wanted it when disturbed. Man knows what he wants. We were gently buffeted by the heat of flame-bursts and practical effects a safe distance away.
As there were going to be more shots in this set and there was still more to see, we shuffled onward...
Costume Department
Next came the costume department, where lead Costume Designer Lisa Lovaas showed us around. Lisa had been a Supervisor for the prior three movies ( Revenge of the Fallen being her first foray), but was hired up to head up the department when the prior designer left.
Lisa further reinforced the theme of a close-knit team working together, plus the penchant for keeping the film's budget well under control. Many of the folks putting together the new costumes for this movie have worked on many of Bay's films, as well as many other blockbusters out there.
When you're dealing with large crowds of real people, keeping a costume budget manageable can be tricky. The costume department was the size a department store clothing section, with entire racks dedicated to the costumes for a single actor (often marked with signs featuring Transformers like it was a theme park parking lot; not just movie bots, we even saw Strongarm from Robots in Disguise in there). And on a Bay shoot, you need a fair few duplicates of every costume since, well, they're gonna get roughed up, faded, and more. For the extras, you need costumes ready to go in tons of sizes, since the day-player extras change often. An entire room was set aside for a broad swath of military costumes and decorations for just about any branch.
It also was another sign of Bay's desire to use as little CG as possible; any crowd scene of humans, even if a scene calls for a couple hundred people, he wants filled out with live actors in costume. Letting a logarithm move CG actors in crowds loses something alive, something dynamic, he feels. It's a sentiment very hard to disagree with.
And with a bit of the film involving an army of medieval knights? There was a LOT of prop armor and leather and feathers and bones and more, with the crew working as hard as they could to make every piece look weathered and authentic.
And while this all may seem costly, that collection of costumes had been amassed over multiple films, and will see use in many more. Lisa far prefers to buy costumes to keep, reuse, and refurbish for future projects to save money and time. She even showed us that some of the old Sector Seven combat flak jackets from the first movie were being refurbished, reworked with some new padding, and turned into gear for this movie's new Transformers-response military force.
We made our way to the workshop of Textile Artist Ivory Stanton and his crew (including a husband-and-wife team who were prop/costume-making veterans), who were working on weatherizing leather, faux-metal, and other materials for the costume department, as well as restoring costumes that had faded from use (water damage in some instances what with the flooded sets). It was here that we were given a bit more insight into the department's relationship with the director. The costumes are one area where Bay is actually "hands off", leaving most of the creative decisions to the designers, but he has final say, and he very definitely has a "feel" in mind for any given outfit for the scene. And the costume crew needs to anticipate that feel and provide a number of options for him to choose from. Of course, with Bay, there's the overriding themes of "awesome" and "real", but there's more to it than that. They've gotten to know him well enough to know what style of lettering he likes when costumes call for that, even down to the kinds of numbers and letters he finds more interesting for callsigns (odd numbers and harder consonants in general).
Ivory's team was also responsible for the banner seen in the Times Square ad. Yes, that is in fact a real, physical flag, made first in a pristine condition, then cut and faded to look properly battle-worn. As Ivory brought the flag to the shooting location, an assistant was aghast at how worn the flag was... but to Bay, it was just right. So they attached it to the pole and hauled it up at "Bayhem Hour", aka "sunset" when the world is cast in that orange-and-blue hue Bay loves so much. The flag went up, and the wind caught it, unfurling majestically on take one. It was a rare moment of the first take being nigh perfect, something Bay didn't think they could top. They tried anyway, but the wind wasn't playing nice with them after that first take.
We also got a cute story from the costuming department. Some of the costumes feature some stunning blue feathers, which are in fact from an endangered species. Before you gasp in horror, though, they were from birds living in a conservation home. The feathers are collected after molting and sold to costume makers, and the proceeds used to buy food, toys, and other necessities to keep the breeds alive and well.
Concept Art Department
It was at this point we were led into Heavy Spoiler Zone, and even handwritten note-taking was discouraged. Many rooms full of concept art, quiet rooms with low lights. We spent a lot of time in here, but so much of what we saw had to stay in there... for now.
What we can say is that people worried that the new bots would all be "basically human" shapes again like the Age of Extinction cast, well, good news! Onslaught is right out of the Revenge of the Fallen era of design, a hulking brute as wide as he is tall. Another ‘Con recalls Frenzy with thin digitigrade limbs and lots of razor-sharp lines. A few refurbished designs popped up here and there. Alternate modes were quite varied, pulling far away from the sleek sports cars that make up much of the Autobot cast: this movie will poke into that whole "why do the Transformers keep ending up on Earth?" thing, you can take some guesses as to how that will translate on-screen.
I will say that there are several designs I'm in love with and will buy a toy of in a heartbeat.
The material on the walls and laid out on many tables ran the gamut from scale models of the larger sets we'd seen, to robot concept art (both stuff we've seen and some stuff that hadn't been finalized and might not even end up in the movie), to concept art that was made simply to suggest tones, themes and story directions.
As with the costume department, the old was on-hand too. An entire wall was taken up by robot scale charts for all five movies, giving the artists easy access to scale references spanning nearly a decade. It was honestly very cool to see a decade's worth of robots lined up.
The subject of artbooks and "coffee table books" full of this art was brought up, but it seems highly unlikely. Both because such things are expensive (and are a bit more "vanity project"), and because just because a concept doesn't get used in one film, that doesn't mean it can't find life in another.
Set Dressing
The last stop on the tour was a department that one doesn't often think about, but a nonetheless very important one, the set dressing department. The rooms where all the stuff you see in the shot is kept until it needs to be brought on-set. We saw large empty computer banks, diner dressing (including plates, salt & pepper shakers, the works), kids' bikes, tubs, rusty old rails... it was almost like going to a flea market. Like the costume department, having a well-stocked supply of ready-to-go things to decorate a set with can end up saving a good chunk of time and money, rather than hunting common items down every new shooting location.
Of course, some of those pieces were going to be rigged to blow, or collapse in precise ways. This is a Bay film, after all.
By this time it was nearing the end of the day, and we'd been up and about for hours. Shooting was wrapping up for the night, with the possibility of Bay doing a live webcast for China. So we made our way to the van, but not before we spotted Barricade in his new vehicle mode, and boy howdy, does he look vicious. Almost Mad-Maxian in his sharpness and added-on spikes and wires, but with a sinister sheen and luster to his midnight-blue hide.
Photo ops with Barricade taken, we filed back to the van to return to the hotel.
Aftermath
So much to process, so much to mentally sort... and a shower and a meal to be had, having been up and moving around for a good ten hours. Sorry, Mr. Bay, I absolutely would not have the stamina of those real-life military folks you have on set.
It was an extraordinary experience, all told. None of us had actually been on the set of a movie before, and while one "knows" there's a whole lot of behind-the-scenes going on, the actual scale doesn't really hit you until you see it in-person. The tour of the workshops really drove home just how much work goes into a production. There's an army of creative, talented people who love their jobs working away on even the small bits a moviegoer may not notice... but would likely notice the absence of. Everyone we spoke to was very happy to share what they were doing (well, unless it involved Very Heavy Spoilers, but they were polite about that), and really proud of their work. One definitely walks away feeling these folks in the trenches don't get the credit they deserve.
We went home with spoilers, sure, but more importantly, a better understanding of the movie-making process.
Notes
- The original email about the trip arrived on August 4th, apologizing for the short-notice nature of the event. As the film crew were already starting to pack up to move the shoot to London England soon, well, that would explain that.
- We were flown up on Monday the 8th... on Delta Airlines. The day that Delta grounded every flight worldwide due to a power outage at a major hub taking down their primary computer network. Surprise! However, the flights were luckily largely only delayed a few hours, plus Monday was an "open" day with nothing on the schedule. Not that this was not nerve-wracking to deal with for someone who doesn't mind flying by itself but hates to his core just about everything surrounding the actual flight.
- As there was the possibility to talk to some of the stars of the film, a list of possible questions was cooked up. However, the opportunity did not come to be. Which might be for the best, as the questions TFWiki.net would have asked... well... (we swear these are all real things written down)
- Which actor most deserves a box of Swedish Fish?
- Birdemic or The Room?
- Most batshit thing Bay's had you do on set so far?
- (For Laura Haddock) What would be on your Awesome Mix tape you'd give to your actual child? (As it turns out, her baby was on set that day!)
- Best Mel Brooks movie?
- How many kinds of fish can you name? Don't need a list, just a numeric estimate.
- If you were in a coma and your consciousness was transferred to a common domestic animal, what would you choose?
- (For Mark Wahlberg) Do you remember the Humpty Dance?
- We totally bet Mark would remember the Humpty Dance.