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Michael Bay on Transforming Transformers
May 31, 2007 - Yes, we live in an age where realistic looking Transformers can get their own live-action movie. Robots in disguise will soon be everywhere as the like-titled Paramount/DreamWorks film -- executive-produced by none other than Steven Spielberg, among others, and directed by Michael Bay himself, the master of disaster behind pictures such as The Rock, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor -- hits theaters on July 4th.
For Bay, it was a challenge to take the concept of the Transformers, which began existence as a combo cartoon series/toy line from Hasbro back in the '80s, and convert it into a realistic film that adult audiences could take seriously. IGN caught up with Bay on the set of the film last year to discuss the adaptation.
"Steven [Spielberg] called me I think a year ago last April, and my first thought was, 'No, I'm not interested,'" says Bay. "Just because I thought, 'O.K., how am I going to do a toy movie?' And then when I went to Hasbro I realized, 'O.K., start over and go for the realistic alien invasion robot movie on Earth.' So with that thinking in mind, that's how I went about it."
The plot of the film, as with the original cartoon series on which it's based, involves a group of giant robots from space who have the ability to transform into Earthbound objects, in particular various automobiles and vehicles. Unfortunately, while the Autobot Transformers are kindly, the Decepticons are evil -- and they've taken their battle to Earth. Various humans get involved in the action along the way, including Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, and Tyrese Gibson.
"The thing that attracted me to Transformers at first was they're great characters," says producer Tom DeSanto. "You just instantly got pulled into the mythology. Optimus Prime and Megatron weren't robots. These were almost Shakespearean type characters that had all this drama and all this background. And that's the great thing about this world, that it's not just about robots. The robots are great. When you see this stuff, you're going to go, 'I have never seen that before ever in my life.' And you're going to believe it. You're going to believe that that truck or that car is actually standing there, but you're going to care. And that's the key. … In order to adapt properties like this you need to make changes, but you need to stay true to the soul of what it is and the spirit of what it is."
Part of the soul and spirit of the Transformers formula, according to Bay, includes humor and, of course, plenty of action.
"It's got a lot of action, but it's very funny," says Bay of his film. "And it's got heart. I only wanted to do Transformers if I could do it realistic. And from what I've seen, what we've done with our digital studies, is putting in real world stuff that has lots of effects around that are real effects. That's how we make it realistic."
While the film will be rated PG-13, Bay insists that it's "pretty edgy for a family film" while managing to have elements that will appeal to a younger crowd. And no doubt the sight of 40-foot-tall robots battling each other will appeal to the kids, which leads to the question of how much of the film has been created with computer graphics versus practical effects. Bay seems like the kind of director who likes to go with "the real thing" whenever possible.
"I think that as much practical photography as you can get is the best," says Ian Bryce, another producer on the film. "I think the audience is so sophisticated these days that they can tell what's CG, what's animatronic, what's not real. So we certainly like to capture as much original photography as we can and then enhance it with the CG shots and we've got a couple of robots that we built in full scale that are used very specifically for some shots. But we like to get as much live action as we can."
For the stuff that hasn't been done practically (how many four-story-high robots can you build, really?), the art of CG of course comes into play. As Bay explains, he's done a lot of digital effects on past films, but this time around he's really having fun with the process.
"You're really animating characters [here], and giving everyone a little different kind of thing going on -- just from the way they walk [or] the way their armor is scratched or hurt," explains the director.
That also includes adding voices to the Transformer characters, while also giving them a more nuanced ability for facial expressions that Optimus Prime never had before -- be it in toy or cartoon form. And with actors like Hugo Weaving, Keith David, and Peter Cullen (voice of the original Optimus Prime from the '80s) pitching in on that front, one needs to match the character to the voice just so.
"You've got to go through… First you write down what all the character points are in your head," says Bay. "It's a tough thing. With Cullen, he's not an actor actor. He's a voice actor, so when you see his face, he's got a great voice, but I need to hire another actor to do his (expressions). He's going to do the voice and I'm going to have another actor study the video when he does how he's going to say it. They're actually going to have to work in tandem. They do this on animation features as well. We did a very funny study where we did De Niro and Hugo Weaving. We put our Optimus to Hugo and De Niro. Hysterical. I mean, it looks just like them!"
Bay says that it's a subtle difference between being a flat, metallic face and one that can emote, but it's a hugely important distinction.
"It's not fully like a human face but it does have certain human things to it, you know," he says. "Otherwise as humans we wouldn't associate with it as much. We did a lot of different studies; if you do nothing, it kind of like doesn't hit us. … If they're just frozen robots, pure metal that doesn't move and like the eyebrow kind of thing -- we have these eye slits that can kind of move and the eyes, how they move. And it's got to have some human things to make it sort of successful to us. Because, you look at the cartoons, that is ninety percent away from where we have to go. Right now they're just big glowing eyes that have no emotions. It's what I keep trying to tell the fanboys is that this is gonna be so much more realistic than what they've seen in the past. But you know, they're angry about everything anyway."
Ah yes, the fanboys. Those gentlemen and ladies who remain so devoted to the Transformers that they fear any possible changes that might be made to the characters for Bay's film. The director is well aware of them, and he says he knew even before he took on the project that there was "a huge following for this thing." But still…
"I heard they want to protest at my office, but I won't be there," laughs Bay. "I'll be shooting!"
http://movies.ign.com/articles/792/792144p1.html
May 31, 2007 - Yes, we live in an age where realistic looking Transformers can get their own live-action movie. Robots in disguise will soon be everywhere as the like-titled Paramount/DreamWorks film -- executive-produced by none other than Steven Spielberg, among others, and directed by Michael Bay himself, the master of disaster behind pictures such as The Rock, Armageddon, and Pearl Harbor -- hits theaters on July 4th.
For Bay, it was a challenge to take the concept of the Transformers, which began existence as a combo cartoon series/toy line from Hasbro back in the '80s, and convert it into a realistic film that adult audiences could take seriously. IGN caught up with Bay on the set of the film last year to discuss the adaptation.
"Steven [Spielberg] called me I think a year ago last April, and my first thought was, 'No, I'm not interested,'" says Bay. "Just because I thought, 'O.K., how am I going to do a toy movie?' And then when I went to Hasbro I realized, 'O.K., start over and go for the realistic alien invasion robot movie on Earth.' So with that thinking in mind, that's how I went about it."
The plot of the film, as with the original cartoon series on which it's based, involves a group of giant robots from space who have the ability to transform into Earthbound objects, in particular various automobiles and vehicles. Unfortunately, while the Autobot Transformers are kindly, the Decepticons are evil -- and they've taken their battle to Earth. Various humans get involved in the action along the way, including Shia LaBeouf, Megan Fox, and Tyrese Gibson.
"The thing that attracted me to Transformers at first was they're great characters," says producer Tom DeSanto. "You just instantly got pulled into the mythology. Optimus Prime and Megatron weren't robots. These were almost Shakespearean type characters that had all this drama and all this background. And that's the great thing about this world, that it's not just about robots. The robots are great. When you see this stuff, you're going to go, 'I have never seen that before ever in my life.' And you're going to believe it. You're going to believe that that truck or that car is actually standing there, but you're going to care. And that's the key. … In order to adapt properties like this you need to make changes, but you need to stay true to the soul of what it is and the spirit of what it is."
Part of the soul and spirit of the Transformers formula, according to Bay, includes humor and, of course, plenty of action.
"It's got a lot of action, but it's very funny," says Bay of his film. "And it's got heart. I only wanted to do Transformers if I could do it realistic. And from what I've seen, what we've done with our digital studies, is putting in real world stuff that has lots of effects around that are real effects. That's how we make it realistic."
While the film will be rated PG-13, Bay insists that it's "pretty edgy for a family film" while managing to have elements that will appeal to a younger crowd. And no doubt the sight of 40-foot-tall robots battling each other will appeal to the kids, which leads to the question of how much of the film has been created with computer graphics versus practical effects. Bay seems like the kind of director who likes to go with "the real thing" whenever possible.
"I think that as much practical photography as you can get is the best," says Ian Bryce, another producer on the film. "I think the audience is so sophisticated these days that they can tell what's CG, what's animatronic, what's not real. So we certainly like to capture as much original photography as we can and then enhance it with the CG shots and we've got a couple of robots that we built in full scale that are used very specifically for some shots. But we like to get as much live action as we can."
For the stuff that hasn't been done practically (how many four-story-high robots can you build, really?), the art of CG of course comes into play. As Bay explains, he's done a lot of digital effects on past films, but this time around he's really having fun with the process.
"You're really animating characters [here], and giving everyone a little different kind of thing going on -- just from the way they walk [or] the way their armor is scratched or hurt," explains the director.
That also includes adding voices to the Transformer characters, while also giving them a more nuanced ability for facial expressions that Optimus Prime never had before -- be it in toy or cartoon form. And with actors like Hugo Weaving, Keith David, and Peter Cullen (voice of the original Optimus Prime from the '80s) pitching in on that front, one needs to match the character to the voice just so.
"You've got to go through… First you write down what all the character points are in your head," says Bay. "It's a tough thing. With Cullen, he's not an actor actor. He's a voice actor, so when you see his face, he's got a great voice, but I need to hire another actor to do his (expressions). He's going to do the voice and I'm going to have another actor study the video when he does how he's going to say it. They're actually going to have to work in tandem. They do this on animation features as well. We did a very funny study where we did De Niro and Hugo Weaving. We put our Optimus to Hugo and De Niro. Hysterical. I mean, it looks just like them!"
Bay says that it's a subtle difference between being a flat, metallic face and one that can emote, but it's a hugely important distinction.
"It's not fully like a human face but it does have certain human things to it, you know," he says. "Otherwise as humans we wouldn't associate with it as much. We did a lot of different studies; if you do nothing, it kind of like doesn't hit us. … If they're just frozen robots, pure metal that doesn't move and like the eyebrow kind of thing -- we have these eye slits that can kind of move and the eyes, how they move. And it's got to have some human things to make it sort of successful to us. Because, you look at the cartoons, that is ninety percent away from where we have to go. Right now they're just big glowing eyes that have no emotions. It's what I keep trying to tell the fanboys is that this is gonna be so much more realistic than what they've seen in the past. But you know, they're angry about everything anyway."
Ah yes, the fanboys. Those gentlemen and ladies who remain so devoted to the Transformers that they fear any possible changes that might be made to the characters for Bay's film. The director is well aware of them, and he says he knew even before he took on the project that there was "a huge following for this thing." But still…
"I heard they want to protest at my office, but I won't be there," laughs Bay. "I'll be shooting!"
http://movies.ign.com/articles/792/792144p1.html
