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Michael Bay on Transformers!
Source: Superhero Hype!
June 20, 2007
Transformers director Michael Bay participated in a press conference at the Four Seasons hotel in Los Angeles on Saturday, June 16 and we've got the full rundown of what the helmer said about the big screen adaptation:
Q: I know my colleagues are going to have "Transformers" questions, but I wanted to know your reaction to "Hot Fuzz" which was so inspired by "Bad Boys 2," and that you said that you were offered "Die Hard 4" and I was wondering if this hadn't come together would you have considered doing that?
Bay: "Die Hard 4," no, I don't think so. "Hot Fuzz," I haven't seen it yet, because I was finishing this movie. It's really hard, the end of your post schedule is such a grind, seeing a movie is like the last thing you want to do when you go home. I thought this would be an easy post, on our budget we had a hiatus scheduled in here, because I said, "Oh, my God, I have the longest post schedule," I didn't think the robots would be that hard, but I was directing them all the way to the very end.
Q: How did you balance the needs of your vision as a filmmaker with those of Spielberg and those of the fans? I noticed that there are definitely some Spielberg elements to this film.
Bay: Listen, I make my own movie, I don't have someone tell me what to do. I've always been inspired by Steven. I was not a Transformers fan before I signed on to this movie. I think I was two years older when the toys came out, so I just discovered girls then instead of Optimus Prime. But I quickly became after I went to Hasbro, where you heard about that Transformers school? I really thought, "What the ***** am I going to Hasbro for Transformers school? I thought I was going to learn how to fold up robots, but I met with the CEO and I went through the whole Transformer lore. I've been offered a lot of superhero movies before and nothing's really appealed to me and in the room, because I've been such a fan of Japanese anime it just hit me that if I make this really real it could be something very new and different. So I quickly became probably one of the bigger Transformer fans in the world, and I tried to make this movie for non-Transformer fans, okay, and I wanted it to be a little bit more, if you could say, adult, so I'm sure I'm going to get flack for you made an edgy movie on a toy, how is that going to affect kids? I know there are Transformer fans that are 40 years old. Now that I'm rambling...
Q: One thing I kept hearing from this movie, from the actors is what a great actor's director Michael Bay is, which is a whole new theme we haven't heard before, did you do something different?
Bay: No, listen, the sound byte press is very weird, because a sound byte gets out there, Michael Bay yells. Listen, I am very similar, I visited Jim Cameron on "Titanic," I'm very similar the way he directs, he's an assistant director, I'm an assistant director of my own sets, I move my own sets, I shoot very fast, I never leave the set, and I love working with actors, I love giving actors freedom, I love improv-ing with actors, it freaks studios out because they're like, "That wasn't in the script, what's this, he's wrecking the movie." And I'm like, "Trust me, it's going to be funny," because there's a whole issue of tone in this movie. But when I'm doing action scenes I'm going to be your worst nightmare basketball coach, that's to get the energy, the adrenalin going.
Q: How much of what we see is improvised and what about the "Armageddon" joke?
Bay: Well, that's just me, I'm like, okay, this kid is so funny running I'm like, "Dude, you've got say this." He's just funny. You guys all laughed, right? I'll often add jokes along the way. A perfect example, because I will always hire actors that have a good improv skill, like Nic Cage in "The Rock," there was really nothing funny in "The Rock" script, and that was all through improv, just trying to work with the guys and try to make it funny. A good example in this scene was when the parents knocked on the door of the bedroom when he's hiding the robots, in the script it said, "Maybe he's mas ," and that was the joke, and that's pretty lame. So we actually brought him in the room and we just started this whole *********ion talk, and that's because the mom's such an amazing New York she's in New York plays.
Q: She just won the Tony Award.
Bay: Did she really?
Q: Best Actress in a Play, beat Angela Lansbury and Vanessa Redgrave. Julie White.
Bay: I know it's Julie White (everyone laughs)
Q: I believe it was Don Murphy said you had no nostalgia for these Transformers does that make it easier to make the film, like a doctor operating on a stranger versus a friend?
Bay: Listen, I'm a huge Transformer fan now, I can officially say I've probably thought more about robots on earth than anyone in the past year and a half. Yeah, I actually think that because I wasn't a fan I think makes it more accessible to other people, does that make sense? Megatron was a gun, and I'm like, "I don't get that," and I did get a lot of flak from fans on the net, like, "Michael Bay, you wrecked my childhood." "Michael Bay, you suck. We're going to protest his office." They protested my old office apparently. That's true. The death threats freak me up, but I think we've I would listen to fans on the net, I really would. I would kind of hear their comments, but I'm still going to make my movie and I'll still put flames on Optimus.
Q: That helped because when they were fighting I knew it was Optimus?
Bay: You see. Thank you.
Q: But you gave them lips.
Bay: Well, because, you know we did a lot of facial studies, and emotion is so hard without that kind of movement. We tried it solid, it just didn't look right.
Q: There's talk that they're hoping to get "Transformers 2" if this one is a success, as everyone's assuming it's going to be, sometime next year but aren't you going to be busy with "Prince of Persia"?
Bay: I don't know, I leave my negotiation open, because the President of Paramount is right behind you. He could probably kill me. I don't know what I'm doing right now. There's no script right now.
Q: But you are directing "Prince of Persia"?
Bay: I don't know, I don't, I don't know. I honestly don't know. I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm unemployed right now. I finished the movie like a week ago.
Q: You mentioned the tone of the film, I was wondering how you managed to balance between what seems to be a somewhat normal recognizable action film with the Transformers.
Bay: When Steven called me a year and a half ago, he said I want you do direct "Transformers," it's a story about a boy who buys his first car. To me that was a great hook. I hung up and said thank you, I'm not doing that stupid, silly toy movie, but I thought about it, the hook was great because that's such a launching ground from a young adult into manhood or womanhood. I liked the simplicity of it, okay, it just made it somewhat more accessible. If you notice, I shot this movie kind of generic, I've never in my life shot at a Burger King, or a guy riding on a pink bicycle, or a house that's kind of very suburbia. But it just makes it more acceptable and accessible to the ultra-slick uber-action around it. The charm of the movie is to me in thinking about it was I kept having this image of this kid trying to hide robots from his parents by his house, and that just stuck in my head as we were writing the script, so to me that was the whole charm of it. I don't think I even answered your question.
Q: Can you talk a little about the casting of Shia and also what you see is the underlying theme or message, if there is one, in this movie?
Bay: Well, the underlying theme to me is really no sacrifice, no victory. That was something I wanted to nail. My movies often deal with the hero arch-type and the boy becoming a man, kind of like Nic Cage becoming a hero in "The Rock." Shia, the same thing, when he got to carry that cube and sacrifice his life. Your first question was, casting Shia. It's very scary when you're trying to hinge a whole movie on a kid. I had seen him in I had only seen one of his movies, "Constantine," and I thought he's interesting, but he looks so old. And someone said, Ian Bryce, one of my producers, said, "You should look at this kid, Shia." And I'm like, "Okay." And he was coming in, I saw some of his other movies and I really liked him, and then I talked to Steven, I said, "I'm seeing Shia," and he goes, "Oh yeah, he's great. I love Shia." And he came in for the audition and he nailed it, and I liked his improv skill, I liked how he was very able to take direction and mold, and he was kind of I didn't want the geek, what I like about Shia when I think every guy's been in that circumstance by the pond or the lake, where the stud comes up to you and gives you *****, and instead of doing he comes right back with wit and humor, and every guy likes him right then and there I think. Do you guys think so? I don't think there's a kid today that could have done a better job. He's a pain in the ass to work with, let me tell you. Let me tell you a funny story. I always like to put my actors in real circumstances, and we had him there was a 17 story building downtown with a statue and my producer said, "How do you want to shoot that?" He goes, "We're going to do a blue screen, right?" I said, "Nah, *****, we're going to put him up there." (he laughs) And we put him on wires and we rigged it very safe, but there was only four inches to stand on and Shia is like, "Yeah, I think I can do it, I'm gonna go up there, I'm gonna go up there." So we're ready to go and he goes, and mind you I would never go out there on my own, I would never do this, but he goes, "Oh man, I can't get up there, I can't get up there." I said, "Dude, you're going to embarrass yourself in front of the whole crew. You get paid way more than those kids on "Fear Factor," get the ***** up there." (everyone laughs) So he did it, and it was really scary, but he was on cloud nine when he did it.
Q: Do you ever foresee a time where you might want to do an intimate low budget character study?
Bay: No, I've got this one I keep trying to do it, called "Pain and Gain." It's a really funny character story, I keep talking about it, we're going to be here next year and we'll talk about it again, I just keep getting cash to do these big movies. Sometimes it's a fear of like are big movies going to go away? You know what I'm saying? Hollywood is kind of tough right now, so I don't know.
Q: What's it about?
Bay: It's about it's very "Pulp Fiction"-y, true story, it's about these knuckleheads that kidnap and murder, searching for the American dream in all the wrong ways. It's very funny. All true.
Q: We've seen how James Cameron went from huge physical action movies to 3D films can you ever see yourself moving in that direction?
Bay: Honestly, I think I'd want to shoot myself working on a blue screen stage. I did maybe one, two days of blue screen on this movie, I just hate it. It's just I like doing things real and it's just it's really hard to go there, you know?
Q: Did 9/11 change the way you make action movies I kept thinking of 9/11 with the plane going through the building did that enter your mind at any point?
Bay: Are you kidding lady? That's a silly question. Of course it, of course it entered my mind. I don't even want to go there. Let's go onto the next question.
Q: I liked the women in this, they weren't just hot babes, they were brainy, how conscious were you trying to appeal to a female audience, and were Josh and Tyrese chosen for being eye-candy.
Bay: I actually met with Josh for one of my Platinum Dunes movies and I really liked him. Got a sense of him in the room there, that was like four months prior, and this thing came up and it was a very efficient budget, I honestly didn't I had no money for stars, so I had to be very creative in picking people that I thought were going to break, and after meeting him I really liked him so I wanted to work with him.
Q: And Julie White's character was great too, they're great women in this movie.
Bay: Awesome. She didn't have that many lines in the movie and I just kept Kevin and her were just funny, we just kept doing stuff. I just love his blue collar sensibility and I've always wanted to do that joke with the grass, that's my lawyer, he does that to his kids, he doesn't let them go on the grass.
Q: So you were thinking about your female audience?
Bay: Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Q: As a filmmaker you seem to get more of your budget on screen than almost anyone else. You get $150 million it looks like $250 million what's your secret?
Bay: My secret is, I shoot very, very fast. An average director will shoot 20 set ups a day, I do about 75, and they're real set ups, it's not like we work 12 hour days, I don't go overtime, but we work very hard, I work with my same crew, I gave 30% of my fee because they were going to ship me to Canada or Australia, and I said, "No, I want to shoot with my guys." It's a team that I've worked with for close to 16 years, and it's just I like to keep the movies in Los Angeles if I could, and especially keep them in the States, and the money we just saved so much money, because I have really good people. I don't know, we just make an efficient day. I think music videos give me a sense of I'm able to shoot fast and when the ***** hits the fan, which it always does on a movie, you've got to figure out your plan A and B, and I do this system called leapfrog. Like I said, the whole A.D. thing that gets out there, Michael Bay yells, Michael Bay's being the assistant director, okay, three shots, we're doing this, I want you to prep that, so we're leapfrogging, we're almost ready for the next shot. It's almost hard, actors don't even go back to their trailers, if you've probably already heard. "Tyrese, put your clothes back on." He would always take his clothes off. And that's a lot of stuff to put back on.
Q: I enjoyed the movie and think you have a big smash on your hands.
Bay: We don't trust the movie gods, you know.
Q: How did you guys arrive at the tone of the film?
Bay: I think it was just my gut, I knew it's Transformers, you can't take it too seriously, but you wanted to give that sense of realism. That's why the military involvement was very important, that we make it very real and credible. Like those guys in the AWAC those are all the real guys. I told them, this is what's going down on the ground, what would you say? And literally within two minutes they were, "dah, dah, dah, dah, dah," I just photographed what they said. So I think you mix the realism with Tyrese being in the worst situation, and he says, "Man, if you could see this *****," that sounds real, but it comes in a funny way. I made little jabs here and there like, that's way too smart for Iranians scientists, or, how much do you get bugged by these outsourcing calls, you know, the calls out there. It just bugs me. When I forget to pay my AT&T bill, I get a call, "Mr. Bay," and they're calling from Bombay, and I'm like, "I didn't pay it." (feigns hanging up the phone). Anyway.
Q: Tyrese made a joke that he was running and dodging cars and everything and then he had to say a joke. As a director, you somehow manage to get real emotion in an action film. What is more important for you and is there a balance you are seeking?
Bay: Yeah, you want it to feel real. What I try to do, especially when actors are doing action stuff the crew jokes Ian, don't you call it "Bayos"?
Ian Bryce: Yeah. Bayos is one of them.
Bay: Try to have a little bit of chaos. It's very organized, but you get them a little fritzed, y'know? Because it just gives them more adrenaline. It's a little bit of the unknown and they will have a lot of loud bombs and stuff like that on the set if that's what it calls for. And I like to see the real emotion when they are inside these action scenes.
Q: So what's more important to you? Is it story or action?
Bay: No, it's both. It's a balance. It's both.
Q: You are your own AD is that because of the scale of the project or because you can't find the people who work at the pace you want to?
Bay: I just love it. I dunno, it's just my thing. It keeps me interested. My thing is I will get to set usually 45 minutes after everyone is there, because I don't like people watching them eat burritos and their eggs? I want to go to work. It's like, so, they always go on the radio, "Bay's coming in hot. He's coming in hot." (Laughs.) It just keeps me really involved. That's my thing, I dunno. That's the creative things for me.
Q: What was going through your head last night at that first screening?
Bay: We'll I've got to apologize, the print was way oversaturated. Way too much color. Way too much red, so I was having a freak-out on that. We are trying to figure out what the problem was. Bad projector or something. But, I thought it was fun. I said, I mean, when I said, "You guys are the first in the United States to see this," it was true.
Q: Was it loud enough for you?
Bay: Yeah, I turned it down. (Laughs.) I said, "Turn it down. Turn it down."
Michael Bay on Transformers!
Source: Superhero Hype!
June 20, 2007
Q: I know my colleagues are going to have "Transformers" questions, but I wanted to know your reaction to "Hot Fuzz" which was so inspired by "Bad Boys 2," and that you said that you were offered "Die Hard 4" and I was wondering if this hadn't come together would you have considered doing that?
Bay: "Die Hard 4," no, I don't think so. "Hot Fuzz," I haven't seen it yet, because I was finishing this movie. It's really hard, the end of your post schedule is such a grind, seeing a movie is like the last thing you want to do when you go home. I thought this would be an easy post, on our budget we had a hiatus scheduled in here, because I said, "Oh, my God, I have the longest post schedule," I didn't think the robots would be that hard, but I was directing them all the way to the very end.
Q: How did you balance the needs of your vision as a filmmaker with those of Spielberg and those of the fans? I noticed that there are definitely some Spielberg elements to this film.
Bay: Listen, I make my own movie, I don't have someone tell me what to do. I've always been inspired by Steven. I was not a Transformers fan before I signed on to this movie. I think I was two years older when the toys came out, so I just discovered girls then instead of Optimus Prime. But I quickly became after I went to Hasbro, where you heard about that Transformers school? I really thought, "What the ***** am I going to Hasbro for Transformers school? I thought I was going to learn how to fold up robots, but I met with the CEO and I went through the whole Transformer lore. I've been offered a lot of superhero movies before and nothing's really appealed to me and in the room, because I've been such a fan of Japanese anime it just hit me that if I make this really real it could be something very new and different. So I quickly became probably one of the bigger Transformer fans in the world, and I tried to make this movie for non-Transformer fans, okay, and I wanted it to be a little bit more, if you could say, adult, so I'm sure I'm going to get flack for you made an edgy movie on a toy, how is that going to affect kids? I know there are Transformer fans that are 40 years old. Now that I'm rambling...
Q: One thing I kept hearing from this movie, from the actors is what a great actor's director Michael Bay is, which is a whole new theme we haven't heard before, did you do something different?
Bay: No, listen, the sound byte press is very weird, because a sound byte gets out there, Michael Bay yells. Listen, I am very similar, I visited Jim Cameron on "Titanic," I'm very similar the way he directs, he's an assistant director, I'm an assistant director of my own sets, I move my own sets, I shoot very fast, I never leave the set, and I love working with actors, I love giving actors freedom, I love improv-ing with actors, it freaks studios out because they're like, "That wasn't in the script, what's this, he's wrecking the movie." And I'm like, "Trust me, it's going to be funny," because there's a whole issue of tone in this movie. But when I'm doing action scenes I'm going to be your worst nightmare basketball coach, that's to get the energy, the adrenalin going.
Q: How much of what we see is improvised and what about the "Armageddon" joke?
Bay: Well, that's just me, I'm like, okay, this kid is so funny running I'm like, "Dude, you've got say this." He's just funny. You guys all laughed, right? I'll often add jokes along the way. A perfect example, because I will always hire actors that have a good improv skill, like Nic Cage in "The Rock," there was really nothing funny in "The Rock" script, and that was all through improv, just trying to work with the guys and try to make it funny. A good example in this scene was when the parents knocked on the door of the bedroom when he's hiding the robots, in the script it said, "Maybe he's mas ," and that was the joke, and that's pretty lame. So we actually brought him in the room and we just started this whole *********ion talk, and that's because the mom's such an amazing New York she's in New York plays.
Q: She just won the Tony Award.
Bay: Did she really?
Q: Best Actress in a Play, beat Angela Lansbury and Vanessa Redgrave. Julie White.
Bay: I know it's Julie White (everyone laughs)
Q: I believe it was Don Murphy said you had no nostalgia for these Transformers does that make it easier to make the film, like a doctor operating on a stranger versus a friend?
Bay: Listen, I'm a huge Transformer fan now, I can officially say I've probably thought more about robots on earth than anyone in the past year and a half. Yeah, I actually think that because I wasn't a fan I think makes it more accessible to other people, does that make sense? Megatron was a gun, and I'm like, "I don't get that," and I did get a lot of flak from fans on the net, like, "Michael Bay, you wrecked my childhood." "Michael Bay, you suck. We're going to protest his office." They protested my old office apparently. That's true. The death threats freak me up, but I think we've I would listen to fans on the net, I really would. I would kind of hear their comments, but I'm still going to make my movie and I'll still put flames on Optimus.
Bay: You see. Thank you.
Q: But you gave them lips.
Bay: Well, because, you know we did a lot of facial studies, and emotion is so hard without that kind of movement. We tried it solid, it just didn't look right.
Q: There's talk that they're hoping to get "Transformers 2" if this one is a success, as everyone's assuming it's going to be, sometime next year but aren't you going to be busy with "Prince of Persia"?
Bay: I don't know, I leave my negotiation open, because the President of Paramount is right behind you. He could probably kill me. I don't know what I'm doing right now. There's no script right now.
Q: But you are directing "Prince of Persia"?
Bay: I don't know, I don't, I don't know. I honestly don't know. I really don't know what I'm doing. I'm unemployed right now. I finished the movie like a week ago.
Q: You mentioned the tone of the film, I was wondering how you managed to balance between what seems to be a somewhat normal recognizable action film with the Transformers.
Bay: When Steven called me a year and a half ago, he said I want you do direct "Transformers," it's a story about a boy who buys his first car. To me that was a great hook. I hung up and said thank you, I'm not doing that stupid, silly toy movie, but I thought about it, the hook was great because that's such a launching ground from a young adult into manhood or womanhood. I liked the simplicity of it, okay, it just made it somewhat more accessible. If you notice, I shot this movie kind of generic, I've never in my life shot at a Burger King, or a guy riding on a pink bicycle, or a house that's kind of very suburbia. But it just makes it more acceptable and accessible to the ultra-slick uber-action around it. The charm of the movie is to me in thinking about it was I kept having this image of this kid trying to hide robots from his parents by his house, and that just stuck in my head as we were writing the script, so to me that was the whole charm of it. I don't think I even answered your question.
Q: Can you talk a little about the casting of Shia and also what you see is the underlying theme or message, if there is one, in this movie?
Bay: Well, the underlying theme to me is really no sacrifice, no victory. That was something I wanted to nail. My movies often deal with the hero arch-type and the boy becoming a man, kind of like Nic Cage becoming a hero in "The Rock." Shia, the same thing, when he got to carry that cube and sacrifice his life. Your first question was, casting Shia. It's very scary when you're trying to hinge a whole movie on a kid. I had seen him in I had only seen one of his movies, "Constantine," and I thought he's interesting, but he looks so old. And someone said, Ian Bryce, one of my producers, said, "You should look at this kid, Shia." And I'm like, "Okay." And he was coming in, I saw some of his other movies and I really liked him, and then I talked to Steven, I said, "I'm seeing Shia," and he goes, "Oh yeah, he's great. I love Shia." And he came in for the audition and he nailed it, and I liked his improv skill, I liked how he was very able to take direction and mold, and he was kind of I didn't want the geek, what I like about Shia when I think every guy's been in that circumstance by the pond or the lake, where the stud comes up to you and gives you *****, and instead of doing he comes right back with wit and humor, and every guy likes him right then and there I think. Do you guys think so? I don't think there's a kid today that could have done a better job. He's a pain in the ass to work with, let me tell you. Let me tell you a funny story. I always like to put my actors in real circumstances, and we had him there was a 17 story building downtown with a statue and my producer said, "How do you want to shoot that?" He goes, "We're going to do a blue screen, right?" I said, "Nah, *****, we're going to put him up there." (he laughs) And we put him on wires and we rigged it very safe, but there was only four inches to stand on and Shia is like, "Yeah, I think I can do it, I'm gonna go up there, I'm gonna go up there." So we're ready to go and he goes, and mind you I would never go out there on my own, I would never do this, but he goes, "Oh man, I can't get up there, I can't get up there." I said, "Dude, you're going to embarrass yourself in front of the whole crew. You get paid way more than those kids on "Fear Factor," get the ***** up there." (everyone laughs) So he did it, and it was really scary, but he was on cloud nine when he did it.
Q: Do you ever foresee a time where you might want to do an intimate low budget character study?
Bay: No, I've got this one I keep trying to do it, called "Pain and Gain." It's a really funny character story, I keep talking about it, we're going to be here next year and we'll talk about it again, I just keep getting cash to do these big movies. Sometimes it's a fear of like are big movies going to go away? You know what I'm saying? Hollywood is kind of tough right now, so I don't know.
Bay: It's about it's very "Pulp Fiction"-y, true story, it's about these knuckleheads that kidnap and murder, searching for the American dream in all the wrong ways. It's very funny. All true.
Q: We've seen how James Cameron went from huge physical action movies to 3D films can you ever see yourself moving in that direction?
Bay: Honestly, I think I'd want to shoot myself working on a blue screen stage. I did maybe one, two days of blue screen on this movie, I just hate it. It's just I like doing things real and it's just it's really hard to go there, you know?
Q: Did 9/11 change the way you make action movies I kept thinking of 9/11 with the plane going through the building did that enter your mind at any point?
Bay: Are you kidding lady? That's a silly question. Of course it, of course it entered my mind. I don't even want to go there. Let's go onto the next question.
Q: I liked the women in this, they weren't just hot babes, they were brainy, how conscious were you trying to appeal to a female audience, and were Josh and Tyrese chosen for being eye-candy.
Bay: I actually met with Josh for one of my Platinum Dunes movies and I really liked him. Got a sense of him in the room there, that was like four months prior, and this thing came up and it was a very efficient budget, I honestly didn't I had no money for stars, so I had to be very creative in picking people that I thought were going to break, and after meeting him I really liked him so I wanted to work with him.
Q: And Julie White's character was great too, they're great women in this movie.
Bay: Awesome. She didn't have that many lines in the movie and I just kept Kevin and her were just funny, we just kept doing stuff. I just love his blue collar sensibility and I've always wanted to do that joke with the grass, that's my lawyer, he does that to his kids, he doesn't let them go on the grass.
Q: So you were thinking about your female audience?
Bay: Of course, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Q: As a filmmaker you seem to get more of your budget on screen than almost anyone else. You get $150 million it looks like $250 million what's your secret?
Bay: My secret is, I shoot very, very fast. An average director will shoot 20 set ups a day, I do about 75, and they're real set ups, it's not like we work 12 hour days, I don't go overtime, but we work very hard, I work with my same crew, I gave 30% of my fee because they were going to ship me to Canada or Australia, and I said, "No, I want to shoot with my guys." It's a team that I've worked with for close to 16 years, and it's just I like to keep the movies in Los Angeles if I could, and especially keep them in the States, and the money we just saved so much money, because I have really good people. I don't know, we just make an efficient day. I think music videos give me a sense of I'm able to shoot fast and when the ***** hits the fan, which it always does on a movie, you've got to figure out your plan A and B, and I do this system called leapfrog. Like I said, the whole A.D. thing that gets out there, Michael Bay yells, Michael Bay's being the assistant director, okay, three shots, we're doing this, I want you to prep that, so we're leapfrogging, we're almost ready for the next shot. It's almost hard, actors don't even go back to their trailers, if you've probably already heard. "Tyrese, put your clothes back on." He would always take his clothes off. And that's a lot of stuff to put back on.
Q: I enjoyed the movie and think you have a big smash on your hands.
Bay: We don't trust the movie gods, you know.
Q: How did you guys arrive at the tone of the film?
Bay: I think it was just my gut, I knew it's Transformers, you can't take it too seriously, but you wanted to give that sense of realism. That's why the military involvement was very important, that we make it very real and credible. Like those guys in the AWAC those are all the real guys. I told them, this is what's going down on the ground, what would you say? And literally within two minutes they were, "dah, dah, dah, dah, dah," I just photographed what they said. So I think you mix the realism with Tyrese being in the worst situation, and he says, "Man, if you could see this *****," that sounds real, but it comes in a funny way. I made little jabs here and there like, that's way too smart for Iranians scientists, or, how much do you get bugged by these outsourcing calls, you know, the calls out there. It just bugs me. When I forget to pay my AT&T bill, I get a call, "Mr. Bay," and they're calling from Bombay, and I'm like, "I didn't pay it." (feigns hanging up the phone). Anyway.
Bay: Yeah, you want it to feel real. What I try to do, especially when actors are doing action stuff the crew jokes Ian, don't you call it "Bayos"?
Ian Bryce: Yeah. Bayos is one of them.
Bay: Try to have a little bit of chaos. It's very organized, but you get them a little fritzed, y'know? Because it just gives them more adrenaline. It's a little bit of the unknown and they will have a lot of loud bombs and stuff like that on the set if that's what it calls for. And I like to see the real emotion when they are inside these action scenes.
Q: So what's more important to you? Is it story or action?
Bay: No, it's both. It's a balance. It's both.
Q: You are your own AD is that because of the scale of the project or because you can't find the people who work at the pace you want to?
Bay: I just love it. I dunno, it's just my thing. It keeps me interested. My thing is I will get to set usually 45 minutes after everyone is there, because I don't like people watching them eat burritos and their eggs? I want to go to work. It's like, so, they always go on the radio, "Bay's coming in hot. He's coming in hot." (Laughs.) It just keeps me really involved. That's my thing, I dunno. That's the creative things for me.
Q: What was going through your head last night at that first screening?
Bay: We'll I've got to apologize, the print was way oversaturated. Way too much color. Way too much red, so I was having a freak-out on that. We are trying to figure out what the problem was. Bad projector or something. But, I thought it was fun. I said, I mean, when I said, "You guys are the first in the United States to see this," it was true.
Q: Was it loud enough for you?
Bay: Yeah, I turned it down. (Laughs.) I said, "Turn it down. Turn it down."
up:
That's nuts. I can never understand some people.
t: 
