Production
Development
"I think it's going to be something the audience has never seen before. In all the years of movie-making, I don't think the image of a truck transforming into a 20-foot tall robot has ever been captured on screen. I also want to make a film that's a homage to 1980s movies and gets back to the sense of wonder that Hollywood has lost over the years. It will have those Spielberg-ian moments where you have the push-in on the wide-eyed kid and you feel like you're 10 years old even if you're 35."
— Tom DeSanto on why he produced the film[18]
In 2002, the toy company Hasbro began developing its properties into films.[19] Producer Don Murphy was looking to adapt G.I. Joe, but when the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, Hasbro suggested Transformers instead.[20] Tom DeSanto joined the project because he was a big fan of the characters.[3] The two producers met with comic book writer Simon Furman, and researched the Generation 1 cartoon and comics.[20] They decided to explore why Transformers exist,[20] focusing on the Creation Matrix, though Murphy felt the term "Matrix" should not be used due to the popular Matrix series with the same name.[6] DeSanto chose a human point-of-view in his treatment to engage the audience.[21] Murphy wanted it to feel realistic, with the tone akin to that of a disaster film.[6] The story included the Autobots Optimus Prime, Ironhide, Jazz, Prowl, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Bumblebee, and the Decepticons Megatron, Starscream, Soundwave, Ravage, Laserbeak, Rumble, Skywarp and Shockwave.[22]
After the producers were rejected by many studio executives who did not grow up with Transformers, DeSanto met with producer Mike DeLuca in 2004, who arranged a meeting with Steven Spielberg.[4] A fan of the comics and toys,[3] Spielberg signed on as executive producer, and John Rogers was hired as screenwriter in November.[23] His script pitted four Autobots against four Decepticons,[24] and featured the Ark spaceship.[25] Screenwriters Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman, big fans of the cartoon,[26] were hired in February to start a new script.[27] Spielberg suggested to the writers an approach about "a boy and his car"[28] which appealed to them as adulthood and responsibility is "the things that a car represents in [the United States]."[29] Sam and Mikaela were the focus of the first draft,[30] and the Transformers had no dialogue. This was changed in the next draft, as the writers felt that even if the Transformers speaking could look ridiculous, having them not speak would betray the fanbase.[26] Inspired by Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Bumblebee was kept mute to stress his friendship with Sam as going beyond words.[31]
Michael Bay, who had wanted to make a family film,[32] was asked to direct after finishing The Island,[33] but he thought of it as a "stupid toy movie".[4] Nonetheless, Spielberg's premise of "a boy and his car" made Bay curious, and upon visiting Hasbro, the director gained a new respect for the mythology.[34] In addition, he was enticed by ideas like an 85 mile-per-hour fight scene,[32] and the comedy caused by Transformers interfering with everyday life.[34] Bay also wanted the film to feel intense and realistic,[14] and the writers agreed to make everything seem logical, setting aside the previous contradictory continuities in the franchise.[29] Bay admitted not being a fan before allowed him to tell the story naturally and make it appeal to other non-fans.[34] Orci removed the Ark from the script as he wondered why "aliens who moonlight as vehicles need other vehicles to travel."[35] The female Autobot Arcee was cut as they had little time to explain robotic gender.[30] Bay expanded the military storylines,[36] as he considered the first draft "too kiddie",[33] and based the soldiers on G.I. Joe.[37] Throughout the rewrites, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream were the only robots included in all of them.[26] More Decepticons were added to increase the sense of threat,[38] and the law enforcement-based Autobot Prowl was removed as Orci and Kurtzman loved the perverseness of a Decepticon using a police car form.[39]
Design
Designs of the robots began in June 2005, and Hasbro heavily collaborated on the live action interpretations of their characters.[1] In keeping with Michael Bay's desire to make Transformers realistic, the robots were designed more intricately to look more three-dimensional[32] and to reflect their alien origins.[40] Morphing in transformations was restricted, unlike the cartoon or comic books, where a character such as Megatron transforms into a Walther P38 pistol.[41] Every character stayed the same size in both forms, which in turn explained the robots' choice of Earth forms during the story.[2] Optimus Prime's original cab over truck form was rejected because it would make him only 23 feet tall, so Bay decided to use the Peterbilt, the largest truck available.[41]
Bumblebee was changed from a Volkswagen Beetle to a Chevrolet Camaro to avoid comparisons with Herbie, and the car also had a friendly quality Michael Bay was looking for
Bay also added flame artwork to Prime to make him distinctive, and gave him a mouth to emote more.[34] Don Murphy wanted to retain Bumblebee's Volkswagen Beetle form,[42] but Bay rejected it to avoid comparisons with Herbie the Love Bug.[43] Bay chose the Chevrolet Camaro instead, which he described as having a friendly quality, but as a tribute, when Sam purchases his car, Bumblebee was parked next to a yellow Beetle.[2] Making Bumblebee a Camaro led a full product placement deal with General Motors, to supply the alternate modes for Jazz, Ironhide and Ratchet. The deal saved $3 million,[34] though Bay hoped they would have supplied a bigger car than the Pontiac Solstice for Jazz.[36]
In contrast to Optimus's faithful design, Megatron's alternate mode was changed from a Walther P38 pistol to an alien jet to avoid morphing,[41] while his face was made more hideous and menacing.[15] Bay admitted most of the Decepticons had their appearances chosen before their characterization as Hasbro needed to get started on the toys.[36] Soundwave was considered as MH-53 Pave Low helicopter, which became Blackout,[44] but Hasbro wanted to have a music player for the character.[24] Don Murphy felt this role belittled Soundwave,[6] and the writers concurred the character in the script barely resembled the original.[38] They renamed him Frenzy, one of Soundwave's minions.[38] However, the character of Brawl, an M1 Abrams tank, was named Devastator in the film, which Bay chose despite Brawl being the character's official name, and ignored the writers who pointed this out.[45]
Filming
To save money, Michael Bay cut his fee by 30%, and planned an eighty-three day shooting schedule.[33] He kept up the pace by doing more camera set-ups per day than usual[34] and chose to shoot the film with a crew he was familiar with in the United States.[46] He had the support of the United States military, who supplied aircraft and vehicles for the alternate modes of the Decepticons, including F-22s, F-117s, C-130 and C-17 cargo planes, and two CV-22 tiltrotor aircraft, out of three in the U.S. Air Force inventory at that time.[47] Such cooperation led Transformers to be the first film shot at The Pentagon since the September 11, 2001 attacks.[2]
Director Michael Bay filming at Holloman Air Force Base
A pre-shoot took place on April 19, 2006, and principal photography began on April 22 at Holloman Air Force Base.[2] The Holloman shoot also included White Sands Missile Range.[48] On June 9, filming was onsite at the Hoover Dam,[49] making the film crew the first to shoot there since 9/11. The crew then based themselves at Hughes Aircraft in Playa Vista, including six weekends of filming the climactic battle in Los Angeles.[2] Production wrapped on September 24, and second unit shooting continued in the Arctic and Detroit,[50] which finished on October 4.[33]
Effects
Work on the animatics began in April 2005.[24] Michael Bay shot his fourteen action sequences live to keep the budget below $150 million.[32] Three versions of each car were created by General Motors in anticipation that some of them would crash,[2] and stunt drivers wore black balaclavas to blend in with the darkened interiors, so as to make the vehicles appear sentient.[51] Bay used his animatics to help the actors envision the Transformers, as well as a 17-foot-tall Bumblebee model by FXPerts, a Frenzy puppet by KNB,[2] Scorponok's damaged tail,[52] Optimus's head with motion capture points,[53] and Megatron's frozen legs.[54] The props amount to 12[52] out of 630 effects shots.[33]
Industrial Light & Magic created computer-generated transformations over six months in 2005, looking at every inch of the models and making sure none of the car pieces conflicted during the simulations.[55] Initially they were designed to follow the laws of physics, but it did not look exciting enough and was changed to be more fluid.[56] One decision made was that the wheels should stay on the ground for as long as possible, allowing the robots to cruise around as they changed.[57] Due to the intricate designs of the Transformers, even the simplest notion of turning a wrist requires seventeen visible pieces,[2] while each of Ironhide's guns is made of ten thousand parts.[32] Such detail required thirty-eight hours to render each frame of animation,[2] which meant ILM had to increase their processing facilities.[58] Each rendered piece had to look like real metal, shiny or dull.[56] Photographs were taken of each set and had a lighting environment produced within a computer so the robots would look like they were convincingly moving there.[58] ILM created the 430 shots of the thirteen primary robots, while Digital Domain created nearly 100 shots including the character animation of several robots. Digital Domain was also responsible for the Arctic discovery of Megatron, Frenzy's severed head, a vending machine mutated by the Allspark and the Autobots' asteroid arrival.[59][60] Asylum also created a number of shots, while 2-D cleanup and fixes were completed by CO3, ISolve and Ken Blackwell.[33]
Ultimately, the complex mechanics make the characters feel dynamic and quick rather than a lumbering beast,[34] with the mechanics resembling human muscle movement, as Bay rejected a liquid metal surface for the facial animation. Bumblebee uses a piece below his faceplate as an eyebrow, and pieces in his cheeks can swivel to resemble a smile. All the characters' eyes are designed to dilate and brighten.[57] Numerous simulations were programmed into the robots, so the animators could just focus on animating the particular areas needed for a convincing performance.[58] Bay instructed the animators at ILM to look at martial arts films to make the fights look graceful,[34] and they also looked to actor Liam Neeson's performances to inspire Optimus Prime's mannerisms. Bumblebee's behaviour was based on Michael J. Fox's performance in Back to the Future.[2] Writers Roberto Orci and Alex Kurtzman observed unexpected quirks in ILM's animation, and added new dialogue and re-edited scenes to adjust it to the robots' performances.[61] Visual effects supervisor Scott Farrar was most proud of the scene where the Autobots hide from Sam's parents, as "there is a lot of humor and very dramatic night time lighting."[56]
Music
See also: Transformers: The Album and Transformers: The Score
Composer Steve Jablonsky, who collaborated with Bay on The Island, scored music for the teaser trailer long before actual work on the film.[62] Scoring took place in April 2007 at the Sony Scoring Stage in Culver City. The score comprised six major themes over 90 minutes of score, including the teaser music.[63] Tom DeSanto wanted to work in an orchestral version of the TV series song,[64] but he and Bay never spoke with each other much.[46] Mute Math performed a cover version instead. The band were childhood fans of Transformers, and were approached as their style suited the sound of the robots in the film. It only appears on the album.[65]
