All language subtitles for Icons.Unearthed.S11E03.The.Odd.Couple.Transforming.Hollywood.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-Kitsune_track3_[eng]

Transformers.

The toy that unfolded

before the world...

♪ Transformers ♪

♪ Robots in disguise ♪

...had tied itself into
knots. Expanding into TV.

The ratings were terrible.

An animated movie.

Halfway through the
movie, every kid starts

screaming and crying.

It bombed, financially.

And a whole
new spin-off ecosystem.

- Robots in disguise.
- We knew it was over.

So the
iconic Hasbro franchise

set its metal sites on
Hollywood.

Gotta start thinking about
how to transform these things.

It was a very skeptical
audience.

All right. That's enough. That's
enough.

But the
transformation

from script to
screen

I woke up at two o'clock in
the morning

and screamed, which one's the
jet?

Through the mind

of controversial director
Michael Bay.

- He has a reputation.
- Come on, on cameras, let's go.

Lift him up again, do
it again.

This is terrible. No, no, no.
We gotta redesign everything.

Would prove
to be a rocky ride.

- It was a moment of terror.
- Terror.

Just racing to get
this thing up and running.

Come on, let's stop admiring
the truck. Let's shoot.

- It was chaos from day one.
- I want it to transform.

Come on, let's go.
We're gonna pop the cable.

These are real things that
were exploding around here.

He's ape shit crazy.

He said to everybody on the
set,

you're up my movie.

Transformers had
earned billions of dollars
for Hasbro.

Can you make out how many,
Spike?

And by the
two thousands, after years

of rich storytelling
in Transformers lore,

it seemed like Hasbro had lost
the plot.

They weren't cars and trucks
that you recognized anymore.

They weren't necessarily
Autobots and Decepticons.

- Combiner.
- BTR building sets.

New Jet Storm and
new Optimist sold separately.

But, if
Transformers weren't
Transformers--

New Star
Wars Transformers.

- You had to ask--
- What, what is it?

And could
it still make money?

There was a very well
established, from the animated
show

and from the movie, set of
relationships in place already.

I mean, you can't disregard
that.

Which is exactly
what Hasbro's senior executive

Brian Goldner was thinking.

He wanted to go back to
overall basic, reintroduce cars

and trucks in the war and voices
and make something happen.

And that's not
all Brian Goldner was looking

to recreate from the past.

He was thinking in movies,
new cartoons, studios.

And come on.
There had to be a market

for new Transformers movies.

Those animated shows,
the stuff kids absorb

between the ages of eight
and 12. That's the base.

And it was a
base that had now grown up

with more than just pocket money
to spend.

And so Hasbro's primary
creative liaison,

Aaron Archer, got to work.

My responsibility
was to start to harness

what we believed the brand to be
about.

Autobots are the good guys.

Decepticons are the bad guys.

The core characters, core
iconography, core story.

So that Brian Goldner could
then lay that out on the table,

when we went to talk to
Hollywood.

All too easy.

I don't think it had an easy
time.

Um, or not.

It was a very skeptical
audience.

They didn't know how a
movie like that would work.

They thought it was maybe
gonna be like Toy Story,

where the toys are running
around.

You are a toy!

I happen to know at one
point Universal were offered

the Transformer movies
and turned them down.

Jilted by
Hollywood,

the Hasbro's team's desperate
search for a relationship

to revive our beloved
Transformers was on the rocks.

And let's back up a bit

and meet the White Knight

who would sweep Hasbro off its
feet

and helm the franchise they
dreamed of.

This is Michael Bay.

He's this hot young director.

You know, he's a
genius with what he does.

And what he does...

He likes toys.

...isn't subtle.

He has a reputation.

This is terrible. No, no, no.

We gotta redesign everything.

And he loves fast things.

Real pyrotechnics.

real stunts,

ingeniously designed action.

Some fall for him.

Love him. He's ape shit crazy.

He gets excited.

Like this conductor of chaos.

Which makes
some blow their tops.

He has a reputation.

A lot of filmmakers talk
shit about Michael Bay.

I didn't know how much he paid
attention

in directing class.

He's even a noun.

- Bayhem.
- That's right.

- Bayhem.
- Young Bayhem

started his career
directing commercials,

but he was destined for
bigger things in Hollywood.

He wanted to bring
his way

of making commercials
to feature films.

Steven Spielberg
would eventually transform

Bay's career, but first
he had to get badder.

Now let's hear one
of those jokes, bitch.

Bad Boys.

I'm so sick of this bullshit.

With a budget
of less than 20 million

and burning, or earning,
over 140 million at the

box office, studios would
disagree that Bad Boys

was a bad movie.

In 1996, he completed his second
film.

Welcome to The Rock.

He said it to Sean Connery at
one stage,

"Don't destroy my movie."

And Sean Connery said,
well, I'll try not to.

Losers always whine about
their best.

The Rock was still Michael
having to prove himself.

He's like working with a film
student.

In so many Michael Bay movies

where a guy will start
shooting with a machine gun

and the next time you cut
to him, he's got a pistol.

And he goes, "Well it looked
cool when you saw the shot."

It's a cool shot. It's not
about that.

He was trying to do stuff that
works well in a commercial,

but you've gotta tell the story.

Well, advertising
sells

and so did The Rock,
bringing in hundreds of millions

at the box office and Steven
Spielberg.

I remember Steven
Spielberg calling Michael

after watching The Rock and
loving it.

Relationships blossom from
simple things like that

where you have this huge
director saying, I love your
stuff.

That blossoming
relationship may have had

more in common than meets the
eye.

Both filmmakers were fans of--

You know his favorite movie is--

- West Side Story?
- Yes.

♪ The Jets are in gear ♪

♪ Our cylinders are clickin' ♪

Which sounds nuts.

Because Bay's movies

weren't exactly
music to the ears.

He's very much attracted to
movement.

It's the choreography,
it's the people in motions.

It's the fact that every dance
scene has people moving in

foreground background that
you're telling the story

through the camera movement.

Is it not beautiful?

Ah, yes.

For Bayhem fans,
a little song and dance might

seem like the end of the world.
Far from it.

The great thing about
Armageddon is when it came out

it was a huge hit.

And then,
there was Pearl Harbor.

When I saw that, I went,
well, you know he can do it,

'cause he, that was done pretty
conventionally, you know?

There are still things about
it that are a little bit hokey.

But generally, turned out pretty
well.

Victory belongs to those
that believe in it the most.

Earning $450
million worldwide

against a budget
of less than $150 million.

The list of Michael Bay fans
and favorites kept growing.

I met him back on Bad Boys
2.

It was an amazing experience.

Michael invented one of
the greatest things in our

industry ever.
In Action Industry.

He invented the Bay Buster.

You have a camera that's only a
couple

inches off the ground.

You have a high power vehicle,

so you're getting exciting shots

'cause the ground is rushing by

- Bay was unstoppable.
- This is what I do.

Creating
mayhem at the box office.

- Bayhem.
- Right, Bayhem.

And for his next film, Michael
Bay would finally team up

with Steven Spielberg.

He absolutely thought
Spielberg was a genius.

It seemed
like combining their

filmmaking DNA would clone

Bay's box office success until--

The Island.
The Island.

An enormous flop.

Are you saying there's
something wrong?

So in 2005, when The Island
dropped,

those tropes were really
overdone.

And so, with
Michael Bay's mishandling

of this sci-fi film and a
collaboration with the great

Steven Spielberg, that
really didn't work out,

that's where our story could
have ended.

However,

Hasbro's Brian Goldner
had other plans

because he was still looking
for someone in Hollywood

to take on Transformers.

Hasbro had always had
a strong relationship

with Steven Spielberg
going all the way back

to the Indiana Jones toys at
Kenner.

Indiana Jones at your service,
Toht. Ah.

And so
Steven Spielberg

and his company Dreamworks,
who had a deal with Paramount,

made a deal with Hasbro.

And just like that, this
gray body, dead franchise

would surge back to life.

Anything he wants to breathe
life into,

gets the fast track in
Hollywood.

So fast in fact--

They already had the release
date.

Because when you have a
big blockbuster like that,

you have to clear out that
weekend.

You have to go, okay, who
else is releasing something?

We don't want to compete, but we
have to find an open weekend.

And so, with
an overwhelming deadline

fast approaching,
Spielberg needed a script

that everyone could agree on.

Hasbro had to approve the
story

and Spielberg's company had
been working on developing this

for a while, but they
could not find a writer

and they were hitting a
deadline where they had

to be making some sort of
progress.

I came in, I said I, I have
this idea for the movie.

I want to do a soldier story.
I want to do Optimus Prime

and those guys are, they're
all veterans of a war.

- A really brutal war.
- A war that ravaged

our planet
until it was consumed by death.

We are this little
backwater planet

and the war has come to us and
we don't even know it exists.

And there's giant robots and
it's all very terrifying.

Meanwhile,
Steven Spielberg

was more interested
in teenage earthly matters.

Steven had pitched, very
centrally, he's like,

"I'm looking for a story
about a boy and his car."

I bought a car, turned
out to be an alien robot.

I took those elements and
kind of jammed them together

for that first draft.

They said, this is great. We
love this.

We need Hasbro to approve
it. I came into Amblin.

It was me and Mr. Spielberg
and other executives

and 25 Hasbro execs and I had
the flu.

I was actually running a fever.
And so I pitched it to them.

He presented it very
dynamically and fun--

For 25 minutes.
Scene by scene.

This is what the movie is,
this is what it's about.

This is act one, two, and three.

These are the characters
we use, this involvement.

At the end of it, the very
nice Hasbro people went-

Yeah, great, great.

And they said, good job.

You're now gonna go write the
movie.

And with those words

Good job!

A reality sunk in
for John.

They already had July 7th,
2007 picked

and they said, well
okay, we need six months

to promote it, we'll need
six months to post it.

Visual effects, close to a year.

And then the date that we
need to start, is behind me.

And there's just this moment
where I said,

"So in theory we needed
a draft two weeks ago?"

And Mr. Spielberg said,
"Absolutely, exactly right.

"Good luck." And then
everyone got up

and just left me at the table
to go,

"I'm already behind."

With a
crushing deadline,

scriptwriter John Rogers
was feeling the pressure.

I woke up at two o'clock in
the morning clutching my chest

and screamed, which one's the
jet?

And just like, in
complete brain fog terror.

And so I wrote
that first draft in

just this six-week sprint.

And then I turned in the draft
and there's stuff they liked

and stuff they didn't like,
and they're like,

well let's go get a director
and do the next draft.

Well, Spielberg
wouldn't be directing

because he had someone else in
mind.

Steven thought Michael,

he's a car guy, he loves cars.

And so he said,
"Okay, car movie.

"Let Michael do it."

But hang on just a
minute,

because Transformers
isn't just a car movie.

Robots and cars. Perfect.

Well there's
a lot more to it than that.

And this was Hasbro's
chance to make a movie

that this time gets everything
right.

Prime, you can't die.

I know people who
still cry over the death

of "Optimus Prime" in the movie.

So Hasbro needed
to be sure that Michael Bay

wouldn't be responsible for
upsetting yet more fans.

Steven wanted Michael Bay
to work on Transformers,

but Michael Bay had done
The Island.

- The Island.
- Yeah, right.

The Island.

An enormous flop.

And as the
gatekeepers of this beloved

franchise, Hasbro would
be right to wonder...

Um...

...if Michael
Bay was the right choice.

He has a reputation.

I don't know how much

he paid attention
in directing class.

Even Michael
Bay himself had doubts.

And Michael turned it down.

I think he told me he
turned it down first.

And then he had a meeting
with ILM,

Industry heavyweights
Industrial Light & Magic

would take on
the gargantuan task

of the film's ambitious,
overwhelming CGI demands.

And Michael Bay had concerns.

Can robots act?

You fail me yet again, star
screen.

So I think there was a
lot of questioning, like,

"How do we get performances
out of these CG constructs

"for the first time in movie
history?"

So unwise.

I mean, 'cause you'd had
dinosaurs,

you had Jurassic Park,

not a robot that had to give the
rousing

St. Crispin's Day Speech from
Henry the V

to rally the troops.
You never had that.

We cannot let the humans
pay for our mistakes.

But without lips, you can't do
mouth.

Without mouth, you can't
do speech and emotion.

You know, how do we do this?

But that was somebody else's
department.

Precisely. It
was Scott Farrar's department

and his problem. Michael
Bay needed assurance.

The one thing that Michael
said,

are you sure you can make those
Transformers for?

And he said, absolutely.

What are you like an alien or
something?

Michael was also
asked about the last time

he'd worked with ILM and
that was on The Island .

A contamination alert has been
issued.

First meeting he said,
Scott, this last movie

that the ILM was working on, you
know,

you were running out of time
because the shots weren't ready

and they weren't looking
at, because I said,

Michael had nothing to do with
ILM.

And he sort of smiled, he says,
okay.

From that point forward,

we had a really good
creative relationship.

Scott had
assured Michael and Steven

had assured Hasbro.

And with that, Michael Bay was
on board.

But sadly for John, he was off
board

because Michael Bay brought
in a new writing team,

Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orsi.

He was already working with Alex
and Bob on a previous movie.

- The Island.
- You son of a bitch.

A lot of directors do that.
They have writers they like.

And so I was like, I, this
nearly killed me. Good luck.

And by the way, credit to Bob
and Alex

because they had to do the
rewrites at a ridiculous speed.

You know, they had to
then take Michael's vision

and execute it and while they're
prepping,

actually do these rewrites.

While Bob and Alex
toiled away on a new draft,

pre-production was in full
swing,

conceptualizing the stars
of the film. The bots.

Ben Proctor and the rest
of the talented team

had one almighty task.

We gotta start thinking about
how to transform these things.

And with
the 2007 premiere date

for Transformers
already in the calendar,

there was no time to waste.

But people sat down and
dutifully did these like series

of sketches that showed the
progression of

how the transformation would
work.

Eventually, all that got more
or less thrown in the garbage.

Right next to the
phrase, "Waste not want not."

And for the designs of the
Transformers themselves-

Presenting some of those
70s G1 cars was

already fraught with danger.

You know, you got a World War II
Jeep,

you got a 60s Volkswagen,

you got a flat nose
truck that didn't exist.

It did look a bit old.

You're old, Megatron.
Yesterday's model.

Bumblebee did not
have to be a Volkswagen

in Hasbro's eyes.

Hey lighten up, you guys.

Not the most aggressive
looking car.

I must need an overhaul.

They were trying to find a
unique look,

one that made sense, you know?

And Michael Bay, he's always
like eager for what's coming.

And something
perfect was coming.

I had been working in a
very secret location on the

development of an all
new Camaro concept car.

And I was contacted by
Chevrolet.

They wanted me to show

that very secret project to
Michael Bay.

Once Michael saw the car,

I mean instantly he said,

This thing is wicked.

"That's Bumblebee."

But if
Bumblebee was a Camaro,

it would only make sense to make
Barricade

his Decepticon rival a Ford
Mustang.

For Mustang to have the bad
guy roll

as a very sinister police car,

okay, you know, that made sense
to me.

Well, after all--

Michael, he's a car guy. He
loves cars.

But, did he
love Transformers

changing Transformers,
willy-nilly?

Oh God, no!

It was really interesting.

We started with these
kind of creepy characters

that weren't really looking
metallic.

Even the main bad
guy

Megatron would be
getting a major overhaul.

The biggest changes on
Megatron,

where in the 80s he was a
real weapon

that was gonna be a no-go.

I am--

You're not gonna have
him turn into a pistol.

There's all the scale issues
from the original, you know,

animation that everyone
laughs at and they thought

it sort of-- you can't do
that stuff in live action.

We had Megatron transform
into an aircraft

sort of like an alien
spaceship sort of a thing.

Even producer
Spielberg got his hands on

transforming these classic
characters.

Steven thought it would
be good if Optimus is

transforming from a Mack truck,

it'd be good to have the
blinkers on him.

So if he's running down the
street

and he turns left, the
left hand blinker goes on.

But how did Hasbro
feel about all these changes

to their legacy characters?

We decided we were willing
to go for the ride a little bit

and we drew very few lines in
the sand.

Well it turns
out the line in the sand

was put down by Michael Bay
himself.

Michael's number one goal
always was, make it look cool.

So Michael had a big blow
up. "This is terrible.

"No, no, no. We
gotta redesign everything."

So it was a total redesign,
top to bottom.

And the
problems didn't end there.

Remember what happened to
all the work Ben Proctor did,

transforming the bots?

All that got, more or
less, thrown in the garbage.

It was VFX supervisor
Jason Smith's problem now.

At the very beginning,
I remember us taking

the Optimus robot, a beautiful
model

that was being worked on, the
actual truck

and trying to make one
turn into the other.

Very literally, like the
toy. It doesn't work.

And while the
leader of the Autobots

was giving the team trouble,

luckily the designers had
a leader of their own.

There was this one fella
became kind of our hero guy.

His name was Keiji, and, from
Japan.

He was able to visualize ahead
of time

what he wanted and how
to change these shapes

and move them in a way that
was pretty real.

But when Keiji got
a look at the prime designs,

he had one mild criticism.

Keiji Yamaguchi stood
up in dailies one day,

with Michael Bay in the room,
and said-

"This model
is an embarrassment

to the Japanese people."

Transformers
was in trouble.

I'm sure that Jeff Mann
probably was a little bit
spooked

at trying to-- like, how
are we gonna solve this

and find this robot language
that's never been seen before?

Because as the department head
he, it was his responsibility

to make sure it got done.

And they
were running out of time.

Autobots, roll out.

While the wizards
at ILM

and the film's art
department tried to figure out

how to transform the
Transformers,

Michael Bay had started
hunting for the perfect mix

of heartthrobs and hard asses.

But, there was one character

who would represent
Steven Spielberg's main

vision for the movie.

Spielberg boiled it
down to a boy and his car.

Spielberg had a boy
in mind,

thanks to a young actor who
dug his way into the spotlight.

Steven Spielberg saw him
in Holes.

My name is Stanley Yelnats.

Well technically,
it's Shia Leboeuf.

And thought he'd be perfect.

I think I might've found
something.

He kind of fit the
idea of this naive kid--

Who is sort of shocked by what
he's found

and goes on this adventure.

But he wouldn't

be adventuring alone.

Sorry, just working out the
kinks. It's a new car.

And co-starring
along with this boy

and his car would be Megan Fox.

When Megan came into
the first Transformers,

I think she was new to
Hollywood, fresh from Kentucky.

I don't know how much training
she'd had.

Well, there
were 48 episodes of

Hope and Faith where she
played Sydney Shanowski.

I wanna say goodbye to my dad.

And in case you
missed it--

Megan Fox was actually
an extra in Bad Boys 2.

She's right...

there.

And in a flash, she's gone.

Megan would play mechanic
Mikaela Banes.

But before she was turning
wrenches

and dodging Decepticons,
Sam's companion was set

to be a very different kind of
character.

What kind exactly?

The young woman who's the
hacker, Rachel Taylor,

in my version, she's

Sam's partner all the way
through the movie.

Hold on, it was you?

It was basically everyday
mechanic guy

and you know girl scientist.

Yeah, I have a great female
character.

She's a scientist, she's smart,
she saves the world, good.

You have to let me talk
to defense Secretary Keller

before you go to war
with the wrong country.

And then basically when the
guys came on, they're like,

well we want to put her over
here in the science plot line.

So let's give the sort
of working class person

that Sam already knows.

So that's the Megan Fox
character.

I can't believe that I'm here
right now.

Another unexpected
edition was Josh Duhamel

who first heard about the
project straight from the top.

I was at the time working
on a show called "Las Vegas".

My character had just come back
from Iraq.

I was suffering from PTSD.

Are you on leave?

Discharged.

It was a Dreamworks show.

Steven Spielberg saw the
work that I did on the show

and he recommended to Michael

that he see me for this part
of William Lennox.

I couldn't believe that he
would actually recommend me

for anything.

And while Josh was
flattered

for the opportunity,

he had his own reservations.

Transformers sounds like
a terrible idea, you know,

because I remember the cartoon
from the

eighties that I grew up on.

Can you transform?

I don't know if I can do it.

Luckily technology

had come a long way
since the 80s.

Alright, we gotta get this thing
back to the Pentagon right away.

They gotta know what
we're dealing with here.

And while Josh
was skeptical at first,

Michael Bay doubled down on an
actor

he inadvertently double cast
in the movie Pearl Harbor.

Uh, matey.

We were filming aboard
the USS Lexington.

They called me and said,

"We feel like we dropped the
ball a bit

because the role Admiral Bull
Halsey has been double cast."

They feel Europe is the
greater danger, admiral.

And they said, well, Michael
really likes your essence

and likes your presence and
still wants you in the film.

And Michael just threw some
lines my way.

So instead of getting on a plane

and leaving, I've gone on to
work

with Michael Bay six times.

If you do not comply,
we will use deadly force.

By the time I did
Transformers ,

I had elevated to being
the number one military

guy in all of Hollywood.

I played more military roles
than anyone living or dead.

Spielberg actually thought he
had found me in the military.

And I've had an entire career,
not specifically military,

but anything authority wise.

But casting the earthlings was
only part of the challenge.

Finding someone to
replicate the almighty prose

of the most eloquent transformer

that Cybertron ever produced--

Are you Samuel James Witwicky,

descendant of Archibald
Witwicky.

Would be impossible.
Unless, of course--

Roll out.

You get
Peter Cullen,

the voice of the
original Optimus Prime.

Transform for action.

But for ILM,
the speaking Transformers

posed a further challenge

to the current directive from
Michael Bay.

We gotta redesign everything.

I think we knew from the
start that Optimus would have

to have a face and be
able to deliver his lines

and not just muffled through
his battle mode mask.

Bah, bah, bah. There's no
enunciation, no lips to animate.

The team
had to get creative about

how he'd express emotion.

And luckily, Scott had just the
solution.

I said we ought to put
little metal pieces here on the

upper lip and maybe lower lip,

where we can actually
emulate a talking mouth.

My name is Optimus Prime.

He's gotta look elegant and
powerful.

Michael liked the idea right
away.

And so we just had to figure
that out.

Optimus Prime ended up being
effectively over 10,000 parts.

But ILM's
elaborate plan wasn't

just groundbreaking,
it was budget breaking.

Trying to do it for a price

that was reasonable was
very, very difficult.

Giving
Transformers the ability to
emote,

pushed ILM's animators and
their budget to the brink.

The solution? The faces behind
the pixels.

We did some tests
using different actors.

I remember we did one with
Robert De Niro

and one with Al Pacino.

And how the different voices

and mannerisms based on what
the look of the actor was,

how it would influence
the look of the robot.

Wow, that was tingly.

It was fantastic. It was
amazing.

And I think we were also
trying to say to Michael,

"Is it a good idea to photograph
the voice actor when they're

"doing the acting?"

And the answer is, absolutely.

Because we can get
nuanced facial animation

derived from whatever they're
doing.

The breakthrough
came just in time

because ILM still had work to do

on perhaps the most
expressive bot in the film.

We have to figure out
Bumblebee,

who's gonna be the heart
of the story in so many ways,

and have the relationship
to the humans first.

Which would in
theory enhance

Spielberg's all important
boy and his car plotline.

What is it that's gonna
make Bumblebee be really

aspirational and cool to emote
all of the sort of feelings

of connection with Sam?

Can you talk?

XM Satellite
radio, broadcast,

digital cable 42, broadcasting
system.

He's basically a puppy dog.

You know, he's like a lost
puppy.

And domesticated
dogs present

the same issue as domestic cars.

If they're a main character in a
movie.

We're going, well, Sam has
this car

and it does weird stuff.

I sold a car the other day--

If he can talk to it,
it doesn't make sense at all.

And so that gave birth to the
idea

that Bumblebee didn't have his
voice.

He had lost in the war.

His vocal processes

were damaged in battle.

I'm still working on him.

But it's
worth noting this was

a further departure from
the original Bumblebee.

Come on, let's go inside.

And come
to think of it,

there was another character

who wouldn't be speaking
in the movie.

In fact, this one wouldn't
be appearing at all.

We always pitched Arcee
'cause there's not a lot

of female Transformers.

Michael was like, it
cost a million dollars

to transform one of these
characters.

So we have to be

very strategic
about which ones we show.

And there just wasn't a
place in that movie for her.

So we definitely talked about
it.

Well, perhaps
that talk will turn

into action if they make another
movie.

Principal photography
for Transformers began

on schedule at Holloman Air
Force Base in New Mexico.

And the Bayhem began from
the very first slate.

Slates?

To navigate
rushes and sync up picture

and sounds, slates like
this are critical.

But Michael Bay didn't think so.

Why? Because when he would sit

and he would look in the
playback

and see the frame, the slate
coming in,

it would like ruined it for him.

So he would like, get that outta
there.

'Cause he just wants to move and
shoot.

But the confusion
wasn't just limited

to the post team
syncing rushes, The Bayots--

- Bayhem.
- Sorry...

...Bayhem was everywhere.

When I walked on the set of
this thing,

it was like the most--
it is an absolute--

It's just the, it's the biggest
production you could imagine.

It's just a massive crew.
So it's pretty intimidating.

You feel like a tiny
cog in a giant machine.

And when it's your time to
go, you better be ready.

We're in White Sands, New
Mexico.

It took probably two hours
to set up this one shot

because it was explosion after
explosion.

Cover fire!
Move it!

I had to run from one thing
and avoiding one explosion.

Laze the target!

We got a beam-rider incoming.
Laze target!

Run through another one.

I need a credit card!

Run through another explosion.

I get to the end and I have
to deliver like, this line.

It wasn't very long, but it
was enough to terrify me.

No, I don't want
a premium package.

They spent two hours
setting up the shot.

If I get to the end,
right in front of camera

and I forget my line,
he's gonna be so pissed off.

So, in my mind, I don't
wanna screw this thing up.

I have to get this right.

Premium line read
delivered.

Duhamel had survived. For now.

The adrenaline was just
incredibly high.

But anything could set off the--

- Bayhem.
- Yeah, that's right.

Especially an empty stomach.

5:30, 6:00...

Michael starts to get kind of
agitated.

When Michael needs something to
eat--

He's getting, he's getting
hangry.

And so, the chef would
make him a milkshake

and a peanut butter and jelly
sandwich

and we'd be like, we'd hear on
the walkie

Bayhem, Bayhem, Bayhem.

And that meant that it
was time for Michael

to have his peanut butter
and jelly sandwich.

And he would do it.
It would neutralize him

and he'd be all good.

Even the script was
subject

to Michael Bay's ways.

Michael likes to sit behind
the camera

and shout out ideas. Like,
dah, dah, dah, say this.

The script is sort of--

I need you to say something.

My God.

He looks at me and I said,

"Well, Jesus on a Popsicle
stick," and just held that look.

And he goes, "Jesus on
a Popsicle stick? What?

"What does that even mean?"

And I looked at him and
said, "I do not know."

nickname on set was Bayhem for a
(Narratoreason.ael Bay's

But the Transformer's director
was surprisingly hands off

when it came to the aerial
photography.

He doesn't really do anything
with us on the aerial thing

because he doesn't like to fly
that much.

It was Bay's fear
of flying,

that protected aerial DP, David
Nowell

from total Bayhem
at 10,000 feet.

But the sky was not the limit

for Bay's relentless
mission impossible demands.

"Get me what I need.

"I don't know what it is,
but you know what it is.

"Go get it."

Somehow,
Nowell always got it,

whatever "it" was,
while losing it.

It drives me nuts because
he doesn't know what he wants.

You know, I have to figure
it out and make it up.

But he can be a real
pain in the ass.

Well, there was
one shot they knew he wanted,

he just didn't know when.

He said, go get me this really
cool

shot of the sand dunes.
I might use it later on.

And he meant later
on, as in,

later on in another movie.

His company's called Platinum
Dunes.

Part of it was used for the
POV of a drone coming in.

It's the beginning of his
movies that are produced

by Platinum Dunes.

But there were
some things Michael Bay

didn't know he needed.

We need to get something
done sometimes is like,

"We gotta talk to Ian."

Producer Ian Bryce,

an expert on delivering
Bay-sized demands,

like access to the Hoover
Dam and the Pentagon.

One of the best
producers in the business.

Ian is probably, yeah, one
of the secret weapons on that.

Yeah, he's got a lot of
influence with

a lot of people's stuff and
he jumps in

and you know,
gets it done.

In Southern
California,

Bryce opened the dome of
the Griffith Observatory.

Michael had sent us out to get
a shot.

Again, we didn't quite
know what it is he wanted.

He says, I'm gonna be
putting robots there,

they're gonna be sitting there
talking.

So, as long as I keep the camera
moving,

whether it's a dolly shot or
high to low,

or if I just went there and
did a static shot of that,

he doesn't like that stuff.

But there
was no time to waste.

As shooting progressed
at a breakneck pace...

Many times, you know,
you have one take.

There's not gonna be a
second take if you miss it.

...Bay found
himself stretched across

multiple scenes in multiple
locations.

We were waiting and waiting
for Michael

and then all of a sudden Michael
roars up

and just goes, "Why are we not
shooting? Let's go."

But you've been
waiting there for hours for him.

And Howard Berger
was on set

because Michael Bay's
commitment to realism called

for puppets when possible.

With Scorponok, it was a
traditional operated puppet.

You know, cable operated and so
forth.

And then we had this
big giant tail section

that could do all this stuff,

but it was really gigantic
and really segmented.

So Michael had us build a
full-sized head

that comes out of the sand.

On this Michael Bay
set,

sparks were flying.

In every sense.

These are real things that
were exploding around you.

Incoming!

And those are real reactions.

Shells of these guns,

they weren't shooting anything,

but the shells would still pop
out.

And they were super hot.

So hot that they would stick to
your neck.

And I'd be like, oh my God.

Left cheek! Left cheek!
Left cheek!

Live, real time, action.

Michael Bay is completely
ridiculous.

I never seen this in my life.

Like every day I was just like--

If you seen this shit--

This is so overwhelming.

I think all around it just
makes

for a more authentic
performance.

And Michael Bay's
commitment to authenticity

extended all the way
to the US military.

The Air Force told us, what do
you need?

So he had F35's, F16's and
stuff.

Whatever it is that Michael
wants,

they pretty much let him have
it.

Michael Bay has literally
became

the biggest commercial

for all things military.

We don't take orders from
people that don't exist.

Simmons?

- Yes, sir?
- I'd do what he says.

By now,
you've probably noticed--

Everything is all real.

Every explosion, they're all
real.

He does that stuff real.

In real cities.

I don't think he really told
them how much explosions were

gonna go on in the middle
of a street, you know,

in downtown Los Angeles.

And it looked a lot more real.

And if you ask Shia
LaBeouf,

real, real high.

Is it fear or courage that
compels you?

We were shooting at the top

of one of the buildings
in downtown LA

and it's with Shia LaBeouf.

And he gets up and
he's going around this

corner piece of the building.

I remember looking at the
harness going, I can't believe
it.

I just can't believe he's doing
this.

And that's what Michael wanted
him for.

He thought, this kid will do
stuff for me.

And there's a shot
overhead and it's all real.

You can see it's eight stories
down

and there's people walking,
there's traffic going.

They don't even know
what's going on up there.

Michael said, do it again. Do it
again.

And probably about six takes in,

Michael says, "Okay,
let's start from the top."

And he's literally still
hanging off the back.

And he goes,
"Michael, I'm done."

"I'm done. I'm done."
So then he, you know, and then

Michael said, "Okay, we got it."

But for all
the realism Michael Bay

was striving to add to
Transformers ,

there was that one thing.

This model is an embarrassment
to the Japanese people.

And Michael Bay's
main problem fell far short

of his need for realism.

I was tasked with, you
know, figuring out

how to rig the robots

and how to get the
transformations going as well.

We had never done
anything like that before.

What in the universe is
going on here?

And while
ILM had been struggling

with this particular problem,

luckily, Jason had a solution.

I wrote a series of tools

I called at the time TFM.
Transformation, right?

And the transformation tools
let an animator push a button

and then hinges appeared and
they could place those hinges.

I'll put one hinge along
the side of the window,

I'll put one hinge right in the
middle so I can spin the window.

I don't think anybody had
actually done mechanical rigging

in animation at this scale,
like we did on that movie.

The TFM tool
was the fix they needed,

even if the producers

weren't happy blowing
up a fixed budget.

I was explaining to the
producers like, we have to

go back through every robot and
put these little things

inside the rig so that they
can accept TFM animation.

And people were like, we're
not budgeted for this.

Why didn't we know this before?

It's like, well, we didn't
know how to do any of this.

Jason had cracked
the code,

but it was about to crack
the budget wide open.

With the release date
rushing towards them,

Transformers had a
potentially big problem.

ILM had figured out how to
animate the Transformers,

but had left the producers to
figure out how to pay for it.

What are you adding?
Why are you doing this?

Why are you complicating things?

Why didn't we know this before?

It's like, well, we didn't
know how to do any of this.

Transformers
was officially over budget,

but some things

are worth blowing up.

VFX budget aside, Michael
Bay was finally happy.

But then again--

Robots encouraged. Perfect.

Michael
Bay might've been happy,

but keeping it real made
things real hard for ILM.

Specifically, adding digital
robots

to Bay's practical explosions.

It wasn't easy for ILM
because,

and they often had to
take out half the smoke,

put a robot in, and then
put the smoke back on.

It's crazy how complicated a
smoke looks

when you start seeing it
animated

moving frame to frame.

And you've gotta match the look

or put something in there
where it's casting shadows.

And then that's what makes it
so cool,

I think, when you actually watch
it,

is that they feel like
they're more organic.

I think he put 'em through
their paces on that one.

I don't think they made any
money on that movie.

It cost them so much to deliver.

Despite the costs,

ILM had gone above and beyond.

This is easily a hundred times
cooler

than Armageddon ,
I swear to God.

Pushing hard all
the way to the finish line.

Well, three frames short
of the finish line.

I remember this panicking
call from a producer at ILM

going, we're outputting
this shot for a week

and we're three frame short.

Can you fix it for me?

And she was like literally in
tears.

And I said, okay, I'll do it.

And I just took the shot that
before it

and just made that shot
three frames longer.

'cause we couldn't screw the
timing up

for the music and sound.

Everything was already half
mixed.

And I didn't tell Michael.

Three frames
probably weren't worth

unleashing a Baypocalypse.

Besides, it was time for a
Baywatch.

We went up to Michael's
house, watched the movie

with Spielberg for the first
time.

Spielberg
had taken a big risk

on Transformers . The stakes
were high.

Pull out our notepads, right?

Don't wanna miss a line Steven
Spielberg says, right?

And then he said.

- He wanted to tone down Shia.
- Why?

He didn't want Shia to
run the show too much,

if you know what I mean.

And here we have some
of the basic instruments

and tools used by 19th century
seamen.

He would say, "A little bit
of Shia is a lot of Shia."

That was his line.

But the
question everyone had was,

what would Hasbro think?

That's when we found out about
Optimus having a sword arm.

It was what Hasbro
feared futzing with an icon.

Optimus Prime doesn't have a--

And we're like
we can make that.

Not only can we put that in
toys, but we can make a sword.

So seeing that early cut

actually put things into
production.

Not only
that, Aaron got to include

a fan favorite from yesteryear.

We also suggested a
transformer iconic line.

One shall stand, one shall
fall.

We saw an opportunity for
that and we told them about it.

And that's how that
got put into movie one.

At the end
of this day, one shall stand,

one shall fall.

But now
it was time to find out

if Transformers and
Michael Bay would be the ones

standing or falling.

You still fight
for the weak.

That is why you lose.

This meant a lot to the stock
price.

This meant a lot to future
partnership. It was stressful.

And don't forget
the base.

Those animated shows, that's
the base.

It had
been more than 20 years

since they'd seen the
Transformers on screen.

Chances are they would be
expecting this.

I want you to make a special
run

to Autobot city on Earth.

But instead, would
get this.

You hold the key to Earth's
survival.

You make these things and you
hope that they're gonna do well.

And sometimes they do
and sometimes they don't.

The sense of responsibility
to the franchise,

to these characters, oh my God.

But also
they had a responsibility

to their director,

whether they agreed
with his vision or not.

We all had a tough job

working for Michael, to keep
that guy happy, right?

Because he has incredibly high
standards.

He knows what
he wants.

But, was it
what the fans wanted?

Would an 80s cartoon
become a new millennium

milestone in filmmaking?

Or, would the Bayhem of
Michael Bay take down

the Autobots and Decepticons

before they could transform
into big bucks at the box office

for a whole new generation?