Video:Michael Bay Interview - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
with Rebecca MurrayPrior to picking up the 2009 ShoWest Vanguard Award for Excellence in Filmmaking, 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' director Michael Bay took part in a press conference and answered a few questions on 'Transformers 2' & 'Transformers 3'.See Transcript
Transcript:Michael Bay Interview - Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
Rebecca Murray from About.com Hollywood Movies at 2009 ShoWest.
Michael Bay – Vanguard Award for Excellence in Filmmaking Winner
Are you considering making Transformers 3 in 3-D?Michael Bay: "No. Reason being the way I shoot, it's too aggressive for 3-D cameras. It's a time-consuming thing and they haven't come up with a system where you can shoot it very aggressive, in terms of how you use the cameras. Everything is so precise. I don't know. I don't know. We'll see. I'm looking forward to [Jim] Cameron's picture [Avatar]. "
"Who knows? It might be a fade but I'm kind of old school. I'm like old school because I like to shoot on film. I like anamorphic lenses, which are old school."
What's the status of Transformers 3?
Michael Bay: "I'm not going to do it without a break. Because it's been, basically I took a month off since the last one. I think what's the year they said 2012? 2011? They missed it by a year."
Did you and the studio work it out?
Michael Bay: "Yeah, yeah, yeah. I said, 'You guys screwed up. You guys jumped the gun.' I think maybe they're just playing studio games. They're trying to reserve the date for something. There's a lot of posturing with studios in picking a date. Get it? That's what they do."
Will you definitely do Transformers 3?
Michael Bay: "I don't know. We'll see how 2 does."
Transformers made $700 million, setting the bar high for sequels. Does that worry him?
Michael Bay: "I mean there's a bar… I think I'm very confident of the movie. The movie is way different. It's epic in scale. It goes around the world. We shot in sites – the first film to shoot on the pyramids in like 40 years, 30 years, or something like that. We shot on Petra which is the first time it's ever been in a movie – the top of Petra. The robot technology is far more advanced than the way it was for the first movie, in terms of the acting level we're able to get out of the animation. So, I think it feels different. It feels…I don't know. I'm confident with it."
Does that $700 million figure loom over your head?
Michael Bay: "Yeah, everything looms over you – but that's what we do. That's what you work for, you know?"
Did you need to spend more money on the second Transformers movie?
Michael Bay: "No. I actually came four million under on this last one. We spent, I think it was like $200, you know, and I came about four under."
What was the most challenging special effect you had to pull off?
Michael Bay: "I mean, it's all challenging. I don't know. In terms of like digital modeling that Lucasfilm has made in their entire history of 30 years working in movies, they've done the most complicated by 10 in terms of the most complicated model they've ever made, in terms of one of the robots: the way it moves, the way it… That's kind of pushing the boundaries."
How important is it to you to have your worked viewed on the big screen and not on iPods and iPhones and other mediums?
Michael Bay: "Really bums me out. You notice we didn't have Transformers downloadable for an iPod. That's why these people in here are really important. They're the heart of the movie business and to respect the audience and to make it that shared experience that never goes away."