Transformers 3 Set Report, Teaser Online Debut Time

This Friday, the teaser trailer for Transformers: Dark of the Moon will debut with the next Chronicles of Narnia movie in both 2D and 3D (or next week with Tron). If you don't want to wait that long, then Apple Trailers has you covered with the official launch occurring at 4PM PST (7PM EST) on Wednesday, December 8th. Entertainment Tonight was rumored to be airing a sneak peak earlier today but apparently that didn't happen. Assuming the teaser trailer description is accurate, expect an emphasis on "tease".

This news comes from a new set report from Aint It Cool News' Capone from when Dark of the Moon was filming in Chicago in August. This set report begins by going into the recent rumor that the film was having real 3D problems by describing what he actually saw on set and how much nonsense the report is (for the same reasons I dismissed the idea). From the report:

According to Bay, about 60 percent of the movie you'll see in the theater will have been shot in 3D. The rest will be either CGI (which is much easier to make look good in 3D) or post-converted. I'm fairly certain that nearly the entire film was shot using both 3D and standard cameras, giving Bay the option of either using the 3D footage or post-converting the regularly shot footage as appropriate.

What this means is the movie was not filmed with 100% 3D cameras but a combination of 3D for the primary shot and 2D cameras for coverage (say an explosion scene shot from multiple angles). Depending on what footage is used in editing, footage from the 3D cameras will be Real 3D and footage used from the 2D cameras will required post-conversion. While post-conversion has been pretty bad, almost in all cases the time allowed to perform the conversion was very brief (usually around 3 months). The hope is with the large lead time of 9 months while not needing to convert an entire film will result in something akin to Avatar where probably only experts could tell if a scene was derived from 2D or 3D footage. Michael Bay posted on his forums saying, "I personally feel this is the best looking movie of the three. IMO. [Director of Photography] Amir [M. Mokri] is a true artist."

After giving his perspective on the 3D thing, Capone started going into his experience from watching filming at the Wabash and Lake parking deck. This was the location of the parking deck were the bus was flipped, Shia wore a power glove and his stunt double went flying with a friend. Capone covers what he saw on the set, the people he met, watching Bay at work, a little bit on the stunt double process, and more. It is essentially a behind the scenes look at the same scenes we saw that week thanks to the efforts of Transfans. You can read the detailed set report by clicking here.

A story point that is revealed was in regards to the base jumping from the Trump and Wallis Towers, saying "Bay explained to me later that, in the story, the base jumping was necessary because the alien ships shoot down any aircraft that comes within range." The aliens are likely Decepticons but not really sure what to make of the statement.

It was also a relief to see that after so many films it finally registered 100% with Bay and company that stopping fans from filming and photographing what they were doing was pointless since the movie relied so heavily on CGI creations, saying "It's not like they can see the robots, so really all they're getting are actors, crew, some stunt work. The most important thing, they're missing." I think I have been saying this for years about the various take down requests Paramount has been sending out over the years.