Greg Russell on Sound Mixing Dark of the Moon (Updated)

Fifteen time Academy Award nominee Greg P Russell is probably hoping that his nomination for Best Sound Mixing for Transformers: Dark of the Moon will finally give him that much deserved Oscar. In an interview with The Wrap, he discussed a little bit of the sound mixing process for DOTM. Below are a few segments with the full interview here.

Update: The Hollywood Reporter has posted their own interview with the 15 time nominee here.

So other than dialog, just about every sound in these modern action epics is created after shooting?
Every sound you hear other than the dialog is all prepared by the sound editing team -- none of that is recorded while shooting the movie. That means all the helicopters and jets, all the gunfire -- every bullet impact and every whiz-by. Plus, all the robot sounds -- and there are thousands of robot sounds to create the life of these beings and make them believable -- are designed and recorded by our sound team.

They prepare the entire palette of sound to be used in the film, then I take all of those sounds and there’s many food groups of them, to work with.

So Optimus Prime, for instance, is sonically much more complex than any human character could be?
The robots consist of, say, nine 'pre-dubs,’ where the feet are separate from the big thigh sounds and the big, metallic motor sounds, as well as the medium-range integral movement sounds, that are in turn separate from kind of servo-sourced zipping noises. It goes right down to the eye blinks. All that material is prepared, and then I mix them and pan them across the screen. So if that robot is walking from right to left, those sounds have to be right behind the image.

Bay, Russell on Sound Mixing Transformers

In an interview with Editors Guild Magazine, director Michael Bay and Re-recording Mixer Greg Russell briefly discuss sound mixing for Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Its a technical discussion that gets into some of the prep and the use of Dolby 7.1 Surround. Below is a few segments, full interview is here.

EGM: Michael, how important is sound to your movies?
Michael Bay: Sound is 50 percent of the movie; it is critical. Transformers: Dark of the Moon is an effects-heavy movie, stylized and beautiful. Greg Russell is a key to its success.
We consistently try and make my movies the best sounding we’ve ever done. As James Cameron told me the other day when I played him an in-progress mix: “It’s f*cking epic!” We were in the middle of mixing the wall-to-wall sound in Act 3, as we’re preparing for the Battle of Chicago with a few characters in the middle of the city. It is all too easy for the mix to become too overwhelming. I rely on Greg to keep me grounded. You can make it totally loud, but then you have nowhere to go in terms of dynamics. Less, quite often, can be more for a movie soundtrack.

Five Things About DOTM's Visual Effects

The Hollywood Reporter's has posted an article that provides five facts about the visual effects of Transformers: Dark of the Moon. Below is the summary, click here for a few more details.

1) The Driller has 70,051 parts (7x number Prime has).
2) Took 288 hours per frame to render Driller destroying the CGI building.
3) 3D essentially created twice the work with the left eye image and then the right eye being rendered.
4) For final week before deadline, all of ILM's render farm was used for movie or 2000,000 render hours (or 22.8 years) per day.
5) "Secret Sauce" used to make images extra shart and brighter.

Bay's The Island in Dark of the Moon

Michael Bay demonstrates what creative editing, good camera coverage and the excellent work by ILM can do with a scene. In a likely cost saving measure (and maybe the on set injury), resulted in the director repurposing footage from 2004's The Island for some moments of the highway sequence in Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The comparison video is below.

Paramount Making Demands of Theaters to Save 3-D (Updated)

It seems that while Michael Bay was making an international promotional swing for Transformers: Dark of the Moon, he was also working hard to try to get the best 3D version of the film to audiences in part by trying to get theaters to display the film in the best way possible. Meanwhile Paramount issued their own demands.

The New York Times is reporting that movie goers have started to become disenfranchised with 3-D with the percentage of overall sales dropping consistently below 50% for the first time since it suddenly became popular after the success of Avatar. As predicted, Hollywood doing constant poor post-production conversions on films that do not benefit in any way from 3-D has resulted in the public getting tired of paying out extra money for little benefit. The hope seems to be that Transformers: Dark of the Moon will remind the public of what 3-D can do. Considering Paramount spent an extra $30 million for real 3D, causing the budget to hit $195 million, they have a vested interest in 3D sales.

Dark of the Moon Reel Stats, Running Time

From the AllSpark, here are a few technical stats about the movie that probably only those that worked in theaters would find interesting. The main piece of information is final verification that the movie's total running time is 157 minutes (2 hours, 37 minutes). Nelson also provided a running time but it was unclear if that included around 10 minutes of credits or not. This total is from first frame to final frame of credits. The 14,129 feet of film is on 8 reels so feel bad for the people that have to splice those together for play.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon IMAX is Not Longer

An error on the official IMAX website for Transformers: Dark of the Moon: An IMAX 3D Experience led to multiple Transformers sites reporting that the film had a 153 minute (2h 33min) running time which is 19 minutes longer than the reported non IMAX running time of an estimated 134 minutes (2h 14 min). The idea isn't entirely unprecedented as Revenge of the Fallen IMAX edition was a few minutes longer. Nelson, admin for MichaelBay.com, verified the running time error with a tweet. Thanks to Winton Ray for heads-up.

Imax print of #Transformers3 has no extra footage as being reported by some web sites. TF3 is 2hrs & 22mins plus 10min credit crawl.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Finished?

Nelson has tweeted a simple message "It is done." on the Shoot for the Edit twitter account.

Without any context that message makes little sense but since the account has been posting nothing but Transformers: Dark of the Moon related messages, it is safe to assume he is referring to the movie. This indicates the film has completed its visual effects, sound, voice work and all those many details that go into the final product in post-production. It is now ready for replication so can be distributed worldwide in time for its June 29th release that is just three short weeks away. Must be a relief to Michael Bay who was working on Revenge of the Fallen right up to its worldwide premiere in Japan. Thanks to Feris Othman for the heads-up.

Transformers: Dark of the Moon Running Time

Nelson has tweeted the Transformers: Dark of the Moon running time. He wrote on the MB.com twitter account "#Transformers3 runs at approximately 134 minutes." That works out to two hours and 14 minutes which is about what was expected as it closely matches the time of the previous two movies.

Transformers Trailer Comparison Images (Updated)

One of the interesting things about the release of the new trailer is a few scenes were "re-used" from the Super Bowl teaser TV spot. As a result, it provides a chance to compare how scenes have been tweaked over the last few months, often adding more elements into a scene and making some of the effects sharper. The four animated images below created by John illustrate that very well. In the first pictures a lot of tweaks but you will notice Transformers removed, moved and added. The second image adds and enhances building damage with spaceships, the third adds a missile and tweaks Prime's weapon discharge and the last shows the addition of an entire building, more craft and other tweaks.

In addition, Jeff from PixelRally, provided three images that show what areas of Chicago look like and how they have been fixed up for the film. In the first image color correction plus signs were added. The second image shows how a 5 or so lane road shrunk down to two with green spaced and in the third, well Shockwave is really all you need. After that, we have a look at 35 East Wacker Drive buildings the craft passes and the one with electric arcs that indicate a space bridge forming. The last three images show the 160 East Illinois Street lot for the pure CGI building that gets destroyed by the Decepticon worm (currently fans calling The Dweller) along with the neighboring building it crashes on that Jeff's friend happens to live in. For Chicagoans, it should be really interesting to see how much their city is transformed (pun intended) by the post-roduction process when the film comes out. The set of Jeff's comparison images can be found here. Thanks to John and Jeff for the images. Pics after the break.

Transformers 3 Filming in Cambodia

It seems that sometime in early February, Transformers: Dark of the Moon filmed in Cambodia at the Angkor Wat Temple. The news had first been posted at the MichaelBay.com forums but nothing after that appeared to verify the story until a TFW2005 commenter posted a video of some of the filming that apparently occurred all day. No details on what was involved but probably second unit and none of the principle actors. According to the press release (below), they also filmed at the Bokor Hill Station. Thanks to Sahara for the link.

DOTM Pick-ups, Burglary

Nelson posted a brief update on MB.com about Transformers: Dark of the Moon.

Nelson here...

Just a couple of things I wanted to share with you guys.

* Michael was shooting today some of the last pickup scenes for Transformers Dark Of The Moon.
* Burglars broke into the production offices of the movie. Federal authorities have been called in due to the sensitive nature of the burglary.

Bay Denies 3D Problems, Dates Trailer

Michael Bay has once again popped up on his forums denying the recent report that his 3D footage for Transformers: Dark of the Moon was unusable. On top of that, he reports that "the Transformers announcement piece", aka the teaser trailer will premiere with The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (December 10th) and Tron: Legacy (December 17th).

Wow, I read these morons on the internet who think they are in the know. "We have problems with our 3D????” Really? Come into my edit room and I will show you beautiful 3D. There has never been a live action show that has pushed the boundaries of 3D like Transformers 3. We shot the entire movie with 3D cameras. I actually loved shooting in 3D.

I will give full details of my process and why I liked 3D in the next week right before the Transformers announcement piece comes out on Tron and Narnia.

And don't watch this movie in 2D, we made it for 3D.

Michael

The forum specific links are here and here. While some may claim he is lying, in this case I don't see any reason to. As said before, they had a 3D viewing rig on location at all times that easily allowed them to catch any problems with the footage. Also don't forget that Bay had a 10 minute or so edit of the footage put together for the cast and crew early in filming; another chance to find any problems and make corrections. It doesn't make much sense that Bay and his 3D consultants (many from the Avatar crew) would not have discovered any problems until now. Mini-controversy over with the most important piece of this whole thing being we are about two weeks away of getting our first look at Transformers 3. Thanks to everyone for the heads-up.

Transformers 3 With Real 3D Problems?

A report from IESB.net suggests that Transformers: Dark of the Moon is starting to have a problem with 3D footage for the film which has entered the editing and CGI phase of the post production process. Ironically, they are not talking about the critically panned conversion process but the actual real 3D footage that Michael Bay filmed, calling it nearly useless as it "looks like shit." The information comes from "insider" sources which general prove to be unreliable so usual grain of salt caveats apply.

Our post production insiders are telling the IESB that Michael Bay is doing some scrambling trying to salvage the footage that was shot. "The 3-D looks like shit and we don't know if we will be able to use all of it the way it is," our insider tells IESB.

"Avatar set the standard very high for 3-D films and even though some of the best people in the 3-D business were brought aboard for TF3 but with Michael's quick, aggressive style of shooting without any real past experience has caused hiccups," our insider added.

To end on a positive note one of our sources up at ILM have told us that the FX work looks insane and that the story and plot is far superior to the two previous films. Which is great since I love the first Transformers film...really didn't care for Revenge of the Fallen.

While I could see some footage having problems just as a result of the film making process, I find it hard to believe all it is rubbish mostly because Bay did have a 3D video set up on set that allowed him and his team to review the 3D footage as they filmed it. I find it difficult to believe they would not have noticed problems early on and made corrections accordingly. Thanks to rumah for the link.

Another reason do not believe the report is because of Alberta Film Classification website (via TFW2005) has posted a running time of the first trailer (but sadly no premiere date) that indicates a running time of 2:24 and a PG rating, which guess means someone has at least watched it. I think if there was footage problems, getting a trailer prepped would not be high on the to do list as one is not really necessary at this time (but sure wouldn't mind it). Thanks to Teddy for the link.

Transformers 3 Over Budget? (Updated)

An interesting article for Marina City Online, building complex on State Street in Chicago, suggests that Transformers 3 may have gone over budget during production leading to stunts being cut. A planned stunt for August 8th in Marina City's west tower parking deck that involved throwing four burning cars off the deck but was cut, apparently due to time and budget issues.

Rich Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, says it was the film’s director, Michael Bay, who backed out of the stunt. “As far as I know, it was all set to go,” said Moskal Tuesday evening after giving a presentation at DePaul School of Digital Cinema.

“Michael Bay is always trying to do more and more,” he said, “but it was one of those things where they said, ‘do we really need to do this?’” Bay apparently had to get to a location in Detroit, a mansion that was a popular tourist destination and offered a limited opportunity for him to film there. “He had a shopping list and they were running out of time and they were way over budget to be honest with you.”

Bay, says Moskal, remembered Marina City from The Hunter. “The funny thing was, he said, ‘they did one car, I want to do four. And I want them to be on fire. I want there to be four burning cars.’ And it just kind of came down to, how much time do we have and how much more do we really need? And they did some pretty hairy stuff. It’s not like they were starved for yet another spectacle of explosions or flying cars or stuff like that.”

Other scenes for the movie, expected to be released next July, were planned but never filmed. “Their final scene was supposed to be in the reflection of the Cloud Gate sculpture at Millennium Park where they wanted to see the city [on fire] and smoldering.”

The Millennium Park scene was probably cut because that was around the time production shut down for about a week due to the extra being injured in Indiana. It is also possible that the deck scene was repurposed for another location as the description seems to match some of what was filmed at another parking deck location a week later.

The idea of Transformers 3 scenes being cut or altered is not big deal as that is common for any movie. What would be surprising is if the movie is over budget as Michael Bay takes a great deal of pride in getting his movies completed on time and under budget. If Dark of the Moon is currently over budget, will steps be taken to get it back under control by possibly making cuts on post-production decisions with cuts for possible visual effects heavy scenes? Since every second of Transformers robot action is literally 10s of thousands of dollars being spent, there are many different cuts, both big and small, that could be done to get the film budget back on track. Thanks to rumah and Ray for the link.

Update: Michael Bay once again did one of his quick drive-by's on his forum and explained the situation:

Why did I cut the stunt, because the building wanted a $40,000 location fee. I told my producer we are not paying that - Why? Because I like to stay on budget, and I also don't like to get ripped off. So there's the truth. And yes, we are are still under budget today.

Michael

Transformers 3 in Real and Post-Converted 3D (Updated)

Cinematical is reporting that Transformers 3 will be in Real 3D (filmed with 3D cameras) and post-converted 3D (CGI does the 3D adaptation). The information comes from a highly placed source, in this case Vince Pace who is the primary expert on 3D technology and started the company that develops most of the 3D camera rigs being used today, including for Transformers 3.

Vince Pace, director of photography on the Los Angeles unit of 'Avatar', told Cinematical that Michael Bay's upcoming 'Transformers 3', now titled 'Transformers: Dark of the Moon', is being both shot and post-converted in 3D. "We're doing Transformers with Michael Bay, and that's a big challenge because he's not the kind of director that's going to give you a break," Pace said to reporters Tuesday. "But he met it halfway and he said, look, it complements my product, and I want to incorporate this into my shooting style.

Pace spoke to reporters at the Los Angeles press day for the new 'Avatar' 3-Disc Special Edition Blu-ray. He confirmed that both processes were being used on the 'Transformers' sequel, and observed that filmmakers can make good use of either of them as long as the circumstances are right. "They're doing both," he revealed. "[But] once we win that – once they know you're putting a better product on the screen, then you're working as a team. I think the dimensionalization quotient, if you will, can work if you have enough time, if you have the right talent behind it, and some money to back it, you're in a good place to work in it. Because it's part art, part time, and it's part technology."

I can't decide if this is good news or bad news. To my knowledge this will be the first film to merge the two processes. On one hand any robotic Transformers and other CGI effects for the movie will essentially be post-converted anyway since those objects are created in 3D anyway as part of the work required in creating them. It is why all computer animated movies go ahead and get released in 3D since the data is already there anyway. The main issue is post-conversion doesn't work real well on real-world objects where the computer has to extrapolate the 3D look from a 2D image. I guess we will all find out when the film is released on July 1st, 2011.

Update: Nelson, admin of MichaelBay.com, posted "Obviously some—very little—footage will be done in 3D post as the team only had a limited numbers of cameras as there sometimes were 6 to 10 different cameras rolling on certain sequences." It sounds like post-production conversion will be used in the few circumstances where a 3D camera couldn't be used (like say any shots filmed by the skydivers in Chicago). Thanks to rumah for the link.

Bay Not Sold On 3D

While it was assumed that Transformers 3 in 3D was a forgone conclusion thanks to Avatar, that may no longer the case. In an article from Deadline New York, both James Cameron and Michael Bay have both indicated they are not fans of the post-production conversion process that the studios have been using lately to turn 2D films into 3D such as Clash of the Titans, and Alice in Wonderland with more in the pipeline. Below are choice quotes, the full article is here. Thanks to David and NHLfan for the link.

Avatar’s James Cameron told [Deadline] recently. "Now, you’ve got people quickly converting movies from 2D to 3D, which is not what we did. They’re expecting the same result, when in fact they will probably work against the adoption of 3D because they’ll be putting out an inferior product.”

“I shoot complicated stuff, I put real elements into action scenes and honestly, I am not sold right now on the conversion process,” says Michael Bay. Paramount and DreamWorks are pressuring him to allow Transformers 3 to be dimensional-ized after the fact, because there simply isn’t enough time to shoot with 3D camera and post the film between now and its July 1, 2011 release date.

Bay investigated shooting at least some Transformers 3 footage with 3D cameras, but found them too heavy and cumbersome for the fast pace action scenes he shoots. Bay feels the process of sending out 2D film for 3D conversion is more problematic and pricey than studios are admitting. Too often, companies selling 3D retrofitting services arrive with a sharp demo reel, but leave with a deer-in-the-headlights look when Bay gives them his own footage to convert, on a tight deadline.

“I am trying to be sold, and some companies are still working on the shots I gave them,” Bay said. “Right now, it looks like fake 3D, with layers that are very apparent. You go to the screening room, you are hoping to be thrilled, and you’re thinking, huh, this kind of sucks. People can say whatever they want about my movies, but they are technically precise, and if this isn’t going to be excellent, I don’t want to do it. And it is my choice.”

Said Bay: “I’m used to having the A-team working on my films, and I’m going to hand it over to the D-team, have it shipped to India and hope for the best? This conversion process is always going to be inferior to shooting in real 3D. Studios might be willing to sacrifice the look and use the gimmick to make $3 more a ticket, but I’m not. Avatar took four years. You can’t just shit out a 3D movie. I’m saying, the jury is still out.”

“This is another example of Hollywood getting it wrong,” Cameron said. “Sony says, we’re doing Spider-Man in 3D.’ The director doesn’t say, `Hey, I want to make the movie in 3D.’ The studio says, `You want to direct this movie? You’re doing it in 3D, motherfucker!' That’s not how it should be. I’ve tried for the last seven years to get filmmakers excited, and they all hung back while Pixar and DreamWorks did animation and me and a couple others did live action. We prove the point, and now filmmakers are being told to make their movies in 3D.”

According to the article, the cost of the conversion is not minor with an average cost of $100,000 per minute. Assuming TF3 is around 140 minutes (like previous films) that means an additional $14 million at least. With the 3D format on the cusp of going mainstream with 3D TVs, 3D Blu-ray and even portable video games (just announced Nintendo 3DS) it seems the studios are determined to use it to eke out every dollar possible.

Avatar does prove that if a film plans on it, a CGI heavy action film can be made but Transformers 3 simply doesn't have that kind of time with 15 months to get a completed product out. My understanding is the conversion process takes about 3 months. That means that Bay, ILM and Digital Domain would have to have a completed film by March of next year to meet the July 1st, 2011 release date. Considering that both TF1 and 2 were being tweaked quite literally past the world premiere, I don't think it is feasible in the time frame provided. Of course if you throw enough money at a problem, time becomes less of an issue, but is Paramount willing to make that kind of commitment for box office results that currently only have two data sets (Avatar and Alice), one of which was an unlikely to be repeated phenomenon?